A Wes Brown Christmas

It's all about Wes Brown signing a new deal today.

From The Guardian:

Ferguson will announce the news this afternoon, with Brown agreeing a weekly salary believed to be just under £50,000. The 28-year-old had initially wanted more and it will not have escaped his notice that Rio Ferdinand will be on more than twice that money when his lawyers sign off his new five-year deal. However, it is a handsome rise on Brown's previous £31,000 a week and he is now in the middle bracket of earners at United.

Ferguson, who has relied heavily on Brown this season in the absence of the injured Gary Neville, will be relieved. He had accused the defender of "living in his agent's pocket" and had said the dispute "depresses me at times".

At least he's seen sense. He's had a good season for us this season and would have been foolish to move away. Another factor The Guardian suggests:

An extra factor in healing frayed relations is that his father died in February and Brown is understood to have been moved by the support he received from Ferguson and his colleagues.

A similar tale of Sir Alex's good support is provided in Ronaldo's book. He knows how to treat people.
Most of the papers suggest that Brown staying may well result in Pique leaving. This, from The Times:

It remains to be seen what impact the retention of Brown will have on the future of Gerard Piqué, who would be forgiven for hoping that his team-mate left to lessen the competition for places. In the absence of Nemanja Vidic, Piqué has started the past two matches alongside Ferdinand in central defence, but he said this week that he is unsettled and is tempted by the idea of returning to Spain. United would prefer to keep him, but they may decide otherwise if they are unable to persuade him to sign an extension to his contract, which expires at the end of next season.

The reports also suggest that Vidic could well return against Blackburn tomorrow, or Barcelona on Wednesday.

The Mail suggest that Hargreaves may well miss the Barcelona game but that Fletcher is hoping to return before the end of the season. The report also has a quote from Fernando Torres:

'Cristiano is at another level. He is so good he puts United on his shoulders and carries them in every game. He's above all other players in the world. He's a complete player.

'Barcelona will have to cover him because he can give United a great chance to qualify. If he feels comfortable and takes the game to the opposition, things will be complicated for Barca.'

Yeah, whatever Fernando. He carries us. We've no other decent players. Not like Liverpool...

The Mail also reports on rumoured summer signings - Miguel Veloso and Joao Moutinho, from Sporting Lisbon, and Wilson Palacios and Luis Antonio Valencia, from Wigan.

The Telegraph has this interesting/silly story about Capello wanting Scholes to return to the England squad:

Scholes announced his decision to end his England days four years ago having become increasingly frustrated by Sven-Goran Erikkson's decision to play him wide left in midfield.

Capello's predecessor, Steve McClaren made four unsuccessful attempts to persuade Scholes to change his mind, and it seems likely that the player who prefers to shun the spotlight will stick to his guns again.

Scholes would be approaching his 36th birthday when the 2010 World Cup finals get under way but his age would be of no concern to Capello who admires the midfielder's intelligent passing game.

The strangest thing about this story seems to be that if Capello admires the "intelligent passing game" why has he so far completely ignored that other great passer in our team - Michael Carrick. He'd rather bring back Scholes than pick Carrick for his squad. I find that very hard to believe.