Man Utd Thread:

[Hoof Hearted]

Guy with the Dinny's ham?

It's not my ham..

according to muppet you are a ham !

Less of the abuse and you should have got your fat ass down to Wickla, hi!

heading off to Cardiff this weekend to support yous boys so something had to give.

[ross4life]

Mosaic for Sunday



http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-Features/Club-News/2011/May/19-mosaic-for-old-trafford.aspx

[new devil]

Hes often dubbed "the world's most famous Norwegian". But Ole Gunnar Solskjær has been troubled by low confidence.
THE SOLSKJÆR STORY

The last night in their house outside Manchester. Ole Gunnar, Silje and their three little boys are lying on mattresses on the floor. They have been on vacation for 14 days while a moving company have been cleaning out, and now the house is empty except for the mattresses and the little family sleeping on the floor. They have exchanged their goodbyes with the neighbors and shed a few tears. Hes lying there taking in the feeling of the empty room. They were so young when they first arrived here, just Silje and himself. Its 15 years ago. Tomorrow they return home.

-I have been selfish.
Ole Gunnar sits in a little leather couch, leaning forward. His hair is damp.
-I have never gone out of my way to be liked or to make other people proud. I have gone my own ways, for my own best. I have been difficult, because I had to – I had to take care of myself. I haven't wanted to please people.
He played for Manchester United for 11 years, number 20 on his back, hammering in goals from every possible angle, so faithful, so merciless. Is it a wonder that people adored him? 126 goals, "super-sub", legend. When he retired from Manchester United, grown men wept openly. Manager Sir Alex Ferguson called him "a fantastic person". Still they sing his song on Old Trafford, still his name is there to be seen at the stadium. Outside Aker stadium in Molde, no one is singing.
-It has been said that the most stupid thing you could have done was becoming head coach in Molde.
He grins, adjusting his dark blue pants.
-Yea, I found that fantastic. I enjoy it like that. I've been benched hundreds of times, and every time I sat there thinking "Just you wait until I get on the pitch, then I'll definitely show all of you".

It's become his life now, these early morning training sessions. Every day he drives his Audi Q7 over the mountains from Kristiansund to yet another session. He's listening to English radio, XFM Manchester, rather than the Norwegian stations with the same old 80s hit music.
-Was going back home a family or a career choice for you?
-Both, he answers.
Ole Gunnar pockets his hands and guides us out of the cantina where players in matching blue tracksuits are eating sliced bread. They all look younger than they do on TV, more like a class of school children. Downstairs, through corridors painted blue and into a press conference room full of empty, waiting chairs.
-Of course it's a tough decision. I played football for Manchester United for 11 years, and during that time my career was more important than everything else.
-Everything?
-Yea, you sacrifice everything to play for United for as long as possible. And it sounds totally off to say that the career went ahead of everything else, but it was so important that I had to pass on a lot of family stuff. A lot of times I felt that Silje, the kids and I should have done something together, but because I had a match in three days, I didn't want to. I have sacrificed pretty much and passed on a lot because it might have affected me for the Saturday games. I was always thinking "next game, next game, next game".
-Did your mentality change once you became a father?
-No, it wasn't harder to prioritize. There was no difference. I enjoyed being at home, but I still spent the nights before every home games at single rooms in hotels. I was traveling a lot, away from home a lot.
-It sounds like a lonely life.
-Yes, it was a lonely life. I did what I was told. Training, eating, sleeping whenever I was told. And you do that because you know that's how you make sure you will perform.

Camp Nou, Barcelona, 1999. There is a silence that can't be described by words. The ball is there, airborne under the floodlights, approaching all the waiting stares, the tired legs, all that inveterate grit. Two minutes into extra time, and no one can stop what is going to happen next. David Beckham has taken the corner kick. Soon, Teddy Sheringham is going to flick the ball on with his head, and Ole Gunnar doesn't know it yet, but here in this silence, the most important thing of his career is about to happen. All the hours spent on the training field, countless repetitions, his boyhood dreams, rain on his face, scraped knees, money, injuries, everything that has been. This is it. The ball reaches him and the silence is complete.

They have bought a house down by the sea. 400 square meters, with a swimming pool. It's beginning to look like an everyday life. Silje is working on her photography projects, the kids are attending school, the days are nice and unstressful.
-We wanted to give ours kids what we had growing up ourselves. Just being able to walk to school. In England we had to drive them both to and from every day. We didn't feel that was a good way to grow up, he says.
Both Silje and Ole Gunnar are from Kristiansund. They met each other through football and became a couple the summer he returned from the army. Since then they have been together. His son Noah is 11 years old, Karna is 7, Elijah 2.
My kids would probably have become English if we had stayed there longer. They got all their Norwegian through us and talk a thicker Kristiansund-accent than many locals, but the older they get, the harder it would have been to move back home. Noah had to change schools to the summer, and we felt that with him becoming unsettled anyway it was just perfect that the offer from Molde came at this time.
Ole Gunnar gathers his thoughts for a second.
-The new house we are building in Manchester is complete in the summer, and we were originally planning to move in there. If we had gone through with that plan it is unlikely we would ever have moved home.
He breaks out into a fatherly smile and spreads his arms wide.
-Maybe this was all a blessing in disguise , as they say.

His knee is finished. The pictures leave no doubt, neither do the looks on the doctors' faces. There is nothing left in there to keep it stable, nothing to leave much hope for recovery. It's over. 366 games for one of the world's greatest football clubs, and the only thing on Ole Gunnar's mind is how nervous he is about telling the manager that it's over.
-I had promised Silje that once my playing career was over we would take a year off, travel the world and experience things, he says with a smile.
-I kept that promise for about 20 seconds.
After the last look at his knee, he came driving to Carrington just as Alex Ferguson walked across the parking lot. He stopped the car. "I can't keep playing anymore, I need another operation. I have to retire", he said to Ferguson. Ferguson looked at him. "You have had a fantastic career", he said. "You have done your family proud, you've done me proud and what you did for the last few years was great. Why don't you coach my forwards?"
-I felt bad when I came home and told Silje, of course I did, but to have a shot at a coaching role at the world's greatest club, under the supervision of the world's greatest manager, that's...
Solskjær can't find the word he's looking for and sits there for some time, thoughtful furrows on his forehead.
-How did your wife react?
-We had just bought a plot of land and the plan was that I would complete one more season as a supersub. When she saw me after my chat with the boss, she understood how relieved and happy I was to get that job
Ole Gunnar smiles again.
-Silje has been fantastic about everything.

In Manchester he wrote a kind of mental diary. Thoughts and feelings were thoroughly documented. In March, 2000, "Solskjaer" was already a living legend, nicknamed "the baby-faced assassin". In his diary one of these days, it is written: "I've had enough of bad performances and low confidence. I'm going to do something about it."
-I laughed when I read that now, but it is incredible how much confidence matters. I had really low confidence at times and thought a lot about that in periods.
-You didn't have any real reason for that, did you?
-No, you can say that again, but things aren't always what they look like. That isn't how life works.
When the coaches saw how Ole Gunnar struggled, they changed things up.
-They put me on the same team as Roy Keane every single training sessions for a month to toughen my mentality.
Irish Keane, former United captain, is as famed for his temperament and hard tackling as he is for his football talent.
-Roy yelled at me and they wanted me to answer. In the end I had had enough and yelled back at him. After that training session I asked the coach why I always had to play for that team. "We want you to stand up for yourself", he said. And Solskjær would get the chance to do just that. The club soon signed one of the world's best strikers, Dutchman Ruud van Nistelrooy, and it was clear that one of the other strikers would be replaced. Solskjær was told by Ferguson that he would get the chance to play and prove his place in the squad the following weeks. After the next game against Southampton, the four strikers Teddy Sheringham, Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke and Ole Gunnar Solskjær were all called into Ferguson's office. He announced that he would start Sheringham and Cole in the next game. "Everybody happy with that?" The other players nodded their heads and left the office, but Solskjær remained seated. "What's up, son?" "I'm not happy with that, you told me you would give me a real chance, you challenged me, now is your chance."
Ferguson looked at him.
"Alright, go get Teddy for me"
The next game, Solskjær was in the starting lineup. He stayed at United for the rest of his career.

Someone takes a picture. It's the evening after the Champions League victory in Barcelona, all this chaos. Beckham's corner kick, Sheringham's flick and Solskjær who just stuck out his right foot. The silence turned into ecstatic jubilation. Two minutes into extra time. "And Solskjaer has won it!", the commentator screamed. It was the greatest night ever. Ole Gunnar has a picture of himself and Alex Ferguson. They stand there with a bottle of Champagne in the midst of all the racket, the congratulations, in all the grandeur of the moment.
-I look at that picture, and I remember exactly what I thought at the moment. "You deserve this, after all you have done for this club". The only thing I could think about was how much Ferguson deserved this

[new devil]

They still remember him. On the street corners, in the taxis, in line at the grocery store. Ole Gunnar Solskjær has become a name grandparents will tell their grandchildren about. Forever hammered into the net of the past.«OK, chapter closed» he use to say. As if it was really that easy.

- Is it that simple?

- Yes.

- Do you really mean what you say?

- Yes. I'm proud of what I did as a player. But I'm good at adapting to new situations. That's the reality, and now I can't even run no more. In that case, it's easy.

He's been trying to run at the treadmill in the gym. He ties the shoe laces on his running shoes as if everything was in order, but the black belt is running too fast. It's over. His knees are swelling up. They can't take it no more.

- Do you know what I've really been missing? The evenings before match day. When you og to bed with a feeling that you've done everything right. Eaten and trained as you should, thinking through and visualising what you're going to do. Preparing yourself to enter Old Trafford. That feeling... he says, with a distant sort of smile.

The number of times he stood there. Watching the light at the end of the players' tunnel, hearing the expectant roar of 75 000 people. He'd still be playing if only his knees were holding up. Giggs and Scholes still keeps going. He's texting them after games. Telling them that they look younger and fresher than ever. Solskjær drags his hand over his face and through his hair.

- But you know, I can't lean on what I achieved in the past.

He's standing on the sideline every weekend. A defeat against Rosenborg last week. Lillestrøm is up next (an impressive 3-0 victory as Eirik wrote earlier). He wears his Hugo Boss-jacket that he bought in England. His arm under his chin, watching carefully. He's always knew that he'd lead his own team one day.

- There's no room for sentimentality in this business. I have 25 players and you get fond of each and everyone of them. Wishing the best for all of them. But if the club is going to move forward, someone's gotta go. That's football for you. Dog eat dog.

- Is sir Alex Ferguson still a mentor to you?

- I haven't called him since I arrived at Molde. But I've texted him and he's sent me a few letters. We keep in touch. «You know where I am», he tells me.

Outside the window a solitary seagull flounder around. Ole Gunnar keeps following it with his eyes.

- It's hard to tell how the lads look at me but I know how I want a manager to be. It's about loyality. Both ways. I support and protect them.

- You almost sound like their father?

- Yes, and that's how it is. I treat my players as I treat my children. If I'm in doubt I think for myself «What would i do if it was Noah?». Would I sit down with him and asked why he did it? Would I yell at him?

- I need the pressure this job brings. It's up to me now. It's my responsibility and I've been looking forward to it for a long time.

He became one of the highest paid managers in the Norwegian Premier Division when he signed for Molde last year. His playing career has brought him a wealth of more than 10 million pounds. In the hallway outside a couple of players are passing by.

- There are a lot of things I don't have to do no more. I've got enough money to spend the rest of my life relaxing on a sunny beach somewhere. That would soon feel pointless, though.

- So all your money hasn't changed you?

- No. Money's got nothing to do with your inner drive. Your desire. It's a good feeling that I don't ever have to worry about that part of my life. But money was never my motivation. What's driven me is the fear of disappointment. And the people around me. And Ferguson. The worst thing I could ever do was to disappoint Ferguson.

- We have to go.

25th of February 1973. Midnight's only minutes away. Brita Solskjær wakes her husband Øyvind up. He's tired and beaten up after participating in the wrestling national championship. But he supports his wife out to the car. Sits down in front of the wheel. He arrived home earlier that evening without a medal for the first time in his career. He's had a lot on his mind lately, most of all an expecting wife. They're driving through the winter dark to Kristiansund regional hospital. At 5.34 AM the small Ole Gunnar is brought to life.

- I'd wish I seen my dad compete but his wrestling career was over when I became old enough to understand. I remember the scrapbooks, the newspaper headlines. That was something special to a young boy. For that reason I wanted Noah to know his dad through something else than what he could read in the newspapers. I wanted him to see me play. He was almost seven when we won the league in 2007. And that he remembers. That his dad played for Manchester United.

- Your children are growing up in a wealthier household than you did?

- That's right in a way. But our kids have never been concerned about that. I know they've been questioned about it if they ask me about the cost of our belongings. «Are we rich?», they ask. «We have enough», I answer.

- Do you see your father in yourself?

- Silje says so. But I like to think I'm more strict with the children than he was. I can't remember that he ever yelled at me or treated me strictly. Sometimes I feel that «Blimey! I went too far, I became too angry. My dad was never like that to me».

When he retired in 2008 the English press mentioned him in the same sentence as Ibsen and Munch. He's never get used to this extraordinary fame. He himself still get starstruck if he bumps into his former teammate Eric Cantona.

- People have told me that wherever they go in the world and mention that they're from Norway, people will answer «Manchester United, Solskjaer». And yes, United's one of the biggest trademarks in the world. It's become that way because of the globalization of football, he says in almost an excusing tone.

Suddenly he's reminded of a story that made him reflect about how strange everything is when your name is Ole Gunnar Solskjær

- Silje read an interview with Dag Erik Pedersen (former professional cyclist and TV personality) in "Magasinet" (the publication this interview is taken from). He said he felt privileged because he'd met the king of Norway, Paul McCartney and Ole Gunnar Solskjær (!). I had to laugh. It's bizarre, really.

He's shaking his head, sitting still like a schoolboy, all the freckles, the sparkling eyes.

- I've honestly never thought of myself as anything other than a man that people... How do I say this? I can understand that children and some others remember that they've met me because I played for Manchester United. But when Dag Erik Pedersen says something like that... It makes me think....

- That you've made many Norwegians proud?

- Maybe, and nothing would be more satisfying. But the most important thing for me personally is that my friends and family could experience United partly because of me. I invited my grandmother to a home game against Everton in 1999. Vi won 5-1. I scored four times. Afterwards she told me: «The ball is round, it might not go this well next time around».

Ole Gunnar shrugs his shoulders.

- She's amazing.

From time to time he's looking at the images of the young lad that arrived in Manchester 15 years ago. The skinny appearance. The loose fitting of his clothes.

- I like to think that the ones close to me still view me as the same person I was back then. But I'm not all the same. Of course I've been affected of what I've experienced through the years.

He pushes a door opener. Striding past empty crates. Out on the walkway outside the stadium. Not a soul.

- I've become an adult. I've got much more confidence, a much stronger belief in my own abilities. Now I do believe that people see a confident person on the surface as well.

He crosses his arms. Standing like a statue in the drizzle.

- And I want success. I'm ambitious by nature. Maybe I'll get another shot abroad if I do well with Molde. We'll see.

An evening earlier this spring a storm was coming to Kristiansund. Ole Gunnar walked alone in his new backyard garden, floating over the grass that's waiting for summer. Past the swimming pool. To the big rocks guarding against the ocean.

- I closed mye eyes an felt how the waves hit the garden. It was awesome.

He's going to buy a boat, he tells. And a kayak. His grandfather was a fisherman. Soon he'll also let build a pier.

- It's nice standing there watching the waves . Almost paralyzing. And I still hear the water gurgling when I go to bed at night.

- It doesn't become too quiet?

- That's the whole point. It's supposed to be quiet.

Somwhere across the water they're still singing his name. As if one day he'll return. Showing up at the far post while the ball's still in flight bathed in flood light.

20LEGEND 

[118cmal]

The baby faced assassin.  Forever a legend 

[EC Unique]

[Doogie Browser]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13449957.stm

The twat is falling out with virtual friends now  , sure it's only a bit of banter 

[Cold tea]

Will the twitter leak on the Prem play affect proceedings for the champions league final.

[nrico2006]

Will the twitter leak on the Prem play affect proceedings for the champions league final.

Huh?

[Cold tea]

The player who had the affair and took out the super injunction.  I am sure the Barcelona fans will do a bit of chanting as his name is all over the papers there.  I wonder if everyone knowing now will affect Fergies choice of players or like Rooney will it be water of a ducks back.

[Final Whistle]

That has to be the worst attempt at a wind up I have ever seen on gaaboard. 0/10

[Cold tea]

What wind up - surely the high level of publicity would affect the player and therefore the team selection.

[Final Whistle]

FAIL!!!!

[Cold tea]

Sorry you must be a fan who thinks this player can do no wrong!  Be interesting to see if he plays a part in the final and if so does he perform to his usual high standard.

[nrico2006]

What the hell would Barcelona fans actually chant at the individual that you are indicating that could possibly annoy him or put him off.  Come to think about it, why would they even bother chanting at him, its hardly going to insult the fella.  On top of that, if it actually was the player you allude to then he has dealt with it by now in the confides of his home with his family and on top of that every Tom, Dick and Harry at every game he has played over the past  month has known about it and anything that has been chanted) has not affected him one bit.