Outside the Box – Football on TV: Munich is top of United’s problems but Nani ain’t one

Last week saw a big few days for Manchester United. Prodigal son and spray tan admirer Cristiano Ronaldo sauntered back into town with the same cocksure swagger and over-preened sense of self-worth he left with four years ago, and along with his slightly misfiring team broke the hearts of his...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A lack of fanfare for the Final but Swansea make worthy champions nevertheless

There was a time in football, about six or seven years ago when it all became a bit tedious. Mourinho’s Chelsea and Fergie’s United were so far ahead of everybody else that those two goliaths monopolised the English game completely. It seemed as though every piece of silverware was theirs to ...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Schmeichel talks us through United’s trip to Madrid while Piers talks down to Owen

For me this past weekend’s football was filled to the brim with acute annoyances and irksome irritations. To start with it was FA Cup Fifth Round and all the best games were on ESPN, and as I’m still too cheap to upgrade it means I had to go without. On top of that, my beloved Leicester didn’...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A boring birthday for the FA as the stars fail to shine

For most people, an evening out at the local pub will be a largely stress-free excursion filled with raucous banter, sorrowful introspection and a touch of casual xenophobia. Nights out in this great country have followed that tight format for hundreds of years, never wavering in the face of adver...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Big Sam Hammers home his credentials as the FA Cup heralds Joe’s return

“On CV, who is there to beat me?” was the question. “Sir Alex?” came the reply. “Arsene; perhaps Rafa?” Not the bullish claims of Mourinho as you might expect. Not the mad rantings of Neil Warnock either. No these were the lofty claims of Mike Bassett… erm, sorry Sam Allardyce on Saturday ev...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Love or hate him, 'Mourinho' shows Jose really is the Special One

There are times in this cruel cruel world of ours when desperate sad acts like myself look up to the heavens mournfully, unleash a shriek of despair before dropping our heads to the ground and mumbling incoherently about life being terribly unfair. In my case, it’s usually something to do wi...

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Man United: Five reasons United will beat City

This afternoon Manchester United and their noisy neighbours come face-to-face for the first time since City stole the title from them in the dying moments of last season. United start the day as league leaders and three points clear of Mancinis men. Although it is far too early in the season t...

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Manchester United: Celebrating Sir Alex Ferguson

Sir Alex Ferguson is now in his 27th year as manager of Manchester United and has guided this great club to glory and so much more. Ferguson’s numerous titles both in England and Europe for Manchester United are evidence of his greatness. His ability to rebuild a team over the years and be able ...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Michael Owen ensures we’ll remember, remember the fright of Movember

When the wise Jedi minds of future generations look back at the metrosexual, iPad-obsessed, self-serving era we currently reside in, they will quite rightly grimace and ask just what the hell we accomplished. We allowed Piers Morgan to prosper when he really shouldn’t have; we created and fo...

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Manchester United: How are the Red Devils doing compared to last season?

Seven games into the Premier League season is still early to be making judgements, but if compared to last seasons opening seven games, we can reflect on how the team is doing. Highlighting the fixtures and who United faced is taken into consideration, as is the goals against tally and the goals...

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Manchester United: What Vidic’s injury absence means

Vidic was barely back before surgery on his left knee has left him sidelined for another two months. The defensive crisis United are in didn’t seem so bad when Vidic was on the field. The captain now joins Chris Smalling and Phil Jones on the injury list, leaving no experienced centre backs on the...

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Manchester United v Newcastle: United's reserves to star in League Cup

Manchester United open the Capital One Cup with a tricky game at Old Trafford against Newcastle. Sir Alex would generally like to field a strong reserve side and he still will, just with a few more first team members perhaps. Facing a Premier League opponent rather than a team from the lower tie...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Mischievous Murray makes Match Of The Day 2 anything but the Muppet Show

It already feels like the 2012-13 season has been going for months. Arsenal and Tottenham have had about three different periods of crisis already; Sir Alex claims Wayne Rooney isn’t pulling his weight, despite only having played one and half games; and Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert is al...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Neville looking sharp as Sky’s fantasy football begins

The beginning of a football season is always a curious period. Our much-cherished teams turn up at 3pm on opening day looking ever so slightly different from the last time we saw them. New kits, new colours if you live in Cardiff, new players and sometimes even new managers. Whatever misty remnant...

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Manchester United: Could this be one last hurrah for Sir Alex?

With the Robin Van Persie transfer saga monotonously rumbling on and Lucas Moura preferring the idea of croissants in elegant, sunny Paris to fish and chips in the torrential downpour of Manchester, recent events at the Theatre Of Dreams are raising one or two eyebrows around the footballing w...

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Manchester United: David De Gea Will Only Get Better

Spanish keeper David De Gea endured a rough first half of the season which culminated in him being benched by Sir Alex Ferguson. An unfortunate injury for Anders Lindegaard allowed De Gea back into the starting eleven and he hasn’t looked back. His stunning performance against Athletic Bilbao at O...

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Manchester United: Sir Alex Must Get Robin Van Persie

Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed that Manchester United have placed a bid to sign Robin Van Persie from Arsenal. There is no point in questioning whether or not this would be a good signing for United. It is. Period. Robin Van Persie is a stunning striker and has a deadly left foot. At 28, the Dutchm...

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Manchester United: Who would be your final signing this summer?

With Shinji Kagawa and Nick Powell signed and shown off, Sir Alex Ferguson has claimed that Manchester United are looking for one or possibly two more signings. Now if you could only add one signing to the current squad, who would it be? What area of the park do United need strengthening...

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Manchester United: Would Lucas Moura be a good signing?

The 19-year-old Brazilian would certainly be a welcome addition to the Manchester United midfield in my eyes. He’s one of several emerging young stars from Brazil, along with Neymar, Ganso and new Chelsea signing Oscar. Already capped 15 times by his country and going to the London Olympics, Lucas...

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Manchester United: Has the fear factor gone?

You only have to go back to the first leg of the semi-final in the Champions League against Schalke last year to understand what Manchester United can do before the kick off. The match was in Germany and Schalke should have used this opportunity to attack. Instead they sat back, afraid of what Uni...

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Manchester United: The three midfielders Sir Alex should consider signing

Recently its been more common to see strikers being linked to Manchester United, but do United need another forward? For example, people want Jan Klass Huntelaar, but at 28, the only other forward he would be younger than is the departing Berbatov, 31. We dont need to look for a fourth s...

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Manchester United: Five players Fergie needs to sign this summer

Having failed to get through a somewhat average group in the Champions League, been humiliated at the hands of an Athletic Bilbao side which finished mid-table in La Liga and been dethroned by our noisy neighbours, United fans, including myself, are hoping funds are freed up by the unpopula...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A bad week for some as United falter and the Olympics fail to inspire

It ended with Liam Gallagher bopping along to his own record at the Etihad last night in the her-uge title showdown between the Manchester giants on Live Ford Monday Night Football. Basking in his own genius is probably a nightly ritual for Gallagher junior but what certainly hasn’t been a regular o...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Time is running out for the Football League Show but Reading and the Saints defy the odds

Back in the hazy midsummer days of August 2011, while hoards of frenzied teenagers were marauding their way through the streets of London setting fire to police cars, looting Poundland and generally ruining Boris Johnson’s holiday; I was indulging in a regular pre-season pursuit. Like every footba...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Tevez, title races and titillation in a terrific week of football TV

Well, it was a helluva’ few days in the Premier League title race last week wasn’t it? The fortunes of the twin Manchester clubs are weaving increasingly erratic patterns as the burden of the top trophy begins to heap its weight on their slumping shoulders. The last seven days or so have seen a numb...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A tough week of watching tough men taking tough action; and then there was Gary Neville on Super Sunday

There are many boulevards open to footballers when the time finally comes for them to hang up their boots, delete Sir Alex’s number from their Blackberry and say goodbye to the pantomime-drudgery of the Premier League. Obviously, the twin favourites for many pros are either a cushy job coaching the ...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A tough week for the ‘football family’ but the future’s looking bright, and looking orange for the Toon Army

It has certainly been a difficult old week in football. Quite rightly, the grave events surrounding Bolton’s Fabrice Muamba dominated all stratums of the game over the past seven days, and by extension all of the football coverage too. This resulted in a strange ambivalence amongst the week’s acti...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A mad Mario meets a melodic Manc and the result is perfect harmony

The twin worlds of football and music have not always been cosy bedfellows. Lest we forget the audio abominations that still stain jukeboxes up and down this land: ‘Fog On The Tyne’, that god awful attempt by Ant and Dec to appeal to people other than 12-year old girls during the 2002 World Cup, ...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: An evening of Eurotrash as United make their Channel 5 debut

European football returned to our screens last week as our plucky English clubs once more ventured to the four corners of Europe to mix it up with some of the mightiest names in continental football; goliaths such as Barcelona, Inter and FC Metalist Kharkiv could all be on the horizon. As the week b...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: No handshake for Evra and no love lost between the partisan pundits at Sky

Think about this for a second. How many times do you think you have seen Luis Suarez’s hand this weekend? Ten times? Twenty? A hundred? I’m sure I’ve seen his wandering hand more than I’ve seen my own two in the past 48 hours, such has been the swirling media-frenzy since he refused to settle his di...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Confusion reigns at City as Coleman fluffs his lines

Have you played Football Manager 2012? You may wonder how a game brimming with data, facts and incalculable statistics comes to contain such a dearth of information. Well, in the early stages of the games development, some spotty oik is charged with the task of finding someone close to each of the 7...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Manchester disunited but the magic of the FA Cup is alive and well

The much talked about magic of the FA Cup was present in abundance this Sunday during the huge third round Manchester showdown, in fact there was more magic contained in the 90 minutes than during a Paul Daniels swingers party. Chris Foy’s card tricks, a disappearing City captain and most mystifying...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Stelling and his merry mates bring festive cheer and genuine fear in the absence of any football

If we boil it down, there are two distinct ways to spend the festive period. You either endure the holiday wallowing in a pit of desperate desolation, alone with no hope of joviality, good tidings or communal kinship. Sat crestfallen in front of Eastenders on Christmas night, nursing a bottle of gin...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A battle of wits ends in defeat for Worthy’s warhorses, but football marches on

Let’s face it. Our footballing heroes don’t have the greatest reputation when it comes to brainpower and academia do they? A cautionary glance at the post-match interviews every week on Match Of The Day show us superstars struggling to grasp the complexity of questions such as, “How do you feel the ...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A hair-raising spectacle on Saturday turns to sombre reflection on Sunday

Take a look around you. Chances are that if you are reading this in a public place; a library, at your office while you should be working or perhaps even on the Tube, then someone close by is displaying some facial hair that seems to be a little out of place. These moustachioed menfolk are either un...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Spain conquered, but Fabio gets a reality check from a Spurs and England legend

I don’t know if you noticed but the greatest footballing nation of recent years popped over during the weekend. You could quite legitimately be forgiven for letting it pass you by though, as the life of an England supporter over recent times has left the vast majority of us bare husks, bereft of hop...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Mancini’s Manchester magicians spoil the party… and this column

Why always me? This week I was going to talk to you about the light-hearted Sky Sports knockabout quiz Take It Like a Fan. I was armed with reams of faint praise for the show and was readying my keyboard for a glittering review and even a possible recommendation for you all to check it out. But al...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Football on Sky is becoming a fairytale thanks to Wilkins the Wizard

So we were repeatedly told that it was the ‘biggest club game in world football’ as Liverpool and Manchester United met at Anfield on Saturday for the ever-intense North-West derby. The fevered atmosphere was apparent at Sky for Live Ford Football Special and there was an almost fairytale mood in ...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Manchester United ensure a Super Sunday at Sky

This weekend brought with it the first meeting between two teams that finished in the top four last season, which inevitably meant that the Sky cameras were there for Live Super Sunday. Old Trafford was the setting for a fixture that always grabs the attention of any football fan. I was disappointed...

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Premier League preview (part two)

With only a matter of hours until kick off, we’d better get on with it. So here is the second part of my Premier League preview. Manchester City Key signing: Sergio Aguero The noisy neighbours are fast becoming neighbours from hell for Sir Alex Ferguson. Do not be fooled by the red herring of the...

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Championship Preview (part two)

Here we are, part two of my preview of the new Championship season. Hull Key signing: Paul McKenna (no, not that one) Nigel Pearson was an uncompromising, monosyllabic and tough centre-half as a player and has reinvented himself as an uncompromising, monosyllabic and tough manager. Never one to o...

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Manchester City: Tevez, Telephones and Tedium

Im not sure whats been worse over the last week or so, the phone hacking scandal or the Tevez transfer saga?Maybe if the News Of The World was still in existence it could report, with its tele-pathic powers, where Tevez will be moving to? If I were a Manchester City fan I would just like to see th...

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Has Berbatov made any progress?

Just over a year ago as the enigmatic Dimitar Berbatov was going through a lax spell, just as he is now, I wrote a piece entitled: ‘Berbatov: Is he on borrowed time?’ The article consequently underwent a bombardment from what were presumably Manchester United supporters, saying he needed more time ...

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Can Sir Alex Ferguson's Punt On Michael Owen Still Deliver?

England striker Michael Owen is fit again and registered on the scoresheet in Manchester Uniteds 7-1 romp over a League of Ireland combined X1. So can the former Liverpool star make a significant contribution to Uniteds season? There were plenty of nay-sayers when Sir Alex Ferguson brought Owen to ...

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Manchester United: Fabio’s Rooney request deserves the hairdryer treatment

England boss Fabio Capello has seen his World Cup plans thrown into disarray these past two weeks. First off John Terry’s alleged affair with former Chelsea team-mate Wayne Bridge’s ex Vanessa Perroncel was plastered all over the papers, causing a potential dressing room rift and forcing the Italian...

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Cartoon: Blame it on Rio Part 2

Following accusations by the Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, that the press was responsible for Rio Ferdinand's decline in form the fourth estate has dramatically apologised ... ...

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Is Berbatov On Borrowed Time?

Flashes of brilliance best defines Dimitar Berbatov’s Manchester United career to date, (the sublime goal line turn and flick to set up Ronaldo against West Ham comes to mind), but surely £30m warrants more than intermittent touches of class.At the time of writing, his career at Old Trafford represe...

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Summer Departures: Who Will Cope Best?

With Xavi Alonso’s contract at Real Madrid finally penned, the eye of the storm finally arrived over Anfield. And with Cristiano Ronaldo lauding it up in the Spanish capital as the most expensive footballer on the planet - many Premiership clubs face the ‘life after…’ syndrome. This season brims wit...

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Man United’s Quintuplet assault – Better squad than 1999?

Ten years ago in 1999 Sir Alex Ferguson masterminded a Manchester United treble winning team. Barring replays, United are potentially 23 games away from a outstanding quintuplet of trophies in 2009.As time goes by this season, with the possibility of Utd achieving this mammoth feat, comparisons will...

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Players we love to hate: Cristiano Ronaldo

Some players are hated because they play for our fiercest rivals, others are hated because of their constant moaning and cheating, while others are detested purely because of who they are and what they've done. Cristiano Ronaldo unfortunately falls into all three categories! The Manchester United ...

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