Pre-season used to be a quiet time of kickabouts behind closed doors whilst the lads got off the beer and the physio glued Bryan Robson’s leg back together. 2011 has been rather different, as United have met a show-reel that Jason and the Argonauts would be jealous of. Colossus after Colossus has passed through our viewer in recent weeks as the side have met Canotona, Pele, Beckham, Barcelona and of course, Gary Neville too.
Whether this was a ruse to make the Community Shield match against City look like small fry we will never know, but it would never have worked anyway. The neighbours are definitely on the map.
Although the team returns to Wembley with victories over European Champions Barcelona and opponents directed by God himself (Cantona), it is hard to forget that the last time we were at the national stadium we lost, and to the same opponents.
United have scored more than Errol Flynn in pre-season and there are goals in this team. There may well need to be on the back of a great goalkeeper’s retirement. Naturally, the jury is out on young De Gea. One only hopes he can survive the hysterical scrutiny he will now be under. The closure of the News of the World will hopefully lessen this, but he is bound to get a tough time from the press regardless.
For a discussion about United’s midfield type the word ‘Sneijder’ into Google and take your pick from any one of a million articles. My personal feeling is that this is a very big year for Senor Anderson. How he starts the campaign may well determine whether or not we do any more spending. Fletcher looks skeletal and the idea appears that whatever his illness is may be rather serious. Again, I suspect United will have to score themselves out of trouble a lot this campaign.
Frankly though, thank God the wait is over. I extend my thanks to Joey Barton for keeping the last week of the summer interesting but it is great that the games are back now. With fingers crossed, I am hoping that United can keep Norwich off the top spot for as long as possible.
Go Delia.
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Comments
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Posted by David Smith on 08/07/2011
"The neighbours are definitely on the map." Easy when you just buy the map. On the map, played off the pitch. With that brilliant performance, United firmly put the noisy neighbours back in their place. Welbeck, Nani, Cleverly and Young were all top class today. Nani's had a great pre-season, as the flame has been well and truly lit under him. He needs to maintain this drive, desire and focus and help lead United to their 20th. Welbeck's future most certainly lies at Old Trafford, as he continues to show glimpses of world class ability. I thought he was the Man of the Match, until Nani broke past Bad Kompany and rounded Ingurland's number one. As usual, the Berties can't fill their half of the ground, no matter how much money the sugar daddy throws at buying success, attention and a history. No real surprise there though. You're talking about a small club from Manchester who barely managed 20,000 for their F.A. Cup matches at Leastlands last year. On to West Brom now. Good luck lads!
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Posted by Ofuski JB1 on 08/07/2011
Well manchester united have started well. They played well througout their pre-season and now they defeated manchester city with an amazing come back from 2goals down.If Sir Alex Ferguson continues he may retain the title with or without new signings.
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Posted by theJepit on 08/08/2011
No to Sneijder,..
No player shall be bigger than the club..
Too expensive then he can stuff it..
Posted by Varun on 08/08/2011
We have started the season with a bang. Year after year Fergie proves his doubters wrong. He knows how to bring the best out of his squad even without bringing in any big names. And once again he slayed the big money shitty with panache.. Credit must go to Welbeck, Cleverly, Nani, Rooney and Jones for giving city a thrashing in the second half. We had dominated shitty throught out the match except for 10 first half minutes where they scored 2 goals against the run of play.
Great start to the season. Hope we build on it and conquer greater things at home and in Europe.
We take the first step toward no 20 at Hawthorns.. good luck ..
Posted by manuforever on 08/21/2011
Manchester United is simply the best team!!
City will never be as good even if they have tons of money!
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Mark Payne writes about football for a variety of media outlets. He reported on the 2010 World Cup for Australia’s ABC network and worked at one of the FIFA fan sites. He has been ESPN’s Manchester United correspondent for four years. His writing attracts a worldwide following and in 2011 this blog was nominated for an award. To contact Mark for football discussion e-mail him on markpayne.editor@hotmail.com at any time. He wears lucky socks on match days.
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