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MUFC.SIMPLENET. COM:  DAILY NEWS
Date: Sat Aug 08 10:33:35 GMT+00:00 1998
Mail: barry@www.red11.org

Daily RED Trivia  8th August:

1970: United lose the Watney Cup Final 4-1 to Derby County at the Baseball Ground.
      George Best scored our consolation goal watched by 32,049. 
      Team was: Stepney, Edwards, Dunne, Crerand, Ure, Sadler, Morgan (Stiles), Law,                                                               (Fitzpatrick), Charlton, Kidd, Best.

1980: United win 2-1 at Gefle/Bryna (Sweden) with goals from Joe Jordan and
      Steve Coppell watched by 2,409.

PRE SEASON - FIRST TEAM RESULTS
July 25  Birmingham City  (A)     result: L 3-4
     27  Valerengen (A) (Oslo)    result: D 2-2
     31  Brondby (A) (Copenhagen) result: W 6-0
Aug   4  Brann Bergen (A)         result: W 4-0

Coming Matches
1998/9 Index: http://www.red11.org/mufc/fix9899z.htm
Sun  9/8 N Arsenal Charity Shield at Wembley Sky Sports 13.00 k.off uk
Wed 12/8 H Widzew Lodz CL
Sat 15/8 H Leicester PL 
Tue 18/8 H Eric Cantona XI (H) - Munich testimonial
Sat 22/8 A West Ham PL

This Issue:
1. Shield Preview (T-Talk)
2. Cole's Time To Shine (D.Mail)
3. Arse vs United (ET)
4. Mark Robins news!!
5. MUFC awaits FIFA deadline (Reuters)
6. Giggs Interview -Independent
7. MUTV - Times Article

++++++=========+++++++========+++++++++========++++++++


Check out our new REDitorial by Alex Paylor! url: http://www.red11.org/mufc/devilsadvocate/

Date:         Sat, 8 Aug 1998 13:00:07 +0800
Reply-To: Red Devil Marcus 
Sender: "Manchester United Football Club (soccer)"
              
From: Red Devil Marcus 
Subject:     Shield Preview (T-Talk)

Charity Shield Preview

United will have a final training session on Saturday before leaving for
Sunday's Charity Shield clash against Arsenal with question marks still
hanging over Alex Ferguson's starting line-up for the Wembley showpiece.
But with the boss deciding that he hopes to have five strikers on the books
by the time the season gets underway, it would appear that Ferguson favours
a surplus of players in every department.

At present the glut is in defence. He will name Sunday's back four from Gary
Neville, Henning Berg, Ronny Johnsen, David May, Jaap Stam, Phil Neville and
Denis Irwin.

On top of that, the United boss has a wealth of talent from the youth set-up
all vying for a shirt, namely Wes Brown, John Curtis, Michael Clegg and Dan
Higginbotham.

Sunday's midfield, however, could be easier to preict.

Roy Keane seems certain to play as he continues his build-up to match
fitness. David Beckham, Nicky Butt and Ryan Giggs could make up the quartet,
but Phil Neville could edge one of those out if Denis Irwin starts in
defence.

Up front, Paul Scholes and Andy Cole look favourites, but Teddy Sheringham,
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Jordi Cruyff are all waiting in the wings.
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Date:         Sat, 8 Aug 1998 13:04:24 +0800
Reply-To: Red Devil Marcus 
Sender: "Manchester United Football Club (soccer)"
              
From: Red Devil Marcus 
Subject:     Cole's Time To Shine (D.Mail)

Brave Cole must fight ire with fire
Saturday, August 8, 1998

Ken Lawrence reports on a conflict which could show who will be boss this
season

Andy Cole will tomorrow give the first true indication of how he has come
through a summer of torture.

As the curtain goes up on Manchester United's Wembley showpiece with
Arsenal, fans who have loyally supported the striker will find out if the
experiences of the past three months have made him more determined to become
the true king of Old Trafford or whether his psyche has been seriously
scarred.

Cole finished last season deeply disappointed that he had not made England
coach Glenn Hoddle's final 22 for France, despite the fact that he was the
Premiership's top scorer.

But worse was to follow and the £7million striker must have felt like a
condemned man as United continued an increasingly public search for at least
one new man and preferably two.

When the club admitted that a £9m offer for Patrick Kluivert had been
accepted, chairman Martin Edwards also owned up to the fact that they were
still keen on Dwight Yorke.

Now, while the Dutchman has let manager Alex Ferguson down, Trinidad and
Tobago international Yorke has become even more important to United's
ambitions. Cole at least had the bonus of knowing that Aston Villa manager
John Gregory wanted him as part of the proposed £16m deal that was supposed
to take Yorke to Old Trafford. He has since received an assurance from
Ferguson that he is too important for that to happen.

Proud Cole has never indicated that he would take the easy way out and head
for the Midlands. Yet the summer of 98 continues to be depressing for him
and in the two-and-a-half years since he was unveiled as United's
then-record signing, Cole has had to endure constant criticism. At first It
was claimed that Eric Cantona did not want to play with him. Then critics
suggested that without Peter Beardsley's brainpower behind him he would
never repeat the 55 goals in two seasons which made him so expensive while
he was at Newcastle.

Yet Cole has never been afraid to go in where it hurts and he remains brave,
which is why the Old Trafford fans have consistently backed him. But once
again Cole may have to prove himself. Forgive him if he appears to be
constantly looking over his shoulder.
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Date:         Sat, 8 Aug 1998 13:08:14 +0800
Reply-To: Red Devil Marcus 
Sender: "Manchester United Football Club (soccer)"
              
From: Red Devil Marcus 
Subject:    Arse vs United (ET)

Arsenal's big guns are ready to repel United 'cavalry charge'

AFTER days of plotting ways to enrich themselves, it is about time Arsenal
and Manchester United got down to some charity work. The most important
aspect of tomorrow's Charity Shield at Wembley will be the funds raised for
various good causes, but the teams' moods may also prove significant in
assessing the season ahead, writes Henry Winter.

Charity Shields can be misleading with new signings settling in and
closed-season rust still to be eradicated. But it will be interesting to see
how Arsenal react to their phenomenal success since Christmas, which brought
them from way behind United to the championship and then the FA Cup. Two of
their players, Emmanuel Petit and Patrick Vieira, also became champions of
the world over the summer. United, in turn, will aim to show their desire,
with their manager, Alex Ferguson, yesterday promising a "cavalry charge".

Arsenal's players, who gathered in the sunshine at their elegant retreat
yesterday, are confident but realistic about the months ahead. "I want to
win everything," Petit said. "But I'm not a dreamer. I know it will be very
hard. We've got so many players who were in the World Cup that it may be
hard, not now but in six months. Mentally, we haven't got a big time to
recover. We are playing the FA Cup, the Champions' League, the League and
some of us are in national teams. We are playing every three days.

"Manchester United last November were the most impressive team in Europe. In
March, when they lost against Monaco, they were very tired. Why? Because we
don't have time to recover physically. In the FA Cup, when you draw you have
to replay. You play so many games in England compared to France or Italy. So
it's very difficult for English clubs to win in Europe. Chelsea won in
Europe but lost many games in the Premiership." A ball has yet to be kicked
and already players are worried about over-playing.

One partial remedy is expanding the squad. Arsenal's entourage has been
augmented by two defenders, Nelson Vivas, of Argentina, and the young
Frenchman David Grondin, yet the priority appears to be attack, particularly
with Ian Wright departed. Intriguingly, Arsène Wenger, Arsenal's coach,
refused to rule out the possibility of AC Milan's Patrick Kluivert arriving.

"I don't want to break the wages structure," Wenger insisted. "I don't think
you can win the Double and then bring in a player who gets more than the
players you already have. We have to keep what makes the club strong and not
do silly things. If Kluivert comes to this club it is because he accepts he
has to integrate with our wages structure. If a guy does integrate,
everything is possible."

Wenger will stick with his current players for now and hope injury does not
befall Nicolas Anelka or Dennis Bergkamp. "We have Christopher Wreh, Isaiah
Rankin and Luis Boa Morte, whom I want to give a chance as a striker. And we
want to get another one. The problem we also have is that Bergkamp cannot
travel to some European games. So we need a good player.

"I believe in Anelka. He will become a different player to Wright. He will
score fewer goals and be more involved in the game. Ian Wright is unique.
Anelka is a different type of player. He can prepare and score goals. Ian
Wright's obsession was to score goals and he was so gifted at scoring goals
that it is difficult to compare them."

The centre-forward issue also fills Ferguson's thoughts. He tried for
Kluivert but, like Wenger, was not prepared to break the club's wage policy.
He also covets Dwight Yorke, of Aston Villa. As ever under Ferguson, United
will seek goals from various sources. The arrival of the left-sided Jesper
Blomqvist will allow Ryan Giggs to float through the middle. Roy Keane's
return from injury will also give United an added competitive edge, possibly
a pivotal one in the championship race. "Manchester United missed him last
season," Petit said.

A first midfield meeting between Petit and Keane could set the tone for the
season. Now a world champion, Petit struggled when he arrived, unable to
cope with the physical demands Keane so relishes. "When I first came to
England, it was very difficult," Petit reflected. "Everything was different
with the 'fighting' [competitiveness] on the pitch.

"I remember being kicked on the knee at Southampton at the start of the
season. I came back to Sopwell [his hotel] and said to my fiancee, 'I don't
know whether I can be fit for the next game'. When things are going wrong,
it's easy to say it's somebody else's fault or leave. It's more difficult to
say I'll stay and work hard. But's in my mentality to stay and fight. I'm
not a loser." He should get on with Keane.


KEANE and his fired-up team-mates sound ready to challenge Petit and
Arsenal, according to their manager. "The players are well focused,"
Ferguson said. "They were disappointed last season. They know they should
have won the title, all be it that Arsenal came through with a great run, a
fantastic run, and you have to hold your hands up at that. But we did throw
it a wee bit. Injuries and games like away at Coventry, which was a give
away. We battered Southampton but couldn't get the goal that would have won
us the League.

"Defeat brings certain things out in people. It certainly does in me and I
know it's the same for the players. You can feel an edge around the club
now. My desires are the same as the team's desires. Maybe we are bad losers.
We certainly don't enjoy it. Now we want to do something about it. I think
you can expect to see a cavalry charge from the start from us."

Petit will be ready. His status as a world champion will not diminish his
desire. "My life is still the same. Nothing has changed for me. People have
changed towards me. I can't stand people changing their views. I've known
people in Monaco for 14 years and there was one guy, a big Monaco fan, who
came to see me and said, 'when you were at Monaco, I didn't like you. Now
you are my hero'. I told him to **** off. I prefer to speak with honest
people.

"My relationship with the French people was not very good before. In France,
so many papers gave me a bad reputation, like Eric Cantona. They called me
wild. Now everything has changed. Aimé Jacquet said he would never forgive a
newspaper that really criticised him. I'm not like that but I never forget."

Petit embodies the determination among the Arsenal ranks, the refusal to be
softened by acquaintance with success. He also retains his ready humour.
Asked which of the big clubs had been in for him since his World Cup
triumph, Petit replied: "Only one. Barnet."

His coach was smiling too. Pursued by Japan, Wenger expects to sign a
lucrative extension to his Arsenal contract soon, joking that he hoped it
would break the club's wage structure. Yet it may turn out that he signs
only until 2000 and then takes over the Japanese national side, giving him
two years to prepare them for the World Cup they are co-hosting.
Check out our new REDitorial by Alex Paylor! url: http://www.red11.org/mufc/devilsadvocate/


Date:         Fri, 7 Aug 1998 08:41:09 -0700

Subject:      Mark Robins news!!
Comments: To: manutd 
To: MUFC@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU

Robins joins Panionios

Copyright © 1998 Nando Media
Copyright © 1998 Reuters

ORENSE (Aug 7, 1998 - 9:06 EDT) - Mark Robins has left
Spanish second division side Orense to join Greek Cup
holders Panionios on a one-year contract.

The 29-year-old former Manchester United striker had
signed a two-year extension to his contract with Orense
after an encouraging first season in Spain, during
which he scored four goals in 18 starts.

But the man often credited with saving Alex Ferguson's
job at Manchester United in 1990 - his headed goal scraped
United a third round FA Cup victory over Nottingham
Forest and set them on the way to their first trophy
under the Scottish boss - instead opted to try to
restart his career in Greece.

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Date:         Fri, 7 Aug 1998 11:43:16 -0500
From: Mike Keeley 

Subject:      MUFC awaits FIFA deadline (Reuters)

CHAMPIONS' LEAGUE: Man United awaits FIFA deadline

Copyright © 1998 Nando Media
Copyright © 1998 Agence France-Presse

MANCHESTER, England (Aug 7, 1998 - 12:30 EDT) - Manchester United will know
at midnight on Friday if their Champions' League game against Polish side
LKS Lodz will go ahead.

That is the FIFA deadline set for the Polish Football Association to settle
its internal row with its government.

If no compromise deal is struck then the Polish national team and club sides
could be suspended from European and international competitions.

That would leave United without any opposition in their Champions' League
qualifying tie with the first leg due to take place at Old Trafford on
Wednesday.

UEFA admits that any ban would seriously disrupt its competitions, but a
spokeswoman claimed it would still follow FIFA's lead.

"The deadline for any compromise is midnight tonight and the final decision
will be taken by FIFA," said the UEFA spokeswoman.

"If there is no compromise then UEFA will have to make a decision about the
Polish sides in our competitions.

"We are relying on what FIFA decide and if they decide to suspend the Polish
association, then we will have to do likewise with the Polish clubs in our
competitions.

"We would then have to work out how to continue the competition because we
would be left with some blanks."

United may even be given a bye into the group stages, although UEFA claim
nothing has been decided yet.

FIFA are refusing to comment further on what might happen until after the
midnight deadline.

FIFA and UEFA became embroiled in the dispute after the Polish government
suspended some officials from its national association.

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Date:         Fri, 7 Aug 1998 18:26:33 -0700
Subject:      Giggs Interview -Independent

Football - Giggs targets the cream of Europe

Old Trafford's Welsh wonder is ready to take the Champions' League by
storm, after a frustrating summer watching his mates show off in France. By
Glenn Moore

Like Mario Kempes, Paolo Rossi and Maradona before them, Zinedine Zidane
and Marcel Desailly confirmed their niche in the game's history this
summer, performing with distinction at the highest level of all.

It is, George Best recently told his authorised biographer, a source of
"enduring regret" that he never had the opportunity to do the same. One of
the better pretenders to the Ulsterman's Old Trafford crown knows the
feeling. While this weekend's resumption of hostilities, just 26 days since
the French celebrated on the Champs-Elysees, may be too soon for some, Ryan
Giggs cannot wait to start.

The nearest Giggs came to the World Cup was some PR work for Reebok in
Paris during the tournament. Promoting boots is not quite the same as using
them but, at just 24, it already appears this will be as close as he will
get to the game's premier tournament. Bobby Gould may claim he saw "fear"
in his opposing managers' eyes when Wales were drawn with Denmark and Italy
in qualifying for Euro 2000, but the reality is that the Principality is
unlikely to reach a major tournament ever again. Like Best, Giggs will have
to be content with showing his greatness on the club stage.

"It is disappointing to miss out," said Giggs when we met. "Obviously every
footballer wants to play in the World Cup and I'm no different. It is just
something I have to come to terms with. It's going to be difficult for
Wales. I hope that we get there some day, but with the seeding system as it
is we always get two hard teams in the group."

Giggs, who confirmed that despite playing for England schools he was never
eligible for the England team, starts his season at Wembley in the Charity
Shield tomorrow. Then, on Wednesday, Manchester United are due to open
their Champions' League campaign.

As it did with Best, Europe provides Giggs' main chance of making a
permanent mark on the game. "I always look forward to playing in Europe,"
he said. "It does have similarities to playing for your country, you face
opposition from different countries. It is odd having to qualify for the
league stage, we are so used to being champions."

Does it devalue the tournament? "If we get to the semi again, we won't be
thinking about having had to qualify."

This season offers extra motivation for Giggs with the arrival of Jesper
Blomqvist from Milan. The Swedish international offers the first
competition for Giggs' place on the left-wing since Lee Sharpe's best
years. It has been mooted that Giggs will be given a different role to
accommodate Blomqvist, but Giggs is in no mood to move.

"My favourite position is still left wing," said Giggs. "My main asset is
running at people and it gives me the opportunity to do that. You can get
isolated, but at United we've always played 4-4-2 and given the wingers,
whether me and Andrei [Kanchelskis] or me and Becks [David Beckham], plenty
of service.

"I do enjoy playing midfield as you do get more involved, and I can play up
front. When I first came to United I'd always played left wing, then they
played me up front and I played there most of the time in the youth team.
Playing in different positions gives you an extra dimension, but I don't
think I'll go as far as playing at the back. I wouldn't want to mark Duncan
Ferguson."

A third motivation for Giggs, and his team-mates, is the sour memory of
their empty-handed season. Already something of an elder statesman at
United, he is one of just three players [along with Peter Schmeichel and
Denis Irwin] from 1991-92 when United lost the championship to Leeds. Alex
Ferguson regards that disappointment as the making of the subsequent years
of plenty and Giggs believes last season will have a similar effect - just
as the barren 1994-95 season was followed by a second double.

"The manager always says you need disappointments, it makes you a better
player. It was certainly the case after Leeds. Some of the young lads in
the team have never lost before and I think they'll come back stronger
players.

"We had injuries last year but just didn't win enough games. Arsenal's run
at the end of the season was exceptional, I would watch their games on
television and think 'they'll slip up this time' but they never did."

One of the crucial injuries was the hamstring problem suffered by Giggs
against Derby just before the European semi. The irony was that it ended
his first season of full fitness in several years and he was in rampant
form. "I was flying," he recalled, "it was so disappointing to get injured
at such an important stage."

Giggs' end-of-season mood was not helped by various tabloid allegations
about his personal life which have continued during the summer, though he
is currently in a settled relationship. Such is football's profile, this
intrusive attention now goes with the territory, and Giggs has reluctantly
learned to live with it.

"It doesn't affect my life now, but at 18 it was difficult to come to terms
with. The thing I found difficult was people writing stuff about your love
life and family. You wonder why, but you get used to it. I know where to go
now, where you get hassled, where not.

Several of Giggs' partners have been high profile themselves, like Danni
Behr. Other examples are Beckham's relationship with "Posh Spice", Victoria
Adams, and Jamie Redknapp's marriage to another pop singer, Louise. Other
young stars, like Owen and Paul Scholes, are with former schoolfriends who
knew them before they were famous.

"It's about trust," said Giggs. "It is difficult to meet partners and you
can see why sometimes girlfriends are also famous. You know they are not
after you for anything and you are both used to the attention. So many
girls out there are just money-grabbers, so you've got to be careful.

"My friends are people who I used to go to school with, people I've known
since I was nine or 10. It helps that I've grown up in the area. I've never
moved [his new house is in north Manchester, near his mother, rather than
in the traditional Cheshire footballer belt] or changed my lifestyle."

His contentment, and the rise of the Premiership, means a move abroad is
unlikely. "You don't need to now. A few years ago Italy was the place to
go, but now there are teams in the Premiership quite capable of winning
European trophies. I'm at a big club with lots of good young players, why
move?" United's own attempt to strengthen the side has - Blomqvist apart -
foundered. This is perceived as being partly through Ferguson's reluctance
to break the wage structure. Would Giggs have wanted parity if a Batistuta,
Kluivert or Salas had come in on huge wages. "I'm not bothered what anybody
else is earning, as long as you are happy, that's it. Besides, a lot of
stuff in the papers is exaggerated."

This may well be true. Giggs has a number of endorsements but retains an
agent of the old school and a level head. He can be a challenging
interviewee because he's done it so often and, not being garrulous by
nature, gives little away.

But after a while he does relax, laughing self-consciously at the
suggestion that he might have done the restoration of his new house himself
and more wryly when asked if, had he failed as a footballer, he would
really be a flower seller on the Cardiff bypass, as his boots' adverts
suggest.

While on the subject [the interview has, after all, been set up by Reebok,
which is the only way you get 30 minutes with a star as high in the
football firmament as Giggs these days] he stresses the right boots do make
a difference though they will not, he adds with a pitying look, turn a bad
player into a good one. His biggest weakness, he says, is his finishing,
which few would disagree with. As a person it is that he gets bored easily
though, with age, he has 'become more patient and take things in my stride
more than I used to.'"

His strengths on the field are obvious - quick feet, good balance and pace.
There is another, equally important facet. "Look at his work-rate," notes
Terry Venables. "With his talent he could be one of those players who just
stands around, but he knows that way he will not win things. The work he
puts in is fantastic. What a great example to young players."

And so to this season. Said Giggs: "Arsenal will be our main challengers
and Chelsea have made some good signings - but we know if we play to our
capabilities we could win it easily."
Check out our new REDitorial by Alex Paylor! url: http://www.red11.org/mufc/devilsadvocate/


Date:         Fri, 7 Aug 1998 23:09:17 -0700
Reply-To: "Manchester United Football Club (soccer)"
              
Sender: "Manchester United Football Club (soccer)"
              
From: Dave Menashe 
Subject:      MUTV - Times Article

What's on MUTV PETER SCHMEICHEL avoids Old Trafford. There is no
disaffection on the Manchester United goalkeeper's part, just a recognition
of the personal journey times that govern a footballer's life. The distance
from car park to main door at the stadium is a a few hundred yards, but
Schmeichel measures it as a great passage of time.

"I could be there for an hour signing autographs," he said. "When I first
came to the club, I used to go to Old Trafford every day and say hello to
the girls in the office. That has been made virtually impossible now."
There is nothing curmudgeonly about Schmeichel's decision and he claims
still to be glad to meet the supporters who always gather at The Cliff,
United's training ground.

None the less, a celebrated player realises that the merest errand can
easily turn into an impromptu public engagement and he must make his plans
accordingly. People have never been more eager for contact with their
football heroes and that insatiable interest makes men such as Schmeichel
seek seclusion.

It is only seven years since he signed for United and in that period
society's infatuation with the game has ensured that Old Trafford can no
longer be a workplace where an employee may saunter freely. The club's
annual turnover reached £88 million last year and United have to find a
means of dealing with an audience that is as vast as the wealth it creates.

In the process, a further profit may be turned. By entering into a joint
venture with BSkyB and Granada Media Group, United is to become the first
football club in the world with its own daily television channel. This
subscription service will begin broadcasting next month. The sardonic
response from followers of other teams is anticipated.

With allegations of fawning coverage, they will claim that United already
have television stations at their disposal. Beyond the bandying of insults,
however, there are common interests that unite clubs. Manchester United
Television (MUTV) is an experiment whose outcome will be studied by
Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle United and all those who might be able to
sustain channels of their own.

If MUTV cannot succeed, then no other club need waste its time on this type
of project. "Few of us would sign up for a Real Madrid channel or an Ajax
channel," Darren Fletcher, the MUTV news editor, said, "but people in other
countries will take a great interest in United." Companies in the Far East,
the Middle East, Scandinavia and South Africa have already enquired about
buying the new station's programmes.

"United have a fan-base of something like four million in the UK alone,
with probably another eight million worldwide," Paul Ridley, the MUTV chief
executive who used to be sports editor of The Sun, said. Heavy investment
on equipment, recruitment of a staff of 60 and the building of a studio at
Old Trafford is clearly not an exercise in altruism and the channel,
broadcasting from 6pm until midnight each day, could be the precursor of a
highly lucrative operation.

When the existing contract between the Premier League and BSkyB runs out in
2001, clubs may seek to sell the rights to their own games individually.
One can readily envisage all of United's fixtures being shown on MUTV. The
advent of digital television, which creates hundreds of channels, makes
such developments possible. "Everything is negotiable and I am sure that
the United directors have taken all this into account in their long-term
planning," Ridley said.

For devotees of the club, existence can now acquire a decidely red hue.
"United are working to the theory of the complete plc," Ridley said. "They
have a great side, a great stadium, a museum, a megastore, a Red Cafe, a
radio company and now their own television station."

The strategy may look remorseless, but no individual strand is sure of
success and MUTV will have to entice subscribers.

Although game shows, lifestyle coverage and the archive footage that Ridley
refers to as "the baggy shorts department" all have some appeal, MUTV can
only prosper if it takes viewers into the midst of life at the club. Since
they do not own the rights to coverage of the games themselves at the
moment, MUTV must depend heavily on its ability to bring supporters fresh
news.

"United is a soap," Ridley said. If so, the man on the armchair in his
replica shirt will expect full access to the personalities and the
histrionics.

Cooperation from the staff of the club is assured since Alex Ferguson, the
United manager, is so enthusiastic a proponent of MUTV that he has even
come up with programme ideas.

"Alex has a certain opinion about the media," Ridley explained carefully,
"and he sees that MUTV will help him get his views across on signings and
other matters. He feels that, if it is on MUTV and if it is an uncut
interview, then people will see precisely what it was that he said."

The relationship between the channel and the club which partly owns it is
bound to incite scepticism. MUTV, for example, might well be given the
extended interview with David Beckham that other journalists merely crave,
but will they be granted it only if they dodge controversy and promise to
fawn?

Schmeichel concedes that MUTV will be a useful way for his team-mates to
market themselves. "I am sure that loads of our young players will be only
too pleased to co-operate," he said in amusement.

The goalkeeper, however, knows that there will be limits to the cosiness.
"MUTV cannot be wholly uncritical," he said, "because then no one would
watch it."

It is a consideration that weighs heavily on Ridley. "We will not be
stopped from asking questions," he said. "Our subscribers deserve
explanations."

Editorial independence is a commercial necessity. If it is servile to the
club, MUTV cannot serve its viewers.

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                                         Bill McArthur 

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   " If ever they are playing in your town
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     Take a lesson come to see
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     Manchester, Manchester United
     A bunch of bouncing Busby Babes
     They deserve to be knighted "

Keep The Faith -- Red Til We're Dead --  "RED sky at night UNITED delight"
        --- Manchester United for life not just for Christmas ---

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