Like Rockefellers' First Two Albums, But After That...

We'll start with this article from The Guardian's blog on our debt and the recession and stuff. Economics isn't one of my strong points (to put it mildly) so it's all Greek to me, I'll just quote this bit:

United's spokesman, Phil Townsend, pointed out that United still have money remaining after servicing the debts to assemble their squad, including August's £30m signing of Dimitar Berbatov: "With our turnover, we can meet the obligations on our loans and debts, and still buy world‑class footballers and provide first-class facilities at Old Trafford and Carrington," Townsend said.

Moving swiftly on, The Mail reports this astonishing story:

Phil Dowd, the referee at the centre of the furore surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo, received the full support of his colleagues yesterday

About the only thing of interest in the report is this:

During the session Dowd, who sent off two United players in a game for the second time in his career, is believed to have accepted there were errors in his display.

Wonder if he noticed the foot up in the build up to Fulham's second goal this time round...
Also in The Mail is a report whose headline tells us that Berbatov could actually play for Bulgaria at the weekend, before revealing that:

a return has been described as 'highly unlikely' by Bulgaria's medical staff

In similar exciting style The Daily Star reveal that Ronaldo had an injury scare when training with Portugal, before telling us that

Portugal insisted it was merely a precaution and that Ronaldo is not seriously injured.

More on Rooney's "temper" on The Guardian Blog, a not bad article of its type, looking at other players who were ... temperamental, most telling sentence:

The body language and attitudes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney during Manchester United's back-to-back defeats by Liverpool and Fulham illustrate just how much they seem to have taken to heart that old Vince Lombardi canard, "Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser."

Ferdinand says Vidic should be player of the year, sort of:

"I think he should definitely be up there this year for player of the year, he's a top player.

"The attacking players normally get the accolades and the adulation so it would be nice for a defender to win it. JT won it a few years ago but not many centre-halves have won it over the years.

"I think he will be up there. He has been our most consistent player this season along with Ryan Giggs and Edwin van der Sar. Those three have been our standout players in terms of consistency."

And Evra slags of the French fans while praising Man Utd fans:

"I have been very disappointed by the behaviour of the fans," the 27-year-old told reporters.

"When we play at the Stade de France, I have the impression we are playing away"

"When (Carlos) Tevez came back from Marseille, he told me he had had the feeling he was playing in Buenos Aires," added Evra.

"There were flags paying tribute to Maradona but at the Stade de France I did not see any flags for (Franck) Ribery or (Thierry) Henry.

"I don't understand. The fans should be behind us. When you play at the Stade de France, you often hear boos after only five minutes, it has to stop.

"Maybe they don't like football."

Evra, who joined United from Monaco in January 2006, said this would not happen at Old Trafford, where the champions were beaten 4-1 by arch-rivals Liverpool in the Premier League title race 10 days ago.

"When we lost, there was applause, not boos," he said.