The great big no

Edwin va der Sar is the man in the spotlight today. Just 84 minutes away from breaking Peter Cech's Premier League record, and that against a West Brom team who don't have a great scoring record. The Telegraph have some quotes from Peter Schmeichel, he always thought that van der Sar was the man, he says:

"When I left Old Trafford, it was Edwin that I said the manager should sign. I said it then and I said it every time I spoke to Sir Alex afterwards.

"He is the sort of keeper they need for the style of football they play. He is probably the best goalkeeper there has ever been with his feet.

"Edwin is a very modern goalkeeper, he doesn't stay on his line, he pushes right up and that means the defence can play very high too. Knowing that it is Edwin behind them gives the defence confidence"

I think The Mail take this a little far when they list our top 7 (why seven?) keepers ever and put van der Sar at number one. At the start of the season he was looking very dodgy and I would put our defensive record down more to the collective defence rather than just one man. Given the injuries to our defence and the number of different combinations used this is remarkable. Long may it continue.
This preview of tonight's game from The Times also praises van der Sar, quoting Sir Alex:

“Edwin’s calmness and concentration are doing us a power of good and he is playing as well as he has ever done,” Ferguson said. “He has certainly been at a peak during our recent run. His experience will count for a lot in the coming weeks because the smell of the title run-in is there and I’m looking for us to raise our game even more. We have been on a good run lately and what we want now is a great run.”

This "great run" comment is taken up in a lot of the papers, but this other comment by Sir Alex, on Ronaldo is also interesting:

If there is a slight concern for United, other than injuries, it is the form of Cristiano Ronaldo, who has not come close to scaling the heights of the previous two seasons, but Ferguson said: “I don’t think confidence affects Ronaldo. He is a very confident lad and he has still made ten goals for us this time around and scored ten. By the end of the season he will still have over 20 goals, which is fantastic for a winger. You do have these exceptional seasons and it’s hard to replicate it every year.”

Yet again a report runs out the tired Ronaldo-out-of-form cliche. It's good to see Sir Alex pointing out facts, even if they don't quite get through to this reporter.
There's also some quotes from Ronaldo's interview with ITV over the weekend hitting the papers today, I'll take them from The Daily Star:

“Me scoring goals is not important, as long as the team wins. If that happens, I win too.

“I know if I keep working hard and doing the right things, my form is going to get better and better, so I don’t worry.

“I do try to make people happy with the way I play.

“When people come to the stadium to watch you, they want to enjoy themselves, and I try to make that happen.

“When you win, then everything is good. Winning, scoring, and beating defenders, that’s the order I like it.”

Of course the comment that gets the most publicity is about the worth of players, take this from The Mirror:

Cristiano Ronaldo believes he is now part of a select breed of "special" players who are worth more than £100million on the transfer market.

Manchester United's star performer made the bold claim in the aftermath of local rivals City's botched attempt to sign former World Player of the Year Kaka for a record-breaking fee of £108m.

"Special players are maybe worth that," said Ronaldo. "I agree with that. When you are good, when you are a special player, you are more expensive than the other ones. That's normal.

"It's like cars. Some cars are better than others, that's why they're more expensive. It's the same with players. But this is only my opinion."

Note that he doesn't actually claim himself to be in that bracket (though no doubt he thinks it, he is World Player of the Year after all, but he obviously doesn't say it), the paper just makes that up. One last quote, this time from The Telegraph, with added emphasis from me:

"My dream is also to win the World Cup and the Euros. I want to win more things for the club. The cups, the Premier League, Ballon D’Or, World Player of the Year, I want to win them all again. "

Let's finish with Paul Scholes, The Sun has some quotes from him:

“My desire to win more trophies is still strong. Manchester United is a massive club that demands that you win things.

“If you are just happy to go along and not earn medals there is no point in you being here."

While The Guardian looks at his choice for a best Man Utd XI, with the biggest surprise being the omission of Cantona:

The exclusion of Cantona might seem surprising, but then Scholes, independent of thought and free of sentiment, has previously hinted that, on a technical level at least, his reverence towards the man who catalysed United's glorious modern era might not be quite as great as others. ... the fact he omits him hints tantalisingly at a story of indifference or even antipathy that may never be told.

Does it? We have had a lot of great players over the years (and over the years Scholes has been playing). While I would certainly have Cantona in there, his omission doesn't be a matter of antipathy, does it?