Headshock

Doesn't seem to be much about in the papers this morning (although I'm in a hurry so its possible that my quick perusal might have missed the odd thing...). There's words written on Van der Sar in most of the papers today, I'll just link to this one, from The Sunday Times, which has a bit of a background on him, and clears up what record our defence is actually going for today:

Van der Sar could break a British record, but not the one commonly reported, Chris Woods’ 1,196 minutes unbeaten. Woods’ milestone, achieved with Rangers in 1986-87, is for games in all competitions and Van der Sar is not close to it because of goals conceded in the Club World Cup. What he is

gunning for is the forgotten UK league record, held by Bobby Clark of Aberdeen. In 1970-71, Clark went 1,155 minutes in the Scottish First Division without having a goal scored against him; it is 1,122 minutes and counting since Van der Sar was beaten in the Premier League.

So that's 33 minutes into today's game. I'm a little worried about the game today, especially our not conceding record, but 33 minutes doesn't seem like too long. The Telegraph has quotes from Sir Alex explaining how he tried to sign Van der Sar earlier, which, whether or not the quotes are new, is certainly a story that has been doing the rounds for weeks.
Tevez having his car seized by police is reported everywhere, here from The Mirror:

Tevez, 25, is now being investigated by Greater Manchester Police for driving without a valid licence and could face prosecution, a police source said.

The maximum penalty for driving without a valid licence carries a £1,000 fine and six points.

Another interesting thing in the article is this on Ronaldo:

Ronaldo was stopped by police again on Thursday and given "advice" by police who thought he was speeding but did not manage to register his actual speed, said Greater Manchester Police.

A police source said that, by the time the officers had prepared their monitoring equipment, the Portuguese ace had slowed down from about 55mph in the 50mph zone.

A police spokesman said: "On Thursday 5 February 2009, around 3pm, traffic officers on A34 Kingsway stopped a car they believed was being driven at speed.

"The car slowed as officers approached it so no official speed check could be made.

"However the driver was pulled over, had his documents checked and was advised on his driving.

"There was no evidence that any offences had been committed."

And I'm not suggesting for a second that there's some sort of police conspiracy to hassle our players...
Paul Wilson in The Guardian has an interesting piece on the possibility of us winning the quintuple (or as he calls it - the pentagram), and it includes the words, the admission, that I never really expected to read in a national newspaper:

So starting with those two prizes would put United in an enviable position, given that they only missed out on a treble of the three main trophies last season because the referee in their FA Cup quarter-final against Portsmouth was absolutely diabolical. Sorry, because Sulley Muntari scored the only goal of the game at Old Trafford and Portsmouth were left with just West Brom and Cardiff to beat to lift the trophy.

I should frame that.
There's an absolutely shocking revelation in The News of the World today, and it's not the one that the NOTW is getting all faux shocked about:

PREMIERSHIP stars are getting booked on purpose to miss matches and skive off, the News of the World reveals today.

The real story is further down:

Just metres away, colleagues Howard Webb and Mike Dean were singing Liverpool anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone, unaware Bennett was letting slip the shameful secrets that will rock football.

Top Premier League referees singing a Liverpool anthem? Shouldn't this be the story? Isn't this a "shameful secret that will rock football? Apparently not...