Fergie is comfortable

Ferguson tells the press he is very comfortable with the squad, regardless of what other clubs do. He has come in for a lot of stick on the various United messageboards for this, but it's been a bit over the top for me. Let's face it, if we hadn't have had the horrendous run with defensive injuries just before christmas there is every chance we would have won the league. I still think one of the reasons we didn't was because Carrick and Fletcher had to cover in defence, over that period and when we needed Anderson to come good, he got worse and then got injured, hence when the crunch part of the season came we just didn't have enough legs in midfield to chase both the champions league and the title.
I see no reason why we won't get a season at least on a par as last year from Scholes and Giggs again and whilst neither player are at their peak of their career both of them are still good enough to have still shined in the world cup just gone( not that big a task i know ). We have started to take their experience for granted. Fletcher dipped in the second half of last season but there is no reason to think he won't come back stronger this time round. Carrick is the worry, his nosedive in form towards the end of last season really cost us, he just didn't pull his weight, and to make it worse the bigger the game the worse his form sank. I am expecting a big positive contribution from Cleverley and that's where the worry is, because i would accept that if i'm wrong and he doesn't come up to scratch we will be short of numbers in midfield.
After watching the world cup we must be as well of as anybody in world football for wide players with Valencia, the second half of the season model Nani, and the versatile Park. If Obertan can start to show some consistency we would have decent strenght in depth. As for the forwards, on paper it's pretty strong really. The big question is can Rooney carry on last season's form, to which i would suspect the answer will be yes, with knobs on, and will he stay fit, and that is in the lap of the gods. If the first pre-season friendly was anything to go by Berbatov is looking to put the end of last season behind him. As for Hernandez, that's hard to know, i won't be taking the world cup as a guide, i mean look who kept him out of the team during the group stages. I have a feeling that Diouf will go out on loan with Welbeck. With Owen as a fourth striker, given the big if of whether he actually stays fit, i think i would send Macheda out on loan for the first half of the season to give him more regular football than he's likely to see at Old trafford
The big unkown is at the back, centre back to be precise. The days of Vidic and Rio being the top centre half partnership in the country and maybe even Europe are clearly over. In fact who knows if Vidic will be even here come the first game against Newcastle. I would like that to be sorted out quickly, if he is on his way out, i would like to think Fergie knows that and is using his pre-season preperations to lay the groundwork for a post Rio-Vidic era. I don't believe for a second there is anything to the rumours doing the rounds that Evra is offski.
Smalling obviously has potential, but he has to prove he can defend and i expect this to be a season for him to find his feet at United. It will be interesting to see whether Cathcart goes out on loan or Fergie keeps him at old trafford. At youth team level he looked as good a player as Evans and had a good loan period at Plymouth. Unfortunately he didn't have as good a time last year at Watford with a combination of injuries and poor form. If he came good that would give us some serious strenght of depth at the back.
This could be a big season for the Da Silva's, for Rafael to press a claim to be the regular right back birth and for Fabio to start to show that he can become Evra's successor at left back. Both have the talent, but the question is, have they temperament to start to learn not to dive in. If they can learn to cut out the needless shirt grabbing and diving in too soon they both have a great chance.
If this is to be Van Der Sar's last season we are going to have to start seriously scouting a replacement becaue Kuszczak whilst being a fair number two is nowhere near good enough to replace him. The big Dutch goalie's importance to the success of the team since he came has been woefully undervalued. As an actual goalkeeper he is not on the same plane as Schmeichal, but as a team member and organiser of his defence he is as good if not better. I have been convinced since i have watched Van Der Sar that he would have made a professional footballer as an outfield player. I am also convinced that most of the best goalie's of the future will also have to be pretty acomplished with the ball at their feet. If his last season at United is half as good as the giant Dane's was i would settle for that as my pre season hope for the season.
So for me the gloom is being ever so slightly overdone. With Pogba and Morrison who both look potentially top players to be gradually phased in over the next two to three seasons i don't see the point in going out and buying players for players sake. There is also Matty James and Drinkwater out on loan and looking like they have at least a chance of being given a go in United's first team squad. The fact that we all know we couldn't afford to buy anybody even if we wanted to doesn't mean that Fergie's strategy is wrong. If we forget the first four season at United when the youth system was being overhauled the only time when Fergie has got it seriuosly wrong was 2004-2006 seasons and it could well be argued and i am sure he will say it was a time when he was rebuilding for the success we saw for the three titles on the bounce.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/ferguson-comfortable-with-current-manchester-united-squad-2030676.html

That still doesn't excuse Kleberson, Bellion and Djemba twins obviously and the 2-0 defeat at Norwich still remains the nadir of the last decade. When anybody says that was terrible after we get beat i just compare it to that and i remind myslef it wasn't "that" bad. I suppose everybody has their worst " games seen " list. Ones that stick out to me are a 4-0 home defeat to Clough's Forest in Sexton's first season which was a taster of the type of football we were to see under that master of flair football. Ashley Grimes being cited as youngster to watch for the future. The 5-0 at Goodison under Atkinson that wasn't helped by a bizarre back four selection was another, at least we got some revenge for at Wembley later in the season courtesy of big Norm. There have been other terrible results and performances such as the 6-0 away at Ipswich when Bailey saved two penalties and of course the 5-1 at City. But for me it's those two that stick out for scoreline, ineptitude of performance and gulf of class between the two sides

The Telegraph pump out some pro Glazer propaganda with not a fact to be seen to back it up. Even if it they have reached that number, the fact that they have only been able to just publicize the fact that they have broken the 50,000 barrier shows what a struggle they have had. And how do you have a campaign when no organisation has openly come out and argued for a boycott ( IMUSA excepted and seeing as though the press seem to ignore them the rest of the time, do they count). I sill believe it will be the credit crunch that will see them forced to sell the club.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7901497/Manchester-United-season-ticket-sales-pass-50000-as-anti-Glazer-protest-fails.html

Fergie is on his winter break hobby horse again, as i have said before i am against it, the christmas calendar is a big part of the game for us supporters and the game is supposed to take us into account. And it's pretty obvious Fergie would like it for our end of season assault on the champions league rather than England's chances in whatever the press are giddily overegging their chances of winning it. If it ever comes in, and i'm dead against, but if it did, the best solution would be a two week break after the third round of the FA cup. What lose me about that solution still, is those games would still have to be caught up on.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jul/20/sir-alex-ferguson-fa-winter-break

David Conn with an excellent article on the funding of the grassroots cricket and the governments probable decision to allow the ECB to carry on selling the rights to cricket coverage to the highest bidder, i.e Sky. As one of the comments says Sky has virtually bought sport in this country and that cannot be good for anybody in the long term.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/david-conn-inside-sport-blog/2010/jul/21/ecb-sky-sports-hugh-robertson
I played Rugby league, Rugby union, football and cricket for my school all those many years ago and even then cricket was the poor relation. I played all age cricket in one of the minor lancashire leagues and that was where you got a taste of what proper cricket was all about. As far as i could see, even thirty years ago there weren't many schools that played cricket seriously.

Hamish McRae wonders if we are going to follow the Japanese model if tax revenues fail to recover. He has usually been one of the more optimistic ( or complascent ) economic commentators.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/hamish-mcrae/hamish-mcrae-what-if-revenues-fail-to-recover-2031076.html

New statesman show poll showing AV referendum too close to call. This does not surprise me, if you support proportional representation it's hard to get worked up for a referendum that is only slighly if at all more proportional. Of course Clegg has staked the Lib Dems participation in the coalition on this, so i expect more than a few people who voted Lib Dem tactically against the tories in the elction to vote no to give his leadership of the party a perhaps a terminal kick in the shins. To be honest i am sorely tempted to take that path myself. We will see.
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/07/past-support-reform-post-lead

Liam Fox says defence budget unaffordable, well there is an obvious cut there straight away isn't there. Something we will never use, don't even have first say on whether we can use it and can't even afford anyway. At some stage this country will have to learn that it has had it's turn in the sun and accept that the empire's gone, our place at the UN permanent top table will have to go and we will have to get used to the fact that it doesn't much matter what the British think anynore.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jul/20/uk-defence-policy-unaffordable-liam-fox

Swedish auditor hurls damning verdict on UN general secretary as she leaves the organisation.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/deplorable-and-reprehensible-un-boss-savaged-by-outgoing-aide-2031240.html
This paragraph raises a wry smile from me "Privately, some senior UN officials expressed shock at the vitriolic tone of Mrs Ahlenius's memo and wondered if it should be taken seriously. "She has been something of a lone ranger", said one UN official who until recently worked in the UN's oversight department. "It's one thing to be independent, which I think people recognise to be a fundamental of leading an oversight office, it's another thing to be just wilful."
It seems to me that when somebody is prepared to go out that far on a limb, that's when to start taking something seriously.

Andy Gill argues that the mercury prize nominations don't begin to cover the cracks of the music industry.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/andy-gill-glittering-ceremonies-cannot-disguise-the-problems-of-the-music-industry-2030310.html

Some classic David Axelrod produced Letta Mbulu