Paul Scholes bows out

Paddy Crerand, himself a midfielding great of Manchester United tells Talk sport why he puts Paul Scholes up there with the very best. I'm not really one for testimonials or friendlies but i couldn't miss tonight. I'd say my favourite three players of the Fergie era have been Eric Cantona, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs with the ginger prince edging it for his all round game, his great goals, assists and the way he changed his game as he sat deeper as he got older.
A lot has been said about the lack of true appreciation from the nation's press and even England managers, but i would have to say i don't think he has ever really been taken for his true worth even by the Old trafford crowd. A victim of the changing nature of football fan, how many times have i heard fans moan about his lack of pace. Scandalous but true.
I have always thought only people who have played a sport to a reasonable standard can really appreciate a players true worth, anybody who has never played football can just never appreciate that technique and first touch and ability to know where he is going to pass it before he has even recieved it. And then there was the way he pinged the ball out to the wing and put it on a sixpence. The goals, arriving late in the box, blockbusting shots and just how many goals did he score for a man of his height, what red will ever forget that last minute winner at the boo camp.
Xavi and Inisesta are both possibly the equals of Scholes in midfield, Xavi definitely is, but neither could match the diffferent type of goals that the ginger prince scored in the earlier part of his career. It will be a sad night to know that we are never going to see him in the red shirt of Manchester United. Life will go on without Scholes and United will have other great midfield players but none will be quite the same player as Paul Scholes.

Fergie lets slip that he was talking with Fabien Barthez at the Marseille game and the former United goalie asked him to pass on his rgards on to Scholesy, the best player he ever played with.

Scholesy is quoted in the press saying that if he feels he is not up to the job of coaching he will quit and admits he hadn't really thought of life after playing until the last six months. That would fit in with a piece i was reading on twitter last week that argued that Fergie had thought Scholes would be around for more than one season.
It's hard to see how he wouldn't be a decent coach, even if it's just coaching skills and technique. Of course he may want to aspire to something more than that, but just teaching that to the youngsters coming through would surely be a great thing for the club. Is this his new career?

Eric explains his role at the New York cosmos ahead of tonight's testimonial, i suppose Scholes will be glad to see him there to take some of the spotlight of him.

Onto the disaster waiting to happen in the financial markets, Ambrose Pritchard-Evans argues it's time for Europe to put up or break up, not that he sees any likelihood of this happening. Robert Peston explains the origins of todays mayhem.

All this and it's not even as if the British economy was in much of a good place anyway. Jeremy Warner argues that whatever George Osborne thinks, Britain will spend years in the doldrums. Well we will if we don't tear up our current economic orthodoxies as Richard Murphy warns feral finance has to be taken on and put back in its box.
Robert Skidelsky thinks that Osborne's austerity gamble is fast being found out and again argues for a green investment bank as part of a plan A+.

Of course the current state of woe is built upon twin pillars, the possible disintegration of the Euro and the hit the banks will take from that and the increasingly gloomy news afflicting the US economy after the budget debacle. Take your pick whether you agree with Mehdi Hasan, and Paul Krugman who argue the president has surrendered or with Tim Stanley who thinks that the Republicans have shot themselves in the foot.
I'd have to go with the former myself. Even if the obviously Clintonite, Blairite third way argument of Stanley were right what on earth does Obama do with a second term where he has virtually boxed himself into a Republican spending cuts agenda. And if there is no improvement in either the economy, seemingly unlikely, or his performance he will surely face a challenge in the primaries for the democratic nomination that he is not certain to win after the demorilisation the democatic foot soldiers have taken from this episode. As Michael Tomasky pointed out Obama has virtually capitulated in front of US right, pointing out that this marks the beginning of conservatism being the driving force of US politics for years to come.
Paul Harris explains how the US tea party won the debt deal and argues it's time the Democrats stopped whining and started copying. I have some time for that argument, as loopy as they obviously are at least they stood up for what they believe in. Hopefully in the long run, the US electorate will see there economic arguments as the hogwash they are. George Monibot takes a close look at the Tea party and describes how the billionaires broke the system and how the tea party supporters are voting against their own interests.


Music
Charles Bradley - No time for dreaming: A superb piece of Stax type soul from the present day, all the classic traits including a great horn section.

J. Masics - Several shades of why: Dinosaur Jr.'s front man unplugs with a mainly acoustic offering. It's not bad, he shows that even on acoustic , he is an excellent guitarist.

King Creosote and John Hopkins - Diamond mine: A decent collaboration of ambient and Hopkins indie pop.

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - The kings of Benin: Urban groove 1972-1980: More west African brilliance, but this time from Benin. Afro beat meets cuba at times, it's gloriously catchy.

The Jayhawks - Hollywood town hall: A US indie country rock outfit from the 90's that i never listened to at the time. There are some cracking tunes on this, but the lesser tracks, whilst there is nothing wrong with them, stop it from being as good as it might have been.

The Limananas - The limananas: A French group with a sound that blends vintage 60's styles get the thumbs up from me with this debut effort. Organ to the front with a dirty scuzzy guitar sound to boot and the songs aint bad too.