Valencia 0-1 Manchester United

Well with the players available and the fact that this was probably going to be our toughest opponent in the group stages it was always on the cards that we would go into the game with a point in mind. And that is what we got, a team and a plan to make sure we didn't get beat before anything else. I know in the real world there are times when this has to be done, but it doesn't make it any more tolerable to watch.
The only real surprise to the team selected, given the players who didn't go was the inclusion of Rafael. Fergie seems to be prepared to risk him in the champions league but wary of playing him in the premiership at the moment. Whilst i can see he may be worried about his lack of inches it still seems a little odd. If he see him as our future right back then surely he has got to start playing more often in domestic football. After all this is our bread and butter, if he is going to be unable to cope with the physical aspect of our game he isn't going to have a future at United.
The only other position that there could have been much of a debate about, was the centre half spot, where Fergie brought Ferdinand back at the expense of Jonny Evans. I had a feeling at the beginning of the season that we might not see much of Ferdinand in the premier league, but that back injury allowing he might play most of the games in Europe, at least for the first half of the season. It looks to me, as if i will not be that far off the mark, i don't expect him to feature against Sunderland on Saturday, anyway. I don't think Saturday is the right game to bring Smalling in but i would like to see him given a couple of run outs in the league after the October break. Rio had a good game but he wasn't tested as much as he might have been. We still look miles more secure at the back when he partners Vidic.
The first half was dire, a really poor advertisement for champions league football and it's disappointing that we were as much to blame for that as the home side. I can take the tactics and the cautious approach, but the lack of technique, the poor passing and the lack of imagination at all up front, especially when the home team are being every bit as cautious, i can't take. But given the side we had out it was half what i was expecting. Berbatov did well up front on his own but the service to him was poor to say the least. I suppose with Carrick and especially Anderson coming back from injury i can't be too critical of them. Carrick showed good defensive positional sense, if only he could get the rest of his game back, he and we, wouldn't be too badly off in midfield. Park was as poor as i expected him to be, hardly contributing anything worthwhile going forward and giving Berbatov nothing at all to go on from his left hand side. Even Fletcher who had shown signs in the last couple of games in getting his game back to somwehere near his best was off colour in his first touch and passing.
The second half wasn't that much better, though Valencia showed a bit more willingness to attack, bringing on another forward and creating a couple of half chances. Berbatov showed what he might have been able to do with even half decent service, when he controlled a pass from the back superbly, beat his man and forced the goalie into a great save. Nani had once agin had an inconsistent evening, but yet again this season, it was through him that the late winner came. He surged down the right, beat two men before feeding substitute Macheda who showing good awareness fed fellow sub Hernandez whose great first touch set himself the chance to shoot with his left and he made no mistake despatching it into the corner of the net.
Fergie was asked after the game whether that had been a smash and grab result, he hummed and arghed, without answering the question, but yes it most definitely was a smash and grab result. Nobody can pretend we deserved the three points, but they are most welcome. Beating Rangers at home and drawing in Spain was more the kind of results i was expecting, but i think we can be more than happy with the way it's gone.

Ferguson was pleased with Hernandez's goal, praising the Mexican's finishing, but admits he has work to do on his physique. The first few games he has played in do seem to show he is struggling with the phyiscal side of the game. Whilst the man himself hopes the goal will give him confidence

Park himself admits to disappointment with his contribution this season, i keep thinking why did we let Cleverley go. As bad as Park plays with our injuries Fergie hasn't much choice but to play him, however little contribution he is delivering to the team.

Dan Jones of the London evening standard wonders whether there are more Manchester United fans in London than there are Tottenham

Paul Wilson thinks Rooney needs time to come to terms with his celebrity status and thinks maybe it is a good thing that United have the experience of George Best and David Beckham in their attempts to guide him out of his struggles.

The 30 day lull in the reserves season is seeing a host of United youngsters going out on loan to lower league clubs. Nicky Ajose, who i think will make a decent career for himself in the game has gone to his home town of Bury. Conor Devlin the Northern Ireland goalie has gone to Hartlepool and Oliver gill and Wes Brown's younger brother Reece have joined Bradford city for the month. I will be interested to see whether they send Magnus Eikrem anywhere.

Lancashire's old trafford redevelopment gets what will hopefully be the final all clear. As i have said before i'm not a big fan of the plans, but now they have started i just hope they come out looking better when actually built than they did as plans.

Dave Hadfield of the Independent recalls interviewing Terry Newton only weeks earlier and wonders if there was anything he could have done differently.

The economists Bagehot column isn't overly impressed with Ed Miliband or his speech to the labour conference. Coming from a presumably non left take, in fact almost Blairlike stance it seems to me, hardly surprising.
Steve Richards takes issue with the myth being put around that labour chose the wrong brother highlighting David's vacillation over the last three years. A lot of this myth seems to me to come from the Blairite wing of the party not being able to come to terms with their loss of grip on the party and their mistakes being completely disowned at last, by their own party. As Anthony Barnett says in the new statesman if they still think the decision to invade Iraq was right they are mad.
His first few days actions suggest to me that they may well have picked the right brother. First he disappoints the Blairites by defeating their presumed heir apparent and now he is letting the Brownites know that he will not be the man to carry on the Brownite torch. The lunacy of both factions is a poison he seems well aware that needs to be drawn. I mean at the end of the day there wasn't that much difference between them, it wasn't like the tories tearing themselves aprt over Europe in the 90's.
Paul Mason argues that now the labour party has chosen its new leader the decision which may or may not win them the next election will have to be made. How will Ed Miliband go about setting his economic policy and who will he want as and get as his shadow chancellor. Given that i support a more Keynesian approach to the deficit i suppose i should want Balls to take the role. But i'm afraid i can't get his role under Brown and his disastous approach to the city of London out of my head.
Simon Jenkins warns the tories that the economy is the name of the game, if the economy does enter the double dip that many are predicting, Miliband will hold all the aces.

Adam Posen external member of the MPC calls for more QE, basically it sounds like he is worried about the effects a double dip would have on our ability to refloat the economy on a more even keel.
The Brazilian finance minister speaks out against devaluations and warns of a currency war, as Paul Mason predicted last week. We seem to be getting nearer and nearer to a return to the thirties and a policy of beggar my neighbour.

Iceland's MP's have referred its former prime minister to the finacial courts for his part in the financial dsiaster that hit the country in 2008. I'm all for people getting the just comeuppance, but i can't help thinking that more than a few of those MP' that voted to refer him went along gleefully with everything he proposed.
Meanwhile the Irish economy is in serious trouble with the news that the bailout of Anglo-Irish and other troubled lenders means the budget deficit now stands at 32% of GDP. Robert Peston reports that this could be make or break time for the Irish economy, anyone remember the days of the Celtic tiger, it seems like an age ago.

John Pilger lays into the BBC saying it differs from Murdoch's media only in the way it presents the news. He raises a few important issues about the BBC, but as many faults as the BBC undoubtedly has, it can't be compared to Murdoch's media.

A forgotten class act, Squeeze

Carrick to start?

Michael Carrick could be in line to make his reappearance at the Mestalla tomorrow night according to skysports. With the news that there is no Scholes in the squad that has travelled out to Spain alongside the absentees we already knwe about, Rooney and Giggs, there must be every chance that he will indeed start. The fact that Fergie started with probably our strongest line up on Saturday, makes me think that despite what he said in defence of his absence at Scunthorpe he doesn't think this is quite as hard a game as he has tried to make out.
I will be interested to see how we approach the match, will we go and keep it tight, taking a draw but hoping to nick a goal or will we go for the three points and try to play our normal game. I suppose the team selected will give us a good idea.

Darren Fletcher is glad to see Owen Hargreaves back in full time training with the first team. I'm afraid i will still have to see him in action for the first team for sixty minutes or even a whole game before i'm prepared to believe we have really got our midfield man back for good. If he was really back  he would be as invaluable to us as a right back as he would in central midfield.
Continuing on our defensive woes Vidic once again calls for the defensive errors to be eradicated from our game, pointing out how sloppy we have been in defending set pieces so far this season.

The reserves last game for a month saw them grab an equaliser in the fourth minute of injury time to salvage 2-2 draw away to Blackburn at Leigh sports village in front of a bumper 3000 plus crowd. I think they probably just about deserved the draw though it was hard to see them coming back when Deviln's slow dash from his line ended up in him conceding a penalty that Hoilett made no mistake dispatching to give the home team the lead.
Eikrem's last gasp equaliser was absolutely top draw and is one of the reasons some people rate him so highly. I can see the talent, he has a great right foot and tremendous vision, i still don't think he has the physique for top level football though. Morrison had a decent game but i thought Vermijl was the standout considering he is a right back playing out of position on the right hand side of midfield.

The news that Terry Newton has took his own life was a bit of a bolt from the blue. He was a fair player but could be one hell of a snide forward at times.

Roy Hattersley calls for a new intellectualism to shore up the labour party and to stop it drifting into centre right territory through a lack of an ethical framework. Will Ed Miliband be the man to lead them there? Will Hutton has a new book out exploring how to repair our broken economy using fairer methods than the free market consesus of the last thirty years have left us with.
Mary Ann Sieghart thinks the red Ed scare stories being spun by the tory right are bogus nonesense, and thinks he should not be underestimated.
I don't really know enough about to him to have any strong opinions but suspect she is right. He obviously had to run to the left of his brother in order to win but that does not mean that that is where he will lead the party from. I have to admit i like some of the things he has campaigned on and like the fact he is prepared to admit new labout got some things badly wrong. I am hoping and presuming he is taliking about civil liberties and it's obeisance to the city and the free market amongst other things there.
Larry Elliott thinks that he will have to make the case for the state as the coalition cuts will give him an open goal to aim at. Robert Peston's latest blog tells us why the Irish can't afford to upset the bankers and will continue to take it's neo lib medine, come what may.

Stephen Glover can't see the problem with Murdoch's buyout of all BSyB on a commercial level but can see the political problems.

Roland Hunford sets out to debunk the myth of Captain Scott, apparently he is regarded as a bumbling amateur in the rest of the world. He can't see why he i so much more well known than Shackleton. I have to say after learning about Shackleton's exploits through that Brannagh film and various documentaries that's always absolutely escaped me as well, now he was a hero.

I watched Bronson at the weekend the film about the guy who is usually known as Britain's most dangerous prisoner. I thought it was superb, but whether you like the film or not, the lead actor, Tom Hardy gives one hell of a mesmorising performance.

Stephen Colbert addresses Congress, what a performer.

Bolton Wanderers 2-2 Manchester United

Another disappointing away result and another missed opportunity, given Saturdays results. I was pretty confident before the game that we would pick up the points, unfortunately i think the players entered the game with the same complacent attitude. Right from the off, they seemed to take the home team a little too much for granted.
They started reasonably well and could have took the lead almost straight away if Berbatov had not taken the wrong option in the first couple of minutes shooting wildly wide as if it was just a matter of time before another chance came along. Then with just six minutes gone, United conceded yet another really soft goal from a set piece. Knight was able to get on the end of the corner too easily and then for me Evra should have stayed on his post, as if he had done, he would surly have stopped it on the line.
Well if the players had thought this was going to be a walkover they had now been swiftly disabused. We continue to look far from solid at the back, Vidic is the only member of the back four i have total confidence in at the moment. I suppose they are not getting as much protection as they have had in the past with us employing a 4-4-2 formation in every league game so far, but with the quantity of opposition we have played so far that doesn't rally wash with me.
The front two only flickered briefly yesterday with Berbatov not as big an influence as he has been and Rooney whilst not playing as badly as some have suggested, still nowhere near his best. Nani may have been hit and miss as Chris Waddle had said in his commentary but he has had a hand in most of the goals we have scored so far this season. And his equaliser was not far behind the quality of Berbatov's overhead effort against the scousers last week. Giggs and Fletcher had both had good moments, the Scot with a couple of superb runs with Giggs with getting on the end of one but failing to beat Jaaskalienen. As the first half came to an end United had managed to get a hold on the game and i fancied that United would go on to control the second half and clinch all three points.
It didn't happen, for some reason they never really managed to recapture that form of the last quarter of an hour of the first half. Losing Giggs first to injury after just ten minutes of the second half and then Rooney eight minutes later didn't help. I could see that our ability to control the game and the ability to excert the sustained pressure needed to take the game away from the home team wouldn't behelped by the addition of Park and Macheda. And indeed it didn't, still their second did come a bit out of the blue as Petrov's shot took a wicked deflection off Fletcher giving Van Der Sar no chance.
Fergie threw on Owen now in a desperate attempt to claw something back from the game. I can't pretend he is my idea of a United player, he was another substitution that wouldn't help us dominate possession, but he was thrown on to get a goal and that he did. Though Bolton may see it as a bit of a soft goal to have given away. The goal salvaged a point but we never really looked like going on to get the three points and i suppose we didn't really deserve to leave with the three points.
So still unbeaten but we still haven't won away from home and if we don't improve our away form we won't be making it 19 at the endof this season.

Giggs will miss the next two weeks, i suppose it could have been worse, being a hamstring injury

Kevin Keegan tells Rooney he can't blame the media for his lack of form. I actually agree with the gist of what he is saying there and the answer is if you want to live your life how " you " want to live your life don't sign the sponsorships and set youreslf up for the tabloid trap.

Berbatov admits the price tag got to him at times in his first two seasons at old trafford. But he feels more at home in his surroundings now. Unfortunately he didn't have a great game yesterday, he should have set Giggs up with our first attack of the game but shot wildly wide. It was a start that typified our approach to the game, not fully focused.

This a clip of the BBC documentary on professionalism in sport that Ryan Giggs participates in.

Whilst the reserves have no game for a month United have decided to loan Richie De Laet to Sheffield United for 30 days. He came on as a sub in their 1-0 defeat at Elland road in the Yorkshire derby but didn't cover himself in glory with a piece of indifferent defending for the home teams wining goal.

Old trafford will host the league division one and two play off finals in May as Wembley can't host them this year due to the European cup final being held there. This had been rumoured, i thought Old trafford would get the championship play off too, but that will stay at Wembley.

Jose Mourinho's gamble on taking on the "impossible" task of managing Real Madrid was greeted with admiration by his fellow managers writes Paul Hayward. But can Mourinho's defensive instincts prosper at the hanky waving Bernabeu.

Liverpool fans would sooner go into administration than see Hicks and Gillett refinance their debt to keep control of their football club. That would be my preferred option if that was the situation at my football club.

Vic Marks discusse the crisis in county cricket and explores a lot the problems that i have with county cricket, too much twenty20, the conflict between counties and the national side and the lack of a clear timetable of fixtures that fans can relate to.
Shane Warne thinks England have their best chance for decades to win an ashes series down under

Roy Hattersley is happy the party voted for Ed Miliband as the new labour party leader. Unsurprisingly he is happy the party voted for someone who actually belives in social democracy and someone who he hopes will drop the worst parts of the new labour contamination of behaving as an almost centre right party.
Petere Oborne argues that Ed Miliband should learn a lesson from Blair's time as leader and to forget about being gulity that he beat his brother to the great prize and that Ed Balls must be his choice as shadow chancellor. It should not be given to his brother as a consolation prize.
John Rentoul falls into the camp that thinks Labour has made a terrible mistake in choosing brother Ed as it's new leader. His thinking is that the labour party and its members voted for David Miliband but that the unions delivered it to his brother Ed and the tories and the media will continue to bait Ed Miliband that he wasn't the choice of his party.
Charlie Whelan boasts of his and the unions influence in the leadership elections.
This Guardian editorial argues that labour should think the unthinkable and elect its leader by one member one vote. That would make it a party it would be easier for me to vote for.
Matthew D'ancona goes further and predicts that the labour party has handed the next election away. He doesn't say whethere they have handed the election to the tories or to the coalition. His argument is that they have chosen their comfort ground on the left and handed the centre ground away. I'm not convinced of that argument yet. Who knows where the centre ground will lie in 2015 if the coalition lasts that long.
Andrew Grice warns the new leader that the coalition is no sitting duck

Retail banks could face a radical shake up according to the most radical options put forward by the banking commission led by Sir John Vickers.
Will Hutton thinks the commision set up by Vince Cable has got off to a good start and seems to have more confidence in it's ability to deliver than most other commentators have shown. He thinks the politics of the coalition goverment favour radical action from Vince Cable's creation. As he says it is a once in a century chance for reform of the way this country works. I suppose Cable could justify his place in participating in this coalition cabinet if he pulled of a radical reform of our financial system, and maybe it would take tory participation to see it through. I do wonder how the tory right and its media allies would react though.
Leading figures in the city have dismissed the proposals as a damp squib, well they can't both be right. They have been putting the case for the status quo, as if 2008 had never happened.
Hamish McRae argues that banking will be different in the next decade but that it will have to be done in concert globally, we can't just go it alone. I would argue that somebody has to be first, and for all Brown's other faults he was the first world leader to nationalise thebanks and prop the economy up, where he led, others followed. We probably wouldn't even be able to afford to do that again, surley it's not a question of if the banks are broke up but when.

Mick Hume talks about how the British establishment still clings on to the memory of the second world war. He describes the historical myths of 1940, but suggests our politicians cling on to the memory as they bemoan our fading status in the war. Which is surely for some figures on the tory right and new labour right the reason for wanting to upgrade Trident, it allows them to continue to sit at the top tables in world affairs.

Wallender author Henning Mankell argues the Swedish establisment' failiure to engage with the rise of it's far right was the wrong rsponse, they should have argued them back to the margins. I totally agree with that. The best way for a democracy to fight fascism and even left wing totalitarianism is to ridicule it in public. I couldn't believe the stick some on the left gave the BBC for allowing Nick Griffin onto question time. But that is exactly how they should be taken on, expose them of the liars, haters and fantasists that they so clearly are.

Yahoo profiles Michael Rother of Neu! whose albums are more popular than ever and after a decade in the 80's where he struggled to continue a career in the music industry. I would love to see them live, they are one of my favoutite Krautrock acts.

Bruce Springsteen is interviewed in the Guardian about the new documentary about the making of Darkness on the edge of town, the promise.

Stephen Colbert takes on congress.

Smith fears for Valencia

I did note down after Valencia's horrendous injury that Alan Smith had his horror break at Anfield, that Smith had said last year that he has never been the same player since the injury. And as pace and strength is a big part of Valencia's game it is hard not to think thw worst and think that he may well find it hard to get his game back to what it was before the injury. I certainly don't think telling the press he may be back before March was a very wise move.

Ferguson admits that Rooney has been struggling with his form since the season started. He will have to find a way to cope with the scrutiny he will probably always have to endure away from the football field.

Jason Burt fears Rio Ferdinands outside interests could scupper his chances of ever getting back to his best for United. Alternatively he may already know his career his on the wane due to the succession of injuries and be even more determined to make sure he knows what he is going to do when it all ends. I think we can safely say that Rio won't be one of the band of brothers going onto the coaching staff at United when his career ends. Or come to that, that he will even be at United when it's time to call it a day.

Owen Hargreaves has resumed training with the first team squad, Fergie has told MUTV. Well will we see him bak in a red shirt to confound me and many many more United fans who never thought we would see him ina United shirt again. 

The Indy follows other midweek reports in linking United with Athletic Madrid's 19 year old goalkeeper David De Gea. Unless he is very very special i can't see United spending £12 million on a 19 year old goalie.

Paul Hayward looks at the cash rich of City and Chelski with their oil oil and gas based backers and briefly compares them to leveraged buyout merchants Gillett and Hicks and our gimps. In their vastly different ways they are both bad for football. And hopefully, one day British football will be shot of both sorts of owners.
Oliver holt quotes the latest United we stand editorial stating that the Glazers ownership has undoubtedly changed United's support for the worse.

Ireland the austerity proponents poster boy has promptly gone the way that Keynesian econmists argued that it would and we will if the coalition goes ahead with it's savage cuts before we start to see sustained growth, into a double dip recession. Larry Elliott argues they have shown this country and hopefully this coalition how not to do it. Is Osborne watching or even taking any notice and if he is, has he got a plan B. Gavyn Davies thinks he may have
US keynesian economist Paul Krugman explains the pundits telling him how he is alway calling the economy in his mailbox seem to have gotten more than one or two things wrong themselves. It still kills me how we are still not toally out of a free market orthodox world even now.
Paul Mason's latest blog predicts more quantitive easing and if that doesn't work, it's back to the thirties and currency wars. That does not sound good.
Next left asks Cable's conference speech opponents to read a long list of tories who seemed to agree with almost everything he said. If only they agreed with what he had said about the deficit before the elction though. Andrew Sparrow of the Guardian lists the ten things he has learnt at the lib dem conference. I think he should have reminded his readers this is before the cuts have been implemented. There could be ten diametrically opposing ones at next years conference.

John Gray reviews the book i mentioned in passing last week, Mao's great famine by Frank Dikotter. It does sound like a must read book. Even though Hitler will probably always be top of the most reviled figures in history list, Stalin and Mao were just as cruel and probably just as evil.


The NME discusses the lack of British indie bands making it big in the States and seems to come to the conclusion it won't change any time soon. I am not sure why we should get so hung up on this, to be honest. What do we want musicians true to themselves or musicians making music to try and crack the States. I know which i would prefer, if you make in the US, great, but it's not the end of the world is it.

Scunthorpe United 2-5 Manchester United

The scoreline may have been 5-2 but it was a scorline that flattered United, in fact i felt a bit sorry for the home team who kept going forward to the last. I didn't like the team selected or should i say i didn't like the formation. To play 4-3-3 you have to have forwards capable and willing to play it. A forward line consisting of Owen, Macheda and Hernandez wasn't equipped to bring the best out of that formation.
I suppose the scoreline would suggest i was wrong, but i don't think i am. The ratio of efforts on goal which was about three to one in their favour tells a different story. In fact we scored with almost every chance we had, which, let's face it is pretty unusual for United. Fortunately for us almost all their shots were straight at Kuszczak, for all the praise that ex United failiure Birtles gave him, the PIG didn't make a save that was out of this world, you would have expected him to make every save that he made.
When they took the attack to us straight from the start and almost totally controlled the first fifteen minutes i wasn't as surprised as i should have been given the line up. United were truly woeful in that period hardly ever keeping the ball and mostly resorting to long balls. It was no surprise when the home team took the lead, but the quality of the goal was, it was a great shot. United equalised almost immediately from, ironically enough, a long ball from Smalling that Gibson tucked away. It was a soft goal for them to concede really, a sucker punch.
United started to get into the game a bit more now without really showing any fluency and ten minutes before half time United took the lead when Park crossed to the near post and Smalling got into the box to sweetly volley the cross into the back of the net. Smalling was the big plus of the night, not for the goal, that was a nice bonus, but for his all round play. His reading of the game and his distribution was superb all night. If he can step that up to the premier league then we may just have found our replacement for Rio, that's still a big if though. As for Ferdinand, i'm afraid that after me saying i thought it may have been a recurrence of his back problems forcing him out of the squad against Liverpool, after seeing him yesterday, i think i was wrong, it look like Fergie didn't think he would be ready for a game of that magnitude. I'm afraid it seems more certain than ever that we have seen the best of Ferdinand. His loss of pace was more obvious than ever last night, he isn't ready for a premier league return yet.
The second half was pretty similar to the last twenty minutes of the first half with the game going end to end. United's finshing was again clinical with Owen getting two and Park scoring the other. As good as their play going forward was they weren't the best at the back. To be fair to them, the just went for it, they could have sat back and sat everybody behind the ball and got beat one or two nil but they preferred to score a couple and concede more and gives the watching public some good entertainment.  The goal in the last minute was the least they deserved.
As i have said Smalling was the one player to stand out. Gibson was nothing special again, despite his goal, Anderson, similar but i'll give him the benefit of the doubt as he continues his comeback from his knee injury and Park was Park.
Up top Owen floated around ineffectally until he got in the box as usual and then against lower level opposition came alive when he got in there, what that tells us that we didn't already know, your guess is as good as mine. I would have preferred to see 4-4-2 with Hernandez and Macheda paired together. Neither of those two looked comfortable in the formation unsurprisingly, but i suppose Hernandez did marginally better with two good crosses that should have led to at least one goal from Macheda. Macheda had a poor night, almost invariably taking the wrong option, the run and pass for the third goal apart.
So next round here we come, and with Chelsea, Liverpool, City and Spurs out it looks like there will be a fair chance that we may well get to that third final in a row. Away draw next please.

Mike Phelan defends the absence of Alex Ferguson who chose to miss the game at Scunthorpe to go to Spain to check up on our next opponents in the Champions league Valencia. I suppose that's a fair enough answer, it's hard to know how tough an opponent Valencia will actually be. As everybody must know they are not in a good way finacially and had to sell their best two players in the summer Villa and Silva. But they had won all their league games before last night, a better than expected start. Maybe the 1-1 draw with Athleico Madrid is a more realistic pointer to where they will end up the season.
In an interview with CNN ferguson hints that United's games against Chelsea could be the games that decide the title. It's a bit early to be saying that and i'm not sure it will be true anyway.
Ferdinand was pleased to have got another game under his belt.

Liverpool's managing director Christian Purslow has told angry fand that the club is highly profitable but that the problem is that almost all of that profit is being used to service the debt loaded onto the club by Hicks and Gillett. In fact so much so that he also admitted that the club can only just manage to pay them. Well i wonder where else that may apply. Gill and co must think we are fucking stupid.

Jonathan Freedland reminds the labour party and the new leader elect that mocking Nick Clegg and the lib dems may be easy but the real target is still the tories and the easy laughs would be playing into Cameron and Osborne's hands.
Rod Liddle's Spectator column asks what exactly was wrong Vince Cable's conference speech reminding us that the bankers and financiers are the people who got us into this mess. Whilst James Forsyth sees Cable starting to position the party before the next election with the news that Cable wants to go back to the days of Lloyd George and introduce a land tax.

Bennedict Brogan fears the future will not be a sunny place for the lib dems despite the feeling that they have had a good conference.

Simon Jenkins sees another middle class escape tunnel in Michael Gove's free school plan that isn't needed and the country shouldn't want.

Roy Hattersley's new biography of David Lloyd George is released shortly and the reviews have been reasonably good so far.It was interesting to read that Roy Jenkins told him to write it, because he couldn't because he couldn't stand the man. Paul Johnson was never really going to be an admirer and so whilst he gives him the credit of being the finest political talent of the 20th century his review is as much about the women and the sex as it is about the politics. It has to be said though, he obviously could not have been a politician it todays age.
Andrew Adonis who was quite close to Roy Jenkins i think, focuses on Lloyd George's political achievements rather more whilst noting his lack of a political base and his career long hankering after coalition's. The Guardian got Geoffrey Wheatcroft to review it and predictably he isn't an admirer of the goat comparing him to Tony Blair. I can't go along with that, Lloyd George actually got things done.
Roland Quinalt reviews it for history today and focuses on totalitarian dictators admiration for him, and him for them. That i can see, he would have probably been at home in the french revolution, but would he have been Danton or Robespierre.



Is the Irwell and the Ship canal going to see the introduction of water taxi's. I hope it does, but i'm not sure how commercially viable it would be. The spinningfields stop makes sense though being half way between tram stops. Fifteen to twenty minutes seems a reasonable travel tim set against tram times.

The Who

Smalling challenging Ferdinand

Ferguson will ring the changes tonight probably starting with Owen and Macheda up front. It goes without saying that i would far rather have Hernandez starting with the Italian. Bebe will be on the bench but will probably be given a run out.
The days when Ferdinand is an automatic pick are probably at an end according to Fergie, who has already told us that he chose Vidic as captain because he wanted someone that would play the majority of games. Fergie is supposedly happy with what he has seen on the training pitch as he eyes up Smalling to be Ferdinand's long term successor.

David Conn gives the inside on the strangest transfer of the summer. My question would be why do United feel it is that important to keep in with Mendes. The Guardian also report on a change in United's contract renogotiation strategy whereby some players will now only have their contracts renewed with one year of their contract remaining in a bid to save money. That sounds absolutely desperate and is something i can see coming back to bite us in a big way somewhere down the line.
If the red knights ever do take control of the club, Gill has surely got to go. I don't know how much involvment he has had in the formulation of that piece of nonesense, possibly not much, but the fact that he will try and defend it, just makes him a laughing stock. How long before City nip in and offer somebody a lengthy contract too good to turn down.

Sky sports report that Kuszczak is pondering whether he will have to move on from United to get more first team football. The realistic answer would be yes he will have to move on.

Berbatov puts down his "awesome form " down to the extra fitness work that put in during the summer.
Vidic belives that if Berbatov keeps on scoring he can help United to recapture the title.

Simon Hattenstone salutes Ronnie O'Sullivan who may be potty but tells it like it is. I watched that 147 and that was how i want to see my sporting heroes, totally unconventional. The mere fact of asking the referee if there was a prize after potting just one red would have been inviting pressure that every other player could hace done without. But it was just what the mercurial O'Sullivan wanted to give him a bit of incentive fo the match after the last frame had seen him smashing balls out of frustration.
I love the way he will not conform to suit the sport or the sponsors, he is no robot. When Rooney's dalliances came to light, most papers speculated about the dangers to his bank balance as his sponsors may end up deserting him. Does he not already get ever so slightly more than enough from United not to worry about such things. Everybody knows that he has " issues " but they make him the only snooker player that i would actually ever want to go to see live.
I would love to see the day when we get sportsmen who eschew the sponsorships and refuse to go along with the idea that they have to be a role model for the country. Other sports might start to give us some characters like O'Sullivan again

Steve Richards thinks Clegg has held the coalition line for the moment with his activists, but next years conference will be the one to watch. An opinion that the Telegraph's Benedict Brogan agrees with.
Mary Riddell wonders if Nick Clegg knows what his party still stands for and tells him to prove that he has not sold his parties soul for power.
Simon Hoggart delivers the ultimate insult, well for a liberal anyway, comparing Clegg's performance to Blair. Well that is who i would compare him with, a right winger who could have been almost equally at home in the tory party and has staged a orange book coup of almost new labour proportions. He will have the lib dems championing the third way next.
Polly Toynbee accuses Clegg of talking pure Cameronomics and of using the Thatcherite " there is no alternative.


The FT is the latest opponent of Rupert Murdoch's plan to take full control of BSkyB. Well Cable is going to threaten to give more power to shareholders to try to hem in bankers bonuses, though that doesn't sound very radical to me. If he does on thing in government to be remembered for this is it.
George Eaton accuses Cable's critics on the right of a lack of understanding of capitalism, they are too intellectualy barren to understand the different models of capitalism. Michael White has a bit of a laugh at it. Meanwhile Robert Peston tries to look behind what Cable's motives for the speech were. It's not enough to point out 2010's capitalism faults Cable has to use his office to do something about it  writes Deborah Hargreaves.

Stephen King argues that the west has not learnt the lessons of Japan in it's economic policy response to the credit crunch and the recession. We will be doomed to a 2/10 economy if we don't take deflation seriously, isn't Sentence on the monetary policy committee is still woriied about inflation.
A former economic advisor to UK warns that the action proposed at the lib dem conference to tackle tax avoidance is a drop in the ocean compared to the actual size of the problem.
Of course the Irish have followed the an free market orthodox economic prescription for its current woes, it doesn't seem to be doing them much good. Is Osborne watching i wonder!
Stephen Foley doesn't like Wall street's habit of window dressing, it's not illegal but it's just wrong.  All creative accounting is wrong to me.
Wall street the sequel amongst a number of films and documentaries about to hit the streets to remind us who really put our economies in the doldrums.

Alex Sater believes the tea party is here to stay and will probably bring about the destruction of the Republican party as we have known it. He thinks three party politics is on the way and that the country will increasingly gravitate towards the centre. There are a lot of presumptions there, it takes no account of a possible worsening of America's economic position as decades of living of Asian debt will have to come to an end some day. Who can forecast the future when that happens.
Paul Mason does not see like that after seeing him give a speech in Indiana, he thinks he is just one more christian evengelist trying to influence the christian right and i presume the Republican party. Matthew Norman pokes fun at Christine O'Donell's past but ends by warning however laughable they seem they are still extremists who need to be defeated.
Wendy Kaminer uses this article in Spiked to show what a wildly dipsarate grouping the tea party actually are and wonders who is really behind them.

Manchester United 3-2 Liverpool

Somebody wrote last week that as well as Berbatov had played so far this season, it would count for nothing if he didn't produce the goods in a big game, and they don't get bigger than Liverpool. Whilst i can't say that he has had an outstanding game for United in the big games so far in his United career, he hasn't done that badly. And to be fair to him he hasn't really played in that many of them, with Fergie usually going for one man up front on his own, especially last season. But i think he has now well and truly put that argument to bed with a superb hatrick and a crucial winning goal just when it looked like we might had blown it.
It was a surprise that he chose to go with a 4-4- 2, but to be fair to Fergie he got it right. I wouldn't say United ever hit the heights that they can, but Fergie was right to say this morning that a draw would have been a travesty. When Nani hit the woodwork with that magnificent shot and then Berbatov hit that sublime second goal the game was there for us to improve that goal difference as their heads were well and truly down. But defensive lapses meant we ended up just grateful for the win. Our best two players so far this season were the best two players again with Scholes spraying passes and dominating the middle of the park and Berbatov leading the line superbly again. Nani was up for it and had a pretty good game apart from the play acting that doesn't do him or us any good.
It was a suprise that Ferdinand wasn't even on the bench, supposedly with a virus, or was it another recurrence of his back problem. And as excellently as Vidic played he was missed especially when Liverpool got a sniff in the game later in the game. One thing that i noticed yesterday that i hadn't noticed before was that with Valencia out for the season when we have our strongest team out we don't really have anyone with blinding pace. And if Ferdinand is going to be in and out of the team again all season we aren't that blessed with it at the back.
The suprise with the Berbatov hatrick was that two of the goals came from his head, and that they were two great headers. When i watched him play for Spurs, one of the things that stood out about him was how good he was in the air. I watched him play against Terry at Stamford bridge a few years ago and he totally dominated him in the air. One of the biggest disappointments of his time at United so far, for me has been his lack of headed goals. So that was very pleasing to see him score two such cracking headers.
Rooney hasn't had that great a press this morning for yesterday's game, and whilst he wasn't in top form he had a decent enough game. Needless to say the overhead was absolutely brilliant, long may this form continue.
The defending for the scousers two goals was less than top draw though and our defending is a bit of a worry. The longer the game went on, the more leggy United seemed to become, i know it was wet and probably stamina sapping conditions, but we seemed to be struggling for those last twenty minutes. Seeing as though it was almost a completely different side from Tuesday night that was a bit worrying. Even though i was at the end where the linesman flagged for the two decsion's that let them back into the game, i wasn't that sure about either decision. After watching match of the day it looked like it was a penalty, but the other was more marginal. O'Shea did touch him, but only just, but once you make contact you are inviting him to go down, and there was never any danger that he would go down. The wall that let through the goal was terrible though, to come up with that in as big a game as that was unreal.
So three points and Chelsea only got four goals against Blackpool when i feared it might be another cricket score, so i was pretty content with that when i hit the sack last night.

Fergie is happy that Berbatov scored the goal that saved the scorline from being a travesty and hopes he will go on to dominate the league. He wasn't very happy with Torres for trying to get O'Shea sent off. Trouble is once you go to grab hold of someone you are inviting that that kind of reaction.
James Lawton thinks Berbatov showed up the disparity between the two clubs, whilst Nemaja Vidic tells the press that noone at United had ever doubted the Bulgarian. David Pleat thinks United supported the front two far better than Liverpool managed to support Torres., a view which Alan Hansen shares, he thinks that the scousers were too negative.

Valencia back for Ferbruary?

Fergie has said that Valencia could be back by the end of February, early March, he's not been at the wine has he? It's hard to see that happening and it seems to me to be putting pressure on Valencia  that he doesn't need after such a bad injury.
As for saying we have plenty of cover for Valencia, i would have thought the game against Rangers shows that we probably don't have real quality covering that position. How many goals did Rooney score through Valencia assists last season? I can't see who is going to fill the gaping void, how many goals does Park set up in a season. Giggs does a decent job on the left but can't play every game. The jury is still out mon Obertan, he has the skill, but will he be able to cope with the physical side of top class football. If he learns to, that would go some way to ameliorating the loss of Valencia. And after watching Bebe last night i am surprised Fergie even mentioned him. Surely now, Fergie must regret letting Cleverley going out on loan for the season, he would have got his fair quota of games at United the way we seem to pick up injuries nowadays.
He's looking forward to the game on Sunday as much as ever, he still thinks that this is " the fixture ", well i'm withhim there. But the way Liverpool's finance's are and the way City's are it may not be the same for the upcoming generation.

The Glazer outfit show once more that they fully understand the unacceptable face of capitalism and that that they are proud to practice it. I don't know if it's damaging to our long term of getting rid of them, i suppose it will possibly come out next month.
Where now for the green and gold campaign asks the Telegraph's Mark Ogden. It always amazes that journo's still seem to be under the impression that the green and gols was a MUST idea, and was part of some plan. Unfortunately we all know it wasn't and the reality is MUST's campaign efforts have usually been pretty lame. I haven't got a clue where next, but even the green and gold idea seems to be dying on it's arse at the moment. 

Bebe made his reserve team debut for United yesterday as they were unceremoniously walloped 4-1 by Villa  at Moss lane last night. I think 4-1 flattered Villa a little but they were more than worthy winners. United couldn't seem to live with Villa's pressing game and though a couple of goals given away were pretty soft Villa had the best man on the park on night in Bannan.
As for Bebe he wasn't as bad as some reports this morning have made out but i can't pretend he seemed anything out of the ordinary to me, worked on or not. He can deliver a good cross and is pretty fast, but didn't seem to me to really know when to use it. Another thing i noticed was he didn't seem to be able to run at pace with the ball at his feet which was pretty worrying

Mike Selvey salutes a chivalrous England cricketing hero, whilst Michael Vaughan reveals he has come to realise he wouldn't be where he is today without Freddie. It's interesting reading Vaughan talk about Flintoff as a character, it sounds like he was a bit more high maintenance than i would have thought. Selvey is obviously right that he was a better bowler than batsman.
David Lloyd writes that whatever anyone thinks of him, he was a double ashes winner and played a big part in both of those series wins and not too many others have done that.

Simon Jenkins thinks Nick Clegg didn't read his history books well enough as he tells us centre parties always get squeezed in coalitions, especially if they liberal parties in coalition with tories. As he says when this all blows up there will only be one place left for him to go eventually, the left of the tory party. But as Europhile left wing tory he will be very lonely, i'm sure that is the only reason that he ever joined the lib dems, their position on Europe.
Ben Chu isn't imprssed by Jenkins article, calling it lazy two party thinking.


There have been a fair few number of articles concerning affairs in China and the way they may affect the western world over the last few days. Jeremy Warner has been in China and looks at the way it is leading the way economically, but for all Chinese self confidence he doesn't think they will ever truly lead the world economically. He argues the global economy is just that, global and no one country will ever dominate again, i suppose he means dominate as the Anglo Saxon powers, in the main have for the last 200 years.
The Ft warn us that China's star economist is taking an increasingly bearish outlook at the Chinese banking system, and why we should all worry. That would be the "golbal economy" down the plughole.
After pouring billions of yen into Africa in a bid to secure access to that continent's vast natural resources it is starting to pump them into even bigger projects in South America, America's back yard. The latest example is a huge new superport being built in Sao Joao de Barra that will probably be the biggest in the world when it is built. I has been designed to accomadate the Chinamex, the largest cargo ship in the world. It won't fit down the Ship canal then.
Hong Kong based historian Frank Dikötter has been studying Mao's great leap forward after being granted unprecedented access to Chinese historical papers. And he has confirmed what most already knew, but it seems in far, far greater detail that Mao should be bracketed along with Hitler and Stalin as a mass murdering tyrant.

South Korean economist warns us that we must get capitalism right. He argues that there must be risk in capitalism but that its abuse must be minimised and i presume let the abusers go to the wall, next time.
Meanwhile Independent columist Hamish McRae warns us that America isn't working and that should worry the world. The de-skilling ( if that is a word ) of the western world has been going on since that wacky pair Reagan and Thatcher came to power with what George W.'s father so aptly called voodoo economics. Maybe the labour party should pick up on that phrase to describe the coalition cuts.
There are some good comments below that piece.

Michael Tomasky argues that Karl Rove created a monster and just like Frankenstein he has lost control of it as the US tea party threaten to do untold damage to either the US or the US republican party, let's hope it's the latter. He would hate to go his grave knowing he was responsible for fucking up the American's position as the sole super power in the world and the seeming hegemony of the republican party.

Life without Valencia

Richard Williams speculates on how Fergie will try to cope with the big loss of Antonio Valencia for the season. The latest news this morning is it is not quite as bad as feared but i would still be amazed to see him play a meaningful role in this season. So unless Obertan has really come on we will struggle to cope, as i said yesterday as things stand, for the biggest games i would ask Rooney to play on the left with Berbatov in the middle of 4-3-3 formation. It may be the more mundane fixtures where Fergie would have wanted to play two strikers where we will struglle. I was going to say all of a sudden we seem to be overloaded with strikers but not enough wide men. But we have all wondered how many strikers he actually needed, especially when somebody like Macheda hardly seems to get on the bench never mind the starting eleven.
Which brings us to Michael Owen, his signing looks more and more bizarre. To my mind he was never a United player, his first touch was never good enough and even when he was scoring goals regularly for Liverpool he brought nothing else to the table. So when his game seemed to go at Newcastle as his lost his biggest asset, his pace, the last thing we ever thought we would see would be Owen in the red of Manchester United. He is a gamble that hasn't paid off and Fergie should be looking to blood Macheda more often instead of sending him on as a sub as he did the other night to no obvious tactical purpose.
That was another disappointing aspect of Tuesday night, the use of substitutions. Bringing Owen on and sending Hernandez to the right seemed nonsenical to me, i'll bet Hernandez has hardly ever played out wide. I'm not sure how good Macheda will actually become, Welbeck is the brighter prospect for me, but the other night i would have been bringing him on before Owen. As he showed against Chelsea last season when we put in another listless performance he does at least possess the ability to upset the oppostion and galvanise his teamates when he comes on as a sub. Whereas Owen just ran around and hardly got a touch of the ball, not exactly an impact substitution was it. But there again, when has he been. Besides not being good enough for the first team on a regular basis, the City 4-3 aside i can't remember him changing too many games after coming on for us.
Which makes the news that he is frustrated with his role at United comical, he is one lucky bastard to even be at United. I'm not sure he would be good enough to be a regular starter at any other premier league and i mean any other. At any team in the bottom half of the table he would be expected to put in more of a shift than he ever has at United and from the digust with which geordie fans talk of him than he ever did at St. James park. And he is certainly not good enough to be a regular starter at any club in the top half of the premier league.



Mervyn King admits that bankers and policymakers were to blame for the crisis at his appearance at the TUC conference but he still feels that severe cuts are necessary. It would be nice if journalists and opposition MP's even reminded him of that a bit more often,as lib dem backbencher Bob Russell said in the commons last week 'Yes, let's deal with the welfare cheats. But the notion that they are responsible for all the ills of the nation is in fact a smokescreen and it's not very ethical'. King also seemed to agree with the assertion that massive tax evasion should be more of a priority.
David Blanchflower uses his new statesman column to applaud the appointment of Robert Chote to head the Office for budget responsibility, but thinks it may well come back to haunt Osborne and the coalition.
Meanwhile Keynes biographer Robert Skidelsky and Michael Kennedy point out that the cuts will affect future generations as well as the present one.
Owen Hatherley suggests a Keynesian type plan to improve public transport in the UK.
Nick Clegg continues on his journey to the tory party as he defends radical benefits cuts  whilst the new statesman look at the simmering tensions within the lib dem party before the party conference. Hopi Sen's blog discusses the Boles suggestion of an electoral pact between the tories and the lib dems. Whoever predicts the outcome of this coalition administration, whether it splits, goes the distance or the lib dems splits will be one hell of a top pundit. I have no idea how this will pan out, it makes for fascinating politics, it's a pity it's the party i have always voted for that looks like it's going to come out worst of all. Of course that is if you are left wing liberal.

Robert Peston thinks that the Murdoch's planned takeover of 100% of BSyB will be sent to Ofcom as Cable will ask whether the deal will affect plurality rules. The Guardian report that he will take a hands off approach instead. I would like to think that Peston is right but suspect the latter will prove correct.

Music
Nat Birchall - Akhenaten: More jazz from the booming Manchester scene. As he takes his inspiration mainly from John Coltrane i was probably always going to like this. And like it i do, it's nicley chilled out.
Pissed jeans - Kings of jeans: I'm still undecided on this, i suppose i can't get over the fact i'm not mad at the screaming style of the vocalist. But some of music reminds me of the less commercial early grunge sound of Nirvana and it lopes off onto a real kind of dirty Sabbath sound at times that i love.
Swamp Dogg - Total destruction to your mind: A classic piece of soul funk rock from 1970, nothing groundbreaking just great unes and great playing.
The Album Leaf - A chorus of storytellers: A good album that kind of strays onto the same territory as Four tet which can obviously be no bad thing. Not quite in the same league as Kieran Hebden but nice to be going along with.
Vetiver - Tight knit: Another decent album, another US folk rock act delivering the goods at the moment. I wouldn't call it more commercial than their peers but it's not quite as progressive as Fleet foxes or Bon Iver, still some cracking tunes on it.
Wilco - Wilco: One of the reviews of this that i have read said he didn' think it was as ambitious as it's predecessors. It may not be " out there " but it's not exactly easy listening. I think it's the best thing they have done since Yankee hotel foxtrot and i love that album, it was probably one of my favourite from the last decade.
Yeasayer -  Odd blood: It took a few listens for me to get into this, but i got there in the end. I suppose it's kind of post rock like the album leaf but with a poppier techno edge, it's good.

Manchester United 0-0 Rangers

Well that was truly dismal, as i have read others say on various messageboards this morning, there would be no need to call for a boycott if we played like that every week. Rangers were every bit as bad as i had expected, which just goes to make it worse. A half decent championship side would have seen that there three points in that game for them in the last ten minutes, we were struggling that badly, but they were more than happy with the point. To be honest i don't think they had a goal in them.
But we never looked like we had a goal in us all night either. I have said for the last two seasons that any midfield we put out that doesn't contain Scholes or Giggs worries me. Without one of those two there is no real quality, nobody capable of the bit of magic that is sometimes needed to open the opposition up. And last night' team overall had very little craft in it. On Saturday i said even though i don't rate him i would have played Gibson against Everton. Last night reminded me why i don't rate him. I suppose some people will say that at least he was shooting and that he came close a couple of times. But that is my whole problem with him. That is the only aspect of his game that is almost up to scratch. Defensively, i don't think he is good enough and creatively he definitely isn't. I felt a bit sorry for Fletcher, he was trying drive the game forward, but the quality around him wasn't good enough.
Park was non existant and as i and others have said what is the point of playing him in games when you need to break the opposition down. He is a good squad player and can do a defensive tactical job in the big games but in games like this he offers very little. Every time i saw him on the ball last night i couldn't help wondering what on earth Fergie was thinking off in letting Cleverley go on loan to Wigan for the whole season. I am a Valencia fan but even he wasn't on his game last night before his horrendous injury that made a bad night even worse.
So we had two wide men creating little with two full backs who didn't do much, and it is a big help to the wide men for the full backs to get forward to try and give them support, so there was another problem with the team selected. To be fair to Wes even in the 2008 season he didn't get forward that much and i don't really expect him to contribute much going forward. That is a position that really needs Rafael to come forward and make it his own or we get that scouting system on the look out for a new Denis Irwin or Gary Neville. Evra's performance on Saturday was a worry because if his form dipped we would have no real classy outlet at full back. I'm as unsure of how good a player Fabio is going to become as i am his brother. He tried to get forward last night but didn't produce much quality. I suppose to be fair to him, i shouldn't be singling the youngster out when so many older players were so lacklustre.
I felt sorry for Hernandez that he was making his full home debut last night. I said before the start he might struggle to get any decent service with that midfield and that was what happened. Rooney had an ineffective game and whether it's to do with his private life or not hasn't hit the ground running this season yet. It's a big call, but if Fergie is to go 4-3-3 at the weekend i would have Berbatov in the middle and put Rooney out wideon the left with Nani on the right. Whether he will like that or not i don't know, but the Bulgarian is the man in form and maybe Rooney needs to get a run of game under his belt to find his.
As to how the 90 minutes went we started poorly and ended poorly. The one piece of quality football coming from Giggs when he came on with a superb defence busting pass that found Fletcher in space in the box but found the Scot wanting too much time. The Valencia injury was terrible and i have read Fergie compare it to Alan Smith's injury this morning. Seeing as though Smith was never the same player when he came back from that broken leg, that is a very depressing statement.

Fergie reveals that Valencia's season is over, unfortunately no great surprise after seeing the referee and players reactions last night. Needless to say that is abit of a disaster. He also admits leaving out Berbatov may have been a blunder, hopefully that means he will play on Sunday. Henry Winter gives us his match report and focuses on Rangers performance more than United, he gives them too much credit and United not enough criticism. The game reminded me of the dreadful performance we gave against Leeds in the cup last season and once again showed our back up central midfield just isn't good enough.

David Conn focuses on the Glazers austerity run Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We got a glimpse of that future last night i'm afraid. And though i don't see crowds going down that alarmingly go down they surely would if old trafford saw that week in, week out.

Nobby Stiles revealed yesterday that he is to sell hid world cup winners medal and other football memorabillia to provide money for his family as he wouldn't be able to divide it up fairly amongst them. It sounds like the decent thing to do.

Mary Riddell belives slasher Osborne's brutal cuts will play into the hands of the unions, we will see, she may be being too optimistic. John Lanchester thinks it's business as usual as the bankers do a victory dance over the elected heads of goverment of the world.
Gideon Richman thinks that of the two anniversaries that will be commemorated this month 9/15 will prove to be a more important historical date than 9/11 as the date US power really started to decline. Robert Fisk looks at the unhappy consequences of 9/11, wondering if we have all gone mad. Matthew Norman thinks the Reublican party may have as the rise and rise of the tea party continues. Dean Baker tells us why it matters what sort of crisis we are in and his lays into the economics profession.

Vince Cable gets a letter telling him why Murdoch's attempt to buy up the rest of BSyB would be bad for the country, Claire Enders also tells him he should look at Richard Desmonds takeover of channel 5. Meanwhile Cable's party are nervous ahead of their party conference, i'm not surprised. I might actually watch some of it for the first time for ages.
The Guardian looks at the role of Charles Kennedy in the lib dem party at the moment, is he playing a long game? If that means rescuing the party from this orange book, new labourish takeover, i truly hope so.

The French press are up in arms at president Sarkozy's use of the French security services to find the culprit who leaked dmaging information to Le Monde

Paul Mason' BBC blog is always a very fascinating read and his latest over the coalition's strategic defence review doesn't disappoint. The earlier one on the future of mobile phones, apps and the future of the internet was a must read too.

More Rooney opinion

Alan Hansen thinks that Fergie will have to be careful in how he handles Rooney, as he argues all players maybe equal but some are more equal than others. It's fortunate for us that Berbatov has started the season in the best and most consistent form we have seen from him since his arrival. I don't think Rooney's non appearance cost us the extra two points on Saturday. In both our away games we have looked brittle at the back, not just the goals but in general play. If we don't tighten that up there will be no 19th title at the end of this season.
James Lawton wonders what Fergie was playing at, as nobody really believes Rooney was left out for his own good.

Jonny Evans warns Rangers to expect a bit of a backlash from United as they aim to put Saturday behind them. I haven't watched much Scottish football over the last couple of seasons, but what i have seen hasn't impressed me very much, to put it mildly. I would be amazed and more than a little disappointed if we don't win tomorrow night and win well.

The Mail keep linking us to £8 million Greek Ninis. Surely if we were that keen on him we would have bought before the transfer deadline. More fish and chip paper is what it sounds like to me.

Andrew Tong reviews last weeks BBC4 documentary on Eddie Waring. I was not a fan of his, it has to be said, but the programme did open your eyes to tremendous job he did for the sport in his early days. I would stick with the view that he became too much of a figure of fun in his later years though. What the documentary brought home was just how much exposure the sport had in the country at large pre Murdoch days.
For all that i hate the usual Sky hype, the biggest season yet, blah, blah, it has to be said, it is an even better sport to watch nowadays. You just wonder how much the game could have grown if it was still on BBC every Saturday afternoon.

Larry Elliott writes that two years after governments bailed out the banks, the financial markets are still ruled by instant gratification. Whilst Stephen King argues that the UK economy won't rebalance until it realises that we have to start trading seriously with the up and coming economies. He argues that our companies are stuck in the old days and haven't noticed the world has moved on.

Boris Johnson looks like he is still repositioning himself as he sides with the lib dems over coalition immigration policy. He definitely seems to have one eye on a post Cameron Tory party.

Henry Porter and Will Hutton lament the influence of Rupert Murdoch and News international on this country and warn that his power must be diminished. There used to be tories who belived that to be the case, i think those days are long gone. It's hard to be hopeful, he will probably get his own way.

Rob Brydon is interviewed in the Observer ahead of Friday's new comedy the Rob Brydon show and the show i'm really looking forward to, The trip where he stars alongside Steve Coogan under director Michael Winterbottom.