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20th August: Reading the morning papers was enjoyable, “Wilson struggles in first game, Old Trafford faithful not happy with result”
Whilst reading papers the physio comes in with the bad news that Rooney will be out for up to a month. With that news our strike force was a little light especially with Smith still injured, time to see the chairman!!!

21st August; after a lengthy chat with the chairman the previous day I was soon on the phone to Atletico enquiring what they would want for Fernando Torres (A young striker with a growing reputation). There chairman was honest saying he wanted a decent price around £35,000,000... With little in the kitty I offered a deal of £25,000,000 plus several future bonuses….

22nd August: With the next game tomorrow I started thinking of who to replace Rooney with in the starting line up, all the strikers were training very hard and trying to impress me and the coaches, it was going to be difficult... We travelled down to Watford early afternoon, being a typical male I left me phone on silent and by the time we had reached Watford I had 10 missed calls all from Atletico... Ringing the Atletico chairman when we got into the hotel he said Torres was available to talk to if we upped the first payment to £27,500,000 and kept the bonuses the same, with out thinking I agreed…
23rd August: Watford v Manchester United, arriving at the ground for my first away match a lot of the home fans were singing “ who the f%@k is Mark Wilson” which a nice welcome, but I did seem to gee my players up a lot of them telling me they’ll ram there songs down there throats.
The starting line up was the same apart from Darren Bent making his full debut for us……
The game started at full pace, my players doing exactly as they said they would by silencing the crowd with some precise football and in the 22nd minute this attacking football paid off with Saha scoring a simple tap in from a move which started 15 passes before, with only our fans singing the players continued with this type of play and Ronaldo scored from a trade mark free – kick from 20 yards on the 32nd minute..
The second half started and we kept pounding there goal but not scoring which was worrying, on the 59th minute Scholes chased a trough ball before pulling up like he’d been shot, signalling to come off I took him off and replaced him with Lennon. The injury to Scholes seemed to take our eyes off the ball and Watford managed to claw a late goal back but we held out for a second win, Bad news though Scholes out for a fortnight with a strained calf.
Watford 1 – 2 Manchester United (Saha 22,Ronaldo32)

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25th August: With a good win behind us I gave the players the 24th off, the papers had been reporting about seeing Torres over in Manchester, strange as he wasn’t arriving till later today, but we wall know what the press are like.

26th August: After a good meeting with Torres I offered him a very good wage and bonus package but told him there was no signing on fee, he went back to Atletico with alot of thinking to do, but what’s to think about when your wage is going up from £35,000 to £75,000…

27th August: Torres’s agent rang to let us know that his client will make his mind up before the forth coming international break, next on my mind was the difficult game against a rejuvenated Tottenham, I had already decided the squad would stay the same apart from Lennon making his full debut against his former club in place of Scholes

28th August: Manchester United v Tottenham:
With the crowd excited by the news that a certain Spanish player might be coming to Old Trafford, I decided to tell the players to enjoy the match and show the fans what they mean to them…
The game kicks off with Spurs going for the throat early, they were playing as though it was them at home not us, with some terrible defending we conceded an early goal through Defoe, who smashed a sloppy clearance into the net, You could hear a pin drop inside the Theatre of Dreams…. Screaming at the players to pull there fingers out and play like they want to win… but it didn’t seem to do anything Spurs were all over us and we couldn’t string 2 passes together but lady luck was on our side, a rather fortunate miss placed pass went to D.Bent who scored his first goal for the club from the edge of the box on the 43rd minute……
At half time not one player could look me in the eye they knew they were letting the fans and themselves down, and I think my slight rant to them let them know as well, but it didn’t seem to do the trick as the second half just petered out into nothing…and was lucky to escape with a draw.

Manchester United 1 – 1 Tottenham (D.Bent 43)

With the international break coming up I told the players they better play when they come back,

29th August: Still fuming my phone rang, it was Torres’s agent saying his client was happy with my terms and would love to sign for us.

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30th August: The monthly meeting with the board went well, they let me know they were happy with my performance so far, but they weren’t happy about me spending a little more than was allowed. They just hoped that Torres was worth it, I reassured them he would be…
Some fans were still unhappy with my appointment especially as I had sold Rio Ferdinand but hope fully they will be happy with what his transfer fee had brought.

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Results:
19/8: Prem - H - Sheff.Utd - 1-0 w (og)
23/8: Prem - A - Watford 2-1 (Saha,Ronaldo)
28/8: Prem - H - Tottenham 1-1 (D.Bent)

Prem: 5th
Top Scorers:Saha 1
Ronaldo 1
D.Bent 1
OG 1

retired_sachin_g006

With the players away the group stage for the champions league was drawn, with Manchester United drawn against Dinamo Kiev,Lyon and the team that knocked us out last year Benfica...
A tough group I told the gathering press but I know the players will be up for it and I'm sure we will progress to the next round

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2nd September: With Torres signed I decided to treat myself to a week off and relax, I never realised football management at this level was so stressful; I can see why Kevin Keegan went grey so quickly…

9th September: Back and relaxed from my time off I got back to the club to see all the players had come back from there international with no injuries, just as training got started a certain new signing turned up for his first day. All the players and staff applauded him as he arrived ready for his first training session with his new team mates…with 4 days to go till the Kiev game it was good to see all the players training hard and getting ready for what should be a difficult game

11th September: Flying to Kiev I was pondering who to play and what formation as unfortunately there wasn’t much available info on what was a strong Kiev side, all I knew for sure is that my new signing was going to play, but the question was, was it from the start or as a sub

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13th 13th September: Dinamo Kiev v Manchester United: Dinamo Kiev v Manchester United:
With a tough game ahead I decided on the following line up…
Van Der Saar, G.Neville, W.Brown, O’Shea, Silvestre, Giggs, Ronaldo, Carrick, Vidic, Torres, Saha, using Vidic as a defence midfielder, hopefully stifling the Kiev attack.
Kick off arrives and both teams are feeling each other out with little attacking action, After about 10 minutes we start getting the upper hand and producing some good attacking football, Torres was getting into the game and on the 19th minute produce a thunderous shot from outside the area which the Kiev could only parry but with Saha as sharp as he is he followed up tapped the rebound into the net. W e kept up this attacking football and should have scored more with Torres and Ronaldo unlucky not to find the back of the net. Kiev started to look dangerous and punished us for some sloppy midfield work as they got possession and broke free to score on the 39th minute. 1-1 half time

I was pleased with the first half performance but asked the players not to be afraid to try different things. But the main thing was to keep the ball and not to lose possession...
The whistle blows for the second half and the ball is passed back to the defence and with one mighty kick Silvestre hoofs the ball up field, and with the most sublime bit of control Saha collects the ball and half volleys it into the back of the net 25 seconds into the second half, that goal knocked the wind out of Kiev and from then on we dominated with Saha linking well to set up Torres with his first goal for the club on 54 minutes

Dinamo Kiev 1 – 3 Manchester United (Saha 19, 45 Torres 54)

The perfect start for Torres and Saha, next on the agenda Chelsea at Old Trafford, would the away trip affect us

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16th September: Press reports suggest that Mourinho has stated that with me in charge at Old Trafford that no trophies would be coming our way, All the press were ringing and asking for a quote from me, all I could say was that I couldn’t careless what he thought and that he should concentrate on his own team instead of worrying about mine, but damn wouldn’t it be good if I could ram those words down his throat I thought

18th September: Manchester United v Chelsea:
the big game has finally arrived and the atmosphere around Old Trafford is electric. With W.Brown injured in training I decided to drop Vidic into the defence and brought Lennon into the midfield.
The crowd was roaring with the kick off but shame the game didn’t match the atmosphere, in what was a dour game neither team managed allot of attacking play with Torres getting the closest for us but his shot was easily saved by Cech, unfortunately Lennon had to come off with a chest injury, so another injury to a top player lets hope its not to bad

19th Septmeber:20th September:
The physio reported back about Lennon stating he would be out for at least a month with broken ribs

20th September: The next game was away to newly promoted Reading, with the Champions League game against Lyon 3 days after Reading I decided it was a good idea to rest some of my players.

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23rd September: Reading v Manchester United:
The starting line up for this game was as follows, T.Kuszczak, Hienze, O’Shea, Vidic, Evra, Richardson, Carrick, Giggs, Rooney, Saha, Torres.With an attacking set up we started the game at full pace with Rooney hitting the post early on, Saha then had a brilliant shot saved and from the resulting corner Reading broke up field, our defenders looked like they were having a cuppa tea and were left for dead as the Reading striker scored leaving Kuszczak no chance. That goal seemed to wake our players up abit and 5 minutes later Torres scored with a perfectly placed header from Giggsy cross, with us dominating we soon scored again through a well placed ball from Saha making it 4 goals for the season so far…
With the Lyon game in mind at half time a swapped Saha for Solskjaer
Torres was playing an absolute blinder and was dominating the Reading defence and on the 65th minute scored his second of the game…
Reading seemed to give up and by right we should have scored a hatful but it was a good game for us and 3 points which is all important, especially with Chelsea playing as well as they are

Reading 1 – 3 Manchester United (Torres 13, 65 Saha 28)

24th September: With the excellent performance on the previous day I let the players have the day off, knowing that there next game would be a lot more difficult... Hopefully the days rest will make them fresh and ready for Lyon

26th September: Manchester United v Lyon:
With an expectant Old Trafford crowd I decided to play an attacking team against an ok Lyon side who were looking for there first away points in the Champions League this season
Line up: Van Der Saar, G.Neville, Hienze, O’Shea, Vidic, Giggs, Ronaldo, Scholes, Rooney, Torres, SahaThe attacking line up seemed to work with us keeping the ball for much of the opening exchanges and was rewarded for our dominance with and early goal from Torres on the 7th minute, with us attacking a lot we got hit on the counter attack and Lyon equalised on the 24th minute. With typical Man.Utd style we replied almost instantly with Saha scoring on the 26th minute, Everything Saha does at the moment seems to end in a goal and this was shown in the 34th minute with his second of the game. At half time we were 3-1 up and looked as though we could have scored a lot more.
The second half started and the players seemed to have relaxed and we were punished early on with Lyon scoring to make it 3-2. Giggs got my full hairdryer treatment as I told him to tell the players to start playing as this wasn’t over, the players mustn’t have listened as we conceded late in the game to make it 3-3, the anger inside me was boiling…
I was just glad when the game was over

Manchester United 3 – 3 Lyon (Torres 7 Saha 26, 34)
The players knew in no uncertain terms that the second half performance will never happen again, I told them to forget about a day off as they were in tomorrow training

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30th September: The end of month board meeting went well and i was told that in a recent poll the fans were getting on my side and could see that i was doing a good job for there club.
David Gill was also happy with our new signing Torres and even more happy with how well he was performing with Saha.