Tag: Football

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There is no doubt in any fan’s mind that Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest footballs of all time. The Portuguese star has won a ridiculous 33 team trophies and 58 individual awards including five Ballon d’Or awards.

The 39-year-old’s career is truly a remarkable one that no one is sure when it’s going to end, with Ronaldo still scoring for fun with two goals and an assist in the opening two games of the Saudi Pro League for Al-Nassr.

However, one man who is excited to see what Ronaldo does once he hangs up his boots is former Red Devil Michael Owen.

The player-turned-pundit has a massive amount of praise for the Ballon d’Or winner, feeling that he has the presence, experience, and knowledge to be a great coach.

When discussing Ronaldo’s potential shift into management with TVSporten, Owen said: “I’d be fascinated to see what Cristiano Ronaldo is going to do when he retires.”

He continued: “Just looking from the outside, it feels like he might want to be at the side of the pitch managing Portugal like he did at Euro 2016.

“He looks like a coach, he looks like he wants to coach, so he might want to go down that route. The Portugal job, probably in the future we might have his name on it, you never know.

“Of course, if he does well, then great teams like Manchester United, and Real Madrid would then be looking at him.”

Later in the interview, Owen weighed in on the debate of whether Erik ten Hag is the right man for the job. The former striker made his thoughts very clear that The Red Devils need to sack the Dutchman, saying: “They finished eighth last year so if you’re a Manchester United fan, you’re wanting to see an upturn in performance immediately.”

He continued: “From what they were last year to the start of this year, they’ve stuck with the same manager and the signings they’ve made might not be enough to turn the corner.

“That’s why I can’t see them in the top four. I think Man Utd are going to need a change of manager before they have an upturn in fortunes, so is anybody surprised about their start to the season?

“They possibly got lucky to get three points at home in the first game. But whichever way you look at it, you know, there’s not enough change.”

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Speculation around Erik ten Hag’s suitability at Manchester United is once more creeping in after their third loss in four games after losing to Manchester City on penalties in the Community Shield and then Brighton 2-1 and Liverpool 3-0 in the Premier League.

The concerns around ten Hag not being the man for the job crept in at the end of last season, however, Sir Jim Ratcliffe stuck by him after the FA Cup victory, extending his contract by an extra year.

Whilst new CEO and sporting director Omar Berrada and Dan Ashworth have shown their support for the Dutch manager, many others are questioning how long ten Hag will remain in the driver’s seat.

One man who has defended the Dutchman though is Manchester United legend Andy Cole. The former striker spent seven years at Old Trafford where he represented The Red Devils 275 times, netting 121 goals and grabbing 45 assists.

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The 51-year-old was a key part of the squad that won five Premier League titles, two FA Cups, and a Champions League, being a part of the famous squad that won the historic Treble in 1999.

Speaking about the future of Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford, Cole commented: “I don’t really entertain that nonsense. I really don’t. Everybody’s going to have an opinion and say what they have to say and want to say.”

He continued: “Ultimately, Erik ten Hag’s in charge and he deserves to be in charge because winning two cups in two seasons isn’t doom and gloom.

“I understand that they’ve lost in a big game at home against Liverpool and it wasn’t a game that we lost many times when I was playing for Manchester United, but we’re only three games in.

“It’s not as if Manchester United have been terrible in all those three games. They beat Fulham and they were unlucky against Brighton. For me personally, it can’t be doom and gloom and we just need to let Erik get on with his job.”

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Manchester United are poised for further changes within their senior football leadership structure.

According to David Ornstein, Andy O’Boyle, the club’s deputy football director, is set to depart Old Trafford after two years in the role.

O’Boyle joined Manchester United in May 2022, transitioning from his position as head of elite performance at the Premier League.

His recruitment was intended to bolster the efforts of then-football director John Murtough, with a focus on enhancing the operations of the men’s, women’s, and academy teams.

O’Boyle’s arrival was seen as a significant addition, given his extensive experience and strong industry reputation, which he built during his time with the England Under-21 team, as well as his previous roles at Liverpool, Coventry City, Wrexham, and an earlier stint at Manchester United.

After Murtough’s exit in April, O’Boyle took on increased responsibilities under the new leadership structure implemented by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, following Ratcliffe’s investment in the club.

O’Boyle played a key role in assisting INEOS director of sport, Sir Dave Brailsford, as the club worked to establish a revised hierarchy.

During this transitional period, Manchester United awaited the arrival of several key figures, including Omar Berrada as chief executive, Jason Wilcox as technical director, and Dan Ashworth as sporting director.

Additionally, Christopher Vivell was appointed as interim director of recruitment.

O’Boyle was heavily involved in the club’s recent summer transfer activities, which saw the acquisitions of Joshua Zirkzee, Leny Yoro, Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui, and Manuel Ugarte.

This transfer window also saw the departures of players such as Mason Greenwood, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Scott McTominay, and Jadon Sancho.

As Manchester United continue to reshape their football operations, O’Boyle’s departure marks another significant change in the club’s ongoing restructuring efforts.

His exit will likely lead to further adjustments within the club’s leadership as they adapt to the evolving demands of both the men’s and women’s teams, as well as the academy.

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Manchester United have officially made another signing, with the man himself announcing his arrival as a new United player on social media.

The signing itself came on deadline day, however, we’ve yet to see an official confirmation of the signing, until now.

On the final day of the transfer market, United managed to officially sign Sekou Kone, with Elyh Harrison and Sonny Aljofree going out on loan to Accrington Stanley and Chester FC.

The final signing was that of 21-year-old goalkeeper Hubert Graczyk who was released by Arsenal this summer.

Interestingly, United named the goalkeeper to be on the bench for the Under-21’s match against Blackburn Rovers on Friday where they won 3-1. Although Graczyk didn’t make it onto the pitch, he was there with his United teammates.

Now, taking to Instagram, the Polish goalkeeper has confirmed that he’s joined The Red Devils with a picture of him in the purple goalkeeper kit captioned: “Buzzing to have signed for this massive club, let’s get to work.”

The signing of Graczyk appears to be to cover the loan spell of Harrison who needs to build up more competitive experiences, bringing the player in for more depth to the squad.

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Paul Scholes was a heck of a talent.

During his playing days at Old Trafford, the Salford born midfield maestro became one of the best players in the world.

Lionel Messi, Zinedine Zidane, Pep Guardiola and Cristiano Ronaldo are just some of the names who name Scholes as the best they’ve ever seen.

What United would do now for a Paul Scholes in the middle of the park.

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During his 20 year career at Manchester United, Scholes saw a number of players coming in and out of the club.

United were blessed with some fantastic signings during his time and Paul Scholes would have seen them up close and personal during training and in games.

But there were also a few who stunk the place out under Sir Alex Ferguson.

While MUFC fans marvelled at Eric Cantona, they were left scratching their head with Eric Djemba-Djemba.

And now Paul Scholes has named the man who he believes is the worst signing in Manchester United history.

Speaking on The Overlap, Scholes is asked by Jamie Carragher to name the men who he thinks are the best and worst in United history.

When it comes to best, he names two strikers in Eric Cantona and Wayne Rooney.

For the worst, he reverts to goalkeepers.

Paul Scholes names Massimo Taibi and Mark Bosnich.

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“I go back to the goalkeepers, when you had to try and replace Peter Schmeichel, which is always going to be difficult,” said Scholes.

“We had a few [bad signings].

“I was thinking [Massimo] Taibi, Mark Bosnich.

“I thought he was a good keeper at Villa, Mark. He came to us, he was so unprofessional.

“Honestly, it was ridiculous.

“In shooting practice, you normally have like 15, 20 shots.

“After three shots, he’s knackered, ‘oh no, get someone else in’.

“I never realised, he couldn’t kick a football. I’ve never seen anything like it.

“We played Everton away in first game of the season, and none of us picked up on it, he couldn’t reach the halfway line.

“There was no wind, it was a perfect day. But when you look at his feet, size 14s, honestly he was just kicking the floor all the time, big flippers.

“Honestly, it was disappointing.”

When pressed to pick one, Scholes opts for the Australian Mark Bosnich.

Mark Bosnich joined Manchester United on a free transfer in 1999 from Aston Villa.

It was his second spell at the club, having left in 1991 and joining the Birmingham side in 1992.

In fairness to the Australian, he became one of the best ‘keepers in the English Premier League at the time.

But his time at Old Trafford was a disaster and he was replaced by France number one Fabien Barthez after just one season as United’s main ‘keeper.

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This summer has seen some great transfer business from Manchester United, managing to offload a considerable number of key sales, whilst signing some top names and not at over priced rates.

The Red Devils spent a combined £180 million on signing Joshua Zirkzee, Leny Yoro, Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui and Manuel Ugarte.

The key pursuit of the summer though was Manuel Ugarte. He was identified at the start of the transfer window as a priority target for United and it took right the way through until the final week to actually complete on the deal.

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This signing marked the only midfield recruitment of the summer, however it wasn’t the only midfielder that manager Erik ten Hag wanted to sign. Reports emerging now are claiming that as well as reuniting with de Ligt and Mazraoui, the Dutch manager wanted another reunion to take place.

Erik ten Hag has request for reunion rejected

Speaking on the Talk of the Devils podcast, journalist Andy Mitten said: “Erik ten Hag wanted Amrabat for this season.”

He continued: “And because of the chat internally, that didn’t happen and that’s fine. This is how Manchester United are working now.”

It’s been well known that Sofyan Amrabat wanted to return to Old Trafford after his loan spell in the Premier League. The Moroccan fell out of favour at Fiorentina, hence his loan move to United, however upon his return to the Serie A side, he still remain in individual training, wanting a move away from the club permanently.

When speaking to Ziggo Sports about a return to United at the start of the summer, Amrabat commented: “For Manchester United, it needs to be much better, and also for me personally. We are going to talk. Manchester United are the biggest club in the world, so who wouldn’t want to play football here? But all parties have to be happy with each other, so we will sit down now and see what happens.”

Unfortunately for Amrabat and ten Hag, the recruitment team didn’t see the midfielder as a worthwhile purchase this summer, ultimately wanting to focus solely on Ugarte.

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Life for Leny Yoro at Manchester United has not gone quite to plan since transferring from LOSC Lille this summer.

A deal was agreed between the two clubs, with United paying £52 million to bring the 18-year-old to Old Trafford for five years until 2029.

However, only 35 minutes into his second game in a Red Devils shirt, the centre-back had to be taken off due to injury. The match was the pre-season tour opener against Arsenal in Los Angeles, with Rasmus Hojlund also getting injured and United ultimately losing 2-1.

The injury in questions was a reported as a non-contact ankle issue which saw a physio help the defender off the pitch. Later on this was explained to be a metatarsal injury with Yoro at first not expected to make a return until late October which then became New Year upon more tests being completed when the squad returned to Carrington.

However a new video has emerged which may give United fans some hope. The video in question, coming from Instagram account Mufcmax shows Yoro driving a can being stopped by a young fan.

The video shares a caption saying “I’m glad to hear recovery is going well, it won’t be long”.

The fact that Yoro is now driving shows that he is off the crutches and is deemed safe to drive, with the caption referring to comments made by the man himself.

We’re still not sure how soon we can expect to see the centre-back return to the pitch however, with Matthijs de Ligt now in the starting line ups, Yoro will be fighting hard on his return to earn his spot in the squad.

– Leny Yoro told the fan who met him that “his recovery is going well and won’t be long” pic.twitter.com/frtt6xArdz

— UtdTruthful (@Utdtruthful) September 2, 2024

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With Manchester United currently sat in 14th place in the Premier League after a win and two losses, new CEO Omar Berrada has announced his thoughts on how long it will take for The Red Devils to compete for major trophies.

Although The Red Devils won the FA Cup last year and the English League Cup in 2022/23, they haven’t won the Premier League since 2012/13 when Sir Alex Ferguson was still managing the club. However slightly more recently, the last time Untied won a European tournament was the Europa League in 2016/17, having not won the Champions League since 2007/08.

Now, with United’s shaky start to the season, Berrada has taken the time to discuss the long-term plans and expectations at Old Trafford, especially with regards to winning silverware of a regular basis.

The former Manchester City CEO commented: “I think anybody who has worked in football for a long time could tell you that it’s almost impossible to put a timescale to answer that question.”

He continued: “[But] when you look at the teams who have been successful consistently for many years, it’s because they have the right coach, they have signed the right players, they have the right structure around the coach and players; you need to take good decisions consistently for many years to get into a position where you are a financially sustainable club that is competing to win every single competition.

“We don’t want to just win one Premier League and then be satisfied. We want to create a team that is capable of competing for the Champions League, for the Premier League and for the domestic cups on a consistent basis.”

Speaking recently about if Erik ten Hag is the right coach, Berrada commented: “We’re very happy with that decision [to give Ten Hag a new contract],”

He continued: “Erik has our full backing and we’ve worked very closely together in this transfer window. We’re going to continue working very closely with him to help him get the best results out of the team.”

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Despite only being three games into the new Premier League season, concerns around Erik ten Hag’s position at Manchester United are already starting to resurface.

Worries around if ten Hag was the right man for the job at Old Trafford started surfacing towards the end of last season with the club crashing out of the Champions League group stages and finishing eight in the Premier League, with their only saving grace being the FA Cup win.

However, being 14th in the table after three games is a worrying position for United especially after dropping much needed points against Brighton in extra-time.

Despite these concerns, new United CEO Omar Berrada has recently taken the time to share the club’s support for ten Hag, saying: “Do we still believe in Erik? Absolutely. We think Erik is the right coach for us and we’re fully backing him.”

He also said: “Erik has our full backing and we’ve worked very closely together in this transfer window. We’re going to continue working very closely with him to help him get the best results out of the team.”

Now, new sporting director Dan Ashworth is also making time to share his support for ten Hag, saying: “I’ve really enjoyed working with Erik for the last eight weeks.”

He continued: “I see my job is to support him in every way I possibly can, and whether that’s operationally, whether that’s with recruitment, whether that’s with medical, whether that’s with psychology, whether that’s training ground flow, it’s just to take as much of that off him to allow him to fully focus on the training pitch and the match tactical plan to deliver success for Manchester United.”

Ashworth went on to discuss the club’s recent business in the transfer market, with the side managing to make some big signings and also offloading a number of individuals they were aiming to let go.

Discussing the transfer business and the new class of Red Devils, Ashworth said: “I like the squad, I have to say,”

He continued: “I probably would say that after the business we’ve done in the summer. I’ve probably done 25 windows now and been doing this for a fair period of time.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a window where we’ve gone, ‘Oh God, it’s gone absolutely perfectly, we’ve done every single in, we’ve done every single out we wanted to do’. There are always bits.

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If ever there’s two match ups that Manchester United fans want to win, it’s against Manchester City and Liverpool. This weekend saw the first of United’s face offs against their Premier League rivals, costing Liverpool at Old Trafford.

Unfortunately for The Red Devils, it didn’t go their way on the day, with a 3-0 defeat at the hands of new manager Arne Slot.

Liverpool capitalised on any error made by the United men, with both of Luiz Dias’ goals coming from Casemiro errors, and Mohamed Salah’s goal resulting from a rare Kobbie Mainoo error. The Brazilian we ultimately replaced at half-time for youngster Toby Collyer who was earning his competitive debut for Manchester United.

After the game, regular pundits, Jamie Carragher, Gary Neville and Roy Keane were joined by Daniel Sturridge to reflect on the game, with a lot of talk about Casemiro’s performance. When discussing the veteran’s performance, a throwback to one of Carragher’s comments from last year showing him saying: “Leave the football before the football leaves you”.

Now, former United defender, Rio Ferdinand, has taken to his YouTube channel to reflect on Casemiro’s performance and criticise his former England teammate.

Speaking about the comments, Ferdinand said: “I heard Jamie Carragher say, ‘Leave the football before the football leaves you’, and I just think that’s highly disrespectful,”

Ferdinand continued: “I just think it’s really disrespectful, especially given what my man’s [Casemiro] won.

“There’s more to it than he’s just made a couple of mistakes. If you look at the two games before Liverpool [versus Fulham and Brighton], he’s been arguably Man United’s best player.

“I think it’s easier to say that he’s gone, he’s finished, he’s too old. I believe when I look at him, he’s being asked to do a lot of things like play 30-yard balls, dictate the pace. These are things Man United would never have recruited him for.

“He was never asked to do this at Real Madrid. He was cleaning up, security in front [of the defence], slide tackling, covering all the gaps and then giving it to other people to play football.

“But he’s being asked now to do things that he’s never done before, so he’s going to make mistakes because that’s not his natural game.”

This analysis from the former centre-back mimics a recent Talk of the Devils podcast from The Athletic where by they commented that sources close to Casemiro have claimed he hasn’t been happy with Erik ten Hag’s tactics saying they “didn’t play to his strengths, but exposed his weaknesses with him having to cover more ground.”

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