Thats true afaik
Supposedly the other guy said that he knew Ronaldo had the much better potential and as they were such good friends, he gave him the opportunity.
Sliding doors moments in United history
- Thread starter MancunianAngels
- Start date
Supposedly the other guy said that he knew Ronaldo had the much better potential and as they were such good friends, he gave him the opportunity.
Ian Ure. I remember him scrapping with Denis Law at Old Trafford one time when he was still an Arsenal player. For some reason, we had an aversion to signing a centre-half in those days. David Meek used to rant about United's transfer policy back in the day, writing columns full of the names of players we needed to sign. Alan Hudson was one and he went to Stoke. Dave Watson at Sunderland was another and he went to City. But yes, we had Ian Ure and Steve James and at a pinch, Arnie Sidebottom. The Stretty had some fun with that name.
Sir Alex ends up listening to Roy Keane advice to put United ahead of his financial benefit. He therefore doesn't sue two of United's major shareholders over the breeding rights of a damn horse. These shareholders aren't ostracised by the fans to sell which means that the club remains a PLC for a while longer. United are sold later on to someone who can actually afford them and we remain on top.
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2005.
The Glazers don't buy us. We end up with a professional board of directors. Old Trafford is now a modern stadium. We have invested well in the squad and are looking to win title 25 this year.
Oh what could have been.
The Glazers don't buy us. We end up with a professional board of directors. Old Trafford is now a modern stadium. We have invested well in the squad and are looking to win title 25 this year.
Oh what could have been.
It was absolutely infuriating. If we’d had (say) Colin Todd and Alan Ball instead of Steve James and Alan Gowling as a makeshift midfielder in 1971/72 we might have won the league. And maybe Best would have stayed closer to the straight and narrow…
This.
If Crouch hadn’t dived v Bolton.
I believe SAF has maintained that he retired that season because his wife's sister expired and she was left feeling alone. So, he wanted to give her more time.
Sven had been lined up to replace Fergie, until he changed his mind and decided to,stay put.
Ronaldo probably still leaves that summer.
Only thing that changes is maybe we get an extra 10/20 million and maybe there's an additional player that comes in.
No Cantona ban in 1995 means he becomes a very different player and probably stays until at least 1999. That means the team doesn't naturally evolve in the same way and we don't win tbe Treble in 99.
Ultimately, we win the double again in 95 but things aren't quite as good in the long term. Interesting to look at.
This one was the first that came to my mind as well, fully convinced we would have knocked them out. Not sure we would have won the whole thing though.
Yes he wouldn't have done an extra season.
But I'm sure he also was going to retire the season before but didn't want to go out on that Aguero moment.
Decent one.
But that Rooney injury and Rafael dopey red v Bayern is probably the better kissed chance.
Probably yes. And he'd probably have signed a new contract with us after scoring 50+ goals for a few seasons and being ultra happy here.
This is a good one.
I think we would've been in better shape if we'd have stuck with LVG - the Jose experiment was a complete waste of three years.
We had a TON of sliding doors moments that fecked our chances of getting European trophies.
- Paul Scholes goal disallowed vs Mourinho's Porto circa 2002.
- Butt hit the post in our away game in the 1996 semi final against Dortmund. We were fairly dominant.
- If any of Ronaldo's 5-6 shots fly in (of which he was more than capable) in the 2009 final vs Barcelona - the first 15 minutes we were super dominant, but they hit us on the break and completely annihlated us the rest of the game, just calmed them down and they did that carousel of passing they do
- That Nani card
- The 5 foreigners rule stopped us seeing how good our 1992 team REALLY was in Europe, we often dropped Cantona, Irwin, Schmeichel, Keane or whoever and it really hurt us.
Also a low-key effort by UEFA to help Real Madrid progress every season, they fixed the draws for them. I'm sure Ferguson knew it, mentioned it, and got a MASSIVE fine - but Blatter said it was done and there's no reason to disbelieve him, he would know all about that.
Rupert Murdoch trying to buy United. In retrospect it would have been far better than the Glazers (though you''d choose neither).
We score a goal in Bernabeu in 2000, when we dominated Real, and we have another CL.
We sent another representative to meet Kloop, one who isn't obsessed with Disney, and Lpool is still old Lpool, and we are actually good.
We sent another representative to meet Kloop, one who isn't obsessed with Disney, and Lpool is still old Lpool, and we are actually good.
From my memory, the biggest one has to be the Fergie-Pep dinner in 2013. What could have been...
Alan Hardaker gets hit by a bus on February 2nd, 1958. His deputy tells Matt not to worry about getting back home for the Wolves game because it can be rescheduled.
No need to mention the biggest moment of them all the munich disaster
Some of this is obviously before my time but the partisan semi final with an unfit best and to a degree law plus the Milan semi final with the disallowed goal hurt massively as well.
We're cursed in Europe.
Yep. This.
Sir Alex starts Paul Scholes for the game vs Wigan in 2012. Scholes pretty much drove our title bid in the second half of 2011-2012 and was being rested for the Everton game the following match. Wigan won 1-0 in a crappy performance by us. I don't know, it might have been the deciding factor.
Everyone always talks about the Everton game and rightly so but the Wigan match before it was so winnable and even a draw would have been enough
I do agree to an extent. But, I actually think the game on New Years Eve at home to Blackburn (who were to get relegated) was the balls up.
We lost 3-2 where Ferguson played Carrick at centre back and Rafael and Ji Sung Park at centre midfield after Rooney and Gibson were dropped for disciplinary issues.
People always say the Everton 4-4 draw was the game that cost us. But I recall a conversation I had with a friend who is an Everton fan and we both agreed that those type of matches can happen. A mid table team coming to Old Trafford with freedom and no pressure to play and get a result does occur, especially when they had ambitious players and a younger Moyes at the time.
We have benefited from that in the past. But losing to Blackburn was unforgivable.
Should Ferguson have introduced a young Paul Pogba into our midfield during that New Years Eve clash?
SAF retired because his wife's sister passed away during the 12/13 season and he made his mind up to spend more time with his wife. Not sure how us winning the title an year early would have led to Fergie retiring.
If you watch that moment again. Once they realised they were safe, the only player tried to stop Aguero was Anton Ferdinand.
I find that rather astounding as I remember it as a match that Real controlled, with Bosnich being MOM.
We recovered from that Blackburn match to lead the table by something like eight points with six games to go, only to drop those eight points in three matches. That was the only thing that cost us the title. Not a match that was played five months previously.
Even if we had beaten Blackburn, who knows how the rest of the season would have panned out.
This is a big one for me. So many knock-on effects; City are delayed another year in winning the title, and it's often forgotten how big of a basket case they were back then. Do we beat them to getting Pep and stop their dominance entirely?
Yeah I watched that match recently and you're right. Bosnich and Keane were our two best players and Real pretty much bossed the match although, Cole had a great chance to nick a goal. If we had got an away goal we probably could have won the tie but it wouldn't have been a fair reflection of the match.
I actually felt sorry for Keane rewatching it because he was almost holding the midfield by himself at times. He needed help in there and our full backs were getting rinsed.
Imagine sell giggs, sack fergie
That Porto game is always my biggest what-if question. Scholes scored a perfectly good goal that was incorrectly ruled for offside. Jose wouldn't have won the cl that season, probably wouldn't have gotten the Chelsea job. That decision had a huge bearing on the landscape of English football.
Chelsea - Barcelona referee gate 2009
If that didn't happen, we may easily beat Chelsea in the final (we beat them 3-0 in the same season) and Fergie will get his 3rd European title, and United's 4th - at that time the same number as other European giants like Bayern and Ajax, and Barcelona will be stuck at 2nd title. The pendulum of La Liga glory decade over PL may swift.
Man City may also not hire Pep in the end as well and they will get much less trophies
If that didn't happen, we may easily beat Chelsea in the final (we beat them 3-0 in the same season) and Fergie will get his 3rd European title, and United's 4th - at that time the same number as other European giants like Bayern and Ajax, and Barcelona will be stuck at 2nd title. The pendulum of La Liga glory decade over PL may swift.
Man City may also not hire Pep in the end as well and they will get much less trophies
IMUSA actually offered a solution to Fergie around 2005. The story/rumour
Basically, there was a group of 4/5 local/UK businessesmen willing to put the money in to buy the club but as the Glazers bid was already at a certain point, they needed them to pull out. The person that was key to their bid was Fergie. A lot of the terms the Glazers had with banks etc was related to stability and Fergie was key to that.
I believe IMUSA, led by Andy Walsh (who would go on to become CEO of Fc United) and JP (who would go on to become the main founder of FC United) said to Fergie: "If you resign now, the Glazers bid is dead. They'll withdraw and once the alternative bid takes over, you can be reappointed."
Apparently Fergie considered it but said it was too much of a risk. He offered a polite refusal and the rest is history.
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Wow that's new news for me
Yeah, it was quite an interesting time.
Ultimately, had Fergie not got involved with the Rock of Gibraltar 18 months previously, there would have been no Glazer bid anyway.
Assuming this is true it's rather understandable, it definitely would have been a risky move with the potential to backfire.
Biggest one for me is if man citys takeover never happens, we win the league in 2012, 2021 with ole, and 2018 with mourinho.
2021 the year liverpool had loads of injuries we would of snatched it, and 2018 when mourinho finished 2nd behind city. Plus aguerooo would never have happened
2021 the year liverpool had loads of injuries we would of snatched it, and 2018 when mourinho finished 2nd behind city. Plus aguerooo would never have happened
didnt Fergie met Pep in New York to offer him a job, but it was already too late?
We would have probably have beaten Monaco in the finals and would of had another European trophy in the bag.
Other moments I recall are:
1) Park scores that early chance in the 2009 Champions League finals. Without defence would we have been able to hold out for the win? The way Barca were, I would say they would still win but who knows!
2) 2010 Champions League match vs Bayern in the quarters. If Rooney didn't pick up that injury, with the form he was in that year, surely we would have beaten Bayern and gone all the way to win the UCL?
3) 2012 vs Everton when Evra had that header to kill the game off. If he scores we win the league... simple.
4) 2012 vs Real Madrid in the quarters. Had Nani not been sent off we would have gone through imo, whether we would have won the UCL or not is a different discussion.
5) 2013 once Fergie announced his retirement. Had we known Moyes would have done what he would have done, surely we could have pulled of at least one from Klopp, Guardiola or Ancelotti? Klopp already had 5 seasons at Dortmund and only stayed for 2 more seasons before going to Liverpool. Guardiola went to Bayern in the summer of 2013, surely he would have wanted to come to United instead? Ancelotti went to Real Madrid from PSG that year but United would have surely been appealing to him.