Posts Tagged ‘Sir Matt Busby’

What Ten Hag Must Do To Stay In His Role At United

Posted: November 9, 2023 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Eric ten Hag, Football, Liverpool, Managers, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur
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The best James Bond, by a country mile, was Sean Connery. So good in the role was he that Ian Fleming changed his parentage to reflect the fact he spoke with a Scottish accent.

Jeremy Brett, no doubt to the chagrin of Basil Rathbone fans, was the ultimate Sherlock Holmes and nobody, but nobody, has quite mastered the voice and mannerisms of Hercule Poirot anywhere near as well as David Suchet.

The point here is that, although many actors took on the aforementioned roles, only the very best are remembered. The ones who became the character.

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The Full Time Whistle Has Blown For Sir Bobby Charlton

Posted: October 22, 2023 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, European Football, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester United, Opinion, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur
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It started with a 20 minute walk, 75% of which was uphill. We tried to time it so that we didn’t have more than five minutes to wait for the bus and, in fairness, got it right more often than not.

After the short wait the number 112 bus would come lumbering around the bend by Moston Lane Junior School and come to a halt at the bus stop outside Langhorns, the Ironmongers. We would board the bus and then I truly got the feeling it was match day.

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Under JosĂ© Mourinho Manchester United Are Slowly Heading In The Right Direction

Posted: May 17, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, Jose Mourinho, Managers, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur
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Football supporters of the top clubs these days are about as patient as a five-year-old on Christmas Eve.

Back in the seventies, when Mancheser United were relegated to the second division there were disappointed shrugs and sighs of resignation but little else.

It had been coming for a while and, when it finally happened in 1974, nobody was really surprised and the optimism of Tommy Docherty in predicting that the club would bounce straight back to the first division was infectious. (more…)

Wayne Rooney Returns To Old Trafford. So What?

Posted: September 17, 2017 in Arsenal, Chelsea, European Football, Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Wayne Rooney
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When we were regulars in the Stretford End, Bobby Charlton was scoring the goals that would lead to him becoming the club’s top scorer. He was a model professional and never a moment’s trouble to his manager or, as far as we are aware, his wife.

Denis Law was “The King” and, to our knowledge, only rocked the United boat once over a pay rise he thought he deserved. Matt Busby disagreed and transfer-listed him. That was the one and only time Law caused any problem, insignificant as it was, for his club. He has also not caused any problems for his wife, again, as far as we are aware. (more…)

How Much Would The Manchester United Players Who Won The European Cup In 1968 Be Worth Now?

Posted: July 4, 2017 in Arsenal, Chelsea, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion
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These are the kind of questions often asked but seldom answered. Usually, the query will just invoke a smile, a shrug of the shoulders and any one of several quick retorts from, “priceless” to “nobody has enough money to buy them“.

In actual fact, there weren’t many members of that team who would be worth a fortune nowadays. Let’s take a look and a few educated guesses:

1. Alex Stepney – Goalkeeper. Arrived at United from Chelsea in 1967 to replace Harry Gregg, who was to retire through injury. Although capable of spectacular saves and a very reliable goalkeeper he was around during a golden age for English goalkeepers, hence he was only capped once for England. (more…)

Ed Woodward Still Needs To Prove He Is Up For The Job

Posted: June 23, 2017 in Chelsea, European Football, Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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In the dim and distant past Manchester United had relatively few problems in enticing players to sign for them.

Pre-Fergie it was the lure of the name. It also helped that, in 1968, they had become the first English club to win the European Cup, although Sir Matt Busby made relatively few signings after that famous night at Wembley, a fact which was a constant source of annoyance to George Best.

Best expected the team to grow and prosper from that night on. Instead, Busby stuck with the older players and United won nothing of note again until the FA Cup defeat of Liverpool in 1977. (more…)

JosĂ© Mourinho Has Rediscovered His Passion For The Game At Manchester United

Posted: December 17, 2016 in Chelsea, European Football, Football, Jose Mourinho, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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When José Mourinho was sacked by Roman Abramovich a year ago, many people thought he had lost the plot and had reached the stage where managing a top flight football club was no longer the challenge he required.

He was well into his second coming at the club and had won the Premier League title in the previous season. So what happened?

Did he lose the players? It is an overused expression nowadays but it may have been true in this case, almost certainly with some of them. (more…)

JosĂ© Mourinho’s Woes Continue As Manchester United Prove To Have Deep-Lying Problems

Posted: November 3, 2016 in Chelsea, European Football, Football, Jose Mourinho, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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(JosĂ© Mourinho has a few things to think about before Sunday’s game with Swansea)

Manchester United have gone from being challengers to strugglers in a few short weeks.

Whether it is more surprising that they actually played well at the start of the season, or that they returned to their abject selves after a very short while is debatable.

What seems to have been missed by Moyes, van Gaal and now Mourinho, is that the United players appear to find it virtually impossible to pass the ball to each other. The amount of times a pass goes straight to an opposition player is now too numerous to be put down to bad luck or just erratic passing. (more…)

Does Sir Alex Ferguson REALLY Have Any Genuine Responsibility At Manchester United?

Posted: October 1, 2016 in European Football, Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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He was blamed, initially, for the appointment of David Moyes.

The story put out by the press at the time was that Moyes was invited to the house of Alex Ferguson where, no doubt over a glass of something either red or whisky coloured, he was invited to take over as manager of Manchester United. (more…)

How Does The Youth Policy Under JosĂ© Mourinho At Manchester United Compare With That Of Sir Alex Ferguson And Sir Matt Busby?

Posted: September 29, 2016 in European Football, Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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To answer this question in an honest manner it is necessary to understand the pressures under which the manager of a top Premier League club operates.

The first thing to appreciate is that JosĂ© Mourinho will be judged on what he wins, not who he brings through from the youth team. This means that, in order to stay in the job long enough to blood potential first team players, he needs to be filling the trophy cabinet on a reasonably regular basis. (more…)

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