Devils of Heath

The 3-2 scoreline weirdly hurts more than what looked like a 3-0 scoreline. After all, it meant we watched till the very end, hoping and praying for one of the greatest comebacks in recent memories. The only thing that did happen – was that we experienced a soul crushing return to the Europa League!   That’s the thing about supporting a football club isn’t it, you keep on hoping for the best – even if cold hard facts present a different picture. And these hard facts go beyond our board’s scatter gun approach to squad building / transfers and contract negotiations:   Ole and his coaching staff oscillate between world beating to naive – when it comes to in game management. They have done incredibly well to build character in this team and restore some semblance of a culture to the club– but ultimately after two years in the job and despite a pandemic – some base level consistency is what we are sorely missing! Maguire for all his leadership, ball progression and aerial abili...

  A United fan I know, is also a psychiatrist by profession (yup wh at a tr uly relevant field f ull of case studies!). During our in-game zoom calls with other fans (some of whom are good friends now, yup misery and joy both act as great unifiers), he said something really relevant…this was rock bottom. It’s a way to make people look on the bright side after bitter disappointment. But, such is the tribal nature of football, all it needs is for one of your rivals to hit rock bottom…for you to temporarily escape your own emotional hellhole! Everything that has followed this football club since that fateful  day at Leicester has been pretty bizzare. The sheer relief of being back amongst the big boys, fo llowed by what was a strange Europa league campaign. We wanted to win it, but would contrive to lose it. Then the club captains gets himself into a strange circus of who dun ‘nit in Greece, Mason our wonderboy goes bonkers in Iceland and all this while the board is putting us ...

"I know what it's like to lose. To feel so desperately that you're right, yet to fail nonetheless. It's frightening, turns the legs to jelly. I ask you to what end? Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same. And now it's here. Or should I say, I am." Bruno has been compared to Thor’s arrival in Infinity Wars, but I feel this Thanos line resonates so well with his arrival. The man’s talents have been craving a stage like Old Trafford, it was truly destiny that he arrived and turned things on his head. United have been through the hell and back this season. Yet, Ole saw his team do what he had done himself as a player - redeem themselves. To claw back a massive points deficit has been an intrinsic part of the DNA for ages, but it had gone missing of late. Those late season unbeaten runs, the ability to win games with moments of magic, and of course the odd squeaky bum time, it returned. Alas, there was no trophy parade, but there was a...

Seldom in the US Government, the congress calls for a lame duck session. These are essentially a set of lost candidates trying to frame something for a nation whose voters have long rejected them. The few weeks of such a session can oscillate from mundane to dramatic but mostly ends up being a pointless exercise. This in a sense is what Manchester United has been in the post Sir Alex – a lame duck football club. Run by a set of owners who fans have long lost faith in, orchestrated by there lead puppet whose comical approach can put cartoons to shame and with responsibility entrusted on “has-beens” or “will-never-be”. No one feels connected to their struggles anymore, it is just pure annoyance at the blatant destruction of a great institution. Manchester United today is just mockery in motion. There is an infinite loop that keeps playing. A new manager is appointed, transfer promises are made, money is either wasted on wrong targets or money is not spent, the managers are...