Dirty Black Summer

Today's a bit quiet so The Daily Star come up with an ingenious solution - start speculating about next summer's transfer window - they note Sir Alex and Kenny Dalglish are fans of Spurs Kyle Walker, note his achievements last season, before saying:

So there will be a queue of clubs eyeing his situation if Walker fails to break into Harry Redknapp’s Spurs team this season.

And that really is the story.  As if there weren't enough rumours about this summer...

The Independent on Sunday have a prosaic look at the summer's transfer activity so far, comparing our's and City's:

The moment Manchester City qualified for the Champions League was the moment the Tottenham manager, Harry Redknapp, knew he could no longer compete. "I know some people in the right positions at Manchester City and they have players signed already that will blow your brains out," he remarked. That was two months ago.

Gaël Clichy is a fine if slightly error-prone left back but he is not the kind of signing that would make Redknapp's chairman, Daniel Levy, reach for a revolver and a bottle of whisky. But there is something remarkable about Clichy's transfer from Arsenal. At £7m he will be the cheapest footballer to sign for City since the oil money from Abu Dhabi started flowing in. Meanwhile, five miles away, Manchester United have embarked on what, in real terms, is their most expansive summer in the transfer market for a decade.

There's a possible (maybe I'm over-sensitive) dig as they compare our current spending with the summer spend that bought us Veron.  Though as Veron's best performances came in Europe, and that's where we fell short last season, maybe the comparison is unwittingly apt. Here's their summary of the overall situation:

In the sombre afterglow of the rout at Wembley in this year's Champions' League final, Ferguson declared himself "ready to meet the challenge of Barcelona", the team but for whom United might have equalled Liverpool's English record of five European Cups. The arrival of Wesley Sneijder, the focal point of the Internazionale side that did beat Barcelona, in the 2010 semi-finals, would be a statement of that intent, as are the unsubstantiated reports that United are prepared to pay the kind of wages that eased Yaya Touré's journey from Barcelona to City. However, the Dutchman has been talking about the city of Milan in the kind of language that might have been scripted by the Italian tourist board. Arsenal's Samir Nasri appears far more approachable.

A couple of stories linking our players with moves to Sunderland - The Mail on Sunday go for Wes Brown, The Daily Star for John O'Shea, and say that Everton are favourites for Brown.  These transfers are turning into sagas... maybe one day something will happen...

Some sabre-rattling quotes from Evra:

 “We have won the Premier League 19 times but it does not lose its excitement.

“That is the curse of Manchester United. It is never enough to win the trophies.

“That’s why United are a big club and we want to stay on the top.

“And next season we are going to have the same hunger to win every game. If you don’t have the hunger, you will get the hairdryer from Ferguson!”

Finally The Mail On Sunday have the inside scoop on Sir Alex's thoughts, claiming, in an article that has no quotes or quoted (or even mentioned) sources:

Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted he was prepared to break a club record to take Alexis Sanchez to Manchester United.

And he's moving onto concentrating on Sneijder or Modric.  A story that would be more believable it even pretended to be sourced.