Caravan Song

With the focus on England this morning there's not much on a Man United tip. The Neville quotes I mentioned yesterday are in The Independent this morning, and given a downbeat spin:

With the winds of change blowing through Old Trafford – Rafael da Silva, 15 years his junior, is the coming man at right-back, Neville badly needs a run in the United side and can ill-afford many more setbacks.

His troubles began when a tackle by Gary Speed, then of Bolton Wanderers, in March 2007 broke his ankle and put him out of the game for nearly a year. The difficult afternoon Neville experienced in United's fortunate 3-2 win over Aston Villa on 5 April – his first game in nine weeks – demonstrated the 34-year-old's challenges.

The Manchester Evening News has a long article with the thoughts of our goalkeeping coach, Eric Steele, on Ben Foster. Too long to give the full quotes, here's a taste:

"He has a challenge on here to establish himself. He still has that to do. Edwin still wants it. There is no way he wants his career to end and not be in the team.

"He still has that great ambition to retire as United's number one. Ed will come back with great ambition and fiercely determined to get back into the team and stay there. The nearer Edwin gets Ben will know it. It is a big challenge.

"The four or five games he's had so far this season doesn't convince everyone that he is Edwin's natural successor. He has to do that over a sustained period of games.

"That was always in the manager's plans that with Edwin seeking to retire Ben would get chances. He has to make sure when Edwin is fit again he gives the manager a difficult choice. That's what the manager wants. He wants a dilemma and that's what Ben should be aiming towards."

There's a lot more, the whole thing is worth a read.

There's some quotes from Sir Alex on Gabriel Obertan doing the rounds:

'He’s had a spine problem but I think he will be back in about a month to six weeks,' said Ferguson.

'He has been playing with this back injury for a year and a half and no-one thought about getting a scan.'

'We are taking our time with him because we want him back and 100 percent.'

One England story: Matt Dickinson concentrates on Rooney in his match report:

Because while no player is bigger than the team, Rooney can give a pretty good impression when he is in the mood — which has been in just about every match under Capello, even if Gerrard, Lampard and Lennon were the headline-grabbers last night.

It is not just Rooney’s eight goals in qualifying — which became nine when he seized upon the miskick by the Croatia goalkeeper — but the manner in which he has blossomed into the playmaker’s role that has been denied him in the last couple of seasons at Manchester United, where he has often had to play wide.

Tempted to see a little dig at us in that last bit, but I'll let it slide...

Sepp Blatter speaks for the first time on the Chelsea-ban-thing. Won't quote much from it, just thought, seeing as the English teams seem to be having the worst of the press over this issue, I'd quote this from The Independent's report:

Blatter said Fifa was committed to dealing with the practice of buying up young players and leaving them stranded when things don't work out – a practice actually more prevalent in France than England, where the level of pastoral care is substantial. "They are taken at 14 or 15 years old with clubs saying that their parents are going too. But they get put into another family, and what happens to them?" Blatter asked. "One out of say 20 has a chance to go on in their career. The others are left, and they need to be protected."

One final thing which I ignored when I saw it yesterday, but saw it resurface on the BBC website this morning, so here it is: Rio had a holiday in a caravan:

Ferdinand arrived at Presthaven Sands at the end of his August while his fiancee Rebecca Ellison and their two sons, aged three and one, were spending a weekend in one of the site's top-of-the-range caravans, costing about £400.

The Presthaven website describes the caravans: "There's clever storage, high levels of comfort and all the essentials that you need for a great holiday, our good value standard range has everything you need, whilst at the top of the range, platinum offer the ultimate in quality and style for that special 'wow' factor offering you the best of everything."

Which I might as well use as an excuse to post this video by Darren Hayman, songwriting genius, "Caravan Song"