Manchester United 7-1 Blackburn rovers

Where on earth did that performance come from, i've thought United had shown some signs of getting their act together in the last two games, but nothing to suggest that we would get anything like yesterday. It wasn't just the seven goals but the manner United went about getting them, we haven't come close to playing football like that all season.
The early goal helped of course , they always do. But for once this season, United started at a high tempo and for the first time this season, the passing, the movement, first touch in fact everything was all up to what we have come to expect. I thinks this was also one of those rare games that Fergie has described before, that you may get once or twice a season where almost every player is on top of his game. Even Anderson whom i don't rate had a pretty good game yesterday.
If i had to put a key to the improvement yesterday though, i would link it to the one player who didn't score, Rooney. His movement, vision and passing were just what we have been missing all season. He has played well and linked up reasonably well with Berbatov before yesterday but not to the extent and consistency of yesterday's ninety minutes. Berbatov may have been superb and may have taken the ball home after his magnificent five goal haul, but Rooney was just as good and how pleasing it was to see the real Rooney as even in the last minute he was getting back and filling in for the left back, even though it was 7-1.
The quality of the goals was another pleasing aspect of yesterday's demolition, from Nani's cross for the opener to his pull back for Berbatov's hatrick goal. Rooney's little dink through for Park to score the second was exquisite and i loved the way Berbatov took his second when he cut out that attempted back pass and instead of luring the goalie from his line he hit an unstoppable screamer in the corner of the net.
As the scoreline suggests Blackburn were poor, but that came from the shellshock of United's start. I think it's fair to say they had probably seen a bit of United recently and the last thing they were expecting was the blistering start that United produced in the first half. It should have been four at half time, how the referee missed that blatant trip on Berbatov after his great run, i don't know. It would have been interesting to see if Rooney would have let Berbatov take that with him being on a hatrick. Thanks to the ref we will never know.
Blackburn can be thankfull it was only seven because i thought United eased off slighly in the last ten minutes or so. It was a pity we didn't keep a clean sheet, but once again we had the ref to thank who missed a blatant push by Samba just before he headed home.
But in one bound we have got ourselves level with Chelsea's goal difference which has really boosted out title hopes. It will be interesting to see how they go on today if the game goes ahead, they don't always fair that well at Newcastle.

Berba's pleased with himself and proud to be linked with Shearer and Cole as a player to have scored five goals in a premier league match.. Maybe i'll be proved wrong and he will still be here next season, we'll see, i'll be happy to be proved wrong, when he plays as he did yesterday he is a great player to watch.

United finally sign Danish goalie Anders Lindegaard as Fergie is quoted as saying he thinks this will be Van Der Sar's last season.

Wigan's manager Martinez told the press before yesterday's crunch encounter with West Ham that he sees Tom Cleverley as one of the future generation of England's footballers and claimed his tactical awareness is not normal for such a young player. It wasn't a bad finish either, a cracking goal that he scored, but that was a bad defeat which pushes them further in trouble at the bottom. If i was Martinez i would be trying my hardest to keep him there for the rest of the season. Watford fans thought he was one of the big reasons that they stayed up last season, he is always up for the fight and scores vital goals for a midfiled player.

The dream continues for FC United as they earned a magnificent 1-1 draw at Brighton after having a man sent off and conceding a last minute penalty.

What a magnificent fightback from England at the Gabba last night and deserved after the ill fortune that Anderson in particular suffered the day before. Fingers crossed they can see the job home tonight. My prediction of a tight series looks like being borne out. My one concern for the rest of the series after four days of this test is the form of our main bowling hope Swann. He didn't look too convincing when the Aussies went after him. He will have to improve if he is going to make an impression on this series.

Peter Oborne writes of his respect for the students who have been getting such a bad press from the rest of his right wing colleagues and the right wing press. I can't argue with much of that.

Martin Wolf argues that assets should matter as much as debts in his latest FT column. Michael Hudson describes how the rich are manging to "socialize the losses of the banks", or looking after their own interests once again. That's a cracking article. William Keegan writes on a not so strange case of deja vu.
Angela Merkel's approach to the bond markets has some support.

Stewart Lee on the future of stand up comedy and an Independent interview with Lemmy. It kills me when the interviewer says that she has no idea who the other band members are as it doesn't matter. I don't really listen to any of their recent stuff or know the other band members but the original line up of Motorhead was most definitely no one man band. Fast Ediie Clarke and philthy animal Taylor were no mere support acts.

Classic Thin Lizzy

Rangers 0-1 Manchester United

This wasn't a great performance, but it did show some promise, most of it being down to Rooney looking something more like his old self. He is not there yet, but that was the most energetic and up for it, he has looked to me this season so far. Other highlights were one of the best performances that Fabio has so far produced for United and Smalling once again coming into the team and looking right at home. If Smalling fulfills his potential he is going to turn out to be a fantastic bit of business by Ferguson.
The way that the home team set themselves up was no great suprise, but i was bemused by the way they seemed to settle for a draw late in the second half, even though that meant they would be consigned to the Europa cup. Not really knowing their squad that well, i don't know how badly Rangers injury problems affected their line up, but i know i would not have been happy to see United not even try to win. Let's face it, their first choice eleven is no great shakes what was the harm.
All we can hope is their approach which led to almost constant United possession apart from the odd spell of pressure from the home team may have helped United's form and confidence return in the month to come. United should have had a penalty in the first couple of minutes when Berbatov was blatantly brought down, yet the officials somehow conspired to turn it down. If that had been given, and of course if we had converted it, the game would have been a totally different proposition.
As it was Rangers continued to get everybody bar Miller back behind the ball with a five man defence making it very difficult for a United side not really firing on all cylinders to break down. The best chance and the nearest that we came was when Rooney headed Fabio's great cross onto the top of the Rangers bar. Fabio had an excellent first half combining well with Giggs and he put in a number of fine crosses, which was just as well as we lacked the same threat with O'Shea at right back who, let's face it, will never be an overlapping full back.
Rangers had a couple of decent chances, Miller heading wide from a set piece but later shooting straight at Van Der Sar when he should have pulled it back to Weiss. Both attempts came out of the blue as United monopolised possession but United found it hard to break the home side down.
The second half became a liitle bit more open the longer the second half progressed as the home team actually got two or three bodies up to support the lone front man Miller occasionally. The hope was that this would leave United a little more room to create things. But we never really managed to carve a real opening until the best move of the match saw Rooney and Berbatov combine to free Carrick in the box, but the goalie comfortably managed to save his lacklustre finish.
Scholes and later Berbatov came off to be replaced first Anderson and then Hernandez but it seemed we were destined for a goal less draw. Until Naismith's head high challenge on Fabio which was rightly deemed to be a penalty. Rooney stepped up and made no mistake with the finish and celebrated like last month had never happened, leading me at least, to believe that he is in it for the long haul.
It will be interesting to see who gets a game in the last match now we are through but still needing the one point to top the group. We have still to see that performance and result where we can finally say that the season is up and running. Ideally i would like to see that happen before the back to back games against the Arse and the rent boys, there are four games to try and produce it and put us in an even more confident frame of mind before those games.

Rooney wanted to celebrate his goal in front of the United fans, did he pay that lad to come on the pitch, just a thought. As i said before yesterday's game i'm not interested in hearing him making an apology, i want him to do the business on the pitch. Who knows one day we may be thanking him for what happened, we still don't know the truth of what went on that week.
Fergie praises his courage for taking the penalty, then says he needs more ninety minutes and promises us he is going to get them. He also admitted to rotating the strikers a bit too much this season. That could be bad news for Owen and Macheda, because that surely means Rooney, Berbatov and Hernandez will be the three he picks from. He admits that we have not played that well in the last two games but promises that United are trying to find a rhythm.
Carrick hails United's patience, experience has taught them that they will always get that chance however long it takes. I have to admit i couldn't see that late goal coming last night, and i'm not sure it would have but for Naismith's desperate challenge on Fabio.

David McDonnell wonders whether Berbatov's time is up at United after another unconvincing display. As i said yesterday i think he will be offski in the summer and welbeck wil return from Sunderland to claim his place in the squad and team. Even if he returned to the kind of form he started the season in, i still think he will be unloaded. Sunderland's young new England star Jordan Henderson claims Welbeck will be one of the next generation of English youngsters to make the step up from under 21's to the full England team. The displays we have seen in the last two matches are what the Sunderland players have been seeing in training every day.

United youngster Cameron Stewart will be going to Hull city on loan until January in a suprise loan move. The suprise being he didn't pull any trees up in his time at Yeovil. He is never going to be a United player, in fact i don't know what his level will be, he is quick and has skill but his decision making isn't the best. If he has a career in football, i can't really see it being above league's one or two.

Timothy Garton Ash explains why the Euro crisis now revolves around Germany not the so called peripheral nations. Does the German nation and it's political establishment want to save the Euro and if so what kind of Eurozone does it want to save. I'm afraid to say the muddled actions we have seen from Merkel and her government lead me to believe they don't know the answer to either of those questions. Of course i could be totally wrong and it's all part of a "cunning plan", but it would be unblievably well disguised if that were reallt the case.
David Prosser belives the biggest threat to the Euro is that the Germans simply give up on the economic experiment in which it has invested so much. Ambrose Evnas-Pritchard claims some observers think Merkel doesn't know the differnce between different ype of bond holders, the hedge funds betting on sovereign defaults and the pension funds who bought government bonds in good faith. I'm afraid i can actually believe that, i suppose because the Germans have had a continual surplus through their faith in manufactuting and exports they don't pay that much attention the way other countries have managed to be able to buy those exports.
As the crisis lurches from one country to the next David Blanchflower worries that Spain could be next, and wonders why ordinary Irish, and for that matter British when the cuts start to bite, should bear the brunt of the austerity installed onto us by our rotten finacial and political elite. Faisal Islam warns that there is real anger on the steets in Ireland that the people who were responsible for this mess have had no reckoning come to them as yet. He thinks there is a fair chance that the bailout will not even be accepted. I know if i was Irish and would want the country to default rather than endure this austerity whilst the people responsible retire into their gated mansions. At least some of the culprits would share a little of the pain in that way.
Robert Peston reports on how the financial banking elite are still getting away with it. This is the point, there is no other way to dress that up, than it's just totally wrong. Marx did write that capitalism would destroy itself, is it in the process of doing just that, in the west anyway.

Steve richards advises Ed Miliband to do it his way, take the risk, forget focus groups, forget tacking to the centre or the right and do and say what you believe. Iain Martin thinks that history or following the approach of Blair and Cameron in opposition will not guide Miliband through the next four years . But he thinks his approach so far isn't working. Dan Hodges describes Labour as being in an unhappy and uncertain place just now. Factions splintering, factions not knowing who to follow any more and no sense of where it is heading. Well it took how long for the tory party to get Thatcherite factionalism out of it's system, if it even has even now that is. Is it going to take the Labur party as long to bury the Blaitite-Bronite factionalism out of it's system.
If the Lib dems return to the back benches after the next election there is going to be one hell of a ding dong battel over the soul of that party between the social democrat left and neo-liberal orange bookers. Our politics seems to be in a Trotskyite permanent revolution.

David Marquand describes why all those that though that the events of 2008 would usher in a social democrat centre left moment ( that's me ) have got it wrong as Europe and it's people, for the moment, have swung sharply to the right. This hasn't worked itself out yet is the obvious answer to that, although the worry must be that countries and electorate's will take an even sharper turn to the right and populist, even fascist ideas.
Benedict Brogan argues that Cameron seems to be very assured that his radical reforming government is on the right path, i get the feeling he means almost complascent. It's all very well to have radical idea's, getting them through parliament and making the reforms work is something altogether different. If any of these goes badly wrong, never mind Osborne's economic policy going tit's up they may well be in trouble.

Crap sound, but classic Chuck Berry

Evans and Smalling to start

Smaling and Evans to start in tonight's European tie against Rangers.This will be interesting to watch, the possible future of United at centre half. I think most people think that Evans has fallen behind Smalling in the United pecking order. Whilst that may well prove to be right, Smalling definitely has more potential, Evans is the one that has the bigger premier league experience so far. I would like to see Smalling start one or two league games this season, but with the tightness of the title race at the moment, injuries apart i can't see it happening. I suppose every game that Rio can be rested will be thankfully taken by Fergie, but as far as the league campaign goes i expect Evans to continue to deputise for him.

Rooney rubbishes the rumours that he will be leaving at the end of the season, he states he will be at United for the long term. I actually believe him despite my generaly cynical take on these matters, but a cynic would notice that he didn't say for the rest of his career this time. I would take that as a realistic take on his future.
I wish the media would stop banging on about this apology that the fans are expecting, because for this fan anyway, i'm not waiting for an apology, i'm waiting for him to start doing the busines on the pitch. That's far more important than some crappy PR exercise to me.

Fergie tells the players to wake up, let's get this started. He admires the resillience that we have shown in recent results against Wolves and Villa but we have to start playing better to stop us getting in those positions. What have Wolves done since and Villa went straight onto a defeat at Ewood park.

Danny welbeck has started to play his way into the sights of the national press with his recent outstanding displays for the mackems. I actually think he hasn't really been doing much different, it's more a case of Sunderland starting to use him properly combined with a surge in confidence from realising the rest of the team are now on the same wavelength as him. I don't believe for a minute he actually intends to stay at Sunderand, he will be back at United next season alright. And he will get his fair share of games as well. I'll predict that Berbatov will be released and United won't sign anybody, Welbeck will be his direct replacement.
Not good news for the Bulgarian and probably why we have started to hear transfer title tatle involving his agent and the press. I had hoped he had finally found his feet at United after his early season form, but his recent lapse back into general ineffectivness will probably convince Fergie that he is just one of those players that just can't hack it at old trafford.

Is another United misfit about to hit the exit button as reports surface of Anderson leaving in the mid season break. If that coincides with the arrival of Cleverley from Wigan back from his loan, i would be more than happy with that news. I'm still not sure what position Anderson was brought to the club to fill, but wherever he has been tried, it has never worked. As we have seen before just because it says Brazillian on your passsport, it doesn't always guarantee that the player will always possess what we have come to expect from that country. His passing accuracy is abysmal, he must have the lowest completion record of any of our central midfield over the last couple of years. Defensively he is just as poor and the less said about his goalscoring record the better.It's hard to see him shaking any trees anywhere else in his career and i don't for one minute think we will regret letting him go, if the reports are correct, that is. He seems to have one hell of a lot a last chances.

Cantona's bank call understandable but wrong claims Deborah Hargreaves in the Guardian. I may be wrong but i thought his reasoning was to show the banks that whilst we may indeed need them to function in everyday life, it's a two way street, as they also need us. So to show them that their behaviour past and present is unacceptable, big gestures that they understand must be made.

Gavin Hewitt, the Beebs European editor argues the Irish bailout is a firfighting measure and that the underlying symptom has still not been treated. He asks a good question though, will the firefighting even work.
As Iain Martin tells us in this column, there is an alternative and it looks like it has worked. Iceland shows that there is another way.If you look at history, eschewing the prevailing orthodoxy is usually a good bet. And it must look even better when the prevailing orthodoxy itself is part of the problem and should be on it's wat to the dustbin of history.
Hamish McRae a man still wedded to the onld orthodoxies, in my opinion, thinks that this crisis will change Europe forever. He thinks he is on the optimistic side believing that the Euro will survive this crisis, but will be destroyed by the next one, whereas a lot of people he admires don't think it will make it through this crisis.
Jeremy Warner belives the Irish crisis has shown that the banking stress tests laid on by the European authorities weren't worth the paper they were written on, which would be much like the toxic debt that the financial sector left us with to put us in this situation.
The Economist's Bagehot column wonders which economic planet the tories Euro sceptics are living on. Obviously it's the one where everything that goes wrong is the fault of somebody else, especially if they speak a foreign tongue. I can't exactly say, it reassures me that we have got Osborne in charge at another poosible crucial moment in the global economic crisis we are currently living in.

The FBI has launched a major probe into insider dealing between major US hedge funds, big business and Wall street. Now that could never, be could it.
Daniel Korski believes that the current crisis may mean the end of US foreign policy being seen through the eyes of Wall street as the idea that what is good for Wall street isn't neccessarily good for the US state and it's peoplefinally hits home.

Bemusement in the world's chancellories as North Korea attacks its Southern neighbour. The Economists Cassandra column speculates that it may have something to do with a succession struggle as Kim Jong Un tries a show of strength to show the countries military he wiill be up to the task of leader.
Iain Martin thinks it's problem that the US authorities are unsure of how to deal with as almost every strategy that they have tried so far has proved to be a failure. Good point, just how do you deal with a paranoid nuclear armed state. At least if Iran acquired them we would have some idea as to what their foreign policy would be, but North Korea?

Michael Vaughan writes a fairly predictable piece claiming that whoever wins the first test and even the first session will win the series. I think he's wrong, when the Aussies thrashed us in the last series they had a great side at the top of their game and against a woefully undercooked England team who didn't have three of the greatest players to have ever played the game in their side. This series will be tight and nobody seems to have mntioned the possibilty of a drawn series, they do happen, and quite often. I'm making no predictions except it will be tight. So that's a walkover for one of them.
Strauus and Flower seem to have their heads screwed on with Strauss keen to remind people that there are five tests and the series will not be won in the first test in Brisbane. That is definitely the right way to approach things. Bowling will be the key to the series for me, will England's pace attack take enough wickets to take the pressure of Swann, who cannot be expected to win it on his own. I have to admit to worrying about Anderson on Australian wickets, his stats outside England are appallling.
Angus Fraser takes the chance to name his first choive England ashes eleven against his first choive Aussie eleven. It would be a fair contest but you would have to think that the Aussies would be too strong. I will miss reading what Athers has to say in the Times about the series but the paywall prevents me from doing so.

Music

Autechre - Incunabula: A group who i never followed but after listening to this the debut album, i will have to go back and go through their discography. The group they remind me of most from that era would be Underworld i think, but an Underworld without Karl Hyde. Very 90's, but i loved 90's techno.

Ceephax acid crew -  United acid emirates: More techno but this time from this decade. An excellent album that's more on the dance side of techno than most of the stuff i listen to.

Everything everything - Man alive: One of the more hyped debut's of the year, but justly so i would say after listening to it. A more pop based rock sound, it will be interesting where thet can take it onthe follow up. They have a fairly unique sound which can be a good thing or ar worst bad as you get pigeon holed.

Grinderman - Grinderman 2: Another quality offering from Nick Cave and fellow bad seeds. Not quite as good as the debut album but that was one of the best albums of that year.

Robert Hood - Minimal nation: One of the founding fathers of the minimalist techno school from the home of techno, Detroit. Another classic from the 90's that i'd never heard. It's class alright

The gaslight anthem - American slang: A tremendous album showing obvious influences from the boss himself Springsteen. Every track's a winner. The Hold steady are one of the most critically acclaimed US rock groups of the present time but this is an album to rank alongside their efforts.

Manchester United 2-0 Wigan Athletic

The talk at the half time interval was, was this the worst half of football this seaon yet, fortunately with the returning Rooney and Scholes on the bench to come on in the second half, the quallity of the football evemtually improved. The fact that Wigan were down to nine men also had a bearing on matters of course. Fergie went with the two men up front who had ended the game against villa, dropping Hernandez to the bench and Berbatov altogether. That looked like some leap of faith to me and i'm afraid, that was how it worked out, as we struggled to break wigan down.
Macheda isn't really up to starting regularly for the first team, he just isn't offering enough in any department. I still think he needs to go out for either a season or half a season loan, for his good and United's. He will learn about the game and United will learn just how good he going to be. As for Obertan, he has all the skill in the world but i just wonder whether he has the desire and determination to succeed at the top level. His body language is pretty half hearted, i wonder whether he wants it enough when i watch him when we are fighting to break teams down.
After saying all that there wasn't much service coming from our midfield, once again this season. With no Scholes or Giggs in the starting lne up once more, Nani having one of those games and Park on the floor as much as on his feet the lack of creativity in our squad was glaringly obvious again. The fact we can have reached this stage of the season, joint top, is a pretty damning indictment of the deteriation in standards in the premier league this season.
On the balance of play in the first half a case could be made for saying that Wigan were the team more likely to score. Thats's not to say that they were playing any dazzling football, just to show how poor United had been. To be fair to Park and his gravitationaly challenged performance, the Wigan approach to the game was probably the most physical that we have seen at United this season. And the first half display always meant they were likely to lose a man at some stage of the second half with some meaty challenges still going in.
The goal just before half time came out of nowhere and was just what the doctor ordered, Park crossing to the back post and his mate Evra defying a nose bleed to actually get into the six yard box and score with with his head. Our play hadn't warranted it but a half time lead was good news with the way the day's results were shaping up.
The second half carried on where the first half had left off with United huffing and puffing but not looking like carving wigan open any time soon. Fergie usually makes his substitutions on the hour or with twenty minutes to go, but ten minutes of that was enough for him to bring on Scholes and Rooney on to replace Macheda and Park. Wigan soon went down to ten men as the first half yellows caught up on them as Alcaraz saw a secod for a needless foul on Fletcher.
The improvement i had expected with the substitutions took time to materialise and Wigan were down to nine men by the time United started to get their act together. A two footed challenge from Rodelega saw him get a straight red card which was a mixed blessing for United as Wigan just did what all teams wirh nine players do and stuck every body behind the ball. Slowly but surely United started to spread the ball around stretching the Wigan defence around and the chances starrted to come. Taking them was another matter though. Henandez showed what he is about taking his chance with aplomb. Rooney, Scholes, Nani and Hernandez all had late chances but the goals that would have helped our goal difference would not come. To be honest we didn't really deserve a bigger scoreline than that after such a woeful first half display.
Rooney's reception was as mixed as the paper's have said, and some had even predicted, but i can't believe that people booed him, regardles of what happened, he was in the red shirt and should get our surpport whilst that is the case. I thought he showed signs that we may start to see the Rooney of last season now all this has been put to bed. His movement, off the ball, was something we have badly missed this season. The fact that he has now played again, for me, puts to bed, the theories that he will be sold in January. If he can recapture the form of last season, a 19th title, remarkably, is a totally realistic proposition
City's result apart, how bad were Fulham though, the weekend's results couldn't have been much better, i wasn't that surprised the rent boys got beat, something's wrong there alright, but the Spurs victory at Arsenal was a pleasant surprise especially after that first half.

Fergie happy with Rooney's return, he isn't talking like somebody who expects him tobe gone any time soon. Jim White's column in the telegraph talks about the need for Rooney to justify the wages in his new contract to the fans. As he does go on to say, the present team are badly in need of the kind of inspiaration that Rooney at his best provides.
Evra says that the players have forgiven Rooney and everybody is now united and looking to the future, the most important thing is the team. Now is the time for the team to push on and punish our rivals as stumble and stutter.

The way some papers had reported this on friday i thought we may have heard it was all wrapped up by today but we have heard no more. A bit worryng that Schmeichel's earlier quotes about him not being the finished article were dug up later in the afternoon..

The Euro has rallied on news that the Irish government accepted the 77 billion Euro bailout plan, but for how long.

Mary Ann Sieghart claims that the british economy would be in as bad a shape as Ireland's if we had listened to the pro Euro case for joning the Euro when we had the opportunity to join when it was launched. Will Hutton thinks that the Euro sceptics have got it wrong and are failing to learn the lessons of history. Ireland would still have had the problems it has had inside or outside of the Euro as Iceland's own problems showed. Although far from perfect it will survive and prosper, though he is not sure that the same can be said for the global financial system. I'm not sure he is right about the Euro, and i say that as someone who was broadly in favour of it's introducion. What he is definitely right about is that this is a failure of the banking system once again, and we are not out of the woods yet, never mind Portugal and Greece.
Paul Mason traces the roots of the crisis in the Euro zone and ends worrying about where the end game will lead us to.
David Blancflower predicts the economic headwind will make it's way across the Irish sea, no doubt why Osborne has ignored his Eurosceptic back benchers. Michael White wonders what on earth the tory right are thinking about if they think we can just ignore Irish problems as if they are not our prblems as well.
Euro sceptics can't help telling everybody how they were right about the Euro. It's a pity they weren't as right about our so called economic miracle.

Ed Miliband surfaces again just as worries over both his leadership and the internal direction of the labour party start to surface. He is promising to play it long and will re-examine every party policy but not party values.

Josh rouse

Glazer's : More questions than answers

The news that they are to pay off the £220 million PIK loans raise more questions than answers. As usual, as they won't go public with exactl what they have done, the speculation goes into overdrive. As Paul Kelso writes it is impossible to know the truth. MUST on behalf of all united fans, call on the Glazer's to come clean and tells us the truth. Their number one fan in the club still seems to be happy with them as Fergie continues to tell the press that they are " great owners ". I can't pretend anything other, than i cringe every time i hear him say that. It's bollocks and he must know it.

The red knights make their token " quote off the record " by a " source " regarding the latest turn of events. It's getting harder to take anything that comes out of that grouping seriously, which is a pisser because that was our best hope.

Martin Samuel asks the obvious question, are the John Henry's just double Glazer's. Everything we have seen and heard from before the takeover, never mind since, screamed yes.
Meanwhile the footballing authorities show where their priorites lie, as Andy Anson accuses the BBC of a lack of patriotism over the world cup bid for broadcasting a sensationalist Panorama just before the final vote by FIFA. Isn't the purpose of the press to hold power to account, not do their bidding. FIFA is corrupt and everybody knows it, better to win the rights to host the world cup when Blatter has been removed and the organisation has been cleaned up from top to bottom.

I have no idea why Fergie should be in Qatar fielding a press conference lending support to their bid 2022 world cup when he should be at home trying to get our season kick started. Just as it's scandalous that Gill decides to go to Florida to tell some obscure US radio station that everything is rosy and tell us that United's business model should give us no worry.
Anyway Fergie told his audience that he will be around to build the next United side which will be built around youth, though experienced players will have to be bought when Scholes and Giggs retire. He lays into Paul Stretford big time, telling his audience that Rooney was given bad advice. He also can't miss the chance to have a little pop at City.

It looks like United have identified our next goalie, whether he will be the man to succeed Van Der Sar, who knows. Obviously if he is anywhere near as good as our last Danish goalie, the job will be a goodun. The last paragraph is a killer, Lindergaard whose low value will appeal to United's owners. 

The Telegraph spotlight five young players tipped by Rio as having big futures for England ahead of the French disappointment. I can't disagree with the first four, but i'm not sure about Carroll. He is going to be a very good player as far as the premier league goes, but i'm not sure his style will be suited to international football. It's as much to do with the rest of team as with him, English footballers seem to have an automatic compulsion to hit the ball long when they have a big man up front. We saw it again last night, I wouldn't go overboard about last night though. He is trying to build a new side and blood new players, so England are bound to have nights last night. He is going to perservere with youth though if he is going to change things around.

Irish central bank governor admits he is expecting a bailout worth tens of billions of euros as the first confirmation that the EU and IMF are to try to shore up the Irish banking sector.
Robert Peston asks how much punsihment will British and international banks be made to suffer. British exposure is unsurprisingly big, and these incompetents are still going around awarding themselves huge bonuses. It will be the people that suffer as they already are, if the financial sector is not cut down to size if we ever come out of the repurcushions of the credit crunch, we may as well all the socialist workers party. Because democracy will have malfunctioned in a major way.
Hamish McRae believes soveriegn defaults in the Eurozone are inevitable, if that is really inevitable the question is what will be the German response. Leading German pundit Adam Posener claims that the German governing class knew that something like this was always going to happen. His argument is that they are using this crisis as a weapon to force Europe's peripheral nations into a painful restructuring of their econmies. Ambrsoe Evans-Pritchard comes to the same conclusion from a Eurosecptic stance, but argues that there is nothing democratic about this process, it is totally illegitimate.
Paul Mason also claims that the European project is in crisis and also writes on the lack of democratic oversight and the lack of democracy in the whole process.Whilst in his latest column he describes just what is at stake, taking care to quote British financial worries. I'd feel a lot better without osborne in charge.

Jeremy Warner reports on the Chinese worry, that their economy is overheating, and tells the Chinese that their problems do not stem from the policies of the Fed. He belives it's problems are self inflicted but the solution is in its own hands.
Robert Skidleky argues that world bank president Robert Zoellick's agenda for rebalancing the economy and to spur growth are good idea's that could lead the global economy in the right direction. As with most commentators he belives global economic imblances are at the heart of the problem. He invokes Keynes plans for an international reserve asset rather than a return to a new gold satndard.

John Harris wonders where the labour parties right wing are headed as Johson argues that 50p top rate of tax should be temporary even though it is overwhelmingly backed by the bulk of the population. In the words of Mandelson, according to David Laws (it certainly sounds authentic though), haven't the rich suffered enough. Can anybody seriously argue that right wing of the labour party or just plain new labour ar even vaguely centre left anymore.
For my money they should go off and join the orange book tendency of the lib dems to start a new Eurohile centre right party as an antidote to the Euroscpetic tories.
James Forsyth takes a min look at new Lib dem president Tim Farron, who he sees as a possible future leader of the party if the Lib dems leave government in five years time. That would be the time for Clegg and Laws to cross benches to the Tories, because the party would surely move back to the lfet in those circumstances. Who knows, if labour stick to its muddling path trying to stick to the centre right shadowing the tories a move to the left could put the lib dems back in business after the Clegg debacle.
Simon Jenkins attacks Lib dems for not practising what they preach, they want PR and coalition government and then complain at the consequences. No what they complain is the duplicity from their leaders, claiming that the tories planned cuts at the elction were dangerous and then becoming bigger advocates for the cuts than the tories themselves. The news that they wanted to ditch their plans on student funding before the election. It goes on and on.

As a republican myself it was interesting reading this article from Steve Richards on the news of the new royal wedding. He claims that the last government probably had the biggest number of closet republicans in it than this country has ever seen. He argues that at one point, the prospect was there, of a radical reform of the monarchy along continental lines. I think he may well be right, and it would be yet another example of the lost opportunity of the last thirteen years. Though i don't agree with much the coalition are doing, i do admire the way they are governing to get things done now and not governing to keep everbody happy and hence just running for re-election. There is a big lesson for the left in that. And if we ever get some kind of electoral reform it will be an even more important lesson to take in.
Benedict Brogan argues that the royal wedding is just what the doctor ordered for Cameron. With bad news on the way, what better to keep the plebs happy than a royal wedding.

And now to talk of a real British political giant, one of the most important Englishmen who ever lived and a man who loathed monarchy. But a man who has never really been given the recognition due in either his mother country or in the country who he did as much as anybody to bring about. Brendan O'Neill writes about the reluctance of the US to accept Tom Paine's crucial role in its history and what that says about that country today.

Timothy Garton Ash warns it will be down to its Asian neighbours, where Burma's future lies, after San Suu Kyi's release. It's best hope for an orderly transition to any kind of stable western style human rights based democracy will lie in India's attitude not in lectures from the US and Britain.

I have been loving Steve Coogan's latest comedy the trip co-starring Rob Brydon, but it does seem to have split opinion. David Bowden asks if the show is evidence Coogan has got his mojo back. I'm not sure he ever lost it, he has done good work since Partridge.It just hasn't been as consistently excellent as that masterpiece.
Jay Rayner watches the show with the eye of a food critic and think that it does well to capture the absurdities of his profession, and thinks it captures certaintruths whilst being funny.
Rachel Cooke of the New Statesman doesn't like it, that's a bit strong, i can see some people not finding it funny, but i can't see what's to hate in it.

Media cities website has received 30,000 hits applying for jobs when the BBC finally get up here. It may be the surrounding firms that offer the best long term job prospects. That's if the complex fulfills the hopes in attracting the kind of ancilliary firms to complement the BBC and maybe Granada.
GMP expect to start losing jobs including front line officers as the cuts begin to bite in what is going to be the knid of news we can start to ecpect more and more over the next couple of years. The ctites museums are shocked by the cuts announced that will affect them. I feel sorry for the pump house museum at having to hear this news just after their exetnsion and refurbishment has finished.

The soundtracks of our lives

PIK loan to be paid off

Ahead of today's quarterly results a Glazer spokesman announced that they would be paying the £222 million loan off next week. As yet we are no nearer knowing where the money is going to come from, they have said it won't come out of the club, or why they are doing now. As transparent as fuck as usual.
MUST demand that the gimps come clean and tell all United fans what their real intentions are. We can only hope something leaks out because unless we are in the process of being taken over i can't see that happening. I have seen the rumours of Qatari money, i hope to fuck that is bullshit, to me being taken over by people who disdain democracy and human rights would be no improvement on our current owners, whatever the financial improvement in our situation.
David Bond of the BBC argues that this good news for United fans even if we don't know how they have got the money to repay the loan. How can you argue hold any kind of opinion when you don't know the facts.

Rio Ferdinand thinks England have to become more like United. I'm not sure you can replicate club spirit at international level, though Spain got near it in the summer. As he says the crux of the matter is having a winning mentality, but there is only one way to get that, and England still look miles away from that.
I don't think anybody would sing " we all agree United are better than England " with much conviction anymore but Rob Kelly compares the two set ups.

Richie De Laet is to go to Preston on loan after his reasoable period at Sheffield United. It sounds like an SOS has gone out from Ferguson Jr. They are in trouble and his job must be on the line. Gerrard Houllier hits us hard again this time with the news that there would be no point in taking Michael Owen to the club. , I could never see that happening, lets face it, no one will take him of our hands.

Laurent Blanc is critical of young French footballers who sign lucrative contracts with top premier league clubs to get stuck in the youth and reserve teams. It's hard to disagree, it's not the best thing for their careers or for French football. Hs he got certain players in mind, i read at the weekend that Kakuta is not totally happy with his position at Chelski.

Phil Neville admits that his Everton team could not rough up Arsenal on Sunday and thinks that is where they have improved. I'm not holding my breath, they have beaten at home by West Brom and Newcastle and they have yet to face us or the rent boys. Admittedly the way both us and Chelsea are playing this year thay must feel that they really have a chance against us this year. You wouldn't put it past them to fuck up though when they couldn't beat the two aforementioned teams at home.

Paul Wilson wonders where now for international rugby league in the northern hempishere. Great game between the aussies and the kiwis at the weekend, always nice to see the Aussies get beat. I have no idea what the answer is, though i have always thought there are far too many average Australsian players in the British game. Against that if we had restrctions would be left with enough good players to keep the level of competition up to its present level. I would like to think if the resources were there and the coaching was good enough it would be. If it were tried and it succeeded it would at least improve the quantity of players competing for inetrnational honours.

Vic Marks thinks that England's pace attack will be able to cope with the kookaburra, it's to be hoped so are they will be leaving Australia without the ahses as Swann won't be able to win it on his own. Shane Warne isn't worried about Australia's selectors, the selction of a 17 man squad was clever thinking. I think it's fair to say that this was not a universal opinion.

The Irish economic black hole is fast becoming a European problem writes Peter Hoskin and there are no easy solutions. The Telegraph speculate that Portugal is now entering serious budgetary problems and that the Greeks are saying their problems are worse than previously thought.
Robert Peston asks are we moving back to a 2008 point where financial difficulties are about to rage out of control again. It could be that serious if this Eurozone crisis gets out of hand.

The Indy's Irish correspondent David McKittrick argues that the celtic tiger isn't working and has become the sick man of Europe. The present crisis is allowing Germany to shape the future of the Eurozone at the expense of the peripheral nations who if they do have to be bailed out will be bailed out on German terms, claims Larry Elliott. He also wonders whether the Irish debacle will provide Osborne with an Opportunity. I would have thought this country needs is to have the leeches who helped contribute to their mess move over here. They are all natural tories though, i suppose.
The New Statesman reminds Osborne of yet another hostage to fortune that he once made, citing Ireland as shining example of long term economic policymaking, oh deary dear, Cameron and Osborne have made their fair share of remarks that may well come back to haunt them.

I have just finished Francis Wheen's biography of Karl Marx and have to say it was excellent, it's amazing how obscure he was, whilst living in this country, when he was so infamous in the rest of Europe.


Some classical for a change

Aston Villa 2-2 Manchester United

Another away draw, and whilst this time the game couldn't be described as " forgettable" United's performance, for the first 80 minutes anyway, once again could. This season just isn't happening and unless Rooney returns to the kind of form he showed last season when he makes his return hopefully next week, it's increasingly hard to see it doing so.
With no Giggs again due to his hamstring, and no Scholes due to his booking on Wednesday night, once again we were found badly wanting in the creativity stakes. Before the sides were announced i would have took a draw, due to our current away form and the players mentioned missing. But when i saw Villa's midfield four, i honestly thought even with our current indifferent form we should have been capable of gaining the three points to keep us on the rent boys tail.
I should have known better. The first half was a cagey affair where Villa's young side felt their way into the game and United once again struggled to produce anything resembling a coherent display. I thought we would enjoy long periods of domination of the possession but though we had short periods of control the longer the half went on the more Villa got into it and gained the confidence to go in at half time having spent the last five minutes of the half looking the more likely side to score.
United had the better of what chances were actually created in that half with the best falling to Berbatov who having been put through by Hernandez but managed to miss the target. What has happened to the Bulgarian, he had a half decent game on Wednesday but yesterday he was back to the player of no confidence that we saw at the end of the last season.
I felt sorry for Hernandez, he didn't have a great game but the service to him was almsot non existant. Carrick and Fletcher didn't boss the midfield as i had expected but i can't attach much blame to Fletcher, just as last season he has had to play almost every game and thus lost his sharpness. In his best seasons Fletcher was often rested, especially before the big games. We are so short of quality in central midfield now Fergie can't afford to rest him. Hopefully Cleverley will come back in the new year and give us a bit more depth here or we will almost certainly finish the season as we did last year, running on empty.
I had the horrible feeling that if Villa came out with a bit more belief in the second half we might be in for a torrid day. Unfortunately that is precisely what they did and the worst did follow as they took us apart in a fashion we haven't really seen for a long time. If they had been four or five up before our last ten minute fight back we couldn't have complained.
There were no arguments on the penalty decision, it was a clumsy challenge from Brown and a definite penalty. The wonder was that it had taken them so long, having missed a couple of great chances as well as hitting the woodwork. Ashley Young made no mistake and i thought that was that, the way we had played the only team i could see scoring another was Villa.
Fergie then made a double substitution bringing off the front two and replacing them with Macheda and Obertan. I'll hold my hands up, i thought that was as good as handing them the three points. And when the first thing Macheda did was lose it and set Villa up on a counter attack which saw Downing fire in a cross that Albrighton couldn't miss from i was wondering whether this was going to turn into one of those hammerings we get now and then.
At last United started to at least a little bit threatning as Ferdinand had one shot cleared off the line, but i was worried we would be caught on the break throwing men forward. United went forward again and this time the industrious Fletcher outwitted the Villa devence with a back flick that Macheda fired home from inside the box to make amends for his mistake at the start of Villa's second goal. Villa then almost killed us completely when Downing cut inside and hit a thunderous shot which had Van Der Sar well beaten but it just flew over. United went straight to the other end and the first great piece of play from Nani as he beat two men in front of him and put in a great cross to the back post for Vidic to superbly head back across Friedal to amazingly level up the scores.
Fergie now brought Smalling on for Park as United tried to steal the three points. It wasn't that far from happening as a great run from Obertan saw him force Friedal into a great save, even if he didn't know much about it. A United win would have been a serious miscarriage of justice nut that was the last real chance of the match. So mixed emotions at the end, jubilation and relief at the rescue of a seemingly lost cause and a realisation that as things stand we just are not good enough to win any of the trophies that matter.

Mark Ogden reports on Rooney's probable return next Week and the questions about his future still to resolved. I don't think anyone really knows what the score is on this front. There a lot of sceptics out there, regarding his long term future at United, that much is certain. The Mirror reckons Rooney's teammates are still unhappy with his implied criticism of some of them and will have to patch it up with them. If there is an ounce of truth in any of that, there may well be new depths to plumb as the season progresses, as there is nothing worse than a split dressing room.

The Irish government again denies it is in talks to conduct a bail out of it's economy as the rumours keep on coming. As the melftdown of the Irish economy continues, the age old Irish problem of immigration rears it's head as it's young people despair of a bright future in their homeland. Fintan O'Toole argues Ireland can still have a bright future but only if it uses this crisis to sweep the old guard away and thoroughly reform its democratic structures. There must be a reckoning for its political elite and it's cosy come corrupt relationship with those greedy property developers who have led into this crisis.

Johann Hari demolishes the promises and record of Nick Clegg and predicts that he will lose his Sheffield seat at the next election. I don't know enough about his constituency to know how precarious his position is, but i would have thought he would be in big trouble. All i can say is good, he deserves to lose his seat. Maybe the lib dems can return to being the centre left party that it was and should be.

Matthew d'Ancona warns the coalition that the student protests were a sign of things to come, although he thinks that last weeks protests won't have done the government any harm, protests to come might not paint them in so favourable a light. This isn't how John Harris sees things and reminds us of some of the promises that David Cameron made before the election, there are almost as many hostages to fortune as Clegg in that. list.
Will Huton also thinks this is a sign of things to come and warns that demonstrations against the poll tax and the Iraq war were the beginning of the end for Thatcher and Blair.
Benedict Brogan wonders if Cameron will learn anything from the spate of memoirs to have come out recently. Are the goverment already thinking about their leagcy. The most interesting fact to come from the article is the assertion that they have already decided to govern as if they will be a one term government, enact reforms rather than run for re-election, or slash and burn.
From there point of view it tmakes total sense and the biggest indictment of new labour is it was permanently running for re-election and doing whatever would least alienate the electorate rather than trying to radically reform the rotten state of democracy left by 18 years of tory rule.
Peter Oborne hoped Cameron would be the man to clean up parliament after the stench of new labour's period i office. He is a disappointed man so far as he describes our legislative chamber as rotten to the core.
Peter Hoskin lists ten points you need to know about the welfare white paper.

Edward Conway comments on the the state of flux that is the present state of the global economic system. He is another who thinks the system of the last 35 years is shattered and just as the gold standard was replaced by Breton woods and that was replaced by the Thatcherite consensus we have just watch collapse a new consensus emerge. He argues that this may take time as it may not emerge until China have replaced the US as the global economic superpower.
A system where the freedom of capital is curtailed would be one of the main starting points in an ideal world as far as i am concerned. What an irony if it was a totalitarian regime that allowed a proper democratic supervision of the interests of our so called financial elite to emerge.
Paul Mason argues that we must find a new settlement to return to a rerun of the 30's and all the misery that floowed on from that decade. He sees no reasonto be cheerful after the G20 that put a a sticking plaster on the disagreements currently in evidence.
Nick Cohen comments on the disgrace that was vodafone's deal with HMRC. If freedom of capital was to be curtailed, corporate tax evasion and offshore tax evasion may be a problem that a proper centre left government will be able to get on top of. He is right to attack our establishments love affair with big business and the wordl of the rich and famous.

Suu Kyi released by the Burmese Junta at last calls for freedom of speech as the basis as a new democratic start for the country. It will be interesting to watch how much support she actually now receives after being freed. After reading John Kampfner's Freedom for sale she will be swimming against the tide as southern Asia's curent trend is for a preference for economic wealth over democratic freedoms. So whilst we may laud her, if the Burmese generals play it canny and follow the Chinese model they could retain power and gain enough support from the population to keep them in the gravy.

Johnny Vegas is inetrviewed in the Independent ahead of starring in Chekov's Cherry Orchard for Sky arts.

Richard Williams reviews The Promise: The darknes on the edge of town story. As one of my favourite if not the favourite of Springsteen albums i was always going to get this, but that review means sooner rather than later.

Manchester City 0-0 Manchester United

Well that was one forgettable game of football, so forgettable i have forgotten it already. I'm not complaining, i would have took a point before the game, so i'm happy enough. I wasn't really sure what to expect from City, though after seeing their game against the rent boys earlier in the season, i shoud have known what to expect. That is a team that is not going to challenge, never mind win the title this season.
The starting line up was either a pleasant surprise or utterly predictable, depending on how believable you thought Fergie's claims of being unable to know what his starting line up would be until just before kick off. I usually take his pre match injury talk with a pinch of salt, but i was a little worried last night i have to admit. Of course i should have known as we lined up with as strong a line up as posible in the circumstances.
I was a liitle surprised and a liitle worried the way the game started. I can't remember the last time that City have kicked off against us and then proceeded to have almost total possession for the first ten minutes. They didn't create anything and as soon as United got their foot on the ball a more normal pattern of play established itself with United seeing at least as much of the ball as City. One thing City did manage to do last night though was shackle Scholes pretty effectively. Unlike last season where they just got everybody behind the ball, last night they tried to press us further up the pitch. The return of Tevez helped them in that repect as you got to hand it to them, it worked.
To say it was a dull first half would be doing a diservice to the word dull. One shot on goal a piece was the limit of excitement, at least United managed to create ours in open play as opposed to City's effort Tevez's free kick that Van Der Sar comfortably pushed out for a corner. I thought we were slightly the better team and the only team that had threatened to create anything during open play. But the fact was for all our decent midfield play we weren't good enough to unlock their defence. I thought Park's renaissance came to halt last night, he didn't have a bad game, but he didn't produce in the areas that we needed him to. In the first half especially, he kept drifting inside, finding himself in good positions but was unable to maximise the opportunity. Oh for a fit Ryan Giggs last night, with Scholes suspended for Saturday i hope he will be back for the Villa clash or our lack of creativity could well come back to haunt us again.
The second half was a slightly better spectacle, for a United fan anyway, but we never really threatened to open them up and the only real chance was Brown's cross that Berbatov connected cleanly with but ended up straight at a grateful Joe Hart. City really reverted to type, under Mancini that is, with a second half display that was even more negative than last season's encounter at the boo camp. They spend all that money in the summer and play against a United team in slow decline and without Rooney and the approach the game like that. Is Mancini really a better manager than Mark Hughes, i know who i would sooner have managing my team anyway.
So back to four points behind Chelsea and another hard game on Saturday and injuries galore, we needed to win one of these game in my view to try and keep the presure on the rent boys, the pressure is on.

Van Der Sar wasn't too happy claiming City were only ever interested in the point whilst United at least tried to go for the three. James Lawton claims the reality of last night was the exposure of the limits to both clubs title ambitions. I can't really argue with too much of that, the United of 2006-2009 would have ground out the three points last night i'm sure of that. Daniel Taylor in his five things we learnt last night puts his finger on one of our problems at the moment, we are not the same without a Rooney in his pomp leading the line or at least in the starting line up. We all know we are a little short of the quality needed to lead the title charge we we saw in that three year title run.

Mark Ogden claims that Fergie won the mind games before last nights encounter with his claims of a virus decimating our playing staff and then naming as near to our strongest side as possible. I think Ogden is claiming a bit too much on Fergie's behalf there, it's not as if City changed their approach to the match. They played the same way they always do against the big sides under Mancini.
Whether there was a bug or not, the team slection problems will not go away, with Scholes suspended, Evra and Rafael defintely out and who knows where Giggs is on his hamstring recovery, he has to find a team able to go to Villa park and try and get the three points to keep us close to Chelsea. It was a bit worrying to hear that Fletcher had an ankle problem before last night's game.

Jeremy Warner reports on the Bank of England's governor Mervyn King's quarterly report update. Warner interprets the speech as crunch time for the world economy and he could have added the coalition's economic policy. David Prosser reports on the questions about the governors political neutrality. There may have been more questions if Ed Balls had won the labour leadership election. David Blanchflower writes about the problems of unemployment for the unemployed themselves with the misery of Marx's reserve army.
The financial markets have been swept by rumours of a Greek style bailout of the Irish economy, as it goes from bad to worse.

There are fears that the coalition's universal welfare benefit may have to be delayed as HMRC's IT system may not be up to the task. What a surprise that isn't.

Simon Jenkins writes about the hypocrisy of British reltions with China as trade trumps human rights and just about everything else. We just aren't self sufficiently wealthy enough to be pontificating to anybody anymore. We probably lost any moral high ground that we ever had anyway with the charade over WMD and the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Bagehot reports on how Tony Blair got around the problem in his dealings with China during his premiership.
I don't think Blair and new labour ever had this embarrassment though. I would love their bluff to be called, but i just can't see it happening. From what i have ssen so far of the coalition or the tory part at least, is a continuation of the love in with the world of big business and the city.
The Guardian report that the world economic situation is worrying the Chinese authorties who think the Americans are themselves to blame over the economic plight. Everybody seems to recognise the imbalances between the US and Chinese econmies and the need to rectify them but there is nowhere near any kind of consensus about how we are to get there or even where "there" is.
The Chinese trade surplus grew last among amongst rising exports and imports as the tensions to let the yuan appreciate grow ahead of the G20 summit. Robert Peston uses his blog to ask if China's surplus matters, i would have thought that everybody realises that it does. The problem with dealing with it is that you end up rewarding countires who have ran there econmies badly, ie us and the US and would end up punishing countries who have managed their econmoies well, the Chinese and Germans. You can see why they might not see the fairness of this. Faisal Islam thinks the Chinese are already paving the way for a lessening of economic ties with the US as it is losing faith in the attractivness of the dollar. This is the report of the Chinese credit agency Faisal Islam mentioned.
Obama can see the way the wind is blowing as he visits south east Asia, but with the Republicans resurgent and a upsurgent tea party behind them what can he actually do.

Classic Charles Mingus

Stop satnav

It would seem the man City fear most is guess who, their nemesis on more than one occasion, the ginger prince.They are obviously right to fear him, though it does put the quality of our squad into question, that we are still relying on a stalwart who is almost 36. The man himself is looking forward to tonight, you can't win everything he says, but when you don't win them, there are certain teams you hope don't beat you to those titles, who could he mean. Evra is also keen to build things up, telling City they never beat us. Alas, in the 90's that was the case, but this decade we have had a few disasters against them. He is also happy with the way United plan to face the future by going with youth against City's plans to buy success. I would go along with that, but for the fact it's a strategy enforced on the club by our debt laden owners, not a progressive Barca style ambition. Whether the young Norwegian turns out to be the goods, who knows.
Fergie gets in on the act describing the increasing intensity of the derby, but whilst it's an important game and whilst City are now to be taken seriously after all that Arab money has been poured into the club, Chelsea are still the team to beat. He can't help but have a go at them can he, he is not impressed by the way they have been carried away by their new found wealth, Daniel Taylor thinks he doesn't hide his dislike the modern day Manchester City. He declines to say anything about City's involvment in the Rooney affair.

Andrew Cole reveals he thinks United's current crop of strikers can be as good as the treble seasons when Rooney gets back to fitness and hits his form. Besides Tevez he doesn't think City's imports match up. We probably just shade it, but only if Rooney does come back fit, in form and more importantly interested. I think Silva is a good player, but he is pretty similar in style and position to Tevez. You need forwards who compliment each other as well as click as Cole says the treble side's did.

Talking of the treble season, the legend who will forever have a place in every United fans heart Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is to take up the reigns as manager of Norweigan side Molde FC. What a servant that man has been for this club. We all would love to see him back at the club in the future in some role, there has got to be one ex player who will be able to come back to the club to manage it one day, so why not him.

If Reina is for real, saying he is unsure whether he will stay at Liverpool past the end of this season, i would expect us to be connected with him for the rest of the season. I'm not sure about him myself, he is a good goalie, but is he a great one, i don't see that myself.
It is a big decision replacing Van Der Sar, needless to say, but with the presnt team about to break up and a new team to be built, it becomes even more important to get the right man. Which is why Fergie could well go for somebody with his experience. Whether he would want to come to a club in a rebuilding phase with no money, who knows.

Jonathan Wilson ponders the importance of Carlos Tevez to Manchester City in another of his tactics columns. Whilst i don't doubt he is a very good player, he isn't a special talent. If they had a Drogba or an in form Torres alongside Tevez you would be talking championship potential. It still amazes me, when i think of the big transfer fees they have payed for average players when they would have been better at times waiting for a Rooney or a Torres. I mean anybody could see Adebayor was a luxury player at Arsenal who doesn't turn up half the time.

The bank of England is expected to raise their growth forecasts but some members are uncomfortable with the governors backing of the coalition's startegy of cuts as rocky times lie ahead. As this long article in Prospect magazine by Channel 4's Faisal Islam tells us, the MPC are split over the merits of a further of QE as well. I would have thought that this isn't welcome news for Osborne as that is basically his plan B as far as i can see if growth does dip as consequence of his aggressive cuts.
It seems to me the opponents of QE have a point, it does seem like the return of the funny money policies that the credit crunch revealed, this time it's the central banks indulging in the pratice to try and wish away the funny money toxic debts left us by the banks and hedge funds.
As Simon Jenkins wrote at the time it would have been better if the central banks had just given the elctorate a certain amount of money and told them they had to spend it, and spend it within a certain amount of time to get the economy going again and return confidence to the economy. At least that money would have been spent productively as far as the real economy goes. By the end of that article you just realise voodoo econmics are still with us, monetarists still rule the world. As Larry Elliot wrote in The gods that failed, the city and the financiers always seem to come up smelling of roses and as rich if not richer than before, however much they fuck up. And yet we have a goverment attacking benefit fraud which is a pin prick in comparison to the mess bank bailouts and cutting the public sector, which we are told is unproductive. What the fuck is our financial system then, it certainly seems to provide a nice killing for the suits in the city but what does it do for all us idiots that just put up with this shit.
At the end of the day we may as well fall back on Keynes and kick start the economy using big public work programmes, but that would be state intervention for the good of ordinary people, not keeping our financial masters happy. China and the Asian tigers must be laughing that the future economic leadership of the world is being handed to them on a plate.

Hamish McRae describes why the talk of the return of a modern day gold standard looks attractive to some, with most commentators thinking the US policy of QE is just another from of currency depreciation, but he argues that would be looking backwards. Mind you he doesn't seem to be much of a visionary as to what we should do in the future. Though China being at the centre of it, is probably a prerequisite of what will emerge.

James Purnell shows the paper thin differences between new labour and it's coaltion opponents as he describes his efforts at getting Gordon Brown interested in a universal credit system. Peter Hoskin of the Spectator argues there is a broad consensus on the reform of the welfare state, there are differences to be sure, but the broad outline is similiar. I support a simplification of the system and i would go to a citizens minimum income, an old lib dem policy that i shouldn't think Clegg and his fellow orange book acolytes would be very keen on, which would not be the same thing as the universal credit that both sides are speaking off and which will probably end up condemning the poorest parts of our society to paying the price for the governments, central banks and our financial systems three decades of wrong headed policies.
Hopi Sen argues why he supports the aims of Ian Duncan Smith, but thinks the sums will not add up and the treasury will have him doing their dirty work for them as they will not deliver the sums he will need to make his policies work. Mary Riddell joins in the cheerleading for IDS.
Steve Richards is not impressed by the coalitions direction arguing the facts do not support their claims that the cuts will actualy improve public services. Amen, whichever ex labour minister claimed they are the heirs of Blair wasn't far off the mark.

Alexander Linklater argues against decrimilising drugs in this Prospect article. I don't agree, he never mentions the damage the war on drugs has done to our economies, the money spent on drug law enforcement, the drug money sloshing around the financial world and the damage done to sink estates in this country and around the world.

Simon Schama outlines his vision for the future of the history that is taught in our schools. I wouldn't have guessed that most academy schools don't even teach it, that stinks. As for his list of what every child should learn, it's pretty reasonable, but i would have to include the fight for our liberties and the democratic reform of these islands not just in that list but at the top of it.

Music
Cherry Ghost - Beneath this burning shoreline: The follow up to his debut Thirst for romance doesn't mark amy musical progression, but if you liked that, he has served more of the same. 

Demdike stare - Forest of evil: If you like your techno atmospheric and creepy, even, this is for you.I like it, but it's not music to get excited to.

Eli paperboy reed -  Roll with you: A top album is this, the second album from a couple of years ago. It's retro i suppose but some of the neo soul of the last few years has been top notch.

Lloyd Miller and the Heliocentrics - Lloyd Miller and the Heliocentrics: I can listen to this endlesly, a superb piece of modern jazz with varying degrees of eastern influences. Excellent.

Pocohaunted - Make it real: I have to admit i had to listen to this a few times for me to get into it, but it was worth it. I love the funky experimentalism of it. This is a more tune based commercial sound for them apparently, well it works, though i don't think they will be breaking any singles charts with it.

UNKLE - Where did the night fall: This is another pretty good album, i liked their last effort, War stories but this does improve on that as it works better as a whole.