Ruud is a quality striker. He is the perfect penalty box striker since he gets the goals and his postioning is top draw. He aslo contributes to the rest of the team through his hold up play. And when he gets a half chance he will usually put the ball in the back of the net.

I can (sort of) agree with part of Dazz's argument re: the quality of service...pretty much any striker playing for Man U will score more goals than if they were playing in most other teams (except Forlan :o ) simply because they create a lot of good chances.

Van Nistelrooy is just a different type of striker to say Henry, Shearer, Owen etc. To be honest he reminds me a fair bit of Ian Wright in the way he seems to be in the right place at the right time.

:wtf: ive watched him play for us this season so far and he doesnt need to hold off the defenders as he drifts inbetween attack and midfield. he is always looking for ball to feet and one two's. he was brilliant aginst palace with the way he was talking to the players around him, telling them where to go what to do etc (and not in a bad way) the way he is linking up with downing is looking very promising.

the free kick he scored was brillint, two steps and bang top corner, but before it was took he was distracting the defenders by telling viduka and southgate where to make runs so he could aim for them.

:love: Jimmy Floyd Hasselaink :love: id get his name on my shirt if they didnt charge by the letter :mad:

RVN is quality.

Though the quality of service he gets is impeccable.

He is a great goalscorer and is a worldclass finisher but is not as good as say...I dunno...Henry :)

Middlesbrough defender Franck Queudrue has been handed a new contract.

:love: :D :love:

unfortunatly for any irish peopl out there he doesnt qualify as it was his great grand parents who were irish. apparently the rules have chaged and it has to be grandparents or under.

what ever happened to the rule about if you drink guiness you can play for them ?

Quite happy with Scotland tonight. Definately held our own against Spain until the money in the electric meter ran out.

predictions for tonights match, i'm going for england to win 3-1

COME ON ENGLAND

:love:

thus far I bet ECG is happy with Ireland, not bad so far.

:mad: david fucking useless twat james lets us down again :mad:

he wasnt the only one as the whole midfield just seemed to stop playing

Wrong thread

Fifa have ordered Le Havre to hand over Charles N'Zogbia's registration to Newcastle and he is now free to play for us :cool:

sorry didnt realise there was one for world cup qualifiers, any james is still shit!

Newcastle have confirmed souness will become their new manager after saturdays game.

unfortunatly i think that is a good move and he will do well :mad: i wanted them to appoint shearer and then laugh when it didnt work!

The thing that pisses me off about the whole Newcastle thing is that Robson has been criticised by Sheppard for wasting money signing Bassedas and Viana, yet Souness has made like one decent signing for Blackburn in two years - Jonathan Stead. All the other players he signed built up a good reputation for themselves, but haven't lived up to it for one reason or another e.g. Ferguson, Emerton, Reid etc

Ferguson suffered a bad injury and Reid is just one massive injury. Emerton has been average but I wouldn't say the wasted money on him as he plays to a competant level.

Viana, Bassedas, Marcelino were all absolute shite who hardly ever played. Souness has won silverware with blackburn of all teams.

He's a big character and I'm looking forward to seeing if he can make the newcastle squad start achieving like they should.

Shearer shouldn't be guaranteed a starting berth as he's a grandad. Bellamy and Kliuvert should be up front

Souness may have won silverware with teams in the past, and his achievement with Blackburn is the most impressive of all the clubs and trophies he's won, but he's not got a good reputation of signing the right players.

I know what's happened to Ferguson and Reid, but Emerton was supposedly an awesome player who hasn't lived up to the potential, and Yorke and Cole didn't work out as well as expected. I'm pretty certain that Marcelinho was a Gullit signing though and Robson shouldn't be blamed for that.

Souness has done reasonably well at most of the clubs he's managed, but the success he had at Rangers was expected, to win at least a trophy at Liverpool 12 years ago was obligitary and almost a certainty, and Blackburn are a wealthy club considering the millions invested through Jack Walker and his estate after he passed away.

Yeah I seem to remember Marcelino being at Newcastle before Robson as well :o Fair point on Viana and Bassedas though. Not to mention Bramble, Carl Cort (:love: ), Acuna, and a few others :$

but can anyone seriously name a manager that hasnt made a bad signing ?

i'm not a blackburn or a newcastle fan so i dont know alot about behind the scene stuff for them however i think souness will have more money available for signings and he wont have to look to 30year old + players to make a team and no disrespect to blackburn but i think players would pick newcastle if they had the choice.

Thank you Graham Souness, now if anybody else goes near Dave O'Leary I will rape them.

Souness helped to ruin Liverpool, let's see what he does at Newcastle.Some of the signings he made with us were stupid, remember Torben Piknik or whatever. Even though the stress did get to him and he nearly lost his life because of the job.
I don't rate Souness too highly as a manager, probably because I'm bitter but he's only really achieved at Rangers in the early nineties and that isn't saying much.

If I remember correctly, we had an easy route to the final where we played Sunderland, who at the time were in Division 1(or was it still 2 then?).

It's more a case of a manager having a good ratio of good to crap signings.

It was still 2 then. I believe Liverpool played Pompey in the Semi's and only got through on penalties

Yeah, we were the absolute pits under Souness, took us from titie contenders to nothing in the space of 2 years, we haven't recovered (bar 2 seasons) since

Yeah it's all his fault. How many millions have you spent since then?

I'd have Souness any day.

Well, I'm glad you're not David Gill then.

No, its not all his fault, I'm just pointing out that he was a sh</>it manager, and things haven't got any better.

Don't get me wrong, I love Souness for the passion he has for the game, he was fantastic for Liverpool as a player, but his managerial skills leave a lot to be desired, and lets face it, he's hardly the guy to unite a dressing room full of egos is he?

The appointment of Graeme Souness was a strange one to say the least. On the positive side he will certainly give Dyer and the rest of his bling crew the kick up the arse they deserve for the way they disrespected Bobby. On the other hand his dodgy transfer record and history of falling out with players fills me with horror. Hopefully Freddie won't let him spend much money (we only really need to be improving the defence for now anyway). I hope he is not gonna stunt the development of Steven Taylor and Matty Pattison.

What really gets me about this though is the involvement of Pro Active. It's quite clear Freddie Shepherd is doing what's best for himself and his family instead of the club, the bloody crooked fat cunt. Freddie's son works for Pro Active and so he has got a chunk of the money from this. All the players we sign seem to be in some way linked to Pro Active. I wish the FA would look into this and put an end to it immediately. It's also rumoured the reason we got Nicky Butt so cheaply was part of some conspiracy that we were helping them to get Wayne Rooney by probing his availability for Man Utd to come in and get him.

Marcelinho was a Gullit signing by the way and so was Dyer. Viana is still a good player, just Bobby kinda wrecked him by not playing him, and so he never adapted to the pace of the Premiership. With Souness in charge I don't think Viana will be coming back from his loan spell with Sporting Lisbon.

<a href="http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=R2&title=126280"/>Soccer AM on DVD</a> :cool:

About time too. Wish it was a boxset or something though :$

You seriously think I'd have Souness over Ferguson?

no, but when ferguson retires, i don't want souness anywhere near the club.

Neither do I. He already managed Liverpool. Any other team, I'd take him though.

I still wouldn't. skaus or not.

Just got back from Venice so i'll just say...

WTF Souness.

Saw this in my hotel room and thought it was some prank :(. Came out of the blue thats for sure.

The thing is he's probs the best we could have hoped for. Allardyce, Mclaren, Bruce all tied down/too loyal (delete as appropriate) or throwing Shearer in at the deep end or having that tosser Venables.

Its sad when we have to settle for the 2nd/3rd/4th best.

Its always gonna happen when you sack people a few games into the season, managers want to stay loyal after charimen splashed out on summer signings leaving with you with people already out of a job.

I don't have high hopes but hopefully he'l prove me wrong.

Villa 0 - Chelsea 0. Fiar result we'd more of the ball but Chelsea looked a little more dangerous at times not a great game but a point will do us.

Definite penalty though don't you think :p.

But yeah fair result barring that.

Leeds beat Coventry 3 - 0. Come on you jobbers...

Last month Red Issue caught up with a little known figure from United’s past. Ex-player, Johnny ‘Johnny’ Moston spoke for the first time about what life was like at Manchester United during the inter-war years and the hardships some of our older players had to contend with.

“I was brought up in a tiny terraced house on the outskirts of Salford in a mining village which was so deprived the local Corporation wouldn’t even name it. Lots of footballers had hailed from our village and it was said that if you shouted down a pit shaft, a footballer or a fast bowler would come up (I can never remember which!).


“We played our football in a narrow cobbled street. Far too poor to afford an actual football, or even a bunch of rags tied together, we played “air” football. I was a keen lad and when all the other boys had gone off round the back alley to talk to the girls, I was still kicking my air football against the wall of the alleyway until I could time each shot or header to perfection and was equally strong with both feet.


“I wasn’t the brightest tool in the picnic basket and having failed to secure an apprenticeship down the pit or on the railway there was only one alternative – Manchester United. Crying my eyes out, I was dragged by my dad to Old Trafford and he left me in the capable hands of Ex-Lance-Corporal Davies (who we called Lance Corporal Davies for short). He was a fitness fanatic who had us running up and down the terraces all day. We never saw a football at all. To toughen us up he made us run through the Stretford End toilets while he fired mustard gas, smoke bombs and sometimes even live rounds at us.


“We had such a Spartan training regime that the fact that I’d still never seen a real football didn’t come to light until my debut for the Reserves against Blackburn Rovers in 1919. The Manchester Guardian remarked: ‘In the first half, Moston’s mazy off-the-ball dribbles puzzled the small crowd. The referee was also forced to book him for ungentlemanly conduct for making persistent “crowd” noises. In the second half, Moston re-emerged from the dressing-room sporting a black eye, and managed to get his foot in a few times.” In recent years, when watching Luke Chadwick, I think I can see a little of my former self.


“It was with great anticipation that I entered the 1st team dressing room. I was immediately introduced by captain Nobby Entwistle to the rest of the team. They were a mixture of cheery local Manchester lads, dour Scots, talkative Irish, dark, squat Welsh and of course the token cheeky Cockney. The recipe for just about every United team ever since. They were salt of the earth - a grand bunch of lads who would take anything from you


“Everybody ribbed the cockney, Alfie “Cockney” Wedge! He wore his shorts a full half an inch shorter than the rest of us, used Brylcreem and had a silver-plate bell on his push-bike with its own special ring.


“The years following the Great War were difficult for United. Financially it got so bad that you daren’t leave your bike outside Old Trafford in case management raffled it. We looked on with envy at Manchester City, who during the whole of United’s 30-odd year slump had bagged the princely haul of an FA Cup and the First Division! At the end of the 2nd World War, large crowds flocked back to football. Because of the unfortunate bombing incident at Old Trafford, we were forced to play at Maine Road but soon started to draw bigger crowds than our landlords.


“While I should by now have been in the twilight of my career, I instead hit my peak. I perfected what was known as the “Moston Dribble.” This consisted of my shuffling down the wing with the ball at slow speed, walking the ball round the keeper and into the net.


“Disaster followed though! An official from the FA was listening to the match on the wireless when the commentator said: ‘It’s almost as if Moston has got the ball tied to his boot’. An expert panel was convened, listened to the wireless commentary many times over at slow speed and found that I had, indeed, tied the ball to my boot. I was the first player ever to be convicted on radio evidence. I was fined thruppence and banned for the next six matches. The good news though was that I was back a month later for the FA Cup Final against Blackpool.


“I well remember the feeling as we bicycled up Wembley Way. We wound our way through 100,000 people dressed identically in caps, coats, and mufflers. We got changed in the dressing room but then in the tunnel a calamity occurred! I ‘accidentally’ bumped into Bert Nazi, Blackpool’s German goalkeeper. I was never too keen on the Germans, blaming them for the tragic loss of my father in the first ‘shout’. Words were exchanged, and Bert pulled a Luger from his knickerbockers and shot me in the kneecap. With no substitutes allowed the trainer could only douse my wounded knee in Dubbin and I bravely carried on, even providing a vital assist for United’s winning goal.


“After the game, an operation resulted in one of my legs being two inches shorter than the other. Mr. Busby took me to one side at the pre-season trials and gently explained that he was letting me go on a pension of 10 bob and an ounce of rolling tobacco a week.


“Of course these days it’s all about money. It makes me weep when I read about David Beckham’s chauffeur earning more in a single lunchtime than I earned in a lifetime’s service to the game. Unlike these modern-day namby-pambies we played the proper game of Association Football.


“Take the balls they use today: coated in plastic and weighing less than a balloon! In our day, when those old leather balls with stitching used to get wet, it was like heading a lump of concrete. Never did us any harm. Where was I again…..oh yes fixture congestion.


“These days, they moan like mad when they have to play more than once a fortnight. In our day, it was quite common to play six times a week, I was only excused a seventh because I was opening batsman for Lancashire. I remember playing against Salford Lads in the Manchester Senior Cup in the morning and then cycling to Wembley to play in the FA Cup Final. That very evening I was back in my local hostelry, captaining the winning skittles team!


“In fact, we nearly always cycled to away games and matches were never postponed because of bad weather. On one occasion there was so much snow on the pitch that our “goalie” Charlie Beswick made a snowman in the goalmouth and had a cheeky fag behind the goal, while the crowd sang ‘White Christmas’.


“Nevertheless, we still didn’t go down like a sack of spuds when tackled and then have six weeks off to recover. It was quite common to play on with broken legs, broken backs and even when clinically dead. Old Albert Holt had a fatal stroke on the pitch at Burnden Park, but still managed to ghost through and score the winner in a thrilling 9-8 win.


“There was always the odd whiff of scandal of course. I was once asked to throw a match against Liverpool for £10 guineas – a small fortune in those days! I bought a box of Bryant & May and when the time came struck a match and threw it at Tommy Scouser as he came running down the wing with the ball. Quick as a flash he whipped out a Woodbine (which most players tucked behind their ear for half-time in those days) lit it and blew smoke rings, while the crowd spontaneously burst into ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’. Oh, those were the days…


“Of course, all the players were characters, not like today’s pre-Maradonas. Oh how we laughed as skipper Nobby Entwistle did his impressions of George Formby (or was it Gracie Fields?)! And whenever old Bobby Dazzler set off down the wing, he would always enliven his dribbles with either a Max Wall or Nat Jackley funny walk, while the crowd sang ‘Where Did You Get That Hat?’


“And so came the sad day when I finally had to hang my boots up at the ripe old age of 49! In those days players didn’t just go off and become managers, who were mostly military types who’d done their bit in the war. For a while I tried scouting, but after an unfortunate incident with a Wolf-Cub’s woggle, I had to give that up too. Nevertheless, I’ve stayed involved in football on a part-time basis and can claim to have ‘discovered’ some of the best of them, including Pele, whom I spotted playing for Droylsden Old Pals.”


Johnny ‘Johnny’ Moston will be signing copies of his autobiography next week between 10–11am in the lounge of Prestwich Nursing Home.

lol wtf at Cahill's sending off.

Ridiculous.