I can't find any trace .................

[Lynda]

of Premier League chat this season.

Could this be because Manchester United are current languishing at 9th place?

[Nick]

I think that's very likely!

I'm not too sad as I put some bets on Spurs winning the premiership, and also on them being top at Xmas. I've taken some of my profits on that out, but still have a little money riding at very long odds.

[Lynda]

I think that bet is a lost cause, Nick. We're not far above you at the moment thanks to some very poor play in the last couple of games. Losing to West Ham was an utter disgrace.

[Nick]

Your new lad is exciting though. All credit to Hodgson, I always felt he wasn't treated well by Liverpool and now he's showing them what they missed out on.

[Lynda]

We haven't got the mix right yet though.

[keith]

I managed to get a £50 bet on a footy match today at 2/1 on a draw 30 minutes after the game finished !

[Lynda]

According to one TV pundit any one of the top seven, apart from Southampton, could win the Premiership. I guess he didn't see which team was in 8th place. I wouldn't rule them out just yet.

[Nick]

I managed to get a £50 bet on a footy match today at 2/1 on a draw 30 minutes after the game finished !

How did you manage that?

[Nick]

According to one TV pundit any one of the top seven, apart from Southampton, could win the Premiership. I guess he didn't see which team was in 8th place. I wouldn't rule them out just yet.

I'd like to think you right, but I think there is too much quality above us to overhaul EVERYONE. Even before the Soton game most Man U fans you talk to only have aspirationd for a top 4 finish, and no one is taking that for granted. The sad thing about the Soton game was that apart from the 1st 10 mins they weren't in it. There a good team alright, and for the 1st 10 mins they looked winners, but then we played well, & there should have only been one winner. Ball retention in midfield is an issue, and Fellani isn't an answer.

[Lynda]

Sorry, I know you won't find this funny but I had to admit to creasing up laughing at one pundit who said "Congratulations to David Moyes. He's been trying for 11 years to get Everton above Manchester United and he's finally done it!"

[Nick]

I've heard it & repeated it because it IS funny.

Football has it's ups & downs probably my worst time with Man U was 2008/9 - why when we had just won our 3rd successive premiership & got to the Champions League Final AGAIN? Because Barcelona played the united team off the pitch, and I couldn't see anything that we had done wrong or could improve on.

I know United fans who believe that a spell in the wilderness is necessary to get rid of the Glazers.

We will return.

[Lynda]

I have no doubt about that!

You can never tell with Barcelona. Celtic beat them last season and let's face it, even the best Scottish teams are vastly inferior to the English Premier best.

[Nick]

Barcelona are no longer that great team of 2008/9 - in fact when we met them in the CL final 2 years later it was a decent match that we could have won. Some say that Ronaldo would have stayed if we had won - If ifs & buts were pots and pans .......

If Gareth Bale's back turns out a fraction like mine (let's hope for his sake it's all rumour) Spurs will have made deal of the millenium selling him for the price of a Premiership side.

Another thing about our Soton game - Rooney faded. He clearly isn't fit, maybe he was jaded after his England exertions. We also miss Ferdinand & Vidic, probably Ferdinand is gone forever, but hopefully Vidic is still at his prime. Jones can step into their shoes, Evans won't ever and I'm not sure Smailing can either.

[Lynda]

Do you think David Moyes is up to the job?

[Nick]

Patience may be a virtue, but stubborn pride is a sin. How far into an error do you cut your losses and admit defeat?

I am all for giving a man enough rope but not so much into helping him tie the noose. We arrive at October with Manchester United languishing in the bottom half of the table. They have seven points to show from the season thus far. Seven.

They’ve already suffered more defeats than most title-winning teams endure in a season and are out of the title race before Halloween.

The likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton and Chelsea jostle for top spot whilst United find themselves struggling below the crease in the newspaper.

A woeful autumn follows a farcical summer for the club. Would any of their rivals have made such an unholy hash of signing a player so keen to join them?

They took an age to sign a midfielder who judging by his abject performance in the Manchester derby isn’t even up to it. He was about as effective against City as a broken Betamax. So much for the messianic afro.

The man in charge cuts an increasingly forlorn and befuddled figure on the touchline and at his excuse-filled press conferences.
As for the derby, it was nothing short of a disgrace. A comprehensive thrashing from their local rivals in the most one-sided game between the two in years. If anything the score line flattered the team in red. The fact that United’s solitary rebuke was the best goal of the match was scant consolation.

Outfought, outthought and outplayed. Whereas City look like a team going places, United resemble a rabble of overpaid strangers.

And so to the clueless man in charge...
An increasingly forlorn and befuddled figure both on the touchline and at his excuse-filled press conferences. The Scottish drawl that once seemed so definite and authoritative now comes across as tetchy and uncertain.

He was hired for overachieving at a smaller club with lesser resources. It may be cruel to say it but perhaps that was his level, because this certainly isn’t.

The job is too big for him and the task too tall. It’s all well and good getting the best out of hungry journeymen and committed workhorses, but he’s dealing with household names now in the full glare of the world’s media.

This is Manchester United and everything that comes with it. The riches, the glamour - and the pressure. Of course it doesn’t help that he must work in the giant shadow of his legendary fellow Scot, but that was always going to be the case.

When do you cut your losses? For me the time has come. He may only be six games into his fourth season at the club, but it’s time for Alex Ferguson to do the decent thing and resign.

The club are going nowhere and he’s fast becoming a lame duck. If defeats to Derby, Norwich and Everton in the opening five fixtures weren’t bad enough, losing 5-1 to City was the final straw.

What have the supporters to look forward to after such a dismal start? A decent cup run? As if.

Ta-ra, Fergie. Goodbye and good riddance. Get Villa’s Graham Taylor in to sort out this mess.

Do you think David Moyes is up to the job?

[Nick]

Moyes may yet be Man United greatest ever manager, or a complete lemon. One thing is sure, with the money pumped into Chelsea they could have been a great club if they hadn't had 10 managers in 6 years. Man Shitty have also underperformed given the money they started with (5 managers, 6 years).

If you go to Old Trafford, within 5 mins you realise that you are looking at a $Bn business. It's not good that a CEO & Manager who were unassailable have left at the same time, but a club whose training ground is superior to most Premiership pitches is so much more than just the manager.

There is an elite in world football, and I know that instinctively you would argue that this isn't the real sport. However now that Spurs have cemented a place in the top table I think you will be more relaxed about accepting that modern football is about an elite of clubs receiving advertising incomes of corporate magnitude. Swansea, Southampton, etc can produce teams to make their fans proud, but they will never join the clubs feasting on Nike, Emirates, & Addidas sponsorship and riches. Leeds is an example of a club with an honourable history, who died in the process of trying to feast on that top table.

[Lynda]

As I started to read that I was miffed that Spurs weren't mentioned. I had no idea it was about Ferguson. Let's get it in proportion though. When Fergie joined he had to do all the hard graft himself and build a squad. Moyes stepped in when United were in top form. How has he managed to let it all go downhill?

[Nick]

10 Games is hardly downhill! In Mourhino's last season, 1st time around, he was insisting that Chelsea could win the Premiership when Utd came out at Xmas 9pts ahead. He was still sticking to that at the end of January. Personally I don't see Utd winning the Premiership this season, but it's not because of our current position. Last season I don't think that we had the best team in the same way as we had previous years - we lost to Chelsea in FA Cup & league & many other Head to heads with top teams. We had the best squad, but not the best team. That's why we aren't winning this year, not Moyes. IMHO.

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[Nick]

[Steve Griff]

A game for the Ladies?