Rio out for up to six weeks

Worse than Saha imo.

He's a £#%&!er. Grind him into little pellets and feed him to retired donkeys

Originally Posted by Charlie Harper

I don't think the club treat the CL that lightly. All the talk from Neville and Fergie was about "how United should have won it more times after 99, how they need to win more to catch up with the likes of Madrid and Milan".

Not to mention the financial implications - it's about £3m a game in gate revenue and as much again from UEFA for each round they get past. The difference in prize money between winning the Premier league and being relegated isn't that much, and the cups barely shell out £1m to the winners.

Let me just clarify. I'm not suggesting for one minute that we have taken the Champions League lightly or that we have ever fielded a weakened team in it when we were still qualifying for the next round. I was merely asking how people would feel if we did in order to try and ensure that we become the first team to win 4 leagues titles on the bounce.

I'm not even saying we should or we shouldn't merely asking what your thoughts would be if we did.

Originally Posted by Spiffy

Let me just clarify. I'm not suggesting for one minute that we have taken the Champions League lightly or that we have ever fielded a weakened team in it when we were still qualifying for the next round. I was merely asking how people would feel if we did in order to try and ensure that we become the first team to win 4 leagues titles on the bounce.

I'm not even saying we should or we shouldn't merely asking what your thoughts would be if we did.

Normally in this position (3 leagues in a row and 2 CL finals in a row) I'd be wanting it all again.

But tbh this year that 19th title means the £#%&!ing lot to me! A cheeky Carling or FA Cup win would be a bonus.

Then, we need to pick up one or maybe 2 special players in the summer and go for the whole lot again next year again.

Originally Posted by Spiffy

Would you support SAF sacrificing the champions league for a league title? If he started dropping players and treated it like the Carling Cup. Bloody good opportunity to get the kids some valuable experience. Personally I'd be happy to just win the league this year. I'd love us to close the gap on the scousers European record though. They'd have nothing left to thrown at us (apart from their bowel movements).

Quarter final v Inter and Fergie rests a few??? I'd love the league again but no, no way.

Aloe is absolutely spot on once again.

Where are ya , dunk?

Originally Posted by borsuk

i know it's not what you meant but that sounds really spoilt. i'd be happy to 'just win' the league in any year, and not just because i think the champions league is a piece of crap. winning the league is a big achievement, and would be all the more so this year as we adjust to a new era, do 4 in a row etc.

fwiw i don't think the champs league is particularly onerous. most of the group stages we are playing weakened teams any way and there aren't too many knockout games.

we've come through a tough start to the season (some hard games out of the way) and we've had some bad injury problems (vds, rio, vidic, fletcher, carrick). chelsea have had no injuries other than the one to joe cole and have had an easier fixture list so far. i'd say we're in pretty good shape for november.

It never ceases to amaze me how little wisdom and experience people gain from watching years of football. Do we have to be top all season? Does any team play well all season? How many of our £#%&!in 11 recent titles have followed a similar trend to this season? We should all know the format by now: Keep in touch by Christmas, kick on to best form into the New Year. Ofcourse, it doesn't always work and we might not win the league (I hear it's quite tough...), but our situation now mirrors sooo many previously successful seasons, which the majority of whinging #@&%!s on here were all around to witness. And were probably whinging around November time in those games too.

Regardles of where SAF puts his prorities this season we simply aren't managing our injuries well.
This idea of rest and nursing people through doesn't work. And that seesm to be the case nearly in 100% of the time. They need to operated on or left out until they're genuinely fit. Playing them injured, at this stage of the season, (at the end you can justify it a bit more) is counter-productive and has cost us points already.
If we had nobody as back-up, like the scouse, I could understand it more but we have able deputies. Play them and get the main men properly fit.

Originally Posted by The Return of JC

It never ceases to amaze me how little wisdom and experience people gain from watching years of football. Do we have to be top all season? Does any team play well all season? How many of our £#%&!in 11 recent titles have followed a similar trend to this season? We should all know the format by now: Keep in touch by Christmas, kick on to best form into the New Year. Ofcourse, it doesn't always work and we might not win the league (I hear it's quite tough...), but our situation now mirrors sooo many previously successful seasons, which the majority of whinging #@&%!s on here were all around to witness. And were probably whinging around November time in those games too.

It's because you used to talk about football with your mates at the weekend, now you talk about it all day every day. It's the same with 24 hour news, everything gets treated as dramatic breaking news because they've got so much time to fill. Every problem is magnified and you can always find some doom monger saying exactly what you fear someone saying. Take Rio as an example, he's been the best defender in the world for ages. He has a bad few games due to his back playing up and some are saying he's finished. He's not at all.