Extensief lezen - Man Utd Magazine

Page 1.

This is the cover of the magazine. On this page is the contents of the magazine. By this magazine it’s about new year and about Christmas. You see the funny heads of four important players of Man Utd.

Page 2-3.

At this two pages they advertise for mutv (Manchester United TeleVison). They advertise for the best programs they have: Inside view, You call the shots, Full match coverage, Premier classics, Reserves live, Countdown 2 kick-off and Red hot news. They try to persuade you to subscribe for just six pounds per month.

Page 4-5.

Here is the contents of this Man Utd magazine. At page 4 there is something about the regular headings. This is monthly the same. The regular headings are things like letters, interviews with players and other things like that. There are either some photos about the regulars (Sir Alex Ferguson, Juan Sebastian Veron etc.) At page 5 there are the features. This is monthly different. This month there is an interview with Wes Brown, something about Christmas, Ferguson in the FA Cup, an article about the 2nd stage of the Champions League, something about a former Man Utd player who moved away from the club, an interview with Roy Carroll (the talented reserve keeper) and questions from readers to Van the Man (Ruud van Nistelrooy). At this page there is either a photo from the young central defender Wes Brown.

Page 6-7.

At the sixth page of this magazine there is a big photo from former United player Eric Cantona in a heading single duel with Arsenal captain Tony Adams and former Arsenal striker Ian Wright. The photo belongs to the next page, where is an editorial from Aubrey Ganguly. He writes about the perspectives for the mancunians for the rest of the season. He thinks that 5 ½ month is not enough to put a run together and win the Premiership. He either thinks that the Champions League is an utopia, one point in Munich is not enough. At least he says that the FA Cup is an utopia either, they can’t win him anymore. He thinks that they are lucky when they avoid relegation. But after this piece of pessimism, he says this is a slow-start team, they mostly get going after Christmas so there is hope… He either says something about the contents of this issue (I described by page 4-5).

Page 8-9.

The pages 8 and 9 are showing a big photo with a smiling Laurent Blanc, who gets a cake for his birthday from Sir Alex Ferguson (the Gaffer). But the other players and the staff look happier with the cake then the French defender himself.

Page 10-11.

These two pages contain twenty reasons why this season won’t end even miserable as it started. I describe every reason short. 1: The manager criticises the team cause the players need it. He hopes the players respond on the field. 2: We are still in the Champions League. There were other giants failed in the 1st group round and went to the Uefa Cup (or worse), the mancunians survived and so a lot of concurrents are not a concurrent anymore. 3: When they are good in the Premiership, they are bad in Europe. So when they are bad in the Premiership… 4: The mancunians intercept the most passes in the Champions League. That’s something to build on. 5: We have the Gaffer. And Sir Alex won in his career 34 trophies. He’s the most successful British manager all-time. 6: We have Keano. This aggressive defensive midfielder never plays a bad game
7: We don’t have Emile Heskey. This Liverpool striker has a goal average of one in 551 minutes! The mancunians prefer more prolific strikers like Van Nistelrooy, Solskjaer and Cole. 8: We have the highest ratio of arrived crosses. 9: We have the sharpest shooters. 52% of the passes find a teammate. 10: Our scoring average is the highest one. 11: Thinking on the clubs who are a lot less fortunate learns… 12: Other clubs have better results, but are playing defensive football (Liverpool). 13: It’s not about winning everything, our supporters are the most fanatic ones, they always stay, either in bad times. 14: We have the most successful passers. 15: We play attacking football with wings. Nobody can stop Becks or Giggs when they are in full flight. 16: The criticism is our inspiration. With a lot of critic, we play the best football. 17: We have Veron. The most simple and the most effective player. Easy the best. 18: We are making the Premiership express so exciting, otherwise it’s not nice. 19: After Christmas, we’re at the best. Before Christmas bad, after Christmas the best. 20: It’s the Gaffers’ last season so we have to sing him to the Premiership-victory!

At the right side of page 11, there’s an little about Jimmy Ryan. He looks back at the first half of the season and concludes that it was bad, but not so bad that the land in a hopeless position.

Page 12.

At this page there are four little pieces with text, I describe them one-by-one.

The first article is a soliloquy from Andy Mitten. He writes about people who are travelling with their club to see there matches. Some of them are doing this for more than fifty years. But he thinks that travelling to away games in Europe is more than football. You will collect a lot of memories about the cities the mancunians played.

The second article is titled: Another new Roy and is about the new non-executive Chairman, Roy Gardner. He’s 56 years old and replaces Sir Roland Smith, who steps down after 11 years. In a reaction Gardner said that he was delighted to be contracted. He said that he had great expectations at Old Trafford and he hopes he can realize them.

The third article, called Fond farewell is about training ground steward Harold Wood, who retires after 33 years. The Gaffer said in a reaction that he regret it, but that the family was important, and maybe more important after 33 years. “Harold was always a great help and we wish him the best for the future,” Fergie said.

The fourth and last article (called Barnsley test) is about a testimonial against Barnsley. It was a testimonial so Ferguson fielded two different teams. The attendance was 8,000. Man Utd lost with 1-0 after a goal in the 71 minute from Barnsley player Neil Redfearn. A couple of minutes later Michael Stewart was sent off for dissent.

Page 13.

At this page there are three articles and there is an advertisement for Mutv.

The first article is about Man Utd defensive midfielder Nicky Butt. Butt is a player who didn’t play a lot last seasons, because captain Roy Keane, who plays at the same position, was logically the first choice of manager Ferguson. Butt impressed this season after Keane was injured. He played so good, that all the rumours that he was leaving the club were bombed to nonsense. The Gaffer said that he played so good that he will get a lot more minutes to play. And Butt believes him at his word: “The manager said I’ll get games and I know he’ll keep his word.” That’s the mean reason why Butt signed a new contract. But he knows that he have to keep good playing, cause Ferguson opted three in midfield recently. The concurrence is bigger than ever, but, like Butt says: “Once you get your chance you have to take it”

The second article is called In the dock and it’s about people who criticised the mancunians last month. Their pronunciations are noted in the article, and are ranged from one to five. This week number one is the Daily Express, number two is Uli Hoeness, number three is David O’leary, number four is Massimo Cragnotti and the Liverpool fans bottom the list at number five.

The last article is a bit strange article, cause I understand the title. Lads means (dictionary): jongens, knaap, jongmens. So I really don’t know where it is about. But I will describe: There are four songs, about Liverpool, Arsenal, Leicester an Bayern Munich. I think they are a bit ironic meaned.

Page 14.

At this page there are four articles, but the article at the upper-left side of the page is with three photo’s from supporters from de mancunians over the world so there isn’t many to describe.

The second article is called Going mental and shows us a picture with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who just scored his fourth goal in just thirteen minutes! It’s a flashback from a match against Nottingham Forrest, which ended in a sublime 8-1 victory for the mancunians. Solskjaer was the man of the match after his four goals, and with his goals he had written history because nobody scored four goals in such a little time like him in the Premiership.

The third article is about talented 19-year old Swedish winger Bojan Djordjic. It’s a short interview with him about his performance in the 4-0 Wortington Cup defeat against Arsenal. He said that he thinks that Arsenal scored more goals than they deserved. The got a penalty which wasn’t, they scored two goals who looked offside. The score was flatted. But despite all these things Bojan was pleased with his own performance. So the Gaffer thought. In a reaction he said that he was pleased with the performance of his team, despite the 4-0 loss. Arsenal had a lot of experience and the Reds (Manchester United) hadn’t. Just two players.

The fourth article is a bit like In the dock at page thirteen. But the difference is that these pronunciations are not especially critical about the Reds. These are striking, but not critical. The people who said these things are Rio Ferdinand, Mick McCarthy, Fabio Capello, Tommy Docherty and Jaap Stam.

Page 15.

Advertisements.

Page 16.

Again a page with some little articles. A colophon, a flashback, a photo and a little piece of text with talented goalkeeper Roy Carrol.

The flashback is named To be letting a lead ship. It’s a flashback to January 1986. The Reds thought they were champions although, but after some league losses they ended at the fourth place in the last season of succesmanager Ron Atkinson. But luckily the FA Cup came to us, after a comfortable victory against Sunderland.

The other article is about Roy Carrol, who won the red Cross Award. He was chosen after he showed a 10-year-old boy, Adam Kirkpatrick, who has Leukaemia. The little guy nominated Carrol after. Roy has shown a lot of humanity to Adam and a lot of his spare time he was with him. The thing Adam did was the least thing he could do for Roy, who invited Adam and his mother to the recent match against Leicester to present the Award.

Page 17.

Advertisement.

Page 18.

At the eighteenth page of the magazine there’s a little monologue from Gary Neville, the right-back of the Reds. At the first part he says that all the players were disappointed after their match against Bayern Munich. They played so good and thought they have won the game, but… He thinks that Bayern didn’t lose one game at home in last four years. It was disappointing that they just got one point, but the performance was something to build on. He hopes that the display will shut up the criticism, cause they showed they can play football very well. He agrees with the things the manager said. They needed his publicly criticism cause they really do have played very bad sometimes. He understands the fans frustration but thinks there will come a time they all have to stick together. He thinks that the team needs the support when it goes bad. It will help them to play better. He also thinks that there is a lot of confidence because otherwise you can’t perform as they did in Munich. He also says that the Reds still have the same expectations: winning the FA Cup, the Champions League and the Premiership. Until it’s impossible for them they will do everything they can for these trophies.

Page 19.

Advertisement.

Page 20-24.

Interview with Wes Brown. In this interview they speak with the talented defender about a lot of things. The things they mostly speak about is the team crisis and his own crisis and received criticism. One year ago it was exactly the same situation like this when they interviewed Wes Brown. But there’s one difference: in last weak Wes received a lot of criticism, how should he handle with it? In his answer he says: “Criticism happens to every player. You sort of know you’re going to be on the receiving end at some stage. When the Gaffer said those things around the time of the Lille game (Ferguson claimed that Wes was better than Sol Campbell and Rio Ferdinand) I thought there would be a reaction. As soon as I made a mistake I knew.” About the team crisis he says that there is a siege mentality. In the last season of the Gaffer everybody wants to win big prizes. The team, and the Gaffer himself. Everybody trains very hard and so we try to get back as a team, get the spirit going. The Gaffer knows there’s the ability, it’s on the players to show it. At least he says that he still has a lot of confidence in his self, cause he knows what’s expected and you just have to carry on…

Page 25.

Advertisement.

Page 26.

At this page there are a lot of pictures from David Beckham, to show how hard he works to get back from crisis. He thinks that the Reds have to work harder than ever but hopefully they can finish at the top again.

Page 27-29.

Advertisements.

Page 30-32.

At these three pages there are a lot op pictures of players with some Christmas presents. These presents are for a shoeboxes project, named: The Samaritans’ Operation Christmas Child Project. The meaning is that you fill a shoebox with some gifts, and bring him to a point where they’ll be distributed to twelve countries, including Albania, Romania and former Yugoslav. It was the idea of Wendy Rennison to help mancunians to promote this action. That’s where the pictures are about.

Page 33.

Advertisement.

Page 34.

At this page there’s a monologue from the Gaffer himself. In his monologue he writes that the other teams don’t have to write the Reds off. He thinks that there’s a good chance that they can win everything. He said that the Liverpool match was a shocking performance. But the Bayern match was just the opposite: the mancunians deserved to win but they didn’t. They played some fantastic football. He also said that it was frustrating that he lost Ryan Giggs in the last minute of the training session in Munich. But luckily Quinton Fortune played a fantastic match. Than he gives Arsenal all the credits for their match against the Reds. For the Reds it was an absolute disaster, but Arsenal just played magnificently. But now February is coming, and we have to see what happens than. Lot’s of things can change in the second month of the year…

Page 35.

Advertisement.

Page 36-37.

At these pages there are a lot of letters from fans and a little answer from the magazine directors. At the left page there’s a letter of the month, this month from Matt Richards who writes about some fans who start with criticism directly to the team and the manager. The haven’t got to do that. Winning nothing is a bummer, but not the end of the world. I describe three other letters from these two pages. Do it for me, from Greg Johnstone. He writes that he is a fan and he hopes that the Reds reach to the Champions League final in May. Why? Because he’s a fan and the match will be played at Hampden Park, the place where he’s a ball boy. So please Alex??? The Juan and only, is a letter from Matthew English, who writes about Juan Sebastian Veron. He thinks he’s amazing cause he just has it all. He thinks that the player is better than Cantona and hopefully he plays like him in the second half of the season… Fergie knows best, is the letter from Jane Hughes, who mailed that she thinks that Fergie knows best and the fans have to support him. Support is better than criticism…

Page 38-39.

At these two pages there is a Christmas giveaway, what means that when you answer the question: Who do United face away from home on Boxing Day during this festive season? Than you have a chance to win one of these magnificent prizes, who are all described on these two pages. The biggest prize is to win cards for a match at Old Trafford…

Page 40.

At the last page I have to describe there’s a flashback to the ten most crazy FA Cup matches from the Reds during the Fergie years. The match when the Reds luckily go through to the next round (against QPR) is described as a match where Fergie give the youngsters a chance. The second match is about the comeback against Liverpool (2-1 victory), finally a good match and a lot will follow… The third and last match I have to describe is the match against Hereford United away, which ended in a 1-0 victory. Their manager said: I fancy our chances against Man Utd more than at Farnborough the First Round. What a…! Well, Hereford fight like hell but we just won the match…