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Redissue take on the bitters live on radio
 James H Reeve, the famous bitter is back on the air on 106.1 rock FM. We have been asked to speak on the show on Sunday morning, along with another bitter fan. The intention is to have a bit of banter and give the view on United's chances against Wigan etc. Our intention is to hammer the bitter with as many massives, big club, large corner flags, curly watts comments as we can get in into the 10 minutes we have. The show is on Sunday morning from 6am - 10am. The slot will be around 08:30am Comments below if you wish us to add anything :D http://www.rockradiomanchester.co.uk/rock_schedule/sunday/
 
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Rentboys Will Be Presented 'Fake' Trophy...>>Show...>>Hide The Rentboys are reportedly unlikely to kick up a fuss even if they have to lift a 'fake' Premiership trophy at the weekend. The Rentboys and the Red Devils are level on points gong into the final day of the season for the first time since 1968. Avram Grant's Rentboy men host Bolton at Stamford Bridge, while Sir Alex Ferguson takes his troops to Wigan. Both opponents have recently secured their top-flight status. Now, Premier League chiefs have confirmed that there will be no helicopter action for the title presentation. The real trophy will be at the JJB, sources say, whilst the Rentboys will lift a replica should results go their way. "The practical difficulties of the title race going into the final day of the season means that a Premier League trophy will be on standby at both the JJB Stadium and Stamford Bridge," a spokesman confirmed. Rentboys have been aware of the developments and are happy to wait, should they usurp United, as the Old Trafford side are defending champions. However, reports suggest that United have merely been handed the advantage because their superior goal difference installs them as favourites to be crowned champions. 1999 was the last time the title was decided on the last day, with United pipping the Arse on that occasion. At that point, the real trophy was in also in Manchester. |
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Four United fans held in a Roman jail have finally been freed....>>Show...>>Hide Four Manchester United fans locked up in Italian jails since December walked free yesterday, after winning an appeal to get charges for fighting with Rome police reduced and their sentences cut. Friends and relatives of the men celebrated outside a Rome court after the decision, claiming the four had been set up by police to make an example of them, and that they had been beaten by officers and denied access to proper legal assistance. "I am absolutely elated," said Janet Dillon, whose son Kyle, 24, was originally sentenced to two years and five months for clashing with police and local fans outside Rome's Olympic stadium on December 12, ahead of Manchester United's Champions League match with Roma. Fellow fan Richard Wimmer, 39, received the same sentence, while Nicholas Lukacs, 18 and Michael Burke, 35, received two years and four months. Yesterday the sentences were reduced to 16 months, allowing the release of the four on suspended sentences. Defence lawyer Roberta Ceschini said she had not seen the judge's ruling, but that it was likely two charges of violence had been dropped. At the hearing, the men pleaded guilty to resisting arrest, but relatives claimed they were innocent. "We were advised to accept this verdict in order to get the boys home immediately," said Lukacs's sister Katerina. Seeking to overturn all charges would have led to a longer trial, said Ceschini. Janet Dillon, whose son is registered as partially sighted, said she would now seek to overturn the remaining charge. Lukacs's mother, Anne, said her son, now saddled with a criminal record, would be unable to return to his job at a law firm. "There is no such word as justice here," said Carmon Ducker, Burke's girlfriend. On December 12, the four fans ignored advice from Manchester United to board a laid-on bus that would have taken them into the Olympic stadium, preferring to catch a city bus which left them on the Duca D'Aosta bridge nearby. "The fan buses were arriving four to five hours before the game and they were concerned about what had happened inside the stadium at the previous match," said Janet Dillon. Manchester fans were baton charged in the stands in April 2007 by police. At their trial, the four were accused of throwing objects and clashing with Roma fans and police on the bridge, but Ceschini said that charge had now weakened. "The men would have been difficult to identify at the scene and the evidence against them appeared inconsistent," she said. Relatives said that the four had also been persuaded to face a rapid trial with limited evidence in December. "Thanks to poor translators they were under the impression they would sign and go home," said Anne Lukacs. "They were made into scapegoats," said Janet Dillon. The sentence appears to have worked as a warning. One fan who returned to Rome in April for Manchester's subsequent Champions League game said few supporters were prepared "to walk the bridge" to get to the stadium. When Janet Dillon saw her son in prison on Christmas Eve, he was still bruised from being headbutted and coshed in the groin by police, she claimed. "We got tea and sympathy from the British embassy," said Dillon, adding that the Manchester United manager ,Sir Alex Ferguson, had written to say there was nothing he could do to help. "I will never go to Old Trafford again," she said. Unlikely support came from Roma fans, who waved a banner reading "Freedom for the Roma 4" at last month's match against Manchester Utd. A relative of Dillon added that fellow prisoners had been "great," even lending Dillon clothes when he was prevented from receiving his own from his family." |
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£58m loss, all is well in Glazeer towers...>>Show...>>Hide With Manchester United powering to a probable second successive Premier League title and ready for a Champions League final, it appears that life at Old Trafford could hardly be rosier, but the club's accounts, now published in full, detail a significantly bleaker picture of the club's finances under the ownership of the Florida-based Glazer family. Before the family's 2005 takeover, United prided itself on being the only Premier League club regularly to make a significant profit, to have cash in the bank and, unlike all the others, no debts. After the leveraged takeover, the Glazer family loaded their borrowings on to the club and the position has changed. The accounts for the company that the Glazers use to own United show total borrowings, in the year to June 30 2007, were up to £666m, by far the highest of any English football club, ever. The total owed to all creditors, including the banks, was up to £764m and includes £56m that United owe to other clubs in transfer fee instalments on players Sir Alex Ferguson has signed. The total interest payable by the club on its borrowings was £81m, although only £42m was actually paid. The rest, which accrued on the millions owed to hedge funds, is allowed to roll up until the whole amount has to be repaid in 2016, or, alternatively, until the Glazers can refinance it. A total of £152m is currently owed to hedge funds, at 14.25% interest a year - £22m from 2007-08. Last year the Glazers tried to refinance but were unable to strike a deal with financial institutions, and a spokesman acknowledged that the credit crunch is making it more difficult now. David Gill, United's chief executive, announced the headline results back in January, stressing that United's phenomenal money-making power, with 76,000 crowding into Old Trafford and the Premier League's huge TV rights deals, had produced record income of £210m and operating profits of £75m. The full accounts show, however, that even though United made a further £11m profit from buying and selling players, the interest and other accounting provisions pushed United into recording an overall loss of £58m. The accounts also reveal that by far the highest proportion of income, £92.5m, is still generated on home match days, and although the club has announced more modest ticket price rises for next season than for the previous two, supporters groups continue to protest that they are paying the debts of a takeover they opposed. "It is outrageous that supporters are paying the huge interest on these borrowings, which are worrying for the club's future," said Sean Bones of the Manchester United Supporters Trust. "Our money is pouring out to pay the Glazers, while they have not put a penny into the club." The spokesman for the Glazer family pointed to the club's success on the field, and in generating income off it, as evidence of the family's competent management. "The family continue to run United as a business," he said. "Their model is to encourage success on the pitch by backing Sir Alex Ferguson, and to grow revenues off it. The interest payments are more than covered by the cash generated." |
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