Shield For Your Eyes, A Beast In The Well On Your Head

(Image from here)

Community Shield on the agenda today, and Owen's lack of England call-up.
Not entirely sure why the papers are describing Owen's non-inclusion in the England squad a "snub." He wasn't in before, the season hasn't started, he's had no chance to prove himself, why should that change. I would have thought it more shocking had he been picked. Plus, from a Man Utd point of view, it's one less game for him to get injured in... The Daily Star has some quotes from Capello, which seem pretty sensible:

“The door is open for every player and having signed for Manchester United, Owen has a fantastic chance to play for a really important team in the Champions League.“Sir Alex Ferguson, United’s manager, knows very well all the players in England and it was very important for Manchester United that Owen was free. They have to pay only his salary and he now has to play well and score goals. “He has to get back to the way he played before last season.“I saw him against Valencia last Wednesday night and he had a good game but missed a lot of chances – but it is pre-season.“He’s only 29 and while I don’t want to disrupt a squad which has done well, there could be injuries which create opportunities for other players. It is also really important, when you play international games, to play for an important club team. “It’s also important for the future for Owen to play alongside Wayne Rooney, who is getting better with every game and scoring a lot of goals.“It will be easier for them in terms of their movement to play together regularly. The first great pass for Owen against Valencia came from Rooney.”

Onto the Community Shield and Berbatov is the centre of attention following some words from Sir Alex:

"I think we were a bit unfair to him last season but we know how to use him this season and he won't change from that. He won't be playing in deep midfield positions where he found himself a lot last year because the speed of our play doesn't co-ordinate with him in that respect.

"I think that's how we saw him at Tottenham and maybe we were wrong there," he admitted. "Once we realised before the end of the season, he started to stay further up the pitch. He's got a languid style of running but he is quickish [even if] he hasn't got the pace of Ronaldo or Nani."

Which The Telegraph uses to rehash the old "Sir Alex can't spend big money" argument. I'll just quote the beginning of it:

Ferguson is almost beyond criticism at this stage of his career, but one of the few failings generally attributed to him is an inability to spend big money well. He may have bought Rio Ferdinand, Rooney and Ruud van Nistelrooy for princely sums, but...

The bit after the "but" there says Veron and then says there's doubts over x, y and z. So that's proof of the argument isn't it...
The Mail on Sunday speculates that Berba will start today to avoid knocking his confidence:

Faced by the prospect of doing irrevocable damage to the sensitive Bulgaria striker, Ferguson may think it prudent to leave out either Wayne Rooney or Michael Owen instead, even though the partnership has a history of success when they have played together.

The Telegraph focus on Nani with some very positives words from him as well:

"I am thinking only about this season. Forget the past. I want to be the man. I think I have a lot to do to show them my best, because I haven't done that yet. I played a lot of games and did some good things but I need to improve.

"I want to get to the point where I have the confidence of the manager, the players and the fans. Once you have that then everything is possible because you know they are all there to support you.

"I know a lot of people compare me with Cristiano but I don't want that because I'm different. Yes, there are some similarities but we are also different. I have my own skills, my own style of shooting… I don't want to be compared with him all the time, it's not good, especially if things are not going well. I want to hear people speaking about Nani not saying things like 'look, he does that like Cristiano…'.

"It made me a better player, training and playing with him. When I came to Manchester I just watched him, seeing when he chose to pass when he chose to dribble, what I should try and do in similar situations. But I also learned from the others, from Scholes's passing, from Giggs's intelligent movement and from Rooney's finishing. You can learn every day."

The Sunday Times have a long article about Ben Foster - the same type of article we've been reading all summer, so I won't quote here.
The News of The World report on Owen Hargreaves:

OWEN HARGREAVES has secretly flown to Germany in a bid to save his Manchester United career.

The England midfielder, 27, has been having treatment all week at the Munich clinic of top knee specialist Dr Hans Muller-Wolfahrt.

Hargreaves went to Munich after his latest setback and, although Sir Alex Ferguson said Hargreaves would return in 'two to three weeks', Muller-Wolfahrt told the player it could take SIX MONTHS.

How much of the sensationalist report is true remains to be seen.