Recent Steve Tongue Articles
Transfer-Merry Go-Round: The Summer Sales Are In Full Swing
by Steve Tongue (Preview | Independent - July 5)
As predicted a week ago, the number of transfers actually being agreed by managers, as opposed to being merely rumoured by agents, is at last increasing. more details | go to article

No Becks Appeal In Auckland As Galaxy Loss Is Out Of This World
by Steve Tongue (Commentary | Independent - March 1)
They love him in Los Angeles and Milan but Auckland, New Zealand, is less keen on the venerable David Beckham after an LA Galaxy match billed around him lost the Auckland Regional Council NZ$1.7 million (£630,000). The game was played there last December, shortly before Becks began his loan period with Milan, and the hoo-ha about who is to blame for the huge loss is now at full throttle. more details | go to article

Government Ready To Help vet Clubs' Foreign Suitors
by Steve Tongue (Article | Independent - July 1)
Move comes as City buyer Thaksin faces 'fit and proper person' test more details | go to article

By The Left, The Old Problem Has A New Answer
by Steve Tongue (Profile/Interview | Independent - May 29)
Understandably for a man paid something in excess of £4m per year, Sven Goran Eriksson is not often to be found queueing for a London bus, but he might be familiar with the concept of waiting an age for something to come along and then finding another turning up immediately afterwards. So it is with left-sided midfield players. more details | go to article

Ferguson Defiant As The Predators Gather
by Steve Tongue (Profile/Interview | Independent - November 14)
No surrender, no panic. As Manchester United supporters made defiant noises in one of Old Trafford's opulent suites on Friday about the prospect of being taken over by a quiet American, Sir Alex Ferguson was announcing a few miles away at the club's Carrington training ground that he is not yet ready to give in to equally predatory French and Portuguese rivals based in London. more details | go to article

Gill Cherishes United's Independent Spirit
by Steve Tongue (Article | Independent - August 15)
At his first annual general meeting as chief executive of Manchester United only two months after taking over from Peter Kenyon, David Gill made it clear that the club did not want a sugar daddy. Glancing across to Roman Abramovich at Stamford Bridge this afternoon as a depleted United team attempt to match the £200m squad in blue, he might just be tempted to think again. more details | go to article

Supporters' Dismay At Glazer Shares Plan
by Steve Tongue (Article | Independent - August 2)
Manchester United supporters on both sides of the Atlantic have reacted with dismay to reports that the family of Malcolm Glazer, a Florida tycoon who has never seen the team play, is trying to become the club's majority shareholder. more details | go to article

Mourinho's Men March On As Beaten United Return
by Steve Tongue (Result | Independent - August 2)
In the next small stage of what seems set to become an enduring rivalry, Jose Mourinho will have a chance tonight to compare his new Chelsea team's performance against the Italian champions Milan with that of Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United. At the Giants Stadium on Saturday, United played their best football of the three-match American tour but conceded a last-minute equaliser to Andriy Shevchenko to draw 1-1 and lost a penalty shoot-out 9-8. more details | go to article

Howard Fluffs Final Lines Of Poor Script
by Steve Tongue (Result | Independent - August 1)
Having lost to Scotland's champions Celtic earlier in the week, Manchester United were frustrated by Italy's when Andriy Shevchenko equalised in the final minute. Victory with or without penalties would have been well merited and vindicated the decision to fly out Mikaël Silvestre and Paul Scholes on a 7,000-mile round trip just for the game. more details | go to article

One Year Later And Howard Refocuses His All-American Dream
by Steve Tongue (Profile/Interview | Independent - July 31)
From a distance it was impossible to tell whether Tim Howard blushed as he unconvincingly fumbled a curling centre from Celtic's Aidan McGeady and looked up to see the huge electric scoreboard flashing "Great save!" There is nobody in the four British squads who have been touring the United States these past 10 days more used to the eccentricities of American soccer than the Manchester United goalkeeper. more details | go to article

Spector Lifts Ferguson's Spirits
by Steve Tongue (Profile/Interview | Independent - July 27)
Tim Howard, the New Yorker expected to be the big local attraction for the second year running on Manchester United's summer tour to the United States, may end up spending less time on the pitch than one of his countrymen. more details | go to article

Big 'Soccer' Clubs Take Gospel To Us
by Steve Tongue (Preview | Independent - July 23)
The struggle to establish "soccer" in the United States has been a tortuous one, often in need of outside help. After nine seasons of Major League Soccer - in which average attendances have remained static at about 16,000 - missionaries are still being summoned from Europe and South America, the difference being that in these days of multinational sponsorship, international fan bases and replica shirts as fashion items, there is more in it for them than merely spreading the gospel. more details | go to article

Last Laugh For Dead Man Walking Tall
by Steve Tongue (Result | Independent - May 9)
Claudio Ranieri will leave Stamford Bridge shortly - though he has not yet accepted the fact - with dignity intact and a piece of history in his pocket alongside a large redundancy cheque. By drawing with a woeful Manchester United yesterday, Chelsea ensured finishing as championship runners-up for the first time, an achievement bettered only by Ted Drake's title-winning ducklings of 1955. more details | go to article

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