[Ballbag]

Thanks for being helpful Consul, I like your style.

*Bfb flicks the double barrelled thumbs up at Consul and shoots his two finger pistols (peow peow), before blowing the smoke away*.

[Ballbag]

I doesn't bother me at all when people take the mick out of me for supporting Man U. I've never been a fan of Scottish football, the English Premiership always interested me more and I've been a Man U fan since I was about 6 or 7. People who slate Man U are usually jealous fans of "lesser" teams.

I see..........oh, and just so's you know when I do come to slate Man Utd in the future it wont be because I'm a jealous fan. To me, being a member of possibly the most disrespected fan base in the country is not something that I strive to be, nor feel jealous.

Also the term "lesser team" is a bit of a ambiguous statement, if you go by the last 15 years, then perhaps yes that is true, and I guess this explains the amount of 8-16 year olds walking around all over the country in Man Utd shirts. However if you go back through the realms of football history and include all of the success achieved by clubs then I guess you'd have to say that Man Utd is a "lesser team" than Liverpool.

[Mafro]

In terms of trophies, yes.

[Ballbag]

And how else should the greatness of a football club be catagorised........ also to add to what I was saying earlier, I believe that most people who do slate Man Utd are not at all jealous, but indeed more annoyed at the ammount of southerners, northerners, easterners and westerners who support (sorry follow) this club and try to justify that by saying "there's no other club near me" or "I don't like the club near me" or "I have done since I was little" when in fact they spend most of their time as Roy Keane excellently put it "eating prawn sandwiches" and basking in the glory of the club that they have no ties to.

[Mafro]

There are a few clubs near me, but they are god-awful like all Scottish football. I'll support who I want, I hate it when people think that you are only allowed to support your local club. To move away from this tedius argument, one of the idiots at my work bet 50 quid that Celtic will beat Man U tonight, he's a comedy legend.

[Ballbag]

I'm not saying that you're only aloud to support your local club at all. There's a guy here at my work from Jersey, now clearly they have no local team so he was somewhat stuck, however he is a Norwich supporter because he likes yellow.

What I was hinting at was that in my opinion (and I know this is shared by many), Man Utd fans are ten a penny and quite often not real football fans, more than likely they like the

[Ballbag]

......... ability to be able to claim somewhat unearned bragging rights due to "their" club's recent sucess.

(apologies for the split message, I'm not sure what happened there).

[Yudster]

This whole argument just makes me want to go out and buy Manchester United Shirts for my whole family. Can't afford it though!

[Ballbag]

And yes Flower there is no law as such saying who you want to support, but in the unwritten laws of the jungle, it is illegal to announce yourself as a Man Utd fan with a southern accent, the average sentence for this crime is a lifetime of warranted abuse and questions.

[Yudster]

Can we go back to talking about football now please? Please?

[Ballbag]

This is football.

[Yudster]

West Ham's season fell over as soon as they imported those two Argentinians. I wonder what the effect if an Icelandic chairman will be?

[Mafro]

About bloody time that takeover happened. Those Argeninians will be gone in January, no doubt.

[Ballbag]

Tony Blair today announced a new law stating that it is illegal for non-Mancunians to support Manchester United. In a statement today he said
"People who claim to be Man Utd fans without having the necessary background will be tolerated no more, and no amount of "justification" is to be acceptable."

The law called "the prawn sandwich bill" is set to be passed through the House of Lords in the Spring, and it is thought will carry a maximum sentence of nationwide discreditation of those found guilty of breaking it.

[/quote]

[Ballbag]

Oh Fowler dude take a joke for once..........I thought it was quite good.

[Yudster]

Poor old Hammers. Most of my family are West Ham fans, my parents both came from East London and it stuck - I have a soft spot for them. They're in a pretty soft spot themselves, right now though.

[Mafro]

They are missing Dean Ashton massively.

[Ballbag]

What do people think will happen to Manchester United when Fergie retires, and should he step away now whilst he still has his head heald relatively high, or do you think he'll do what old big 'ed did and leave the game on a low... discuss.

[Mafro]

When he retires as a manager, I think he will be given a position upstairs. If we win the Champions League then I think he might leave after that. Martin O'Neill will surely be at the top of the list for his replacement, I think he's only on a one year rolling-contract at Villa.

[Mafro]

Argh, looks like Fletcher will be playing tonight, probably on the right, with Ronaldo switching to the left.

[Ballbag]

His ego has got too big for the club, and as Flower says, he wont go until he is ready, and I feel that he will lose his ability and sucess before he loses his job.

[Mafro]

His ego has got too big for the club, and as Flower says, he wont go until he is ready, and I feel that he will lose his ability and sucess before he loses his job.

Explain?

[Mafro]

I'm thinking the team will be:

van der sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Heinze, Fletcher, Scholes, Carrick, Ronaldo, Rooney, Saha.

Of O'Shea ends up in midfield, I'll probably vomit with rage.

[Ballbag]

His ego has got too big for the club, and as Flower says, he wont go until he is ready, and I feel that he will lose his ability and sucess before he loses his job.

Explain?

He was supposed to step down a few years back when the club started losting the big names and were relatively struggling, but he hung on thinking that he could regain the glory days of the late 90's. Rather like Clough did at Forest, he has the power to decide when he wants to go. The fans (sorry followers) wont want him to leave, and neither will the players, so despite what the board does he will go when he wants to go.

And I don't see that he's going to get back said glory days.

[Quincy]

well hes gonna win the prem this year