Once a blue?

James Lawton asks how Rooney can question United's current failings when his own form is so poor. Or he could have said how can he have a go at Darron Gibson as it was alleged he did when at the moment he couldn't trap a bag of cement himself.
Henry Winter is another thinking Rooney is making a big mistake, apparently his temperament would not be suited to going overseas and he should think long and hard before deciding to go. I'm afraid that moment seems to have passed, he looks to have made his bed. The very fact that he has let it be known that he would be interested in a move to City means in any media war between Fergie, the club and the people Rooney has spinning for him have already lost. As it seems likely that Fegie is going sanctioning selling him, it will be interesting if he lets him go to City. If he did, it would surely mean that he thinks that we may have seen the best of the player.
I don't know why but our competitors seem to be being very coy at the moment. Mourinho has come out and said he thinks the big man will keep him, and now Wenger has said he thinks that Rooney will end up staying at old trafford. Though Wenger also questions the way United have gone about contract negotiations. Chelsea seem to be acting more honestly as Ancelloti admits that the press would have to ask Abramovitch if his club would be interested in trying to entice him to London.
The Telegraph report that Rooney could buy himself out of his United contract for as little as £5 million during the final year of his contract. I'm not sure any buying club would encourage him to choose that course as it could end up happening to them somewhere down the road.
Jim White reminds us that one of Alex Ferguson's major character traits as a football manager has always been to be a gambler, but he thinks that this will be his biggest gamble yet. And he worries that if he is wrong there is only one way for Manchester United Football Club and that is down. Paul Hayward calls this Fergies biggest challenge and thinks Rooney holds most of the aces. Who is going to carry us as Rooney did last season, we have seen so far this season there is no one at the club anywhere near being able to assume that mantle. Having said that i still think he will sanction Rooney's transfer and i sadly think he will be right to do so.
The big question to me is will the Glazer's back Ferguson's judgement as Mark Ogden describes this a nightmare scenarion for the gimps. I toally agree with his analysis that as much as they would love the money to pay off the debt, they know that they need at least one big name star in the team, for advertsing purposes if not for actually performing on the pitch.
Phil McNulty of the BBC thinks United won't be able to compete without Rooney and need to come to some arrangement. Well he is right about his importance on the pitch last season, but if his relationship with Fergie had broke down to the extent that we get performances like we did on Saturday, never mind all the media circus and possible dressing room problems we may face, it's better to get rid.

David Blanchflower labels Osborne a coward for his handling of the economy and his approach to cutting the deficit. I agree with the Keynesian approach Blanchflower advocates but if he is aiming to change the coalitions minds that may not be the best way of going about it. 
Larry Elliott describes the three different schools of thought on how cutting the deficit should be tackled, and predicts more economists will start to find the inner Keynes in themselves as the coalitions approach to the deficit comes unstuck.
Jeremy Warner asks how draconian will Osborne's cuts be .
The Telegraph report that corporate Britain is buoyed by the news of £1.7 billion worth of takeover deals in a single day. And that's suppose to be good news, unbelievable. Casino capitalism strikes back.

This is an interesting take on chancellor Osborne's long term outlook for the British economy. Well it's heading in the right direction but as the author says current tory policies are very unlikely to get us there.

The Torygraph reports that there may be more than 90,000 people that have "inherited" subsidised council homes who may not have qualified for state help. May is a little word isn't it, so what do we do throw them out. Does the Barclay brother owning rag ever report on tax evasion, offshore tax exiles or any of the people just like the papers owners who cost this country far more money than our so called benefit cheats.

A fascinating column by the Economists Bagehot on Britain's lack of like minded allies on the world stage.
Marin Wolf explains why he thinks Vince Cable should block Murdoch's attempt to buyout the remiander of BSkyB but goes further to explain why he would media onwership rules much stricter. Can't argue with any of that. Murdoch and Fox are on their way to destroying what influence the US has left in the world, first after cheering on the whole disastrous neocon experiment and now by trying to block the much needed economic reform of the country.

More Facebook privacy breaches, inadvertantly though says the company.

Giant drag

Manchester United 2-2 West Brom

This was the most depressing performance and result of the season so far. To be two up after playing reasonably well and then fall to bits in the second half and at the end of the day probably getting the result we deserved was even more confirmation of what i had been worried about, our ongoing decline. I mentioned as i was coming out of the stadium that i was more and more reminded of 2005 and wondered if our squad had really declined already to the lowest point of the last decade. If we are not there yet we surely aren't far away.
The team selection was reasonable, after Rooney's midweek outburst, i fully expected to see him on the bench. So the pairing of Berbatov and Henandez up front was fair enough. With Giggs returning on the left and Nani on the right the team had a reasonable balance. I was glad Carrick started because with our lack of midfield depth we need him fit and we need to give him a run of games to see if he can get some kind of form back. As to Anderson's inclusion, well i suppose if, as the rumour goes, Ferguson's giving him another chance, this was one of the games to give him. Rafael came in for O'Shea at right back and Ferdinand made another back to back appearance.
We couldn't have asked for a better start as Carson could only parry Nani's stinging free kick and Hernandez followed up to show that he is indeed a proper predator putting us a goal up after just five minutes. The good start and West Brom's intention to try and force the game to United meant our forward line got more space than usual and with Berbatov in excellent form again United looked good for another. And after Berbatov and Carrick had gone close, a great move saw Berbatov and Nani combine to put the Portugese wide man through and he made no mistake with the finish.
For me the moment we lost control of the match was when Giggs went off, we then saw Fergie send on Gibson on into central midfield alongside Carrick with Anderson going wide left. That left us with two players across the midfield four who just aren't good enough for Manchester United and our control of the game slowly evaporated. Anderson as i have said before just continually gives the ball away and it was he who lost it and then commited the foul that left to the away team getting a scruffy first goal to put them back into the game and us home fans wondering if we had seen this story before this season.
To be fair we did have a couple of decent chances shortly after that, but when Van Der Sar came up with a howler than was reminiscent of Jim Lighton at his worst i actually feared that there was much chance of us getting beat than actually going on to win. The crowd were now screaming for Rooney to come on when the obvious move to me was to get Scholes on. He promptly bought both on, taking Anderson off and put Rooney wide left which i thought was fair enough the way Rooney has been playing and taking off Carrick for the ginger prince. That i couldn't agree with, i thought Carrick had played reasonably well, but it left us with no real protection in midfield for our defence that looked far from solid.
Gibson should have been took off, i know it would have been embarrassing and might have hurt his confidence, but his contribution to the game after he had come on was there for all to see. He literally has nothing to his game other than his shot. I have noticed before that he can't even defend very well, but when i saw Scholes making more effort to get back to try to protect the back four in the last ten minutes i was actually speechless. We never really looked like getting a winner and if the visitors had shown a bit more composure in the final third during that last ten minutes it could have been even worse.
I had resigned myself after they had equalised that we had probably blown it again, but what i noticed in that period that does not augur well for the rest of the season and indeed for the future was the body language of the players and  a real lack of fight we have come to expect from players in a United shirt. Too many of them just seemed to accept it wasn't going to be our day.
Besides the squad not having the quality we have been accustomed to and what is needed to compete for the trophies come the end of the season, even more worrying is what quality we do still have at the club are either badly out of form or want out, and which of them it is i wouldn't like to say. Rooney obviously falls into that camp, but just what has happened to Evra, yesterday wasn't his worst game but he has been a shell of the player that we have loved for the last four seasons. 
What everybody could see yesterday was that was the kind of form that will see us fighting out to finish in the top four not fighting to make it nineteen. Our transfer policy is beginning to come back to haunt us as was always going to be the case. If a poor season and United finshing outside the top four was the catalyst to getting the Glazer scum out of our club maybe its all for the best.

Well it didn't take long for us to find out what is so wrong at Manchester United football club as Rooney's " people let the press know he will not be singing a new contract. What a fucking mess this is, this is the first time a player has had Ferguson over a barrel, but Rooney or Stretford, take your pick, have well and truly managed it. I have got a raft of conflicting emotions over this and until we have some kind of idea what has brought Rooney to this i won't be rushing to judgement.
But if he is for real, in other words it is not contract negotiations, and he is definitely offski i would send him to the reserves and sell him in the transfer window. Of course with all the politics and financial implications that would entail i don't believe that this is what will happen. Mark Ogden and Ian Herbert both mention Rooney's despair over United's transfer dealings and the fact that he seems to share clued up United's fans view of our much cherished owners as well as not being happy with the way that his contract negotiations have gone. As for his relationship with Fergie, i can't blame Fergie on all the available facts that we know of. Rooney has been crap and didn't deserve to automatically walk into the side.
Richard Williams rightly wonders who will be hurt more by this course of action Rooney or Ferguson as he wonders how Fergie last remaining ambition of a third European triumph can now possibly happen. I would have thought and hoped his one remaining ambition was to make it nineteen.
If he does go, he could do us one last favour and tell the world what the players actually think about all this bullshit about no value in the market, as Mark Ogden said on his twitter page, don't worry we have stll got Bebe. One last thought, as the Indy says this development is very likely to sink the Glazers business plan under the waterline.

United deny Rooney will be sold in January, at the moment it's hard to know what is happening or what is going to happen. The one thing that is blindingly obvious is that United are in turmoil from the Glazer's to Ferguson to our best players and to a squad that is glaringly not good enough. Paul Hayward wonders whether we have seen the best of Rooney, i think that it's reasonable enough to wonder if we have, but unless he has an injury we don't know of, i don't think football has seen the best of Wayne Rooney. The point unfortunately for me is, have Manchester United seen the best of Wayne Rooney, and the odds on that seem to me to be 50 50. I wrote this before the latest news it aint 50 50 anymore.

Just to put the icing on the cake, Giggs withdrawl on Saturday was a recurrance of a hamstring injury and this time he may well be out for longer.

Richard Williams reviews Patrick Barclay's new biography of Ferguson, i still haven't read Michael Crick's which seems to be the best thought of biography of the man from Govan. The fact is the story hasn't finished yet, and his role in the current shambles of our decline under the disastrous ownership of the gimps is not known and true fully rounded appreciation or not as the case may be of his tenure at old trafford can't be made until those full facts are fully known.

Nick Harris on the odd couple who bought Liverpool and the dysfunctional relationship thereafter. He could have added and the fans that bent themselves over to get what they deserved.

India's series victory against the Aussies puts England above Australia in the rankings for the first time since the system was introduced into test cricket, for whatever that is worth.

Peter Oborne is disgusted by the "immoral" attack on the middle class launched by Osborne and Cameron. Meanwhile Andrew Rawnsley doesn't think the Lib dems understand just how much their volte face on tuition is going to tarnish their future. He says rightly, i would think that they will never be able to run as the outsiders against the system.

Will Hutton wonders if the coalition really understand what a mistake they will be making in ignoring the realities of the outside world where arerun of the thirties is an ever more realistic proposition. William Keegan reports on the latest unhappy meeting of the IMF and the risk to the world economy of Sino-US differences.
Iain Martin predicts that if the cuts are fully embarked on and growth fails to materialise, Cameron and Osborne will be facing their own endgame.
Jeremy Warner warns that declaring war on the bankers won't help us get out of the jam we are in. So we do have to let them just get away with their almost criminal pre credit crunch behaviour. Especially when they still keep putting two fingers up at the ploitical establishment.
Robert Peston reports on the banks attempts at trying to reform their relationship to small business. I would have thought they will have to do better than that. Rob Lyons reports on the mess that is the Irish economy.

With the world news reports full of the success of the rescue of the miners from Chile, The MEN goes back in time when coal was still king to report on the worst mining disaster in British history. The Pretoria pit disaster of 1910 that killed 345 men and boys. The piece of the report that struck me most was the figure of 90,000 pit deaths between 1850 and 1914.

Yet another book release to join the ranks of Factory records memorabillia as Tony Wilson's first wife Lindsey Reade releases a memoir. It could be an interesting read, i'll have to look out for some reviews. A new documentary about the life of Alan McGee gets the thums bup in this Indy piece.

With Captain America filming in Manchester Hollywood comes to town and likes what it sees. I suppose with Media city only months away Manchester profile worldwide will only get bigger. It would seem that Manchester council is going to be on the yes side of the AV referendum if this Manchester confidential report is anyhting to go by. After the congestion charge defeat that doesn't seem such a great thing if you wany a vote on favour of AV.

Cocorosie

Trouble at the Rooney mill

Rooney insists he is fully fit despite yet another lacklustre performance, this time in the colours of England. If he is fully fit, there is something badly wrong because he was back to his world cup form on Tuesday. The Telegraph report that he is risking upsetting Ferguson with those statements after Fergie told the reports that he has missed games with a damaged ankle. Oh dear, sounds like something might be going on here, there are rumours that he isn't as keen on his contract talks as United. Are we about to enter another Ronaldo scenario, because that's the last thing United need.
His wasn't the only poor performance and i wouldn't put all the blame on him but when he performs like that he leaves England offering absolutely nothing up front. It was just as bad in midfield and on the flanks, for all Youngs and Johnson's promise they didn't deliver much against a packed defence. Gerrard was alright but nothing more, but to be fair to him it must have been some hindrance having Gareth Barry next to him. He is and never has been anywhere near international standard.
Kevin Garside doesn't think Capello's tactics did much to help Rooney to play his way back into goals and form. Capello's tactics are definitely part of the probelm but that lets the players of the hook too much, because the players are obviously not good enough.

Dr Richard Steadman, the knee surgeon who has been guiding Owen Hargreaves comeback tries to give our erstwhile midfielder a lift by telling the press that Hargreaves will play some part on Saturday. I will think he is back when he plays two or three games together or maybe even three games in six. I'm not holding my breath.

Wigam manager Martinez wants Wigan to enjoy every moment that Cleverley spends at Wigan as he predicts that is not if but when Cleverley is playing at the very top level for United. Amen.

The Swiss ramble football business blog takes an in depth look at the finances of United and basically comes to same conclusion as Andersred that United won't go bust any time soon but that the interest that United have to pay out for the privelidge of having the gimps as owners is a very big long term worry. Another interesting blog that looks at how the Glazer's will leave United from Chris McQuade.

City have joined the list of clubs to reduce United's away ticket allocation. This a bit of a joke, almost all the clubs who reduce United's allocation, have fans who stand up permanently at Old trafford and yet United never seem to reduce their allocations.

Real Madrid and Barca are urged to finish their sole TV rights and follow England and the Italians who reverted to a collective seria A rights package a couple of seasons ago. They are told in the long term they will have as much to gain as the rest of Spanish football. It is obviously the right thing to do, but will they see it that way.

The spectator reports on the holy alliance of media organsiations that have clubbed together to sign a letter to business secretary Vince Cable to ask him to stop Murdoch's buyout of BSkyB.
Ex tory minister Norman Fowler agrees with that view and goes further by saying that the goverment must examine the plurality of media ownership and must look at how the ownership thatwe now have affect the information we currently receive. He is right that is what is absolutely needed, but it would be terrible if it took the goverment to do that.
When Murdoch tries to tell us that he is a responsible owner, we just have to look at his past record in our country or in his native Australia and his current record in the States with Fox news which is just an extension of the republican or even tea party and his malign influence on politicians who seem to lick his boots.
Robert Peston wonders whether the conspiracy theorists will see the alliance of organisations who have signed the letter as having come together to the rescue of Vince Cable.
Peter Oborne's dispatches on Murdoch's influence in this country aired last week and was excellent but as with all the latest reports we have seen recently there was nos smoking gun.
John Simpson has a bit of a go at Mark Thompson over his statement that BBC was left wing in its new coverage during the eighties. He also goes onto say that he is nowhere near as confident about the future of the BBC as Thompson seemingly is.

I have followed the response to the Browne report and the fallout for the lib dems and more importantly the future for educating the coming generations. But i can't see that there is much difference between the graduate tax and the subsidised loans proposed by the government. I suppose i believe that sending the most gifted students to university should be a countries own investment in his future.
From what i have read the Labour party is in a bit of a mess itself on this subject, but thankfully for them they don't have to make the decisions, well that is until they have to decide how they respond to the coalitons proposals.
But the problems have been created by the crazy taget of sending 50% of youngsters to higher education on mickey mouse courses that don't stretch them intellectually or even properly equip them for a future in free market workforce. It must be one of the first times i have agreed with Simon Heffer on anything. How was it earlier in the decade that London had a mania for Polish plumbers, that the south east couldn't supply enough of its own plumbers and other tradesman was a pretty big indictment of our education system. Craig Murray gives a stirring attack on the whole debate.

Matthew Norman wonders what on earth Philp Green can really understand about government spending and what that knowledge can really bring to the report he has just delivered to the government. Move everything offshore, i suppose.

The consensus seems to be that Ed Miliband did well at PMQ time, surprisingly to some it would seem. I wouldn't say i was surprised i wasn't sure what to expect but it's good news for the democratic process. The last thing the country needed was a hapless opposition leader if the coalition really are going to try to introduce these cuts and then try to reform the NHS and welfare system at the same time.
And with more labour MP's behind him that had voted for his brother it was a pretty big test in front of his own party as much as the watching country and media.

Music
Arcade fire - The suburbs: I like the Canadian oufit without ever really buying into the hype that they were the next big thing. This kind of carries that on for me, it's good, but more pretty good than very good Less overblown than their last effort but better for it.

Boards of Canada - Music has the right to children:  One of the first works from the Scotish electronica outfit. It's reasonably good, though it doesn't scale any heights.

Jaga Jazzist -  One armed bandit: The latest album from one of the original bands to emerge from the Scandanavian new jazz scene. Now this is excellent, for some reason i see similarities with Dungen even though Dungen are guitar based. I will have to go and check out their back catalogue.

Klaxons - Surfing the void: This is the difficult second album. The story is their record company sent their first effort packing and told them go into the studio to try again. It is a good album, maybe not quite as good as the first, but not much in it ot be honest. But they are in danger of becoming one dimensional, if they tried to go in a completely different direction, then i can see why.

The Coral - Butterfly house: A number of reviews described this a return to form, which lost me. When did their form ever dip. They have been consistently good since their first album to me. This is as good as ever but sounds a bit smoother, more commercial than previous efforts. I don't know if that is down to the loss of guitarist Bill Ryder-Jones or down to producer John Leckie.

Tweak bird - Tweak bird: On first thoughts this sounded too straight ahead heavy rock for my tastes nowadays but i saw more nuances after a few listens. So whilst i don't think it's anything special it is a record easy to get into.