Had a great day with my daughter in Manchester on Monday, doing some Christmas shopping, eating and drinking on the Manchester Christmas Markets and generally hanging around and getting all festive. We were going to stay out for drinks and maybe go and watch a film but of all the Manchester cinemas we could only find one showing the film my daughter wanted to see, and that wasn’t until 11pm. So we settled for a drink in my local and a takeaway curry at home to finish off a nice day – we don’t spend time together like that often enough.
I’ve got someone in the studio today – the comedian I mentioned in a previous blog. It’s strange watching someone record comedy – it’s meant to be conversational and have the feel of someone telling a story to an audience, but without the audience. And with the guy doing three or four takes per story, it’s all very clinical. It’s very hard to get the right recording, to make it sound live and natural. Maybe this guy’s just not a very good comedian – I certainly haven’t laughed yet.
After today it’s all about football and Christmas for me until the New Year. Man United have got some important games coming up, which we need good results from to further secure our place at the top of the Premier League. We’re currently six points clear at the top, above Man City, and we’ve got games against Swansea, Newcastle, West Brom and Wigan all coming up in the next two weeks. It’s going to be a great backdrop to the Christmas celebrations.
The other big Man United news this week is our Champions League draw against Real Madrid in the last 16. It’ll be the first time Cristiano Ronaldo will have come back to Old Trafford since leaving and I’m sure he’ll get a good reception. He did, after all, score some amazing and important goals for us during his time here…
I’ve got Christmas shopping to finish off, Christmas drinks to drink and football to watch, so I’ll leave it there for this year – see you in 2013!
Me and my mates stayed away from the Manchester derby game at the weekend, as usual, preferring to watch it in the comfort of my TV room with some cold beers and no angry City fans shouting at us and throwing things around. Purely from a football point of view, it was a cracking game – 2-0 at half time, then 2-2 with just minutes to go and ending with an injury-time goal to make it 3-2 is going to be a good game of football whoever’s playing. The fact it was United v City, and United won, made it all the better – especially for us United fans.
That win (and City’s lack of points) takes us six points clear at the top of the Premier League, which is a great place to be mid-December. If we can take the winning run through for the next couple of games we’ll have really stamped our authority on the title and you’d have to say it would be ours to lose from there. Although, as we know from last year, anything can happen.
Sadly the talking point after Sunday’s derby game wasn’t the football but the injury Rio Ferdinand sustained from a coin thrown at him by a City fan. It hit him just above the eye, making him bleed quite a lot, but the most worrying thing for me was the fan who got on the pitch immediately after and had to be stopped by Joe Hart from confronting Ferdinand. How did security not stop him? Perhaps more to the point, what makes people act like this in the first place? I’ve said it before and will no doubt say it again, but it’s only football. It amazes me that people take it so seriously.
Anyway, on a more positive note our 3-2 win over City marks a landmark occasion – I actually got a prediction right! If I get the other two from my previous blog correct as well… well, I don’t know what. I guess I’ll just be kicking myself that I didn’t put any money on all three.
I saw on the news this week that David Beckham is leaving LA Galaxy and wants to play one last season with another club, as a final ‘challenge’ to end his career on. Having been a Man United fan for many years, I obviously remember when he was with us. I’ll be honest and say that I never actually rated him particularly highly – he’s pretty good with a dead ball and scores the odd decent strike, but he never stood out as the hard-working, talismanic player that many desperately wanted him to be.
In the end I think he succeeded in creating a persona and brand the preceded any talent (or lack of) that he had (or didn’t have). He played in many of the biggest clubs in the world throughout his career, moving to Real Madrid after us and also playing a stint at AC Milan, on loan from LA Galaxy. I think it’s fair to say that he was never the best player in any of the teams he played in. You could be cruel and say that Real Madrid and AC Milan got more out of signing him through replica shirt sales than football performance, but I wouldn’t go quite that far. What he lacked in all-round skill and football ability he must have made up for in experience and, through his presence alone, motivation and inspiration, particularly for the younger players around him.
We’ve not been told who Beckham’s going to for his final season as a professional footballer. There has been talk of some French clubs but there’s also a chance he’ll come back to the Premier League for one last taste of English football. It would be interesting if he did do that, but who for? I’m not sure putting him in a Man United shirt would be a good idea to be honest but you never know, it might just happen again. And he wasn’t all that bad when he was with us…
In the unlikely event that any of the Manchester United team read my blog, I could claim a little hand in our change in fortunes over the last week or so. Since my last post, when I was bemoaning our lack of form, we’ve had three convincing wins on the trot – all in the Premier League, against QPR, West Ham and Reading – which have taken us three points clear at the top of the table. Perhaps my words, coming from a true fan of the club and the team, might have inspired them to up their game? Okay, so that is highly unlikely (impossible) but I can dream, right?
December tends to be seen as quite a crucial month in the Premier League, as many teams see the end of the year as a good marker for who is likely to go on to take the title. Gambling on who will be top at Christmas is very popular, with bookmakers producing special odds for those who like that kind of thing – here’s a good comparison table of odds on who will be top of the Premier League at Xmas.
I’m not particularly a gambling man, as I’ve said before, but I think I might stick a few quid on Man United staying at the top of the table for Christmas. We’ve got a few tough matches in December – notably Man City on the 9 December – but I’m confident we can do it. City haven’t got too hard a time of it in comparison – they’re playing Reading and Newcastle this month, after us – but you never know what will happen. If we can come through this month and be top at Christmas I think we’d have to be favourites to go on and win the Premier League this season. So I’ll be watching Man United intently this month, as ever, and here are my predictions for the next few games:
I shouldn’t be surprised that my claim last week that Man United ‘seem to be on a pretty good run at the moment’ is followed by us losing away to Norwich, being knocked down to second place in the Premier League and losing 1-0 to Galatasaray in the Champions League. That last result doesn’t really matter to us because we’re through the group stage anyway but it’s never nice to see us lose, especially in Europe. And, of course, the other results didn’t go in our favour, as I’d hoped they would. Man City beat Aston Villa 5-0, which put them at the top of the league, and Chelsea lost to West Brom, which was about the only positive thing for us all weekend because it meant they didn’t gain any points on us.
Speaking of Chelsea, the surprise news yesterday was that they sacked Roberto Di Matteo immediately after their loss to Juventus in the Champions League on Tuesday night. I have to say I was really shocked – he revived them after a really bad spell last season and took them on to win the FA Cup and the Champions League, which is a brilliant achievement by anyone’s standards. So to just sack him after a few losses in the middle of this season seems really harsh to me.
Looking at their previous form, though, it shouldn’t be that surprising – they’ve been through nine managers in the last nine seasons, with their owner, Roman Abramovich, apparently not taking any kind of failure very well. That’s what football’s like these days, unfortunately – big money, big stakes. It’s a funny old game but it’s a tough old game too, especially if you’re a manager and your team loses. Still, I expect he’ll be getting a couple of million quid in compensation, so it’s not too hard a life being a football manager.
Without wishing to jinx us, Man United seem to be on a pretty good run at the moment. Last week’s Champions League win meant we won our group and we also got a decent away win against Aston Villa on Saturday, even though it was a bit lacklustre in the second half. We play Norwich away this Saturday and I’m hoping for another win and three points on the board – this is a great time in the season to really take control and if the results for Chelsea and Man City go in our favour (i.e. they lose) it could be the start of us really pulling away from them and making our mark on the title.
That’s what I’d like to happen anyway but it’s unlikely it will. Chelsea aren’t having the best run but they are solid and I can’t see them losing to West Brom. Aston Villa are a good side though and if they can get organised there’s a good chance they can cause an upset at Man City – and of course it would be good to see them beat City after losing to us last week. Here are my predictions for this Saturday’s big games:
Norwich 1, Man United 3
West Brom 0, Chelsea 2
Man City 2, Aston Villa 3
The other football news this week was England’s friendly against Sweden last night – or rather England against Zlatan Ibrahimovic. I didn’t watch the game because I don’t really care for international friendlies – I spend enough of my time watching football without worrying about games that don’t mean anything – but of course I heard about Ibrahimovic’s four goals and especially the overhead kick. I read the reports this morning before watching it and I have to say I was expecting something truly amazing – the perfect goal, some said. I thought it was okay. The main thing I thought when watching it was ‘what is Joe Hart doing?’ Here it is – an amazing piece of skill against a defence and goalkeeper that look like a Sunday league team:
It’s no surprise that my predictions were wrong again but I don’t care about that today because we’ve won our Champions League group and actually managed to do it in a fairly convincing way, so I’m happy. Well, I say it was convincing but that’s largely ignoring the first half – I can’t believe we managed to concede first again. We really must sort that little habit out.
The win’s especially pleasing because Man City are having a nightmare at the moment and their 2-2 draw against Ajax on Tuesday puts them in a precarious position. They’re now relying on other results to see if they get through or not, which is always a bad place to be in. The big story from their game was Mancini’s criticism of the officials afterwards, having had a winning goal disallowed due to it being offside. Replays do seem to suggest that it wasn’t but, as I’ve said before, that’s football – swings and roundabouts. They can’t blame that on their defeat – they shouldn’t have conceded the two other goals if they wanted to win.
Talking of winning, Celtic managed to pull off the seemingly impossible by beating Barcelona 2-1 at home, with the winner being scored by an 18 year old substitute. A fantastic result for them and a real fairytale way to do it – I’ve always thought of Celtic as my ‘Scottish team’, so I’m pleased for them. Barcelona are still favourites to win that group but it gives Celtic a real chance of getting through to the last 16.
Anyway, enough about other teams, for now I’m going to enjoy the fact that we’re comfortably through to the last 16 – I’ll be keeping an eye on the Champions League fixtures table to see who we might be facing. Hopefully we can go all the way again this year – here’s the last time we did it:
It’s a pretty important week in the Champions League for British teams, with crucial games for Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Celtic and, of course, Man United. In previous years I’ve always been confident that we’ll progress fairly easily in the competition and at least make the quarter finals but after last year, when we got knocked out in the early stages, I struggle to be so certain.
We’re playing Braga tomorrow night in the return leg from the game last month, when we went 2-0 down and came back to win it 3-2. I’m hoping for no such drama this time and hope we finally start to assert ourselves in this competition and secure our place in the last 16. That’s what I’m hoping for – we’ll have to wait and see what actually happens.
The other big games this week are Man City v Ajax and Celtic v Barcelona. City haven’t been producing much form recently so it’ll be interesting to see how they come out for that fixture. Celtic are playing Barcelona, which needs little more saying about it really. They lost 2-1 away to them in October but it was a spirited performance so it will be interesting to see if they can cause a bit of an upset this time, playing at home. I hope so – Barcelona are obviously a fantastic football team, perhaps the best, but I do find them a bit boring sometimes, if they’re just playing their game of ‘keep the ball’. If Celtic get an early lead it could be a really interesting game and Barcelona’s big names will have to pull out all the stops, which is always good to watch. Like this…
It’s been a pretty amazing week of football – Arsenal came from 4-0 down to win 7-5 away at Reading on Tuesday and Chelsea came back to beat us 5-4 on Wednesday night in the Capital One Cup. I’m disappointed we lost in the end, obviously, but I’m a fan of the sport first and foremost and I can’t deny it’s thrilling to watch when there’s that much drama.
I was going to also write that I was pleased it’s the football that’s making the headlines and not the other stuff I was talking about last time, but it seems there is yet another alleged racist incident that’s set to overshadow everything else. This time it was a fan making a gesture at a player and (I’m amazed to be saying this) it’s Chelsea again. This report covers the story in full and also has a picture of the ‘fan’ – if you know who it is, please tell the police. There really is no place for people like this in our sport.
I’m going to have to move away from football to finish on a bit of a brighter note, in a roundabout kind of way. After my post on Lance Armstrong last week, I was amused to see there’s a town planning to burn an effigy of him in their annual Bonfire Night celebrations. It’s a serious issue, of course, as is the reference they’ve made to the Jimmy Savile case by hanging a Jim’ll Fix It badge around Lance’s neck, but I think it’s nicely symbolic of bringing the big issues back to the people. A nice reminder that these celebrities are not above or beyond us, the ‘normal’ folk. They will, eventually, face the law like the rest of us would. And we can burn effigies of them if we want to.
Two good wins for Man United over the past week but we certainly don’t make things easy for ourselves. I thought we were going to completely collapse in the Champions League game last week against Braga, having gone 2-0 down, but we brought it back to win 3-2. I suppose I should have a bit more faith and believe in the team more.
We did the opposite against Chelsea in the Premier League on Sunday, going 2-0 ahead in the first 12 minutes only to see them bring it back to 2-2. We won 3-2 in the end, with Chelsea moaning about the referee losing it for them. I generally believe that the luck of the decisions evens itself out – we might get awarded an offside goal one week (as it seems we did on Sunday) but in a week or a month we’ll get one scored against us, so it comes back around. I have to say though, if I were a Chelsea fan I think I would be disappointed in the decisions that went against them on Sunday. They did seem to unfairly stack against them and ultimately helped decide the game.
The other thing that came out of that game is something that’s looming a little too largely over football at the moment – the issue of racism. It seems we’re set for another ‘who said what to whom’ episode, with Chelsea accusing the referee this time of using ‘inappropriate language’ towards two of their players – the implication being that it was racist language.
I don’t know what was said, obviously, but if the John Terry episode taught us anything it’s that the language used on professional football fields is, in my opinion, completely unacceptable. In what other working environment would it be okay to bait, swear at and generally abuse a fellow professional? I’m not excusing Terry at all – I actually think he should have been punished more severely – but you do get the sense that what he said was a ‘step too far’ on a field that is awash with insults, foul language and abuse.
Cut it all out, I say – swearing, disrespect, abuse… and, of course, racism, in all its forms. Get tough – reduce offending players to a salary of £20k a year. That’d soon shut them up.
