You have always got to question yourself if found agreeing with Mark Lawrenson. Monsieur mole-moustache and moi were both of the opinion that Fergie would buy again and we were both wrong.
Now, hypothetically, if I had £80milllion burning a whole in my pocket (let’s just savour that thought… yep, okay, and I’m back) then I might spend a bit of it. Just for kicks, walking past the crowd of football agents I may punt on the odd tackling midfielder, perhaps a nippy goal poacher or even a Newcastle player. Manchester United did not.
This is not great PR for the Glazers, I suppose nothing is. Do we all understand that the world stands on the brink of financial Armageddon? Yes, we do. Do we all understand that United rake in about £2million per home game? Indeed. Do we all think the squad is under-strength for a title challenge? I am afraid so.
Watching United play Arsenal was about as much fun as divorce. I personally phoned Greater Manchester Police at full-time to file a missing persons report. It reads:
Persons: Midfield
Residence: Old Trafford
Whereabouts: Unknown
At the time of going to press the police had no leads.
Arsenal are the closest English football has got to a team that plays like Barcelona. In fact, two years from now they will probably be better. Wenger is a wily old professor and I suspect, in this team, he is slowly building his masterpiece. We can all be grateful that Mike Dean is a football referee and not a homicide cop, but if I were Arsenal I’d still be aggrieved.
This leaves me with no choice but to turn to religion. I suppose in my head I have the traditional picture of God. A Frenchman with his collar turned up and an eyebrow threatening to rise.
God
We need to pray that Owen Hargreaves comes back looking like a Sherman tank and that Wayne Rooney remains impervious to injury. Thank goodness there aren’t too many needless England friendlies or ‘if’s attached to those prayers. Oh yeah, dammit.
Follow Mark Payne at www.thedevilinme.co.uk and @markjpayne on Twitter
Photography from Bonnaf at FlickrComs
I think your view on Wenger’s men is right on the money. In 3 years time, while the likes of Michael Ballack, Paul Scholes, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Frank Lampard, and Steven Gerrard start to show their age, and VDS, Giggs, and Neville are nearing or in retirement, the Arsenal camp will be filled with a collection of fruitful, lively, and barely peaking young players who will unleash havoc on the premiere league, the champions league, and the world club cup. And in that time, we will have done well to keep hold of players like Nani, Macheda, Welbeck, and Anderson, who I suppose Sir Alex thinks will lead the Red Devils to victory in the future. I suppose Arsene will be doing his best to keep his grips firmly wrapped around his captain. If Pep hasn’t gotten his way by then, Arsenal is sure to cause the same sort of terror that Chelsea will be causing in the next 2 seasons.
Im not so sure thats gonna happen with the Arsenal team unless they start winning some kind of silverware. We all thought the line up led by flamini, hleb and fabregas was going to be one hell of a team to look it after a few years and then… they all left… even Phillip Senderos… if you win some kind of silverware then maybe you keep some of the players… but then again.. i do see some truth in the fact that young players develop a certain kind of loyalty to the club…
As per man united… I was reluctant to leave a comment on your espn soccernet blog with the same content coz those idiots are still raving about Ronaldo… yes he was good… dare i say great… but hes gone… no one man is bigger than the club lets move on…. I personally would have loved to see robben or ribery being brought in… but obviously none of that is going to be happening soon… the gaffers probably waiting for a frustrated superstar to wanna leave some fancy club in the january transfer window so he’ll pay like half of something….
none the less…. call me an optimist…. i think this team for this season will have a few problems… but then again we’ve only played 4 games… a bit too early to be panicking dont you think???
oh by the way… last season… we werent doing so much better than this season so…. fingers crossed and let the lads do what they do best….
p/s – good read mate…. always enjoyed your articles and keep em coming…
p/s p/s – no thougts on Pogba and Macheda pertaining to the chelsea kakuta deal?