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Manchester United News

Man Utd Headlines: 26 May 2007

Good morning people, depending on where you are. Another day to get by, but I assure you, there is at least one piece of news worth talking about for a United fan. Other than that there wouldn’t be much coming your way today.

So here we go with our daily round up…

1. The much talked about and ridiculously blown out rumour of the Glazers listening to offers for United has well and deservedly been quashed with an official statement offered by a spokesman of the Glazers. It’s funny really. I had a great laugh when I first read it (on, I think the Mirror) and momentarily also managed to scare Ahmed! But as Ahmed suggested, sadly, lot of people actually believed it, and it became a full blown news story all round. A field day for the press, I’m sure.

What made me smile really was the suggestion, in the article, that the Glazers realized they ‘weren’t making as much profit as they expected’ from the takeover. This suggestion is in itself flawed on two counts. Firstly, the Glazer family are not new to the sports business. In fact they had at some point stated that their policy on repaying the huge debts did not even hinge on a premiership-title-a-year assumption (yes that is a nutty assumption, but Roman Abramovich’s policy seems like that anyway). Secondly, the club, despite calls of boycotts from various supporters’ associations due to hike in ticket prices showed record attendances and unprecedented sales of season tickets. So much so, that there have been plans to further expand the seating capacity to 90,000! Definitely good profits this year, I am sure. Expecting anything more would be greedy, and not sensible – something I think, cannot be associated with the Glazer family on current business dealings.

There is the other situation involving the TV deal, which brings in more money. So it is definitely a good time to be the owner of the biggest football brand in the world.

2. The boss believes that despite the loss to eventual Champions’ League winners AC Milan, success in the European stage won’t be far off.

“The players have already proved themselves by winning the Premiership,” said Sir Alex. “But in my view they have the potential to go on to even greater heights.
“This is why we shouldn’t be too downhearted about Europe. Yes, I thought we were capable of going all the way but people shouldn’t believe the doomsters who suggested Milan’s brilliant win against us means that we have no chance of equalling them.”

Pretty much agree with all that, and maybe with a decent signing or two we can compete next season on all fronts.

3. And finally a lot of news on a certain ex-United player doing the rounds lately. The player being David Beckham. After coming back spectacularly from absolute neglect from Fabio Capello, to working his ass off with match-winning performances in every game that he’s given a chance to play in, he is forcing Steve McLaren’s to swallow his pride and play him in the friendly against Brazil and the Euro qualifier against Estonia. Depending on the extent of Aaron Lennon’s ankle injury in the just concluded England B win over Albania, he might get to play in the side. Anyway Richard Williams has an article that talks about Beckham’s selection in the England team as a necessary short term goal, while Sid Lowe’s piece dwells more on Beckham’s character. I found these lines particularly to my liking so I’ll quote it here:

…conversation quickly turned to his former club, Manchester United, who had just won the Premiership. In barely a minute’s conversation he repeated the mantra three times. The thing that made Sir Alex Ferguson great, he said, was his ability to prove people wrong; Ryan Giggs was driven by proving people wrong; and even Cristiano Ronaldo “has proven people wrong”.

So that should wrap up the roundup of the day. Have a good weekend!