Bit of transfer talk, mainly on players out, and the usual resuscitation of Sneidjer talk, and a bit of praise for Rooney make up today's bag of paper talk.
Starting at the silly, and The Mail report that that-rich-Russian-club-that-bought-Eto'o want Vidic for £25 million. Sure that's going to happen...
Only 2 days and we'll never have to hear the name Sneidjer again, but until then, The Telegraph report that the move is still a remote possibility. Though The Mail counter with quotes from Sneidjer that they interpret as him staying at Inter, the rest of the world sighs and moves on.
Tottenham Hotspur are prepared to test Owen Hargreaves' claim that he can play 40 games a season again by giving the former England midfielder a medical test this week as they investigate the possibility of taking on the injury-racked midfielder.
Technically, Hargreaves, 30, as a free agent, can sign at any time but such is the interest in the player that manager Harry Redknapp is prepared to have the former Manchester United man at the Spurs' training ground this week to allow his medical department to check on the player's fitness. Hargreaves gave an interview at the weekend in which he made the claim that he could play 40 games a season and would "blow people away".
The Mail add spice to the story by making it a race between Villa and Spurs for his services.
Following on from Sunday's game, The Independent look at the difference in youth policy between the two clubs:
To borrow Alan Hansen's phrase, it is Arsène Wenger, not Sir Alex Ferguson, who has won nothing with kids. Perhaps significantly, it was around the time the club abandoned Highbury for the Emirates Stadium, when money was suddenly tight, that the drive for youth began. There have been many individual highs and some of the most exquisite football the Premier League has seen but no silverware to landmark their achievements.Ferguson has always been obsessed with developing his own footballers, in part because they were easier to mould in his own image. "Orange-juice heroes" he called them, in contrast to the more difficult figures of Norman Whiteside and Paul McGrath, who drank something altogether stronger.It was said that the making of the Lisbon Lions was that the Celtic team that won the European Cup were all born within 30 miles of Parkhead. The Manchester United team that in the space of a week demolished Tottenham and humiliated Arsenal is united not by geography but by age. David de Gea, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Jonny Evans, Danny Welbeck, Tom Cleverley, Anderson and Nani – a veteran at 24 – have all been born since Ferguson has been managing Manchester United.
Their youth gives them a shared purpose but alone it would not have forged the side that drove Wenger towards his deepest humiliation as a football man. It was the way they were brought up.
While Rooney comes in for praise following his hat-trick on Sunday, Richard Williams in The Guardian arguing he's better than ever:
It was not just the two beautifully executed free-kicks and the exemplary penalty. Everything else about Wayne Rooney's performance against Arsenal on Sunday spoke of a player restored to the peak of his powers, looking – perhaps more than at any time since his teenage years – as though he could take a football and do anything with it that he wished.
This was the performance of a complete No10 in the classic mould, a fantasist and a finisher in one package, inspiring his colleagues with a flow of nimble-witted, technically flawless interventions. The match was not a quarter of an hour old and still goalless when he orchestrated a move, involving multiple exchanges between Anderson, Ashley Young, Danny Welbeck and himself, which looked like a high‑spirited, anything-you-can-do pastiche of Arsenal's own intricate style. His new, slimmer silhouette seemed to be everywhere, at the heart of everything his side did. And this from a man who, quite recently, could not trap a bag of suet.
While Henry Winter looks at Rooney's form in an Engand context:
Now is the time to cherish Rooney, to forget finally the falling-out with England fans in Cape Town a year ago. Those 3,000 travelling supporters sweltering in the heat of Vasil Levski's embrace will cheer his name, painfully aware what disaster would befall the team should Rooney be ambushed along Metatarsal Alley again.
The joy stirred by Rooney flows partly from the energy and commitment levels which enable him to perform almost the work of two men, shaping and finishing moves. Such qualities were thrillingly witnessed in his hat-trick and all-round contribution to Sunday's 8-2 demolition of Arsenal by United.
And if we don't get the result it's nicely built up to be all Rooney's fault...
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