Still Following the Trawler

2008/09. Que Sera, Sera... After the magical over achievements of 07/08, the following season was always going to be difficult in many ways. The summer brought another International tournament and yet more controversy circulated around the 'great one'. Although not quite on the same level as the blinking antics of World Cup '06, Ronaldo was the centre of Euro 2008's attention because of his inappropriate flirting with Real and Real's consequent 'we'll get him no matter what' approach. As it was, it all appeared to be in the name of jest (well, sort of...) as he remained a United player through to the new season. It took a wee while for him to get going due to injury though, as his first appearance was the home draw against Villareal on September 17th; where he was undoubtedly greeted with rapturous applause and adoration by his faithful fans. Oddly enough, I never thought at any continuous period during the season that we were amazing or even AS g...

2007/08. Follow, Follow, Follow… The years of rebuilding, restructuring and redefining Manchester United had finally come to this. By maturely ignoring the post-Abramovic Chelsea hype in the brilliant professional way that only Sir Alex knows how, he instead brought in new youthful talent (Anderson and Nani), solid holding players to bolster our defensive-midfield (Hargreaves and Carrick the season before), aggressive attackers to complement Rooney (Tevez)…and in the mean time, let Ronaldo blossom and flourish into the best in the world. I can't really say a lot more about this magical season, as words will truly never do it justice...so I'll let the pictures do the talking and remind us of the greatest season in the decade (as if we'll ever forget it). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

2006/07. Viva Ronaldo. After bringing only one new player in in the summer, we incredibly – and brilliantly – managed to regain our Premiership crown after 4 years of near-misses and resignation to the fact that nothing – other than a lot of money – can stop the Abramovic machine. Carrick’s £18million move was clearly the finishing piece of Ferguson’s latest puzzle that saw youth – Ronaldo, Rooney – and experience – Giggs, Scholes and Solskjaer – combine brilliantly with his efficient holding play and immense passing ability. The defence need a shout here as well, as Rio was as solid as ever and Vidic and Evra improved on their ineffectual debut season that so nearly labelled them as flops…just imagine if Sir Alex lost faith in these two?? Nobody thought we could do it; there was no way Fergie could muster up yet another Championship winning side after Chelski’s financial domination, yet he did in imperious fashion to once again sit at the top of the pile. …in other news, Van Nistelro...

2005/06. Failure once again in the league in 05/06 marked the first time in the history of the Premiership that we went 3 seasons without winning the title; and to think only five seasons previous we had won our 3rd on the trot. A mixture of complacency and Chelsea’s dominant position in the transfer market (and by dominant position, I mean monopoly) saw us trail yet again and all but confirm the rapid shift in power. All the talk now was about ‘if the end of the 20th century was United’s, then the 21st will be Chelsea’s’. We did however improve on last season’s no-show by coming second in the league on an impressive 83 points - making you believe that our final point’s total may have even been enough to win it another year - and winning the Carling Cup. I remember at the time talking to mates about how gaining an automatic Champions League place and wining a trophy was now classified as a ‘good season’ for United…my how the mighty had fallen. But whereas on-field events ...