Posts tagged ManchesterUnited at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

We've avoided going into detail about Wayne Rooney's recent million-pound wedding and blow-out bachelor party around here, mostly because it's not nearly as interesting as EURO 2008, and quite frankly, the visuals are horrifying.

This little tidbit, however, might have Manchester United concerned. The Daily Mirror recently published this photo showing Rooney appearing to have a lit cigarette in his hand.

Now, I won't go into a long rant about how alcohol and cigarettes don't spark the outrage that other drugs do. The issue here should be obvious. For a world class athlete who makes a living running around at breakneck pace for 90 minutes at least once a week, smoking just seems like a really, really bad idea. No Premier League player wants to do anything that would limit his lung capacity -- not if he wants to keep making those huge paychecks, anyway.

It's the kind of thing that makes you wonder if, in the future, we'll end up talking about Rooney the same baseball fans talk about Mickey Mantle. "He was a great player. Too bad he never took care of himself."

(H/T: The Offside)

Now that Portugal is out of EURO 2008, Cristiano Ronaldo can go back to focusing on what's most important to him -- himself.

While Mr. Stop Drop and Roll continues to play up talk of his inevitable transfer to Real Madrid, his current employer, Manchester United, has decided to draw a line in the sand and declare that Ronaldo is not for sale at any price -- and if you believe that, I've got a Premier League club in Derbyshire I'd like to sell you.

Clearly, though, Sir Alex Ferguson wants to keep the young Portuguese around for at least another year, so he can chase after more trophies. If Ferguson didn't want Ronaldo on his side, he'd be gone by now. That's what happened to David Beckham, Roy Keane and Ruud van Nistelrooy, among others.

Plus, there are good reasons for Ronaldo to stay put. Nike recently signed Ronaldo to a £25million deal, which apparently involves a Air Jordan-esque clothing line. Should Ronaldo move to Real Madrid, which deals exclusively with adidas, he would risk losing all that cash -- assuming, of course, that adidas wouldn't fill that void.

I still say the economic reality of the Webster Rule makes this transfer inevitable, if not this summer then next summer. Man United won't risk losing him for a mere £12 million in 2010 if they can get £70 million for him before then. They can't sell £58 million worth of CR7 replica jerseys if everyone knows CR7 will be gone soon.

(H/T: Soccer By Ives)

With all the excitement surrounding EURO 2008, it might have been easy to overlook the 2008-09 Premier League schedule, which was announced on Monday. You can see the full schedule here.

The most interesting thing about the coming season's schedule is that there are no "Super Sundays" that feature the Premier League's Big Four -- Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United -- playing against each other on the same day. Those marquee matches are spread fairly evenly throughout the schedule. Perhaps the Premier League is trying to distance itself from the notion that it's a top-heavy league where only four clubs have a legitimate shot at the title. I wish them lots of luck trying to convince people otherwise.

Our pals at The Guardian also note that Manchester United's September schedule is a little rough. The Red Devils face Liverpool at Anfield on September 13, then play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on September 20. In between those two games is their first Champions League group stage match. We should hear Sir Alex Ferguson whining about this any day now. "Waaaah! Defending two major championships shouldn't be this hard! Waaaaah!"

Of course, that assumes Ferguson doesn't follow through on his threat to bail on Man United if the club sells Cristiano Ronaldo. The offseason at Old Trafford gets more interesting every day, doesn't it?

Our old pal MJD had some interesting things to say about Jeff Garcia's retirement threat. The 38-year-old quarterback, who is due to make a $2 million base salary in 2008, has been asking for a raise after leading the Bucs to the playoffs last season.

My first reaction was that Garcia had a point but didn't have much leverage. The more I think about it, though, the more I wonder if this is part of a growing trend in Tampa for owner Malcolm Glazer and GM Bruce Allen. They tend to kick to the curb veterans who, in their opinion, have outlived their usefulness. Witness the cutting of Simeon Rice last summer, which many Bucs players didn't appreciate. Warren Sapp was not re-signed by the team in 2004, either, even though he still had some gas left in the tank.

The end result is that the Bucs have tons of room under the salary cap. They could afford to give Garcia a good-faith raise, which they gave B.J. Askew. Askew, however, is only 27. Does age play a role in these decisions?

Or can Glazer simply not afford it right now? I know I keep bringing up the fact that Glazer's other team, Manchester United, just posted a £58 million loss. You can certainly argue that they're separate entities, but nothing happens in a vacuum, and dropping $114 million with one team might make Glazer hesitant to spend on another team. Maybe if Garcia gets his raise a week after Cristiano Ronaldo gets sold to Real Madrid, we'll know just how connected those two franchises really are.

How do you get people to keep talking about you after scoring 42 goals in a season and leading your club to domestic and European titles? By asking your club to sell your contract, of course.

Cristiano Ronaldo told anyone who would listen today that he wants to leave Manchester United and move to Real Madrid. The Portuguese winger has wanted to play for Madrid since he was a boy, and now that he's won all the trophies he wants to win at Man United, he's ready to live out his ream.

This was a positively Machiavellian move by Ronaldo, a man who seems to relish being the center of attention. By stating his desire to move to Madrid now, this guarantees he'll be the hot topic of conversation throughout the summer. Had he said he would finish out his contract at Old Trafford, this entire story would be dead. Now, everyone will spend weeks asking just how much Madrid will pay for him -- and initial reports suggest a €100m transfer fee and £300,000-a-week salary.

Of course, this story will also distract us in the unlikely event that Ronaldo lays an egg at EURO 2008.

Cristiano Ronaldo makes you sick, doesn't he? He's got the boyish good looks. He's got the ridiculous talent. He just won two of the biggest trophies in club football with Manchester United, and he led his club in scoring with 42 goals, including 31 in the Premier League. Oh, and he's dating a hot model who's reportedly quite knowledgeable about sex.

Most men would be quite happy to live that dream. Cristiano Ronaldo, however, wants more.

Since hoisting the European Cup last week, Ronaldo has become the biggest transfer target in Europe. Spanish club Real Madrid have made no secret of their interest in luring the Portuguese superstar away from Manchester, reportedly offering the Red Devils a £100 million transfer fee for him.

As you might imagine, everyone at Man United is furious. The club is threatening to report Real Madrid to FIFA for tapping up Ronaldo. Red Devil assistant manager Carlos Quieroz even threw out some bizarre rant about the Spanish wanting to "naturalize" Ronaldo like they did with Christopher Columbus. Real president Juan Calderon, meanwhile, is playing down the rumors, saying this is merely an issue between a player and his club. Ronaldo, meanwhile, could end this whole saga any time he wanted to.

But why would he ever do that?

John Terry's fateful penalty kick slip might have cost Chelsea the Champions League Final yesterday, but at least one Chelsea coach would like you to know that it wasn't his fault. In fact, he knows exactly whose fault it is.

"John was not in the first five to take a kick but things changed during the game," said the Chelsea assistant manager Henk Ten Cate. "The sending-off of [Didier] Drogba made us change it [the order]. It's unbelievable that it should happen to him, though."

Drogba was sent off for a girly little slap at the face of Man United defender Nemanja Vidic in the 116th minute. He likely would have taken the penalty that Terry ended up taking. So just like Bill Buckner wasn't supposed to be in the game when that ground ball went through his legs in the 1986 World Series, Terry wasn't supposed to be the one to take that decisive penalty.

The Ivorian striker has been a huge brat since Jose Mourinho was sacked early in the season, and Ten Cate, who had feuded with members of Mourinho's staff in the past, wasted no time throwing one of the Special One's favorites under the bus. Once again, the ghost of Mourinho still haunts Stamford Bridge. I suspect Chelsea fans can't wait for Drogba to be a ghost there as well.

Blame it on the rain. Or the pitch. Don't blame John Terry.

The Chelsea defender played brilliantly for 120 minutes in this Champions League Final, clearing balls away from his goal and keeping Manchester United from having more than one goal all night. His header away against Ryan Giggs' shot in extra time may have been the only thing that kept the score tied. That set up a penalty shootout, and Petr Cech's save of Cristiano Ronaldo's penalty set up John Terry with the dream scenario of every kid who plays soccer -- put one past Edwin van der Sar, and lift the European Cup.

Only the rain had been pouring down in Moscow for a half-hour, making the uneven new pitch in Luzhniki Stadium even more slippery than it should have been. And when Terry stepped forward to make his kick, the grass refused to give him a solid place to put his foot. He slipped. The ball bounced off the post. Chance gone. Two kicks later, Nicolas Anelka put his penalty right into Edwin van der Sar's chest. Cue the Dramatics.

Reuters Soccer Blog is reporting that 15,000 Russian cops are on duty in Moscow today to keep an eye on the 50,000 or so English fans being flown in and herded around like so much cattle for today's UEFA Champions League Final between Manchester United and Chelsea. That photo shows a select few heading to Luzhniki Stadium earlier today.

Yeah, I don't think we'll be seeing a repeat of what happened in Manchester last week. As our pal Orson reminds us, police and military are basically indistinguishable in Russia. The next drunken moron that tosses a beer mug at these guys should get a proper bashing today and a trip to Siberia tomorrow. None of that "Stop, or I'll say stop again!" in Moscow tonight.