True False/Fake Real

After yesterday's stupidity, it's good to see some sense talked today. Except from The Sun. Here's what they say today:

SunSport revealed yesterday relegation-haunted Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Sunderland are furious at the prospect of United playing a shadow side.

But after a day of talks between Premier League chiefs and the clubs, United have promised they will change their plans for the weekend.

Boss Alex Ferguson kicked off the compromise by saying Rio Ferdinand must prove his fitness at Hull ahead of the Champions League final three days later.

But United are now also likely to deflect any potential criticism by starting with the likes of Tomas Kuszczak, Gary Neville and Park Ji Sung.

Darren Fletcher is already pencilled in as he is suspended for the Barcelona clash.

That is a major shift from Fergie’s original plan — which angered the trio of North-East clubs — to play only Fletcher from his normal starting XI.

"Fergie's original plan"? How do The Sun know what his original plan was? And let's look at how angry those other clubs are:

[Sunderland manager Ricky] Sbragia, who was reserve team coach at Old Trafford before his switch to the Stadium of Light two years ago, said: “Sir Alex will send out a side that can beat Hull. And it won’t be a team of youth players. I can understand that they have got their minds on the Champions League but United will always play the same way.

“Sir Alex has total belief in his players and squad, reserve or youth team level. He always believe they can win because of the talent being sent out.

“He will do what is right for Manchester United and I think he is entitled to do that. They are very difficult to beat, they score goals and I would think they will have enough to hopefully beat Hull.”

Can't you just feel him boiling over... and in this quote as well:

"The concern you would have if Sir Alex played his senior players is, 'Are they going to want to get involved and risk getting injured and missing the Champions League final?'" said Sunderland's manager.

And as for those talks with the Premier League, here's what Richard Scudamore, Premier League chief executive, had to say:

Scudamore told BBC Radio 5 Live: "You can't alter the fact they've won the league and they've got the most significant game the following Wednesday against Barcelona.

"You have to be realistic: they've got a squad, and therefore you can't argue that they deploy the benefit of that squad in a game on Sunday."

Sounds like they're really likely to charge us with whatever the hell it is The Sun seem to think we're guilty of. And, given the tone of their coverage yesterday and they way they seem to claim today that they've forced us into playing some bigger names I find this sentence at the end of their report today to be nothing but a sign that they actively want Barcelona to win:

Barca boss Pep Guardiola is set to rest his ENTIRE team in their La Liga game against Osasuna on Saturday.

A more sensible approach from Oliver Holt in The Mirror:

a team of United fringe players, a team of hungry kids and reserves with a point to prove, is the best chance Middlesbrough, Newcastle and Sunderland have got.

I'd like to see Darron Gibson in that United team at Hull, knowing that a stellar performance in the heart of midfield might get him on the bench for the Champions League Final.

I'd like to see Nani out on the wing, dying to prove a point to Fergie after being left on the sidelines for so much of this season.

I'd like to see Danny Welbeck up front, trying to live up to the assertion Ferguson made on Sunday that he'd force his way into Fabio Capello's World Cup squad next season.

And I'd like to see Federico Macheda alongside him, bursting to recreate the glory of the crucial winners he scored against Aston Villa and Sunderland.

And he also looks at the game against West Ham, which saw Sheffield Utd relegated because West Ham won:

Ferguson rested Ronaldo, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic because United were playing in the FA Cup Final the following week. United lost. Sheffield United went down. For Warnock, it was a bitter, bitter pill to swallow. ...

Still, the team he put out that May day against West Ham two years ago went like this: Edwin van der Sar, Wes Brown, John O'Shea, Patrice Evra (Ryan Giggs, 58), Gabriel Heinze, Darren Fletcher, Kieran Richardson, Michael Carrick (Paul Scholes, 58), Alan Smith (Cristiano Ronaldo, 58), Wayne Rooney, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Not a bad side, all things considered. That's the point: the key wasn't in the line-up. It was in the attitude. "West Ham couldn't have come to Old Trafford on a better day," Ferguson said afterwards.

Giggs talks up the youth of our squad:

he points to the development of a team which were dumped out of the group stages only four years ago to the world beaters of today as an example of the progress the club has made to be on the threshold of greatness.

He said: “At the time, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney had just come to the club and they hadn’t matured into the players they are now. They are world-class players now.

“Together with the other players the manager has brought in, we’ve got better and better.

“The key with a new team is to win that first trophy. We beat Wigan in the Carling Cup Final in 2006 and went from strength to strength.

“The age of the team is relatively young if you take out me, Edwin van der Sar, Gary Neville and Scholesy.

“We’ve proved this season we can get to the final again and, hopefully, this will give us the confidence to dominate in Europe like we have done in our own league. We have everything in place to do that.”

And looks forward to the final:

“It’s the dream final. Two massive clubs, with massive histories, who play football the right way. There are so many great individuals.

“Everybody is looking forward to it, including the players. ...

“I hope it is a free-flowing game with lots of goals but, sometimes, teams cancel each other out. I hope that’s not the case.”

As does Sir Alex:

“It will be a fantastic final, playing a team with a fantastic philosophy of football and a great club history.

“I watched the game against Real Madrid, an absolutely magnificent performance, and I said to myself: ‘Christ, we have to play them, possibly’. But, then, Chelsea showed they can be beaten.”

Sir Alex also heaps praise on John O'Shea:

“Because of the injuries to Gary Neville and Wes Brown this season, John has become a permanent fixture,” said Ferguson.

“He takes his place in Rome because of his effort. He’s ahead of everyone now.

“He’s showed by playing consistently how his performances have improved with it.

“He’s a fantastic type of person, well-mannered, well brought up. He’s intelligent and he’s got a good work-rate. He likes to work in training.”

The Guardian has a report on the Ronaldo to Real saga which actually makes an interesting, non-sensational read, arguing that buying Ronaldo is something that would send out the wrong message from Real's new president:

Signing Kaka would offer another ­significant political advantage: his arrival would flag up a new era at the club and lay bare the difference between the discredited Calderón and Pérez. Kaka is the player Calderón promised to sign but never did.

Buying Ronaldo would send a rather more ambiguous message. Calderón ­reiterated his claim to have struck a deal with Ronaldo even after he had been ousted from the presidency, insisting that his successor could execute the deal. The point he was trying to make was clear: even if Ronaldo joins a club whose ­president is Pérez, I was the man that brought him to Madrid. Pérez does not want to be seen to endorse Calderón's deal, nor does he wish to have a player even vaguely seen as Calderón's signing. In part, it is that rationale that has made Pérez keen to find a buyer for Arjen Robben, whose signing was the one presidential promise Calderón delivered, after failing with Kaka and Arsenal's Cesc Fábregas.

Nice response from Sir Alex to a Spanish journalist:

The manager had a merry answer even when a Spanish journalist asked if he might become manager of Real Madrid, a club that has irked him with its pursuit of Cristiano Ronaldo. "Do you know how old I am?" he asked. "First of all, I am not going. Second I am trying to make sure Ronaldo doesn't go either." Ferguson retained the air of a man who expects to get his own way, even in a final with Barcelona.

Sir Alex's words on Rio Ferdinand starting against Hull and the chances of him starting the Final:

"I am hoping he will be fit for Sunday, if not he is doubtful for Wednesday that is for sure," said the United manager.

"I think he needs a game going into the Champions League final because him having not played for three weeks is too much.

"The plan is for him to start training with us tomorrow and once we get football training we will have a better idea of his availability for Sunday.

"I think he is probably fit to play Wednesday but whether I would start him without a game is another matter."

And Rio's:

“I’m fine,” the defender said. “I trained with the ball today and did some running, so I’m doing all the movements I need to be doing before a game. I’ve not thought about not playing in the final. It’s as simple as that. No chance.”

Asked whether he felt ready to play on Sunday to prove his fitness to Ferguson, Ferdinand said: “You’ll have to ask the manager. Physically I’d be able to do it, no problem. This has been perhaps the hardest and most important injury battle of my career. There is so much at stake.

“But I haven’t even thought much about the final. I have been so engrossed in my injury that I haven’t thought about much else. I will start thinking about the actual match when I am sitting on the plane to Rome.”

Tevez has a few words on the Final and will he won't he nonsense:

"Maybe it will be my last game and maybe it won't," he said. "I don't know.

"I am not sure whether I will start next week. It is a decision for the manager.

"I will prepare well. That is all I can do. I would like to play but there are some very good players here, so I will just wait."

There's a good piece from Henry Winter on the Sir Alex press conference:

For all its sins, football has that inspiring quality, particularly when performed at the very highest level. Next Wednesday brings a phenomenal advertisement for the Beautiful Game. United have been involved in some classic games this season, notably the wins over Aston Villa and Spurs in the Premier League and the Champions League displays against Arsenal. Pep Guardiola's Barcelona, too, have graced both their domestic competition, including the most aesthetic annihilation of Real Madrid imagainable, and in Europe, as good teams like Lyon and Bayern Munich found out painfully.

"The players that Barcelona and Manchester United have suggests a great final,'' Ferguson added. "We are playing a team with a fantastic philosophy of football, a great history. I watched the game against Real Madrid, an absolutely magnificent performance, and I said to myself: 'Christ, we have to play them possibly' but then Chelsea showed [in narrowly losing the semi] they can be 'beaten'. I take some encouragement from that.''

Ferguson laughed at the suggestion that United would be as defensively-minded as John Terry's team were at the Nou Camp. "We will play with two catenaccios! Definitely! To win a tournament, you have to express yourself in the best possible way – and we have the players to do that.''

From The Mail a humorous transcript from the press conference yesterday:

Reporter: 'Sir Alex, it's almost a two-game strategy, I imagine, with Rome coming up next Wednesday. It's important you get the right team for that and the right team for the weekend?'

Ferguson: 'Well, we're talking about the Champions League aren't we?'

Reporter: 'Not mentioning the implications of choosing the right team on Sunday?'

Ferguson (raising his voice): 'I'm not interested in Sunday at the moment. We are talking about the Champions League. Did you not listen to the girl? Christ! That's a good start.'