Is Vidic really off

Or is Fergie trying to galvanise him. Ian Ladyman reports in the Mail that Vidic may be allowed to join Real Madrid in the summer as Fergie is no longer convinced he is totally comitted to the club. He may be prepared to let him go, though it's hard to believe, but if'true, it's hrad to believe it is because he has suddenly become disenchanted with the club. We all read the stories and rumours a couple of seasons ago and on into the summer that he was unhappy for whichever reason ( his wife or his wages ), but once he had signed a new contract we presumed that had been put to bed.
So it's hard to see that he has suddenly fell out of love with the club again. If there is anything to this, and i hope there isn't, i would love to know what is really going on. On the footballing side, with Ferdinand almost certainly in his last season, it's a bit too early to be letting Vidic go. Smalling and Jones are going to be a top central defensive pairing, barring injuries of course, but there have to be quetion marks over Jonny Evans. So the squad would be not only short of cover but very light on experience, any signings would surely only be extra cover, and would any top players want to come to Old trafford to provide that?

David Sadler hasn't enjoyed the football since the 6-1 debacle but argues that it has been necessary to get back to the basics, purging ourselves of the inability to stop teams getting through our defence as easily as they had been doing. He goes on to claim that he would be happy to see the experience of Vidic and Ferdinand see us through this period at the heart of the defence.
I understand that we had to stop gifting the opposition as many chances as we had been doing, but as much as the back four had a collective mare against City, the problem for me, has been that teams have been slicing through our midfield as if there was no one there. I'm not the biggest fan of Carrick, but i don't see City beating us 6-1 with him in midfield. Again and again i come back to Anderson offering aboslutely nothing from a defensive ( forget the rest of his game ) point of view. With Fergie unable to pick the same back four from game to game this wasn't the best time tocome up short in the midle of the park. The defence have been getting absolutely no protection all season long.
As for Ferdinand and Vidic carrying us through the rest of the season, well maybe the Vidic and Rio of three seasons ago. The trouble is Rio isn't the same player and even if he was he can't play back to back games so there will be no consistency going down that route. I would go with Smalling and Vidic when Smalling returns from injury, but Fergie seems determined to go with Evans. I would only be using Ferdinand occasionally to come in later in the season when we hopefully start the knockout stages of the champions league and are back to three games a week.

Our fourth choice keeper Kuszczak isn't a happy bunny, claiming like Ronaldo once ludicrously did "that he is being treated like a slave by the club". Just what planet does the modern day footballer inhabit. It is really hard to have much time for any of them, i suppose that was one of the reasons a lot of us had so much time for Scholes, an absolute top player but still someone we could easily relate to.
Speaking of that other "slave", the Mail report Ronaldo could make a return to Old trafford to appear in Rio Ferdinand's testimonial next summer. Where to start with that, will Ferdinand even be here to have that testimonial, would Real Madrid be happy about Ronaldo returning and most importantly of all do i care. A great United player who played over two seasons of possibly the best football i have ever seen at Old trafford. He is one of the greatest players to have ever worn the shirt, but he would come a long way down the most revered players the club have ever had, for proper reds anyway.

Thr Republica of Mancunia blog posts an interview with the Guardian's man in Manchester Daniel Taylor as he re-releases his book, This is the one. It's interesting that he still thinks that Rooney had been tapped up by City through Marwood's lins with Paul Stretford and praises the job Fergie did in keeping him here. Roughly a thrid of the way through the season that looks an even bigger achievement, as superb as our start was, we would be struggling without him at the moment.

Danny Welbeck backs Cleverley to become a world class midfield player and admits that they are big friends who know each others game inside out after having come through the ranks together.
I concur with that, he definitely can, one big worry though and we have seen it this season already. He does seem to be fairly injury prone, we haven't really seen much of him so far this season. After the Everton game, Fergie claimed it wasn't too serious an injury and he would be back for the Sunderland game. Well he missed that and we haven't heard anything about him since.
The potential will only be realised once he starts playing regualrly week in, week out, it would be nice for him and for us to see him getting that consistent run of games.

Andy Mitten looks at the enigma that is Dimitar Berbatov as he ponders the thought that if he is sold in the winter break as some papers seem to be suggesting, that ther will be mixed feelings about a player who never equalled the sum of his outrageous talents.
James Robson of the M.E.N claims United should be breaking the bank for Modric, well i suppose that would give the Berbatov sale rumour some credence. There is just one problem, he is on record as saying he wants to stay in the capital as he is settled there. The only club he will be going would appear to be Chelsea, and if he did consider Manchester are we sure he would choose us over City as they would be bound to pke their noses in. File under aint going to happen, i think.


The Euro has gone to red alert as the crisis seems to be spiralling out of control as many have predicted it would. Paul Krugman agrees with an FT piece from Gavyn Davies that the crisis should be seen as a balance of payments problem not a deficit problem. But addressing the imbalances between the core and the periphary looks set to destroy the Eurozone as it stands at present.
Martin Wolf thinks through the unthinkable arguing a Europe built on a one sided deflationary adjustment will fail and if the leaders of the Eurozone insist on that policy, they must accept it will fail.
It seems, according to reports that the core nations around Germany may just accept that and may indeed be aiming for it. Frasier Nelson looks at the recently outed Frankfurt group and argues if you thought that the EU couldn't get any less democratic, think again. It doesn't look good.
But to me it's just another group of financier/politican groupings out to over ride the wishes of the electorate. Difference being they may well be strong enough to do what they propose and it won't work to the interest of the British political or business interest.
Jonathan Freedland wonders why the Eurosceptic right can't place Gordon Brown alongside their hero Thatcher for his role in keeping the country out of the Euro. Oh come on, please!

The Economist looks at the country of no, the main player in all this, Germany, and asks why it is so reluctant to stump up for the Euro. Ambrose Pritchard-Evans claims that the US and the Chines are very worried about Germany's non action in this crisis and can see both countries bringing massive pressure to bear on the Germans to do the right thing and use the ECB to resolve this whole mess. If the Germans did bring down the Euro, killing the PIIGS economies in the process, their hard won reputation achieved since the second world war would surely be destroyed. Faisal Islam argues that the PIIGS must achieve some porcine solidarity to stand up to Euro core zone, he thinks they would receive more support in Germany than they realise.

Misha Glenny has a completely different take on the situation in Greece, arguing the real tragedy is it's rapacious oligarchs who control Greek business, the finacial sector, the media and indeed the political class. It sounds like a vastly more advanced process of what is going on amongst all the western democracies, we live in sick times.
Along those lines Prem Sikka uses the Independent to argue that we should follow the Nordic countries in being able to see how much everybody pays in tax, he wants to be able to see how much Bob Diamond pasy in tax, he wants democratic accountability.
George Monibot looks at the myths and fallacies that the corporate and financial elite use to justify their huge rewards. Unsurprisingly he finds they fall down like a pack of cards. Not that there could be any justification anyway as far as i'm concerned, it's immoral how many times those at the top earn than those at the bottom, full stop. Paul Krugman aks, what boom, and who was the boom for?

Robert Fisk asks if those who flaunt the poppy on their lapels, know that they mock the dead? I have a big problem with that also. As well as it being almost a fashion symbol, i can't stand the fact that the people that shout loudest about wearing the things are almost always the first to cheerleader whichever politicians want to write their name in the history books by sending the armed forces into pointless, if not immoral foreign adventures. Poppies were supposed to honour the men who went to war to end all wars.

Music
African head charge - Voodoo of the godsent: A mix of influences that promises much, but could easily go the other way delivers a cracking album. This mix of dub, techno and world influences carries on their good work.

Low - C'mon: The only stuff i have of theirs is the christmas E.P from the nineties which i like but know is very much an acquired taste. I had read that their last couple of albums had seen the guitars raised in volume a notch or two and so it has but the speed doesn't seem to have. It's good, though it takes a couple of listen's to appreciate the longer tracks.

Miles Davis - Miles smiles: I'm still slowly working through the great mans back catalogue, this was the last real pure jazz disc he made before the amps got plugged in. It's brilliant, though the tempo is faster than some of the stuff from this period, a faster, harder bop. I have a DVD of a European tour from this band that i still haven't really watched properly, this is from that disc

Syd Barrett - Barrett: This was the first solo outing from Pink Floyd's original songwriter and band leader. This has been called a lost classic by some, it's good, very good at times, but calling it a classic is a bit much. He would have had such a lot to offer though if he hadn't have overindulged.

TV on the radio - Nine types of light: Their last album Dear science was one of my favourite albums of that decade and this is a worthy follow up. I don't think it's quite as good but it's still a cut above most indie/rock based music of the moment.

Wilco - The whole love: Another of the very best US groups of the present era, get as near to matching the glory that was Yankee hotel foxtrot as they have managed. The last album was pretty good but this is even better, it has some epic songs starting in storming fashion and ending equally stongly with not much let up in between