Liverpool 2-1 Manchester United

Gutted, with the team that almost picked itself due to yet another injury crisis, to have put in such a good performance at Anfield and to get knocked out five minutes from the end wasn't what we deserved. But if you give such soft goals away you get what you deserve, i suppose.
It's being said by some reds today that what use was there in controlling the game if you don't really look like doing anything with it. I don't go along with that at all. When was the last time we went to Anfield and bossed the game, it's that long ago i can't remember it. Even the last couple of times when we actually won there, we were poor and basically nicked the three points. To have gone there with so many injuries and to have controlled the game was an achievement. It hasn't escaped my notice that it was done with a three man midfield with Scholes in the middle of it. I think Scholes delivered a fitting reposte to those who though his return from retirement was a retrograde step.
To be honest i'm not sure why Fergie brought him off, i know he probably isn't 100% fit and he may struggle to do 90 minutes, but he didn't seem to be tiring when brought off. And one again i would have to query Fegie's decision to bring Hernandez on. I know he had a great season last year and i know he's a goalscorer, but almost every time he has been brought on lately we look less like scoring when he comes on than we did before. If we had to make changes i would have kept the same system 4-3-3 and brought Berbatov on for Park and stuck Welbeck on the left.
Having said all that it shouldn't have mattered as the winner was such a soft goal to give away. Evra who had a decent game all things considered should have done better and i thought De Gea didn't cover himself in glory either. I wouldn't put as much blame on the Spaniard for the Liverpool opening goal, i thought that showed how much we are missing Vidic. What were the defenders doing pussy footing around before the corner was taken, they should have been all over those Liverpool attackers letting them know they wouldn't be bossed around, instead we got a couple of half hearted shoves, and then no jump at all as the ball came over. It does have to be said though, that De Gea doesn't inspire confidence, physically he just looks like he can be bullied every time. I wouldn't have played him myself, but that would be more down to the fact that with an ever changing back four we should at least try to have one position of stability at the back. I can't think that will have done much for his onfidence, he is going to have to show some cojones to come back from this .
If the injuries keep on coming as thick and fast as they have all season then the league title is going to be an almighy ask, which is why yesterday was so galling. I have thought for a while that the FA cup was our best chance of silverware this season, and it's about time we won the thing. Old jug ears might not be the trophy it once was, but it' still a trophy worth winning.

Fergie laments the sickening blow that was the scouse late winner, but he is happy with our new midfield signings, i suppose, for once, he might have a point with his favourite mid season catch phrase.

Andy Cole likes what he sees in Danny Welbeck and belives that Capello should be taking him into the England squad for the European championships in ths summer. I don't for a minute think believe Capello will leave him at home.
It looks like Mame Biram Diouf is to move on to pastures new with a move to Bundesliga Nurnberg on the cards. I'm not sure how good Nurnberg are these days, to be honest i would have though the Championship was more his level.
Yet more contract problems at youth level according to the People, if there is anything to that,a big if, it beggars belief on so many levels, it's not true. I can't say i'm that convinced by him to be honest, last season Thorpe was the young defender who looked the business, Fryers didn't really stand out. He has done alright in his first team appearances this season apart from one terrible mistake that he got away with. But his distribution hasn't looked good enough for me.

Robert Skidelsy asks does debt matter, not if your the boss of RBS it doesn't, Aditya Chakraborrty argues that the payout to Stephen Hester is a disastrous deal for the taxpayer. Was anyone ever in doubt that this deal would go through, the tories were never going to block this. Though to be fair to them, i don't for a minute believe Labour would have behaved differently. It does sicken me sometimes watching Labour berate the government over incidents like this when you look at how they behaved in office.
George Monibot wasn't impressed with the governments proposals on executive pay reform, as modest as they are i wouldn't be suprised if even these aren't enacted.

After last weeks news that Britain's national debt rose to over £1 trillion, Frasier Nelson argues that George Osborne owes Alistair Darling an apology, he really had it in for Osbornomics last week. Larry Elliott writes that last weeks dismal GDP figures spell trouble for George Osborne and wonders how long it will be before the credit agencies start to seriously look at Britain's triple A rating.
William Keegan doesn't mince words in today's Observer, claiming the George Osborne is the most dangerous chancellor he has ever known
Faisal Islam argues that as a UK slump returns it would be hard to blame the Eurozone crisis for its re-appearance, it won't stop them trying and probably succeeding in getting the electorate to believe them though, will it.

Anfield revisited

Utd reserves hit barcodes for six

You would never have guessed that they were going to net six times at half time but it's not the first time that piled it on once the opposition are out of the game. Will Keane showed nice flashes, though he ruined a great run in the first half by trying to beat one more man instead of passing to his left. He made up for that with his well taken first goal.
Paul Pogba actually showed the kind of form that had pundits raving about him last season. One drag back to beat his man on the bye line and cross to Lindgard in the first half, was worth the admission alone, just a pity Lindgard couldn't finish it off. It will take more than one impressive reserve outing before i change my mind about him though.
Michael Keane once again impressed especially the longer the game went on, it's amazing how much he has shot up since last years youth cup and looks like he is still growing. He makes some brillianr foward runs the longer the game goes on and the more stretched the game becomes. I'm not as sure as i was that we have future first teamers in this squad as i was but they are great to watch. Once the the game is there they go for the jugular, something i wish the first team would do more often. Though to be fair the first team have shown more signs of doing that this season when not decimated by injuries.

Welbeck has still not finished growing according to Fergie, i'm not sure whether that's good news or not. He seems strong enough as it is, he has certainly not been bullied by any centre halves this season. The worry would have to be, not fully grown means there are still more niggling injuries to come, when United have played well this season he has been a big part of the reason why.
Steve Bruce argues that his time at Sunderland was crucial to his improvement, time on the pitch enabled the boy to become a premier league man. I would dissent from that for one minute, i watched them a fair few times last season and they were always a far better team when he was in the side as the stats would suggest. I thought he was the man who made them tick, even alloing for the goalscoring of Darren Bent. We certainly need him fit for the run of fixtures that started at Arsenal and continues at Anfailed tomorrow.
Speaking of which Fergie has called for calm, telling the players to act responsibly. I don't really expect any fireworks on the pitch, though you can never be sure, but i can't really expect it to be very calm off it. I would take a one nil all day long, but it would be even nocer if we could actually put in a performance at Anfield for the first time for years. It's hard to see though, it's hard to see past the usual 100 miles an hour battle that it has become over recent years. If Jones is fit i would like to see him in central midfield as he was earlier in the season.
I thought Dalglish's decision to play Bellamy up front against City was a big part of the reason for their improved performance against City. The good news for United is that Bellamy doesn't generally play two games in four days, he looked fucked just before he came off on Wednesday. So there must be a fair chance that Carroll will come back into the team tomorrow. If Bellamy does start it will be interesting to see how long he lasts.
The bad news for us, is our injury list just never seems to come down. It looks like Park will come in for the injured Nani, it's hard to see Fergie bringing Young, if fit, straight back into this game, that obviously blunts our attack. I hope that Fergie is bluffing when he warned that Rooney was not certain to be fit. If he isn't and Rooney is missing we will be woefully short on creativity. I couldn't see Giggs starting this game but if Rooney is out i can see Giggs standing in for him just behind Welbeck. It would be nice to see Ferdinand fit for tomorrow, but i mean fit, not the half fit that was struggling through 90 minutes throughout January. If not it has to be Smalling and Evans in the centre of defence with Rafael and Evra at full back. There can surely be no thought of leaving Evra out.

Steve Richards warns the coalition to drop NHS reforms before it's too late. Lasnley doesn't seem to be going out of his way to take the medical professions with him as he carries on his detested reforms. I'm not too sure it's politcally a wise move to start slagging off the doctors.
Peter Oborne returns to his attack on the moral decay of the British establishment. I wouldn't argue with the two cases he brings up, but i can never see how his policy prescriptions would alter anything.
Apple are slammed over their attitude to the Chinese wokers who produce their massive profits and who pay the price. If that firm was a blue chip British outfit would Peter Oborne be slaughtering them?

Freddy Gray in the Spectator asks whether American conservatives have given up, looking from this side of the pond it would seem so, you can't believe that Obama could possibly lose to Romney or Gingrich.

Happy days from 85, more of the same tomorrow please, you can see me on the pitch at the end, what a night.

Arsenal 1-2 Manchester United

After events earlier in the afternoon i suppose it was imperitive that we emerged with the three points from the game and thanks to Welbeck's goal ten minutes from time we did indeed manage to keep the pressure on City. If that final ball had been better in the first 45 minutes it could have been so much easier.
I was hoping that Jones would be paired alongside Carrick in central midfield, but Fergie chose to start Jones at right back and pair Giggs with Carrick in the middle of the pitch. I was definitely hoping that Jones would start in the middle of the park at Anfield next week, but the twisted ankle that saw him leave the pitch after just a quater of an hour has put paid to that. Just what we didn't need another injury, let's hope it's not as bad as it looked.
United completely bossed the first half, the only disappointment being it took us until the last minute of the first half to actually get on the scoreboard. Wenger chose to put Vermaelen on Valencia meaning Valencia was never going to be as dominant as he has been over the last few weeks. This meant that Nani had to be more on his game than he has been recently. But as easily as Nani found it to be his man, the out of position Djourou, he couldn't produce the final ball when it mattered.
Once again Welbeck was causing the back line of the opposition all kinds of problems, but Rooney was slightly disappointing again. Giggs and Carrick dominated the middle of the park as Arsenal starngely sat back. When the goal did come, it was simplicity itself as Nani fed Giggs who put in the perfect centre for Valencia to hit the back of the net with a rare header. So the first half domination didn't go to waste as looked like happening.
The second period saw Arsenal remember that they were the home side as they started to cause our back line problems. All the talk before the game had been about keeping Van Perise quiet, which United had managed fairly easilyup this point. But a Smalling slip saw Arsenal break forward and saw Van Persie produce the miss of the match. It was now end to end and Welbeck saw an effort he hit unbalanced cleared off the line by Mertesacker. That looked like it could be a crucial miss when Van Persie equalied with twenty minutes to go.
Inexplicably Wenger then took off Chamberlain who had probably been the home teams most dangerous player to replace him with the Russian Arshavin. It didn't take long for the Arsenal fans jeers to be fully vindicated when Arshavin lost Valencia all too easily who then produced one of his runs and put the ball on a plate for Welbeck who made no mistake. United deserved the three points but we made harder work of it than should have been the case. I would imagine next Saturday's fourth round tie at Anfailed will be a tougher encounter than yesterday regardless of their defeat to Bolton. We will need to be stronger in the middle of the park than we were yesterday, because it will be a battle, i don't expect to see much pretty football next week.

Fergie was happy with yesterday's performance singling Smalling out for praise, whuilst Wenger has to face the music as his relationship with his own fans takes a turn for the worse.

The official site profiles the much mis-understood Michael Carrick, he is playing well at the moment.

Daniel Taylor profiles Ravel Morrison and argues United have never had a player like him, thank fuck for that. Ahead of the north London Manchester double header Gary Neville picks City as his team of the season so far... It sounds like he fancies United's chances.

United and money

The Indy have reported that Ravel Morrison was demanding £30k a week to sign for a new contract. It hasn't taken him long to reach for the old Twitter to deny ever asking for £30, £50 or even the £12 k that United supposedly offered him. Some spinning going on here, is this coming from the Glazer's people , it's pretty embarrasing really. If United want rid because he is a bad apple, fair enough, just sell him and have done with it. If they really won't pay what Morrison or Pogba want it will come out, especially in Twitter happy Morrison's case, so all the spinning in the world won't help.
It does seem that he wants to stay but United want him out, if that's the case accept a bid.
Contract talks have now apparently broke down over a new deal with Welbeck, i can't really stand talking about footballers wages, as they are just totally immoral to me. Commentators always point out that people complain about bankers but never say anything about footballers, i don't know too many people who think footballers even remotely earn the astronomic wages they earn. Who knows what to believe in all these contract negotiations, all i will say is that he should be a similar wage band to Jones and Smalling. It's all a bit worrying to be honest, to me Welbeck is a huge part of the United future, i really think he is going to be a top top player.
If it has gone from no value in the market, ie we can't compete with the City's, Real's and new money flooding into European football to not even being able to keep local talent that have come through the ranks, we are in even more trouble than i thought.

Interesting words from Bayern's top men during the week, abhoring the Arab money Manchester City model, the leveraged buy out model of Manchester United and worrying that Platini is going to go soft over FFP. I can't help but see that as a shot across Platini's bow, i'm pretty sure the Glazer's would have been right behind those worries about Platini if Hoeness had not gone on to tell the world that if it came to it, he would prefer to be taken over by the Arabs than by a leveraged takeover.
It was interesting that the Glazer's through a United spokeman replied almost straight away, they do seem to be worried at the moment don't they. Andersred has blogged on United present financial situation and why they will not be spending any time soon, the debt of course.

Vidic seems to be on the happy pills whilst starting his rehabilitation after his knee operation claiming that only one club from Manchester will be amongst the sliverware come the end of the season. We have a chance of course, but i can't believe he is that confident, maybe it's all a startegy to put the pressure on City ahead of Sunday's clash with Spurs.
I wish i was as confident about our chances on Sunday as i am about Spurs chances of getting a result at the boo camp on Sunday. Don't get me wrong i don't fear Arsenal, if we perform we will win, but this season its hard to predict which United will turn up, the first half United against City or the second half United.
The one thing we definitely need is bodies back, especially indefence, and here the news appears to be good as Fergie has confirmed that both Smalling and Jones have trained this week and will be fit for Sunday. It's nice to hear encouraging news about Cleverley for once as well as Young, you just know when he is fit we will hear that phrase "it's like having a new player".

Lindegaard seems to have a lot to say for himself, he's a confident chap as good old Ray Wilkins would say, i think he's a good goalie, but i'm not sure he's shown himself off to be as good as he seems to think he is yet. Still he hasn't had a proper run of games yet, so presuming he is now our number one the next couple of months will tell us just how good he is.
As for De Gea i was always worried about relying on such a young goalie who didn't speak that much English, it does seem those fears weren't unfounded. I suppose the timing of the news that the Spaniard has long vision and will need eye surgery in the summer to correct it is unsuprising. I still feel he has the potential to be our number one, but he has to bulk up and learn the language enough to be able to command the back four in front of him.


Steve Richards warns us not to buy into the current media narrative that paints Milliband as a busted flush, current assumptions should about our political may prove to be wholly wrong. Matthew Norman totally slaughters Cameron's moderate tory image as if to point out how current perceptions of tory hegemony could turn out to be miles of the mark.

I always wondered whether there was more to this story than was let on in the press at the time, but Blair's head honcho Jonathan Powell admitted yesterday that Russia had us bang to rights over the "spy rock" affair. It always pays to have a sceptical eye over western denials when countries accuse them of meddling in their internal affairs.
I would love to know what intelligence we were actually trying to get hold of, i would like to think we were trying to help the democratic opposition, but i'm pretty sceptical about that as well.
The new documentary series Putin, Russia and the west threatens to be must see TV, as David Hearst writes Norma Percy's death of Yugoslavia was as good a historical drama as there has ever been.

Indy owner Alexander Lebdev reminds us why we should be trying to assist democratic forces punish the oligarch's theft of Russia's wealth. I'm not that sure he's the best advocate of this argument, but there you go. Putin's been having a go at the oligarch's as part of his electoral campaign no doubt, was Abramovitch listening.
Hungary looks as if it may well become the first former iron curtain country to decide to turn its back on the EU and democracy. This has been a prediction from observers who have warned that the financial crisis could have serious consequences. I suppose if there was one country this was going to happen to, Hungary may have been the one predicted, it seems to have reactionary outbreaks sporadically through its history.

The Economist has lead with a special report on the rise of state capitalism and its challenges to free market liberalism, social democracy doesn't seem to merit a mention.

Nick Cohen's new book about this countries abysmal libel laws are one of the reasons oligarch's, dictators and white collar crime love the city of London, makes you proud to be British doesn't it. 

Danish TV seems to be on one hell of a roll, the Killing has now been followed up with another excellent political drama Borgen. The first series has started and is already must watch, apparently there is a second series and a third one to be filmed. Following that a Swedish/danish co-production, lovely jubbly.

Ha-Joon Chang tells us not to blame the credit agencies for Eurozone turmoil, Europe is strangling itself with its flawed strategy. Paul Mason points out the six points that if sequenced right could help Europe to get out of the self inflicted mess it has found itslef in. He doesn't sound very convinced they will follow them.
Ambrose Pritchard-Evans points out the World banks fears of what will happen if they do indeed get it wrong, it will be worse than 2008, don't panic, don't panic.

Private eye continues to police our incompetent HMRC and discovers another sweet heart deal with Vodaphone. This really should be as big a scandal as Hackgate, but you just know the majority of our media owners don't want to expose any of this as they are at this themselves.

A new report has been produced for the TUC looking at what lessons should be learnt from the exporting powerhouse that is Germany. I have no arguments with it, that is definitely the way to go, i have my doubts that our unions would be capable of simulating the role that German trade unions play in Germany even if out of nowhere we discovered a social market style government.
Don't get me wrong i believe in unions playing a constructive role in an ideal world, i just don't think much of a majority of union leaders.

United's youth problems

Sam Wallace of the Indy thinks the Ravel Morrison saga throws the spotlight on teenage talent and half way though quotes an old interview that he had done with Brian McClair in which he had asked our academy director whther one day he would like to go for a big job. Wallace now realises that the Morrison/Pogba story shows that McClair wasn't kidding when he asnwered that he was in a big job. It still seems to me that cashing in on Morrison seems to the best course of action unless he changes his attitude, which seems very unlikely. As for Pogba, he hasn't shown anything in the reserves to show he is worth what other clubs are supposedly willing to pay for him.
Others seem to think that this is all down to Glazernomics with the club unwilling to pay the going rate for young talent. I honestly don't think that this is the position in the case, Pogba has proved nothing so far and Morrison doesn't seem to want it enough and is a disrupive influence in the dressing roon by all accounts. We all knew that winning the Youth cup doesn't automatically equate to guarenteed first team potential regular and whilst these two did seem the most obvious candidates there are still others with a chance. To be honest i'm more gutted about the Morrison situation because he really does have the talent to be a big Manchester United player. As for Pogba, i have never been as sold on him as others have been and i'm no fan of poaching young players from other clubs. So if we lost him to others with deeper pockets, i suppose it's poetic justice.

The return of Paul Scholes has provoked much debate in the fanzines and on the messageboards with a probable majority thinking it's a backward move. There is no doubt that we should have been looking to bring in some central midfield quality during the last two to three seasons to replace the quality we were going to lose in Scholes and potentially Ryan Giggs. But we are where we are, we didn't replace him and we have had injury after injury and even lost Fletcher for the season, so for me i can only see it as a great move.
I know he has always been one of my favourite players and i didn't think he needed to retire anyway, i always thought he would be able to do a job against the teams in the lower reaches of the table at Old trafford. But the players obviously love him, the celebrations after his goal on Saturday showed that. This doesn't mean that i think the situation is ideal, this summer is now crucial. I don't know if Fergie will be given the money or if he would swallow his pride, but if Sneijder does become available again this summer he is the sort of player he must be looking at.
Bizzarely the Mail are half heartedly linking us to Ronaldo, you just can't see that can you. One, the money, where does it come from, two, do you take a player back that spent his last two seasons at Old trafford agitating for a move and thirdly whatever money we have must surely be spent in central midfield. If yet again we won't splash the cash in midfield then central defence would seem more of a priority than attack. The only way i could see Ronaldo returning would be if the Rooney rumours were true and United cashed in on him in the summer. But though Rooney going is definitely no long shot, Ronaldo coming back surely is, i would put shorter odds on him coming back to Manchester to play in blue and white than red and white, a horrible, horrible thought.

Back to our midfield woes, Rob Smyth has penned an article on Phil Jones season so far and come down on the minority view, which i share that he could well end up being one of the long term answers to our midfield future and move further back later in his career. It would be nice to clear our defensive injury problems up to see him move back into the central midfield. Our best recent form was definitely when he partnered Carrick in the middle of the park where he could make those surging runs.
I'll cross my finger and hope but if we can get Cleverley back and fit for the rest of the season, then  our midfield options would look far healthier. Carrick and Jones, Carrick and Cleverley or Cleverley and Jones with Scholes to make the occasional appearance would probably see us give City a fight for the title. Of course the way this season has gone, there's probably no chance that things will go that smoothly. Hargreaves parting shot about our medical staff, whether true or not doesn't seem as desperate a claim as it did at the time.
If Jones is fit on Sunday i would like to see him back in midfield alongside Carrick, i pressume Welbeck will play up front with Rooney in a deeper role, unless we go 4-3-3 that is.

David McDonell of the mirror asks has Antonio Valencia become United's most important player, to which the answer at the moment would have to be yes. He is a great player to watch when he is on form, but i do have problems with the implications for United's game when this is the case.
The problems i have are as i said after the last two games, when Valencia hits form and becomes undroppable on the right, as he has become once again, Nani moves permanently to the left. For some reason, because being pretty good with two feet it shouldn't really be a problem, Nani always seems to lose his form when he plays permanently on the left. Nani's best form last season came during Valencia's absence.
The other problem leads on from that, we end up relying almost totally on Valencia having a good day, with almost every creative move coming from him down the right. With not much creativity elsewhere of course that shows opponents where they can try to stop us, if a team can stop him at the moment they are basically stoppingUnited. This where i feel Welbeck is so important as he is the only other player to be making things happen, at least until Rooney hopefully regains some consistency.

With the rumours over Berbatov's future flying around again after his flight to Germany was all over Twitter on Sunday, Mark Ogden focuses on the man who polarises opinion like no other amongst reds cheekily comparing him to Kinkladze.
I can't believe we would sell him at this stage of the season, but under Glazernomics who knows. I admit i loved him at Spurs and was excited when we bought him, but ultimately despite scoring so many goals last season he has been a disappointment. It's away from home for me, when he plays up front for us it just doesn't happen. It will be interesting to watch Will Keane's progress at the club, i see the Sheringham comparison, but whilst he doesn't have the beautiful first touch of the Bulgarian he is the nearest thing to Berbatov at the club. Will his style of play take him all the way at the club, i think it will, but Berbatov's relative failure, given the fee especially has been a real disappointment of the last few seasons.

Fergie thinks that Solskjaer could turn out to be the former player best equipped to become a top manager. Though i didn't read anything that he actually said that justifies the headline that he's tipped him to be a future boss.
I do think that he is one to look at for the future though. Post Fergie, managers will not get as much tolerance from the fans now Fergie has raised expectations so high and we have so many daytrippers. Which of course won't be fair as the new manager will be following one of the best football managers the world has ever seen.
Even though Fergie has said managing United isn't a young mans job, i'm not sure that's the case, how old is Guardiola. One thing Solskjaer would have going for him if in a few years he were to be appointed would be the fact he is already such a well loved figure at the club. We even know he isn't a fan of the gimps even if he won't come out and say such a thing in the future. But that popularity would help him if he took his time getting his feet under the table in the job, the patience that others probably wouldn't get would be afforded to Ole.

Music

Black lips -  Arabia mountain: Another pretty good helping of 60's garage/punk high energy rock n roll from one of the states best retro bands.

Carl Barat - Carl Barat: The first proper solo album from the former Libertine is quirkily good, more Kinks type tunes than the more indie rock of previous band dirty pretty things

Cee Lo Green - The lady killer: Not my usual type of listening, but this is too catchy not to like, 15 tracks long and pretty consistently excellent. Fuck you is a brilliant song, but it's not on its own.

Dengue Fever - Cannibal courtship: I have read bits and pieces and have been meaning to getting around to listening to this US/Cambodian outfit for a few years. I should have got around to it before now if their latest album is anything to go by. A superb mix of 60's pyschedelia, indie rock and bits of world music.

Goldfrapp - Head first: A return to a more mainstream electronica which disappointed me at first after the last couple of  more left field albums. But it's got some great tunes on it which won me over in the end.

The left banke - Walk away Renee/pretty ballerina: A classic mid 60's piece of US pop. Of course i had heard the two classic singles but i felt as if i had heard the whole album before, which i hadn't.

Manchester United 3-0 Bolton Wanderers

This turned into a run of the mill three points against the division's bottom team, but in reality until that second goal went in with fifteen minutes to go the three points were in the balance. United played reasonably enough especially in the second half when Valencia and Rafael started to create havoc down the Bolton right but once again we always looked slightly vulnerable at the back.
The main reason for the vulnerability would have to be Ferdinand's back problem, once again he barely looked mobile. It was good to see Evans back, but it would be nice to see Smalling and Jones fully fit as well, especially for the nest two weeks. I have been reasonably confident about our chances at the Emirates, but if Ferdinand has to play again next week, he will need protection from the midfield in front of him.
United started the game fairly well, though Scholes took time to find his feet again and the satnav took it's time to function up to the standard he would have liked. Fortunately Carrick played as if he had been liberated by the thought of having some real class at the side of him at last. Our best early chance came from a magnificent ball from Carrick that was well met by Welbeck, whose first time shot was well saved by the Bolton number one Bogdan. Welbeck had another fine game, he is fast becoming as important to the team as Rooney, indeed when Rooney has as an indifferent game as he did yesterday it could be argued that he is more important. His movement, work rate, vision and skill are in a different league compared to our Mexican hot shot, who once again looked out of touch in his late fifteen minute cameo.
It was Welbeck who earned United the penalty that we had hoped would set us up for an easy victory half way through the first half. I have to say i wasn't very confident when Rooney stepped up to take it, he just doesn't seem a natural penalty taker to me, and a look at his conversion rate from the spot this morning would seem to confirm that. As with last weeks effort at the boo camp he may have hit the ball well but he hit the ball at a nice height for the goalie to save. My other gripe about his penalty technique is that he doesn't really attempt to send the goalie the wrong way. The best penalty takers try to beat the goalie before they have even kicked the ball, how many times did Eric seem to roll the ball into an empty net as the goalie had already dived the wrong way.
Just as it seemed that we would be going in at half time frustratingly level, up popped the ginger prince at the back post to roll back the years. I had been watching him closely and he had a made a couple of trademark late runs into box during those last five minutes but this time the ball found him and  he made no mistake. I don't think there has been a more popular goal all season amongst players and fans alike, the players seemed just as excited about Scholesy returing and finding the net as us fans. The second half saw United search for that second goal to kill the game but even though Valencia was tearing Bolton apart on the right the goal wouldn't come. Nani's frustrating performance must be mentioned here, he wasn't alone, Rooney seemed to be having on those days as well, but Nani seems to have lost his form altogether at the moment. Just as Valencia regains his form, Nani seems to have lost his, i don't know whether it's to do with him being posioned permantly on the left to accomadate Valencia on the right, but it would be nice if we had both wings functioning to the same effect.
The second goal came eventually with Welbeck getting the goal his performance deserved and Carrick capped his fine performance with another excellent goal. Carrick has never been a prolific goalscorer but when he does find the net they are invariably goals worth seeing. So after Tottenham's suprise draw at home to Wolves, can Wigan do us a favour on Monday night. I suppose the odds are against, but City are going through a sticky spell, so you never know. A final thought on Bolton, after reading Coyle admit that Bolton's finance's aren't too healthy and admit relegation would be disastrous for the club yesterday morning and then watching their performance at United yesterday afternoon, the future looks grim indeed.

Fergie told the Beeb that Paul Scholes still has it. The longer the game went on the better he got, in fact for the five minutes before he was taken off he was looking as good as ever. If Gibson has been sold to finance the return of Scholes, classic Glazernomics, at least we have got a player that should see us suffer no more Blackburn's at home. I don't expect to see him start the next two games at Arsenal or Liverpool  but the way our injury problems never seem to go away i wouldn't be 100% on that.

Robert Fisk argues that it's not a few bad apples over the news of US troops urinating over dead Afghan soldiers that surfaced last week, this is what all wars produce.
Nick Broomfeild argues that new evidence proves conclusively that US armed forces have covered up the attrocities that occured at Haditha in Iraq. I can't remember watching that documentary, i will have to try and look it up.
Meanwhile teflon Dave visits Saudi Arabia the country proud to swim against the Aran spring tide, i have said it before i hate the way the British establishment conducts its business with a country that stands for almost everything we puport to despise.

The weeks events in Burma suggest that the junta is steadily coming out from the cold, it doesn't seem very clear to me why they have suddenly seen the democratic light or why now.
Hugh O'Shaughnessy argues that Iran and Venezuela have more in common than the west imagines, namely western hypocrisy and meddling in their internal affairs. Events in Iran this week suggest it's still going on, the hypocrisy and wrong headedness of the wests stance on Iran defies belief. Surely the last thing the global economy needs is conflict with Iran. As despicable as the theocracy of Iran may be, there is a rational and democractic opposition in Iran that is far nearer power than anything similar in the Wahhabi theocracy of Saudi Arabia.

Steve Richards argues that neither Cameron or Salmond are in control of the independce referendum debate, well at least that's good for democracy. The more the costs of independence are spelt out, the more it's hard to see the Scots voting yes to independence. Even if Salmond is never to be under estimated.
Simon Jenkins laments the fact that nobody is arguing the case for "devo max", he argues that this would tick all the tory boxes by maintaining the Union whilst making the Scots more fiscally responsible, John Curtice calls it the solution that dare not speak its name.
Hamish McRae believes that Scotland would easily be able to make a success of independence and that it may even be beneficial to us south of the border.

Robert Peston shows us why the Eurozone credit rating downgrades matter, and that Eurozone leaders claiming that they don't matter may be indulging in wishful thinking, i don't Sarkozy thinks it doesn't matter.

Samuel Brittan claims that even with all it's current woes, there is still nothing to touch the market.

Morrison for sale?

The Telegraph are reporting that United have called it quits with Ravel Morrison and have put him up for sale with Newcastle having already had one bid turned down. I'm afraid it's all too believable, something has been going on over the past month, that has seemed quite obvious.
It's a shame as he was definitely a talent, but it was always a question of how much he really wanted it. As i'm sure i'm not the first and won't be the last to say it today, if he can't get his arse in gear to make a go of it at United, it's hard to see him ever achieving what his talent suggests he should do in the game. I can't argue with the decision to try and make some money from him, if true of course, he was lucky that United stuck by him after his court case. He was easily the best of last year's youth cup squad, you have to wonder how many of that group will actually make it at United, will Pogba still be here next season, he looks miles away from the first team from what i have seen of him in the reserves this season.
I watched Tunnicliffe play for Peterbrough last week against Sunderland last week, but it was hard to judge his performance as he was given a role that was totally deifferent from his role at United. He didn't do anything wrong in a defensive role but his passing wasn't as accurate as i would have liked it to have been. I still think Will Keane has a great chance, he looks a real player, i would have liked to see him go out on loan for the rest of the season, but i suppose it's harder to get games on a regular basis when you play up front.
Of the others who knows, Will's twin Michael Keane seems to have shot up and his game has come on, but first team potential, i don't know. Larnell Cole looked good last year, but is he strong enough, Fryers has played for the first team and looked decent at times but has got away with a couple of bad mistakes. Lastly one of the players i really liked the look of last year has hardly got a look in this year, and when Tom Thorpe has played it has been in midfield. It's too early to say the hopes that we placed in the youth cup winning team of 2011 has not lived up to the hype, but they all have a lot of work to do. 

 The Mail report that Everton are hoping to clinch the signing of Darron Gibson. I don't rate him, but i suppose with the size of Everton's squad and their lack of money he could turn out to be a decent signing. As for Gibson, it has to be a good move for his career overall and for his chances of going to European championships in the summer with the Republic.

Mark Ogden claims that Fergie is glad to have Scholes back for his experience as much as anything as he regrets selling O'Shea and Wes Brown after losing Van Der Sar, Neville and Scholes as well. I had wondered whether Fergie regretted letting O'Shea go in the summer as he would have filled a few holes for during this injury crisis.

Andy Mitten speaks with ex United youth player Bojan Djordic after the player was released by Blackpool recently. He looked a really good player in the youth team, maybe not good enough for United but i thought he would have had a career as premier league football. I suppose he has had an interesting and varied career but he would have made a better living if he made it as a premier league player. I can remember the chipped goal he scored at Celtci, it was a real beauty.

Ahead of last Sunday's derby Daniel Taylor profiled Roberto Mancini and compared him to Fergie, well we are going to see if there is any validity to the claim with the dismal run City are currently going through. They were shocking last night, and what about that crowd, 36,000 for a semi final, massive indeed. I'm looking forward to seeing that City line up take on Spurs in a couple of weeks time.

I enjoy reading Peter Oborne even if i don't really agree with him on most of the big issues, but i would go along with almost all of this column prasing the Union and hoping that the Scots don't vote for independence.
Of course if Osborne is thinking he is playing a win win game, hoping to thwart the Nationalists but if not making sure that England will become a one party Tory state, five, ten years down the line when England's loss of influence becomes obvious he won't seem so clever. Oborne is totally correct that the four constituent parts of Britain were piffling inconsequential places in the grander cheme of things before the act of Union. I read one nationalist comparing England's attitude to Scotland as typically imperialist, fuck me has he ever read the history of the empire and the disproportionate role the Scots played in it. Scotland wasn't a conquered nation.
Michael White compares SNP leader Alex salmond to the English Euro sceptics with his blame game, Teddy Taylor won't be pleased to be described as English.

I have just read Paul Mason's Meltdown : The end of the age of greed, which was fantastic read and am looking forward to buying and reading the follow up. The Guardian ran an extract from it last week, it seems to continue with some of the issues touched from Meltdown, such as the network and i love the way he uses historical comparisons whether or not they turn out to have any validity it makes you realise what a historicaly important time we are currently living through.
Another book i'm going to have to read eventually is Richard Murphy's new book, here in his blog he argues what the new social democracy will have to look like. Whether he is right or wrong, and i would think that is the way we have to head the one thin all these articles are surely right on is that we will not be able to go on doing things the way we have done them for the last 30 years.

Mason made much of the forward march of the east and the developing world in Meltdown and Martin Wolf used his FT colum to look ahead to the economy for this part of the world in the year 2012. He sees high hopes for them but argues that they will not come to the developed world's rescue, we will have to sort things out for ourselves.

John Gray pens an fascinating review of a new book by Philip Coggan called Paper promises: Money,debt and the new world order in which he agrees with Mason that the Neo-Liberal era is over and it's time that our politicians and economists woke up to the fact.
Hans Kundnani fears that the Eurozone will pay a high price for Germany's economic narcissism espoused by its pursuit of ordoliberalism which will leave deficit countries facing greater austerity.

Manchester City 2-3 Manchester United

There were some reds who thought the missed chance to get City back for the 6-1, with our slipshod second half performance, spoilt the day. Count me out of that, sure i was really looking forward to the second half and as Keano said on the TV there will be more goals, but you couldn't see them coming at our end, but as Keano also said who is in the fourth round.
The day started well with the news that Scholes has come out of retirment for the rest of the season. Again for some reds this is just an embarrassment, showing our lack of financial clout. I don't really go along with that, Fergie hasn't really got him back for games like City away, i'm sure he will be used more in games like Blackburn at home. If he had been available and picked for that game we would not have been dropping those three points. He looked rusty when he came on, unsuprisingly, and the second City goal turned what should have been a nice thirty minute fitness exercise into something altogether different.
It's a fair while since we saw a goal like Rooney's opener away from home in a big game. Up until that moment it had been all City with United getting everybody behind the ball bar Welbeck, i wasn't sure whether this was the plan, to sit deep and then counter attack or whether we just couldn't get hold of the ball. Rooney confirmed in his post match comments that counter attack was indeed the policy. Well it worked to absolute perfection as with United's first foray into City territory, Rooney passed wide to Valencia whose first time cross was met by the head of Rooney who powered home the ball.
Then came the defining moment of the match, Kompany's sending off, I've changed my mind about three times over this. As it happened i thought it was a straight red and the ref had got it right, replays then showed that it may have been a touch harsh. But last night i saw a gif of the incident where you see it over and over again an watching it like that it looked like a straight red again. Anyway the ref sent him off and United took complete control of the rest of the first half.
The second goal saw Danny Welbeck cap a tremendous performance with a stunning finish where the chance seemed to have gone but he showed why it's always nice to have as many Mancunians as possible in a red shirt as he showed the City defence that he wanted it more. You could sense there were more goals there to be had and that United knew that and as importantly were going to go for it. Another fine move saw Welbeck brought down and though the reserve goalie Pantilimon pulled off a great save Rooney made no mistake with the follow up.
Half time arrived just in time for City as United threatened to run riot. City took Silva off at half time as Mancini appeared to conced the tie to United. But instead of more United goals the beginning of the second period saw City pull one back almost straight away with a brilliantly struck free kick from Kolarov. The free kick had been given away due to another dismal lapse from Evra which saw him recieve a yellow card. For all the talk offUnited hanging on at the end, we should remember that whilst it was 3-1 United should have been awarded a second penalty. If that had been given and we had scored, vengance for the 6-1 at Old trafford would have been on again. Scholes came on for the, once again frustratingly inconsistent Nani, but Valencia was doing his stuff on the right. The second City goal saw Scholes and Evra combine poorly to concede the ball that ended with Aguero reacting first to Lindegaard's fumbled save. He didn't seem to receive any criticism for the goal but i thought Lindegaard should have held onto the original shot, it was straight at him. The last five minutes were anxious, but when that whistle went, the feeling was immense.
I don't know why but whilst the draw was being made for the fourth round i just knew we were going to get Liverpool at Anfield and wasn't unhappy that we got them. I can't wait for that, i hope i'm not being over confident.

It seems most commentators such as Alan Hansen think that United and Liverpool have to make peace before the FA cup tie later in the month. But what exactly are United suppose to aplogise for, we haven't done anything wrong. All the turmoil that surrounds the fixture emenate from the actions of Liverpool FC, as most neutrals seem to agree.
Things just seem to be going from bad to worse for the scouse reds don't they, Friday night's second racism row and now Downing, i suppose the only suprise is that it was Downing and not Carroll.

Paul Hayward thinks that Fergie has made his point to Rooney and also that he wasn't happy with United's second half performance. Nicky Butt thought the Scholes move was a brilliant psychological move by Fergie to take the attention away from City's home record. Sam Wallace wrote that Rooney obscures United's flaws, in a pretty fair piece, i would agree that our defence is very wobbly at the moment. One of our problems is not so much that Ferdinand's form is poor, but that he isn't really fit and he is basically hobbling through games. It will be good to get Evans back and hopefully he and Smalling can get a run of games together.
The new edition of United we stand will be worth getting for the cover as much as for what will be in it.

Roger Bootle thinks that the economy will bounce back strongly eventually, we will just have to go through hell first. Heather Stewart writes regulation on unrestricted capital could be on the cards.
Larry Elliott talks about le vice Anglais and how it has become the fetish Europe wide.

Money, no problem?

Mark Ogden reports that rumours that United can't spend are wide of the mark, the Glazer's have assured Fergie. However Fergie won't buy unless he is convinced they are right for the club long term. I think that it's more likely that he won't spend now because he knows eventually he would have to balance the books. For whatever comes in, player/players would have to go out. Which of course makes the Rooney situation all the more important to keep an eye on. I don't think i'd be too thrilled if i had wrote that article to see the headline attached to it, it's a bit of a credibility killer.

Obviously after the decision to leave Rooney out of the Blackburn game, the spotlight has fallen back on his career, lifestyle and future at United. David McDonnell wonders if Fergie is preparing to cash in on Rooney at the end of the season to release money to continue the rebuilding process. James Lawton is more concerned at the waste of a talent, i think it's fair to say that are a more than a few reds who think that he has never really looked like realising the potential we all thought he had when he was bought.
I would have to count myself into that number, don't get me wrong he is a top player, easily the best player in our squad, but he just has too many ordinary games and when his form deserts him his first touch is so far from what it should be for a top player, it's not true. I always thought there wasn't that much between Rooney and Ronaldo at United but Ronaldo has obviously pushed on. But neither of them approach the genius of Messi and Ronaldo may even be behind Xavi, sure Ronaldo flat track bullies the lesser teams but when it matters the two Barca players turn up and are counted.

Sam Wallace thinks United are dogged by too many problems, the areas of concern for Fergie are pretty widespread. We all know what the problems are and the injury list has just exacerbated them even further. With the squad they have assembled and the players we have lost last season and the injuries we have suffered if City don't win the title this season, there will be questions asked.

The other talking point this week has been who should Fergie put his faith in for the number one jersey with almsot all pundits arguing that Fergie would have to opt for the more experienced Dane Lindegaard. I would have gone along with that before the Blackburn game, but after the disaster he suffered at the weekend i would have stuck with De Gea for the barcode clash for fear of affecting his confidence. As it is it didn't really matter, neither goalie would have saved the first two crucial goals. But now he has gone for Lindegaard i hope he sticks with him for the next few games. With the chopping and changing we are having to do amongst the back four we could at least continue stick with the same keeper.

Ian Ladyman writes that Fergie claims that Chelsea won't do business with a title rival during the transfer window aftert the reports that United are after Lampard. Reading t'internet forums it would seem that there is something in this though. Given our crappy finances and the state of the current squad i have to admit that i would welcome his signing if we could prise him from Stamford bridge. One thing he would bring to the squad that we sadly lack is goals from midfield.

Robbie Brady joins Tunnicliffe in spending the rest of the season in his Brady's case with Hull City on loan, He got some rave reviews earlier in the season, things seem to have quietened down over the last couple of months. I have to admit i have never seen a future Unted first teamer in him, but then again when Cleverley first went on loan to Leicester City i would have said the same.
Brady could be joined by Josh King at Hull City apparently after his injury struck time at Borussia Monchengladbach. I was always excited by King, he looked a real prospect, so this looks like a good move for him.

Liverpool are not winning friends in there bizarre behaviour after Suarez was found guilty and banned for eight games, King Kenny was on top form after their abysmal surrender at the boo camp on Tuesday night.
Martin Samuel wonders what on earth Liverpool football club are playing at, doesn 't John Henry realise the damage the club are inflicting on themselves and even on his own reputation in the States.

Maurice Glasman has a big piece in the New Statesman this week in which he advises Ed Miliband to seize the initiative whilst being less than glowing about his and the Labour parties performance. It has made big waves in the Westminster village, Paul Waugh wonders how Glasman has ever achieved this so called importance.

Why the Hungarian crisis is so alarming, Hitker or Mussolini would have been proud of this. Of course Hungary was on the wrong side during both world wars. Europe can't allow that to happen to a country in the EU, so surely unless all that legislation is rescinded they will have to be threatened with expulsion and if they don't comply kicked out and ostracised. Of course they can always make common cause with Belarus and Putin, i'm sure that would be really popular with the Hungarian people.

Train fare rises always make the news, less so bus fare rises, i'm sure most commuters will notice bus fare rises of up to 20%. Birmingham is one of the big marginal seat area's of the country, this won't do their electroal prospects much good during the next election. Of course most tories won't have the foggiest how hard this will be on ordinary people, most of them still probably regard bus service peivatisation as a rip roaring success. Most of them work in the only city in the country to still have an unprivatised transport system. A real progressive goverment would reverse that, allowing localities to arrange their own transport systems, unfortunately that means we will have a long wait.



Music

Jim Ford - Harlan county: Another lost classic according to Mojo that did nothing when it was brought out, even though the guy was a reasonably successful songwriter. It's absolutley superb, an unusual mix of soul, funk and country. It makes you wonder how it never sold, in a similar way to the Rodriguez album that came out a couple of years back.

Kyle Eastwood - Songs from the chateau: Clint's son is the bass playing leader of this jazz ensemble. And it sounds pretty good, it's a quite funky modern jazz. There's more than a bit of Miles Davis in this piece.

Peter Bruntnell - Black mountain: Country rock along the lines of Ryan Adams, that occasionally sounds a bit Elliott Smith as well. It's a reasonable album, though it doesn't really threaten to match either of those excellent artists.

Shabazz Palaces - Black up: I'm not a massive fan of hip hop but i love this, they're from Seattle but there are the occasional moments that they put me in mind of trip hop Massive Attack.

The Kills - Blood pressures: The latest release from the UK/US duo is a real cracker, they have done some cracking stuff in the past, but some pretty average albums as well. I have read it reviewed as a dirty, sexy album and i'd go along with the dirty part of that.

The young knives - Ornaments from the past: The third proper album from the UK indie outfit continues their path away from the post punk guitar sound of the voices of animals and men album. As with it's predecessor, it pretty good, a few cracking tunes but it doesn't match the excellence of Voices.

Newcastle United 3-0 Manchester United

Another stinker and another performance to forget in a fixture that i had been worried about for a while. I honestly thought before last night that Arsenal away would be an easier game for us, right at this minute. The one thing you knew about last night was that it would be a hundred miles an hour, they would be in our faces and our ever changing back four would be tested. At least at the Emirates it will be more of a game of football and that we hopefully won't get bullied there, though at the moment you never know.
The battle came to pass and as i feared the present United weren't good or up for it enough. The team didn't look too bad on paper, with Ferdinand back in the team allowing Carrick to go back into midfield and Lindegaard back between the sticks. I have to say though, at this stage in his career, Jones is a last resort as a centre half. He just doesn't win enough balls in the air, i can't believe i'm saying this but Evans wins more and will walk back into the team when he regains fitness. Jones best position has to be full back or midfield and for me, even though he has had a couple of stinkers he still has to be picked to get those forward bursts back into the team.
Next to him it seemed obvious to me that Ferdinand had been rushed back and isn't really fit. The penalty that he should have conceeded in the first half was an example of him not really being right. You can tell when he is not really right as he lacks mobility and can seem statuesque at times. With Evra at left back seemingly in permanent decline and a right winger at full back, when you looked at our back four objectively it didn't fill you full of confidence.
The midfield two looked good on paper, but didn't have the best of nights, Park contributed little and Nani have one of those nights where nothing came off, of which i'm afraid he has too many. My other worry when i saw the team was the pairing of Rooney and Berbatov up front. They seem to work well enough as a pair at Old trafford but as we saw numerous times last season, away from home they just don't seem to click. Berbatov just never got into the game, the difference in movement between United's attack when Welbeck has started away from home to when either Berbatov or Hernandez has partnered Rooney has been all too obvious. To be fair to the Bulgarian though, he was no worse than Rooney who was sadly off his game. Worryingly Rooney's body language looked a bit suspect, one poor away game is too soon to say something isn't right, but i'll be keeping my eyes on him. That was the kind of performance from him and from United that we saw during our troubled start to last season.
For all that it still took two brilliant goals to put us to the sword. Jones should have done better with the challenge to the headed knock on that Ba volleyed in to give Lindegaard no chance with. I'm not saying that he should always be winning those, but he should at least trouble the forward enough to stop them getting the perfect knock down in. I'm not sure if the inquest to the second goal actually mentioned that the free kick given away from which the French man scored such a brilliant goal from was totally unnecessary. I still don't know what Jones was thinking off, he just seemed to panic, i suppose we have to put it down to the learning process.
Once the second went in i couldn't see any way back for us, and that was before the substitutions and the tactics which lacked any imagination. Bringing Welbeck on first was right, but it was too late to change the game and at the moment throwing Hernandez on is just hoping for the best. The Mexican is so anonymous when on the pitch at the moment it's embarrassing. As i mentioned after Saturday if the opposition can stop our attack from the flanks we become completely devoid of ideas. Our best chance of the second half came straight after Welbeck was brought on and his centre to Rooney who probably should have done better with the chance. That apart though we rarely looked threatening and the third goal jus about summed the night up.
This aint the best shape to be going into Sunday in obviously, but it's the cup and it's a derby, so who knows, fingers crossed anyway. I hope Smalling's back so we can put him alongside Ferdinand and allow Jones to fill central midfield. Of course that's presuming the forgotten man Cleverley isn't sprung upon an unsuspecting world. We need bodies back that's for sure and then just as importantly a run of games with injuries kept down to a minimum. I still think the FA cup is our best chance os silverware this season so i hope Fergie is taking this game as seriously as the fans are.

As we prepare to face City Mark Ogden warns Owen Hargreaves that time is running out if he is to prove to Fergie that he was right to let him go. Of course he was right, did any body have the slightest doubt that he would hardly ever leave the physio's room.

Michael White reminds the Euro sceptics that after ten years of the Euro, they have got things wrong too and still have no convincing answer to what the alternative to belonging to the Eurozone actually is. I have just finished Hugo Youngs brilliant account with Britains relationship with Europe since the war This blessed plot and that is a superb account of this countries failure to come to terms with it's declining role in the world. I'm pro-Europe and i probably would have voted to join the Euro though i had big worries about the Euro being run as a Europe wide Bundesbank. But even as those worries have turned out to be justified, and it's obviously the case the sceptics were right that the Eurozone was poorly thought through, the Euro won't go away as the sceptics hope as Robert Skidlesky predicts the Eurozone will shrink instead.
Bryan Appleyard takes a look at the options for this country asn wonders if as part of a retreat from Europe, this country should accept it's fate as a declining power. In Time to shrink Britain he wonders can accept our loss of influence and adopt a policy of rational isolationism.
At least that is intellectualy honest, i would answer that even if we wanted to adopt that policy the real world would get in the way as it always does eventually. At the end of the day we are a European country, we always have been and always will. Read your history and name one century where this country wasn't in the thick of historical events concerning Europe. Of course a sizeable number, though not all Eurosceptics really yearn to be the 51st state. Which is about as intellectually dishonest as you can get, they whine about losing powers to Brussels but would hand them over to Washinton in a heart beat.
As if the economic prospects for Europe weren't challenging enough, Hungary as many commentators have warned over the last couple of weeks is set to give the EU a deomocratic crisis.

Paul Mason's latest blog views the role of central banks during the current crisis, their historical evolution and their role in the future as they have become part of the debate during the Republican primaries in the US.
Martin Wolf inpsects the economics propspects for the high income countries, what was known as the westernised first world i suppose and concludes by wishing us good luck because we are going to need it.

Nic Jones with a track off the classic lost album Penguin eggs

Manchester United 2-3 Blackburn Rovers

We have complained of the mundane nature of the last couple of seasons, that's one thing we can't really complain about this season. Given the transitional nature of the squad and our mounting injury list i can't see this being the last unforseen defeat we will suffer this season. I don't know how many times i heard disgrace mentioned and we should be beating them at the stadium, walking back to the Tollgate and in the Tollgate. It's not a disgrace to lose a football match and obviously though you would expect United to be beating the bottom side at home, it doesn't always follow that we will, which is what makes sport so enjoyable surely. Look at all the other results over the weekend for evidence of that
Fergie's team selection and tactics also inevitably came in for much criticism, obviously it wasn't the kind of line up you would have wanted to see. I had always expected Rooney to be rested but had presumed he would be on the bench in case of emergencies. Well we at least now have a pretty good idea why he wasn't even on the bench. Whether you think he was right or wrong we certainly payed for his absence. He would have been the perfect player to bring on into that central midfield area, not just giving the creativity that Park and Fabio unsuprisingly didn't bring to the table, but also helping us to keep possession better.
The othe main bone of contention was playing Valencia at right back especially in light of his brilliant second half performance. I am on record as saying that i'm no fan of him being played at right back, but i don't really think that would have altered the game that dramatically. At the end of the day we are paying for the incredible injury list we have built up over the season. I mean just look at that back four again. We have all moaned about our lack of quality in central midfield and yet over the last few weeks as our form has returned and the goals have flowed we seemed to have found at least a short term answer in the form of Carrick and Jones together. And yet where were they both playing on Saturday, central defence, that sums up our problems at the moment.
We need bodies back and fast, i had written that if we had been playing our christmas fixtures away with the defensive line ups we have had to put up i would have been worried. Well it only needed the bottom team to find a bit of self belief to use their size to out muscle us. Red News editor Barney tweeted yesterday that the two defeats in the league so far this season have basically seen us bullied. I would go along with that though i think it's not going to be a long term worry, just that in the here and now the injuries and lack of depth in quality in central midfield are hurting us badly.
Which brings us to my real gripe with team selection, the return of De Gea in goal. I still like De Gea as a goalie but against a side the size of Blackburn, and they were giants compared to the United team, it made sense to stick with Lindegaard for now. We were basically in trouble every time they put a cross in. With no Vidic and no Ferdinand and a central midfielder at centre half in front of him i feel a bit sorry for him.
As in almost every game we have lost this season, we were turned over because we conceeded soft goals. I though the first was a penalty, though the jostling for position before the ball was delivered could just as easily have seen Samba penalised. With that referee on Saturday that was never going to happen, he seemed to be gloating in the fact that he wasn't giving United anything. Most reds wondered how he hadn't booked the goalie, but were all screaming for it in the second half. Unfortunately, though it was pretty blatant time wasting, it was all perfectly legal, but in the first half, there were two or three occasions he could and should have been booked. The second goal was down to poor defensive work from Carrick, let's hope the new found confidence he had been showing isn't knocked for six as it has been in the past.
United's fight back was basically driven by Valencia having ain inspired ten minutes skinning his man time after time and learning from the first half. In the first half United had delivered cross after cross only to see the giant Blackburn defence easily snuf out the danger. Both United goals came from low crosses, even if there was a hint of fortune to the first. It wasn't really pretty football, but it was effective. What we did see on Saturday was how limited our tactics have become at times with no creativity in the middle of the park. Our tactics seemed very limited , it was basically get the ball to the winger and hope they can beat two men and get the ball in. As we saw against City at home, if the opposition are good enough to stop our wingers or our wingers are having an off day, we are in trouble. Watching Nasri get hoisted off again for City during the most enjoyable part of the weekend for a red makes me wonder how much he must rue his decision to follow the money.
Unbelievably United now completely lost their rythym and the chances stopped flowing. I always thought that if we didn't get a third our defensive game was so weak we could still end up losing the three points. At this point though i would gladly have took a point, but when we need to be able to shut up shop this season, it just doesn't happen. The third goal was the worst, De Gea made a complete horlicks of it, but Fergie was right to blame the rest of the defence for not doing more after that mistake.
The rest of the players heads went down after that, not really what you want to see, but understandable enough i suppose, after having fought their way back into the game only to go behind again. United huffed and puffed and did have chances but no luck especially with one chance right near the line that was cleared off the line from our own man on the line the prostrate substitute Will Keane.
At least he was the one bright note of the day for me, he may not have created any chances or even had any chances, but he showed signs that the promise he has shown in the youth and reserves has a fair chance of being fulfilled. I always look at whether a young player carries on playing his natural game when he gets a chance in the first team and whether he makes the right decisions. His first touch was good, his movement was good, and when he had the chance he invariably saw the right pass and executed the right pass. Not as easy as it sounds when the last five minutes are seeing United chasing the game against a packed defence. We can all remember Macheda coming on this season and mis controlling the ball. Pretty good news considering Hernandez had another annonymous game, even if it was only for 45 minutes.

As far as the Rooney mystery goes, taking what's been reported and the rumours going around, i would have to back Fergie's stance even if it turned out that it cost us big time. If Rooney turned up to training the worse for wear, Fergie had to do something and with the Morrison situation rumbling on in the background an example had to be made.

It sounds like Giggs is going to give us another years service, how badly he was missed on Saturday. I will say this about the changes made against Blackburn, i hope Fergie didn't take Blackburn lightly because that was always going to be the harder game. But as far as Giggs goes that's obviously good news because he can still do a job. It was muttered aloud after the game what a pity it was Scholes wouldn't give us another season, that was the kind of game he would still have looked the dogs bollocks. Still as Keano rightly pointed out after the Basel defeat United should not be relying on 38 year olds.

Ahead of the weekend fixture Paul Hayward talked of Ferguson and retirement and how Fergie has become retirement-phobic, Glazer's apart i think United are in reasonable shape as far as the long term goes, but only as long as Fergie is in charge of the ship. I still think that the gimps will have to bail out, the only question is will they make the profit from the sale of the club that they hope to. Under present economic and market conditions, the answer must surely be in the negative.

Again written ahead of the weekend's fixtures, Andy Cole wrote that he thought that the end of the season would see United retain the title. I thought he was right to pick up on some of Mancini'c recent moans, even if Mancini was spot on the money in saying ths xmas fixture list hadn't been kind to City.
I think we have a chance but not with if we continue to suffer injury after injury, the big losers of the weekend for me were Spurs, they had a great chance to really force their way into the title race. Their game against City in a couple of weeks will be a game to watch and will be a pointer to how the title race will go. If Spurs could come away with the three points from there they would be right in there with a chance.

It sounds like the Vidic injury whilst still bad, wasn't as bad as it could have been. He has undergone the operation and no complications were found with it, though it will still be the following season before he will be able to resume training. Hopefully that means that he may be fit to return nearer the beginning of the season than originally hoped.

John Campbell looks at the legacy of Thatcher as the new film starring Meryl Streep brings her back into the spotlight. It's fair up to a point, the Union's did need to be made to brought to their senses, but not destroyed. But he comes perilously close to saying that Howe's economic policies were right, even thoug they drove a lot of sound manufacturing businesses to the wall. Those very same industries that everybody, left or right, accepts our economy needs more of.

Jon Snow looks ahead to 2012 and borrows from Clinton's presidential campaign the phrase " it's the economy stupid ". And warns us to watch the Iraq/ Saudi Arabia cold war.
Noam Chomsky with an interesting piece about the decline of America and lays the blame at the hands of the financial elite. John Kampfner tells us to look at Brazils' success as a clue as to where the future lies. He also goes on to lament the lack of realism as regards this countries declining influence.
William Keegan warns George Osborne austerity will be bad for your ratings, having a go at him basing your startegy on pleasing the discredited credit ratings agencies. A piece from Liberal conspiracy looks at the Labour parties city problem.
Peter Oborne's latest Telegraph article argues that it's modrnisation, not morality, that is the dirty word of politics, which of course was the theme of his book the triumph of the political class.

Polly Toynbee urges the Labour party to back the BBC against the tories and Sky, i can't see this happening new labour were almost as anti Beeb as the tories. No arguing with her messgae though.

The Irish times looks Richard Herring goes after the big fish of comedy as he takes his new tour around the economy. One of the shows is at the Lowry, if it doesn't intefere with United i may go.