Gill in town

David Gill appeared in front of parliamentary select committee for culture, media and sport yesterday and showed he hasn't lost his touch. He told the committee that United would not talk to MUST or IMUSA whilst the aim of thoses groups was a change of ownership and that United had 330 million fans worldwide, the latter statement part of the usual bullshit.It would seem he was speaking for more than Manchester United when he argued that the FA should adopt major reform. The only obstacle being that it's the premier league blocking any meaningful reform.
Gill also defended supposedly rewarding bad behaviour by rewarding Rooney with a new improved contract. You have still got to wonder whether the Glazer's were making sure they didn't lose him on the cheap. Though what his market value would be after this pretty dismal season, you can only guess at, £50 million as was suggested at the time would seem ludicrous.
Andersred didn't take long to query Gill's adding up after he had told the committee that the net spend on transfers unders the Glazer's has been greater than in the five or six years before that. A period that saw us buy Rio, Rooney for not inconsiderable amounts of money, it seems unlikely without even checking it.

Nani will face a spell on the sidelines after being on the receiving end of Carragher's boot last Sunday with some reports saying a month and the Mail saying the next three games. I suppose we are lucky that we have Park and Valencia coming back. We have just got to hope they are reasonably fit, though it seems to be asking a bit much to expect Valencia to immerdiately reacptute of last season after such a horrendous injury. I think those expecting him to start putting them on a plate for Rooney again, as he did last season may be disappointed.
What we won't replace with those two those is the goals that have been coming from the boot of Nani over the past season. He wasn't at his best during the last two games though, blunder against the dippers aside, when we wanted him to step up to the plate, he didn't or couldn't. One mitigating factor i will give him is that he didn't get half as much support from O'Shea as he does from Rafael. Who knows if he had stayed on the pitch on Sunday, maybe he would have had some joy in the second half.

Ex United right back Paul Parker dissects Sunday's disaster and applauds the mickeys for wanting it more and is yet another pundit to take at our deterioration in the centre of the park. Alarmingly he thinks that teams may have woken up to the fact that if they have a go at us they will have some joy. At least we will hopefully have one of Rio or Vidic available for the remainder of the current season. Smalling has done well and wasn't to blame for Sunday's debacle and as long as we have those three available at centre half we shouldn't be found as wanting at the back as we were on Sunday.
Ian Wright warns the knockers that it is far too soon for United to be written off but does argue that Vidic will be vital to the future of our campaign as he is the man that has kept us together. That's fair shout, though going in the final stretch of the seasons, you need all departments of your squad firing. As at Blackburn at the tail end of last season it's no good being able to keep the oppostion out if you can't put them away at the other end. Anything could happen on this run in yet, those not ruling out Chelsea and City aren't mad. 

If United are to strenghten the midfield in the summer, which i'm not at all sure will happen, unless Scholes retires, it doesn't look like Jordan Henderson will be one of the players that will be on the shipping list as the Mail report that he is more than happy to stay with his home town team.
That would be the best move for his own career, whilst he stays at Sunderland he will play every game. Better to stay and wait a couple of years until he is more of the finished article before he considers a move to one of the top five or six. That is assuming that he makes the progress that most pundits assume he will.

The Evening news claim that Fergie won't receive any action against him for last weeks media gag. Though other papers write that the BBC will put a complaint in, is an interview with Phelan that vital too them. To be serious though, it's pretty small time and doesn't really reflect well on the club. Though i have always thought it's ridiculous that a manager is asked to comment after the game before he has had time to calm down from the heat of the moment.

Martin Keown thinks Wenger must pick his strongest team on Saturday to get the fans back on side after admitting what a remarkably one sided affair last nights defeat from Barca was.

I stayed up to watch the highlights of the world cup clash between New Zealand and Pakistan last night. I'm still not sure whether most of the credit goes to an amazing batting performance from Ross Taylor and New Zealand or to wonder just how inept the bowling was as the Pakistani attack fell apart in those last ten overs. It was great viewing either way.

Craig Murray doesn't accept the official explanation of the SAS Libyan cock up expedition and offers a theory that he thinks is at least more believable. I don't really believe that, it presupposes that they had enough intelligence in the country to even know about the arms dump, which on all the available evidence doesn't seem likely. I agree with him though, they were not there to make contact with the rebels. Whatever they were there for, it was to do with the interests of the British government as opposed to the interests of the British or indeed Libyan people.

David Prosser writes that wherever you look you see evidence of bankers fighting back and that Bob Diamond meant exactly what he said when he told MP's that the time for remorse was over. Larry Elliott explains what a brave chancellor would do, whether Osborne is brave or not, he is there to do the bidding of the tories paymasters, so not much chance he will follow that advise. There will be a decision for Clegg and Cable then, as if they are to disolve the coalition government before the five years are out, an argument over a refusal to accept the Vickers commission on banking, if it is too radical for the tories to stomach would be the most electorally advantagous for the party.
But Jeremy Warner wonders whether we are putting the cart before the horse. He thinks it would be fine to dismantle the banking sector and thoroughly reform as long as it's co-ordinated with the rest of the developed world. If it is done alone, he thinks we will just be throwing one of our only world leading industries away to be picked up by one of our competitors. The argument against that is surely that at least then British tax payers wouldn't have to pick up the bill for the next banking bail out that would be seemingly unavoidable without fundamental reform.
David Blanchflower gives Iain Duncan Smith a lesson on unemployment and how it actually works. He points out that of those half a million vacancies in the economy at the moment how many are the 2,500,000 actually trained, qualified or experienced enough to fill.

US financial manager and investment author Bill Gross explains why the richest should be paying more in tax and doing their bit to help bring down US debt.

Ambrose Pritchard-Evans reports on the delicate balance of the oil markets and the danger to global recovery of getting output boosted at the wrong time.

Ariel Pink - Haunted graffiti ( Before today): An excellent piece of US indie with influences from the 80's 60's and all over the shop. At the poppier edge of the indie spectrum, though it does rock at times.

 Avi Buffalo - Avi Buffalo: More US indie pop and also from California. It's a decent album with a Byrdsian infleunce at times, never a bad thing. It's a decent album, though not quite good as Ariel Pink.
Best coast - Best coast: Another piece of US indie, this time a pretty good debut album from the female fronted outfit, again it's on the poppier edge of indie, but there are some strong tunes on it.

First aid kit -  The big, the black and blue: Supposedly Scandanavia's answer to the Fleet foxes, they are not quite that good but it's a very good album. Most reviews questioned the strenght of the songwriting, but i thought that was sound enough. As all recognised the vocals are excellent.
Magnetic man - Magnetic man: The dubstep supergroup, this is a bit too commercial for me, it has some decent moments, but i can't see myself coming back to this too much. It just sounds a bit too twee for me at times, the vocals mainly.
No Age -Everything in between: Us indie duo, heard that one before, but it's a fair album. More on  the heavier punkier side of the indie spectrum, it's not earth shattering but enjoyable all the same.