Just When You Thought I Was Listening

Strangest quote of the day goes to Mike Phelan:

"Michael has come to Manchester United as it a fresh challenge for him.

"We can use him as and when we need to use him. He is not at the forefront of everything.

"It gives him time to prepare and be ready for games like Barnsley. Alternatively we can bring him on as substitute or start him in a first team game."

There must have been some stupid question to trigger such a banal and uninformative answer, an answer which tells us nothing - "Well, we can either start him, or put him on the bench. If he's on the bench he may come on, he may not..." And yet we criticise when anyone in football says something of interest...
There's some sort of investigation into Roberto Martinez's comments, not sure why, he either said it or he didn't:

A full investigation is under way, with the LMA seeking to clarify with Martínez his version of events before deciding on future action.

"We are discussing it internally to see how best we can address the situation to ensure this does not happen again," its chief executive, Richard Bevan, said yesterday. "Until we have concluded our investigation and spoken to Roberto we really have nothing else to inform you of," he added.

Sir Alex has some quotes on international football, which are headlined in the papers (for instance, "Sir Alex slams Samba Friendly") and yet at the end of the comments he says this:

"I no longer worry about it. I accept it as part of the international scene. I no longer focus on every match that is going on because there are so many players all over the world, so I no longer get myself in a twist about it."

So, what is the point of making anything of the comments?
The Sun make a rather silly comparison between mid-season international friendlies and pre-season tours.
Rooney has been shortlisted for FIFA world player of year, other nominees here.