Transfer Life Line - Berbatov left out of Spurs squad

With Tottenham not getting off to the best start of the season, one would think that Spurs coach Juande Ramos, would field his strongest squad in order to secure all 3 points.

The Spaniard has, however, sprung a surprise by leaving out Dimitar Berbatov from his team that lost to Sunderland. There was not even a spot for him on the bench, as Ramos declared that Berbatov might not be in the right frame of mind to compete.

Ramos has scheduled a meeting with the Bulgaria striker tomorrow to discuss his future and had the following to say during a press conference:

"As I said on Thursday, I needed to wait and speak to the player when he returned from international duty and then make a decision about whether or not he was right to play in this game," said Ramos. "I have not selected him as I do not think he is focused enough and I do not feel that he will be good for the dressing room and the team effort.

"It doesn't matter how good a player is, if he is not in the right frame of mind, then he will not perform well. The only thing I concern myself with is picking the best team to try and win the game. I shall talk to the player tomorrow, he is our player and we shall work with him at training."

Now, I would like to urge some caution:

While I am absolutely craving for a proper summer signing, I do want the club to buy players that will add to the squads determination and drive.

Regular readers of ManUtdTalk.com will know that I favour Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, because he is exactly what Man Utd need at the moment, but that I would be happy with Berbatov as well.

This latest incident just serves to fuel my fears though that Berba is one sulky bugger and that he can start sulking at anytime. Many fans of Berbatov say that he will stop being sulky once he completes his 'dream move' to Manchester United, but I say that a leopard doesn't change its spots.

He might be happy initially, but a bad game or argument with a team mate might see him return to his sulky ways. That's just who he is.

Having said that, he is a fine striker though and repsents the physical presence we require upfront and since we haven't signed anybody, I relly hope we get him.

At least he will create competition for places.

Wayne's World - Diary Entry #4

Back again….

…it’s been a crazy few weeks as usual since Colleen and I have been back from our honeymoon.

She’s been talking to the film producer we met at a disco in Las Vegas – he wants to make a movie star out of me! Yes,…… me! And he even promised to work Colleen into the scripts, so she can eventually become a star too.

He started talking business immediately and as my agent hadn’t flown out with us to America, Collen volunteered to handle negotiations.

*sigh* what would I ever do without me sweet angel, Colleen? She just wants the best for me and never sees anything as an inconvenience as long as it benefits me.

The film producer asked Colleen, if she wanted to continue the negotiations in his limosine, because it was so lound in the disco and before I could say anything, she put her finger on my lips and told me she wouldn’t have a word of my protests and that she would gladly sacrifice a night on the dance floor for a life-time of us being successful. Before I could utter a single word, they we running off to do their negotiating. God, I love that girl.

They are still negotiating though and I’m not happy with the scripts we have received so far – they all have corny Christmas themes. Some of the titles for my international film debut include:

- Santa Scouse, the night Christmas was stolen
- Roodolf, the red-nosed *****r
- Wayne’s Girth, the festive season never ends

They all stink!
To help expedite the negotiations, Colleen had me buy the best web cam from Apple called the iSight. She feels negotiations will be more intense, when they can see each other more clearly.

It totally makes sense to me.

On footballing matters, the transfer window is closing soon and we haven’t signed anyone besides that youngster from Roma, named Davide Petrucci.

This guy on my favourite Man Utd forum was saying we should sign Ronaldinho, because the triple threat of Carlos Tevez, Ronaldinho and I would be so ugly that it would scare defenders. – Hardy har har .... I bet that bloke thinks he’s funny. He even suggested that kids would have to be sat further away from the pitch to avoid traumatizing. Smart ass!

Listen, I totally resent that! There is no way on God’s green earth that Carlos and I are as ugly as Ronaldinho, OK?!?!

Ronaldinho is so ugly that even his mama would have struggled to love that face and I know for a fact that my mom doesn’t find it hard to love me.

Speaking of transfers, Ronaldo decided to stay on with us and not join Real Madrid and all of us couldn’t be happier!

To welcome him back and ease some of the tension, we all chipped in to order a Real Madrid jersey with his name and the number 7 on the back, but with the number 7 crossed out.

The effect was amazing - Ronaldo was so touched by the gift that he started crying like a baby.

What a sweet and sensitive guy!

Rio went over to console him, but as soon as he touched Ronnie, we heard him screaming like a girl. Cristiano wouldn’t tell us what was wrong, but he wouldn’t let us touch him and he kept staring over his shoulder to where Sir Alex was standing.

Funnily enough, Fergie just had a big grin on his face and winked at Ronaldo.

…..it’s nice to know I’m not the only one.

Speaking of which, I saw Frazier Campbell coming out of Lord Ferguson’s office the day before the Newcastle game and he was walking in a very peculiar manner.

I was worried he might have injured himself and thought he had just been to the gaffer’s office to share the bad news.

But when I saw him standing next to me - fighting fit - at the kick-off against Newcastle, I understood that we all have our own way of getting into the starting eleven.

The Newcastle game was uneventful and quite bad to be honest. The best thing about the game was that it ended.

We need a tall, strong centre forward badly and I hope we sign Dimitar Berbatov. It’s not that he’s particularly good, but because I find that he looks like a mouse!

With his hair behind the hair band and his facial features, he really does look like one and I’m hoping to start songs on Man Utd sites about
“The scouse and the mouse!”.

I know, I know – you’re thinking: “Sheer genius! Why couldn’t I think of that?!”
Well, if you could, you’d be Wayne Rooney, wouldn’t you?

Right, I’m off to do a bit of surfing on my favourite ManUtd forum. It would seem like there’s a bit of drama going on there.

I don’t really want to get involved – I just hope it gets sorted out soon, otherwise it’s going to become as boring as the forum on the official man utd site! Plus I really miss the guy, who can knock out shire horses with his farts from fifty paces……

Manchester United 2008/09 - Full Squad Numbers

Numbers	Name
1	Van der Sar
2	Neville
3	Evra
4	Hargreaves
5	Ferfdinand
6	Brown
7	Ronaldo
8	Anderson
9	Saha
10	Rooney
11	Giggs
12	Foster
13	Park
14
15	Vidic
16	Carrick
17	Nani
18	Scholes
19	Wellbeck
20	Fabio
21	Rafael
22	O'Shea
23	Evans
24	Fletcher
25	Simpson
26
27
28	Gibson
29	Kuszczak
30	Martin
31	Campbell
32	Tevez
33	Hewson
34
35	Cleverly
36	Possebon
37	Cathcart
38	Gray
39	Chester
40	Amos
41	Macheda
45	Brandy
99	Heaton

Man Utd reject Sunderland’s £10million Bid For Evans

According to reports, Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has turned down Sunderland’s huge £10million bid for defender Jonny Evans.

The offer is the biggest ever for a Northern Ireland international, but its rejection by Ferguson means that Black Cats manager Roy Keane will have to look elsewhere for new signing's at the Stadium of Light.

20-year-old Evans has spent two spells at Sunderland on loan and is keen to make the switch from Old Trafford on a permanent basis in search of regular first-team football, but has been assured by Ferguson that he will feature more heavily for the Red Devils this season.

“I think everyone knows that Roy Keane would like to sign me permanently,” Evans told the Belfast Telegraph last night.

“I had a taste of Premier League football with Sunderland last season and it made me want more.”

“I wanted to join Sunderland this summer, but Sir Alex Ferguson made it clear that he needs me for cover at the back and has said that I will get games.”

“I think that if it gets to the stage where I am not getting enough games then he would allow me to leave in order for my career to progress.”

“Every player will tell you that there is nothing better than playing week in, week out, but some times you have to be patient due to the circumstances.”

“I will continue to work hard at United and who knows what may happen in the future”

But...............what about Saha and Berbatov?

In an interview after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's testimonial, Sir Alex Ferguson dropped a big hint in regards to his transfers plans concerning strikers.

"Fraizer's future is here," said the United boss.

"We do not have any strikers apart from Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez and Frazier plays in that area.

"He took his goal really well and that won't do him any harm.

"He is a progressive young player. He is quick and determined and he can do very well in the game."

- But what about Louis Saha and Dimitar Berbatov?

There are several ways to interpret Fergie's comments:

He is either signalling to Louis Saha, that he no longer remains in his plans or that transfer negotiations to take Saha away from Old Trafford are already at an advanced stage.

Next, he did not make any comment about a new striker being on the way.

This could mean that he has given up on trying to sign a striker, which we all believe to be Dimitar Berbatov or that he is not willing to pay the silly money Daniel Levy is asking for.

At a press conference before the friendly against Portsmouth in Nigeria, a journalist asked Sir Alex if there was any news on Dimitar Berbatov. Sir Alex said "No, no news" and flashed a wry smile.

He had dropped a hint without saying anything that could be held against him.

This makes his latest comments all the more confusing and has me a bit worried.

There were games last season where we crying out for a tall, strong striker, who could score from half-chances.

Although we have signed Manucho, who performed admirably in the African Cup of Nations and looks very good on YouTube clips, he is very much an unknown quanitity.

Frazier Campbell definitely has the talent and qualities to be a striker of premier league calibre, but whether he has what it takes to be united quality remains to be seen.

If we start the season with Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez, Frazier Campbell and Manucho playing in forward positions, I will not be overly concerned, but I would be a wee bit worried and what's worse is that we might not get to see the best of Rooney for yet another year.

Come on, Fergie!

Do us a favour and sign another striker, please? Somebody call that kid, who held up the sign that read "Please sign Wayne Rooney" and get him to change the name to either Berbatov or Huntelaar.

2OLEGEND
Thank you for all the wonderful memories!

Today marked yet another special occasion in the history of Manchester United, as 68,868 fans paid tribute to a true modern day legend at Old Trafford.

Thankfully, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's testimonial match against former UEFA Cup finalists, Espanyol, does not mean farewell or adieu, because Sir Alex Ferguson has once again placed his trust in Ole's ability by handing him the role of reserve team manager.

During the second half of the match, Solskjaer stole the limelight and the crowd showed their delight by breaking out into rousing choruses of Ole, Ole, Ole.

He just has such a strong emotional connection with Manchester United fans, that it is more befitting to celebrate his career by highlighting why the fans feel such an affinity for the baby-faced assasin, instead of typing out a statistical fact sheet.

For me, Ole always was and is a hero, because of the way he has conducted himself on and off the pitch. Besides his obvious ability to score vital goals - often coming off the subs bench to do so - it is his body language and charisma that has made him such a hit with the fans.

The fact that he didn't mind being a substitute and understanding his place in the team is in itself a massive indication of the type of team player this man is.

In this day and age in which we witness so many egotistical and demanding footballers, Ole never once behaved in an improper or unprofessional manner.

Unassuming and humble in nature, Ole embodied the archetypal underrated player, whom fans love to love. His fierce loyalty to the Man Utd cause was irresistable and had us all smiling and singing his name.

No matter what the circumstance or how difficult the situation, Ole didn't sulk or moan - he always got on with it, because he just wanted to do what he loved - which was to play in the red of Manchester United.

And we loved him playing for us.

Brave, courageous, determined, humble, hard-working, uncontroversial, clinical in front of goal respected by fans, team mates and opponents alike, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was that rare gem of a player, who had all the qualities of a modern day hero.

That is why he made us happy when skies were grey. :-)

Thank you for all those glorious magic moments and memories, Ole.

We salute you and wish you the very best in all your endeavours!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

Match highlights:

Mind Games

Sir Alex Ferguson has long been regarded as a master of mind games and, by most football pundits’ accounts, has even turned it into an art form. He has certainly yielded much joy from this in the past by placing some well-timed comments before a big match.

I won’t pretend to understand some of them and to say that mind games are a double-edged sword is an understatement. Yet they somehow seem to work, don’t they?

While some of Fergie’s comments do astonish me and make me wonder whether they will backfire and motivate the opposition even more, they almost always annoy the opposition and seem to draw some sort of response.

When Ashley Cole displayed his petulant, diva-like nature to Mike Riley and showed that his parents failed to impart any sort of manners to him, Fergie straight away sounded the war trumpets and called for more respect towards refs.

Yes, that’s right. Fergie – the man who has berated and lambasted countless officials was now calling for more respect. His comments were so blatantly hypocritical that it angered the opposition, as well as the critics and journalists in the media, but it had its desired effect.

In the next league game against Liverpoo, Javier Mascherano obliged to highlight the need for more respect by losing his marbles and Steve Bennett did not have to dig deep to show him a second yellow card.

That was Fergie’s triumph and we all know it.

It was not the only time that Fergie’s comments seemed to have an effect on the 2007/08 season.

Towards the tail end of the season, Chelsea were facing a fixture pile-up and had to play Wigan and Everton in the space of three days and Avram ‘Rant’ had a right moan about the Prem’s inability to plan - cue Sir Alex Ferguson.

Fergie said: "They have two games in three days [72 hours], then five days to prepare for a possible Champions League final, that's all right,".

In a reference to a fixture move last season, when Chelsea hosted Spurs at Stamford Bridge, winning 1-0, 36 hours after Spurs had played a Uefa Cup tie in Seville, he added: "They had the advantage over us last season, and we still won the title."
"I like Alex but, what day is it?" said Grant alluding to 1 April. "I think he must be joking."

Fergie’s unsympathetic jibe had the Chelsea camp up in arms. They simply could not believe that a man, who has bemoaned fixture pile-ups on so many occasions, had the gall to belittle their concerns.

Once again, I’m not sure how Fergie’s comments work, but work they do.
Maybe Chelsea were so fixated on the Everton match, that they tried to conserve their energy against Wigan and, having watched the match, I can say that Chel$ki really did play within themselves.

Whether, it was Grant’s instructions to do so or whether it was his inability to motivate his squad, we shall not know, but Chelsea did us a little favour by dropping 2 points against Wigan ….. and the rest, as they say, is history.

Even before the last day of the season, Fergie had to endure the media’s blatant questioning of Wigan’s determination to play well against us and when he finally decided to say something it had an amazing effect.

"All you wonderful people in the press have been talking about the integrity of Wigan; all we have seen is Wigan players saying how they will beat Manchester United," Ferguson retorted. "Fine. I have no problem with that but then you hear about Bolton players being out all week celebrating. Both teams are safe but one is all keyed up to play Manchester United while the other is out celebrating."

Bolton played out of their skin to earn a late 1-1 draw against Roman’s mercenaries and Gary Megson later admitted that he called Fergie to tell him HIS team talk had done the trick.

Sir Alex has fired this season’s opening salvo much earlier than usual and I think it’s because he is expecting this season to be a very tough one.
The United boss said "no one" could top the exploits of Jose Mourinho, Scolari's predecessor-but-one at the glamorous London club who assembled much of the current squad.

"Mourinho won the title two years in a row and beat us in the FA Cup final, so there's no one who can improve on his record really," Ferguson said.
"It's hard to see where there's going to be a big improvement with a team that's really very experienced. 'Plateau' is maybe not the word, but how can they accelerate beyond what they've done up to now?"

Ferguson was confident that United's youth made them title favourites. The two sides face an early-season clash at Stamford Bridge in September.

"I'm not saying necessarily that they're old because, with the modern-day training methods, you should be playing in your thirties," he said.
"What I am saying is that I don't see outstanding progress in a team that's in their thirties."

While new Chelsea boss Filipe Scolari has refused to be drawn into a battle of wits, two of Chelsea’s stars could not resist.

Essien duly implied that Chelsea have the stronger squad and today Deco said in an interview: "I've got a lot of new things to learn. I consider coming to Chelsea as a challenge."

"Overall I think Chelsea has a very strong team and there are definitely still things to learn, despite being 30."

In all honesty, I think Fergie’s comments are easy to argue against, BUT they are meant to sew a little seed of doubt. He plants it in the opponents' minds and let’s them nourish the seed until it blooms.

Essien and Deco issuing retorts to his comments are testament to this.

Sir Alex Ferguson 2 – 0 Chel$ki

^Edit 27/07/08: Now Michael Ballack has outed himself and declared that you're not too old improve whether you're 13 or 31.

It simply goes to show that Fergie's comments have had an effect on his intended targets and it has them thinking about his words.

So, Sir Alex Ferguson 3 – 0 Chel$ki

I suspect that Fergie will have a small smile on his face when he reads those comments in the papers today.

At some point in the season there will be some really tried legs in a Chelsea kit and as they head for a bore-draw or extra time, they will look around and realize that most of their best players are past their peak and Fergie’s words will echo loud in the back of their mind.

Chelsea have an excellent squad, arguably the finest in the Premier League, but Fergie is correct - almost the entire squad is over 26 and there’s not much room for improvement.

As I’ve said, I don’t fully understand how Fergie’s mind games work, but work they do and long may they continue to work!

The following Highlights Chelsea's squad strength, but also the quality of young players at Manchester United, which means more room for improvement.

*Indicates part-time footballer
**Denotes a slave

Chelsea
Player	Age
Nicolas Anelka	29
Juliano Haus Belletti	32
Carlo Cudicini*	34
Paulo Ferreira*	29
Florent Malouda	28
Michael Ballack*	31
Ashley Cole	26
Claudio Miguel Pizarro	29
Tal Ben-Haim	26
John Terry	27
Ricardo Carvalho	30
Didier Drogba	30
Frank Lampard	30
Anderson Deco	30
Andriy Shevchenko*	31
Wayne Bridge*	27
Shaun Wright-Phillips	26
Joe Cole	26
José Bosingwa	26
Alex da Dias Costa	26
Wayne Bridge*	27
Petr Cech	26

Below 26
Franco Di Santo	19
Salomon Kalou	22
John Mikel Obi	21
Michael Essien	25
Branislav Ivanovic*	24

ManchesterUnited
Player				Age

Below 26
Ben Foster	25
Danny Simpson	21
Darren Fletcher	24
Fraizer Campbell	20
Jonathan Evans	20
Nani	21
Cristiano Ronaldo**	23
Wayne Rooney	22
Carlos Tevez	24
Anderson	20