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March 05, 2004

Comments

John

Frank, you could have "trackbacked" me. http://irisheagle.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_irisheagle_archive.html#107840339772231099

Not only is Manchester United suffering from a mild downturn at the moment, but if this manager/owner split isn't resolved it has the potential to ensure a lengthy period of mediocrity.

You don't need to know about soccer to know that this sort of internal strife can be deadly to an organization.

Frank McGahon

I don't think you can call this bunch of agents provocateurs the "owner". They are just the majority shareholder. But, however tempting it is to blame the off-field activity for the recent dip in form and that has hardly helped, it isn't the whole story. We probably should have signed a defender in January and we probably should have replaced Carlos Quieroz with someone of equivalent calibre sooner.

Frank McGahon

BTW: How exactly could I "trackback" you?

John

Maybe these two gentlemen are not "the owner", but they are influential in the front office. And, there's trouble between them and the on field manager. This can cause splits up and down an organization.

Who's to say that they didn't block Ferguson getting the defender he needed in their bid to discredit him? Or that Ferguson was too distracted by front office strife to work on holes in the team?

John

As for how you could have "trackbacked" me, I don't know. I had a post on the same article yesterday, but how you actually go about using this trackback thing seems to me to be one of life's mysteries. Gavin did show me how it looked when one was "trackbacked", but I don't know how he did that.
http://irisheagle.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_irisheagle_archive.html#107831372944846195

Frank McGahon

It's certainly possible that the boardroom strife was the most significant effect but it is equally plausible that we could have come to this relatively sorry pass without the assistance of the Magnier distractions.

There is also a counter-argument to your theory which is that while Magnier may wish to force Ferguson to back down on their personal dispute, he does wish him to remain as manager, however restrained by the board in matters financial, and successfully so.

By the way, it is especially galling, when contributing my taxes, to reflect that this malevolent individual, along with his horse-breeding buddies, is exempt from the taxation the rest of us mere mortals must cough up.

Ciarán

Just gets better and better Frank!

Porto (derided by the english and irish media as no more than middle-level Euro stars who beat an overly-physical Celtic) give Man U a taste of their own medicine at OT.

what a poor performance by the home team though. it really is going pear shaped, but i dont think i would blame the off-pitch issues as surely they had nothing to do with the failure of United to score more than 2 goals against Porto in 180 minutes.

Henrik larsson for god sake scored twice in 45 minutes!

ah well best of luck in the FA Cup semi-final. You'll need it.

end of an era? as Kenny D would say 'mibbes aye mibbes naw'...

meanwhile, I'm off to Barcelona - wish me luck also!

Frank McGahon

Good luck against Barca! You'll need it, they are firing on all cylinders now after a very poor start to their season.

I don't know if you saw the same game as me because United ill-deserved to draw. They were easily the better side and until that freekick defended superbly. We can't complain about last-gasp winners after the events of 99 but we were still hard done by with a perfectly good goal disallowed. I am still very disappointed by the result but I think, on present form, we would probably have struggled in the next round anyway.

Frank McGahon

As for "end of an era":

It wasn't the end of an era for Arsenal in the three seasons 98-99, 99-00, and 00-01, when they failed to prevent a United hattrick of championships and it wasn't the end for them when they failed to win last season, so it is hardly end of an era for the current champions because they are unlikely to prevent Arsenal from becoming champions this season. I won't consider it the end of an era unless we go two or three seasons without a trophy.

I do think that Arsenal have finally achieved that balance-shift from Manchester towards London that had been pre-emptively heralded a few seasons ago but they aren't yet in the position that United were for the 1990s.

Ciarán

it was not the 'end of an era' for Arsenal in those years becasuse the one league win the 97=98 season does not constitute an 'era'!!

I did only see the second half of the game to be honest but what i saw was a home team playing like the away side.

Porto were a much slicker outfit, their passing a joy to watch at times, only lacking the finishing touch and final pass - normally reliably delivered by Deco who was under par...

From this season alone however I think United need a lot more to compete with the big boys next season, they are not as intimidating as they once were and I think Keane will probably start to decline properly next season.

Much as i hate to say it (almost 7 months after prasing him so much) miller is a great 'investment'...

I only hope keane the traitor collides with Miller in pre-season rendering both to seasons of prawn sandwich munching.

I really cannot say how much i want MIller to fail, amazing considering how happy I was for the guy last NOvember. But such is life, and i am only one of 60,000+ who feel the same way.

Frank McGahon

Ciaran, you need to let your bitterness go! :-)

I think you overpraise Porto, they were simply lucky to go through on the night though over the two legs they probably deserved to prevail.

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