I know there is a lot of fun being had on here and much of it has made me laugh (especially the non-viable/memphis depay joke). But can we get serious for a moment: This is the third time in a few weeks that a Utd. game has been delayed/postponed.... THIRD TIME!
My initial reaction & what I feel now that I know more is this: some eediot, in a feeble attempt to gain a slight advantage for the team (possibly an employee, possibly a misguided 'fan') pulled this mobile-phone-taped-to-a-pipe scam, thinking the match would be delayed by perhaps 45 mins or an hour. Thereby giving them a big advantage had we messed up against Swansea (which we nearly did).
Now, things didn't quite pan out as intended and a total evacuation ensued. Now, from what I have heard, the whole matter was dealt with professionally and correctly, as indeed post-Paris it should have been. But, how sad for those travelling Bournemouth fans - nobody has mentioned them. What is the round-trip - Bournemouth-Manchester and back, how much £££'s in fuel I wonder? How many will be able to make it on Tuesday??? Not many me thinks. Now I have read recently that Utd. are the first team to make a Billion pounds so I suggest this as a fair course of action (assuming of course a Utd. fan or employee is responsible):
1) Bournemouth fans are compensated for travel costs and their tickets refunded, if they can't make the rescheduled kick-off. Like that's going to happen!
2) Man Utd. are hit hard for this and their late shows to the Spurs game and the West Ham match - for the W.H. one in particular, they were pre-warned to get there for 4pm cos it was the last match etc. but in their arrogance they left late and damned the consequences (would that whole bus attack thing have happened at 4pm? NO WAY!) When I say hit hard, I don't mean a monetary fine - I'm thinking a points deduction (they should start next year on minus 6 - don't deduct any now, I'am looking forward to seeing them in the Europa league!)
Basically, I'm just annoyed cos I wanted to watch MOTD tonight and see their sad faces when we pipped them to the CL spot on goal difference! 2012 all over again, with obviously a less gloatable goal, but still CL qualification is very important when attracting new players which we do need to do now.
P.S. Does anyone know why the matter was resolved with a 'controlled explosion' ? Surely if it was an elaborate hoax, as has been reported, the best piece of evidence that could trace the culprit(s) was the device itself, but not anymore!