The time machine that is 'rec.sport.soccer'.

[Hoof the ball]

There's a goldmine of forum opinions dating back to 1990.
You can run a search on probably any moment going back to that year and you'll have more or less match-thread like reactions. I'm tempted to dig up our win versus Liverpool in the F.A. Cup.

https://groups.google.com/g/rec.sport.soccer/search?q=Cantona

From Sept. 1998.

12,6 million quid for Dwight Yorke?????? What a ripoff.

10 million for Stam?

Isnt it time Fergie went to take a basic course in business studies?

well, there's no question that yorke and stam are decent enough players,
but ten million quid per? chris perry would be more reliable for half
the cost, and columbus here in MLS signed a yorke-caliber striker in
stern john for...well, let's just say it we might have paid a twentieth
of what united just paid for yorke. 8-)

i can't bring myself to hate united, at all. they're just too funny to hate.

As for Stam well I have waited a long time, watched him for the last 6 months
playing in Holland etc and I have to say he is a solid defender nothing more.
There is nothing that warrents the price tag. Up against pace he does struggle,
I'm not jst jumping on the bandwagon here, I watched him closely playing for PSV
and he really did struggle against fast players. The World cup only emphasised
that...

From November 1992 regarding Eric Cantona joining us. All comments are around Nov-Dec '92.

So the scum have bought Cantona for 1.2 million. A bit of a bolt from the blue.
Eric was pissed off that he didn't even get on the bench for the Arsenal game.
He was so embarrassed, evidently, that he then pretended to be injured.

I am sorry to see him go especially to the mancs. However, I think Fergie
must have lost his marbles. All the Man Utd. fans I know were as gutted as me,
if not more,. It is understandable, imagine if Hughes signed for us!!

Anyway ..... a few lists..

A team of Manchester United players who went to Old Trafford after winning
League title honours elsewhere and so took a break from realistic Championship
contention.

1. Jim Leighton - Aberdeen
2. Viv Anderson - Nottingham Forest
3. John Sirebaek - Vejle
4. George Graham - Arsenal
5. Gordon McQueen - Leeds
6. Brian McClair - Celtic
7. Gordon Strachen - Aberdeen
8. Arnold Muhren - Ajax
9. Joe Jordon - Leeds
10.Gary Birtles - Nottingham Forest
11.Lou Macari - Celtic
and now ...
12. Eric Cantona - Leeds

No! Wrong, in fact! And I'll tell you why:

Leeds United won the English League last year by a hatful of goals and
four clear points over the next nearest team. Hopefully Eric will
ingratiate himself in the scum dressing room by showing off his
Championship medal and recounting the story of April 26th 1992 at
great length. And in return, maybe the Man Utd boys can talk about their
trip to Upton Park to see West Ham a few days earlier.

Now that is funny!

Yeah, United was lucky enough to beat Arsenal but they are still behind
Arsenal and pretty soon, my Liverpool will leave them behind too!!!!!
Liverpool is back people and you better realize that.
By the way, United will never have easy games against Liverpool!!
And to all United fans: remember the game at Anfield last year
Question: why is 1967 so "significant" anyway?
See ya!

Yeah and now Liverpool is breathing down United's neck; only 2 points
below United and tied with City.
Three straight wins, 5 wins in the last 7 games, including a draw at Old
Trafford, which SHOULD be a win for Liverpool, well that will get you moving,
won't it?
Everton, you're next!
G O L I V E R P O O L!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And if United fans expect Cantona to be their savior, they are oh so wrong!!!!
So much for predicting that Liverpool will be relegated; boy I was laughing my
ass off when I saw that!!!!!!
Question: Why United has scored only 18 goals in 14 games?
Answer: Because they suck, are very overrated and take the league for
granted.
United...maybe if they could bring Charlton back they would finish second!
!!!!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHA
The Bad Boy who
hates Man Utd

Eric is good one week and crap the next, he is too inconsistant!!!!
And now he plays for Man Utd he is bound to get worse....
Ferg should buy a goalscorer, not a tempremental frenchman.
sometimes I think I could do a better job then these overpaid
managers...

No, Cantona is not the best player since Platini; Vahirua and Deschamps
are better; they are just very quiet.
Cantona is all noise, that's all. And most of that noise started when he
came to Leeds.
As for Rosenthal, I am sure he has contributed to Liverpool's recent
superb form. 5 wins in Liverpool's last 7 games, including a very unfair draw
at Old Trafford. Or do you doubt that Liverpool is back? Just check the
standings: only 2 points below United and only 4 points below Arsenal.
The fact that Cantona has spent most of his time in Leeds in the bench
tells you anything? Rosenthal, on the other hand, is a starter for Liverpool.
Maybe Cantona should have stayed in France.

And it goes on and on and on......

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

Stern John as good as Dwight Yorke

Glad to see idiots are idiots no matter what the era

 

[Handré1990]

Stern John as good as Dwight Yorke

Glad to see idiots are idiots no matter what the era

 

[Bastian]

Extraordinary

 

[Hoof the ball]

Liverpool vs Man Utd FA Cup Final pre-match comments.

Enjoy, yes, let's enjoy Liverpool's Fowler shooting right into
Schemeichel's back. Yes, Yes. The pleasure of watching Cantona bursting
into anger once more is undescribable. Man Utd. Who does they think they
are? Liverpool is the supreme master of English football. They didn't win
this season, but all is not lost...

P.S. Fuk Man Utd

Hmmmm....a respectful.....polite.....grown up Man Utd fan!!
What a novelty, you dont often see one of these species very often!!

I certainly will enjoy May 11th, however I will have to tip my Redmen for
victory.
My prediction? The "Beautiful One" to score the only goal of the
game.......Jamie Redknapp to spank one in from 25 yards!!!

We will soon see though...Just a few days to go!!! Should be a manic game!

Liverpool for the Cup, then, by 3-1 (The 1 is United's F.A.-guaranteed
penalty).

By the way, don't you think this LIverpool team is far superior to
the '77 one? Certainly I rate Colymore and Fowler way above Keegan and
Heighway; McNananam and Barnes are better than Kennedy and Jimmy Case.
I'm not sure about the mid-80s LIverpool, though.

I'm a Liverpool fan - and confident. For the first time in years we've got
a team who have no equals on thier day, which is occuring more and more
often.
I saw the Old Trafford game in a packed bar in Crete on holiday, and can
honestly say I've never been more proud of the team - and that includes
the 80's. If both teams play at their best, we'll win.

On the 11th of May 1996, John Barnes will have his finger prints
> on the prestigious FA cup.
> So sad to see Eric Cantona leading his team up the steps to recieve
> the runner up medal for the second time.

 

[Bastian]

So, how far do forums date back? Trying to understand pre-internet message boards, if it can be called that.

Saw this following the link:

ok, first thing, I AM a Man Utd fan...
Alex Ferguson is acting the COMPLETE ASSHOLE and is really letting us down:-

1) From summer, sells Ince (who could be NOW going to Arsenal),Kanchelskis,
Walsh, Hughes (claimed he hadn't realise Sparky hadnt signed contract -
what kind of a manager would do that!?)
but makes approx 14 million.....

2) From LAST SEASON, the Cole - Gillespie trade/sale,
a MAJOR MISTAKE, didn't really look that good at the time, even after
Cole got the 5 in a match (against Ipswich of all teams),
in todays market Gillespie is probably worth MORE than Cole!
(Oh yeah, buying David May as well....)

3) Even though gained 14 mil from sales, Fergie has bought NOBODY to fill in
these positions - if you want to win the European Cup, let alone the League
you have to get REAL QUALITY in the side, replacing experienced
internationals with decent U-21s is REALLY PATHETIC, it's not hard to
see how far behind English skill is behind european, and these 'kids' will
get KILLED by good continental teams.
I can't understand why he hasnt bought players to build up a squad as
strong as that 2 years ago which nearly did the treble.... can YOU???

4) Trying to fool all us fans that the team and club is doing well, sure there
are alot of Man Utd fans who think that the club is the BEST in England still,
but no matter what money you make if you dont win the feckIN league you
ain't the best, Man Utd WON'T win the League this year in their current state
don't gimme crap about paying millions for the stadium, how come Arsenal
and Liverpool can spend 15+ million on players, yet Man Utd with 20+ million
profit alone CAN'T afford an ground improvement AND some GOOD players.

5) Pulling KeanO out of the Irish squad by sending him for operation...
if International soccer is important enough to have no saturday games before
the following midweek's internationals WHY place Keane club commitments
ahead of his country's, he could have waited and extra week, and Keane
has a 4 match ban anyway.....


If you ask me Alex Ferguson is more concerned with makin money than making great
football teams anymore, surprised he didnt feck off to Inter Milan....


if you ask me make Cantona player-manager, he'll know what to do!

later

#7

 

[2 man midfield]

Brilliant thread. It’s like holding up a mirror to this place, some of the stuff that’s written up there.

 

[The Firestarter]

So, how far do forums date back? Trying to understand pre-internet message boards, if it can be called that.

Saw this following the link:

It is the archive of the original Usenet , a sort of distributed proto-forum-like system that originally didn't even run on the ARPANET(the network that morphed into the Internet) . So these posts from the early 90s were made on various bulletin board systems that people dialled up to , University networks, etc. My memories from the early Internet were that people appeared rather intelligent and well spoken, but apparently I had not visited the football discussions

 

[GifLord]

Some of these are probably from the BBS era

 

[Bastian]

It is the archive of the original Usenet , a sort of distributed proto-forum-like system that originally didn't even run on the ARPANET(the network that morphed into the Internet) . So these posts from the early 90s were made on various bulletin board systems that people dialled up to , University networks, etc. My memories from the early Internet were that people appeared rather intelligent and well spoken, but apparently I had not visited the football discussions

Much appreciated I had no idea. I would have expected people going berserk after Fergie broke up that squad prior to the class of '92 breaking into the squad proper.

 

[babablue]

This sort of confirms what I've been thinking for a while about society as a whole, not just football. There aren't any more idiots today than in the past, the difference is the ability of the idiots to reach a vast audience thanks to the internet and social media.

 

[Lay]

I was a fan of Yorke before we signed him, but even I heavily doubted the signing

 

[Pexbo]

So, how far do forums date back? Trying to understand pre-internet message boards, if it can be called that.

Saw this following the link:

99% sure that is @Mainoldo

 

[Mainoldo]

99% sure that is @Mainoldo

I was about 10.

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

"Liverpool for the Cup, then, by 3-1 (The 1 is United's F.A.-guaranteed
penalty).

By the way, don't you think this LIverpool team is far superior to
the '77 one? Certainly I rate Colymore and Fowler way above Keegan and Heighway; McNananam and Barnes are better than Kennedy and Jimmy Case. I'm not sure about the mid-80s LIverpool, though."

Nice to see people were bemoaning us getting a penalty even then.

Also, the diss on the 77 team ... the team that came closest to winning the treble (even if the mid 80s one was better). Wum?

 

[Hoof the ball]

So, the earliest posts in there start from December 21st 1989!
The best thing to do is get the specific date for a particular event, then click on the dropdown and set the date parameter accordingly.

Talking about the 1990 World Cup Italia happening next year!
I even saw an article on there someone had pasted that had Wenger saying that he was glad that he got Anelka instead of Ronaldo because Anelka is a team player.

 

[432JuanMata]

To be fair bringing up bad predictions from years ago you can just use the caf. Football is so unpredictable that we all get some wrong, way wrong

 

[Olly Gunnar Solskjær]

It's mad to think that people were sat at their computers talking about bloody Cantona signing.

 

[calodo2003]

I can see this thread being fun.

 

[432JuanMata]

It's mad to think that people were sat at their computers talking about bloody Cantona signing.

Would of took them 20 mins to write due to the keyboard and 10 mins to post due to dial up internet. They are the true warriors

 

[calodo2003]

‘The Bad Boy who hates Man United’

Someone potentially got a tattoo of this.

 

[JakeC]

‘The Bad Boy who hates Man United’

Someone potentially got a tattoo of this.

Leave glaston out of this

 

[calodo2003]

So, how far do forums date back? Trying to understand pre-internet message boards, if it can be called that.

Saw this following the link:

A young Johnno here.

 

[432JuanMata]

So, how far do forums date back? Trying to understand pre-internet message boards, if it can be called that.

Saw this following the link:

1994 forums started getting made. Most didn’t kick off until 1996

 

[The Firestarter]

Would of took them 20 mins to write due to the keyboard and 10 mins to post due to dial up internet. They are the true warriors

Due to the keyboard ? Are you mistaking it with a typewriter ?