United 2016/17

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rossie said:
ive been ranting about this since the moment it happened, yet not one thing has been said about it, not fucking one, apart from a quick mention on motd where one of the pundits ( murphy I think) said " looks like he tripped over his own leg" but was the quickly moved on to another subject.. ssn has not even mentioned it.. fucking twats absolute twats
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They dont want to make the referees aware of Shaws diving so early on in the season
 
woolleyback blue said:
Padr81?? City fan???? How many more tainted souls are there on there?
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I loved padr81s honest appraisal of citys game, and not one rag even commented on it.. they are so fucking blind to anything that's not rag related , they make me sick even just reading a couple of pages on rag café. they truly are deluded cunts and they just don't see anything
 
My hate is rising and secretly I love it. Having LVG there was great but they were more a laughing stock than a threat (until Pelligrini put us in danger toward the end).

I missed it.
 
waspish said:
They dont want to make the referees aware of Shaws diving so early on in the season
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I will watch for this from now on, shame really because I actually rate luke shaw . I guess that's not going to last very long now hes a rag
 
bluemc1 said:
Just thank yourself lucky they haven't just clocked up the biggest away win of the weekend with Zlatan scoring 2 and their new summer signing getting the other 2 after being assisted by Rashford
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round of applause bluemc1
 
Cookieproof said:
I'm very surprised that no one has commented on your post as it is not only insightful but goes to the very centre of the Rag psyche. "Sometimes our thoughts are backed by so much insecurity, that they create the lies we believe." Or as my dad used to say: "Empty vessels make more noise."
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I think joemercersways post is an astonishing post, really lets you see the rags in a whole different light , I read it and spent the next few hours thinking about it actually . best post ive read for a long time
 
rossie said:
ive been ranting about this since the moment it happened, yet not one thing has been said about it, not fucking one, apart from a quick mention on motd where one of the pundits ( murphy I think) said " looks like he tripped over his own leg" but was the quickly moved on to another subject.. ssn has not even mentioned it.. fucking twats absolute twats
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On Sky News, the presenter said "Absolutely no doubt about that one, a clear-cut penalty" as they showed a slow-motion replay of Shaw clipping his own heels and hitting the deck like a sack of spuds. I've not seen any other angles so have no idea if there was contact prior to that, but there was literally zero correlation between the words he was saying and the images they were showing as evidence.

It happened in the charity shield as well, when they did a freeze frame showing big nose was fractionally offside for his goal and the commentator said something like "No problems there, you can see he's clearly onside." Cue all the brainwashed rags nodding in agreement while I sat there wondering why none of these fuckers have the power of independent thought.
 
JoeMercer'sWay said:
been thinking about this for a while, but in light of this summer I feel it sums up where United are at the moment.

I believe there are pretty much three stages of being elite/winning. Hunger, Winning and Talking. I'm going to focus on the latter two in the case of United. Winning & Talking. Or as Scousers would call it, "Our Year & 'Istree-laaaaa". United's hunger and thirst for success was driven in part by their late 60s joy, and their pure envy of Liverpool dominating during the following decades. United's winning came to the fore through Ferguson and the relentless flow of trophies followed. This then led to exponential commercial and brand growth, which put them on a dangerous precipice. The precipice that leads to talking.

There come a stage where all great winners transition from winning, to talking about what they won. You see it with Liverpool, a club that once won trophies in a prolific fashion, who now occasionally win cups but mostly talk about their success. You see it with Michael Johnson covering the Olympics, talking about his past successes and what it was like to be the best. The problem with the talking phase is that those achievements not only become more distant, but they also become overshadowed by the subsequent successes of others. Michael Johnson experienced that last week when Van Niekerk took his 400m record, Johnson became slightly less relevant almost instantly.

Aside from the fundamental difference between winning and talking about past success, the other critical contrast is in the need to justify oneself. A winner does not need to justify himself, a winner is justified and vindicated by his success. Someone who talks about their past success is justifying themselves through this very act, they are having to remind people of their worth and merit by basking on former glories.

Ferguson may have explained actions he took, but he didn't need to justify them. He didn't need to justify selling Stam, selling Beckham, selling Van Nistelrooy or missing out on signing Tevez to us, he was vindicated by his subsequent success, there was no justification needed.

Now, United are having to justify themselves by not only constantly referring back to Ferguson's tenure, but because they constantly make statements trying to ensure people remember how relevant they're supposed to be. Signing Pogba is the prime example, it has been used constantly as a marketing tool to try and convince people that United are still a top club, a relevant entity at the top of the game. It's a signing about hype, about talk, about social media interest. The winning matches part is secondary. The focus has been on United reminding people that they're still a top club.

Pep Guardiola meanwhile has been busy explaining why Hart is going to leave. He hasn't had to justify himself, he's Pep Guardiola, people make the justification for him. His success means people accept his decision. City have to some extent lent on the hype of Pep coming in, to cover up for two miserable seasons under Pellegrini where they failed to live up to expectation. The difference is that City have not yet entered the winning phase. Sure, we've won trophies, but we have not had a prolific, prolonged period of winning trophies. It is simply a refocusing of our hunger to do so.

United meanwhile have made statement after statement. Mata, Di Maria, Martial, Ibrahimovic, Mourinho and now Pogba. It's all a plea to be talked about because they are failing to win on the pitch. The years tick by, and it's still all talk. What many United fans fail to realise is that the winning is over. Sure, they will win trophies, but that glorious period where they were THE "Winners" is gone. That period of greatness is gone, and all that is left is the same desperate hype and noise that they mock Liverpool for.

The winning is over, the talking has begun. That's where United are now, and that's the most reassuring thing despite everything we've seen over the summer. We killed the winning United, all that's left is the desperate attempt to prop up the growth it inspired and the hopes to win something in any given season. The growth the success inspired, as demonstrated by Liverpool, is fed much more quickly and easily by talking and hype, than it is through the proper grind, planning and organisation that creates winning.

Whilst the talk is insufferable, it will always be tempered by the fact that the best of United, at least for this era, has been and gone. It's why anything they do now, it's why Rashford's goal to win the derby can never hurt anything like any loss to them under Ferguson, because it's over for them. And we haven't even started yet.
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A brilliant and very well considered post, JMW.
 
Cityfan said:
Not questioning your premise but as an aside, do the pitches deteriorate much in the winter? My general impression is no but I rarely go to away matches and watch them on the tele. My general impression is that pitches remain pretty good year round in the premier league.
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They do. It's not the 70's anymore.

Every club uses those artificial lights etc to keep it growing.
 
I went to watch Cheadle Town yesterday at Northwich Victoria as my lad plays for them, great result for Cheadle who travel to Trafford FC next round on the 3rd September.
1874 are a breakaway from Northwich Victoria loads of 1874 fans congratulating Cheadle on their win on Twitter last night.
 
citytill1die84 said:
Hull away next talk about hand picking your 1st few games.

Bournemouth (Away) Southampton (Home) Hull (Away)

Hope we smash em for 6 September 10th.

SCUM
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Think there most likely to drop points against the so called lesser sides . P.E.G will go all defensive against the the other top 5 sides don't think he be too unhappy with a draw against us n the others
 
citytill1die84 said:
Hope we smash em for 6 September 10th.
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Don't forget, they've got the entire fucking British media in their corner. It's nigh on impossible to find a paper that doesn't feature them prominently on the back page, despite the sterling (see what I did there?) job we did yesterday. Going to to Stoke and winning 1-4 is a damn good achievement. They've had Leslie in situ for what, 2 or 3 years now, a man who knows the Prem extremely well, having both played and managed in it for many many years. Pep has never managed in this league before but he hasn't done too badly for his first few games.
Hughes has made Stoke a difficult side to break down in their own territory and not many teams are going to go there and get a favourable result. But this is scarcely mentioned in the papers. Instead we're subjected to Dogshit, Proboscis and Peg on every bloody sports page.
Moaning Maureen, like Leslie, also knows the Prem extremely well, and yesterday he was up against a manager making only his 2nd appearance in the Prem, Claude Puel (sp?) Next time they're up against their old mucker at Hull, so a nailed-on 3 points for the rags there.

So yeah, they've had it relatively easy so far: Bournemouth and Southampton. We've had Sunderland, and two somewhat daunting away games at Steau Bucharest and Stoke (and scored 9 fucking goals) yet I've not seen it mentioned in any of the press reports I've seen down here.

It's one thing playing a team who are pretty much guaranteed a little help from the ref, but when you also have to contend with the fact that that same team has the entire media willing them on and taking every single chance they get to criticise us, (and at times even showing downright animosity in the process), you can see the sort of handicap we and most of the other teams in the Prem are up against.
 
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