Sheffield United 2-2 Manchester United FA youth cup 1st leg

Well they lost away at Chelsea and delivered the goods at Old trafford so here's hoping they can emulate that feat in the second leg. In front of an impressive 30,000 crowd United took the game to the home team.
United played the better football and eventually got the goal that their play deserved through Jesse Lingard though the ball clearly never crossed the line. Unfortunately Sheffield United equalised with the goal of the night just before half time as Macfazdean's surging run ended with an unstoppable finish. United managed to regain the lead as Pogba's super ball found Lingard on the right and his cross eventually landed at the feet of Will Keane who made no mistake to tap home and give United the advantage. Again the home side hit back with a long range effort that this time took a cruel deflection.
United didn't play as well as they can, though they merited the draw at the very least. Still a draw away from home in a two legged tie must be seen as a fair result with the home leg to come at Old trafford.

Mark Ogden reckons that the champions league final at Wembley on the 28th will tell us how good this United team really is. That sounds a bit glib to me, it's a one off game and i don't think the most blinkered red would argue that this United team is as gifted a football side as the current Barca outfit. That said they are definitely beatable, and United are definitely one of the teams capable of doing that.
The really fascinating thing to watch is how Fergie is going to set us up to try and do that. Obviously i want to us to win as much as the next red, but not in the way Mourinho tried to do with Real. I'm hoping and expecting us to do it with Hernandez up front and Rooney behind him. I know that means we will see less of the ball than our opponents, but it will allow us to be far more dangerous to the opposition when we do have it. I still think if Barca have a weak link it is at the back, Puyol isn't the quickest and the left back aint the best.
Fergie was at the match himself and as we know he is hopeful that we may have one or two gems amonst the current crop. As the guardian says he hopes to find the next Giggs amongst the group, or maybe even the next Scholes.
Ryan Giggs lauds the next set of youngsters, though in this case he is talking about Smalling, the Da Silva twins and Hernandez. They will take the club forward.

Speaking of Paul Scholes, Gary Neville has urged him to continue for another season, not that he expects him to take much notice of him. Can't add much to that, he isn't the player he was but he is still good enough to play a meaningful role in the first team squad next season. But if as is thought he wants to play more often, it seems likely he will retire, i hope not.

David Sadler joins the chorus of pundits and ex pros to wonder how Nemanja Vidic missed out on the player of the year award. Up until the last couple of months i would have given it to Nani, but he has faded away back to his old inconsistent self over that period. He seems to be one of those players needs to play every week, but with Valencia back that was never and couldn't ever happen. A big shout could have been made for Berbatov during the first half of the season and Hernandez during the latter half.
But if we go over the season as a whole, our most consistent performer has definitely been Vidic. Fergie knew what he was doing giving him the captaincy at the beginning of the season.

Sam Wallace looks at that famous Fergie perch statement and looks at the challenges that United have faced and where they may come from in the future. Kevin McCarra looks at Fergie's handling of the squad through the season and pinpoints the run from mid November to the start of February as the key to the campaign.
At last nights MUFC player of the year award do at Old trafford last night Fergie let slip that they hope to make three signings to keep the squad up to standard. Cue all this mornings papers trying to guess said players. Obviously one will be a goalie to replace Van Der Sar, but the others? If he could get Modric i'm sure if Fergie was allowed he would splash the cash for him, but other than him i can't see another central midfield player available out there. Rodwell and Henderson are always talked about, both potentially good players, but how good, again i'm not sure. And Ashley Young keeps getting mentioned, i do like him, but unless he lets Nani go where would he play him.
So in conclusion i think it will be a goalie and i'm clueless to who else and what position the players he will be looking for.

Martin Bright looks at this countries record on further education and doesn't like the fact that degree's have been prized higher than apprenticeships. Spot on the money, we only to look at Germany to see how wrong that policy has been, it is a disaster in the making alright. And to think it was the Labour party that thought that up.

David Allen Green looks at privacy, the public interest and the woman called Imogen Thomas. I know the case may well be close to home but as far as i'm concerned the judge is doing the right thing. As long as someone hasn't been elected or sits in a position of power what right is it of the press or anybody else what goes on in somebody else's private life. It might even force to rport on things that actually matter, though i'm not holding my breath on that.

The current Euro crisis or whatever you would like to call has shown an alarming lack of leadership and Anthony Painter argues that we will crash again unless global leaders answer some fundamental economic questions. I'm reading John Lanchester's book explaining the crash Whoops and it's bringing it home to me in a big way how little has changer and the brazeness of the financial sector and the Lilliputianness of our political elite. Jeremy Warner is probably right that Gordon Brown would be a disaster as head of the IMF, but his stewardship of the credit crunch crisis, however slow and reactive it may have been looks Olympian compared to the current crop of leaders.

Robert Reich writes how the US's wealthiest financed the country mainly through it's tax payments and how a great switch has occured whereby they now finance it by lending it money. Getting rich of the state, how patriotic of them.