Enough already

Now I've followed Manchester United for more than 30 years now. I've seen some great players pull on that red shirt. My favourites have always been the ones who gave their all for the cause; Gordon McQueen, Bryan Robson, Roy Keane and Nemanja Vidic to name a few.

In the last couple of seasons, I've always enjoyed watching Carlos Tevez. Here was another player who not only gave his all for the team, but who also possessed a great deal of skill.

I will willingly admit that I was one of many who wanted the club to sign him up. However, in recent times, I have found myself growing to first of all dislike, and more recently begin to hate the little Argentinian maestro. His continuing diatribe against the club and Sir Alex Ferguson is never-ending. Everyday, we are subjected to his pain at Old Trafford, how he never felt part of the family, how Sir Alex made a mistake dropping him for the Champion's League final etc.

It seems apparent that he will be crossing the Manchester divide to sign for Citeh, and there won't be a player who pulls on that blue shirt next season that I won't jeer more than Tevez. Whatever his issues with the club, and the management, these should have been dealt with in private, not aired in public.

It seems to me that all he is trying to do is find favour with the Citeh fans, and at the same time, alienating the United fans who chanted his name for 2 years. When United meet Real Madrid in the Champions League, rest assured that the majority of the United fans will cheer Ronaldo and show him respect for everything he achieved at Old Trafford. Tevez will be jeered and treated with the contempt he deserves for airing his dirty washing in public.

So long Carlos.

I haven't

written a blog on here for so long, I'm not sure how to do it.

OK, so I'm exagerating, but it's still been over a year.

I have to say that I really don't care about Ronaldo (probably) leaving United for Real Madrid. I mean, firstly, we'll get a large amount of money for him, and secondly (and much more importantly), here's a player who obviously doesn't want to play for United anymore. His body language speaks volumes about someone who is obviously looking to be somewhere else. His evasive answers in interviews are a bit of a give away as well. At the end of the day, we want players who want to play for us, not prima-donnas who don't, no matter how good they are.

Hopefully, we can add to the squad with some quality signings. Ribery is class, but I suspect that he'll either stay at Bayern, or join the growing revolution at Real Madrid (along with David Villa). I would like to see us sign David Silva from Valencia and Antonia Valencia (from Wigan, not Silva!) Another striker wouldn't go amiss either, Benzema would be fantastic.

I'd love to see Tevez stay. The guy has been a legend for United, always putting in 100%. I'm sure that if he got more games, he'd get more goals.

I think next season will see United pushed again to defend their title. Chelsea will be stronger, and I think Citeh will also be up there (they will be a massive club!). I have a feeling that Arsenal, Villa and Liverpool will be in the mix too. It should be a good season, even if we don't win the title.

Can I just add that I'm very disappointed in UEFA who only handed Didier Drogba and Jose Bosingwa a 4 and 3 match ban respectivley. Their behaviour was disgraceful, and they should have been banned for a lot longer, in my opinion. These two players, and Chelsea Football Club, act as role models for thousands of children, and watching over-paid, pampered pillocks act like spoiled kids isn't a good role model for any child! UEFA, hang your heads in shame.

OK, so this marks one of the biggest weeks of football in my life. Blatently, the biggest week ever was in 1999 when 3 games in 10 days decided the Treble, helped me to lose my voice, and is possibly the reason why I'm not a commerical airline pilot (and that's a different story).

On Wednesday night, United will take on Chelsea in the final of the Champion's League. I'm looking forward to this game so much. We have a chance to win our 3rd Champions League title, and to do it against those upstarts from Stamford Bridge would make it all the more sweet.

Chelsea are a good side, but we do their players feel the need to start a war of words with every club they play. I know that it was one of Mourinho's favourtie tactics, but he's gone. What price Paul Scholes hitting the winner?

On Saturday, I'm taking George to London to watch Hull City. They play Bristol City in the Championship play-offs, the so called £60m Shoot Out. The winner will play in the Premiership next year, and it would fantastic for the city if Hull could do the business. It's reportedly the biggest city in Europe never to have had a top flight football team. A 6-1 demolition of Watford saw them into the final, and hopefully they can carry on in the same vein of form.

So, by Sunday morning, hopefully I'll be happier than I am today.

So I sat and watched the game last night on Sky. I knew that it was going to be a fairly bland game, and I was right. There were no starters for United last night who would be first choice if every one was fit.

In fairness to the team though, it was a steady performance. The only disappointment was Dong Fangzhou, our Chinese striker who seemed to be off the pace for the entire time he was on the pitch. He was replaced by Wayne Rooney with about 20 minutes to go. I know he's been in Antwerp for the last 3 years, but for me, the jury is still out. He didn't seem to add anything to the game.

Kieran Lee and Chris Eagles both looked good on the right hand side. Kuszczak had a good performance in goal, and looks like he might push Ben Foster for the number 1 keepers role when Van der Sar leaves the club. Smith and Fletcher worked hard in midfield and Richardson seemed to enjoy his creative role.

I really hope that Heinze doesn't leave the club in the summer. He doesn't have the pace that he had before his knee injury, but he can still do a job on the left hand side, and I think he will give us depth at centre back as well. He is certainly a better defender than Silvestre.

Anyway, just one game to go, against West Ham, on Sunday. For what happened in 1995, I hope we stuff them and Wigan beat Sheffield United. That way, West Ham will be down in the Championship.

We've got our trophy back, we've got our trophy back.

You can stick your Champions League up your arse.

We are Premier League Champions again. That's 9 times in 14 seasons. Given the amount of money Chavski have thrown at players over the last few yeas, it's a great win.

I'm made up, and I hope we beat them at Wembley, like we did in 1994, to win the Double. That will make it all the more sweeter.

Ronaldo has been a different class this year, and I have to mention the performances from Giggs and Scholes in midfield, but for me, the player that made the difference was Vidic. He's huge and gave the defence so much stability.

With a little luck, Sir Alex will add some depth to the squad next season. I'd love to see a left back come in. I think Bardsley deserves a crack at right back, and Kieran Lee is coming through. I think Heinze is immense, but is better at centre back after his injury, providing competition with Ferdinand and Vidic.

I hope we get Hargreaves and Nani, and a decent striker. I'd love to retain this trophy next season.

Seriously made up.

Another 3 points, and just as importantly, a Derby win against City.

There are some teams you just love to beat, and City are one of those for me. I can't stand them. It's something to do with being brought up as a United fan.

I was disappointed with the ref. He kept 'missing' Michael Ball's blatant attempts to foul Ronaldo. He missed the stamp by Ball on Ronaldo in the 3rd minute and just about everything after that. Even the foul for which he gave a penalty should also have had a yellow card with it.
Michael Ball has joined the list of players that I loathe. His bullying tactics at the start of the game where way over the top and I hope the FA / Manchester City take action. Deliberately stamping on a player's chest when they are lying on the ground is not acceptable. Earlier in the season, Thatcher was banned for his foul on Mendes and I hope there is a similar ban here. Ball could have done a lot of damage to Ronaldo.

Anyway, I hope that Arsenal and Chelsea is a nice draw tomorrow, which would mean that we can go to Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night as the new Champions, which would really piss a lot of Chavski fans off. It would go someway to making up for a lacklustre performance on Wednesday night.

With a little luck, by tea-time tomorrow, we'll have our trophy back!

After the elation of last week, I'm totally gutted this week. We went out of the European Cup with a whimper to Milan. I haven't seen such a spineless display form United for so long. Not one player really fired. Defensive mix-ups cost us the first two goals (well taken by Kaka and Seedorf) and it was inevitable we would conceed a third when we were playing so far up the pitch.

Normally when United have a bad game, there is at least one player who can take the game by the scruff of the neck Scholes and Fletcher came close tonight, but even they looked half-hearted compared to Gatusso and Kaka who just ran the game for Milan.

I hope this isn't a taste of the next few weeks. We need to get back to winning ways on Saturday against City and then sell the title next Wednesday against Chelski.

I'd like to wish Milan all the very best in the Champions League Final. Hopefully, they'll stuff the Scousers out of sight.

With a little luck and a few good signings, we can go two better and win the damn thing next season.

What a game. With a patched up defence, I never thought we would keep a clean sheet. Brown was superb, playing in the middle alongside Heinze. He's had his critics this season, but he has proved in the last couple of weeks that he deserves to be in the squad. He's not as good as Ferdinand or Vidic, but he's a United player for sure.

Scholes' flick for Rooney's first goal was sublime. You just know that if he was still playing for England, they'd be no look-in for Frank Lampard. I saw some rubbish recently that Scholes retired because he was scared of Lampard. Lampard isn't half the player the Paul Scholes is.
Rooney's second goal was sheer class in it's own way too. I was sure that Giggs was going to take the ball into the corner, but he took the defenders away instead and then when Rooney hit it first time, I flew off the bed and nearly took myself out on the radiator! Still, no-one ever said being a football supporter was easy.

Kaka was outstanding for Milan. It's just a pity that we saw some more cynical challeges later in the game from players like Bonera.

I'm sure we will go to Milan and score, and hopefully we will be in Athens in 4 weeks (and hopefully playing the Scousers).

Anyway, roll on next Wednesday.

Well, another 3 points towards (hopefully) another title.

That said, I thought the referee, Rob Stiles, had a poor game. He missed a dodgy challenge from Colin Kazim-Richards on Patrice Evra which left Evra on the ground, some challenges from Chris Morgan on United players which were rough to say the least, and a very late challenge from Heinze on Shelton which should have seen United reduced to 10 men. It was the kind of match which made me question why this guy is a FIFA-listed ref. He wasn't consistent in how he controlled the game.

Sheffield United are a physical team, but they seemed to go over the top in terms of agression. There was no attempt by Kazim-Richards to play the ball. He went over the top of the ball and into Evra's knee. Surely this should have been a yellow card at the very least? Chris Morgan led with his elbow more often than not and seemed desperate to take Ronaldo's shirt from him before the end of the game.

Don't get me wrong, gentle reader, I still hope Sheffield United beat the drop, I just think that they were too aggresive against United. Aggression born of desperation? Almost certainly, but that was too much and a better referee would have been using the red card.

Personally, I'd like Fulham, Charlton and West Ham to go. I have a soft spot for Watford. However, I think they are doomed to the Championship. I think Fulham will join them, and (hopefully) West Ham, but only because I'd like to sign Carlos Tevez in the summer.

It's certainly going to be an exciting few weeks.