Here comes the Indian

There's an interview with David Gill which is split up to create two seperate stories today, an ingenious way to fill in space... And there's a comment from someone about how Ronaldo wants to join Real. What? Srsly? I never knew that... And that's the news today...

The first strand of David Gill goodness comes in the shape of comments on Sir Alex and his replacement. The Daily Star go for the sensational "Fergie Will Choose New United Boss", The Guardian with the more restrained "Ferguson to take key role in selecting his successor", The Times agrees but puts it differently, with "Sir Alex Ferguson can tip balance on successor", The Independent get even less excited with "United want Ferguson's help to find a successor", and, surprisingly, even The Mail isn't that excited, "Ferguson to play key role in hunt for his Manchester United successor". And here are those comments:

Gill said: "There are no discussions at the moment about a successor. We will address that when it comes around, but the owners, myself and the people involved will obviously get Sir Alex's views on the subject.

"Somebody who has managed the club for so many years, who knows the club inside out and knows what is required would be invaluable. It would be remiss of us not to have a discussion with him, involve him and get his views, so he will be a key part of the process. The manager is a key employee of the club and we need to get it right. The owners will expect me to do the work and then they would get involved in the process of choosing the right man, but the board will ultimately make the decision on the new manager."

And so to India, where the other strand of Gill comment takes us. The fullest exploration of this seems to be in The Guardian, so i'll point you there, but the most concise summary of what Gill actually said comes in The Independent, so i'll quote from there:

He said: "India is interesting. We have been approached to go there and we are looking at some soccer school opportunities there. I know Chelsea have done something and I think Barcelona have. We would not rule out going there.

"They [India] do have ambitions and have a key goal to make it to the World Cup. Whether they can make it or not, I do not know, but it's a huge, huge country. Look at [cricket's] IPL. That has shown that it is a very wealthy country and it is definitely worth looking at. Other clubs will look at it and so will we.

"The interest in football around the world is increasing. It is not saturated. We have worked on our global position for many years, but it would be wrong to think that we are impregnable. If we did that, then we would get knocked off our perch."

Oh. I almost forgot the Ronaldo story from The Sun, for what it's worth. Real player Pepe says Ronaldo said he wants to play for Real. No need to quote the story, for that really is it. Inspired.