Stats and Kits

Stats are good. They’re not everything, but they are good things.
Football Club History Database has an exhaustive collection of stats. Here’s the page that compiles all of United’s performances League, FA Cup, League Cup and European competitions. There is also the Association of Football Statisticians offers a paid service for the mad statistician in you. [...]

Carling Cup

United lined up as follows last night:
Foster; O’Shea, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra; Ronaldo, Gibson, Scholes, Nani; Welbeck, Tevez.
Subs: Kuszczak, Anderson, Giggs, Park, Vidic, Possebon, Eckersley.
When I saw the line-up before kick-off, I felt a certain sympathy for Ji-Sung Park. Having been omitted from the match squad for the Moscow showdown, I half expected him to be [...]

That game, that man

I missed the entire game this morning, bar the final 30 seconds and Ronaldo’s free kick that didn’t go in.
It would have been sweet revenge had it did, as it would have redressed an injustice for the last time United faced Jose in the competition. That morning, four years ago, I dragged myself awake and [...]

Now, what I want is, Facts

Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which [...]

That FIFA Club Cup whatever competition

United named their squad for the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan later this month. Here it is:
1 Edwin VAN DER SAR
2 Gary NEVILLE
3 Patrice EVRA
5 Rio FERDINAND
7 CRISTIANO RONALDO
8 ANDERSON
9 Dimitar BERBATOV
10 Wayne ROONEY
11 Ryan GIGGS
12 Ben FOSTER
13 PARK Ji Sung
15 Nemanja VIDIC
16 Michael CARRICK
17 NANI
18 Paul SCHOLES
19 Daniel WELBECK
21 RAFAEL
22 John O SHEA
23 Jonny EVANS
24 Darren FLETCHER
28 Darron GIBSON
29 Tomasz KUSZCZAK
32 Carlos TEVEZ
There’s not too many youngsters, which suggests that Sit Alex is taking this a [...]

Liverpool, Chelsea, Thames AFC and New Brighton Tower

Question: What do Liverpool and Chelsea, and the former football league clubs Thames AFC and New Brighton Tower, have in common?
Answer: They were each formed to make use of an otherwise vacant stadium.
Any chance of Liverpool and Chelsea going the same way as Thames AFC and New Brighton Tower?
Coincidentally, New Brighton Tower and Thames [...]

There’s Only One United

Actually, there are 26 Uniteds within the top six levels of English football, but never mind, try singing the following words to “Rule Britannia”:
Man United
There’s only one United
Manchester United Football Club

A match report

We came from far and wide to a dark, secluded space, where spirits of dead horses guarded the skies and tattered betting slips swirled in the wind, to bond around a ball.
The Turf Club was once the Centre of the Universe during race days, attracting ranks of taxis that no amount of peak time surcharge [...]

A good Singapore-United related story

The Straits Times, the bundle of paper that disguises itself as a “newspaper”, carried a short story about a United fan’s encounter with the one and only Anderson.
Seems to me we’ve just seen the first instance of the non-use of “Man U” in the local press.
Here it is, in case it’s been taken down:
12-year-old sings [...]

5-NL

Dear friends,
It’s that time of the year, again, when wives / partners have gotten a little too familiar and Saturdays need to be occupied in alternative ways.
That’s right: it’s time for Saturday Night Live (season 5), a.k.a. 5-NL.
Last season’s “SNLiv” was supremely exciting, with the title only decided by a goal in the last minute [...]