We can't go on relying on him forever, but after what happened the first half of this summer and what yet might not happen this summers, midfield reinforcement it's got to be good news that the ginger prince will give it one more year. I know some will say that this just means that the gimps will refuse to open their wallets this summer, "if there is no value in the market", but seeing as though they wouldn't open it last summer after he announced his retirement, at least it's a little insurance.
Ryan Giggs was sure that Scholes could have done a job for England at the Euro's, and i read somewhere that the appointment of Gary Neville to Roy Hodgson's backroom staff might have made Scholes more amenable to the call. If England were to play 4-3-3 i'm pretty sure he could have done a job, but Hodgson is seemingly a rigid 4-4-2 man as was his predecessor so the fact he didn't get the call today didn't come as much of a suprise.
I wasn't that suprised that Carrick wasn't called up, but was a bit suprised that Hodgson told the press that Carrick had told him he was retired from internatonal football. With the depth of our midfield options that is at least good news for Fergie. It has to be said that whilst Carrick never set the world alight when selected for the national team, he was never really given any kind of extended run in the side and henceforth never really given a fair crack of the whip. Like Scholes another victim of the national press's yearning for Lampard or Gerrard to prove them right.
I wasn't as suprised as most other erds seem to be that Rio was omitted from Hogdson's Euro squad. He would struggle to play back to back games, you would be taking a big chance that his back would completely pack up if tried to play three back back surely. If United have better luck with injuries next season he should be down to third at best in the pecking order for a centre half birth so it's hard to see how he could be an automatic spot for England.
He has done better than any of us, Fergie included i suspect, could have expected during the latter half of the season, but he is still nowhere near the player that made up the best centre half partnership in Europe with Vidic from 2006 to 2009. Even on Sunday his back threatened to pack up on him, with the lack of protection i'm expecting England's central midfield to provide for a less than stellar defence, his long term reputation will probably be all the better for not being chosen. He may not have had the England career that had wished but in the big tournaments he did actually get to play he was recognised as one of the best in his positions
Oliver Holt talks up the chances of Ryan Giggs being the man to take over the reigns at the top of the club, when Fergie hangs walks away. This has been roundly poo pooed on the United message boards, but it doesn't sound too outlandish to me. There will be hardly anybody more versed in the ways of the club than Giggs when he hangs his boots up. And as for age or experience, that hasn't harmed Guardiola at Barca and Brendan Rodgers is a few years Giggs's junior at Swansea. All this season's experience on the bench maybe all a part of the master plan. Of course it could well be bollocks as Fergie has said it is not a job for a young man, but he has been known to tell a porky or two, so we will see. I wouldn't be that convinced of a trumvirate of Giggs, Scholes and Neville running the club though, all will surely have some role at the club in the future but that smacks a bit too much of fantasy football.
Matt Lawton has Gary Neville down as a potential England number one after his appointment by Roy Hodgson earlier in the week. I suppose it's a possibilty if Hogdson's tenure isn't a complete disaster, i'm sure they would love his media friendliness after Capello's stint and i have a feeling that Gary Neville will do his share of the media for Hogdson this summer.
Bobby Charlton thinks that City's rise and title success is nothing to be worried about, we have the right men at the club. Unfortunately we don't really have the right men owning the actual football club, do we. Ian Herbert describes the financial reality, trying to play catch up to City, United know they need to buy, but know they must sell as well.
Who goes out this summer will be as fascinating to me as who comes in. But does Fergie dare sell, before he knows who he has actually brought in. I can't actually say i'm as convinced at the press seem to be that Kagawa will be playing in a red shirt this summer. If it comes to an auction, that could be yet another one to bite the dust.
A couple of youngster have exited the club this week, De Laet and Matty James have left for Leicester City. It's a shame that James career stalled after his seemingly decent loan ended at Preston and he then suffered a prolonged injury nightmare that saw him miss a lot of football. He was rated within the club and captained England under 19's a couple of seasons ago.
As to De Laet, to be honest i have never known what to make of him. Not good enough for United obviously, but miles too good for our reserves, yet he never really seems to have done as well as i expected out on loan, even at championship level. I'd say this was a big moment in his career, if he bombs this chance, it may be down a division for him with his next move.
Maybe Fergie is really going to chop some of that dead wood away this season, there was a report this week that Michael Owen may be given one more year. Thank fuck that was wrong, that would have sent out all the wrong signals to fans and press alike. I never rated him when was he was the national darling never mind the injury prone left over that we bought, so i never really got the transfer. I think the stats tell their own story on his time here. next up is will Berbatov still go and if so, who comes in to fill that fourth striker spot, or is Fergie going to go back to 4-3-3. There is Josh King and more likely Will Keane at the club with potential, i don't think Will Keane is a million miles from being a first team squad player. But maybe a season or even half a season on loan would give him the game time it might be better for his career to get now.
If we did get Kagawa i'm not sure i see him fitting into s atraight 4-4-2, so there is always the chance that Fergie just stays with Rooney, Welbeck and Hernandez. If that was the case i would definitely like to see us bring a couple of central midfield reinforcements, rather than just the one, wishful thinking i suppose.
Alan Hansen is disappointed for his old pal Dalglish and thinks if he had landed the FA cup as well as the league cup his job should have been safe. He reckons the owners, now looking for a fourth manager in two years have set the bar high. If that's right we should have wanted them to win it as well, because they were going nowhere under KKK. The Kenny must stay hashtags didn't do the trick, did they.
Somebody tweeted after the sacking was announced yesterday that this was a big decision for Liverpool's US owners that they could barely afford to get wrong. That's a fair assessment and their judgement so far gives cause for hope that they will fuck it up again, should Henry have stuck with Baseball?
James Landale reports on an unhappy ship as the tories squabble amongst themselves, it would be classic if they creaked up to the next election divided and with their economic competence shattered all over again, 1997 all over again. The damage that Osborne is wreaking on the economy we could do with that showe out of power for 13 years again. Of course it would be nice to actually have 13 years of real centre left government this time.
The tories probably sing the old Millwall song to themselves to keep themselves happy, no one likes us, we don't care. Alistair campbell blogs that they seem to dislike everyone who works in public service, probably not a winning strategy.
Robert Peston asks does JP Morgan loss show regulators great failure? you bet it does. Larry Elliott explains that if the UK economy were a football team it would be fighting relegation, not the first time he's used that analogy. This blog from Chris Dillow predicts the coming crisis of conservatism as the realisation that the ideology that has sustained and fed it for the last thirty odd years has failed. He compares what might happen to the crisis facing the Labour party during the seventies when the post war Butskelite consensus fell apart.
It reall does seem that time it' shit or bust for the Eurozone, the Economist describes the EU groping towards Grexit, which is possibly already out of date. The UK government puts the cost of a Greek exit at $1 trillion as it makes contingency plans for a possible financial tsunami. Of course there are some in this mad world of ours who are doing just fine out of this potential economic disaster.
Faisal Islam describes the economic drachmail between the Greek political class and Brussels, it could just turn out to be a game of Russian roulette.
Music
Band of skulls - Sweet sour: I saw the wrote up as the Uk version of The black keys and after listening to this i can see where that was coming from. It has the same blues rock and slower softer mix that differentiates the black keys from the white stripes. It's a good album that shows if they can improve they could well be as good as that band.
Lana Del Ray - Born to die: I can see why this was so popular, it has some catchy tunes on it alright, but i seem to admire it than really like it. It will be interesting to hear her next record.
Portico quartet - Portico quartet: Another decent album from the jazz/world Uk band. Sounds almost ambient at times, i could do with a bit more jazz in there at times, but it's definitely worth a listen.
Sharon Van Etten - Tramp: It took me a few listens to get into this album, there is a lot of this kind of indie/folk Americana coming out, so you have to be good to compete in this genre at the moment. It's a good album that goes off in different directions, but is worth the effort.
The twilight sad - No one can ever know: Another fair effort from the Glaswegian indie outfit that doesn't particularly hit any heights. There don't ever seem to be any stand out tracks on their records, no poor ones admittedly either.
Voices from the lake - Voices from the lake: A pretty good ambient album from a couple of Italian techno artists, to be listened to in the right mood, either loud or with headphones on.
Ryan Giggs was sure that Scholes could have done a job for England at the Euro's, and i read somewhere that the appointment of Gary Neville to Roy Hodgson's backroom staff might have made Scholes more amenable to the call. If England were to play 4-3-3 i'm pretty sure he could have done a job, but Hodgson is seemingly a rigid 4-4-2 man as was his predecessor so the fact he didn't get the call today didn't come as much of a suprise.
I wasn't that suprised that Carrick wasn't called up, but was a bit suprised that Hodgson told the press that Carrick had told him he was retired from internatonal football. With the depth of our midfield options that is at least good news for Fergie. It has to be said that whilst Carrick never set the world alight when selected for the national team, he was never really given any kind of extended run in the side and henceforth never really given a fair crack of the whip. Like Scholes another victim of the national press's yearning for Lampard or Gerrard to prove them right.
I wasn't as suprised as most other erds seem to be that Rio was omitted from Hogdson's Euro squad. He would struggle to play back to back games, you would be taking a big chance that his back would completely pack up if tried to play three back back surely. If United have better luck with injuries next season he should be down to third at best in the pecking order for a centre half birth so it's hard to see how he could be an automatic spot for England.
He has done better than any of us, Fergie included i suspect, could have expected during the latter half of the season, but he is still nowhere near the player that made up the best centre half partnership in Europe with Vidic from 2006 to 2009. Even on Sunday his back threatened to pack up on him, with the lack of protection i'm expecting England's central midfield to provide for a less than stellar defence, his long term reputation will probably be all the better for not being chosen. He may not have had the England career that had wished but in the big tournaments he did actually get to play he was recognised as one of the best in his positions
Oliver Holt talks up the chances of Ryan Giggs being the man to take over the reigns at the top of the club, when Fergie hangs walks away. This has been roundly poo pooed on the United message boards, but it doesn't sound too outlandish to me. There will be hardly anybody more versed in the ways of the club than Giggs when he hangs his boots up. And as for age or experience, that hasn't harmed Guardiola at Barca and Brendan Rodgers is a few years Giggs's junior at Swansea. All this season's experience on the bench maybe all a part of the master plan. Of course it could well be bollocks as Fergie has said it is not a job for a young man, but he has been known to tell a porky or two, so we will see. I wouldn't be that convinced of a trumvirate of Giggs, Scholes and Neville running the club though, all will surely have some role at the club in the future but that smacks a bit too much of fantasy football.
Matt Lawton has Gary Neville down as a potential England number one after his appointment by Roy Hodgson earlier in the week. I suppose it's a possibilty if Hogdson's tenure isn't a complete disaster, i'm sure they would love his media friendliness after Capello's stint and i have a feeling that Gary Neville will do his share of the media for Hogdson this summer.
Bobby Charlton thinks that City's rise and title success is nothing to be worried about, we have the right men at the club. Unfortunately we don't really have the right men owning the actual football club, do we. Ian Herbert describes the financial reality, trying to play catch up to City, United know they need to buy, but know they must sell as well.
Who goes out this summer will be as fascinating to me as who comes in. But does Fergie dare sell, before he knows who he has actually brought in. I can't actually say i'm as convinced at the press seem to be that Kagawa will be playing in a red shirt this summer. If it comes to an auction, that could be yet another one to bite the dust.
A couple of youngster have exited the club this week, De Laet and Matty James have left for Leicester City. It's a shame that James career stalled after his seemingly decent loan ended at Preston and he then suffered a prolonged injury nightmare that saw him miss a lot of football. He was rated within the club and captained England under 19's a couple of seasons ago.
As to De Laet, to be honest i have never known what to make of him. Not good enough for United obviously, but miles too good for our reserves, yet he never really seems to have done as well as i expected out on loan, even at championship level. I'd say this was a big moment in his career, if he bombs this chance, it may be down a division for him with his next move.
Maybe Fergie is really going to chop some of that dead wood away this season, there was a report this week that Michael Owen may be given one more year. Thank fuck that was wrong, that would have sent out all the wrong signals to fans and press alike. I never rated him when was he was the national darling never mind the injury prone left over that we bought, so i never really got the transfer. I think the stats tell their own story on his time here. next up is will Berbatov still go and if so, who comes in to fill that fourth striker spot, or is Fergie going to go back to 4-3-3. There is Josh King and more likely Will Keane at the club with potential, i don't think Will Keane is a million miles from being a first team squad player. But maybe a season or even half a season on loan would give him the game time it might be better for his career to get now.
If we did get Kagawa i'm not sure i see him fitting into s atraight 4-4-2, so there is always the chance that Fergie just stays with Rooney, Welbeck and Hernandez. If that was the case i would definitely like to see us bring a couple of central midfield reinforcements, rather than just the one, wishful thinking i suppose.
Alan Hansen is disappointed for his old pal Dalglish and thinks if he had landed the FA cup as well as the league cup his job should have been safe. He reckons the owners, now looking for a fourth manager in two years have set the bar high. If that's right we should have wanted them to win it as well, because they were going nowhere under KKK. The Kenny must stay hashtags didn't do the trick, did they.
Somebody tweeted after the sacking was announced yesterday that this was a big decision for Liverpool's US owners that they could barely afford to get wrong. That's a fair assessment and their judgement so far gives cause for hope that they will fuck it up again, should Henry have stuck with Baseball?
James Landale reports on an unhappy ship as the tories squabble amongst themselves, it would be classic if they creaked up to the next election divided and with their economic competence shattered all over again, 1997 all over again. The damage that Osborne is wreaking on the economy we could do with that showe out of power for 13 years again. Of course it would be nice to actually have 13 years of real centre left government this time.
The tories probably sing the old Millwall song to themselves to keep themselves happy, no one likes us, we don't care. Alistair campbell blogs that they seem to dislike everyone who works in public service, probably not a winning strategy.
Robert Peston asks does JP Morgan loss show regulators great failure? you bet it does. Larry Elliott explains that if the UK economy were a football team it would be fighting relegation, not the first time he's used that analogy. This blog from Chris Dillow predicts the coming crisis of conservatism as the realisation that the ideology that has sustained and fed it for the last thirty odd years has failed. He compares what might happen to the crisis facing the Labour party during the seventies when the post war Butskelite consensus fell apart.
It reall does seem that time it' shit or bust for the Eurozone, the Economist describes the EU groping towards Grexit, which is possibly already out of date. The UK government puts the cost of a Greek exit at $1 trillion as it makes contingency plans for a possible financial tsunami. Of course there are some in this mad world of ours who are doing just fine out of this potential economic disaster.
Faisal Islam describes the economic drachmail between the Greek political class and Brussels, it could just turn out to be a game of Russian roulette.
Music
Band of skulls - Sweet sour: I saw the wrote up as the Uk version of The black keys and after listening to this i can see where that was coming from. It has the same blues rock and slower softer mix that differentiates the black keys from the white stripes. It's a good album that shows if they can improve they could well be as good as that band.
Lana Del Ray - Born to die: I can see why this was so popular, it has some catchy tunes on it alright, but i seem to admire it than really like it. It will be interesting to hear her next record.
Portico quartet - Portico quartet: Another decent album from the jazz/world Uk band. Sounds almost ambient at times, i could do with a bit more jazz in there at times, but it's definitely worth a listen.
Sharon Van Etten - Tramp: It took me a few listens to get into this album, there is a lot of this kind of indie/folk Americana coming out, so you have to be good to compete in this genre at the moment. It's a good album that goes off in different directions, but is worth the effort.
The twilight sad - No one can ever know: Another fair effort from the Glaswegian indie outfit that doesn't particularly hit any heights. There don't ever seem to be any stand out tracks on their records, no poor ones admittedly either.
Voices from the lake - Voices from the lake: A pretty good ambient album from a couple of Italian techno artists, to be listened to in the right mood, either loud or with headphones on.
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