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.