High Tension Line

Only one subject to discuss today (not quite true, but you know what I mean). Sir Alex sums up tonight's game:

"There’s no question that the challenges and clashes of the past [between Arsenal and Man Utd] haven’t reached the proportion of this one.

“That’s why I don’t think we will be complacent. At this stage of the Champions League you can’t be complacent. It’s not something you can even contemplate.

“If we’d been playing someone like Barcelona we’d have done more on the preparation and watching them very rigidly and strongly to make sure everything is prepared.

“But there’s nothing I don’t know about Arsenal. And nothing they don’t know about us. These days there’s nothing you can hide."

And:

“We have to go there with the intention of trying to score. The important thing is to have a threat. We have the ability to score. It would put us in a very strong position.

“But I am expecting a very close game. You cannot call it.

“We are two terrific sides and it should be quite an engrossing game.

“It is normal the team who is away in the first leg operates differently to the way they are at home. We expect Arsenal to attack us.

“That doesn’t suit us. I would rather they defended all night.

“But we expect them to attack. We have enough experience of them in the past to know that is their normal way.”

Although he goes on to sound confident about our chances on the counterattack:

“Hopefully, it suits us. Counter-attacking is part of modern football.

“The development in the last six or seven years means counter-attacking is done far better than it was 20 years ago.”

He has strong praise for Ronaldo:

"When a player scores 40-odd goals, every player that comes up against him in the following season reapplies his thinking in how to deal with it," he said. "I always thought it was impossible to reach last year's total again, particularly when we knew he would have the operation that would keep him out of the start of the season.

"It's taken him some time to get over that, but his rhythm is back and the boy is fantastic. He is something special. Every game, he has three or four attempts on goal. You tell me any winger in the past 30 years that has done that."

There's a bit of a strange misquotation in The Mail. After mentioning the three players who are a yellow card away from missing the final, Rooney, Tevez and Evra, they quote Sir Alex:

Ferguson said: ‘Wayne needs to show discipline.’

Which makes it sound like he's singling out Rooney. The fuller quote is this, from The Telegraph:

"He [Rosetti] understands the seriousness of a player who maybe gets three bookings in the whole tournament and misses the final because of that," said Ferguson.

"I've noticed a trend with referees being very professional and tolerant and they are well up to handling the situation. Obviously if a player steps out of line wrongly then he has no excuses. I think marginal issues, a tackle, the referee understands that."

Asked if he would have a particular word with Rooney, Ferguson said: "I wouldn't address that at all with him, I don't need to. It goes without saying that he knows the circumstances.

"He's a mature young man, he understands perfectly well the need for good discipline and most of that time he is that way."

From this, it turns out, he was asked whether he'd single out Rooney, to which he replied no. Shouldn't be too shocked at The Mail misreporting something I guess.
The Mail also gets Les Ferdinand and Mark Hateley to discuss whether Berbatov or Tevez should start. I'm getting a bit tired of the whole Tevez/Berba debate so I won't quote from it. I'll also just point to this from David Pleat, who also takes on the issue.
Carrick stresses the importance of Rio returning:

"Rio has really grown in stature and has so much experience now. He's been playing at the highest level for a number of years.

"Rio's got that presence about him. Certain players in our squad have that about them, and he's definitely one of them.

"It makes a big difference when he's there. He talks a lot out on the pitch, he's got bags of ability and he's just a top, top player."

In The Independent Ian Herbert looks at Anderson, kind of praising him, but concentrating a bit much on his lack of goals:

But the player who was deemed to be the natural successor to Paul Scholes when he walked into Old Trafford is yet to prove that he might be. Owen Hargreaves' prolonged absence has given him ample opportunities this season but the absence of goals from the 21-year-old throws him into sharp contrast with Scholes, whose abundance of them on important occasions has made him sixth in the chart of United's all-time top goalscorers. ...
Ferguson, however, seems prepared to wait for Anderson. The United manager also spoke last week of the Brazilian's development as a strong, box-to-box midfielder. "He has fantastic speed and strength and he is only 21," Ferguson said, and the sentiment can only have been strengthened by the powerful counter-attacking force which Anderson, Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher proved as Arsenal were blown away in the first half of the first-leg tie last Wednesday.

The main non-Champions League story is of our apparent interest in Franck Riberry. The Guardian claim we have already had a bid turned down:

Manchester United have made an offer of about €70m (£62.5m) for the Bayern Munich midfielder Franck Ribéry as they close in on a deal that would shatter the world transfer record.

Sources in Munich confirmed the bid has been received for the France international, who has made his desire to leave Germany known in the past few weeks. United scouts have repeatedly watched the 26-year-old in recent Bundesliga matches and sounded out his friends and entourage in Munich.

United's remarkable offer ... is contingent on the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Madrid this summer but the approach to Bayern has been firm enough to suggest that the Portuguese's departure is a near certainty. Although Bayern are understood to have turned down United's offer, it is considered the first serious move in a negotiation that will eventually bring the winger to Old Trafford.

It being The Guardian perhaps this story should be taken slightly more seriously than the usual rumours, but still, spending that much on a single player? I'm not so sure that even with any money we got from Ronaldo we'd do that. Sir Alex was only the other day dismissing reports linking us to Kaka based on the fact we'd never spend so much on one player. Still, one to watch I guess.
The Mail link us to a young French defender:

Manchester United have leapt to the head of the queue for Paris St Germain’s defensive prodigy Mamadou Sakho.

The France Under 21 international, who became PSG’s youngest captain aged 17, is rated at £12m after an outstanding season.

The Sun report on plans to increase the capacity of Old Trafford to 95,000, although the only quote is this:

George Johnstone, United’s group property manager, said: “There is a strategic plan for the stadium.”