Jap Stam retires

Jip Jaap Stam retires
http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/european/article3109925.ece
I am not sure where i would rate him my all time list of United central defenders, Buchan and McGrath would top it, but during that treble season he was the equal of them. I will never forget the 3-3 draw with Barcelona at Old Trafford that season.
He didn't get off to the greatest of starts in a red shirt for United when we were easily beaten by Arsenal in the charity shield. Then in the first encounter with them in the league we were comfortably beaten again, with both Stam and Schmeical having poor games. We had heard great things about Stam but we hadn't seen it for ourselves yet. Then in that fabulous game of football with Barca we had twice held the lead, but now Barca had pegged it back to 3-3 with Nicky Butt sent off giving away a penalty, meaning we now had to survive for the rest of the game with ten men. And with Rivaldo having one of the best if not the best games i have ever seen from an opposition player at old trafford that was no easy task. That for me was the moment when we saw the real Jap Stam, as he saw to it almost single handedly at times that we came out of that game with at least the point. And from that moment on he never looked back, performing majestically at the back and becoming a real fans favourite. The jip jaap song has got to be one of the best united player songs ever, and it will always remind me of that night in the nou camp. It's a pity it had to end as it did for him, i never believed it was because injuries had affected his game at the time. Although i do believe he never again reached the standards he had set that season again.

A piece about the rivalry between milan and turin.
http://football.guardian.co.uk/breakingnews/feedstory/0,,-7037160,00.html
I know we have got fans all over the place, but thats like us having a united fan club in scouseland, it's never going to happen is it.


More about the house of Saud
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2202156,00.html
This is a proper liberal position, free speech is free speech.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/inayat_bunglawala/2007/10/if_you_are_easily_offended.html

the state of the union
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2202036,00.html

more on the pros and cons of immigration
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2202162,00.html

tax
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2202020,00.html

Scholes out for 3 months

Whilst not as disastrous as it would have been last season it's still bad news. As well as Anderson has played he's not up to the ginger prince's class yet. In fact watching them play together at Villa park was one of the highlights of the season so far. I would have not imagined them working as well as that together with neither of them being naturally defensive, but i suppose it doesn't matter if the other side can't get a sniff of the ball. At least he will be back for the knockout stages in the champions league.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/7059527.stm

And as one red legend succumbs to a lengthy period on the sidelines, another is hopefully not too far away from first team action. Fingers crossed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/7068723.stm

Just as that most backward of countries that just happens to sit upon a big chunk of the worlds oil supplies gets on the front page of most newspapers, our owners decide it would be a good idea for our team to go and play a meaningless friendly there in January, unbelievable. That debt must be getting serious.
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2201733,00.html


How can anyone justify this. Answer no one will but nothing will get done to stop it happening again.There's one law for the rich and one law for everyone else.
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2201531,00.html

The Saudis, don't you just love them. What a preposterous bunch of corrupt, incompetent god botherers.
http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article3109869.ece
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_tatchell/2007/10/welcoming_the_tyrant.html
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tim_footman/2007/10/i_was_a_prowar_leftie.html

Manchester United 4-1 Middlesbrough

We are getting spoiled rotten at the moment, seeing some great football and its getting a bit blase expecting us to score four goals every game, but i have got to admit i did expect us to score four and i would have been disappointed if we hadn't got that last one. I suppose that one way or another next week will be a bit of a realty check.
What an opening goal, it looked too far out, but as soon as he hit you knew it had a chance. He is starting to look a real player, we have already seen that he has got a great shot, but the most impressive thing about his game for me is that as much as he has loads of tricks he looks to be a real team player. Ronaldo's form continues to be enigmatic, it still isn't really happening for him. But unlike last season, when if he wasn't really on his game we were bound to struggle, this season it doesn't seem to matter. With Tevez and Rooney really proving us doubters wrong in a massive way, and Tevez in particular seems to be on fire.
It was nice to see Hargreaves back in the team, he will be needed next week for sure, where more defending will be needed than we have had to do in recent games. Although i thought it probably affected our fast free flowing football of recent weeks, good as he is Hargreaves can't pass like a Scholes or a Carrick.
The big surprise yesterday was conceding a goal so soon after taking the lead, when it has to be said after scoring so early, i was wondering how many we might score. It was a pretty soft goal, and again another header, we can't afford slack defending like that next week. I have to say United didn't really respond very well to that setback, taking quite a while to get back in the groove. In fact it took a terrible mistake to give Rooney the chance to put us back in front which he did not waste giving the goalie no chance, although to be fair to Schwarzer he did get his hands to it.
So United went in at half time 2-1 up, but not having played to the standards we have seen over the last few weeks. It had to happen some time, hopefully we will be back on top form next week. United played better in the second half, although Van Der Sar did have to make one excellent save from a Cattermole strike. The third goal was another brilliant goal and another brilliant piece of inter play between Tevez and Rooney. I would be hard pressed to choose the goal of the game, Nani's was a brilliant strike but Tevez's was a brilliant bit of combination with two sublime passes before Tevez finally put the ball in the back of the net.
Ronaldo seemed to have one of those days in front of goal, he had a couple of really good chances put couldn't seem to put it away. Anderson impressed again, i know him and Nani were bought for the future and weren't meant to play that many games this season. But i think Carrick in particular has got a lot on his plate keeping Anderson out of the team.
The fourth was a bit lucky, it looked like they had managed to block it, only for the ball to just about find its way into the net. I was glad to see pique get an outing for the final 15 minutes, it would have been nice to see Simpson get a bit of a go as well, but i suppose you don't want to change the back four around too much. So four goals again, and with so many injuries, i don't think we would have coped half as well last season with the injuries we have at present. This is easily the best squad i have ever seen at United, when everyone is fit Ferguson is going to have a big job keeping every body happy.