Edwards concerned about debt

and the future in what most papres seem to have chosen today to take out of Andy Mitten's latest tome
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/6269976/Martin-Edwards-concerned-by-Manchester-Uniteds-700m-debt-burden.html
The book looks like another must read following his cracking effort on the 80's

Pogba free to join United, as United are judged to have done absolutely no wrong
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/oct/08/paul-pogba-manchester-united-fifa
Right or wrong i have got to say that i would support all this jostling for youngsters and ban transfer until after they are 18.

Fergies diversion tactics, criticising the ref to not have to admit how poorly Foster is playing seem to be backfiring and if we are honest are pretty shoddy.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/referees-hit-back-over-fergusons-fitness-jibe-1798228.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/oct/08/sir-alex-ferguson-alan-wiley

Will Fabregas follow Pique back to Barca next season, the more Arsenal struggle to stay in the top 4 the answer must be yes
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/fabregas-in-fresh-transfer-link-to-barcelona-1798427.html
That would be a big blow for them

Kevin McCarra thinks the big four are starting to drift back to the pack, it does have that feel to it, but the season is young and squads have yet to be tested.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/oct/06/manchester-united-chelsea-arsenal-liverpool

Robert Fisk on secret or not so secret plans to replace the dollar as top dog currency
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/the-demise-of-the-dollar-1798175.html
It's going to happen one way or another, but this latest bout of dollar weakness won't be making Obama lose any sleep.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/06/gold-price-dollar-decline

Will the tories anti-europe phobia lead to the end of the UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/04/cameron-lisbon-referendum-scotland
Where most of the citizens of our country still don't seem to understand the waning of our standing in the world. I am pretty sure Scotland voting for independence would bring it home with an almighty thump. Bang would go the comparisons with France and Germany and in the comparions with Spain i suppose.

Manchester United 2-2 Sunderland

Where did that dismal performance come from, and yet we still managed to get a point from it. The first half was a real shocker and i had visions of us getting beat by two or three at half time we were that bad. They could hardly string two passes together in the first half. Full marks to Sunderland they came and had a right go at us, especially in the first half. The mackems looked menacing going forward and won almost all the fifty fifty challenges and when Bent scored a fine goal after just 7 minutes it looked like we had got more than all of us had bargained for, fans and players alike. I must admit i saw Chelsea demolish them at their place earlier in the season and on that evidence i could see nothing but an easy three points. But a month and a half later they were a completely different proposition looking strong in midfield and menacing up top playing with two men up front in Jones and Bent.
Nani had one of those games where you wonder what anybody sees in him as he was completely bullied out of the game by first Richardson at left back and then Bardsley at right back, two ex reds. It turned out not to be the best time to give Welbeck his first senior outing of the season, he just never really got into it. He looks like he still needs to strenghten up a bit against the physical challenge posed by teams like Sunderland on Saturday. Scholes had an off day, as did Rooney and for me only Berbatov gave a real performance. Their forwards gave Evans and Vidic a hard time and even Evra looked shaky at times in the first half.
Anderson came on for Scholes at half time, but i wasn't too sure about that myself. Alright Scholes hadn't played well and we looked a bit lightwight in midfield, but that was as much about our wide men not contributing. And of course we lost our only real creative spark in midfield with no Giggs on the bench. All that talk about players having to walk up to the plate now Ronaldo has gone doesn't look any more convincing when we still rely on our last two class of 92 who still perform regularly. As if on cue the first thing Anderson did was give the ball away, but to be fair to him he had a reasonable game, no more though, and did help change the course of the game as United started to get to grips with the contest without ever playing anywhere near their best. I am as inclined to think he took Scholes off with two yellow cards a distinct possibility with us playing so poorly after his first half booking.
The equaliser fittingly enough was scored by easily our best player on the day for me. A fine acrobatic goal from a set piece from the right saw us back in the game with hopefully enough time to go on and get the winner. And then came the howler from Foster, and it was a howler, as Jones out muscled him to head it over the line. So it was back to trying to salvage a draw as the idea of scoring two when we were playing this bad was nil. We were only inches from being 3-1 down when Carrick made a desperate clearance after not long being on the pitch.
United huffed and puffed but didn't really look like blowing the Sunderland goal down until Richardson needlessly got himself sent off, the ref was absolutely correct. The one blot on the Sunderland performance was their time wasting, and i thought Fergie was absolutely right that their should have been more injury time than there was. Not that we deserved to win that is, i thought we just about did enough to deserve the draw. The goal was scrappy when it did come, but, who cares, they all count. And it's still what seperates us from the rest, the abilty to get something when everything looks lost.
Two last thoughts on the game are that the pitch didn't help us on the day with being nothing like the slick surface we saw on Wednesday. The other i'm afraid is that i am not on my own in thinking that Foster is not looking anything like the long term goalscoring replacement that we are so desperate for. It isn't just the mistakes, but his reaction to them, he threatened to go to pieces after the mistake on Saturday. He isn't the greatest with the ball at his feet at the best of times but on Saturday we all winced every time the ball was passed back to him. And we were right to do, because he had gone.

Fergie must explain his remarks about referee Wiley
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/8290244.stm

Paul Hayward on Raul and Giggs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/oct/04/raul-ryan-giggs

Ronaldo doesn't play and Real get beat
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/cristianoronaldo/6261308/Cristiano-Ronaldo-absence-not-to-blame-for-Real-Madrid-defeat-says-coach.html

Cruyff thinks Messi's new contract is too long
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/european/6261456/Lionel-Messi-deal-was-wrong-for-Barcelona-says-Johan-Cruyff.html

Lockerbie trial gets murkier and murkier
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/oct/04/raul-ryan-giggs
I could never believe he was found guilty at the time, all the evidence was thin and circumstancial to say the least

Cameron and the tories tied in knots over Europe again
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2009/oct/05/tory-party-europe-row

Manchester United 2-1 Wolsburg

We ended up with the three points but we we had to work hard for them at the end. Not that we didn't deserve the three points, just with us not finishing off our moves with the same panache some of them had been created with, things had looked a little ropey when they took the lead. But that's six points out of six and hopefully we will get qualification out of the way as soon as possible.
After seeing the second half of the other game in our group in Moscow in the pub before the game you would have to say Wolsburg look like they will provide us with our strongest test away from home in this group.
Fergie showed he must have rated their front line as he picked what i would say is currently strongest defence with Ferdinand playing two games on the trot and O'Shea at right back. It will be interesting to see if Ferdinand plays on Saturday. The engine room in midfield was a bit second string as far as this season goes with the below par Carrick alongside the improving Anderson. With Giggs on the left, Valencia on the right and Owen coming in to partner Rooney it looked like a pretty attacking 4-4-2 line up, rare for Fergie nowadays in Europe. But it was a like for like as that is the way they won the Bundesliga last season, although they didn't particularly play like in this match.
Right from the start they made their intention known taking every chance to get forward and attack and they should probably have scored after a couple of minutes but for a very weak shot after some indesicive defending from United. United took there time to get into the game, and by the time they did Owen had already had to go off. The word is that he had a groin problem before the game so why he was started, i don't know. Anyway it worked to our advantage as Berbatov came on and gave his best performance so far this season. But for all the nice approach play we weren't quite creating the openings that i thought our creative play had deserved. When we did, either the goalie was in good form as a great save from Carrick showed or the linesman gave them the benefit of the doubt on the offside as he gave Rooney offside when he wasn't but O'Shea was.
The second half saw the game kept the same pattern as the last twenty five minutes of the first half. But their twin strike was always a threat and 10 minutes into the second half they managed to get the six foot Bosnian Dzeko against Evra at the back post in the air. Kusczcak had no chance with the header and we had a game on our hands. Thankfully, we didn't take long to equalise as Giggs saw his free kick take a big deflection and wrong foot the goalie just three minutes later. Now we saw United play their best football of the night which saw us start to create real chances. Giggs had a goal ruled out for offside that should have been given as it had hit two pair of Wolfsburg legs before reaching him in the box. With thirteen minutes left United hit the winner when Carrick finished off a move that saw three people have the chance to shoot before he eventually buried it. It was a nice goal and maybe it will boost his confidence. His was an improved performance but still nowhere near what he is capable off. The rest of the game was end to end with both sides having chances, Wolsburg having one chance where i have to say from where i sit i thought they had scored.
But our good start to the season continues and looks like the qualifying phase is not going to cause us too many upsets, unlike Liverpool who have a tough group to get out off after their defeat the night before. They won't even be in the hunt for honours this season with the defence they have got, great.

Owen injury not as bad as feared
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/8286580.stm

Steve Bruce on Giggs the superstar
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/oct/01/ryan-giggs-greatest-manchester-united-steve-bruce

Carrick happy at United, but not with his form, you would hope
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/carrick-content-to-bide-time-at-manchester-united-1796531.html

Berbatov admits first season not up to scratch
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footballleagues/premierleague/manutd/6253643/Manchester-United-striker-Dimitar-Berbatov-admits-to-failure-last-season.html
I think he has played reasonably well so far this season, but Wednesday we how we want to see him every game

Portsmouth in real trouble as Premier league prepares to take control,
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/premier-league-ready-to-take-control-as-penniless-pompey-crash-1796230.html
this will be interesting

Johann Hari on the Tory plans for the BBC
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-if-we-care-about-the-bbc-we-must-fight-to-defend-it-1796270.html

I hope that BAE are prosecuted but i'm not holding my breath
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/01/bae-serious-fraud-office1

Strange times for Europe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/02/ireland-referendum-lisbon-treaty
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6857807.ece
As a pro European the last thing i want to see is a Prseident Blair, the prime minister was bad enough than you.

More ammunition, unfortunately for Umberto Bossi and the northern league
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/01/mafia-influence-hovers-over-italians