Cristiano Ronaldo once again proved critics why he is considered as one of the best players world by scoring two goals in the UEFA Super Cup match against Sevilla. The 2-0 win for Real Madrid gave them the first trophy of the season and it was largely due to the brilliance of Ronaldo. Coming up against the Spanish team, it was not surprising to see Ronaldo, who has scored a goal a game in the last five seasons, to score the winner in the match.
His exploits led him to receiving the man of the match award. It was chosen by none other than former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, who was in the stands to witness Ronaldo’s performance. Ferguson is widely credited with being the manager responsible for making Ronaldo into one of the best players of all-time. Ronaldo undoubtedly had the potential to develop into a great, but his qualities were fine tuned at United. After the match, the 29-year-old played his tributes to the squad by saying that he has been a huge influence in his career.
Ronaldo’s recent statements about returning to Manchester United one-day have sparked rumours about a possible return to Old Trafford in the coming seasons. Ronaldo lifted the UEFA Super Cup which was one of the trophies missing from his cabinet. “He made it easy for me to choose. Normally in a Cup Final it is difficult to choose a man of the match but Cristiano made it easy for me,” said Sir Alex Ferguson on his decision to choose Ronaldo as the man of the match. “This was a trophy I wanted because I haven’t won it yet,” said Ronaldo after winning the trophy.
Real Madrid have the possibility to win six trophies this campaign including the Champions League title.
Andres Iniesta has hailed the newly appointed Manchester United boss Louis Van Gaal saying that the 62-year Old has always been a great supporter of the emerging young talents.
Iniesta had played under Van Gaal when the latter was in charge at Barcelona and there have been rumours that he is willing to unite with the Dutchman again at Old Trafford.
Iniesta has never played club football outside Spain so far in his career. After spending his youth days at the Barcelona academy, he played his first match for the senior team of Catalan giants in 2002 and has been representing them since then.
Speaking about Van Gaal in one of his interviews yesterday, Iniesta said, “I had just started my career when he came at Barcelona, I was very, very young, but, the way he supported me, it was so heartening. And not only me, he has always supported the young talents, wherever he has gone.”
However, despite these words of Iniesta, it’s really hard to imagine him making a move to Old Trafford this summer.
First of all, there are still 4 years left for his contract to finish at Camp Nou and secondly, United would not play the Champions League football this summer after having finished 7th in the Premier league last season. So, Iniesta clearly has enough reasons not to part ways with Barcelona at the moment.
The Red Devils also would be benefitted more in the long term if they sign young playmakers rather than signing somebody like Iniesta who has probably passed his peak.
In the last couple of seasons, Iniesta’s form has been a little up and down. He hasn’t been able to create that much of an influence for Blaugrana in the La Liga.
In total, the veteran midfielder has made 337 league appearances for Barcelona.
Barcelona is still monitoring the situation of Aaron Ramsey despite Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger insisting his star Welshman is not for sale at any price.
Ramsey was a revelation for the North London giants last season where he finished as the club’s player of the season and also helped the Gunners end their eight year trophy drought by helping them to the FA Cup with the winning goal in extra time.
At 23 years of age, Ramsey has the best years ahead of him and his form for the club last season was one of the primary reasons that Wenger didn’t try to bring Cesc Fabregas back to the club from Barcelona.
With Fabregas headed for Chelsea after failing to nail down a starting place at Barcelona, the Catalan giants have turned their attentions to Aaron Ramsey whose versatility and ability to play across the midfield would give new manager Luis Enrique a lot of options.
Moreover, with the veteran Xavi entering the twilight of his career, Ramsey could be a long term solution to their midfield problems as well.
But the Spanish giants will have to compete with former manager Pep Guardiola and Bayern Munich to complete the signing of Wales’s captain if Arsenal were to sell.
Bayern are in the hunt for another midfield general with Toni Kroos attracting interest from Real Madrid, after his move to Manchester United was scrapped by incoming manager Louis van Gaal.
The Bavarians see the Welshman as the ideal replacement for the mobile Kroos who was a revelation in the last couple of years at the club but the club knows they will have to offer a huge sum to Arsenal if they want to prize the young player away from the Emirates Stadium before the end of the summer transfer window.
Manchester United striker Robin van Persie has compared interim manager Ryan Giggs to club legend Sir Alex Ferguson. After Ferguson decided to announce his retirement as a football manager last summer, it was already heavily speculated that some of his famous players may decide to step into his shoes. Ryan Giggs was mooted as a possible successor even before Ferguson announced his retirement. However, the opportunity to succeed the Scot went to David Moyes, who failed miserably and was sacked from the job after just 10 months in charge of the club.
Giggs was appointed as the interim manager for the final four matches of the season. He started the managerial reign in impressive fashion after beating Norwich 4-0 at Old Trafford. For most of the 90 minutes, it looked like United were their old self. Giggs used a lot of tactics that were famous from the club during the regime of Ferguson. This has led to Dutchman van Persie saying that Giggs, who may finally decide to hang up his boots at the end of the season, reminds him of Ferguson in several ways.
Van Persie worked with Ferguson for only one season, but they were extremely successful together after lifting the league title, which also proved to be the Scot’s last.
“I witnessed two team meetings as I came in a bit late. The one from the last game against Sunderland, and Tuesday’s game, were incredible. They were Sir Alex-esque. He’s been brilliant,” said the striker, who has also dismissed suggestions that the players did not give their 100% under Moyes. Van Persie was one of the players rumoured to be unhappy with the training regime and tactics of the former Everton man, who was sacked after a 2-0 defeat against his former club at Goodison Park a few weeks ago.
Newcastle United and Manchester United were involved in a heated battle during the late 1990s. The Manchester club came out on the successful side on more than one occasion, which left Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan walking out of the club in 1997.
Now, former chairman of the club, Freddy Shepherd says that Newcastle tried to get Sir Alex Ferguson has the replacement, but the later understood that the Scot was just using them to get a much bigger deal at Old Trafford. Ferguson was one of the young and upcoming managers with a big reputation back then.
He had achieved a lot of success with United, which prompted speculation about a possible move to Newcastle. Shepherd has said that Ferguson’s advisers were very confident about sealing a move to Newcastle, but it was not until later that the north-east club found out that such interest was generated only to get much bigger contract at Old Trafford. Newcastle have since been on the decline and even relegated to the Championship for one season. They are now back in the top flight, but nowhere near enough the heydays achieved during the Shepherd era.
Newcastle then went and brought in former Liverpool striker Kenny Dalglish as their manager. He also managed to go close to winning the title, but was ultimately beaten by United.
“When Keegan left we tried to get Ferguson to Newcastle as his replacement. We had talks with his advisors at the time. We soon realised there was no way he was going to come to Newcastle. He was just trying to get an increase in salary. We knew we were just being used. We were ambitious, we tried to get him – at least we tried,” said Shepherd, who also lambasted the club for still retaining manager Alan Pardew after his lack of discipline.
David Moyes has finally accepted that he is finding the task of replacing Sir Alex Ferguson much harder than he initially thought. Moyes was appointed as the replacement for Ferguson, who stepped down from his role as the Manchester United manager after 26 years in charge.
During this period, he transformed United into one of the best clubs in the world. There are also top of the charts – after having overtaken Liverpool recently – in terms of the number of league titles won by English clubs.
However, Moyes has been struggling since taking over in the summer with his worst result coming this weekend against archrivals Liverpool. The former Everton manager has been struggling with the unwanted record of not having won many matches against the traditional top four. His United team were extremely poor against a resurgent Liverpool team, who were coming into the match with ambitions of the title. Steven Gerrard scored two goals – both from the penalty spot, while Luis Suarez added a third for Brendan Rodgers’ team, but the score could have been even worse for United.
After the match, Moyes said that he did not expect this kind of a poor performance from the team. He also admitted that the United job has been much tougher than he thought.
“We didn’t play well, Liverpool deserved their victory. Some decisions were correct, some were incorrect. but overall I’m disappointed. It is difficult to explain it. We have a lot to do to do both those things. I think the job was always going to be hard. Yes, it is harder (than I thought) I would say so. We have to play better and make ourselves harder to beat, harder to play against and we are also going to have to make sure we are creating and taking more opportunities,” said Moyes.
David Moyes has struggled trying to keep up with all the expectations and the legacy that has been left behind by his predecessor Sir. Alex Ferguson after a number of disappointing losses not only in the Premier League but also getting eliminated from the FA Cup on January 5.
Manchester United is located outside of the top 5 spots of the Premier League which is a huge change from the previous season when they were claimed as the champions of England.
Even though the team of Old Trafford have been going through so much modifications in the squad and in the staff, the former coach of the club Sir. Alex Ferguson has not given up hopes about Manchester United as according to him, anything can happen.
“I’m not writing anyone off, Tottenham have started coming forward a bit now, Liverpool are doing very well, Everton are doing very well, Manchester City are doing fantastic and Arsenal are top of the league’’.
“With José Mourinho you expect Chelsea to win games playing ugly but all these teams are in there. United are in behind chasing. United can do anything. They have got that great philosophy and history, they will always do well’’.
Sir. Alex Ferguson even stated that he enjoys watching Manchested United play and despite the final outcome of the match, he still enjoys it with the fans of the stadium.
“I can watch the team whenever I want and I’ve really enjoyed it. I’m going as a supporter now and instead of suffering with the team, I’m suffering or enjoying it with the fans. I’m really enjoying watching the team play.”
The former Scottish manager and player continued on saying that David Moyes has the support of the board of Manchester United and that new coaches need time to adapt into a new club just like new players try to adapt when they sign for a new football destination.
Manchester United have been left on the brink of exit from the League Cup this season after suffering a 2-1 defeat against Sunderland in the first leg of the semifinals. After this match, manager David Moyes laid the blame on referee Andre Marriner for awarding the penalty against United. Sunderland opened the scoring in the first half through an own goal from Ryan Giggs.
However, United were level very soon in the second half after a header from Nemanja Vidic. It looked like the goal would give United a significant lead going into the second leg, but Fabio Borini’s penalty in the 65th minute gave Sunderland an unlikely win.
Andrei Marriner awarded the penalty after Cleverley appeared to bring down Adam Johnson in the box, but Moyes said that this was never a penalty. The former Everton manager has been fuming at a number of decisions going against the way of United in recent matches. He has said that United are not only playing against the opposition, but also against the referees as well. The three consecutive defeats suffered by United marks the worst run since 2001. They have a game against Swansea during the weekend. This will be at Old Trafford, where they have suffered four defeats in the last six matches.
“We had a player booked for the same challenge the other day, for doing the same thing. It’s up to the referees, they’re making their minds up. It looks as if we’re having to play them as well as the opposition at the moment. It’s really terrible, it really is, we’re actually beginning to laugh at them. We just need to keep going, we didn’t do an awful lot wrong. We conceded a terrible first goal from the free-kick, but it was never a free-kick,” said Moyes.
Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who won 13 Premier league titles, has stated that he feels David Moyes will still keep the club in the title race and may even win the title at the end of the season.
United had made a very poor start to the season, which saw them lie eighth in the table after 10 matches. However, they have been making significant recovery in the last few weeks. The 1-0 win over Arsenal gave them a boost in the title race, while they have also been unbeaten for more than a month.
Questions were asked about Moyes being able to handle the pressure at United when he was suffering from poor results, but Ferguson continued to back him. Now that results have improved substantially, the former manager is of the opinion that Moyes main even guide United to the title this campaign itself. Man Utd news currently have United at 5-1 to win the league.
Expectations of United are low this season because it is a transitional period for the club, who are going through the first managerial change in 26 years. United have been displaying the swagger of old where they have been able to come back from situations that seem impossible to recover from.
“We can come from behind and win the league, there’s no doubt about that. When we’re on the charge we can be unstoppable. History shows us that. We’ve got an inner strength – we can come from behind. We’ve done it many times in the past. He’s [Moyes] doing great. It’s not easy – he’s building up a squad and he’s come to the right club at the right time. He’s got great backing,” said Ferguson.
Wayne Rooney has been the central figure for United this campaign. He has scored around 0.5 goals per game, but his overall contribution has been immense in the last few months.
The current manager of Manchester United, David Moyes, has praised his predecessor Sir Alex Ferguson for showing full faith in the Spanish goalie David de Gea at the start of his Premier League career.
Ferguson had bought de Gea from the Spanish club Atletico Madrid a couple of years back. He had paid a big amount to make that signing .Quite a lot of people had questioned that decision of the Scot manager.
De Gea didn’t find it easy at all in the Premier League. His performances for the Red Devils for the first couple of seasons were below par and he had to face a lot of criticism. But, Sir Alex never lost the faith in him. He kept backing the young shot stopper.
Now, in the ongoing season, de Gea is looking a much improved goalkeeper. He has been putting up quality performances for United on a regular basis.
Talking to the reporters about de Gea yesterday, Moyes said, “Sir Alex needs to be given a lot of credit for the development of David. He brought in a young goalie and showed a lot of faith in him.”
“David had quite a few bad days in the last couple of seasons, but, Sir Alex kept backing him and that was really brave of him.”
“David still has to make a lot of improvements and I am sure he will do that. He’s seen quite a lot in his short career and that’s only going to help him. I think we will see his best in the upcoming years.”
De Gea is just one short of completing his 100 matches for Manchester United. Out of the 99 matches that he has played so far for the Red Devils, 69 have been the league matches.