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Flemming Toft på pension! NU!

Kan du huske Flemming Toft? du ved, ham med den klassiske “Huttelihut”-linje fra EM-finalen i 1992? Der var engang, og det er fandme længe siden, at han var et frisk pust på kommentator-fronten, men nu er han mere som en gang dårlig ånde der blæser dig lige i face!

Her til aften spillede Danmark mod Georgien – en kamp der måske viser sig at være komplet ligegyldig, og aftenens hoved-kommentator var ovennævnte Toft. Danmark er total overlegne, og med en halv times tid igen begynder publikum at råbe efter Flavor of the Month, også kendt som Søren Larsen. Søren Larsen har vist sig at være en yderst effektiv angriber, og Flemming Toft begynder at efterlyse indskiftningen af Schalke 04-angriberen, og da stillingen allerede er 4-1 vælger landstræner Morten Olsen da også at føje Toft og de 27.000+ tilskuere i Parken. Da Søren Larsen har været på banen i et par minutter viser det sig hurtigt at Toft har tænkt længe på et øgenavn til spilleren, og han er kommet på det yderst opfindsomme og geniale “Larsen”. Ihvertfald spilder han ikke en eneste chance for at kalde angriberen ved kun hans efternavn:

Det er Larsens plads i boksen

Så kan folk få en “Larsen” til kaffen

Og så videre og etcetera… Jeg håber fandme bare at resten af medierne ikke adopterer denne idé med blot at kalde Søren Larsen for “Larsen” – det virkede med Laudrup (da der kun var en af dem på landsholdet), det virkede med Schmeichel, det virker med Helveg, men det virker fandme ikke med Larsen!

Medkommentatoren var Jan Mølby, som faktisk er min yndlingskommentator. Mølby er altid fuldstændig ærlig og nøgtern når han får lidt tid imellem Tofts evindelige snakkeri, og jeg elsker at manden tør være kritisk uanset hvem det går ud over. Min favorit Mølby-kommentar stammer fra FA Cup-finalen mellem Manchester United og Millwall i 2004, da han bliver bedt om at beskrive Millwalls indsats:

De har været dårlige

Punktum. Ikke mere at tilføje og ikke noget unødvendigt fyld. De har bare været dårlige.

I øvrigt: “Larsen” scorede to mål iaften.

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english posts fodbold

Player not linked to Man Utd

Per Kroeldrup
Who should be..

I would love to see Danish international Per Krøldrup at United – he might not compete with Rio Ferdinand in the fame-stakes, but he is a skilled defender who is among the top performers in the Italian Seria A, where he currently plays for Udinese. A Danish newspaper has a story about Schalke 04 trying to buy him, and they are talking about a price around £2.5m… That is a bargain! He has previously been on a trial at Arsenal, and he has been consistently linked to Juventus, which in my opinion says a lot about his qualities.

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Park looks United bound

Park Ji-sung
Park Ji-sung
According to one of his agents PSV Eindhoven player Park Ji-sung has decided to join Manchester United. This is great news, especially because former PSV Supremo Frank Arnesen – who has just ditched Tottenham to go to Chelsea – at one point looked to try and get him to join Chelsea. The days when United could compete with Chelsea in the transfer market (financially) are long gone, so if Park really joins United it is a great coup for Sir Alex Ferguson – and a big F**k you to former United executive director Peter Kenyon, who according to Ferguson botched the deals to get Ronaldinho and Robben to United.

In related news, former United keeper Roy Carroll has joined West Ham United, who are now back in the premiership. Good luck to West Ham – with a keeper like Carroll, they are going to need it.

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The Red Devil?

evil evil evil!
Malcolm Glazer is evil. Pure evil.

He has now installed his three sons on the board of Manchester United and one of the consequenses is that all future board meetings will be held in Florida. What a joke.

He has also outlined some of his future plans for the club, and it is no surprise to see, that he plans to raise ticket prices and limit spending on new players. The club will also have to travel to Florida once a year to participate in a match against another team – hopefully not the Buccaneers, but I guess even Glazer can not be that stupid, that he thinks football is football 😉

Now that we are talking player transfers, it seems as if Park could be joining United, which I see as a good thing – and I am talking about his footballing abilities, not the marketing options this might present in Asia.

Another football story today: Liverpool get to defend their Champions League trophy. What a joke. They didn’t qualify for the spot, but UEFA decided that the holders should be allowed to play in the tournament anyways. I guess rules are rules – until it doesn’t suit someone who holds money as their main objective.

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United sign new keeper

Finally Van Der Sar joins United
..and it disappoints me immensely! Don’t get me wrong, Van Der Sar is a great keeper, but he is past his prime and will only last another year or two – United were trying to sign him in 1999, when Schmeichel left, but Van Der Sar chose to join Juventus back then. Well, now we got him.
My choice for the post would have been Swedish international Andreas Isaksson who is currently at Rennes. He is young and very similar to Chelsea’s Petr Cech, who is probably the best keeper in the world right now.
The only logical reason for this transfer is that Sir Alex Ferguson still believes that Tim Howard can be good enough, but needs a few years under the wing of an accomplished keeper, which is exactly what Var Der Sar can bring.

Also in the news today, United are chasing Real Zaragoza striker David Villa, whom I know absolutely nothing about. I must admit that chasing a striker at a time when the midfield could use some coverage seems pretty strange to me – also because there are more than enough strikers at United: Saha, Rooney, Smith, Nistelrooy and The O.G. Also, Rossi is one of the hottest young prospects out there, so why on earth move for a striker, unless some of them are on their way out??? Saha is the one most likely to go, and unfortunately the club could see Ole Gunnar as being past is, so he could move on also. There have been rumours about Nistelrooy going to Madrid and Michael Owen going the other way, but I think Madrid would have to pay some cash on top of that, and the deal is unlikely to go through.

The top midfield choice, Lyon’s Essien, is on his way to – who else – Chelsea, so who else to go for? There have been talks about Essien’s midfield partner at Lyon, Juninho, but I am not sure he would fit into United.

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A Sad Day

For sale?
The end of Manchester United as we know it???

American tycoon Malcolm Glazer has purchased another 27% of the shares in Manchester United, and that makes him the owner of over 53% so far – some people say he is already on his way to 70%. If he reaches 75% he is practically in total control of the club, and if that figure rises to 90% he can take the club/company off the share market and make it a private company.

What’s the bad news I hear you say? Why isn’t this great? Didn’t Chelsea just win the league with a tycoon as the owner?
The bad news is that Malcolm Glazer doesn’t have the cash that he needs to purchase all the shares – which, by the way, are valued at around £780 million. He has had to borrow a lot of that money, and the way he intends to make the money needed to pay his creditors is what worries everyone who loves United. He will most likely increase the prices for merchandise, match tickets and everything else related to the club. He could also sell the stadium and lease it back – this is what we danes call the “pissing in your pants effect”: at first it’s warm, but it will quickly get cold! If Manchester United fail to qualify for the Champions League, the income for the club will fall drastically and Glazer will have to find that money somewhere else: selling the best players!

Leeds United were in the Champions League semi final 4 years ago – now they are in the second division, because they had a tycoon as the owner, and when results started going downhill, so did the finances. This must NOT happen to Manchester United!

Oh, and if you are a fan of some other English team and you are happy about this, think about one thing: Glazer is not likely to agree on a tv-deal with the other teams, which means that he wants to own the rights to all Uniteds games, and this leaves the smaller clubs with less tv-money, as it won’t be a collective deal = Bad news for English football.

Today was supposed to be a happy day – instead this could turn out to be the second worst day in the history of Manchester United

Related links:

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Back from Manchester


Lunch
Uploaded by kimblim.

Ok, arrived back from Manchester late Monday night, but I haven’t had the time to blog until now.

The weekend was fantastic! Arrived at my uncle and aunt’s house Friday night, had something to eat and went straight into “hygge”-mode. If you don’t know what “hygge” means, don’t bother looking it up, no translation does the word justice! It basically means relaxing, eating, drinking, chatting and hanging out – and that’s only half of it, but I can’t find the right words to describe it.

On Saturday we started off with a long walk, ended up in the pub for lunch (fish and chips, what else?), went back home to relax before going out to dinner. Around 7 we took the train to Central Manchester, went for dinner at Stock, which is a restaurant based in the old Manchester Stock Exchange. The food was brilliant and from what I was told (I didn’t have any) the wine equally so.

On Sunday we enjoyed lunch in the garden, played garden bowls(?) and Louise and I went to Old Trafford to see Man Utd take on Newcastle. It was a close game, but Man Utd eventually ended up winning 2-1 – Wayne Rooney scored an absolute screamer, probably a candidate for goal of the year. On Sunday night we had a fabolous home-cooked dinner and ended up doing more “hygge”.

Monday was spent shopping and browsing in Manchester before going to the airport.

We will be back soon!

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Rio deserves more?

Rio Ferdinand
Zahavi: Rio deserves more

Rio Ferdinands agent, Pini Zahavi, believes that Rio wants to stay at Manchester United, but that United must make him the highest paid defender in the world, or else Rio will leave United when his current contract expires in two years… This astonishing statement comes a few days after it was revealed that Zahavi AND Rio met Chelsea’s Chief Executive, Peter Kenyon in a posh London restaurant.

First of all: Does Peter Kenyon – who used to hold the same position at United as he does at Chelsea now – think he is above the law? He and Chelsea are already being investigated by the FA about one “tapping-up” scandal, and now he goes and meets with Rio? I guess all that Russian oil/gangster money has gone to his head.

Secondly: Is Zahavi on drugs? How dare he make threats about Rio leaving United! United had Rio’s back when he missed his drugs test, and they paid him for the whole period that Rio was suspended – and it’s not like he was out for a couple of weeks either! He was suspended for 9-10 months, and he probably makes about £75k a week. Yes, that’s right: £75k a week!

Agents really piss me off sometimes! They can not only ruin the romance of football, but sometimes they manage to wreck players careers too, because they get too greedy on a players behalf – or should we say their own behalf? There is a reason agents are called “Mr. Ten Percent”… Rio deserves more? No, Man Utd and all of the fans deserve more, Mr. Zahavi!

Bonus info: My favorite player, Paul Scholes, doesn’t have an agent. He doesn’t need one, he says: He can sign a contract on his own.

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And five months later…

3-0
Man Utd 4 – Newcastle 1
Another year, another FA Cup Final… Today Man Utd beat Newcastle by four goals to one to qualify for the FA Cup Final for the second year running. United have won the tournament a record 11 times, and in the final they will meet arch-rivals Arsenal. The best part about the game today was that Ruud scored two goals – his first goals for United for five months!

AGF 1 – FCK 2
FCK kept the pressure on league leaders Brøndby by beating AGF in a match that saw the home team score with the hand of striker Morten Rasmussen. I saw the match on tv and instantly shouted “He scored with his hand” – everybody could see it, except for the referee, who after the game admitted it was a mistake and that he should have shown the striker the yellow card for the offense. FCK had already scored twice though, Alvaro Santos and Hjalte Nørregaard providing the goals that made sure FCK is still in the championship race.

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Just not good enough!

waste of money
£30m out the window

I can’t believe it – Man Utd just lost 2-0 to Norwich. Yes, that’s right, Norwich. United started off with a lot of possesion but rarely threatened Robert Green in the Norwich goal, and in the second half they were punished for their lack of effectiveness. I guess Sir Alex Ferguson was asking for a defeat when he fielded a weakened team – what Kleberson was doing on the pitch just baffles me!

Wayne Rooney – who all of England believe is the next big thing in football – transfered to United at the start of this season at the outrageous price of £30 million. Every now and then he lives up to the hype that follows him, but today was the kind of game he has had way too many of considering the price tag. I think he gave the ball away on at least 10 occasions, and I am sure Sir Alex Ferguson will have words with the teenager. In my honest opinion the £30 million should have been spent on someone else – maybe United should have splashed them out the season before, when they had the chance to get Ronaldinho? Now the transfer kitty is all but spent, and this summer will see no big names transferring to Old Trafford, unless they can be picked up on free transfers – meanwhile I hope a few players will be departing, with Kleberson the first person out the door.

To compete next season United must get a competitive midfielder of the Roy Keane-mould, and some papers claim that the one person Sir Alex really wants, Steven Gerrard of Liverpool, could be going to Chelsea in the summer. Too bad. What I really want is that United use some players who will be proud to put on the red shirt and fight for their place in the team. If only we could have 11 Ole Gunnar Solskjaers or 11 Gary Nevilles.