Conspiracy Theory

Big game today, so, obviously, that's what all the papers are concentrating on.  Pretty much.

The Mail On Sunday bucks the trend with a couple of very silly stories.  Park Ji-Sung is popular in South Korea they tell us. He sells a lot of shirts.   I thought all the papers would have got this story out of their system by now, given how long Park's been with us.  But apparently The Mail hasn't.  They also haven't got the memo entitled "Sir Alex can't chose his own successor," reporting that... Sir Alex wants Mourinho as his successor...

They do eventually get round to talking about football.  They have the standard Rooney is great and newly matured article - one waits for the backlash at the merest hint of a temper from Rooney.... And Gary Neville concentrates on Chelsea in his column.

The Telegraph have Sir Alex pointing out the obvious - that the media have an agenda with De Gea:

the United manager claims forces in the press are deliberately trying to undermine De Gea. Ferguson said: “There’s obviously an agenda on De Gea and we experienced that with the press again on Wednesday night after the game in Benfica.“For some reason they are desperate for the boy to fail and I don’t understand it. He will be back in the team against Chelsea absolutely – that was always the arrangement.“It’s nothing to do with his age, they never did that with [Petr] Cech [when he joined Chelsea].“He’s 20 and he’s coming into a country where he doesn’t know the culture. There’s a lot he’s had to deal with and he’s showing a lot of composure about the whole thing. He doesn’t speak English, he’s been looking for a house and now found one, he’s been learning to drive in England.  

“He’s not been flapping about in the goalmouth, he’s been really composed. He’s outstanding.”

I think the truth of the statement is shown in the last bit, because he's right, it's a couple of shots that have got through De Gea, he's not been flapping, or looking nervous on crosses, and yet the papers are constantly claiming he looks just plain dodgy.  Of course you can't win, because such comments have to be put through the media anyway, and they just claim its nonsense.  Even the stat that De Gea has made the most saves in the Premier League doesn't shut the idiots up.

The Independent have praise for Rooney, from Gary Neville.  here he is trying to explain Rooney asking for a transfer last season:

"He was badly advised," is his former team-mate's charitable interpretation. "It was so out of character for him to be like that. But he misread the situation, there's no doubt about that. I don't think he was going through a great time, he'd come out of a very difficult World Cup, had things written about him, had big things happen in his life. When you're not thinking clearly you can make bad decisions. We all have. The key is you apologise and get on with it and he's certainly done that."

Worth a read, covers a fair bit of Rooney related ground, as well as touching on other areas.

The Guardian have a good article on Rooney and the Pele comparison:

What the Manchester United manager did say was in response to the Benfica coach's suggestion that Rooney was like a South American striker, and Ferguson even disagreed with that. "He's a typical British player," he said, somewhat mystified by Jorge Jesus's remarks. "But if you look at Pelé, for instance, he was a very aggressive attacker who could also look after himself, and so can Rooney. There are similarities in terms of strength, speed and determination."Let's hear it, then, for all the other typically British attackers who by virtue of being aggressive and able to look after themselves must also be a bit like Pelé. Alan Shearer, Mark Hughes and Kevin Davies, for starters. All right, perhaps not Davies, though it is hardly the Bolton player's fault that the job of leading most Premier League lines has largely gone to foreign imports.

That is one reason why Rooney stands out. He is the main man for United and England, as synonymous with this country's brand of football as Bobby Charlton in his pomp. 

Finally, The Daily Star have an odd article on Villas-Boas, saying he'll ignore the "barrage of abuse" he'll get from the Man United fans.  What?  Since when?  Before the game a national paper just randomly claiming our fans will abuse someone.  Call us out on it after the event, if it happens, but it seems odd that we should be singled out in this way. The type of thing I'd expect from The Mirror...