I don't know whether the journo's get bored of writing these Fergie's finest moments, but i can't say i get bored of reading them, though it seems a touch on the realy side for Daniel Taylor have penned it. It has to be up there amongst his finest prmier league title triumphs, for any number of reasons. The loss of so much experience, even if we did get Scholes back half way through this season and how vital has that been. An ever changing back four, mainly injury induced and a young foreign goalie whose English wasn't great. And finally a midfield that has needed rejuvenation for a couple of seasons at least, that lost the hoped for coming man Cleverley and during December saw Rooney moved back to admittedly better effect than i expected.
A season that has seen Carrick and Evra at centre half and Park and Fabio in central midfield at one point and Valencia wasted at right back at others and yet if things go according to form we won't just beat money bags City to the title we could win it by as big a margin as we have won it by for a few years. The football hasn't been great and i would think there will be a few changes in the summer, with a couple more, other than Berbatov on his way out. But it's not been that bad for a team in transition, again. We have truly been spoilt under Fergie's leadership. As Robert Duvall as Colonel Kilgore said in Apocalypse now, someday this wars going to end, so one day will Fergie's time as manager. A day every United fan must dread and every fan of every other club yearn for.
Valencia is going to need an operation at the end of the season, but apparently wants to delay it so that he can play for Ecuador in a couple of world cup qualifiers in June. A hard decision for United, you would ideally want him to get a full pre-season in, but you also want to keep the player happy. I suspect they will take the latter option.
Rio Ferdinand belives this has been a tough league this season, with the improvement of City and teams like Swansea and Norwich coming up and playing football. English football's record in Europe tells a different story. Obviously those two promoted teams have played good footbal and deserve to be where they are in the league, but for all that there has been some special matches, the fact that United defensive record is only marginally worse than City's and could be the best in the league by the end of the season, after our injury nightmare during the first half of the season tells you the quality of defence has not been the best.
The mail claim United and Chelsea are in a race to capture Broussia Dortmund's Japanese international Shinji Kagawa. I have seen a little bit of Dortmund in the Bundesliga over the past month and i can't say he has stood out to me. If there was any truth in this, the cynic in me would say that with Park's United career winding down the Glazer's are desperate for another Asian star at the club for "commercial reasons".
Andrew Cole thinks Mancini's mistakes have hurt City in the title chase. I think that's obvious to everybody, not just reds and probably blues. His statements have been absolutley bizarre at times, slagging Balotelli off in public, saying United wouldn't win at Blackburn and claiming if City go eight points behind on Sunday the title race is over. Regardless of the fact in the latter case he is surely right, you don't say it publicaly.
If the manager throws the towel in, what does he expect his players to do, i have to wonder more and more whether he knows he is on his way out at the end of the season.
This article for Labour Uncut describes why Ken Livingstone's candidacy for mayor of London could end up hurting the party very badly, not just in London but nationwide. I have never had much time for the newt lover, he has always been an opportunist to me, and his current campaign is just confirming that ssumption with knobs on.
Frasier Nelson has a decent piece on the current controversy over the government's plans for national security and civil liberies. Naturally i would be against, it's just another land grab by security interest that once given up will take years to claw back.
But the part that really interested me was his description of Clegg's part in the mess. You really do have to wonder some times how much of a Liberal Clegg really is, how could he not know that he grass roots and even his back benchers would be up in arms over this. Every time he puts in a performance like this surely his standing in the party must be less and less secure, what on earth are the Lib dems actually for if they coalesce in putting this act onto the statute books.
Interesting times in Italy as the Northern league's Umbert Bossi gets the old heave ho. I suppose you would have to say you couldn't make it up, the party that only came into being to protest about corruption and government largesse south of Rome and here they are, in it up to their necks along with everybody else. John Foot tweeted yesterday that it was no coincidence that this has come out now Berlusconi is no longer in power.
Music
Arctic Monkeys - Suck it and see: They seemed to change their musical direction in more of a heavy rock style on their last album with reasonable if not really memorable results. This is an improvement, an excellent album with better and more memorable tunes.
Avishai Cohen - Seven seas: I like this fusion of jazz with north African influences well to the fore from the Israeli born bassist.
Darondo - Listen to my song (music city sessions): Another lost classic from the seventies, it's amazing music as good as this never found an audience. Funk/soul at its very best, right from the first track there's a great groove, and to think these were only sessions.
Jonti - Twirligig: Catchy electronica from the Australian based South African, there are influences galore, pop, techno and bits of hip hop.This track reminds me of Aussie outfit The Avalanches.
The Juan Maclean - Everybody get close: I loved his first techno album Less than human and this carries on the good work from that. Hints of New Order every now and then, though it's more aimed at the dancefloor than indie cross over.
White Denim - Last days of summer: This is more like a session or B-sides album and so doesn't really show the group at their excellent best. It still has it's moments, at times more pop than the first two proper albums.
A season that has seen Carrick and Evra at centre half and Park and Fabio in central midfield at one point and Valencia wasted at right back at others and yet if things go according to form we won't just beat money bags City to the title we could win it by as big a margin as we have won it by for a few years. The football hasn't been great and i would think there will be a few changes in the summer, with a couple more, other than Berbatov on his way out. But it's not been that bad for a team in transition, again. We have truly been spoilt under Fergie's leadership. As Robert Duvall as Colonel Kilgore said in Apocalypse now, someday this wars going to end, so one day will Fergie's time as manager. A day every United fan must dread and every fan of every other club yearn for.
Valencia is going to need an operation at the end of the season, but apparently wants to delay it so that he can play for Ecuador in a couple of world cup qualifiers in June. A hard decision for United, you would ideally want him to get a full pre-season in, but you also want to keep the player happy. I suspect they will take the latter option.
Rio Ferdinand belives this has been a tough league this season, with the improvement of City and teams like Swansea and Norwich coming up and playing football. English football's record in Europe tells a different story. Obviously those two promoted teams have played good footbal and deserve to be where they are in the league, but for all that there has been some special matches, the fact that United defensive record is only marginally worse than City's and could be the best in the league by the end of the season, after our injury nightmare during the first half of the season tells you the quality of defence has not been the best.
The mail claim United and Chelsea are in a race to capture Broussia Dortmund's Japanese international Shinji Kagawa. I have seen a little bit of Dortmund in the Bundesliga over the past month and i can't say he has stood out to me. If there was any truth in this, the cynic in me would say that with Park's United career winding down the Glazer's are desperate for another Asian star at the club for "commercial reasons".
Andrew Cole thinks Mancini's mistakes have hurt City in the title chase. I think that's obvious to everybody, not just reds and probably blues. His statements have been absolutley bizarre at times, slagging Balotelli off in public, saying United wouldn't win at Blackburn and claiming if City go eight points behind on Sunday the title race is over. Regardless of the fact in the latter case he is surely right, you don't say it publicaly.
If the manager throws the towel in, what does he expect his players to do, i have to wonder more and more whether he knows he is on his way out at the end of the season.
This article for Labour Uncut describes why Ken Livingstone's candidacy for mayor of London could end up hurting the party very badly, not just in London but nationwide. I have never had much time for the newt lover, he has always been an opportunist to me, and his current campaign is just confirming that ssumption with knobs on.
Frasier Nelson has a decent piece on the current controversy over the government's plans for national security and civil liberies. Naturally i would be against, it's just another land grab by security interest that once given up will take years to claw back.
But the part that really interested me was his description of Clegg's part in the mess. You really do have to wonder some times how much of a Liberal Clegg really is, how could he not know that he grass roots and even his back benchers would be up in arms over this. Every time he puts in a performance like this surely his standing in the party must be less and less secure, what on earth are the Lib dems actually for if they coalesce in putting this act onto the statute books.
Interesting times in Italy as the Northern league's Umbert Bossi gets the old heave ho. I suppose you would have to say you couldn't make it up, the party that only came into being to protest about corruption and government largesse south of Rome and here they are, in it up to their necks along with everybody else. John Foot tweeted yesterday that it was no coincidence that this has come out now Berlusconi is no longer in power.
Music
Arctic Monkeys - Suck it and see: They seemed to change their musical direction in more of a heavy rock style on their last album with reasonable if not really memorable results. This is an improvement, an excellent album with better and more memorable tunes.
Avishai Cohen - Seven seas: I like this fusion of jazz with north African influences well to the fore from the Israeli born bassist.
Darondo - Listen to my song (music city sessions): Another lost classic from the seventies, it's amazing music as good as this never found an audience. Funk/soul at its very best, right from the first track there's a great groove, and to think these were only sessions.
Jonti - Twirligig: Catchy electronica from the Australian based South African, there are influences galore, pop, techno and bits of hip hop.This track reminds me of Aussie outfit The Avalanches.
The Juan Maclean - Everybody get close: I loved his first techno album Less than human and this carries on the good work from that. Hints of New Order every now and then, though it's more aimed at the dancefloor than indie cross over.
White Denim - Last days of summer: This is more like a session or B-sides album and so doesn't really show the group at their excellent best. It still has it's moments, at times more pop than the first two proper albums.
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