Ole - The master's apprentice

A cracking piece on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in this mornings Telegraph by their resident red Jim White. He says all the right things. But he doesn't just say all the right things, he turned that club around to win that title. Nobody in Norway expected Molde to win the league this season. I would sooner he would stay there for another season before coming back to England though.

I watched the reserves defeat wigan last night 4-1, United weren't great but they did play some really good stuff at times. It was a pretty strong team, with Gibson and Rafael making overdue appearances. I thought Pogba was a bit underwhelming, even though he was admittedly out of position playing towards the right. He doesn't really look anywhere near the first team unfortunately, i would like to see him go out on loan, in the new year or even next season.
The player who looks nearest the first team was, you guessed it, Ravel Morrison. For the most part he was a level above everybody else on the pitch, though he wasn't perfect despite the two goals. He was a touch greedy at times and if he did make the jump up he would have to play the simple ball more often.
But he has everything, he has vision and the skill to realise that vision, he can beat a man, or two even and he knows where the goals are. The player he reminds me of most, has got to be Paul Gascoigne, unfortunately he is probably going to emulate the geordie off the pitch too, even if not for the same reasons.

Alan Hansen thinks Phil Jones has great potential but does not think he is ready to replace Rio Ferdinand quite yet. He doesn't think he is as good as the cockney was at that age. I'm not sure about that, he is probably right that he isn't as good a centre half yet, though to be fair to Jones he hasn't played in the position that much for United so it's hard to compare.
But he has played under two Champions league winning managers this season who have seen fit to play him in midfield against two of the biggest rivals they will face. That surely suggests how much faith that those two have in him. Fabio Capello even compared him to Franco Barresi after the game and as good a player as Ferdinand has been, he was never at the level of the AC Milan and Italy legend.

Samuel Luckhurst uses the pages of Sabotage times to ask, "is Michael Carrick Manchester United's midfield saviour", well i wouldn't use those words, but he would definitely be getting an extended run in the team if it had anything to do with me. I would love to see Cleverley and Carrick given a run of games together until christmas, though i know it won't happen. Failing that i would like to see the midfield rotate around those two and Fletcher, you can save Anderson for the league cup and a place on the bench otherwise at best. I spoke too soon, i should have known, i always thought the signs didn't look good when he came off at Goodison.
It will be interesting to see tomorrow's line up, who will line up in the middle of the park, will Rooney move back up front, who will play out wide and will we stay with a 4-4-2. Looking at the options it looks between Carrick and Fletcher with Rooney reverting to a more forward role or Rooney continuing in the middle. Neither are great options, i would sooner see Rooney up front, but he has been our best midfielder whilst he has been playing there.

The papers are, one again running with stories linking Berbatov with a move away from the club, this time to Russian Club Anzhi. It's probably bullshit, but if they were really willing to take Berbatov for £15 million, i would be amazed if Fergie isn't running the pros and cons of a sale through his mind.

Yet another young red to have come through the ranks at Old trafford made his international debut for his country earlier in the week. Ron-Robert Zieler appeared for Germany on Tuesday against the Ukraine in a 3-3 draw.
Even when players don't quite make it at United, there are more than a few who go on to have a good career in the game. And with competition for the best youngsters set to intensify, with the Arab billions across the city, that is a big plus for our youth set up in attracting the best young talent to the club.

Andy Cole joins the chorus of disapproval ringing in Sepp Blatter's ears. I have no time for him myself, he is a corrupt man leading a corrupt organisation. But do we really think he feels any pressure when all the vitriol he is receiving is coming from just this country.
The thing that amazes me in all this is that he bulit his political base in FIFA through courting thrid world countries and so so had a strong support in Africa. There must be some embarrassment in that continent amongst his supporters, though i would guess, not enough to worry him unduly.
Gus Poyet hasn't done his reputation much good this morning with his outburst over the Suarez affair, As a few have said this morning there won't be much chance og getting any young reds on loan at Brighton over the next few seasons.

As Spain joins Italy in the "at risk" list of European nations at risk at the hand of the bond markets, the BBC's Laurence Knight asks " what's the matter in Spain ". In the real world nothing is wrong, but ihe fantasy wotld of the Eurozone, it is doomed unless the Germans step in.
George Irvin looks at the power of the bond markets on Left foot forward and how they have shackled European democracy. This critique doesn't seem to get aired when the tory Eurosceptics accuse the European elite of bypassing democracy, i can't think why.
The New York times has been looking at the cracks that are beginning to appear between Germany and the rest as it dawns on France, Holland and the rest that the contagion won't stop at Spain as their own economies and debt position's start to look problematic. The latest country to get the hump would appear to be Ireland, Germany will have no friends left at the end of all this, even if the Euro does miraculously get saved.
Tom Streithorst argues we are in the final stage of the crisis according to Hyman Minsky and that neoclassical economists assume investors are rational but Minsky knew better.
Steve Richards comments on the growing Euroscepticism that most pundits see moving centre stage on the British political stage. I'm still to be convinced of the depth of that. We obviously won't be joining the Euro any time soon, but i don't believe we would come out of the EU given the chance.
That said, i'm pro-European but this is the type of article from Felipe Fernandez Armesto that makes you want to pull your hair out. Some Europeans really don't seem to understand how serious this crisis really is. If the Euro implodes, it probably will be the end of the EU itself and i don't see how it will ever be put together again, any time soon with Germany at the heart of it. Germany will be not forgiven for it's role in this crisis, but any future European project without Germany at the heart of it would be absolutely worthless.

Peter Oborne argues that the fate of this government lies in George Osborne's hands and at the minute things don't look good as his economic strategy is failing. I obviously can't agree with his remedy or agree that it's the Lib Dems fault, how supply side measures are supposed to get of out of this mess, just absolutley loses me. Big crisis calls for big measures not pin prick measures that would probably make things worse. How does making job security even less secure than it already is help consumer confidence. On day they may understand their whole economic philosophy died in 2008.
That's not to confuse neoliberalism with capitalism in general, as Faisal Islam argues in this blog Capitalism has probably never been so ascendant over Labour. I suppose the question is, is this the peak of the ascendancy and is this acsendancy comaptible with liberal democracy. I would side with those who think that this is one of the defining periods of history where one orthodoxy dies off, but what will replace it is the 50 million dollar question, will it be better or could be even worse.
Ha-Joon Chang argues that it is too simplistic to see the occupy Wall street and occupy London protestors as anti-cpaitalist, this can be a catalyst for a radical rethink. Well that's what they and i hope for, but the finacial and corportate world and their allies in the media aren't going to go without a fight.
It looks like Lib dem people behind the scenes have started to think out of the box, or should that be they have started to go back to yellow book type thinking from the early thrities. It always makes me laugh how labour types give Cable a load of stick for staying in the cabinet when everybody knows he doesn't agree with government policy. I presume they have read the history of their own party in government, you know the Labour government of the seventies that was so split on Europe, hardly a small matter. Or even the Blair-Brown years where the split may not have been that ideological but was probably even more de-stabilising. None of them walked out, they stayed and fought their corner. There comes a point where a point when it is right to walk, but i don't think we are there yet. Do we want David Laws taking the position vacated by Cable, a left leaning liberal come social democrat, i don't.
I have yet to read of anything remotely progressive coming from Balls and co.

On a sperate but connected note Aditya Chakrabortty asks why do we not make anything in this country anymore. Daniel Knowles picks up the theme, but in a typical Telegraph way claims our greatest social problem: there are no jobs for the dim. Loads of empathy there!
This economist column looks at the problems rapid technological change causes in the labour market. According to the author of this piece quite a lot of the electorate are going to be classed as stupid. There is nothing new under the sun, though, we can go back to the Luddites to find this problem. Having read an Asa Briggs book on that era, i can't help feel that the way we use that term nowadays is pretty unrespectful.

I thought this was a reasonably balanced article that gets to the heart of the matter of the border control controversy that hasn't covered any of the main players in glory. The ex civil servant in Craig Murray sees Whiteman as the villain, May as lazy. I have to admit that after watching the select committee that Whiteman was less than impressive and that the inference Murray puts on it may well be the case.