Hernandez : the new Ole

Dwight Yorke voices the thoughts of more than a few United fans as he tells the mail that Hernandez looks like he could be the new Solskjaer. He needs to work on his link up play, but that can be coached, but the finishing prowess he has shown over the last two games cannot. To be fair when he came on the other night even his link up play was on a different planet to what had gone before. But we shouldn't get too carried away yet claims Yorke he has to do it consistently. That is a fair point, but the answer will lie in him playing regularly, which would probably leave Owen and Macheda out of the equation. Maybe Owen has seen which way the wind is blowing as he tells Sky that if he is released in the summer he may well quit the game instead of trying to find a new club.

After claims that United have been in touch with Barca boss Pepe Guardiola sounding him out about interest about taking the United job when Fergie retires Brian Woolnough looks at the Catalonian's credentials. He would be certainly one of the best candidates if he were interested. My only reservation would be that he would not be able to replicate the Barca tiki taki style of football at United, not straight away.That style has been taught and coached to the youngsters from an early age and whilst United's style of play is also possession based we do like wingers to cross the ball more than you would see in tiki taki. Whoever takes over from Fergie i want him to be commited for at least five years, longer if whom ever it wants it. I know we are almost certainly never going to see another reign as long as Fergie's period at the club but i don't want to see somebody coming in for two or three seasons.

Mick Hume has his say on the Rooney affair, he thinks it's time we realised that footballers are not fans. Some of us aren't taken in by badge kising, the thing that got me when all this hit the press was the amount of United fans that believed the "i want to stay at United for the rest of my career spiel". I always that as long as were competing and he was getting what he was worth that he may very well do. But i never belived he was making a promise or anything. He was a boyhood Everton who came to United to win things, if he thought we going to compete or pay him his "market" value all bets were off.

The papers have started to link us with half of Europe, the Mail claim potential United target Steven Defour has issued a come and get me plea. I haven't seen him, so i don't know whether it would be a good buy or not. I would have thought that if we buy anybody it will be a mix of  young British talent and maybe one big name foreign player such as Schweinsteiger. I can't say i'm holding my breath on any of this, not until next summer anyway.

Not really a big surprise that the Bebe deal saw Portugese agent Jorge Mendes pocketing 30% of the £7.4 million transfer fee for the Gestifute sporting agency.

David Conn profiles FC United the acceptable face of modern football.

Was this the reason City were so keen to take Rooney to City, even though it wouldn't have helped with their wage bill ahead of Uefa's new rules. City are worried about Tevez's homesickness. What a surprise, he was never going to see out that contract. There must be one more deal for him and his owners though, i would have thought.

A couple of pieces looking at the forthcoming ashes series, sees Michael Vaughan give a variant on Viv Richards theory that England would have to target Aussie captain Ricky Ponting. Vaughan's theory is that if England captain Strauss averages over 50 for the series England will retain the urn. But if the opposition can to down to the 20's to 30 the Aussies will be victorious.
Meanwhile the one England player i fancy to average nearer 50 than anybody else is looking forward to the series by denouncing former Aussie coach Buchanan as a nobody. Sounds like he has been talking to his mate Shane Warne, who probably has an even worse opinion of Buchanan.

Three very different appreciations of ex Argentine president Nestor Kirchner who died yesterday. Mark Weisbrot hails him a great independence hero of Latin America who showed the world that you could successfully ingore the IMF. Celina Szusterman thinks he was a control freak who got lucky by the tone of this article. The Economist's America's column sees a return to a political vacuum.

Virgin media is to launch the "ferrari of broadband services" with a 100mb service to be launched in certain parts of the country in December. I notice that the north west isn't one of them. With media city due to open next year i would have thought the north west would be one of the more important regions for the introduction of faster ISP sppeds and new breakthroughs in information technology.Will Virgin be the company that will be best able to challenge BSkyB in the future. A new report claims that the internet now comes second to the city in importance to the British economy.

Johann Hari looks at a new book about Churchill by Richard Toye and weighs up the pros and cons of our great war leader. I read Robert Rhodes James book about Churchill from 1900 to 1939 yaers ago and what that told me was his reputation would have been very different but for the advent of Adolf Hitler. Without the second world war Churchill would have been seen eventually as a failiure who couldn't adapt to the changing world. Where as if the first world war would never have happened it's conceivable Lloyd George would have gone on to even greater success instead of being the man to win the war but split the liberal party and eventually split the left. You can't take them wartime speeches away from him though, up there with the Gettysburg address as some of the greatest speeches defending democracy ever made.


Steve Richards describes why the referendum for the alternative vote is the beginning the real battle for political party.

Bank of England deputy governor admits that the bank didn't see the recession coming but asks who did. Irwin Stelzer thinks the government is heading in broadly the right direction but doesn't really tell us who he thinks is right on the pace of the cuts. David Blanchflower uses his latest new statesman column to claim that despite this weeks more encouraging news it will be downhill from here as we head back to the thirties.

Music

Bill Evans trio - Sunday at the village vanguard: I am not the biggest fan of the piano led jazz trio but this is good. Both versions of Jade versions are absolutely magnificent.

I am Kloot - Sky at night: One of Manchester's finest, this latest album managed to get on the latest Mercury list. Produced by Gy Garvey and Carig Potter, the sound is a little bit more produced showing a few Elbow touches with strings and piano. But it sstill Bramwell's show. As good as anything they have done.

Oceansize - Effloresce: One of the Manchester music scene's less famous names, but just as talented. This was their debut from earlier in the decade. Modern progresive rock at its best.

Rox - Memoirs: A pretty good debut album from this Londoner, not great but decent enough. She can sing and there are a couple of cracking songs on it.

Sharo Jones and the dap kings -I learned the hard way: One of the best, if not, the best funk soul bands around come up with another cracking album.

Them crooked vultures - Them crooked vultures: The rock supergroup of 2009. It's decent enough, but it doesn't really live up to the hype. The playing is great and whilst there are no duff tracks, there isn't really any stand out tracks or at least enough to make it special. I can imagine that they would be great live though.