Still Following the Trawler

Earlier in the week, after we gave by far our most determined, outstanding and tactically superior performance of the season, it got me a thinking. When WAS our last truly incredible performance? Well, few would disagree with me when I suggest that it was in fact at the very same venue that today’s game was held last season. No, not the league game in November ’08 when Nasri’s brace beat us 2-1, but the more beautiful, continental spectacle last May. The 3-1 win in the Champions League Semi Final second leg was the last time, arguably until mid-week’s performance against City, that we truly performed to the esteemed honour that the title of ‘Champions’ holds. Well here we are, back for the first time since the day we taught Arsenal’s ‘boys’ exactly how it’s done. So what’s changed? Well a fair bit, considering the architect of that victory is now playing in Spain and, ironically, Arsenal have  learnt to play. Quite well, in fact. So the questions that surrounding today’s visit wou...

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**Ridiculously happy United fan here...do NOT read on if you're looking for an honest, unbiased view!** Sometimes, a game of football can result in something so beautiful, that nothing other than sitting back and appreciating the spectacle is worthy. And so it is tonight; as analysis of any depth or form is truly worthless. 3 f*ckin 1!! As Tevez and the rest of his billionaire boys club trudge off the pitch, disconsolate yet truly humbled at being beaten by Britain’s greatest ever club side, we are left speechless and honoured to witness such as a resolute display of spirit; that same, inert spirit that Sir Matt handed down to Sir Alex, who then instilled it into his soldiers. Giggs , unbelievable; Fletcher , pivotal;  Evans , has admirably come of age;  Rooney , the saviour and Evra , the heart and soul. We haven’t looked the sharpest this season, yet how casually and utterly ignorantly people have written us off, over and over again, time after time. We may have lo...

Here's my preview of tonights game on my Football Talent Spotter site . If we effectively learn from the 1st leg and subsequently improve, this should be immense! The Cockney Red: How Manchester United can overcome City tonight

There was a strange air about Old Trafford yesterday. I missed the Burnley game last weekend and so for me this was my first home game since the revelations of Glazers controversial plans to refinance the loan. Since then however, as you have probably all heard, they have managed to raise funds, selling bonds in the tune of £504million; however to the fans, whose sole concern is always the wellbeing of their club, that had zero positive impact. Every time the whistle blew, every time a set-piece was being lined up, and surprisingly, after every goal was scored, the same noise and the same angry protest greeted the action. ‘We want Glazer out’, ‘Love United, Hate Glazer’ and ‘Glazer’s gonna die’ were dominating the Old Trafford chorus; so loudly and prominently in fact that at times you completely forgot a football match was being played. And although red was, as always, the main colour on show, there were other, more meaningful colours blended into the sea of red. Green and gold was t...

Manchester United: Green and Gold United Rant Bonds: The Guardian

As if his pathetic, childish display in front of the world - and, of course, his former employers that HE refused to sign for - was not embarrassing enough, the so-ridiculously-ugly-it-hurts-my-eyes-to-look-at-him-for-extended-periods twat decided it would be an even better idea to chat some delirious, wacko bull-shit to some of his hombre's on Argentinian ESPN; thus magnificently and oh so pointlessly vilifying himself further...but of course he is so 100% over his former club. So it all kicked off over something his former captain said, did it? So what exactly did Neville say to make him completely lose it? "The manager over the years has made many decisions with regard to players coming and going – and he has almost always been proved correct. "Over a period of 20 years he may have got one or two wrong, and I think he has admitted that himself, but he knows exactly what he’s doing and he understands when a player’s time is up. I can’t disa...

At full-time, this one hurt. It’s easy to be defiant about it now; claiming we were robbed with the penalty that should have only been a free-kick, and that we generally out-played them from start to finish. But after the final whistle was blown, and even more so, on the 65th minute when that pathetic loser who just can’t forget about his old club scored and acted in a way that isn’t even worth mentioning; I felt truly sick. As for the display? We showed more guts, determination and attacking prowess in the last 10 minutes than we have done throughout the entire season; with Rooney’s high shot towards the end, struck brilliantly from the outside of his boot and ending a truly beautiful counter-attacking move reminiscent, dare I say even better, than Ronaldo’s 3rd  at the Emirates last April. This over exaggerated proclamation about our powerful, dominant finish to the game is not so much a blisteringly attack on United’s performances this season, but more admiration towards our res...

I was  havin g a natter about this with some of my mates the other day, and it also came up in the comments section after my post about the Glazers last Tuesday. I'm saying, as you have probably already worked out if you've read this far,  Casillas . As much as I hate his Francoista club and everything they stand for, he has been the loyalest of servants; and a consistently brilliant, near flawless one at that. How about those young(ish) pretenders I here you say? Valdes, Cesar, Akinfeev, Palop....what about Myhill?? And the contemporary legends? Along with Iker, there's Dida, Cech, our boy Edwin, and of course, Gigi ;  who is still remember the most expensive of all time. So who does everyone think? Does anyone care? And, more to the point, is this just a shameless attempt of attracting more readers and trying to start off a bit of a debate? Well I'll leave that for you all to decide in the comments section below, otherwise known as ' debate space ':

Another typically ‘ok, but not great’ performance by the Champions saw us defeat a gutsy Burnley side 3-0, with Berbs, Rooney and new boy Diouf finding the net on a routinely humble afternoon at OT. As usual, we made it difficult for ourselves, especially as the away side threatened surprisingly well and had a few decent efforts that could have, and probably should have, punished us for our lack of concentration. The three chances of note – Fletcher’s in the first half and Nugent’s and Eagles’ in the second – all had one common, worrying trait: our defence was all too easily split wide open. Had the chances fallen to more able, perhaps more confident attackers, you would seriously have to worry as to the final outcome. Fletcher and Nugent, both on the back of counter-attacking moves, fluffed their efforts wide, and Eagles, when we had already taken the lead, took the ball away from our defence with some nifty yet fairly conventional footwork that created himself space for the shot that...

I know I'm probably massively out of my depth with this seeing as, in the blog world, I'm a tiny fish, but a mate of mine suggested I do a mini-campaign thing to get you guys to vote for When The Seagulls Follow The Trawler in the 2009 Soccerlens Awards . All the information on how to do is in the link above, but I think you just email your nomination and site address -  cockney-red.blogspot.com  - to awards@soccerlens.com , as well as the category you feel that site should be considered for; these include Best Writer, Best Team Site and loads of others. Failing voting for me, vote for Republik of Mancunia , as they're awesome. Thanks, The Cockney Red

Settling down to watch Sky Sports’ ‘esteemed’ panel discuss the week’s hottest topics, I was fairly surprised to not only hear such monopoly of one issue, but also such a one dimensional point of view. With Stoke v. Liverpool kicking off in about an hours time, I suppose it was probably inevitable that the Reading defeat, and the deeper underlying issues surrounding there horrible season, was the mornings no.1 issue; but perhaps for the first time ever in Sky Sports’ history, all four of them – Cottee, Merson, Nicholas and, yep, even Thompson – agreed on the subject in hand. Liverpool’s season, especially after failing horribly (as we did, mid) in the opening round of the FA Cup – they’re last remaining glimmer of hope with regards to silverware – was well and truly over. As for they’re fat Spanish waiter? The exact same fate was decided. It goes without saying that we are ALL loving Liverpool ’s mighty fall from the dizzy heights of coming second in the league – some just can’t handl...

Say whaaaat?? Is this true?   Just looking at their smug chevvy chace's, I've gotta a sneaky suspicion that something's not quite right...

Some interesting analyses of United's debt after news emerged that we made a £48.2million profit this year (without Ronaldo's sale it would have been a £31.8million loss) and that we will be raising £500million through the selling of bonds. Here's  TheTelegraph  and  RoM  looking at the situation in detail. Apparently we're after Benfica winger di Maria ...but we've got to go head-to-head with Morinho and Inter for his signature. This is The Telegraphs predictions for 2010.

I know it's a tad late, but here are my player ratings plus some more general, poignant thoughts from the Birmingham game   on my Football Talent Spotter blog . My Man of the Match was Evra, with Rafael and red-carded Fletcher not too far behind. Thoughts...? LINK: The Cockney Red - Football Talent Spotter.

I had a feeling the match wouldn’t turn out well from the offset; lets just say my choice of location to watch the encounter at the St.Andrew's could have been planned out slightly better. As I sat in the pub awaiting kick-off, I was once again reminded of how unwelcome the locals made it for us Cockney Red’s (said in capitals because it is an official title). The unsavoury characters around me, otherwise known as Arsenal fans, were still buzzing (pissed) on an undeserved sense of achievement having luckily stolen a point from Everton’s brave travellers just before our game kicked off. So as usual, every time United lost possession, misplaced a pass, or the camera simply honed in on Sir Alex chewing gum, I expected the typical jibe’s of ‘aaaaaahh yoo fackin cants’. But, as the first half an hour of football progressed, those chants were not in attendance. I’m certainly not ruling out the obvious fact that they probably couldn’t even see straight, however, having placed my red...