Coulrophobia used to abound at Old Trafford. Now it is there but in smaller doses and with different connotations.
José Mourinho was feared. Not as much as he would have liked to have been but he was feared particularly by his players who were so scared of him that they forgot how to play football in his, yes you guessed it, third season!
Prior to him, Louis van Gaal was feared and, as a strict disciplinarian, he probably had every right to be. Read the rest of this entry »
So how’s it going with everybody? We decided to take a short break due to the fact that no football being played makes writing stories about the game quite difficult.
Those directly involved, particularly at the highest level, you know the ones, those who can not only source and afford toilet rolls but can, due to their enormous wealth, treat them as footballs and do keepie-ups with them, are supposed to be on strict training regimes at home. They keep in touch, thanks to technology, with the coaches and the manager who will no doubt be telling them to stay fit as the season may resume at any moment. Read the rest of this entry »
Manchester City have finally had a VAR decision go in their favour. That is if, in fact, VAR actually checked the potential “push” performed by Gabriel Jesus when scoring the equaliser against Real Madrid. It was quite obvious that the City player had placed his hands on the back of the Madrid defender but there was actually no evidence to suggest that a push was made.
Naturally, Sergio Ramos went down as though hit by a sniper in the crowd but he didn’t fool the referee who also saw through his shenanigans shortly after this goal when sending off the Madrid captain for the 26th time in his career. This one was for pulling Jesus back and, as last man, denying him a goal-scoring opportunity. Read the rest of this entry »
Ole Gunnar Solskjær can look forward to the backing of the board and a serious amount of cash to spend in the summer transfer window. This is according to Ed Woodward, the CEO of Manchester United Ltd. In the dreaded “vote of confidence” Woodward stated the obvious which was that the club were still challenging in the Europa League and FA Cup and still had a chance at Champion’s League qualification through their league position.
He failed to mention that ex-manager José Mourinho led United to second place in the Premier League, finishing 8 points above Liverpool who currently sit first, 38 points points ahead of United! Read the rest of this entry »
Meet the Glazers (from L to R): Avram, Joel, Kevin, Bryan, Darcie and Edward
The parasitic Glazer family or, to be more precise, the parasitic patriarch of the Glazer family, Malcolm, bought Manchester United in 2005. He bought the club purely as a cash cow which he could milk as and when he pleased. This has now been the case for the last 15 years and has resulted in more than £1billion being taken out of the club.
The deal to buy United was advised by an investment banker working for JP Morgan called Ed Woodward. As everybody is now very well aware, his pound of flesh for brokering the deal, (on top of his very fat commission cheque), was to be given the job of CEO at Old Trafford which, on the retirement of David Gill, also saw him take over the role of “transfer guru“. Read the rest of this entry »
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s latest excuse for Manchester United not scoring goals is because they are tired! The lack of goals is not being attributed to Marcus Rashford’s injury, nor is it blamed on the fact that Anthony Martial is playing like a sloth who has been told to take it easy. It is not the fault of Andreas Pereira or Jesse Lingard, two attacking midfielders who have four goals between them this season nor is it down to the sheer lack of quality in the team. No, it is because they are tired. Read the rest of this entry »
The reasons for the current problems at Manchester United can be summed up quite simply.
1. The owners know absolutely nothing about football.
2. The CEO knows absolutely nothing about football.
3. The manager knows absolutely nothing about the tactical side of football, communicating with supporters or managing players.
With a CV which includes managing a third rate club in Norway and taking Cardiff City from the Premier League to the Championship, there was no reason to even consider Ole Gunnar Solskjær for the manager’s job at Old Trafford, let alone actually appoint him. Read the rest of this entry »
Providing Ed the Incompetent doesn’t mess things up, which is always a very strong possibility, then it would appear that Bruno Fernandes is about to sign for Manchester United. Is he a good signing or not? We here at WSA happen to think he would be a very good signing. In fact, we thought he would be a very good signing last summer when United could have bought him for less than now. So why didn’t they?
Well apparently they weren’t too impressed with the content of their scouts reports which said that he often gave the ball away. Strange this because, that being the case, he should have been a perfect fit for this team, all of whom are extremely adept at this very unwelcome skill! Read the rest of this entry »
Ashley Young has said, reportedly, that he no longer wishes to be considered for selection to Manchester United’s first team squad. Good! As we have consistently said, he should have been sold years ago. So what has been the manager’s reaction to this alleged insubordination? None really. Solskjær, being the teddy bear that he is, has basically told the media to “ask Ash” if they want to know what’s going on and, when pushed, said that he would “sit down with Ash” to discuss it!
Please excuse our ignorance but we were under the impression, (obviously misguided), that it was the manager’s job to know what was going on at the club and, in particular, with his players. Read the rest of this entry »
So England’s Cricket team have banned their players from playing football during training and in warm-ups. This follows Manchester United’s decision to ban their players from playing football during matches. The England reasoning was quite logical in that their regular knockabouts with the big ball had resulted in injury to Rory Burns which ruled him out of the second test against South Africa.
The Manchester United reasoning is less logical and must, unfortunately, be put down to the manager. After wins against Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City which came as a big surprise to United fans and, probably, an even bigger surprise to Ole Gunnar Solskjær, they reverted to type against Arsenal and put in an abject performance when deservedly losing 2-0. Read the rest of this entry »
