In A Nutshell: All That Happened At Old Trafford In The Past Week

As most football fans will know, most Premier League games this weekend have been postponed due to snowfall in the past few days. Considering the fact that there isn't much footy action, there will be no edition of the EPL Weekly Round-Up this weekend. Instead, I present to you all that happened at the club in the past week - which was actually an eventful one! I hereby present you a new blog feature called 'In A Nutshell' -

Sunday Game At The Bridge Called Off

So yeah - despite having a day & a half to clear the snow out of the pitch at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea's club officials decided to postpone this Sunday's top-of-the-table clash between Chelsea & Man United. Reason? On 'safety grounds' says the official statement - conspiracy theories anyone? Looks like Chelsea would be celebrating Christmas already (in relief - sigh!)...

United Legend Solskjaer Bids Goodbye To The Club

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who spent 14 years at United (11 as player, 3 in management) & scored 126 goals in just over 300 appearances, has finally left the club for the manager's position at Norwegian club FK Molde (from where he joined United). Ole, who guided the Manchester United Reserves to the Reserves Premier League title last season, bid the Old Trafford faithful goodbye after seeing out his last game as Reserves manager in a 5-1 win over Newcastle this week. The striker, known as 'The Baby-Faced Assassin', was always a fans' favourite during his time at the club & was given a fitting farewell at Old Trafford by United manager Sir Alex Ferguson during the Arsenal game, which was attended by former team-mates Gary Neville & David Beckham. I, like most of my fellow Red Devils, would like to wish Ole good luck in his new venture & would hope to see him manage United some day!

Anderson Pens New Deal To Extend Stay At OT

Apart from all the bad news, this was good news - Brazilian midfielder Luis Oliveira Anderson signed a new four-and-a-half deal with the club as an extension to his current 5-year deal! This means Ando will remain a United player till the summer of 2017. The Brazilian joined United from Porto in 2007 for a fee of £17 million, and had a highly successful first season, followed by a slump in the second & a season-long injury in the third. Amidst all this, there were reports of him falling out with Sir Alex coz of attitude problems & bad behaviour. But this season, Anderson has shown positive signs with a rich vein of form, shedding the tag of inconsistency visible in the past 3 seasons. I hope Ando's good run continues this season & in the times to come!

Scholes Ruled Out Till New Year

Paul Scholes, the veteran midfielder, has been ruled out with injury until the New Year. Till this weekend, it was supposed to be bad news since he would miss out on playing against Chelsea but since the game has been postponed, he probably won't! This also brings the realistic prospect of Michael Owen & Luis Antonio Valencia returning to the first team for the same fixture, which will be possibly played in January. That's the silver lining in this otherwise disappointing weekend I believe!

Feel free to leave your comments below or drop me a line on Twitter @AbhinavCJ & I'll get back to you right away!

That's all Folks!

Yours,
CJ