Did Man United have the toughest Champions League run ever?

Matt Stead

More on that ‘easy run’
I’m finding it quite funny the Liverpool fans who seem to think they’ve had it tough in the draw this year. Their group contained the worst team from pot 1, the 2nd poorest team from pot 2 and the 3rd worse from pot 4. It could have been better, but really not by much.

Out of the 11 available teams in the round of 16 they got Porto, only 4 teams available were deemed worse than them, the qtr’s and of the 7 available they drew the 2nd worse, the semi and of the 3 they picked the weakest. Even the qualifier had the 2nd worse available. All determined by the Uefa rankings which is the benchmark for the entire competition.

Spurs were knocked out by the 5th highest ranked club after beating the 1st and 7th en route. Chelsea were knocked out by the 2nd best, and had faced the 4th in the groups, Man City and Man Utd were pretty fortunate as well, they didn’t really meet any high rankers along the way and will probably be disappointed with how it progressed.

I’m not trying to belittle anything, you can only beat who you are faced with but the suggestion that they had it tough is ridiculous, it could have been much much worse at pretty much every turn, even tomorrow and you face the weakest Real side in eon’s……as Spurs were told repeatedly.

Good luck and all that.
Stevo.

 

Hello,

All the people mailing in this morning angrily defending Liverpool’s easy run to the final really show up why many people would rather they didn’t win. (hoping for a 7-7 thriller myself). Chill out guys!

Thanks (Fulham to expose an ageing Villa)
Graham

 

Just seen Big MUFC’s post in the morning Mailbox. Was United’s run to the 1999 final the toughest ever? And did that somehow work in their favour?

Barcelona had won La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Super Cup the previous season, and won La Liga in 1998/99.

Bayern had won both German cups and finished second in the Bundesliga the previous season, and won the Bundesliga in 1998/99.

Brondby had won the Danish cup and league double the previous season.

Inter were UEFA Cup holders and had Ronaldo. Juventus were Italian champions and Champions League runners-up in 1997/98. Then Bayern again in the final. It’s hardly Porto and Roma, is it?
Andy P

 

Mo’s problem? No problem
Raist
raises a valid point about Salah scuffing a fair portion of his shots, but maybe he’s got it the wrong way round.  Salah’s scored so many more than the majority of those he says have excellent shots that maybe just more of his scuffed shots go in than those of the competition?  A compilation of scuffed shots for each player would be highly enjoyable in this instance.

I wouldn’t describe Salah’s goal vs Roma as the exception to his poor shooting, more that he scores all sorts of goals.  And thank Christ for that.

Cheers
Michael

 

Captain, leader, part-timer
Good to see others pick up on Terry’s dispicable contract stipulation. He’s basically saying he cares more about his own ego than he does Villa staying in the premier league. He really is a contemptible human being.
Mike, LFC, Dubai

 

Mesut’s clause
Does Mesut Ozil have a John Terry clause in his contract about playing Newcastle?

He’s been at the club five years and has NEVER played at St James’ Park.

Maybe he’s a big fan of Ant ‘n’ Dec and Jossy’s Giants (look it up kids) as well.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

 

Good on him
28th April 2018: “Tottenham need to keep going in this direction and to create that winning mentality, it is not about a few years. Tottenham need more time with me or with another”

13th May 2018: “I have very clear ideas of what we need to do. I don’t know if the club will agree with me or not. We are going to talk next week to create the new project. It is a little bit up to Daniel and the club to agree with us.”

24th May 2018: “Daniel and I have spoken at length about our aspirations for this football club. We both share the same philosophies to achieve long-term, sustainable success.”

Sounds to me like Pochettino has achieved whatever he set out to achieve with the first two comments. Going to be an intriguing Summer in N17.
Alex G, THFC

 

Excellent
In response to your article on why people choose the BBC over ITV.  The main reason for me is that you have adverts AFTER the anthems which is akin to walking to the other side of the bedroom in all of your glory to locate a condom.
Rob S 

 

An Arsenal forgotten XI
I don’t normally like an X, Y or Z XI but one of forgotten players appeals to me. I will attempt one for Arsenal.

GK Mart Poom – Ironically, probably the first name I thought of. Seemed to be at the club for ages. More known for being at the not bad Derby side of the late 90s.

RB Oleg Luzhny – The Horse. Played in some great sides between 99-2001. Was proceeded by Lee Dixon and succeeded by Lauren which may explain why he gets forgotten.

LB David Grondin – I’ll be honest. I had genuinely forgotten him. Wiki helped me here. Was meant to be the next great French bargain when Wenger was at his peak. He wasn’t.

CB Matt Upson – Signed from Luton as a 19 year old. Never really got his chance due to injuries. Some things never change.

CB Mikael Silvestre – Might not count as most remember him as a dreadful signing but can easily be forgotten as he was so bad. Scored in a NLD though.

RW Lucas Pèrez – Still at the club. Something I had forgetten. Treated bizarrely by Wenger while loved by the fans. Could get a chance under Emery and not be included on future forgotten XIs.

CM Denilson – Played 120 games. I can’t remember anything from any of them.

CM Platt – I sometimes forget that one of the best English midfielders of his generation played for Arsenal. I always forget he was there for Arsene’s first double.

LW Benayoun – Yossi joined on loan on deadline day when Arsenal went mental after the 8-2. He was actually quite good.

CF Wreh – George Weah’s rubbish cousin. Not Ali Dia, the other one. Actually scored some incredibly vital goals during the 97/98 double year.

CF Suker – Which former World Cup Golden Boot winner played for Arsenal?
No. No. Not him. No, he never won it. Or him. The answer is the magnificently-chinned Croatian.
John Porter (now reminiscing about some truly awful players) 

 

A Tottenham forgotten XI
A ‘Completely Forgot Them’ Spurs XI

I felt inspired by Pierce’s ‘Completely Forgot Them’ Liverpool XI and tried it for Spurs. Ironically there are two players in this better remembered for representing Liverpool. Had to go with an in vogue 3-4-3 formation too as it turns out Spurs do ok with right-backs – who knew?!

GK – Kasey Kelley: Decent if unspectacular GK whose only major honour came for Leicester.

CB – William Gallas: Won things elsewhere in London. Let’s not dwell on what and who with.

CB – Neil Ruddock: Better known for generally being ‘hard’, but best remembered being ‘hard’ at Liverpool and West Ham. Had two spells for Spurs. I forget both of them.

CB – Jason Cundy: Famous more for his devotion to Chelsea as a fan than as a player. Does any other average ex-pro hate his former club quite as much as Cundy hates Spurs?

RM – Wayne Routledge: Known for emerging at Palace before playing 200 games for Swansea. Broke his foot on his Spurs debut in-between which allowed Aaron Lennon his chance to impress. Lennon went to the World Cup, Routledge went to Portsmouth.

CM – Stephen Pienaar: Excellent player and an Everton cult hero – either side of a disastrous spell at Spurs.

CM – Danny Murphy: Loved at Liverpool and Fulham. Scored against Portsmouth but can’t recall anything else from his 18 months with Spurs.

LM – Matthew Etherington: Now doing punditry about Stoke. Mostly associated with them or West Ham but we gave him his EPL debut.

ST – Bobby Zamora: The ‘big move’ that ended his first spell at Brighton. Better known for his playoff winning goals at West Ham and QPR.

ST – Louis Saha: When he’s interviewed by Sky it will be about winning the league at Man Utd or maybe promotion with Fulham – not about his 4 goals for Spurs.

ST – Sergei Rebrov: A genuine great of Ukrainian football and Dynamo Kiev and became Spurs’ record signing in 2000. He was largely rubbish for us.
Tom (Hala Madrid or my colleagues will be unbearable), Cambs

 

The forgotten XI
What a great idea from Pierce this morning about an XI of players we had forgotten played for a certain team, so here is my XI, now I must admit most were loan moves, but that still counts right?;

GK Joe Hart (Played for Birmingham City)
RB: Michel Salgado (Left Real Madrid and played for Blackburn for three seasons)
CB: Fernando Hierro (The Real Madrid legend who played for Bolton….BOLTON amazing)
CB: John Terry (Nottingham Forest)
LB: Michael Reiziger (Barcelona, Milan and Ajax legend who played for Boro once upon a time)
LM: David Beckham (He may not be a left midfielder, but he did play for Preston)
CM: Jack Wilshere (Played for Bolton)
CM: Jesse Lingard (Played for Derby County)
RM: Ricardo Quaresma (Played for Chelsea on loan from Inter Milan, I wish he played for us like he does for Besiktas now)
FW: Danny Welbeck (Played for Sunderland)
FW: Harry Kane (Played for Leyton Orient)

Honorable Mentions:
Daniel Sturridge (Bolton)

Manuel Fernandes (Portsmouth, just won the Russian League title for Locomotiv Moscow)

Mark Viduka (Newcastle)
Mikey, CFC

 

Celebrating the hat-trick
A mailbox hat-trick? Oh dear. Now I can’t  have kids because if I’m ever asked what the happiest day of my life was I’ll end up single.
Aidan, Lfc (just kidding, it was of course the day I met my beautiful fiancé who occasionally reads the mailbox)