Aston Villa 1-2 Manchester United

I suppose that this result avenges the home defeat we suffered to the brummie outfit earlier in the season. At the start of the season i would have preferred the three points, but that has gone and once you are in a final you have to try and win it.
I've got to admit i was surprised that Rooney didn't start, although i wasn't going to complain. This was the least important game left on our remaining fixture list and injuries permitting he will be involved in every game i should think, so this was the one game Fergie could rest him. After watching the pitch cut up, players slip and the ball take some strange bumps after just a few minutes i was even more convinced that maybe Fergie had got this right. I hope as many of United's England contingent find mysterious injuries as possible before Wednesday's international.
I thought United started a bit slowly but not disastrously as Villa started the game eager and sharp. But our challenge could have been all over after four minutes as Vidic's achilles heel was exploited yet again in a big match as Agbonlahor got behin him and raced to the penalty area before the Serb did his usual and dragged him down. My first thoughts were not " oh shit its a penalty, but oh sit he is going to get sent off after just four minutes". But the ref, amazingly, didn't even show him a yellow. No wonder the Villa fans gave the ref stick for the rest of the game. Supposedly, technically the ref was within his rights to not send off Vidic, but i think we all know he should have walked. Milner nonchantly put the spot kick away but as we came away one goal down it seemed like an escape. And that is what it turned out to be, as as well as we played with ten men at Villa it would surely been much harder at Wembley in a final to play with ten men already one goal down against a team good on the break.
United responded well to to conceding the early goal and Berbatov and Owen were showing up well. Still it was a surprise to see Berbatov pinch the ball from Dunne, who normally had a blinder against us, and inadvertantly set up Owen with the chance to equalise which he took with aplomb. Slowly but surely as the half wore on United's midfield started to get hold of the game with Carrick and Flectcher assuming command of the middle of the park. Park had two great chances to score in the first half. The first he scuffed but the second hit the post with just five minutes to go until half time, that would have been a nice way to go in at half time. Shortly after that United were forced to bring Rooney on for Owen who had twinged a muscle.
United dominated the second half until a late Villa charge in the last ten minutes as Villa tried to save the game. Carrick had the first chance of the half as he forced Fridel into a fine save. Rooney was gradually forcing his way into the game and Berbatov was continuing his fine first half form. But it was when United finally started to get Valencia into the game when United really started to threaten. The winning goal came as Valencia forced his way forward and played a great one two with Berbtaov whose back heels and flicks threatened Villa all afternoon. When Valencia got to the by line he did what he has been good at all season, picking out a man in the middle. But Rooney still had a lot to do, but do it he did, as he managed to get enough power into the header to loop it over the agonising dive from Friedel. The next five minutes saw Valencia threaten to finish the afternoon off for good for Villa. First he almost teed up Berbatov and then found Rooney at the back post who this time hit the woodwork with a header that was if anything easier than the chance he had already put away. Villa fought their way back into the game with a late flurry but couldn't manage to get the all important equaliser.
So the first trophy of the season and as Fergie has said today let's hope it's not the last.

Fergie hopes that won't be the last trophy we will be picking up this season. Two of the Glazer's actually showed up at the game. It's a shame the green and gold show didn't take off as well as it might have.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article7044664.ece

Fergie acknowledges we got lucky not to have lost Vidic after the penalty decision.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/league_cup/8542092.stm

Rooney has had a scan on his knee and reckons it's only bruising, that's the good news. Now the bad he should be fit to play for England so he will play on that disaster of a playing surface that is Wembley.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/teams/england/7345437/Wayne-Rooney-fit-for-England-duty-against-Egypt-and-hails-John-Terry-as-great-leader.html

Valencia, a right winger from the old Satnley Matthews school writes Richard Williams. He was when they finally got him into the game.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/mar/01/antonio-valencia-stanley-matthews-carling-cup

United frans go green and gold at Wembley
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/28/manchester-united-green-gold-wembley

Football clubs are not money making machines argues Simon Kuper.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/28/football-money-portsmouth-simon-kuper

Hansen thinks Wnger is wrong to claim that Arsenal players are being targeted. I saw the Shawcross tackle and it wasn't that bad, it's a terrible injury but it wasn't Shawcross's fault.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/arsenal/7339648/Arsene-Wenger-is-wrong-to-suggest-Aaron-Ramseys-injury-proves-Arsenal-are-targeted.html

Patrick Barclay thinks the gaffe prone Terry's form is destabilising the rent boys title challenge at a bad time as United start to get serious.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/chelsea/article7044576.ece
Rooney's fitness permitting.
He also lays into yesterday's ref Phil Dowd over Vidic's non sending off.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/patrick_barclay/article7044651.ece


Henry Porter gets to the heart of the matter, regarding Ruprt Muroch and his motivation, himself.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/28/henry-porter-news-international-murdoch
He must dread a lib lab coalition, because surely one of the first things on their agenda should be to go after him in every way possible, fair means or foul. He'd understand, it's only business.

His US allies the masters of the universe don't won't to go down without a fight.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/us-banks-veto-socialist-pay-in-secret-talks-1912827.html
Shortsighted and it just goes to show that all the rich are ever interested in is themselves and screw everybody else, the world economy, their own country and their fellow tax paying citizens (sic).

The Times comment on the Ashcroft statement declaring he is a non dom
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7045348.ece
And theGuardian follow suit as Toby Helm says same old tories, they think they are born to rule.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2010/mar/01/toby-helm-lord-ashcroft-tax

The classic Talk Talk

Rooney : To rest or not to rest

That is the question that Fergie is pondering apparently, i think he will play.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/26/wayne-rooney-carling-cup-final

Darren Fletcher learnt from the professionalism of Roy Keane
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article7043210.ece

Van Der Sar signs new contract, good news all round, even the gimps as it saves them having to buy a new goalie this summer. Because when he does hang up his boots we will need a new goalie if we are to ccarry on competing for the top honours. There is no replacement for him inside the club.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7326317/Edwin-van-der-Sar-to-stay-on-Manchester-United-for-another-season.html

Fergie to be told to end the BBC boycott from the beginning of next season reports the indy. Maybe Fergie will retire at the end of the season.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/ferguson-told-to-end-bbc-boycott-1912241.html

David Conn wonders how much the premier league will learn from Portsmouth's demise. They won't, they will let UEFA take the hard decisions, bleat in public about them and go along happily in private.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/feb/26/portsmouth-administration-premier-league
The administrator implies the poilce may be brought in to look at irregularities.

The green and gold protests continue
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/david-conn-inside-sport-blog/2010/feb/27/manchester-united-glazers-wembley-protest

How much debt isyour football club in saks the indy
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/the-debt-league-how-much-do-clubs-owe-1912244.html

Storrie will resign, and is upset for the "proper" fans. I don't know enough about the goings on at Pompey to really slag him off. But he seems to have been involved in one way or another with the various crooks and con merchants that have wormed their way into the football club. I can't help thinking he is in it up to his neck.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/portsmouth/7324029/Peter-Storrie-to-resign-as-Portsmouth-chief-executive.html

The tories are wobbling as the poll gap narrows, more like as they come under the scrutiny they have shown they can't seem to handle.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/andrew-grice/andrew-grice-complacency-was-the-tory-problem-last-year-not-now-1912343.html

Right wing crackpot Simon Heffer, what a loathsome creature that is, slates George Osborne, it almost makes me feel sorry for ( boy George ).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/simonheffer/7326751/The-madness-of-Little-George-Osborne.html

Jeremy Warner is worried about the response of the western democracies to the economic crisis we are in
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeremy-warner/7327274/Recovery-Who-are-you-trying-to-kid.html

Phil Jupitus on the joy of working for a real " music " radio station.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/feb/26/bbc-6-music-licence-payers

Rooney : up there with the best

Rooney has world cup coaches drooling at summit in South Africa. Whilst Ronaldo may have become the better player by the time he left United, a lot of us would still have always had Rooney as first name on the teamsheet. And now shorn of having to cover for Ronaldo's defensive weakness we are seeing Rooney start to become the complete package. For me he will become a better player than Ronaldo as he doesn't rely on pace as much as Ronaldo. We do rely on him too much though, and we need a bit more quality around him up front.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article7039969.ece

Rooney is happy with form and wants to play at Wembley. I can't see him not starting, the last thing Fergie needs is an unhappy Rooney.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7309378/Wayne-Rooney-dismisses-worries-over-dip-in-form-for-Manchester-United-and-England.html

Fergie thinks Ferdinand will have to consider his international future if he wants to prolong his career. I'm afraid i would be thinking Beckham rather than Giggs when predicting Rio's future playing career. He would sooner be England captain for a year and then retire early to concentrate on his business career, hopefully in a blaze of glory after a successful world cup. Unfortunately for him i can't see his back holding up game after game in the summer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/24/rio-ferdinand-england-manchester-united

Vidic back in favour as Ferdinand's back problem's continue
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article7040063.ece

Anderson out for the season.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article7040618.ece
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/8536171.stm

A new manager in the summer, by the looks of it. Nice to see an ex red get the crucial second goal.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/fa-league-cups/mancini-left-to-rue-citys-old-failings-1909854.html

Problems for Greece, Europe and the Euro.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/24/greece-strikes-protest-euro
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/24/greece-hhhh-hrgbhjklgbr
David Blanchflower thinks the Germans leaving the Euro would be a better answer than the Greeks leaving the Euro.
http://www.newstatesman.com/economy/2010/03/greece-euro-germany-8364-debt

Jon Spencer blues explosion with Jools Holland

Manchester United 3-0 West Ham United

Not the most enjoyable ninety minutes of football i've ever seen, but three points and job done. Fergie made a few changes with Vidic finally returning to the starting line up and Anderson coming in from the cold of Siberia. Foster replaced Van Der Sar instaed of Kuszczak for some reason and aquited himsel reasonably well. There weren't quite as many changes as i had envisoned that there might be, so it will be interesting to see Sunday's team for the final against Villa. Going off last night, it looks likely to me, that he is going to pick quite a stong side.
It was nice to see Vidic back, especially as it looks like Rio, as i feared, is not going to be able to play back to back games as he pulled out of last night's match with another recurrence of his back problems. If Vidic really doesn't want to go, a big if granted, maybe United should start to think about paying him what he wants. The difference with him at the heart of the defence was marked, even if the opposition weren't that great a test. As for Anderson, if that injury is serious it could be the last time we see him a red shirt at old trafford.
United never really got going in the first half and the match itself wasn't much of a spectacle. Fortunately United produced their best move of the half seven minutes from the interval as Berbatov sent a superb cross field ball to Valencia whose first time vollied cross found Rooney in the middle who made no mistake with his head to give us the lead. It's always nice to score shortly before the break to deflate the opposition. West Ham hadn't played badly but they aren't that much of a team these days.
The second half was slightly better and the second goal ten minutes into the game killed off West Ham for good. Park could have killed it almost staright away as he hit the woodwork from a Valencia, who else, cross. I would love to know how many of our goals have been created by Valencia. He didn't have his greatest game last night yet he still provided the final ball for two of our goals. And for the fourth time in a row the goal came form Rooney's head. It's amazing how much more complete a footballer is when he is good in the air, as we saw with Ronaldo.
Owen and Diouf came on for Rooney and Berbatov with twelve minutes to go and almost immediately a super Schoeles pass put Owen through and he made no mistake to put us three goals ahead. Scholes himself, could and should have made it four, but to be honest our display didn't warrant that scoreline. But we won and on the night that was what mattered.

James Ducker thinks a fit Vidic will be crucial to United bid to lift silverware come May, can't argue with that.
http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2010/02/fitagain-nemanja-vidic-the-key-to-manchester-uniteds-success.html

Ferdinand will definitely miss Sundays league cup final against Villa and has had to pull out of England's friendly against Egypt. It's not looking good for the rest of his career. We have ssen his form when he isn't starting regularly. In fact though he improved markedly last week against Milan in the second half that first half display wasn't that much better than Evans, and that is saying something. As i said above if Vidic does want to stay but want's a hefty wage rise maybe we should start to think about giving it him.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/8533291.stm
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/england-and-manchester-united-hit-by-ferdinand-injury-scare-1908940.html

Darren Fletcher talks to the Sun about how close he came to leaving United in 2008, looking at our midfield resources at present, scary.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2864929/Darren-Fletcher-I-came-close-to-Man-Utd-exit.html#ixzz0gLsJAMxx

A UEFA report has shown that half of Europen football's debt belongs to the English premier league, Portsmouth's debts are not included.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/english-football-debts-dwarf-rest-of-europe-1909212.html

David Conn applauds the report and argues the premier league are swimming against the tide.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/david-conn-inside-sport-blog/2010/feb/23/premier-league-debt-wages-uefa

Andersred latest blog piece reports how things could be run
http://andersred.blogspot.com/2010/02/tale-of-two-rulebooks.html

Tendulkar scores first ODI double hundred, that must have been something to see.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/feb/24/sachin-tendulkar-india-world-record

Stephanie Flanders reports on her BBC blog that the pace of the economies recovery is more important than the size of the debt. Which is what the Keynesian letter to the finacial times argued. And yet her previous blog argued that the economists were arguing over nothing, the bank of England doesn't seem to agree with her.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/stephanieflanders/2010/02/weighing_the_risks.html

Economic recovery is anaemic here and just as worringly in Europe, maybe QE should be restarted says David Wighton in the times
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article7038528.ece

Fomer grand central man Andy Turner's Aim

Gill : the man money couldn't buy

Gill the man money " couldn't " buy
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/markets/article-23808400-big-paydays-and-man-utd-chief-david-gills-direction-on-road-to-ruin.do

Henry Winter warns the gold and green protest that Gill is not the enemy.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7293275/Manchester-United-chief-David-Gill-reassures-fans-but-he-is-not-the-enemy-within.html

Owen thinks Rooney is up there with the best
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/international/article7037007.ece

Anderson's not optimistic about his United future. If that means he will be on his way in the summer, then that can only be a good thing as that midfield needs strengthening, big time.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/23/manchester-united-anderson-alex-ferguson

Black boots for the kids, tradition strikes back.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/22/manchester-united-premierleague
Beats me, why you would want to wear anything other than black to be honest.

Ronaldo has the Spanish press drooling
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/cristianoronaldo/7290661/Spanish-press-hail-one-man-orchestra-Cristiano-Ronaldo-after-Real-Madrid-thrash-Villarreal.html

Tevez not happy with City's insensivity to his time off, and seems to not think a lot of Mancini. Oh dear it doesn't look like a happy ship at the boo camp. Great work Gary Cook, keep it up.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/mancity/7294154/Manchester-Citys-Carlos-Tevez-upset-by-insensitivity-of-manager-Roberto-Mancini.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_city/article7037030.ece

The baby boomer effect, two sides of an argument
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article7035627.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/21/willietts-blame-generation-thatcher

The MEN staff seem pretty bitter at their treatment by their ex GMG colleagues. I don't think too much of the evening news, but there doesn't seem to be much of the Manchester left in the Guardian these days.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/end-of-the-old-guard-the-sale-of-the-manchester-evening-news-1906267.html

Dominic Lawson warns Cameron that this will be an election to lose. I would go along with that, he won't be able to take the right with him that's for sure. He also makes the point that most Tory commentators seem to forget, namely that though they now blame Brown for the economic mess that we are in. they went along with every last bit of it. Though of course when Brown was faced with the consequences of his action he was grudgingly dragged kicking and screamoing to take the right actions, nationalising the banks etc. Here of course "boy George" Osborne got almost every decision wrong.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-the-conservatives-should-be-praying-to-lose-this-election-1907403.html

The super rich's bluff is to be called at lsat, George Monibot isn't sorry for them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/22/bankers-executive-flight-tax-avoidance

Everton 3-1 Mancheter United

I was expecting a hard game and i certainly wasn't expecting an Arsenal away type peformance. But i didn't really expect what we got yesterday. But then again if we keep defending like we have in the last two games there will be a few more defeats left during this season. Fergie has come out and said we left our legs in Milan and tiredness must have played it's part in contributing to yesterday's second half no show. I accept that, and i accept that you can't play well every game. The problem for me yesterday was yet again we saw a really terrible defensive diplay. They were missing two of their best players in Cahill and Fellaini and without being that great themselves they still probably just about deserved to win. It's the unforced errors are the back that are killing us. The sooner that Ferdinand and Vidic are back the better because Brown and Evans in particulare are going through a woeful spell of form.
The difference between this season and the last few seasons is that our defence is costing us games where in seasons past, we would have come out with a point or maybe a tight 1-0 win. Injuries has played a big part obviously and i suspect we have missed John O'Shea almost as much as Rio and Vidic with his ability to play anywhere along the back line. Even Evra seems to have hit a trough in his form of late.
We started reasonably well with the returning Berbatov and Vaelncia the pick of the players. Rooney started off a touch rustily and as the game went on he looked like one of the players who had left his legs back in Milan. When the goal came it courtesy of the two men in form as Valencia crossed and Berbatov controlled it superbly before unleashing a strike that gave Howard no chance. Crucially for Everton they weren't behind for long as Evans poor challenge in the air saw the ball fall to Bilyaledtinov who's first time shot hit the back of the net with Van Der Sar stuck to the spot. United's weak defence was opened up alarmingly easy once again moments later but the Russian couldn't keep the bouncing ball down this time. Rooney was quiet but Berbatov's fine piece of vision put him through on goal but Phil Neville managed to get back and poke the ball away from him after he had gone round the goalie.
The second half seemed to be meandering away to a draw when Fergie decided to change things by bringing Scholes and Obertan on for Park and Berbatov on the hour . I couldn't really believe the substitutions at all yesterday although Berbatov wasn't playing as well he had in the first half he wasn't the obvious choice to go off for me. Once Valencia went off for Owen with ten minutes to go we stopped creating anything worthy of the name. Once again Park ran around a lot and created fuck all as far as i could see. I appreciate you have to have some willing workers in the team but they surely have to contribute more offensively to a team at United's level than Park does to ours.
With fifteen minutes to go Gosling poked home Pienaar's cross to put Everton in front. The way we had played it was hard to see us coming back from that. And in fact the one chance that we did have after that came from a dead ball as Rooney's free kick got just enough of a deflection off the wall to divert over the bar. Supposed United target Rodwell's last minute goal put the icing on the cake for the blue half of Merseyside and topped off a miserable afternoon for United.

Fergie blames tiredness and says we will bounce back.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8526221.stm

The Observer interview with Fergie finds him saying he understands United's fans right to protest but he doesn't have any concerns about the Glazer's. No real suprises there.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/21/sir-alex-ferguson-manchester-united-interview

Fergie is not in favour of "hare brained" fourth champions laeahue play off place.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7280857/Sir-Alex-Ferguson-dismisses-hare-brained-play-off-plan.html

Every paper seems to have a piece celebrating a hundred years of old traford, here is the independent's effort.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/old-trafford-centenary-10-games-that-define-theatre-of-dreams-1904283.html

Football's top star to try and dodge new 50% tax rate. This is the type of thing that does my head in.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/article6395778.ece

An interesting analysis of the tories failiure to exploit the government's woes by Michael Portillo despite the surely discredited free market economic analysis.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7034925.ece

Will Hutton on the real economic battle.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/21/will-hutton-economics-recession

Time everyone ( meaning the rich as well) paid their fair share of tax rightly argues Ruth Sutherland of the Obsever
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/21/tax-avoidance-comment

A touch of US indie with Nada Surf and Blankest year

Ferguson understands fans protests

I'm not sure if that is a diplomatic way of saying he shares our concerns, or of trying to have it both ways and keeping in with the gimps.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/19/alex-ferguson-sympathetic-glazer-protests

Ferguson wants Scholes to stay on another year, don't we all. He may not be quite the player he has been, but if we play three in the middle he pretty much walks into it at the moment every match, especially with Giggs injured.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7275028/Manchester-Uniteds-Sir-Alex-Ferguson-wants-Paul-Scholes-to-sign-new-deal.html
Whether money comes into it and he knows there is no way he has the money to replace, i'll leave you to judge.

Rooney apologised to Moyes last year over the phone, i'm glad about that because Rooney was pretty was in the wrong to have published it anyway, i thought.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article7034202.ece
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7273357/David-Moyes-Wayne-Rooneys-apology-shows-he-is-maturing-into-a-true-great.html

Andersred sends open letter with 10 questions to be answered about The Glazer's running of the club to to David Gill and Manchester United
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/18/david-gill-fan-open-letter

Old trafford has reached it's optimum capacity at the present time according to Mark Ogden in the Telegraph. No shit sherlock.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7264371/Manchester-Uniteds-Old-Trafford-home-may-have-reached-its-capacity-after-100-years.html
Anybody that thinks there was even the remotest chance of that happened belongs in a funny farm, and probably thinks the Glazer's have been good for the club.

Bellamy should have got out when he had the chance by the looks of it.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_city/article7033109.ece
Nasty piece of work as a human being, but a useful player. In fact him and Tevez have been their two outstanding players from what i have seen. So their recent poor form with Bellamy out and Tevez back home could continue.
Mancini says it's all sorted, hmm. But who has backed down, Bellamy doesn't seem the type. I would think it would be curtains for Mancini's authority if he has. Interesting.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/mancini-i-didnt-fall-out-with-bellamy-1905033.html

Pique expects Fabregas back at Barca sooner than later. He would have a good idea they were pretty good mates over here.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/pique-expects-fabregas-to-join-barcelona-1904690.html

England's defeat of pakistan was a very impressive display from England and it looks like they have found a player in Eoin Morgan whose innings was a very mature effort. I don't really agree with South African and Irish lads playing for England as was the case for England at the death, as in the long run i can't see how that will be good for English cricket. But if you are going to have them it's nice to have some class.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket/morgan-calls-the-shots-as-england-race-to-victory-1905042.html

It didn't take long for the letter from the twenty economists sent to the times to get trashed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8523034.stm
Some heavyweight backing there.
The New statesman refer to it as the Keynesians strike back
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/02/letter-cuts-deficit-times

An artcile on the futility of the west's Afghanistan strategy and of the games being played by what seems to me to be a far more dangerous conuntry to the world's safety than Iran, Pakistan.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/19/pakistan-risky-games-mullah-capture

Michael Tomasky on the US debate over deficit cuts and tax rates.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2010/feb/18/obama-administration-useconomy-taxes-choices

It looks like BBC radio 6 is shortly to expire. Well i don't listen the radio very much these days but if if did that would have been the only station i would have listened to.
http://www.newstatesman.com/radio/2010/02/quirke-station-sea-balding

Soft machine with a far out video from 67

Berbatov: the forgotten man

Whilst Rooney is getting all the praise that he deserves following his brilliant displays recently, James Ducker considers the predicament of £30 million, misfit? Dimitar Berbatov.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article7031094.ece
I can't say i'm quite so sure he will be here next season myself. I still rate him, but it's increasingly looking like that this was a move that hasn't worked out for us or him.

Rooney takes over the mantle of Keano as the man who sets the standards according to Daniel Taylor after his half time " words " at the san siro. As Taylor says, there will be no complaints if it leads to rsults on the pitch.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/feb/17/wayne-rooney-manchester-united-milan

Oliver Kay thinks Rooney will be a shoe in for both of English footballers player of the year awards as long as stays fit.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article7031425.ece

Kevin McCarra thinks experience is papering over the cracks as United mount their challenge for the league and the champions league. It's pretty hard to disagree with most of that. Still it tells you what a great football manager Ferguson is and the character of players he has assembled over the years at our club, with the odd exeption included of course.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/feb/18/manchester-united-milan-champions-league

Vidic tells the Serbian press he won't be going anywhere in the summer. It seems likely for all the rumours we keep hearing, though you never know Smalling could be Ferdinand's replacement. Ferdinand wasn't any better than the rest of the back four in the first half, though fortunately he picked up in the second half. I still have my doubts over his fitness and wonder what the prolonged time he has been out, will have been for, if we find out he still won't be able to play consecutive games consistently.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/18/nemanja-vidic-manchester-united

Robert Fisk thinks that there is far more to emerge from the case of the Mossad execution of the Hamas commander Al-Mabouh.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-britains-explanation-is-riddled-with-inconsistencies-its-time-to-come-clean-1902994.html

Spain's economic woes could be worse news for British companies than at first feared according to the Guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/17/pain-in-spain-could-fall-on-uk-firms

Anatole Kaletsky thinks there isn't much to choose between the main parties as the election nears, there will be cuts whoever wins.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/17/pain-in-spain-could-fall-on-uk-firms

David Blanchflower hasn't got much time for the economist's letter that was sent to the Times last weekend.
http://www.newstatesman.com/economy/2010/02/letter-inflation-economics-mpc

The New Statesman's leader wonders what they were actually calling for, quoting the "caveats "
http://www.newstatesman.com/economy/2010/02/economic-letter-fiscal-cuts

Dave Clarke from 1996

AC Milan 2-3 Manchester United

A great result after a far from convincing first half where our defending was so bad it was untrue. The team was pretty much as expected, virtually the same as the Arsenal and City games. I would have liked to have seen Valencia start and i was quite surprised he didn't. Rafael was again given a lot of responsibilty with the job of marking Ronaldinho, again i thought he might have preferred Wes Brown's experience.
As in all the games we have played AC Milan in at the san siro during the last decade the home side started strongly. But United's start was poor, sluggish and nervous, and a fortuitous goal to the home side after just three minutes didn't help those nerves to settle. Evra gave away the free kick and then didn't cover himself in glory when he sliced Beckham's innocuos looking cross straight to the feet of Ronaldinho. The Brazillian did well to hit a clean shot on the volley but Van Der Sar had it well covered until it took a wicked deflection off Carrick and into the back off the net. For the next twenty minutes United were terrible and we could have been really taken to the cleaners if Milan had taken their chances. Ferdinand looked shaky, Evans was having what you can only call a mare and Ronaldinho was unsurprisingly causing Rafael problems. The back four weren't being helped by the central midfield being far too casual with their passing. The only players that really turned up in that period were Fletcher and Rooney, but Rooney was having to live on scraps.
I didn't really understand the tactics with Fletcher on the left and Park given a seeming free role. Just before the game the camera's had panned onto Nani and it made me think what a big game this was for him. Maybe it occured to him and it was too much for him because this was the Nani we hoped that we had seen the last off. It said it all when Valencia came on and that with almost his first touch, he beat his man got the cross over and Rooney did the rest. In his sixty five minutes on the park Nani had never threatened to be as incisive.
United did start to get their act together as the first half progressed and started too look more like Manchester United. Scholes's miscued shot that put us level may have been fortunate but the passing before it was superb. With Fletcher doing tremendous work to get over to the right to overlap and get the cross in. To go in all square at half time was pretty unbelievable after the performance when we couldn't have complained if it had been three or four one.
I presume Fergie had words at half time if the bollocking we saw him giving Jonny Evans on the pitch were anything to go by. Maybe he let the players have it out amongst themsleves if Rooney's post match comments are anything to go by. Whoever and whatever was said, it worked because we were much better. As we increasingly took a stanglehold on the match it was hard to remember the first half happened. It helped us that the ageing Milan tired but United did play well. Rooney was at last starting to see a decent amount of the ball and he was worrying Nesta and co. But it took the introduction of Valencia to convert our possession into the goals that should hopefully help us go through to the next round. The goal that put us into the lead was so simple but a tremendous header from Rooney finshed off Valencia's fine cross. We were really on fire now and another fine move saw Fletcher find space on the left and put a sper little cross over that found Rooney's clever run and Rooney made no mistake with the header. The way the game turned it looked like we were going to finish the tie off here and now.
But credit to Milan they took the ineffectual Beckham off and replaced him with Seedorf who livened them up and eventually scored a fine goal that set them up for a rousing finale where substitute Inzaghi almost got a vital equaliser. So whilst this should se us go through after the home leg there are an awful lot of questions to be asked off our defence after last night. I wouldn't have much confidence in us reaching a third final on the trot if that doesn't improve. On the plus side, just how good is Rooney, and and how much better can he get.

Fergie is more than happy with Rooney
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/8519242.stm

The Italian press think Rooney was the difference between the sides
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/17/manchester-united-milan-wayne-rooney
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/european_football/article7030529.ece

Fergie can't hide his feelings over Vidic. He needs to or the Glazers won't be geeting as much for him as they will have hoped. I was surprised they didn't sell him in the transfer window. If he can't get himself up for a visit to the san sirowhat's the point of him being still here.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/15/alex-ferguson-nemanja-vidic-champions-league

Gordon Taylor thinks Rooney was exploited by his agent from the age of sixteen. He is right of course, but Rooney seems to have a lot of time for him, for some reason.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/rooney-was-exploited-from-the-age-of-16-1901605.html

Last seasons champions league final defeat spurs Rooney on.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/final-defeat-made-me-stronger-says-rooney-1901036.html

It would seem that that sanity is trying to break out over football ownership and how the game should be reformed as Welan of Wigan and Gibson of Middlesbrough criticise the debt culture prevalent in English football.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article7027061.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article7026930.ece

Bruce Anderson defends torture
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/bruce-anderson/bruce-anderson-we-not-only-have-a-right-to-use-torture-we-have-a-duty-1899555.html
Whilst Henry Porter rightly rips his argument apart
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/henryporter/2010/feb/15/pro-torture-human-rights

Paul Krugman argues that the Euro was created too soon, he argues that without more political union.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/feb/15/greece-europe-single-currency

Google Russia virtual tour of Trans-Siberian railway journey
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/16/google-tran-siberian-express-tour
After reading about the Russian civil war and at the moment finishing off Orlando Figes absolutely brilliant account of the Russian revolutionary period, i found this fascinating. The Russian civil war on the Siberian front was basically fought along this line.

Club ownership an election issue

According to this report in the telegraph, MUST will aim to make it a topic of debate in the forthcoming general election. Now is the time.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7230305/Manchester-United-fans-ready-to-make-club-ownership-key-issue-of-General-Election.html

The guardina editorial joins the debate.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/13/football-supporter-owned-clubs
Scudamore seems to think it's unthinkable.

The Times come up with a wired Vidic to City report. Where have they been fed that from. If all the rumours are right his missus hates Manchester, so she is hardly likely to want her hubby to sign for the berties.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_city/article7026425.ece

Meanwhile the news of the world reports that Vidic is alienating his teammates with the way he is conducting himself.
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/football/727522/VID-NASTY-RILES-HIS-UNITED-TEAM-MATES.html

Keith Harris pops up again to tell the world the red knights are ready to buy United from the Glazers. If they are willing to sell.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1250883/Keith-Harris-Were-ready-buy-Manchester-United-Glazers.html

Will Hutton thinks our politicians shouldn't be indulging in schadenfraude over Greece and the Euro's problems.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/14/will-hutton-greece-euro

Top economists write letter to the Times supporting the tories economic poilicies. I'm suprised to see Roger Bootle amongst them.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7026365.ece

Henry Porter thinks the battle to reform parliament has just begun.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/14/standing-order-14-debate

Andrew Martin asks is northerness dying, I was going to say yes, but i'm not sure after thinking about it. I think there is the south east and everywhere else.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/andrew-martin-the-north-is-not-history-ndash-but-it-badly-needs-a-new-chapter-1898864.html

Simon Jenkins thinks the war on terror has warped people's better judgement.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/11/miliband-mi5-terrorism-war-chilcot

Martin Ivens thinks it's a moral quagmire but still thinks Torture is always wrong.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/martin_ivens/article7026288.ece


Music
Ian Brown - My way: As usual with Ian Brown i think it's ok but no more. He's never got anywhere near the quality of the stone roses as a solo artist. Then again he was their weak link, he still can't sing.

Isaac Hayes - Black Moses: A classic soul album, i'm not usually made on albums largely or wholly made up of covers but he does something interesting with all the covers on this record.

King Tubby's special 1973-76: A classic dub album from the seventies. It's made up of two sides, with two producers. They are both class but the first produced byWinston Holness is the better for me.

The bad plus - Prog: They made their name as a jazz band covering rock albums and they do it pretty well. This cover of Rush's Tom Sawyer is cracking.

The Flaming lips - Embryonic: Another solid effort, i like the influence of Krautrock that appears at times on this album. They don't stand still, it's not an easy listen, but rewarding.

The night marchers - See you in magic: A cracking rock album from the latest project from the former rocket from the crypt man.

In defence of the undefensible

Gill tries to defend the undefensible, not very well
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/12/david-gill-manchester-united-debt
What the turncoat actually said in 2004, all of which was right and right now, which i'm absolutely certain he knows.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article7025727.ece

Giggs will miss the league cup final against Villa due to his fractured arm. I don't think he would have started myself but he would have been on the bench is uppose. I'm more concerned that he will miss Milan away myself as i'm pretty sure he would have played in that.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article7024304.ece

James Ducker thinks Rooney could improve his goal tally in the big games. I think we can safely say he does enough, just read the comments.
http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2010/02/wayne-rooney-has-room-for-improvement-against-topfour-opposition.html

Rooney a throwback to a different age, asserts Chris McGrath in the Indy
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/rooney-the-botham-of-football--ndash-in-the-best-possible-way-1897040.html

Worrying news for Arsenal as Fabregas's dad tells Catalan TV that his son may be open to offers in the summer. Without him they are nothing and would really stryggle to get into the top four next season. I have always thought he would end up at Barca, just as Pique went back there, but not this summer. I suppose he can see what everybody else can, Wenger is taking them nowhere fast.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/arsenal/article7024260.ece
I suppose we will see if he is really top class if he does go back there.

Scudamore doesn't get it, he will.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/7215692/Richard-Scudamore-contemplates-business-end-of-a-thrilling-Premier-League-season.html

Blatter's comments over the Terry affair show he is as out of touch as the Scudamore's of this world according to Gabriele Marcotti
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article7023971.ece

The worst journalist in Britain is Con Coughlin according to this piece from Liberal conspiracy. Is he even a journalist, i'd be embarrassed to read him given his record. How could you ever take him seriously again after being found out to be a stooge of the intelligence services.
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/02/11/the-worst-journalist-in-britain/

I haven't got that much time for Brown myself but Jeff Randall seems to be obsessed by him. Obviously his record as chancellor has been ripped to shreds after the credit crunch. But his policies weren't responsible for that financial tsunami, it originated in the States. And even if he was dragged kicking and screaming into nationalisation of the banks, at least he did so eventually. Osborne and Cameron were wrong and wrongfooted at almost every juncture of said crisis. How many articles have we read lambasting "Boy" George Osborne, a man even an unreformed city of London doesn't rate. I'm pretty sure he doesn't think much of Osborne but with an election coming up and the very serious possibility of a tory win, Osborne may well be the man we are looking to, to guide us out of this mess. That doesn't gladden the heart does it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeffrandall/7216274/What-has-Gordon-Brown-done-for-Britain-since-his-first-Budget.html

Anatole Kaletsky thinks the Euro will survive the Greek crisis, in the short term.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anatole_kaletsky/article7022509.ece

Polly Toynbee thinks the tories will still win the last election but thinks the way the campaign has gone so far doesn't bode well for them in office.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/13/cameron-popular-will-labour-falter

Voice of the seven woods who has a new album out as voice of the seven thunders, if it's as good as this i am looking forward to hearing.

Aston Villa 1-1 Manchester United

I would have been happy with a point before the match and after the Nani sending off i was more than happy with it. And if you had to have picked a more worthy winner on the night it would have had to have been us. It was a night where we again showed we are deadly serious contenders for that nineteenth title.
Fergie picked a pretty strong line up with Nani picked in front of Valencia once more and Giggs on the left this time. Scholes came back to patrol central midfield with Carrick and Fletcher and Rafael replaced Gary Neville. There still is no sign of Vidic, would it be a surprise if he came back to face one of the clubs vying for his signature next week.
United started reasonably well, the passing was sharp and precise but we didn't really open them up. Villa started to come into it after about 10 minutes and looked threatening. But the goal was a touch soft when it came United didn't really cope with the original cross from Downing, but give him credit it was a superb header from Cuellar to beat Van Der Sar. My first reaction to their goal was that we would now see what we were made of. Well it didn't take long for my answer as another free flowing move saw Nani cross to the far post where Giggs vollied back into the six yard box and Collins put into his own net. It was probably a shot from Giggs so there was a slice of fortune to it. But all these own goals aren't down to luck are they, they are down to the fact that we are attacking and getting shots in on target, regularly spreading panic into the opposition. Ahem, maybe not on Saturday though. So Villa held the lead for just four minutes, a great reply from the reds.
Five minutes later the game turned again as Nani had a rush of blood to the head and launched into Petrov. There are differing views on it but for me it was an obvious and straight red card. You can't take off with both feet in the air as you go into the tackle. But doing it away from home in a big game in front of a full house in front of the ref, well that's just asking for it. United pushed Fletcher onto the right and played 4-2-3 and as we have done before looked like we still had eleven on the park. Carrick saw a searing shot tipped over the bar by Friedal and United looked the better team as we went in level at the break.
Scholes was sacrificed at half time as Valencia moved to the right with Fletcher reverting to the middle of midfield. Almost straight away Valencia was in the thick of the action hitting a shot over the bar when maybe he should have hit the target. Rooney once more showed what a great player he is as he occupied both the centre halves on his own. United were the better side and were controlling the match though Milner did have one good shot well saved by Van Der Sar. Rooney saw a great shot tipped over the bar with quarter of an hour left but that was as close as we came to a winner. We had the worrying sight of Giggs going off with an arm injury with fifteen minutes to go but overall with rent boys losing at Goodison we have to be happy with the night.

Giggs to have an X-ray, we don't want to be losing him, as great a player as he is still when he starts he is the one player we have who can make a real difference when he comes off the bench.
So if he starts that's great and if we have him to come off the bench it's just as good.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7209074/Manchester-United-winger-Ryan-Giggs-sent-for-X-ray-on-arm-injury-suffered-against-Villa.html

The praise for Nani's maturity didn't last long
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article7022716.ece

Paul Wilson argues that Fergie is right to eschew the post match press conference. I have argued before that they should be abolished. A manager should be given time to think about what he wants to say. And if he can't say what he thinks anyway, ie the ref's had a stinker without getting into trouble, what is the point of them at all.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/feb/10/sir-alex-ferguson-press

Portsmouth are on the brink as the taxman gives them just days to find a buyer or face liquidation. If that is occur how can Scudamore and co stay in their job, i know they will, but they shouldn't be should they. David Conn lays into the free market buffoons
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/feb/10/portsmouth-high-court-winding-up

Andy Cole puts forward a footballers view on the pompey debacle.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/the-andy-cole-column-dont-blame-the-players-for-accepting-pompeys-champions-league-wages-1895606.html
That's ok as far as it goes but we all know the biggest financial problem in football is that players are paid too much, full stop. And that goes from the Rooney's and Ronaldo's right down to championship level.

Steve Richards thinks Cameron has been found out as he swims against the ideological tide. A pretty good column summing up where our politics are heading.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/steve-richards/steve-richards-the-tide-has-turned-and-the-tories-are-swimming-against-it-1895840.html
However clever he is in positioning his party in the centre, and i'm not that sure about that myself. His party is an irredeemably free market right wing party.

Former Cadbury's boss thinks it's time to review British takeover rules. He is absolutely spot on, but will the next government see the light. Obviously not if it's the tories, they don't want to upset their friends and backers in the financial world. It's hard to have much fiath in new labour or even the lib dems over this though. Mad because it is surely not just right but i can't believe it wouldn't be a vote winner. And we wouldn't have been took over by chancers that couldn't afford us as Alan Sugar said yesterday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/09/roger-carr-takeover-rules

Aren't we supposed to be the good guys. MI5 lied about torture
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/10/binyam-mohamed-torture-mi5
What loses me is, what do you hope to get from torture. How do you know they are not just telling you what they think you want to know. That doesn't seem to be the best basis for intelligence gathering to me. As to the argument we are now less safer because of this ruling, simple that's bollocks. This is not world war 11.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/ben_macintyre/article7022494.ece

United fan Christopher Eccleston stars in this I am kloot video

I am not mad on music video's but this is a good one. I used to see him and i presumed it was his dad, occasionally outside the ground in the 95-96 season when the north stand was being built and we were moved to the bottom of the main stand.

The dark side fights back

No surprise really. The club really dislikes and is clearly rattled by the green and gold campaign. The steward who was sacked talks of splits between the clubs staff with one incident when it nearly came to fists. And Milan say they have no rules about away fans and their colours, now there is a surprise.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article7021240.ece
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7203021/Manchester-United-steward-sacked-in-row-over-banner.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/steward-sacked-as-united-try-to-crush-green-and-gold-uprising-1894368.html

The reasons why the green and gold campaign contunes keep on coming out
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-09/manchester-united-mortgages-old-trafford-ground-documents-show.html

Nani is starting to win over us fans and the critics. As long as it doesn't go to his head and he keeps his new found consistency.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7198439/Manchester-United-winger-Nani-following-in-Cristiano-Ronaldos-quicksilver-footsteps.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/feb/10/nani-manchester-united-alex-ferguson

Nani insists he never thought about quitting United, hmm if all the rumours are true United wanted him to go to Benfica in part exchange for Di Maria
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/nani-insists-he-never-considered-quitting-manchester-united-1894953.html

Rio won't contest his ban
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1249634/New-England-captain-Rio-Ferdinand-backs-FA-row-withdrawing-appeal-match-ban.html

David Conn on the irony of both 2008 FA cup finalists going to court this week to avoid winding up orders. Best run football league in the world, don't you know.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/david-conn-inside-sport-blog/2010/feb/10/portsmouth-cardiff-hmrc-winding-up

The guardian media group finally sells the evening news. I would have found this sad once, but it's such a lousy paper it's hard to see a new owner making it much worse. Will they be famous last words.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/guardian-owner-sells-regionals-to-trinity-1894532.html
It will be interesting whether the continue their craven coverage of United where they're actually sacred of the club continues. A new owner may feel the force is with the fans. Hopefully they would be right.

I knew the Irish economy was in a bad place but this article lays out bare just how bad it is. I can't swallow this fetisisation of cuts to bail out the politicians and financiers that will hit middle and especially low income workers. Especially when we know the rich will be totally immune from it and as the bankers have still got the cheek to award themselves outrageous bonuses.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/07/ireland-ecnomy-unemployment-recession

Meanwhile the Greek economic crisis worsens and will it threaten the Euro
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2010/feb/10/greece
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/hamish-mcrae/hamish-mcrae-rescue-greece-and-we-help-ourselves-1894468.html


An independent interview with US economist Joseph Stiglitz who seems to be right on the money with his views if you are on the centre left.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/the-money-man-supereconomist-joseph-stiglitz-on-how-to-fix-the-recession-1893271.html

Classic US funk oufit The Meters

Manchester United 5-0 Portsmouth

I could say what a great performance and agree with the weekend media's adoration of Wayne Rooney after another dazzling performance on Sarturday. But for me the story was just how bad are Portsmouth. I saw last seasons United Pompey away match on MUTV the other day and how instructive was that. David James aside there was hardly anybody on the Portsmouth team still there. United won 1-0 but it was a hard fought game against a team with a decent defence and an attacking threat with players who were not embarrassed to have the ball at their feet. Compare that to Saturday, nobody looked entirely confident with the ball and bar one or two occasions in the first half before we scored were toohless up front. I read the other day that Avram Grant thinks if they are relegated this season they could well get relegated next season to go down to division 1. After seeing them on Saturday i can see what he means. We may have problems off the park but at the moment they don't begin to compare with the disaster unfolding at that football club. It must be just a matter of time before they go into administration.
United started well but didn't get the breakthrough that had looked on the cards. Nani started on the left with Valencia on the right and Berbatov partnering Rooney up front. I had been looking forward to seing Nani and Valencia play together and i liked what i saw there was constant threat from both flanks and United should really have took the lead before they did. Berbatov missed a great chance and seemed to be in for one of those days where nothing he tried came off. But when Rooney got the opener with a goal after forty minutes from a Gary Neville cross the floodgates opened as Pompey fell apart. On the stroke of half time Nani beat his man and put a weak cross in that took two deflections to beat the embarrassed James at his near post. It was a terrible goal to concede and you just knew there were more to come in the second period.
The third came as a Carrick shot took a looping deflection to beat James on the hour before Berbatov hit a superb strike to make it four Minutes later. This seemed to boost his confidence as he now started to look for the ball and start to express himself more. His scopped pass for Valencia that James saved superbly was the move of the match. I felt a bit sorry for him as he went off as he obviously wanted to stay on as it now seemed things were going for him. But Fergie wanted to give Owen and Diouf some time on the pitch and i couldn't argue as Diouf had two great chances to score one of which he really should have put away, with Owen strangely dropping deep and turning provider but to good effect as the front two linked up well. The last goal saw Evra overlap and put a decent cross in that the Portsmouth defender Wilson hammered into his own net. So three points and a major turnaround in our goal difference over the last month.
I had hadn't held out much hope of Arsenal doing much at the bridge and they didn't. It's turned into a two horse race quicker than anybody thought.

Anti Glazer protests continue but Rooney rises above it according to the Times match report.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article7018366.ece

Paul Wilson doesn't think the change of roles has been the key to Rooney's breathtaking form. He just thinks everything has clicked for him and he is in the form of his life which he takes as good news for United and England.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/feb/07/wayne-rooney-england-manchester-united
There is something in that, he has blown hot and cold before, but he is really at the top of his game at the minute.

Tony Cascarino fears the worst for Owen Hargreaves
http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2010/02/sad-owen-hargreaves-reaching-point-of-no-return.html

Patrick Barclay lauds the Bundesliga as the football model to follow
http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2010/02/debate-is-the-german-model-just-the-ticket-.html
I couldn't argue with that. It's a fan friendly league where fans concerns seem to be on a par with the clubs and the players.

Will Hutton thinks the tories economic policies lack the courage of their convictions. More like they are scrabbling to find an answer to our economic problems which they know can't be solved by the market alone. But with a party full of unreconstructed Thatcherites how do they get it past the party faithfull.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/07/conservative-economic-policy-george-osborne

Robert Peston argues that the BAE pay out is a major embarrassment for the firm.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2010/02/bae_a_knowing_and_wilful_misle.html

Steve Coogan says a decision will be made over the next month as to whether he will make a film version of Alan Partridge
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/feb/08/alan-partridge-film-steve-coogan

Mark Thomas on his latest tour where his audience to propose policies then debate them. Some good ones
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/08/britain-should-invade-jersey

A little bit of Kraftwerk

Hargreaves misses champions league squad

No surprise really is it. I still don't think we will ever see him on a football pitch again. All the evidence and all the rumours point that way, i'm afraid.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article7014289.ece

The Glazer's bond issue fails to impress the city as it loses it's value already. All the clowns that bought them deserve to lose money. You would think they won't be in a hurry to go back to money markets after this embarrasment. It may even make a takeover easier, so i would say it's good news all round.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article7013260.ece

A slightly more expert view from Andersred's blog
http://andersred.blogspot.com/2010/02/very-fact-it-was-twice-oversubscribed.html

Evra goes a bit over the top, claiming that Ferguson will stay as manager until he drops. The exact opposite of rumours and opinions floating about at the moment. Purely from a football perspective i would like him to carry on to oversee the likes of Cleverley's return from Watford and oversee the development of players like Diouf who looks like a very promising addition to the squad. Of course off the field matters could scupper all this.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7154518/Sir-Alex-Ferguson-will-stay-at-Manchester-United-until-his-last-breath-says-Patrice-Evra.html

Newly revealed documents show Stanley Matthews and Mortensen were arrested in 1945 whilst on service. Not quite on the same scale of today's money grabbing football chancers is it.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/never-booked-ndash-but-happy-to-make-a-fast-buck-on-the-black-market-1889027.html

David Conn reports on the latest shennanigans at Portsmouth which shows this countries football regulators incompetence up even more than the goings on at United and loonypool.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/david-conn-inside-sport-blog/2010/feb/03/portsmouth-mark-jacob-premier-league
What was it Greg Dyke said about the running of the game in this country in the Observer on sunday.
" Football is the only "business", where you can be a crook, everyone knows your a crook, and you can carry on working."

It looks like the banks are getting serious with Hicks and Gillet at the other end of the east lancs road.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/banks-ready-to-force-sale-of-liverpool-this-summer-1887507.html

Anatole Kaletsky thinks the west has to rethink it's model of capitalism if democarcy and liberalism can compete with the authoritarian anti democratic Chinese model. I completely agree with that but worry that the neo cons will dominate the agenda instead of the liberal social democrat left. If they are left to do the running i have no doubt they will. But have we got a Keynes, Beveridge or a Lloyd George on the left these days.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anatole_kaletsky/article7014090.ece

Israeli historian attacks Blair over his role as the middle east envoy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/03/gaza-tony-blair-betrayal

Robert Fox wants the defence green paper to put Military needs over politics and give it what it really needs, ie helicopters, equiptment that works over aircraft carriers and the like. It's not going to happen and he knows it as well as anybody. And that probably won't change even if the Tories get in. The skilled jobs that would be lost will see to that.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/02/defence-green-paper-war-uk

Steve Richards thinks Nick Clegg has been dealt as good a hand if not better than most of his lib dem predecessors.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/steve-richards/steve-richards-liberal-democrats-hour-has-come-round-at-last-1888787.html

Simon Jenkins detests the popes views but defends his right to preach what he believes. And points out the hypocrisy of new labour on religion and their promotion of faith based schools.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/02/pope-benedict-harman-equalities-bill
This paragrraph stands out
"Religion has been the curse of political reform in Britain since the middle ages. Turn every stone of history and lurking beneath is some bigotry, some tribal prejudice. The hypocrisy is often staggering, even today. The cabinet of which Harman has been a member for a decade has promoted and subsidised faith schools, allowing them to do what she is banning the Catholic church from doing – that is, use religion as a tool of human discrimination. Many people regard the consequence of faith schools as more widespread and communally divisive than the hiring practices of the Catholic church. Why is Harman doing nothing to end them?"

A little bit of the brilliant Aphex twin