United youngsters on tour

Hull City are looking to take two of United's youngsters on loan next season, how many United players would they have then. I reckon that would be a good move for Micahel Keane, i really think he has a chance of making it to the first team at United. Apparently reserve team boss Warren Joyce has told the press that Ryan Tunnicliffe could be staying around the first team, so may not be going out on loan,
I don't know about Tunnicliffe, i really rated him in the youth team, i thought he had as good a chance as Pogba or Morrison. But like those two, he didn't really shake any tree's last season. I was pretty disappointed with his performance's when he came back to the club after his loan at Peterborough. Petrucci was head and shoulders above Tunnicliffe and Pogba to be fair during the latter part of the reserves season. Hopefully he can kick on next season.

Greg Stobart claims that United will miss out in the transfer market again this summer, in particular he thinks we will miss out in our pursuit of Modric. With the delay of the IPO, i don't think any United fan who follows these things would be suprised if our transfer activity was over for the season, unless a big name, Nani being the obvious one, are shipped out.

New signing Kagawa will go on the club's pre-season tour along with other new signing Nick Powell but Rooney and fellow Euro 2012 participants will come into training later and miss out. There have been a lot of rumours on t'internet that Everton's Baines will end up at United,i'll believe that when i see it, i can't see United paying what Everton are said to want. It will be interesting to see which youngsters go on the tour. It's aknocking bet that Will Keane would have been involved, will his brother Michael go, Petrucci seems a cert to go, after that i'm not sure

Faisal Islam looks at the Barcalys Libor scandal that broke out yesterday, and ends with the observation that the eyes of the US authorities and the Eurozone's are once again shaking their heads and saying, London again. Alex Brummer argues that Barclays rogue traders are no better than barrow boys with the morals of the casino, well i've always considered the city of London to be a cesspit.
It seems the right are just as incensed as the left at the behaviour of the banks, though for different reasons, Damien Reece claims that we are just at the begining of the Libor scandal. Whilst city of London and George Osborne champion Allister Heath describes developments as a disastous own goal for the banks. Fellow free marketeer Iain Martin argues that it's now inarguable that there has got to be a proper public inquiry into the banking crisis and the financial system.
Tax avoidance campaigner Richard Murphy describes events as a banking scandal, Barclays aren't on their own. I suppose the interesting thing will be, British centric the Libor scandal turns out to be, we know it's not just British banks available, but were all the banks supposedly involved working these scams in the sity of London. As Paul Mason writes this is a crisis of the British political and financial establishment.

Rio laments lost chance

Ferdinand's comments this morning will no doubt come over as sour grapes to some, and i don't doubt there is something in that, but i go along with his view that this tournament should have seen the younger players given more of a look in. It was always obvious that with the players available England had no chance of winning this tournament and that this was a tournament to blood promising youngsters and experiment with the future in mind. I think that there are some good players coming through, Welbeck has certainly established himself, if Wilshere can get his career together he will be a top, top player, if Cleverley can keep free of injury he should establish himself in the squad and Kyle Walker is a far better player than Glenn Johnson.
Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Jack Rodwell could be others to enter the fray, he hasn't made it at United yet, but i expect Will Keane to do the business for United and follow Welbeck into the international set up. Oxlade Chamberlain looks to be another with a great chance, it's no suprise that there are no young players from Chelsea or City that i can think off to add to that list. I know Chelsea knocked us out of the FA youth cup but i don't recall noticing any special English youngsters amongst their ranks.

Martin Samuel agrees with Ferdinand's coments about Hodgson's decision to leave Phil Jones on the bench for the tournament and argues that he could have been used in midfield, either from the start or as a sub. He had played in a foward midfield defensive role for England against Spain and could have been used there in an attempt to stop Pirlo in his tracks.
Up to christmas i would have gone along with that, but he didn't really look the same player after his injuries mid way through the season. Added to that he looked out of his depth playing for us in the middle of the park in our disastrous European campaign's, he wasn't alone of couse. The suggestion that he should have come on before Henderson is totally valid though. He has plenty of time yet, in fact it will be interesting to see how much game time and where that game time will be during the forthcoming season.

Mark Ogden reckons Capello's criticism of Rooney just shows that he never worked out how to make Rooney tick for the national side. I think it's fair to say he never worked out to make anybody tick for the national side.
Rooney himself is already looking forward to the season ahead with United, he thinks the youngsters will have learned from last season and will be better this season. It could have been Fergie himself coming out with that statement.

It seems everybody was a bit taken aback by Flintoff's labelling of Michael Atherton as a bit of a prick. I suppose you would expect me to stick up for a fellow red, but his comments seem to have gone down like a lead balloon everywhere.
Cook has been playing brilliantly and is probably a better batsmen than Atherton in his prime, but Atherton had to play against Warne and McGrath in their prime, Curtley Ambrose  and Courtney Walsh, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis and Allan Donald of Shaun Pollock of South Africa. I'd say an average in the 30's was nothing to be ashamed about. Flintoff was certainly a top player but his average with bat and ball should have been better. I know who's opinion about the world of cricket i'd sooner listen to. Stick to the shite TV.

John Harris talks about why he won't be going to see The Stone Roses at Heaton park over the weekend
Music. When the news came through that they were reforming and doing the gigs, i was as excited as everybody else. I was going to get tickets, but due to a fuck up i missed out. I was going to wait and try and pick one up nearer the time, but the nearer it got, the more i came round to a similar view to Harris's. One other reason was Ian Brown's vocals live, the fact he can't sing didn't matter as much on record, but live is a different matter. From the YouTube clips of their recent dates in Europe, it seems he is still the weak link he always was. They would be an amazing live act with a decent singer, a brilliant guitarist, a shit hot drummer and that's so important and Mani driving the sound on bass.

Music
Beth Jean Houghton & the hooves of destiny - Yours truly, cellophane noise: I saw a track of hers on Jools Holland and wasn't very impressed, so i wasn't sure what to expect from this. It's pretty good, along the lines of the left field female artists we heard so much of over the last couple of years. Her vocals were a bit ropey on Later though.

Bruce Spingsteen - Wrecking ball: He has been on form over his last few albums and he carries it on here, it's more of a protest singers album than of late with a more folk influenced sound than the rock influenced last two albums. He aint a happy bunny.

Burial - Street Halo/Kindred E.P's: This is the kind of dubstep i really like, a mixture of experimental techno genres leaning to a darker less commercial sound.

Paul Weller - Sonik kicks: As with Springsteen, Weller has been on a roll since his 22 dreams album. This is another cracker, as wide ranging if not as experimental as 22 dreams, it's packed full of cracking tunes.

Robert Glasper experiment - Black radio: A great mix of modern jazz and RnB, with some superb collaborations. I love the final track, a totally different cover of Nirvana's Teen spirit.

Sharon Jones and the dap kings - Soul time: Another consistently excellent combination of soul and funk, they really are a cracking backing band.

New boss, same as the old boss

So England depart a major tournament as soon as it play against its first decent opposition, what a suprise. It would have been a travesty if they had fluked it on penalties. In fact when, whoever the commentator was, on the night, proclaimed it a cruel way for England to have gone out, i virtually spit my drink out. Would it have been cruel for Greece or France to have gone out if they had managed what was so obviously their similar game plan. I think not, and neither did anybody else. The commentary, summarising and analysis so far has been truly abysmal, and i'm afraid the Beeb has been fucking awful
I had given England a chance before the Sunday night on the basis that they might scrape through against a less than stellar Italian outfit. And let's face it, that's what Italy are, take Pirlo out of that team and they wouldn't be that much better than England.
As usual England couldn't keep the ball and as usual it cost them. The English player's legs wouldn't allow them to take the fight back to Italy as Pirlo increasingly bossed the game. I've never bought the hype that Gerrard was a world class player and i don't rate Scott Parket at all, but i'll admit to feeling sorry for them on the night. Four four two doesn't work at this level any more, if indeed it ever has, as was obvious for anybody to see in South Africa. It seems to me that Hodgson was just as tactically rigid as Capello during his tenure, not just on the night, but all the through the group stages. If he carries on with this formation during the World cup  quaalifiers will he cop for any flak.
 When you are obviously technically inferior to the opposition, as England were, the obssession with just two men in the middle of the park just seems mind-boggling. Michael Owen has pointed out that England have a player as good as Pirlo, Paul Scholes and Ferdinand has come out and wondered how Carrick wasn't in the squad. But though they are both right, would Carrick or Scholes have been able do that much better in that formation, i doubt it.
I should have been amazed when Hodgson took Welbeck off, after just sixty minutes, but it just seemed to sum up the tactical ineptitude. Welbeck had been the only man to look as technically proficient as the the Italians, as Ferdinand has said this morning the only time in the match England looked like a proper team was when he dropped deep to link up play.
I'm not sure what to say about Rooney on the night, yes England didn't use him in the way they should have done, but he was still poor, very poor. I wouldn't have brought Carroll on in a million years, he epitomises England's neanderthal approach to the game, but if Hodgson was determined to bring him on, then it should have been Rooney coming off.
In reality the only difference between the world cup in South Africa and this tournament was that there was a better spirit in the squad and the team got and rode their luck. In every group game, at various points of the ninety minutes, the game could have gone a different way. England never once threatened to dominate any of the group games against as ordinary teams as Sweden and Ukraine.
Most of the squad reviews have showered praise on the defence with seven or eight out of ten for the lot of them. Yet in every game we rode our luck with almost every team we played missing glorious chance's, not least Italy. That doesn't suggest we were that watertight at the back to me.Some of the tabloids managed to award higher marks to Carroll than Welbeck which just goes to show one of the reasons why this country fails at this level. If Andy Carroll is your idea of an international footballer,
why don't you just campaign for the return of Graham Taylor as England manager.

At least the best four teams of the tournament have reached the last four, Germany have been the team of the tournament so far, not as water tight as Spain at the back but with more goal threat up front. The criticism of Spain doesn't wash with me, i agree that they aren't the most exciting team we have seen, but that doesn't make them boring. Let's face it, if every team you play, parks the bus against you, it won't make for great viewing, it does make two teams to make a game of football.
Portugal have a decent team, not as good as the above pair, but they undoubtedly have the player of the tournament so far. Can Ronaldo keep his ego in check against the Spanish though, he will have to play for the team at times tonight, which, though he can do it, he did it for us at times, is obviously not his forte. Nani has had an in an and out four games so far, he needs to be at the top of his game tonight.
As i have said i don't think Italy are that strong, Pirlo is a great player, but i can't see past Germany in that semi if the Germans turn up. As for the other, i have a sneaking feeling that Portugal might just do it, they will get chances i'm sure of that and Spain haven't been at there in the last third of the pitch so far, so i'll for Germany Portugal final. So get your money on Italy and Spain.

Exciting times ahead for Powell

New boy Nick Powell is relishing his move to the premier league, some have opined that he will be sent straight out on loan, but the felling seems to be that Fergie will keep him at the club. I don't see any harm in that, let's see whether he can force his way into the first team squad, if he isn't ready he he can always go out on loan after christmas. I don't think that will happen from what the dreaded YouTube clips, and from what Fergie has been quoted as saying, it sounds like Fergie really rates the lad.
From what i have seen of the goals he scored at Crewe, he would probably be pretty handy coming off the bench. If we don't have an improvement on the injury front next season, he could well find himself warming the bench quite a bit if he stays. Andy Ritchie likes what he sees in the 18 year old, he likes the way he is awareness of what is going around him on the pitch.
Talking of of last season's injury record, Tom Cleverley has been talking to the official site, telling it he doesn't want to be given the injury prone tag. Looking back over hhis career, it's hard to come to any other conclusion, impact injuries or not. It's a big season coming up for him, if Fergie is going to have him in his plans for the future of our central midfield he needs to see that Cleverley can get 30 games a season in. One of the features of Michael Carrick's time at United is his lack of injury problems, over the last couple of seasons, he has been one of our Mr. reliable's. I'd love to see Cleverley get over the injuries because he was definitely a big part of the great start we had last season and the exciting football we played.

Andy Mitten looks back at the career of Juan Sebastien Veron: the little witch, who played his last professional game for Argentine side Estudiantes. I wasn't that impressed with him in his first season at United, he took his time to settle at the club. But he grew into the role in his second title winning season and by that campaign's end, he was helping to keep Beckham out of the side as Veron played in the middle of the park with Solskjaer on the right. I thought that was the right call. During the pre-season for 2004-04 he looked as if was going to go up another notch in form, linking up brilliantly with Van Nistelroy.
I was in Amsterdam at the time, by the time i cam back he had been sold to Chelski, which completely baffled me. Given his injury problems over the next couple of seasons it turned out to be a good call. Even if the quality of our central midfield deteriorated to the point of playing John O'Shea and Alan Smith there regularly at times over the next couple of seasons. He probably wasn't really suited to English football's pace but he could pass a ball alright.

I was a bit suprised to see the news that Rafael has signed a new contract after all the talk of his brother going out on loan and Fergie's seeming lack of confidence in him at the business end of last season. I rate him, but will he ever go through a season without all the innocuos looking injuries that inevitably picks up.

A last footie word, England managed to make heavy weather of Tuesday night's final group game against host nation Ukraine. I wonder if it's at all possible that England will ever be able to dominate any game they are involved in. Rooney may not have been at his sharpest but how many players are they carrying really. Parker runs around and gets blocks in, it would be more professional surely if he could get the ball to do the work at times, Carrick is so superior a player it's embarassing, no wonder he gave international football up as a bad joke.
Ditto, England's right hand side, Milner get's the work done, he's England's version of Ji-Sung park, but just as with Park there's, there's precious little inspiration in the opponents half. As for Glenn Johnson, the game's commentator mentioned the fact that he had now been England's first choice for the last three years, cue a pretty long silence, as even Andy Townsend was left speechless at that. And by the way, just how bad a summariser is he.
Let's face it Milner is in the side to protect the right back in the hope Johnson can do something going forward. How much better to have a full back who can defend and right sided wide man with the quality to hurt the opposition.
It has to be said that Hodgson has done a fair job to get such an ordinary set of players into the quarter finals and seemingly with the belief that they can go all the way, given that little bit of luck that had on Tuesday and will probably need again.

Charles Moore goes back to his critique of modern conservatism, arguing that the tories tamed the trade union bosses, now let's tackle the bosses of big business. Only problem being they bankroll the present day conservative party and half the back benchers and even part of the front bench would like to get their snout's in that particular trough when the time comes to wave Westminster goodbye.
Of course there is also an irony in the taming of the trade unions, because it was the left wing of the Labour party in the shape of Babrbera Castle with her inplace of strife proposals that did try first to tame the unions, only to be foiled by the right in the shape of Jim Callaghan. I suppose it was justice really that he should be in the top job in time for the winter of discontent.

Another fascinating Joris Luyendijk banking blog from the Guardian in which a psychologist runs the rule over the pyschological similarities between CEO's and the most dangerous criminals. Explains the cess pits of the city of London and Wall street i suppose. I watched the US film, Too big to fail at the weekend, James Woods played Dick Fuld as if he had read those reports.

Gideon Rachman was less than impressed with Cameron's tactless dipolmacy earlier in the week, it hasn't got any better for our gentleman amateur prime minister as Tom Civers of the torygraph points out, with the landmine he has laid out for his own party, with his description of Jimmy Carr's tax avoidance as immoral. Never mind the lib dems entering the next election under a new leader, at this rate, so will the tories. Has there ever been a two party coalition to exist under two such incompetent political leaders, i'd like to have seen it if there was.

Unfortunately for the liberal's we know which one of the muppets is little weed

The big man returns

Hopefully we will see Rooney come back into the England side behind Welbeck tonight, which will hopefully mean Danny will see the first decent service to him up front after living off scraps for the first two games. I can't believe the Guardian run the headline that England bank on returning "Pele" to end unwanted run. The guy is a top player, but he's never really lived up to that nickname or achieved the level we hoped for when we bought him at 18. To think when we bought him, we all thought it would be Rooney who would one day be battling out for world player of the season awards and wondered whether Ronaldo would just always flatter to decieve. Maybe this will be Rooney's time, it's a bit hard having a go at Rooney's career at international tournament's, he has not exactly been playing in a great team when he has actually been fit to play in either world cup or Euro's.
Welbeck had a pretty good game against France given the amount of possession and the quality of the possession when we did actually have the ball. I thought he started well again against the Swedish, but drifted out of the game, starved of the ball. Despite the result, his partnership with Carroll didn't work for me, Welbeck likes to drop deep, floart around and play one twos, that isn't Carroll's game at all. Fortunately for England, Rooney is on Welbeck's wavelength, whether the short one two or the pass beyond the last man. The pair of them like to play with the ball on the deck.
I fancy England to win tonight, and they better had after Hodgson's increasingly confident talk. Ukraine don't really look up to much, but as ever with England, i suppose it's how well they use the possession they have as they will never really dominate any game given the way can't help giving the ball away.
At the danger of sounding like i have been off the medication, i actually think England have a chance of beating the Spanish in a quarter final if the French do the business against Sweden. Obviously they won't out play the Spanish, but they are more than capable of keeping the Spanish at bay with their two banks of four. And it's been there for all to see, that when the reigning champions have played decent sides, they have struggled to look like a side that will score goals. The one side i can't see England beating are Germany, in fact the two most impressive teams of the tournament so far, for me, have been the Germans and the Portugese who have been the best attacking team of the tournament, it's just a pity they don't have a centre forward. How good was Ronaldo against the Dutch and Nani wasn't bad either, of course it probably helped them the Dutch had to come at them.

Speaking of Nani, the Mirror's claim on Sunday that the Portugese winger felt the club were forcing him out, unforstunately for me anyway, sounds all to believable. I'm at a loss why so many reds seem to quite happy at the news. As this tournament has shown, there aren't too many, if any wingers out there on the same level has him. Watching Ashley Young's abysmal performance against Sweden just reinforced that view for me. By the way that was no suprise to me either, Young had a few stinkers for us last season.
It would be typical of United over recent seasons, just when you get enthused about next seasons attacking options with the signing of Kagawa, we then go and get rid of a player who offers something totally different from all our other attackers. And i say this as somebody who has never been his biggest fan, yes he can have us tearing our hair out, and Rooney tearing what hair he had left until his hair job, but on his day, he is a top player and we can't have enough of them.

I have always been fascinated by the history of Richard M. Nixon and especially of Watergate, so this Indy special report from Woodward and Bernstein of the untold story of Watergate was right up my street. I really will have to get around to reading the follow up to "All the president's men", " The final days".

So with Cameron's day of scrutiny at leveson over, the media highlight will return to the financial crisis, good news for the tories if that really happens. That e-mail was excrutiating, i had expected Cameron to go through the day totally unscathed, but he really does react badly to searching scrutiny. Can you visualise Cameron being opposed by the late Robin Cook across the front bench over the last six months or so, it wouldn't be a fair fight.
And as ever for Cameron it the right wing media who were as critical of his testimony as the left. tHE Spectator's Fraser Nelson writing in the Telegraph attacked David Cameron's "chumocracy" as being no substitute for a political mission.

Osborne's latest wheeze didn't fare well with either deficit deniers or growth deniers, Paul Krugman described it as crony Keynesianism, one again aimed at the tories chums in the financial sector, whilst the right attacked his claim to have tacked the debt problem.

Music

Clark - Iradelphic: One review of this album, the NME i think found this too safe, i don't find it that safe, i found it good, if not as full on as previous albums maybe.

Michael Kiwanuka - Home again: This guy was getting rave write ups well before his debut album was released, thankfully he delivered. Part of the new folk revival, he's more Terry Callier mixed with Bill Withers, it's very good.

Miles Davis - On the corner: I love electric phase Miles and this is up there with the best of that work, for lovers of jazz fusion, funk fusion or jazz rock. I'm never sure what you would label this era Miles Davis as, but it's the dogs bollocks.

Public Image Ltd - This is Pil: And John Lydon is back, it may not be the original line up, but the spirit is there and more than a tune or two as well. I didn't really expect it to be as good as this, some reviews have thought there was a dud track or two, i reckon it's pretty consistent.

Stone Coal White - Stone Coal White: Early seventies funk, and very funky at times, the songs aren't that strong, covers apart, but the playing is great.

XTC -  Drums and wires: I have heard this before, but years ago and i didn't really listen to it much. It's a cracking slab of new wave, Making plans for Nigel was the track everybody remembers, but there's catchy tunes galore.

Danny shines for England

Interesting team picture ahead of last night's draw bore that so thrilled the nations football hacks and pundits, just look at Danny Welbeck next to John Terry, thadda boy Danny.
As to the game, given the squad at his disposal and the tactics Hodgson is going to employ, i suppose it was probably as good a performance as England could have hoped for and a reasonable point. Of course that's totally different from saying it was an impressive display or anything to get worked up about. As usual England couldn't keep the ball, though the use of a 4-4-2 can probably be blamed for that as much as England's lack of technical proficiency.
I'm not really one for getting worked up about the national team, but i am looking for Welbeck to do well and put himself on the international footballing map. He didn't do himself any harm on that front last night, playing centre foward in front of that line up with the inevitable lack of decent service would be a big ask for anybody. But i thought Welbeck was the man that caused the French defence the most problems on the night, despite all the press coverage of Oxlade-Chamberlain's big night. Even when his first touch wasn't as good as it might have been, he managed to keep hold of possession, a priceless asset in any centre forward. It would have been a toss up between Lescott and Welbeck for England's best player on the night.
I am looking foward to seeing Rooney to getting back into the team to see how their partnership goes at this level, if that meant Young going to the flank in place of Milner, that would have more attacking potential than last night's line up. Unfortunately it looks like Milner may be vital to Hodgson's strict 4-4-2 hard working team ethic and it would be Oxlade-Chamberlain who would make way.

Andy Mitten profiles Michael Carrick, describing him as undervalued by England and some United fans but never by those who know the game. Last night didn't alter my view that he should walk into that team, Parker may have worked hard and got the blocks in, but his use of the ball is just no where near what should be required at this level.
I can't really see Carrick's international career resuming after his virtual retirement for the England set up, by the time of the next tournament, Cleverley and Wilshere, injuries permiting should be taking up the central midfield reigns.
After being unconvinced that Rooney could do the business in central midfield, i have to say that his displays there for United in the middle of our injury crisis last season has led me to revise my opinion on that. Given that England lack any strength of depth, as Rooney enters his early 30's i can see him moving further back, just as Scholes career trajectory has led him from attacking midfielder to anchor midfielder. I'd go as far as to say he'd do as good a job there as anybody we have got in the squad now.

George Soros talks of the accidental empire, and joins others in being fairly critical of German actions and worried about German intentions. Former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer describes Europe's situation as serious, very serious, asking who would have thought it would be British conservative prime minister calling for a fiscal union. Of course there is deep disquiet amongst his tory colleagues at Cameron and Osborne's European policy at the moment.

Paul Mason looks at the perils of European optimism, comparing the inability to imagine failure as reminiscent of 1914. Martin Wolf publishes a correspondence with a respected official of the German finace ministry, which seemingly worries him as dangerously optimistic and wrong.

Kagawa, he sells shirts !!

For all the quality that the Japanese player has shown for Dortmund over the past two seasons, the press are almost as cynical as most of us were when we first heard of United's interest in Kagawa. Even though it seems to be accepted that we have bought a good player, the press can't help themselves, the Express talk of United's Asian fan base being the envy of the rest of the football world.
German football writer Raphael Honigstein argues that Shinji Kagawa is far more than a shirt seller, he proved himself the most efficient and best attacking midfielder in last years Bundesliga ahead of Robben and Ribbery. I can't say i rate the Frenchman that much, but i do rate Robben, so i like the sounds of that. The Glazer's will love the sounds of the Japanese media presence, if Fergie wasn't in charge, you would wonder if they would be doing an Abramovitch, telling the manager whoevere else he picks, Shinji must start. As Mark Ogden writes the move suits United on and off the pitch.
Talking of selling shirts Sporting intelligence takes an in depth look at that infamous 659 million United supporters survey and ridicules it, whilst wondering why the need for the bullshit when United clearly are the biggest football name in the world if not the biggest sporting name. 
Kagawa cares only for success, not money, argues this Sabotage times piece, he was definitely made in a Glazer heaven. To be honest, that makes a change and is nice to hear, i was suprised to hear the package he agreed to, but he's hardly going to be a pauper is he. Playing for United and Japan i would imagine those sponsorships are going to start piling up for the guy, especially if he turns out to be the real deal.
Louise Taylor reckons Kagawa will be the man to add an incisiveness and attacking thrust to a United side that lacked those qualities last season. It's what we have lacked since Ronaldo left, though to be fair we seemed to have refound those qualities at the beginning of last season only for injuries to prompt us back into a conservative mode for the rest of the season.

Ed Vulliamy takes a look of the hypocrisy of western banks "reaping billions from the Colombian drugs trade",whilst Columbia, Mexico and the rest suffer ate the front line of the "war on drugs".

Craig Murray speaks out for the "silent minority" that didn't ridicule themselves over the royal family's jubilee. I spent Tuesday aftrenoon watching Jean Renoir's La Marseillaise, stirring stuff. I was proud as fuck that United fans sang Cantona songs during the national anthem ahead of the 96 FA cup final against the dippers, you couldn't see that happening today i'm afraid.

United announce Kagawa signing

I'm not sure why you'd announce a signing before you have got the player to sign on the dotted lines and have shook hands on it to be honest. If he was involved in a car accident between now and the actual signing would United really go through with the deal. Same goes for Chelsea with Hazard and the Hulk signings. I suppose in the case of United, the Glazer's are desperate to allay the impression that we are skint and can't compete, especially a few days before the end of the season ticket renewal date. Maybe even more so, if take up has been slow as Fergie's ridiculous video has led the rumour mongers to believe.
As to the player himself, time will tell, but the signs are good, he may not be a central midfield dynamo, but he brings a little more creativity and hopefully will bring more goals to take a little more of the goal scoring burden away from Rooney's shoulder's. I don't really see him fitting into a 4-4-2 as i have said before, so it will be interesting to watch how our tactics evolve next season. I hope Cleverley can get over his injury problems next term as i can see him and Kagawa combinging well. I hope that our transfer dealings don't stop at Kagawa and the hoped for signing of Powell, but i wouldn't be too downcast if that is it for the summer.
As much as i, along with almost every red with a pair of eyes has beomoaned the lack of recruitment in central idfield over the last 3 years, if you pushed me for where a further priority signing, it would have to be a new left back. It isn't looking likely at the moment though, if Everton are really asking £20 million for Baines, it won't be happening. As for United's supposed interest in Valencia's left back Alba, if Barca are in for him, forget it, he won't be choosing us over the Catalans.

Maybe we will find we have got one over Chelsea if Hazard turns out not the be the new Ronaldo, some have made him out to be. He was pretty underwhelming on Saturday in that mind numbing friendly on Saturday for Belguim. To be fair to the guy, he was played totally out of position up front on his own, so it's far too easily to say. In today's papers he has claimed that it was Abramovitch that persuaded him to opt for Stamford bridge, what does that say about him. A Russian oligarch famous throughout football for knowing the first thing about the sport impressed him more than Alex Ferguson, one of the greatest managers ever.
The only other talking point of that game for me was i was hoping Danny Welbeck would get some time with Rooney behind him, but it wasn't to be. Welbeck took his goal superbly, how anybody could pick Carroll ahead of him is totally beyond me, but i just have a feeling that Carroll will start against France.

Will Hutton on form in the Observer, the facts are clear, this cruel austerity experiment has failed, world leaders are paralysed by their dogma. Meanwhile G7 wrold finace leaders are to meet in a sign of heigthened global alarm at the crisis. Ambrose Evans- Pritchard reports of worries of a global slump as growth of the world money supply drops. Ha-Joon Chang goes back in time and argues that history shows that austerity has never worked, slashing budgets has always led to recession. The time has come to choose what sort of society we really want.
Paul Krugman who has been touring Britain promoting his latest book, tells Decca Aitkenhead, he is tired of being Cassandra, he'd like to win for once.
George Soros argues that Europe's future is not up to the Bundesbank.

Sorry for being so predictable

Late spring clean for United?

Stuart Mathieson sees a summer clear out of United's squad, with a shake up of the playing staff. We have already released Owen and Kuszczak, Berbatov seems almost certain to join them, though how much United will get for him seems a moot point.
I don't think anybody expects Paul Pogba to be still at the club come pre-season training, though who knows for sure, the way that saga has dragged on. I won't lose much sleep if he swicthes to Juve myself, he could still turn out to be the player some see him developing into, but as far as i'm concerned he has already shown he hasn't got the character that we want to see in a Manchester United player.

The sun argue that Facebook share flop is bad new for the Glazer's proposed far east IPO share floatation as companies who over value their company, as the Glazer's patently had at £2 million and that was before the present market uncertainty, will struggle.
Forget fantasy football, the Star seem have to have started a summer fantasy transfer competition, as if we are going to be able to lay out £30 million for Modric. I'm fairly sure if we had been successful in our pursuit of Hazard, Nani would have been on his way out to balance the books. United have been getting their excuses into the papers whilst Chelski have been splashing the cash. To be fair to United, if those the figures that have been quoted are correct, United do have a case. I rate Modric as a decent player, but i don't have him down as top notch, i wouldn't want us blowing £30 million on him. As for the others, silly money again.

Losing councillors by the thousands, now the Indy reports the lib dems are losing members, as one fifth of the parties activists quit across the country. Just as bad, remaining members are refusing go out and campaign for the party, presumably in disgust at the rightward drift the party has took before and whilst joining the tories in coalition.
Polly Toynbee tells the Lib dems left wing, it's now or never, it's time to wield the knife. She can be guilty of misreading the political mood, but if a split in the Lib dem ranks is to happen, now seems to be the time it would happen. I'm not sure whether that would be in the best interests of the party though, obviously it would be in the best interests of the country. If Cable and the left of the party stick it out, when the seemingly inevitable wipe out happens at the next election, the left will surely take the party back with the David Laws and his ilk crossing the floor to the natural base, the tory party.  The Torygraph are also reporting contacts at senior level between Li dems and the Labour party, maybe something is going to happen.
Toynbee is right that there will never be a better time to engineer the parties exit from the coaltion. An economic ploicy that is destroying the economy, a prime minister throwing Warsi to the dogs but keeping the equally incompetent Hunt in place as a human shield, never mind judgement what about morals. Even worse maybe it's politically incompetent, i think it was Iain Martin who tweeted last night that this was O' Level politics.
 

United lose injury league and it doesn't get better

We didn't really need a league table to show us that United had the worst injury record in the premier league last season or that City had the best. It does make you laugh when you remember blues moaning about losing Kompany and Toure for a few games, and even more so when you remember they weren't even injuries.
Given the news that Will Keane has done a cruciate playing for England under 19's, virtually the same injury as Vidic and will be out for about the same amount of time, the season 2011-12 and the European championship can't finish quickly enough.
In fact when you remember the injury plagued season we had the year before, you really have to start worrying that there is something wrong at United. Bad luck can always happen one season with injuries but two starts to look suspicious, if we get a third in row next year, things surely must be looked at. Ironically i hardly remember Keane having any injuries all season. It goes without saying what a big blow it is for the player and indeed for United, next season, one way or the othe, next season was going to be a big year for the next United srtiker to come through the ranks.

The media seem to be pretty sure that the Kagawa signing is just a formality with the Japanese international more concerened to play in the premier league for Manchester United, the most famous team in Japan, than interest in stratospheric wages and £millions for his agent.
Jamie Jackson describes why the signing typifies United's Manchester United's new age of austerity, where does the new come from. If the gimps are pininng their hopes on UEFA's new fair play rules, Chelski's recent splash into the market doesn't augur well. Mind you if it's true that Abramovitch is going to spend £38 million on Porto's Hulk the transfer market has nuts, he's never worth that.
Andy Mitten spells out the transfer market reality for Manchester United, we can't compete as long as all those commercial deals just go to paying off the debt for the gimps.

Alongside the news that Scholes has officially put pen to paper to sign on for one more season, was the announcement that Ben Amos has signed a three year contract for the club. It's interesting that he has signed for three years, i can only presume that as long as De Gea continues to improve as the club's first choice goalie, United either expect Lindegaard to want to leave in search in search of first team football or hope to cash in on a proven premier league standard goalkeeper. I couldn't really argue with that as Amos hasn't let us down when he has been asked to do a job and would be a big, big improvement on Kuszczak as our second choice goalie.

I've got say i'm suprised by the amount of reds who are pretty blase about Nani's comments during a Portugese TV interview, in fact not just blase, there are a fair few who would welcome his departure. I can't go along with that, i'm not his biggest fan, he is maddeningly inconsistent, but when he is at the top of his game, he is one of the best fowards in the world. As much as like Valencia, when Nani is on form he is probably a class above his south American teammate. Add to that the fact that Nani can play all along the front line and he is an assett to any football club.
I have read reds argue that they wouldn't mind him going, but would like to see who was bought into replace him. Isn't that the whole point, we haven't got the money to replace him with like for like quality with our resources at the moment. Unless our scouts have unearthed a Ronaldo, that the rest of Europe's scouts have missed, we 'll be in the bargain basement again. 

I wonder whether Solskjaer regrets his little dalliance with Villa now that Rodgers have left Swansea for Loonypool, Swansea city looks to me just the right sort of challenge for him if we were take his chances in the premier league. A club with modest ambitions, a decent playing staff who have been taught to play football in the correct manner.

The Eurozone continues to frighten the markets and seems to finally to be staring to scare the pants of the European establishment as Bloomberg report Merkel's isolation deepens as ECB president Mari Draghi warning that the Euro is being shown to be unsustainable. I have said before that history will not treat her kindly, if she keeps on fiddling whilst Rome burns it could be worse than that.
French IMF chief Christine Lagarde didn't use the wisest words last week with her criticism of the Greek people, what future will that organisation have left if the Eurozone implodes and cracks the current neo-liberal economic world order to smithereens. The Economist report that Europe's biggest fear, a bank run that they can't stop, it could be just around the corner.

In the week that saw a British media blitz for New York Times columnist and nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman, the Torygraph's Jeremy Warner, an enthusiastic supporter of Osborne's early decision to focus on cuts ahead of growth, claims Britain can't afford to fall for the false charms of the false economic messiah. Montagu Norman lives

Proof that the private sector works, and how it works, for the 1% of course, that's how it works. No wonder the tories on the public accounts committee wouldn't allow the whistleblower to go on the record in public, not that new labour have anything to brag about over this.

A former IT salesman describes how the way the IT world operates isn't a million miles away from the way the way big finance works and why we should be worried.

Music
Calibro 35 - Ogni riferimento..e puramente casuale: The latest offering from the Italian outfit heavily influenced by a great mix of progressive rock, funk and snatches of jazz. I absolutely love this group, this is as good if not better than their last album.

Espernaza Spalding - Radio music Society: As the album title suggests, the jazz bassist singers lates album has a more commercial soul tinge to it. It's a superb album, with cracking songs and a great band.

Field Music - Plumb: They are nothing if not consistent the brothers from Sunderland, it's the usual mix of pure pop and slightly experimental. I have read them compared to a mix of the Beatles and XTX, i would add a dose of Jone Cale circa Paris 1919 to that.  

Graham Coxon - A + E: Fomer Blur guitarist goes back to the elecrtic guitar to crank it up a notch from his last record. Pretty good, excellent at times, less punk pop than his mid noughties output that i loved, more Sonic Youth or Pavement influenced. Well some of it anyway.

M. Ward - A wasteland companion: Another slab of indie pop americana from Ward and another rewarding experience. His albums seem so effortless, simple and full of tunes.

Orbital - Wonky: The Hartnoll brothers back together again and they roll back the years to the nineties, becasue this is mostly excellent, there's a couple of iffy tracks, but i don't even mind them after a few listens.

The Civil wars - Barton Hollow: This received a lot of plaudits over in ths states upon its release and it's easy to see why. Americana, folk or country whatever you would describe it as, the playing is great, the vocals excellent and there's some outstanding tunes on it.