With Kyle otherwise engaged, Yolkie leads you through the morning United stories – a friendly loss in Kansas, a nice change for Fergie, a former legend giving a current player advice, Nani playing with a broken toe, how to deal with your legends and also a reminder of our Green and Gold campaign and how our international readers can make a real difference to the future of our club.
Disappointing, yes, but only on the proviso we want United to win every time they take to the pitch. This was – for some Kansas players, without wanting to be patronising – the biggest game of their careers and a chance to put themselves in that proverbial shop window. The quality on show by our opponents demonstrated a tangible leap in quality from the last time our club visited the stateside and, for the MLS, we can see clearly that improvements have been made.
While we shouldn’t be too downhearted by the result, the performance is of some concern. Sir Alex – by choice or by force – has publicly declared his faith in largely the same players as last season and this means the likes of Gibson and Berbatov have to raise their games considerably. Untied fans will be forgiving of failure if they can see the players have given their all. There was none of that urgency on display yesterday and it’s just fortunate that Sir Alex has a chance to dust off the hairdryer before there are league points at stake.
As a side point; the players have a responsibility to themselves to ensure that last season’s League Cup success is a springboard to greater success as in 1992 and 2006 rather than the end of an era. That will require far more application and focus from certain members of our squad.
Sir Alex draws comfort from America’s positive spin on United
What with sell out crowds and the general excitement over Manchester United during their tour of the USA it is easy to see why it has been a welcome change in atmosphere for Fergie. The Telegraph takes an interesting look on it.
A man who knows on Owen Hargreaves
..and that man is Bryan Robson. He has urged the Canadian-born midfielder to fight to save his Manchester United career after his latest injury setback prompted rumours of an impending retirement.
A key point made by Robson is regarding Hargreaves’ own faith in his progress; but even the most cynical of United fans wouldn’t begrudge Owen deciding to call time on his career if it meant preserving just his everyday ability to walk.
Nani is playing with a permanent injury
Not really news as it hasn’t really affected his career but Nani reckons he broke a toe at the age of 14 playing barefoot in the street and it hasn’t ever recovered. You’d never have noticed when you consider how hard he can strike the ball.
In the absence of transfer activity at United we can look around at the policy of other clubs. I’ve been a huge fan of Raul during his career at Real Madrid and his love affair with the club finally ended this weekend when it was announced he would hold a farewell ceremony on Monday.
Raul has undoutbedly become a victim of the clubs extravagant spending over recent years and the politics behind the scenes as the presidents insisted some of their big signings played. It does make me think about our own legends, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, and how glad I am that it is likely they will see out their entire career at Manchester United.
As an observer it will be interesting to see if Cristiano Ronaldo inherits the Spanish legends number 7 shirt or if he continues with the CR9 brand that he started last season.
Back the Stretford-End.com Green and Gold campaign
Finally, I make no apologies for raising the issue again – please take a few moments of your time to familiarise yourself with our Stretford-End.com campaign to stop the club releasing a green and gold shirt during the Glazers ownership; the campaign also acknowledges that we would like the green and gold colours to become part of the club after such time that the Glazers leave.
We feel it’s particularly relevant for supporters of the club who live overseas; an opportunity to you to lend your support to a campaign that is merely about preserving the relationship between the club and its supporters and to also have a huge say about keeping the clubs future faithful to its past.
If you support our campaign please join other likeminded reds who have already signed the petition and help spread the word.
http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/keep-united-green-and-gold.html
Let’s not feel TOO sorry for Raul. He kept his place in the team despite a couple of seasons where he was pants at best, purely because he was the team’s golden boy. He’s done well by Real but they’ve done very well by him too.
It’ll be interesting to see how he gets on wherever he ends up, whether he has the desire to give it his all. I see Guti has left Real too since joining them as a youth in 1985!
He has done well by them; I just know it’d be a shame if Scholes or Giggs were not to retire at the club after the career they’ve had, I guess I was just making the comparison.
I know in the modern game there is little room for sentiment; it’s nice that there is still that little room though.
I think it’s harder for a striker. I mean if Giggs or Scholes aren’t having their best game (which obviously they don’t with the frequency they did in their prime) there are still clear ways they can contribute. Organising the team around them, the experience of different situations, a cool head when the chips are down, etc.
But Raul, for one reason or another, had a big drop off in goals last year after having a resurgent couple of previous seasons which is much harder to hide.
Especially at that level (both of competition and wages) it’s harder to justify hanging onto a player who won’t perform week in and week out.