Monday, 5 May 2008

Not a lot around today, Chelsea, with their game this afternoon, take most of the inches.

And so we have today's match reports. On the whole they are more positive about us today, still dismissive of West Ham, but at least giving us due credit, take this from Ian Ladyman in The Mail for instance:

With a Champions League Final in Moscow assured — and against their preferred opponents — Sir Alex Ferguson's side can see only glory beckoning.

With the tension released and buoyed by victory over the Catalan club, they can no longer even smell failure. United rose from the blocks against West Ham like Olympic sprinters.

Everybody wanted the ball. The noisy reaction of the Old Trafford crowd was unusually spontaneous.

Alan Curbishley's team were swept away by a tide of front-foot, attacking football.

Here, in the sunshine of early May, we were watching the best team in England.

Daniel Taylor in The Guardian recognises that West Ham weren't absolutely dreadful, and criticises Alan Curbishley for reasons sounder than a newspaper column:
In fairness, West Ham's was not the worst performance by an away team at Old Trafford this season (take a bow, Newcastle United) but it was still fairly extraordinary that Curbishley should think his mid-table team - recently barracked by their own supporters, and missing a dozen players through injury - could take on United at their own game.
The Independent forget that Newcastle have visted this season:
United would not have scored as freely as they did without a defensive generosity Old Trafford has not witnessed in a visiting side this season.
And Oliver Kay in The Times is quite the realist:
It was a performance that is likely to embellish Grant’s conspiracy theories, but West Ham’s supporters would reject the suggestion that it was any more insipid than normal, a performance in keeping with the level they showed in the three successive 4-0 defeats they suffered in eight days in March. Yes, they have suffered from injuries, yes, they managed to beat Liverpool and even United at Upton Park, but, if Grant has done his home-work, he will know that there was nothing untoward about West Ham’s performance on Saturday.

Other stories: The Mail report on player bonuses:
Manchester United's players are on a £250,000 bonus per man if they achieve the Champions League and Premier League double.

The prize for winning the club's two major targets was agreed with the club's owners, the Glazers, last summer.

Two stories vie for final position today, this from The Telegraph:
Club owners the Glazers have ordered a review of United's security set-up and are said to have sought help from American FBI agents to set the ball rolling. While 70,000 or so United supporters watched Ronaldo and Co tearing West Ham to pieces, the agents were keeping a close eye on current security procedures at Old Trafford, with a view to a complete overhaul.
But this, also from The Telegraph, wins for telling us the pope's a catholic:
Manchester United appear to have won their battle to keep prize asset Cristiano Ronaldo away from Spanish galacticos Real Madrid.

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