Manchester United 2-0 West Ham United

The first half was as good as we seen so far this season and i was really looking forward to the second half but it seemed it was job done and save themselves for the weekend. Still a win is a win and the second goal contained the best piece of skill i have seen so far this season, a sublime moment by Berbatov that was worthy of Eric himself. That was what we bought him for and he is really starting to look the part now.
I wasn't expecting much from West ham and they didn't disappoint me, Bellamy tried hard but there wasn't much else coming from the men in claret and blue. As everybody seemed to expect Tevez came back into the team to face his old club, Nani came in for Park and Anderson returned to central midfield. Fair play to Nani i am not his biggest fan but his first half performance last night was excellent as good as we have seen from him. For once he seemed to know the right ball and as importantly the right time to play it. And it was from his pull back that Ronaldo slotted home the first goal after quater of an hours play. Once more Fletcher was having an outstanding game, how he is coming on after getting an extended run in the side.
Nani and Anderson both had pretty good chances to get the second, Anderson inparticular should have done better, that first goal just won't happen for him. But then the moment of the seaon so far for me as Anderson put Berbatov through on the flank. As he hit the touchline, he beat his marker with a sublime diguised pass to himself with the outside of his foot and hugging the touchline then made sure he didn't waste the chance and rolled it across for Ronaldo to bundle it home, magnificent.
It was just a pity the second half turned into such a damp squib. West Ham did seem to put in more effort but United definitely hit the comfort zone. It took the introduction of Rooney to liven things up as almost immediately he made the goalie bring off a reasonable save. But it was a false dawn as United eased off again and settled for the 2-0 scoreline. It could have cost us because West Ham did have a pretty good chance in the last ten minutes but i think they could have played another 90 minutes and not scored. It was nice to see Carrick back when he came on as a sub with Rooney but he looked rusty, unsurprisingly, and it will obviously take some time for hime to approach the form we know he is capable of. It's a good job that Fletcher is playing so well.The one change in the team i and a few others i talked to couldn't understand was the choice of Kuszczak in golas as replacement for Van Der sar instead of Foster. We all know the Pole is never going to be a United goalie but Foster looks like he could be. Foster seems to be impatient to get first team football and last night would have been a good opportunity. I wasn't surprised to see Chelski easily roll over Hull and despite their good start i am hoping to see us improve our goal difference on Saturday. Famous last words, hopefully not.

Tevez still has a future at old trafford says Fergie
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/7698990.stm
I am not the only one wondering if that is really the case.

Ferguson says he is glad Fletcher stayed, i think we all are.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/keeping-fletcher-right-move-says-ferguson-976742.html

Johann Hari on the unlucky country that is the Congo and the wests part in the on off war.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-how-we-fuel-africas-bloodiest-war-978461.html

John Walsh on the Led zeppelin reunion minus Robert Plant
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/john-walsh/john-walsh-thats-not-very-rocknroll-robert-978467.html
I don't really think it's a good idea either

Anatole Kaletsky on the US presidential elections and what happens in the next three months
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anatole_kaletsky/article5041780.ece

Larry Elliot on the real economic position of this country
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/29/economy-labour-recession-gordon-brown
So much for the economic miracle that the Thatcherites were supposed to have brought about. I don't know which party will do it but i suspect it is only a matter of time before something or other gets re nationalised or some variant of taking it out of the private sector.

Ronaldo world player of the year

and Ferdinand gets in to the world x1 team as picked by fellow pro's
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/ronaldo-wins-world-vote-and-commits-to-united-975474.html

An rare interview with Ferguson in the Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article5026752.ece

I wasn't surprised to see Ramos sacked but he is yet another Spurs manager not given a proper chance. It is Levy who should be resigning for making bad decision after bad decision.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/oct/28/premierleague-tottenhamhotspur1

Gideon Haigh on the case for Test match cricket over the smash bang wallop of twenty20
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/oct/28/stanford-super-series-englandcricketteam1

Steve Richards on the bank of England's independence, the government and the Euro
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/steve-richards/steve-richards-at-this-rate-it-wont-be-long-before-were-joining-the-euro-975451.html

The free market ideologues who helped get us into this mess fight back and Polly Toynbee wonders if we will have any heirs to Lloyd George and FDR to carry forward the progressive cause.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/28/economics-labour-conservatives-keynes

George Monibot describes why he thinks the US gets the politicians it does
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/28/us-education-election-obama-bush-mccain

Everton 1-1 Manchester United

After completely dominating the first half, this really has to go down as two points lost, even though Everton probably deserved the point. Wes Brown came in at right back whilst Rio and Evra both returned from injury. Again Fletcher was in central midfield with Giggs partnering him this time. Rooney partnered Berbatov again with Tevez on the bench again, i have got a feeling that Tevez might get a game on Wednesday probably in place of Rooney.
United dominated the opening proceedings without really creating any clear cut chances. But Everton weren't causing us any trouble and it seemed like just a matter of time before the chances would come. When the chance came you hope that is taken and taken it was. Giggs with a nicely waited pass fed Fletcher who had made a well timed run into the box unmarked he controlled it first time and made no mistake drilling the shot past Howard. This run of games is undoubtedly helping Fletcher enormously, he is enjoying his best spell of form in his career, he has even started to make time for himself on the ball. It was a pity that United weren't able to get the second goal that their play would have merited. Howard made a brilliant double save stopping Rooney's header from a corner and then stopping Giggs brilliant curling shot. Rooney was just prevented from getting his 100th goal when Yobo cleared the ball from his feet as he was just about to let rip.
The second half was a completely different story as Everton stepped up a gear and got in amongst us knocking us off our stride. United weren't really in it as an attacking force for the first twenty minutes of this period. That said although Everton were playing far better than they had in the opening half and were the better team now they were hardly laying siege to our goal. So i wouldn't say it was inevitable that they were going to score. But they did get one from a speculative cross from Phil Neville that the big Fellaini leapt highest to and headed home well. Now at last United started to show some urgency and United looked the team most likely to score in the last ten minutes. Ronaldo had a great chance but couldn't hit the target.
Ferguson had taken off Rooney after he got booked and Fergie said he feared he would get sent off. I was disappointed with Ronaldo's theatrics after Phil Neville's tackle on him, it may have been a foul but he didn't hurt him. So whilst a draw at Everton is not a bad result after completely dominating first half it is frustrating result.

Ronaldo says he made the right decision to stay at United and will probably stay at United next season.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/7689941.stm
We'll see

Rooney took off for his own good says Fergie
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article5014612.ece

Hargreaves going nowhere according to Fergie
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/7690267.stm

Truly horrible!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7674108.stm

The financial big bang has a lot to answer for
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/24/welfare-marketturmoil

Will Hutton on hedge funds
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/26/market-turmoil-credit-crunch-will-hutton

Our ruling elite and Russian money, a scandal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/23/commentanddebate-george-osborne-russia

The toffs revenge, what a shower ( spoken like Terry Thomas )
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-bullingdon-club-when-gentlemen-fall-out-973702.html

John Pilger on Australi's treatment of the Aborigine people
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/24/australia-aborigine-howard-rudd

An interview with Elbow's Guy Garvey on Manchester confidential.
http://www.manchesterconfidential.com/index.asp?Sessionx=IpqiNw7pNwIrJWc6IHqjNwB6IA&realname=Interview_with_Guy_Garvey
I saw them at the Apollo on Thursday and they were magnificent. I had hoped for a few older songs but i thought they would concentrate on the stuff from the Mercury winning the seldom seen kid and i wasn't wrong. When it's that good though you can't grumble. That's the third time i have seen them and they have been brilliant every time

Manchester United 3-0 Celtic

A fairly straight forward three points, it's getting pretty easy to get a bit blase about everything at the moment. Saying that i couldn't really see any other result before last night's match even though we had two close games and actually managed to lose the game in Glasgow that we absolutely dominated. They huffed and puffed Celtic but i'm afraid they were pretty poor. I have Celtic a fair few times at Old Trafford and they always try and play the game the right way and usually have one or two players of quality but you couldn't pick out any of their team last night as anything out of the ordinary. In fact i'm not too sure how many of them are actually premier league quality in all honesty. Not a good time for them to have to face an in form United and a red hot Rooney.
When we first bought Rooney it has to be remembered that he carried us for the first couple of years, and it was Ronaldo who was the jekyll and hide player, brilliant at times and frustratingly inconsistent at others. Then Ronaldo suddenly transformed into the world beater of the last two seasons whilst Rooney suddenly became the understudy at times and started to come in for some criticsm. It's funny how seemingly out of nowhere it's Rooney rediscovering that imperious form helped with a couple years more experience and Ronaldo who doesn't quite seemed to have quite recaptured his zip after his injury lay off. I have got a feeling Ronaldo was probably rushed back a bit too quick for his own good really.
With no Evra, O'Shea came into the left back slot, Jonny Evans filled in for the slightly injured Ferdinand with Gary Neville at right back. I think that gives us some clue as to highly Fergie rated the threat from Celtic. He almost always tries to keep the same back four for the top games if he can, so to make those changes suggests he thought it would be a comfortable night, he wasn't wrong. Anderson came into midfield alongside Fletcher and Nani slotted onto the opposite flank to Ronaldo with Rooney and Berbatov partnering each other again.
United started well with some excellent passing and moving all over the pitch with Rooney in particular in the groove once more.
The first goal came on the half hour when Nani's corner reached the back post where John O'Shea prodded back into the six yard box where an unmarked Berbatov prodded it past the goalie. It looked offside it has to be said, and TV camera's showed it probably was, although not by as much as it had looked on the night at the game. Fletcher had a great chance to kill the game off just before half time but after doing everything right, keeping his head and cutting inside he blasted it over the bar instead of choosing his spot.
The second didn't take too long coming though, just six minutes into the second half a Ronaldo free kick was only parried out by Boric straight to the feet of Berbatov who again made no mistake. Apparently TV camera's showed that this was marginally offside too. Well the officials must have decided to even things out because moments later Rooney brilliantly rounded the goalie before rolling the ball into an empty net only for it to be disallowed. This time camera's bared out what a fair few at the gound had thought, there was nothing wrong with it. With half an hour to go Tevez and Brown came on for Berbatov and Neville and the one way traffic continued. Tevez carried on with his good form and almost scored straight away and was involved in everything. But it was that man Rooney again who would score the third and final goal. getting the ball just outside the area he made room for himself and sent a low shot into the corner of the net. United eased off after that and there was never any liklihood of another goal unfortunately, bu the job had been done. With Villreal wiing the other game 6-3 the group is almost over bar the shouting as far as qualification goes. I expect Evans, Nani and Da silva may get more game in the rest of the qualifying stages. Maybe Welbeck might get a chance for the bench who knows.

Fergie happy with Berbatov
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7683437.stm

Strachan impressed by United
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7683471.stm

Liverpool for sale ?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/liverpool/article4988378.ece

Martin Bell on the Osborne ( and Mandelson ) affair
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/22/georgeosborne-partyfunding
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-osborne-fights-for-political-life-968618.html
Wait until the next election when i am pretty sure the country is going to learn that those same hedge fund operators who almost plunged the world economy into the abyss are bankrolling the Tories

How much of a liberal will Obama be when he is actually in charge, my guess was not much, but that was before the economic implosion.
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5831/

Ernst Rohm ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_R%C3%B6hm would be proud
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/haiders-deputy-reveals-gay-affair-969492.html

Hamish McRae on the future for the US economy
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/hamish-mcrae/hamish-mcrae-america-must-live-within-its-means-968552.html

A glimpse of the post Warne, Mcgrath world for the Aussies ?
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket/australia-humbled-by-fiery-khan-968495.html

There's nothing new under the sun
http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/articles/2008/10/20/201008_scuttlers_interview_feature.shtml

Music
Augustus Pablo - King Tubby's meets rockers: Absolute pearler of an album, great dub.
Bjork - Volta: I have always liked her stuff, but was pleasantly surprised how good this is.
Dr Feelgood - Malpractice: I always liked what i heard of these but never got round to getting any of their albums in the past. A mistake? on the result of listening to this yes quality rocking 12 bar blues.
Gillian Welch - Revival: I saw her on Jools Holland a couple of times and loved what i heard. so it's no surprise that i love this piece of folk/americana whatever you want to call it. The guitar playing of David Rawlings really lifts the album.
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless: I can't remember why i never listened to this indie rock classic, but i have should have done ages ago. It is superb, Bizzarely reminding me of the cocteau twins at times but with the volume set to 11

Manchester United 4-0 West Brom

Four goals without being anywhere near your best is a pretty good habit to have and that was the case yesterday. As i feared we are really going to miss Scholes especially with Carrick out as well, i hope that Carrick is nearly back to full fitness because we are going to need him whilst the ginger prince is out. After reading in the press on Friday that Hargreaves was going to be a certain starter i put a couple of quid on him to score the first goal. But what do you know you get to the ground and the team is announced and there is no Hargreaves, not even on the bench. It looks like we seemed destined to have at least one player in the squad who prefers the treatment table to the football pitch, with Hargreaves taking on balsa wood man Saha's place. Good news for Fletcher it would seem, he looks destined to get quite a run of games under his belt as all our other central midfield men are out of action.
Da Silva started at right back with Giggs pairing Fletcher in central midfield which at the moment is probably the best central midfield we can put out. I think Giggs does a pretty good job there, and i always like to have someone in central midfield with a bit of imagination. Berbatov was partnered by Rooney, Tevez wasn't even on the bench i don't know if that had anything to do with travel or not.
Although Rooney is absolutely on fire at the moment i had expected Tevez to be in the line up. The first half was a pretty lacklustre affair with United unable to open up the visitors defence. That said the one time they were opened up Rooney had a perfectly fair goal wiped out for the slightest of touches on his opponent just before he dispatched the ball in the corner of the net. But at half time we were all thinking how Fergie could change things. Losing Evra on the half hour mark didn't help matters as O'Shea obviously isn't as good going forward.
But we needn't have worried as after the break things started to improve. The first goal saw a nicely weighted ball from Berbatov put Rooney through on the left. Running towards goal he cut inside and hit the ball into the right hand side of the net giving the goalie no chance. It was only what he deserved as once again he was easily United's best player. The second goal saw Rooney turn provider as he beautifully controlled and then hit an inch perfect pass into the path of Ronaldo who proceeded to thump the ball into the back of the net with his left foot. The third took everybody by surprise as a cross from substitute Nani seemed to evade everybody to arrive at the unmarked Berbatov in the six yard box who promptly stuck out his right foot and put into the back of the net. He was so alone i at first thought he must have been offside but no he wasn't and the goal stood. United were now all over the baggies and another great move ended with a peach of a cross from Rooney which found Nani at the back post who made no mistake.
Gary Neville came on for Da Silva and showed there is still life in the old legs yet. I thought Da Silva showed he still has a bit to learn yet, i wouldn't want to be starting him against the likes of the big four just yet. It was oviously important to win after all our competitors had won earlier and i thought it was important that we scored a few goals as well especially after the rentboys drubbing of Middlesbrough so it was a good evenings work.

The match report from the Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/3216954/Manchester-United-v-West-Bromwich-Albion-Football.html

Patrice Evra interviewed in the Observer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/oct/19/manchesterunited

Football and the credit crunch
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/3223897/Premier-Leagues-conservatism-must-be-broken-Football.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/columnists/brianmoore/3211495/It-is-the-Premier-League-clubs-not-Triesman-who-are-naive.html

Andrew Rawnsley on the economic summersaults performed by messrs Brown and Cameron
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/19/gordonbrown-davidcameron-economic-policy

Wiiliam Keegan on the economy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/oct/19/gordonbrown-banking

Will Hutton wants real leadership
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/12/marketturmoil-creditcrunch

So long suckers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/18/banking-useconomy

Cuba discovers reserves of oil, nothings going right for the neocons is it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/18/cuban-oil

Charlie Brooker on his new Zombie series
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/oct/18/horror-channel4

Tevez to be offered new contract

so says Gill anyway
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article4898185.ece

Triesman and FA flex muscles, threatning a salary cap and a look at the rules on ownership of football clubs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/oct/08/premierleague

English football faces crunch time according to according to football finance expert
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/crunch-time-for-english-clubs-955165.html

David Conn on the buyout of the Bitters
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/oct/08/premierleague.manchestercity

Why Thaksin wanted to get out of Thailand?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/thai-pm-flees-on-foot-to-escape-violent-protests-954595.html

AIG hid it's true financial position from auditors as losses mounted, but how hard did those auditors actually look
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iCBEplezRU4MUlI3wKRd0IZ9GCgQD93LRC880

Will Hutton on the 5 moves he thinks are necessary to get the economy off it's knees
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/08/economy.banking

Larry Elliot on the bankruptcy of new labour economic policy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/blog/2008/oct/08/economics.creditcrunch

Football £3million in debt

Unfortnately the biggest share of that is probably at Old Trafford. I am glad i am not one of the silent majority that said it didn't matter who owned the club and that it was all politics. The day the Glazers took over was probably the worst day i have experienced being a United fan but when i think back to going to the ground after the Irish had sold out and how ever many of us that there were there protesting it makes me proud of us as a set of supporters that we didn't turn round and take our trousers and bend over down like every other set of fans has, the honourable exeption being Arsenal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/oct/07/footballpolitics.premierleague

Richard Williams on hedge funds, debt and the national game.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/oct/07/premierleague.westhamunited

AIG, they still don't get it. I doubt they ever will, it would take a Russian revolution to temper their extravagance.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/07/creditcrunch.useconomy

A decent article by Jeff Randall in the Telegraph, i'm not a fan of his or the Torygraph needless to say but he looks like he has predicted some of today's problems. What are his solutions though?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeffrandall/3112269/Why-propping-up-banks-will-not-rescue-a-debauched-financial-system.html

There is no alternative, remember her asks Mick Hume
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5767/

Ruth Sutherland in the observer on sunday, she wasn't wrong
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/05/uk.recession.economics


Music
Burial - Untrue: I can see why some thought this should win the mercury prize award, if it is innovation you look for in the album to win that award it probably should have. It certainly is a good album with a lot of sounds taking electronic music into new territory.
Dennis Wilson - Pacific ocean blue: This reissue is regarded as the beach boys drummers masteriece, and if you like californian soft rock, country rock, call it what you will you will certainly like this. I saw it compared to Gene Clark's No other, another US west coast album i love. It certainly is good enough to compare to that, there is possibly more going on musically in this than there was in that. Strange seeing as he was only the drummer in the Beach boys and drummers aren't exactly renowned as musical geniuses, but true.
Maximo park - Our earthly pleasures:The follow up to the brilliant debut A certain trigger. It's not quite as good as the first but it's still alright. Girls who plays guitars get's it off to a good start but it doesn't really hit the hights of the debut as there just aren't as many killer tunes.
Neon Neon - Stainles style: A collaboration between Gruff Rhys of the Super Furry Animals ( one of my favouite groups of the last couple of decades ) and Boom Bip the US producer. As you might imagine this plays to the Super furry mans poppier and techno side. As with quite a lot of recent indie techno efforts, it's heavily 80's influenced. It's pretty good, there are loads of catchy tunes with rap, 80's techno and pop all in the mix. I love the track Michael Douglas amongst others.
Otis Taylor - Recapturing the banjo: The US blues multi instrumentalist attempts to recapture the banjo's african heritage from the hillbilly connotations we have come to associate it with ( deliverance to be exact ). Successfully in my opinion, he even does a cracking version of Hey Joe with the banjo well to the fore in the mix.
The Subways - All or nothing: Power pop all the way from Welwyn garden city. This owes all it's inspiration to the other side of the pond, with echoes of the the grunge of producer Butch Vig's grunge glory era. They have been compared to Ash which is no bad thing in my eyes. Tracks like Kalifornia and Alright just make you want to jump up and down.

I have just finishing re watching Ken Burns presents The West. It is still a tremendous series but it felt weird watching it whilst the United States is going through it's present travails. Mind you the way the west was mythologisided reminds you of why they were so susceptible to the lies of wall street and the super rich. I would love to see a series of this magnitude about the history of the United States or even the north American continent in it's entirity.

Blackburn Rovers 0-2 Manchester United

A good solid performance and more evidence that Berbatov is starting to fit in nicely. United started with Berbatov up front with Giggs behind in the hole and Rooney on the right and Ronaldo on the left. Wes Brown came back into the side at right back despite Fergie saying that Gary Neville would play.
They didn't start as well as they have been doing recently and the first real chance fell to the home side. Van Der Sar cutting out a cross that had threatened to reach Darbyshire in the middle. Our first chance saw a fine passage of passing that ended with Berbatov passing a cute little ball through that put Fletcher through but he hit his left footed shot wide. From that point on it was all United, carrying on where they had left off on Tuesday. Another chance saw Berbatov on the right hand side cut the ball back into the box to find Giggs who struck it sweetly first time only for the goalie to make a brilliant save. But from the resulting corner the goalie came out for the cross from Rooney and only managed to stumble into Vidic allowing Wes Brown to head home. The home side argued for a foul but i couldn't see it myself. It was only what United had deserved and they controlled the rest of the half without really creating a clear cut chance.
Blackburn had their only real chance of the second half a couple of minutes into it when Santa Cruz brought a save form Van Der Sar. United dominated the rest of the match especially when Blackburn lost Cruz to injury. Berbatov was having a good game and he seemed to be creating all out best chances. But it was a Ronaldo run down the right hand side flank that led to the second goal as he cut the ball back for Rooney to thump it past the goalie. Rooney was to have a good chance to make it 3-0 but he lobbed the ball over the goalie but onto the roof of the net. If United had took their chances it could have been 4 or 5 by the end of the game but at least they have started to create chances for fun. I knew that our record at Ewood hadn't been too good but i didn't know it was as bad as it only 1 win in the last 10 years so i suppose this was a good win.
Its a pity that we now have another international break when we are starting to see that Berbatov is now fitting into the side and Ronaldo and Rooney seem to be getting back to full fitness and decent form.

Rafael is the future says Fergie
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/internationals/united-see-glimpse-of-the-future-in-rafael-950662.html

Fletcher and Scholes extend contracts
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/scholes-and-fletcher-extend-manchester-united-contracts-950295.html
Great news that Scholes is to continue and i am pleased for Fletcher, he deserves it.

AIG looking to finish United sponsorship contract
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/2008/10/05/manchester-united-on-brink-of-losing-sponsorship-deal-aig-115875-20776265/

Patrick Barclay on a possible football meltdown
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/3137020/Government-must-act-now-to-avoid--football-meltdown-Football.html

Larry Elliot on why this crisis must be used to rethink the whole economic system.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/03/economics.banking

With the Germans now following the Irish in guaranteeing all private savings it doesn't look too likely. Yet another lesson from the great depression seems to have gone amiss, if all countries just do their own thing another great depression really could be on the cards.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/oct/05/creditcrunch

Aalborg 0-3 Manchester United

I think we are starting to see some signs that the form we are all looking for is not that far away. Although it's hard to know how well United played yesterday really, not knowing much about the opposition. They made two massive howlers one that should have resulted in the first goal for United by Dimitar Berbatov and the second that did result in his first goal in a red shirt.
The big surprise of the night was Da Silva starting at right back instead of Wes Brown. I can't argue with it personally, if a young player is good enough and confident enough in his own ability get him in there for me. And after seeing him in two games now he may well have a big future at United. I am just surprised he seems to have risen above Wes in the pecking order when i must admit i had expected him to be challening Gary Neville to be the reserve right back. I suppose O'Shea was a bit of a surprise in midfield alongside Scholes but that just shows how depleted we have become in this department which of course has got worse after last nights injury to Scholes.
United started well with plenty of pace and movement and had two great chances after next to no time. First Ronaldo semi blocked the goalies attempted clearance which ballooned in the air straight to Berbatov but he managed to hit the shot wide when really you have to say he should have scored. Next Ferdinand hit a screamer of a volley at the back post that was saved by either the goalie or blocked by a defender it was hard to say who got the touch. Rooney was looking sharp and right back to his best, Berbatov was making decent runs and Ronaldo was looking a bit more like the player we have seen for the last two seasons. Da silva was making some great overlapping runs and was not afraid to have a shot if thought he was in a position to. Although he wasn't found out too much in this game his defending isn't quite up to scatch yet but it looks like he is going to be some player going forward. Nani was Nani i'm afraid for me again last night, in fact i take that back. When i say that i mean he was exasparatingly inconsistent but last night he had one of those games where he just seemed to take the wrong option time after time.
The first blow of the night was the sight of Scholes being stretchered of after an innocuous looking tackle. You just knew by the look on his face that it wasn't good and after the match Fergie said it looked like knee ligament damage. Terrible news for United with all our midfield injuries but even worse for us who love watching the ginger prince stroking that ball about as he did when he came on as a sub on saturday and completely changed the game.
This brought on Giggs as his direct replacement as the creative central midfield player which whilst he is not as good as Scholes in the role he is still more than useful cover. As he showed after only a few minutes on the pitch as he put Rooney through with an exquisite pass and Rooney made no mistake dispatching past the goalie for the opening goal. Aalborg did have a couple of dangerous moments including one dangerous attack where a brilliant piece of defending by Ferdinand averted the danger. Ferdinand slipped into the form of the last two seasons straight from the off this season and i can't think of a better central defender in world football at the moment. A lot of pundits remarked that having Vidic next to him enhanced his game, but for me the reality is stick anybody next to Ferdinand, ie Brown or Evans and he looks the business whereas Vidic is not quite the same player without Rio next to him.
The second half was just completely all United although i suppose you have to give Aalborg credit they did try and have a go. Mind you them being the home side you should expect that, but it doesn't always happen as we have seen. Ten minutes into the second half a terrible mistake by the Danish teams captain offered Berbatov a great opportunity to put right his earlier miss and open his United account. Thankfully he made no mistake volleying it past the goalieto make it 2-0. Rooney had stumbled in the penalty area earlier and was now taken off. We don't know how serious it is yet, but typical Rooney to get injured when he starts to look like the real Wayne Rooney again and playing in his favourite position as well just behind the striker. Mind you it didn't upset the rhthym too much as Tevez came on slotted in straight away. It was intersting to watch Tevez marauding around the pitch next to Nani. When Tevez looks like he might lose it he somehow manages to keep hold of the ball either through skill strength or jsut the aggression to want to keep it. It was a bit disconcerting to see how easily Nani loses the ball alongside next to that.
The third goal was an excellent finish after a fine move that saw Ronaldo get to the byline and cut the ball back into the centre of the box where Berbatov was waiting to expertly volley it past the goalie on the bounce. Ronaldo was clearly tiring but he stayed on as all the substitutions had been made with Brown coming on for Da Silva taking a knock after another forward run. Berbatov later put Ronaldo through with a superb inch perfect pass with the outside of is boot but Ronaldo took it past the goalie but into the side netting. The lively Tevez saw a screaming shot go over the woodwork by inches and 3-0 it stayed.
So a good and bad night, the good the overall display and then at last we took some chances, th bad the injuries to Rooney but more especially Scholes. Let's hope Carrick is on schedule in coming back from his injury because we need him.

Scholes could be out for 10 weeks, bad, bad, bad
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/7642995.stm

Ronaldo admits not being up to speed yet but says he is not far away.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/ronaldo-sets-recovery-timetable-following-united-injury-blows-947905.html

The Independent on last nights preceedings
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/berbatov-and-rooney-serve-up-a-taste-of-things-to-come-947235.html

Steve Coogan back on BBC next week in new comedy drama Sunshine written by Early Doors writers Craig Cash and Phil Mealey
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-and-tv/features/steve-coogan-hes-back--funnier-than-ever-945956.html

Gerard Baker on the spectre of the 1930's
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4856477.ece

Anatole Kaletsky says don't blame it all on bankers
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anatole_kaletsky/article4856263.ece

Joseph Stiglitz a long time critic of the market fundamentalists argues that the bailout plan was good for Wall street but not for the wider economy and points to the lessons learnt from the Scandanavian banking crisis of the early 90's.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/30/marketturmoil.wallstreet

Steve Guess on the end of Laissez-faire capitalism, it's along time since i heard it called it that
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/sep/29/economy.wall.street.bailout

George Monibot on how the USA is really run, the military industrial complex and all that
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/30/marketturmoil.subprimecrisis