De Gea has been pleased with his first season at United and is happy the fans are behind him, he thinks his last minute save at Stamford bridge was a turning point for both himself and for the club. I won't say i thought we had bought a dud, i very rarely do that after a single season, but until Lindegaard's injury we didn't really see the real Spaniard. But football can be cruel, and for Lindegaard doubly so, he was all to take the gloves for the rest of the season and then he gets a season ending injury. To make matters worse for him, having no competition for number one jersey seems to have relaxed De Gea and brought the best out of him. He certainly looks like he belongs now.
It's been almost as enjoyable watching some of the youth and reserve teams displays this season. In fact my three season highlights so far would be the 8-2 Arsenal game, then the 5-0 youth team win at Swansea, my personal favourite and then Monday night saw United's second eleven go to Newcastle needing a win to sow up the reserve title and winning 6-3. But that was only half the story, unbelievably United found themselves 3-0 down approaching half time only for Will Keane to produce two moments of genius to send us only one goal down at the break. I say unbelievably as United had looked good going forward, unfortunately our defending was shocking, playing as if they had never met before.
It was a pretty strong team with Pogba, Tunnciliffe, and Petrucci in midfield and against a team on a very poor run, United started the better but couldn't quite convert a couple of decent chances before going behind. The second half was a procession and once United took the lead it threatened to get embarrasing for the home team. Not far behind Keane in the man of the match stakes was Italian youngster Petrucci who was in the thick of the action and took his goal superbly. I can't see him making at United but he is talented, it's a pity he missed so much football due to injury. Although he has worked his way back to fitness and form he has never quite looked as quick and sharp as he was when he was in the youth team. I've no idea how reliable this is, but if true suggests that United still see something in him, a three year contract would be a big sign of faith.
The Paul Pogba saga just goes on and on, i see, what makes me laugh, is just how many people have actually watched him play this season. His performance in this match wasn't far off par for the course for the reserves, those two over hit free kicks in the first half were scandalous. The first can be put down to a mistake, but to do exactly the same thing again, not long after was a bit of a joke really. Sat watching the game when we were 3-0 down, i mentioned that the fuss around him was surreal really, from what i have seen of the reserves this season and from last years youth team campaign Will Keane looks nearer to being a first team player. How prescient was that.
Another to sadly disappoint was Ryan Tunnicliffe, i had read good things about his loan spell at Peterborough but he hasn't really shown much since coming back to United. When you look at his contribution to the game compared to the unsung Jessie Lingard who goes about his business, has a hand in three of the goals, could have had one himself and yet never seemingly has his praises sung.
The future for Fabio seems to be up in the air still as Ian Herbert of the Indy claims Fergie would prefer him to stay in the premier league. He writes the feeling at the club is that Fabio needs to come out of his shell to develop his game away from his brother.
It will be inetersting all round to see which youngsters are sent out on loan and who stays at the club next season. Does Will Keane stay at the club with Berbatov and possibly Owen surplus to requirements or does he go out on loan to gain valuable first team experience. To me he is the nearest of the youngsters to potential first team material. No doubt Fergie is already planning all this in his mind as i type.
De Marcos of Athletic Bilbao is our latest target according to this morning's press, a hard working skillful central midfielder, surely this can't be true. No seriously he had two cracking games against us and looked a good player, though when i watched Bilbao in the next round it has to be said he didn't scale the same heights. Let's hope that dossier is thicker than a couple of games long.
Gary Neville thinks Ryan Giggs could and should carry on playing into his forties, seeing no reason why he can't still be playing for the first team when he is 42. I'd agree with that though i don't think he will be getting as much first team playing time asl last season. Will he be happy with that situation i suppose would be the call he will have to make.
It can't be as easy to keep a steady level of form going the less you are playing. The reason Scholes has been such a revelation since he returned from retirement has been that he has been basically playing every weekend .
I caught up with Dominic Sandbrook's new series about the seventies on i player last night and was pleased to see it was pretty good, with some an idiosyncratic take on a few things. He put forward a compelling case for his theory that it was home ownership that made Thatcher and not the other way round. Either way it hasn't been beneficial to the British economy in the long run, i know sub prime started in the States but we obviously had crazy lending over here.
The Mail of all papers report on this countries interest-only mortage time bomb, 4 million UK borrowers face losing homes when rates go back up. I suppose the upside for those unlucky millions is that interest rates aren't going up any time soon. I don't know what will happen when they do go back up though as it's obvious that our economy couldn't survive such a catastophe.
The good news was that unemployment went down slightly this month, i don't think anyone was predicting that. The bad news, Faisal Islam reports, is long term unemployment is likely to stay high and that rather than the workforce skilling up there are likely to be more wokers dropping there aspirations to compete at the low skilled end of the market.
Max Hastings argues that we must hammer rich tax dodgers rather than charities, i actually think the government are on the right lines on this subject. The bankers and there city chums still don't get it, it seems, but a wind, there is a blowing, he says hopefully. Barclays, Bob Diamond and the rest of the usual suspects have been coming under fire from dangerous quarters in recent weeks.
Faisal Islam and Larry Elliott comment on the IMF's world economic outlook published earlier this week, with Larry Elliott welcoming a less slavish attitude to neo-liberal orthodoxy from the organisation under Olivier Blanchard. Jeremy Warner isn't as impressed, but sees some hope for the Euro, in the long term though, as he argues that keeping the Eurzone together, as painful as it will be for the Germans to bail out the south, would be far less pleasant than seeing it all go to the wall.
Another cracking column from Aditya Chakrabortty spelling out the failure of the economics profession and of the political scientists and sociologists in failing to offer any alternatives.
Music
Bowerbirds - The clearing: More indie pop than the indie folk of their last album Upper air, but just as good a listen, probably more radio friendly.
First aid kit - The Swedish sisters leave the more leftfield Kate Bush type Big black & the blue for a more coventional american sound. I like it, there a couple of belters on it, i'm not sure whether i prefer it to their previous album or not.
Lambchop - Mr. M: I have to be in the mood to listen to these usually, i like them but even for me it's dark and moody. But this is as good as i have heard from them, every track a winner.
Laura Gibson - Tragedy: This has had some rave reviews and it mostly lives up to the hype, it's cracking left field americana. As has been mentioned in some of the reviews the best song sounds very Calexico like, but Calexico at their very best.
Mark Lanegan band - Blues Funeral: Over the last decade Lanegan hasn't really done average or alright, and he hasn't with this. Outstanding album, that gravelly voice is as good as it gets and it rocks effortlessly when he decides to go for it.
Various artists - Simla 70 -71: I love this kind of late 60's early 70's psychedelia, but never really thought i would listen to as good a compilation from India.
It's been almost as enjoyable watching some of the youth and reserve teams displays this season. In fact my three season highlights so far would be the 8-2 Arsenal game, then the 5-0 youth team win at Swansea, my personal favourite and then Monday night saw United's second eleven go to Newcastle needing a win to sow up the reserve title and winning 6-3. But that was only half the story, unbelievably United found themselves 3-0 down approaching half time only for Will Keane to produce two moments of genius to send us only one goal down at the break. I say unbelievably as United had looked good going forward, unfortunately our defending was shocking, playing as if they had never met before.
It was a pretty strong team with Pogba, Tunnciliffe, and Petrucci in midfield and against a team on a very poor run, United started the better but couldn't quite convert a couple of decent chances before going behind. The second half was a procession and once United took the lead it threatened to get embarrasing for the home team. Not far behind Keane in the man of the match stakes was Italian youngster Petrucci who was in the thick of the action and took his goal superbly. I can't see him making at United but he is talented, it's a pity he missed so much football due to injury. Although he has worked his way back to fitness and form he has never quite looked as quick and sharp as he was when he was in the youth team. I've no idea how reliable this is, but if true suggests that United still see something in him, a three year contract would be a big sign of faith.
The Paul Pogba saga just goes on and on, i see, what makes me laugh, is just how many people have actually watched him play this season. His performance in this match wasn't far off par for the course for the reserves, those two over hit free kicks in the first half were scandalous. The first can be put down to a mistake, but to do exactly the same thing again, not long after was a bit of a joke really. Sat watching the game when we were 3-0 down, i mentioned that the fuss around him was surreal really, from what i have seen of the reserves this season and from last years youth team campaign Will Keane looks nearer to being a first team player. How prescient was that.
Another to sadly disappoint was Ryan Tunnicliffe, i had read good things about his loan spell at Peterborough but he hasn't really shown much since coming back to United. When you look at his contribution to the game compared to the unsung Jessie Lingard who goes about his business, has a hand in three of the goals, could have had one himself and yet never seemingly has his praises sung.
The future for Fabio seems to be up in the air still as Ian Herbert of the Indy claims Fergie would prefer him to stay in the premier league. He writes the feeling at the club is that Fabio needs to come out of his shell to develop his game away from his brother.
It will be inetersting all round to see which youngsters are sent out on loan and who stays at the club next season. Does Will Keane stay at the club with Berbatov and possibly Owen surplus to requirements or does he go out on loan to gain valuable first team experience. To me he is the nearest of the youngsters to potential first team material. No doubt Fergie is already planning all this in his mind as i type.
De Marcos of Athletic Bilbao is our latest target according to this morning's press, a hard working skillful central midfielder, surely this can't be true. No seriously he had two cracking games against us and looked a good player, though when i watched Bilbao in the next round it has to be said he didn't scale the same heights. Let's hope that dossier is thicker than a couple of games long.
Gary Neville thinks Ryan Giggs could and should carry on playing into his forties, seeing no reason why he can't still be playing for the first team when he is 42. I'd agree with that though i don't think he will be getting as much first team playing time asl last season. Will he be happy with that situation i suppose would be the call he will have to make.
It can't be as easy to keep a steady level of form going the less you are playing. The reason Scholes has been such a revelation since he returned from retirement has been that he has been basically playing every weekend .
I caught up with Dominic Sandbrook's new series about the seventies on i player last night and was pleased to see it was pretty good, with some an idiosyncratic take on a few things. He put forward a compelling case for his theory that it was home ownership that made Thatcher and not the other way round. Either way it hasn't been beneficial to the British economy in the long run, i know sub prime started in the States but we obviously had crazy lending over here.
The Mail of all papers report on this countries interest-only mortage time bomb, 4 million UK borrowers face losing homes when rates go back up. I suppose the upside for those unlucky millions is that interest rates aren't going up any time soon. I don't know what will happen when they do go back up though as it's obvious that our economy couldn't survive such a catastophe.
The good news was that unemployment went down slightly this month, i don't think anyone was predicting that. The bad news, Faisal Islam reports, is long term unemployment is likely to stay high and that rather than the workforce skilling up there are likely to be more wokers dropping there aspirations to compete at the low skilled end of the market.
Max Hastings argues that we must hammer rich tax dodgers rather than charities, i actually think the government are on the right lines on this subject. The bankers and there city chums still don't get it, it seems, but a wind, there is a blowing, he says hopefully. Barclays, Bob Diamond and the rest of the usual suspects have been coming under fire from dangerous quarters in recent weeks.
Faisal Islam and Larry Elliott comment on the IMF's world economic outlook published earlier this week, with Larry Elliott welcoming a less slavish attitude to neo-liberal orthodoxy from the organisation under Olivier Blanchard. Jeremy Warner isn't as impressed, but sees some hope for the Euro, in the long term though, as he argues that keeping the Eurzone together, as painful as it will be for the Germans to bail out the south, would be far less pleasant than seeing it all go to the wall.
Another cracking column from Aditya Chakrabortty spelling out the failure of the economics profession and of the political scientists and sociologists in failing to offer any alternatives.
Music
Bowerbirds - The clearing: More indie pop than the indie folk of their last album Upper air, but just as good a listen, probably more radio friendly.
First aid kit - The Swedish sisters leave the more leftfield Kate Bush type Big black & the blue for a more coventional american sound. I like it, there a couple of belters on it, i'm not sure whether i prefer it to their previous album or not.
Lambchop - Mr. M: I have to be in the mood to listen to these usually, i like them but even for me it's dark and moody. But this is as good as i have heard from them, every track a winner.
Laura Gibson - Tragedy: This has had some rave reviews and it mostly lives up to the hype, it's cracking left field americana. As has been mentioned in some of the reviews the best song sounds very Calexico like, but Calexico at their very best.
Mark Lanegan band - Blues Funeral: Over the last decade Lanegan hasn't really done average or alright, and he hasn't with this. Outstanding album, that gravelly voice is as good as it gets and it rocks effortlessly when he decides to go for it.
Various artists - Simla 70 -71: I love this kind of late 60's early 70's psychedelia, but never really thought i would listen to as good a compilation from India.
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