Everybody's Free

I'm calling this a devil's advocate piece, because essentially, I agree with Rio Ferdinand not wearing the T-shirt.  Perhaps not wearing it without consulting with your manager who's just been on the TV telling the world everyone will be wearing the T-shirt, is not the greatest idea, but let's at least agree his gesture was a good one.

However, having seen the ridiculous reactions of a certain portion of Twitter users slagging off Sir Alex or coming up with conspiracy theories about how it's all engineered to get rid of Rio, I think we need to have a bit of a reality check.  It's almost become one of those ridiculous things were idiots start talking about their human right to [insert the most ridiculous and trivial thing you can think of here].  It's a campaign worthy of the Daily Mail.

Look at this:

Players’ union chairman Clarke Carlisle is ready to back Ferdinand.

He said: “We will monitor the situation and make sure Rio Ferdinand’s rights are not undermined.

“Everyone has a right to free speech — just like you can’t coerce anyone into shaking hands, you can’t make somebody wear a T-shirt — although I do personally believe that joining in with the campaign is the best way forward.”

And this from a footballer.  Isn't the very essence of football about forcing people to wear shirts?  On the pitch we'd probably be within our rights to say, "Rio, put your shirt on, we're a team, we need to recognise each other quickly, that's why we all wear the same shirt and they all wear the same, but different to ours, shirt.  Just get on with it."

And I seem to remember pretty much the same group of people who are supporting Rio's rights are the same group of people calling for Chelsea/England to suspend John Terry because he's representing them and thus his behaviour, especially for actions done in their shirt, should bear a responsibility to them and their image is reflected in him.

That's different though, they say... (it isn't).

There's another post waiting to be written on Sir Alex as Freud's Primal Father, this isn't the place to go into too much detail, but the father is considered omnipresent, all powerful.  The sons rise and kill him and they are free, but they must live with the guilt.  We should worry about this if any of the ridiculous criticisms lots of fans like to make of him finally have their desired effect.

And one last thing, I've barely seen this mentioned on Twitter because it doesn't fit the popular narrative.  In contrast to the unsourced piece in The Sun yesterday claiming Rio would be fined £220,000 which was everywhere yesterday.  This piece suggests the issue might have been put to rest:

Sir Alex Ferguson moved to avoid a breakdown in his relationship with Rio Ferdinand yesterday by holding talks in which he accepted that the defender will not apologise for refusing to wear a Kick It Out T-shirt.

The two met after Ferdinand had arrived for a training session yesterday, when the United manager explained that it was the lack of advance notice from the player of his intention to boycott the anti-racism campaign – in contravention of Ferguson's orders – which had angered him. The 33-year-old has apologised to Ferguson for that but has not voiced any contrition for the act itself.

The outcome of the meeting, at the club's Carrington training ground yesterday morning, allows both men to save face and appears to have taken some of the sting out of the issue ... Ferdinand will be severely indignant if he finds himself fined two weeks' wages – £220,000 – by Ferguson when plenty of Premier League players have been given freedom of choice in the matter by their managers.

A fine seems unlikely

Foreign Language

It's not so much that Michael Owen joins in the ridiculous "It's them damn foreigners who brought the dirty diving to our shores" chorus.  Yesterday I had a go at that silly attitude, but finished by suggesting it may be a bit forgiveable coming from the mouth of an older generation whose mindset is stuck in the past.  So it's disappointing that someone like Michael Owen would repeat such a line, but even more disappointing is that all the papers just let him get away with it.
In any other line of work saying, "bloody foreigners coming over here with their dirty tricks," would be frowned upon and openly criticised by any right-thinking person, but apparently footballers can say it and it's taken as a serious point.

"You can trace all diving in the Premier League to one small tribe in Italy, before then, in the midst of time, football was a joyful game, played in the same spirit as they still have in that wonderful utopia they call Rugby, people slapping each other on the back, patting bottoms, shaking the hands of their opponents when they score, 'good goal sir,' and at the end of the game going out for tea and scones with all the crowd.  The referee was more of a watcher, just a fan who got lucky and a close up view of the action. In this Italian tribe though, they played dirty, they had no respect for the opponent or the referee and tried anything they could to win, even downright simulation.  Then, one day, there was a flood or a drought or a plague or something and they were forced from their lands, and they spread all over the place, some stayed in Italy, others went out across Europe, some even found their way to South America.  Wherever they went they played football and cheated and infected everyone they played football with.  Football's innocence was shattered, it would never be the same again, except in good ol' Blighty, which held out until the 21st century until someone discovered the Channel Tunnel..."

So all the papers report it as some sort of interesting debate, instead of the silly xenophobic rubbish it is. The Guardian jut ignore it, concentrating on the more trivial line, Owen admitting he sometimes goes down a bit easy.  Which, to paraphrase Owen himself on Twitter, "no shit Sherlock."

And in case anyone was wondering, over 64% of Premier League footballers are foreign, so can we quickly escalate this debate into the "bloody foreigners, stealing all our footballers jobs..."

I Dive

At first I found it a little strange that The FA haven't put a "no diving" clause into their new "Code of Conduct." With all the publicity about diving at the moment it would have seemed a good way to signal an attempt to eradicate it, or at least show that it won't be tolerated.

After a bit of thought though it occurred to me that obviously there wasn't any real need to, because, as everyone knows, English people don't dive. Can you really imagine Steven Gerrard [and yes, I could here have named many an English player, including some Man Utd ones but it works so much better with Stevie G because the whole blinkered "honest English players" view upholds him as the great bulldog type English spirit, no nonsense, no fancy foreign nonsense, whereas the truth is he is very good at diving, you could probably say he's a natural, he could teach Suarez a thing or two about diving, because whatever anyone says, Suarez is an awful diver, that's why he's always getting flak for it, if he was any good, he'd get caught less, like Stevie G] throwing himself to the floor in an attempt to gain an advantage?

Every major tournament we go and we have high expectations and the moral high ground and every major tournament we come home having been cheated out of victory, not outplayed, never outplayed, cheated out of our rightful place at football's pinnacle.  We all saw for ourselves how the Spanish went from being also-rans to World and European champions - not by becoming better at football, developing a great passing team and technically gifted players, but by becoming more cunning and devious, put simply, they became better at cheating.

All of this poses the question, "But aren't you English therefore just a little bit stupid, why stay on your clean but trophyless high horse, when you could be down here competing with us?  And frankly, you've had us foreigners in your country for a decade or so now, and you've let us play football, and yet none of our cheating ways has infected your own players, who still play the game as it was intended, in the spirit of little children in the park and Luis Suarez."

We like to stay isolated from these foreign influences, it's been the same throughout history, never let any outside influences into our culture.  You can even see it in the fact that our footballers hate going to play overseas, it's not through lack of offers, but we see the cheating that goes on over there (literally every game of football is just people falling over holding their faces in acres of space) and we say "no."

(Another way of reading Sir Alex's comments on foreign players (except Nani) diving is to do the wonderful paper trick of reading too deeply into everything he says.  So for instance if he congratulates van Persie on having a good game and looking sharp you read that as a criticism of Rooney for having a bad game.  So, here's his quote:

"We have known for quite a few years there are plenty of players diving and, you have to say, particularly foreign players," said Ferguson.

But the 70-year-old Scot insisted: "Nani is not the type to dive. He has never been that type of player."

First thing we could do is just assume that he is actually slagging off Nani, because that's another trick the papers like to pull - everything is a sign that Sir Alex no longer likes Nani and wants rid.  When he says "he's not that type of player," he really means he is.  Or we could just read that as him saying that he wants Nani to stop being that type of player, so if he says he isn't he'll have to stop.

Or we could probably just read the whole thing as one of the dangers of having a manager whose getting on and is pretty old-school and whose opinions on foreign players, presumably set in the days when they were all considered a bit fancy with all their flair and their fancy hairs and the like, are just too deep-set to change and best ignored, although it comes to something when anyone takes such nonsense seriously.

Pay The Price

Further to the post I wrote on Monday about Alan Pardew's selective use of the word "unsavoury," here he is defending Wonga:

"I listened to the owner and their customer satisfaction levels are higher than any other bank or lending facility"

Not content with simply saying, "I run the football side of things, ask me questions on that, not the money," he throws his full support behind the new sponsors.  No wonder he's been given an 8 year contract as Mike Ashley's puppet manager.

After a brief, pushed for time Google, here's a few quotes from one article I found:

research from Which? in May found that one in five of payday borrowers had not been able to pay back their loan on time - at which point exceptionally high interest rates can kick in - while a third of people said they had experienced greater financial problems as a result of taking out a payday loan

I'm sure they're satisfied customers.  Here's some more who are likely to be satisfied:

In May, the OFT warned Wonga to improve its debt collection practices after complaints it was effectively trying to frighten people who did not pay up on time.

What's the definition of "unsavoury" again Alan? 

Slap Them Up

In the middle of this piece, headlined - "Really Violent Player! Pardew calls for probe into Van Persie 'elbow' on Toon star Cabaye" - there's this line:

His indiscretion should not detract from the performance manager Sir Alex Ferguson called United’s best of the season.

Yet it self-evidently has.  And managers calling for players to be banned retrospectively is pretty unsavoury:

"He's looked at Yohan and he's elbowed him," said Alan Pardew, Newcastle's manager. "I think that needs to be looked at, if I'm honest.

"There's a bit of history between those two players and I don't know whether he's got caught up in that but it was a little bit unsavoury.

"At the time I didn't see it [the elbow] but I thought Yohan wouldn't have gone down if Van Persie hadn't done something. But I've obviously seen the replay now and it looks as if Van Persie's looked at him and put the elbow in. But that's for the FA to decide on, not me."

Yes it is.  And I've seen the replay too Alan and it looks like your player went down like Suarez at barely a glance from van Persie, and if you want unsavoury look at some of your player's lunging tackles and also your owner taking money off Wonga:

Whereas Pardew wants his team to pass and move with dash and daring, Mike Ashley, Newcastle's owner, possesses a rare capacity to court unpopularity in pursuit of financial benefit. Accordingly Tyneside woke to reports that Wonga, the payday loans company often criticised for its interest rates, was in advanced negotiations with Newcastle over a shirt and, possibly, stadium sponsorship deal.

To say the prospect did not go down well with fans would be an understatement. Indeed, judging from the initial reaction, the debate about the club's wider social responsibilities versus a potential £8m a year for player investment seemed as one-sided as the opening stages of Manchester United's visit.

And for the record I think Tony Pulis calling for a ban on Suarez is just as bad. Letting Suarez's cheating speak for itself would have been much more eloquent.

Goal

Van Persie's first vs Cluj



And his second

Goal

Anderson scores a cracker to open the scoring against Newcastle -



Cleverley's nice shot makes it 2-0

Goal

Rafael's equaliser against Liverpool


And RvP's penalty winner -

Nobody's Fault But Mine

It's a bit of a special paper round-up today, where I take advantage of being to busy to write one all weekend to do a round-up of all the anti-Man Utd stuff that's been in the papers all weekend.

Some people chanted some things.

It's been interesting to watch the story unfold over the weekend.  Starting with an over-wrought tweet, "Madness"?  Really.  At best insensitive, never madness. And then asks the club for a response, which response is then reported as the club spontaneously issuing a statement condemning the chants.  Which I've no truck with.  We can indeed contrast this quick response and unequivocal condemnation with a certain other club's response to wrongdoing.

The next phase is the entire media misreporting the chants as Hillsborough related, which they weren't before gradually changing their reports to anti-Liverpool, which they were.  The two are still linked in reports though:

The song in question has been sung ever since the Luis Suárez-Patrice Evra incident in the corresponding Anfield fixture last season, after which the Uruguayan was found guilty of aiming racist slurs at the French left-back, receiving an eight-match ban and a £40,000 fine.

While a minority of United fans have directed chants at Liverpool regarding Hillsborough for a number of years, a Liverpool minority have also sung songs referring to the Munich air disaster of 1958 in which 23 people died.

Anti-Liverpool does not equal anti-Hillsborough.  Having said that perhaps the chants were insensitive.  But then again, we were at home, against Wigan.  The chants weren't aimed at Liverpool supporters, the media coverage thus stirs the bad feeling, bringing it to attention, creating the story. By their very nature offensive chants are meant to be offensive.  Bringing them to the notice of those they were meant to offend seems a little counter-productive, especially when many of the stories also go on about how flames should not be fanned before the meeting of the two clubs next week.  The media have their cake and eat it - "We're just reporting events, we are not responsible for setting off any chain reaction, let the fans be responsible, not us."  The media stir up trouble while at the same time pretending to be a neutral canvas just waiting to be painted with news.

The story is so ingrained by this point that The Telegraph can turn MUST's statement saying the chants weren't Hillsborough related, into a statement condemning the chants, with the headline saying 

"Manchester United supporters group condemn Hillsborough chants directed at Liverpool fans," which they do, but they also note that there weren't any Hillsborough chants.

By Sunday the papers are reporting that The Premier League won't be taking any action over the chants.  Well of course they won't, there's nothing to take action against.

The Independent link the chanting with John Terry and Anton Ferdinand not shaking hands, in a bizarre piece presumably trying to paint football in some sort of uncivilised brush.  It confuses me why one man refusing to shake hands with the man he thinks racially abused him somehow means that football is a horrible sport.  And this after all the papers were up in arms when Sepp Blatter suggested that racism on the pitch can be solved with a handshake.

So yes, one little chant snowballs into the biggest story of the weekend.  The impression is created that we were singing anti-Hillsborough chants, and even though all the stories now admit we weren't, the fact that the the stories are still going on undermines that point.  Thus they get to say, "look nowhere do we claim they were anti-Hillsborough," but always linking it with Hillsborough.  And so we prepare for a Liverpool-Man Utd game where the media are doing their best to create a situation.

"Only the media, it's never their fault..."

A further thought - that the ground for this weekend's story was already prepared with stories beforehand, and the question to Sir Alex, on the need for fans of both clubs to respect the others.  The weekend was a self-fulfilling prophecy, any chant would have done, it was the story they wanted to write. 

She Got A Wiggle

MOTD highlights of yesterday's game, including Alan Shearer's cutting edge analysis - "Well, it was only Wigan, and what about that keeper eh, and it was only Wigan..." -

Infatuation/Memories

Would it make me some sort of Berba-stalker if I continue posting up his goals?  Whatever, another week for old times sake can't hurt.  One great finish, and one penalty:

Goal

Scholes opens the scoring vs Wigan -




Hernandez adds the second


Buttner makes it 3 with a great run




And Nick Powell scores a beauty on his debut to make it 4

Clever Girls like Clever Boys

After a few days of enforced absence the paper round up is back, just in time for the weekend's game.  Not that there's much about.

Ahead of Saturday's game Roberto Martinez praises Cleverley:

"He can play in many positions and he is happy to be in one-v-one situations offensively and defensively, that's where he's got real variation," Martínez said. "Sometimes it can be a negative to be able to play in a number of positions. Some players are a jack of all trades but not special in any of them. Tom is special in what he does, while understanding other roles within the team just as well. But if you were to ask him what is his best position, I would say central midfield. And I think Manchester United always saw him as that – even while he was here." ...

"I have said it before, when he was with us, that his tactical ability is not normal for a player of his age in this country. He is someone who could easily fit into the Dutch or Spanish way of playing quite easily, such is his technical ability and awareness."

Michael Owen quotes which are, in places, taken as him saying he had a year too long with us, but aren't quite that simple, it's more regret that the last year wasn't better, because of injuries:

"The thing is, when the manager said to me [before the 2011-12 season] that I would have a big role to play and he wanted me to stay, it was great to hear that from Sir Alex Ferguson. But in hindsight that extra year, it might have been better if I had moved – though the problem last season was I was injured, so it might not have mattered anyway."

The Mail looks at Scholes, who's 700th game could be tomorrow.  It's a bit of a look back at his career and hysterically includes his worst tackles, which could be seen as glorifying foul play, but the Mail would never do that would they... 

Ten Years On

“You can’t assume you’re going to play,” said Rooney. “But I’ve always worked very, very hard to make sure the manager has to play me.

“I’ve had this injury setback but I’m working very hard in the gym to make sure that when I’m told it’s OK to return, then I’ll be back in there and scoring goals.

“We’ve so many forwards now. I think that competition is great for us all. We’re all fighting to get into the team and score goals.

“It’s great for the manager and we all have to make sure we give the manager the headache he wants in one way but doesn’t in another.

“I’m looking forward to getting back into the team and trying to forge an understanding with Robin."

The article finishes on a little joke from Rooney:

“It will obviously be United and City [chasing the title],” said Rooney. “But Chelsea are very ­experienced and will always be in there.

“It wouldn’t surprise me to see Liverpool coming back. Brendan Rodgers is a good manager and he’ll get them playing good football.”

The Daily Star have him on the asking to leave thing from a couple of years back:

“Sometimes as a player you make bad choices and decisions.

“You see yourself somewhere else and that can play on your mind and make you say or do things you shouldn’t have done.

“I knew quickly I’d made a mistake. I spoke with (chief executive) David Gill and the manager and went home and was sat there thinking ‘right, what’s the plan?’ basically.

“I went back to see David Gill and the manager and said I’d made a mistake and if I can I would like to stay here if that’s what you want and hopefully we can work together and be successful in the future.”

We can safely say that The Mail like to exaggerate, "Rooney a millimetre from death," they proclaim:

Manchester United’s doctors told Rooney of the potentially fatal situation after he was carried off at Old Trafford two weeks ago when Fulham striker Hugo Rodallega’s studs sliced a six-inch gash down the inside of his right leg.

Left untreated, a patient will bleed to death within 10 minutes once the artery is punctured.

Yes, because there's not many people to treat an injury on a football pitch...  The article has extensive description from Wayne on the whole thing if you'd like more information on the injury.

I didn't see it, but apparently Cleverley had a good game for England yesterday, read all about it in The Guardian.

Bad news on the defensive front as Phil Jones suffers an injury setback, say The Mail.

Nation of Bore

Internationals still taking up the inches today, so not much around.

Some quotes from Carrick on England, from The Guardian:

"I realise this is an opportunity," he said. "I could spend a lot of time thinking about the past, but I can't blame everyone else that I've got so few caps – sometimes I haven't played well enough to get in the team.

"My ego is not that big to think I should have been playing every game for England, but it's up to me now to play well enough to play in the games ahead. A chance to start afresh. I am more than capable of being part of the team if I'm playing at my best.

"The manager didn't have to say too much to me to bring me back. I still want to be part of the England team. I'm delighted to be here again, I've missed the buzz, and, if I'm playing well enough and deserve my place, I'll get a fair chance of playing. If not, I won't."

The thing is, both in this story and Henry Winter in The Telegraph, it's said that he's been overlooked because of Gerrard and Lampard-

His 23 caps spread across 11 years, the 31-year-old Carrick knows that Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard continue to bar the way despite his well-received showing in Berne last month.

“The respect is there because they’re top players and they have been for so long,’’ reflected Carrick, who arrived in Chisinau with Gerrard, Lampard and company on Thursday. [The Guardian]

-

Players such as Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, for all the national team's inconsistencies, have at least offered a more dynamic approach and a goal threat to transform an occasion. That pair have cast Carrick to the periphery for more than a decade. [The Telegraph]

And England have been awful in possession and not looked like winning a damn thing for the whole decade, so it maybe shouldn't just be casually mentioned that they so obviously ahead of Carrick.  The question is why have manager after manager stuck with exactly the same failing plan?

In actual Man United news, The Mail make up a story about Nani's wage demands preventing his move to Zenit, when really it was the flying pigs...

Finally The Sun report that Rooney could be back before the end of the month, according to the player himself:

“The injury is going well. It could have been a lot worse than what it was. It is up to the doctor. When he declares me fit I will be ready.

“It feels good at the minute. The timescale put on it was four weeks. If that is the time they feel I need for the wound to heal properly then that is what I will do.

“What I don’t want to happen is to come back too early when it is not quite healed and it opens up again first game. That would just set me back again another four weeks.”

He added: “Overall, I think at the most I will miss four games."

I Will Not Sing A Hateful Song

The video you thought you'd never see.  The video you never ever wanted to see.  Robin van Persie singing "You'll Never Walk Alone"  Frankly, I can't understand why anyone would want to watch anyone sing the song, never mind one of our players.  Luckily there's no need to panic, the video's from 2011 and the song is also the anthem of his former Dutch club, Excelsior.  Unlucky for them.
Here it is if you want to torture yourself:

Song for Children

We're getting into proper international mode today, so there's not a great deal in the papers.  The Guardian take the opportunity to slag off Rooney.  What's that you cry?  He's not even playing for England.  No, he's not, but that gives Jamie Jackson a roundabout way to slag him off.

Wayne Rooney has been awol from international duty for most of the past year, yet still he has never been out of the headlines. ...

As a result Moldova, Tuesday's meeting with Ukraine and, possibly, next month's qualifiers with San Marino and Poland could all be yet more opportunities missed to increase his 29 goals from 76 caps. This injury is not Rooney's fault, of course.

I like that distancing tactic, "he's never out of the headlines.... so I'd better write about him." The stupidest thing is writing a piece about he's injured and not playing and imply it's a fitness issue and then go, "but he's out because of a gash that wasn't his fault, and yet...."  I'd expect this from The Mail

Speaking of whom, financial fair play rules which are being discussed today boil down to this for The Mail,

"Running scared! United want to put brake on City's kamikaze spending"

No we don't, it turns out. Standard financial fair play story dressed up as us trying to get at Chelsea and City.  Everyone else supports it if I remember rightly:

The proposals, similar to UEFA’s financial fair play rules, could lead to clubs being forced to break even every year or face sanctions.

While that might suit the likes of United and Arsenal, it would be bad news for City, whose losses of £197million in 2010-11 were the biggest in football history.

So yes, supported by UEFA, and it would also seem The Mail are suggesting that losses of almost £200 million are a good thing.  Shame on them...

The Independent have the us-getting-at-City angle from the mouth of Rent-a-quote Dave Whelan, even though he supports the idea, and at least the Independent also point out Liverpool's heavy involvement.

The Mirror are publishing extracts from Rooney's new book and they have three stories on separate pages today.  Why on earth they can't just put it on one page, oh yeah, clicks = more money from adverts, sod the readers.  They are here, here and here. The description of his overhead kick against Man City is quite good but the most interesting bit is the suggestion, or even admission, that he's lost his competitive edge:

I look down at him in my arms. He looks up at me and smiles. How can I be grumpy now? I smile back. I can’t help but be happy. He’s only four months old, but he’s taking me out of my bad mood.

‘Here, Coleen, we’ve lost and this is the first time I’m not stewing in it.’

She laughs. It’s a first, we know. I used to take a black mood home with me whenever we’d got beat.

Maybe fatherhood puts it all into perspective. Now that I have a family I have other responsibilities.

I'm not suggesting that he shouldn't care about his son but here, in black and white, he's putting things into perspective, it's only football, the smile of a kid can take the pain away.  I hope he's not thinking that when we're losing, "ah sod it, if we lose my son will take the pain away so why even bother..." Maybe it is time to sell...

Three other stories to look at quickly.

New medical centre we're opening up soon, hopefully resulting in less injuries, from the Telegraph:

The medical centre, which will be supplied with CT and MRI scanners and other cutting-edge equipment as part of a five-year agreement with the Japanese company Toshiba, is set to be the first of its kind in the Premier League, with Manchester United planning to emulate the physiological and sports science benefits enjoyed by AC Milan at their world-renowned Milanello complex.

Research carried out at the end of last season by the sports injury website physioroom.com showed that United suffered the worst injury list in the Premier League during the 2011-12 campaign, with the club suffering 39 significant problems – those lasting for at least two weeks – which amounted to a total 1,681 days lost to injury by Sir Alex Ferguson’s squad.

Scholes quotes on talent at our disposal in The Daily Star:

He said: “You always like to see new players come in, even if they’re in your position. It’s healthy for the team and exciting to play with the new players. We have got strength everywhere in the squad.

“We’ve struggled with injuries to defenders, but when we have everyone fit, I think there are two teams the manager has available to him that could compete in the Premier League and cup competitions.

“It all looks very healthy and, as players, we know when we get ­given our chance, we have to take it. If you don’t, you’ll be out of the team. Simple as that.”

And we've completed the signing of Angelo Henriquez.

Fatty Boom Boom

The Sun throws a curve ball with a story on how we tried to buy Neymar for £38 million on transfer deadline day.  We don't need the official denial from his club to tell us it was rubbish, it's all there in the actual article.  First off, there's this:

The club record bid failed when the Santos ace, 20, said he wanted to stay put until after his country had hosted the 2014 World Cup.

United boss Alex Ferguson’s approach puts Wayne Rooney’s position at the club even further into question and the Scot will not be afraid to try again for the goalscoring sensation in the January transfer window.

On the one hand, Neymar says he wants to stay in Brazil till after 2014, but on the other, Sir Alex will try again in January? Why? Then this:

United turned to Neymar after losing out to Paris St Germain in the chase for another Brazilian, Lucas Moura.

They had offered £32m for the Sao Paulo 19-year-old but the French club landed him for £38m.

Ferguson promptly turned to Neymar, who has hit 113 goals in 190 games for Santos but the bold approach failed.

When did that whole Moura thing fall through?  Weeks ago wasn't it?  And Sir Alex "promptly" turns to Neymar... on transfer deadline day... Quite.

The Mirror have excerpts from Rooney's forthcoming book. Here, on his weight, and here, on being dropped last season. It's all pretty bland and football cliché stuff, here's a little bit on his weight:

But I gain weight quite easily. It’s not a problem though. It’s not as if the manager is leaning over my shoulder as the numbers come in, tutting and making jokes about me eating too many chip butties.

Besides, I know I can shift it in a week or two. All the players are given loose training programmes to stick to while they’re away, but they’re optional.

The Sun tell us that Usain Bolt playing for us isn't as far-fetched as it might sound, quoting Sir Alex from Inside United:

“Usain’s a character and a big United fan.

“But it’s interesting he says he’d like to play in a charity game. It could be brilliant, and next year when we play Real Madrid’s Legends again, there could be opportunities to bring him up and see how he does.”

Darren Fletcher is in the Champions League squad.

And someone in The Mirror has an opinion piece saying that our defensive cover is stretched.  No Shit.

Misunderstood

Today's main story is on Berba's comments yesterday in which it seems like he's dissing Sir Alex.  Not sure where the problem is here - all Berba is saying is what everyone else was saying for ages.  Those who didn't like him would say, "why keep him, he's rubbish and you never play him," while those who did like him would say, "why keep him, you never play him, let him go somewhere where he can get games and show his talents.  Either way there was the perception that Sir Alex had got it wrong with regards to Berba.  And that's all Berba seems to be saying (You can watch the video of him making the comments here).  Here's his quotes from The Guardian:

"I don't think I deserved such treatment at United – not playing in the last year," said Berbatov. "I went more than 10, probably 15, times to ask the coach if they need me. And every time I was told that I'm an important player and should not leave, but then again I was not in the team.

"Maybe I should've gone when he [Ferguson] left me out of the squad for the Champions League final [in 2011]. I know he's the boss, but he has lost, to some extent, my respect because of the way he treated me." ...

"He [Ferguson] tried to explain to me that the team will be using a more direct style, with more speed," he said. "But I've never been among the fastest players, I like to hold the ball, this is my style.

"I found it hard to accept his decision – I still have my dignity. I scored many goals, I won the league two times, and I was the league top scorer, so it's not bad.

"I'll have no problems playing against United as this already happened in my career. But there's no point to look back again. I said goodbye to the people, who deserve it. I couldn't say goodbye to Ferguson."

Yes, it's a little strong in places (and there's always the problem of translation, as we'll see), but considering how well he took his treatment when he was with the club I'm sure we can allow him a little blowing off of steam.  And even then he still stays within certain bounds, saying he's only lost respect for Sir Alex "to some extent."

The Daily Star and The Mirror obviously got someone who didn't understand Bulgarian to translate Berba's Bulgarian, as The Daily Star come up with this:

The striker, who made a £4m switch to Fulham last week, said: “The manager told me that the game is changing and that I’m becoming a little useless. I don’t think I deserved this.

“I have my dignity, I tried to fight but it didn’t work out.”

And The Mirror very similar, I'm very confused where that comes from, unless it's from the imagination of an asshole.

The Sun are the only other paper (perhaps suggesting that it's a tabloid thing to go for the sensational translation, so kudos to The Mail for drawing back on their tabloid tendancies) that go anywhere close to that translation, but they add words to make it less silly:

“I feel bad about all that’s happened in Manchester. I didn’t deserve it. But the coach decides.

“He told me he is changing the way the team will play and I’m not useful any more.

“I have my own pride. I saw things were not going as expected. There is nothing to be ashamed of. I won two titles, I became the top scorer.

“I said goodbye to many people at United who deserved it. Not to all, because I didn’t see them all.

“I didn’t speak to Ferguson. Maybe I should send him a letter.”

Here, he's only useless in the context of the way Sir Alex wants to play, which is better, and they've added the letter bit, which is kind of funny, whether he said it or not.  The Sun do go a bit overboard by calling it   "one of the most vitriolic attacks on Sir Alex Ferguson by any former Manchester United star."  If that's the worst he's had then he's pretty lucky I'd say.

The only other thing about is some comments from Vidic, on Sir Alex and van Persie:

"The manager is an inspiration for us," Vidic said. "Every year he has that hunger to win. He has set up that mentality in the dressing room. It is no coincidence that Manchester United have won so many games in the last minute … this is what the manager is asking from the players, to always go for the win. You are never happy with the draw. You are always going to the end and you never stop." ...

"He is a fighter and he is not scared to play a hard game as well," said the captain, Nemanja Vidic, who knows a thing or two about hardness. "We like him at United for that, I think. Away from home against Southampton he is not scared to receive the ball and have defenders on top of his back. This is important if you want to be top goalscorer here."

Translator

Here's the video of Berba making his comments on Sir Alex, possibly showing a better context than the bare quotes, Berba looks very frustrated with the situation, a year on the bench obviously letting it build up till it needed releasing.  Obviously it's still translated, but again, it sounds better than the bare quotes make it appear -

Judge for yourself

Shut Up I Am Dreaming Of Places Where Lovers Have Wings

As a fitting tribute to the awesome Berbatov, individual highlights of his first Fulham game, the Berba set free.  Flashes of the brilliance we all loved so much in evidence -

Thousand Stars

Short montage from Sky Sports yesterday on Sir Alex's 1000 games in charge, followed by a short interview with Sir Alex - in the bit afterwards, the presenter gives the interesting fact that the average number of games a Premier league manager last is a mere 55 -



(Stolen from the great 101greatgoals.com)

The Hat Collector

Highlights of the game from Match of the day, bit of a preamble to the highlights, they start around the 4 minute mark -





And for those on a tight schedule, cutting out the excess, heres RvP's hat trick -




Sir Alex's post match interview -


And RvP's

Nobody's Fault But Mine

It's the match reports today, and van Persie, for some reason, is the focus.  Daniel Taylor in The Guardian:

it became a demonstration of why Van Persie cleaned up with the footballer of the year awards last season and why his new employers were so desperate to beat Manchester City to his signature. The penalty? He will want to watch the replays through the gaps in his fingers and it is doubtful he will ever try that form of chutzpah again. Ultimately, though, that aberration simply reinforced the sense that Southampton had encountered something special.

A lesser footballer might still have been ruminating on what he had done, whereas Van Persie simply set about making sure he rewrote the story again. It was a demonstration of his mentality, as well as his talent for putting the ball in the net, and in both respects he passed with distinction, sparing his team a second defeat in their first three league games.

And he also has a word of credit to Sir Alex:

There is something enduringly brilliant about the way Ferguson reorganises his teams when they are chasing games. They had been struggling with 4-2-3-1, with Danny Welbeck on the left rather than a natural wide player. Now they reverted to the 4-4-2 system of old, with Paul Scholes and Nani coming off the bench. Within a minute Scholes had set Van Persie running into the penalty area for a chance he could not convert. Then came the penalty after Davis's poor clearance had gone to Nani and Jos Hooiveld, though connecting with the ball, scythed through the back of Van Persie's legs.

The Sun report combines praise for the two: 

You could argue that it did not take a genius to go out and buy a world-class goalscorer of Van Persie’s quality.

But it takes more than luck to integrate the new boy into the team and get him playing to such devastating effect so quickly.

It was probably the prospect of the hairdryer after a second-half penalty miss which inspired Van Persie to grab two in the final few minutes.

It also needs to be pointed out that when Saints boss Nigel Adkins withdrew his three best players to protect his team’s hard-fought 2-1 lead, Fergie went for broke and refused to settle for even a share of the points.

On came Paul Scholes to spray the ball about and open up gaps in the flagging Southanpton defence.

Then Nani and Javier Hernandez were introduced for added firepower and with Fergie directing, cajoling and furiously pointing to his watch, his substitutions eventually did the trick.

While Sam Wallace in The Independent takes the opportunity to go on about the two sides of van Persie:

There are not many footballers who win a game in injury time with their hat-trick goal and then feel obliged to apologise to their team-mates afterwards, but then there are not many who can hold a candle to the extravagantly gifted Robin van Persie.

The old belief that every brilliant footballer must conquer his flaws as well as his genius was never so evident as in Van Persie's performance, which included a 68th-minute penalty miss, a preposterously self-indulgent "Panenka" saved by Kelvin Davis with Manchester United trailing 2-1. It was Van Persie at his wasteful worst, a bad case of I-dink-therefore-I-am.

The response was breathtaking. He scored in the 87th and 92nd minutes to win the match for his team, break Southampton hearts, and departed the pitch with the match ball in his hands – not before he had stood in front of the United support as they lauded him relentlessly with the kind of fervour a very famous club reserves only for its very best players. It would have been one hell of a game even without Van Persie's injury-time intervention.

Henry Winter plays the party pooper somewhat.  After such an exciting game he still finds space in his match report to look at the negative:

With Wayne Rooney injured, United would be utterly lost without Van Persie. Ferguson will be crossing his fingers and counting the days until his £24 million striker returns from international duty with Holland. An injury to Van Persie is the fear that dare not speak its name at United nowadays.

Which may or may not be true, but why shove that in at the start of the report?  Later on he seems to contradict himself anyway:

Javier Hernández’s arrival also set Southampton problems.

Which maybe isn't an outright contradiction but it shows he's there and causing problems, shows we've attacking options, but with Rooney out, it goes without saying that we could do with our other star striker on the pitch.  Note, Henry, goes without saying...

The other thing he mentions, which everyone else seems to have forgotten with the excitement of the game (not that I'm suggesting Henry wrote bits of the report before the game(I am)), is this:

The focus had been on Ferguson before the match, following his ruthless decision to drop David de Gea for a mix-up with Nemanja Vidic that allowed Mladen Petric to score for Fulham last week. It seemed harsh on the Spanish keeper, and hardly conducive to nurturing his confidence, particularly as he had excelled at Goodison Park the week before.

Which I also saw people moaning about on Twitter before the game, but De Gea coped, improved even, last season when it came to taking a turn on the bench, I'm not sure it's an issue this. The Mail has Sir Alex's explanation:

'I think young David made a mistake last week (against Fulham),' Ferguson told Sky Sports.

'He knows it. 'With the form he's been in, he's been making some fantastic saves but one error like that could have cost us the game.

'It's just a learning process for him and he'll be back in a couple of weeks after the international break.

'Anders had his first game. I thought he was a little bit nervous at points but he's a very good keeper also. I don't think it's a big issue but it's something you have to deal with.

The Mirror join in this silliness, including this line in their match report:

United boss Ferguson had pulled a surprise by droppin David De Gea for Anders Lindegaard and, in fairness, you could not blame the Danish keeper for either goal. But De Gea remains a cause for concern.

I'm sorry, he wasn't on the pitch, and that sounds ridiculously close to you blaming him for the goals, "Lindegaard wasn't to blame, De Gea is a cause for concern," the only connection, their goal-keeping - only logical conclusion - the goals were De Gea's fault - the other conclusion - The Mirror are idiots.

The Mail report is again obscured by too many photos, it was probably rubbish anyway.

Quotes from the game, and The Guardian have a nice round-up.  van Persie apologises for the penalty:

"I don't know what I was thinking with the penalty," Van Persie said. "I wanted to hit it hard like I always do. At the last second, I just changed somehow, maybe it was my brother or something. It wasn't good enough. It was a bit of a down and then afterwards, we were a bit lucky with the 2-2 and then at the end, a dramatic 3-2.
"I'm quite disappointed about the penalty. I ask a certain standard from my game. When you are 2-1 down, you can't take a penalty like that. It is me to blame. I don't know what went wrong, something went wrong big time and I'll have to work on it."

Sir Alex and van Persie both praise Scholes:

"I have to say a big thank-you to Paul Scholes, when he came on everything was ticking," Van Persie said. "Every single pass he hit was the right one. Everyone felt that, I certainly did. For me, he is the man of the match."

Ferguson agreed. "I thought when Paul Scholes came on, it changed the game completely," he said. "I thought we were well out of it until Scholes came on. His vision and consistency of passing gave us complete control again.

"It was a matter of scoring the goals and Robin van Persie has come up with two very important goals. I was surprised [about the penalty] because every time I have seen him take one, he has rattled it in the corners. He made up for it though. He has four goals in two starts and that's a great statistic. And he'll get better.

The Telegraph have Sir Alex on our defence:

“Credit to Southampton, they kept building up and getting the ball into the box,” said Ferguson. “Everything we did in preparation for this game was all about back-post crosses and they scored two goals from them so that was disappointing. I’ve always said when you play two centre-backs consistently, you get better results. Rio’s getting there. I think if those two stay fit, and we get all the centre-backs fit, we’ve got a really good chance.” 

The Men Are Called Horsemen There

Not a lot around today, just some more quotes from Sir Alex, with all the papers focusing on the Rooniness of it all:

The Mail on Sunday compare men to horses and claim that Sir Alex has told Rooney he faces a lifelong battle with his weight because his parents are fat.  The rather silly article has this:

Through his love of horse racing and the importance of good breeding, Ferguson has always studied the parents of players to judge if they will put on weight later in their career.

The actual quote from Sir Alex:

'Wayne is no Ryan Giggs. Ryan has never put a pound on in his whole life. Wayne is a boy that needs games, you can see that from the frame he's got. He is stocky, strong and really needs games, simple as that.

And they include a less than flattering picture of Rooney's parents suggesting their problem with Rooney lies in the "good breeding" bit - the usual establishment snobbery, criticising the working class.

The Mirror are better, just leading on Rooney's need to be fit.  Sir Alex's further quotes, on leaving Rooney out:

“The speculation about Wayne doesn’t bother me. I’ve not got the slightest ­interest in it.

“It’s not a problem for Wayne, it’s only one game.

“But players like to be playing every week – that’s the ­horrible part of the game. When they’re not playing they are ­disappointed – I’m glad they are ­disappointed.

“I’ve got options and it’s going to be difficult. It’s not easy to pick the team now and the players know that. It’s the toughest job I’ve had with the strikers, probably even tougher than in 1999.”

The Sun ignore the fitness thing all together, concentrating their piece on Sir Alex's comments on the versatility of our strikers:

“Van Persie is flexible because he can play in different positions.

“He is such a mobile player, there are great options with him. And Wayne can play behind and he can play up.

“Hernandez is the only one-position player and that is through the middle.

“Can Wayne and Robin play together? Yes, absolutely — no doubt about that.

“And Welbeck can play with them, there is no question about that.”

Bitten From The Thigh Of Zeus

News from Sir Alex's pre-Southampton press conference summed up pretty well in The Guardian.  On Rooney Sir Alex certainly sounded like he wanted rid, wait, no, he didn't:

"The injury is maybe a blessing because he can concentrate on his fitness now in the gymnasium in particular. He should be available for selection [after four weeks] because he will be able to train. He'll do gym work, he was in the gym yesterday and he will be able to continue that. The minute he can start running that will help. It's a bad gash but he was treated really quickly and we don't expect any complications."

Rooney being only a substitute against Fulham led to speculation of a rift with his manager but Ferguson said: "He said himself he needs a few games and I wanted to play Van Persie at the start at Old Trafford. I knew he wasn't 100% fit either. I couldn't really start the two of them.

"It wasn't an easy choice, simply because you're leaving out a really good player and you're leaving out a player who can get you goals. His scoring performance over the last few years has improved each year. It's getting better every year."

Mark Ogden in The Telegraph says that Rooney might only be out for the 4 weeks that Sir Alex suggested in the first place:

Although the initial prognosis on Rooney’s injury – a badly gashed thigh sustained against Fulham last Saturday – suggested the 26 year-old could be sidelined for two months, the player could yet be available again within four weeks after scans ruled out serious muscle damage.

I'm pretty certain that should read: "Although doom-mongering journalists initially laid out the worst-case scenario as gospel..."

The Daily Star lead on his "rant" at the FA for revealing Ashley Young was injured:

“It was nice of the FA to let everyone know that Ashley Young is injured.

“There is no point giving them any information now.

“He’s out, he got a knee injury last week, although it’s not serious. Obviously he will be ready for a couple of weeks’ time.

“We have a game on Sunday. Why should they alert our opponents who’s fit, who’s not fit? It won’t happen again.”

The Independent has Sir Alex on Berba and what went wrong:

"He is a very, very talented player," said Ferguson of Berbatov. "His contribution in the home games was his strongest point. He is the only player to have scored a hat-trick for us against Liverpool.

"But there came a time when we changed our game and that didn't suit him because we started playing with more speed.

"Teams were getting in quickly to organise against us so therefore we had to change the way we wanted to play and that didn't suit Dimitar at all."

The Sun report that tomorrow will be Sir Alex's 1000th league game:

Of those league games Ferguson has won 598, drawn 233 and lost 168 — resulting in 12 titles.

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini is a mere 900 games behind — he notches up 100 in charge at the Etihad today.

Only three other managers have reached Fergie’s landmark but you have to go back 80 years and more to find them.

Ferguson will have to be in charge for another nine seasons if he wants to eclipse record holder George Ramsey who was in charge for 1,327 league games as manager of Aston Villa between 1884-1926.

Adam's Fieldtrip To Hell

Champions League draw yesterday and our group couldn't have worked out much better.  Here's Daniel Taylor summing up in The Guardian:

Manchester United are in no position to be complacent, bearing in mind their exit from another easy-looking group last year but, all the same, Sir Alex Ferguson should not be unduly concerned about facing Braga, Galatasaray and CFR Cluj. Admittedly, the same was said this time a year ago about Benfica, Basel and Otelul Galati but the hasty exit that followed was only the third time in 17 years that United have not qualified, and it is an obliging draw, even if it does involve long trips to Turkey and Romania and a renewal of acquaintances with Galatasaray – "Welcome to Hell" and all that.

Here's Sir Alex's response to the draw, from The Sun:

Ferguson insisted: “That [failing to qualify from the group stage] won’t happen again. We’ll qualify from the group stage. I’ll make sure of it.

“We need to show last season was just a blip.

“We have the experience of playing against Galatasaray in the past and will always remember the ‘Welcome to Hell’ banners. It’s always a difficult type of match.

“Braga are one of the improving teams in Portugal and we’ve never played Cluj before.

“But after the experience of last year, we don’t want to make any stupid errors this time.

“We will play our strongest team to make sure we get through.”

The Mirror, for once being useful and informative have the full list of game dates here.

David Gill had some comments about Rooney, reported like this in The Sun:

Chief executive David Gill moved to rule out any prospect of the England superstar being allowed to leave Old Trafford.

Rooney, 26, will be sidelined for two months after suffering an horrendously gashed leg during Saturday’s win against Fulham.

And Gill insists the striker will still be a United player when he returns to action.

He said: “Wayne is definitely not for sale and I can categorically say there has been no discussion within the club or with his agent.

“He is in a long-term contract with us and is very integral to our team.

“Wayne’s a great player who has got a bad injury — but he will come back.

“He didn’t start on Saturday for various reasons. Alex Ferguson picks the best team to win the game and that’s it."

Which makes it sound like David Gill came out and made a statement to stop the rumours, giving it credence even while denying it.  Here's what The Mail says (and it comes to something when you're going to The Mail for the truth):

David Gill was here in Monaco and the United chief executive was asked to respond to reports that Wayne Rooney’s future at the club was now in doubt. ‘He’s definitely not for sale,’ he said.

Yes, he replied to a question, he didn't actively "move to rule out."

Berba seems to have finally gone [a moment's silence], to Fulham, here's Martin Jol:

"For good players you have to pay good money. There were a lot of clubs interested in Dimitar but we were able and capable of getting him. He is finishing his medical and, if everything is good, he will be one of our players."

And again:

“I’m very happy and I think our fans will be very happy because it’s probably the biggest signing in the history of Fulham.

“Dimitar’s got a very good record. If you look at his record internationally and with Man United, I don’t think there is another striker – maybe Van Persie in five years’ time – who could achieve that.”

And on his time with him at Spurs:

‘In my final period at Spurs, I said, “He will go over my dead body”,’ recalled Jol. ‘We had a good relationship and he knows that he will enjoy his football here. Hopefully, he can score his goals and we have other good players around him.’

The Manchester Evening News are pretty disrespectful to the great man, their piece on him going is unnecessarily negative, I won't bother quoting.

One last story, and it's speculation that Darren Fletcher might be available to be named in the Champions League squad.

Saganaw

Another day of the Rooney saga rumbling on, though I suppose this makes a change from some ridiculous transfer saga going all the way to the final day.

The Guardian, in their article on the new development (Rooney tweeted he's staying), basically admit that journalists just make stuff up. First off, the tweet:

Rooney used his Twitter account to write: "Read the nonsense in the papers and heard what people have to say.absolute rubbish". The tweet was accompanied with the hashtag #heretostay to indicate the 26-year-old wants to remain a United player for the foreseeable future.

Then the anachronistic bit:

Writing in his programme notes on Saturday ahead of United's 3-2 win over Fulham Ferguson said how refreshing it was that his new signing Robin van Persie had chosen United before adding: "If I hear a player has fallen out of love with us, and is looking elsewhere I invariably help them out of the door."

This suggested that the Scot might not have forgotten how Rooney made a transfer request two years ago when he cited his perception that United could not match his ambition.

His programme notes for last Saturday's game refer to something that happened 2 years ago?! Way to let something fester.

Then the admission that everything written is just guesses:

... With Rooney also being dropped last Christmas ahead of a defeat to Blackburn Rovers for a disciplinary matter and Ferguson leaving him out for the Fulham game, preferring instead to start Van Persie and Shinji Kagawa, a view arose of a ever widening rift between the two.

"A view arose," not the famous "anonymous sources close to the player/insider close to the dressing room", just "a view."  Is that where all the column inches on Rooney emerge from?  A view?

The Sun in their article on the tweet where Rooney denies everything, claim they revealed it.  In the article that says the rumours aren't true you're still taking credit for starting the rumours?

We have our own outgoing transfer saga with the Berba-where-will-he-go thing.  Today the answer is...who knows, but possibly Fulham:

Fiorentina were under the impression their financial offer on personal terms had been trumped by Juve, the reigning Serie A champions, though Fulham have also entered the running to secure Berbatov, with the Londoners cautiously optimistic that they can still bring him back to the capital.

The Independent have a more exciting version of the story:

Dimitar Berbatov was last night deciding between joining Italian champions Juventus or his old manager Martin Jol at Fulham as both clubs agreed fees with Manchester United.

In an extraordinary series of events, Berbatov left England on yesterday morning for a medical at Fiorentina. While waiting for a connecting flight in Munich he took a call asking if he would prefer a move to Juventus, who had topped their Serie A rival's offer by bidding £4.5million for the Bulgaria striker.

Berbatov immediately re-routed to Turin where he was expected to end Juve's long search for a new striker, only to reconsider his destination again when Jol asked him to remain in the Premier League. Fulham are ready to put Berbatov on a contract worth £80,000 a week if he shuns the opportunity to play Champions League football and were confident of concluding the deal.

The Champions League draw is today, The Guardian have a quick survey of the scene, and manage to get in a mention of Rooney:

While alterations would have been necessary, it was no part of Arsène Wenger's scheme to sell Robin van Persie to Manchester United. That transfer, all the same, enhances Sir Alex Ferguson's team, offering the sort of depth that challenges players. Wayne Rooney, once he is over that laceration to his leg, has a task before him to ensure he is on the field at kick-off for the big occasions such as those provided by the Champions League.

The Mail has Carrick on Europe:

'We let ourselves down as a squad last season,' said Carrick. 'We won't be taking our eye off the ball at all.

'We want to be in the latter stages and fighting for the trophy.

'But we know the work has to be done now. Hopefully we've learnt from last season and can have much better campaign.'

Blah, blah, blah

Today's almost a repeat of yesterday, just the same old rubbish about Rooney, and Berba, and Nani...

Rooney, The Mirror report, is yadda, yadda, yadda, relationship with Sir Alex broken down, blah, blah, blah, sold next summer.

Neil Ashton in The Mail has a whole article telling us that Rooney isn't Messi.  No shit Sherlock.  I'll just quote two paragraphs, to show the contradictions in it:

He has the desire to remain at the top, something that has been absent from Rooney’s game since he moved to Old Trafford for £26.5million in 2004.

... 

Last season he scored 27 goal in the top flight, only three short of Robin van Persie’s exceptional return for Arsenal.

Shut it.

The Sun goes with just telling us what the t-shirt in the Twitter photo Rooney posted means:

Translated it meant: “Courage becomes greater through a wound.”

The Sun are shocked that it was Latin - "Yes, Latin!"

There's more reports about Berba to Fiorentina, choose your flavour, The Mail, or The Sun.

And The Guardian report that Rio will likely be out longer than expected, not returning till after the international break apparently.

Pop Nonsense

There's more rubbish floating around Rooney today, it's really something that one man can cause so many column inches of speculation regarding his future when he's sat at home with his leg up for, the papers were telling us yesterday, up to 2 months.

The Sun have a nonsense article telling us that no one would really want to buy Rooney, except Man City, possibly.  They don't really know - I could have made up the story, except if I had I would have probably made this bit make sense:

Rooney was axed for United’s first home game of the season against Fulham on Saturday.

Boss Alex Ferguson’s patience with him had finally snapped after a turbulent two years.

Rooney’s performance at Everton convinced his manager his form and fitness were gone.

The relationship between the pair is now tense and they have barely spoken since the forward returned for pre-season.

It literally makes no sense.  The first sentence (of course in the world of the Sun the terms "sentence" and "paragraph" are interchangeable) has him axed for the 2nd game of the season, because, the second paragraph tells us, Sir Alex's patience had finally ran out, except, the third paragraph tells us, it ran out during the game Everton, except, according to the 4th sentence, they haven't been speaking since he returned for pre-season.  Can we get a consistent chronology over here please.

James Lawton gets in on the act here.  He makes great play on the programme notes where Sir Alex said: 

"If I hear a player has fallen out of love with us, and is looking elsewhere, I invariably help them out of the door," wrote Ferguson.

I don't pretend to know what's happening with Rooney, or behind the scenes, or Sir Alex's thoughts, I'm just here to read things and point out the rubbish, but, why does everyone connect that sentence with Rooney?  Maybe it was about the dropped Rooney.  Dropped to the subs bench.  Why can't that sentence have been about Nani?  That's Nani who was dropped and didn't even make the bench.  Nani whose possibly (depending where you read) stalling on a new contract, whose looking for a move maybe.  Why so many column inches devoted to that sentence and Rooney and no one writing, "but of course, it could have referred, more plausibly, to Nani"?  As Sir Alex has pointed out before: the journalists, they do like writing shit about Rooney.

The best bit of the Lawton piece is this paragraph though:

If that wasn't a statement of extreme concern about the player's commitment to the cause, one that Rooney no doubt assuaged for a while by a volcanic, shirt-kissing return to the team in a Cup tie at Manchester City and a vital run of consistent goalscoring, you had to wonder how much more explicit the master of Old Trafford could have been.

An image of Rooney and his "vital run of consistent goalscoring," being just a little blip, a ploy to make it seem like he was committed to us, by playing really well, scoring loads of goals and running around like a loon all season, just so we were fooled into thinking he was a good, committed footballer.  I've said it before, and no doubt I'll say it again - James Lawton is a buffoon.

As if to confirm the thesis that Sir Alex was referring to Nani, here's the story about him going to Zenit recurring again. Take everything in  the papers with a pinch of salt, but wanting away?

The Portugal player’s representatives reportedly met Zenit counterparts in Amsterdam on Monday to outline a deal.

Everything's connected to Rooney, The Independent reckon that Berba will go to Fiorentina depending on how bad Rooney's injury is.

The Telegraph have quotes from Javier Hernandez:

“I think in life you never stop learning, no matter what age you are.” Hernández said. “I try to learn from all my team-mates, but obviously it’s great to watch the other strikers in particular.

“They have all helped me a lot and I know I will learn a lot off Robin because he is a world-class striker who has a lot to give to the team and a lot to teach us all.”