Memo To Pricey

The main story today is an interview with Sir Alex in he which he speaks on a number of things. The full transcript of it is here. Selection of the best bits - on Tevez:

We made contact with Carlos, I sent him texts and spoke to him when he was in Argentina. David Gill (United chief executive) made an offer to Kia Joorabchian so I spoke to Carlos before the Inter Milan game (in the spring) and said that we had spoken to Kia.

But we never heard back. In my opinion I didn’t think he was worth £25million, that’s just my judgment, maybe I’m wrong. The fans quite rightly have their heroes, and I respect the fans so I was happy to go along with a deal as long as it was the right deal.

Our success is down to the fans and their support, we need them when we are away from home to the likes of Fulham and Arsenal. But simply he was not worth £25m.

He's a lot kinder on Ronaldo:

There’s no doubt he’s a huge loss. I think it’s a challenge for us. It won’t be the same without Ronaldo. It can’t be. Without question, in my mind, he is the best player in this world of ours. By absolutely miles.

He is streets ahead of Messi, streets ahead of Kaka. Absolutely. Look at his figures. They are unbelievable. The attempts he has on goal, the attacks into the penalty box, his positions, headers, shots… it’s unbelievable.

And optimistic on the team without Ronaldo:

Well, we are a different team now and we will shape it differently. We’ll be more compact in midfield because he [Ronaldo] was a bit loose in his defending. We’ll be more compact, but we also have the increasing maturity of players like Darren Fletcher.

Owen Hargreaves will come back, Anderson will improve, Nani will improve, Rooney will improve. I think they’ve got to improve, the young players, and we expect them to improve. I think Dimitar Berbatov will have a terrific season, too. So we’re not so bad.

His thoughts on Owen's place in the squad:

We’re the one club that can carry him because I rotate all the time, anyway.

I won’t ask him to play every four days. I might ask him to play every 10 days, you know. You get the same things off Owen all the time — the ball moves into the last third and he is looking to be in between players immediately.

The ball comes into the penalty box or six-yard box and he is always there.

And his comments on The Champions League final are great:

I know exactly what went wrong, but I’m not going to get into it. We threw it away, I will say that. I’m not getting into it at all. It’s not even worth talking about.

There's more on Man City, Arsenal Chelsea and transfers, so the whole thing is worth reading.
A comfortable 2-0 win in our second friendly against Malaysia is the other news, with this Press Association report, here from The Independent, being circulated in a lot of the papers:

Michael Owen was on the mark again as Manchester United wrapped up the Malaysian leg of their Far East tour with another comfortable win.

Owen got United's second, just two minutes after Federico Macheda's 11th-minute opener, which proved to be the end of the scoring for United, despite their domination. ...

Owen is certainly enjoying himself, and came close to grabbing his second when he met a low Tosic cross with a near-post flick that cannoned off the inside of a post.

Another forward with a desire to impress is Macheda, who made such a huge impression when he was introduced to senior ranks last term.

Now handed the coveted fourth striking berth following the exits of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez, the 17-year-old needs to prove he has the consistency to be an effective Premier League operator at such a young age.

There was plenty to be admired about the calm way he finished off a Ryan Giggs cross to open United's account just two minutes before Owen found the net.

Darron Gibson was one of those to impress, showing why Ferguson has handed him a new contract.

Macheda definitely looked bright, Owen's movement looked bright, but a lot of our best football was played after the arrival of Rooney and Berbatov, perhaps reflecting what the pecking order will/should be for the new season. Tosic also looked good, not afraid to run at people, although his crossing needs a bit of work on the evidence of this game.
The Mail is the only paper to do the really predictable thing and pick up on Rooney's loss of temper:

Sir Alex Ferguson sprang to the defence of Wayne Rooney on Monday night after the Manchester United forward marked his second pre-season appearance with an ugly and unnecessary lunge at an opponent here. ...
the 23-year-old let his temper get the better of him when the teams met again last night, diving in at the ankles of midfielder Amar Rohidan. His opponent may have made a meal of it but it was a poor challenge nonetheless, apparently prompted by a tangle Rooney had with goalkeeper Mohammad Marlias earlier.

'The keeper whacked him in the ear and that had already been stitched,' Ferguson said. 'I think that caused it. It was just a momentary explosion of anger.'

The fact that The Mail says that it was a "tangle with the keeper", when, as Sir Alex points out, it was a "whack" from the keeper, says everything about their agenda.
Some post-match quotes from Sir Alex:

"I am pleased that Macheda and Owen have struck up a good
partnership.

"We have big hopes for Macheda. He is one of the reasons we didn't go into the
market. He is strong, athletic and a good finisher.

"He played his part last season but he is just a young lad learning his game."

Ferguson was also pleased with Owen, who grabbed his second goal in two
pre-season games.

"It was a typical Michael Owen goal. He reacted first as he did the other
night, his whole contribution was very good," he said.