Balanced Sports on ManUtd Talk: A United Season Preview

Balanced Sports' Matthew Wood has the cover story on manutdtalk, one of the largest and most-trafficked Manchester United fan sites in the world.

A preview of the reigning titleholders' 2011-12 season, you can also view the article here.

Balanced Sports on Soccerlens: Sir Alex Ferguson needs to Spend

Balanced Sports has once again been published on Soccerlens - suggesting Sir Alex Ferguson needs to spend in order to retire on top at Manchester United.

Einstein's opinion on Ferguson & Wenger?

Albert Einstein once said insanity could be defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. So it is true with Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.

Sir Alex Ferguson was this week suspended for five games by the English FA for comments he made about referee Martin Atkinson in the wake of Manchester United's loss to Chelsea. The United gaffer said on seeing Atkinson had been selected for the game that he "feared the worst". As is often the case with the Scot, no-one's quite sure of the absolute meaning of his words but their tone is certainly overwhelmingly negative. The three game ban administered by the FA was supplemented by a two-game penalty suspended from a similar offence last season; this means United will be in Mike Phelan's care for matches against West Ham, Everton, Fulham and, crucially, trophy rivals City and Arsenal.

In a similar-but-different story, any expectation of Wenger remains that he's unwilling or unable to purchase defensive solidity. After yet again being exposed by physically stronger opposition on Saturday at Old Trafford, Wenger's policy of buying football-savvy youth may once more fail to pay dividends. Wenger's stock, never higher than in the Invincibles season of 2004, has - if anything - slipped to the point that he's gone from "bankable" to "futures". Almost immediately after that memorable season, Wenger's focus seemed to shift unwaveringly onto youth. Unfortunately for Gunner fans, the lack of development shown by some of his proteges (among them Senderos, Vela, Denilson and Abou Diaby) is balanced - at best - by that of Wilshere, Ramsey and Djourou. The common and probably unflawed logic is that until the Gunners develop a midfield "destroyer" in the mould of Vieira: the player Diaby and Denilson were each supposed to become.

Like cheap toilet paper, Ferguson will continue to remain a right royal pain in the FA's butt just as Arsene Wenger will persevere with playing his brand of football. Ferguson probably feels his quarter of a century at the Red Devils entitles him to say whatever he pleases; in itself an amusingly misguided attitude which likely will not change and makes him the FA's number one recalcitrant. With both his goal of nineteen titles and his seventieth summer in sight it's hardly likely that a five match suspension will change the famously hard-headed Ferguson's modus operandi: let's remember Ferguson has won any clash he's fought over his tenure with hard men and club icons alike. In this case he can't beat the FA, but surely this late in the game can play for a draw.

The same rings true with Wenger. While his club success means he's deservedly rolled in plaudits since he arrived from Nagoya Grampus in 1996, that damned youth policy has been an identifiable part of North London philosophy for over half a decade now. To expect him to change it would be misguided. After putting in so much work creating this team it's possible, probable even, Wenger feels to bring in an established, premiership-hardened - and therefore costly - centre-half/goalkeeper would betray his principles. There remains hope for the Gunner faithful that he will spend this offseason but it is hope which fades day by day.

Einstein was perhaps the world's most famous physicist. He could have doubled his fame and money had he turned to football punditry.

Ryan Giggs' Twenty United Years, Part 2

In Part One of our special feature on United stalwart Ryan Giggs’ Red Devils’ tenure, we examined the football landscape when Giggs made his Man U bow twenty years ago. More telling perhaps is a birds-eye view of how the world was at that time.

In those twenty years - 7305 days - he’s seen a lot:

Two weeks before that substitute’s turn against Everton, US-led troops invaded Iraq in Operation Desert Storm. The first Gulf War was over in 100 hours as President George Bush chose to ignore advice from several senior advisors; the Welshman then saw history repeat twelve years later. Since that first war, Giggs has outstayed three US Presidents: Bush, Bill Clinton and Bush Jr. The Prime Minister of England was also a newbie – John Major, who had ended eleven years of Thatcherdom in the same month Giggs turned professional, November 1990. Wales’ favourite son has seen off four British PMs and five Australian.

Even more astonishingly the USSR was still a viable (barely) entity when Giggs’ debut came. Only five-and-a-bit months later in August, the country broke up after a failed military coup. The Ukraine and Belarus were first out the Union’s door; even United’s recent European Super Cup opponents changed their name from Zenit Leningrad to Zenit St Petersburg as their home city reverted to its original name after seventy-odd years of communist rule.

Perhaps the incident with the most staying power from March 1991 followed the cosmic ripples emanating from Giggs’ debut; it occurred the following day in Los Angeles as LAPD officers were filmed beating black motorist Rodney King which caused communal uproar and several high-profile damages claims. Magic Johnson also made the headlines for admitting in November that he was HIV positive. If you wanted to play FIFA or Football Manager, you’d have to do it on the state-of-the-art Super Nintendo Entertainment System. And the all time clue to let you know how far back in time we’ve traveled: Mike Tyson, the man for whom the Tyson Zone is named, was arrested for the first time, charged with raping a Miss America contestant.

Other debutants that year included TV’s Home Improvement, movies Silence of the Lambs and Thelma and Louise; the music world rocked to Pearl Jam’s Ten, U2’s Achtung Baby, Metallica’s eponymous release and the last of Michael Jackson’s truly great albums, Dangerous. The world mourned the passing of Michael Landon, Gene Roddenberry, Stan Getz, Dame Margot Fonteyn, Frank Capra, Freddie Mercury, Doctor Seuss and Miles Davis.

Real Madrid starlet Sergio Canales was born only six weeks before Giggs first turned out for the Red Devils and it’s an amusing thought that he was wearing (admittedly awful 1991-style) United kits before Danny Welbeck and Federico Macheda were born – shortly after Germany’s 1990 World Cup win. He’s been a professional for over twenty years, seen five FIFA World Cups in that time and not played at any of them, perhaps the greatest injustice he’s ever been dealt Eleven of his first-team comrades this year were three years of age or less.

Ryan Giggs has outlasted all but Sir Alex during his time at United. His success and longevity due mostly to his special blend of skill, pace, resistance to injury and focused evolution. As his pace has declined he’s moved from the flanks into the centre of the park and has, for the past three-plus seasons, defined the role of “midfield schemer”. More than anything else, you get the feeling Giggs feels privileged to be playing football this late in his career, especially for a club that means so much to him.

Congratulations, Ryan Giggs. United, and football, are glad that you’re going around for season twenty-one next term. We hope also that there’s a twenty-second.