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.