Trouble at the Rooney mill

Rooney insists he is fully fit despite yet another lacklustre performance, this time in the colours of England. If he is fully fit, there is something badly wrong because he was back to his world cup form on Tuesday. The Telegraph report that he is risking upsetting Ferguson with those statements after Fergie told the reports that he has missed games with a damaged ankle. Oh dear, sounds like something might be going on here, there are rumours that he isn't as keen on his contract talks as United. Are we about to enter another Ronaldo scenario, because that's the last thing United need.
His wasn't the only poor performance and i wouldn't put all the blame on him but when he performs like that he leaves England offering absolutely nothing up front. It was just as bad in midfield and on the flanks, for all Youngs and Johnson's promise they didn't deliver much against a packed defence. Gerrard was alright but nothing more, but to be fair to him it must have been some hindrance having Gareth Barry next to him. He is and never has been anywhere near international standard.
Kevin Garside doesn't think Capello's tactics did much to help Rooney to play his way back into goals and form. Capello's tactics are definitely part of the probelm but that lets the players of the hook too much, because the players are obviously not good enough.

Dr Richard Steadman, the knee surgeon who has been guiding Owen Hargreaves comeback tries to give our erstwhile midfielder a lift by telling the press that Hargreaves will play some part on Saturday. I will think he is back when he plays two or three games together or maybe even three games in six. I'm not holding my breath.

Wigam manager Martinez wants Wigan to enjoy every moment that Cleverley spends at Wigan as he predicts that is not if but when Cleverley is playing at the very top level for United. Amen.

The Swiss ramble football business blog takes an in depth look at the finances of United and basically comes to same conclusion as Andersred that United won't go bust any time soon but that the interest that United have to pay out for the privelidge of having the gimps as owners is a very big long term worry. Another interesting blog that looks at how the Glazer's will leave United from Chris McQuade.

City have joined the list of clubs to reduce United's away ticket allocation. This a bit of a joke, almost all the clubs who reduce United's allocation, have fans who stand up permanently at Old trafford and yet United never seem to reduce their allocations.

Real Madrid and Barca are urged to finish their sole TV rights and follow England and the Italians who reverted to a collective seria A rights package a couple of seasons ago. They are told in the long term they will have as much to gain as the rest of Spanish football. It is obviously the right thing to do, but will they see it that way.

The spectator reports on the holy alliance of media organsiations that have clubbed together to sign a letter to business secretary Vince Cable to ask him to stop Murdoch's buyout of BSkyB.
Ex tory minister Norman Fowler agrees with that view and goes further by saying that the goverment must examine the plurality of media ownership and must look at how the ownership thatwe now have affect the information we currently receive. He is right that is what is absolutely needed, but it would be terrible if it took the goverment to do that.
When Murdoch tries to tell us that he is a responsible owner, we just have to look at his past record in our country or in his native Australia and his current record in the States with Fox news which is just an extension of the republican or even tea party and his malign influence on politicians who seem to lick his boots.
Robert Peston wonders whether the conspiracy theorists will see the alliance of organisations who have signed the letter as having come together to the rescue of Vince Cable.
Peter Oborne's dispatches on Murdoch's influence in this country aired last week and was excellent but as with all the latest reports we have seen recently there was nos smoking gun.
John Simpson has a bit of a go at Mark Thompson over his statement that BBC was left wing in its new coverage during the eighties. He also goes onto say that he is nowhere near as confident about the future of the BBC as Thompson seemingly is.

I have followed the response to the Browne report and the fallout for the lib dems and more importantly the future for educating the coming generations. But i can't see that there is much difference between the graduate tax and the subsidised loans proposed by the government. I suppose i believe that sending the most gifted students to university should be a countries own investment in his future.
From what i have read the Labour party is in a bit of a mess itself on this subject, but thankfully for them they don't have to make the decisions, well that is until they have to decide how they respond to the coalitons proposals.
But the problems have been created by the crazy taget of sending 50% of youngsters to higher education on mickey mouse courses that don't stretch them intellectually or even properly equip them for a future in free market workforce. It must be one of the first times i have agreed with Simon Heffer on anything. How was it earlier in the decade that London had a mania for Polish plumbers, that the south east couldn't supply enough of its own plumbers and other tradesman was a pretty big indictment of our education system. Craig Murray gives a stirring attack on the whole debate.

Matthew Norman wonders what on earth Philp Green can really understand about government spending and what that knowledge can really bring to the report he has just delivered to the government. Move everything offshore, i suppose.

The consensus seems to be that Ed Miliband did well at PMQ time, surprisingly to some it would seem. I wouldn't say i was surprised i wasn't sure what to expect but it's good news for the democratic process. The last thing the country needed was a hapless opposition leader if the coalition really are going to try to introduce these cuts and then try to reform the NHS and welfare system at the same time.
And with more labour MP's behind him that had voted for his brother it was a pretty big test in front of his own party as much as the watching country and media.

Music
Arcade fire - The suburbs: I like the Canadian oufit without ever really buying into the hype that they were the next big thing. This kind of carries that on for me, it's good, but more pretty good than very good Less overblown than their last effort but better for it.

Boards of Canada - Music has the right to children:  One of the first works from the Scotish electronica outfit. It's reasonably good, though it doesn't scale any heights.

Jaga Jazzist -  One armed bandit: The latest album from one of the original bands to emerge from the Scandanavian new jazz scene. Now this is excellent, for some reason i see similarities with Dungen even though Dungen are guitar based. I will have to go and check out their back catalogue.

Klaxons - Surfing the void: This is the difficult second album. The story is their record company sent their first effort packing and told them go into the studio to try again. It is a good album, maybe not quite as good as the first, but not much in it ot be honest. But they are in danger of becoming one dimensional, if they tried to go in a completely different direction, then i can see why.

The Coral - Butterfly house: A number of reviews described this a return to form, which lost me. When did their form ever dip. They have been consistently good since their first album to me. This is as good as ever but sounds a bit smoother, more commercial than previous efforts. I don't know if that is down to the loss of guitarist Bill Ryder-Jones or down to producer John Leckie.

Tweak bird - Tweak bird: On first thoughts this sounded too straight ahead heavy rock for my tastes nowadays but i saw more nuances after a few listens. So whilst i don't think it's anything special it is a record easy to get into.