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.
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.
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