The former Manchester City player was clearly distressed with the fact that Manchester united won 2-1 with a spectacular goal from Wayne Rooney and was unable to hold back his emotions.

The unprofessional rant came moments after replays showed the winning goal, with Summerbee claiming that the moment of brilliance was the only thing that separated the two teams.

The bitter blue neglected to take into account the fortuitous way that City equalised, with Edin Dzeko’s shot deflecting off the back of David Silva past Van der Sar, and instead claimd that City had been the better team on the day.

Bizarrely he claimed that the away side had dominated for 60% of the game, then when shown the actal possession statistics of 54%-46% he laughably backtracked and said, “I’m not into stats”.

It was car crash television for Manchester City fans, but hilarious for any reds still tuned in and even Jamie Redknapp and Dwight Yorke struggled to contain their disbelief at what the mentalist was coming out with.

Clearly unhappy with the replays being shown, Summerbee added, “I wish you’d show some of our chances too”. He also claimed that someone will “come here and take United apart some day, like we did”.

The man sums up what it’s like to be a Manchester City fan. bitter, deluded and with no real grasp on reality.

This is how it feels to be City…

Video via ManUnitedYouth on Twitter

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Roj2eqffes

The Gunners have often attempted to claim moral victories, believing their “pretty football” sets them apart from United and Chelsea, but even that excuse is starting to escape them.

From the moment Howard Webb blew the whistle to start the game at Old Trafford last night, it was clear that Arsene Wenger had sent his team out with the clear intention of using systematic fouling to break up United’s passing game. It would be wrong to say there were any horribly reckless fouls from the Arsenal players, but the constant cynical fouling every time United were on the break meant that it was surprising Howard Webb took so long to brandish his yellow card.

In truth neither side played particularly well, but the difference between the two was that Sir Alex Ferguson set his tactics out like he so often does against Arsenal with the intention of stifling their play in midfield, hoping to break on the wings with Nani and Park feeding Wayne Rooney who was operating as a lone striker. Together with the defensive solidity of Rio Ferdinand, and Nemanja Vidic and it’s proven repeatedly to be a winning formula against Arsenal.

The team that carved out the better chances was the home side, with Arsenal creating very little beside one header straight at Edwin Van der Sar and a scuffed shot that was blocked easily by Vidic. That hasn’t stopped Arsenal players having a good old moan though, led as usual by their manager.

Instead of accepting that his team once again came up woefully short against a big team Wenger chose to criticise the pitch, which he claimed ruined the game as a spectacle.

“The technical quality of the game was average on both sides because the pitch was very poor in my opinion and the game suffered a lot from it,” said the Arsenal boss.

While young midfielder Jack Wilshere echoed his manager’s comments, “To be honest, the pitch was shocking – I think they wanted to stop us playing!”

Now this may be a simplistic way of viewing things, but isn’t the pitch the same for both sides? And isn’t it also extremely hypocritical of a player whose team committed twice as many fouls as their opponents to claim that United tried to stop them from playing?

Andrei Arshavin added: “We didn’t deserve defeat. The match was a battle, but we lost.

“Manchester United had more luck than us during the game but we were not able to create anything special near their goal. If it wasn’t for a ­fortunate bounce at the end of the first half, we would have gone in at 0-0 and the second half would have been easier.”

Yes Andrei, and if we had scored the penalty it would have bee 2-0. And if my aunty had a penis she’d be my uncle. Ifs and buts don’t matter in football. Results are what matters and points in the bag. And not for the first time it is Arsenal who have walked away from a big name with nothing.

Instead of talking about who was lucky and blaming pitches and tactics, it’s about time Arsene Wenger had a long hard look at himself and his players and realised that things need to fundamentally change at Arsenal before they’re considered to be serious title contenders once again.

It was Manchester United who walked away with 3 points from Old Trafford after withstanding an onslaught of professional fouls from Arsenal.

For a team who often complains about their treatment at the hands of other teams, it was the Gunners who showed their hand early on. Referee Howard Webb was called into action several times in the first five minutes, as Arsenal put in late and dangerous challenges on United players, apparently to show that they can mix it with the big boys.

Webb was very lenient with the offending players, instead preferring to try and let the game flow. Arsenal had other ideas though, halting many of united’s flowing attacks with cynical fouls that often went unpunished.

When Ji Sung Park opened the scoring in the first half it was no more than United deserved for their efforts. One side had come to play football, the other to hack and kick.

The media darlings will no doubt escape any form of criticism is tomorrow’s papers though. The collective media blindness to Arsenal’s dark side is as frustrating as it is ridiculous.

Arsene Wenger’s men have deliberately set out with a game plan to rough up Manchester United players in two consecutive games now, and it’s time they were named and shamed as the dirtiest team in the league.

Fortunately for United, it’s not a tactic that wins games and as recent results against Arsenal show, it’s our class that usually wins out over their dirty tactics.

But even I was surprised by his latest comments regarding the state of the game and how it’s driven by money and greed.

“Football is only about money, and I don’t like it,” he grunted.

“There are so many agents with really young footballers. It’s awful, as these young players are not interesting in winning titles, they only want money.

It seems the irony of his words were lost on him. Tevez left the biggest club in the world to go and play for a team that has not won a trophy for a three and a half decades. To hear him talk of values and greed is like being told you’re a bit of a druggy by Pete Doherty.

He has joined the mercenary ranks of Manchester City and taken the massive pay cheque that came with it. But he’s also taken on the burden of playing for a club that are perennial losers and the stress continues to show.

He has repeatedly spoken of his desire to retire from football early and go back home to Argentina.

“Today, the young players have no education at all, and I don’t want to listen to them. When I played in Boca, when [Martin] Palermo or [Juan Roman] Riquelme talked, I listened to them. So I don’t want a young player to tell me ‘why did you do that?’ in the dressing-room. I would punch him, as I have won 13 titles in my career.”

Not wanting to communicate with idiotic footballers who make career choices based on salary offers rather than trophy winning potential is an admirable quality to have, but not when you’re too dense to realise your own hypocrisy.

You would expect that Liverpool fans would be glad to see the back of the man that led them to their lowest league finish since 1999, but strangely that isn’t the case for many.

Quite the opposite is true in fact. Any criticism of Benitez on Liverpool fans forum Red and White Kop is met not only with derision but open hostility. Threads are locked, users are banned and the moderators preside over a place full of delusion that they have helped create.

Users pointing out that Benitez has now taken an Inter Milan team that won the treble – a feat only previously matched by Manchester United in 1999 – and turned them into a defensive minded laughing stock in 6th place are told that it’s not his fault. No, it’s because Mourinho played his players into exhaustion last season by winning so many trophies. It’s also the fault of club president Massimo Moratti for not investing in the squad(where have we heard that before).

In the eyes of RAWK users Benitez can do no wrong. He is held in such high regard that they compare him with true Liverpool greats like Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley. The infamous rant that cost him team its first title in two decades is seen as a majestic speech from a hero that dared to stand up to Sir Alex Ferguson, who apparently controls the referees and the FA.

Contrast that with Roy Hodgson. A man tasked with turning the p*ss poor squad left by Benitez and improving it. No defence is made of the start to his Liverpool career. No blame is attached to the owners of the club as it was for Benitez’s failings. No, Liverpool’s plight is down to Hodgson’s negative tactics. I’m not sure irony is a strong enough word to descibe how epically stupid this notion is.

Have we all got it wrong then? Fans of rival clubs, journalists and other Premier League managers saw Benitez as an object of ridicule towards the end of his Liverpool career when we should have been viewing him as the hero he really was.

One Liverpool fan had this to say:

In every great epic adventure, and supporting LFC is an epic, there is always someone who has to bravely sacrifice themselves selflessly before the bittersweet victory is won. For us it was Rafa.

Another added:

If Roman spends money this Jan and Rafa goes there [If Ancelotti leaves] they could dominate for a few years yet.

It doesn’t stop there though. Inter Milan fans on the Forza Inter forums have been calling for Benitez to be sacked because they see him as the clueless buffoon that he is, but Liverpool fans from RAWK have registered on their forums to defend Benitez!

You really couldn’t make any of this up and you don’t even have to. Liverpool fans are really that ridiculous without even trying. it’s almost as if they support Benitez instead of Liverpool. To support a man that led you to 7th place after making himself look like a numpty with his facts rant and spending over £300 million is idiotic to say the least. But to sign up to another team’s forum just to defend his honour is bordering on insane.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvmVaSdg_M8

Last night’s bore draw was about par for the course for City’s season. Mancini regularly opts to play not one, not two, but three defensive midfielders on the pitch, restricting City’s attacking options considerably.

It’s the Italian “we must defend well and try to sneak a goal” attitude that will ultimatey hold City back from becoming real title challengers.

The derby last night was about the most boring I’ve watched in recent years. City were highly defensive, showed very little in attack and had no real desire to try and win the game. More than half an hour had passed before they had a meaningful effort on target, and even that was from a free kick.

It honestly felt like a home game, where one of the relegation battlers is visiting Old Trafford and their tactic is to put every man behind the ball and try to play for a draw.

It actually feels disappointing to come away from their often half empty stadium with just a solitary point after completely dominating possession of the ball.

City’s players will be in no doubt about what the fans thought of their performance as they were booed off the pitch at the final whistle by arguably the worst fans in the league. All that money spent on big name signings and even now they only fill the stadium when United come to town. And we were treated to glorious renditions of “Carlos Tevez is a blue, he hates Munichs” all night. A couple of our own fans didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory last night, but it’s a bit different when the entire stadium is mocking the dead of years gone by. utterly classless from the City fans, but that’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from them.

So here’s to 34 more years of turgid, defensive, unimaginitive football and being booed off the pitch by their own fans.

Mary D’s, on Grey Mare Lane, was daubed with graffiti last night ahead of tonight’s Manchester Derby.

The insults included, “Manchester is Red”, “34 years” and “Foe c*nts”.

While the first two are certainly true, the reference to Marc Vivien Foe is utterly dispicable and the United ‘fans’ involved should be ashamed.

It is one thing to taunt your rivals over a lack of success, but another to taunt them over the tragic sudden death of one of their former players.

We’ve suffered enough with people mocking the dead of Munich, but we’ll no longer be able to claim the moral high ground while we have rebel elements of our own fanbase lowering us to their level.

Of course derby days don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. To us as fans it means everything, but in the end you can only win or lose 3 points and form generally goes out of the window. Win or lose at the council house on Wednesday and we’ll still finish comfortably above them at the end of the season.

Now rather than get into the match preview too early, I thought I’d remind you all of some of the reasons why we’ve been laughing at City for so long. Some of the verses are a little out of date, but they’re still good nonetheless.

They’ve got the tallest floodlights in the Football League…

Oh! city are a massive club!

Other verses:

They’ve got the widest pitch in the land

They’ve got 54 players and they’re no f*cking good

They’ve got Curly Watts as a celebrity fan

They play at Gresty Road and Edgerly Park

They go to Wrexham and Cardiff on Euro-aways

They had the future England Captain, but his cruciate went

They won the Shamrock Trophy in 92

They’ve got 3 stars on their new club badge

They’ve got exec boxes with a balcony

They’ve had seventeen managers in twenty years

They take 25,000 to every away

You can see Old Trafford from the Kippax Stand

They’ve got the best goalie the world has ever seen

They’re the second-best team in Division Two

They have a civic reception when they’ve won f*ck all

They had a continental Laser Blue Kappa Kit

They’re going to turn Manchester into Milan

They signed Spencer Prior on deadline day

They’ve got the Gallagher brothers in the Guvernors

They took a quarter of a million to Ewood Park

They’ve got 3007 in a temporary stand

They’ve got the tallest corner flags in the world

They invade their pitch when they win 3 points

They had Ryan Giggs on schoolboy forms

They’ve got a farmyard animal and they play him up front

They’ve got three million fans in Manchester

It’s been 27(28..29……35?) years and they’ve won f*ck all
They’ve got a dirty old slapper with a rusty bell

They’ll stay up for 3 seasons – autumn, winter and spring

They empty Stockport when they play at home

They’ve got four different stands from a Meccano kit

They’re the only team that come from Manchester

All their fans live 10 minutes from Maine Road

They’ve got the biggest bananas in the land

They’ve got a centre forward with grooves in his head

Their managers got a papier mache head

They’ll be relegated by bonfire night

They’ve got salt and pepper on their hot dog stands

They’ve got greenalls bitter in the kippax stand

They’ve got the greenest grass in the whole of the world

They hounded Swales’ mam into an early grave

They’ve got a gypsy curse on their massive pitch

Their best player ever played for Ajax reserves

They had a derby match with Macclesfield

They had Colin Bell who was better than Best(!)

They’ve been relegated ten times

They had a chairman and a manager that wore a wig

They bought Steve Daly for a million quid

They tried to sign Geoff Thomas and he turned ‘em down

They’ve got Bernard Manning as their fattest fan

They used to be little, but now they’re large

They sing racist chants, coz they’ve got no class

Rafael Benitez, the man who spunked hundreds of millions of pounds on average footballers, alienated key players like Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano, and led Liverpool to a 7th place league finish is lauded as a hero by many Liverpool fans, and I can’t figure out why.

He remained dignified in the face of pressure from the media I’m told, but his now famous fact rant seems to suggest he completely lost the plot after the slightest nudge from Sir Alex Ferguson, not to mention his continual moaning about referees instead of accepting responsibility for his own terrible tactics.

But he won the European Cup so he must be great. I imagine Fergie would have a few more Champions League medals in his cabinet if he completely gave up on United’s league campaign like Liverpool did that year. While Liverpool were happy to plod along and finish 5th in the Premiership, we were fighting on all fronts as we do every season and could not afford to rest star players before important European ties. So yes, it is an achievement to win the Champions league, even if you do it with Gerard Houllier’s team and are aided by a typical starfish dive by the slopey foreheaded one.

He stood up to Hicks and Gillett. Did he? All I remember is him constantly moaning about not having money to spend, despite actually spending much more than Manchester United over the same period. You never hear Fergie complaining about a lack of money, and that’s because he remains professional, gets on with the job and still manages to build championship winning teams without wasting money in the process.

It’s all part and parcel of the mentality of a fickle scouser though. Best fans in the world they’ll have you believe, but following their draw against West Ham that sent them top of the league in the only season they have actually challenged for the title, the team was booed off the pitch by the Kop (un)faithful.

Their on the pitch problems last season were all to do with the off the pitch problems and Rafael Benitez was not to be blamed for anything. Hell, any negative comments about the fat Spanish waiter on Liverpool forum Red and White Kop were met with an almighty banning stick. But far worse problems have taken place off the pitch this season, yet Roy Hodgson has been under fire from Liverpool fans from almost his first game. No excuses have been made on his behalf, despite inheriting a terrible squad lacking motivation and drive from the completely inept Benitez. Liverpool fans don’t quite seem to notice the hypocrisy they’re displaying by praising Benitez and pillorying Hodgson, but that’s scouse logic for you.

Hicks, Gillete, and their fellow board members Christian Purslow and Martin Ayre were all disciples of the devil last season, but now the latter two have sided against the American owners of the club they’re the new saviours of Anfield. You couldn’t make this stuff up.

A quick glance on Liverpool forums and you’ll now find poems about Rafael Benitez and how great he was, at least I think it was ‘great’, it’s hard to read through tears of laughter. Comparisons with true greats like Shankly and Paisley are common place on RAWK, and nobody seems to bat an eyelid. The only reason he didn’t win the title with Liverpool was because of a grand conspiracy involving the FA, Sky and Sir Alex Ferguson.

It is amazing how a once proud football club that stood alongside United as one of the greats has fallen so hard and so quickly. Rafael Benitez and his constant cock ups in the transfer market have had as much of an impact on Liverpool’s financial situation as cartoon villains Hicks and Gillett heaping debt on it did. And the fans in the Kop and on Liverpool message boards who only a few years ago were singing “our Yanks are better than your Yanks” deserve every ounce of misery they’re currently going through.

While United fans in their thousands turned out to protest at the sale of the club to the Glazer family, Liverpool fans were all too keen to take on American owners who they thought would buy them a Premier League title ala Roman Abramovich. Then it went pear shaped for them when Benitez misspent his transfer money, and those same fans are now lubed up, bent over and preparing for penetration by New England Sports Ventures. And when it inevitably goes horribly wrong, it’ll all be someone else’s fault as per usual.

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard got away with yet another disgraceful assault today thanks to the ridiculous refereeing of Stuart Attwell.

Not content with beating up nightclub DJ’s, Gerrard again got his self defence in early today against Sunderland’s Danny Welbeck – on loan from Manchester United.

Gerrard leapt into a challenge with the young striker, leading with his elbow and was so focused on making contact with Welbeck that he missed the ball completely.

The referee hesitated before blowing his whistle after seeing Welbeck on the floor holding his face.

He then brandished a yellow card which suggests he saw the vicious elbow but only deemed it worthy of a booking.

It’s about time Stuart Attwell spent a considerable time in the Championship where he can learn the basic rules of the game again.

The Arsenal manager made an unbelievable boast to the press yesterday, claiming to be better at developing young players than Sir Alex Ferguson.

“If you reproach me for not buying players, well if I buy players, Jack Wilshere doesn’t come out, so you cannot have everything. I’m long enough in the job to have a development policy to educate the players and the most difficult is to stand up for it and play them.”

One wonders if he’s watched United play recently, with many players taking to the pitch that have played their entire careers at Old Trafford.

“There is nobody else in the world[better than me]. Take the list of the players who started here. Johan Djourou, where has he started? Here. Senderos, where has he started? Clichy, where has he started? Gibbs? Where has he started? Fábregas? Where has he started? Song? Where has he started? Diaby has basically never played before at the top level. Ashley Cole. If you go back, it is unbelievable the number of players who started at this club.”

Some might argue that Fabregas started his career at Barcelona and would always have developed into a world class player, but if Wenger is taking credit for his development then Sir Alex can claim credit for Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and a host of other top players around the world.

The difference between Wenger’s kids and Fergie’s kids is that Fergie’s have won many trophies at United. Whereas Arsenal haven’t won any silverware since 2005, United have collected three league title, the Champions League and a host of other trophies that Wenger’s players can only dream about. Instead of gambling on young players who rarely make the grade, he should head over to http://skypoker.com where he’d probably have more luck.

The real comedy was in Wenger’s list of players though. Djourou and Senderos? That’s the equivalent of Fergie bragging about developing Paul McShane and Liam Miller.

“When I arrived nearly all their team had started [at United]. Not recently,” Wenger babbled.

Darren Fletcher, John O’Shea, Darron Gibson and Jonny Evans would all disagree with this comment, as would many other youngsters who have promising careers at Old Trafford.

I’m not sure whether it’s just delusion or downright lies, but Wenger doesn’t come close to Ferguson in terms of man management and helping players reach their potential. For a recent success story see Nani, who provoked jeers everytime one of his tricks went wrong last season, but is now considered one of the first names on the team sheet after scoring 6 goals and assisting 18 in his last 24 games.

I’m sure Arsene Wenger feels the need to defend himself after going for so long without a trophy, but the myopic gimp should have a good think before making such ridiculous claims in the future. Instead, he has joined a growing list of managers, including Kevin Keegan and Rafael Benitez, who have lost their marbles whilst trying to compete with the greatest manager the world has ever seen.

Undoubted credit has to go to Chelsea for what is now their double winning season. They have a remarkable record at home which I would say is the greatest in Premier League history. They’ve made Stamford Bridge more than just a fortress. Other rivals have good records but they will often lose one or two games at home each season. We are now well past the 2008 date that Roman Abramovich set for his Chelsea departure but it has to be said he has done well to refrain from splashing the cash in recent seasons.

I do believe however that now is the time to overhaul his aged squad with some new investment. One issue is that some of the players that should be leaving Chelsea this summer don’t have much of a sell on value but it will relieve their large wage bill. They should however not have the demands of those Chelsea players concerned about being the highest paid and therefore edging closer to 150k a week.

Another stumbling block is the owners’ frustration with the youth system which has not produced anyone of note so far. That could however just be a sign of the times because smaller clubs it could be argued do a lot more to find and keep hold of young talent. They need to be looking at young players around seventeen and then more established experienced players of say twenty-three. As these players will have good long term value for the club. They will have the hunger and ability to realise they could make their name on the world stage with Chelsea. Then one or two top class proven professionals, with a few of their prime years to run. This can be done without breaking the new transfer records I believe.

For me there are many players Chelsea can play and make little positive impact on the team, yet it does not affect the team’s results. These are the players I think Chelsea can do away with. In goal Hilario, defensively Carvahlo, Alex, Ferreira, Beletti in the midfield Ballack, Deco and up top Kalou. This leaves a few players I am unsure of.

Joe Cole is quite a unique player and brings something different to the team, if he can recover from his recent injury then he will be an asset and worth resigning. Florent Malouda went back to his drab and ineffectual old self for the first half of the season. However he has looked quite the player since the turn of the year and has genuinely impressed me. If he can maintain his current form he is definitely worth keeping. The other player of question is Daniel Sturridge, although there is life in Drogba and Anelka even though they have both enjoyed their thirty first birthdays. As you can tell I don’t believe Kalou is up to standard, to lead the team on his own. However I do not believe Sturridge has been given the chances and a six month loan deal could benefit him significantly. This leaves room for another striker to forge a partnership with either Nicholas or Didier as they seem incapable of finding common ground between themselves.

For the members of RAWK, their season has been dire for a combination of reasons, the most ludicrous being that there’s a conspiracy within the FA and Premier League to stop them from winning anything.

Quite how this is possible is beyond me, but the ‘RAWKITES’ as they call themselves, or ‘SPASTICS’ as others refer to them, are convinced that Sir Alex Ferguson is involved in the plot and regularly bribes referees to make them lose and help Manchester United win.

Apparently they’re a much better team than us and if not for the corrupt officiating they would have finished higher than us in the table. Without Rooney we’re just a mid table team, although they said the same about Ronaldo. I dread to think where they would finish without Fernando Torres.

One of the amazing things about RAWK is its members blind faith in Rafael Benitez. The man has taken a Champions League winning team and turned them into 7th placed team with no Champions League football for next season. The squad they have now is actually worse than the squad that he inherited from Gerard Houllier, despite spending (wasting) over £200 million on new signings, considerably more than we’ve spent during the same period I might add.

While he was busy fucking up their squad he was also negotiating a very cushy contract for himself. He had them bent over a barrel at the end. They couldn’t afford to keep him and risk sliding further down the table next season, and they couldn’t afford to sack him because they’d have to pay him around £16 million. In the end they negotiated a deal with Benitez and it’s thought that he walked away with a cool £6 million in his back pocket. Not bad for a 7th placed finish I’m sure you’ll agree.

But while the rest of the country was busy laughing at Liverpool and their manager who was at times a fully fledged mentalist, RAWK was busy writing poems about him and making slushy youtube videos about how great he is. Readers of RAWK are led to believe that he was a brave martyr who stood up for the fans against the nasty American owners who haven’t backed him in the transfer market.

Ironically enough, facts are met with derision and cries of conspiracy when posted on there. If anyone dares post anything remotely logical regarding the amount of money Benitez has spent or how he’s used it to buy average players like Kuyt, Lucas and Babel, they’re quickly shot down by “diehard” members or indeed the moderators themselves. That’s right, the delusion isn’t confined to a few members, it’s actually promoted by the forum staff.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s important to back your manager, particularly in this day and age, but what RAWKITES don’t understand is that they’ve gone way beyond supporting him. They’ve turned him into a figure of worship beyond any form of criticism or objective debate.

Their blind support of a man who has played them like a violin is bordering on insanity. Every time he made mistakes all he had to do was say ‘You’ll never walk alone’ and the fans lapped it up and shifted all blame onto the owners, onto the referees, onto the corrupt FA, onto anybody but Benitez.

Now I wish I could say that RAWK was representative of Liverpool fans in general, but it really isn’t. Other Liverpool sites are embarrassed by RAWK, and the Manchester United forum Red Cafe has a 150 page, 6,000 post thread, just to laugh at their deluded ramblings. They’ve taken supporting their team to a new level of idiocy. Their staunch support of Benitez and their refusal to accept that he could be blame for anything has almost turned them into a cult. They’re living inside an internet bubble where the ‘best club in the world’ is being ruined by outside forces with agendas against them. They epitomize the modern day conspiracy theorist and give us plenty to laugh at on a daily basis.

They regularly assert that the media is against Liverpool, completely ignoring the massive amount of supporters and ex Liverpool players on the TV and in newspapers. Brian Reade, Derek McGovern, Alan Hansen, Mark Lawrenson, Phil Thompson to name just a few. There is probably a bigger Liverpool supporting contingent in the newspapers and on TV than any other club in the league, but logical reasoning like that is ignored on RAWK in favour of an ‘everybody is against us’ tin foil hat wearing band of idiots who make a mockery of their once great club.

Managerial legends like Paisley and Shankly would be rolling in their graves if they saw what Benitez has done to Liverpool. And the supporters on RAWK should hang their heads in shame for putting Benitez on the same pedestal as those two men who brought so much glory to Anfield in years gone by.

The Fat Spanish Waiter has done nothing for Liverpool. On the contrary, he’s wasted hundreds of millions of pounds, alienated some of their best players who were then sold, bought terrible players and ruined their entire squad. Without Torres and Mascherano they’d most likely be in the bottom half of the table, battling it out with the likes of Bolton and Sunderland. So instead of worshipping Benitez like some dignified Martyr, they should start facing facts and analyzing just how he has managed to spend £250 million and still manage to take them backwards.

Only then will they start to regain some form of reality on that cesspit of hatred and bitterness.

Their captain and nightclub DJ attacker Steven Gerrard endured one of the worst season’s of his career at Anfield, evidently realizing that their second placed finish in the previous season was the closest he was ever going to get to winning the title with such a bunch of average players.

Their star striker Fernando Torres did his usual routine of being world class when fit, but not being fit very often, while quite tellingly some of their better performers of last season included the very average Dirk Kuyt and Lucas.

In defence it was jamie carragher who dragged them backwards for most of the season. his obvious insecurity with his lack of pace saw him move further and further back, looking for the safety of the 18 yard box where nobody could beat him with pace. This in turn meant the entire defence had to keep in line with him or risk playing opposing strikers onside. It also meant they struggled to keep teams boxed in and thus the midfield often struggled to keep any meaningful pressure on the opposition box.

This combination of factors proved to be Liverpool’s downfall and the end result was a UEFA Cup place only gained because Portsmouth were denied their place after going into administration.

So how could it possible get any worse for the ambulance rockers?

Rumour has it that Real Madrid are expected to offer in the region of €30 Million for the services of Stevie ‘Starfish’ Gerrard. It is not known what Mourinho has been drinking or how much he has had, but with their captain gone, Liverpool will surely continue on their downward spiral towards the bottom half of the table.

The other rumour doing the rounds is that Liverpool manager and part time lunatic Rafael Benitez will be offered a severance package by the Liverpool board, to finally get rid of him and his depressing brand of football and his long list of fahcts!

With a squad desperately in need of transformation, but no money with which to do so, Liverpool will struggle to attract a top manager to Anfield in the near future. More likely they’ll end up with someone like Gareth Southgate.

So raise a glass with me fellow reds, to Liverpool Football Club and mid table mediocrity.

I would cite a difference in for example Craig Bellamy who is a good player but then in comparison to Carlos Tevez, is the weaker of the two with Tevez clearly on top. The same could be said for Wayne Bridge who is a good Premier League full back but there are many around who are much better.

What we have to remember is that James Milner has come to prominence filling the hole left by Gareth Barry. As Aston Villa never replaced Barry with a senior midfielder and decided to stick with what they had. Milner as a winger was very ordinary was not hitting any headlines.

Yet when he switched into the central midfield role his performances became the launch pad to Villa challenging for fourth position. His ability to break up play in the midfield, drive forward and shoot from distance matched what they had with Barry.

However there seems to be no room for this with Barry, De Jong and Vieira regularly in and out of the team. That still leaves the very able Stephen Ireland to warm the Manchester City bench. He in fact could be used as bait. However Villa won’t want to lose another big player when they will have wanted to build their team around the quality of Milner.  If their signing James Milner as the twenty million pound winger then I think he is simply not worth it.

The desire of Milner is so far unknown but I hope it does not distract him from focussing on playing for England this summer. If he wants to go, then Villa will need to make sure they drive up the price to the highest possible and perhaps include Ireland in the deal. As Villa like City are stuck, as the only players that will improve them are top class thirty million pound players. Villa can’t afford them and City will struggle to attract them.

His retirement was bizarre in itself. After all, how can you retire from a job you don’t have? He wasn’t close to being first choice with superior defenders John Terry and Rio Ferdinand ahead of him, and he wasn’t even certain to be 3rd choice.

It seemed he had accepted that he wasn’t good enough, so he spat his dummy out and announced his retirement.

Then when approached in April about a possible return to the England setup, he insisted he’d turn down the opportunity because it would be unfair to those who had helped England qualify.

“I’d love to work with Capello, but I’d say no. I read an interview with Alessandro Nesta who’s been asked to come back for Italy and he said he couldnt because he’d be taking someones spot who’d helped get them there. I feel the same. You can’t just walk in when others have put the graft in”

However, the Liverpool defender has changed his tune less than  a month later. England are heading for the World Cup and Liverpool are heading for mid table mediocrity, and Carragher will now take his place in the 30 man provisional squad, despite playing no part in qualifying.

“The World Cup and the Champions League are the highest levels of football,” said Carragher.

“I am not getting any younger, we have no Champions League next season and I am keen to work under Fabio Capello.”

So what has prompted this change of heart? The realization that liverpool are only going downhill? Or has Carragher become a glory hunter?

For that reason I find it difficult to admit that Chelsea are deserving of their newly bestowed tag of ‘Champions’, simply because it isn’t true.

It has to be said that they’ve played some vrey good football this year, and today they eclipsed our record for most goals in a Premier League season by scoring eight against Wigan Athletic. That’s the fourth time this season they’ve scored seven or more and is an incredible statistic.

That said, for all the media w*nking over Chelsea and how they’ve blown the rest of the league away; it remains true that if the linesman had raised his flag as he should have done, we would be celebrating our 19th title today, no doubt about it.

There’s also the issue of the terrible refreeing decisions in the game at Stamford Bridge. First Rooney runs clean through and is 1 on 1 with Petr Cech, only for the linesman to incorrectly raise his flag. Next was the penalty incident when Antonio Valencia was hauled to the ground. then last but not least was the free kickand goal incident, which is hard to take for several reasons. Firstly it was never a free kick. Secondly there was a foul on Wes Brown. And finally there was a Chelsea player standing in an offside position.

People talk about decisions like that evening themselves out over the course of the season, but that’s just a myth that the likes of Andy Gray like to peddle because it saves them having to admit that Chelsea have benefitted massively from key decisions this season. When such huge mistakes go against your team when playing against your direct title rivals, it’s impossible for those mistakes to even themselves out, particularly when they happen in both the home and away games.

So despite all the goals they scored this season, the reason they won the league can be put down to that single decision at Old Trafford. Without that we would have each gained a point and Manchester United would have finished the season on 86 points with Chelsea back on 84.

Yes I’m bitter, yes I’m disappointed, but I’m also extremely proud of the way my team have battled on through adversity this season. We lost the best player in the world and still challenged. There isn’t another team in the world that could have suffered the number of injuries we have this season – especially in defence – and still came within a whisker (or more accurately a flag) of winning the title. To come through it with the best defensive record in the league truly is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the entire squad and backroom staff.

With a couple of tweaks during the Summer, we’ll be there next season to take our trophy back.

The behaviour of their fans today was nothing short of shocking. They seem to be living in some sort of alternate reality where they’re one of our main rivals, when in actual fact they’re barely even on our radar. I almost expect it when the likes of Liverpool and City sing about the Munich disaster, but coming from Stoke fans it was just weird.

The sheer hatred they have for our club and its supporters borders on the bizarre. Sadly for the Stoke players, their fans hatred for us seems to be more important than cheering their own team on. In fact they were more interested in cheering for Chelsea today than cheering their team on to earning some pride with a dignified display against the deposed Champions of England.

Perhaps the most bizarre song they came up with was “You’re gonna win f*ck all”. If the irony of 11th placed Stoke singing that song wasn’t enough, the fact that we won the Carling Cup this year just made it even stranger. I know the Carling Cup can hardly be described as a major honour, but a trophy is a trophy at the end of the day.

The most unclassy thing of the night though was not the Munich songs, it was the way their fans sang about Chelsea during Sir Alex Ferguson‘s speech. I can only imagine what it must feel like to be a Stoke player, when your fans pay more attention to what the opposition are doing. I guess the players and manager must take a share of the blame for that though.

Their tactic (note this is singular) of ‘win a throw in and get Delap on it’ is incredibly boring so I can understand to a certain extent that they have to come up with novel ways of entertaining themselves each week. However, what I can’t understand is the strange hate filled obsession they have with our football club.

Tonight I expected much of the same from them when they took on Manchester City away at Eastlands. How wrong I was!

The game has just ended and Spurs won 1-0 thanks to a Peter Crouch header late on. I won’t bore you with a match report that I don’t want to write and you don’t want to read. This isn’t about the match itself.

This is about what Spurs have done for us this season. With City spending a quarter of a billion pounds on new players, some were talking them up for not just a Champions League place, but as potential title winners!

Now, after a season of comedy, they’ve given us one final laugh, with much of the credit going to Spurs. They have denied City a chance of competing amongst the world’s best clubs. They have denied City the precious Champions League place that many believe could open the floodgates of world class players heading to City. But Spurs have given us much more than that!

At White Hart Lane they’ve taken three points from Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal. They gave us six precious points. And they’ve done the double over our noisy bitter neighbours, just like we did.

So I don’t think I’m alone tonight in saying thank you very much Tottenham Hotspur for giving us just one more reason to laugh out loud at the comedy club that is Manchester City. A truly massive club!

The funeral like atmosphere at Anfield today shows that the fans have no interest in supporting their team against Chelsea.

And when Steven Gerrard nailed his colours to the mast by setting up Drogba for Chelsea’s opening goal it was met with indifference in the stands.

It was perhaps too much to ask for Liverpool to take points off Chelsea today. They are, after all, in 7th place for a reason. That reason being that they’re rubbish.

I at least expected a professional performance though, instead of simply going through the motions before helping Chelsea win the league.

The performance of the fans was not unexpected though. And their rendition of “Are you watching Manchester?” when Lampard scored Chelsea’s second shows just how pathetic the Liverpool fans in the crowd have become.

They were effectively celebrating the fact that Chelsea were beating them, because in all likelihood it will keep us from winning the league.

If Shankly and Paisley could see how far their once great club has fallen they’d roll in their graves.

Are these the words of a bitter Manchester United fan? Yes!

But at least I can have pride that my team fought til the bitter end, unlike that cowardly bunch from down the East Lancs Road.

If it wasn’t bad enough that the majority of Liverpool fans wanted their own team to lose, it now appears Steven ‘Starfish’ Gerrard has now sided with them.

The whiter than white Liverpool captain, who beats up nightclub DJ’s for refusing to play his favourite Phil Collins songs, provided a fantastic assist for Chelsea’s opening goal today.

He saw Drogba making an intelligent run and provided an inch perfect pass for the Ivorian striker to turn around Pepe Reina and put Chelsea in front.

I’ve never been one for conspiracy theories, but Gerrard is apparently not even trying to hide the fact that he’s a Chelsea fan for the day.

I half expected the Kop to jump up and cheer when the ball hit the back of the net. And I’m expecting more favours for Chelsea in the second half.

How pathetically small time do you have to become when your hatred for your rivals eclipses your love for your own club?

Liverpool – the underdogs – are being hailed as United’s potential saviours. If they can take just one point from today’s game  the title pendulum would swing back in United’s favour.

Speculation has been rife that Liverpool won’t put up much of a fight, because they have nothing left to play for and won’t want to help United clinch their 19th league title; one more than Liverpool.

Indeed, some internet polls have even shown that many Liverpool fans would happily watch their team lose if it meant that United didn’t win the title. I guess that’s what happens when bitterness and hatred of your rivals becomes more important than the love you have for your own club.

Liverpool faced a similar dilemma at the end of the 1994/95 season. Beat Blackburn and help United win the league, or roll over and Blackburn become Champions. Despite the speculation that Liverpool wouldn’t be up for it, they actually went out and beat Blackburn. It was United that failed to win their game so Blackburn on the league anyway.

I do believe that Liverpool’s players are more professional than their fans. They care more about winning, about honour, about pride. They’ll go out onto that Anfield pitch and give their all. They’ll do their best to beat Chelsea, regardless of how it affects the title race.

However, it won’t be good enough. No matter how hard they try, Liverpool are a shadow of their former selves. They’re suspect defensively. Their midfield is weak and without Fernando Torres they’ll be relying on the world’s best defensive striker Dirk Kuyt or even worse, David N’Gog.

Since Xabi Alonso’s departure to Real Madrid last Summer, they’ve had nobody capable of dominating the midfield and dictating the pace of the game. Alberto Aquilani may still turn out to be that player, but his injury record this season means the jury is still out on him.

They also sold Alvaro Arbeloa and replaced him with Glen Johnson, who is basically a right winger playing at right back. He’s fantastic going forward, but he leaves gaping holes in the defence that Jamie Carragher simply hasn’t got the legs to cover anymore. Indeed Carragher is probably Liverpool’s biggest liability. He appears to be so self conscious about his lack of pace, that he steps further and further backwards during the course of the game, looking for the security of the 18 yard box. This in turn means the rest of the back four has to move with him or else players will be able to run in behind while Carragher plays them onside. The knock on effect doesn’t stop there though. Their midfield is also affected. When top teams are attacking, the defence usually hovers around the halfway line, meaning that any clearances from the opposition are quickly mopped up, the ball is given back to the midfield and another wave of attacks can be started. With Carragher creating such a deep defensive line, Liverpool lose the ability to pen teams into their own half.

What Liverpool lack, Chelsea have in spades. They’re solid at the back. They have central midfielders galore and they have one of the best strikers in the league in Didier Drogba. They also carry a threat from the wide areas with the in form French winger Florent Malouda and recent returnee Joe Cole, as well as Salomon Kalou and Nicolas Anelka who can provide a goal threat from wide.

So for all the speculation and conspiracy theories suggesting Liverpool won’t put the effort in tomorrow. It’s irrelevant. Liverpool can try their hardest, but the fact is that Chelsea are currently a far superior side who should have no problems putting several goals past the Anfield club.

The banner represents the number of years City have gone without winning a trophy, and the ‘handful’ of City supporters who planned to steal it; aimed to burn it at the derby last week.

The ignorant bitters paid to go on the Old Trafford tour, and planned to deviate from the party and head in the direction of the banner. Fortunately the stringent security measures in place inside the stadium halted their cunning plan.

So not only did they fail in their attempt to commit a criminal act, they also paid for the privilege of doing so. Thanks City , for providing us with comedy gold for 34 long and glorious years.

This is how it feels to be City…

Eight Manchester United players died in the Munich disaster when their plane failed to take off. Also amongst the passengers who died that day was an ex Manchester City player – Frank Swift. When their fans show their lack of class by chanting ‘Munich’ at us, they’re also mocking the death of one of their own.

So you have to assume either a) They don’t know the history of their own club, or b) They do know the history, but they dont care.

I’m not quite sure which option is worse. City fans will of course claim that the Munich chants never happened, but if you go to youtube you’re sure to find many videos to the contrary. One thing they can’t deny, however, is that they were throwing inflatable airplanes around in the crowd, as seen here.

Money can buy you mercenaries, but it can’t buy you class!

The poster featured a picture of Tevez (ironically celebrating a goal for Manchester United against Wigan) with the caption, ‘Welcome to Manchester’. The poster was allegedly a poke at United, whose Old Trafford home has been outside of the city limits since the Local Government Act was introduced in 1972.

United were founded in Manchester, and the boundary changes mean that technically the stadium is outside of those boundaries. Manchester City on the other hand, were formed in West Gorton, which at the time was not part of Manchester. So technically they were never really from Manchester, they just moved here. That’s a secret though, so don’t tell anyone.

Back to the issue, and Carlos Tevez is less than pleased at the behaviour of his employers and insists the poster was nothing to do with him.

“I never understood the intention of that poster,” said the kettle spilling Argie. “What was the point? Tell me. Was it to welcome me to Manchester City, or was it to anger Manchester United? – Nobody ever told me !”

“I’m indifferent towards it, but it is important you know I had nothing to do with the poster. I’d have preferred for it not to have been there. I have respect for all the clubs I used to play for. That was not showing respect, was it?”

It seems nobody told Carlos that Manchester City’s number one focus is and always will be trying to get out of the shadow of their more successful neighbours. Even when funded by a billionaire and aiming for the pinnacle of football, the first thing on their mind was Manchester United. They say a picture paints a thousand words. In this case only one is needed – Bitter!

The Phil Collins fan committed what was dubbed a ‘forearm smash’ on Portsmouth’s Michael Brown last night, sending the midfielder crashing to the floor.

Today the FA had the chance to show their consistency, after charging and banning Rio Ferdinand last month for a much lesser offence, but as usual they’ve bottled it.

Sky Sports News are reporting that “Gerrard will not face any action from the FA.

The scouse DJ beater seems to be immune to the laws of the game as well as the laws of the real world. Well done the FA for showing your complete lack of credibility once again. Do the rules only apply to red shirts with devils on them?

The incident was quickly picked up on by the tabloids and the media was consistent in its belief that Ferdinand should be banned. He was charged and banned for 3 games, extended to 4 games on appeal after a successful media witch hunt.

Last night Steven Gerrard committed a much worse offence. He committed what was dubbed a ‘forearm smash’ by ESPN commentators on Portsmouth’s Michael Brown.

I’m no great fan of Michael Brown. After his sickening attempt to break Ryan Giggs‘ leg two seasons ago I’d love to have a crack at him myself, but this is about consistency.

Steven Gerrard must be punished for this offence. He escaped punishment for a red card offence last week after sticking two fingers up to the referee after the referee unbelievably stated that he’d seen the incident and didn’t deem it worthy of further punishment. This time though, the FA have to act or they risk showing themselves up to be not just inconsistent but also incompetent.

If the FA are anything like the English justice system; Gerrard will probably escape punishment after arguing that he was getting his retaliation in early, as he did when he cowardly attacked a nightclub DJ.

The Manchester United boss saw his team win in the San Siro in February and will host the Italian giants in Manchester tonight.

Beckham started the first leg, but has not not made the starting lineup for Milan since.

“He has not started a game since the last time he played us,” the United manager pointed out. “I don’t know if Beckham will play. I haven’t got him down in my conclusions.”

Whether this is a ploy by the United manager remains to be seen.

Tensions are obviously still high between Terry and Bridge as indicated by the non handshake before kick off. Terry put his hand out to shake Bridge’s hand, but the City player blanked the disgraced former England captain and walked right past him.

When the game kicked off there were boos and whistles for Bridge, who was the innocent victim in the whole scandal involving his ex Vanessa Perroncel. Most fans would recognize this and leave Bridge alone, but Chelsea fans, classless as they are, chose to show as much respect as their big man™ captain JT. Utterly despicable, but not altogether surprising.

Thankfully their team got a pasting on the pitch thanks to two goals each from Craig Bellamy and mercenary Carlos Tevez, giving us a huge boost to our title hopes.

Craig Bellamy told Sky Sports what he thought of Terry in his post match interview.

“I think you guys make a lot more of it, you know, em, I know what JT’s like, and nothing surprises me about him, so I’m not going to comment on that guy, em, I think everyone in football knows what the guy’s like.”

Click here to see Bridge snub Terry.

The combative midfielder has been in good form for the bitters this season, but appears to have had one or two knocks on the head judging by his latest words.

“I noticed from the moment I arrived in Manchester how many Blues there were compared to Reds,” he told the club’s official website.

It’s a strange comment for a number of reasons.

The first reason being that it simply isn’t true by any stretch of the imagination.

The second being that City regularly fail to fill their stadium. If there are so many City fans walking around on a daily basis why are they not in the council house on match days?

The third and most telling reason why De Jong’s comments are full of delusion is that Manchester United have enjoyed higher attendance figures than their bitter neighbours for over 70 years. This included periods out of the top flight and even several years where United shared Maine Road with City. That’s right, we had higher attendances than them in their own stadium!

So a big well done to Nigel De Jong for playing up to the berties and admitting to the world that he’s as deluded as they are.

The former Manchester United star is now at Italian side AC Milan, who United will play in the Champions League on Tuesday, and Giggs believes the way he has looked after himself means he can prolong his career beyond that of other players.

Both players are known for looking after their bodies off the pitch. And both have maintained their fitness to play at the highest level into their mid-thirties. Giggs though, has always shied away from the limelight whereas Beckham has thrived on it. Giggs says this hasn’t affected their friendship.

“We are different in the sense he has been in the limelight, front page and back, while I prefer to keep myself to myself,” said Giggs.

“But I still speak to him. He has not changed as a person.

“He has always loved football. He has always been dedicated and that is still the same now.

“Like myself, Becks looks after himself.

“He is naturally fit and is a natural athlete, so I am not surprised he is still going at all.

“In fact I reckon he will keep going for another three or four years.”

The outspoken forward was allegedly struck from behind by the fan and fell to the floor holding his head, and the attacker was moved on by club doormen.

A witness told The Mirror: “He whacked him from behind and Craig fell to the floor. Bouncers jumped in straight away and the guy was carted off.”

Bellamy is no stranger to cowardly attacks. He assaulted a defenceless Manchester United fan while stewards held his arms behind his back during United’s 4-3 win over noisy neighbours City. And was hit by a coin during his team’s Carling Cup defeat to United.

Is karma coming back to haunt Craig? Or has his mouth finally got him into trouble?

For those that don’t know what this means, it’s a reference to the fact that Liverpool fans’ actions that contributed to the Heysel stadium disaster resulted in the banning of all English teams from entering European competitions. Everton were considered favourites that year, but the ban meant they couldn’t enter and the winners were Steaua Bucharest of Romania.

In simplest terms, Liverpool fans are using the death of Juventus fans to mock Everton fans. Whilst not being altogether surprising, it is another show of contempt from Liverpool fans who will mock every tragedy going while at the same time calling for “Justice for the 96″.

Similar to the Spirit of Shankly (SOS) group calling for the dismissal of Tom Hicks Jr. for insulting one of their members which they described as “objectionable behaviour”, just months after having a good ol’ Munich sing song at their end of season party. Apparently their definition of “objectionable” changes to suit their agenda. If a more hypocritical set of fans exists I have yet to see them.

The Tigers were the better team for long spells and will feel their point was earned. they may even feel they could have gone on and won it, with man of the match Stephen hunt tormenting Chelsea down the left wing.

Chelsea’s failure to take the 3 points means the gap has been closed from a possible 4 points, to just 2.

Manchester United’s dominant display at Arsenal on Sunday put the pressure on Chelsea and was a real show of intent from the Champions, who will go top of the league on Saturday if they can beat Portmouth at Old Trafford.

Chelsea meanwhile, will host Arsenal at Stamford Bridge. A Chelsea win could put Arsenal’s title ambitions to bed, while a win for Arsenal would swing the title pendulum back in United’s favour, with Chelsea still to visit Old Trafford.

It will come as a surprise to those naive pundits who had already crowned Chelsea as champions earlier in the season. Just how often will they write off sir Alex Ferguson‘s men before they learn?

Subs: Kuszczak De Laet, Gibson, Valencia, Giggs, Owen, Berbatov.

Arsenal

Almunia
Sagna Gallas Vermaelen Clichy
Fabregas Song Billong Denilson Nasri Rosicky
Arshavin
Subs: Fabianski, Walcott, Ramsey, Silvestre, Eboue, Traore,

Here we go through the England captain’s catalogue of shame and argue that he should be stripped of the arm band by Fabio Capello.
2001
Terry went on a five hour bender with Chelsea colleagues culminating in Heathrow airport where they stripped naked, shouted abuse and vomited in front of American guests as they watched television coverage of the 9/11 attacks in New York. Their hotel manager described their actions as as ‘utterly vile’, while then Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri admitted ‘they had no decency or respect.’

2002
Terry was charged with assault after an altercation with a nightclub bouncer. He admitted to throwing a punch at the victim, but a jury cleared him after he claimed self defence.

2002
Terry was caught on CCTV being ejected from a club after urinating into a glass.

2005
After one of his flings with women that were not his wife, Terry had the following to say:

‘I really regret what I’ve done to Toni. I’ve misbehaved and slept with girls behind her back and that’s not right. She knows about it all now and we’re moving on. I’m not going to cheat on her ever again’.

2005
Two months after insisting he’d never cheat on his wife again, he was caught having sex in his car with a 17 year old girl who had asked for his autograph in the street.

2007
Terry was once again so drunk that he urinated on the floor of a club, in between European Championship qualifying games. England famously failed to qualify for the 2008 tournament.

2009
An email is circulated by John Terry’s people, inviting offers of sponsorship using the England captaincy as a promotional tool, or a cash cow if you like.

‘Are you looking for a leader to represent your brand?’ it stated: ‘The FIFA 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa is fast approaching! With this in mind Riviera Entertainment is identifying suitable commercial endorsement opportunities for its client John Terry for the period building up to the finals and beyond. John Terry is available to create effective brand awareness and endorse products and services globally.’

2009
Terry engages in a cloak and dagger routine involving £10,000 in cash and an unauthorized tour of Chelsea’s training ground. Terry later claimed the money went to charity, but that seems to contradict the video footage in which Terry insisted that the club couldn’t find out about the arrangement.

2010
Details emerge of a “super-injunction” that was lifted by a judge. The injunction related to an affair Terry had with the ex girlfriend of Wayne Bridge, Vanessa Perroncel – the mother of his 3 year old son. It’s understood that when the couple split up last Summer, Terry fancied his chances and moved in for the kill while Bridge moved north to Manchester City. the judge lifted the injunction as he believed Terry was more worried about the financial implications than anything else. It is also alleged that Terry impregnated Miss. Perroncel and later arranged an abortion.

It’s now believed that there is growing unrest amongst his England team mates as they believe Terry has finally crossed the line. Apart from Wayne Bridge obviously being against the England captain, there are believed to be a number of other senior players who have had enough of Terry.

So just how long can he keep hold of the captain’s armband?

And should he give up the arm band before it’s taken from him?

Arsenal self destructed in the game, giving away a penalty and then scoring an own goal to hand victory to United, but rather than criticize his own players for lacking concentration, Wenger accused Fletcher of systematically fouling his players throughout the game.

Without naming Fletcher directly, Wenger had the following to say:

“players who play only to make fouls. And who are never punished, who make repeated fouls, and are never punished. And who get out of the game without a yellow card.”

Sir Alex believes this is where Wenger is wrong.

“That is where Arsene lets himself down,” Ferguson said.

“What he said was disappointing and actually, I don’t think he believes it for a minute.

“Everyone knows that Darren Fletcher is not a dirty player or a physical player. He is not built that way.

“But he can win the ball and his timing and energy to get to it is fantastic. You can’t call that a fault.

“Being able to tackle properly is a great part of the game.”

The Arsenal manager was subjected to abusive chants when he came to Old Trafford in August, and Sir Alex is hoping to avoid a repeat of that incident at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

“Sometimes, I can’t make out these chants but I know there’s been some terrible abuse from our fans to Arsene Wenger and there must be a line drawn.

“And I think that they must know that ­themselves.”

The Italian chose the easy option and Terry was confirmed as captain, but was it the right decision?

At the time I thought the other choices would make far better captains. Rio Ferdinand had just led Manchester United to Premier League ad Champions League glory, whilst Steven Gerrard had dragged Liverpool to a Champions League win a few years earlier, albeit with a dive or two along the way.

John Terry had won back to back titles with Chelsea in 2004/2005 and 2005/2006. But they were won when Arsenal and United were in transitional periods and Chelsea were signing players left right and centre, spending hundreds of millions of pounds in the process. His successes are arguably less impressive that Gerrard and Ferdinand.

Nevertheless, we move on and we accept the decision of the manager and support the team. But it soon became clear that maybe his life off the field meant he was unsuitable to be a leader on the field.

He is apparently a serial cheater, having hit the headlines for that reason several times. Thelatest girl he’s alleged to have been nobbing is the ex girlfriend of Manchester City left back Wayne Bridge. ironically, Bridge had spent last Summer trying to convince Terry to join him in a big money move to Eastlands.

What effect does this have on his ability to be the England captain?

Would you have faith in a man who had been scuttling the girlfriend of one of your team mates? Would you trust his integrity as a leader and respect him as a footballer and as a man? The answer is of course no.

Cheating isn’t his only vice though. Only a few months ago he was caught on camera being paid 10 grand for a tour of the Chelsea training ground. And not long before that his representatives were shamelessly pimping the England captain around to any potential advertiser who wanted to take advantage of him and his role within the England team.

This is not how a leader should behave. He has shown time and time again that he is a dishonest man, motivated by sex and money who is not to be trusted.

The other candidates have previous form too of course. Rio Ferdinand was guilty of missing a drugs test, while Steven Gerrard chins DJ’s who won’t play Phil Collins, but neither of those indiscretions compare to what Terry has done. He has destroyed his integrity as captain once and for all.

He has let himself, his club and his country down and should be stripped of the England captain’s armband immediately.

The City fanatic will be in mourning after they were beaten 3-1 at Old Trafford, but Gallagher believes looking good on the touchline is an all important asset for any manager.

‘Mancini looks good but then, all Italians are cool. He’s certainly cooler than that Taggart from across the road – he’s a top manager and all that but he looks like a dustbin-man.’

This sharp wit is a trait present in all Manchester City fans. I’m sure you were all in stitches when reading the comments, just as I am.

When details of the presentation for “Best Dressed Manager Of The Year Award” are available I’ll be sire to keep you updated.

His first error came when he welcomed Uwe Rosler into the Manchester United hall of fame, instead of Manchester City.

His second and arguably worse judgement error was his boast last week that it was a matter of “when, not if, we’re at Wembley having beaten Man United yet again!”, only for City to lose after being thoroughly outplayed over two legs.

It’s thought that Sir Alex Ferguson used Cook’s comments in the dressing room before yesterday’s derby and that his words inspired United to victory.

City’s owners have reportedly began to wonder whether he’s the right man to take City forward and he could get the boot as early as the end of the season.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge-0txBMgqo

I bet they regretted taking the seats when Rooney popped up with the winner in injury time.

Full size

The best one of all, that I exposed last week, is that all City fans are from Manchester.

It was exposed again last night, as 38 coaches were parked on the AWAY car park during the game. Amazingly, they weren’t from Manchester.

I couldn’t believe it either, but apparently City fans came from Cheltenham, Blackpool, Preston, Hazel Grove and The Wirral, amongst other places. If we assume there’s 50 people on each coach, that’s 1900 fans out of a total of 9000 that definitely travelled from outside of Manchester.

Another interesting part of the night was the way they sang “This is our City”. And they proudly showed how they own the City when their “firm” of about 50 marched down the road, surrounded by a police escort of about 100, which they had asked for!

Still, ask any City fan what happened last night and you’ll hear stories of how they ran United all over the place.

It just goes to show you that the one thing you need to be a troo bloo is the ability to tell a good lie.

Gary Cook

“This football club will be without doubt the biggest and best in the world,” Cook said.

“People don’t like to hear it but I’ll make no excuses for saying it, and I will never stop saying it because I truly believe it with the resources and capabilities that we have – and when, not if, we’re at Wembley having beaten Man United yet again!”

Roberto Mancini

“When we go to Old Trafford, we will take that banner down,” he said. “This is the last year because we will win.”

“I feel I’ve shown I’m at the right club now. Everyone knows how important the fans are and, if I make them happy, it’s an honour.

City is my club now, a place where I feel part of everything.”

Apart from not knowing when to shut up, it displayed yet another dig at united fans following his acrimonious move across the red/blue divide.

Now I’m wondering whether he still feels he made the right decision.

After scoring 3 goals over 2 legs of football against us and still finishing on the losing side, we’ve proven once again that there are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s Manchester United.

♫ This is how it feels to be City, this is how it feels to be small.

This is how it feels when your team wins nothing at all, nothing at all. ♫

1, Alex Ferguson’s arrogance, contempt and lack of respect for all other clubs.

That’s SIR Alex Ferguson to you son. Sir Alex is one of the most respected men in the game today. Whenever a manager is sacked or under pressure they can rest assured they’ll get a friendly phone call from him offering his support in their time of need. He is the master of building the siege mentality that gets our players thinking the world is against us, because it forces them to fight back and respond with win after win after win. You don’t become the greatest manager in the world by accident. You do it through hard work, dedication and excellent handling of the media.

2, United fans are arrogant and conceited, with contempt and a lack of class, there is nothing worse than a glory hunter rubbing your nose in it when they do not even know their own clubs history.

This coming from a fan of a club who have suddenly become the richest club in the world and automatically assume that they deserve success? Pull the other one. We’re one of the most successful clubs in the world and have earned our pace among football’s elite. All City have done is won the lottery and they think they deserve their success. Even before the lottery win they were a classless bunch so have no right to call us the same. The constant Munich chants and airplane gestures have become a common feature of every derby match as City fans revel in the mocking of the dead including one of their own. Remind me, who doesn’t know their own history?

3, Rio Ferdinand‘s testing positive for drug use.

Rio Ferdinand never tested positive for drug use. He missed the drugs test completely, same as Christian Negouai of Manchester City. So not only do you not know your own history, you’ve also not properly researched your piss poor article.

4, Eric Cantona’s flying kick at a football fan.

Eric was kicking racism out of football.

5, Roy Keane ending the careers of other football players and admitting to it in his autobiography.

Roy Keane didn’t end the career of any player. I’m going to take a wild guess and assume you’re talking about Alf Inge Haaland. If so, Haaland retired due to an injury to the opposite knee that Keane kicked, so once again you should probably research more before writing this drivel.

6, United’s players continuously crowd referee’s when results go against them in groups.

This is one I can never quite understand. Every team in the country does exactly the same thing and we’re not even the worst for it. Try harder.

7, Pro United media banging on about and arse-licking United 24/7.

This one is even stranger because the media is full of ABU halfwits who usually try to slag United off at every opportunity. The reason for this is that most ex players of other clubs go on to become bitter pundits, angry because they never won anything, while ex United players often go on to become managers because they know what success tastes like and they want more. The media couldn’t be MORE against united if it tried.

8, United and fans milked profit off the Munich disaster and still do to this very day through merchandise and publicity, Ebay approved.

Is that the excuse you City fans use when teaching children as young as 5 to do the airplane gestures and Munich chants? It’s funny because you were all giving it the chants and gestures inside the ground, but when there was fresh air between you and United outside the council house last week you all did a runner in the opposite direction like the bunch of cowards you are. Run off your own patch and hiding in the nearby Asda, how embarrassing.

9, United neglected the survivors of the Munich disaster and their families.

This one I can’t argue with. Some of the treatment they got was truly shocking. But I struggle to believe that’s a reason why fans of other clubs hate us.

10, United’s players always find a higher level of arrogance but none more than Rio ferdinand, Gary Neville and turncoat scouser Wayne Rooney who would probably sell his own mother down the river for glory.

Rio Ferdinand is one of the most down to Earth footballers in England. Anyone who sees a short interview with him can tell that. He doesn’t have an arrogant bone in his body.

Gary Neville is a red through and through. If he played for any other club I’m sure I’d hate him, but because he’s such a blatant United fan it’s impossible not to love him. I ‘d imagine City fans would feel the same if anybody was like that at their club. Unfortunately for them they don’t have any players like that, because they’re a team of mercenaries and has beens.
11, United have fleeced many European clubs for decades by going behind their backs and approaching their young players and their families before their respected clubs can offer then professional contracts, abuse of position and lack of respect.

I’m sorry. Is offering young players the chance to play for one of the biggest clubs in the world illegal? No it isn’t, so United have done absolutely nothing wrong. On the contrary, they’ve given youngsters the best possible chance to make it as a professional footballer by bringing them to a training ground with some of the best facilities in the world, and giving them the chance to pay alongside football legends.

12, Most recently against Hull City, a Hull City player lay in pain in the six yard box right infront of Wayne Rooney and what does he do?, Wayne Rooney scores and celebrates without a care in the world for a fellow professional.

hull City had the chance to put the ball out of play, but chose to play on. Why should Rooney have kicked the ball out when he was in a great goalscoring position? It’s up to the referee to stop the game, and then only for head injuries. Rooney was right to play to the whistle as I’m sure you’d have said if it were a City player who scored.

13, After Rio Ferdinand delibrately injured Hull City player Chris Fagan as television footage proved, Rio Ferdinand denies any wrong-doing just so he can play in the second leg of the Carling Cup vs Manchester City.

I think “injured” is a strong word for a little slap. I’d imagine RIo has a very strong case, considering Javier Mascherano did exactly the same thing last month and was not punished.

So as yo ucan see, this is an example of your typical run of the mill Manchester City fan. Bitterness, delusion and ignorance.

They’re not know as “The LIARS” for nothing.

As a United fan I’m safe in the knowledge that my club is renowned around the world for a tradition of playing attractive attacking football. That our success was built on hard work on and off the pitch and spending only what we earned. Anything City achieve in the near future will be hollow success because it’s only come as a result of a man with a dodgy human rights record who wanted a toy to play with. City would win the league for the next ten years in a row and still won’t be close to United in terms of global appeal and trophies won. So think on City fans, your day may well be coming, but you’ll never be a bigger club than United. We’re bigger than you in Manchester, England and all over the world. Always have been and always will be.

Even at a time when we were relatively unsuccessful, we were still bringing more fans to their own stadium than they were, which actually reflects the red/blue split in Manchester quite well. 70% red 30% blue sounds about right. Just watch when goals go in at both ends, all you can see are reds, reds and more reds.

On the pitch, it was Bryon Robson, Arthur Albiston and Mike Duxbury who did the damage as United eased to a 3-0 win.

Enjoy the show.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ha3Xhu8teQ

The Argentine scored both of City’s goals in the 2-1 victory at the Eastlands stadium, but Ferguson believes he shouldn’t have been on the pitch after a shocking challenge on Wes Brown.

Going for the ball in a 50-50 challenge with Brown, Tevez raised his foot and raked his studs down Brown’s thigh. Amazingly the referee didn’t even see fit to brandish a yellow card, never mind a red.

“Tevez should have been sent off really,” said Ferguson.

“Have you seen the tackle? He went over the top of the ball.

“He didn’t even get booked!”

The biggest and most idiotic lie of them all is that most Mancunians support City and all United fans are from outside of the City borders. You would think common sense would take hold of people being told such a lie, but alas the lie has spread and is repeated by  Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal fans and plenty of other clubs around the country.

Even on the face of it, the idea that Manchester United, arguably the biggest club in the world, cannot attract a local following is absurd. City fans will tell you that all of United’s fans are glory hunters, but even if that were true, would there not be any local glory hunters? This simple logic escapes most City fans, that’s why they’re affectionately known as “The Liars”.

Now for the facts.

Manchester United have had a bigger average attendance than City every single for the last 71 years. the last time City had a higher average attendance than us was in 1939. You can check this for yourself at the library.

It’s not just because we have a bigger stadium either. We shared Maine Road for eight years after the war and still managed to attract bigger attendances than them in each of those eight years IN THEIR OWN STADIUM. City wouldn’t come close to filling Old Trafford today. They only fill Eastlands when they play United.

I’ve lived in this City for decades and not once growing up, going through school, or in any place of work have I ever experienced an environment that had more City fans than United. We outnumber them everywhere I’ve ever been. In some parts of the City centre it’s even possible to find more Liverpool fans than City, that’s how ridiculous the lies are, but they continue to spout them.

So the next questions is obviously: Why do they put out such a poor lie that’s so easily shot down?

The truth is that it only became an issue once we became successful in the early 90′s. Before that point nobody cared where anyone came from because it didn’t matter. We were “also rans” in the league every season so City didn’t have much to complain about. Ever since Fergie turned us into the team that has dominated the last two decades of English football, City have come up with more and more lies about us due to their jealousy and bitterness.

They needed a stick to beat us with and because we do have one of the biggest fanbases in the world, possibly the biggest, they’ve turned that around into a bizarre theory that every United fan is a glory hunter from London or abroad. They conveniently forget about the half a century prior to our success where we still had much bigger attendances, even when we were relegated to the league below them.

So the next time you hear someone tell you that most Mancunians are City fans, ask them where they’ve all been hiding for the last 71 years because I’d love to know.

United are, have always been and always will be the best supported club in Manchester.

The Argentine mercenary celebrated in front of the United captain with his ears cupped, and Neville responded by flipping Tevez the middle finger.

Evans believes it could be Tevez’s own fault for misinterpreting Neville’s initial comments, or that someone has intentionally used the comments to wind him up.

After four years of living in England, he can still barely speak the language, so it wouldn’t be altogether surprising if his under developed brain had got the wrong impression.

“Gary and Carlos are not team-mates any more and they don’t have to be pals but I think this has all been lost in translation a little bit,” Evans told Sky Sports.

“I don’t think Gary said Carlos wasn’t worth £25million.

“He was just saying the manager usually gets these decisions right and we will get on with it.

“From what I hear, either Carlos has read it wrong or someone is winding him up and he has reacted.”

Nice of the City fan to film it for us. Also note the “MUNICH” chants. They’re a classy bunch.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=snRUfkB42LU

Here it is again from inside the United end.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oU4ep2uhXk

Now this is City’s cringeworthy Blue Moon, with a slight interruption from United’s red flare.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rV_B3-U_xU

So who wins? For me it’s a flawless United victory. United’s flare completely outshone (literally) City’s stage managed cringe fest.

United also won off the pitch, with City being run off their own patch all over Beswick. Some had a go but they were last season out of breath hiding in Asda.

It just goes to show that they all love the Munich chanting when there’s a pitch to separate us, but when they come face to face they get on their toes in the opposite  direction. Massive fans!

“I think this guy should never play football again. What’s he doing on the pitch?”.

“The injury is the result of a very bad tackle that is not forgivable.”

There was a very similar incident in last night’s game between Bolton and Arsenal, where William Gallas appeared to deliberately stamp on the foot of Mark Davies.

You can see this tackle below.

Shockingly the referee Alan Wiley waved play on. Arsenal proceeded to go up the other end of the pitch and equalize, but that’s not the point here.

The point is that Gallas’ tackle last night was arguably worse than last season’s tackle on Eduardo, yet we haven’t had any word of criticism from Arsene Wenger.

As usual he’s suffering from selective blindness, insisting “I have to see it again”.

I wonder if when he has seen the replay of the horror tackle, will he be telling the media that Gallas should never play again with the same ferocity he judged Martin Taylor with? Don’t hold your breath!

Chants of “Carlos Tevez is a blue, he hates Munich’s” were sung inside the ground throughout the game. And Radio Manchester were forced to apologize to their listeners after some giddy City fans got into their van outside the Eastlands stadium and repeated the same sickening chants.

The irony lost on on them is that ex-City goalkeeper Frank Swift was one of those tragically killed in the disaster in 1958, so by mocking us they’re also mocking one of their own. One would imagine they would know a little about their own history, but ignorance is bliss as they say. Even Leeds, famed for their hatred of us, behaved better than City did when they came to Old Trafford earlier in the month.

Kids as young as five and six were seen with their arms out doing airplane gestures at United fans, presumably taught to do so by their parents.

The lesson to learn from this is that there’s one thing money will never buy for City and that’s a touch of class. While the club sticks with its small time mentality and its fans mock the dead, they’ll never be anywhere close to Manchester United.

It’s just a shame the media aren’t as quick to report this as they are about the Wenger song.

The United boss was speaking ahead of the game at Eastlands tonight and thinks the fact that the Carling Cup would be City’s first trophy in 34 years has no bearing in games like these.

“It is a popular argument that this means more to City,” Sir Alex told the M.E.N.

“But, as far as I am concerned, it is a semi-final. It doesn’t matter how many you have played in, they are occasions you always want to do well in.

“The rivalry creates far more emotion. You can’t compare United and City to Rangers and Celtic, but we are obviously in the same City and they are also making a better fist of their league programme this year.”

The money grabber made the switch across Manchester in the summer, despite claiming he loved the club and the fans.

It hurts Evra to see his mate wearing the blue of City, but he’ll do all he can to keep a lid of the frisbee chaser tonight in the Carling Cup semi final.

“I am very excited about this game. I get a text from Carlos every day,” said Evra. “I congratulated him on his hat-trick against Blackburn but he replied that was just the warm-up for United! But I told him no chance.

“I will do the same to him as I did in the league. I remember when he shot and I made a tackle at the last second. The ball hit the post because I touched it,” Evra told the M.E.N.

“I have to do the same. I don’t want him to score against us. It is still painful when I see him wearing a Manchester City shirt.

“It was not easy for him to move because Carlos was a Manchester United fan in his heart. It was not easy for him. Now he is starting to play well and he is scoring a lot of goals.

“For me, he is a champion guy. I am not surprised how well he is doing because he has a great mentality and a great spirit. He showed he was a good player when he was at Manchester United and now he is doing the same at City.

“But I hope tonight he doesn’t show that type of attitude against us.”

The Arab owners have already shelled out hundreds of million of pounds of exppensive signings like Carlos Tevez, Emmanual Adebayor and Gareth Barry, but Beckham knows it takes a lot more than that to become as big as United.

“City will never be bigger than United. Being successful and one of the most recognised clubs in the world doesn’t come from the money. It’s about history.”

History is one thing City will never have. Chelsea have shown that when you spend your way to the title the success is hollow, then after a couple of home draws the fans are booing the team off the pitch again.

As soon as the arabs get bored with their plaything, City fans will be back to going to the council house dressed as blue plastic seats again.

The French left back believes United will be looking to edge closer to winning a trophy tomorrow night, whereas bitter rivals City will be more focused on beating us.

“We know the City people are talking about this game,” he said.

“But we are playing it to go one more step closer to winning the cup, maybe they are playing it to beat us. That is the difference between the two clubs.

“For us it is not just about beating Manchester City.

“Yes, it is an important game but Manchester United play a lot of big games.”

Evra also thinks the 4-3 derby win in September was the best atmosphere he’d ever experienced at Old Trafford, even better than against Barcelona.

“People always ask me what is the best atmosphere I have ever experienced at Old Trafford,” he said.

“Before it was Barcelona and the game against Roma.

“But when we beat City 4-3 it was crazy. Everyone was on the pitch at the end, the noise was incredible.

“More importantly, City had been doing well. But when they lost that game against us they started to struggle.

“If we win this match it might affect them again.”

The Manchester City player is hoping for revenge tomorrow when United travel to the council house stadium to face their bitter rivals.

The Argentina player admits the bitter rivalry between the two clubs adds to the tension (didn’t stop the money grabber crossing the divide though).

“What happened at Old Trafford earlier this season is still in our heads and this is the moment for revenge,” Tevez told the Daily Mirror.

“I want to play in this match for many reasons. It’s a semi-final, a derby and there’s a bitter rivalry between the two clubs.

“I believe this is a good moment for us to play a local rival like United, who never normally give anything to their opponents.”

He added: “In a semi-final over two matches and in a derby, anything is possible. But I think the key will be the return game at Old Trafford and we must ensure we get a good result at home.”

The Argentine labrador impersonator has been in good goalscoring form recently and that has prompted De Jong to claim that Tevez is a better forward than the likes of Wayne Rooney, Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba.

“It isn’t just about the goals he is scoring at the moment. Even before that his work rate and determination for the team made him a special player for us,” he told Sky Sports.

“Now the goals have started to come, I’d have to say that he’s the best forward in the league at the moment.

“Rooney is a fantastic player as well but, for me, Carlos has the edge.

“I know people will think I have to say that because he is a team-mate but Carlos is on fire at the moment. I wouldn’t swap him for anyone else.”

No Nigel. I don’t think you said that jus because he’s your team mate. It’s pretty obvious that the delusion of the fans spreads to the players.

The Argentine frisbee chaser was offered the chance to extend his stay at Old Trafford, but turned it down in favour of a massive payrise to move to our bitter neighbours.

“What Tevez is doing now is not an issue for me,” he told Sky Sports.

“We made a pitch, he didn’t take it, and he went to City. It’s no problem for us, we have moved on.

“It’s not the end of the world for us. He’s done well and so be it, but I’ve got no issues about it.”

Now it’s being suggested on several forums that the clubs should join together in a dual protest for maximum effect, but could it really work?

Our rivalry is among the worst in the country and I’m skeptical as to whether it can be overcome for a joint protest. Can we really forget the Munich chants? Can we really forget the airplane gestures? Can we really forget them throwing cups filled with shit on us? Can we really forget them rocking Alan Smith’s ambulance?

I for one can’t imagine Liverpool and United fans at Old Trafford in March caring about anything other than what’s going on on the pitch. For all the good intentions and planning and preparation, as soon as a bad tackle goes in or the first goal is scored, the protest will go out of the window and the rivalry will immediately be the main priority, and rightly so.

Why should we join them anyway? We protested when the Glazer’s were taking over our club, so much so that Glazer himself was rushed out of Old Trafford under a police escort. The scousers on the other hand were happy to bend over and take 12 inches of American meat as long as it meant getting more financial backing. We maintained our self respect from the very beginning, while they’ve only started wanting the American’s out when it was discovered they’re not much better than the Glazer’s.

So when someone asks you if you’d stand side by side with a Liverpool fan to protest against the Glazer’s, Hick’s and Gillett’s of this world, remember all those things mentioned above and tell them where to go.

It didn’t stop many people installing Liverpool as favourites for the title though. On the contrary, pundits were lining up to give Liverpool their backing for the title and end 20 years of pain. A quick glance on the popular Liverpool forum Red and White Kop would have made you think number 19 was as certain as night following day, such was the giddyness emanating from down the East Lancs Road.

There was one man though, one man who predicted exactly what would happen. His name is Sir Alex Ferguson. He didn’t believe the consensus that Liverpool were now a force to be reckoned with. He didn’t believe they’d be challenging for the title this season. He knew they had performed well above their natural ability last season and knew they’d struggle to replicate that form this season.

“It will be hard for them to match last season, let alone improve on it. Other teams will know more about them,” he told The Sun.

“Liverpool had probably their best season for 20 years and still finished four points adrift.”

What will you find if you go back to the same Liverpool forum right now?

“Due to high stress on the server the forum is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.”

I’m unsure if the stress relates to the fans or the server the forum is hosted on, but one thing is for certain, Sir Alex Ferguson was spot on about Liverpool and now their fans forum, just like their team, is in meltdown.

We all know they’re a massive club with massive fans, and it appears Mancini has now heard about how massive they are too.

“The potential is massive, there are strong teams and historic rivals that have always dominated the league” he told Il Corriere Dello Sport.

The City boss also praised United for how well we’ve coped without Ronaldo, and believes we’re an institution that will never die.

“As for United, they sold Ronaldo, but they are still winning. They are like Milan without Kaka. They are immortal.”

The Inter Milan cast-off said: “I don’t believe United dominate the Premier League as much as they used to because now you have Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal plus City and Aston Villa, so many teams who can finish in the top four.

“And I think that has made it really difficult for United to dominate as they used to. They don’t look as strong as they did.”

It’s hard to imagine how a team can be more dominant than winning the league 3 seasons in a row. We’re the only team to have done it since the inception of the Premier League era and we’ve actually done it twice.

It took Vieira 9 years to win 3 titles with Arsenal!

He’s probably still sore from being dominated by Roy Keane time and time again when he was with Arsenal.

The Blues have gone 12 games without defeat and Mcleish aims to extend that run at the expense of the champions.

“The big one for all of us who have played for Sir Alex is to beat him – but you’re not allowed,” McLeish told premierleague.com.

The Scot was returning praise that Sir Alex Ferguson gave him yesterday. He admits the main goal of all players that played under Ferguson is to beat him.
“I’ve never done it. We lost 1-0 at Ibrox in the Champions League when I was manager of Rangers and then got thumped 3-0 down the road.

“I’ve lost two games since I’ve been here at Birmingham – both 1-0 – so I’m getting closer.”

Mcleish also praised Ferguson for the way he mentors other managers.

“I do pick up the phone to him sometimes and I get phone-calls from him.

“We all like to think ‘I’m his best protégé’ or ‘I’m his best pal’ but he’s got millions and they are not only players who’ve played for him.

“The amount of managers who phone him or are friendly with him is incredible and they revere him.

The 37 year old guided Peterborough to two successive promotions and was then sacked in November. He has no been made Alan Irvine’s successor at Preston, but admits comparisons with the Manchester United manager will always be a weight on his shoulders.

I’m very, very ambitious and with my name I cannot afford to fail,” he told The Guardian.

“Pressure is there in any walk of life but you’ve got to try and be successful. If you win enough games you will be fine, if you don’t then you will be under pressure.

“But Preston have generally given their managers a chance. History suggests that and that was a big part of me coming here. The club has a fantastic tradition, is very stable and has a good base of Championship players with a mix of experience and youth.”

After almost 5 decades out of England’stop flight, Darren is hoping to bring Preston back to the summit of English football.

“Hopefully we can go one better [than last season] and get to the promised land.”

We are eight points off the play-offs with a game in hand and that bodes well. The aim definitely is to get there and, along with winning games, my philosophy is to entertain and that’s never going to change.”

“The fans work all week, they pay their money, and I want them to be proud of watching Preston.”

Arsenal were all but out of the title race after being demolished 3-0 at home to Chelsea in November, but a combination of poor form from United and Chelsea, together with Arsenal recent resurgence has seen them climb the table and get back into contention for the title.

“Arsenal will give us the best challenge this season,” he told the London Evening Standard.

“They play well, they are playing better and always have confidence in all the games. They are at their best this season.”

The centre half has had limited opportunities at Chelsea this season, but believes Carlo Ancelotti will give him the opportunity to fight for his place.

“The coach has the confidence of all the players,” he said. “We have a group capable of winning the Champions League and Premier League.

“It’s been difficult for me because we have a good defence, but I am very happy to battle for my place, get chances to play and stay in the group.

“I am very happy to stay here, to play for Chelsea and to play more and more games. We have been playing our best football this season since I came to the club.”

Don’t forget to check out Football Media Guide for all the latest blogging tips.

Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal have all been on the receiving end of losses from so called smaller clubs and Ferguson believes the changing nature of the game is the cause.

He pointed to the job Birmingham boss Alex Mcleish has done to backup his theory of an improving league. The Blues are sitting in 8th position in the table , just a point behind struggling Liverpool.

“There is an improvement in the league. You have to assess it that way, ” the United boss told The Sun.

“Look at Birmingham for instance and the fantastic job Alex McLeish has done. He only had a small amount of money to budget with when they came into the Premier League.

“He brought Barry Ferguson down from Rangers and brought in the centre-half from Cardiff (Roger Johnson).

“He has used players who have been there for a long time now. What he has done has been marvellous.”

“They are now eighth in the league and have gone 11 games without defeat.

“It tells you that Birmingham had to improve as a team from last season. They have done that remarkably well.

“The general standard of the league has improved. That is why you are getting so many different results.”

The former United midfielder was the subject of a bid totalling £14Million by his ex Inter Milan boss, but rejected the offer citing that happiness is more important than money.

“It’s not a fact of money. First of all is the family, and second, I have made a decision and I want to respect it, that is what I feel and Estudiantes is the place where I feel comfortable,” he told Sky Sports.

“If I would have accepted this offer I wouldn’t have been true with my convictions, with myself and with the people.”

Veron’s agent Miguel Perez confirmed that the deal involved £7M for Estudiantes and £7M to sign Veron on a twelve month contract.

“Veron said to me that he received a phone call from Mancini and that he had offered him £7million and the same to Estudiantes for a one-year contract.

“In addition, that amount would have got duplicated if he would have continued at Manchester City during 2011.”

Manchester City have issued a statement on their official website saying they’re in talks with Greater Manchester Police, the City Council’s Safety Advisory Group, Manchester United and the Football League to discuss whether the game should do ahead as planned.

They have warned fans who are travelling from far away for the match to stay put until further notice, rather than travel all the way to Manchester for the game to be postponed.

Make sure you stay up to date with the latest travel and weather information or you could be wasting your journey.

Update: The game has officially been called off.

The rearranged first leg will now be played on January 19 with the return at Old Trafford on January 27.

“We’ve only lost twice all season, despite everything that has been said and written about us, and that was one of them, in the 99th minute at Old Trafford,” Shay Given told The Times.

The official goal time was 95:27. More than three and a half minutes shy of the 99th minute.

The Irishman admits it took him a while to get over it. He went on to rewrite history by claiming Manchester City played well.

“It took me a good few weeks, even a couple of months, to get it out of my system,” he continued.

“We played so well that day and for them to get such a late, late goal – it was very difficult for everyone to swallow really.”

It seems Given has forgotten about United’s total domination of the second half. We had more possession, more shots, more corners, more territorial advantage, and the most important statistic of all – more goals!

The only reason the scoreline was so close is because Rio Ferdinand and Ben Foster decided to leave their brains at home that day. The scoreline flattered City when we could easily have won by 3 or 4 goals, such was our dominance.

And hopefully we’ll reignite that spirit on Wednesday and bounce back from the Leeds result by thrashing City.

Ferguson remembers the rivalry well. He knows exactly what it means to the fans and is looking forward to renewing the intense battles that the two clubs used to endure before Leeds were relegated from the Premiership.

“I don’t need to spell out to Manchester United fans and players what Leeds games have meant over the years,” Sir Alex said at today’s press conference.

“They were fantastic, feisty occasions every time we met, there was always a tinge of hostility hovering around the game and we always told the players to behave themselves on the pitch.

“I used to enjoy the games – they made us perform. We had some great games at Leeds because the atmosphere was always electric and our record was good – I think we only lost once there. They were two competitive teams then, but it’s a different United team now, and we just have to make sure we play our normal game.

“They’re bringing 9,000 fans, so it will be a brilliant atmosphere and a fantastic cup tie.”

Ferguson also found time to praise Leeds manager Simon Grayson and believes Leeds are a club with a bright future. the United boss believes it’s possible we could see leeds return to the Premiership if they continue to improve.

“I watched Leeds on TV against Liverpool in the League Cup and thought they did really well,” Sir Alex continued.

“Simon Grayson has done a fantastic job. He’s a former Leeds player and I think he’s reached his target in managing them. He has great motivation and his team are not letting him down – they’re playing really well at the moment.

“Leeds had some good players in the Premier League – Mark Viduka, Harry Kewell, Alan Smith –  but they had to sell them on, and that’s what happens if you are financially strained. If you sell your best players, you can bet your life that results change too.

“But I don’t think they’ll be too far from the Premier League in the next couple of years. It looks like they’re certain to promoted to the Championship next season and, with their manager’s drive and motivation, they have a great chance.”

The Manchester united boss has closed the gap on the London club to two points while Arsenal have also crept up on United, but Ferguson still believes it’ll be united or Chelsea running out as champions at the end of the season.

“The league is so tight now,” said Ferguson. “Teams are taking points off each other that you don’t expect. A consistent run from someone will give them a great chance.

“Our experience of run-ins is good and we can handle that part. Hopefully we can go on that kind of run.

“The team that does that will certainly have a big chance. We have got the experience to do it and we have got the players to do it. I think we are better placed than most teams in that respect. They all know that.

“At the start of the season I saw Chelsea as our biggest danger and I have not changed my mind on that.

“The important thing is to win the Wigan game which would put us a couple of points off the leaders coming into the New Year.

“I would have taken that considering all the defenders we have had injured.”

The often outspoken Ipswich boss thinks the length of time Hughes spent at Manchester United should have made him turn down the City job, in which he lasted 18 months.

”I’m disappointed for him of course I am,” he told Sky Sports News.

“I think when you’re involved with a club like United, as Sparky was over his career, you shouldn’t go to a club like City. I think you should try and get employment somewhere else. I think Sparky is probably better off.”

Keane did however, reserve praise for Hughes, who he believes to be a top manager.

“Hopefully he’s enjoying his break and he’ll come back because he’s a top manager,” he added. ”He did a great job at Blackburn and Wales. He’ll go on to be a top manager no doubt about that, but he’s probably better off out of City.”

The Manchester United captain has seen his side play without eight defenders and the first choice goalkeeper for the last few games, so he thinks when Chelsea lose the Salomon Kalou, John Obi Mikel, Michael Essien and Didier Drogba in January the effect will be minimal.

“Chelsea will lose some big players like Drogba and Essien but I don’t expect them to struggle. They will only lose their players for three or four league games; we’ve lost seven defenders to injuries this month.

“Chelsea were aware when they signed those players they might be called up every few years for the African Nations Cup, so they cannot complain about it.”

The competition doesn’t affect United, who don’t have any African players in the senior team, but Neville believes it would be a good idea to change in future the date of the tournament to fit in with the European leagues.

“Up to 31 Premier League players will soon be off to the competition – but the fact we’ve got no African players at the moment means it doesn’t bother us.

“I’ve heard talk about aligning the competition with the rest of the football calendar and it’d be sensible to do so.”

While many so called ‘experts’ were saying Liverpool would kick on from last season’s second placed finish and seriously challenge for the title, Sir Alex had his finger firmly on the pulse, saying they’d struggle to replicate their achievements of last season.

“It will be hard for them to match last season, let alone improve on it. Other teams will know more about them,” Ferguson told The Sun.

“Liverpool had probably their best season for 20 years and still finished four points adrift.”

He was also spot on about who our biggest challengers would be this season.

“It has to be Chelsea as the main threat. Ancelotti will change how they play.”

The Real Madrid striker has continued his extraordinary goalscoring record at the Santiago Bernabeu with an impressive 13 goals in only 12 games, and is enjoying his time in Madrid.

“I think Manchester United are doing very well this season – they have lost the last two games but they are still second in the league he,” told FIFA.com.

“What people think about me is their opinion but I really miss Manchester a little bit as I played there for six years and I left a few friends there.

“So I miss the club a little bit but I’m focused now at Real Madrid and I’m really, really happy there.”

Ronaldo is keen to catch up to Barcelona, who he regards as the best team in the world.

“Barcelona have won everything this year so they have to be the best club at the moment,” he added.

“Barcelona have a style of play and players who have been playing together for many years so they are an outstanding team. But we will do at our best at Real Madrid to win the league and Champions League. It’s going to be difficult but in

The Arsenal manager is upset that Michael Essien played in their 3-0 loss at the Emirates last week, and believes the Ghana midfielder should not have been on the pitch.

Essien refused to play for his country just three days before the Arsenal game and FIFA regulations dictate that he should have been ineligible.

Wenger said: “Essien didn’t play for Ghana but he still played against us, he was not entitled to do so. We will investigate to see if there has been a breach of the regulations.”

Chelsea have written it off as a non issue, but Sulley Muntari was refused permission to play for Inter Milan on the same day after he also refused to play for Ghana, so Arsenal will feel that have a strong case.

Whether they will proceed with it is another matter, as docking points from Chelsea would directly benefit Manchester United.

The media have all but crowned Chelsea as Champions over the past week after they beat Arsenal 3-0 at the Emirates, but they’ve come crashing back to Earth today after losing 2-1 at Eastlands.

We’ve now moved to within two points of Chelsea at the top of the table and we have our bitter blue neighbours to thank for it.

The defender acknowledges City’s growing threat as they build their squad, but insists that the winning mentality at United will keep them right near the top.

“You are aware of the shifts in power but we have always been up there, which is a good achievement,” Brown told Inside United.

“We set out to challenge for the title at the start of every season and to continue doing that we have to keep working hard.”

City will eventually challenge for the major honours, perhaps sooner rather than later if they keep up their current spending, but Brown wants to focus on United and not worry about City.

“City have got a lot of money to spend and have therefore bought good players and will probably continue to do so. That means they are going to be challenging – they have to be with the players they have.

“We have just got to keep doing what we are doing, continue improving and hopefully we can keep on doing as well as we have over the last few years.”

The Manchester United midfielder believes there will be a special atmosphere for the two legged tie next month and Scholes is looking forward to them.

“These games are certainly something to look forward to,” he said.

“Both matches will have great atmospheres and it would be fantastic to get through to the final by beating City.

The ginger Prince added that it’ll take time for City to become a force in the league and in Europe, but f they keep spending at their current rate their time will eventually come.

“There is a bit of a way to go before you think of Manchester City as a main rival in terms of the league and the Champions League.

“But they are definitely going forward and with the players and money at their disposal, I am sure, given time, they will be right up there.”

“Obviously I was disappointed, because I don’t think I deserved to be treated that way. When I was there, I was a hard-working and loyal player who gave my all,” he told The Sun.

The Argentine Labrador worked hard for us, scored some vital goals at vital times and was a valued squad player, but nobody can sign for our bitter rivals (bitter being the key word for those giddy fans) directly after leaving us and hope to be welcomed back to Old Trafford with open arms.

On top of that, he also slated our manager publicly on several occasions, promising to celebrate right in front of his face if he scored against us at OT.

Respecting the fans and respecting the manager go hand in hand. Claiming to respect the fans while simultaneously insulting our manager is a contradiction in terms and something Tevez has failed to grasp since leaving the club.

If he wants respect he should stop mouthing off about how badly he was treated. He won two Premier League winners medals and a Champions League winners medal during his two seasons at the club, so he doesn’t really have a leg to stand on.

On a somewhat unrelated note, his statistics at City are proving that Fergie was right not to shell out £25 million on him.

He has scored in just one Premier League game so far, the rest of his goals (a massive five in total) have come in the Carling Cup against inferior opposition.

His five goals in 1258 minutes give him a goal every 252 minutes.

Michael Owen‘s four goals in 687 minutes give him a goal every 172 minutes.

I think it’s now safe to say that we got the better deal.

United will take on City in two clashes for a chance to got to Wembley to play either Aston Villa or Blackburn Rovers in the final.

Hughes remembers a time when Sir Alex always played his strongest line up in the competition, but in recent times he’s used the Carling Cup to give the youngsters a chance to impress.

“Sir Alex never used to play weakened sides in the competition,” Hughes told sky sports.

“I seem to recall during my time at Blackburn they were a pretty strong side in the semi-final.

“We will have to wait and see. That is his decision.”

Nevertheless, Hughes is confident his City side can beat any eleven players Sir Alex sends out. And he has acknowledged the importance of getting to the final of a competition, after 33 years without a trophy.

“We will enjoy it,” he said. “Over two games we would back ourselves against anybody.

“We want to get to a Wembley final. This club has not had many experiences of that in recent times.”

He insists the club are heading in the right direction, even though recent results would seem to point to the opposite being true. Seven points from the last seven games is what has been garnered from seven straight draws. Whichever way you slice it, one point per game over the course of a season will get you relegated more often than not.

“We are at a point now where we are reasonably pleased with where we are. You can’t deny we are going in the right direction,” Hughes said.

“Comparisons are always made between ourselves and Chelsea. We started from a lot further behind. We need a little bit of time.”

The former United star left Old Trafford for a world record 80million this Summer, but insists he doesn’t want to make a return to Manchester wearing Madrid’s colours.

“I don’t want to play against Manchester. It will be a strange feeling if I play them.”

“Mr Ferguson has helped me a lot in my career. I was there six years and he taught me many things.

“I keep the same relationship with him. He’s a good friend of mine. I still have the same friends.

“I sometimes speak to Wayne Rooney, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Nani, Patrice Evra, Anderson.”

If United were indeed drawn with Real Madrid it would complete a hat trick of mouth watering cup ties. United have already been drawn against Leeds united in the FA Cup and Manchester City in the Carling Cup.

The Manchester City manager is confident his team is capable of beating all comers, including United, so can’t wait for the fixtures to come around.

“The whole of Manchester will be tuning in and we’re looking forward to some fantastic games,” Hughes said.

“We would have fancied ourselves against anyone in the draw, so bring them on.”

Despite Sir Alex Ferguson publicly stating that Tevez wasn’t worth the £25 million being asked for him, City fans believed they were getting one up on us – their bigger, more successful neighbours. The culmination of this delusion resulted in the now infamous “Welcome to Manchester” banner erected by City, featuring a picture of Carlos Tevez. I was the ultimate act of immaturity and for many it cemented their place as “a small time club with a small time mentality”, as Sir Alex expertly put it.

For all of Carlos’ effort during the course of matches, there wasn’t a significant amount of quality to his game, and while many fans would have liked to see him stay in the red shirt, his loss was certainly accepted as being negligible. His paltry 5 league goals in 29 league games last season illustrating the lack of end product he brought to our attack.

Nevertheless, City fans were in raptures when he signed on the dotted line for a reported £47 million and couldn’t wait to rub it in the face of United fans.

Fast forward a few months and the situation has changed completely. City fans are seeing Tevez for exactly what he is. Many of them are calling for him to be dropped from the starting line up and some are even saying he should be sold off asap.

It’s funny what a difference a few months can make, but they do have good reason to be disappointed.

Tevez has score 4 goals in 1022 minutes of football, including 13 starts and 1 substitute appearance. For £47 million you expect a hell of a lot better than that.

Contrast those statistics with Michael Owen – signed on a free transfer – who has scored 4 goals in just 540 minutes of football and you can see who got the better deal this Summer.

Owen – One goal every 135 minutes.
Tevez -  One goal every 255 minutes.

Michael Owen has been twice as effective as Carlos Tevez, despite being restricted mainly to substitute appearances. We signed a much better striker and saved £47 million the process.

But it gets better than that(unless your name is Bertie Magoo). Tevez has now revealed how tired he is of playing football. The work horse said yesterday he may quit football for good if Argentina win the World Cup next Summer.

“I have a contract with Man City until 2014, but I am thinking of retiring if Argentina win the World Cup.

“I am tired of football, really tired. I want to enjoy my family, to stop and have some quiet in my life. I have already won a lot. I am exhausted.

“I have lived in England for four years and I can’t say a word in English.

“Even my daughter talks in English! At night she asks me to tell her a story, and I have to invent one, but she laughs at me.

“But I am happy in England. I play golf after the training sessions and that relaxes me. And I spend as much time as I can with my wife and daughter.”

So, despite City’s best efforts, they have once again made a complete laughing stock of themselves and helped us confirm that Sir Alex pulled off a masterstroke by getting rid of the Argentine midget.

Two years ago we went out of the FA Cup semi final after the referee failed to award a penalty when Sylvain Distin blatantly floored Cristiano Ronaldo in the Portsmouth area. We won the Premier League and Champions League that season, but could we have repeated out treble triumph if not for incompetent refereeing? Impossible to tell, but we’d certainly have had a chance. Our semi final opponents would have been West Brom and the final opponent Cardiff City. We could probably put our reserves out and win that.

The following year and yet again a refereeing failure prevented us from progressing to the final. In the words of the BBC, “[Mike] Riley refused what appeared to be a clear-cut penalty when defender Phil Jagielka brought down Danny Welbeck“. If Riley had correctly awarded the penalty and it had been converted, we would have won the match 1-0 and progressed to the final to meet Chelsea.

Back to more recent events, another clear cut penalty was denied on Sunday, this time by Martin Atkinson. John Terry clearly had hold of Antonio Valencia‘s shirt and dragged him to the floor, but the referee and linesman waved away the protests. At the other end of the pitch, Atkinson gave a free kick for what is widely accepted to be a fair challenge. Chelsea scored from the resulting free kick with the help of Didier Drogba bringing down Wes Brown. Again, the referee saw nothing wrong.

Now I’m going to move away from specific incidents because every team can point to one off occasions where their team were wronged. We’re going to have to show that this isn’t just in isolated incident by looking at the statistics.

To get a fair sample group we’ll look back through four years of data. We’ve won three league titles during that period, so you would expect lots of red cards for opponents, lots of penalties for us and none for opponents.

_________________

Penalties

United penalties: 19

Opposition penalties: 12

Difference: +7

_________________

Liverpool penalties: 23

Opposition penalties: 11

Difference: +12

_________________

Chelsea penalties: 17

Opposition penalties: 9

Difference:+8

_________________

Arsenal penalties: 23

Opposition penalties: 9

Difference: +14

_________________

The statistcs are clear. Over the four years covering 2005 to 2009, Manchester United have benefited from penalties less than Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal.

_________________

Red Cards

United red cards: 10

Opponent red cards: 12

Difference: +2

_________________

Liverpool red cards: 7

Opponent red cards: 31

Difference: +24

_________________

Chelsea red cards: 17

Opponent red cards: 13

Difference: -4

_________________

Arsenal red cards: 13

Opponent red cards: 20

Difference: +7

_________________

So you can see from the results that both Arsenal and Liverpool have benefited more than us by having opponents sent off. In Liverpool’s case the difference is massive. They’ve had 25 more opposition players sent off than us in just a four year period. but if you go and read any Liverpool supporter forum, they’ll have you believe that the referees are working for United under orders from the Football Association.

Will these stats stop the myths being spread by bitter rival fans? Not a chance. But if a simple blogger like me can work out these stats, so can national newspapers. Why have we never seen these statistics on the back pages? Why have we never seen the conspiracy theories quashed once and for all?

The answer is simple. The name of Manchester United sells papers, especially when there’s controversy attached. Whenever United are the victims of a poor refereeing decision, it’s generally glossed over by the newspapers. Contrast that with when a decision goes in our favour and it’s the “same old United getting the decisions”.

The one positive we can save from this is that these theories wouldn’t be spread if we weren’t the dominant force in English football. Jealousy breeds bitterness and the fact that rival fans are willing to spread lies about our club, when they know very well how wrong they are, puts a smile on my face.

_________________

Statistics accurate as of November 10th 2009.

_________________

Wenger is regularly subjected to chants of “Sit down you paedophile” when visiting Old Trafford by a minority of fans. Campaigns have been started on several Manchester United forums over the years to stop the chant, with fans who sing it being criticized by the vast majority of reasonable supporters.

“”We have gone on the record several times about this disgusting chant. We don’t condone it and have appealed to fans several times in the past but to no avail,” said a United spokesman. “There are many chants that opposing fans find objectionable, and this is certainly one to which all decent supporters should object.”"

United have previously made attempts to curb the chant by publishing warnings in the matchday programmes. And Sir Alex has even suggested the police should do their job and arrest the offending fans inside the stadium.

A forum-wide campaign led by Sir Alex is said to be on the horizon, with a letter being sent to the many unofficial websites, official fanzines and supporters clubs. Failure to listen to the request could result in fans being ejected from Old Trafford and in extreme cases having their season tickets confiscated.