Manchester United Thread

Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

One of United's longest serving stewards was sacked this week after trying to return a protest banner to the fans it was confiscated from.

Also, apparently on the official website there were hints that non club colours wouldn't be allowed at the San Siro next week, but Milan announced that fans could wear whatever colours they like. Sounds like the message is getting through...

Link here

Manchester United supporters vowed yesterday to continue building their emblematic "green and gold" campaign of resistance to the Glazer family's ownership, amid evidence that the club is attempting to remove signs of the movement from the terraces.


Fans insisted they will wear the new emblem of the protest – scarves in the colours worn when the club was founded at Newton Heath in 1878 – not only in this country but at San Siro for next week's Champions League clash with Milan, despite suggestions on United's website this week that flags bearing the protest colours "may not be allowed".

The Italian club said yesterday that there was no rule on the colours to be sported by away fans and that they were willing to assist if United felt there might be a problem. United insisted that their advice had been a response to their interpretation of Italian law. But fans' suspicions that the club is seeking to silence their protests have been fanned as word has spread of the dismissal of one of Old Trafford's longest-serving stewards after he took back a banner seized from fans by his employers and attempted to return it.

Granville Boden, 53, a steward of 19 years' standing, was in position near the Old Trafford TV gantry before the home match with Burnley on 16 January, when he witnessed six quick response team (QRT) stewards from his own security firm seizing a banner bearing the "Love United, Hate Glazers" slogan from fans who had just arrived in the West Stand. Boden seized it back at the end of the game when he arrived at the building, at the back of the stand, where all staff from Controlled Event Solutions (CES) – United's main security firm – return their uniforms and radios. The club said last night that the incident and steward staffing are outside their direct control and CES were unavailable for comment. Boden was dismissed and said yesterday that the intense argument about the QRT's actions after the game reflected the way that staff are deeply divided over the Glazer campaign issue. "There was a huge argument among staff about what went on," Boden said.

"People had to be pulled apart after that incident. You don't work as a steward for financial rewards but because of your emotional commitment to the club. Fans have every right to say if something is wrong and to protest."

The force of the anti-Glazer protests had risen to a level where a banner during the Hull City home match on 23 January could not be removed, as supporters blocked the aisles to ensure security staff could not reach it.

Despite initial thoughts that the Milan match might be the subject of an organised anti-Glazer protest, the Manchester United Supporters' Trust (MUST) does not now intend to make it one, with the extraordinary success of the new scarf creating a potent enough force in itself. An estimated 30,000 have been sold and around one fifth of fans inside Old Trafford wore one for Saturday's 5-0 win over Portsmouth, with MUST running out of the £2.50 items before the game.

Sales levels are expected to plateau soon, as late adopters will be limited by the perennial fear among fans of seeming to be jumping on a bandwagon, though MUST's belief that they will succeed in joining with financial interests to buy out the Glazers, has engendered a feeling that their campaign will be seen through to fruition.

"The scarf campaign was first proposed on forums when the Glazers took over and it appeals to those fans who do not want to be associated with a campaign of hate," said Duncan Drago, MUST chief executive. "It is a unifying symbol." Meanwhile, Rio Ferdinand has withdrawn his appeal against his four-match suspension. Ferdinand had decided to challenge the ban after an extra game was added to his original punishment for violent conduct against Hull City's Craig Fagan.

His appeal risked seeing the suspension increase to five games, which would have meant the defender missing the Carling Cup final at the end of this month. His first game back in competitive action would then have been England's friendly with Egypt at Wembley on 3 March, his maiden game as the new England captain.

Fan's view: A colourful protest

Is it just a coincidence that United have started emailing supporters with offers to buy the club's home shirts at a discount? I suspect not.

MUST (the Manchester United Supporters' Trust) are selling the green and gold scarves for £2.50 from outside their offices, near Old Trafford, and from stalls outside the ground. Everyone has them now.

The idea ofwearing the colours of Newton Heath (the club, founded in 1878, which was renamed to become Manchester United in 1902) to register our opposition to the Glazers strikes me as genius. It's a highly visible way of venting our feeling about the Glazers, and what these non-football supporting businessmen have done to our club.

Whatever you sing on the terraces, there's no guarantee of getting the message across to TV viewers. But turning Old Trafford into a mass of green and gold looks terrific. The more the club tries to stop uswearing these scarves, the more we'll want to wear them. The mantra is: "Green and gold 'till the club is sold".
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Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Absolutely disgusting about the stewards. Really shameful stuff. Nice to see the campaign in full force though and it's clearly working to some degree.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Here:
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Please don't forget to say thanks to our away form.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Haha, still a long way to go, mate.

It's not often I complain about a referee's performance but there's absolutely no positives to take from Peter Walton's performance today, apart from the fact that the horror show is finally over.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Yeah he was fairly poor. How did he not even give a foul let alone a booking to Ashley Young for that hack on Valencia near the end. It was a terrible tackle, nowhere near the ball and the cunt gave a throw!

Nani's red was harsh although he did go in two footed so I can kinda see why it was given.

Villa are shite. How we dominated them with 10 men for over an hour is laughable, they barely had the ball until the last 5 or 10 minutes, let alone create any chances. Really frustrating match to watch as I'm pretty sure with 11 players we'd have got another goal. Rooney was awesome again, he really is in top form.

Thank god for Agent Louis. :APPLAUD:
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Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

We were excellent even with ten men. Fletcher and Carrick ran the show from central midfield.

Never been convinced with O'Neill's long ball specialists over the years but then he's a bit of a twat anyway, didn't he call Ibra the most overrated player in the world? :LOL:
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Kostaz said:
We can't beat effing Hull and Everton away and we still have away games against you, Liverpool and Spurs. All of which, we lost last season.
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Yeah but it's been a very strange season, I'm expecting a few more twists and turn before we reach the end.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

its way too early to claim anyone as the EPL Champs. for all we know, Liverpool can still (mathematically) pop up as champions.

But sad how we couldn't convert our chances today. Would've been great to take advantage of Saha's gift to us, but being only 1 behind and still to play them at OT gives us great reason to enjoy our progress so far.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

How many more games are we gonna go without our Rio/Vidic pairing?
We're doing a lot better than I had expected to be honest.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

RuneEdge said:
How many more games are we gonna go without our Rio/Vidic pairing?
We're doing a lot better than I had expected to be honest.
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Same here, it must just go to show how strong the squad is. I dont think opposition teams would be doing aswell as this. Just imagine Chelsea without Terry/Carvalho, Arsenal without Gallas/Vermaelen, I dont think they would have coped aswell as United have to be honest. Its not just been the centre back pairings though, RB hasnt been nailed down all season and van der Sar was out for quite a while
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Yeh shocking Ref last night but we did brilliantly with the circumstances. Things look good, Rooney is on form, OG is the Best player in the World on current form and everything is polemic with Nani :DD
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Yeah, we've moved on but we're not better off. We still need to fill his void before I can say I no longer miss him.
But with that said, I think he'll regret it more than we will. IMO he took a gamble cuz he moved to Madrid to write his name in history alongside the greats of this sport, at the expense of becoming a United legend (which he was a lot closer to achieving).
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

As good as Rooney is at the moment, he's not as good as Ronaldo. Anyone who disagrees is lying to himself.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Yeh but Ronaldo is the best player in the world? Are you saying we won't fill his void till we get the best player in the world in our team? Personally I think Nani and Rooney of late have completely filled his void with them both combining to add what he did.

Also Ronaldo is already a United legend.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

I think it's pretty obvious we were never going to buy a ready made world class player to replace Ronaldo.

But what was also obvious was that other players were going to step up to the plate to make up for the loss of Ronaldo, which has obviously happened.

While collectively as a team, having a world class player as the main man in the side and building the rest of the side and the tactical gameplan around him may benefit the team, it obviously leads to some players being sacrificed and playing below their potential, which was the story of last season.

This season, without Ronaldo, we've been nearly as successful overall, barring the FA Cup hiccup and have played much better football and scored more goals than in recent seasons.

I'd say we've moved on. It's time for some of our fans to do the same.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

I'm not saying the "team" can't fill his void. I actually think we've almost reached the point where we can say we dont miss Ronaldo anymore. But if you had to find one player to do the job then that man isnt Rooney (atleast at the moment).

As for him being a legend, its very debatable cuz first of all you'd have to define "legend". I think in terms of what he has acheieved and how great he was as a player, you could argue that he's a United legend but I personally look at great players and think about what team you'd associate with them. Thierry Henry has achieved much more succes with Barcelona in a couple of years than he has in 8 years at Arsenal. Yet when you think of Henry, people will say he's an Arsenal legend. When I look at Best, Giggs, Cantona, Keano or even Ruud, I think United. Ronaldo was with us for 6 years but has signed on for another 6 at Madrid, and even at the end of his contract he'll still only be 30. If he matched or topped what he did for us in the next 6 years, I doubt people are gonna look at him when he's 30 and think of United.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Yeah Rune you said we've moved on but we're not better off, but in some ways I think we are. We were called a one man team last season (and the season before) because of Ronaldo and whats happening now? The same thing but swap Rooney for Ronaldo. Everyone is raving about Rooney's form, we look to him for goals and for inspiration just like we used to look to Cristiano for them. Like YG said, you can't just replace the best player in the world but we've improved as a team in the sense that the goals are coming from all over now and we're the leagues top scorers.

The doom mongers have painted this illusion that we're playing shite and are a shadow of our former selves but the reason we're not walking away with the league is pretty much purely down to the massive injury crisis we had (and are still having) having almost the entire defence out, it's not because of Ronaldo's absence. Everybody's favouites for the league Chelsea barely won a game in December and have just drew with Hull and lost to Everton, yet its us who are poor and they are briliant? Bollocks!

Also, I don't there's much sense in spunking a load of cash on one big name just to fill Ronaldo's boots. Big name signigs haven't really worked for us lately, we've done better further down the market in terms of price. Look at the last few big signings, these are the players that our fans moan about the most - Berbatov, Nani, Anderson and to some extent Hargreaves. I don't think signing a Ribery or a Benzema or a Villa or a David Silva is automatically going to answer our prayers anyway and like I said it's not like we're even doing that badly! I think we've got a bit spoilt with success, we can't just walk away with the league every year.

Sorry if that sounded like a rant at you Rune, it's not, it's just in general but what you said set me off. :D
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

I know its about moving on and stuff...but I do not think we would reject Ronaldo if he wants to come back to Old Trafford to end his career.

Like how it seems that we are still interested in Karim Benzema even when he bluntly turned us down to sign for his dream club.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Yup looks like Vidic will not play. Still doubts on Silva and Borriello. All others are there so should be nice.

RuneEdge said:
But with that said, I think he'll regret it more than we will.
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Still too soon but 17 goals in 17 apps. Some cracking ones also. He is going through a great time.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Didn't expect Vidic to play but worried about Anderson, Did Nani ever get completely dropped from our Champions League squad when he was going through that barren spell?
 
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