elampiro: Sir Alex Ferguson slept in and skipped work for the first time as Manchester United boss - after the emotion of his retirement left him shattered.

"On the Monday night, after the parade, I slept for 10 hours, I think for the first time in my life! I was absolutely gone, knackered. I didn't go in to work the next morning.

"As it got to - I don't know what time it was - I kept feeling the presence of Cathy coming into the bedroom. I think she was just checking to see if I was still alive!"

Ferguson, who took charge of his final game at Old Trafford last Sunday admitted it had been emotional and said: "It definitely has been, and Sunday will be hard too.

"What I had to do, and I think I did it well, I didn't show my emotion too much. When I announced it to the staff I got a bit blubby, you know, but it wasn't easy." <Source: Daily Mirror>

coogar: elampiro was not a united fan as at then....
he only started following united after 2010. quinton fortune, liam miller, phil bardsley, jonathan spector, phil neville, etc all had good number of appearances in 2004/5 season - how can anyone compare that to the carrick era when united spent close to £60m on their midfield?

StarBoard: @elampiro,
Stop spewing this falsehood.
If you think van Nistelrooy was the problem, then your logic is flawed.
How can you term Kleberson, Djemba Djemba as formidable signings?
Roy Keane started being injured more often than not, how could we then have had a midfield that could challenge in Europe and at home?
2007/8, United had Carrick, Fletcher, Hargreaves and a newly-signed Anderson who dealt with Fabregas, Lampard and Gerrard in respective United fixtures vs the top four. Can you compare any of those with what we had in 2003-2006 as midfielders?
We had a rampaging Ronaldo, Luis Saha, and even Alan Smith along with Rooney in attack same year. We added Tevez for extra dimension.
Are you sure you were present around the era you are boldly declaring that we had personnel, when we finished 18 points behind Chelsea in 2005? Are you sure you feel that Chris Eagles, Johnson, Nardiello are part of the group that you call made men fit into the mould of "trophy-winning" players? Are you sure that Eckersley and Bardsley give your argument any credence?

I seriously doubt your United followership if you are putting up this as a defense.

StarBoard:
He just showed it.
That squad was DIRE.
I remember the Champions League campaign of 2006 where we won only ONE game at home.
You forgot Richardson Keiran too.

coogar: this elampiro guy must be a joker....

listing ronaldo and fletcher as good players before 2007. ronaldo was worse than nani pre-2007. fletcher was a nobody pre-2007. was fletcher not the player roy keane criticised openly in 2005 that led to keano's departure from MUFC? wazza compared to ruud? van nistelrooy - the only player to have won PFA award in his debut season? ruud is easily the greatest striker in the premier league era. 150 goals in 219 games - #legend.

the team pre-2006 was very inferior. this is why they had the longest drought in the premier league era to win the league title. 2004, 2005 and 2006(3 consecutive seasons without a league title) is poor by united's high standard. the backbone of any team is the defence. van der sar + vidic + ferdinand cannot be compared to caroll + oshea + silvestre.

by 2007, united won it back and went on to win it for three consecutive seasons. our champions league record also improved with the emergence of vidic and evra - in contrast to oshea/ silvestre. you must be in lala-land! if you pay attention to details, even fergie said the 2006-2009 team was his best team in 24 years.

then on to berbatov - by far the most talented forward in the premier league. purchased for £31m to fit into a team where ball possession is below standard. he struggled in his first 2 seasons because he didn't fit into most of our fire brigade midfielders - by the 3rd season(with rooney acting foolish by demanding a transfer request), dimitar rose to the occasion and scored 21 league goals from open play(a feat rooney has never achieved in 8 seasons).

all those knock-out stats are meaningless - you are only trying to prove rooney is better than messi/ronaldo which is not true. the myth that rooney also operate from the deep is a lie. rooney was the arrow head in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012. he's had 4 seasons as the target man and yet failed to deliver the boot even though he scores about 12 penalties in the league per season. rooney is the product of the british media hype. 50% talent + 120% hype.

StarBoard: @elampiro,
Stop spewing this falsehood.
If you think van Nistelrooy was the problem, then your logic is flawed.
How can you term Kleberson, Djemba Djemba as formidable signings?
Roy Keane started being injured more often than not, how could we then have had a midfield that could challenge in Europe and at home?
2007/8, United had Carrick, Fletcher, Hargreaves and a newly-signed Anderson who dealt with Fabregas, Lampard and Gerrard in respective United fixtures vs the top four. Can you compare any of those with what we had in 2003-2006 as midfielders?
We had a rampaging Ronaldo, Luis Saha, and even Alan Smith along with Rooney in attack same year. We added Tevez for extra dimension.
Are you sure you were present around the era you are boldly declaring that we had personnel, when we finished 18 points behind Chelsea in 2005? Are you sure you feel that Chris Eagles, Johnson, Nardiello are part of the group that you call made men fit into the mould of "trophy-winning" players? Are you sure that Eckersley and Bardsley give your argument any credence?

I seriously doubt your United followership if you are putting up this as a defense.

coogar: elampiro was not a united fan as at then....
he only started following united after 2010. quinton fortune, liam miller, phil bardsley, jonathan spector, phil neville, etc all had good number of appearances in 2004/5 season - how can anyone compare that to the carrick era when united spent close to £60m on their midfield?

RuuDie: Rooney better than Berbatov...

Oga, please give me some of what you're smoking; I need it for those days when depression sets in

elampiro:
I started following United as far back as 1995/6.

Carrick came first before other midfielders in subsequent season. Carrick, next season Anderson and Hargreaves. They were not a 60m stuff out together. Thats exaggeration.

coogar: elampiro, whoever brought you to this forum must be running a circus cos you are surely a clown. in 2003/4, rio was suspended for 8 months, brown was mediocre and he was never fit to start games. nicky butt wasn't even better than gibson.

in 2005/6, scholes went blind, keane left, evra and vidic didn't join till january and they were even wet behind the ears in the game they featured in that season. our team lacked depth. ruud played with inferior players thorough out - there were just too many passengers in the team.

berbatov scored 21 league goals from open play - when rooney scored 27 league goals, 9 of them were from penalties. are you sure you understand the meaning of open play? in 2006/7 - united still stuck to 4-4-2. in 2007/8, it was 4-3-3/4-4-2. most games had rooney n tevez in partnership as a strike force.

coogar:

who said they were together? i said it was during carrick's era united spent £60m on their midfield. learn to read english very well before making daft comments.

carrick came in £16m, 12 months later, united purchased nani, hargreaves and anderson(£50m outlay). within 12 months, united spent about £66m on their midfield - how can you compare that to what was available pre-2007?

this was fergie hailing the squad in 2007.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7089910.stm

six months later in 2008, he repeated the same phrase....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/2299638/Is-this-Fergusons-best-Man-United-squad.html

elampiro:
So now suddenly beacuse argument is on, the current United team now has a great defence. The defence you guys criticized when the De Gea argument came up. Now we have a midfield. The midfield we have all said has not been the same since Hargreave's left. Ruud did not play with inferior players, they didn't just fly. Is Cleverly, Jones, Smalling, aging Ferdinand, Scholes and Giggs great players? What about inconsistent Anderson, Young, Tosic, Obertan, etc.

In 2006/2007 Van Der Sar broke his shoulder and was out for a long time. Vidic and Ferdinard missed lots of crucial matches to injuries. Brown and Pique went into the middle in some difficult situations and Pique was very nervous. Eagles played a few matches. Thomas Cukzaks kept quite a number of matches, Giggs and Scholes had aged more, yet they played a prominent role. It is not better now. We had a great team in 2008, that I can agree beacuse Agreaves was fit, but his games were managed in alignment to his ailing knee's treatment.

Rooney score penalties, are they not part of the goals, I can guess he won most of them. RVP, Lampard, Messi and Ronaldo also score penalties. Sometimes the job is not so easy.

4-4-2, 4-3-3, etc is just in name. Everyone knew the striker that was to stay in the opponents area permanently and the one to join the defence while defending......

elampiro:
@Coogar, daft comments? Well not in my culture to resort to such, so I will ignore.
In this argument, I have given enough facts, any honest mind should know the truth.

Thank God you agreed that they were not bought same time. And it is also true that Nani, Anderson, Carrick and Hargreaves were not better than Kean, Scholes, GIggs, Flectcher and co who were there before. Moreover, the cost of transfer had risen significantly in 2007/8, so buying 4 players at that amount then was not so much a big deal.

coogar:

be at your sharpest wit when debating....
the comparison was the team with ruud and the team post-ruud. ruud left in 2006. rio/vidic went on to strike a partnership that even united critics were forced to admit is the best in the history of the premier league. they both made the PFA team in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

the comparison is not with the current squad. the comparison is the strength in depth of 01/02 - 05/06 vs 06/07 - 12/13 did rooney not play with the team that kept the longest run of clean sheets in the premier league? did rooney not play with the squad that kept the longest unbeaten run in europe? did rooney not play alongside a ballon d'or winner? what's the comparison?



you are a big liar......
van der sar made 32 league appearances in 06/07, more than de gea managed this season. he made a total 45 appearances that season. that's not enough? rio made 33 league appearances, vidic made 25. we had no piqué in the squad that season - another evidence that you didn't watch united as at 2007.

brown made 17 league appearances mostly against mid-table teams. we had oshea, silvestre, etc as bench players. chris eagles made a total of 2 appearances all season as a starter against chelsea at the bridge after the league was won and as a substitute against everton when he scored the 4th goal. kusczack kept the goal only 6 times in the league that season - how did that weaken us? you need facts to argue in this terrain not hearsays!



logic says a striker that takes penalties is more likely to score more goals. taking a free shot on target without a marker can't be difficult for a professional player. a good percentage of rooney's goals came from the penalties he plays. berbatov is miles better than rooney at everything!



if that's the point then united played a strikerless formation in most games in 2007/8. the front 3 roamed throughout. rooney, ronaldo, tevez had no fixed positions for united. rooney did no tracking back, we had hargo, scholes, anderson, carrick, fletcher, oshea, etc to keep things steady in the midfield.

elampiro:

I could not even read this piece by piece argument. May be if I have time at night I will read. But I have seen some attck on my person instead of attacking the issue. When it gets to that stage, you know someone is dazed already.

Anyway, I cannot be bullied by anyone. At same time, anyone reading with an open mind will know the truth of the facts I have presented. Even in hundreds years time, records don't change. No one can change any of Rooney's achievements in United. Even as fans are writing bitterly or hating about his request to go, one thing is common among reprts, this man is great. I hail king Rooney.

I am back to my work till night.

elampiro:
I just have to react to this
I may have missed up a few things between 2007-2008, that doesn't mean I dont know what I am saying about the team. If you put Vidic and Ferdiand missed matches together will make you undestand that someone who was less experience did the cover that period. I am not chanced to go into details.

I knew in thos two season, Pique ands Oshea made covers and Piquue was nervous. Perhaps it was Oshea and Brown that gave the cover in 2006/7 while Pique, the following year. My point remains that there has never been a time we didn't have injuries, aged players and inexperience players.

Remmeber, Nisterooy played with Stam, Garry and Phil Neville, Evra, Ferdinand, Brown, Oshea, Heinze , Silvester and Vidic.

I have watched over 95% of United matches since 2003. I have watched over 70 % since 1998. The earlier years were abit difficult because access to DSTV was hard. I have been near 100% live on our matches since 2005. Any one I missed I re-watch it.

Just had to correct that impression before I go. I will be back tonight.