Man United Thread

[FLiam]

Ferguson has now come out and said he hopes we play fair like Chelsea.

Fuck off Ferguson you fucking prick is all I can say. How he has the nerve to say that is beyond me, we are the ones who try and play, not beat the shit out of Reyes.

Ferguson is a cock, end of.

[Summers]

we are the ones who try and play, not beat the shit out of Reyes.

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Bringing up old moments?

[FLiam]

Why was that done again?

Oh yeh, Ruud got Vieira sent off through cheating.

If you watch Arsenal/Utd games, it is always them who start it, always. The other year in the FA Cup I remember they commited about 8 fouls in the first 5 minutes. I wish games between us were played like proper games, but they aren't because when they play us, football comes second, they have the Nevilles there to kick lumps out of Reyes. Did we target anyone on purpose this season? No, we didn't.

Edited May 10, 2005 by Gooner4Life

[Guest Pirate Chasin' Booty]

Please for the sake of all Arsenal fans, don't do all this complaining, it makes us all sound like grumpy old fags.

[FLiam]

Yeh, sorry about that, it is just Ferguson really gets on my tits these days. His stupid ass comments, like the one when he said we were going into liqudation, I mean, what the fuck is that all about.

Onto the game today, that Tiago goal was fucking class.

And I couldn't help but smile when they were doing their "Eaaasssy!" thing, I feel so dirty.

and my mate went to the game, who is a Utd fan, and went all the way to see them lose, he was one who stayed behind though, but when I was talking to him on the phone, he didn't sound happy at all, he is going to be back at about 6am. He also said loads of Utd fans were talking about how they want Rio gone, because £125,000 is a joke, what do you all think?

[TMM]

Put simply, football wages are ridiculous. Nobody who plays football deserves to be earning more than £50,000 a week, and even that might be to much.

Seriously though, no disrespect to the players or the game because I obviously love it, but what do they do to deserve fucking over £100,000 per week wages? They kick a ball around for 90 minutes a week, maybe 180+ minutes sometimes and they train a shit-load. The money side of football is ridiculous, but it's not going to change in my lifetime.

[Guest Pirate Chasin' Booty]

I'm not bothered about how much they get paid, because of the player, the club is generating a profit, a profit of which should be given back to that player, if a team is willing to pay £100,000 a week to some guy, then thats their business.

The only time this bugs me is when an average player demands more than they're worth, like Edu (ok, hes not just average) demanding £70,000 a week, but thats just arrogance.

Theres more to it than 90 minutes a week though, much more, we shouldnt hate on them because they're successful.

Rio is demanding more, because as we saw early in the season, he makes a big difference to that defence, so he feels he's untouchable and the club needs him more than he needs them. Whether thats fair is down to each persons interpretation.

[Jonny D]

I don't usually complain about players asking for a lot of money, as being a Footballer is generally a very short career, and one bad tackle and it suddenly becomes even shorter, so they have the right to squeeze as much money out of the game while they have the chance. I do think it is outrageous the amount of money some people want though, as when you go above the amount in a week that most people make in a year it just becomes rediculous.

[G-O-D]

I've read that Madrid are monitoring the situation with Rio. Not too much of a surprise I suppose, but I think that the fans will feel betrayed if Rio do sign for Madrid, given how they stood by him during the drug test fiasco.

And Gudjohnson showed Van Nistelrooy how to play as a lone striker. The 4-5-1 clearly isn't working for Man Utd.

[FLiam]

Apparently they are offering Rio about £80,000 a week but he is demanded at least £20,000 or £30,000 a week more.

That is just plain fucking greedy, £80,000 is more than enough, he should count him self lucky he can get the kind of money that the average person can't even get half of in a whole year. Arrogant bastards footballers are.

[stokeriño]

Putting that even more into perspective - there are 52 weeks in a year right? That's about roughly the same number of years that your average person might work (say 18 - 70, or whatever). Given that the average annual earnings of said person is roughly £20k, the wage of £80k per week would have him earning FOUR TIMES in a YEAR what the average person earns in their LIFETIME.

Or earning as much as they do in their life in just 3 months. However you want to put it.

Edited May 11, 2005 by stokeriño

[Guest Pirate Chasin' Booty]

But once again, its not his fault that the average person earns only £20,000 a year, he's successful, his talent generates cash, he's rewarded with that cash.

Fine, demanding more money on top of a massive wage seems less fair, but we can't blame him.

[FLiam]

But surely you should be happy with £80,000 a week? Why would you need more?

[therockbox]

Greed.

[Guest Pirate Chasin' Booty]

But surely you should be happy with £80,000 a week? Why would you need more?

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[Liam]

I agree with Mudda. He generates money, he is a great player for Man U, and they need him. He justifies them paying him the money. Fair enough, asking for more money on top of a generous offer is a little OTT, but as someone else said, one bad tackle and you are fucked. Why not make sure you and your family can be comfortable in the future?

[Big Red Fury]

Athletes should get their money while they can because you never know when the next tackle will blow out your knee or when you might break your neck and suddenly you can never play again. Most of these people aren't incredibly talented at other jobs, so once they are out of their sport they basically have to live off of what they made for the rest of their lives. Some people become accustomed to a certain lifestyle and they can't change it after their money making days are over, so kudos to these guys for getting paid big money while they still can for rendering their services out to their teams and the fans.

[Jam]

Man United fans make me sick. Just because they wanted to beat the Chelsea fans down the M6 to London they left early and never stayed for the lap of honour. I don't care what people say, sneaking out of the ground on your last home game of the season 5 minutes early just because you're losing is pathetic. Noticed Alan Smith looked around the ground and wondered what the fuck he is doing there. To be fair, no-one deserves an empty crowd more than him

At least Man United fans don't have far to travel to their home games next season, unless they live in East London. Hey, it's a big city

[Guest Red Devil]

US sports tycoon Malcolm Glazer has formally launched his £790.3m takeover bid for Manchester United after winning the support of its biggest investor.

A statement from his Red Football bid vehicle said he will pay 300p a share to acquire the 28.7% stake held by Irish racing tycoons JP McManus and John Magnier.

The deal means Glazer has control of the club with a 56.9% stake, but he needs more than 75% of shares for the offer to go unconditional. He will now make an offer for the remaining shares.

It comes a fortnight after the board of Manchester United said it would not be recommending the takeover proposal to investors because Glazer's business plan appeared "aggressive".

Mr Glazer clinched the deal with the Cubic Expression vehicle of McManus and Magnier less than a week before a deadline set by the Takeover Panel for a formal offer was due to expire.

It also takes place as Manchester United prepare for the FA Cup Final after missing out on the Premiership.

Glazer first expressed an interest in acquiring the club last autumn and tabled a formal proposal in October, which was knocked back by the board after talks.

Manchester United - led by chief executive David Gill - is worried that a takeover by Glazer would leave the company saddled with too much debt.

In a statement on 28 April, the club said the price indicated by Glazer was fair but it believed the proposals would put "significant financial strain" on the business.

United supporters have fiercely opposed the takeover bid and formed a shareholders' association to buy club shares and try to thwart Glazer's takeover ambitions.

Glazer owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers gridiron franchise and is thought to be keen on marketing the Manchester United brand more aggressively in the United States.

Richard Hunter, of Hargreaves Lansdown stockbrokers, said: "I think it's pretty much game over now as the key to all this was always going to surround what the Irish duo would do with their stake."

Manchester United issued a statement noting the announcement and said it was waiting for formal terms of the offer from Glazer to be published.

It said: "A further announcement will be made once the board has reviewed that announcement."

Glazer paid £227.2m for the stake held by the Irishmen and it is thought the pair have made a £70m profit on their original investment.

If the US sports tycoon secures more than 75% of shares, he can take Manchester United private and de-list it from the London Stock Exchange.

Gaining the support of investors owning more than 90% of the club would allow him to make a compulsory purchase and vacuum up the remaining shares. But this could prove difficult as the supporters own 18% of Manchester United and are unlikely to be willing to sell up.

Magnier was at York races on Thursday and when a reporter put it to him that radio reports were saying he had sold his interest in Manchester United, he replied: "Whatever they say, they say.

"I'm not going to comment on it, I want to talk about horses."

[Big Red Fury]

OSLO, May 12 (Reuters) - Nigerian teenage midfielder John Obi Mikel, who last month signed a deal to join Manchester United, is reported to be heading for talks with Chelsea.

His Norwegian club Lyn Oslo, Old Trafford boss Alex Ferguson and police in Norway have all been looking for the 18-year-old.

Ferguson had to abandon plans to visit Oslo on Thursday to try to clear up a dispute over the transfer since Mikel could not be found.

The player, who has been named in Nigeria's training squad for this year's world youth championship, signed for United from Lyn in a four million pounds ($7.54 million) deal last month.

It is thought that Mikel, who failed to turn up for training with the first division club on Thursday, could be travelling across London to visit newly-crowned English champions Chelsea.

"Mikel has been found in London. He was on his way to meet Chelsea..." Lyn manager Morgan Andersen was quoted as saying by Norwegian daily dagbladet on its website. "We don't expect Sir Alex to come to Norway now."

Chelsea declined to comment but Lyn have denied suggestions the west London club had a preliminary deal to sign him.

A United spokesman, who confirmed Ferguson would not now be visiting Norway on Thursday, said: "We are confident that we have followed the correct procedures. We have secured signed deals with the player and his club."

United had already sent their director of youth football Jim Ryan to Oslo on Wednesday to track down Mikel, who is supposed to join the Old Trafford club at the end of this year.

But Thursday's London Evening Standard quoted Mikel saying: "I don't want to play for Manchester United anymore. I'm not satisfied with the way Lyn have handled this case and I'm angry that they sent the police after me. I find this very degrading."

ANGRY JON

The Standard also quoted Mikel's Nigerian agent John Shittu as saying: "We're angry at Lyn because the boy has just had his 18th birthday and has become a punchbag.

"It's turned into a circus with everyone following us every step of the way. Jon has taken everything personally and how can he play his best football in these circumstances?"

British media reports on Thursday said Lyn had asked the police to find Mikel, who was under armed guard in Oslo after receiving mysterious death threats from England and Nigeria before disappearing with his agent.

After watching a cup match between Lyn and Klemetstrud, Mikel drove off in an unauthorised car with Shittu but was followed by police and hid in nearby woods as the agent made calls on two mobile phones, the reports said.

NRK public television said the player, who made his debut for Lyn this season, had been spotted at Oslo airport with his agent, perhaps boarding a flight to London.

"We have security people and possibly police working with the case," Lyn manager Morgan Andersen told Norway's NRK radio regarding the disappearance of Mikel, who had last been seen in public with his Nigerian agent on Wednesday evening.

Norway's tabloid Verdens Gang quoted Mikel's Nigerian room mate at Lyn, Chinedu Ogbuke, as saying Chelsea deserved the credit for helping a group of Nigerian players win contracts in Norway.

"It's Chelsea who should be thanked for us having this chance here in Norway," Ogbuke told the daily.

"We all have contracts with Chelsea, they're the ones who have fixed it for us to come to Lyn," he added, saying Chelsea were paying for the Nigerians' schooling and accommodation.