Flight

The truth is, yet again, we were punching above our weight in the CL final. Thats down to the manager. Now we are reading that the night of the CL final he didn't have a bedroom to go to. No wonder he was pissed off when he made these statements the next morning. We all know by now that the only thing that motivates him is an unstoppable drive towards perfection and football excellence. Any of us criticizing him and thinking we know better tactics and could have done better than him is laughable.

They'll have to get through to him on his phone to do that mate. More chance of Taggart going on the wagon.

All transfers will have to be tied up by Wednesday as Parry will then be stuck to the telly watching Big Brother, for the next three months.

I agree with you mate. Rafa does too. His complaints are that he hasn't got the players he wanted because the club have been incompetent in bringing the players he wanted in. The only question is whether or not you belive Rafa. Rafas complaints in these matters are entirely conistent with your suggestions.

Rafa had £20 odd million ONLY, to spend on EVERY option we had in attack for the Champions League Final. His net spend since he has been here was only another £30mill. Fowler, Kuyt, Gonzales, Zenden, Crouch, Bellamy and Pennant. We all agree we were strong in defence and CM; our problems were the wing and attack. What would you suggest he should have done with such limited funds, to cover LM, RM and forwards ???? You say he could have got big names but he didnt want them. Rafa has clearly said he prioritised bigger names but didn't get them because of the clubs ambling. You say he cant complain, but he has complained. The only question is whether we belive him or not.

We've consistently not managed to get Rafas first choice targets and picked up 'scraps' from the transfer market towards the end of the transfer windows; each time the club has put forward reasons. As you say, we the fans don't know what has happened. Rafa has come out publically and quite clearly laid the blame on Parry. His nickname at the Premier League, when he worked their, was Mickey Mouse, because of his limited ability. Things like the state of the ticket office over years, club administration and marketing have all been a shambles and are part of his remit. Sources on TLW and RAWK blast him, our performance business wise, while Parry has been here, can charitably be described as poor. What we do know for a fact is he let Owens contract run down to 12 months, to the extent he was on the bench for the first match of his last season. The truth at the moment is unproven. What will decide it for me is how the club develops in apsects away from the team, ways that dont necessarily cost a lot of money.

He's been tryign to get a move to a big club for a while; he was sniffing around the a*** just last week.

# David James 23% # Petr Cech 11% # Jussi Jaaskelainen 5% # Pepe Reina 39% # Ben Foster 22%

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Its not for sale. Never has been, never will be. Of course if Glazer does decide to sell, he would get the most money by asset stripping. Selling the ground would probably be his first step.

I think thats a bit unfair Cardie. The point is he has been limited to spending £20 odd mill on all the attacking players we have available for the Champions League final. The six listed and Zenden. He can be held responsible for the state of the team with a very small budget. Again, to be fair, Rafa has consistently not got his first choice targets - and the people he has identified have gone on to be terrific players whose stock has risen. Not only has he had to make do with second or third choice, but usually he has to get them at the end of transfer windows when little is available. When he has made poor buys he has (without exception ?) moved them on at a profit, so they haven't been that poor. Remember his first target arriving at the club ? Eto'o. He wanted us to get him in the Owen deal. Time and again his first choices have not materialised. Alves, Simao, Vidic. On each occasion our club has put forward reasons why we didn't or couldn't get them. Rafa has now come out more than once, publically, and said we missed them because of our business management, in opposition to the reasons that have been put forward publically.

Carvalho has been exceptional this season; he proved his worth when Cech and Terry were out for long periods.

Sorry mate but thats bloody hilarious. Our choices in attack AND the wings for the Champions League final cost him a grand total of twenty odd million. All of our choices. Bellamy, Fowler, Gonzales, Pennant, Crouch, Kuyt. On top of that he had to trust Parry to get them in. Because if he didn't the Americans would leave the biggest spend in our clubs history in the hands of Parry. And rafa would prolly miss out, yet again, on his first choices. Parry has messed it up and signed Francis Jeffers, apparently.

???? Hard not to agree with Kev, if its true.

Its not up to Benitez. Alonso can buy out his contract if he wants to so its up to him. I hope he doesn't leave.

I would agree with you mostly. Pako disagrees - interview on the offal Quote : United have won the league by outscoring teams. While Liverpool have once again been excellent at the back, is it the case that we need to score more goals? One of our main problems is that, when you compare with the other top four teams, we haven't really scored too many goals. This is not the mistake just of the strikers. It's also for the midfielders, and also our defenders could sometimes have supported the attack better. We haven't been as aggressive going forward as we have in defending. United have also been really effective in wide areas. There are not many world-class wide players, and United have Giggs and Ronaldo. For me, Chelsea were more effective when they had Duff and Robben. With Liverpool, we have been without Harry Kewell all season. He has this kind of quality. While I would agree with you, I'll take Pako's assessment over mine every time. Pako and Rafa know exactly what we need to improve. It will be exciting to see how they address this in the transfer market.

lil' Luis looks set to stay.

Rafa clearly stating 'Sack Parry, recruit David Dein.'

If we had have won it might have made the new owners think our team is better than it is. They will surely feel the need to now focus on making every player worthy of Rafas tactical genius - some simply weren't last night.

Essien and Makelele Mascherano and Alonso Carrick and Hargreaves Given the choice out of those three Carrick and Hargreaves would be my last choice without a second thought. It will be interesting to see how it works out. At the moment I think Hargreaves is a good player, but a bit overrated; peoples opinion are bound to be based on his CM performances for England, yet we didn't have another payer like him. After the trash games we had played he was bound to shine there. A good player and he will improve them, but his partnership with Carrick will be nowhere as good as either of the other two above or Scholes-Keane. If Hargreaves plays deep, Carrick will get even less time on the ball and when harried he has struggled.

I hope you are right, I really do. I think he has been considering his position and feels torn, whether that includes him buying his contract out or not - and that is what is doing his head in and affecting his form.

I felt that way for a long time and have thought that its what is responsible for his poor form. I hope I'm wrong. Is it right he can buy out his contract for a nominal (~£5m) sum this summer ?

Would be funny for the Chavs to only win the League Cup this term after all the s*** Maureen has thrown around about us only being a cup team. With a bit of luck the Mancs will win it and Taggart will retire.

Anyone have any idea about the lagalities behind player contracts ? I'm guessing that the length of contract and the issues pertaining to players age etc will be governed by the same rules regardless of whether the contract is owned by an individual or a club ? How long can contracts be and how easy would it be for Masch to get out of it as the time the contract has to run gets less and less, taking his age into account ? If its a person holding any 'contract' surely the European courts would see it as hindering tha players career if he wasn't allowed to play somewhere ? I honestly don't see any court upholding the contract owner if it comes to it and I imagine a lot of people in football would like to see this sytem taken out of the game.

Who would you have bought instead of Bellamy for £7mill ? He's terrific when we play to his strengths, granted he could have scored more but he is always looking for other players and creating chances for himself and others. Like I said he has been value for money. We obviously disagree about Aurelio.