Don't Start Me Talkin'

Sir Alex's remarks about Benitez are the main story today. And the whole thing is pretty amusing.
From The Times:

“If you ask me a question about other teams I’ll give you an opinion,” Ferguson said. “There’s no fault in that. Arsène Wenger [the Arsenal manager] was talking about Manchester United a couple of weeks ago [saying we were untouchable], which I tried to dampen down as much as I could because I know the dangers of that.

“He was asked a question and gave a fair answer. The interesting thing as far as Rafa Benítez is concerned is that he’s got a European tie and he’s talking about Alex Ferguson. Fantastic. I didn’t know I was that important.”

Asked whether he felt that he had got under Benítez’s skin, Ferguson could not stop himself smirking before saying: “I have no more comment to make.”

Brilliant. He also goes on to belittle Liverpool a bit more by talking up Chelsea, even comparing there victory over Liverpool to our 1999 FA Cup Semi-final victory against Arsenal, from The Guardian:

with Chelsea emphatically dismantling Liverpool on the way to a 3-1 win on Wednesday, Ferguson believes that west London, rather than Merseyside, could pose the greatest threat to United's title hopes. Ferguson said: "Chelsea will be absolutely buoyed up by the victory. You saw the celebrations at the end. They knew it was an emphatic result and they will be flying at the moment.

"That was a good performance by them. I remember when we won the Treble in 1999 – you can never forget Ryan Giggs's goal [against Arsenal] at Villa Park. That just lifted everyone and from then on we were unbeatable. It does that to you when you get a very important result, but hopefully Chelsea are beatable. I'd be happy with the race going down to the last day, though. It would do me fine because we're used to that. We've done it four times."

On the subject of the "spat" between Sir Alex and Benitez I found this story about Benitez's comments kind of interesting:

When asked if he would shake Allardyce’s hand, Benitez said: “If it’s necessary because I was well educated.”

Benitez, when asked yesterday what he thought of Allardyce, snapped: “Nothing. I prefer to concentrate on my team. My relationship with him? Manager to manager, normal.”

He really is quite easy to wind up isn't he. And saying he prefers to "concentrate on his own team"? A little hypocritical surely... doesn't sound like a "fact" to me.
Sir Alex also talks of the Porto game, from The Telegraph:

“Some people said we looked tired on Tuesday,” said Ferguson.

“We looked tired in the first half and were short of sharpness and rhythm in our game.

“But we did well in the second. There is nothing wrong there. We just have to stop these silly goals.”

“There is a watershed for everything,” said Ferguson.

“Hopefully we reached it on Tuesday night because that late goal was a real kick in the teeth.”

And of the decision to play Villa on Sunday rather than Saturday:

“The spacing of our games has been terrible,” said Ferguson.

“I have to hold my hands up because we did not give the players the best preparation for Tuesday.

“But we were stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea.

“We had the option of playing on Saturday lunchtime, which was not the best in terms of preparation for Villa. But playing on Sunday was not the best for Tuesday. We have been caught in that way.”

He also looks to Tiger Woods as a figure to inspire, from The Mirror:

real stars ... just look at Tiger Woods. He's been out of golf for six months, he comes back after that knee operation and goes and wins a tournament a week ago.

"You tell me what drives people like him on and it's that they're special people.

"No matter how successful they are, they have a driving force in them that makes them want to win the next one and the next one - that's their nature.

"Other people's nature is 'I don't need to go to work tomorrow, I've got enough money, I'll retire at 30'.

"So you don't know how they're going to handle success and, when they get a bit of money, what they're going to be like? "You don't know that until it hits you in the face or you see it and you say to yourself 'he's changed'. "Then you have to do something about it.

"But the players at this club realise quite quickly they have to have a standard and they don't go below that standard or they won't be playing."

More good comment from Michael Carrick in The Sun today:

“Obviously we have not helped ourselves because we are doing things that we have not done for so long.

“But we are going to put them right and I am sure we will start tomorrow. Then we can look back and see it as nothing more than a blip during a long season.

“I don’t know if pressure is a factor, I have been through this each season I have been at the club. We expect to be successful. You become used to it.

“Fatigue is not an excuse either. We have a big squad with all the facilities we need, so tiredness does not come into it.”

I like this no excuses-let's just do it approach.
The Times has quite a long interview with Rio Ferdinand (and this seems like a good time to bring up a gripe with The Times website - their insistence on splitting their stories into multiple pages so you've got to click through 2 or 3 pages to read the full story, not the best presentation possible), brief highlights:

“If I can play for another seven years until I’m 37 or something like that and I have got to have injections to play, it wouldn’t bother me that I might have a limp or something like that after I’ve finished playing football,” he said.
...

“If I didn’t use the leverage that I have got as a footballer to give someone else a chance you’re just not really utilising what you’ve got. I think it’s a complete waste, but that’s just my own opinion.

“There’s no one like that at United who takes what they have for granted, no one, but you do get footballers who say, ‘I can’t be bothered, I’ve got a hammy [hamstring strain] this weekend, I’ve got a night out on Saturday somewhere and I have got to travel up there so I can’t be arsed playing.’

“That kind of stuff I think is an absolute disgrace, but there are people who will do that and people who are just happy to be collecting money. You think, ‘Why are you still there at that club when you’ve got an opportunity to go to a more aspirational club? How come you’re still there?’ And they say, ‘Aah, I’m getting paid good dough, I’m living at home where my mates are, I’m not arsed about winning trophies and stuff like that.’

“Well, I just can’t understand that mentality
...

“People like Maldini are my inspiration,” he says. “You look at yourself and say, ‘I want to do that.’ I think the only difference with someone like Maldini is the league he plays in.

“Serie A is not as fast or aggressive or free-flowing as our football and that might be the biggest obstacle to me playing at 40 at that level, but you never know.”