So that’s that then. The end of the road. He’s no longer at the wheel. We had a good run though didn’t we? A lot longer run than anyone had a right to expect, not least Solskjaer himself.
In years to come people will look back on this period, shake their heads and ask “how the fuck was he allowed to stay in that job for that long?”
Because we all knew when he got the job he was shit. And even when they finished second last year, everyone still knew he was shit. They benefited more than anyone from empty stadiums. That away record they had was the biggest anomaly in football history behind us losing six home games in a row. Last season may count in the history books, but nothing that happened should be used as a barometer for anything meaningful.
As soon as fans came back in United went back to being shit. Was anyone even surprised they lost at Watford? I remember talking with the lads before one of our home games about it weeks ago. Everyone in the media seemed to be concentrating on their upcoming games against us, Spurs, City, Chelsea and Arsenal and wondering if they would finish Solskjaer off. My point was that they’re so bad there was every chance they wouldn’t even beat Watford. Other than Norwich and maybe Newcastle, I feel like United should be worried about everyone.
They managed to beat Spurs, but we twatted them and City could have too if they’d been arsed to get out of first gear. Chelsea will probably handle them with ease and I actually think Arsenal might…. actually no, I’m taking United in that one because Arsenal will always Arsenal.
Watford away was a definite potential banana skin though as if you’re not on it they’ve got enough speed and skill up front to catch you cold. Just ask Everton.
Watford had four United rejects in their side which made this even more of a slap in the face for the mancs. It’s not even like they were four lads who did alright for them and who just weren’t quite good enough. They were nowhere near United level. Not back then anyway. Now? Well the standards are not what they were, let’s put it that way.
Craig Carthcart could not be worse than Harry Maguire currently. This was another train wreck display from slabhead, capped by a sending off so stupid and shit that even Granit Xhaka will have been watching MOTD, shaking his head and saying “fucking hell lad, that was a bit much”.
It was a mad game all round though. The madness started when Watford were awarded a penalty. Even that was a weird incident. Bruno Fernandes miscued a volley and the ball went back towards his own goal. Josh King chased it and McTominay bundled him over because he was looking up at the ball and fell over, taking King down with him.
The loose ball fell to Sarr who put it wide but Jon Moss gave the penalty. That little manc faced twat Cleverley was demanding a red card too which would have been fucking ridiculous even by Jon Moss standards.
Sarr took the penalty and De Gea saved it, but a Watford player scored from the rebound. He had encroached though, which I think should have resulted in.. I don’t actually know. A free-kick from the spot he touched the ball maybe? I know that Watford shouldn’t have been allowed a retake, and the United players were rightly aggrieved that they were being punished because a Watford player had encroached.
What they didn’t know was that one Wan-Bissaka had encroached as well, so because of that Sarr got another chance. And De Gea saved that one too. Crazy. Two fucking awful pens though.
You’d think a let off like that would have inspired United to go on and take advantage of it. You’d think wrong. They got fucking battered in that first half. Watford didn’t allow their heads to drop and just kept piling forward creating chances. King scored from close range and then Sarr fired in a second from a tight angle.
United got back in it when Sancho crossed and Ronaldo rose like a salmon and unselfishly (yes, you read that right) headed back across goal for substitute Van Der Beek to score. The tide had turned and an equaliser seemed to be coming. Then Harry Maguire happened.
He got wrong side of Sarr and clumsily hauled him down on the edge of the box to get his first yellow card. Then he outdid himself with the second one, getting caught dribbling out from the back and lungeing in to foul Cleverley. It’s almost like he’s doing this shit deliberately.
Even with ten men United were still threatening an equaliser but they then conceded twice in stoppage time as Pedro and Dennis (who was brilliant) rubbed salt in the wounds.
The absolute state of De Gea on some of those goals though. The first was especially terrible. The second I could live with if that was my keeper but the third was pathetic and the fourth wasn’t good either. He’s shite now him.
His interview afterwards was a disgrace too. “We don’t know what to do with the ball. We can’t defend. We’re conceding a lot of goals”. All true, but how about “I was fucking shite today and should have saved at least there of those goals. If I had done my job better we wouldn’t have lost”. Roy Keane is right about him.
As shit as Solskjaer is, loads of them players have been hiding behind that. That’s why I thought it was interesting to see what happened at full time. Solskjaer went to the United end and seemed to be apologising and basically saying his farewells. Some fans were giving him shit and Fernandes wasn’t having it, shouting back at the fans and gesturing that it’s the players they should be blaming and not Solskjaer.
Almost a week on and I’m still not sure what to make of it. My gut reaction is that it’s a stand up move and I want to say fair play to him, because the easy thing to do would have been to skulk away and let Solskjaer take the flak, or do an interview like De Gea which basically screamed “this manager doesn’t know what he’s doing”. It’s a brave move taking on the fans and I want to respect him for that. The problem is I can’t stand the little twat so I’m looking for a reason to not respect what he did.
The best I can come up with is that if he’s so bothered about protecting Ole then he should have played better, but then isn’t that exactly what he was saying to the fans by taking responsibility for the bad performances? Compare Fernandes with that De Sea or that Pogba cunt for example. Or some of the others who have just bummed around being shite and letting Solksjaer take the brunt of it.
I still hate Bruno Fernandes but he showed some backbone doing that, which is more than most of his team-mates have been doing.
So they sacked him the next day and they had him do a farewell interview in which he cried. All about the hits on socials with that club. Fucking clownshow. Long may it continue.
Chelsea had a good win at Leicester. Comfortable really. A bit disheartening as this was a game where you'd hope they might drop some points.
Chilwell was getting dog’s abuse from the home crowd but almost rammed it right down their throats when he ran in behind and was denied by the crossbar. How come they hate him but still love Kante?
Rudiger broke the deadlock with a header from a corner. Similar to the goal they scored at Anfield that one. Not really a great deal you can do to stop those other than obstruct the runner. Kante made it 2-0 with a lovely finish to cap a sweeping move.
Leicester rallied in the second half after Rodgers made changes but they didn’t take their chances and Pulisic came off the bench to wrap it up.
Chelsea followed it up by twitting Juve and a concerning thing for me is that their goals are coming from everywhere. The wing backs are outscoring the forwards, which would usually be a bit of a concern as you want your strikers amongst the goals, but it’s not like the forwards haven’t been scoring at all. Their goals are coming from all over the park which makes them difficult to deal with. Plus they hardly ever concede, so there is that too.
They have lost Chilwell for the season with an ACL, but the just means more games for that Alonso twat who seems to score every time he plays anyway.
Leicester aren’t in a good place at the moment though. Something isn’t quite clicking with them and this could be the start of things getting away from Brendan. He was linked strongly with the United job and I’d have loved that to happen as he’d be an absolute catastrophe there. Their fans would hate him in no time and his ego would be inflated so much it would need its own time zone. Shame it won’t happen.
I’m calling this one now though. Leicester will sack Rodgers at the end of the season and they’ll appoint Graham Potter to replace him, because Potter is the coach that people think Rodgers is.
Meanwhile, Not So Nice Guy Eddie was absent from his first game as Newcastle boss as he caught Covid just after taking it. Karma at it’s best there. It was a good game against Brentford but it ended honours even and Newcastle still haven’t won a game.
Lascelles rose highest from an early corner to make it 1-0 but my boy Toney equalised within a minute. Good finish but that Darlow tit channeled his inner De Gea to let it squirm past him.
Toney thought he’d made it 2-1 soon after but he was fractionally offside. It’s mad that he used to play for Newcastle as I have absolutely no memory of him being there. I know he only played a handful of games, but their strikers have been shit for years so you have to wonder how he didn’t get more of a chance there. They’d love him there now that’s for sure.
Rico Henry stole in at the back post to give Brentford the lead, that Joelint On fella made it 2-2 but Lascelles then deflected a shot into his own net to restore Brentford’s lead. Saint Maximin salvaged a point with a fine equaliser and he went into the crowd to celebrate. As much as I can’t stand Newcastle, I really like that lad as he seems fucking sound.
He put one on a plate for Joelinto ’N at the end with a sensational run and pass, but that hopeless dope fell over his own feet and the chance was gone. How much did they pay for him? Bet he ends up at Ajax and turn out to be boss, like that Haller fella who flopped at West Ham.
You know how I always said Newcastle are the worst possible set of fans imaginable in this situation? Here’s the latest example of what I meant….
We’ve got diabetes & owe catalogue, we’ve got diabetes & owe catalogue… #nufc pic.twitter.com/hmMaEyHrRi
— John (@Ramma_____) November 19, 2021
One of the best games of the weekend was Burnley v Palace. Can you believe that? It was a belter though. A six goal thriller.
Benteke’s deflected shot gave Palace an early lead and he celebrated with that fucking shitty, lame, thigh slapping thing he does. I have a completely irrational hatred of it. File that one away with “spinning the decks”, the Gareth Bale “heart” thing and anything done by Jesse Lingard.
Burnley levelled when Ben Mee got on the end of a Westwood corner. Palace have been bad at defending set-pieces for years now and Burnley are obviously a huge threat from them so this was no surprise.
Another set-piece saw them make it 2-1 through Wood. That came just after Benteke wasted a chance to put Palace ahead, and the big striker then squandered another great chance immediately after. Palace kept creating for him though and Gallagher set him up for his second to make it 2-2. Cue the shit celebration again. Grrrrr.
Palace went 3-2 up just before half time when Guehi fired him after a scramble from a corner. No more than Palace deserved as they were playing all of the football, but Burnley do have an ace up their sleeve these days in their summer signing Maxwell Cornet. He’s fucking boss. He equalised with a thumping volley and looks well on the way to achieving ‘my boy’ status.
Burnley felt that Anderson should have been sent off for dragging down Wood. More often than not that would have been given as a foul and a sending off, but Wood definitely played for that. He got goal side and then just stopped running, initiated contact and collapsed in a heap. The defender couldn’t avoid making contact but there really wasn’t enough there to put him on the floor. As I say though, usually that gets given so I get why Dyche wasn’t happy. Maybe he should start encouraging players to stay on their feet instead of going down so easily all the time?
Teams are so often a reflection of their manager’s personality but Palace are a definite exception. They’re vibrant, exciting, entertaining. And then Vieira comes out for his post match interview. He could put a glass eye to sleep that fella. His team is fun to watch though, which is the most important thing.
There were Villa fans dressed as Harry Enfield Scousers as Stevie took charge of his first game. What the fuck is wrong with people? They weren’t taking the piss, they were enthusiastically applauding him so this was their way of, actually I don’t even know what it was…. presumably they thought they were showing support for him?
There are much worse fans out there than Villa and there isn’t really any malice in anything they do, but they’re just really unfunny cunts who seem obsessed with being “banter kings”. Any time you hear someone talking about banter, or calling themselves “bantersaurus rex” or some shit, there’s at least a 50% chance they support Villa.
They see themselves as Only Fools & Horses when in reality they’re about as funny as Casualty. They just make me cringe and they have done for as long as I can remember. They’re the type of fans that will sing about scousers nicking their stereos, but they’ll do it in the kind of self congratulatory way that suggests they think they’re the first ones to do it and that they’re being really funny. They aren’t funny. They’ve never been funny. They’re cringey, embarrassing fucking wankers and going to Steven Gerrard’s first game dressed as Harry Enfield characters might just be peak Villa.
Brighton had the better of the first half but didn’t score. Villa improved after the break and a fine individual goal by Watkins put them ahead late on before Mings wrapped it up in the last minute.
I wanted them to lose. It wasn’t a conscious decision, I hadn’t really thought about it either way but I had the radio on and when they went over for an update my natural, instinctive reaction was I was hoping Brighton had scored. It surprised me a little that I felt that way. I don’t want to root against Stevie, or at least I didn’t think I did, yet here we are. It isn’t my head making that decision, it’s my gut.
You know what had completely passed me by until now? Norwich winning. I didn’t know about that until I just glanced at the table and saw they weren’t bottom. I genuinely thought I must have been looking at the wrong table as my brain was just attuned to them being bottom for the entire season. I hadn’t even considered the possibility they’d ever get off the foot of the table yet here they are, above Newcastle.
Dean Smith is their new manager and he brought Gilmour and Cantwell back into the team. Considering they’re probably the two most talented players at the club it won’t have been a difficult decision for him.
They fell behind early to a Che Adams goal. Good finish, weak defending. The Southampton fans were chanting at Smith “you’re getting sacked in the morning” and the commentator said “who says humour on the terraces is dead these days”. Me. I do. If this is what you’re calling humour then yeah it’s deader than Thatcher. If they’d been playing Watford then yeah, it’s a valid chant. Norwich aren’t trigger happy like that though so it’s a shit chant and not funny. I’m not even sure Villa fans would think that was funny. Ok, that’s clearly wrong as they’d definitely chant something that lame and then be patting themselves on the backs like they were Dave Chappelle. Wankers.
The man formerly known as ‘my boy Pukki’ headed in the equaliser three minutes later. He just goes by Pukki now as I ditched him when they were relegated. Grant Hanley’s first top flight goal in 10 years won it for them late on, but that was some proper De Gea style shit from Alex McCarthy. Watch him turn into Lev Yashin this weekend though.
Elsewhere, Wolves were good value for their win over West Ham. They dominated and created almost all of the chances in the game, but they only took one of them when Jimenez fired in from the edge of the box. West Ham did nothing, which is classic Moyes. A good result against us got him to third in the table and then he pisses all over himself because he doesn’t know how to handle any kind of relative success.
He said before the game if the season ended now he’d be delighted and would crack open the champagne. That is why you fail. All the time.
Onto Sunday and another defeat for Everton. They didn’t even lay a glove on City, it was fucking pathetic but it was also entirely predictable. Rafa is turning them into his Newcastle side. The big difference is he can’t use his minions to brainwash the fans via the media because those fans aren’t going to give him the benefit of any doubt.
Everton are so shit now that Guardiola is actually picking teenagers, and that never happens. He’s looking at Everton like they’re a League Two opponent in a domestic cup.
City were awarded a penalty when Sterling took a tumble as he ran into the box. VAR told Atwell to take another look because the replays didn’t show any contact. He had a look and changed his mind, much to the anger of Sterling.
I actually think that may have been a foul but that it just wasn’t visible on the angles available. Sterling’s reaction was not that of a player who knew he’d dived and been found out, he genuinely seemed wronged by it. Maybe someone should sit him down and tell him the story of the boy who cried wolf.
He got a goal soon after anyway when he latched onto a brilliant Cancelo pass. Good player that lad, he’s like a B&M Bargain Trent.
Rodri made it 2-0 with a thunderbolt that would have been saved by a keeper with normal sized arms. Sterling then missed his obligatory sitter when he mis controlled three yards from goal. I say this all the time, but for a top player he does a great impression of a really terrible one at times.
Bernardo Silva added a late third and based on the highlights I don’t think Everton touched the ball, let alone left their own half. They offered nothing, and Guardiola said “when one team does not want to play it’s difficult”. Not that difficult though, eh?
The Blues are without Demerai Gary now for six weeks and he’s been their sole attacking threat all season so that’s huge for them. If we don’t absolutely fucking humiliate them next week I’ll be almost as pissed off as I would have been if we hadn’t beaten Arsenal. They’re fucking SHITE.
Finally, Conte got his first win as Spurs boss after a second half comeback against Leeds. Spurs were turd in the first half and were booed off at half time. You don’t get that too often. A new manager usually means the crowd will be more patient and supportive but I’d imagine the booing was nothing to do with Conte and was more about how shit these players have been for most of the season.
Leeds went there without Bamford and Raphinha but still led at the break through a Dan James goal. They played well but when you look at the two team sheets that shouldn’t be happening. Conte must have given them a rocket at half time before they were a different side afterwards.
The pressure had been building and eventually Leeds cracked as Hojbjerg equalised and Region got the winner. Conte was going way overboard with his touchline antics, the little jack in the box prick. I’d forgotten how irritating he can be.
He will definitely make Spurs better because he’s a good manager. What he won’t do is make Spurs a title contender because they’re just too far off that right now and there’s no quick fix. Their immediate goal should be to be better than Arsenal, which shouldn’t be that hard.
Conor Coady was one of the guests on MOTD2 and I was initially going to just fast forward when he’s on because he does my head in. In fairness, I thought his analysis on how Leeds play was decent. Probably best get used to him being on TV as he’s almost certainly going down that route when he’s finished playing as he’s pretty good and he’s comfortably in front of the cameras, although when you’re as full of yourself as he is then that’s to be expected.
His take on Kane was interesting too. “When he speaks you really listen. When he speaks your ears prick up and you try to listen to what he’s saying”. Yeah, because no-one can understand the slobbering get.
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