Someone's having a real laugh - sperm of gollum to Utd.

[Bruce Spanner]

'Raiola intends to hold talks with United in the spring to ascertain their plans for a contract extension and may at that point notify the club of Pogba’s intention to leave if any offer does not meet his expectations.'  

 

Absolutely glorious.

[Dr Nowt]

Taking them for a walk using their bollocks as a lead.

[cloggypop]

All done without him actually playing as well. 

[Ne Moe Imya]

You know what would be the cherry on top of this incredibly rich, delicious sundae of a season?

 

If City were banned so that 5th place gets CL, and then United finished 6th.

[Chocoholic]

 

Ole's at the wheel... seen in Dublin today

[Bad Red Bull]

If United finish 5th and get into cl this season, Solskjaer will probably say, "This shows that City must really respect us - to finish in the top 4 and then give their Champions League place to us".

[Ne Moe Imya]

If we were to forfeit every single game left in the season, and United were to win every single game, we would finish ahead of them by 2 points.

[manwiththestick]

Just shows the progress they're making.

[TheHowieLama]

And that we respect them

[Dr Nowt]

We’ve now had 17 successive league wins both sides of that draw at Old Trafford.

Need to beat West Ham and Watford to add the record for consecutive league games won to the pile.

 

Simply making words redundant, this side.

[Rick Sanchez C-137]

Thank fuck Haaland didn't go there!

[Arnaud]

4 hours ago, rotoq said:

Thank fuck Haaland didn't go there!

More to do with intelligence  than luck probably 

[Bruce Spanner]

I know it’s not strictly the United thread, but...

 

Quote

On Friday 20 August 1971 a team wearing red walked out at Anfield to rapturous applause from supporters bedecked in red and white scarves and standing on the Spion Kop. Their opponents were Arsenal, who had beaten Bill Shankly's side 2-1 in the FA Cup final to secure the double in May of the same year. But the home side were not Liverpool. They were Manchester United.

Hidden deep within the pages of football's dustiest history books lurks a dark secret – or so it appears. The club that now boasts 18 league titles, the same number as Liverpool, could once call Anfield its home, just as Liverpool's great city rivals Everton did in the 1880s. In 1971, with United banned from playing their first two home matches in Manchester, after hooligans had thrown knives into the away section at a match at the end of the previous season, their opening "home" games would be played at Anfield and Stoke's Victoria Ground.

But so forgotten is this forgotten story that even some Manchester United players who took part in the 3-1 victory over Arsenal cannot remember doing so.

A lethargic first-half performance by a United side still trying to find its feet under a new manager, Frank O'Farrell, following Matt Busby's departure in June 1971, found themselves trailing to a fourth-minute Frank McLintock strike. United would enjoy a stirring comeback in the second half thanks to George Best's growing influence, which led to an equaliser deftly lifted over Arsenal's goalkeeper, Bob Wilson, by Alan Gowling. A United goal at Anfield celebrated by the home fans must be among the rarest things in football. So such a memorable occasion would be dear to Gowling, wouldn't it?

"I can't remember," he says. "Who did we play?" I remind him that it was Arsenal. "United played a home match at Anfield? Give over," he says, incredulous. So inconceivable does it seem that one can almost understand Gowling's reaction, but a picture in the Guardian of 21 August, 1971 clearly shows him leaping over Wilson to celebrate his goal, scored at the Anfield Road End.

"Was I playing?" he says. "I just can't remember. Alex [Stepney, the Manchester United goalkeeper] might recall it. He's better at remembering matches than me."

Stepney tipped a shot from the diminutive Arsenal winger George Armstrong against the bar at the Kop end in the second half to keep United in the game at 1-1. Did he enjoy being the only Manchester United goalkeeper in history to feel the full support of United's fans emanating from the Kop?

"I vaguely remember that we had to play two games away from Old Trafford, but I can't recall that match," says Stepney, who made over 400 appearances for United. Perhaps there's some kind of conspiracy to hide the truth.

"I thought I'd only ever won one match at Anfield, when we beat Liverpool 4-1 [in December 1969] – so I can add a second win now," he says. "The only one I remember playing away from home was when we played a home match at Plymouth [Uefa banned United from playing their home leg of a Cup Winners' Cup match against St Etienne within 200km of Manchester, following crowd trouble during a 1-1 draw in France in 1977]."

The Manchester United captain, Bobby Charlton, scored his team's second goal at the Anfield Road End with a free-kick curled around the wall and into the left-hand corner of the net. Brian Kidd, who is now Manchester City's assistant manager, wrapped things up with a goal in the dying minutes.

One man who can just about recall the match is the "Voice of Anfield", George Sephton, Liverpool's stadium announcer who had started the job a week before. "I can still see the half-empty ground," he says. "It was spooky. I had just started, it was an extra match, it was Friday night so a bit of peace and quiet, I thought."

And what of Liverpool's famous anthem? Surely United's players didn't run out as the home team at Anfield to "You'll Never Walk Alone"?

"It was only the third game in my career," says Sephton. "I couldn't swear on the bible but I'm almost certain I didn't play 'You'll Never Walk Alone' at the game. It's been 'our' song since 1963! It was weird because Anfield felt like a neutral ground but from my perspective I was just happy that I had an extra couple of quid in my pocket because I was young, just married and was saving up for a house.

"I don't remember any trouble on the night. The enmity with United wasn't as bad in those days as it is now so it was nice to turn up and watch a game which you weren't bothered about in terms of the result. If it happened nowadays of course, I'd be cheering Arsenal on. But now they would just play the match behind closed doors."

The FA's decision to send United to play at Anfield in the wake of a hooliganism incident seems hare-brained now, but at the time hooliganism happened at most games and in any case, as the former Liverpool club secretary Peter Robinson, who helped organise the fixture, explained last year, the animosity didn't exist as it does today.

"When I started at Liverpool in the 1960s the great rivals were always Everton," said Robinson. "The rivalry has changed. It turned into Manchester United when they had this terrific emergence but before that I can remember them being relegated [in 1974] and having some really difficult times. I can also remember United supporters standing in the Kop. It wouldn't happen today, would it?"

The rivalry between groups of hooligans was still fierce however, even if the antipathy felt between real football supporters of both sides was not, and the front page of the Guardian the morning after the match carried the usual depressing news of trouble. "About 100 fans" were ejected from Anfield, according to the report, the windows of some houses in Anfield were smashed and "600 skinheads" were said to have been "kept in check" by police after throwing bricks at the United supporters as they were frogmarched back to Lime Street station and on to trains back to Manchester.

The Guardian correspondent Eric Todd's match report brimmed with frustration at the behaviour of the fans in the Kop and of the wider trouble that was prevalent in football in the 1970s.

"Once again, certain sections of the crowd, whatever their places of origin were the villains of the piece," he wrote. "And those psychiatrists, amateur or professional who spend many hours trying to explore the minds – the word is used quite loosely of course – of certain members of the footballing public would have enjoyed last night.

"As soon as the teams arrived on the field the Kop vomited scores of young 'supporters' of both sexes who ran down the field to the end where United were warming up. The police, although hopelessly outnumbered, did their best and removed as many as they could capture. When the invaders discovered that United would attack the Kop end they retraced their steps and suffered further losses."

United would suffer further losses too. Liverpool were given 15% of the gate receipts from the 27,649 fans who attended the game and United were instructed by the FA to pay Arsenal compensation, as the gate was below the 48,000 that attended the fixture at Old Trafford the previous year. (Until the 1980s, gate receipts for league games were shared). Even Everton stood to benefit if the crowd at Goodison Park was below 46,000 the next day, for their match against Sheffield United.

You can stop whispering now. The secret is out.

Thought you might like it.

 

[Grinch]

11 hours ago, rotoq said:

Thank fuck Haaland didn't go there!

Yet,  he'll be moved on again soon enough. 

[J-V]

5 minutes ago, Grinch said:

Yet,  he'll be moved on again soon enough. 

It won't be to Utd with Raiola as his agent though.

[Red_or_Dead]

7 minutes ago, Grinch said:

Yet,  he'll be moved on again soon enough. 

Nailed on.  The release clause is pitifully low - something like 60m euro.  PSG or one of the Spanish two.

 

 

[liverpoolsno9]

On 14/02/2020 at 22:37, Ne Moe Imya said:

You know what would be the cherry on top of this incredibly rich, delicious sundae of a season?

 

If City were banned so that 5th place gets CL, and then United finished 6th.

No way wouldn’t wish this to happen as I want City to vanish ............but I would have a right good smile, given all the shite and sympathy the Blues have given City this week. Everton finish 5th, thinking they’ve qualified for the Champs League only for City to win their appeal and get reinstated at their expense. That would be quite fucking hilarious. 

[Guest Pistonbroke]

On 14/02/2020 at 23:37, Ne Moe Imya said:

You know what would be the cherry on top of this incredibly rich, delicious sundae of a season?

 

If City were banned so that 5th place gets CL, and then United finished 6th.

 

Especially as a lot of red Manc fans side with their city rivals, despite their city rivals taking the piss out of them. 

[SlugTrail]

1 minute ago, Pistonbroke said:

 

Especially as a lot of red Manc fans side with their city rivals, despite their city rivals taking the piss out of them. 

It's because they dont really class them as rivals. It's a bit like us with Everton. City will go back to being a no mark of a club once the Sheiks billions dry up.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

1 minute ago, SlugTrail said:

It's because they dont really class them as rivals. It's a bit like us with Everton. City will go back to being a no mark of a club once the Sheiks billions dry up.

 

Yeah, but we still can't stand Everton. 

[Bobby Hundreds]

I can see these fuckers getting 4th. Shame really.

[TheHowieLama]

Rashford broken, not coming back this season.

 

And, "Paul has not been part of the team training yet, so it'll depend on how he feels or when he feels ready to do that, so he's not anywhere near that yet."

 

Doing his thing.

[Jairzinho]

40 minutes ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

I can see these fuckers getting 4th. Shame really.

Nah, it'll be Tottenham.

[Baltar]

1 hour ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

I can see these fuckers getting 4th. Shame really.

Might not be such a bad thing if it keeps Ole at the wheel...

[Heinze]

He looks like them muppets from the team america movie.