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The FOOTBALL Thread (2008-2009)


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"Zinedine Zidane wants Cristiano Ronaldo to take his tag as world's most expensive player and has given his seal of approval for the winger to become Real Madrid's latest 'galactico'."

 

Phew thats a relief. Got to sell now then.

 

wakaranai

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They really are scraping the barrel for quotes and opinions now aren't they. I thought his mum had said he was staying a few weeks back?

 

Italy should have been kicked out for being boring and overly defensive.

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Originally Posted By: rach
So many Ronaldo things coming out now. Sounds like such a nice chap:

Quote:
First of all a little story to tell you what kind of man we are talking about. It is January 9, 2008, and in an upstairs room at Manchester United's training ground five elderly men in smart blazers are struggling with their emotions in front of a hushed audience. It is the club's media day building up to the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster and Sir Bobby Charlton's polite smile does not hide the fact he is trembling as he takes his seat. Bill Foulkes is straight-backed and dignified but only a couple of questions have been asked before the tears appear in his eyes and he reaches for a glass of water.

In an adjacent room Wayne Rooney has agreed to offer a modern-day perspective of that seminal day when 23 people, including eight members of Sir Matt Busby's team, were killed in the wreckage of the burnt-out BEA Elizabethan. It is not his specialist subject but he handles the occasion with dignity and more eloquence than some people might imagine. But then Cristiano Ronaldo comes through the double doors and the mood is broken.

He is wearing a white suit jacket and ripped jeans, looking every bit the boy-band hunk, but it is very obvious he is in a bad mood. He begins by berating Karen Shotbolt, the club's press officer, because he is waiting for Rooney and the event has over-run. He is banging his watch with his hand, flapping his arms and gesturing in the way that Portuguese footballers usually reserve for fussy referees and, at first, he is so animated it appears as if it might be a wind-up.

When he flounces back through the doors, cursing loudly, it is very obvious he is being deadly serious. Rooney is professional enough to carry on with his tribute but the attention is no longer exclusively on him. Thirty seconds later Ronaldo appears again, first rapping his forefinger against the glass in the door, then opening it by a fraction and starting to whistle at Rooney in the way that a farmer beckons his sheepdog.

It was such an unpleasant scene the journalists decided not to write about it because we had been invited to the training ground to cover a far more important subject and, when you have sat with men as noble as Charlton, Foulkes, Albert Scanlon, Harry Gregg and Kenny Morgans and seen the hurt in their eyes, it felt incongruous to veer off-track. But coming away from Carrington that day it was difficult not to wonder what had become of the pimply teenager with the braces on his teeth who had been photographed, in his first few weeks as a United player, holding hands with his mother, Dolores, as they crossed a busy Manchester street.

The answer, of course, is that Ronaldo has fallen in love with his own reflection and, as United are currently finding out, that ego is in danger of spiralling out of control. Nor, sadly, is this story a one-off. One member of staff at Old Trafford reports being shocked by his rudeness when sorting out his travel arrangements for a club trip last season. And then there was last season's Football Writers' Association's annual dinner when, with barely any notice, its player of the year demanded that space was made for five of his friends to attend and that he would like them all to be on the top table with him. He got his way, as superstars often do, but the organisers were unimpressed, to say the least.

This is not to say that Ronaldo is all bad. He won a court case against the Sun earlier this week after it was reported that he had been fined for breaking club rules by using his phone during training: a story that was obvious baloney to anyone who has followed the player's career. Ronaldo, in many ways, is the consummate professional when it comes to improving himself on the pitch. He is not a man for nightclubs or raucous evenings out among the Manchester glitterati and there is something deeply impressive about the way he has come from his humble beginnings, growing up in Madeira in a house so small the washing machine was on the roof, to become the most penetrative attacking footballer in the world.

And yet United's more loyal and thoughtful supporters would by now be entitled to think it would be better for Sir Alex Ferguson and the Glazer family to end this shabby saga and let the previously unthinkable happen. To them, his constant prevaricating about his future, his flirting with the Spanish media and his apparent disregard for Manchester United, must smack of a man who has started to think he is bigger than the club.

His sound bites have become increasingly strategic, as if he thinks we cannot see what he is doing, yet nobody will have been surprised that the sweat had barely dried on his brow after Portugal's defeat by Germany on Thursday before he had re-iterated his desire to leave Old Trafford - just as Real Madrid had requested. United insist they will not allow themselves to be bullied into a corner but, when a player is acting like this and would so obviously be resentful and unsettled if he is denied the transfer he craves, the question should be: what is the point in keeping him?


I am hoping he goes now. United will re-group and still win. He will become the product he obviously wants to be and come to regret it in the long term.


This is a good write up from a sports writer perhaps. And thus it should be good.

Arrogance is bred from a young age, nobody can change that drastically in such a short time.

Cantona was arrogant. He talked the talk and walked the walk. So too can Ronaldo.
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Ince becomes the fourth of Ferguson's United old boys to take charge of a Barclays Premier League team next season, joining Mark Hughes at Manchester City, Roy Keane at Sunderland and Steve Bruce at Wigan Athletic. Look down the leagues and you will see Darren Ferguson, Sir Alex's son, at Peterborough United, Mark Robins at Rotherham United and Simon Davies at Chester City. Take into account his time at Aberdeen and you can add Alex McLeish at Birmingham City, Gordon Strachan at Celtic, Mark McGhee at Motherwell and Neale Cooper at Peterhead.


Some people I hear don't like Sir Fergie. I think he is totally brilliant and by far the best football manager ever.

Respect!
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Most recently Sheffield I thought but now:

 

In March 2008, 14 years after he had last played for them, Robson returned to Manchester United to work as an ambassador, for an initial period of 12 months. He will work alongside Bobby Charlton to help United 'promote its commercial and charitable aims'.

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Ronaldo will today tell Sir Alex Ferguson that he is going to madrid and nothing will stand is his way. Ferguson in scheduled to arrive at Manchester Airport from France before at 10am where he recieve a police escort to Carrinton for emergency talks with Ronaldo.

Dr. Phil McGraw, star of his own TV hit series "Dr. Phil", arrived at Manchester United to mediate at the exposive meeting.

It is understand Ronaldo will tell Fergie "Let me go to Madrid or else". Fergie is expected to get all purple and yell a lot.

Ronaldo's agent, Jorge Mendes, expects the meeting will go for a few hours but hopes to home by supper with 10 million pounds in cash in his case.
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Love the latest one.

 

Quote:
Cristiano Ronaldo will sign for Real Madrid on July 7, it was reported in Spain today.

 

And club sources have told Spanish newspaper Marca that Manchester United 'will be forced to accept' the Portuguese winger's transfer before Thursday this week.

 

Real are quite funny aren't they? (When they're not poaching one of your players!)

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Blimey footie thread on the 2nd page! Can't be having that.

 

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Exciting isn't it.

 

Not really. Fact is, he has nowt to announce, silly boy.

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