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www.red11.org DAILY NEWS
Date: Thu Dec 24 08:39:32 GMT+00:00 1998
Mail: barry@www.red11.org

This Issue:
1. Zidane's hint for United 
2. Manchester United v Nottingham Forest (Sat, 3pm) 
3. RONALDO'S EURO WARNING FOR UNITED
4. MANDELSON EXIT NOT ALARMING - UNITED FANS 
5. George Best Boring? - Soccernet
6. Happy Christmas List
7. The Silly Season

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

Daily RED Trivia  Thurs 24th December 1998:

24/12/1898: Newton Heath crush Darwen 9-0 at North Road in a Division 2 game 
 watched by 2,000. William Bryant 3, Joe Cassidy 3, Matthew Gillespie 2 and
 an own goal completed the rout. Team was: Barrett, Stafford, Erentz,
 Draycott, Pepper, Cartwright, Bryant, Collinson, Boyd, Cassidy, Gillespie.

1952: Tony Young born in Urmston. Young made his debut at Sheffield United
 in April 1972, and playing at either Full-back or midfield won a Second Division
 Championship medal in 1975. He totalled 97 appearances and 1 goal between
 1972-76, joining Charlton Athletic in January 1976.

***************

Barry Daily Comment:

Well today we celebrate Christmas this evening 24th in Denmark!
We open our presents after dancing and singing round the tree
after eating Christmas dinner duck + pork around 20.00 pm. 
Have a RED Christmas
Check out my personal greeting to you at

  http://www2.bluemountain.com/cards/box7843u/xhy3znjatnscjck.htm

Barry diggin the potatoes!
"Jingle Bells Jingle Bells" ...hic


http://www.iol.ie/~redcafe/kidd.htm
Brian Kidd Press conference, pic, real audio


Remaining 1998 games: 

ALL Result/Fixture Index:
http://www.red11.org/mufc/fix9899z.htm

Sat 26/12 Nottm Forest  (H) PL 15.00
Tue 29/12 Chelsea       (A) PL sky sports time 19.45 UK


UNITED Stats v All teams:
http://www.red11.org/mufc/stats/

*** TEAM RESULTS - MANCHESTER UNITED  ***

Date        Opposition                        Score   Pos.   Attend.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
15/08/98    Leicester City           Home     D  2-2    11    55,052
22/08/98    West Ham United          Away     D  0-0    11    26,039
09/09/98    Charlton Athletic        Home     W  4-1     9    55,147
12/09/98    Coventry City            Home     W  2-0     5    55,193
20/09/98    Arsenal                  Away     L  0-3    10    38,142
24/09/98    Liverpool                Home     W  2-0     3    55,181
03/10/98    Southampton              Away     W  3-0     2    15,251
17/10/98    Wimbledon                Home     W  5-1     2    55,265
24/10/98    Derby County             Away     D  1-1     2    30,867
31/10/98    Everton                  Away     W  4-1     2    40,079
08/11/98    Newcastle United         Home     D  0-0     3    55,174
14/11/98    Blackburn Rovers         Home     W  3-2     2    55,198
21/11/98    Sheffield Wednesday      Away     L  1-3     2    39,475
29/11/98    Leeds                    Home     W  3-2     2    55,172
05/12/98    Aston Villa              Away     D  1-1     2    39,241
12/12/98    Tottenham Hotspur        Away     D  2-2     1    36,079
16/12/98    Chelsea                  Home     D  1-1     2    55,159
19/12/98    Middlebrough             Home     L  2-3     3    55,152


	******
  
Champions League:
Group D         P  W  D  L  F  A   Pts
Bayern Munich   6  3  2  1  9  6  11   
Man United      6  2  4  0 20 11  10
Barcelona       6  2  2  2 11  9   8    
Brondby         6  1  0  5  4 18   3   

Dec  9 Brøndby         0-2  Barcelona
Dec  9 Man Utd         1-1  Bayern Munich

	******

CHAMPIONS' LEAGUE QUARTER-FINAL DRAW
 Manchester Utd    v   Inter Milan
 Real Madrid       v   Dynamo Kiev
 Juventus          v   Olympiakos
 Bayern Munich     v   Kaiserslautern

 Ties to be played on March 3 and 17

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


"Merry RED Christmas from Denmark" Click on image for more!"


Subject: Zidane's hint for United 
Thursday, December 24, 1998 

Zinedine Zidane, the European Footballer of the Year, last night gave a strong
hint that he is prepared to leave Italian champions Juventus and launch a new
career in England. 

The £15million-rated Frenchman, who is known to be upset over the imminent
departure of Juventus coach Marcello Lippi to Inter Milan, fanned the rumours
when he said: 'I may end up looking for new challenges. I still have several great
years ahead of me and I want to play them at the highest level.

'There have been stories of me wanting to return to Marseille but there will be
plenty of time to return to France in the future.'

Many had assumed he would follow Lippi to Inter but Zidane said: 'I am in no
way tied to him. People should not assume that I will just go wherever he goes.'

Arsenal tried to sign him last season and reports in Italy suggest the
26-year-old attacking midfielder will move to Manchester United at the end of
this season.

United have been in touch with Juventus, asking to be kept informed of the
situation. They could have landed him for £4m two seasons ago after watching
him on no fewer than 10 occasions playing for Bordeaux. He pushed his price
sky high with the two goals which helped France lift the World Cup in the
summer. 
"Merry RED Christmas from Denmark" Click on image for more!"



Subject: Manchester United v Nottingham Forest (Sat, 3pm) 
     By Alex Wrenn
 
     Referee Jeff Winter (Stockton-on-Tees)

     OddsMan Utd 5-2 on, Forest 13-2, draw 11-4
     League form Man Utd WDDDL, Forest LDLLD
     Last season no fixture

     Leading league scorers Man Utd: Yorke(7);
     Forest: Darcheville, Stone, Freedman (2)

     The implications Man Utd have won only
     once in their last six games and are
     rocking following the departure of Brian
     Kidd to Blackburn. Despite this, they are
     third in the Premiership and remain
     favourites for the Championship. Forest
     meanwhile, have looked weak all season
     and, if United play to anything like their
     potential, Dave Bassett's men will be
     comprehensively demolished. More
     encouraging for Bassett is the lack of
     certainty in United's defence, which has
     recently provided more chances for the
     opposition than they have conjured for
     themselves. Forest will remain in the
     relegation zone whatever the result, while
     Man Utd could replace Chelsea in second
     with victory. 

********************

MANCHESTER UNITED v NOTTINGHAM FOREST 

United Team News Jaap Stam has recovered from
his ankle injury to bolster United's leaky defence.
Stam's return is all the more important because his
central defensive partner Gary Neville is serving a
one-match ban. Leading scorer Dwight Yorke is
expected to return after being sidelined by a groin
problem. 

Team (from): Schmeichel, Van der Gouw, Irwin, P
Neville, Brown, Johnsen, Stam, Berg, Keane, Butt,
Scholes, Beckham, Giggs, Blomqvist, Yorke, Cole,
Sheringham, Solskjaer. 

The United View ''Football in England is a lot
different to the game in Holland. The speed of the
game is much higher and there is more physical
contact. In Holland we have plenty of rest between
games, but here in England there is no time for
that. We just keep on going here, but I'm getting
used to that and playing here is getting a bit easier.
I'm settling in very well and I'm enjoying it very
much over here. I enjoy working with the people at
this club and everybody is very enthusiastic and I
like it a lot.'' - Jaap Stam 

Forest Team News Rock-bottom Forest have a
doubt hanging over Jesper Mattsson. The Swedish
centre-back, a recent £300,000 signing from
Halmstad, is nursing rib and stomach injuries he
picked up in Saturday's 2-2 draw with Blackburn.
However, Alan Rogers is expected to be fit after
being forced out of the Blackburn game by a back
injury. Nigel Quashie returns to the squad after a
bout of 'flu but Dave Bassett's side will be without
Pierre van Hooijdonk. The Dutch striker sat out the
encounter with Blackburn because of a calf injury
but must now serve a three-match ban as Forest
look for their first win in 16 League games - a
defeat or draw would equal the club and Premier
League record. 

Team (from): Beasant, Hjelde, Bonalair, Chettle,
Mattsson, Armstrong, Rogers, Stone, Johnson,
Quashie, Gemmill, Bart-Williams, Freedman,
Shipperley, Harewood, Darcheville, Gray, Crossley. 

The Forest View ''I don't know whether we're
being affected by nerves but we've got to start
keeping our concentration for the full 90 minutes.
They've had something of a shaky month and have
conceded a few goals, which is unusual for
Manchester United. We'll go up there and give it our
best shot and hopefully we can finally win a
match.'' - Steve Chettle 

THE STATS Last Season: No corresponding fixtures;
Last 5 league matches - Man Utd W D D D L Nottm
Forest L D L L D; Top Scorers: Dwight Yorke (Man
Utd) 12, Dougie Freedman (Nottm Forest) 7; Match
Odds: H 2-5 A 13-2 D 11-4; Ref: J Winter
(Stockton-on-Tees) 

*******************

Soccer showcase-Man Utd hope for historic repeat 
  By Mitch Phillips 

LONDON, Dec 23  - Manchester United will be hoping history
repeats itself in more ways than one when they meet
Nottingham Forest at Old Trafford on Saturday -- Forest
will want the opposite. 

The two last met in the league exactly two years ago, on
Boxing Day 1996, with United winning the City Ground match
4-0. 

Their relative positions two years on are identical --
Forest are bottom and United are third.

United's victory came in the early stages of a 16-game
unbeaten run that drove them to the top of the table and
eventually to the league title. 

The defeat for Forest was a blip in their best spell of the
season, galvanised into action by newly-appointed caretaker
player/manager Stuart Pearce. 

They bounced back with a draw and three successive league
victories that saw them climb out of the bottom three.

But the momentum could not be maintained, and as United
were celebrating the championship, Forest won only one
league game after January and were relegated, ending the
season ignominiously with a 5-0 home thrashing by Newcastle
United. 

The chances of a repeat performance for both this season
are high and a good result for Forest might be a narrow
defeat with no injuries, leaving them in good shape for the
more important game against relegation rivals Southampton
two days later.

Such a state of affairs is all grist to the mill for
Forest's fans, who have had to get used to their up and
down existence in the 90s. 

Rarely has a season gone by when the club were not promoted
or relegated, or just missing out, as their lack of
resources saw them forced to sell their top players time
and again. 

It is all especially painful coming as it does after the
most glorious period in the club's history in the late
1970s when they experienced a run of success matched by no
other other British club bar Liverpool. 

After winning promotion to the old first division in 1977,
Brian Clough's team stunned everybody by lifting the league
title the following season. 

They then went on to win the European Cup, beating Malmo in
the final, and to prove it wasn't an aberration, repeated
the feat the following year. 

The period also saw them reach three successive League Cup
finals, winning two, and notch up the longest unbeaten run
in English soccer history. 

From November 26 1977 until 25 November 1978 Forest were
unbeaten in 42 league matches and were also unbeaten in 40
league and cup matches from March-December 1978.

Those glory years are long gone for Forest and nowadays an
unbeaten run of four games would be considered a success.

United have lost only nine of their Old Trafford meetings
with Forest, and after last week's home defeat by
Middlesbrough, they are in no mood to make it double
figures. 

*******************


Subject: Soccer showcase-Man Utd v Forest facts and figures 

LONDON, Dec 23  - Facts and figures for Saturday's English
premier league match between Manchester United and
Nottingham Forest at Old Trafford (kickoff 150O GMT):

Manchester United 
Formed 1878 as Newton Heath, changed name to Manchester
United 1902. Major honours: European champions 1968
European Cup Winners' Cup winners 1991 League champions (11
times) 1908, 1911, 1952, 1956, 1957, 1965, 1967, 1993,
1994, 1996, 1997
 F.A. Cup winners: (record nine times)
1909, 1948, 1963, 1977, 1983, 1985, 1990, 1994, 1996
League Cup winners: 1992
League and Cup double 1994, 1996.
 Ground: Old Trafford, capacity 55,300. The biggest league ground in
England, a venue for the 1996 European championship and
regular base for F.A. Cup semifinals. Also used for rugby
league finals and internationals. Manager: Alex Ferguson.

Most league appearances:
Bobby Charlton 606, 1956-73
Most league goals: Charlton 199, 1956-73
Most appearances, all club competitions: Charlton 744 (1956-1973)
Most goals, all club compettions: Charlton 247 (199 league; 48 cups)
Most capped player: Charlton 106 (England)

League position: Third
Last league meeting: Dec 26 1996 at City Ground. United won 4-0.
Last league meeting at Old Trafford: September 14 1996. United won 4-1.


Nottingham Forest 

Formed 1865, one of the oldest clubs in the world,
originally known as The Forest Football Club. Major honours:
European champions 1979, 1980. European Super Cup winners
1980 League champions: 1978 F.A. Cup winners: 1898, 1959.
League Cup winners: 1978, 1979. Ground: City Ground,
capacity 30.602. Used as venue during Euro 96. Manager:
Dave Bassett. Most league appearances: Bob McKinlay 614,
1951-70. Most league goals: Grenville Morris 199, 1898-1913.
Most capped player: Stuart Pearce 76 (England). Team
colours: Home: Red shirts with black shoulders, white
shorts, red socks. Away: Yellow and navy blue. League
position: 20 (bottom) 
"Merry RED Christmas from Denmark" Click on image for more!"



BREAKING NEWS - Wednesday 23 December 1998 
 Subject: RONALDO'S EURO WARNING FOR UNITED

Inter Milan striker Ronaldo is confident he will be in prime
form when he comes to face Manchester United in the
Champions' League quarter-finals next March.

The Brazilian superstar has played just 13 competitive
matches and scored five goals since the World Cup because
of knee tendon problems.

He has returned to Brazil to continue his rehabilitation but
warned United: "I'm feeling good. These exercises are very
tough but I am aware that each one is important."

Doctor Nilton Petrone, the specialist treating the star, said
Ronaldo was winning his battle to get back to peak fitness.

"The results of the treatment are very positive and you could
almost say Ronaldo has recovered," said Petrone.

"Merry RED Christmas from Denmark" Click on image for more!"



BREAKING NEWS - Wednesday 23 December 1998 

Subject: MANDELSON EXIT NOT ALARMING - UNITED FANS 

The Independent Manchester United Supporters' Association believes the
resignation of Trade and Industry secretary Peter Mandelson will not
affect their bid to derail BSkyB's £623million takeover of the club.
Mandelson referred the BSkyB deal to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission
with a decision expected in March next year and IMUSA chairman Andy
Walsh is confident that new DTI secretary Stephen Byers will follow
Mandelson's views.

"We are pretty certain this won't affect the United-Sky deal. It could
cut both ways of course," Walsh said. "Because of Mandelson's close links
with Elizabeth Murdoch, people were saying he would be unduly influenced
by the Murdoch connection. "But that has proved not to be the
case following Mandelson's referral to the Monopolies and Mergers
Commission.

"Mandelson always said he wanted to de-politicise the MMC process and he
would stand by any decision of the MMC.
"It depends on whether Stephen Byers has the same view or whether he will
take a contra-view to the MMC. But we believe the evidence for the MMC to
reject the bid is so compelling that it must be thrown out.
"We just hope that Mr Byers takes the obvious public interest concerns into
account as Peter Mandelson did in referring it to the MMC."

But Walsh admitted he was sorry that Mandelson had left his post because
of the honesty he had shown with the anti-takeover groups. "It is a little
disappointing because Mandelson played it right down the line with
us," Walsh said. "We were pleased for the decision he
took to refer the matter to the MMC in the first place. So his role was
important in getting it referred to the MMC. But there is a long way to
go before any final decision is taken on the deal and we fully expect the
decision to go in favour anyway."
"Merry RED Christmas from Denmark" Click on image for more!"



Subject:      George Best Boring? - Soccernet

I simply don't go to clubs now. My missus calls me a boring old fool...

By Peter Johnson Wednesday, December 23, 1998

A plum-sized swelling above his blackened right eye was throbbing proof
that George Best's new life of quiet domesticity can get a bit hectic at times.

A little difference of opinion in his local a couple of nights earlier led
to one of the debaters making his point with a fist adorned with a diamond
ring. Best needed six stitches over his eye and two beneath it.

He shrugs it off. It is trivial compared with the 80 stitches required a
few years ago when, in a 4am argument with an inconveniently placed kerb,
he was catapulted through the windscreen of a borrowed Aston Martin.

Yet the latest wound attracted by his fame has put another blemish on the
face which, in its unlined youth, made Leonardo DiCaprio look like a wax
cherub.

Just as well, though, that it will be another seven weeks before Best is
needed to appear as the middle-aged George in a film based on his life.

Due in the cinemas next September, it will, he says, be part-fact,
part-fiction. It seems they have found a scriptwriter brave enough to
embroider the already gaudy, improbable life of a man who, in too short a
time, was Europe's finest footballer, a fabled Lothario, a serial breaker
of promises, an alcoholic and a near-destitute guest in one of Her
Majesty's prisons.

Best is a consultant on the film. His first wife, the spirited and
oftbetrayed Angie - portrayed by Patsy Kensit - has given the producers her
version of their marriage and Best winces at the thought of what she might
have revealed.

'Everything that went wrong with our marriage was my fault,' he confesses.
'But I've insisted that the film-makers don't hide anything. There is no
point because everybody knows what has gone on.'

That frankness, a cheerful acknowledgement that he was the architect of his
own spectacular downfall, is the key to Best's latest and longest-lasting
revival. He claims to be 'happier and more relaxed than I've been for
years' and he looks and sounds it.

The climb-back began five years ago when he met his second wife, air
hostess Alex, a tall, willowy blonde, who is now 26, exactly half his age.
She has just finished furnishing and decorating the £300,000 Chelsea flat
they moved into in August. For them this will be a significant Christmas,
their first in what they consider their first real home together.

'Bestie' claims he has knocked his life into shape, organised everything -
eating, travelling, earning and spending - and done it so well that only
last week his bank manager hailed him in the street with a cheery: 'We are
doing well, aren't we.' The experience clearly left the old prodigal as
moved as if he had been given a medal by the Queen.

These days his money comes from his job as Sky TV's regular Saturday soccer
pundit and from his trips around the world speaking at dinners or simply
showing his face, as recognisable behind today's ragged beard as it was
when he was known in the Sixties as 'the fifth Beatle'. He already has 30
bookings for the New Year.

Best operates from what he calls his 'office', a sacrosanct seat in the
flock-wallpapered saloon bar of a Chelsea pub. He is there all day, most
days, on full public view, yet, apart from the occasional flying fist,
mostly accepted as one of the lads. The pub is within yards of the Kings
Road down which Best once strutted, followed by a vast, everchanging
entourage - mostly female. Then, he set the fashion in behaviour and
clothes. Now, he wears a tracksuit which, like its owner, has seen better days.

Best has not disowned the demon drink, but he believes he has conquered it.
He sits now with a full wine glass at his right hand, a glass of brandy in
his left.

'Drink is not a problem now because it doesn't affect my work or my life,'
he said. 'It used to. It was my life. Nowadays, though, I can enjoy a drink
with the boys but if I have a job the next day I make sure I can do it. In
the old days I would just have said: "Oh, screw it" and stayed in bed.'

He understands and sympathises with modern players like Tony Adams and Paul
Merson who have won their battles with booze and, especially, with Paul
Gascoigne, who is still at a crucial stage in his. 'Most athletes like a
drink after training and working hard,' he says. 'Because they are fit,
they find they can out-drink most people. In a strange way, drinking
becomes competitive. You feel you have to be the best. If my pals drank 20
pints, I'd have to have 21. If they went home at 4am, I went home at 4.30.

'I feel for Gazza or anyone else who has to admit he has a problem. When I
finally managed that, I had tried everything. I was in hospital three
times, for a month each time, and had implants in my body to try to cure
the addiction. None of it worked because I was lying to myself - all the
time I was pretending to seek a cure I was thinking: "Only 30 days here and
I can have a drink again".

'Now, I simply don't go to clubs. Sometimes even the missus calls me a
boring old fool because I want to go home early to have some home cooking
and put my feet up in front of the telly.'

It is argued that, by cutting himself off in his prime, Best achieved only
half of what he was capable.

But those of us who watched and marvelled at him, week-in-weekout with
Manchester United, saw something - genius is the only word - so fresh,
inventive and youthfully audacious that it could not have survived into
footballing middle-age. Like every other great instinctive artist, he could
not go on creating a masterpiece every Saturday.

George, you sensed, simply got bored not only with being the best but with
being Best. He began playing truant from training then from matches.

The beginning of the end came the day the train taking Manchester United to
a match against Chelsea pulled out of Manchester's Piccadilly station with
manager Sir Matt Busby peering frantically out of an open window. Minutes
after the train disappeared, George came shambling up the platform,
unshaven, unkempt and unrepentant.

'I think that after United won the European Cup Sir Matt felt it was time
for him to move upstairs,' he recalls. 'But that left United with the
problem of replacing him. New managers seem to come and go every day.

'Gradually, ordinary players replaced great ones and teams were coming to
Old Trafford and stuffing us. I was unhappy. I didn't want to go out on the
pitch knowing we were going to be beaten by teams who could not have lived
with us five years earlier.

'I didn't want to go. The last match I should have played - against
Plymouth in the Cup - I went and sat alone in the Old Traf-ford stand for a
couple of hours and thought about the past and whether I could carry on. In
the end, I just walked away.

'Right or wrong, nobody can take away what I achieved or claim that I let
anybody down on the pitch. I was United's leading scorer for six
consecutive years, even though I was a winger and not supposed to score.
One season I finished topscorer in the First Division with 28 goals.'

For us, what mattered was not the number of goals he got but the way he got
them. But from Old Trafford, Best drifted quickly downwards. He played
first in the backwaters of this country then in South Africa, Hong Kong and
Australia before joining the brief soccer Klondike in the United States.

'I didn't have a home,' he said. 'I was like a gypsy - have boots will
travel. I was living on planes, making good money but with no home, no
friends, no roots.'

When America decided to cut down the number of foreign play-ers, the game
there collapsed, marooning Best, who had bought a beach bar in California.
'I became a beach bum. I was in the bar every day and every night. I hung
around the beach, I had nothing else to do. Eventually, I decided to come
back to England and arrived at Heathrow in 1981 with one suitcase, £1,000
and not a clue about what I was going to do.'

He had left behind Angie and his son Callum, now 18, and virtually
guaranteed to be American soccer's annual Player of the Year. Callum is 6ft
3in and skilful and might just make it in League football here if his
father dare expose him to the destructive comparisons that would hound him.

George chose to live in London because it was the only place big enough to
hide. Yet his craving for drink was more powerful than the yearning for
anonymity. In 1984 he stumbled blindly to the lowest point of his life -
jailed for three months for drink-driving, assaulting a policeman and
failing to appear in court.

At first, he traded on that notoriety. Then, after the chat shows, came the
respectability of appearing on the box as something more than a teller of
old, bawdy tales. 'After my first appearance on television, interest just
snowballed. United have 220 supporters' clubs around the world and I think
I've talked to all of them. I'm always flying off somewhere - Calgary, the
Middle East, Malaysia. And the Sky job gives me the chance to get back to
Old Trafford, still for me a magic place. For me, the decade spanning the
late Sixties and early Seventies was fabulous, but since the foundation of
the Premiership, United's development has been astonishing. It is no longer
a question of if but when they will win the European Cup again.'

He and his close friend Denis Law - two-thirds of the great triumvirate
Law, Best and Charlton - still holiday together in some remote corner of
the world. Law bet Best's best man £100 that the groom would not turn up
for his second wedding.

'He lost and paid up, which, as a Scotsman, hurt him a lot,' Best gloats.
'I warned Alex that marriage to me wouldn't be easy. She has been brilliant
but she did find it difficult getting used to a life where everybody either
stares at you or wants to talk. Most people are fine, but some aren't.

'The other day we were in a restaurant when a girl came over and said her
friends had dared her to kiss me. Whenever I speak to a mixed audience, the
women always want details of my old love life. Alex squirms, but she
manages to cope with it.'

The modern Best is astounded by his own adjustment to a home life the old
roué would have found suffocating. He talks about staining his new garden
bench as triumphantly as if he was scoring another European Cup goal.

'You know,' he said, 'sometimes in the early hours when there's nobody
about, I walk down to the Thames and just sit there, contented, looking at
the floodlit bridge, thinking over everything that's happened to me. It's
beautiful and peaceful.

'I tell Alex I'm just slipping down to "the bridge". She's used to it now,
but at first I'm sure she thought it was the name of a new nightclub. I
don't suppose you could blame her really.'
"Merry RED Christmas from Denmark" Click on image for more!"



Subject:      Happy Christmas List

Happy Christmas to everyone, and lets hope for some improvement in 1999!
The recent results have been just so depressing.

I've been racking my brain to come up with the answer to Tony Smith's
question. Two candidates for me would be the hammering by Ipswich
(6-1?), and the 3-2 loss to Forest, after being (I think) 2-0 up.
Johnny Metgod scored the winner from a free from about 100 yards.

I think the current malaise stems from the management decision to put
all the eggs in the Inter Milan basket. It has filtered through to
the players. They have taken the managers comment seriously that his
biggest worry is having a full squad to pick from for the EC
quarter-final. They looked like players (on Saturday) whose main
priority was avoiding injury, - apart from Keane. Hardly a recipe for
league success, even against Middlesbrough, a very average team
composed of has-beens, budget foreigners and Phil Stamp.

No amount of talent will win anything without motivation and
application. We don't need to buy players (except for a goalkeeper) -
just get them organised and focussed. Much is made of the lack of a
settled pair in central defence. Chelsea played Duberry and Lambourde
against us, and they did OK. Did they ever play together before? They
are certainly not first choice. Villa played a 17-year-old against
us. Playing centre-half is not exactly rocket science.

Gary Neville is not a central defender for the very simple reason
that he doesn't have the bulk. Full back is the place for him.  He is
a fine footballer with a terrific attitude, but he is 11 stone
weight. Gary Pallister is 14 stone, and guess who is going to win if
they contest a corner? Johnsen and Stam should be picked every game,
told to get on with it, and kicked up the arse when they don't. We
are scoring more than 2 goals per game and that should be enough to
win most games. All we need to do is concede less than two.

Could we just win a couple of games?? Please !


Seamus
"Merry RED Christmas from Denmark" Click on image for more!"



From: "Gerry Byrne" 
Subject: The Silly Season

Fellow Reds

I was speaking to a guy a few days ago and we got around to naming our 10
GREATEST footballers ever seen in our time.
Well, seeing as here in South Africa, we are on our summer holidays & it is
called the silly season here, I thought I would get the ball rolling as to
the 10 greatest footballers that I have ever seen in my time. Bearing in
mind I was born in 1956, I have never had the opportunity of seeing the
GREAT Busby Babes, I am basing my judgement since 1964, when I first started
watching football on TV:

1: George Best (THE GREATEST)
2: Johan Cryuff
3: Eric Cantona
4: Bobby Charlton
5: Denis Law
6: Michel Platini
7: Bryan Robson
8: Martin Buchan
9: Kenny Dalgleish (see, I'm NOT biased)
10:Zinadine Zidane (WHAT a dream......Keano & Zidane in the heart of the
midfield
                              both playing for United)

I make NO apologies for the fact that I have named 6 United players in the
list........
No doubt, there will be differences of opinion here...........

Happy Christmas, folks!!!

Gerry Byrne!!!


"Merry RED Christmas from Denmark" Click on image for more!"

          If ever they are playing in your town
          You must get to that football ground
          Take a lesson come to see
          Football taught by Matt Busby
          Manchester, Manchester United
          A bunch of bouncing Busby Babes
          They deserve to be knighted