via ManUtd.com

The once promising midfielder was never really the same since his injury due to Pogatetz’ horror tackle. It may be said that his short-lived spell at SC Braga in Portugal didn’t do him any good either. A shame, but here’s hoping he’s carves out a nice career for himself with Santos.

“I’m feeling good. I’ve been training for two weeks and I’m very happy. I think maybe very soon I’ll come back again and start playing normally with the rest of the team. I have had no problems at all with the injury. I’m just running and training now really hard, so I can come back and train normally with the team.”
“I think the new season will be very difficult because a lot of teams are becoming strong,” he admitted. “But in pre-season we have looked very strong and I think we will come again this season and we will aim to win everything.”

via ManUtd.com

After escaping unscathed in a car crash, he should be glad he’s not had a bigger setback. There have been plenty of questions on his attitude, leave alone inconsistent displays. And it remains to be seen how he puts those things behind him and focusses on regaining a midfield spot—a task made more formidable given Fletcher’s near-unimpeachable status and the other spot held by Scholes or Carrick.

It’s a fair shout to say that if he doesn’t manage to establish himself this season in the first team, it’s going to be hard for him to stay on. Anderson was the one to catch everyone’s eyes when he was signed alongside Nani. But it’s Nani who has established himself as a starter while Anderson has gone off the rails, blighted by a mix of injury and inconsistency.

via Blackburn Rovers Official Site.

I had a look at their squad and it looks a bit thin in the strikers department. Hopefully he gets a fair share of games. A season-long loan deal is probably good for him because on evidence of his pre-season performances he’s not going to get a nod ahead of Rooney, Berbatov, Owen and Hernandez. Even so, Macheda would be ahead of him in the pecking order.

via Boss: Cleverley must stay – Manchester United Official Web Site.

Several reports over the past week said he’d be moving out on loan, but he isn’t. Yesterday, I’d remarked that I would prefer Cleverley to stay at the club. I would still like us to either loan or sell Gibson and give Cleverley an extended run in the side. If we’re not buying big stars we might as well give our more promising youngsters an extended run.

via Vida happy to stay – Manchester United Official Web Site.

Great to hear, but my hunch is that this is his last season at the club, and that Smalling was bought with a view to eventually replace him. Which is great—buying Smalling, that is. We can’t really say the same of our midfield.

In other news, SkySports.com on Welbeck:

Skysports.com understands Manchester United have agreed to loan out Danny Welbeck to Sunderland. The Black Cats made an enquiry about taking the highly-rated striker on a season-long spell at the Stadium of Light.

And the Daily Mail reckons Roberto Martinez has sealed a loan deal for Cleverley at Wigan.

If true, I hope Welbeck gets enough minutes at Sunderland. I trust Steve Bruce to give him more minutes. I don’t believe Welbeck will make it at United, but given regular minutes in the Premier League could change things.

On the other hand, I really like Cleverley a lot. In fact, if we were not to buy any midfielders come 1st of September, I’d probably give him a good go in the centre of midfield ahead of Gibson. I was worried about talk of a possible loan move to Newcastle or Bolton because he’d likely play for a side that will be forced to scrap their way through the season. Wigan could also be forced to do that, but Roberto Martinez likes his side to actually play football. And if that means playing Cleverley more often in the attacking role, then it would be wonderful.

Hopefully it’s Wigan instead of Bolton or Newcastle.

via Airtricity League Select XI 1 Manchester United 7: match report – Telegraph.

Quite. I don’t want to jump too readily onto the Chicharito-bandwagon because I try to wait till I see it in a proper contest, but Hernandez is making it difficult for me.

More of this in the season please. Oh, and Owen, what a great goal!

Meanwhile, all goal videos here.

When quizzed about speculation regarding Vidic leaving OT, he said, “I can’t clarify it at all.” Journalists pressed further and asked if he was going to play at United this season and he replied, “I believe so.”

By not saying much, he’s not only cast a lot of doubt, he’s essentially confirmed what was till now routine speculation doing the rounds in hushed whispers. It is different if Vidic was vague about his future. Ferguson is usually protective about his players. He was vehement in denial about Ronaldo till the day news of his transfer popped-up as a terse statement on the official website.

Perhaps he’s had enough of his or his agent’s machinations behind the scenes? I can’t say. To the optimists, he’s going to play for us this coming season. At least they’ll believe so.

In the event of his transfer without adequate replacement, it would mean a reliance on an injury-ravaged Ferdinand, a young upcoming Jonny Evans, Wes Brown who has his own injury history to deal with, a stop-gap like O’Shea, and a debutant in Chris Smalling. Not the worst defensive line-up, but the strength of a successful side is in a settled defence.

* * *

Meanwhile, United got another pre-season friendly under its belt. I think this pre-season tour to North America has been pretty good, insofar as the competitive levels of the matches. Both Celtic and Philadelphia Union gave us a good game. And it’s upto us to make good use of it. I’m not reading too much into pre-season though, but I had a few thoughts on it anyway. Rafael when he came on was impressive; Evans looked alright. The midfield seemed to be run over at times, although I felt Cleverley seemed to have an eye for a pass whenever he got the chance. We should see a lot of him this time during the Carling Cup. Maybe even a few appearances in the league. Obertan was frustrating nearly throughout the game despite his goal. Welbeck ran around a lot, put in a good shift, but his first touch was dreadful, finishing poor, and generally happened to make the wrong decision while making a pass. Maybe this is my personal opinion on Welbeck in general—that I don’t think he’ll become a United regular—but he wasn’t all that great yesterday. Macheda seemed to have lost a touch of pace and was out of sorts.

This is one thing we should accept about our strikers—Welbeck and Macheda—in terms of their pecking order: they are going to be below Rooney, Berbatov, Owen, Hernandez and Diouf. Our formation last season favoured more of a single striker (with Rooney up front). At any rate, we are still going to see fierce competition for striker berths at the Carling Cup level. One of Macheda or Welbeck will have to go out on loan. And Ferguson will probably decide which one after this pre-season gets over.

Berbatov was a calming influence and actually led to a more fluid attack when he came on.

And that’s all I have to say about the match.

Your thoughts in the comments welcome.

He then goes on to make another outrageous remark—well not so outrageous, if you think about it.

“We’ve looked at a few options,” Ferguson told the Mail on Sunday. “We did consider David Villa but he was always going to Barcelona.

“I just don’t believe there is value out there at the moment. I’m very happy with the strength of our squad as it is.”

No value? Well, let’s translate that to we-don’t-have-money. And I’m very happy with the strength of our squad as it is? Well either he’s lying/being politically correct, in which case it’s sad, or he honestly believes that his squad is alright, which is disturbing.

I think he knows the squad is not as good as he wants it to be. But clearly if he thinks there is no value in the market then he’s either deluded or his scouting network needs an overhaul. Wesley Sneijder stands out as a shining example of how the market has value—I mean, last season, of course. Of course, if you are looking for the likes of Ozil right now, his value is going to go over the roof simply because of an amazing world cup.

At the moment I’m willing to call it a bonus if we sign anyone at all. Fabiano openly declared his interest, but due to a combination of there-is-no-value-in-the-market and oh-but-he’s-29-and-we-look-to-develop-young-kids we won’t sign him. Ozil said something to the effect of ‘he likes the way Chelsea and Manchester United play’ but no one should read much into that anyway. The Mirror reckons we are interested in Stephen Ireland because Man City have bought a gazillion midfielders, but City might rather sell him off to the likes of Everton or Villa—with whom they could work out an exchange deal with James Milner—than to us.

In conclusion, I want the remote control with the fast-forward button, once this World Cup gets over, so we could skip straight to the start of the season.

* * *

Speaking of the World Cup, it’s a shame Brazil are out. Prior to the Cup I predicted Brazil or Spain with Germany as the dark horse. My pick? The winner of Spain-Germany will win the World Cup. I loved the way Germany taught a lesson to Maradona and co, simply because the Albiceleste were outed for their flawed, stuttering defence. I found the pre-match talk—of Maradona being a managerial genius—ridiculous. Whilst I thought Germany would win, I never imagined it would have been this brutal.

Also: doesn’t anyone else find it odd that the Netherlands—who have the best chance to reach the final—have got this far by playing the most un-Dutch football ever?

I bet, if they win this tournament, Rinus Michels will be Cryuff-turning in his grave.

While I was away, a few things happened and among those few things included United losing its fifth game of the season; this time a 3-0 loss to Fulham. I wasn’t home that day, and missed the match. On most occasions of my United supporting years it would be a bad thing. Most readers would agree this was an exception.

I wouldn’t want to dwell on that and re-open wounds that are in the process of being stitched (presumably). So I will just move on.

Ferguson has been gushing in praise of Mame Biram Diouf — the Senegalese striker purchased from Molde FC in Norway. Diouf just got his work permit approved and given our strike force’s form, anyone who can half hit the cow’s arse is a welcome addition. Which is not to say Diouf is our saviour. But from Ferguson’s comments it seems like it.

“If you’re talking about value then you can look at our young boy Diouf,” the manager said. “He’s been training with us and is looking very exciting. That’s the kind of situation we’re good at – finding young players who can develop at the club and at 22 years of age he’s looking very good.”

Actually it can mean one of two things.

1. Maybe he is really the second coming of Didier Drogba, minus the diving and being an absolutely disgraceful twat.
2. Maybe Ferguson is scraping the barrel and saying he won’t look to reinforce and make signings in January because we have before us a player good enough, in his opinion, to more than fill the gap.

Speaking of not making any new January signings, reports have him on record saying he won’t bring in new signings to ease the defensive crisis. I think he’s justified in not bringing defensive cover. The comments don’t preclude him from signing players on the offensive end though — I hope we do something to address that. Like all January signings, there won’t be immediate impact necessarily, but in the long run it will be beneficial [read: Evra, Vidic]. If Ferguson honestly believes player values are ridiculous in the current transfer climate, wait till after the World Cup.

There have been some reports linking Guardiola to the United assistant manager job. Honestly, if a Barcelona legend quits after two seasons at the helm, I don’t think he will be loyal enough to stick around at United, even if he does eventually succeed Ferguson. Secondly, the manager of Barcelona wouldn’t really fancy being number two at another club. This is too far-fetched to be discussed, but it’s still an interesting possibility — only possible in imagination-land.

Boxing Day fixtures include no United games, but the 27th sees us play Hull City. After a couple of deflating results, I hope to see something that lifts spirits this festive season. We blew two great opportunities to close the gap on Chelsea, and with all teams being generally crap this season we can still limp to the title if we take advantage of December [or whatever's left of it] and January.

Anyway, the preview discussion would be up prior to that game. In the meantime I would try to update this thing and not abandon it.

The reason I say, ‘try’ is because I am flying to Vegas later today, and will likely miss the Hull game; although I’ll try my best to watch it [I know! How jobless of me!] I also know, considering the nature of the place I’ll be visiting, it would be hypocritical of me to tell you all commenters to behave in the interim. But I’ll do so anyway — responsibilities and all that guff.

Merry Christmas to our Christian readers, and happy Festivus to the rest of you.

Of course, the talking point for United fans is Beckham’s return to Old Trafford as a player. Before Ronaldo he was our biggest marketable star, and like Ronaldo, his departure has split opinion amongst supporters. His reception will intrigue me. So, thoughts on Beckham’s arrival, welcome.

And finally Ryan Giggs has agreed another one-year contract extension. At this rate it’s quite possible I will be reporting a new deal for Giggs in 2065 to my grandchildren. The extension is unsurprising, which is why it’s incredible.

“Ryan deserves a new contract and I am sure he will play for another two years,” said the manager. “His form is fantastic at the moment and he is playing some of his best football.”

Giggs on his extension: “I am enjoying my football more than ever and I am looking forward to hopefully winning more trophies with United.”

Right, so there’s your lot. And, once again, thoughts?