Easter Island Head, better known as EIH or Mikael Silvestre, has been forgotten for a while. That his absence has coincided with one of our meanest defensive records is not a… umm… coincidence. Hence we could be forgiven for forgetting the Frenchman. My heart beats less vigourously now than it used to when he used to have the ball at his feet.

In seriousness though, he is a decent squad player to have and his experience is decent enough for us to get through games during the latter half of the season. Long term, however, his place is always going to be in doubt. SAF does seem to have faith in him, going by his contract renewals. And EIH himself, seems to be a determined person, always looking to fight his way back into first team reckoning; the presence of outstanding centre backs and a brilliant left back, of course, makes his life that much more difficult.

Anyway, he’s talking to the press of late, which is why we’ve brought him up today. He’s still “more than halfway” through his recovery programme. He is currently in New York City with his family and in his free time he got to say this on his injury:

“I know if I come back to my best then I will be able to play again because there are so many games. You always get an opportunity to play,” said Silvestre, who expects to be close to a return by March and hopes to be in contention for France’s Euro 2008 squad. “I know I will have to play in the reserves first, at least one or two games. Play 45 minutes, then an hour-and-a-half. You can’t go straight back to the first team. That’s what happens usually, it will be the same for me.”

His return to the side should give some relief to Evra, who has been running down the left flank for quite a while now. Surely he’s going to run out of steam at some stage. And the presence of EIH towards the business end of the season should be welcome. Although beyond this season, I don’t know how his long term career with United is going to play out. He is already 30 years of age. And this would be the time defenders would be looking to get more playing time at a meaningful level of football, before seeing their career wind down.

Ronaldo goes to the top of the premier league, statistically that is. The Actim Index is the official ratings system of the Premier League, and while I don’t care too much about mathematical data used to judge a player, I can’t disagree with Ronaldo’s position at the top of the Actim table. Tevez previously occupied that position, but has now slipped to fifth. Meanwhile, Fabregas is on second place behind Ronny.

Depending on which paper you read, Fergie is targetting either a treble or a double this year. Well, the idea is the same, but the difference is in the interpretation. So Skyports says double and the Mirror says treble.

In practice it doesn’t matter one bit. We would be looking to win all three competitions that we are in for. Although lot has been made of how much we really want the Champions’ League, it is the League title that will still be more important to us.

Anyway, that should be it for the day. Surprisingly no more transfer rumours other than the fact that Spurs have backed out of a bid for Hutton after he rejected them for a second time. Expect rumours linking us with him.

One final word, any idea why Manutd Talk forums flood Newsnow with their threads containing sensational spammy news (mostly)? It’s just something that I’ve been wondering for a while. For heaven’s sake, it’s a forum! Not a news site.

Tags: Daily Roundup