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30th September: The board meeting went well, they were glad some results were starting to come our way and hoped the arrivaal of Vincenzo would help us in our quest to defend the Premiership

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Results:
4/9: Champs League - A - HSV 2-0 (Torres, Carrick)
16/9: Prem - A - Aston Villa 1-2 (Carrick)
22/9: Prem - H - Everton 1-0 (Saha)
26/9: Champs League - H - D.Kiev 3-1 (Saha, Ronaldo, Torres)
29/9: Prem - A - Q.P.R 2-1 (Saha, Torres)

Prem: 14th
European Super Cup: Winners
Champs League: Group Stage

Top Scorers:
Carrick, Torres, Saha 3
Rooney 2
Ronaldo 1

International Matches: Greece
12/9: Euro Champs Qualifier - A - Norway 0-1

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3rd October: Manchester United v Bolton
Our first derby match against an in form Bolton, With Saha out for this match with bruised ribs I decided to just have the two attackers of Rooney and Torres, bringing in Cattermole for his first start of the season.
With an expectant crowd we started the match but a silly back pass by Vidic put Anelka through to score the opening goal and give Bolton the lead, the crowd went silent apart from around 4,000 Bolton fans. Bolton’s goal seemed to cause doubt in the players minds and they didn’t seem to remember how to do the simple things like pass, with Bolton using there possession well I thought we were very very lucky to go into the break only one down, and for the first time this season the fans booed us off the pitch.
The players got an almighty boll(&king at the break I told them they were embarrassing me, the club, the fans and moist of all themselves.
I sent them and had to calm myself before I went back to pitch side, the second half had started as I reached the touchline, I looked up to see Giggs running at the defence then scoring a blinder of a goal to equalise, what a goal it was and the home fans were going mad. We started to control the game with the veteran Giggs leading the way and it wasn’t long till his cross deflected off the Bolton defence to land at a waiting Torres who obliged with a thunderous shot to give us the lead, the crowd were cheering at last and we seemed to be playing with more confidence, as the final whistle went I could sense the relief inside Old Trafford we had been lucky today but if we carry on playing like this lady luck will eventually leave us…

Manchester United 2 – 1 Bolton (Giggs 52, Torres 71)

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4th October: Vincenzo came to see me in the office, he had noticed that some of the players weren’t pulling there weight in training and this could be one of the reasons we were struggling in the recent matches we’ve had. I told him to keep me informed.

8th October: The next game was against a tough Sporting Lisbon side in Portugal, I knew one player who was most certainly up for it and that was Ronaldo, and he was out to prove a point to his former club who had been slagging him off in the papers recently.

9th October: Vincenzo had reported back on the players he thought were slacking, so it made my team selection a lot easier.
GK Van Der Saar, RB G.Neville, LB G.Hienze, CB O’Shea, CB Silvestre, RM Ronaldo, LM Giggs, CM P.Scholes, CM Carrick, CF Rooney, CF TorresThe exclusions were Saha ( not match fit from rib injury), Vidic, Lennon and Smith all due to poor training this week, they were told the reasons why and accepted this like professionals, they knew they had a lot to prove other the week.

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10th October: Sporting Lisbon v Manchester UnitedThe player knew I wanted an improved performance from the last game; Ronaldo was geeing up the players so I didn’t really need to do much of a team talk,
With Ronaldo’s words ringing in there ears we started the game much the better team and were carving out chances like it was a home game, Rooney came close on a couple of occasions with the post and goalie denying him the chance to score, unfortunately it was Sporting who took the lead against the run of play, as they scored through a brilliant counter attack which left our defence looking very amateur, we went into the break 1-0 down but didn’t deserve to be. The second was only 5 minutes when all our possession finally paid off as Giggs fed Rooney with a brilliant ball for him to score and put us back on level terms.
We carried on our brilliant attacking display and it didn’t take long for one of these attacks led to a goal with Ronaldo silencing the home fans with a brilliant goal on the 65th minute. He was roundly booed by the Lisbon fans but he didn’t care especially as we had won the game

Sporting Lisbon 1 – 2 Manchester United (Rooney 50, Ronaldo 65)

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11th October: With the internationals due I left the club in the capable hands of my assistant. The players went to there respective national teams and I went top see if I could help Greece to the European Championships, my next game was against Bosnia in 3 days followed by a tough trip to group leaders Turkey,

13th October: The game went very well against a weakened Bosnian team as Greece came out 3-2 winners in a thrilling match, with Samaras scored a brilliant hat trick. We were second in the group but Norway had a game in hand over us and was only a point behind

17th October: Turkey provided us with a real tough game and the young squad of players I had failed to capitalize on the early dominance we had, our inexperience showed as we conceded two silly goals to lose 2-0. With only two teams going to finals from each group our qualification looked doubtful, maybe mixing International management with club management wasn’t a good idea. One thing for sure I would never leave Old Trafford unless I was pushed.

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19th October: On returning to my club the assistant got me back up to speed with how my players had performed in there respective matches and in training and he was glad to report all players had been training and playing to a very high standard. The next game was against my former assistants club Charlton at Old Trafford,


20th October; Manchester United v Charlton
We didn’t get off to the greatest starts as Charlton played the better football, the crowd were getting anxious as Charlton created more of the chances, the midfield and attack weren’t getting a touch of the ball and as the half was ending I was getting ready to face another barrage of boos,
With 2 minutes of injury time shown by the fourth official I started to make my way to the changing room, as I got to pitch side we was awarded a free kick from 30 yards out, Giggsy stepped up a thumped a tremendous ball into the top corner to give us a undeserved lead. The half time whistle went the moment Charlton kicked off, but I wasn’t happy with what was a shambolic performance.
After the half time rollicking the players came out and started to play a little better but the standard of passing was dire, and this showed as one of many strayed passes was intercepted and launched goal wards, Van Der Saar didn’t stand a chance as it ripped the bag of the net. Yet again poor team play had cost us 2 points, just when I thought we had turned a corner, maybe it was time for some changes and some difficult decisions were going to made

Manchester United 1 – 1 Charlton (Giggs 45)

21st October: After a sleepless night I still hadn’t come up with any ideas on what was causing the bad play I had seen from my team of champions. I decided to send all my scouts out looking for some young fresh talent, with a view to spend some money in the January transfer window. Next up for me was a League Cup 3rd Round tie against my old cup foe Fulham.

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22nd October: I decided the best way to find out what was wrong with the team was to call a team meeting, It went very well as the players gave me ideas on why they thought the teams was struggling. They said the pre season friendlies weren't taxing enough which I did agree with, plus they said that they wanted more variety in training.
So with this in mind I got back to the coaches and we organised a new training schedule and looked at different ways to get the best out of each player, We knew we wouldnt see the results straight away but it was still early in the season and we weren't too far behind in the League race

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23rd October; Fulham v Manchester UnitedI decided to go for a full strength team for this League cup game, in the vain hope that it would provide a slight distraction from our league worries.
The first half wasn’t the best of spectacles as we struggled to penetrate a strong Fulham midfield, it wasn’t helping that we couldn’t string more than a couple of passes together, I could see that our strikers were getting deeper and deeper, hoping to get a little more of the ball. At the half time break the players knew how I felt about the first half and knew that if there wasn’t an improvement in the second half there was hell to pay.
The little telling off they received seemed to work as the second half they seemed to play better, it wasn’t long till our attacking play produced a free kick on the edge of the area. Giggsy stepped up and sent a beautiful curling effort into the net, our fans went wild. The goal spurred us on and it wasn’t long till we scored again from the ever dependable Saha who tapped in from 4 yards, you could sense the relief from the fans and my staff

Fulham 0 – 2 Manchester United (Giggs 55, Saha 60)

24th October: The second half performance was a good display from my team it’s a shame they can’t do it for 90 minutes. Tomorrow was going to be the first day of our new training regime, but I knew it would be some time before we reaped the rewards. In the mean while we had been drawn to play Manchester City in the 4th Round of the League Cup, a difficult tie but not as difficult as our next game, Arsenal away. Especially as they beat us there last year and were top of the Premiership

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27th October: Arsenal v Manchester United
After a good win against Fulham the players and I had high hopes for this game, unfortunately our hopes didn’t match our play as Arsenal dominated the early parts of play. Henry was on sparkling form and this showed with his perfectly crafted touch to set himself up for the first goal.
Arsenal were teaching us a lesson in football and should of scored at least twice more before a silly mistake from the Arsenal defence let in Carrick to equalise the game. Arsenal replied almost instantly as Henry again scored just before the half time break to take them into the break 2-1 up, and to be truthful if it wasn’t for Van Der Saar we would of been several down.
The teams came out for the second half but nothing had changed with Arsenal playing the ball a thousand times better than us. It wasn’t long till we was punished again as Fabregas scored to make it 3-1, some of fans had already gotten out of there seats and were heading for the exits, I personally wished I could of as this was the most embarrassing performance I had seen in my short time with the club. Worse was to follow as Fabregas scored again to make it 4-1, all I could do was hold my head in my hands, I felt like crying. On the 90th minute Rossi scored a cracking goal but it was scant consolation as we had been truly beaten and played off the field. This result meant we were now 12 points behind Arsenal in the league

Arsenal 4 – 2 Manchester United (Carrick 31, Rossi 90)