Wishing Stone

There's a couple of good interviews today, some more discussion on just how good we are and Benitez trying to convince himself we're not very good...
The Independent have Sam Wallace interviewing Vidic:

“To be honest, as a defender watching someone celebrate, it’s a bad thing. It’s horrible. Always before the game I put this in my mind, ‘Hey, I don’t want anyone to score today because it’s going to make me feel bad’. This is my job. First of all I need to be a defender. That’s the way I look at football. It’s how I look at myself.”

He also has some comments on the possibility of being voted player of the year:

"Of course I would like to be player of the year. Who wouldn’t? I work hard, I want to improve I want to be better in every game. If you win something like this you obviously know that you are going the right way. I think that is why people are talking about the award because we have so many clean sheets. I am one of the players who picks up the credit for that. But – what can I say? – we haven’t kept all these clean sheets because of one player. It’s about the whole team because you don’t just defend with five players and score with two.”

It's quite a long interview and worth a read.
The Mail's Matt Lawton talks to Carlos Tevez in another article worth a read, if only because Tevez spends a lot of time discussing his future, and his feelings on not playing every game:

‘Last season I played. Last season I was the second top scorer at the club and last season we won the Champions League and the Premier League. And everyone said I was playing well.

‘But this season I have been benched and I find that hard to understand when I am not playing badly. I realise another player has arrived and I realise that this is why I am sometimes not in the team. But I have not been dropped because I have done anything wrong and that is what is difficult.

‘I will continue to fight. It is in my nature to fight and I will continue to try and make the best of every opportunity I do get in the hope that I will not be benched again.’

‘From my point of view, you don’t make a decision just because you are sitting on the bench,’ says Tevez, ‘even if I would like to think I am good enough to play for any team in the world.

‘You have to analyse the whole situation, the whole experience of being at a football club, of living in a city. I have to reflect on how I feel about living in Manchester. I have to ask if my family are happy here.

‘Obviously, I want first-team football. But I have to consider all the issues. I have to consider the whole experience of being at the club before I even begin to make a decision.

‘Right now, it is only my intention to give everything, in every game. For the shirt of Manchester I will always give 100 per cent and for the fans of Manchester I will always give 100 per cent. They have been very good to me. They have taken me into their hearts. They even sing “Argentina” to me.

Gary Neville's new contract makes most of the papers, with The Mail quoting Sir Alex on the reasons behind the new contracts for Neville, Scholes and Giggs:

‘If they keep their performance levels up they’ll be here for another year, there’s no question about that.

'They are the spirit of this club and an example to everyone.

‘Any young player can look at those three players and see how they’ve conducted themselves and how their drive has never changed.’

While The Sun lead with Sir Alex praising Neville for his comeback from injury:

Full-back Neville, 35, missed 18 months with ankle and groin injuries and boss Fergie feared his club captain might never play again.

But Neville battled back and Ferguson says he is an example to all.

He said: “There was great concern over whether he was going to come back because at that age to be out for a year-and-a-half isn’t easy.

“But the way he has come back is absolutely fantastic. It’s a demonstration by Gary that he’s never going to give in. He’s an amazing lad.”

The Telegraph (and everyone else, pretty much) quote Sir Alex on the dangers of complacency:

"You can't forget the chances we missed at West Ham when we only needed one goal to win the league in 1995," said Ferguson, who is set to start with Wayne Rooney for the first time since Jan 14, after the striker returned from injury. "Then there was the 12-point lead over Arsenal that we threw away in 1998. These are great reminders to us."

Terry Venables in The Sun is a little behind the programme with his column's praising of Giggs in a week when the mantle was passed to Scholes:

Giggs is the complete pro, an artist, the ultimate in efficiency. Artistry and efficiency are rare bedfellows but Giggs has them in abundance.

He is the footballing equivalent of gold dust. How much has his greatness saved United in transfer fees down the years?

Players like him do not come along very often — we must cherish them.

Rooney will play against Blackburn to give him a chance to prove his fitness ahead of the Inter game, from The Mail:

'Wayne Rooney will play against Blackburn,' said Ferguson. 'He has to start a game to see how far advanced he is.'

On The Guardian's blog David Lacey goes over the question of the squad being the "best ever" and says the obvious - time will tell - while also alluding to the excellence of the collective squad, rather than its individual members:

Whether or not this puts the present Manchester United team on course to be regarded as the best of all time will be a subject of intense debate over the next 2½ months, unless an unprecedented collapse renders the argument redundant. United sides tend to be remembered not so much collectively as for their outstanding individuals: Bobby Charlton, Denis Law and George Best in the 60s, Eric Cantona in the 90s and Cristiano Ronaldo only last season.

One of the principal strengths of the team now emerging is the consistency of its interlocking parts and the fact that so many of Ferguson's players can perform a variety of roles according to the needs of the moment. The versatile John O'Shea personifies this quality.

And Benitez decides to ignore "facts" today in an attempt to convince himself Liverpool can still win the league, from The Mail:

Asked if Wenger’s ‘untouchables’ accolade was over the top, the Liverpool manager said: ‘Yes, I think so. The way football is these days, with every game so difficult, you know that anything can happen.

United have come in for lavish praise over the past few days, with Fulham manager Roy Hodgson eulogising over Sir Alex Ferguson and even Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger putting a side years of bitter rivalry with his Old Trafford counterpart to describe the champions as unbeatable.

But Benitez insisted the acclaim was out of proportion, as he reflected on steering Valencia to two unexpected titles in Spain and claimed he could defy the odds with Liverpool.

'United may be winning more games than most at the moment but to say you cannot beat them is not right.