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EDITORIAL FEATURES 19 The Fallowfield Snip 22 Plzen Away: 115 3007 192 We should start this issue by saying that United’s results in the month before it came out were the worst since the fanzine started in 1989. With 15 minutes of the game to go at Anfield, I looked at when United last lost five games on the bounce, then got into a slew of results in the 1930s when the team almost went down to the Third Division during the Great Depression. “We’ll see things they‘ll never see,” said a self-aggrandising banner at the Etihad. Aye, third-tier football. United didn’t go down and didn’t lose at Anfield. Amad, just about the brightest player this season, got a deserved 80th-minute equaliser in front of the bouncing away end, the second of two rare goals to celebrate at Anfield. That’s Amad whose transfer some of you were urging us to investigate in 2022, since he cost so much and had delivered so little in his first year at the club. We did, in detail, but couldn’t find any wrongdoing, more United being smart and building a relationship with Atalanta that would see the deal done – and the Hojlund one two years later. Amad was a kid and patience was needed. He had a bad loan at Rangers and a good one at Sunderland. It was all part of a process of building him up as a person and a footballer. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Things are working well for Amad, if not the team this season. And they may work well for Hojlund. One of United’s biggest problems is too many poor or wrong transfers post-Ferguson. We’re still paying for them; they’ve caught up with us. Teams built to challenge at the top end of the Champions League have failed to hit that mark season after season. And now it’s payback time, or cutback time. United wouldn’t have needed to make all those job cuts had the team been as they were for 20 years from 1993. People talk in adversity. We’ve never had so many people coming to us in all the time we’ve done UWS. Fans vent, but there are many high up in football who can’t talk publicly and come to us in private because they trust us. There are people who started reading UWS as kids and are now in senior positions in the football world. There are others in very important decisionmaking roles at major football clubs who are United fans on the quiet. They despair, but they can’t speak publicly about how they feel as they’d lose their jobs and the fans who pay their wages would be rightly outraged, but everyone is always searching for answers, including us. Sometimes we’re pushed for answers we can’t give – like the supposed disgraceful signing of Amad. I saw one person who was very vocal in his criticism of the Amad transfer…celebrating him signing a new deal. I call them the “I’ve got to hold my hands up” firm. People who change their tune like the wind. But the club can’t do that; they must think for the medium and long term. And that’s where United have struggled. Everyone has the answers…in hindsight. After another Bournemouth defeat, one extremely relevant contact sent us a long message: “The foundation of the club are its values,” he said. “No-one is bigger than Manchester United. It’s better United lose one young player rather than give them an amazing contract before they’ve won anything serious. United have created monsters like Lingard, Rashford, Martial and so on. Young players given huge salaries they wouldn’t have got elsewhere. Big salaries and shit performances. This is on the directors, not the coaches. Jim Ratcliffe said he’d change everything – which he needed to – but at the end of the summer market United let the coach sign three players. “Ferguson’s success was primarily down to discipline and drive over scouting or data. Discipline stops leaks. It stops unauthorised interviews. It doesn’t stop United signing players who don’t run, having players who are always injured who contribute nothing. It could be so much smarter.” And on and on and on. We’ve come a long, long way together. Through the hard times and the good. And we’ve got a long way to go. Enjoy this issue, Andy Editor 27 The Mancs Who Are Big in Greece 28 This Was the Last Time: Phil Bardsley 32 Transmission 35 The Story So Far 36 Manchester United Supporters’ Club Los Angeles 40 We’ll Meet Again: Glasgow Rangers REGULARS 04-07 manUvia 08-10 Guttersnipe 12 Jim White 26 Keith Dewhurst 42 GAWI

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