Zidane, Ronaldo, Vieira, Henry, Kaka, Batigol: The Mailbox has gone nostalgic
As a break from the bald men fighting over the Man Utd comb, we are talking favourite players goals, etc. Enjoy.
Then watch England and send mails to theeditor@football365.com
We start with the football joy!
Great questions and a change from the usual bs regarding City, United etc.
Favourite player – as a Leeds fan slim pickings at times but that Howard Wilkinson team from 93/94 to 95/96 had some great players and with a bit more luck and money we could have pushed on.
Which leads me to Rod Wallace. Yes. An honest player who tried his best, won goal of the season in 93/94 and assisted the best volley in PL history v Liverpool. I loved him. He wasn’t the best but that is the beauty of football.
Ronaldo (original) – him, Shearer and Zidane summed up 90s genius/ace footballers. Flawed but brilliant and did things that were freakish then but have been normalised now. A man that size had no right to be that quick and his season at Barca was God level.
Tom
…Danny my man, what a lovely set of topics . (obligatory Daniel Farke voice)
Favorite Player: Always has been always will be, Dimitar Berbatov. The insouciance with which he played was second to none. Looked like he was playing with a fag hanging out of his mouth but a glass of expensive scotch in one hand.
His first touch was…F***ing electric. While we’re on favourites the one where some clogger on the left for Fulham just absolutely hoiks the ball into the sky as if it’s a cannonball and Dimi controls it first time with just..ennui inducing chill is my favourite moment of football ever.
Seriously for kids out there who’ve never seen him play, just watch five minutes of highlights, it’ll make your day.
Favourite Goal: Dele v Crystal Palace. The ball is headed to him from the left of the box by (iirc) Kane, he controls it with his ankle first touch, second sends it back over his head(and that of the onrushing defender), he swivels and with his third sends the sweetest looping powered volley through their number 6 and past the keeper.
An absolute stand out goal of a standout season of a standout moment for Spurs, when anything seemed possible and we appeared to have a team that could finally rid us of the curse. Sadly such moments pass.
And for free, one more.
Favourite game: Taxi for Maicon. A close one between this and One Night In Amsterdam but as a young lad it opened up a world of possibility, a universe where Spurs were the real deal and Gareth Bale could finally rid us of the curse (there’s a theme here). It was only a year or so after the Carling Cup triumph so the curse felt a little less urgent than it does now.
Lovely stuff. Looking forward to everyone else’s.
TGWolf (Prime Bale though, phwoar) THFC
…Good mail from Danny, Brighton. My answers (on a postcard) are:
Batigol. I grew up watching Football Italia on a Sunday (those were the days) and Batistuta captured my attention like no other. The guy was incredible and was such a joy to watch him score. Except against England of course.
Robbie Fowler. Same time I got into football, he was tearing it up for Liverpool. One of the best natural finishers I ever saw. Was gutted when he left.
Favourite ever goal? Will always be Owen’s against Argentina, Gazza against Scotland a close 2nd.
Clive LFC
…I haven’t sent any mail into the mailbox for a bit but when Danny from Brighton dropped his 3 favourite format I thought I’d share my take:
Favourite player ever: Kaka – Because without Kaka I would never have gotten into the sport, I remember watching him make his debut for AC Milan (thank you Channel 4 for showing live Serie A back in the early 00’s) and I fell in love with the way he would glide around the pitch, his talent and ability were incredible, Tim Vickery summed him up best when he said “Kaká running forward with the ball had the power of a freight train. He married power with finesse”. His performance against Celtic and Manchester United in the Champions League stand out in my memory, wow. Glorious.
Favourite Premier League player ever: Fernando Torres – I simply had to choose a player who wore the blue of Chelsea, now despite his best Premier League years being at Liverpool he was a true joy to watch, his goal against Blackburn Rovers being my standout favourite, the way he destroyed Nemanja Vidic in his prime, what a player, long flowing blonde hair, handsome looks and since his retirement he has gone from that classic Prince Charming who didn’t just rescue the princess, now he could bench-press the dragon too!
Favourite goal ever: Ruben Neves vs Derby County – This is always subjective, but I remember this goal fondly because of how in shock and how impressed I was when it hit the back of the net, the way the ball is cleared from a corner and Neves takes a touch, but the ball goes backward, he then strikes it perfectly into the corner, I have never seen a better goal live, maybe I never will
Hope this helps bring the joy of football back to the Mailbox!
The Admin @ At The Bridge Pod
…Favourite Premier League player has to be Patrick Vieira. It would have been David Rocastle, but Rocky left Arsenal just before the big changeover.
I was at Patrick’s debut – a 4-1 win against Wednesday where he climbed off the bench to replace Parlour.
I had no idea who he was, or even what he looked like, but I still took a massive gamble and got his name on the back of my shirt.
I’ll always remember gooners shouting ‘Vieira’ at me on that memorable night, comfortable in the knowledge that we had seen something special.
We were right. Patrick would go on to be the only Premier League captain of an invincible side and was perhaps the only player who could succeed Mr Arsenal, Tony Adams.
Favourite goal ever is that goal Bergkamp one against Newcastle. As I always say, Dennis would have been burned as a witch in medieval times.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London
…Go on then, I’ll join in. Even though I am thoroughly enjoying Man Utd fans trying to convince themselves that ten Hag is the right manager for them. If only Villa would have kept Remi Garde. Or Paul Lambert…
Favourite Player – Ronaldinho and Messi would be up there but there was something different about Zidane. A strength through elegance. He made it all look so simple, even when doing things that were as far away from simple as could be.
Favourite PL Player – With honourable shouts to Paul McGrath and Juan Pablo Angel… Thierry Henry for 4/5 years was on another level to anyone else. The flick and hit v Man Utd. The solo run v Spurs. I was at Villa Park when he (and Arsenal in general) were applauded off the pitch by everyone there. We all knew we’d just witnessed something special.
Favourite Goal – so so many to choose from, thus I’ll go with what popped into my head first. Bergkamp v Argentina in the World Cup ’98 QF. The pass, the control, the touch to turn the Argentine defender, the somehow classy poked finish. There’s something almost poetic about it. Beauty in its purest form.
Gary AVFC, Oxford (Am I a French Arsenal fan?)
Ten Hag’s Man Utd have won more than Liverpool or Arsenal
I am having an absolute ball reading all the hilarious arguments on both sides for ETH, and what is even funnier is all the comparison with Arteta and Klopp and how they are the outliers or how they are world class or how xyz.
I have moved from ETH IN at the start of the season to ETH OUT currently. But, it’s time for Arsenal fans to shut the f*** up and stay out of this. Even Liverpool fans need to keep their volumes down.
Since ETH joined, Arteta has won jackshit, and Klopp won just a Carabao if I am not mistaken. So let’s stop pretending that we at Manchester United want a manager anything even close to what Arteta is. THree years of watching decent football and not winning shit is worse than 3 years of absolute crap football and winning 2 trophies. You can keep that clown at Arsenal and enjoy it please.
As for Klopp, I can’t really talk shit about him as I do think of him as a great manager, one of the best, but ETH has won literally more in the same time in spite of being not even of the same level and having a worse squad.
Yes, we have no identity, our players are trash, our buys are trash, our stadium is falling down blah blah blah. This is us at our worst, and with Arteta this is Arsenal at their best. And I much rather have 2 trophies and be clowned on for the entire year by the media and rival fans, than everyone going praising our club yet not winning sh*t.
Aman Sheth
Man Utd faced bogey teams? Ha ha ha
According to Calvino, United had 4 bogey teams last season, which is why those same 4 clubs got a result against Utd this term. Now, I’d argue you can’t call the best teams in the country bogey teams if they’re usually expected to win so let’s say that’s City, Arsenal and Liverpool. That’s 7 (seven) teams that Utd aren’t expected to get a result against every season. 14 games where it’s ok or even expected to drop points.
Doesn’t seem so bad but I thought This Is Manchester United We’re Talking About? Ten Hag, who just needs a smidge more time and 1 or 2 new signings before winning everything, is given a bye for 40% of the season because, y’know, bogey teams and stuff?
Can you imagine Liverpool fans thinking ”well, it’s Bournemouth, they always give us a fight, we’ll just ignore those games”
Or Arsenal fans thinking ”Oh, Bayern again. They always beat us, let’s not even bother”
How about Man City fans thinking ”More legal charges? That always happens, lets just accept it and move on”??
Never going to happen.
Calvino and other Ten Hag supporters are excusing and celebrating mediocrity. If you’re happy being a mid-table club who occasionally wins some cups, keep Ten Hag because that is all he will deliver. If you want to be the best again, forget ‘bogey teams’, forget excuses for being crap and look to how the ‘good’ teams do things and…..actually, scrap all that. Keep Ten Hag, he is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Give him a new, 10 year contract and celebrate hard earned draws with….Twente
Clive LFC
MORE ON MAN UTD FROM F365:
👉 Ranking Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s mistakes at Man Utd from the email to Ten Hag
👉 Ten Hag avoids bottom spot in latest Premier League manager rankings with a newcomer on top
👉 The Media don’t want Ten Hag sack; why would we want the circus to end?
Got any ideas, MU Mafia?
As the saying goes “you are either part of the problem or you are part of the solution.” While it is to be expected that the traditional media are piling in on MUFC, I find it particularly galling that the “MU Mafia” repeat the bleeding obvious, yet offer no solutions.
Instead we get all this Monty Python “In My Day…” claptrap about DNA and where we ought to be. We “deserve” to be “up there no more than Nottingham Forest or Leeds or Huddersfield Town do. That era has GONE! Other teams have spent wisely and have caught up and even surpassed us. Gone are the days when we can pinch a Rooney or a Berbatov or a Carrick from rivals. It hurts me to say this but I cannot even say we are a “Top 6” club at the moment.
Unfortunately, I don’t have the answers but I do know that leaving ETH hanging out to dry every few weeks is appalling management and sends the completely wrong message to everyone. If your bosses treated you like that you would already be looking for a new job.
A big factor in many successful managers is that if there was ever a situation between a manager or a player, it was the player who was sent packing. All the current players know that they can down tools and soon enough there will be another manager. And we all know how well that has been in the past!
I’d rather see MUFC lose with younger players who are not jaded and have the drive and passion to play for the shirt than the odious behavior of people like Fernandes or the laziness of Rashford.
And while we’re at it Rio, Gary, Scholesy, etc. if the squad lacks leadership and role models, how about “walking the walk” and helping out a bit? It took a Cantona to completely change the attitudes and work ethic, how about returning the favor?
My biggest fear is that the Glazers are simply using INEOS as hatchet men to do all the cost cutting that they would be crucified for. In other words, “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
Adidasmufc (Why isn’t Allegri being talked about more seriously? If anyone should be able to get MUFC to play quicker, it should be Allegri!)
Responding to red and blue Manchester
To Paul, Manchester and the City dialogue making football “more violent and unsafe”.
Nominally, I’d entirely agree with you. I don’t believe dialogue around football is getting more polarised, but you’re quite right to say that even impartial commentary now feeds fan anger. That being said, there are thirty five stated reasons why the City case has dragged on for as long as it has and isn’t already resolved.
It’s not becoming more heated due to media coverage of the story, but more heated because it’s been a topic for years: City fans now feel put upon, and accusatory fans are (as the world works nowadays) convinced that allegation-over-time infers ‘fact’ and then beyond that, frustrated that ‘fact’ takes so long to lead to punishment. That heat is City’s fault, not yours, not ours, and certainly not F365.
Rather like gooners who have made enemies by stating not that refereeing needs greater professionalism, eh Daz, but instead that they are all categorically and “provably” out to get them and there’s conspiracy, City fans are now trying to state it’s the league that is at fault with their bonkers rulers.
Well mate, most of us have been pushing for a regulator for some time, as you are quite correct that their inability to write legislation effectively is a problem, as is their organising fixtures without doing any due diligence to understand when (if) they could be played. Any number of insane actions. Kick off times; agent fees. Even DE&I. There’s no element of this where they are thought leaders. These football bigwigs are likely the same people that booked Hard Fi and the Enemy to play the FA Cup final. They need stopping.
But the difference is that most clubs abided by the laws whilst pushing for change (or trying to form a super league). Unlike yours, and yours alone, where there is one inarguable fact: your club has openly tried to hide whether you have abided by these bonkers laws for a decade.
In such an instance, you just don’t have any moral authority to argue about whether the laws are good or not. You certainly don’t get to say whether they are unlawful or not, given the experts involved couldn’t even say that definitively with a word count far greater than I’m allowed here.
I’m not overly good at legal double-speak and pending news headlines will likely make fools of us all, but my current understanding of the APT ruling is different to you Paul. The panel not only ruled they are conceptually in-line with competition law, but also added a commentary that it made sense to have them. Regardless of what else was said (other than your hilariously making life harder for Everton), those two rulings alone cannot be good for you.
To Garey Vance MUFC: Firstly the United mantra of ‘never ignored’ is something of a stretch when most of the dialogue is fans calling out inaccuracies written about them from United fans. Anyway, the counter to your point (“in terms of points won and win rate, TH is on a par with Arteta and Klopp”) can be found in Wikipedia which is even easier to search than googling Daily Mirror Headlines.
The issue with Klopp’s initial tenure at LFC was recurring MASSIVE collapses over winter. I do remember that causing fan unrest – not to get him sacked, but that clearly geggenpressing in a 20-team-league, with no winter break, wasn’t working and he needed to adapt it (as well as stop playing Moreno and Lovren).
In his first half-season it was 1 win in 6, a soft FA Cup exit and nearly blowing a League Cup semi final. In his second year, it was 1 win in 7, another soft FA cup exit, and an even dafter exit in his second consecutive League Cup semi final.
That does, as you say, likely equate to the same or comparable points per game across a season as ETH. But in comparing them, one had a demonstrable style of play after 3 days, recurring months of evidence of the process working, and a demonstrable reason for when it did not.
Beyond that, Klopp only lost three home games in 2.5 years, and was undefeated in a knockout European ties for 3.5 years (there being no European football over winter, unlike domestic cup football, perhaps explaining Klopp’s record in both). That does keep the fanbase on side. The issue was also fixed in his second full season in charge (barring the covid season of 20-21 and the back/forth with Des Kelly).
On the other end of the scale, ETH regularly swings wildly from surprisingly brilliant to tactically inept. I’ve no clue how ETH’s stats compare to Arteta’s other than I’m sure that Mikel had the best points total ever (don’t look it up), and could likely have been even higher if officials hadn’t watched a Wenger game on TV 10 years earlier. But in comparison to Jurgen’s Liverpool, United don’t have anything consistent to base an act of faith on? You’re maybe right to say you have stats. Stats should be a data source, not a conclusion.
Tom G
A sensible mail from an old-school City fan
City fan here, which seems to be the way we all need to introduce ourselves in order to give readers a chance to hate or love the content depending on which team you support. Picking up a few points on some of the emails this morning and yesterday about my club.
1. Sponsorship. The idea that sponsorship value only comes from selling brand to existing supporters is beyond naive. Someone said Real Madrid has a fanbase of 500m and City 40m (I’d be happy if that’s the case) therefore it’s a simple pro rata calculation. Nonsense. Worked in sponsorship for 2 decades (albeit in TV) and the key metric is demographic reach. Relevant eyeballs on brand is how things are valued and, let’s be honest, you’d all probably never heard of Etihad before City became a thing. The global reach of City and therefore the associated brands is now vast. Keep talking about City and your contribution is gratefully received.
2. Commitment of City fans. I’m a season ticket holder and the atmosphere is great at the ground. It just is. Sorry. I travel to lots of away games too and the atmosphere is pretty shite at most of the red brigade when they aren’t winning. like most clubs. We are all the same really. Football fans aren’t unique.
3. 115 charges and potential punishments. The problem here is that most City fans became City fans because of proximity to the club either geographically or generationally. Unlike the vast majority of Liverpool, United and Arsenal fans here, we didn’t start supporting our team because of a desperate need to be associated with victories and glory. The fact we have achieved so much is just a gift that you can never take away from us. Sorry but you just can’t. We have it in our memories and no amount of retrospective action will change that. Likewise, if the Premier League wins its case and City is relegated to the conference league north, then we will just go and watch them play in that league and support them there. You know it’s true and we are one of the few clubs with recent history to back that claim up. We are proper fans and you know it deep down.
For what it’s worth, do I think City did something to enable them to get money into the club? Yeah, possibly, probably. Do I care? Not even a little bit. FFP was put in place to solidify a monopoly by clubs that didn’t want to be usurped. It has absolutely nothing to do with fair play and we all know it. So if we are in technical breach and we are punished, ok I’ll live with it. Do I think it signifies cheating, not even slightly.
In fact, if I’m honest, working the red wall into a frenzy of moral intermittent explosive rage is quite a lot of fun. The alternative is not winning 20 odd trophies in 15 years and being a laughing stock in our own city.
If it all ends tomorrow then ok, it all ends. But the truth is the vast majority of City fans feel untouchable on this. And I think this is what boils the piss most with fans of the ‘reds’. It’s just football. The most important of the unimportant things in life.
Steve (Manchester)