Talkin' Loud Ain't Saying Nothin'

The international break and the fact that certain other clubs (who shall remain nameless...) are having difficulties means it's probably going to be a quiet week. The Sun has evidence of this, with a story made from recycled quotes from last week on Sir Alex saying that Ryan Giggs deserves a Knighthood. The Sun also has the most concise summary of Sir Alex's comments on the sacking of Scolari:

"It is a sign of the times. There is absolutely no patience in the world now.

"There was great expectation at Chelsea that they were going to do well this year — and it is only this last month they have had a bad spell.

"The judgment really is only on the last month."

The only story in The Guardian looks at the possible return of Rooney and Evra for the FA Cup game at the weekend and why they return against West Ham:

"They had little setbacks in training," Ferguson said. "They didn't do a lot last week, which was partly to do with the weather. They needed another three or four days' training before we could start considering them. I think the important thing about having injuries with the squad we've got, you don't take chances. It proves fatal. We weren't prepared to take a chance with them."

The rest of the stories are all on the clean sheets. The Mail has a handy guide to the eight players who have scored against us this season, while quotes from Van der Sar are considered in the other papers, with The Independent having the most comprehensive selection:

"It is great of course but the records will only be important at the end of the season.

"If we end up losing another four or five games before the end of the season we probably won't be the champions and the goal is to win it.

"It is a halfway point. You take it on board but you don't celebrate."

And finally a story to put in the perplexingly pointless file, Jim White, in The Telegraph, points out that Van der Sar is a footballer not a raconteur:

One thing, however, hasn’t changed: Van der Sar remains unlikely to earn himself a berth on the chat-show circuit.

Judging by his straight-faced application of cliches whenever interviewed about the subject – a collective thing, thanks to his team-mates, interested only in trophies etc – he has not spent his time standing unoccupied in the Manchester United goal buffing up his after-dinner techniques.

And that really is the essence of the story. Strange...