United look to next season

Ferdinand wants more champions league glory whilst Fergie wants United to start to catch up to Real Madrid's haul of 9 cup victories. We have definitely got the squad to to add more champions league victories, but we are not as far ahead of the rest of the competition as AC Milan were when they were all conquering in the late 80's and early 90's. So a little more luck will be needed next year, unless of course the squad improves as we hope it will, then anything is possible.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/may/25/chelsea.premierleague1

Evra doesn't expect to make the French starting eleven in this summers European championship, i am not sure why, he is definitely a better player than Abidal. Still it won't do United any harm if he is going to be used as a substitute.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/may/26/france

Ronaldo praises Ferguson and Queiroz
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article4007365.ece
That won't do any harm to Queiroz's ambitions to succeed Ferguson as manager of course
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article4003690.ece

Sid Lowe on the final day of La Liga 2007-2008
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/05/19/sid.html

Doncaster Rovers 1-0 Leeds United
what a shame
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2008/05/26/sfgdon126.xml

More on Abramovitch and Chelsea and his lack of understanding of what makes a football club tick. One thing the article doesn't address is whether he can find it before UEFA bring in rules to stop debt ridden Football clubs having the unfair advantage they seemingly do at present. That is if they can summon the collective will to do something about it.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/chelsea/article4004204.ece

Chelsea manager, the impossible job according to Cascarino in the Times.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article4004172.ece
I am wondering more and more whether the club where Fergie said the chairman told his manager what the team would be before the game isn't Chelsea. It would seem to me it could only be between them and City.

After a disastrous second day England completely turn the game on its head to give themselves a fighting chance on day 4.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article4004189.ece
And to think England won't be playing at Old Trafford now for at least 3 years when they have at last got a spinner able to exploit the hard dry turning wicket that is Old Trafford. Let's hope the club take this opportunity to rebuild the ground, though what the present credit crunch has done to those plans, who knows.


The nasty party shows its true colours with plans to send youngsters to boot camps.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/may/26/conservatives.welfare
If they were talking about sending young people into apprenticeships or seriously training them up for some kind of trade, fair enough, but it's just slave labour that will solve nothing except making the Tories look tough. Of course, so many years after the recessions of the 80's when they tried every trick in the book to make the jobless figures look not as disgusting as they actually were, i suppose there might be some people that will be gullible enough to believe this will actually achieve anything.


Jackie Ashley admits she and the supporters of Gordon Brown got it badly wrong
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/26/gordonbrown.labour
I still think his supporters are trying to give his chancellorship too much credit. He could have taken steps to stop easy credit getting out of hand as Vince Cable and others had warned.

Mbeki condemns violence against foreigners ( mainly from Zimbabwe, they can't win can they, assaulted by their own government and assaulted abroad ) in South Africa, but finds himself condemned for his lack of leadership. He has been a disastrous successor to Mandela.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/26/southafrica.zimbabwe

An article on the changing face of Israeli foreign policy as US economic power is challenged by China, India and co. Very interesting i have got to admit i had never seen this in the context of middle east relations, but he is right it could force Israel to face up to reality.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dominique_moisi/2008/05/postamerican_israel.html

Gary Younge compares Hilary Clinton to George W. Bush, ouch.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/26/hillaryclinton.barackobama

Mad men finished its first series run on BBC 4 last night and if anything it just got better and better as the series went on. You could tell that the guy that wrote it, Matthew Weiner had been involved on something as stellar as the Sopranos. It was must watch TV.

The peep show has returned to the form of the first three series after the slight drop in standards of the fourth series with the first episode in particular being a corker.