Berbatov angling for move?

I like him as a player, but i am not sure about his attitude. And would he be prepared to put up with squad rotation, i can't see spurs letting him go anyway.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml;jsessionid=0Y2YH2DVP4LVJQFIQMFSFF4AVCBQ0IV0?xml=/sport/2007/12/31/sfnfro131.xml

Fergie hopes Rooney and Carrick will be back for Birmingham tomorrow
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7163892.stm

Is Thaksin Shinawatra back in the clear after the Thai election
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tom_fawthrop/2007/12/a_billionaires_comeback.html
not yet says Tom Fawthrop

Anatole Kaletsky looks back to his economic forecast for 2007
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article3111688.ece

Pakistan and the bomb
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/johann_hari/article3295877.ece

The indie's albums of the year
http://arts.independent.co.uk/music/reviews/article3292132.ece

New years eve party poopers
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1030042_nye_a_nonevent
Seems pretty sensible to me, why do you need fireworks for everything anyway, a bit sad for me. We are Manchester aren't we, i thought we liked to be different. I don't know what we should have in the city centre to celebrate new years eve, but whatever it is, shouldn't it be different and innovative as befits our great city. When you see the news on new years day, it will show Sydney, Hong Kong, Edinburgh and London all celebrating with fireworks, are we so sad and boring that we can't come up with something a bit more unique. A winter carnival, i don't know anything a bit more inspiring than fucking fireworks.

Does anybody believe that Branson tosser is on the side of the ordinary guy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7165490.stm
He is a total tosser

West ham 2-1 Manchester United

Back to earth with a bump, after a cracking day that saw almost everything go our way on boxing day, yesterday saw almost everything go wrong. I thought we had took west ham too lightly when i saw the team, no Anderson in midfield and Rooney not even on the bench, but apparently Rooney and Carrick had been struck down by a virus, so we can only blame the manager for not having Anderson in the starting eleven for what was the hardest fixture over the Christmas period.
I had expected this to be a hard game, and was hoping that we would be on good form. It was hard to know whether we were in decent touch as the Sunderland game had been so easy. Right from the off you knew we were, indeed in for a hard game, with West Ham crowding the midfield and stopping United getting any rhythm. There wasn't much fluency, and Tevez in particular seemed to slip way below what we have come to expect from him, holding onto the ball too long and not getting many telling passes in. Apparently he received an excellent welcome back to Upton Park, the consensus seems to be it was so good, it put him off his game. If that's so, let's hope he gets it out of his system the next time we play them. We had a scare early on as Mullins managed to get himself free in the box but he only managed to hit the bar, the resulting rebound fell to the feet of noble who blasted over the bar when he should have at least hit the target. But apart from that scare, there wasn't too much threat from the home team. Not that we doing that much better.
Then out of nowhere United managed to put their one quality counter attack of the game together to take the lead. Saha managed to find Giggs in acres of space on the left, and raced forward before delivering a perfect cross to find Ronaldo running into the box, and he made no mistake with a fine firm header. The game now became a tight affair with West ham creating the marginally better chances, forcing Kuszczak into fine save from a dipping Solano shot. The closest United came was when Giggs failed to control a through pass that would have put him clean through on goal. So as the teams went off at half time we were pleased to be one up.
The second half was the big disappointment for me, fair enough we didn't play well, but the substitutions and tactics just made things worse and contributed to that last dismal quarter of an hour where we just completely lost any grip on the game that we had . As poorly as we continued to play, West Ham were not troubling us to the same extent as in the first half and had hardly created a thing up the point the equaliser went in. When we got that penalty, after a bad mistake from Spector, i thought that would be it, three points in the bag, but when he missed it you worried that it may come back to haunt us. Not to the extent it did though.
The substitution of Tevez completely baffled me and still does, he wasn't playing well, that i won't deny and probably deserved to be subbed, but not by Anderson, a midfielder. And then reverting to the dreaded 4-5-1, and a real negative 4-5-1, everybody behind the ball playing for 1-0 leaving Saha up front on his own. From then on in we just completely handed the initiative to the home team, inviting them to come at us. And with nobody breaking forward from midfield when we did get the ball, we totally lost any threat going forward. And when they did equalise we had to reorganise the side and tactics again, and this time we became totally disorganised. Although both goals came from set pieces, those set pieces came about from the pressure we allowed West Ham to impose on us. At least if Tevez as poorly as he had played had stayed on, West ham would have had to leave one or two midfield players deeper to look after him. We never really looked like we had a goal in us after that and our third defeat on the trot duly arrived when the ref blew his whistle. With Chelsea winning in the last minute, and then Arsenal managing to win 4-1 at Goodison when they supposedly didn't play much better than us, it was a bad day all round.

Stop the partying warns Fergie
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=505128&in_page_id=1779
I think it's fair to say that is probably aimed at Ferdinand as much as anybody.

A decent article by David James in the observer about stats and them telling only half the story
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/sport/story/0,,2233385,00.html

Motherwell captain Phil O'Donnel collapses and dies
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7164820.stm
very sad

Robert Fisk on the hypocrisy of western leaders blaming al-Qa'ida, whilst many Pakistanis are blaming Musharaf. I wouldn't rush to blame either, but that's the point isn't it, there are such a myriad of forces who alone or conspiring together could have perpetrated the assassination, nobody really has a clue who has done it. But Bush, Brown et al cynically use it, to divert their voters from their disastrous foreign policies
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article3291600.ece

Another bank in trouble
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/30/merrilllynch.subprimecrisis

William Dalrymple on the flawed Benazir Bhutto
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2233261,00.html

Henry porter on the proposed bill to criminalise prostitutes clients
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2233229,00.html

Nick Cohen on her majesties revenue and customs
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2233253,00.html

Sunderland 0-4 Manchester United

A much easier win than i expected against a worryingly poor Sunderland side ( if you want Keano to be a future United manager that is ). United huffed and puffed a bit for the first twenty minutes not creating any chances of note, but once Rooney broke the deadlock in the twentieth minute, any threat from the mackems vanished into the air, and it became very very easy. It's usually hard to say after a game like this whether United played extremely well or the opposition were very poor, but not this time United hardly broke sweat. The second half was a glorified training session really as United settled for 3-0, the late penalty an added bonus.
If ship goals as easily as the first against the teams around them in the table in the second half of the season they will be headed straight back down. The way McShane and Higginbotham conspired to leave Rooney all alone in the middle doesn't bode well for their premiership future, saying that the finish was cool as you like. The weakened team, there was no Evra, Anderson, Hargreaves, Giggs or Tevez now took a vice like grip of the game. Sunderland started to look in big trouble every time United counter attacked. And ten minutes later that is how United made it two, as Ronaldo found Rooney breaking down on the left hand flank, Rooney cut back in and crossed with his right foot and Saha popped up in the middle to slot home a ridiculously easy second goal. That really was game set and match and much as Sunderland tried the chances were occurring in their half of the pitch with Ronaldo and Nani having decent shots saved before Vidic went pretty close with a close range volley from a corner. Then just when Sunderland thought they were going to escape at half time with just a two goal deficit, they gave a needless free kick away just outside the D. Up stepped Ronaldo and instead of trying to make the ball wobble in the air as he usually does he curled an absolute beauty into the top left hand corner of the net. So a great finish to a great half for United and we wondered how many it might end up.
But United took it easy in the second half , taking Ronaldo off with more than half an hour to go and replacing him with Park. Park played reasonably well for a man who has been out so long, though the quality of the opposition has to be taken into account. United were still a constant threat on the break, but the urgency and quality of final pass were missing for the most part. Pique got a run out, coming on for Vidic with a quarter of an hour to go, he probably won't get an easier 15 minutes for the rest of the season. The penalty decision in the last couple of minutes given against Collins may have been a bit harsh, i thought he did make contact, but unintentionally, sealed a pretty dismal day for the home side as Saha made no mistake to drive it home for his second and United's fourth of the afternoon.
With Arsenal and Chelsea only managing to draw and the rentboys having two men sent off, this was one of the best days of the season so far for us. And who could have foreseen us having a goal difference six goals better than anybody else at this stage of the season when we were struggling to score more than one goal a game in September.

How to take penalties the Ronaldo way, from the times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article3101578.ece

Hull want Frazier Campbell to stay for the season
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/hull_city/7160842.stm
Good to see our youngsters out on loan doing well. I would like to hear how Cathcart is going on at Antwerp, he looked a real prospect in the youth team last season.

More from the infamous party from the mirror before Xmas
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2007/12/24/police-doubt-man-u-rape-89520-20264770/

Benazir Bhutto assassinated
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3099534.ece
An article from the indy describing why her murder will not be solved.
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article3289239.ece
And even if it were would her supporters or opponents believe it anyway
What Pakistan should do next, or what the Americans should encourage them to do
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/paul_cruickshank/2007/12/plan_b_for_pakistan.html
Sympathy vote ?
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/paul_cruickshank/2007/12/plan_b_for_pakistan.html
Christopher Hitchens with the most balanced summary of her life so far http://www.slate.com/id/2180952/




The last ever episode of Extras was on last night and excellent it was too. It has been just as good as as the office for me.http://www.slate.com/id/2180952/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/28/television

Manchester United 2-1 Everton

We got out of jail in this one, i thought we were destined for a draw, which is probably all we deserved to be honest. And but for that inexplicable back heeled foul from Piennar on Giggs, that is all we we were going to get. Full marks to Giggs though for going on that run that sparked Piennar to panic, i thought he was easily our best player on the day, although on this particular day that wasn't saying much. A combination of one of the better teams to visit Old Trafford this season and maybe some after affects of the best forgotten christmas party saw United put in one of their more lacklustre displays this season so far.
The absence of Ferdinand suggested to me that he must have borne the brunt of Fergies wrath after the players got on the front pages of the media for all the wrong reasons last week. The problem with this is, as much of a clown Ferdinand may be off the pitch we miss him as much as we missed Scholes in midfield before we bought Hargreaves and Anderson this season. Right from the kick off, we looked vulnerable at the back, and this seemed to affect the confidence of the whole team. Simpson was picked at right back with Wes Brown moving inside to centre half. Unfortunately Simpson had a very poor half, he looked very nervous every time the ball arrived at his feet. And Everton decided to target his flank to attack in the first half, and it has to be said that on the day, he wasn't up to the challenge. Consequently United were unable to build up any attacking momentum for the first half an hour. He didn't come out for the second half being replaced by O'Shea, who whilst not being that great himself put in a more solid performance than Simpson had managed. I don't know what Pique has done wrong, I know he had a day to forget at the Reebok, but all the more reason i would have thought to give him a run out at right back. I couldn't see a goal coming the way we were playing, and it took a piece of individual brilliance from Ronaldo to break the deadlock. Unleashing an unstoppable shot with his left foot from just outside the box, even when he seems to be having a quiet game he can still produce moments of magic, one of the signs of a great player.
We hoped that would be the spur for United to go on and start to perform the way they can. But unfortunately United allowed Cahill to rise between Vidic and Evra to leap higher than both of them to head Everton level. It was a good jump and header from Cahill but i thought he wasn't put under enough pressure. I thought that the last ten minutes of the first half saw United play their best football of the match, and we managed the two best moves of the match. Firstly Rooney ended up just outside the box with the ball and as he entered the box he put in a delicious chip that lescott managed to clear off the line before Ronaldo could nod it in.. The next chance saw some sweet interchanging before Giggs crossed for Ronaldo to scissor kick just over the ball. If that had gone in, it would have been our best goal of the season so far. But that second goal would not come and as the first half whistle went the teams were locked level at 1-1.
The second half didn't live up to the promise of the last ten minutes of the second half I'm afraid, and as much as United huffed and puffed they could not blow the scouse house down. It was pretty forgettable fare, and United were definitely missing a spark in the second half. The final pass wasn't happening, and at times we looked as much like losing the games as we did winning it. The defence was shaky all game really, especially down the right hand flank. Evra would be the only defender to play up to his usual standard. Carrick was disappointing again i'm afraid, i don't know how many times he refused to attempt the defence splitting pass in the second half. I could forgive him if he attempted and it didn't come off because he was having one of those days, but i have got a problem if his confidence won't allow him to try the difficult passes. Yesterday was one of those days where missed we Scholes badly. Anderson had a fair game, and i couldn't fault him for his performance, but i am beginning to wonder about his fitness. He seems to run out of steam in the last twenty minutes, and how many times is he subbed in the last ten minutes. There weren't too many clear cut chances in the second half, Rooney's shot that landed on the roof of the net, Anderson's shot that Howard saved and finally tevez who managed to get into the box but couldn't get his shot away before Everton's defenders managed to get a foot to it, deflecting it over the box.
But then Piennar had his moment of madness and thankfully Ronaldo kept his cool to coolly slot home the penalty. So we started the holiday period off with a close fought victory and three more priceless points.

Van Der Sar signs a new one year contract
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/7156973.stm
Whether he will still be the number one next year we will see. The one thing that is for sure is that Kusczcak won't be challenging of the number one jersey. It was bad enough Ferdinand not playing, but having Kusczcak in goal was another destabilising factor in our poor defensive performance yesterday. Let' hope Foster is the answer for the future.

Gibson to extend his loan spell at Wolves
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/w/wolverhampton_wanderers/7159204.stm
That makes sense, he seems to be doing quite well and playing a decent amount of games, he definitely has a chance.

The mighty boosh finished last week, and i have got to say that this series was pretty disappointing for me. Ironic, as they seem to have have become very popular at last, and then go out and put out their weakest series so far. When i go back and watch the first two series the tunes were pretty good and definitely very funny, but they were easily the weakest point of the series just finished. A bit of a downer really, because i thought the last series of the peep show was the weakest so far as well.

United to face Lyon

In the last 16 of the champions league, Arsenal may live to regret not finishing top of their group as they face reigning champs AC Milan
http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid={B4CEE8FA-9A47-47BC-B069-3F7A2F35DB70}&newsid=517103
Not the easiest draw for the scoucers either, Chelski appear to have the easiest draw.

United sign Angolan, another Quieroz signing no doubt. Angola was a Portuguese colony.
http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid={B4CEE8FA-9A47-47BC-B069-3F7A2F35DB70}&newsid=517365

Ronaldo hails Anderson in the mirror
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/2007/12/21/ronaldo-hails-anderson-89520-20261843/

2007 England's identity crisis exposed by David Conn
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/12/19/2007_the_year_that_exposed_eng.html

Liverpool's American owners face cash crisis
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/12/21/sfnliv121.xml

Something good from across the pond as the brilliant Coen brothers have a new film out, critics calling it a return to form, i haven't seen the last film so I'll take their word for it.
http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,2230352,00.html

No Kremlinologist needed, it's all about money, Russia is one of those unfortunate countries i was talking about yesterday. If not run by undemocratic and human rights abusing regimes like communism, it's been run by anti democratic aristocracies or nowadays corrupt business interests only interested in themselves and their money. Who cares about the Russian people
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2230924,00.html
I might be a bit alarmed to see Abramovitch in that article actually being seen to take sides in internal Russian politics, if i was a Chelski fan.
The type of regime Putin's Russian likes to do business with
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_shariatmadari/2007/12/winner_takes_all.html

Secularists the root of all evil
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2230954,00.html
Has there ever been a secular version of the Spanish inquisition or a fatwa. I know the soviet union tried to abolish religion, but it never succeeded, if they had gone to the same lengths as the inquisition maybe they would have done.

Financial hegemony slowly sinking away from New York and London
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jill_treanor/2007/12/chinese_whispers_2.html
That will be bad enough for the yanks, but it will eventually be catastrophic for this country, the Thatcherite revolution will be shown to have been the absolute disaster for this country that it was. The idea that we could let manufacturing go to the wall, and that entepeneurship and the city would see us through, will be shown to be the sham it was, as we fail to pay our way in the world. In the history of the world over the last three centuries, it has been the countries that have made things that were the economic giants of the age. Britain in the 18Th and 19Th centuries, then we were overtook by the German and Americans at the beginning of the Twentieth centuries as they became more efficient and modernising than Britain. After the two world wars The Americans took over the mantle on their own, but unfortunately for them, they have been led down the same garden path as us. But even if they hadn't, once China and India have got their act together it will only be a matter of time before their hegemony ends. We should be looking at Germany, all through everything that has happened to them over the last century, they have always took manufacturing seriously, and despite what those on the right have led everybody to believe they are in far better shape to deal with the changing world than we are.

One law for them
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_hencke/2007/12/the_ministers_who_stole_christ.html

Brown to leave, Larsson to come back?

I am surprised Brown wants to leave, but maybe he thinks he will get more first team opportunities elsewhere next season. He may be right if Gary Neville gets back to full fitness and some of the youngsters start to be given more first team action. The news about Larsson is totally out of the blue, i suppose he is just going to be a little extra insurance, covering the forward positions.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml;jsessionid=B2WFF404BFG0FQFIQMGCFF4AVCBQUIV0?xml=/sport/2007/12/19/ufnbrown119.xml
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/12/20/ufnlars120.xml

Ole to get testimonial, i should think so too. I don't really believe in them in this day and age, but if any footballer deserves it, Ole is your man.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article3078099.ece

Tony Coton announces he is to leave the club
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2230147,00.html
He seems to have been a fixture at the club for a long time, he must have been good to have kept his job for 10 years

Gardener primed for FA job
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2229896,00.html
I have more time for him than i have for Gill after their comparative actions before and after the takeover. Or maybe not
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7153958.stm

All is not sweetness and light behind the scenes at anfield, the credit crunch strikes again
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/12/20/sfnbon120.xml
And that news after another calamitous performance on the pitch, and off it from Benitez as well i thought, fancy not having another striker as sub.

There is loads of comment and tittle tattle about the xmas party and the fallout for Evans. Fergies not a happy chap apparently, i wonder who will get the blame,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/19/nrape319.xml
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/20/nrape120.xml
http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/news/article3266578.ece
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article604542.ece

It's looking like an appalling ending to a pretty poor series for England in Sri lanka as England are bowled out for 81.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/7153185.stm
England seem to be in danger of going backwards, it's hard to see them beating any of the major countries away from home at the moment ( i am not even thinking of the Australians, it would be 5-0 again at the moment ). The batsmen don't have enough patience to get the big scores needed, and the bowling attack isn't good enough when not in English conditions. Panesar has been disappointing as well, you can't expect him to do a Murali, but you would have thought he would have posed more of a threat. And of course no Flintoff.

A better than expected start from lib Dem leader as he announces he does not believe in god
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/libdems/story/0,,2230057,00.html
Although he started to row back and go a bit wishy washy after.

A prelude to the annual economic forecasts we will start to see during the next couple of weeks from Hamish McRae
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/comment/article3266602.ece

Xmas party goes sour

As Johnny Evans finishes off a pretty miserable second half of the year accused of rape
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7151624.stm
There isn't much you can say except i hope he is innocent, and he can get over it quickly. When i heard about it last night he was one of the last players i could imagine it being. Of course this is not the first time a footballer has been accused,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article3071117.ece
Tony Cascarino thinks Footballers must forget tradition and bin Xmas parties,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article3071041.ece

United show FA the way forward
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/12/19/sfnwin119.xml
I would like to think the report is right, and we are obviously producing good players, our youngsters who go out on loan are all seemingly doing well at the clubs they are at. Let's just hope that some of them start to come good in the first team.

More on South Africa as one commentator speculates on the break up of the ANC
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2229540,00.html

The Democratic republic of Congo is a country you never see on any news bulletins, but when you read about the travails it has been through and may be about to go through again, you wonder why. It seems to be one of those unlucky countries where everything that can go wrong does go wrong. Going back as far colonialism, where it was exploited even worse than elsewhere by their European enslavers, and through to the present day.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_tisdall/2007/12/mission_impossible.html

Whitehall isn't working says Simon Jenkins,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2229668,00.html
Correct

Evra unsure of united future ?

A bit bizarre, our player of the season so far, and our only specialist left back.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml;jsessionid=MJ4G2A2PINMDHQFIQMGCFF4AVCBQUIV0?xml=/sport/2007/12/18/ufnevra118.xml
Even stranger when you think Wes is stalling on a new contract, when with all our promising young up and coming centre backs, you wouldn't have thought he would be a higher priority than Evra.

Yet another top 50 albums of the year, this time from rolling stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17601851/the_top_50_albums_of_2007?source=music_news_rssfeed

Interesting times in South Africa, as Mbeki looks likely to lose leadership of the ANC.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/steven_friedman/2007/12/a_new_anc.html
Well his views on aids were pretty odd, and there seems to have been a bit of corruption around the top ranks of the ANC. His reaction to events in Zimbabwe, and seeming lack of effort to help the democratic forces against Mugabe haven't lived up to the standards of his predecessor either ( though that was an impossible task ).

Larry Elliot considers stagflation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/17/creditcrunch.globaleconomy
Auditors told not to cook the books
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/18/creditcrunch.bankofenglandgovernor

Putin puts himself forward for PM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2229059,00.html
I think we are going to need some new Kremlinologists to work out what is happening in Russia at the moment.

John Pilger urges liberal Britain to fight back
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2229166,00.html
Maybe a bit over the top, but that is his style. I can't argue with most of it though, he always persuasively show the west's hypocrisy for what it is. He is absolutely right to go for the jugular, concerning the Murdoch's. Until we have a government that is either unafraid or even better decides to take the fight to them, we will never become a real liberal society. Yet again proportional representation and a coalition government that makes up the majority of anti Tory voters would seem to be the best way to make that come about.

Nick Clegg is the new leader of the liberal party
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7148367.stm
He didn't particularly impress me on the question time edition with him and Huhne on it, and he has a big act to follow in Vince Cable.

Amsterdam to clean up?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2229010,00.html

Gabriel Ananda - Bambusbeats : More minimalist techo, and another good listen, maybe too long though.
Digitalism - Idealism : Classy German indie techno apparently, it's a top listen anyway.
Jose Gonzalez - In our nature: carrying on from where he left off from his first album with more chilled out acoustic guitar
Beirut - Gulag Orkestar : Very good stuff, i love all the various influences coming together, but the trumpet is the star of the show for me.
The Ravonettes - Lust, Lust, Lust : Not bad, but it doesn't really make you want to put it straight back on. The first album had a lot of power on it that this doesn't attempt to replicate, A mistake for me.

Liverpool 0-1 Manchester united

Another good away day for the shirts on merseyside, as United continued their magnificent league record at anfield over recent years. I can't pretend it was pretty, but this was a big three points. Although it didn't kill Liverpool's title hopes, it's made it very hard to see them putting a run together in the second half of the season that would see them finishing above us or Arsenal come May.
The undoubted stars of the show yesterday were the back four and the two midfield enforcers Hargreaves and Anderson. It would have been nice to have seen a bit more of an impact from the front men, but we managed to get the all important goal, and still created the best chance of the second half when Ronaldo and Rooney combined to set up the chance that should have made the last ten minutes a little more comfortable.
Though Liverpool started the slightly better team, they never really threatened us in the first half. What troubles we had, unfortunately came from Van Der Sar having a day to forget, twice in the first half he had rushes of blood to the head that nearly cost us dearly. Though the TV later showed the first mistake to be a crafty trip from Torres that the referee failed to see, the second was a very poor decision as he came out for a ball he was never going to reach, and only managed to collide with Vidic taking them both out of the game. Fortunately for Van Der Sar and us Evra was alive to the situation and managed to get to the ball before Kuyt and cleared the danger. It is hard to remember Liverpool creating a clear cut chance in the first half apart from these two incidents. That is not too say United were faring any better going forward, Ronaldo had one of those days, where nothing seemed to go his way, it would be nice to see him have an real influence on one of the big games. But the most we seem to get is the hope that he might pull something special out of the bag. Tvez was the best of our front men, holding the ball up superbly and giving their defenders a hard time. Twice in the game he managed to steal the ball of their defenders in dangerous positions but we could not make any use of them.
Then just before half time came the deciding goal. Giggs took the corner and instead of floating it into the area he slid it just outside the D to the oncoming Rooney who hit his shot hard and low. Just in front of the goal was Tevez who made sure there would be nobody on the line blocking it by redirecting it just enough to make it 1-0 and give us a huge psychological boost to take into the break.
If the front men hadn't really made much of an impact in the first half, Hargreaves and Anderson had. Just like at the emirates they were superb in the middle of the park, Gerrard hardly got a sniff in the match. Fair enough he may have been played too deep by Benitez, but when he did venture forward our midfield duo seemed to have his measure. Only once in the second half when he ghosted towards the edge of the box late did he cause us any problems.Vidic and especially Ferdinand were magnificent also, they managed to completely shackle Liverpool's man of the moment. Ferdinand was probably our man of the match, though Evra and Hargreaves ran him close.The closest that Liverpool probably came was Ryan Babbel's shot that flew across Van Der Sar's goal. But it was a shot from outside the box, which is where we managed to keep them for most of the second half. They still lack any real guile in the middle of the park, and you couldn't see any of their players creating that bit of quality to unlock pour defence. Looking at them this season, against good teams anyway, i think it's fair to say they will struggle if teams can keep it tight and manage to take the lead against them. I know it wouldn't have been easy for us yesterday if it had been them that had took the lead, but i am sure we would have put up a better effort than they managed in trying to reverse the arrears.
It might sound strange but the main thing i have taken from our two away games at Arsenal and Liverpool this season is a growing belief that we have as good a chance this season to win the champions league as we have had since we last won it. The team we put out yesterday would not have been thrashed at the san siro as we were last season. All this and we still have Scholes to come back, things are looking good come may.

Anderson and Hargreaves praised
http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid=%7BB4CEE8FA%2D9A47%2D47BC%2DB069%2D3F7A2F35DB70%7D&newsid=516025

More on the new Anfield, and the effects of the credit crunch?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/7148782.stm

The budding Zola's and Baggio's of the future go on strike
http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,,2228674,00.html

George Monibot lays into the latest grand world saving environmental treaty just signed at Bali
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2228615,00.html
He makes some good points about American election funding. I am not a global warming sceptic, but i am sceptical about why it is warming, i am not sure we really know why it is happening or if there is anything we can do about it. But the one thing i do know is, nobody is really serious about it, not politicians and not the peoples of the world. When people are asked whether it is important to the future they always say yes. But when it comes to implementing any proposals that might help alleviate global warming such as anything to do with getting people out of cars and onto public transport, if the proposal gets to a vote you can bet your life they will be defeated.

It's been a long wait, a new album from top Manchester band Elbow
http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/articles/2007/12/17/171207_elbow_bones_feature.shtml

Roma 1-1 Manchester United

This was a creditable draw considering the side that Ferguson put out. But to be fair i am not sure how much we can take out of it. With both sides already through and United assured of top spot neither side seemed to take it too seriously. I was very surprised at Roma we had heard that they would be picking a strong team and would not be taking the game lightly as they still smart from the 7-1 drubbing that we handed to them in the quarter finals last season. But though admittedly a much stronger team than ours they had still left two or three better players out. Right from the kick off there wasn't much sign of them busting a gut to avenge that defeat, and the first 45 minutes was amongst the easiest of the season so far. But fair play to the lads that came in, they did all that was asked of them , defending when they had too and kept possession very well. In fact they totally bossed the game at times in the first half, and had the better of territorially and possession wise. Add to that the goal from Pique who seems to have the knack of goals from set pieces and it was a very satisfactory first half.
The second half started in a similar fashion, with United having plenty of possession, especially with Rooney cleverly dropping deep to link midfield to attack. Apparently it was his decision to play as he felt he hasn't played enough games this season, some of the pundits on sky thought it was a crazy decision to play in a meaningless game, four days before one of our biggest games of the season. But he totally vindicated the decision for me, leading the team by example, finding space at will and knitting our performance together. Carrick seemed to have his best game for ages, but he was given an easy ride for the first seventy minutes, and didn't seem so sure of himself in the last twenty minutes, when the thought of an embarrassing defeat by a virtual reserve team forced their manager to bring on his subs and have virtually his first eleven on the pitch. Even then the game became more end to end than a game dominated by the home side.
Just as Rooney was about to come off, Roma did get the equaliser that they had started to threaten to get. But he had had more than done his work for the night, the interplay between him and Saha that nearly brought us a second goal that would probably have killed the game off was the move of the night. In the last ten minutes there were chances at both ends with Nani and Eagles going close for us.
But when the whistle went Uni teds boys could feel satisfied with a good nights work. Simpson did his future chances no harm with another impressive performance especially as he had to switch to left back when O'Shea had to go off, and he didn't look too out of the place on the left. Pique and Johnny Evans both did themselves no harm with reasonable performances, and although i still don't think he has a future in the first team at United, Eagles had a reasonable game, and did not look out of place. The one youngster who didn't impress me was Nani, he did some good things but i thought he chose the wrong option too many times and kept the ball too long when team mates were better placed. But apparently he is a confidence player, so i wasn't surprised that Ferguson said good things about after the game.
The one disappointing aspect of the night was bringing Dong on as a substitute instead of Brandy, we all know that Dong is never ever going to be a Manchester United player, whilst Brandy has definitely got something about him, and would have been nice to see him on this stage, it couldn't have done him any harm.
Now for the big one, i have got to say i am pretty confident, they are a better team than last season, Torres signing has mostly seen to that, he is a class act. But man for man, and on the substitutes bench i believe we are still far superior than them.

Two man ban for Ferguson
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2227798,00.html
Fergie reveals roots of his rise to greatness
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2227510,00.html

Benitez still not a happy bunny
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/liverpool/article3048626.ece

Capello announced as new England manager
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2227603,00.html
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2227457,00.html
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/12/12/the_night_of_glorious_triumph.html

Are the banks in control of the situation? as they act on meltdown.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/13/bankofenglandgovernor.creditcrunch

Robert Fisk on the latest events in Lebanon
http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article3247574.ece

Migrant workers exploited
http://www.guardian.co.uk/immigration/story/0,,2226607,00.html

Financial power moves east, this time Jeff Randall looks at the after effects of the credit crunch
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;jsessionid=IJ4ZO5OX5OAUTQFIQMFSFGGAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/opinion/2007/12/14/do1401.xml

The Aussies want to bring in night day cricket
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article3048759.ece
what a terrible idea, i can't think of one thing that this idea has going for it.

Ferguson confident young charges can shine in Eternal City - Independent Online Edition > European

Ferguson confident young charges can shine in Eternal City - Independent Online Edition > European
It will be interesting to see how this goes, and very interesting to see how Rooney performs as captain. If he can curb his temper to a degree, not altogether, he definitely seems like captaincy material to me.

Led Zeppelin the reviews
http://arts.independent.co.uk/music/features/article3229376.ece
http://music.guardian.co.uk/rock/livereviews/story/0,,2225612,00.html
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/live_reviews/article3031550.ece
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17601364/led_zeppelin_the_full_report_from_david_fricke?source=music_news_rssfeed
It sounds like they have still got it

Billy Bragg has his say on the Morrissey-NME row
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2226081,00.htm
It sounds like he is not entirely convinced by Morrisey. I don't think he said anything racist, but i can't argue against Bragg when he accuses him off tyring to stifle free speech.

Jack Straw auditions for Jackanory
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/henry_porter/2007/12/what_jack_straw_forgot_to_mention.html
Some people seem to think he goes over the top over our civil liberties, i don't think you can ever be complacent regarding what were our ancestors hard won gift to us, which we seem to be so complacent about. There have been a couple of articles about people not voting, acting rationally over the last couple of days. This from Daniel Finkelstein was one
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/daniel_finkelstein/article3036903.ece
And whilst i don't believe voting should be made compulsory. It is a pity people who don't vote, don't then have to spend a week, month or year even in a country where you are not allowed to vote. Of course our rotten system where too many votes do not count helps to spread the apathy that they are all the same. Another positive argument for proportional representation.

The Ukraine, a country where people won the right to vote, but the politicians seem to be trying their best to bring their trade into disrepute.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tomas_valasek/2007/12/its_orange_but_is_it_bright.html
I know there is an east west and Russian orthodox and catholic Ukrainian split, but a lot of the arguments over the last year seem to be more to do with oligarchs, money and ego's.

Things seem to be slowly but surely going downhill in the Lebanon
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3040575.ece
There are definitely no easy answers to this lands problems

Mortgages to take the strain says Hamish McRae in the indy
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/hamish_mcrae/article3244680.ece

Manchester United 4-1 Derby County

On the face of it this looked a run of the mill victory over a piss poor team at the foot of the table, a team probably doomed for the drop already. But taking the conditions into consideration, the rain making it almost impossible for United to play their normal passing game, it was a really good performance and three points.
United never strayed from trying to play football the right way, you can't always play the beautiful game, especially in conditions like yesterday's, so i would have had no complaints if they had brought Saha on as soon as possible and hit long balls either over the top for him to run after or for him to nod down. But you have to give the team full marks, despite the terrible conditions, they never stopped passing and probing and working hard to try and overcome both the opposition and the elements.
Anderson had another tremendous game, not everything he tried came off, it couldn't in those conditions but he never stopped working, looking for the ball and making himself available. He even tried to get on the end of things as if he had taken to heart what Ferguson had said about him having to score more goals if he is to be able to emulate the career Paul Scholes has had for us. Unfortunately that is still one area of his game that we have still not seen the best of, there is plenty of time to improve, look at Fabregas this season.
There were far too many fans getting anxious and not allowing for the pitch conditions in the first half an hour. But i can't say i am surprised, i don't think anybody can claim we have a more clued up support than everybody else any more.The small repertoire of songs is a far cry from years gone by. That is when there is any singing at all of course, not that United are any worse than anyone else, you can virtually predict every chant that will be sung be the opposition fans. Shall we sing a song for you, 60,000 cockneys or 1-0 and you still don't sing, you can almost set your clock by them. And they always seem so pleased with themselves, they just don't know how sad they seem to us
The first half saw United struggling to come to grips with the conditions for the half an hour or so. But once they had acclimatised themselves, the Derby penalty area started to see some action, Rooney in particular stopped by a brilliant last gasp tackle by McEverley that denied him what seemed him a certain goal. But United were not to be denied for too long, and it was that man Ronaldo who did the hard work, cutting back inside the area and producing a powerful shot that Bywater could only parry to the feet of Giggs who made no mistake in putting away his 100Th league goal for Manchester United. A magnificent achievement for a great servant to this club. Then once again Rooney had bad luck in front of goal, after receiving a superb defence splitting pass from Giggs he closed in on the goalie, drew him out and then chipped him for what looked like an excellent finish only to see it come back of the post as Derby then cleared the danger. He seems to be going through one of those little spells where it won't go in for him. Next week at Anfield will be a good time for that to come to an end.
Then just on the stroke of half time, Ronaldo fooled us and the Derby defence, and instead of hitting one of his trademark shots from a free kick, he played a cute little chip pass in to the penalty area, that after a fresh air shot Tevez managed to put away at the second attempt. So United went into the break 2-0 up and seemingly in a comfortable position.
The United performance in the second half was even more impressive for me as the conditions deteriorated, United still passed it around, when it would have been easy to just starting to hoof it forward.
Wes Brown starred in the best two moments of the second half, first sending a long far post cross that found Giggs who struck it beautifully on the volley only to see it come back off the far post. Next he found Tevez in the box with a cute little pass that took two defenders out of the frame, but he still seemed to have plenty to do, but he quickly took one touch and got his shot away straight into the far corner of the net to make it 3-0 and definitely game over. For the first time in the game United started to take it easy. With the game seemingly won Anderson and Giggs were replaced by Saha and Fletcher. Saha seemed to be sharper than in the last couple of games, and there were promising signs he might be finding a bit more form and fitness. But it was Derby who scored the next goal, their first away goal this season. It was a bit of a desperate scramble that Vidic almost cleared of the line. But the three goal lead was restored as Ronaldo was awarded a bit of a dubious penalty in the last minute. The crowd made it clear that they wanted Tevez to take it, but Ronaldo was adamant that it was his penalty to take, and he duly despatched it to make the final score 4-1. Although i would not have minded Tevez taking it, Ronaldo taking it, was the professional thing to do, goal difference can matter and Ronaldo's spot kick record is excellent. Events at Reading later on put the icing on the cake for a pretty good day.

Giggs is underrated says Ferdinand
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7134842.stm
He is right, and he is underrated at United as much as anywhere.

Mayweather defeats Hatton in the 10Th http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/12/09/uoboxxquotes109.xml
I haven't seen it yet, so i can't say much, apart from not being too bothered. He has made to much out of being a blue for me to really give a shit. It seems like it must have been a decent fight though.

Good article about the now failed drug tested Kieren Fallon by Scott Brough
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/12/09/shbrou109.xml


What some of the Thai population think of
Thaksin Shinawatra
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_city/article3004757.ece
If he isn't a fit and proper person to run one of our football clubs then who is?

Henry porter writes about the lack of accountability of those in charge of our democracy
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2224560,00.html
Do as say, not as i do

United to honour Munich victims

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article3013603.ece
I like the idea of the team playing in the original strip and with no sponsorship, but i would like the rest of the tributes kept to a minimum. When Busby, died the game against Everton was just about as perfect a tribute to a footballing giant as you could ever have at a football match. Sometimes less is more.

Gary Neville suffers another injury setback, but it isn't serious according to Ferguson
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/7132824.stm
true or not, it is not what he needs at this stage of his career

Fallon's race fix trial collapses
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article3231434.ece
As far as i am concerned a bad day for horse racing in this country. I can't say i am totally convinced by his innocence even if the prosecution's evidence was incompetent.

An interesting snippet from this Polly Toynbee article is a new website historyandpolicy.org
as to the article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2223693,00.html
i think she is half right, i don't think there is any more crime now than when i was young, but she never mentions gun crime when she says that we are just as safe now as we have ever been. And that is one thing you can't pin on new labour, but i think it will be hard to put that genie back in the bottle, especially if the drugs laws stay as they are and we don't have full employment.

No such thing as a secure online computer, says Simon Jenkins
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2223526,00.html
And he is right, and the sooner that becomes the common perception the better.

Ferguson hails 'boy wonder' Anderson

Best in the world is going a bit far, though if you read it , he never actually says that. Still when do football journalists actually write what is actually said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/12/06/sfnman106.xml
he has undoubtedly been the biggest plus of the season so far, if we had lost Scholes and Carrick last season our title ambitions would have been sunk below the water mark, but Anderson has come in and took his chance magnificently. Meaning when Scholes is fit, he has some big decisions to make in the second half of the season as to who gets left out of central midfield most often. Obviously that means Scholes plus 1 other, and maybe in the European games Scholes plus 2 others as Scholes is still the daddy. At the moment it is not looking too good for Carrick or the forgotten man of central midfield Fletcher. I would not be surprised to see one of those two move on next summer, it's a bit early to say that, but i am absolutely certain it will happen.

Drogba out for months?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/chelsea/article3007126.ece

And the invincibles mark 2 look like a team with a soft centre to them still, after seeing the last two games. They don't like it up em you know.

England beaten by Sri Lanka
http://sport.independent.co.uk/cricket/article3226338.ece
A game where England really missed Flintoff i thought. Probably more for his bowling than his batting, you can usually rely on him to discomfort opposition batsmen. I don't think Sri Lanka would have got such a big score in the second innings if England had got a fit Freddie in the side. It could have then been an even more exiting last day. Bell and Prior did superbly, but you always suspected once Murali got one he might be able to wrap it up.


New findings may be due to a defector
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2221994,00.html
There seems to be a lot of internal Washington politics attached to this new Iranian intelligence finding and perhaps the settling of some old scores. Hopefully they will achieve their aim of stopping the hawks from launching any more mad cap escapades.

Simon Jenkins has the right approach to Iran. Although the country has it's fair share of theocratic nutters to use a Craig Murray phrase, it also has some of the more progressive democratic elements in the middle eastern region. You couldn't call them liberal according to our values, but of that region, they certainly couldn't be called conservative. As for the population, they would seem to be a hell of a lot more sympathetic to western ideas than their Saudi counterparts. That is not exactly going to be the case if they are attacked is it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2222113,00.html

The price of policing the world ?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2221994,00.html
If as he says the yanks are struggling to update some of their aircraft due to cost, then we really should be scaling back some of our grandiose visions of our place in the world.

I am generally in favour of Turkey being admitted to the EU,
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2222069,00.html
but if authors keep getting taken to court for writing what they believe to be true, then they will have to wait.

Information chief calls for ID review
http://www.guardian.co.uk/idcards/story/0,,2222071,00.html
better still bin this illiberal idea

I thought the love in between the neocons and the torygraph would have finished when Conrad Black had to sell, but it still seems to be true love
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;jsessionid=SUEWBLYPSBDS1QFIQMFSFFOAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/opinion/2007/12/06/dl0602.xml
How many aspects of American electioneering, that the Telegraph admires are just so so wrong. First Romney has spent hugely to try and win the Iowa caucuses, how is it vaguely democratic to win any election by spending more money than your opponent. Second the spacing out of the states caucuses makes certain states more important than others and thirdly does anybody here really want elections spreading out over virtually two years, as the presidential nominations and then presidential elections have become. I think four weeks is probably more than enough for most people in this country. As to the the argument that this is where the candidates are tested, politicians are tested in the house of commons and in the art of governance if they are in power, as Gordon Brown and George Bush are finding out. Of course this all sounds jolly good to the Telegraph because the American system means that the wealthy are rarely hurt by senate, congress or presidential elections, a thought, surely close to every telegraph readers heart.

There have been a number of commentators getting more nervous by the day about the parlous state of the the economy, Anatole Kaletsky joins them,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anatole_kaletsky/article3006819.ece
With the record of the bank of England before it was nationalised by Attlee' s government i think we should be worried. If laissez-faire economics are dead, we need politicians and maybe even new parties who will think out of the box as Keynes and Lloyd George did in this country and Roosevelt and his new deal adherents did in the states. Maybe when economies stabilise, the taxation of share transaction will find favour and all sorts of progressive ideas like a land tax given a fresh once over. The one thing for sure is New Labour is not going to be the party of new ideas, I can't see the Tories being it either, although to be fair there is a bit of the chameleon to their history, if an idea comes along that they can use to ensure their survival as a serious political power, they may well grab it, although they will obviously limit the radical aspects of any new direction. The liberals or even the greens if they were serious would seem to be best placed of the established parties.

Your wish is the banks command, as interest rates are cut
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/06/interestrates.bankofenglandgovernor2
Larry Elliot comments
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/larry_elliott/2007/12/when_it_comes_to_the_crunch.html

American sub prime losses could soar according to the times
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/united_states/article3007121.ece

I wonder how much shit the Glazers are going to be in?

Manchester United 2-0 Fulham

A run of the mill 2-0 victory that probably would have been 5 or 6 if the officials had been up to the job. The return of Rooney saw United return to form eventually anyway, with him playing as if the injury had never happened, bang on form again, making the front line a lot harder for the opposition to combat. I thought United started at a better tempo than they had against Bolton, but i was glad we scored when we did when we did as i thought our good start looked like it was staring to peter out. Fulham won't be happy with the goal though as Giggs corner seemed to have come to nothing as it landed straight on the head of Davies. But instead of heading out and clearing the danger, he miscued the header sideways and it landed right in front of Ronaldo who hit a pearler of a volley into the top corner of the net to put us 1-0 up. Tevez had a decent chance shortly after, but Niemi managed to keep it out. United seemed to lose their way a bit after that and Fulham played well having a few decent chances as Van Der Sar was forced into action with a couple of decent chances. I haven't really seen much of Fulham since Sanchez took over, it looks like he may be a decent manager, he did a good job at Northern Ireland and he seems to have Fulham playing attractive passing football.
Thankfully United seemed to up a level in the second half, and when United scored the second, the threat from Fulham was extinguished and United really started to play. It was a cracking header from Ronaldo, he seemed to get really high and then hung in the air before powering the ball into the net. He has started to score headers regularly now that old fashioned centre forwards would be happy with. Yet another potent weapon in his armoury. He seemed nearer to the Ronaldo of last season last night, lets hope the season clicks into gear for him now. I know that sounds an odd thing to say about a player who has scored 13 goals already this season, but i still think he has not rediscovered his all conquering form of last season. Mind you if he scores the amount of goals, and the quality of goals he has so far this season i am not complaining.
After this it was as much about the referee and linesman, as it was about the players. To add insult to injury the referee not only didn't award Ronaldo a blatant penalty that would have given him, a chance to notch his first hatrick for the club, he then proceeded to book him for diving. The TV replays show pretty conclusively it was a penalty, and even if you were still unconvinced it was clear he didn't dive.
The linesman had a mare, I don't know how he gave some of the offsides he did in the second half, some were nowhere near offside. He must have denied us two or three potential one on one situations with the goalie that would have boosted our goal difference if we had took at least one of them. I hope the bug that affected Evra and Ferdinand doesn't affect the rest of the team. I didn't notice Ferdinand struggling until he took that pill early in the second half, but i had noticed Evra not looking right about halfway through the first half.
I have got a feeling that when Scholes returns to the team, Hargreaves may get a few run outs at right back for the whole ninety minutes in the new year. Hargreaves and Anderson didn't seem to gel as well in central midfield last night, with neither of them playing to their usual standards. I am not sure we really need a midfield destroyer in games like these at home to be honest, but with Carrick not living up to last seasons standards, i suppose you pick the players in form if you only have one game in the week.
It was nice to see Rooney looking so pissed off when he was brought off, he looks in the mood to try and take us to even more glory than last season.

The FA cup draw could have been kinder, i know Villa park is a great ground for us, but at some stage we are going to lose there. And Martin O'Neil is starting to get the team is playing in his image.

Ferguson in secret meeting with FA
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/12/04/sfnnev104.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox
Over his thoughts on who to appoint for the England job.

Morrissey speaks up
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/12/morrissey_responds.html
And makes the NME and especially the interviewer sound terrible, how will he ever be able to write music journalism again after that brilliant demolition of his musical knowledge.


The perfect chilli?
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/food/2007/12/blumenthals_spicy_secrets_reve.html
Blumenthal style, it reminds me of that Simpson's episode, where there is a competition to eat the hottest chilli.

Ooh erh misses
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2000/feb/24/spaceexploration.internationalnews1
Astronauts test sex in space

Putin's election meddling is baffling
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2221508,00.html

Voters reject Chavez constitutional change
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article3220969.ece
A good day for democracy in Venezuela, if his programme is truly popular as it seems to be, then someone else will carry the torch forward.
A ridiculous leader article on the subject from the telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;jsessionid=TPUKIOBAPKRFTQFIQMGSFF4AVCBQWIV0?xml=/opinion/2007/12/04/dl0401.xml
Obviously the neocons are ecstatic about the result, i am not too sure why, the continent has drifted away from control by uncle Sam regardless of Chavez. But trying to tell us American democracy is in rude health and claiming that US party funding is in a healthy state. What kind of democracy is it when you have to be a millionaire to run for anything, and the higher you aim the richer you need to be.

Craig Murray's blog is a must read at the moment
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/



I watched the film Bobby at the weekend, written and directed by Emilio Estevez. It is about events in the hotel that Robert Kennedy was assassinated in, during the hours before the grizzly deed was done. It is a superb film, it was not a biopic, Kennedy just appeared in occasional news clips from the time, yet was a brilliant tribute to the real Liberal hero of the Kennedy clan.

Woody Guthrie - Struggle : The inspiration for the early Bob Dylan. I saw a documentary on the beeb a few years ago and it was a fascinating view. This was the first time i had heard him properly, and it was pretty good. the quality of the recording was reasonably good. One thing that puts me off listening to pre rock 'n' roll music is the quality of the recording.
Bruce Springsteen - Magic : Top stuff. This album seemed to get some lukewarm reviews, but i can't see why. It's real toe tapping rock for the most part, even if the lyrics are the opposite of that.
It's just been announced he will be playing at old trafford in the summer
http://www.nme.com/news/bruce-springsteen/32930
The mother hips - Kiss the crystal Flake : A cracking album, the one thing that i notice when i hear American rock bands at the moment, is that they seem to be able to play their instruments a whole lot better than a lot of our so called hot new bands. And this lot add some real songwriting craft.
Ricardo Villalobos - Fizheuer Zieheuer : I read a piece in the guardian a few weeks ago about this new musical trend/genre, call it what you will, minimalist techno. And this album was hailed as one of the masterpieces of the genre so far. It is the type of thing that you will love or hate, for me it was hypnotic and i loved it, it reminded me of John Coltrane trance music, not that it sounds like that , it just kind gives that vibe off.
Tuung - Comments of the inner chorus : I have been meaning to listen to these for ages and have finally got around to it. And i will be going back for more, it's a good album. Part of the folktronica movement, and that is a pretty good description of their music.
Giant Drag - Hearts and Unicorns: Another good American rock album. I like the singers voice, i have always liked the contrast between the rock guitar and female voice.

Rooney back for Fulham

Good news, he has been missed
http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid={B4CEE8FA-9A47-47BC-B069-3F7A2F35DB70}&newsid=511880

Kaka to pip Ronaldo as Europe's best
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/12/01/sfnkak101.xml
Strange how it is assumed to be between Kaka and Ronaldo, but Messi would be right up there with them for me. Some of the goals he has scored for Barca over the last season have been sensational.

Blair's explosive legacy
http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article3213028.ece
Whilst i do think much of this stems from the blairites shady way with party funding, it has gone way past that now. The whole upper echelons of the party are beginning to look rotten to the core. And incompetent as well as useless according to Matthew Parris
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article2980338.ece
And Paul Linfords take on the matter
http://linfordunlimited.blogspot.com/2007/12/curse-of-north.html

Vince Cable - cult leader
http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article3213033.ece
I prefer politicians with hinterland as Denis Healey used to call it.

Meanwhile in the rest of the world the Chinese show why the Neo cons aren't the only funny farm candidates liberals should be looking over there shoulder at.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article2980250.ece

And Russian liberals pin some of the blame for Putin on western double standards
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/anna_matveeva/2007/11/how_putin_will_manage.html
That's fair enough, when you look at the oligarchs roaming around the world with their ill gotten gains. They were definitely helped to get where they are today, by the atrocious advice the newly democratic Russia was given by the west, that saw it become a capitalist wild west in the nineties

Morrissey and the NME
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/11/jonze_nme_morrissey.html
Whilst you can totally disagree with his views on immigration, those views are not racist as far i am concerned. And i am not surprised he is not a happy bunny.

The Neocons begin to worry about Pakistan and it's nuclear capability
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,,2220126,00.html