Off Topic Ralphy Ralphy Ralphy, Ralph. Ralphy ralph, Ralphy Ralph

One for the older amongst us.

This man gave me many hours of pleasure at Old Trafford in the eighties. Admittedly, it as most laughing AT him but there you go, the days were dark and we had to have something to amuse us.

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/lo...for-dundee-united-legend-ralph-milne-1.898109


I wish him well.

 

He played for us in the eighties, one of Fergie's earlier signings.

 

I remember him. not very successful.

But all our best wishes to him.

 

He was ****e, fair play.

Clearly been on the piss since he left.

 

Didn't SAF say he was his worst ever signing?

So at the very least Bebe, Veron and the Djemba twins owe him some gratitude...

 

Did he, I've never heard that?

He was no worse than Bebe, at least he played. Albeit badly, every time.

He was integral to Fergie dismantling Atkinson's drinking club side and rebuilding from scratch.

Cost about 80 grand, a bit cheaper than some of the player signed in van Gaal's rebuild!!

 

To be fair he was talking in 2009, so pre Bebe:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2009/nov/18/alex-ferguson-manchester-united-milne

Not sure how he helped dismantle the drinking culture tho' - he was McGrath and Whiteside's biggest drinking buddy during his time at the club.

 

Who was?

I'm talking about Ferguson, McGrath and Whiteside didn't last very long at all under him.

Robson stayed of course, as he was of great use. I'm sure Ralph had a couple with him here and there. The piss head gang was lead by McGrath and Norman though, they soon got the boot.

 

Sad news.

 

Milne.

He admitted in 2008 that soon after he joined Utd he became one of McGrath and Whiteside's main drinking buddies, and continued after they'd left despite SAF's best efforts to stop it:

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/former-dundee-united-star-ralph-997950

So I can't see how Milne helped to dismantle the drinking club when he became part of it pretty soon. It was the proper pros like Bruce, Pallister and McClair who were integral to breaking up the culture.

If anything, Milne may owe some of his present condition to the lingering influence of the drinkers in the early part of SAF's reign.

 

I didn't say he did, I said Ferguson did.

Milne joining in didn't help clearly but what I meant was he was part of the rebuilding of the squad, not HE helped dismantle the drinking culture.

Good googling.

If you'd dug deeper you'd have found that he and McGrath were at the club for about two months together. Him and Whiteside four.

 

You said Milne was integral to the rebuilding process. I disagree with that view.

I'm not disagreeing that he was part of SAF's rebuilding of the squad, but for me Milne was more of an effort to move the current squad forward. It wasn't until he signed Webb, Phelan and Pallister to actually replaced most of the drinking club, and Danny Wallace to replace Milne, that he really started to rebuild from the ground up.

And you can only find something on Google if you know what you are looking for.

 

I must have imagined it then, **** knows what I was watching those days,
I can't have actually been there. Thanks for correcting me though.



Died today apparently. Poor sod.

 

Fair enough, you probably have a better memory of it that me as I was seven at the time and watching with my dad. My main memory of it is asking him at the start of the 1989 season where Strachan, Whiteside, McGrath and Milne had all gone and his response being that they were a bunch of drunks that SAF had gotten sick of and replaced them with "proper players".

He was working for Sharp at the time so got tickets to the matches and to go to all the corporate events, so seemed to know more than most about what was happening which probably influenced my views on what he said. He was obviously wrong about Strachan tho' so maybe was just venting rather than actually talking truth.

He was always a bit vocal when watching sport. I remember him screaming blue murder at Mike Gatting after Warne got him with the ball of the century. I asked him how Gatting had gotten out so soon and he replied "Because he's a right fanny adam!". I think he still refuses to acknowledge what a good ball it was and is adamant Gatting just ****ed up!

Ah, sporting memories

RIP Ralph

 

He's not actually died it seems. Still, poor sod.

My only real point was Fergie took over and started to dismantle Atkinson 's side. Milne was one of the first he brought in so was therefore part of the process. That he joined in the drinking before the likes of McGrath and Whiteside left is if course unfortunate.
He was patently not good enough but plugged a gap till those that were came in, as we all know the whole thing took quite some time.

I've got fond memories of Milne because he was so hapless and there was a genuine gallows humour thing going on in those days, we knew we were **** so may as well enjoy the crack. We also knew good things were on the horizon, another one of football's great myths is that the whole crowd had turned against Ferguson.

It had not, at all. One or two dissenting voices were there but there's always some. Great times as a teenager, you could if you chose decide on the day to go, both home and away. No chance of that nowadays.

Strachan left because they didn't get on i think, doubt he was a drinker. Although to be fair to Ferguson he wasn't exactly pulling up trees in a United shirt. He wasn't alone in that of course!

 

He's died. It's a sad story really. RIP.

 

Cue London's biggest bell end to come and write a thread about how Manchester United killed Ralph Milne.

No doubt calling one or two of us racists in the process.

 

Astro will blame LVG. He's currently blaming LVG for Holland's **** qualifying form. The same Holland that LVG took to third place in last year's World Cup. Astro's very angry and very dim.

 

I would have thought they'd blame Ferguson. Or, slur alchy as he is known by Astro and his cohorts.

I'd imagine they will wish bowel cancer on him again as his punishment for giving Milne a shot at playing for United.

 

What I remember of it back then, largely from discussing it with my dad (could possibly be interpreted as him telling me what he thought in the car on the way back from yet another loss ), was that SAF dismantled Atkinson's side in two phases. The first phase was trying to build on what he already had, getting rid of the obvious dead wood like Stapleton and Chris Turner but keeping a lot of the spine of Atkinson's team and strengthening it. Then the second phase came around 1989 when he realised the spine of Atkinson's side simply wasn't good enough for any sort of title challenge regardless of how much he strengthened it, so got rid of pretty much every one of Atkinson's players barring Robson, accepting a couple of seasons in mid table in order to build for the future.

I always saw Milne as part of that first phase of building on Atkinson's side, which was pretty much what any manager does after taking over an under performing side from another manager. Possibly part of the reason SAF said he was his biggest flop as a signing, as it basically put off the start of the full rebuilding by a year. But SAF's true rebuilding was when he ripped up all of Atkinson's side and started again, which was what really laid the foundations for the last 25 years of success.

That's my memory of it anyway, could be wrong as I was only a wee lad back then.

Regardless, RIP Ralph, always sad to see someone go before their time