If only...

[cheltenhamlion]

Dont write off the Batson thing yet. The stupid, obsessed bastards might still want an enquiry.

[Bernie]

What if Kevin Keelan had pushed Ray Graydon's penalty in the '75 LC Final out for a corner rather than on to the post?
What if Doug Ellis hadn't invented the bicycle kick?
What if William McGregor had got homesick & headed straight back to Scotland?

[castlefields_villan]

What if Kevin Keelan had pushed Ray Graydon's penalty in the '75 LC Final out for a corner rather than on to the post?

We would have had another corner, and this time Chris Nichol's header would have gone in directly - Mel Machin on the line would have been unable to save it !

[castlefields_villan]

What if Ken McNaught hadn't inexplicably handled the ball and conceded a last minute penalty at West Ham in the 1980 FA Cup FA Cup quarter final when we were seconds away from taking them back to Villa Park for a replay we would have been favourites to win? We could have had an FA Cup the year before the League title.

I've never forgotten this - being born the year we last won the fa cup, I was brought up with knowing how proud we were to be its most times winners.  By 1980 it had been 23 years and another win was already well overdue.  I was sure 1980 was our year and by the time the 89th minute came - I remember thinking - deal with this corner and we've got them back at Villa Park - where we would have been clear favourites to beat them - as a top 8 old First Division side, our home form was pretty good, they were about 6th in the old 2nd division.  Then they came that very dubious penalty - deliberate hand ball .

Another 33 years later - as Diana Ross would say "I'm still waiting"

[pauliewalnuts]

- Pretty much everything about the Bradford semi-final
- What if we hadn't signed Bent in January 2011? Would we still be in the Premier League?
- What if we never appointed McLeish?
- What if MON hadn't thrown the game in Moscow.

Still smarting about that one and will for a few more years I'm sure.  I reckon we would have beaten Swansea in the final as well.

To be honest, I got over that one really quickly. I also got over losing the last CCC final at Wembley quickly, too.

I felt significantly more gutted after the Chelsea FAC semi final, miles worse.

I think the major "if only" in my time, by far, is the Fergie time two goals thing in 1993. I was staying with a friend in Oxford that weekend, and remember listening to it on the radio. I am thinking about it now, 20 years later, and getting the exact same knot in my stomach.

I also think that one had major significance for the rest of football, too. Had we won the league, not Man United, then I am not suggesting we'd be where Man U are now, but it makes you wonder whether Fergie would have been sacked after another title-less season.

Not only that, you also have to wonder, had that been the case and given when it happened, whether Man United would have gone on to be the club they are - they being the club which did so massively well at the exact right time to do it, ie just after Sky started pumping huge amounts into the game.

Think back to what Old Trafford looked like in 1993 and what it looks like now, and you get a good idea how well they did.

[castlefields_villan]

On a negative note - what would have happenned if Hoeness' "disallowed goal" had stood in the last few minutes of the 1982 European Cup Final ?
Full time 1-1 ?
Extra time ? who knows ? - glad i don't have to think about it

[curiousorange]

- Pretty much everything about the Bradford semi-final
- What if we hadn't signed Bent in January 2011? Would we still be in the Premier League?
- What if we never appointed McLeish?
- What if MON hadn't thrown the game in Moscow.

Still smarting about that one and will for a few more years I'm sure.  I reckon we would have beaten Swansea in the final as well.

To be honest, I got over that one really quickly. I also got over losing the last CCC final at Wembley quickly, too.

I felt significantly more gutted after the Chelsea FAC semi final, miles worse.

I think the major "if only" in my time, by far, is the Fergie time two goals thing in 1993. I was staying with a friend in Oxford that weekend, and remember listening to it on the radio. I am thinking about it now, 20 years later, and getting the exact same knot in my stomach.

I also think that one had major significance for the rest of football, too. Had we won the league, not Man United, then I am not suggesting we'd be where Man U are now, but it makes you wonder whether Fergie would have been sacked after another title-less season.

Not only that, you also have to wonder, had that been the case and given when it happened, whether Man United would have gone on to be the club they are - they being the club which did so massively well at the exact right time to do it, ie just after Sky started pumping huge amounts into the game.

Think back to what Old Trafford looked like in 1993 and what it looks like now, and you get a good idea how well they did.

Those are my thoughts on it too, but I think it would have been a one-off for us and United would probably have won it the year after anyway. The BFR 92-93 team were meant to burn brightly and they were the best team not to win the league in the PL era, certainly. But United probably had thoughts beyond football and arguably, it would have delayed the inevitable of them becoming the biggest club in the country by a season at most.

Ferguson getting the tin tack is an intriguing what-if, because he had that 93-94 team already without having to win the league first. Would another manager have used that first success to consolidate his position like Ferguson? I doubt it.

[ez]

What if Ron Saunders didn't resign when he did. How long would he have stayed?
What if the team of 1982 hadn't been broken up so quickly? How many more trophies would have followed?
What if the referee had spotted Kevin Richardson's handball on the line?

[Pat McMahon]

What if Ron Saunders didn't resign when he did. How long would he have stayed?
What if the team of 1982 hadn't been broken up so quickly? How many more trophies would have followed?
What if the referee had spotted Kevin Richardson's handball on the line?

My dad always said that if Saunders had stayed we would have been Liverpool's main rivals for the next decade. And we wouldn't have won the European Cup.

I often think he was right.

[Dave]

Again, probably a small one:

In 2007 we spent £5.5m on a season long loan for Scott Carson and Zat Knight to have a back five of Carson, Mellberg, Laursen, Knight and Bouma.

The following season we spent £8m on Luke Young and Brad Friedel to have a back five of Friedel, Young, Laursen, Knight, Shorey.

What if we'd just spent the money properly in 2007 to have a defence of Friedel, Young, Mellberg, Laursen, Bouma for that season (the first time we finished sixth under O'Neill)?

I don't think there would have been many better defences in the league. Rather than the endless "what if we'd bought Bent instead of Heskey" discussions, the above I think was the real missed opportunity.

[littlevillain]

If only we'd left the trinity road stand alone and had it protected historically

[dave.woodhall]

If only we'd left the trinity road stand alone and had it protected historically

It would have fallen down.

[TopDeck113]

Looking at some of the 'What ifs...' that have worked to our advantage, it is perhaps fair to extrapolate the footballing cliche and say that these things even themselves out of the course of a lifetime!

[steamer]

Who's lifetime ?

[supertom]

If only Luc Nilis hadn't clattered into Richard Wright. A really classy player. I think he would have been every bit as good, if not better than Merson (and the two in the same side could have been glorious to watch). Belgiums answer to Bergkamp. We had that one brief glimpse of the class he had.