Here are pictures, exclusive to Stretford-End.com, of the Manchester United open training session in Chicago. In attendance was our newest contributor, Kyle, who was able to rub shoulders with some of our heroes just days before our first pre-season friendly.

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It’s not often that Stretford-End.com is honoured with the privilege of announcing breaking news regarding the world’s biggest club, but we did just that on Sunday when I announced through the website and my twitter feed that we had WORLD exclusive pictures of the new Manchester United shirts for next season. Another blog website published our pictures and one of their readers sent in a picture of their own which had the shirts and socks. Yesterday we were shocked to find out that one of the more established United fan websites had run our pictures without giving credit to their source but we were stunned this morning when the Sun newspaper – yes, that’s the Sun national newspaper – proudly ran the shirts on their BACK PAGE a full THREE DAYS with the EXACT SAME PICTURES after we broke the news to you.

It was something of a coup for us to get the pictures; we did make the schoolboy error of not watermarking the pictures but the timeline of events happily comfortably sits in our favour. I announced through Twitter on Sunday that I had the exclusive pictures and posted them, before adding them to this website.

TheBusbyWay.com ran our pictures in a blog and gave us full credit,  thankfully. On their post one of their regular readers said they were able to get another picture to confirm we had indeed got a world exclusive and he had another picture to prove it. In their intelligence they did mark the picture and it’s due to that foresight that it was clear to see when the Republik of Mancunia, the big brother of United sites on the net, ran our pictures TWO DAYS after we broke the news, the images from TheBusbyWay had clearly been doctored and described as “doing the rounds on the internet”.

Oh well, what can you do?

On Twitter we lamented the lack of credit that we got from a website that didn’t really need to steal the pictures or not give reference to the fact that news was 48 hours old but I was shocked to be woken by a phone call this morning telling me to buy the Sun because I wouldn’t believe the back page. I was curious. Ferguson resigns? Rooney fit for last two games? Mark Noble of West Ham announces retirement from England? Freddie Starr’s been at it again?

No, as you can see, there were our pictures proudly sitting on the back page of the Sun. Of course, we can only presume, but we presume that these pictures were probably picked up and ours were run instead of the BusbyWay pictures because of the difference in quality you get from the picture when you rub out the mark.

The Sun’s pictures are ours – there is no mistaking it. They claim an “exclusive”. Obviously we know that this is not true, we ran these pictures 3 days ago. And again, no reference for little old us.

We’re not expecting a reward for it. We’re not after a collective wave of back slapping. But a little recognition for a WORLD exclusive that we generously gave you? Surely a little recognition isn’t too much to ask.

**Edit = Football365 ran this as the lead in their Mediawatch section on Wednesday afternoon and referenced us rightfully as the United site that broke the news.

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It’s rarely the case for a blog to be prompted so rapidly in the wake of a comment on another, but “The reds” raised an interesting poser ahead of tonight’s Champions League game in Germany – what kind of scenarios where some of the clubs greatest players thrown into for their debut match and is there any link between the direness of the situation and the ability of the player?

Stretford-End.com launched a mini investigation.

Firstly of course it has to be said that there can be no definitive answer because the fundamental basis for this “investigation” is regarding an introductory scenario which is not in any way related to the quality of said player. Gary Neville made his competitive bow for the club in an unremarkable UEFA Cup tie at Old Trafford against Torpedo Moscow in a goalless draw in the autumn of 1992 and didn’t play for the club again until May 1994, in another goalless home draw against Coventry as United lifted the title. He has since gone onto become the most decorated full back in the clubs history.

Nevertheless it’s a very interesting topic of debate – not least because in Manchester United’s rich history there seem to have been several cases of mass absence. As referenced in our history section (part 2 coming soon, promise) in 1909 the club were almost without a team to start the season due to an ongoing issue with the FA and the PFA in which the governing body threatened to suspend all union members – most clubs managed to get amateurs to replace their union members, United didn’t, as reflected in the “Outcasts FC” photograph being taken that heads this article.

The FA relented so the story never reached a conclusion – and then almost 50 years later, of course, tragedy struck the club when the Munich Air disaster cruelly took the lives of some of the clubs best ever players.

Yet Sir Matt Busby was able to somehow take a team of survivors, youth players and those donated from other teams in an act of sporting generosity to second place in the league the following season. UEFA had compassionately invited United to play in the European Cup alongside Wolves who were champions but the English FA inexplicably refused on the clubs behalf.

The English FA’s intervention also meant United were unable to participate in the English FA Cup to defend it in 2000, when the club would probably have been forced to field an unfamiliar team.

So there are plenty of what ifs in the clubs history too – as well as many of the players have done in unprecedented adversity, there may have been even greater achievements.

But to concentrate on the question asked by “The reds” let’s look at some individual players.

Simon Davies, a young Welsh left winger, had actually played in the infamous League Cup games against Port Vale in 1994 but was thrown into the deepend to play Galatasaray in a dead rubber Champions League game – the club were already eliminated but injuries and the foreigner rule meant Davies had to start and he struck a great drive across goal to spark a 4-0 rout. The side included Beckham, Butt and Gary Neville, all of whom went on to bigger and better things, sadly Davies steadily dropped down the leagues, eventually moving to the Welsh League and after retiring managing Chester City where he was sacked and then appointed as youth team manager last year.

Ryan Giggs made his debut against Everton on March 2nd, 1991, as substitute, and made his full debut in May of that year in the Manchester Derby and was credited with scoring the only goal even though he openly admits it should be an own goal. His introduction to the first team was not one borne out of Ferguson’s forced hand, and the same can be said for the likes of Schmeichel, Cantona, Scholes, Keane, Stam, Cole, the list goes on. In the main, unremarkable debuts for some of the clubs best ever players.

Even way back to George Best, the mercurial Northern Irishman was introduced to the first team much the same way by Sir Matt Busby the same way Ferguson does with his current crop.

Arguably only Wayne Rooney is a current day United great who made a spectacular debut – that hat-trick in the Champions League over 5 years ago now – but, again, he was introduced into the team having been injured.

Conversely then we have to look at remarkable debuts and what happened to the players since – Kevin Pilkington made his full debut in the York City battering in 1995, while that same season saw the emergency signing of Eric Cantona’s good friend William Prunier who had an average game against QPR then was absolutely shocking against Spurs. Pilkington is now still playing, on loan at Luton after spells at Mansfield and Notts County, while Prunier is probably grateful that he slipped into footballing obscurity.

Other bad debuts? Massimo Taibi gave a Jekyll and Hyde performance at Anfield where we didn’t know what to make of him – we were giving him a resounding thumbs down after shockers against Southampton and Chelsea. To be fair Taibi went on to have a successful career in Italy.

Good debuts in forced circumstances? That’s probably as close as we can get to “the reds” question.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is my earliest true recollection. Injuries to Cole, Keane and Scholes meant a re-shuffling of the side and a place on the bench against Blackburn in August 1996 for the baby faced Norweigan whose name nobody could pronounce. United had signed him for £1.5m after failing to sign Shearer from Rovers for ten times the price.

United were 2-1 down and on come Solskjaer, scoring with the rebound after Flowers had saved his first shot. It was somewhat of a blueprint as Ole become renowned for saving games from the bench, never more expertly displayed than in the treble winning season when a last minute goal at the Stretford End eliminated his boyhood club Liverpool from the FA Cup, and of course, his flick of the boot that won the European Cup that same season. Most managers had a tactic as a plan B, for the best part of ten years, Sir Alex Ferguson needed only one player.

Darron Gibson and Danny Welbeck both scored amazing goals on their Premier League debuts but, again, they were hardly thrown in at the deep end. Another measured judgement call by Fergie.

The same cannot be said, however, for perhaps the best example of an answer to the question than Federico Macheda.

No Rooney, suspended. No Berbatov, injured. Scholes suspended. Ronaldo, a wide player, forced to play through the middle, and Tevez, who was not an out and out striker and was completely ineffective. Macheda and Welbeck were on the bench against Aston Villa who had taken a 2-1 lead a United side who had lost two on the bounce and saw their title hopes flagging, worst of all, Liverpool were the contenders.

Macheda came on with half an hour to go and changed the face of the game, hassling the Villa back line in a way that defied their earlier comfort. Ironically, Welbeck’s introduction for Tevez with 3 minutes left almost saw the Englishman snatch the headlines. Ronaldo had equalised and Welbeck almost got the winner, but Friedel was as usual at his imposing best.

There seemed no way through until Macheda, well, you know the story. His dramatic winner was repeated in similar circumstances at Sunderland a week later and perhaps his career has something of a Solskjaer tone about it, having only scored in those substitute appearances and not in any of his subsequent starts. There is however no doubting the young Italian’s talent – a view shared by our coaching staff who have just secured his long term future.

Tonight’s deep end introductions for whoeever of the travelling youngsters who get the nod will not have the same level of repercussions riding on their performance but nonetheless Ferguson will drum in the importance of finishing top and avoiding the possibility of playing Real Madrid or Barcelona in the next round.

If United are able to avoid defeat tonight then even though there is not the destiny of a trophy riding on the result, their character in doing so may just alert Sir Alex to their ability to step up. After all, less remarkable introductions did the same for some of the clubs most successful ever players.

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Rarely will Sir Alex have been so delighted at the speed of another occasion to throw in his latest set of fledglings as he will be tonight – after they were roundly criticised for not winning against Besiktas despite battering them, the Carling Cup tie against last years finalists Tottenham provides him with a glorious opportunity to test their character.

Whether it’s as a team – they won’t make it – or individually check out this comment from one of those guys at Football365 who plays at being a “journalist” – apparently Gibson is “destined for a transfer to Everton in a couple of years” and this is earmarked as some kind of failure – the same guy says Ferguson should by now have “accepted that Nani, Anderson and even Carrick aren’t upto the job”.

Now, this kind of statement is confusing because I wonder what standards they are being judged on. Is it trophy count? Surely not, as United have undeniably been the most successful side in the country for 3 years.

Is it progression at the side of their opponents? A quick look at the table will tell you that for all the media hyperbole about the likes of Fabregas, Denilson and Walcott, when it comes to cold hard facts all of the evidence would support that their peers at Old Trafford are far advanced.

Is it how far they are at this stage of the season? Perhaps so, but considering that moving into December, United are only second by 5 points to a team that fielded a twice as expensive starting XI, I would hardly call that a damning edict, especially taking into account we have already visited last year’s second and third placed teams.

Are their failings being masked by the brilliance of the older players? Perhaps so, again, but having spent the last few years writing off Giggs and Scholes while saying O’Shea and Fletcher would never amount to anything I’m yet to see a media 180 or any hack holding their hands up and saying “Yeah we got that wrong, Fletcher is probably the best midfielder around this season”. If you didn’t watch the game and relied on the printed word and websites, you would be forgiven for wondering if United win all these trophies IN SPITE of their players!

More likely than any of the above theories however is the probability that this generation of know-nothing-know-it-alls, with no other stick to bash United’s current crop of youngsters with, are simply chastising them because they haven’t yet condemned the likes of Giggs and Scholes to the scrapheap.

Think about that, if you will.

Suffering from criticism NOT because of their achievements, which are better than most of their opponents, but suffering from criticism because the two best players of the generation – two of the top 5 ever seen in the entire history of the sport in England – are still capable of playing better than anyone else. All this is done with a double edged sword, the media dagger of doom, ready to call time on Scholes if he misplaces one pace, ready to say Carrick or Gibson can’t replace him if they misplace two.

Because of this it welcomes all manner of moronic debate, Spearing of Liverpool is worthy of comparison to Gibson, Gibbs of Arsenal compares to Fabio and the most laughable thing I’ve read from an Arsenal perspective, that Denilson is comparable to Anderson. This isn’t a new craze, who can forget the “Reyes is better than Ronaldo” debate that raged on?

In his first two seasons, regardless of anyone’s opinion, Anderson has played more than just a worthwhile contribution in a team that has collected two Premier League trophies, a Champions League, a World Club Cup and a Carling Cup.

The much maligned Nani suffers in comparison to his all conquering compatriot predecessor at United but at the side of someone like Theo Walcott then our back flipping winger suddenly begins to look, well, not quite so bad, with consistency that surely makes the likes of Albert Riera blush.

In Welbeck we have a natural finisher that embarrassingly outweighs that instinct of a Vela, a Bendtner or a Ngog, a local lad to boot, yet predictably the other three get raved about (Scouse logic now has it that Ngog is better than Owen) while Fergie’s talk of Welbeck being a World Cup outsider is scoffed at by the same national media that hung on Wenger’s every word about a player he didn’t even trust to make his own bench in 2006, and has not developed since.

All this talk of how ineffectual Carrick and Anderson are is remarkably short sighted considering that just a few weeks ago Chelsea’s seemingly imperious midfield were anonymous against them. Is Carrick’s biggest crime that he came up short against, currently, the best two midfielders in the world in the Champions League Final?

Likewise, is Gibson’s “destined failure” down to coming up short in dictating a game on his FIRST Champions League start? What passes for dictating these days anyway? I ask this because United can win against Arsenal and still Arsenal come out as the team with more credit yet against the Turkish Champions, well, United may not have been sparkling but had over 25 shots at the Besiktas goal and found Rustu Recber is sparkling form. This is a side that for the bulk of the game had two teenagers up front and a winger not only new to the side but still recovering from injury.

It is far from the end of the road, to the contrary, it could prove to be the making of these players. On another day the Besiktas game could have easily finished 5-1 to United.

The Barcelona mauling in 1994 didn’t define the career of the likes of Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes who were given a true rude awakening, likewise, the Carling Cup win in 2004 over Arsenal didn’t signal the start of a long career in the United midfield for Liam Miller and Djemba Djemba.

The Spurs game tonight won’t be the defining step in these players’ careers either (and it should be noted that the Spurs side United will face will be far superior to that Besiktas one) but what it should do is give us an indication of their character if, of course, Fergie selects them.

Regardless of that I’m with Fergie in that there’s enough there to show promise and at the very least what we saw against Besiktas is that the majority of the kids coming through have the spirit to chase a game until the final kick. I’m not blindly placing faith in them – in my book, any Manchester United side put out in European Competition should be able to beat, with all due respect, a Turkish team, but if they don’t, I don’t think that is endemic of the current crop of youngsters.

The fact of the matter is they have to live with the fact that the result was embarrassing for them because of the club they were representing and that in itself is a true test of character. But I implore any true Red reading this to not buy into the media whirlwind and start thinking things are worse than they are. If at the end of the season they’ve had ample chance and failed to impress then let’s throw the subject open for discussion.

When they are currently doing all that is asked of them and suffer one setback, let’s not automatically buy into the deluded fools who are trying to use the fact that they’re not Scholes or Giggs YET (and who is?) that they are not as good as our opponents, when the facts tell a different story.

Of course no-one knows how things will pan out. Maybe Denilson will surpass Gibson. Maybe our youngsters will end up with nothing. But we don’t know – I’m taking the optimistic (and historically favoured) route. And, win or lose (tonight or ultimately), if they are trying to play the United way, what more could we as fans ask for?

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..just as it says on the tin, really.

Sir Alex has come in for criticsm for voicing his opinion about the physical condition of Alan Wiley. Clearly an attempt to deflect the heat from his side following a poor display but the media backlash which is trying to get Fergie charged with all sorts is bordering on the rabid.

A “journalist” for Football365, Sarah Winterburn, opines that Fergie’s comments were worthy of comparison to Adebayor’s recent antics against Arsenal. He should be fast-tracked to punishment. He should not allowed to explain those comments. Really? Were the comments really that bad? Let’s examine them.

“He was also walking up the pitch for the second goal needing a rest. He was not fit enough for a game of that standard.
“The pace of the game demanded a referee who was fit. He was not fit. It is an indictment of our game. He was taking 30 seconds to book a player. He was needing a rest. It was ridiculous.”

Sounds like an opinion to me, maybe a bit harsh but still an opinion. Is this really a surprise from a website that claims not to have any bias towards or against any club but as recently as March ran a piece urging England fans to treat Rooney as a “non human” which used to be found by clicking this link, strangely since deleted, don’t worry though it can still be found in all it’s glory here.

Incidentally written by the same moron who proudly admits in this same article to instigating a hate campaign against Beckham after the 1998 World Cup. Call me paranoid but I notice a bit of a theme. A website, by the way, that publishes a twice daily mailbox where contributors revel in the opportunity to publish comments about Sir Alex that are so personally insulting I don’t even wish to give them the light of day.

Incidentally, where were the calls for Arsene Wenger to face disciplinary action for saying “you know what you get at Old Trafford” after the recent game where he had no real cause for complaint?

Where were the calls for Benitez to receive the kind of punishment Winterburn craves for Fergie when he launched the most astonishing mis-informed rant in the domestic sports history?

This isn’t a Football365 thing. Examples can be found through the media. David McDonnell of the Daily Mirror wrote the match report for Monday’s pull out “Mirror Mania” declaring
“Predictably, Fergie tried to mask his side’s glaring failings with a withering attack on Alan Wiley, accusing the referee of not being fit, a slur which is likely to incur an FA charge”.
His report was accompanied by an article (again, strangely enough you can’t find it, but here it is) entitled “CLOCK WATCHER TO WEIGHT WATCHER” and read -

Fergie could yet eat humble pie for labelling roly poly ref Alan Wiley a pie-eater.

To listen to Fergie you’d almost believe Wiley carried in his pocket a yellow card, a red card, and a Diner’s Card.

The tirade could yet land Fergie in hot water – Wiley would prefer a nice leg of gammon in hot water. It was hard to tell on Saturday if the fourth official’s board showed four minutes of added time or four stone of added weight.

Saturday’s was the the latest in a long line of Fergie ref attacks.

He slaughtered Martin Atkinson for failing to give United a penalty in their FA Cup quarter-final defeat by Pompey last season and said refs chief Keith Hackett was not doing his job properly.

And in the Manchester derby at Eastlands in 2006, Fergie launched a savage attack on Steve Bennett for sending off Cristiano Ronaldo.

The article is accompanied by an image of Mike Dean holding up the time board with “4st” mocked on. We’ll forget the chronological idiocy as I’m pretty sure Fergie was relieved we got through last seasons apparent quarter final defeat to the semi final game against Everton. And while Ronaldo was certainly not sent off at Eastlands in 2006, let’s not let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Confusingly McDonnell’s colleagues at the Mirror (primarily a chap called David Anderson in this article) seem to deem an opinion that a referee was simply “not fit enough” as something deserving the “book thrown at them”, wanting at least a fine and a ban. I wonder what they make of one of their colleagues saying that same referee was a “roly poly” who “would prefer a nice leg of gammon in hot water”.

Complaining or writing in to football365 is pointless because they don’t respond and basically take a fingers in ears approach to anything that contradicts their shitty journalism.

Does David Anderson or the Mirror feel that McDonnell’s comments are worthy of a similar suspension from his job? Do they feel that Oliver Holt’s insult that Sir Alex is a “sneering bully” is fair?

Well, I’ve emailed them and I’ll keep you posted. But don’t hold your breath.

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