Is Vidic really off

Or is Fergie trying to galvanise him. Ian Ladyman reports in the Mail that Vidic may be allowed to join Real Madrid in the summer as Fergie is no longer convinced he is totally comitted to the club. He may be prepared to let him go, though it's hard to believe, but if'true, it's hrad to believe it is because he has suddenly become disenchanted with the club. We all read the stories and rumours a couple of seasons ago and on into the summer that he was unhappy for whichever reason ( his wife or his wages ), but once he had signed a new contract we presumed that had been put to bed.
So it's hard to see that he has suddenly fell out of love with the club again. If there is anything to this, and i hope there isn't, i would love to know what is really going on. On the footballing side, with Ferdinand almost certainly in his last season, it's a bit too early to be letting Vidic go. Smalling and Jones are going to be a top central defensive pairing, barring injuries of course, but there have to be quetion marks over Jonny Evans. So the squad would be not only short of cover but very light on experience, any signings would surely only be extra cover, and would any top players want to come to Old trafford to provide that?

David Sadler hasn't enjoyed the football since the 6-1 debacle but argues that it has been necessary to get back to the basics, purging ourselves of the inability to stop teams getting through our defence as easily as they had been doing. He goes on to claim that he would be happy to see the experience of Vidic and Ferdinand see us through this period at the heart of the defence.
I understand that we had to stop gifting the opposition as many chances as we had been doing, but as much as the back four had a collective mare against City, the problem for me, has been that teams have been slicing through our midfield as if there was no one there. I'm not the biggest fan of Carrick, but i don't see City beating us 6-1 with him in midfield. Again and again i come back to Anderson offering aboslutely nothing from a defensive ( forget the rest of his game ) point of view. With Fergie unable to pick the same back four from game to game this wasn't the best time tocome up short in the midle of the park. The defence have been getting absolutely no protection all season long.
As for Ferdinand and Vidic carrying us through the rest of the season, well maybe the Vidic and Rio of three seasons ago. The trouble is Rio isn't the same player and even if he was he can't play back to back games so there will be no consistency going down that route. I would go with Smalling and Vidic when Smalling returns from injury, but Fergie seems determined to go with Evans. I would only be using Ferdinand occasionally to come in later in the season when we hopefully start the knockout stages of the champions league and are back to three games a week.

Our fourth choice keeper Kuszczak isn't a happy bunny, claiming like Ronaldo once ludicrously did "that he is being treated like a slave by the club". Just what planet does the modern day footballer inhabit. It is really hard to have much time for any of them, i suppose that was one of the reasons a lot of us had so much time for Scholes, an absolute top player but still someone we could easily relate to.
Speaking of that other "slave", the Mail report Ronaldo could make a return to Old trafford to appear in Rio Ferdinand's testimonial next summer. Where to start with that, will Ferdinand even be here to have that testimonial, would Real Madrid be happy about Ronaldo returning and most importantly of all do i care. A great United player who played over two seasons of possibly the best football i have ever seen at Old trafford. He is one of the greatest players to have ever worn the shirt, but he would come a long way down the most revered players the club have ever had, for proper reds anyway.

Thr Republica of Mancunia blog posts an interview with the Guardian's man in Manchester Daniel Taylor as he re-releases his book, This is the one. It's interesting that he still thinks that Rooney had been tapped up by City through Marwood's lins with Paul Stretford and praises the job Fergie did in keeping him here. Roughly a thrid of the way through the season that looks an even bigger achievement, as superb as our start was, we would be struggling without him at the moment.

Danny Welbeck backs Cleverley to become a world class midfield player and admits that they are big friends who know each others game inside out after having come through the ranks together.
I concur with that, he definitely can, one big worry though and we have seen it this season already. He does seem to be fairly injury prone, we haven't really seen much of him so far this season. After the Everton game, Fergie claimed it wasn't too serious an injury and he would be back for the Sunderland game. Well he missed that and we haven't heard anything about him since.
The potential will only be realised once he starts playing regualrly week in, week out, it would be nice for him and for us to see him getting that consistent run of games.

Andy Mitten looks at the enigma that is Dimitar Berbatov as he ponders the thought that if he is sold in the winter break as some papers seem to be suggesting, that ther will be mixed feelings about a player who never equalled the sum of his outrageous talents.
James Robson of the M.E.N claims United should be breaking the bank for Modric, well i suppose that would give the Berbatov sale rumour some credence. There is just one problem, he is on record as saying he wants to stay in the capital as he is settled there. The only club he will be going would appear to be Chelsea, and if he did consider Manchester are we sure he would choose us over City as they would be bound to pke their noses in. File under aint going to happen, i think.


The Euro has gone to red alert as the crisis seems to be spiralling out of control as many have predicted it would. Paul Krugman agrees with an FT piece from Gavyn Davies that the crisis should be seen as a balance of payments problem not a deficit problem. But addressing the imbalances between the core and the periphary looks set to destroy the Eurozone as it stands at present.
Martin Wolf thinks through the unthinkable arguing a Europe built on a one sided deflationary adjustment will fail and if the leaders of the Eurozone insist on that policy, they must accept it will fail.
It seems, according to reports that the core nations around Germany may just accept that and may indeed be aiming for it. Frasier Nelson looks at the recently outed Frankfurt group and argues if you thought that the EU couldn't get any less democratic, think again. It doesn't look good.
But to me it's just another group of financier/politican groupings out to over ride the wishes of the electorate. Difference being they may well be strong enough to do what they propose and it won't work to the interest of the British political or business interest.
Jonathan Freedland wonders why the Eurosceptic right can't place Gordon Brown alongside their hero Thatcher for his role in keeping the country out of the Euro. Oh come on, please!

The Economist looks at the country of no, the main player in all this, Germany, and asks why it is so reluctant to stump up for the Euro. Ambrose Pritchard-Evans claims that the US and the Chines are very worried about Germany's non action in this crisis and can see both countries bringing massive pressure to bear on the Germans to do the right thing and use the ECB to resolve this whole mess. If the Germans did bring down the Euro, killing the PIIGS economies in the process, their hard won reputation achieved since the second world war would surely be destroyed. Faisal Islam argues that the PIIGS must achieve some porcine solidarity to stand up to Euro core zone, he thinks they would receive more support in Germany than they realise.

Misha Glenny has a completely different take on the situation in Greece, arguing the real tragedy is it's rapacious oligarchs who control Greek business, the finacial sector, the media and indeed the political class. It sounds like a vastly more advanced process of what is going on amongst all the western democracies, we live in sick times.
Along those lines Prem Sikka uses the Independent to argue that we should follow the Nordic countries in being able to see how much everybody pays in tax, he wants to be able to see how much Bob Diamond pasy in tax, he wants democratic accountability.
George Monibot looks at the myths and fallacies that the corporate and financial elite use to justify their huge rewards. Unsurprisingly he finds they fall down like a pack of cards. Not that there could be any justification anyway as far as i'm concerned, it's immoral how many times those at the top earn than those at the bottom, full stop. Paul Krugman aks, what boom, and who was the boom for?

Robert Fisk asks if those who flaunt the poppy on their lapels, know that they mock the dead? I have a big problem with that also. As well as it being almost a fashion symbol, i can't stand the fact that the people that shout loudest about wearing the things are almost always the first to cheerleader whichever politicians want to write their name in the history books by sending the armed forces into pointless, if not immoral foreign adventures. Poppies were supposed to honour the men who went to war to end all wars.

Music
African head charge - Voodoo of the godsent: A mix of influences that promises much, but could easily go the other way delivers a cracking album. This mix of dub, techno and world influences carries on their good work.

Low - C'mon: The only stuff i have of theirs is the christmas E.P from the nineties which i like but know is very much an acquired taste. I had read that their last couple of albums had seen the guitars raised in volume a notch or two and so it has but the speed doesn't seem to have. It's good, though it takes a couple of listen's to appreciate the longer tracks.

Miles Davis - Miles smiles: I'm still slowly working through the great mans back catalogue, this was the last real pure jazz disc he made before the amps got plugged in. It's brilliant, though the tempo is faster than some of the stuff from this period, a faster, harder bop. I have a DVD of a European tour from this band that i still haven't really watched properly, this is from that disc

Syd Barrett - Barrett: This was the first solo outing from Pink Floyd's original songwriter and band leader. This has been called a lost classic by some, it's good, very good at times, but calling it a classic is a bit much. He would have had such a lot to offer though if he hadn't have overindulged.

TV on the radio - Nine types of light: Their last album Dear science was one of my favourite albums of that decade and this is a worthy follow up. I don't think it's quite as good but it's still a cut above most indie/rock based music of the moment.

Wilco - The whole love: Another of the very best US groups of the present era, get as near to matching the glory that was Yankee hotel foxtrot as they have managed. The last album was pretty good but this is even better, it has some epic songs starting in storming fashion and ending equally stongly with not much let up in between

Manchester United 1-0 Sunderland

So Ferguson's 25th year at the club was celebrated with a whimper of a game not a bang. Another disappointing game that makes August and September seem a distant memory. The spark has completely gone out of the team at the moment, it doesn't seem to matter who plays or where they play.
Rooney started in midfield again this time with Fletcher for company, Lindegaard made an appearance in goals and Ferdinand partnered Vidic for the first time since the opening day of the season.
The first half was as bad if not worse than Wednesday's second half snorefest. The goal that came out of nowhere in the last minute of the half wasn't really deserved. Not that Sunderland had done much to entertain us in that opening 45 minutes either.
On the positive side Rooney once again looked the part in midfield. Is that at the expense of him contributing further up the field? To be honest at the moment, with the lack of creativity in the side, he is probably better of in the middle of the park. At least he is able to contribute positively to the cause instead of getting frustrated at the lack of service. Hernandez once again didn't really do much in the match, but i can't criticise too much, when once again you take into the picture the lack of service.
The second half saw United raise their game above the mundane, they started to look capable of rising to the occasion and and it looked possible we might see the glorious football of the opening weeks of the season. Chances were still few and far apart, the best an Hernandez header blocked on the line and a brilliant double save from the Mackems goalie Westwood. But it was a false dawn and the longer the game went on the more Sunderland came into it.
I couldn't believe that we ended the game hanging on against such an average side, but that is how the game finished. The one hope to cling too, is that we are manging to colect three points, when given the performances we could easily be dropping points to let City slip out of sight.

The papers have been full of columns and pieces celebrating Ferguson's 25 years at the club. Paul Hayward argues that the last ten years adapting to the way the game has changed prove why Fergie is without equal as the finest manager the game has seen in this country. Matt Lawton talks to the four men involved in the appointment of Alex Ferguson as the new mager of Manchester United in November 1986 and their memries of those few days.
Daniel Taylor looks Fergie's time at United and thinks that he will never really leave United behind. Which will be tricky for his successor as Taylor looks back to the mess that was made when Busby stepped down. That new book from O'Farrell will be worth reading, even if it probably won't be particularly edifying.
Jim White looks at Fergie's longevity and also looks at the contemporaries of the Scot when he took over United in 1986. There are some blasts from the past in that piece, somehow mentioning the managers, makes it seem even longer ago than it does when you mention the team and players he inherited. He also looks at the adaptibility of the man as he has risen to challenge after challenge, to keep United the team to beat. It's too early to say for sure, but the oil money pouring into that lot across town may be the biggest challenge yet.
As Henry Winter says whenever he does jack it in he is in the process of building another great team that will be a far healthier inheritance for his successor than Ron Atkinson left him when he took over United. When you think of the mess he was left with by Atkinson it was no wonder it took him until 1990 to deliver us the first piece of silverware since 1985.
Though i can never forget how the club disintegrated after the dynamic start we made to the 85-86 season and the magnificent football we played during the ten consecutive victories to the season and the eighteen match unbeaten run that came to an end at Hillsbrough. I went to most of those games, home and away, and it was unbelievable we managed to end the season in fourth spot after such a great start. If it was true that Atkinson offered to resign at the end of that season, i can't believe the board didn't accept it.
Ian Herbert of the Independent looks at how Fergie's relationship with the media has evolved, from slanging matches to bunches of flowers. James Lawton recalls the time his frosty relationship with Fergie finally thawed and joins the list that have selected their team of the Fergie's 25 year reign.

He can't help getting himself in the news, some achievement given the amount of minutes he has actually played for the first team so far, i hope Ravel Morrison is going to be worth all the shit we will probably get with him if he does fulfill his promise.

George Osborne isn't getting a good press at the moment, it must be worrying for his career when Fraser Nelson starts to criticise his shortcomings. Even if he comes at it from the side of the inflation nutter angle. David Blanchflower wonders where Osborne's allies in the business community have gone or indeed any of his allies at all.
I suppose if there is a consolation for him it's that Ed Balls doesn't seem to be convincing his critics either as his closeness to the City doesn't go unremembered on the left. Saying that, i happen to think the Robin Hood tax is a bit of a sideshow myself, compared to reform of the city and re-regulating finance rebalancing the economy.

Richard Murphy fears for the future after the week's shambolic G20 and Greek Eurozone contortions, he fears we are on the road to repeating the mistakes of 1919 instead of learning from the west's, or should that be the US reaction to the victory in 1945. The irony being of course that Germany paid the price of 1919 and reaped the benefits from the Marshall plan. Daniel Knowles implores the Germans to learn the lessons of history and forgive Greece. Of course they would also be saving themselves, it's not entirely altruistic.
Paul Mason looks back on the week and looks at the options for Europe to resolve the Eurozone crisis and points out that there are no easy options. Larry Elliott points out that European leaders fear the worst after losing control and fear the upcoming crisis could put the 2008-09 crunch in the shade.
William Keegan traces the roots of the current economic crisis to the fall of the Berlin wall and the politics and economics that the west have followed since. Matthew d'Ancona asserts that the Euro elite are out of touch with 21st century modern world and claims the Euro was a goal of the European left.

Manchester United 2-0 Otelul Galati

A win is a win, i suppose, but this was one of those games that give the qualifying stages of the champions league a bad name. As poor as United were, they were only ever going to do as much as they had to, and unfortunately for us that were there, they didn't have to do much.
We saw from the game in Romania that Otelul Galati weren't up to much, and they weren't any better over here, god knows what Barca would have done to them. Fortunately for them United are at present so far from that level it's not true. Our game had been steadily slipping from the heady days of the beginning of the season, but after the derby disaster, we are light years away from the kind of form that will see us compete for sliverware come the end of the season.
The main topic of debate before the game was the inclusion of Rooney in central midfield. I have laid down my opinion that he isn't suited to the position, but his performance last night has led me to wonder whether i was wrong . He was comfortably our best performer, but that isn't saying much to be fair, the only other player to emerge with any credit from his display would be Phil Jones. But Rooney did show an awareness to the role that i hadn't anticpated, he generally used the ball well and bar the odd misplaced pass didn't waste the ball.
His performance there put into context just how far away Anderson is from being the player people have kept on thinking he could be. I have read some people that thought Park was cheered when he came on for Anderson, i'm afraid it wasn't for Park and Anderson's look as he came off told me, he knew it was for him being took off. Against a nothing opposition he gave an absolutely nothing performance, how he earned a new contract is totally beyond me. I presume he only played last night because there was nobody else to play with our deepening injury list, i hope so anyway.
The early goal was a mixed blessing, with the way we are playing it was obviously nice to take the lead early on. But as to a spectacle it was probably the last thing the game needed as the vistors stuck with their game plan of getting men behind the ball and the only way they were getting men forward was by pressing our defence when they were trying to play it out from the back.
It was noticeable that the goal came from a Jones cross, all night he was more of an outlet on the right than Valencia. Valencia's game seems to have alarmingly deteriorated, this was a man that tore Ashley Cole a new one in that title decider at Old trafford last season. And yet last night i can barely remember a time where he took his man on or actually got a cross in. I don't know if he is suffering a lack of confidence after Fergie's mistaken idea that he could play right back, but we need the old Valencia back and quick.
As poor as we are in the engine room, at least we have quality in the wide positions, but at the moment that quality has disappeared as they all seem to have suffered a slump in form at the same time. Nani didn't do much to tell us why he was on that Ballon d'or list announced recently either and hasn't really given a decent performance since the Chelsea game. With the lack of creativity from the middle of the park, the last thing we need is to see the supply from the flanks to dry up.
Given the team selected, whilst the first half was pretty dull fare it wasn't as bad as i had feared it might be. But i'm afraid the second half was every bit as bad as i had feared. Though the opposition never really threatened to get an equaliser, i was glad to see Rooney's deflected shot go in as it was one of those nights where you were never really confident that we would see the ninety minutes out.
It's to be hoped we see more of a performance on Saturday, at least hopefully we will have Cleverley and Vidic back and see Rooney back up front which i still believe to be the position he will always be better in.

Fergie was happy with Rooney's performance in his new role, Rooney thinks he can play anywhere on the park and was happy to play there.

Henry Winter profiles Solskjaer after his team Molde deliver him a first title and wonders as do we all, whether he will be back to manage United one day. Fergie tells him to to enjoy his time in Norway and to not rush back to England as he continues to be linked with any managerial vacancies. He would be off his rocker to go to Portsmouth and i'm pretty confident that he isn't off his rocker.

Ahead of last night's game Fergie was asked about Rio Ferdinand's form and Fergie didn't beat about the bush, telling him he would have to adapt his game as his explosive burst of pace has now deserted him. I can't really see him being here next season to be honest, the concern for me is that Fergie seems to have settled on Evans as Vidic's partner when i would be looking to blood Smalling or Jones more often than he has. Of course Smalling's recent injury hasn't helped in that regard, in fact Smalling's season has never really got going. Which is a real pity as he has looked excellent when he has played, the City debacle apart.

As the 25th anniversary of Alex Fergsuon's apponitment approaches Alan Hansen looks at Fergie's achievements. Whilst Samuel Luckhurst talks of Fergie's tainted legacy, there is of course something to that, his praise of the Glazer's will not be forgotten, especially for someone who thinks of himself of the left.
What is it with US owners, they just don't get it do they!

As i type this i'm not sure whether the Greeks are going to have a refrendum or not, if the government still have a majority or whether Papandreu is still prime minister or not. As Paul Mason writes here, a referendum would be in reality on whether the Greeks stay in Europe or not, and we hear this morning that the French and Germans are telling them that is exactly what it will be about. I'm not sure how democratic they think all this ordering about looks, but it stinks to me. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard argues that the referndum is the rervenge of the sovereign nation, well if it happens it may turn out that way, of course it may be much nastier. Faisal Islam agrees that this was the death of last week's bailout plan.
Larry Elliott claims that Papandrea has got a stronger hand than most pundits understand and that his gamble could pay off. Robert Reich argues in the Huffington Post that Greece's choice and ours is :democracy or finance.
Stephen King asks whether sending round the begging bowl will really resolve the Eurozone crisis as Klaus Regling head of the EFSF travelled to china. Looking at this from a German strategic point of view, how could they have ever allowed to get themselves into this position. I have said it before, Merkel is a disaster. Adrian Hamilton looks at the illusions of the west in thinking that China is going to come to the rescue
China's economy isn't looking too rosy itself anyway according to a host of commentators, so it's hard to see the Chinese bailing out the Euro. Of course a Chinese slowdown is not really good news for anynody else either, but how would the Chinese population react to a serious slowdown.

Simon Jenkins is alarmed by the tories spellbound reliance on supply side econmics, arguing they are looking after their own. George Monibot looks at the City of London and doesn't like what he sees, claiming that they are wealth destroyers. I'm reading his book Captive state at the moment, what an eye opener that is, very disturbing but sadly believable. And for all those deluded souls that think Labour will be on their side if they regain power, time to think again.
John Kay looks at the occupy Wall street protestors and the cousins inLondon and agrees that capitalism needn't be about greed and gambling, indeed that's what it shouldn't be.

Polly Toynbee thinks that vindication is the air for Miliband in his decision to tack to the left. Mike Smithson of political betting thinks that she is on to something, claiming that the way things are going if an election were held today, Labour could even win an outright majority. The FT's Westminster blog follows this up as it noticed how Cameron veered to the left himself at PMQ's yesterday. And how will that go down with his distrustful backbench Eurosceptic rebels!
Rafael Behr isn't so sure that Ed Miliband will be heard as he risks being drowned out in a cacophony of populist outrage. Maybe that will turn out to work for him, the electorate might think that Labour aren't split and they are the safe option. Which is of course how Cameron wanted to portray the tories.
Bennedict Brogan thinks Britain needs political audacity and wonders if Cameron is up to it. But what is the audacity he claims that is needed, as usual less regulation, exactly what got the world in this mess, the tories are totally lost.

I thought this was a pretty intersting piece in yesterday's Guardian. A US miltary think tank urges US to cut oil use for national security reasons, that chimes in with what i have thought all along, it should be the way all liberal democracies thinking.