United Myths

Originally Posted by Chris Quayd

Painful one that, made worse by just about every new signing coming out with it, insecure behaviour.

Myth: midfield of Giggs, Scholes, Keane, Beckham shouldn't have been broken up.

Fact: we were made to look pedestrian by Bayern in '01 and teams in Europe had started to figure us out.

Very true regarding the system needing to be upgraded in Europe, but I’ve always thought those 4 could have worked in an adapted starting XI, as they remained genuinely world-class players.

Still not sure why a 4-2-3-1, with Keane and Veron as the 2, Giggs, Scholes and Beckham as the 3 and Van Nistelrooy as the striker didn’t work.

On paper it looked perfect for Europe.

Some of the official attendances given in the late 70s.

Eric Kung fu
Becks WC
Ronnie v Rooney WC

He made average players good and good players great through his ability to get every ounce of ability out of them through great man management.

100k on the season ticket waiting list...

Originally Posted by dragflick

100k on the season ticket waiting list...

Not a myth, a thing of legend!!!

Originally Posted by dragflick

Confirmed myth. Used to know Moyes daughter...

Shattered dreams. Moyesey just didn't fancy him, then.

Originally Posted by Ethers

Do you know what man management is?

I mean, I always thought "Freggle is tactically clueless and just gets results by shouting at people" was one of those RAWK lines that we loved to mock.

Sparky went 3 times in one week to old Trafford

Originally Posted by puressence

Sparky went to old Trafford

Amended

Originally Posted by Neo

Very true regarding the system needing to be upgraded in Europe, but I’ve always thought those 4 could have worked in an adapted starting XI, as they remained genuinely world-class players.

Still not sure why a 4-2-3-1, with Keane and Veron as the 2, Giggs, Scholes and Beckham as the 3 and Van Nistelrooy as the striker didn’t work.

On paper it looked perfect for Europe.

Agreed, easy to say in hindsight but the summer of '00 we should have started to tweak things. The following European campaign we were well beaten by Anderlecht and PSV, struggled past Kiev and Valencia then looked completely toothless against Bayern. We were genuinely unlucky in the following campaign playing some great football, injuries to Becks and Keane during the run-in killed us.

By then Becks in particular had come to the end with us but the reason we weren't more successful with that team in Europe wasn't because Fergie changed things but because he didn't change it enough.

There’s no value in the market.

It's difficult to sign players in world Cup years /euros years /January.

We had a good look.

We ruined the fa cup.

RoRO

Originally Posted by Chris Quayd

Agreed, easy to say in hindsight but the summer of '00 we should have started to tweak things. The following European campaign we were well beaten by Anderlecht and PSV, struggled past Kiev and Valencia then looked completely toothless against Bayern. We were genuinely unlucky in the following campaign playing some great football, injuries to Becks and Keane during the run-in killed us.

By then Becks in particular had come to the end with us but the reason we weren't more successful with that team in Europe wasn't because Fergie changed things but because he didn't change it enough.

The main reason that side didn’t win another European Cup in that period was because of the defence

Irwin was past his best and Silvestre his replacement was possibly the worst player Fergie signed who racked up over 200 appearances for us
Then you have the complete cluster £#%&! of the goalkeeping situation post Schmeichel

Not signing a top class CB meant Stam was practically holding the defence together on his own with a revolving cast of CBs partnering depending on who was fit

We could have done with another dribbling wide player as we only had Giggs to provide the match changing quality but the defence was the major factor that cost us

Originally Posted by ZiggyStardust

The main reason that side didn’t win another European Cup in that period was because of the defence

Irwin was past his best and Silvestre his replacement was possibly the worst player Fergie signed who racked up over 200 appearances for us
Then you have the complete cluster £#%&! of the goalkeeping situation post Schmeichel

Not signing a top class CB meant Stam was practically holding the defence together on his own with a revolving cast of CBs partnering depending on who was fit

We could have done with another dribbling wide player as we only had Giggs to provide the match changing quality but the defence was the major factor that cost us

All valid about the defence and particularly goalkeepers, Barthez practically chucked it in against Madrid and Leverkusen. But we scored three goals in six matches against a past it Kiev, Valencia and Bayern, there wasn't the fluidity and creativity we were used to and didn't know what to do with possession at times.

Yep, we tailed off badly in the second half of that season domestically as well. Change *was* needed, even if it didn't turn out to be entirely successful.

Originally Posted by believe

1. Ferguson was a great man manager.

No he wasn’t. He was a success driven manager who would gladly £#%&! over his own family if it meant he got what he wanted.

Still can’t get over the OP. Not sure I ever will.

Originally Posted by ZiggyStardust

The main reason that side didn’t win another European Cup in that period was because of the defence

Irwin was past his best and Silvestre his replacement was possibly the worst player Fergie signed who racked up over 200 appearances for us
Then you have the complete cluster f*** of the goalkeeping situation post Schmeichel

Not signing a top class CB meant Stam was practically holding the defence together on his own with a revolving cast of CBs partnering depending on who was fit

We could have done with another dribbling wide player as we only had Giggs to provide the match changing quality but the defence was the major factor that cost us

Rarely gets mentioned but the summer after the treble wasn’t far off 09 in terms of transfers.

The club has thrown away two golden opportunities to real hammer home an advantage over the rest of Europe. Say summer 99 we sign Campbell and Van der Sar...

Originally Posted by My Name is Keith

Still can’t get over the OP. Not sure I ever will.

Not sure the OP actually knows what man-management is, but if a bloke who led Aberdeen to beat Real Madrid in a European final, who could win leagues with the likes of O'Shea and Park as first team fixtures and can win Champions League semi finals at a canter with backup players like Darron Gibson among many, many, many other achievements isn't considered to have good man-management then I don't know what to say.

Originally Posted by Norris Cole

Rarely gets mentioned but the summer after the treble wasn’t far off 09 in terms of transfers.

The club has thrown away two golden opportunities to real hammer home an advantage over the rest of Europe. Say summer 99 we sign Campbell and Van der Sar...

Campbell definitely, if not in '99 then in '01 to stop Arsenal getting him. VDS has said he improved massively at Juventus where he was largely considered a flop, he wasn't the answer for post-Schmeichel years but a Peruzzi, Seaman, Khan stop-gap would have made all the difference.

Originally Posted by Chris Quayd

Not sure the OP actually knows what man-management is, but if a bloke who led Aberdeen to beat Real Madrid in a European final, who could win leagues with the likes of O'Shea and Park as first team fixtures and can win Champions League semi finals at a canter with backup players like Darron Gibson among many, many, many other achievements isn't considered to have good man-management then I don't know what to say.

Not sure there’s a scale available to register the wrongness of the op. Think the ‘wrong scale’ only went down as far as Ed Kemper’s act of necrophilia but it might be that the OP statement forges new depths? The Mariana Trench of wrong.

Not for me to say.

Originally Posted by My Name is Keith

Not sure there’s a scale available to register the wrongness of the op. Think the ‘wrong scale’ only went down as far as Ed Kemper’s act of necrophilia but it might be that the OP statement forges new depths? The Mariana Trench of wrong.

Not for me to say.

Appreciate you trying to put together a scale, can't be easy. I think it's safe to say Fred West can sleep soundly tonight knowing he hasn't posted a bellers.