If they win tonight will this drive price up ????? - I like football but this is the only football share that interests me.Any thoughts!!!

Kantona

I am a seasoned armchair follower of footie and although not a Man U supporter have always enjoyed watching them play and I suppose a team I would actually pay to go and watch. I used to go to my home club games every weekend, but unfortunately no longer have the time, hence the worn out armchair! Either way I don't have an axe to grind. Without doubt Utd had a great team, the youth side of Scholes, Beckham, Butt the Nevilles, throw in Giggs, Keane, Cantona, (and I've missed loads of names), established the tradition of winning trophies. They expected to win, the supporters expected them to win and probably more important, the teams they were playing probably expected them to win as well! I am afraid to say that that aura of invincibility has gone and personally I don't see it coming back. All teams have cycles of success, Liverpool an ideal example, but there is always a new top dog eventually. It would appear to be Arsenal's turn now, I wouldn't be surprised to seem them do the treble. Bottom line is the loss of Beckham, what a crazy piece of business that was, probably the worst mistake of Fergies career and when you consider Veron that is quite a mistake. The loss of Rio F, how stupid was that forgetfulness? And probably a long list of injuries that have accelerated the decline. I am sorry to next season is unlikely to be any different. If the current squad was a share I would sell now.

Hope you win the FA Cup, but can't see you beating Arsenal.

Regards

PTH

ptholden .. be-grudgingly .. i share ur sentiments to an extent .. agree the aura of invincibility has fallen off .. but believe all is not lost..

agree that at moment arsenal are way ahead of others ..and well capable of the treble .. the only issue with them is if they get injury to Henry then they r not the same team . so they need luck in that regard ..

i don't think all's lost with United.. like i said they r two quality players short of being world class again.. suppose all the young guns from this season vll be better for the experiences next.. but i don't like them to be carrying the burden of expectations in key games.

for Utd the cup semi vll b a massive game and no doubt they vll b up for it..as no doubt vll b arsenal, the tables have turned a bit as at this time of season ..it used to be united who would sacrifice the FA Cup in pursuit of Europe .. so it vll be intresting to see what selection policy Wengers adopt close to the Quater Finals of the Champions league .. on current form he'll have to rest Henry, for us to have a fighting chance .. i say this with a strong heart.. One thing is that favours United is that time after time people sort of written them off, but they have come back (domestically) to prove their critic's wrong ! but i think the current Arsenal team have learnt from the bitter disappointment of losing out last year .. so can't see them making the same mistakes again..

but .. in view of their 'weak' squad .. i think they vll have to make some tough decisions around the European Games .. this vll be unchartered waters for them, and it remains to be seen as to how they'll cope with the pressure and demands of the assault on three fronts.

I would love to see Utd draw the first game ..and then win in the replay (v need the extra revenue;s + extra game for arsenal).. ( want Ryan Giggs to score a wonder goal again ..)it vll be ironic if it is Arsenal who dump us out in the semi-s and go on to do the treble ... afterall that's what we did to them .. history ehh.

I believe the best result for utd would be to lose to arsenal, it may help them focus on the the more pressing problems. Much has been made of the, possibly mistaken, sale of beckham but the parallel decline in the effectiveness of the talismanic keane has been overlooked. The midfield now lacks both it's most dependable attacking option and it's defensive co-ordinator. Fergies' response to these known conditions has been what we now know as keegan syndrome, newcastle threw away the league title by leaking goals, his response was to buy a striker! Fergie responded to his problem by listing butt and buying ronaldo, not clever. The only positive move was to strengthen the midfield by selling veron. Rumours circulate in the press that the next move will be to sell ferdinand to Chelsea in exchange for Duff, but surely the the obvious move must be to try and lure vierra from arsenal at any cost, thus reducing the damage from the loss of keane and reducing the effectiveness of henry for free, thus utd would be in a one horse race for the title next season, no sweat!

Kantona

Anyway, what do I know, a couple of injuries to key players, a new signing or two and the whole picture changes.

I am rather hoping that my shares might show a sign of revival also, I thought I had a pretty exciting portfolio, but the horrors of Madrid are having their effect. Puts it all into perspective I suppose. I hope if Arjen reads this, he is safe and not personally affected by this outrage.

Rgds to all

PTH

yeah .. know what u mean ..my prtfolio took a real battering yesterday .. but it was nothing compared to loss suffered by people in Madrid .. like it has been said before it just puts everthing into prospective.. hence to be honest wasn't that much effected by the losses ..just thankful, have a roof over my head food on the table and a family to share it with. What more a man can ask for and be thankful for.

My dad always used to say to me Keep your money in the pocket , not in the heart .. i see now what he means by it.

As a football supporter though i keep my team in my heart .. hence agree with STORMCALLER in his observations .. they thing is aprt from scholes our Midfield has been so crap ..that Keano ( have utmost respect fro him ) has been made to look better than what he actually is . Agree that Viera is the ideal replcaement ..but he will have his price ..Arsenal can't afford to pay him too much salary ..whereas Utd can pay 60K a week to him .. near double what arsenal have offered him so far.. we do have another young player arrving from Celtic ( Miller ) but from what little i have seen of him , he is more in the Scholes mode as apposed to Keano.

Anyway ..must rush now (the pockets are rather empty at the moment).. keeping close eye on Mediwatch in coming weeks .. the announcement they promised can't b far off .. bPRG to stage a recovery ! CHR to continue upwards ! ZIM to deliver the goods ( or find someone to distribute them ! )

Hi ptholden
Thank you very much for your kind sentiments.
Yes,I am safe.Words are insufficient to describe the feelings here.Spanish t.v
has/is providing an outstanding coverage.The general feeling is that ETA is
responsible.However,I am more inclined to believe it was Al Quieda.I think
there is a possibility that both have established a connection.Incidentally,
I am learning Russian and have to be mindful of the fact that ETA is a Russian
word.

Aggression :-Innumerable posters have mentioned my aggressive posts.Where
were all of you when I was subjected to the most despicable posts on IDD some
months ago ???????????Did ONE of you complain???Everything on that tread
emenated from my valuation of IDD shares.They are almost the exact price NOW
as I said then.I see 2 major problems on this board and they are indicative
of a very amateur board : which is truly unfortunate as 99 per cent of the
posts are professional standard.The first one is that virtually all posters
detest Negatives whereas all of us NEED negatives so as to give us balance.The
second one is the totally unrealistic price expectations.Ref my English:-I have
used a Colon.Does ANYONE on the board know when a Colon is appropriate?

Someone mentioned my grammAr or as they put it grammEr.Charles Dickens is my
favourite author.Would the complainer prefer I write in Dickensian 1850
English ?

I will stop ALL my aggressive posts :-if I am not subjected to IDD type posts.

rgds to all,
Aj

nice to hve u back arjen .. personally i'm not one to have a go at anyone .. if i do so i tried to be as constructive as i can be ... if i don't have anything useful to say then i stay quiet..

anyway .. what have made of the draw .. as a utd fan i am really gutted ..the loss on tuesday only just sank in..they would have been to the better side of the draw IF they were still in Comp .. Milan got to b favourites to reach final

Madrid can't be to be too pleased with the draw..with possibility of Arsenal or Chealse in semi's .. suppose they are not as disappointed as Chealsea ... was listening to i/v of Scott Parker the other day ..was very confident said one team Chealsea didn't want to meet in Europe was Arsenal .. bet he wishes now he said something else..

anyone ..best of luck for future ..

What's happening? I've missed all the action -just bought in @250 because I think a bid is still on the table. What do you reckon?