Manchester United

[G]

My Brother wants Giggs till the end of the season

Really hope they claw up to 6th to get that Europa league spot.Wouldn't want a new man coming in next season with loads of money and only the league to focus on.

[john316]

Giggs seems about as inspiring as a blank book........

Give him the money!!!!

[Bender]

what odds on Juan Mata moving on before the start of next season

[baitman]

http://www.singitkitty.co.uk/#play/xz6c8

[spud_gun]

what odds on Juan Mata moving on before the start of next season

He can't, can he?

I thought there was a rule limiting the number of clubs you could play for in a calendar year.

[SK]

He can't, can he?

I thought there was a rule limiting the number of clubs you could play for in a calendar year.

he can in the summer window

and it's three clubs in a year, i think

[red g]

He can't, can he?

I thought there was a rule limiting the number of clubs you could play for in a calendar year.

He could argue he hasn't 'played' for Man u yet

[Shaggy]

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/david-moyes--manchester-united-6841522

Moyes has left United fans with nothing but blind hope

17 Mar 2014 12:41

There was a sense that if the fans didn't fill the air with something, their frustration at what they were watching, what they have watched all season, might spill out. But they won't sing forever.

For the final 15 minutes at Old Trafford on Sunday, the United fans sang '20 times, 20 times Man United'.

It was defiant, and they didn't even flinch when Luis Suarez scored Liverpool's third.

There was a sense that if they didn't fill the air with something, their frustration at what they were watching, what they have watched all season, might spill out. But they won't sing forever.

For some, the turning point was the Capital One Cup semi-final defeat to Sunderland in January. For others, it was the defeat to Stoke in February.

Some supporters gave up after the capitulation at Olympiacos. For others it was Sunday, and humiliation against Liverpool.

Some, admirably, are still clinging to the hope that David Moyes can turn things around, that time will heal everything. But hope is all that's left. Expectation died a long time ago.

Make no mistake, Moyes is lucky to still have his job.

There are plenty of clubs, most in fact, that would have lost patience long before now. Other sets of fans would be whistling, waving white handkerchiefs and singing 'you're getting sacked in the morning'.

United fans, at least the ones who go to the games, are not there yet. But even they will not stand for failure for long. Regardless of what Sir Alex Ferguson told them to do.

In a world where Premier League managers are only ever one game away from crisis, we have been conditioned to believe 'time' solves everything. The best chairman, we are told, give it to their managers. The best managers, they say, have had the benefit of it.

But United's season has steadily deteriorated. And, worryingly, there is no sign that they are about to turn a corner.

For those who don't watch Liverpool regularly, their title challenge this season has come out of nowhere. But Brendan Rodgers' side were showing signs of life long before they battered United on Sunday.

In December last season, Liverpool were ninth in the table, with 28 points from 20 games. But they lost just one of the last 12. And while it came too late to save that season, it provided a platform for this one.

In the aftermath of the defeat to Liverpool, it's difficult to see how United can beat Manchester City Everton in the run-in. Trips to Newcastle and Southampton will also be making some fans nervous.

What is most uncomfortable for some supporters is Moyes' lack of answers.

His assessment of the defeat to Liverpool amounted to 'They played well, we didn't'. If he knows how to fix it, he isn't giving anything away.

It led to some awkward exchanges in his post-match press conference.

Journalist: “We're in March now and Manchester United have beaten one team in the Premier League's top nine, do you think that is part of a wider pattern?'

Moyes: “What's the pattern? I don't understand the pattern bit of it.

Journalist: “The pattern is that Manchester United haven't beaten the top clubs.

Moyes: “I understand that part of it.”

Journalist: “But is it part of a wider pattern, or is it just coincidence?”

Moyes: “It tells you that we're not doing as well as we should be. It's as simple as that. We have to play better and make ourselves harder to beat. We're also going to have to make sure we're creating more and taking more of our opportunities. We've got a lot to do.”

Here's another.

Journalist: “Do you worry about the support waning? You've lost to Liverpool, you've got City coming and Olympiacos, really big games. It might test their patience, does that concern you?”

Moyes: “Well, I thought you'd be writing about how good the supporters were today. It was unbelievable the backing they gave the team. I would have thought the question would be, 'how good were the supporters?”

Journalist: “But the point is, are you worried that might evaporate?”

Moyes: “Results dictate that, and I can only tell you what I've seen today. And the supporters were fantastic today.”

Moyes has reached the point where he has to mention the fans after every game for fear of losing them. But it's going to take more than words.

The extent of United's collapse this season means the fact Moyes signed a six-year contract in the summer has become largely irrelevant.

He will not see the end of it if things don't improve. Instead, the focus now is on short-term results.

Games against Olympiacos and City, maybe even a Champions League quarter-final against Barcelona or Real Madrid, represent wonderful opportunities to lift the mood. To show everything might be all right after all.

But there's been little evidence to suggest Moyes can take them.

It's becoming harder and harder for match-going United fans to block out what is happening to their team with ferocious - at times blind - support.

But there will come a point when they can't take any more. And the clock is ticking.

[Shaggy]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/10703407/Manchester-United-turmoil-Why-has-Ryan-Giggs-become-the-ghost-of-Old-Trafford-under-David-Moyes.html

Manchester United turmoil: Why has Ryan Giggs become the 'ghost of Old Trafford' under David Moyes?

Ryan Giggs's disappearance from the picture at Manchester United, on and off the pitch, is one of the more bewildering aspects of David Moyes's troubled reign

By Mark Ogden

Ryan Giggs could make his 140th, and potentially final, Champions League appearance against Olympiakos on Wednesday, but few at Manchester United would risk their house on the midfielder appearing against the Greek champions.

As United’s campaign descends from disastrous to apocalyptic, Giggs’s disappearance from the picture, on and off the pitch, has become one of the more bewildering aspects of David Moyes’s troubled reign.

Giggs, appointed to Moyes’s backroom team following the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson last summer, has become such a peripheral figure that the joke among supporters is that he should be renamed the ‘ghost of Old Trafford’.

But with Moyes battling to save his job at United following a catastrophic run of seven defeats in 14 games since the turn of the year, the Scot must surely realise the need to lean on Giggs’s experience on the pitch, and his counsel off it, in order to improve his prospects of escaping the quicksand currently threatening to engulf him.

Since completing the 90 minutes of United’s Capital One Cup semi-final first-leg defeat against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on January 7, Giggs has made just two appearances for Moyes’s team.

He managed 71 minutes of the home victory against Cardiff City on January 28 and then ten minutes as a substitute in the 2-0 win at Crystal Palace on February 22.

At a time when Ferguson would regularly turn to Giggs to provide calm and composure to his team - Ferguson believed Giggs was at his best in the winter months, when pitches are soft - Moyes has left him on the sidelines, more often out of the squad than in it.

Against Liverpool on Sunday, Giggs was once again overlooked with Moyes opting for the under-performing Marouane Fellaini alongside Michael Carrick in midfield. Darren Fletcher was also omitted from the squad, despite his impressive form since recovering from ulcerative colitis.

Yet while Giggs’s absence from the team could be explained by Moyes’s determination to build for the future at the expense of a 40-year-old with 960 games on the clock, the distance between the two men in the dug-out and technical area hints at the Welshman being regarded as being outside the inner circle of the former Everton staff - Steve Round, Phil Neville and Chris Woods - who followed Moyes to Old Trafford.

How much faith does Moyes place in Giggs’s opinion? And does the player-coach buy into the new manager’s methods?

In recent weeks, rumours of the pair disagreeing on tactics and the way forward have been dismissed, with sources close to Giggs insisting that there have been no such differences of opinion or clash of philosophies.

However, with Giggs’s playing contract unlikely to be extended this summer, there remains uncertainty as to whether he will continue his role as a coach under Moyes orre choose instead to take a break from the game in order to complete his coaching qualifications.

When Giggs was promoted to the coaching staff last July, he said: "I hope I will be able to bring my experience to bear, having been both a player and part of the Manchester United family for so long."

However, nine months into the role, Giggs appears to have become a withdrawn figure who is rarely seen alongside Moyes in the dug-out or in the technical area, delivering instructions to players.

On the training pitches at Carrington, players have noticed Giggs becoming involved in fewer sessions, with the player spending little time coaching. Also noticeable is that Moyes regularly consults Round or Neville, two of his loyal servants from Everton who have experienced success under the Scot.

From being a central figure under Ferguson, somebody whose opinion would be sought by the former manager, Giggs has had to adjust to a new reality and find a way to work with Moyes and his coaches.

With storm clouds now seemingly a permanent fixture above Old Trafford, however, Moyes now needs Giggs more than ever. He needs to plug into Giggs’s charisma and trophy-winning experience, his knowledge of the United way, and trust him to make a difference, on and off the pitch.

Moyes spoke of Giggs possessing "an unrivalled perspective on the modern game", when announcing his appointment as player-coach, but there has been little sign of him tapping into that resource in recent weeks.

[Shaggy]

Last game at Everton, and Sunday:

[Tee]

He is slowly changing to this isn't he?

[Reece]

I'd say it's more like this transformation:

[PTP]

bit of topic and not really a laughing matter as such even though i was in stitches...

Darren Fletcher was also omitted from the squad, despite his impressive form since recovering from ulcerative colitis

my mates girlfriend suffers from the same thing

ages ago i was in the pub with another lad and he asked me where my mate was, we'll call him Dave ....

mate - where is dave tonight

me - oh aye bit ****, his birds in hospital, not sounding good...

mate - really, whats happened?

me - she's got the same issue as Darren Fletcher

mate - ****.......

bit of a pause

mate - bad hamstrings?



i was on the floor

[Liverpool]

Bookmakers Betfred are to pay out a staggering £200,000 after their Manchester United supporting owner Fred Done took the decision to refund all bets on David Moyes’ side to win the Premier League.

Done has seen his beloved United slump in an alarming fashion this season, with the Champions surrendering their title in calamitous fashion and the bookie is now set to pay back those who have backed United: ‘Anyone who has a bet on United winning the title need only take their slip to any shop and I will refund every penny,’ he is quoted as saying by the Manchester Evening News.

Daily Mail

as if anyone has kept their slip

[G]

bit of topic and not really a laughing matter as such even though i was in stitches...



my mates girlfriend suffers from the same thing

ages ago i was in the pub with another lad and he asked me where my mate was, we'll call him Dave ....

mate - where is dave tonight

me - oh aye bit ****, his birds in hospital, not sounding good...

mate - really, whats happened?

me - she's got the same issue as Darren Fletcher

mate - ****.......

bit of a pause

mate - bad hamstrings?



i was on the floor

On another note,Moyes has a 6 year contract