o It's ironic, isn't it? A summer-long transfer saga that began simmering over Wayne Rooney's disheveled mindframe has boiled over after a frutratingly inept transfer window closed yesterday, leaving many Manchester United fans in the very same state that their number 10 found himself: angry and confused.
o When was the last time you heard Manchester United referred to as a "laughing stock?" We'll bet most fans can't recall that far back -- before yesterday's events reared their ugly head. The reputation for shrewd business dealings and disciplined, tactical efforts in the transfer window lies in tatters now as the United front office managed to turn the present champions of England into the Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight in a little over two months time. We won't go so far as to apportion direct blame -- we'll leave that to others to decide, as things in our experience are never quite as they appear -- but we will say that Messrs. Woodward and Moyes had to expect that their first transfer window would be an event by which their behavior and results would be judged.
o In this blog we will more closely examine the pathetic situation which occurred over the past several weeks, a situation that reached its apogee in a fiasco-laden effort to secure a fax from Real Madrid as the clock ticked menacingly toward 11pm BST -- a fax that ultimately failed to arrive at its destination. [The cheap and easy thing here would be to make an analogy to Ed Woodward's failure to arrive at his destination after the United Chief Executive left the pre-season tour of Australia on "urgent transfer business" BACK IN JULY, but we wouldn't be so cruel and callous as to do that.]
o In this blog we will more closely examine the pathetic situation which occurred over the past several weeks, a situation that reached its apogee in a fiasco-laden effort to secure a fax from Real Madrid as the clock ticked menacingly toward 11pm BST -- a fax that ultimately failed to arrive at its destination. [The cheap and easy thing here would be to make an analogy to Ed Woodward's failure to arrive at his destination after the United Chief Executive left the pre-season tour of Australia on "urgent transfer business" BACK IN JULY, but we wouldn't be so cruel and callous as to do that.]
o First off, a quick question for all of you out there, especially those of you who operate in what is commonly known as a "business" (a term the United front office may want to investigate): Does anyone still use a fax machine? Has the front office at United heard of PDFs? Adobe is a rather large software company, one with a global reach, and most professionals use its Portable Document Format to scan and send documents and signature pages by e-mail these days. Here's a tip for the front office: you may want to look into this newfangled technology. It's a bit complicated, but we think you might ultimately get the hang of it.
