With all the constant ‘will he won’t he’ debates on Cristiano Ronaldo’s supposed return to the club, we thought we’d at least give you the chance to see what the prodigal son will look like in the new United kit- who knows it may not be the only chance you get to see him in it.

The latest reports indicate Ronaldo could even see out his contract at Madrid to entitle himself to a bumper signing on fee, another year and a half of rumours may just be too much for some of us to take.

Is Ronaldo coming back to United? Feel free to share your thoughts below:

Teddy has turned his talents to the poker tables

It may not seem so at first, but the game of football and high stakes tournament poker have more in common than you might think. Both require the player to have a high level of mental agility, be fast thinkers, decision makers and flexible in their play. Both also require nerves of steel and the ability to keep calm under pressure and not allow opponents to see any weak points.

This could be why so many footballers, past and present can be found either playing poker or slots at an online casino site like Intertops, with the intertops slots bonus, or taking part in real world tournaments. And Manchester United players have also caught the gambling bug.

Teddy Sheringham is most likely the most well known former Manchester United player who plays poker. He began his interest in poker when he played in American casinos while still a professional football player but only became a contender when his retirement from football allowed him the time to concentrate on his new interest. In 2009 he took part in the World Series Europe tournament where he finished an amazing 14th, even though he was up against many players of a really high calibre. In 2010 he made it all the way to the final table at the European Poker Tournament Vilamoura Main Event. Here he came fifth and won over $100,000.

But Teddy is far from the only Manchester United to show an interest in casinos or poker. While celebrating their 3-0 victory over Aston Villa to celebrate their 20th title win earlier this year, many of the current team found themselves 235 Casino in Manchester where it’s pretty likely money a lot of gambling was done, whether at the poker tables or perhaps on the slots.

It was also reported in 2009 that Sir Alex Ferguson had banned the then underage Federico Macheda from Manchester casinos The Circle Club and 235. He was unable to party with his team mates who regularly take to the casinos to enjoy their downtime when not playing.

Wayne Rooney is also known for a love of a flutter, although he was reported as losing £65,000 at the 235 Casino, just a month before a dozen Manchester United players collectively lost £250,000 while celebrating Rio Ferdinand’s birthday.

In late 2012, poker star and professional poker player Tony G gave some coaching, advice and poker lessons to six Manchester United team mates before they played in a charity poker tournament. Rafael da Silva, Phil Jonas, Darren Fletcher, Danny Welbeck, Jonny Evans and Tom Cleverley all had poker lessons for the tournament that was arranged by the club and filmed for Manchester United’s TV channel, MUTV. Tony G then provided the commentary for the broadcast. In the end Jonny Evans was victor after winning against Darren Fletcher for the second year in a row.

All in all it seems that poker is a popular game with Manchester United players, both past and present. It’s interesting to wonder how many of the current players will follow in Teddy Sheringham’s footsteps and take it further when they retire. Perhaps there will be a whole swathe of ex footballing poker experts on the professional tournament scene.

Prince William was grateful to meet someone with real power.

Gilluminati took on a new meaning this week with news that United’s former chief executive David Gill will be given the power to punish clubs that don’t abide by the new financial fair play rules that are being introduced.

The Mail notes:

Having stepped down from his post at Old Trafford at the end of last season to become a UEFA executive member, Gill has now been appointed chairman of the governing body’s extremely influential Club Licensing Committee.

The committee essentially decides which clubs are entitled to licences to play Champions League and Europa League football. This will become increasingly important as UEFA’s FFP rules shape the landscape of European football in the coming years.

Gill’s appointment will certainly raise eyebrows at clubs such as City and Chelsea who are currently striving to ensure their losses are no greater than the 845million (£38m) limit allowed by FFP across last and next season.

FFP may be United’s best chance of staying financially competitive with the likes of City and Chelsea who have an almost unlimited amount of money to throw at transfers. To be fair to the Noisy Neighbours, there seemed to be a slight shift in policy last season as the realisation that not all players can be bought- Robin Van Persie for one- made the club look towards more modest signings such as Jack Rodwell and Scott Sinclair.

This season City have already spent around £50 million while there’s talk of new Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho being handed a transfer kitty around the £100 million mark. United have always been able to make major signings when needs be but are unable to go toe-to-toe financially with their rich Premier League rivals, with Gill overseeing the new rules, maybe that will change.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2343384/UEFA-David-Gill-power-punish-Manchester-Uniteds-rivals-like-Chelsea-Manchester-City.html#ixzz2WWsYrZsh

“Just one more player dad”

The retirement of Sir Alex has naturally been bad news for anyone associated with Manchester United as the club enter a season of uncertainty with a manager who’s yet to win a trophy. Only time will tell whether the incoming Scotsman has even an iota of the ability of the outgoing one when it comes to managing the world’s greatest football club.

The big plus for Moyes is unlike some club’s who’ve given their new managers shorter term deals, United have made a statement of intent for the future by tying the former Everton boss to a six year deal.

This gives Moyes a clear two-fold goal: maintain the current success but build for the future, neither of which is entirely easy, but anything so rewarding seldom is. When it comes to the first part the new boss is inheriting a strong squad, who’ve just won the league by eleven points and Moyes should also be handed a few quid for additions.

When it comes to the future, again United look in a strong position with some talented young players coming through and one of the best youth set-ups in the world. It’s the journey from ‘academy hopeful’ to ‘Manchester United player’ which is one of the most arduous in football with many failing to make that Quantum Leap – oh boy. One man who’s benefitted more than most from United’s need to give their youngster’s a taste of first-team football is the former boss’s son Darren Ferguson. Many Reds may remember Darren from the first Premier League season, where he had a hand in setting up Dion Dublin’s winner against Southampton – via Brian McLair’s shoulder if memory serves. Since then young Darren’s been carving out a career in the lower league’s as a footballer and more recently a manager, although the general consensus is he’s a bit like Nigel to Sir Alex’s Brian.

It’s not that Darren hasn’t had success, he’s had promotions and relegation’s, left by mutual consent, been sacked and even re-hired, all the while with his Dad no doubt watching from the wings with a word of advice or chastisement. Darren’s had more than just a few words from his Dad, he’s been the recipient of several young stars while at Peterborough and Preston. When Ferguson was sacked from Deepdale not only did the likes of Josh King and Richie De Laet get immediately recalled by Sir Alex, Tony Pulis snatched his young loanees away as well, making them return to the Britannia.

Over the past two seasons the likes of Ryan Tunnicliffe, Davide Petrucci and Scott Wooton have all made the journey from Old Trafford to London Road to help Peterborough battle for Championship survival. Posh’s relegation and the retirement of Sir Alex may just put a stop to all that and rightly so.

Young players with aspirations of playing for United can probably aim higher than League One, yes I know David Beckham played five games in the third tier almost twenty years ago, but times have moved on somewhat. Don’t think for one minute that just because Sir Alex is no longer manager Darren won’t be able to loan players should he want them.

Player’s coming of age at United can learn their trade in the Championship and will no doubt have no end of suitors, Michael Keane, Reece Brown and of course Wilfried Zaha were among a handful of Reds in the division last season.

Such is the quality in United’s squad that even fellow Premier League club’s have benefitted from our depth with Fabio and Angelo Henriquez playing their parts- however small- in the relegation dogfight.

League One isnt the worst place for a United youngster to spend a few months, after all Sam Johnstone got some vital keeping experience at Walsall, but with Darren no longer the boss’s son and the quality of talent we have at United, maybe it’s time to aim a little higher.

An ITK twitter account can generate lots of followers and admirers but usually incurs the wrath of many of us fans sick of seeing nonsense spouted about potential transfer news by people who clearly don’t have any insider info. They say every action has a reaction and in the case of many ITK it’s the internet troll who can often react bombarding them with abuse and even creating parody accounts for the purpose of ridicule. If you’ve been under Waterloo Bridge trolling is more or less abusing someone in an over-the-top, past the point of ‘harmless fun’ way on the internet. In fact internet trolls seem prevalent in many football discussions online and often attack rival fans – or even fellow ones- for reasons that are quite frankly beyond me- until now.

Thanks to this video I was sent recently by Jack Collins the internet troll and their disgusting behaviour is explained, in a simple easy to understand fashion.

Created by AcademicEarth.org

It’s not the end of the world of course as United lifted the Premier League crown and all the aforementioned players were a part of that success, but the fact our winger’s records pale in comparison to the likes of Downing’s speaks volumes. I’m not for one minute suggesting Downing is a better player than Nani et al, but the mediocrity of our wingers last season cannot be denied. Ryan Giggs at the age of 39 was our best performer out wide which is as impressive as it is cringeworthy.

Wilfried Zaha has been signed of course and there’s no doubt he’ll have a big part to play in the campaign, but we simply cannot be relying upon a 20 year-old making his Premier League debut as the man to spearhead our wing play. Shinji Kagawa has been used on the left flank of course, but he’s far more suited in the hole so to speak as the “look at me aren’t I clever” Jurgen Klopp reminded us all a few weeks ago, during his vomit inducing interview about crying when he saw how Sir Alex had deployed the Japanese maestro.

Downing may be a figure of ridicule for many fans but the fact United, who’ve always relied upon our wing play, cannot muster an equal to his record isn’t a joke. It’s time for the wide men to step up next season before it’s the likes of Ashley Young who everyone’s laughing at.

The club even released a statement advising fans not to pledge money as it won’t fund any transfers and even the creator of the site admitted in an interview that he doesn’t think they can help United sign Ronaldo and is merely using this as a means to collect data.

A further twist came with the sites use of Save The Children logo- which would naturally infer they’re donating money to the charity. I emailed Save the Children several weeks ago and recently received this reply.

It seems as if taking money off United fans wasn’t enough, misusing children’s charities logos isn’t either. I personally can’t wait to see the back of this ‘movement.’ If Ronnie does come home, it will be because he’s loved by the fans not because of this campaign.

Ronnie – probably not ‘coming home’

New United site Pride Of All Europe  takes a look at the Bring Ronaldo Home scheme and the club’s response. 

United’s global fan base is one of the things which makes our club so great, the fact that no matter where you are in the world you’re guaranteed to meet someone who shares your love of  Manchester’s finest.

It’s that global fan base that is being exploited somewhat as BringRonaldoHome.Org attempt to use ‘crowd sourcing as a means to fund a deal for Ronaldo. Sounds like a good idea but scratch the surface and it’s obvious this is nothing more than a means to making some money for the people behind it rather than re-signing the prodigal son.

The idea is you pledge ten pounds on the site towards Bringing Ronaldo Home and should he sign then the money is used as a downpayment for a United shirt, you then send another £45 and you’ll get the shirt.  The deposit money is held until he signs for United or a deal with someone else so the fans donations will not be used towards a transfer fee. The Bring Ronaldo Home site has benefited from a lot of positive media coverage with papers such as the Mail noting:

A small band of Australian-based United supporters have created a website where fans can help raise funds to bring back their old favourite, who has a £100million buyout clause, from Real Madrid.

The ‘BringRonaldoHome’ movement has already received thousands of pledges to buy a United shirt with Ronaldo on it – however it needs 10 million to donate a tenner for this target to be reached.

Only yesterday the Metro claimed:

Ronaldo is believed to be a top target for former club United this summer, with his future becoming increasingly unclear at Real Madrid.

However, with Madrid  likely to demand a ludicrous transfer fee, any deal seems to be out of the price range of new Red Devils manager David Moyes.

That was until a group of hardcore fans stepped in and offered a helping hand, after launching their ‘Bring Back Ronaldo’ campaign this week.

The supporters consortium are urging fans to throw £10 into a hat in order to raise funds to pay for Ronaldo, with £100million their ambitious target.

Both the Mail and the Metro are wrong in that it isn’t a group of hardcore fans or even a small band it’s simply one United fan living in Australia who’s come up with the idea and found some business men to support it.

The main problem with the idea is that putting a deposit down for a shirt has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on whether the club can afford Ronaldo as the money will not go towards transfer fees. One of the men behind the site even admitted he doesn’t think he can help bring Ronaldo back to Old Trafford with this idea. United have even got involved urging fans to steer clear. The club released a statement noting:

“Manchester United would like to remind fans that decisions over additions to the squad will be made by the manager and the manager alone. We would not want any of our supporters to be under a false impression that anything other than this would ever be the case.”

The main problem many Reds have with the Bring Ronaldo Home site isn’t the idea or the fact it’s doomed to failure, it’s that its clear the creators will make a tidy sum out of it by charging each donator an ‘admin fee’ that will be up to £3 of the £10 they take.

The sites terms and conditions state:

We want to give the movement the best possible chance of succeeding, so to ensure that we can keep running this website and the movement behind the scenes a small fee is taken from each pledge (“Administration Fee”).

This small fee will be as low as 50p and up to, but not more than £3 pounds of your deposit, which covers PayPal fees, auditing fees (so you can be sure your Pledge funds are safe), legal fees and other expenses that we incur along the way and will depend on the number of pledges received. The variance in the fee exists to cover the potential increase in costs as the movement grows.

As Bring Ronaldo Home have already had over 5000 pledges that means the men behind it have made up to £15,000 in just over a month, not bad going really.

The Bring Ronaldo Home site states:

We have been inspired by the loyalty and dedication of Manchester United fans. To be a ‘true’ fan requires the ‘living’ experience of football. It is not about being a mere spectator — it is about being a participant. We wanted to give fans an opportunity to be involved in making history to secure their club’s future.

Far be it from me to tell anyone what being a ‘true fan’ requires but pledging ten pounds towards a scheme that even one of the creators has claimed he doesn’t expect to being Ronnie back to United certainly isn’t a way of measuring your loyalty. I emailed the site on May 16, yesterday I received this reply:

Check out the Bring Ronaldo Home interview:

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2324830/Manchester-United-fans-dig-deep-pockets-Internet-campaign-bring-Ronaldo.html#ixzz2W3MgqVdN

Real Madrid could sell their star player for a profit.

United’s chances of re-signing Cristiano Ronaldo took a turn for the worse with recent reports that French Ligue 1 side Monaco could be set to continue their Summer spending spree with a world record bid for the player. 

The Telegraph notes:

Monaco are ready to make a world record €100m (£85m) bid for Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo.