matt_e

Italy/Germany -

Aye. Thing is, the Champions League had 24 teams previously but did 6 group winners and best 2 runners up straight to QF, was actually hard as nails to get out of those groups. Shame they didn't do it with this, I always liked that the Euros group stages were often tougher than the WC.

Be very surprised if he starts ahead of Rooney/Kane/Vardy unless does something extraordinary before the tournament starts. Even Owen wasn't a starter in 1998 initially.

Would imagine a non-CL qualification clause of some description would have been in play so not the full amount at least.

"I think I am in the right moment in my career. Manchester United is one of these clubs where you need really to be prepared. It's what I used to call a giant club. Giant clubs must be for the best managers. I think I'm ready for it. I could say I'm happy, proud honoured, but the reality is what I love is to work and I cannot wait for 7 July." "I think we can look at our club in two perspectives - one is the past three years and another is the history. I prefer to forget the last three years. I prefer to focus on the giant club I have in my hands now. "What the fans are expecting me to say is that I want to win. The players need to hear that, but I think we can really, it's not just to say it. I want to give what I have and what I don't have. To give everything to go in the direction we want." "It's curious that I played so many times against Manchester United with other clubs and there was empathy. I was pushed by that feeling to say sometimes things my clubs were not happy with. For example when I won with Real Madrid I said the best team had lost. Not many people were happy with that." ----- Charm offensive begins, our club indeed edit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Enx-QuWP08

Aye, especially given the source was an ex-City player as well.

How many clubs have been consistently successful keeping their manager without putting shitloads of cash? Unless you run like god producing world class players through a youth system it's virtually impossible to compete long term without significant spend.

All of that seems to have come from Sinclair who has now said he left his phone out at a Christmas party. Gotta love the standards of journalism with these things

9 internationals, which presumably they wouldn't play before 4 months is up?

ahahah, brilliance.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Nick OGS20?: <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by matt_e: Anyone see the Times' player ratings? Vidic a 4 ffs Good day, journey home was a fecking nightmare though, missed my train due to the metrolink being *****, had to go right into London and back out again to get home. I think it kicked off between United and Arsenal fans on the train too, were stuck at a station for a good half hour with a few police parading the train looking for someone. 12 hour round trip in total </div></BLOCKQUOTE> You get the 19:45 back? We did, were stuck at Rugby station for half an hour with the police scouring the train. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> Heh, yup that's the one. What happened? There was a lad in a United away kit mouthing off at Picadilly, they were asking him on the train where his mate was, couldn't really figure out what had gone on.

I randomly stumbled across that RVNdemons video from last year. I still love it :*)

Anyone walk along the way to the metrolink after the game? This young lad was just sitting in his car with his mate at the traffic stop, and some utter **** randomly walks by and smashes his front window before walking off like nothing's happened. Everyone was just kinda "...?". So harsh, poor kid looked stunned.

Looked like any of knee, leg and ankle. Really grim

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by mrgrapefruits: <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by matt_e: Well at least we're playing footballers there now. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> Well I'm so confused as to what we were playing there before </div></BLOCKQUOTE> Well, Mark got it at least