Why football?

I'm not even sure about motivation of this article, why I decided to express all my feelings, tell what annoys me, what excites me, what makes me sit down for a while and think everything over.

Wow, what a way to begin a piece of pun - you may think there are going to be a few pages of absolutely nothing, some silly talk that pretends to be serious. Don't worry, it will be far from my previous articles as they were all about United, but it won't be that spooky!

I won't lie to anyone, why would I? Football is a damn important part of my life. I think about football pretty much all the time, matchdays are the best days of my week usually and I never ever deny myself a good piece of football by United even when there's a concrete party around, I'd rather be late for it than miss an important game.

Most of people who know me think that football is only about twenty two men running around like headless chickens, chasing the ball and eventually booting it with very little of thought between two posts that stand there for some reason, not necessarily coherent. Then, there are several thousands of freaks like Bartek on the stands cheering their team, which makes very little of sense, 'cause at the end of the day they seems to get nothing from their club's victories. But trust me, they take a damn lot from it.

I'm there to say that it's not strictly limited to these activities. Obviously, the game is an important part of it, but these are the build-up to it and everything that follows afterwards that make it so unusual. The feeling of superiority over arch-rivals, the possibility of telling someone 'We were better than you the other day', the awareness of people around you knowing that something just happened, as they can feel it in the air when you are around smiling in a cheek-to-cheek way as if the sky fell into your hands. That eleven men plus a few on the bench you support are just a part of the game you love so much, someday they will all hang up their boots and be replaced by other people, and your heart will still have the same colour, because it's all about tradition, a history and memories that will always be there.

This piece of read isn't there to CONVINCE you about something because I'm fully concious that most of people who condemn me and everyone else for putting so much heart into football aren't going to be convinced by a couple of words. I'm here to EXPLAIN something to you, with a bit of hope that you will see some sense in my words and at least try to understand why football is so damn exciting.

I was like 8 years old when I saw the first football game, and admittedly I comprehended very little of it, thing typical for an 8-year old kid. For instance, when Warzycha scored against Legia, I started crying because I thought that the cunt had just eliminated his own team with an own-goal, 'cause he was a Pole after all, wasn't he? To my amazement, he found the right net, he played for Panathinaikos, but as an 8-year old I took my time to understand the whole idea of it.

Then there was United, team followed by my brother who was 17 that times. I remember watching United being eliminated by Dortmund in 1997, but then we won the title and I got my first United shirt a few days before the last game of a season. It was on TV and luckily enough, I had access to a channel that broadcasted it, so I couldn't miss an opportunity to take a photo with players lifting their trophy. I still have it, after ten years it still lies somewhere in my drawer. Me, 8-year old Bartek, with very little of football knowledge, wearing a red shirt with Cantona's name on my back, with a red scarf around my neck, standing proud in front of TV when his idols were a thousand miles away. Then there were ten years of following United, and I'm sure there will be more of them because my passion doesn't seem like stopping. I still watch 1999 tapes frequently just to remind myself that when I was a kid, United shook the Europe and left it with very little of doubt about who prevailed.

It annoys me when people show so little of indulgence and act as if watching football was a crime. I know, I put so much attention to it all the time, but I have never said it's the only thing I care about. In fact, there's a whole life to care about, so how could I just sheckle myself to football and see nothing else?

I will never be connected to football in all likelihood. I won't be a footballer, I can't hit a barn door with a ball, nor can any of my friends to be fair. I won't be a manager, I don't know anything about management besides what I've learnt from a computer game. I wanted to be a journalist, but I won't be one, I'm probably not good enough for it. I won't be a chairman, it's difficult to be one in a contemporary world. I take no profits from football at the moment, I used to when I was involved in gambling and stuff like that but I parted company with any gambling activities a couple of months ago and I don't think I'm ever going back even though I made a considerable profit in my days.

But I still treat football as a style of my life, I pay a lot of attention to it, I want to be up-to-date all the time, I don't want to miss anything. I haven't missed United game for a few years in a row, I remember correctly most of the games played in the last few years.

Do I consider myself a freak? Well, honestly I don't. I think people have a right to have their own hobbies, even passions and there is nothing wrong with people who put football above everything else. It makes as much sense as watching TV, listening to the radio, reading books. It's a great fun, it gets a lot of people across the world together, it creates a kind of unity that is never to be torn apart.

This is football. Leave it to me. Simple as that.

That was me, the Bartek guy you love reading so much. Cheers ppl.

I'm back

Yes, right, it's been a long time since my last contribution to this blog but there has hardy been anything to blabber on about recently, so I decided to leave it on and wait until I find some inspiration.

Partly inspirated by my collaegue, who reminded me that there is such thing as writing, I decided to sum up our so-far results...

Yeah, I know, we've been amazing and all, it's quite hard to find words to describe our recent run but there are still voices in our heads saying 'stop dreaming you nutter, you won't win it', 'there are better teams than you, enlighten yourself!'. Pretty normal thing for a football fan, after having been written of prior to a season we found ourselves in such a good position that moaners squad has barely got anything to complain about.. or perhaps they do have something with lack of signings in the winter window! Bloody despair, isn't it?

But let's talk, or more likely about prime subject, not some second tier problems.

Starting with van der Sar, who has been in an amazing form since August and I can hardly say anything negative about him. He won us two to four points this season with his confidence, and even more with his leader role by sorting out the defence using his esteem among players.

Defence, defence... That Evra lad, that shite little Evra lad who was apparently not good enough to wear United's shirt and should've been sold to Lyon has turned out to be an excellent left-back, possibly the best in country and beats Heinze to first-team role. Bloody amazing, again! 8 out of 10 isn't even as generous as it should be.

Centre-halves.. monsters, I tell you, monsters of players. Vidic, I don't think he will let anyone score. Ever. Ferdinand, that cunt who wanted 120k a week was quite right, he's worth a lot. I see him as a leader of our defence, and main reason why we have let less goals than the rest.

Gary Neville, oh wait, is this really our Gary Neville? Because watching him going past Portsmouth's defenders the other day I thought it was some new Brazilian teenager willing to show off in front of fans. But that was our very own Gary Neville, who never ceases to amaze me. Hell of a player, hell of a lad, great man, I tell you.

Midfield.. Yes, I know. We don't have midfield, and we won't have one unless we sign some Mascherano guy. But I believe we have a very good imitation of midfield in Carrick and Scholes, actually better than most of 'true midfields that are going to outmuscle and cut us off the game'. Carrick has been seriously underrated by some clueless fans who expect him to score everytime he touches the ball only because he cost 14 (not fucking 18.6) million. I expect him to control midfield, gain possesion for us and prevent us from losing the ball, distribute it etc. Scholes has found his best form again, as it seems and has been key in our campaign. His contribution has been immense, so is he as a player, good lad.

Our wings are yet again the best in the country with Ronaldo proving everyone that he IS end product, scoring like a nutter, assisting like a nutter, winning games for us. And Giggs, that lad is like wine, the older he is, the better he is. No further appraisal, they've had enough of it over the years!

Our strikeforce isn't shambles, as Ruud's departure would've suggested. Saha is probably a better and more threatening option that Ruud, despite being quite an average finisher he creates a lot for his teammates and that wins us game. Rooney lad has to find his form, but I forgive him.

Our back-ups.. I'll speak about them later, c'ya.

Internationals, oh well

Another boring week on schedule has come with United's players blown all over the world for pointless international games. This isn't much of an article, so if you already know everything about our players on international duties, you don't have to read it. It's just an information for those ones who don't.

John O'Shea has travelled to Germany with his national team, this game is a bit of mystery since I can see Irish boys taking away 1 point from this difficult ground, but Germans remain favourites to win it.

Ryan Giggs will begin his another attempt to take Welsh side to the major competition in Czech Republic, facing team that vastly disappointed their fans at the World Cup. Should Wales get 1 point in that game, they would put themselves in a good position before following games.

Cristiano Ronaldo has already played for Portugal side that lost 4-2 to Denmark yesterday, with our star missing a penalty. First in his life probably, as before yesterday he had scored plenty of decent goals from 12 yards.

Wayne Rooney will miss another international game due to spastic decision of some cunts that rated his attack on Carvalho as deliberate. No surprise there, the whole world seems to be against Rooney nowadays, even FA banned him for nothing because they felt obligated to.

Louis Saha will most likely not play for French team because Domenech feels he's not as good as Sylvain Wiltord. Mikael Silvestre and Patrice Evra aren't even in team, because Jean-Alain Boumsong is more solid in Domenech's humble opinion.

Rio Ferdinand broke his toe during Watford tie, so he won't play against massive Andorra side today. He will be replaced by the other United player, Wes Brown, who somehow didn't manage to convince Eriksson to his abilities. Gary Neville will miss the same game with injury, while Michael Carrick, Kieran Richardson and Ben Foster have all been given tickets to watch it from the bench.

Darren Fletcher will face Faroe Islands in game that will most likely be played until first goal is scored.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's come-back could be seen as a massive boost for Norway, team that have been a constant failure for years, despite producing a couple of decent talents.

Nemanja Vidic is included in Serbia side despite injury which shows how important part of their team he is. He won't play against Azerbaijan today, actually he's not much needed in that game since Azerbaijan aren't an offensive side. He could play in Poland coming Wednesday though, I'm looking forward to that game.

Not much of your interest I reckon, but I'd also like to add that my national team faces Finland today in what's going to be possibly the most boring game of all times.

Good luck to all of our players and hopefully they won't come back with injuries. That final bit refers mostly to Saha, stay fit Louis!

Why blame Fergie?

It's been now 23 hours since transfer window closed to eventually open again in January and the majority of fans is yet to get over the fact that we didn't sign two world class midfielders during Summer and got Michael Carrick as the only midfield reinforcement.

First of all, that was David Gill who promised United fans that two world class midfielders would join our team. Sir Alex Ferguson never made such comments, only thing he said before Carrick's arrival was that he was content with squad and would be happy to go into the new season without any new player.

In fact, even this comment caused a lot of fuss and it shouldn't have. What do some fans exactly expect from our manager in such moments? Should he go public and openly say that he is short of options and can't imagine starting new season with no significant strengthening? And what would be the purpose of such act, because it would surely lower team spirit and I can't see any positives coming out from that.

Just put yourself in John O'Shea's of Darren Fletcher's position. They work hard, they give us everything they have, they attend every training and cause absolutely no problem to manager. Moreover, first of them has done very well for us when called upon to play in various areas of the pitch, why has he been constantly slaughtered for that? Some things just can't be understood, there are some people surrounding me who have no clue about supporting their teams and it really concerns me. They expect our manager to blame his players, belittle them by saying to press that they aren't good enough.

Sir Alex Ferguson has received far too much of stick so far, most of them coming from either children who have no clue about his past or gloryhunters who just can't stand that their team isn't as successful as it used to be. They can't get over fact that league is moving forward and understandably rivals are going to cause more problems to United, who led Premiership standard upwards for many years of 90s and 21st century.

Fergie has signed a midfielder in Carrick, he possibly overpaid but who is going to criticise him for that if Carrick turns out to be successful? Sometimes you have to pay over the odds to gather players you want. Was Rooney worth 27 million the day we signed him? Was Ronaldo, unknown 18-year old from Portugal worth 12 million? No, they weren't, but there was no other way to get them and Fergie knew that without this duo, United wouldn't be going into right direction. That's why you should give Carrick time to settle and adjust to United's gamestyle. It should occur quicker than you would think, because he's already played in Premiership.

All this frenzy over ball-winner is understandable to some extent, but it becomes crazy when people say that Fergie screwed up in Mascherano's case, simply because that player couldn't have signed for us. MSI is a business company run by wise people who know that after year of Premiership experience their players could be worth twice of current price, that's why they put them at West Ham and set 90% sell-on clause in their contracts. Would have United agreed for such conditions? Obviously not.

Hargreaves was not for sale either, not due to any brilliance that sticks in him because he clearly isn't a player worth 17 million, but because Bayern didn't want to sell him. They created self-dignity in their minds that didn't allow them to offload their player to United, even though he could be replaced easily for half of money United offered them.

Marcos Senna's deal was a mystery. He was so close to signing for United and then pushed into sideline, because United wanted to bring Hargreaves. Was it because AIG or Glazers forbid United to sign foreigners, or was it because Hargreaves was a more concrete option, we will never find out.

But at the end of the day, Fergie decided not to sign anyone after failure in Hargreaves' pursuit occured. So maybe he's got a different concept, maybe he really thinks that Carrick and Scholes in midfield are enough?

And at top of everything, wouldn't it be more appropriate to judge United's signings and their suitability at the end of the season, when everything will be clear rather than write them off before they have their runs?

Think over United fan, if you ever had a go at Ferguson. You owe him so much that even if you think that he's acting ridiculously in the transfer market, you should trust him and believe that he has his concept of game.

But he clearly hasn't been acting ridiculously in the transfer market. All of our signing throughout the last two years have turned out to be successful, haven't they? If they haven't, then point me out one signing that was pointless? Was it Alan Smith at 6.7 million? Heinze at 6.9 million? Rooney at 27 million? Edwin van der Sar at 2 million? Ji-Sung Park at 4 million? Nemanja Vidic at 7 million? Or maybe Patrice Evra, who seems to have settled well recently, at 5 million? And what I like most about this players is that they all show real desire to play for United, don't moan about sitting on the bench when it's necessary. Generally, I think that all of our current players have loyalty second to none, even Ronaldo who was so keen on a move to Madrid has recently said that United were his dream club. Team spirit is high at the moment and it's heart-warming for me because when I recall 1999 squad, first thing that comes into my mind is that they formed a very special unit, that gave us extra edge over the rest.

Building new United is going into right direction and our squad would be complete with one more defensive midfielder. But there's no rush, he could be signed in January or next year, we're fine with what we have and can get by easily. As long as we play well without him and are going to get a right one in the near future, I'm fine with our transfer activity. It takes some time to gather right players together but at the end of the day it's worthwhile.

Quality over quantity anyday.

Transfer window outcome upsets United fans, but should it?

Fifteen hours after transfer window has closed, United fans are still in disbelief over its outcome. Being promised two world class midfielders, they will have to last more than half of a season with only Michael Carrick and second choice golkeeper who will most likely never make it into first team. Many of United's faithful don't believe in maintaining title challenge anymore, despite hundred percent start to a new season. But were they right to have lost last bit of faith?

After Roy Keane's departure David Gill officially confirmed that club was seeking a replacement and promised to buy at least one world class midfielder. Moreover, he clarified that in January arrival of a new midfielder was impossible due to fact that newcomers were playing in Champions League with their teams. Deals looked all but done, the only question for fans was whether it will be Diarra or some other Riquelme. Then, month before World Cup the same man said that club were looking forward to tying deals for those players before World Cup, so that new signings would have time to gel with current players.

First concerns among fans appeared when World Cup began and United were still without any new faces and only one confirmed bid, for Michael Carrick who hardly met description of promised world class midfielder. First explosion came when Fergie announced that he would be happy with no signings at all. Africa tournee, Gill's holiday, it all pushed some fans to the edge, but at last, at the end of July Manchester United confirmed arrival of Michael Carrick. The same day Carrick was presented, Ferguson openly said that club was about to seal deal for one or two more players, one of them being a hard-working midfielder.

Last day was hilarious with plenty of United faithful sitting in front of computers or TVs waiting for transfer news that didn't appear till midnight. Some of them still can't believe that United didn't sign a defensive midfielder that would've been a last piece of jigsaw.

But is the world going to end for United fans? Have their dreams collapsed along with transfer window's end?

Not necessarily. United are the only Premiership team that could boast of hundred percent start, and even though it's only three games from the beginning,it shows that players aren't as bad as some people make them out to be.

John O'Shea has done very well in midfield since Alan Smith broke his leg, while Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick are both established and respected Premiership players. Darren Fletcher has also improved and will become better and better surely, now that he got someone to learn from in Michael Carrick. That gives United four viable options in midfield with a few young players coming through the ranks.

Bear in mind, United fan, that your team's strength sticks in your offensive force and even Ruud van Nistelrooy's departure hasn't weakened it. Often in the past United used to dominate game in midfield but lacked killer's instinct, which led to being unable to score a goal. As start of current and finish of previous season have shown, that problem doesn't exist anymore. Given an opportunity to score, Louis Saha and Wayne Rooney seldom waste it. And their chances are certainly going to come with two most effective wingers of the league and amazing passer of the ball in Michael Carrick.

Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo are the brightest prospects of modern football, while Rio Ferdinand is regarded as one of top defenders around the world. Nemanja Vidic and Patrice attracted interest of host of European clubs, while Gabriel Heinze found himself at Fabio Capello's wish-list. Ji-Sung Park was a key member of PSV team that challenged AC Milan in Champions League, while Michael Carrick was so important for Tottenham that they failed to produce a good performance without him. Edwin van der Sar has already won Champions League, played in major competition and faced almost every better striker in the world. Is that really such a bad collection of players that United's transfer activity over last years could be called a failure?

United's finish to last season was very promising. In 2006 United have gathered more points than any other team so far, and all of them were gathered without Carrick's contribution. With proven Premiership midfielder and high team spirit, Manchester United players are capable of maintaining their good form, because if they do so, even Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal reinforcements might not be enough to end United title hopes.

Because it's score that matters at the end of the day, not names on team board nor fame they've earned so far.