Facts about football that shouldn't be true - but are

After beating Liverpool in the 1977 fa cup final, United supporters stood and applauded Liverpool's players in their 'losing lap', wishing them good luck for their upcoming European Cup final.

Both sets of supporters belted out YAWN before the match.
 
JediSith said:
Always had a stingy board, even before the glazers, who never appreciated the value of marquee signings. Both on the football side & commercial side. The board was always happy with a QF or SF CL finish and never had that football driven motivation to win the CL every year or two. If they did I argue today the glamour club of world football would be Man Utd. That treble win was a missed opportunity
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It's an insane standard.

Only 4 managers have won more than 2 European cups. Three of them won their 3rd after SAF's retirement (Ancelotti, Zidane, Guardiola). So the statement amounts to "by the time SAF retired, only one guy had won more European cups than him: Bob Paisley." Big deal.
 
JBG said:
Wow that's dreadful... I remember him being inconsistent and frustrating at times, but that bad with goal returns actually surprised me.
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It's not that bad. He played 108 games' worth of minutes in the PL, which is less than 3 full seasons. He had a goal contribution every 130 minutes, that's very good for a winger.
 
Bodø's sudden rise without financial aid and not falling. It is not something I ever remember seeing in football, even though the league in itself is weak.

They also struggled more with recruitment than teams with similar smaller budgets because it is isolated, being a 9-hour drive from their geographically closest team in the league. And colder than average. It is an unrealistic movie.

2017 promoted to level 1.
2018 finishing at the bottom half but surviving.
2019 very surprising second place
2020: Winning by 20 points.
2021-2024 winning every year except for one second place.
 
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ole@thewheel said:
1. United went 85 years without a win on a New Years day. From 1927 to 2012 exactly
2. Former Assistant Manager Carlos Queiroz ran a marathon on a morning of a matchday and was on a dugout during the match in the afternoon
3. Sir Matt Busby didnt have a written contract for most of the time while he coached Man Utd
4. In the 80-s United did a raffle of car to boost Old Trafford attendance
5. Fergie once banned Eric Djemba Djemba from the first team squad for chuckling on a training session
6. During Ole reign club hired a sleep specialist to help players fixing their rutines due to their apparent phone addiction
7. SAF once made Rooney handwrite a letter of apology to a referee
8. During the 60s and 70s United and City players uses to carpool even during derby week
9. In 1993 a City- United game was interrupted because a sheep ran into the pitch at the Main Road
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Hmm don't think that's true, without googling it, I seem to remember going a game on NYD at Old Trafford and Tevez scored. Don't think that would have been in 2012 as he was at City at the point.
 
Kane and Miroslav Klose are the only bundesliga players to have scored against every bundesliga team they have faced.
 
tentan said:
Kane and Miroslav Klose are the only bundesliga players to have scored against every bundesliga team they have faced.
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Is this not just an unsurprising stat? I would have been surprised if nobody had been able to do it since 1963, but more surprised if 8+ players had done it. 1-4 Players seem about right.
 
Crazy how Bruno has been our best player for the past ten years, and that is not even really a compliment. He is not terrible, do not get me wrong. He works hard, puts up numbers, and has the odd worldie. But let’s be honest, he does not fill you with that aura, that inevitability our legends used to bring. He is too light, too inconsistent, and never really feels like the guy in big moments.

There was a time we had four or five all timers in the squad every season. Now Bruno, who is basically just spamming passes and hoping something clicks, is our main man. He is not a master of the ball, just a high volume merchant. Keep trying enough and eventually something works, right?

Truth is, he would not even make the bench in the proper United sides. He cannot even lace Nani’s boots when it comes to talent, and Nani was not even top tier by our old standards. That is how far we have dropped.
 
Ddannidom said:
Crazy how Bruno has been our best player for the past ten years, and that is not even really a compliment. He is not terrible, do not get me wrong. He works hard, puts up numbers, and has the odd worldie. But let’s be honest, he does not fill you with that aura, that inevitability our legends used to bring. He is too light, too inconsistent, and never really feels like the guy in big moments.

There was a time we had four or five all timers in the squad every season. Now Bruno, who is basically just spamming passes and hoping something clicks, is our main man. He is not a master of the ball, just a high volume merchant. Keep trying enough and eventually something works, right?

Truth is, he would not even make the bench in the proper United sides. He cannot even lace Nani’s boots when it comes to talent, and Nani was not even top tier by our old standards. That is how far we have dropped.
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I think you’re in the wrong thread. Sounds like a united part of the forum post. And he would make the bench on any team you’ve had. Good player and has gotten better even as your team hasn’t. You would be in the bottom three without him.
 
SambaBoy said:
Hmm don't think that's true, without googling it, I seem to remember going a game on NYD at Old Trafford and Tevez scored. Don't think that would have been in 2012 as he was at City at the point.
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Correct. 1st Jan 2008.
United 1-0 Birmingham City (Tevez)
 
chomsky89 said:
Is this not just an unsurprising stat? I would have been surprised if nobody had been able to do it since 1963, but more surprised if 8+ players had done it. 1-4 Players seem about right.
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It is surprising that record breaking goal machines (Lewandowski, Gerd Müller) failed to do it.
 
stefan92 said:
It is surprising that record breaking goal machines (Lewandowski, Gerd Müller) failed to do it.
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I looked it up:
Lewandowski didn't score vs. St. Pauli (2 games) and Eintracht Braunschweig (2 games).
Gerd Müller only failed to do it vs. Darmstadt and he only played 1 game against them.

Could easily happen to Kane too in the next seasons to be fair.
 
GuyfromAustria said:
I looked it up:
Lewandowski didn't score vs. St. Pauli (2 games) and Eintracht Braunschweig (2 games).
Gerd Müller only failed to do it vs. Darmstadt and he only played 1 game against them.

Could easily happen to Kane too in the next seasons to be fair.
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That's a good point. It's more difficult to keep that run going if you spent more seasons in the league. Which makes Klose's record far more impressive than Kane's
 
SambaBoy said:
Hmm don't think that's true, without googling it, I seem to remember going a game on NYD at Old Trafford and Tevez scored. Don't think that would have been in 2012 as he was at City at the point.
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It's bollocks.

For starters, we won on NYD in 1935, 1936 and 1937, then going back the other way we won in 2011, 2008, 2005, 2003 and 2001.

I couldn't be arsed going back (or forward) any further, but thought I'd check out the season Fergie took over, and we won the NYD game then too.

Probably also worth noting that there are a lot of seasons without a NYD game.
 
Iker Quesadillas said:
It's an insane standard.

Only 4 managers have won more than 2 European cups. Three of them won their 3rd after SAF's retirement (Ancelotti, Zidane, Guardiola). So the statement amounts to "by the time SAF retired, only one guy had won more European cups than him: Bob Paisley." Big deal.
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Yeah. It goes under appreciated how difficult it is, perhaps recently Real Madrid have made it seem easy. And increased people’s expectations with other teams.

But I still think that 99 team was a wasted opportunity, both footballing wise and commercially it was huge. By far bigger than Real Madrid. With the right board it could have become unstoppable

It’s funny I was talking about stingy board, Brazilian Ronaldo agent offered him to United when he left Barca but the PLC wouldn’t allow United to offer the wages. Just imagine him in that United team. All those semi finals would have easily been finals
 
JediSith said:
Yeah. It goes under appreciated how difficult it is, perhaps recently Real Madrid have made it seem easy. And increased people’s expectations with other teams.

But I still think that 99 team was a wasted opportunity, both footballing wise and commercially it was huge. By far bigger than Real Madrid. With the right board it could have become unstoppable

It’s funny I was talking about stingy board, Brazilian Ronaldo agent offered him to United when he left Barca but the PLC wouldn’t allow United to offer the wages. Just imagine him in that United team. All those semi finals would have easily been finals
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Just thinking now, other than Veron, did Ferguson ever sign a world star outside of the premier league?
 
JediSith said:
With the right board it could have become unstoppable

It’s funny I was talking about stingy board, Brazilian Ronaldo agent offered him to United when he left Barca but the PLC wouldn’t allow United to offer the wages. Just imagine him in that United team. All those semi finals would have easily been finals
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I don't really know who the 'right board' you refer to are, but Ronaldo would likely have caused a massive disruption concerning wages and transfer fees.

The club didn't do too badly without him.

Ronaldo never won the CL nor did he play in a final, so there's no guarantee of such success.

Have to be careful of galactico fever. One way ticket back to Woodward, sportswashing for dodgy countries or another Murdoch.
 
G97 said:
Just thinking now, other than Veron, did Ferguson ever sign a world star outside of the premier league?
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Nope. Can argue Stam & RVN were signings that Barca or Italian teams at the time would typically make. Already world class or top quality players but from smaller leagues.
 
MaxZorin said:
I don't really know who the 'right board' you refer to are, but Ronaldo would likely have caused a massive disruption concerning wages and transfer fees.

The club didn't do too badly without him.

Ronaldo never won the CL nor did he play in a final, so there's no guarantee of such success.

Have to be careful of galactico fever. One way ticket back to Woodward, sportswashing for dodgy countries or another Murdoch.
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The right board is = football and commercially focused. Woodward was a muppet, but imagine United’s signings under SAF before the Glazers. Now supplement it with a sprinkle of one or two superstar signings that SAF wanted for footballing reasons, with the secondary benefit being the commercial & brand benefit. With Woodward’s the primary motive for big signings was commercial. That’s why it always failed. It was like buying a Ferrari to impress the neighbours when you live in a council house.
 
Michael Oliver is still hailed by basically all the media and pundits as the best referee in England, even though most weekends they sit in a studio after a game and start every controversial decision with…
‘Oliver is the best referee in the country for me, but he’s got this one badly wrong today’

How many mistakes does he get to make before someone actually just says he’s shit? Surely he’s run out of wiggle room.
 
JediSith said:
The right board is = football and commercially focused. Woodward was a muppet, but imagine United’s signings under SAF before the Glazers. Now supplement it with a sprinkle of one or two superstar signings that SAF wanted for footballing reasons, with the secondary benefit being the commercial & brand benefit. With Woodward’s the primary motive for big signings was commercial. That’s why it always failed. It was like buying a Ferrari to impress the neighbours when you live in a council house.
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It's a fallacy Woodward wasn't football focused. Of course he wanted us winning league and CL
titles.

He was just incompetent.

It's the same with any potential owner: do they want the best or just commercially viable? Both.

Are they competent enough to get the job done? Signing a wantaway albatross like R9 'because he's R9', to do things we did anyway, would suggest they aren't.

It's the same with Qatari ownership. People thinking we'll sign whoever we want. The only thing we'd Treble is the fabled United Tax.
 
MaxZorin said:
It's a fallacy Woodward wasn't football focused. Of course he wanted us winning league and CL
titles.

He was just incompetent.
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This. Woodward's logic always felt like this to me:

The best players become the biggest personal brands. Going for the biggest "names" therefore means bith commercial and football success.

Which to be fair isn't completely wrong, he just too often missed how to balance the squad.
 
BeforeKeanetherewasRobson said:
RvP ok but Berbatov wasn’t (though turned out to be a very good buy).

Veron was probably nearer “world class” given his time/performances in Italy and with Argentina.
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I take your point about Veron, but I was answering a point about "world star" from within the Prem.

As for Rooney - he was not exactly a "world star" when we signed him.
 
Ddannidom said:
Crazy how Bruno has been our best player for the past ten years, and that is not even really a compliment. He is not terrible, do not get me wrong. He works hard, puts up numbers, and has the odd worldie. But let’s be honest, he does not fill you with that aura, that inevitability our legends used to bring. He is too light, too inconsistent, and never really feels like the guy in big moments.

There was a time we had four or five all timers in the squad every season. Now Bruno, who is basically just spamming passes and hoping something clicks, is our main man. He is not a master of the ball, just a high volume merchant. Keep trying enough and eventually something works, right?

Truth is, he would not even make the bench in the proper United sides. He cannot even lace Nani’s boots when it comes to talent, and Nani was not even top tier by our old standards. That is how far we have dropped.
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Probably the wrong thread but I think you're failing to realise that good players perform better when paired with other good players.

He'd be even better in a proper team. For instance, he probably wouldn't feel like he had to make everything happen and likely force things less and would have more options when on the ball. He would have a hell of lot more assists that's for sure. The number of chances he creates that nobody puts away is unreal. The inevitably point doesn't make much sense either when he scores or assists in 66% of our games.

He's absolutely miles ahead of Nani in terms of consistency of effort and a better player overall. He's got more goals in less games and a similar assist per game ratio while playing in much worse teams. Claiming he wouldn't get on the bench in proper United sides is just silly given the quality of some of the players we've had on the bench over the years.

Personally, I think it's a crying shame we weren't able to surround him with a team capable of winning titles. He wasn't a problem for most people when the team were still capable of making top 4.
 
Nemanja Vidić is the only Premier League winner whose surname is made entirely of Roman numerals (V, I, D, and C)
 
Bristol is the fifth biggest city in England but its football teams have never won a major trophy.
 
Needham said:
Bristol is the fifth biggest city in England but its football teams have never won a major trophy.
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Not had a team in the top division since 1981 I think either (relied on football trivia "knowledge" and not google for that so might be wrong)
 
Needham said:
Bristol is the fifth biggest city in England but its football teams have never won a major trophy.
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Bristol is 7th at best. London, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds. If you go on metropolitan districts it is not even close. Still, the city has never won a major trophy - I'll give you that.
 
FeedTheGoat said:
Not had a team in the top division since 1981 I think either (relied on football trivia "knowledge" and not google for that so might be wrong)
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Sounds about right. They got to a league cup semi final against Forest in 89, I recall.
 
MaxZorin said:
It's a fallacy Woodward wasn't football focused. Of course he wanted us winning league and CL
titles.

He was just incompetent.

It's the same with any potential owner: do they want the best or just commercially viable? Both.

Are they competent enough to get the job done? Signing a wantaway albatross like R9 'because he's R9', to do things we did anyway, would suggest they aren't.

It's the same with Qatari ownership. People thinking we'll sign whoever we want. The only thing we'd Treble is the fabled United Tax.
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I disagree. Woodward had no clue. His remit was primarily to increase revenue after United fell behind. Of course he also wanted United to succeed on the pitch. If given the choice. Finish 2014 revenue up £150m or United win the league and break even, he’d take the first option, the glazers would take first option, most likely because the clubs finances determined that was the priority.

Superstar signings should be determined by the manager or a competent director. You only add it once you have the structure in place to get the best of it. You only sign a striker like Haaland once you have the team creates chances for him, you only sign a winger like Junior and striker like Mbappe when you have 8 players who will do the hard work of tracking back and covering the spaces they leave.
 
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