Van Der sar to call it a day

The dreaded day has arrived where our big Dutch number one has announced that he will be retiring at the end of the season. I have said before that i think he has been a very under rated part of the success we have seen since we regained the title in 2006-07.
I have always thought i wouldn't see a better keeper at Old trafford than Peter Schmeichel. I still think as a pure goalkeeper the big Dane was the number one, but Van Der Sar was such a different goalie it is hard to compare them.
Some pundits talk of a back five, meaning the back four plus the goalie. But in Van Der Sar's case that literally was the case. He is so good with the ball at his feet, that he became almost an extra outfield player. He gives the back four total confidence because they knew they could always give him the ball. Something they so obviously didn't have in Foster and don't have in Kuszczak. Vidic and Ferdinand have been as good as centre half pairing as there has been in Europe in recent years but having Van Der Sar behind them sweeping up undoubtedly made them even better.
Replacing him will be no easy task, that's for sure. I have absolutely no idea who will be the best replacement, but i can't help thinking there will be times next season when we wish he was still here.

He has apparently told the club he is going to take a complete break from football after he hangs up his boots. Apparently the club would have liked him to go onto the coaching staff and still hope to persuade him to when if he returns to the game.

With Giggs confirming that he will be continuing to pull on the red shirt next year and now Van Der Sar confirming he is to hang up his boots that only leaves us to find out what the ginger prince will be doing next season. Apparently he has told MUTV that he still doesn't know what his plans are going to be, at the moment he just wants to concentrate on the rest of this season.
On the evidence of this season if i was Fergie i would be desperate for him to stay. He is still by far the best midfield player at the club. I would also like Cleverley and Welbeck to have the chance to play and train for one season with such a great player.

The Telegraph use Tuesday night's escapdes to run a piece on United's great escapes this season. We have had as many go the other way this season. A better piece would have been asking why our away form has been so awful this season. With all due respect to Blackpool, who i admire for the way they have approached the game on their return to the top flight, we only really played for twenty minutes after they had run out of legs. We have yet to go anywhere and give a real performance for ninety minutes. And it all stems from out toal inability to dominate possession.
At Blackpool as at West brom we were out fought in the middle and in fact all over the pitch. I know no team is perfect an there will be times in a season when you go away from home and this happens, as it has in the past. But this season it's almost every game. Where would we be without the contribution of Giggs and Scholes.

Good news from Tuesday is that Rafael only suffered concussion, nothing else and whilst he will miss the weekend trip to Southampton he should be fit for next Tuesday's game at home to Villa. Really good news as i'm sure he would have been rested on Saturday anyway.

MUST have submitted their thoughts on the future of football governance today as the governments select committee continue their inquiry into the future of football governance. I wish i could have some faith in this, but with a government who believe in as little government inteference with market forces as possible, it's impossible. It's not as if they got anywhere with the last lot.

It doesn't seem that how to win friends and influence people was a motto that Gray and Keys lived by, the number of articles by Sky insiders annonymously puching the air that they have been booted out and exposed as not very nice pieces of work. Whilst there is no doubting they both had to go, and not particularly having that much time for either of them, i can't help feeling Andy Gray was punished as much for his court case in the phone hacking scandal as he was for his off air sexism.

With Mourinho allegedly at loggerheads with Real Madrid director of football Valdano will he last more than one season. And what will that mean for those that allege his plan is to take over from Fergie at United. Could it mean that this will be Fergie's last season as well as Van Der Sar's?

Iain Martin thinks Ed Balls, described as a killing machine to him by on cabinet minister will not find Osborne easy prey. Well Osborne's defence of the GDP figures, blaming the snow, wasn't exactly Norman Hunter defending. That description of Balls as a killing machine does tend to lead you to believe that not all the tories or their friends in the press were jumping for joy when Johnson stood down.
With long term youth unemployment around the million mark and approaching the kind of figures we saw in Thatchers first term when the tories decimated British manufacturing, ( the manufacting that has suddenly become fashionable again ) Martin Bright asks if the coalition hates young people. Well young people certainly hate Nick Clegg, though Cameron and Osborne seemed to have escaped their ire, another poor piece of positioning by the Lib dem leader.
Let's hope that this is the year that Cameron and especially Osborne get found out, because things haven't got anywhere near as bad as they are going to get.
Telegraph columnist Benedict Brogan describes the Lords crisis as at boiling point and wonders who will blink first. Good question, i would think the pressure within the labour party is to make sure Miliband isn't first to blink.

Whilst Europe and the States stagnates, though the US is supposedly showing signs of coming back to life, the Chinese economy grew by 10%, boosted by a £trillion of new money and easy credit. Stephen King warns the US in the Indie that it can't keep blaming the Chinese for all it's woes and argues it will have to learn to advocate the Chinese dragon. This Economist article seems to argue the exact opposite. Chinese foreign policy has become too tough and could prove dangerous and counter productive and the Chinese need to learn how to acknowledge the favours that US foreign policy occasionally does Chinese interests.
Whilst in Europe a Chinese shopping spree is rasing fear and hope in Europe, with Europe arguing that they want to see reciprocity for European maunfacturers in Chinese markets. French bank and others start to bet on a Chinese hard landing as it bets that the Chinese have let their economy rip too far and will have to rein it in, possibly slamming the breaks on hard. That is the one thing i can't see them doing. The overheated Chinese economy has the markets spooked as they are hit and fall on the news of the 10% growth.
I can't begin to understand the analysis but Gavyn Davies of the FT thinks the Chinese economy has exceeded its speed limit but too much has been made of it. He argues as a country in the process of catching up with the west it's growth figures have to be treated differently.

Music
Amy Winehouse - Back in black: I have heard virtually all of this individually and liked most of it but hadn't listened to it as an album up to now. It's even better all together on one disc, a superb album.

Caribou - Swim: This made it onto a couple of the best album lists of 2010 and i can see why. The last album was pretty good and this is an excellent electronica album for want of a better categorisation.

Panda Bear - Person pitch: Animal Collective's NoahLennox in his solo guise delivers Brian Wilson meets electronica. I like this, but that is a pretty good description, nicked i'm afraid. Not anywhere near as good as the last Animal collective though.

Portico quartet - Knee deep in the noth sea: Cracking modern jazz heavy on the percussion side of things. According to the wiki sire devoted to them their distinctive sound is created through the use of the Hang a 21st century percussion instrument used on all their tracks. It's an excellent album, though you would like to hear a future album without the Hang, just to see what it would be like.

Spoon - Ga ga ga ga ga: A highly thought of US indie rock group this album froma couple of years ago sold well in the States apparently. It's easy to see why with a radio friendly sound and and the songs to match.

The duke and the king - Long live the duke and the king: Another radio friendly US act, this time a second album effort, and what an excellent one. I haven't heard the first so i can't compare them but i love the americana meets occasional southern soul of this. I'll have to go back and listen to the first. I didn't know that the group was created by Simon Felice of The Felice brothers. I liked his first group but i think this is a cut above that.