The legend that is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer retired during the week. I am gutted to be honest!! He had to retired because of the injury to his knee. He played last season and scored 11 goals after being out for almost 2 years. (It was great for him to be back and when he scored against Charlton it was brilliant. As soon as he scored he bowed down to the fans )

However his latest injury was worse than first thought. He is one of the best finishers in the game and a true professional. He never complained about being on the sub bench and when he came on he was always ready. He always thanks the fans, always seems to sign autographs. United fans love him!

He will always be remembered for ‘that’ goal he scored in 1999 in the Champions League final.

However there are many other great moments – which most of them seemed to happen in that 1998/99 season if my memory serves me right. In the game versus Nottingham Forest he came on with 19 minutes left. He ended up scoring 4 goals in 12 minutes!! Another example of him ‘taking one for the team’ and thinking United the team was more important than him was when he got sent off. We were losing 1-0 to Newcastle and if we lost we had no chance of winning league. Rob Lee broke with the ball and would have been 1 on 1 with keeper. Ole ran after him and then dived in and brought him down just before he got in penalty box. He immediately turned around knowing he was going to be sent off and got a standing ovation!!

In that same season in the FA Cup 5th round versus Liverpool we were 1-0 down. We equalised right at the end and then Ole scores the winner in injury time!!

He is now going to be an ambassador for United and also a coach – apparently for the strikers

Here is his ‘farewell’ interview with MUTV:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Also here is a nice compilation of Ole – shown on MUTV

Who put the ball in the Germans net!!!

You are my Solskjaer
My Ole Solskjaer
You make me happy when skies are grey
Oh Alan Shearer,
Cost f*cking dear
Please dont take my Solskjaer away!

2OLEGEND

All the best in the future Ole and thank you!!

Links:

BBC – 606 – Solskjaer the perfect professional

Some stole the Vauxhall badge from the boot of my car!! Why would someone steal a Vauxhall badge!! It was either nicked when I was at work, the car park I park at home or when I out shopping in Cheetham Hill. I reckon it was in Cheetham Hill since I have parked in work and home for years/months with no problems. I was only parked in Cheetham Hill as well for about 15-20 minutes!!

Not decided whether I will leave it ‘de-badged’ and get another Vauxhall badge. It cost about £5 ish from ebay. One of the most cheapest mods done to cars is de-badging a car. First step I will have to remove the adhesive and give the car a good clean. I could fill the 2 small holes with body filler and get another badge – and risk it being nicked again!!

Ahhh!!!

Not posted a blog entry for ages. Not been in the mood to really. Seen some great films recently. Already mentioned Simpsons movie which I found really funny. I have recently seen Transformers which was really good. Great special effects – just what you expect from a Michael Bay movie it has big explosions and lots of noise. This is the sort of movie I like! Megan (the) Fox was rather attractive in the movie Some of the cars looks great – I actually liked his original old car (classic Camara) than the new Camara. The mustang Police car looked great too – I love mustangs!!

Also watched Die Hard 4.0 which is brilliant. Just forget about the fact that Bruce Willis is getting on abit but he still manages to do almost super-human things. (Although it turns out he did get injured doing the stunts – BBC News). Some great fights, Justin Long was also good in it. Maggie Q was good and she got to beat up Bruce abit in a fight scene.

Anyway thats enough about movies. The football season started again recently but its not going that well for United. After 2 games will are 12th after drawing both games. Surprisingly Man City are joint top with 6 points. Its the Manchester derby this weekend so its a BIG game!! We are playing quite well – we completely outplayed Reading in the first game but just couldnt score. We are running out of strikers and it is showing. It of course doesnt help that Rooney is injured. Its that stupid metatarsal again – 3rd foot inury in about 4 years!! To make matters worse Ronaldo got himself sent off in the 2nd game. He ‘headbutted’ one of their players. However it wasnt really a headbutt, more of a moving his head towards the other player. Thats what the other player has even said. Fergie has condemned Ronaldo for falling into their trap. Oh well. We are now without Ronaldo for 3 games

Thankfully we have Tevez. We really could have done with Rossi or Smith (who we sold) and really need our other strikers back like Saha and Ole. However is this a good opportunity for players like Dong and Campbell. If Dong cant get into the squad now when can he!!

I watched the Simpsons movie last night. Really really funny!! I am a big Simpsons fan so I really REALLY liked it!! One of the highlights is Spiderpig. Bart was very funny in it but Homer is the man.

The movie gets a PG rating (PG-13 in US) – possibly because you get to see Bart’s doodle!!! LOL. There were loads of loads of jokes and making fun of other people and companies e.g. Disney. Something about Mickey being the mascot for an evil corporation!!

If you watch it remember to stay for the credits. I heard this and we stayed for abit and there was some extra. However when I got home I found out we missed alittle bit right at the end. I managed to check it out on Youtube.

In a interview with Simpsons creator Matt Groening he revealed that one joke didnt make it into the movie. It was along the lines of Bart being trapped in a coffin and Homer saying to Marge, “Marge, someday Bart is going to have to face his fear of coffins.” LOL

Highly recommended movie!!! Go and see it!!

Look below for some clips from the movie including the end credit bit.

Spiderpig!! Spiderpig!

End credits:

Alan Smith has been sold to Newcastle for £6m. Guess he wanted more first team games but Newcastle have loads of strikers so its a strange choice. Newcastle already have:

Owen
Martins
Viduka
Ameobi
Luque

Arguably Smith will be 3rd or 4th choice. Anyway, good luck to Smith. He was a decent player but he also gave 100%. All the best!

It does leave us short of strikers though. We only now have Rooney since we have sold Rossi. I am abit unhappy about this as he was highly rated and loads of United fans really rated him – however he has been sold to Villareal on some slightly complicated deal – we sold him for £6.7m but United have option to buy him back. Also our other strikers: Saha – always injured. Solskjaer – as much as I love him he is getting on. Dong – unclear whether he is “United” class.

However our problems have been helped with the news today that we are clear to sign Tevez – the saga is finally over with it being sorted out of court. Thanks goodness!!!!

Last week the 10 different districts of Manchester got together to vote for or against the Manchester Congestion charge. 8 out of the 10 councils voted for it (Trafford and Stockport were against it). Unfortunately that means it looks like there will be a Manchester congestion charge. Once again tax against motorist!! (Will it also mean movement tracked???)

It is not completely 100% decided and depends on whether the public transport network is sorted. The congestion proposed to be weekdays in the morning heading into Manchester and in evening rush hour heading out of Manchester. This does mean that its unlikely to effect me. However in 2012 when this is supposed to happen I may not be living in the City Centre. It could mean £5 each time to go in the city centre. (Also thats £5 at todays prices, it will be higher in 2012). They are supposed to help promote Manchester business and tourism but surely this will effect it negatively!!!

On a recent online petition about 1.8 million people signed to protest against it. In Stockport the vast majority of business didnt want it. However they still went ahead with it – so much for democracy!!

They have also said they will only do it if get the public and business backing – well the public opinion they have got is just a phone poll of about 5000 people. However if you check out sites like the MEN site (and many others) the opinion of the vast majority is against it. There was one poll of more than 1,200 companies, commissioned by Peel Holdings, which showed 80 per cent would vote against the proposal if given the chance in a referendum. Thats certainly not backing!! Further findings – revealed in the M.E.N. last week – showed 38 per cent of businesses would consider moving out of the proposed charging zone if road pricing went ahead. 78 per cent said they thought it would harm business compared with the rest of the country. Thats worrying!!! In another poll in Stockport the percentage of people against it was 87% and 60(ish)% of businesses.

The hours the congestion charge will be in effect are:

M60 Outer Ring: £2 to enter 7-9.30am and £1 to leave 4-6.30pm on weekdays
Intermediate ring: £1 to enter 7-9.30am and £1 to leave 4-6.30pm on weekdays
Location of intermediate ring to be determined
No charge 9.30am-4pm weekdays, or at weekends

The scheme will be introduced as part of a package including 200 extra buses, the completion of Manchester’s tram system and extra carriages for trains in the region. The measures will be part-funded by a £1.2 billion grant from central government but otherwise subsidised by the motorists’ tolls.

One interesting point that some environmental people are bringing up is it will reduce pollution etc. The modern car creates a lot less pollution than a crappy double decker bus.

One thing that does make me smile is that one of the main council guys who turned up to the meeting they had last week didnt turn up on public transport but a private taxi!

Here is a link to an excellent article with many more points and views that me – http://www.aidan.co.uk/article_congestion_charging_manchester_gmpte.htm

One of the main things I have against the congestion charge is that we dont have an ESTABLISHED public transport network. The reason it ‘works’ in London is that they have things like the Tube which has been around for YEARS and YEARS. On a personal note it is likely to effect property prices – it could lower it as less people want to live and come to Manchester for business and tourism. However it may make it go up as people will want to live and work in city centre ????

Related articles:

BBC News – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/6918378.stm
BBC News (Manchester) – http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/articles/2007/01/24/240106_road_pricing_feature.shtml
BBC News – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/6913707.stm
Manchester Evening News – http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/c/1009844_ccharge_a_wall_around_the_city_.html
WikiPedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Congestion_Charge
http://www.manchestertolltax.com/