Manchester United's downward spiral into abject mediocrity is a joy to watch this season, and the regression at Old Trafford continues to coincide with Liverpool's Premier League rejuvenation. The cherry on top will be a long-overdue title win for the Reds, but despite the mutual antipathy between both sets of fans, Anfield legend John Aldridge claims that Man Utd supporters will be happy to see LFC lift the title. Madness, surely?
In his column for Sunday World this week, Aldo insists that United fans would 'like to see Liverpool win the title', explaining his view thus:
"United and Liverpool fans have a huge rivalry, but I’m sure they will appreciate it if a team ends up winning the Premier League title without being funded by backers who have more money than sense"
Hmmm. This is, admittedly, speculation on my part, but I suspect that most Man Utd fans would rather pull their own teeth out than see Liverpool win the league.
Turning things around, that's certainly the case for me. In 1993, when Man Utd won the Premier League for the first time in 26 years, I felt no goodwill towards Ferguson et al - just an overwhelming feeling of vomit-inducing nausea, which has persisted for the last 21 years.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's view on the Reds title hopes is probably the prevailing view of most Man Utd fans:
As for Man United not being a team 'with more money than sense' - the £28m signing of Marouane Fellaini suggests otherwise, but the same accusation could, admittedly, be levelled against Liverpool, who inexplicably spent £55m on Andy Carroll and Stewart Downing.
As for LFC's title hopes - I am convinced the Reds will now go on to win the title. Brendan Rodgers' team is streets ahead of the pedestrian Man Utd team that somehow claimed the trophy last season, and the ball is totally in Liverpool's court: win the last six remaining games, and the title is in the bag.
That sounds like a tall order, but I doubt LFC will actually have to win all six games. Chelsea and Man City could drop points (at Anfield, hopefully), which means that the Reds may even be able to afford a draw in one of the remaining matches.
Author: Jaimie K
In his column for Sunday World this week, Aldo insists that United fans would 'like to see Liverpool win the title', explaining his view thus:
"United and Liverpool fans have a huge rivalry, but I’m sure they will appreciate it if a team ends up winning the Premier League title without being funded by backers who have more money than sense"
Hmmm. This is, admittedly, speculation on my part, but I suspect that most Man Utd fans would rather pull their own teeth out than see Liverpool win the league.
Turning things around, that's certainly the case for me. In 1993, when Man Utd won the Premier League for the first time in 26 years, I felt no goodwill towards Ferguson et al - just an overwhelming feeling of vomit-inducing nausea, which has persisted for the last 21 years.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's view on the Reds title hopes is probably the prevailing view of most Man Utd fans:
As for Man United not being a team 'with more money than sense' - the £28m signing of Marouane Fellaini suggests otherwise, but the same accusation could, admittedly, be levelled against Liverpool, who inexplicably spent £55m on Andy Carroll and Stewart Downing.
As for LFC's title hopes - I am convinced the Reds will now go on to win the title. Brendan Rodgers' team is streets ahead of the pedestrian Man Utd team that somehow claimed the trophy last season, and the ball is totally in Liverpool's court: win the last six remaining games, and the title is in the bag.
That sounds like a tall order, but I doubt LFC will actually have to win all six games. Chelsea and Man City could drop points (at Anfield, hopefully), which means that the Reds may even be able to afford a draw in one of the remaining matches.
Author: Jaimie K
Was Aldos' article published yesterday by any chance?
ReplyDeleteWOW! Barcelona has just been banned from buying players until the summer of 2015, so two transfer windows for breaching u18 players.
ReplyDeleteLet's see if FIFA have the balls to really impose it.
This is an argument that I heard some point through last week (does Aldo read the same sites I do?). The other point being that it will be heartening to think that a team can come from seventh to first in one season being possible. So perhaps in an objective view seeing Liverpool win could be positive for united fans but who in football is objective? Like Jaimie I am sure there are many fans especially United supporters who would hate to see us win it.Good. Better still.
ReplyDeleteJK!!.................I'm surprised to see you so confident, I too think City and Chelsea will drop more points but it's a little too soon to say we will win it. We seem to be fearless and the other teams more scared than we are, I think our youthful squad has a fearless nature to it!!!.
ReplyDelete:-)
ReplyDeleteOle must have been smoking the same shit as Jamie K,downward spiral into abject mediocrity,lol yeah ok mate,not very often can pin the author with stupid comment of the week, isn't a Utd fan alive that want's the Dippers to win fuck all
ReplyDeleteGary Neville summed it up on Monday night when he was asked who he would rather see winning the title, Liverpool or City?
ReplyDeleteHis response; That's like asking me to decide who I would want to nick my wife.
No way they would want to see Liverpool win the league. Chelsea would be their preferred option. Either way this season will leave a bitter bitter taste in their mouth.
The more stories that can be run linking Liverpool's success with Manus failures the better :-)
ReplyDeleteHeartbreak for Nicklas Bendtner...
ReplyDeleteCan't believe that comment from Aldo, a scouser as well, Man U fans will puke if we do it, celebrate if we don't , wouldn't want it any other way.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that!
ReplyDeleteHave to agree. I think Man Utd fans would eat their own kids before wanting Liverpool to be back on our Perch and winning the League! Lol
ReplyDeleteAlso would be the first time ever a team came from as low as seventh to win it the next season!
ReplyDeleteYNWA
Let's not forget Citeh are still virtually ahead of us on points. So even if we beat both Citeh and Chelski, dropping points in the other matches will do us over if one of them wins everything else. I doubt they will but I also doubt they'll drop another four points between now and the end of the season, bar their games against us. We just need to tell ourselves we need to win every single match until the end of the season. That desire to always score and always won is what has brought us this far and we shouldn't start caculating now. That's what Benitez and Houllier did and that is what caused us to be overly cautious and cost us the title on at least two occassions. As for what Man U fans want or would like to see, I couldn't care less. I can only hope their suffering continues for many many years to come.
ReplyDeleteYou nailed it mate..
ReplyDeleteyou just made my day, hahahhah
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, this article (and blog) keep coming up on the newsnow United feed. Need traffic Jamie? I do think you are good writer and the blog is in the main, realist, if not somewhat, how can I put this, scouse? Anyway, I digress.
ReplyDeleteYes, I would rather pull my own teeth out than watch you lot win the league. Aldridge has a point about small clubs with rich owners and Liverpool not having bought the title, but that is where the 'understanding' ends. Call me old fashioned but I think clubs, should develop revenue by attracting fans, developing young players and generally earning money off their own bat and not by winning the lottery.
Yes, you are having the season of your lives and playing good football, I never thought I would see Liverpool playing attacking football! You have a decent first eleven but no squad depth.
Lets get a little perspective here. You have had nothing else to play for, pretty much all season and no injuries to key players. United, City, Chelsea all have new managers, when does that ever happen in one summer? And Arsenal are, well, Arsenal. Every once in a while all your stars line up and things fall into place. My feeling is, if you don't do it now, you will wait an
long time.
Football has changed and there is too much money involved and Liverpool, without a new stadium or very rich owners, cannot compete for the top players. Yes, I know Suarez is a top player but he was hanging in there by the skin of his teeth, literally! As Benitez would say, that is a fact! United for example (the last time I checked) earn about 60% more revenue that Liverpool on match days, with United earning around £67 million per season more than Liverpool, because of the 'prawn sandwich brigade' that Liverpool have not really embraced in the same way.
So all this talk of United going the same as Liverpool did, is just not going to happen. As the Glazers understand one thing. Money. If they start to lose money they will do what is takes to bring the money back in, which means a successful team.
Keep up the good writing but I hope the wheels fall off and you finished 10th!
I figured it out. Fergie is a witch. His black magic has kept the two teams in reverse positions for a long time. He left and that evil curse went with him. Now we are challenging and they are hoping to get in to the Europa league. Honestly this is true. It's science.
ReplyDeleteProbably some truth to that. Of the top teams, Liverpool and maybe Everton, seem to have most "organic" development - a squad built up overtime, drawing from the academy, and not parachuting in 100m a season, and top managers from abroad. Also for the rivalry (non-existant this year) it makes things interesting, if you united were to become challangers again, it makes for a better season for United to have Liverpool at the top - the idea for them to attempt to knock liverpool off the top has to be more attactive than if it were Chelsea or even City. Plus the way Liverpool are playing vs. everyone else, it is the most entertaining club -surely there are a few United fans that can appreciate good football - Liverpool have already eclipsed United scoring record, and goal difference of last year, with 6 games in hand.
ReplyDeleteThe Man City game is the big one. Chelsea losing last week made all the difference to the points needed. IF we beat City then we can draw against one other side and still win the PL. If we draw against City they can pip us by a point whatever we do if they win their games
ReplyDeleteWe HAVE to win against City....
The last 2 times we floundered it was not in our hands. Especially in 2009, Even after defeating United 1-4 we were still 4 points behind them in third! (United even had a game in hand if I'm not mistaken). Even in 2002 we were 4 points behind Arsenal when Houllier made that famous quote. To be brutally honest, we never had destiny in our hands in any of those 2 seasons; We depended too much on others to screw up, we were just clinging onto the positives (such was the thirst for the PL). To me the only time we ever really had a chance was in 1996-97 when after 31 games we were 3 points (and -1 GD) from the top with United still to visit Anfield (To think United won that year with just 75 points still hurts and we ended up 4th).
ReplyDeleteI big fat grin came on my face when I saw this:
ReplyDeleteOne match at a time...one half at a time...one possession at a time...one pass at a time. Focus, focus, focus. That goes for us too.
ReplyDeleteOur world this week is WestHam..
ReplyDeleteFrom the words of Man UTD legend and (begrudgingly) pretty good Sky analyst Garry Neville:
ReplyDelete"Picking Liverpool or City to win the title is like choosing between two blokes to nick your wife"...I think that sums up how UTD fans would "like" us to win the title.
Warlocks!
ReplyDeleteI think you've done your maths wrong. City have 2 games in hand and are only 4 points behind. They win both games they'll be 2 points ahead and then if we beat City we'll be 1 point ahead and say we draw to Chelsea and City win their game they will be a point ahead of us. Hopefully Everton will do us a favour which they may as they are still in the hunt for 4th.
ReplyDeleteIn 2009 we lost it because we played a defensive lineup against Stoke and Boro. At home. Ending up with a draw and a loss. The five points that would have given us the title.
ReplyDeleteWhich would mean sfa if we lose to West Ham :-)
ReplyDeleteOh no what will they do? Now they have to cope with the players they have. How terrible...
ReplyDeletesame here :)
ReplyDeleteBenteke would be a BEAST of a signing and would jump at the chance of joining us especially now as we have CL football to look forward to. Not a threat to SAS more an additional firepower to help us sustain our new found fame at the top of the PL. We do need to improve defensively although Flanno has proven to be a bit of a gem at Left Back.
ReplyDeleteAfter the Middlesborough game (27th of the season) we were 10 points behind United (After 27 games). Even if we had won it we would have still been a good 7 points from the top; Even the victory at United wouldn't have helped us. The illusion that we were in the race was because United had games in hand for almost the entire second half of the season (And were still top). We've never been top of the table with 10 or less games remaining and our only chance of that happening was in 1996-97; After 32 games United had 63 pts and Liverpool needed to defeat Coventry city at Anfield (of all the places) to be top.
ReplyDeleteHow in God's name do you expect me to generate the 1.21 gigawatts necessary for time travel!?
ReplyDeleteThe revolution in Libya's over, I can't get uranium from them on the condition I'll make them a bomb.
Some people...
Look at their back 4. It is terrible.
ReplyDeleteAtletico would be mad to sell Diego Costa now. They have a chance of finishing top 2 in consecutive seasons now.
That said, FIFA will back down as they did with Chelsea.
Dave, Dublin?
ReplyDelete"My greatest challenge is not what's happening at the moment, my greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their f*cking perch. And you can print that."
ReplyDeleteDo not think anyone will ever forget this famous quote but damn it makes me feel warm now that this quote will come back to haunt him for the rest of his life...
For 15 mil maybe but I suspect he'll throw a strop if he's third choice which he undoubtedly will be. Cheaper third choice strikers out there who wouldn't expect the playing time benteke will. Personally I think we have a ready made third choice striker in borini and the funds would be more wisely spent on our defence
ReplyDeleteAnyone seen the news that Barcelona have been banned from making transfers for the next two windows?
ReplyDeleteThere is a bigger picture to all of this - managers like Moyes, Ferguson and dalglish were old school. Things have moved much further on - hence Dalglish looked out of place in his second coming and Moyes looks out of place too. Fergie would have been similar was his career starting now. Fellaini was as much as a panic buy as carol, downing and adam were. Fergie's success was down to his own weight - tactically he wasnt the cleverest - classic example being last year against real madrid when nani was sent off. His PL record against morinho or rafa wasnt the cleverest either.
ReplyDeleteHowever Moyes has been found out due to his inability to handle the big time players. If he could have incorporated rvp rooney with mata supplying them they would not have suffered as much as they have. Moyes is refreshing in the sense he doesnt play mind games or any bullying of ref's!
BR has found a way of incorporating luis suarez and sturridge with coutinho supplying them and its worked. As against Tottenham we saw how the bulk of a team that completely thrashed us a couple of years ago at whitehart lane under KK was expecting to be thrashed!
Meanwhile Jordan Rhodes scores 2 more for a mid-table Blackburn squad yesterday giving him 22 for the year in the Championship. Blackburn has PL pedigree. They know English football. Jordan Rhodes can't be that far below PL caliber. Why not him?
ReplyDeleteFor a 3rd striker Borini might be the fill, but what we need is a striker who can start LC, early FA Cup, and some matches against lesser PL teams. I'm not Borini is in that class. Why not Jordan Rhodes from Blackburn?
ReplyDeleteI prefer the Carragher rebuttal to that...
ReplyDelete"I'd say he never knocked Liverpool off their ****** perch. That's nonsense that. Graeme Souness did that. United were competing with Norwich and Aston Villa for their first title. They weren't competing with Liverpool, were they?"
Can't see Southampton letting go their stars...They are trying to build a solid future there and good luck to them it's good to have them back in the Prem
ReplyDeleteRichards???
ReplyDeletewhat do you think of Stephan Shrock of Eintract Frankfurt???? youre in PH right?? you must know him...monster of a footballer...reminds me of masch but on the wings..
ReplyDeleteB Rodgers needs to ship out 8 dead wood average players this summer, 1 world class player he no longer trusts or wants at club and the two poor loan signings we brought to club this summer.
ReplyDeleteGK B Jones GK P Reina CB S Coates CB K Toure
RB M Kelly LB A Cissokho AM L Alberto RW O Assaidi
LW V Moses FD F Borini FD I Aspas
Those 9 players could bring to club 30-40M on sales, then the owners need to back B Rodgers heavily with 60-70M this summer transfer window as Rodgers didn't get to bring no one to club last January Transfer window
And 5 Defensive players should be brought to club
And 4 attacking players
Defensive players:
GK: A Mccarthy(24) Of Reading for £4-£7M to compete and cover S Mignolet(25) for next 5-7 years at club
RB: N Clyne(23) Of Southampton for £4-£7M to compete and cover G Johnson(29) for next 2-6 years, but to take over from Johnson year after next.
CB: D Lovren(24) Of Southampton for £12-£14M to compete and cover M Skrtel(29) for next 2-6 years. But to take over from Skrtel year after next
LB: B Davies( 20) Of Swansea for £4-£7M to compete and cover J Enrique(27) for next 6-8 years.
DM: M'Vila(23) Of Rubin Kazan for £8-£10M to compete with S Gerrard(33) and L Leiva(27) for the next 2-5 years.
Where L Shaw(18) could cost any club between £25-£30M, B Rodgers should spend £25- £30M on these three class, quality young strong mobile pacey quick defenders ( N Clyne (23) RB, D Lovren(24) CB and B Davies(20) LB)
yeah I live PH but im a NZer...he's probably the best footballer in the PH national team...Don't know how he'd go at a step up but definitely looks good at the level he is at now....Filipinos havent really embraced football properly which is a shame because its a sport they are physically equipped to shine at....Rather than basketball the most popular game her which they are patently not equipped to be very competitive at.
ReplyDeleteright on all points...nobody here even knows who paulino alcantara is..(sigh)...still an elitist sport for some (only exclusive schools have football on their curriculum) the american influence is just too much.
ReplyDeleteim the only one i know who truly support lfc here from where i am (started since 2005 istanbul)..even those unholy 1:30 am and 4:00 am games..
are you living in the Fils? I have been LFC fan since birth...My dad was scouse...I remember one day when I was about 10 saying to him "Dad I really like Arsenal" The look on his face was priceless...."you can't be a son of mine if you don't love LFC". Never questioned it again and I'm so glad he shoved me back on the rails.
ReplyDelete