Manchester United 5-0 Wigan athletic

Fergie rotated the squad , partly down to the busy xmas period and partly down to yet more injuries to our defence meant Carrick had to drop back to partner Evans in the heart of the defence. Our injuries this season have become something else. To make matters worse Evans left the field at half time to leave a centre half pairing of Carrick and Evra. It was a good job it was only Wigan and a good job we were at home. We need to get bodies back and quick because that defence would have been well and truly found out by a better side than Wigan.
And speaking of Wigan, just how bad were they, that was aabout as bad an away performance as i can remember. The second half was virtually a traing ground performance, in fact United hardly got out of first gear for the whole 90 minutes and yet we ended with five goals and it could have been more.
Once again United got off to a good start taking the lead after just 8 minutes, the goal coming from our first serious attack as Evra beat two men so easily it wasn't true and crossed for Park to side foot the ball into the back of the net. I have to admit that at the match i thought the ref had made the right call with the sending off, from our view it looked like he had elbowed Carrick. Obviously the TV pictures showed that it was very harsh and effectively killed the game off. There was no way a ten man Wigan were going to get anything out of this game.
Berbatov added a second just before the break and after that it was basically a question of how much United wanted to improve the goal difference. Eve though he claimed a hatrick and the two goal from open play were pretty good goals, i didn't actually think Barbatov had that great a game. His second goal was classic Berbatov though, an exquisite first touch turn and toe poke to make ti 3-0 on the hour.
Valencia was playing right back, not where i'm happiest seeming play to be honest, but he was basically playing as a second winger. It was now his turn to get in on the action as he hit a pile driver into the corner of the net to make it 4-0. The finishing touch to a highly satisfactory day came from the penalty spot as Rooney allowed Berbatov the chance to claim a hatrick after Park had been upended.
When the rest of the results came in a very happy Old trafford crowd left for their post match pints. I hadn't really fancied West Brom to do us a favour so that was a bonus. I do fancy Sunderland to give them a hard game next week under new manager Martin O'Neill, so fingers crossed.

The injury woes don't get any better with the news that Jonny Evans will be out for two weeks, God knows what out defence will look like for the FA cup tie at the boo camp. If it's anything like the line up we finished with yesterday i think i'll leave the country.

Fulham 0-5 Manchester United

I was hoping for more of the same, an unchanged line up and more of the free flowing football we have been served up over the last few games. But Craven cottage has become a hard place to go, especially for United over the last few years, so i would have taken any kind of win at kick off. So for us to come away with a 5-0 was beyond my wildest dreams.
Fulham were poor, there is no getting away from that, but the United of a couple of months back would never have wiped the floor with the west London outfit in such a manner. As on Sunday United started well, a high tempo and with attacking intent. But when Nani got the ball on the half line five minutes into the game, i don't think anybody would have guessed he would just head straight down the touchline to cross for Welbeck to get the goal his recent play deserved. It was yet another great start for the reds and they didn't take their foot of the pedal.
Unfortunately even when things seem to be going great we can't stop picking up injuries. It didn't look good when Jones went down and stayed down, he got back on the pitch, but eventually had to go off with what is suspected to be a broken cheekbone, which if confirmed will keep him out for six weeks. That would be a right bastard, because i have been looking forward to seeing him against City in the FA cup. It doesn't look like that that is going to happen, we are going to need all our best players for that.
The second came via the head of Nani, a collectors item surely, once again i suppose Fulham would be asking questions of their defence. Jones superb displays have been a standout feature of our recent run, but just as influential for me has been the return of Danny Welbeck to the team. He is going to be a great player and United have played almost all their best stuff this season with him in the team. He brings more to the table than Hernandez, the forward line has a lot more fluidity with him harrasing the opposition defence, creating, making space and getting on the end of things. I'm crossing my fingers that he can have an injury free run. It will be great to see him and Cleverley back in the team together, evidence that the future is bright.
The third goal from Giggs, if fortunate killed the game stone dead. I have to say i got a bit greedy at this point i was hoping for a hatful when at the start of the game i would have gladly settled for a 1-0. But to be honest most of the second half was a non event, United coasted through it, Fulham managed to show some fight and i ended up hoping we would keep the three goal lead to better our goal difference.
Then towards the end United picked it up again, Welbeck lifted over the bar when he probably should have scored and then Rooney blasted from distance like we haven't seen for ages. What a great shot, more of that and less of the silly chips please. Berbatov was suprisingly brought on near the end and ended things up to perfection with a lovely back heel type finish. I talk to a guy at half time at Old trafford and after the City debacle i proffered the thought that they would struggle to get that out of their system and we wouldn't see the kind of football we saw during the first six weeks until Christmas, fuck me i got it down to the very week.

It was a tad bizarre how most of the papers yesterday morning seemed to pile the eulogies onto Giggs after last night's performance. Yes he had a decent game but he has played better this season, Michael Crick made a good point on twitter, all the press have mentioned his goal and reported it as his 20th consective season scoring a goal. Try making that 22, there was a world before the premier league. It's sickening the way the pre-premier league are sometimes treated as if they never happened.

Good news on the Phil Jones front, Fergie has told the press this morning that he hasn't broken anything and could be in contention for Monday. Best news of the week that.

United have lost their battle with City over the 3rd round FA cup allocation, suprise, suprise, i suppose there was only going to be one winner. If the FA concede to the home team every time health and safety is brought up we'll end up with no the same allocation as for league games for every cup tie.

Andy Cole reminisces about his time with Roy Keane under Fergie, he was a winner, but knowing the two men he can't see them resolving their differences any time soon. I just can't picture Keano and Denis Irwin toe to toe.

Paul Hayward believes Liverpool's siege mentality over the Suarez case is misguided, they can't help its in their genes.

Peter Oborne sensibly doesn't think giving Margaret Thatcher a state funeral would be a good thing. If they go ahead and have one it should be interesting, i can see some former mining districts having street parties to celebrate her death. I'm no fan obviously and think Oborne is totally wrong to put her in the front rank of prime ministers.
Winning three elections on the bounce and a little war against Argentina, do not a great prime minister make. What will she have actually left behind her that will survive, she decimated british manufacturing, which Thatcherites said didn't matter, it was survival of the fittest. That was always bonkers and of course 2008 was the proof of that.
She liberated the city of London, an d once again we now know that this was a disaster. Her housing policy has proved to be a disaster, you can just go on and on. She set the political climate alright and led this country way to the right of where it was in 1979, but it can't be said to have had a happy ending. She was supposed to have got the country back on its feet after the Butskellite post war period of 1945-75, and here we are in 2011 after 30 years of Thatcherite economics in an even worse position than we were in 1979. And before tories try to pretend that was Labour's fault, get serious they didn't oppose any of the policies followed by Brown that got us into this mess.

Simon Jenkins warns that the cause of this recession was economic pundits ignoring histories voice. Adair Turner talks about shrinking the City, we can make banks safer, but not safe he admits, the big band was a really great idea wasn't it. You can call that admitting that the neo-liberal agenda pushed by all three of our political parties still has been a gigantic disaster.
Yet another arm of the economic consensus, the credit agencies come in for ridicule from Jonathan Portes. For such a useless industry how much do these people get paid, that's what makes me laugh or rather band my head against a wall, they get paid rather well.

Duncan Weldon reads the latest blog from the IMF's chief economist that seems to blow an intellectual hole in the coalition government's economic startegy.

Is Argentina set receive a new wave of European immigration, the guardian report on Europeans arriving in South America in search of a better life.

It's the best albums of the year time again, this is Piccadily records top 100.

Evra vindicated!

I can't say i was thrilled that this case got to this stage, not because i don't think racism isn't a serious problem and should be tackled, i do, but because this basically boiled down to one man's evidemce against another. Compare to the John Terry scenario, which seems to be an open and shut case for me, even if the police don't prosecute how can the FA not come down on him like a ton of bricks after this. It's hard to see hime going to European championships in the summer as captain, though given our FA, who knows?
From what evidence we have, all along United and Evra have observed the FA's intsructions not to talk to the press, you can only imagine that Suarez has effectively hung himself out to dry, unless the full details have not been made public that is. The Liverpool statement released after the decision was announced was farcical, as one wag said last night, Gary Cook is alive and well and back in football. Whether Suarez had been found guilty or not Liverpool FC's conduct during this whole episode is almost as worthy of investigation.
James Lawton wrote this morning that a completely independent panel found the cannibal of Ajax unequivocally gulity, so i think we should assume that the evidence was there.
Things are going to be hot the next time we play the fuckers, and even hotter the next time we play at Anfailed as needless to say this is more than a bit of a disaster for their season. Andy Carroll and Liverpool's transfer strategy is about to receive some unwanted attention.
Mark Ogden writes that Evra is bound to feel vindicated by the decision after his four game ban over the Chelsea groundsman incident.

On a more wholesome note Phil Jones tells the MEN that he is having the time of his life at United, it's got to be said he is making United fans life that bit more pleasurable at the moment. He tells them he can't believe that things are going as well, well i suppose he probably couldn't have imagined being such a big hit in the middle of the park.
Wilf McGuiness warns reds not to burden Jones with comparisons with the incomparable Duncan Edwards, he's good, very good but Edwards was a one off. Saying that he sees echoes of Keano and Robbo in him and argues that midfield should the position that Fergie utilises him in, like me he thinks you would be wasting too much of his game as a defender.
As for us tonight more of the same please, that means an unchanged team as much as performance. I know there are going to be plenty of chopping and changing over the new years period, but this is one of the harder games of this run and we need to keep the form going as well as keep the points coming. If Rafael is fit i would bring him in on boxing day as well as giving Hernandez a run out. Of course that means keeping Welbeck and Rooney together again tonight.

A decent piece from the Irish examiner that was on Red News website yesterday comparing the way Fergie operates to the way Keano still blazes about. The nub being that Keano is too honest, and whilst that makes him a brilliant interviewee, it's not going to help his managerial ambitions. That is pretty much the crux of the matter, i would find hard to disagree with anything Keane said about Fergie and yet, would i have any other manager at United to replace him? not on your life, i dread the day he goes.
Andy Mitten gives thanks for free speech and Keano's willingness to go where others won't, whether it incurs Fergie's wrath or not.

United have a decision to make over the future of Dimitar Berbatov, Mark Ogden wonders whether they will invoke the option they have on his contract or will they allow him to talk to interested parties. The option that allows the Glazers to recoup some of the £30 million sjelled out on him i suspect, so they will take the option and then sell him in the summer. Unless they are really desperate right now that is. With the plans to part float still on hold, who knows where we are at financially, with the state of the financial markets i can't see that going ahead any time soon. There no more popular in Florida these days it seems.

The Beckham bandwagon has stalled, it was assumed that his next decision would be gay Paris and PSG, but he hasn't made his mind up apparently. Maybe he is waiting for the word from Fergie, well we need a creative midfielder.

Lancashire CCC batsmen Stephen Moore shares his thoughts on last years success and hpo Lancashire are planning for long term success as pre season training begins. Pretty interesting to hear him talk about the small squad's part in the success, of course you have to have luck going in that direction.

Michael Billington reminds us that we should remember Vaclav Havel the playwright as well as Havel the statesman.
As one modern great dies, one modern tyrant shuffles of this mortal coil, i have to admit that every time i saw a picture of Kim Jong Il it always led to me thinking of the film Team America: world police. This Independent piece reminds us why we shouldn't falling into the trap of just laughing at such evil men.

David Hearst desribes Putin's rule of Russia as a giant car boot sale with its wealth and brains flowing out of the country. I'm not much of a fan of Mary Dejevsky's musings but this was worth a read, she wrote that there is a palpable concern in Russia's power structures that a decade of stability could be drawing to a close. That may well be true, but it doesn't really explain the booing and demonstrations that seem to have sprung up out of nowhere. It wasn't the power structure out on the streets demonstrating.
The Economist talks of cracks appearing which show that Putin should clean up the Kremlin and the Russian economy for the countries sake and for his own. With all those oligrachs and all that bent money, surely easier said than done. Jonathan Steele describes the protests as the end of an era as the people finally run out of patience with the rigid, lawless elites.

I have just finished watching the excellent City of men which was written and made by the same people behind City of god. It's more light hearted than the film, even though it still examines the tensions behind the surface of the Brazillian city. But one thing i do get from watching it is how alien Manchester must be to any Brazillians that end up at either of the Manchester clubs.



Music
Amos Lee - Mission bell: Decent stuff from the US singer/songwriter, not the best of the genre, but very listenable.

Battles - Gloss drop: The second album and first down to a three piece, it got middling reviews with most thinking it was step down from their excellent debut. I actually think it's almost as good, just one or two songs short of the debut.

Chilly Gonzales - The unspeakable: An orchestral hip hop album, doesn't sound promising, but it's actually pretty good. As usual it's the music that hits me first and that's excellent.

Grateful dead - American beauty: I had honestly never heard the San Francisco hippy giants before listening to this. From everything i have read this seems to be pretty atypical, but i really like the folk rock Byrdsian ytpe songs on it.

Gruff Rhys - Candylion: I 'm not going to suprise anybody by saying i love this, as with his recent Hotel shampoo this is on the poppier side of the super furries.

Wayne Shorter - Adam's apple: Excellent stuff again from Shorter not quite at the top of their game, but there's some brilliant stuff on the album.

Q.P.R 0-2 Manchester United

United took the pitch at Lofus road with that collectors item, an unchanged team, which the way the season has gone was probably the only time he has been able to actually name one. After last Saturday's encouraging response to our champions league exit, an unchanged line up was just what the doctor ordered.
Pleasingly the team carried on where they had left off at home to Wolves, starting at a fastish tempo, keeping the ball well and carrying the game to the opposition. And just as last week we looked a lot better in midfield with Carrick and Jones keeping the ball better, protecting the back four reasonably well and combining with the front line. All the plaudits will once again got to Jones, and deservedly so, he was magnificent again but Carrick has brought as much to the team. It is no suprise that we have looked a lot more assured at the back, well through the middle anyway, with Carrick patrolling the space in front of the back four.
Evra had another stinker, it's almost every game with him now, i don't know whether Zeki Fryers will be the answer eventually but if Evra is a liability against even QPR, you fear for him against a Barca or a Real Madrid. He was disastrous at home to City, lest we forget. I am reasonably confident for the cup tie at the boo camp, but if they can get at him again, well it doesn't bear thinking about.
I wouldn't be as hard on Smalling, full back isn't really his position, in fact when the twins get back i would like to see him move him into the middle. But he has had two less than stellar performance last week and this. He isn't a full back and for the last couple of games hasn't really looked like one. Stiil given the twins inability to last a game or stay fit for any kind of run of games, he will probably be our right back for most of the rest of the season.
The goal inside of the first minute was the ideal start it goes without saying, a great cross from the reinvigorated Valencia somehow made it's way to Rooney's head and he made no mistake. As much as you might dominate the game, in such a tight stadium the home side were never out of it whilst whilst only a goal down, so it was pretty galling that United failed to take advantage of the numerous chances to make it two before half time. And there were some chances! Jones made another of his now trademark runs but was foiled by a great sto by the keeper Cerny. Cerny also made a great stop from Valencia but Evans was gulity of missing an open goal.
United started the second half just like the first when Rooney was put through, but his first touch was poor and the chance was missed. The second and decisive goal saw a rare sortie up front from Carrick who ran half the length of the pitch before before slotting home to score his frist goal in 70 games. Maybe that is a good sign, if memory serves me right he does tend to get the odd goal or two when he hits his optimum form. We could have had a third when Jones burst forward again to hit the post, but the last 20 minutes saw United on cruise control . It was a pleasant suprise to see Hernandez on the pitch and get half an hour on the pitch in the second half. That half hour cameo though, did show us how much more dynamic United are when Welbeck plays up front. He may not be the finisher that the Mexican is, but he brings so much more the teams play.
It was a pity about the two results later in the afternoon, but at least City didn't looks as convincing in victory as they might have. They don't look unbeatable any more and i have a feeling the second half of the season is going to be very interesting.

I thought this was a pretty lame, lazy piece from Sabotage times trying to warn us not to get too excited about the emergence of Phil Jones and then going on to compare him to John O'Shea. Anybody who has watched for United for more than five minutes can see that Jones is the real deal.
It's not just anybody that can make the runs from midfield that he has been making from midfield during the last two games. And lets not forget he was making great runs from right back and even from centre half. And it's not just the runs, there is invariably an end product to those runs. He isn't the finished article by a long shot, but that is what makes watching his emergence all the more exciting, i mean just how good is he going to be.

All yesterday's and today's back pages are suggesting that Benfica's Gaitan transfer to United next summer is a done deal,well we'll see i suppose. I notice Mendes is involved in a potential United purchase yet again, i'm not too thrilled at that news. Still with half a season for the Argentine to push up the asking price i wouldn't mark this down as a done deal yet. If not City then i wouldn't be suprised to see Real Madrid sticking their noses into this, another club to have close connections with Mendes of course.
Alan Hansen doesn't think that we will be entering the transfer market in January unless a top class defender becomes available. I don't think he will full stop

Fergie finally broke his silence on the Pogba rumours, giving credence to the chances of the youngster moving on. I can't fault him on this, he hasn't done anything to warrant what he is reportedly asking for. He may turn out to be the player United hoped he would become when he was poached from Le Harve, but he is nowhere near it yet.

I was expecting Keano to have a pop back at Fergie and sure enough in an interview in the Sunday times yesterday he did. If the watching world didn't know before, they do now, relations are at a permafrost temperature, no love lost at all. Knowing Keano it's hard to see diplomatic relations being restored.
I would back Keano up with quite a lot of his grievences, but he will be fighting a losing battle going public with it, if i were him i would have waited form him to retire before commencing battle.

It wa sad to hear of the death of Czech playwright, dissident and ultimately president Vaclav Havel, truly one of the great European figures of the second half of the 20th century. He was also one of the last great Liberals, name a great Liberal European statesman still alive, because i'm struggling to think of one.

George Monibot unmasks the press and wonders if we have ever been so badly served by the press. Of course they are supposed to hold power toaccount, but when there owners are part of that power elite, it's not really going to happen is it.
Robert Fisk is fed up with reading the drivel written in the western press about the Arab spring, arguin that the true comparison between the situation in the Arab world and the protests that we see in the west is that the bankers are dictators of the west.
I'm fairly sure that Ambrose Pritchard-Evans wouldn't really go along with that, but this piece arguing that the disasters that have befallen the European left, that he thinks should see them rethink their whole approach the European left isn't a milion miles away from what Fisk was getting at. Ha-Joon Hang compares the Merkozy proposals to 18th and 19th century capitalism revisited, and wonders whether we will going back to a world of child labour, debtor prisons, workhouses and bank runs.
As Aditya Chakrobortty writes Britain is ruled by the banks for the banks and wonders why the city of London deserved David Cameron's kid glove treatment whilst it fails to pay its way nor lends effectively.
Ahead of today's announcement in parliament Ben Chu described the cities lobbying against meaningful reform as dishonest and damaging.

Neil Young & Crazy horse with like a hurricane from the live rust DVD, which i finally watched this last week, it's excellent, shame the quality isn't as good as it might be.

Flecther the lastest midfield pin to be bowled over !

I can't say i was amazed by the news that United have officially announced that Darren Flecther is taking an extended break from football for health reasons. As i have wrote, the fact that he was left out of the Basel game was the most obvious sign yet that something was amiss.
As the Telegraph writes he is basically fighting to save his career and after reading up on the illness on Wikipedia you have got to wonder how much chance he really has. It's amazing that he managed to get back to playing at all this season after what he must have been going through. But we have to be honest, it's been all too apparent he hasn't been the player that made him a player Fergie always went to for the big games. We all know how much we missed him in the 2009 defeat in Rome, even if after our defeat last May at Wembley we now know we aren't on the same level as Barca.
It seems that he is very well thought of as a man as well as a highly regarded footballer if that is any comfort to him as he faces his fight to regain his health, as much as, hopefully save his career. Henning Berg talks about his first appearance in the United squad and how the first teamers were taken aback by the quality and self confidence of the young Scot. It's easy to forget that Fergie wanted to put him into the first team at just 16. Of course he then suffered injury after injury and i have often wondered if we would have seen the best of him in a red shirt earlier if he hadn't basically missed two to three years of football.

Of course this was probably the last news that Fergie needed at this particular moment in time, the loss of yet another central midfield player. If we are going to be critical, we would wonder why Fergie didn't make at least one midfield acqusition in the summer, when he must have had an inkling that Fletcher had every chance of a relapse. On this it's hard to be too critical, we know he tried to get Sneijder and Nasri, and that financial demands meant we had know chance with those two. I can't say i am a fan of buying for buying sake, they have got to be United quality and have the kind of character that Fergie wants in a player. I know we laugh when Fergie says no value in the market, but there is something to that.
I can't see us buying in the transfer window, all the rumours suggest that is the last thing the Glazer's will sanction. But the summer will have to see business done or City will start pull away from us, and the rest, to dominate the English game the way we have done. How much faith can you have in the gimps though.
Given that papers are in the business of making money, more than selling us facts, it aint going to stop them speculating and that has already begun. The Telegraph look at Rodwell as a player that United have looked at in the past and could go back in for. I'm in two minds on him, he can obviously play but what is his position and will he be consistent or good enough for us. Everton are in a mess financially and would probably have no option to sell if we went in with a big enough bid, but i really can't see it happening. Is yet another young player of potential really what is required at this moment in time, probably noteven if fuds were available.
If we weren't still suffering the financial pain of paying for the priviledge of the Glazers borrowing to buy us the ideal signing would be an experienced player, 28-30 years old who could see us through until the youngsters start to hopefully make the grade. But how does that fit in with the Glazer's ridiculous policy of not buying players of 27 or over because they would have no sell on value. This current period of time is making that look like the totally preposterous nonesense it always was.

Paul Ince thinks United need to spend to take the pressure of Wayne Rooney, and he has some shopping list, fuck me, is he even partially aware of the financial state of the club. When he mentions Modric and then Iniesta he shows he seems to have lost all touch with reality. I agree that those are the standard of player we should be looking at, but even if we could afford them, doubtful as that is, Modric apparently wants to stay in the smoke and why the fuck would Iniesta want to leave Barca.

I would have loved the draw we have just had in the Europa league if i wasn't skint, Ajax aren't the club they were and having watched a bit of Dutch football in the last couple of weeks, even in our straightened circumstances it's a tie we should win. But a trip to the Dam, that would be shit hot, i haven't been there since the 2006 pre season tournament that saw Rooney get sent off. It's certainly an easier tie than City's trip to Portual and holders Porto

The Mirror think that Cleverley will be the man Fergie looks to see us through our midfield crisis. I'm not doubting him as a player, i rate him highly, even if as others have pointed out it's ridiculous to be relying on a 22 year old who has about 5 or 6 first team starts to his name, but the bigger problem is so far in his career he has proven to be pretty injury prone.
Mark Ogden reveals that Fergie has ralled his troops ahead of the run of games in December that could see us make ground on City. The ironic thing reading that, is that Fergie's motivational speech was given ahead of the Basel debacle. Still this is the time to try and put some pressure on the divs, it will be interesting to see how they respond to their first league defeat on Monday night at the Bridge.
That was a weird game, there is no getting away from how far superior as a team, City are to Chelsea and for the first 25 minutes, City showed it, taking the lead after a minute and then having a blatant penalty knocked back. If that had gone in i would have feared the worst for the rent boys, it could have been another big Cuty away win.
But after that bright opening City coasted and allowed the home team back into it, even if Chelsea didn't particularly look like scoring. The equaliser came out of the blue and if i'm being honest so did the rent boys winner.
City didn't really come out of the traps in the second half, but when Clichy was correctly sent off i thought Mancini would revert to type and set City up to not lose. That he did and to be honest i couldn't see the home team scoring and barring the penlty i don't think they would have.
City's game against Arsenal couldn't have come at a better time for us, we will get a glimpse of how they will fare at the business end of the season. If Arsenal score first how will City react to the first bit of pressure they have faced this season. It's usually a pretty good ground for the gunners so there is some hope for us. After saying all that though, and even allowing for the form Arsenal are in, thanks mainly to Van Persie's current hot streak, i would be suprised to see Arsenal come away with anything.

It seems as though Ryan Tunnicliffe is doing reasonably well at Peterbrough even if he isn't playing as much as he would like. Darren Ferguson wants to keep him for the rest of the season. I went on Red Cafe's forum, i'm not particularly a fan of it, but it's probably the best United forum for keeping up to tabs on United's youngsters, and Peterbrough fans were impressed with him, but though him best as an impact sub at the moment.
That's a fair enough performance at this stage of his career, coming on and being able to change games in the championship and getting the occasional 90 minutes is almost certainly a better learning curve for his career than turning out for the reserves on Thursday night's.
It looks like Robbie Brady will be staying at Hull City where he has impressed during the first half of the season. It's good news when the players can force there way into championship clubs and those clubs want to keep them, it can only do them good.

I watched the reserves stuff a ten man Liverpool 4-0 on a heavy pitch at Altrincham last night and we didn't really learn too much to be honest. It would be nice to see Will Keane and Pogba both going out on loan to get some proper first team experience, but looking at them i get the feeling that neither is really physically ready for it yet. At least that was the most encouraging performance from the Frenchman this season, who knows whether that is good news or not, his contract negotiations haven't appeared in the back pages for over a couple of days.
I was watching Larnell Cole in particular after seeing him in the youth team last season, Scholes singling out of his quality and his promtion to the first team bench for the league cup this season. But i'm afraid he didn't really catch the eye, he couldn't get into the game in the first half stuck out on the right. He was brought into centre of the pitch in the second half and got far more involved in the game. He was neat and tidy but i can't pretend there was anything that got me excited. I will keep an eye on him as i know he has talent and he seems to be well thought of within the club.

Brain McClair is happy with the new academy rules that has seen the 90 minute rule scrapped. I'm not so sure, we should be able to find player from all over England, i think that's right. But i wouldn't want us to go down to the route that he seemed to be suggesting we should go, when discussing that youth team from Barcelona that won one of our tournaments. It's no business of United or any other English football club coaching foreign under 16 players.
Surely we have learned our lesson through Pique, Rossi and maybe even Pogba that youngsters from aboard will have no loyalty to United, they will follow the money or hotter climate's. Of course under the present ownership the thinking may well be that this is good business. That would say something about where we are as a club.
Talking of which, no wonder the Glazer's chose Singapore to host the potential part float if Hong Kong see United as a risk not worth taking a chance on for a pre-season frinedly price of $3 million, i'd be a keeping an eye on that Chinese economy if i was the gimp family. Things aren't looking for a £2 billion valuation at the moment.

This was a pretty disastrous week for Clegg and Milliband, i was going to say leaders of bothe of Britain's centre left parties, but whilst the Lib dems may still just be described as centre left Clegg could never be described as that.
The week was far worse for Clegg, i couldn't believe his response on Friday to Cameron's veto and was sure that there would be some Lib dem response to this tactical disaster, whether resignations or leadership challenge talk. As it was it was Clegg who came out trashing the veto, though a few suspect that he was under orders from Ashdown amongst others to show the Lib dems disgust with what had happened.
Steve Richards claimed that Clegg must now realise to the true nature of his coalition partner, whilst Alistair Campbell thought his Monday no show was pathetic. Bennedict Brogan argued that Clegg's sulk made Cameron's veto look even better, the tories could brealey disguse their glee even if under orders not to show it.
Matthew Norman got to the rub of the matter in his Wednesday Indy column, Clegg is helping his enemies to annihilate his own party, or in even harsher words, he is just not very good at this politics thing is he, i would be winding if i was a Lib dem member every time i saw Clegg and naive in the same sentence at the moment. Frasier Nelson left it until Tuesday to look at where the fallout from the Cameron left the state of British politcs and to be honest it was pretty fair.

At least a bad week for Ed Milliband ended on a bright note with Labour's by-election win in Feltham, but once again the murmerings of unhappiness with his leadership became a talking point of the chattering classes.
As Frasier Nelson pointed out Labour didn't have a coherent response to Cameron's veto and vereybody knew it, once again it made him look indecisive. Then came Wednesday's PMQ's which turned into an utter disaster for the younger Milliband brother, it is not going unnoticed that elder brother David seems to " be on manouevres as one commentator put it, Nicholas Watt wondered if Ed Milliband had just suffered his Westland moment.
I was never a particular fan of either brother, both seem charisma free entities to me, but David does seem to have more gravitas. I have to admit i just can never picture Ed as prime minister in this TV celebrity age, not that that is a good thing. But even worse he appears to be completely out fo his depth when facing Cameron, he doesn't seem to be able to think on his feet.
Andrew Grice is far from alone in thinking that the backbench sniping over his leadership and the tory upturn in the poles should be worrying the labour leadership.
Peter McHugh thinks Cameron can't believe how his fortunes have turned from zero to hero without any planning. Bennedict Brogan appears to think that his present status amongst tory backbenchers won't last as reality bites in Europe.


I am not a fan of Facebook, i never really understood the attraction but i'm a fan of twitter and the death of Christopeher Hitchens is a good example of why it can be so useful. Article after article and quote after quote, serious and ferociously funny have just kept on coming today.
I have read a couple of books and the site that compiled his articles and he was a brilliant writer, nobody could ever agree with everything he ever wrote, but he was always worth reading. I remember the night that Clinton was first elected where he chose to go against the liberal triumphalism, claiming the Clintons were just lwayers on the make. He was way ahead of the curve on that, though whether he was as correct about Clinton's sexual shennanigans in his book No one left to lie to, i'm not so sure.
Of course he was probably most famous for his strident aetheism, especially in god fearing USA. I have always preferred his attacks on religion to Richard Dawkins for the humourous way he went about them. I suppse it was ironic that the last Bitish interview was conducted by Richard Dawkins in this weeks New Satesman.

What the secularist world has lost

Manchester United 4-1 Wolves

What a weird week, the disaster on Wednesday showed up our deficiencies in midfield once and for all and yet yesterday i left the ground thinking we may have found a like for like replacement for Roy Keane at last. Phil Jones was bought as a centre half but after watching his sensational performance yesterday i can't help thinking that would be wasting half of what he has to offer. Alright i might be going over the top, it was only Wolves after all, but with our current resources, i would be sticking with him in midfield for the rest of the season
Just like a Robson or a Keane he was as effective in his own half as he was in the opposition half, the driving runs he made in the second half were something we haven't witnessed in a red shirt for years. In fact they were more reminscent of Robson at his peak than Keane. I have a feeling we will eventually revert to a 4-3-3 in the not too distant future but as long as we stick with a 4-4-2 Jones is just what we need, a dominant figure in the middle of the park. He was helped yesterday by having Carrick alongside him, but i would like to see Fergie give him an extended run in midfield.
As for the game we were slightly better than in recent weeks, the midfield looked better as i have mentioned. Up front, Rooney started to look a bit like his old self, helped no doubt by having Welbeck next to him. It was good to see them link up so well, we can only hope that Welbeck manages to avoid injury to get his stop start season really going.
Nani had a pretty good game, though as usual he had his frustrating moments. It was good to see Valencia get back to something near his best, not just taking his man on, but getting telling crosse in as well. It was no accident that Rooney was back on the scoreboard and could and but for Macheda he would have had a hatrick. Rooney thrives on the service from Valencia. I think the time has come for an extended run for the Ecuadorian, even if it means a period on the sidelines for summer signing Ashley Young.
Thr real difference bewtween yesterday and recent performances was that we actually managed to convert more than one of the many chances created. It was good to see Nani and Rooney regaining their shooting boots. I did wonder if it was going to be a case of here we go again when they got one back almost straight after the break as Wolves started to target Evra at the back post but the third goal gave us a nice cushion. As usual when we play Wolves the left winger Jarvis had an excellent game, how he is still at Wolves i really don't know. I'd gladly have him in a red shirt, he gave Smalling a torrid time in that second half. It was nice to claw a few goals back on the goals different front, but i don't think we will be troubling City on that front unfortunately.

There was a load of media attention for United's exit from the champions league, amongst the doom and gloom ti was at least nice to see the Glazer's getting it in the neck. Daniel Taylor claimed the financial restrictions are hindering United even if Fergie won't admit it, the omerta line was pretty good. It's not as if we all don't know this to be the case, but it's nice to see it make the sports headlines none the less.
Mark Ogden reported that Gill was to lead an immediate financial review to assess the ramifications of United's early champions league exit. I mean, really, have they even thought about what will happen when Fergie is no longer here and this could potentially be the norm. The latest issue of Red iss details our financial woes in pretty stark terms.
James Lawton thinks Keano has identified United's central flaw, the central midfield and the lack of funds needed to address it. Whilst that is obviously true i'm still not convinced that Sneijder was the man to rectify that, i would have preffered Nasri, which makes watching him warming the bench most of the time at the boo camp pretty painful. Morrison could prove to be better than either, of course.
Paul Hayward thinks that the shoot from the hip Keano got his target wrong, the kids weren't to blame the experienced players were the ones who failed to perform.

The news on Vidic seems to get worse by the day first it was a few months, then the season and now he may be out for a year. Maybe another reason why getting knocked out of the champions league now was for the best, can you imagine us going to the camp nou or the Bernabeu with our midfield and no Vidic.
Paul Parker thinks Fergie will have to spend to replace Vidic if we are to stay in contention of silverware, as if, Fergie has already come out and said he will not be replaced.


The ripples haven't turned into waves yet, but it could well be only a matter of time before the fallout from Cameron's veto are fully felt. Gary Gibbon reports that years of UK blackmail could be at an end, that source isn't French by any chance.
The Economist was really scathing of Cameron and his negotiating stance and the Eurosceptic argument. Bagehot was equally unimpressed and wondered if we do end up quitting the EU for the sake of the City of London those financial interests will just end up walking away anyway. That would be the ultimate irony. If i was Arthur Scargill i would be laughing, this all makes a real socialist republic emminently achievable.
Jon Snow wonders just how comfortable David Cameron is in his newly defined position. John Kampfner wondered why the Lib dems went along with this, i'm not sure that we have the whole story on this yet. WilL Hutton writes that Vince Cable is seriously considering his position, i can't believe he is on his own in this. This seriously goes to the heart of what are the Lib dems actually for.
Robert peston writes that Cable won't resign, but is not happy, whilst business leaders he has spoken too are worried over Cameron's veto and the loss of Britain's influence.
Faisal Islam is totally nonplussed at the events of last week.

Ahead of the summit Larry Elliott wondered what happened to rebalancing the economy as David Cameron supposedly went tinto battle on behalf of the city. Nicholas Faith argues that the selfish city won't repay a national scarifice and lists a history of its shortcomings.

Basel 2-1 Manchester United

Well we have been reading and watching reports of impending Eurogeddon for weeks now, well this was bad, but not that bad. I know at a similar stage of last season i said we had no chance of winning this competition and then we ended up getting to the final, but this season, we really had no chance. Only the easiest draw imaginable and and an unforseen upturn in form helped us get to Wembley last May. The qualifying group we were presented with was about as easy as we could have hoped for and we have still been knocked out. Imagine our present squad getting drawn against Barca or Real Madrid over two legs, it doesn't bear thinking about.
It still hurts of course, it hurts all the more because we know it is our just desserts, we just weren't good enough. We dominated possession, but though we did create chances, how did Rooney manage to hit the ball backwards from six yards out, we didn't create enough and never really looked really opening them up. There just isn't enough that extra bit of class that we should be showing against a decent, but nothing more Swiss outfit.
It's been said enough times and it's being said all ove again this morning that our midfield isn't good enough, this is only partly correct, we have good players there but not enough depth. Losing Cleverley for the first half of the season has turned out to be a disaster of the first order, but that tells you everything about the depth of talent available.
The suspension of Carrick probably didn't help last night, given the resources available i would have had Carrick holding and either Giggs or Jones playing further forward. But agains what does that say about the squad, a 19 year old learning the game and the 38 year old Giggs, who as Keane pointed out was probably our best player and who is unarguably still the most creative player at the club.
What can you read into Fergie's selction of both Jones and Park ahead of Fletcher last night, before his illness Fletcher was an automatic choice for all the big games. That obviously isn't the case any more. Whe Giggs does call it a day if we don't go into the market in a big way the future looks decidedly uncertain. We have promising youngsters, but none of them are certain to make it at United and none are ready yet anyway. This really has to be addressed sooner rather than later, but i wouldn't be putting my money on that happening.
Having said all that, the real reason we are not in the competition is because we have not defended well enough and almost every goal we have conceeded have been at best soft goals to give away and worst shots to our own foot. This is where there aren't really any easy answers.
We have all known that the squad has been regressing since the 2008-09 season, but we have been able to continue to challenge and win honours due to an experienced, consistent back four and goalie. During this period Ferdinand has seen time catch up on him and then this summer Van Der Sar finally did what most of us have been dreading, retiring. I have to be said i was suprised that Fergie went for such a young goalie in De Gea, but i have to say i have mostly liked what i have seen so far. But he is still learning the game and mistakes were bound to happen. Unfortunately they all seem to have happened in the champions league.
Losing Vidic early in the season and now again is just another in a long line of injuries that has seen Fergie have to chop and change to the point where it's a different back four everey match. This obviously isn't the best enviroment for our nucleus of potentially outstanding young defenders to be thrust into the team. And just to make matters worse Smalling, the Da Silva twins and even Evans have all suffered stop start seasons. There is only Jones who has had a consistent run and i think Fergie has done the right thing just fitting him into games wherever possible as he isn't really ready to be a permanent centre half just yet. All our success has generally been built on solid foundations and they have been conspicuos by there absence so far this season.
Last night ultimately came down to defensive blunders, we started the game pretty well it should be remembered. Then nine minutes into the game, after one unconvincing punch from De Gea, Smalling and Vidic clashed and more unconvincing work from De Gea with a strange attempted kick out saw Basel take the lead. Suddenly any nerves the home team may have hador ambiguity about their game plan went out of the window. They had something to hold onto and had seen that our backline was emminently breachable. United took time to regain their composure and Nani had one of those games that veered from brilliant to Rooney tearing his hair out at him. I thought Jones and Giggs played reasonably well in the first half. Rooney was decent but couldn't seem to finish, Nani got strongerand Smalling and Evra were overlapping well.
I suppose the big downside of the night performance wise was Young, what has happened there, he started the season so well. He never tried to take his man to the byeline once, hardly ever beat the first man with a cross and showed noconfidence in his own game at all. He isn't what can be labelled a youngster, we can't be waiting for him to become the finished article.
The longer the second half went on the more i was resigning myself to an early exit, but i didn't really see the second goal coming. Obviously Smalling was badly at fault, but i haven't heard anybody mention why he wasn't given a shout. Surely De Gea should have been screaming at him to clear it, he could see the man behind him. The wonder is that we actually managed to score one goal after that, because we were never going to get two. On the balance of play and chances created we probably deserved a draw, but if you defend like that, you get what you deserve.
So we can expect to have Thursday night, Channel 5 rammed down our throats for the rest of the season, not a pleasant experience. Hopefully somebody can get our own versio going with reference to the part the gimps have played in bringing us to this point.

As Paul Hayward writes, the Glazer family are in the spotlight, in the most balanced column on United's plight at this stage of this season. It's only a couple of days ago i was reading rumours that Fergie had been denied £10 million in the January transfer window. At the time i was in two minds about this news, if it was true of course, on the one hand of course our midfield need strengthening badly, but on the other hand i'm not sure to what extent £10 million would alleviate the deficiences we are suffering from. The one thing to be certain about is it was a disastrous day when those twats gained control of our club.

As Andy Mitten writes we are short on class and guile, i could hardly get my head around the fact that we got to the final last year. Of course the one time we played a team of any real ability, we were pulverised, and that 3-1 scoreline did not tell the true story of that game. In my view, even though i couldn't bring myself to sit down and watch it again, performance wise it was a bigger drubbing than the 6-1 this season.
Last season i thought that it was quite possible that the champions league final may be out of our reach for a few years, it's hard not to think that now.

Fergie wasn't happy with Keano's assesment of United's performance last night, especially his attack on United's youngsters. There is some history there, all right, i can't help feeling Keano enjoyed putting the boot in. Keano was right to lambast our performance as not good enough, i'm not sure the youngsters were the right players to be singled out for blame. I know the two defensive blunders came from that department, but overall they weren't particularly helped out by our so called experienced players.
Even so i can see where Fergie was coming from when he had a go at Keano's record in management, man management doesn't seem to be his forte does it. All this is abit like deja vu for me as i have just finished reading Daniel Taylor's book This is the one, which of course covers the last time we suffered elimination in the qualifying stages of the champions league and saw Keano leave at Christmas after his MUTV blow out and then Ruud leave in the summer. I can't help wonder who will be moved out in the summer and who if anybody will come in.
This is doing the rounds today all over the net, not Fergie's finest moment, after reading Taylor's book, i wonder who will be the brave soul that brings this up. It was obviously a fair question, even then, even more pertinent now.

Mark Ogden reckons that Fergie should use the Europa cup to blood the youngsters, it will help their football education and also the firstteam who will now have plenty of Sunday and Thursday games as their punishment. Fergie said that would not be ideal, he can say that again, Thusday night football, that just isn't a night for football. I can hardly remember us ever playing on a Thursday night, Southampton at home if my memory serves me right on the disastrous 91-92 title run in, is the last i can remember.
I would love Fergie to be able to do that, but it seems a bit fantasy football realms to me. I'm not really sure that many are are ready for the first team, full stop, and even if they were would the Glazer's allow it. That is a big unspoken here, it was rumoured that Gill got a dressing down when Bayern knocked us out in the quarter finals a couple of years ago, what will there reaction be to this. This can't be an ideal scenario to their proposed partial float in Singapore, providing that is still on the cards any thime soon.
Patrice Evra was honest enough to admit being embarrased to have been knocked out of the champions league and to admit he wasn't mad about playing in the Europa cup. What will any potential new recruits be reading into our failure to reach the knockout stages i wonder. As it is we can't compete with City in the transfer market, this hasn't exactly helped our cause in that regard either.

The Swiss don't think we took them seriously before the first game, i don't think there is any argument there. Although to be fair to United we were still in reasonably good shape, the City debacle had not yet happened. Though the three goals we conceeded that night were perhaps harbingers of what was to come.

Reports claim that Hernandez will be out for four weeks with his ankle injury, i would still be suprised to see him back that quickly. The Mail are speculating that Danny Welbeck will come into the side tomorrow night to replace Hernandez. I'd be suprised if it works out like that, i think we will play with one man up front and that will be Rooney. Welbeck could well start, but if he does i think it's more likely he will be on the left or right. I think that Fergie likes the work rate that he provides as well as the ability he brings to the party in that position.
Fergie let slip the other day that Basel would have to attack United but he wasn't sure when that would be. That's a good point, will it be cat and mouse or will they fly at us from the start. To be fair to them they didn't hang back at United, but tomorrow the pressure is on.

It's not going to be a great crimbo for ex red Ronnie Wallwork, who was sentenced to 15 months yesterday.

I find it laughable why Mancini seems to find it so hard to wonder why the rest of Europe are having a go at City and their new found wealth. It does appear to be the case that the Germans in particular have a really big bee in their bonnet about it. Kit Holden looks at the differences between Bayern and City and whilst he thinks Bayern are certainly not spotless, he obviously prefers the Bavarian model of a football club.
Alan Hansen looks at the qualifying stages of the champions league and argues that the premier league's domination of the competition is over and thinks that ther will probably be only two English clubs left after tomorrow night. He is probably right, but he did predict that we wouldn't get to the final last year, so.

Craig murray has been banging on about the west's diplomatic posturing towards Iran recently and it does seem as if it could be Iraq all over again. Paul Valley explains that the war has begun and it's madness, if there is one country in the middle east that already has what could be the foundations of a rational functioning democracy.
Peter Mackay, not exactly a liberal leftie writes that the west is turning Iran into the new Iraq and points out that it's the west that is being totally irrational not the supposedly mad mullahs. I can't even begin to believe that anybody in their right minds thinks that attacking Iran would do anything other than completely destro the last vestiges of the western or indeed the global economy.

Nick Clegg has been in the news promising to share out the pain over the last few days, Robert peston looks at what he means about getting tough on bosses pay. As if the tories are going to let anything serious on that front, they are their bosses too, who bank rolls them.
Prem Sikka used today's Guardian to show a graph that showed how the plans to make sharholders more accountable will be worse than useless. That is an eye popping chart, the role reversal between individual and foreign shareholders beggars belief. Yet another Thatcherite idea that didn't even workd on its own terms.
It's come to something when the civil service has to do something like this, at least somebodies trying to stop the establishment of this country dragging us down to the level of a banana republic in the pathetic attempt hold onto a wealth that everybody knows that they don't deserve.

Two days ago in this Eurozone crisis seems like an age ago but this still seems applicable from Larry Elliott's Monday Guardian column, welcome to the living dead economy. The German proposals that the French seem to have caved into still don't deal with the lack of growth. Jeremy Warner argues that Fiskalunion is the worst of all words, if proposals aimed at growth don't appear soon, he reckons it will be time to see whether the Germans blink first or light the fuse. Felix Salmon warns of the Eurozone's biggest mess yet and predicts if this enacted it wont work out well.
Jeffrey Sachs wants the Eurzone project to succeed but doesn't really sound optimistic and is pretty damning about the workings of the European union.

Jon Snow blogs that a grown up debate about where this countries future lies is probably now overdue. Jackie Ashley predicts that this crisis will be bad for the Euro sceptics as well and that the voters are terrfied, calling for a referndum now is daft. But of course they are fanatics it's what makes half of them get up in the morning.
John Kampfner writes that the BRIC countries are enjoying the moment after being lectured for decades by the left. I don't blame them, but of course at the end of the day a disaster in the Eurzone won't be good news for them. What's not good news for Chine won't be good for them.

I know you can use statistics to prove anything but this is another eye popping graph, this time supplied on Paul Krugman's blog.

I watched Charlie Brooker's latest TV work Black mirror on sunday and was impressed, it wasn't laugh out loud or laugh a minute but it was watch to the end TV. This Indy piece highlights the way the piece looked at how social media seems to now have a life of it's own, whilst Brooker explained before the show aired, the themes he was trying to explore. I thought he was expolring reality TV in that first episode as much as social media.

Music

Augustus Pablo - Augustus Pablo meets Lee Perry at the black art: Two of the giants of dub collaborate on this release from the last decade that was recorded in the seventies i think. It's as good as you would expect.

Feal Kuti - Confusion: A single 25 minute track and a cool slice of afro beat that start off on a nice jazz groove before the beat breaks in. I could listen to tracks this good that go on for twice as long.

Little Barrie - King of the waves: I'm a big fan of this outfit and this whilst not as good in my eyes as their last album is certainly no let down. There is more of an indy rock vibe to this, the funk has been toned down a little, it still sounds great though.

Pains of being pure at heart - Belong: The US indie band's second continues the good work of the debut with more of the same catchy power pop.

The Fuzztones - Preaching to the perverted: A pretty good piece indie garage rock that starts off witha real bang on first track My black cloud. It doesn't quite live up to the promise of that, but it's above average stuff.

The Horrors - Skying: The last album was pretty hard to follow up and whilst this very good still it's not quite at the same level as Primary colours. It's seriously promising to have albums two and three as good as this however. It's been compared to 80's rock and one red claimed that he'd already heard the Chameleons and what was the point of it, a bit harsh, but it does have that eighties sound to it.

Wayne Shorter - Juju: It's not just the playing that makes his albums so good, i have read he is regarded as on of the great modern jazz composers and on albums such as this it's hard to disagree.

Atson Villa 0-1 Manchester United

Not a game that will live long in the memory, but a welcome three points after last weeks disappointment. If you took Chris Waddle's word for it United were excellent yesterday evening, but i thought we were a little above average against a woeful Aston Villa who hardly managed a meaningful attack all game.
Fergie didn't tinker too much with the team after last week's welcome return to form. I would have put money on him playing Lindgaard, i don't know why, he seems to put him in when least expected. More of a suprise to me was the inclusion of Jones in midfield, some are unconvinced about playing the ex Blackburn man in midfield. I'm quite happy for him to play there myself, i still think centre half will be his long term position but he is good enough to do a job for us there.
He did more than a job for us yesterday, linking up well with Carrick and even scoring the only goal of the game, and it wasn't just his first goal for United, it was his first ever league goal. Having seen him this season for us, i really do find that hard to credit. Still you do have to pinch yourself to remember he is only 19. It seems to me that Fergie rates him so much he is just happy to play him anywhere to give him game time and to gain all the experience he can.
United grabbed the game almost from the kick off, dominating possession for the vast majority of the game. United lost yet another player to injury when Hernandez went down with no one near him. Replays showed he had gone over on his ankle, the press are speculating that he will be out for up to 4 weeks. That sounds optimistic to me, if it's as bad as it looked it could be from 6 weeks to a couple of months out. I wasn't perturbed that Fergie stuck Nani into the middle and brought Valencia on the right as i think that Nani offers something different in the middle. I remember the game where Bayern knocked us out of the champions league a couple of seasons ago, in which he had to play up front on his own after Rooney was substituted and Rafael sent off, and i thought did very well.
My problem with out performance was for all the possession and the nice link up play the final ball was so often lacking. I know Vila were sticking everybody behind the ball in a home performance so negative it was untrue, but we should have been creating more. The last 8 minutes of first half injury time were unbelievable, Villa the team at home, just stuck everybody behind the ball and played to go in one down at the interval.
The second half was just more of the same, Villa showed a little bit more, but not much more. A Heskey header, where he possibly should have done better was the only real scare for Lindgaard until late in the game Collins saw his header tipped over the bar by the big Dane. The rest of the half was dominated again by United, though for all the possession, once more we didn't create enough chances. It was nice to see Welbeck back and the day almost ended on a high whith Rooney almost finishing off a fine move with a brilliant goal, but it flew just over the bar. I would have took a 1-0 scoreline before the start, so i can't complain too much. Now for the game that we didn't expect to matter as much in Basel on Wednesday night.

Fergie told match of the day that he was happy with our rhythm after yesterday's game.

James Lawton writes in the Irish Independent that Fergie should be apologising for his failure to bring in a quality midfield signing in the summer rather than the pitiful showing we saw against Crystal Palace on Wednesday. I know where he is coming from, but the performance of Morrison showed me that we have got the answer in our ranks, the quality is there, that was there for all to see. It doesn't take long to see when somebody has really got it, he has got it. It's just whether he can get his head screwed on right, that is the problem.
In fact for all the talk of the talent to come through last years youth squad, it has to be said none of them are guarenteed to make it at United. Yet again Pogba has made the headlines this morning with the People claimning he has turned down a contract of £15 ,000 a year. First thing to say is that this is the People, and they have quite possibly just read the rumours on Red iss last week that City are offering him 5 times what United are and have made this up.
If it's true that he has turned that offer down though, and it's entirely possible with all the reports and rumours swirling around him at the moment, i would saying bye bye, this is a guy who anywhere near our best reserve team player we are talking about. He is nowhere near the first team yet and to be turning down a contract of that size is just taking the piss. I would be saying thanks but no thanks to him, even if it means losing him to City, which is where i'm sure he will end up if he does go.

The Sunday Times and the National report that Fergie will go for revolution not evolution in the summer by letting both Ferdinand and Vidic leave the club. I think that's fairly believable, Ferdinand must be a cert to be off and the speculation around Vidic sounds plausible.
That would leave us short on experience at the back though. I'm not sure i can see Fergie being happy with just Smalling, Jones and Evans. There was speculation in the Italian press about Gary Cahill's future and Inter's chairman claimed that United had him in their sights, if he is letting Vidic go that that seems a good move if there is anything in it.

Andy Mitten reports on the issue of atmosphere at football matches and how Europe leaves us for dead. I'm sitting this watching Feyenoord at home to PSV and the atmosphere is second to none, i notive almost everybody is standing in an all seater stadium. I've watched a bit of Bundesliga football recently and have been impressed with the crowds there as well. Dortmund against Schalke in the recent derby was reminiscent of the old United liverpool games, helped by having a standing end.
I'm afraid i can't see us ever getting those days back, the people in charge of our game aren't interested in atmosphere, they are enthusiastic for the prawn sandwich brigade so rightly mocked by Roy Keane.

They don't make footballers like this any more, in fact they have never made footballers like this in these islands, I suppose Eric is the nearest thing to Socrates the Brazil footballing legend who has died aged 57. As with many others old enough to have seen that 1982 national side, they were one of the best teams i have seen and absolutely fantastic to watch. The 3-2 defeat to Italy is probably one of the all time great games of football.

The New statesman report that David Milliband gave a brilliant speech in the Autumn statement debate taking apart Osborne's shattered economic strategy. I didn't see the speech so i can't say much about it, i was never really sold on him, i have to admit, but would have been better than his brother, who knows. The one thing that is certain is that he would have had solid support throughout the party and his position would have been much more solid than Ed's currently is. Uber Blairite John Rentoul ponders brother's Ed's parlous position as leader of the party in his Sunday column. There are one or two too many what ifs in that for may to take it seriously, especially what if our economy has hit the bottom and might bounce back.
The green benches website argues that Labour wouldn't have added single penny to public debt if tax evasion had not occured. I can well believe that to be the case, but i would have to ask what was the labour government actually trying to about tax evasion. In the words of Peter Mandelson, it seems to me they were entirely relaxed about it.

Who would have guessed anybody connected in any way whatsoever would an ounce of atste in them as Manchester Confidential talks to ex corrie actor Graeme Hawley about Radio Republic, the new online Manchester radio station. I have listened to a bit of it and it's pretty good, although i'm not overstruck on the webstreaming platform.

Will Hutton writes that George Osborne has no idea how to revive the British economy but wonders who has, we are at a turning point and if we dont find some visionaries this country will see decline turn to rout.

A bit of a twangy guitar fest

Manchester United 1-2 Crystal Palace

Well that's that then, we won't be in the league cup final, that's one Wembley trip we won't have to make, or that's one good day outwe'll miss out on, take your pick. It could have been our best chance of silverware this season, though having seen City defeat Arsenal and the dippers victory at Chelsea i'm not so sure of that.
Fergie has aplogised for the performance i see, but i'm afraid it's the selection that he should be apologising for, if there is any aplogising to be done. It was a poor selection, though if i'm honest i thought it would still be good enough to take us through to the semi's. It was a poor selection because there was no balance in either midfield or attack.
The midfield had no quality, though i would have expected better of Park, but putting him alongside Gibson just showed our lack of depth in the middle of the pitch. Macheda put in yet another totally ineffectual performance and whilst i don't rate Diouf, it wasn't fair to play him wide on the left. My main problem with the side Fergie decided on was the amount of players picked who we know have no future at United. If they were picked in the hope of putting them in the shop window and maybe attracting a decent price then that backfired pretty spectatcularly.
What did we learn from last night? nothing that we didn't already know really. Gibson who to be fair to him has only just got back from injury is not a United player, i'm actually not even sure if he is a premier league player, he is just too slow in body and mind. Diouf is another who might not even make a craeer in the premier league. Macheda needs to go out on loan in January for the sake of his career, never mind his future at United. There is talent there, but he seems to be going backwards.
Another worry has got to be the twins, i praised Fabio for his performance on Saturday, but yesterday, yet again, he broke down, with what looked like a hamstring. It's just one injury after another. And then to add insult to injury, brother Rafael limped off after he came off worse in a strong tackle. I don't see how they will ever make those full back positions their own if they can never put a run of games together.
As for the performance, it was dire, the first half was just a non event. I'm sure i saw Berbatov shaking his head at one point thinking what the fuck am i doing here. Fortunately for him he got a knock at the end of the first half and didn't reappear for the second half. That was both good and bad, the positive being we got to see Morrison get a decent run out and he was the one real plus point of the night. He is definitely going to be first team material, that was certainly shown last night, whether we'll ever get to see that who knows. He is just a footballing natural, he has great range of passing, great vision and seems to make the right decisions most of the time. The negative was that without Berbatov up front we lost the one bit of experienced quality we had there.
When they took the lead with a goal that could be a contender i honestly thought that was it, that we were so lacking in quality we wouldn't get an equaliser. I was wrong as Diouf won a penalty that Macheda tucked away and that saw us have to endure another half an hour of this pain. I haven't seen the penalty decision on TV so i'm not sure if it was the correct decision, it looked a bit soft when i saw it live is all i can say.
I wasn't confident that we would end up victors even now and the lack of confidence wasn't misplaced as Palace scored from a set piece with a pretty soft goal from a United point of view. I don't know if it was a positive that we saw Pogba or not, with the ongoing contract speculation. But he confirmed my view that he is nowhere first team potential yet, Morrison is way ahead of him. So all in all a pretty dismal night, i hope we can get a couple of nice draws in the early parts of the FA cup in the hope that we see more of Morrison and maybe a couple of the other kids will get a go. I would like to see Larnell Cole given a first team start as he looks to have something about him.

Paul Wilson asks if the real Manchester United will please turn up and wonders what the real Manchester United is at the moment. I think most of us think the last two games have been pretty good actually even if we can't seem to eradicate defensive mistakes. I expect to see the real Manchester United on Saturday, whether that means three points , who knows.

Eric Harrison salutes Ryan Giggs as he starts to approach is 900th game for the club and thinks that he can play on into his forties. On the evidence of Saturday i think he may well be right, and looking at the state of our midfield it's a good job. Scholes thinks the future for United's youngsters is bright singling Larnell Cole out for special praise.

UEFA's new Financial fair play regime is becoming more news worthy by the day. David Gill has put his head above the parapit to warn that appropriate sanctions against clubs who don't comply with the new rules, whoever could he mean.
Ian Herbert looks at the contrasting fortunes of City's ex Arsenal players and mentions that Nasri's unhappiness must be made worse knowint that United was the club he had originally wanted to go to. I'd fell sorry for him but guess what..... The irony is of course he would have walked into our midfield and would have been an automatic choice.
The news on Pogba changes by the day, the lastest club linked to him being City, well what a suprise that is! It's been rumoured or Red iss that he has been offered five times his current wages at United, well i'm not expecting him to be signing that new contracy any time soon then. As others have said, Le Harve will be laughing their socks off if he does leave for more money. In fact i'm not sure that any of the players we have poached have or look like they could make into our first team.

After the Autumn statement/mini budget announced to the world the bankruptcy of George Osborne's plan B, Rafael Behr writes that though it is George Osborne whose plan has failed, Miliband will have to move on as well. Paul Mason argues that Tuesday was a turning point in British history, it will set the political tone of the decade.
Paul Krugman looks at bleeding Britain and its disastrous experiment in austerity. Martin Wolf had argued that Osborne's strategy might come to this and thinks that we are now in the middle of a lost decade. John Cassidy joins Krugman, arguing in the New Yorker that what has happened here is a warning to the Yanks what could well happen if the Republicans seize power next November.
Robert Skidelsky who was fairly good on newsnight last night claims that Osborne's cutting fantasy is over, events are forcing him into measures which will be state interventionist, and it will happen faster than he thinks.
Steve Richards writes, close your eyes and it seems like we are back in the seventies, will we find a liberal social democrat Thatcher type figure to lead us out of it, if there is i haven't heard or seen him or her. John Harris warns that the economy needs a big push but that the coalition are prisoners of their own dogmatic stance. The only push it's getting at the moment is a push over the edge of a cliff.
Peter Oborne wanrs the tories and the country that it can't afford to have a part time chancellor and that the realtionship between Cameron and Osborne is too close. One thing i wil say after watching his performance in the commons on Tuesday is that i can't imagine ever becoming prime minister. And i had come to that conclusion even before Balls ripped him a new one.

Meanwhile back to the other disaster waiting to happen, Poland's foreign minister Radek Sikorsky warned in a speech in Berlin that he was the probably the first Pole in history to say that he feared German power less than German inactivity. Powerful stuff, but are the Germans going to take the warnings on board.

George Monibot takes aim at the common agricultural policy and the rich that are subsidised by it.

This is some rant