No more displays like Sunday's says Giggs

I hope he is right, because if he is wrong there won't be any silverware to parade at the end of the season. Sunday reminded me of the end of last season, when United's fitness seemed to hit a brick wall. From the AC Milan game at the san siro to the cup final we became a shadow of the side we had been. We have been relying far too much on Ronaldo's goals over the last month, it couldn't go on forever. And we are now paying the price for not having any cover up front, can you imagine what would happen if we were to lose Rooney or Ronaldo for the rest of the season.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/there-can-be-no-repeat-of-city-defeat-says-giggs-781075.html

Wave of anxiety concerns United
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2008/02/12/sfnman112.xml
Paul Scholes seems to be coming in for a fair amount of stick on the united fanzine message boards, which i find absolutely amazing. Alright he had mediocre games at white hart lane and on Sunday, but did he have a poor game. Whatever happens in the rest of the season, i would bet my bottom dollar he will be one of our star performers. The problems were in front of him and behind him on Sunday, i heard some say that city controlled midfield. I don't know what game they were watching. City defended deep and caught us on the break, as did Spurs here in the cup and as Arsenal almost certainly will try and do on Saturday. If we play poorly again in that game, i would be looking at how susceptible we have become to the counter attack all of a sudden.

AIG's auditors reveal a far from rosy picture as it has understated it's losses
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2008/02/aig_the_horror.html

FA to quiz Scudamore over 39th game
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2008/02/12/sfnbon112.xml
That is an interesting snippet at the end, about a fall out between Gill and Ferguson. It has the ring of truth to me, no way do i believe that Ferguson as craven as he has been over the Glazer stewardship of our club, will go along with this. Gill seems to be showing his true colours as a follow the money careerist more and more openly recently. Let's hope these people go down in the annals of football as the enemies of the sport that they are, when future histories are written.

Liverpool's new stadium architects, apt partners for Gillet and Hicks
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=513646&in_page_id=1779&ct=5

The original supergrass from the indy
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/bertie-smalls-queit-death-of-the-original-supergrass-781020.html
A fascinating story, i haven't read about him before. I knew about the corruption in the yard, it was brilliantly portrayed in that magnificent drama series our friends in the north.

An excellent column by Johann Hari in the indy about the Rowan Williams sharia law row
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-rowan-williams-has-shown-us-one-thing-ndash-why-multiculturalism-must-be-abandoned-780710.html
That is absolutely bang on the money, all of the opproprium landing on Williams head seems to be anti Muslim, when it should be pro secular.

A review of sin city which finished it's run on channel 4 last night
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-and-tv/tv-radio-reviews/last-nights-tv-theyve-dished-out-enough-punishment-780950.html
A fair review, i liked it myself but for the historical parallels to today, without thinking it really as worked as well as it could have done as a drama. I hate the tendency that the tabloids have in spreading the lie that everything is going downhill nowadays, with drunkenness, crime, prostitution, paedophilia etc. Unfortunately all the things that appall us today, have happened as long as human beings began living in cities. As this series reminded us. I am not saying we shouldn't be appalled when adults get murdered by drunken teenagers, but we shouldn't think that events such as this have never happened before. It simply isn't the case.

Australian PM Rudd to apologise to indigineous Australins for the policy that led to the stolen generation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/feb/12/australia