Solskjaer's legacy and his future

As a player an absolute legend. As a manager a disgrace. To know that you are tactically inept and to then surround yourself with inadequate staff this harming the club…however you look at it it just not good. RR has us looking better after 1 days training
 
Ole's legacy:
Manager: bad
Player: good

thread: done

Are chelsea fans still talking about lampards legacy? Just move on guys.
 
Quality control
The disrespect towards Ole on this forum (and other manager since Fergie) is rather distasteful.

I find the defend ole at all cost including pissing on Ralf actual management distasteful.

The amount of mind gymnastic ole butt hurt brigade is still up in force bigging up this clueless clown who pretend he's a manager for 3 years, serving us hot turd yet you lot call it donuts because it has a rainbow sprinkle on top of it.

He's not the worst manager ever imho, because he's not even a manager. He's just a mascot who does no training and plays candy crush on ipad
 
As a player an absolute legend. As a manager a disgrace. To know that you are tactically inept and to then surround yourself with inadequate staff this harming the club…however you look at it it just not good. RR has us looking better after 1 days training
Ole had us better instantly when he took over the team mid season too. Let's see how RR works over the season before judging so quick. I like what I've seen so far, but we all knows it's about consistency.

but yeah, ole should have surrounded himself with better coaches (maybe he didn't realize they were bad due to lack of experience).
 
I find the defend ole at all cost including pissing on Ralf actual management distasteful.

The amount of mind gymnastic ole butt hurt brigade is still up in force bigging up this clueless clown who pretend he's a manager for 3 years, serving us hot turd yet you lot call it donuts because it has a rainbow sprinkle on top of it.

He's not the worst manager ever imho, because he's not even a manager. He's just a mascot who does no training and plays candy crush on ipad

My word, grow up.
 
You guys remember Ole's first game right? It made today look pedestrian.

I'm sure we'll get a lot from Rangnick but it's one game.

I do not remember his first game at all. No matter what if we were pedestrian today we were in control. Under Ole we never are in control. Rarely. Not even against Newcastle this year.
 
This is such a disingenuous straw man. Genuinely dreadful.

I could point to games like Newcastle or Spurs last season where we were clearly better on the ball, our dismantling of Leipzig etc. but a scrappy 1-0 win was the most organised we've looked in 3 years?

I can see why you've gone straight for the above.

We were extremely good in the first 30 mins. We should have scored about three goals in that time. The same with Leipzig. We scored 5 but it was all counter attacking football. They messed it up completely but we were not in control of the game.
 
Ole had us better instantly when he took over the team mid season too. Let's see how RR works over the season before judging so quick. I like what I've seen so far, but we all knows it's about consistency.

but yeah, ole should have surrounded himself with better coaches (maybe he didn't realize they were bad due to lack of experience).
Yeah, I mean he's only been coaching for 11 years, how would he realize. The man is rubbish as a manager, should never have been offered the permanent job, we couldn't even wait till the end of that season to decide. Worst decision ever, 3 years wasted.
 
Yeah, I mean he's only been coaching for 11 years, how would he realize. The man is rubbish as a manager, should never have been offered the permanent job, we couldn't even wait till the end of that season to decide. Worst decision ever, 3 years wasted.
You don't know what you don't know. I was all anti-Ole for some time now as well. Just saying let's not be so quick to judge Ralf and his effectiveness on the team until a few games at least because Ole also had a great start.

i do think Ralf is and will prove to be the far superior manager and we will finally be getting our shit together and this is the start of a strong United team again
 
I wanted him gone but I do feel there is a lot of revisionism on his tenure. 2nd and 3rd place finishes. Regardless of the points tallys in both seasons that’s still matched only by Jose. Then we reached the Europa League final, losing on penalties. He had a very good record against Pep’s City. In the end the football was poor and he needed to go but to simply say he was a motivational speaker is probably unfair.
 
I wanted him gone but I do feel there is a lot of revisionism on his tenure. 2nd and 3rd place finishes. Regardless of the points tallys in both seasons that’s still matched only by Jose. Then we reached the Europa League final, losing on penalties. He had a very good record against Pep’s City. In the end the football was poor and he needed to go but to simply say he was a motivational speaker is probably unfair.

Can't wait to have my photo taken with that trophy.
 
You don't know what you don't know. I was all anti-Ole for some time now as well. Just saying let's not be so quick to judge Ralf and his effectiveness on the team until a few games at least because Ole also had a great start.

i do think Ralf is and will prove to be the far superior manager and we will finally be getting our shit together and this is the start of a strong United team again

Ralf has years of managerial work to judge upon. He might or might not be a success here but he's still 10x the manager ole is.
 
I wanted him gone but I do feel there is a lot of revisionism on his tenure. 2nd and 3rd place finishes. Regardless of the points tallys in both seasons that’s still matched only by Jose. Then we reached the Europa League final, losing on penalties. He had a very good record against Pep’s City. In the end the football was poor and he needed to go but to simply say he was a motivational speaker is probably unfair.
How he gets credit for this as an achievement I've no idea. We were only in that competition because he couldn't get out the CL group stage.
 
Ralf has years of managerial work to judge upon. He might or might not be a success here but he's still 10x the manager ole is.
No one here is saying Ralf is not good or that Ole is good. If you read the full thread I was responding to, you'd see I was simply saying let's not be so quick to judge the teams play from one game when Ole also had an amazing start to his management career at United. I also stated I firmly believe he is a good choice to start our rise to the top again.

I guess in other words, we both agree with eachother about Ralf being better than Ole.
 
No one here is saying Ralf is not good or that Ole is good. If you read the full thread I was responding to, you'd see I was simply saying let's not be so quick to judge the teams play from one game when Ole also had an amazing start to his management career at United. I also stated I firmly believe he is a good choice to start our rise to the top again.

I guess in other words, we both agree with eachother about Ralf being better than Ole.

It wasnt aimed at you to be fair..but there are few in this thread that are snidey and seems to think Ole's still hard done.

What seems to be a rational debate for you is 3 years of being told to shut up, progress, dna etc. So yeah, like kopral jono said damn right we feel vindicated.

And trust me. It's 20le. If anyone we would want to succeed it's him the united son. But it's just not meant to be
 
Yesterday's game - after a 45 minute training session with Ralf - has absolutely shown up Ole and his coaches. With McFred in midfield too! It's about tactics and a system and far less about personnel. If the Ole cult had their way, they would have let him blow a billion more pounds on players and we would have still looked shit.
 
Ole is probably the worst tactical coach we ever had at this club. But we still have periods of winning form under his management, thanks mostly to the individual brilliance we have at this club.

And he is also a likeable person, love the club, and was a good player. His legacy would solely be on his final minutes winning goal during 99 CL final.
 
Ole’s legacy is looking worse by the day. Had he walked out after the debacle v Villarreal he would have been carried out on his shield.
 
His legacy will be stabilizing the club and assembling a really good squad, but ultimately lacking the tactical and technical ability to compete with the best. And lets be honest here, with Klopp, Pep and Tuchel leading extremely talented sides, i cant remember the PL being more competitive than it is today

His biggest mistake imo was not surrounding himself with better coaches. Ole by his own admission did very little of the actual coaching, and going into this season we looked like we had no idea what we were tying to do

Very excited by RR, and i hope he stays at the club after his interim spell, but please dont rewrite history to fit your narrative. If you look at the bigger picture, he did no worse than his predecessors
 
This has been done to death, but some people do also forget quickly the context behind 3rd and 2nd finishes and cite only the final position, so the impression is created that we had 2 comfortable top-4 finishes in a row, which we did not:

1. In 2019/2020 we were out of top-4 for 90% of the time and were often literally midtable before Bruno. We only scrambled to 3rd place in the last matches due to Leicester collapse - and were tied on points with Chelsea who were 4th. We finished on 66 points, which rarely is enough for top-4: over the last 10 seasons it was barely enough only in 2015/2016 where City overtook us for top-4 on GD with both of us finishing at 66 points. Expected points showed that we underperformed a bit (had 71 expected points), but Chelsea underperformed them more, so we were 4th in expected points table.

2. 2020/2021 looked more like a comfortable top-4 finish, but again - as posters above detailed, it was also papering over cracks. Even the improved point tally (74) would on average over last 10 season make you 4th, plus actually we had only 66 expected points (and 4th on expected position) - suggesting that we might have indeed been lucky and declined rather than improved from the 19/20 season with its expected points of 71.

So basically under Ole we performed barely good enough for top-4 with no real progress from first season to second if one looks at least a bit beyond headline league finishes and points. And that was with an improving squad. It is no coincidence that the thread "we are a poorly coached team" was created long ago. And I follow quite a lot of football data/analytics/tactics podcasts -I do not consider myself very knowledgeable in this topics - but I was struck how the opinions in them contrasted with the mood here in the summer. The vast majority (especially those who are not United fans) thought that Ole was far from being good enough at this level, found our persistence with him baffling, thought that we are still chasing big names without a proper transfer strategy, squad balance or idea how to fit them and play a defined style of football - and as a result expected us to be a distant 4th at best.

The magnitude of the crash this season was impossible to predict, as it is a confluence of several factors and a chain reaction basically - (1) expectations increased due to 2nd place and a strong on paper transfer window, (2) Ole did not prepare/did not know how to integrate the new signings (3) results caught up with our performances (4) Ole panicked and started frantically changing the approach to games, (5) players were not prepared for it, and became unhappy and confused and lost belief in his managerial abilities.

I'm not interested in defending Ole because the fact is, he had his chance and proved himself massively out of his depth. However, with all of the analysis above, you have to ask yourself the following.

1) How does measuring average points totals take into account the strength of the league and other factors, such as total games played by a team overall in all competitions? The answer is, it doesn't, so it's too binary. Why not just use the ACTUAL league position to measure who deserved what...since that's kind of the point?

2) You also have to ask, what would the expected outcome be for the two squads Ole managed into 3rd and 2nd? I would say the year we finished 3rd, that squad could easily have finished 6th/7th/8th. The par was probably about 5th/6th.

Last year, Ole finished above Liverpool and Chelsea, with a squad that was certainly not better than either of those two teams. So again, you have to look at it and say "what more could he realistically have been expected to achieve?"
 
Didn't look good for after a mere 45 mins did it?
He did his best, unfortunately he just wasn't good enough, not many are. A lot of people have gone in depth about how even though the squad looks better than what it was under Jose, improving on that with 400m is something any competent manager would've been able to do, and probably better.
Our league finishes under him also have to be taken in a lot of context with the other teams also struggling.
For me it was the football we played, I thought giving him the permanent contract after 10-12 games was a mistake to begin with.
 
This has been done to death, but some people do also forget quickly the context behind 3rd and 2nd finishes and cite only the final position, so the impression is created that we had 2 comfortable top-4 finishes in a row, which we did not:

1. In 2019/2020 we were out of top-4 for 90% of the time and were often literally midtable before Bruno. We only scrambled to 3rd place in the last matches due to Leicester collapse - and were tied on points with Chelsea who were 4th. We finished on 66 points, which rarely is enough for top-4: over the last 10 seasons it was barely enough only in 2015/2016 where City overtook us for top-4 on GD with both of us finishing at 66 points. Expected points showed that we underperformed a bit (had 71 expected points), but Chelsea underperformed them more, so we were 4th in expected points table.

2. 2020/2021 looked more like a comfortable top-4 finish, but again - as posters above detailed, it was also papering over cracks. Even the improved point tally (74) would on average over last 10 season make you 4th, plus actually we had only 66 expected points (and 4th on expected position) - suggesting that we might have indeed been lucky and declined rather than improved from the 19/20 season with its expected points of 71.

So basically under Ole we performed barely good enough for top-4 with no real progress from first season to second if one looks at least a bit beyond headline league finishes and points. And that was with an improving squad. It is no coincidence that the thread "we are a poorly coached team" was created long ago. And I follow quite a lot of football data/analytics/tactics podcasts -I do not consider myself very knowledgeable in this topics - but I was struck how the opinions in them contrasted with the mood here in the summer. The vast majority (especially those who are not United fans) thought that Ole was far from being good enough at this level, found our persistence with him baffling, thought that we are still chasing big names without a proper transfer strategy, squad balance or idea how to fit them and play a defined style of football - and as a result expected us to be a distant 4th at best.

The magnitude of the crash this season was impossible to predict, as it is a confluence of several factors and a chain reaction basically - (1) expectations increased due to 2nd place and a strong on paper transfer window, (2) Ole did not prepare/did not know how to integrate the new signings (3) results caught up with our performances (4) Ole panicked and started frantically changing the approach to games, (5) players were not prepared for it, and became unhappy and confused and lost belief in his managerial abilities.

Excellent post and agree with most of it, only in your assessment of 20/21 season, I would add that few players had strong performances in some parts of the season, like Pogba before his injury in March this year, Shaw & Maguire were solid in the 2nd half of 20/21 season Cavani played well too, and so on, that also helped the team get results which improved the points tally.
 
I do not remember his first game at all. No matter what if we were pedestrian today we were in control. Under Ole we never are in control. Rarely. Not even against Newcastle this year.

If you can't remember his first game at all I'm not sure you're best placed to say anything definitive, such as us never having any control.

His first game we beat Cardiff 5-1 and looked amazing. Much better than we did against Palace at the weekend.

Now I'm not saying that opening game meant anything, rather the opposite, it's one game. I wouldn't use Ole's first game to say "wow look what a proper manager can do, this proves the last guy was rubbish." So nor should it be used now after squeaking out a one nil win against a rubbish Palace team.

That said there's a confidence about Rangnick that does convince he'll do well.
 
How he gets credit for this as an achievement I've no idea. We were only in that competition because he couldn't get out the CL group stage.

He's not getting any credit in particular but in discussing his tenure what do you want people to do? Not mention gettting to the final? I don't think anybody is saying getting to the final deserves plaudits, Ole himself certainly didn't. Also unlike Mourinho he didn't try to convince everyone 2nd place was anything amazing.

And again, expectations. When we got the draw for that Champions League group I don't think anybody was confident we'd qualify.
 
I'm not interested in defending Ole because the fact is, he had his chance and proved himself massively out of his depth. However, with all of the analysis above, you have to ask yourself the following.

1) How does measuring average points totals take into account the strength of the league and other factors, such as total games played by a team overall in all competitions? The answer is, it doesn't, so it's too binary. Why not just use the ACTUAL league position to measure who deserved what...since that's kind of the point?

2) You also have to ask, what would the expected outcome be for the two squads Ole managed into 3rd and 2nd? I would say the year we finished 3rd, that squad could easily have finished 6th/7th/8th. The par was probably about 5th/6th.

Last year, Ole finished above Liverpool and Chelsea, with a squad that was certainly not better than either of those two teams. So again, you have to look at it and say "what more could he realistically have been expected to achieve?"

1. Comparison of the actual points to long-term average for the same league positions given us a rough understanding of how strong were top teams in a given season relative to history. Overall there is no clear downward trend (if you are implying that midtable and bottom half teams became stronger - if there were such a trend then yes, this would be a distorted measure). But if you look at the points total of big 4 over the last 10 years average is 315 with Moyes (331) and Jose (333, 333) managing in seasons with stronger-than-average top-4 whilst LvG (311, 288) and Ole (312, 296) managing in sessons with weaker-than-avearge top-4 suggesting that probably we have to be a bit stricter in assessing LvG and Ole's results just a league and a bit more lenient when assessing Jose's and Moyes' results (all other thing equal of course).

2. Expected points/expected league position gives us a rough indicaton of whether we were "lucky" or "unlucky" to finish where we did. It is rare that teams outperform expected goals/points consistently. On expected goals and points we were behind Chelsea and Liverpool in 20/21, so we were likely lucky to finish above them.

3. I never claimed that the measures I use are perfect and take into account everything. But it does not mean that as you suggest we should rely only on league places and strength of squads on paper in evaluating Ole and ignore other (however imperfect) measures. In 19/20 Liverpool had injury issues, and Chelsea was in managerial transition. And we still should have finished below them with a points total which is not usually enough for top4 and lower than in previous season. Our 2nd finish was a confluence of a number of positive and lucky factors and was not sustainable.

4. Squad strength on paper is anyway a very subjective measure since it's perception (and actual quality of players to some degree) depends on coaching a lot. Under a competent coach players look on average better than they are under a subpar coach, plus they realize their full potential. Salah, Mane, Firmino, Robertson were no world class players when they were signed and would be nowhere near where they are now under Ole. If Henderson was signed and played under Ole we would all clamor for him to be replaced, and so on. So I I a bit confused why you insist on relying on comparable squad quality to assess Ole, whilst dismissing other measures which at least are somewhat objective if imperfect.

5. The biggest problem with your argument is that from it (as you claim that Ole had 6-8th squad in 19/20) it follows that Jose's squad was in fact midtable (since it is not really disputable that squad under Ole became stronger) and Jose is a magician by achieving 2nd and 81 points (and EL win) with it. So if we accept your argument that Ole overachieved with the squad, it follows that Jose did a lot better than him and he had a midtable squad - do not think that anyone would agree with it.
 
I find the defend ole at all cost including pissing on Ralf actual management distasteful.

The amount of mind gymnastic ole butt hurt brigade is still up in force bigging up this clueless clown who pretend he's a manager for 3 years, serving us hot turd yet you lot call it donuts because it has a rainbow sprinkle on top of it.

He's not the worst manager ever imho, because he's not even a manager. He's just a mascot who does no training and plays candy crush on ipad

Us lot? I'm bigging him up by saying I don't get the hate?

He's gone and I don't see the need to spit on his back. Did you also regard Ole a clown when he was playing? He earned no respect from you when he was doing it back in the day? He brought no joy to your misery? Tell me, do you also go around and spray your shit mist on other former players who shown support to him and the team? Would you do that to their face? you come across as a rather hateful guy, poor you.
 
The race was run with Ole but all in all I think he did a good job. He took over a club that was a shambles under Mourinho and put in on the right path again. This season was a disaster but his legacy has been enhanced by his stint here as manager. A good man with good intentions for the club who left it better than he received it, for that he has my gratitude.
 
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Us lot? I'm bigging him up by saying I don't get the hate?

He's gone and I don't see the need to spit on his back. Did you also regard Ole a clown when he was playing? He earned no respect from you when he was doing it back in the day? He brought no joy to your misery? Tell me, do you also go around and spray your shit mist on other former players who shown support to him and the team? Would you do that to their face? you come across as a rather hateful guy, poor you.

1st. Ole the player is not ole the manager

2nd. Go ahead describe his tenure at United.
 
I find the defend ole at all cost including pissing on Ralf actual management distasteful.

The amount of mind gymnastic ole butt hurt brigade is still up in force bigging up this clueless clown who pretend he's a manager for 3 years, serving us hot turd yet you lot call it donuts because it has a rainbow sprinkle on top of it.

He's not the worst manager ever imho, because he's not even a manager. He's just a mascot who does no training and plays candy crush on ipad

How is anyone pissing on Rangnick? Don't see how that's possible after one game.
 
How is anyone pissing on Rangnick? Don't see how that's possible after one game.
We got 2nd with no tactics apparently, yet the German genius winning 1-0 to Palace thanks to Fred worldie shows how bad Ole is. United fans never fail to surprise me.
I do like how one hard fought 1-0 win over Crystal Palace proves the manager who got 3rd and 2nd in the previous 2 seasons was totally incompetent...

I can only assume if we don't go to Newcastle and thump them more than 4-1 that means the current manager is a joke and needs to go etc.
 

That's not knocking Rangnick. It's questioning fans who are making big bold statements after just one game. Rightly so. Doesn't matter who the new guy is, using his first game to jump on the previous manager is nonsense.

I'm sure Rangnick himself would say one game after a 45 min training session shouldn't be the basis for any conclusions.

What if Saturday was poor, no different to the last few months. Would you have drawn any conclusions on Rangnick then? Course not. So why do it because we won.
 
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I've never understood people on here (and beyond) whose instinctual reaction to a player or manager not being good enough is absolute hatred. There's a line between having high standards (e.g - wanting a better manager than Ole, or a better player than X) and being bitter, nasty and frankly a bit creepy.

Disliking someone like Mourinho or Di Maria makes sense, because their failures came with a dose of arrogance, a general air of half-arsedness and disrespect to the club/fans after they left. What I don't really get is the hatred some of our fans have for managers and players who gave their all to the club, legitimately did their best but simply weren't up to the task. Where it really gets weird is the bizarre lengths people go to in to justify hating people for no good reason, e.g - 'any player, coach or manager who isn't excelling at their job should quit to save the board/owners from having to take any responsibility for the decision to hire/buy them in first place and unless they do it's a sign they hate the club and the fans', 'Lingard isn't as good as Bernardo Silva but dares to have a clothing line and a social media presence'. All I can say is that I hope it's an outlet for people instead of a reflection of what they're like in their life away from the Caf.

Ole's a club legend and the fact that he didn't have what it took to be manager here doesn't make me think less of him as a player and as a person who gave a lot to the club. It's perfectly possible to feel that way that whilst also being glad he's no longer in charge and looking forward to the future under the new manager.
 
1st. Ole the player is not ole the manager

2nd. Go ahead describe his tenure at United.

He's neither anymore, now he's just a person who good or bad gave a huge part of his life and career in service to the club that you support.

Honest question do you genuinely dislike the guy?
 
I've never understood people on here (and beyond) whose instinctual reaction to a player or manager not being good enough is absolute hatred. There's a line between having high standards (e.g - wanting a better manager than Ole, or a better player than X) and being bitter, nasty and frankly a bit creepy.

Disliking someone like Mourinho or Di Maria makes sense, because their failures came with a dose of arrogance, a general air of half-arsedness and disrespect to the club/fans after they left. What I don't really get is the hatred some of our fans have for managers and players who gave their all to the club, legitimately did their best but simply weren't up to the task. Where it really gets weird is the bizarre lengths people go to in to justify hating people for no good reason, e.g - 'any player, coach or manager who isn't excelling at their job should quit to save the board/owners from having to take any responsibility for the decision to hire/buy them in first place and unless they do it's a sign they hate the club and the fans', 'Lingard isn't as good as Bernardo Silva but dares to have a clothing line and a social media presence'. All I can say is that I hope it's an outlet for people instead of a reflection of what they're like in their life away from the Caf.

Ole's a club legend and the fact that he didn't have what it took to be manager here doesn't make me think less of him as a player and as a person who gave a lot to the club. It's perfectly possible to feel that way that whilst also being glad he's no longer in charge and looking forward to the future under the new manager.

Or maybe we started of as simply saying that he did not have what it takes and simply told to shut the feck up because progress, recruitment, vision, united DNA, and told that he so loved the club he cant even have the spine to stand on the sideline, sitting slumped with his ipad, so inept at the job that any club loving legend would have raised their hands up and admit the jobs too big for them, or how he spent promoting his buddies to key position to help secure his position.

Loved the club. Yeah right.
 
1. Comparison of the actual points to long-term average for the same league positions given us a rough understanding of how strong were top teams in a given season relative to history. Overall there is no clear downward trend (if you are implying that midtable and bottom half teams became stronger - if there were such a trend then yes, this would be a distorted measure). But if you look at the points total of big 4 over the last 10 years average is 315 with Moyes (331) and Jose (333, 333) managing in seasons with stronger-than-average top-4 whilst LvG (311, 288) and Ole (312, 296) managing in sessons with weaker-than-avearge top-4 suggesting that probably we have to be a bit stricter in assessing LvG and Ole's results just a league and a bit more lenient when assessing Jose's and Moyes' results (all other thing equal of course)..

Simplistic analysis. Moyes deserves more leniency? He inherited the fecking CHAMPIONS.

This forum is sometimes a treasure trove to anybody who wants to prove the saying "There are three kind of lies; lies, damned lies, and statistics"
 
He's neither anymore, now he's just a person who good or bad gave a huge part of his life and career in service to the club that you support.

Honest question do you genuinely dislike the guy?

So did mourinho and moyes. Never stopped you guys from dishing him.

I dont hate the guy. I just had enough of you boys taking the piss and after the dust is settled instead of admitting that you're wrong and he is that bad you come here with a houliier than thou attitude pretending to be a classy fans that support the club legend. Or so you say.

It's like some moyes fans who says to me... yes he's shit but im a better red because i turned the last.

Feck that
 
That's not knocking Rangnick. It's questioning fans who are making big bold statements after just one game. Rightly so. Doesn't matter who the new guy is, using his first game to jump on the previous manager is nonsense.

I'm sure Rangnick himself would say one game after a 45 min training session shouldn't be the basis for any conclusions.

What if Saturday was poor, no different to the last few months. Would you have drawn any conclusions on Rangnick then? Course not. So why do it because we won.

Right... snidey remarks as german genius...

And oh.. ole is actually not incompetent?

But sure... not a dig at rangnick

Rangnick should not even be mentioned in this thread. But hey.. just cant help it eh?