Manchester United news and links

Man Utd midfielder Michael Carrick is ruled out of England’s World Cup qualifiers against Kazakhstan and Andorra with a foot injury.

DANNY Welbeck has withdrawn from the UEFA Under 21 European Championship because of a knee injury.


The striker played 87 minutes of the Reds’ last game of the Premier League season against Hull, but will not join Stuart Pearce’s squad for the tournament in Sweden.

DANNY Welbeck has withdrawn from the UEFA Under 21 European Championship because of a knee injury.


The striker played 87 minutes of the Reds’ last game of the Premier League season against Hull, but will not join Stuart Pearce’s squad for the tournament in Sweden.

DANNY Welbeck has withdrawn from the UEFA Under 21 European Championship because of a knee injury.


The striker played 87 minutes of the Reds’ last game of the Premier League season against Hull, but will not join Stuart Pearce’s squad for the tournament in Sweden.

• Cristiano Ronaldo seen as vital to new galáctico era
• ‘Should have been bought as Beckham’s replacement in 2007′

Real Madrid’s pursuit of Cristiano Ronaldo is essential for the club’s image and financial interests, their president in waiting Florentino Pérez has said.

Pérez, the overwhelming favourite to regain the Real presidency this week, said the Spanish club should have bought Ronaldo in 2007 and said the signing of Manchester United’s world player of the year was as essential as the purchase of David Beckham in 2003.

“Madrid should have bought Cristiano Ronaldo as Beckham’s replacement two years ago,” Pérez said in the Sunday Times as he outlined a vision for the club that would once again involve glamorous galáctico signings that could attract sizeable global commercial income.

“When Beckham arrived, our sponsors significantly raised their payments to us and we rescued the finances of the club. What happened in the last few years is that the club did not reinvest in the type of players to continue with that model. I want to put that right. If Cristiano Ronaldo comes in, we would have a Nike-endorsed player putting on an adidas shirt every week.”

Pérez has already outlined plans to bring Kaka and Franck Ribéry to the Bernabéu from Milan and Bayern Munich respectively. Ronaldo himself was evasive about his future plans in the aftermath of United’s Champions League final defeat by Barcelona in Rome.

Barcelona’s Champions League victory has restated a classic footballing virtue

Football is a game obsessed with the who and the how much, so it was easy to surrender to a surge of pleasure when Josep Guardiola announced in the depths of the Stadio Olimpico: “The how is very important.”

With one small verbal flourish we were reminded of Danny Blanchflower’s immortal sermon from 1972: “The great fallacy is that the game is first and foremost about winning. It’s nothing of the kind. The game is about glory. It’s about doing things in style, with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.”

This manifesto goes in and out of fashion, but is always in vogue in Arsène Wenger’s house. Anyone reciting Blanchflower’s rhetoric to Arsenal supporters after Manchester United had crushed them in the Champions League semi-finals might have been planted upside down in a skip. And not just because Blanchflower was synonymous with glory days at Spurs.

Martin O’Neill, the Aston Villa manager, tells the story of how Blanchflower, in a brief spell as Northern Ireland manager, once instructed a wall to retreat more than the required 10 yards on the training ground because he thought it ungentlemanly to crowd the free-kick taker. Result: every shot flew in, to the goalkeeper’s immediate and fiercely expressed disgust.

Ours is a more Darwinian age in which elite football has mutated into an extension of the economic values instilled by Thatcherism and faithfully maintained by Blair. In this system, finishing fourth in the Premier League is shameful and relegation is bereavement. By now, Observer readers might be getting a bit fed up with paeans to the new European champions and their symphonic style of play, but it still seems reasonable to pull the curtain down on another season feeling that our experience of the game has been enriched.

There was a filmic, dream-like quality to Barcelona’s return to their hotel on Rome’s Via Veneto after a post-match celebration at the Villa Aurelia, a 17th-century palace near St Peter’s. The sense among Catalans besieging the team’s billets at 3am was that their heroes had achieved perfect synchronicity between bare success and the promulgation of artistic principles of which Guardiola, like Johan Cruyff before him, is now the saintly guardian.

Broadly, Manchester United need no lectures on aesthetics, despite the overwhelming scale of their defeat. They are animated by the same high-minded urge to raise the game above crash-bang-wallop. It was mainly that they collided with a side substantially more literate in the art of moving and retaining the ball at an intoxicatingly high tempo. “If we have the ball, they can’t score,” Blanchflower said, distilling a simple truth. In Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta, Barça possess one of the finest central midfield pairings the game has seen. Watching them eviscerate the United trio of Anderson, Michael Carrick and Ryan Giggs, it was impossible to imagine Spain not adding next summer’s World Cup to the 2008 European title they won in Vienna.

Guardiola inherited most of these players, of course. Nor is the style greatly altered from Frank Rijkaard’s time, by the end of which egomania and disunity had set in. The new coach’s masterstroke was to purge the narcissistic Ronaldinho and reconnect his squad to the heritage set out by Cruyff. Joan Laporta, the club’s president, now calls Guardiola’s appointment “the prize for perseverance, the prize for those who fought for our ideals.”

Nice try. But it was really an educated gamble on a 38-year-old who had been a stalwart of Cruyff’s Champions League-winning side of the early 1990s and who had transformed the Barca B-team before he was promoted to replace Rijkaard. Barcelona like to present themselves as an artistic monument, a perfect democracy of members and elected presidents. Talk to former managers, though, and you learn that Camp Nou is sometimes the setting for deeply machiavellian activity, as with all great football clubs. It is indisputable, though, that Guardiola has put the finishing touches to a new Dream Team who radiate beacon light.

According to the official Uefa stats, Barcelona’s possession rate was 51% to United’s 49%. This is laughable. Did the scorer punch his button twice every time a United player touched the ball? In almost every sense, Wednesday night’s one-sided contest was a kick in the groin for the Premier League, who fielded three of the semi-finalists. However nonsensical it may seem to put refereeing aberrations to one side, neither Chelsea nor United could come up with a formula to halt Barça’s march on a league, cup and European treble, of which Cruyff says: “It’s the first time ever. But the main thing is the way it was done. They played good football all year. They always tried to attack and score goals.”

“This is the legacy left behind by Cruyff and Charly [Rexach]. They’re the parents of the baby,” Guardiola said. This is both modest and clever. It confers on the squad an obligation to carry on in the same rampant manner. Cruyff’s team won four consecutive La Liga titles. The 90,000-plus Catalans who crammed the Camp Nou for the victory party have found their own home-grown shaman.

Why not allow the lions to roam at home?

Plenty in rugby’s clubhouse fear for the whole concept of Lions tours if the current touring party sinks 3–0 in the Test matches in South Africa. A repetition of the caning Sir Clive Woodward’s team took in New Zealand four years ago might point to the impossibility of matching the southern hemisphere superpowers in a calendar that allocates afterthought status to one of the game’s great rituals.

Traditionalists will spit their London Pride across the page at the following suggestion, but would it be sacrilege to suggest that Australia, New Zealand and South Africa come to our house every now and then, so that the Lions can play a home series for once? The Tri-Nations teams routinely tour Europe in the autumn anyway, and at a convenient point in World Cup cycles they could test themselves against the whole of Britain and Ireland instead of being able to pick the home nations off one by one. There has been a precedent; Woodward’s Lions played Argentina in Cardiff before setting off to take on the All Blacks and, as Ireland stand outside the UK, there is no good reason to exclude France and Italy from a Six Nations Lions side.

Lack of preparation time is the default excuse of trounced Lions teams. Conditions are the other major obstacle. If a great tradition needs a transfusion by the time the Springboks have finished with these Lions, a home series would perk it up.

Sports personality of the week

Not since Roy Keane slipped into Travis Bickle mode has such a noir-ish passage flowed from the (ghostwriter’s) pen of a football figure. Carlo Ancelotti describes meeting Roman Abramovich in Paris: “The manager of Milan is on a secret mission. I, like 007, on my own. Sat behind a driver with the face of a killer. More than a taxi, this is a time machine from Milanello to Stamford Bridge, from yesterday to tomorrow, from one devil to another.” At Naomi Campbell’s first novel launch she was asked: “Have you read it?”

Five steps back to the pinnacle for Manchester United

1 Burn the hair-shirt. Revisionists may say this United side were overrated. They won only one of their six matches against fellow top-four sides, needed penalties to win the Carling Cup and were outclassed in Rome. But their squad is still rich in emerging talent.

2 Let Cristiano Ronaldo leave, for an eye-watering sum. The thrown tracksuit-top, the semi-detachment and the moan at the Stadio Olimpico all speak of terminal restlessness. Ronaldo has already crossed the line that marked the end for Beckham, Keane and Van Nistelrooy.

3 Drop the 4-3-3 formation if it means Wayne Rooney is wasted on the left. With two screening midfielders, Rooney could play as Steven Gerrard does behind Fernando Torres for Liverpool. Dimitar Berbatov, or a new centre-forward, would have to step up to be United’s Torres.

4 Anderson and Nani were too expensive to be dumped straight away but both need to be put on notice that they are well below the required standard. Park Ji-sung’s decoy running is better suited to the Premier League than Europe.

5 Recalibrate in favour of speed and slickness, à la Barcelona. For the first time in Ferguson’s 23 years, control has taken the edge off self-expression.

Laurent Blanc has made a stunning impact at Bordeaux, forging an adventurous winning team in the image of his former manager Sir Alex Ferguson

Saying no to Sir Alex Ferguson does not normally improve a person’s career prospects at Manchester United, but it probably has in the case of Laurent Blanc. Last summer the Frenchman turned down ­Ferguson’s invitation to replace the departed ­Carlos Queiroz as his assistant manager, and because of that rejection he was able to continue proving himself as a ­manager at Bordeaux, who last night clinched the French league title to put Blanc among the prime candidates to succeed ­Ferguson ­whenever Old Trafford’s overlord relinquishes power.

The offer to become Ferguson’s No2 came at the end of Blanc’s first season as a No1, five years after the close of his exalted playing career. His debut in the dug-out was a sensation as he guided ­Bordeaux to second place in Ligue 1 behind serial winners Lyon. Last night he surpassed that as Bordeaux, needing just a point to secure their first title in a decade, forced a 1-0 away win over struggling Caen in the last game of the season. Victory came thanks to a header from Youan Gouffran five minutes after half-time.

The championship triumph marks Blanc out as the most successful of all the players who have graduated to management after playing under Ferguson. But it is not only what Blanc has done that excites, but the way that he has done it.

Fellow former Fergie charges ­Gordon Strachan and Alex McLeish have also won top-flight titles, but guiding an Old Firm club to the top of the Scottish ­Premier League is far less an ­achievement than leading Bordeaux to the peak of Ligue 1. And neither Strachan nor McLeish, nor other United alumni such as Mark Hughes, Steve Bruce or Roy Keane, have produced teams who reflect United’s ­ideals as brightly as ­Bordeaux. Blanc’s side secured their crown with panache.

“For me, playing football means ­having the ball, conjuring moves, ­harnessing your strengths, posing problems to your opponents, scoring goals and ­taking risks,” he said last week. “Obviously I want my team to win, but I also want them to play ball. That’s a state of mind, a fundamental principle, and Manchester United and Barcelona share it.”

Blanc’s predecessor at Bordeaux, the Brazilian Ricardo, did not. His results were decent, but his ­defensive ­disposition alienated fans and ­several players, and he left in 2007. In a sense, Blanc was an ­obvious choice to replace him – he had been one of the most ­popular and elegant players of his ­generation and the ­leadership qualities he displayed when guiding France to victory at the 1998 World Cup had earned him the nickname Le Président. Yet in the four years since hanging up his boots, a host of clubs had ignored his applications and it seemed his managerial ambitions would go unfulfilled. Blanc stopped applying for jobs. Bordeaux were snubbed by at least one other manager before a friend suggested that the chairman Jean-Louis Triaud give Blanc a call. “God, I never even thought of him,” exclaimed Triaud. A deal was quickly struck.

Blanc’s determination and decisiveness made an immediate impact. At his unveiling he shocked Triaud by declaring, in characteristically composed but emphatic tones, that “we need at least five new players” (”Er, maybe three,” stammered Triaud) and then called back all the existing players from their summer holidays for extra fitness work. His approach is uncompromising, but not confrontational, and despite the abrupt beginning his relationship with his employers and staff, and even the local press, has been harmonious.

Blanc was a 35-year-old on the wane when he joined United for free in 2001, but signing him realised a long-standing Ferguson aim; the Scot had tried to lure him three times previously, only to be trumped byBarcelona, Marseille and then Inter. Though fans might feel his subsequent performances for United shirt hardly justified the wait, his influence behind the scenes made an enduring impression on Ferguson, who often discussed tactics with Blanc and credits him with helping several younger players, notably Rio ­Ferdinand, to fulfil their potential.

Blanc did not only teach. He also learned. He now subscribes to what he calls “the Anglo-Saxon management mode”. This means he craves control over tactics and, most of all, transfers, and plays little direct role in training, which he finds unchallenging because “these days anyone can pick up training ­manuals in a high-street bookshop”. Instead he delegates training to his coaches, including his experienced assistant Jean-Louis Gasset, who 24 years ago was Blanc’s manager at Montpellier. “I will discuss training with the coaches,” says Blanc, “but my main role in that regard is to supervise and pre-empt any negative reactions players might have to what’s being done.” Few, if any, players have had reason to be negative. The secret of Bordeaux’s success this season was not simply that Lyon were afflicted by fin-de-regime blues and Marseille and Paris St-Germain shot themselves in the foot at crucial times, but that Blanc has imbued a relatively green squad with what L’Equipe described as “a rage to conquer”.

Bordeaux were the only team in the league to go unbeaten at home this season and, after ­losing 3-0 at Toulouse in March, responded by winning their next nine matches, a French record.

The nature of many of those ­victories had clear United qualities: five weeks ago at Rennes, for example, Les Girondins fell behind after 17 seconds, had a man sent off after 27 minutes and went 2-1 up in the second half before conceding an 89th-minute equaliser, but won 3-2 thanks to a spectacular injury-time winner. Two weeks later they were ­trailing at Valenciennes but hit two brilliant late goals to win. What makes the record-breaking run-in all the more extraordinary is that it has been accomplished with a squad ­featuring only two players with title-winning ­experience and weakened by injuries to key performers such as the ­Argentinian striker ­Fernando Cavenaghi and the ­Brazilian set-piece ­specialist Wendel. ­More­over, Marseille, despite sporadic hiccups, were breathing down their necks right up until yesterday.

If Bordeaux’s collective resilience and slickness have been remarkable, so, too, has the progress made by many players. Blanc’s preference for a ­narrow midfield means full-backs Mathieu Chalmé and Franck Jurietti have had to add enterprise to their game to provide a threat down the wings. In the centre, ­Liverpool and Lyon reject Alou Diarra has released the colossus that had ­hitherto lurked unseen within him. Centre-back ­Souleymane Diawara is unrecognisable from the defender who floundered at Charlton two years ago. Marouane ­Chamakh never a regular goal-getter, yet under Blanc he has become the team’s top scorer and Tottenham are pursuing the striker. The longest line of admirers, however, is for Blanc’s most astute signing, Yoann Gourcuff.

After demanding greater influence in transfers, Blanc lured Gourcuff on loan from Milan, where the gifted French midfielder had only flickered following a move from Rennes, who were managed by his father, Christian. Blanc made him Bordeaux’s chief conductor and the 23-year-old has been a revelation, ­scoring 12 goalsand drawing comparisons with Zinedine Zidane, including from Zidane. He has been voted France’s player of the year and Milan, finally realising their misjudgment, dispatched a delegation to France to try to convince Gourcuff not to sign permanently for Bordeaux, who can buy him for €15m (£13m) under a clause in the loan deal.

Reports claim Milan offered the player not only a huge salary hike to return but also a guaranteed starting place alongside Kaká next season. All in vain, as Gourcuff signed a four-year deal with Bordeaux on Thursday

Still, Gourcuff is ambitious and it is ­inevitable he will join one of Europe’s giants soon. Especially as Blanc is also ambitious and has repeatedly expressed his dismay that French clubs “can no longer fight against” richer rivals from England, Italy and Spain. Bordeaux’s elimination in the group stages of this season’s Champions League rankles and though the club have big plans to progress, including a vast new ­stadium, Blanc does not hide his ­impatience. Last week he did not deny reports that he has a clause in his contract allowing him to leave if a big foreign club comes calling.

“My ideal career path would be to start in France, then manage abroad and then return to head the national team,” he said. Are you listening Manchester?

Supporters of Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Portsmouth and Stoke have their say. To take part next season, email fans@observer.co.uk

MAN UNITED

Shaun O’Donnell Observer reader

How was your season? You can’t win them all – but a run of 25 games unbeaten is an all-time record in Europe for any club. Winning the Club World Cup in December seems long forgotten, but it was an awesome achievement, and securing the title for the third consecutive season says it all. The highlights for me were Macheda’s winner against Villa and destroying Arsenal at the Emirates.

Happy with the gaffer? He just keeps rolling on, picking up silverware every season. And some of the emerging talent he has blooded looks awesome: Macheda, Welbeck, Possebon, Tosic and the Da Silva twins. He and his staff deserve huge credit.

Who were the stars – and who flopped? Rooney, Van der Sar, Ronaldo, Tevez – all great, but special mention goes to Darren Fletcher, who forced one of the biggest turnarounds of fan opinion ever. Nani had a difficult second season, though – and Berbatov needs to practise his pens…

Who were the best, and worst, away fans? The Hull fans sang non-stop, but Blackburn and Bolton have an unshakeable bleakness about them.

Top hate figure at another club? Benítez’s rants take some beating, but special mention must also go to Phil Brown and his gargantuan ego.

TOP FIVE BEST OPPOSITION PLAYERS

1 A Young (Aston Villa); 2 Lennon (Spurs); 3 Torres (Liverpool); 4 Arshavin (Arsenal); 5 Valencia (Wigan)

MIDDLESBROUGH

Andy Morgan ComeOnBoro.com

How was your season? Unprintable. Abject, disappointing, demoralising, incompetent. I don’t think the English language has enough negative adjectives to describe the Boro this season.

Happy with the gaffer? I think Steve Gibson is the only one who is. This season Southgate has never had a plan B, resorted to defending one-goal leads when our defence is shaky, sold all our experienced players and not replaced them, played players out of position and imparted all the motivation of a sloth after a heavy session in an Amsterdam café.

Who were the stars – and who flopped? Everyone has flopped at some time this season. Tuncay went missing for two months (when Chelsea were allegedly courting him) but he has been the best of a bad bunch. Marlon King has flattered to deceive while Alves, well, deary me.

Who were the best, and worst, away fans? Best were Stoke – it was early season and everyone apart from the Potters’ fans thought they would go straight back down. How wrong we all were. Fulham were small in number and fairly quiet. But then, it was a rather dull 0-0 draw.

Top hate figure at another club? Ronaldo. His continual cheating, petulance and general smugness grates.

TOP FIVE BEST OPPOSITION PLAYERS

1 Schwarzer (Fulham); 2 Kranjcar (Portsmouth); 3 Elmander (Bolton); 4 Lawrence (Stoke); 5 Lennon (Tottenham)

NEWCASTLE

Holmes Family Observer readers

How was your season? Tragic. Going out of the Premier League without even a whimper at Villa was a predictable end to a shameful period in the club’s history. Five different managers in one season says it all and it’s the fans who’ve suffered the most. The squad have been degraded year after year and we were left with a collection of overpaid underachievers. It could be a long road back.

Happy with the gaffer? Shearer has Newcastle in his heart and we’d like him to stay. He’s shown passion and instilled discipline, but should have been appointed much earlier. The previous management teams (bar Keegan) were unable to coax a decent performance from this turgid team – it’s no surprise we went down.

Who were the stars – and who flopped? Bassong was excellent, though he blotted his copybook against Fulham. Most of the squad flopped, especially the Allardyce/Wise signings who promised much but have delivered little.

Who were the best, and worst, away fans? Best – the ever-noisy West Brom. Worst – Man United have no class.

Top hate figure at another club? Phil Brown, though Dennis Wise if he was at another club.

TOP FIVE BEST OPPOSITION PLAYERS

1 Gerrard (Liverpool); 2 Carrick (Man United); 3 Ireland (Man City); 4 Arteta (Everton); 5 Hughes (Fulham)

PORTSMOUTH

Mick & Robin Dunford Pompey.org

How was your season? High expectations were quickly dampened as the club cashed in on Muntari, Mendes and Diarra. The fact that the best remaining midfielders played little due to injury or managerial pig-headedness made the situation worse. After a quick exit from Europe, the sudden departure of Redknapp for the second time and the Adams debacle, which resulted in us losing any ability to retain a lead, safety from relegation was the name of the game.

Happy with the gaffer? Hart and Kidd deserve some credit for making us more difficult to defeat and for getting us clear of relegation, but the loss of Kranjcar revealed tactical inflexibility and a bizarre midfield selection policy.

Who were the stars – and who flopped? Johnson was a star. Davis held the side together, but James, Distin and Campbell were shadows of the rocks they were last season. Mullins and Hughes worked hard, but would look average in the Championship. And Nugent didn’t reveal the hidden depths.

Who were the best, and worst, away fans? Best were Bristol City – the worst, Wigan.

Top hate figure at another club? Jermain Defoe.

TOP FIVE BEST OPPOSITION PLAYERS

1 Ireland (Manchester City); 2 Arshavin (Arsenal); 3 Bellamy (West Ham and Manchester City); 4 Deco (Chelsea); 5 Wigan’s crossbar.

STOKE

Nick Dunn The Oatcake

How was your season? So much better than anyone expected. To do so well when the “experts” had predicted we would do so badly only added to the fun.

Happy with the gaffer? Very much so. He’s shown an ability to bring in good players at minimal cost and then get the best out of them once they’re here. He also seems to have good plans in place for the long-term.

Who were the stars – and who flopped? Abdoulaye Faye’s ability and professionalism have been impressive and it’s wonderful to see him celebrate like a true Stoke fan eavery time we win. Ricardo Fuller and James Beattie have both done well, giving the team a cutting edge and providing the goals we needed. Thomas Sorensen has been superb, too, especially considering he was a free transfer. Things didn’t work out for Dave Kitson, but perhaps things will be different next season if he starts scoring early on.

Who were the best, and worst, away fans? The Spurs and Blackburn fans were noisy despite their situations at the time. But I was disappointed that so few fans made the short trip from Wigan and West Brom.

Top hate figure at another club? Cristiano Ronaldo. Impossible to like.

TOP FIVE BEST OPPOSITION PLAYERS

1 Gerrard (Liverpool); 2 Tevez (Manchester United); 3 Lampard (Chelsea); 4 Barry (Aston Villa); 5 Hangeland (Fulham)

As 2008-09 draws to a close it is time to reflect upon the good, the bad, the tame and the lame

Six things from the 2008-09 season that will still be remembered 10 years from now.

1) Chelsea’s antics as they went out of the Champions League at home to Barcelona. Never mind the rights and wrongs for a moment, although some of the refereeing decisions were very wrong. Football has never made such electric television since Gazza’s tears in Turin. Didier Drogba probably should not have sworn into a live TV microphone, though everything else about the episode – the Ballack ballet, the portly official, the flip-flops, the still pictures in next morning’s newspapers – was by turns harrowing and hilarious.

2) Phil Brown’s al fresco half-time team talk at Manchester City on Boxing Day. This is not an idea likely to catch on, in that it did not seem to bring about any discernible improvement, made the manager and the players look a bit foolish and was a bit silly anyway on one of the coldest days of the year, but it will be remembered. Even if only as proof that some managers are nowhere near as smart as they think they are.

3) Talking of which, Rafa Benítez’s rant against Sir Alex Ferguson falls into the same category. It was not, in the end, a turning point in the season, neither a high water mark nor a low one, but it was a peculiar thing to do for little reward. Benítez is being watched for erratic behaviour now and, while he just about got away with failing to explain properly why Liverpool’s second half performance at Wigan was “crazy – but I don’t want to say why”, he should surely have found a more emollient phrase when asked if Ferguson deserved congratulations on winning the title. Almost any vague platitude would have done, whereas ducking the issue made him look churlish.

4) Federico Macheda’s goal against Aston Villa. Not just a thrilling late winner and a great story, but almost certainly the moment the title was won. It came the day after Liverpool had taken three points at Fulham with a late strike of their own, and was the perfect champion riposte. In terms of sensational goals in important matches, Cristiano Ronaldo’s long-range pair against Porto and Arsenal take some beating. Manchester United have already incorporated Clive Tyldesley’s mistaken view that Ronaldo was too far out for a shot into one of their pre‑match entertainment routines.

5) Chelsea 4 Liverpool 4. The surprise of the season, in terms of what had gone before between the same two Champions League rivals. Not the best defending and goalkeeping, perhaps, but you couldn’t fault the entertainment. The surprise performance of the season without clownish errors was Croatia 1 England 4. No one was expecting that. Manchester United 1 Liverpool 4 was not far behind.

6) ITV supplying a TicTac advert instead of Dan Gosling’s winning goal for Everton in their FA Cup fourth‑round replay against Liverpool. The FA Cup third‑round performance was pretty ropey as well, with ITV somehow missing the point, despite years of watching the Beeb do it almost effortlessly, that you are supposed to focus on the games that provide the drama rather than the games where you have sent most of your outside‑broadcast equipment.

And six things that might not be recalled in another 10 weeks…

1) Alan Shearer’s punditry.

2) The amount of fighting spirit all three north-east teams showed when attempting to climb away from the relegation zone.

3) Ricky Sbragia the manager. Niall Quinn only just got away with that one.

4) Amr Zaki.

5) Luiz Felipe Scolari’s time at Chelsea. Ditto Deco, even more surprisingly. Maybe even Guus Hiddink will not be remembered all that long.

6) Scottish football. We wish. Joking apart, though, it must say something when Gordon Strachan quits at Celtic and is immediately linked with the Sunderland job, while Owen Coyle in turn dismisses speculation about taking over at Parkhead in favour of staying with Burnley. What it says is that the Old Firm is the latest football institution to bow to the Premier League’s wealth. Strachan put it best, with what could well be one of the quotes of the season. “Time was when the budget at Celtic was the fourth or fifth biggest in British football,” he said. “Nowadays we are finding we cannot compete for wages with the likes of Hull City.”

“It’s all positives out there,” said Andy Gray, halfway through the first half. It was intended as one final effort to big the game the up, but, in reality, he was illustrating what had killed it stone dead. United’s fatal mistake was to believe the hype. They believed they were the equals of Barcelona. They believed they could play them at their own game. They believed wrongly.

None more so than Alex Ferguson, who allowed this delusion to influence his selection. In the Premier League you can get away without picking a midfield if you defend properly and have an array of talented strikers. You cannot afford such laxity against a team as fluent as Barcelona. Guus Hiddink realised this and picked a Chelsea side chosen to frustrate in the first leg and one which limited his rivals to one shot in the second. Rafa Benítez, with Gerrard, Alonso and Mascherano at his disposal for Liverpool, would never have made the same mistake. Either team would have given Barcelona a match; they might even have won.

Instead of a contest we had the “final which every neutral wanted” – a piece of hyperbole that contained a grain of truth for it was a game which, in never reaching first gear, stayed in neutral for the neutrals. A chocolate-box affair for those who like vanilla centres. It wasn’t until Paul Scholes appeared very late in the day that there was any attempt to add some ginger to the mix. United should have chased and harried – instead they reclined with their supposed star Ronaldo treating it as personal beauty contest rather than team struggle.

But then may be I’m biased. The game was ruined for me by having to watch it on Sky (did any pub go with ITV on Wednesday night?) because, despite their coverage being superior, Sky has become intolerable to me since I started playing Fifa 08 on the Xbox 360. The verb playing is used loosely as I’ve succumbed to 12 straight defeats, this despite “being” an in-their-pomp Chelsea side lining up against an under‑strength Norwich. The nadir of nadirs occurred when I lost 1-0 having missed four penalties. If you thought Drogba and Ballack overreacted against Barça, imagine their despair if each claimed penalty had been awarded and then missed. That was the place I found myself as, in front of my uncomprehending eyes, Frank Lampard drilled his fourth effort straight into the arms of an unmoving Marshall in the Norwich goal. On screen, Fat Frank stared at his feet in shame; in our front room, furniture went flying.

It wasn’t just that I’d been proven to be incompetent, it was more that there was no escaping my incompetence. In a bid for supremacy I’d squirrelled the instructions manual away for private perusal, only to end up hiding it too well. The internet, once again, was worse than useless. First, everyone, apparently, is now playing 09 rather than the bargain-bucket 08. Second, there’s no walkthrough explaining how to take a penalty because it is assumed, globally, that everyone can. It’s only me who, whatever button I push, cannot make the ball deviate from a straight line. This makes saving a penalty the easiest of tasks for my opponent, for they merely have to do nothing.

All this inaction is accompanied by sarky comments from Tyler and Gray, who provide what passes for analysis in this virtual world. After you’ve missed yet another pen you don’t need to hear Gray saying “a lot of people expected Chelsea to win this”. It may have been “all positives” in Rome, but it’s all negatives in my front room.

It is likely that no English team can match Barcelona for skill on their top form, and what’s more they probably shouldn’t try

“Barça played lovely football and maybe people wanted to see us win” – Yaya Touré

It was billed as the final everyone wanted and, as even Manchester United and their supporters were willing to agree with Touré on what football should be all about, the result did not disappoint. Small wonder Michel Platini wore a grin as wide as the Tiber when he was handing out the prizes. His faith in football had been vindicated by Barcelona’s stylish superiority, and the great bogeyman of Premier League ­domination exposed as a myth.

Clearly, strength in numbers is not the same as sheer class. No other league in Europe has a top four as strong and as permanent as the English one, and the same quartet of clubs can again be expected to be well represented from the Champions League quarter-finals onwards next season, stepping over themselves if necessary to ensure someone from this country gets a shot at the final. That is the sort of domination Uefa themselves invited when they allowed four teams from the stronger leagues to take part, and they will have to live with it for the foreseeable future.

They can do so in the knowledge that the best in England is some ­distance below the best in the world. Some would argue Manchester United are not necessarily even the best team in England, and that is exactly the point. They were in Rome by virtue of being the strongest team in the Premier League, with sufficient resources to survive in Europe in addition to picking up a third successive domestic title. That is what English teams do: grind down their rivals with their enormous budgets and extensive scouting networks. While United, formidable as they are, do it better than most they do not have a monopoly on skill, and they left Rome with the uneasy feeling that some things might be forever beyond them.

United rode their luck to a greater or lesser extent in their three successful European Cup finals: this time it ran out completely. They met a side with all the skill in the world, and it showed. Even though the Champions League final is a monument to the riches and razzle-dazzle of modern football, there were some eternal truths on show in the Eternal City. Damningly one-sided though the game was, one could not help but feel privileged to see something wonderful gain its reward. Barcelona are moving the game on, as Cruyff turns did in their time and deep-lying centre-forwards before that. The supposed power that is England is once again in the position of spectator, standing still and having little option but to applaud.

United were meant to have been on the brink of making history, yet only one team look equipped to become the first to win back-to-back Champions League finals. Add the spicy fact that next year’s final is to be played in Spain, at Real Madrid’s Bernabéu no less, and you can almost feel modern football history taking shape. Certainly Pep Guardiola’s team are as accomplished and elegant a set of ­players as ever wrote their names into the record books; lest anyone has forgotten they won the Spanish version of the treble this season and several of their key players helped Spain to their Euro 2008 success.

“It has been a spectacular year,” the peerless Andrés Iniesta said. “To win all these titles at once is amazing. I wouldn’t say it was easier than we thought against Manchester United – playing the reigning champions is never easy – but Chelsea in the game before was the most difficult, maybe the toughest of the campaign.”

That puts not only United but English football in its place. Yes, Barcelona were lucky to get through against Chelsea, and with anything like a normal referee they might have gone out. But Chelsea had unashamedly attempted to stifle Barcelona’s passing and movement, playing an ultra-defensive away leg and aiming to hang on for a narrow victory at home. There is nothing wrong with those tactics, and Guus Hiddink’s pragmatism at least meant Chelsea were never as exposed as United were in the final. They just do not amount to much of a boast for Premier League standards.

Hiddink recognised Barcelona’s prowess and did what he thought he had to do to counter it. Sir Alex Ferguson thought he could match Barcelona for attacking dynamism, and ended up learning the same harsh European lesson that countless managers from English clubs have learned over the years, he among them. What works in this country and this league will not necessarily work against opponents who can keep the ball and attack with subtlety and intelligence.

Take Wayne Rooney, for example, a player of more subtlety and intelligence than is often imagined and one who made a point of searching out every Barcelona player, and their coach, to shake his hand at the final whistle. Like Ferguson, who was equally magnanimous in defeat, Rooney knew he had come up against superior opponents, and was soon to be heard offering the view that Iniesta might be the best player in the world.

True as that may be, he had competition from Xavi Hernández and Lionel Messi as best player in Rome on Wednesday night. The story of the game in a nutshell was that Barcelona had three players who played immaculately, and a supporting cast who were all pretty good, while United supporters struggled to name anyone who had had a decent game.

Sympathy for Rooney encouraged some to accuse Ferguson of playing him out of position, or switching him between too many positions, possibly unaware how antediluvian that would sound to continental ears. Had not Samuel Eto’o switched of his own volition out to the right wing and back again, to allow Messi to keep popping up in the middle? Apart from Nemanja Vidic, who was left confused about which player to mark as well as well as how far up the pitch to come for challenges, it is impossible to imagine anyone complaining that Messi is not really a centre-forward.

That is the sort of flair and imagination rarely seen in the Premier League, where the vast majority of clubs would actively discourage it, and it is refreshing to see it flourishing elsewhere. One begins to see what Arsène Wenger meant when he said Barcelona might struggle in the English league, particularly at places like Stoke, because the style of play is “very physical and committed”.

While in this country we are fond of imagining that to be a cliche made redundant by foreign players and managers (though there are plenty of football supporters ready to argue the opposite case, that the game has gone soft), Barcelona’s poise and control lent weight to Wenger’s argument and made you wonder what agonies he must have been through on the coach home after seeing his footballing philosophy and his most creative players booted into row Z at Blackburn or Bolton. English football has little to be ashamed about – skill, speed, technical and tactical ability have all soared in the past decade or two – yet next to Barcelona at their best almost anyone is going to look slightly clodhopping.

“This is a bitter pill to swallow because we have been very successful in our own league and it is a funny way to finish the season,” Rio Ferdinand said, neatly emphasising that the gap between best in England and best in Europe appears to be widening again. “We have dominated our own country yet finished on a really bad note, but we’ve got plenty of ­character. We’ll be back.”

Ryan Giggs echoed the same theme. “Great teams bounce back and that is what we will look to do. The disappointment is raw at the moment but we must remember we’ve still had a fantastic season.”

Just not quite as fantastic as Barcelona’s. In addition to winning the treble, Barcelona pulverised Real Madrid while United were losing twice to Liverpool. The Spanish champions are unquestionably the real deal, while United won their domestic league thanks to a series of gritty performances against lesser clubs. The surprise when Liverpool thumped them 4-1 on their own ground was palpable, and though Ferguson still maintains that was some sort of undeserved freak result, there was no doubting that erstwhile superman Vidic reacted to Fernando Torres and Steve Gerrard as if their boots were full of green kryptonite.

United had already lost to Liverpool at Anfield, thanks in part to a mistake by Edwin van der Sar, and though they did manage to beat Chelsea at home it was not the Chelsea so well organised by Hiddink towards the end of the season – that really would have been an intriguing contest. What seems to have happened this season is that top teams have not allowed United to use their attack as the first line of defence. That is to say, the better organised sides have not been so busy dealing with Rooney, Ronaldo et al that they could not find time to ask questions of the United back line. That is exactly the way the Rome final worked out. If United were under the impression Barcelona were weak in defence they never managed to put the matter to the test after the first few minutes. A combination of an unimpressive United midfield and the confusion Messi caused by not only swapping places with Eto’o but operating in the space between the back line and the middle so that midfielders constantly had to drop back to help Vidic look after him, meant Xavi and Iniesta had all the time and space they needed to work their magic.

If United are to win the Champions League again in the near future they must hope Barcelona either have an off day in the earlier stages or meet a competent referee at Chelsea. No English team are currently set up to match them for skill, and it may even be inadvisable for any to try to do so if they also want to win the Premier League. Ask Wenger.

Only Liverpool, who famously cannot win the Premier League and are half‑Spanish anyway, could possibly attempt to play Barcelona at their own game. Whether they would have fared any better than United in Rome is an argument for another day.

No, if Barcelona are going to play football of that quality, English football needs a cunning plan. And the Arsenal manager may have just hit on one. What we must do is fast-track Stoke City.

DEFEAT to Barcelona has left Sir Alex Ferguson with much to mull over before heading off on his holidays.
JAMES ROBSON
looks at 16 players who could be occupying Ferguson’s thoughts this summer.

DEFEAT to Barcelona has left Sir Alex Ferguson with much to mull over before heading off on his holidays.
JAMES ROBSON
looks at 16 players who could be occupying Ferguson’s thoughts this summer.

DEFEAT to Barcelona has left Sir Alex Ferguson with much to mull over before heading off on his holidays.
JAMES ROBSON
looks at 16 players who could be occupying Ferguson’s thoughts this summer.

REAL Madrid presidential hopeful Florentino Perez has claimed “an agreement” is in place for Cristiano Ronaldo to join the club.


The comments in the Spanish press are bound to irritate United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who is sure to have a busy summer plotting his own transfer moves and assessing the futures of a significant number of his stars following the Champions League defeat to Barcelona.

REAL Madrid presidential hopeful Florentino Perez has claimed “an agreement” is in place for Cristiano Ronaldo to join the club.


The comments in the Spanish press are bound to irritate United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who is sure to have a busy summer plotting his own transfer moves and assessing the futures of a significant number of his stars following the Champions League defeat to Barcelona.

REAL Madrid presidential hopeful Florentino Perez has claimed “an agreement” is in place for Cristiano Ronaldo to join the club.


The comments in the Spanish press are bound to irritate United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who is sure to have a busy summer plotting his own transfer moves and assessing the futures of a significant number of his stars following the Champions League defeat to Barcelona.

Barça beat United by employing old-fashioned skills which have done Burnley no harm either

In football it has been a good week for fundamentalists, those who believe that amid the hustle and haste of the modern game the basics of good passing and movement plus the ability to make space and not give the ball away are too often taken for granted. To which might be added the willingness of players to run with the ball when the opportunity is there, a habit in danger of being coached out of teams fearful of losing possession and being caught on the break.

On Monday Burnley displayed many of these qualities in beating one United, Sheffield, to win promotion to the Premier League. On Wednesday Barcelona did as much, and a bit more besides, when they outplayed another United, Manchester, to win the Champions League final in Rome. In each case the match was run and won by medium-sized men with the brains and technique to outwit the athletes whose power and pace are beginning to dominate football at the expense of the subtler arts. Normally there is more to United than that, but not on Wednesday.

Barcelona’s triumph in the Stadio Olimpico recalled the way Spain won Euro 2008, when they roundly beat Germany in Vienna. It was no accident that two of those who did so much to wreck Sir Alex Ferguson’s hopes of retaining the Champions League, Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta, were also central to the Spanish triumph.

“This is the way forward,” declared one pundit in the aftermath of Rome. Maybe, but it is also the way back since Barcelona, a reincarnation of Ajax and total football in the 70s, revealed nothing new. It was indeed the way forward when Burnley won the league championship in 1960, with skill and teamwork which breathed fresh life into an English game still mourning the loss of the bright future promised by the young Manchester United side lost at Munich, and wondering if anyone would ever reproduce the sort of football played by Real Madrid when they beat Eintracht Frankfurt 7–3 to win the European Cup at Hampden that spring.

In anticipation, misguided as it turned out, of a classic encounter in Rome, it seemed a good idea to rerun the 1960 final in case comparisons were in order. The best parts of that match are engrained in football legend, not least Alfredo Di Stéfano’s omnipresence on a hard, uneven pitch across which the ball bumped and bounced capriciously. Yet despite the scoreline it was a rather more equal contest than its successor in 2009. Eintracht actually opened the scoring (big mistake!) and dominated much of the first half before being engulfed. Manchester United merely had a good 10 minutes.

Forty-nine years ago Burnley set standards which were embodied in the Tottenham Double side the following season. So it is good to see Turf Moor back in the big time and the Lancashire heartland is promised a rare pantomime now that Burnley’s Cinderellas have joined the Ugly Sisters – Sam Allardyce’s Blackburn and Gary Megson’s Bolton – with Wigan playing Buttons.

The Rome game demonstrated just how idle talk of who is the greatest this or the best at that can be.

Ferguson may be the most successful manager of his generation but his European Cup achievements still do not measure up to those of Bob Paisley, whose Liverpool teams added patience and subtlety to the passions stirred by Bill Shankly and won the trophy in Rome in 1977 by out-thinking Borussia Mönchengladbach on and off the field.

Fergie’s first Champions League success in 1999 survived his initially flawed attempts to cover for the suspended Roy Keane and Paul Scholes and owed everything to inspired substitutions, as Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer beat Bayern Munich in stoppage time.

Wednesday’s match was too far gone to be saved by Carlos Tevez or Dimitar Berbatov and how United could have done with a rejuvenated Keane to lead a recovery. The Ryan Giggs of 1999 would also have made a difference, whereas the Giggs of 2009 should never have started, given the limp performances of Michael Carrick and Anderson.

Amid the celebrations and presentations it seemed that Michel Platini, the Uefa president and scourge of Premier League mega debtors, could not stop laughing. And at least one TV viewer found himself offering a silent vote of thanks to Tom Henning Ovrebo, whose wobbly refereeing had given the Stadio Olimpico Iniesta, Xavi and Lionel Messi rather than Frank Lampard, Michael Essien and Florent Malouda, which will be Wembley’s privilege today.

A host of Reds will be in action for their countries in the coming weeks.

RYAN Giggs has sent an urgent post-Rome reminder to the deposed European Champions and a warning to the Reds rivals home and abroad next season.


United lost their Euro crown and the chance to become history-makers in Italy with a disappointing final performance against Barcelona.

RYAN Giggs has sent an urgent post-Rome reminder to the deposed European Champions and a warning to the Reds rivals home and abroad next season.


United lost their Euro crown and the chance to become history-makers in Italy with a disappointing final performance against Barcelona.

RYAN Giggs has sent an urgent post-Rome reminder to the deposed European Champions and a warning to the Reds rivals home and abroad next season.


United lost their Euro crown and the chance to become history-makers in Italy with a disappointing final performance against Barcelona.

RIO Ferdinand insists his United team-mates are big enough to handle the shattering disappointment of Wednesday night’s Champions League final defeat in Rome.


Ferdinand was desperate to enter the record books as a back-to-back European Cup winner but those dreams were quashed at the Stadio Olimpico as Barcelona registered a richly-deserved triumph.

RIO Ferdinand insists his United team-mates are big enough to handle the shattering disappointment of Wednesday night’s Champions League final defeat in Rome.


Ferdinand was desperate to enter the record books as a back-to-back European Cup winner but those dreams were quashed at the Stadio Olimpico as Barcelona registered a richly-deserved triumph.

RIO Ferdinand insists his United team-mates are big enough to handle the shattering disappointment of Wednesday night’s Champions League final defeat in Rome.


Ferdinand was desperate to enter the record books as a back-to-back European Cup winner but those dreams were quashed at the Stadio Olimpico as Barcelona registered a richly-deserved triumph.

Today’s tittle-tattle is going to tickle Paul Scholes until he smiles. Come on, Paul, it’s not that bad!

Paul Scholes had his career all mapped out years ago: play at Manchester United until, after 15 years and over 600 games, he has qualified for club legend status, then gently wind his career down at Oldham, the club he went to watch as a child with his dad.

So, the first part of that having been successfully achieved, and with Sir Alex Ferguson allegedly plotting a summer midfield clear-out, it is perhaps no surprise that the ginger midfield dynamo is linked in today’s papers with a move to … hang on … surely some mistake? … er … Stoke City. Apparently Tony Pulis reckons Scholes could be tempted by a role that combines playing with coaching – after all, without Scholes who’s going to teach the next generation how to tackle?

Even after picking up Scholes Pulis will have a spare seat in his car back from Manchester and is hoping to fill it with City’s £2m Welsh striker Ched Evans.

In other news from Old Trafford, Cristiano Ronaldo, now definitely not a target for Real Madrid and therefore confusing newspapers who want to fill their entire sports sections for the entire summer with the latest made-up nonsense from his protracted transfer negotiations but now don’t have a protracted transfer to blather on about, wants “to rest and go on holidays because I’m very tired”.

And Wayne Rooney is taking 25 friends and family members to Wembley tomorrow to cheer on Everton in the FA Cup final.

The reason Real are no longer interested in Ronaldo is that they are signing Franck Ribéry instead, the Frenchman deciding to spurn Chelsea’s fawning advances. “I would only live in a country which uses a form of proportional representation,” the German-based winger might have said last night, “and I consider the version of the d’Hondt method used in Spain to be perhaps the fairest electoral system in operation today.”

Roman Abramovich is now looking for another winger, and while Aston Villa’s Ashley Young has been “mentioned in dispatches”, Yuri Zhirkov is a more probable target. Even though the CSKA Moscow man is a left-back, really. Chelsea have also been quoted £20m for Milan’s 30-year-old midfield ace Andrea Pirlo, and have decided to sign one of these three strikers: Sergio Agüero, Karim Benzema or Carlos Tevez.

Three English clubs, one of which may indeed be Chelsea, have agreed to meet the £25m asking price for Tevez. The other two are Manchester City and Liverpool, while Real Madrid and one other foreign side are also ready to foot the bill. Benzema, meanwhile, is also on Manchester United’s shopping list. Ferguson would like Park Ji-Sung, Nani and Tomasz Kuszczak to be on somebody else’s shopping list soon, please.

Gareth Barry wants to leave Aston Villa in order to play Champions League football at … hang on … surely some mistake? … er … Arsenal. “Wenger is searching for a dominant midfield player to add to a squad which lacks bite, and has watched Barry several times in the last few months,” it says here. Although here is, it must be said, the Daily Star.

Arsenal are also interested in Bordeaux striker Marouane Chamakh, according to Bordeaux striker Marouane Chamakh. “I am ready to play for a mid-table side first in order to show myself,” he said, promisingly. “There is also something with Arsenal, but nothing concrete.”

And now, exciting news that we may be seeing Kaka in west London next season. He’ll also have signed for Real Madrid by then, of course, but he’ll pop over from time to time to visit his brother, 23-year-old defender Digao, who is wanted by Fulham.

Bolton are ready to make a £6m offer for Sporting Lisbon’s Miguel Veloso. Which, given that they failed with a £12m bid in January, is a bit puzzling. Aston Villa have failed with a £2m bid for Sheffield United’s Kyle Naughton.

West Brom winger Chris Brunt is wanted by Rangers and Fulham, despite the £4.5m price tag hanging heavily around his neck. The Scottish champions might offer Barry Ferguson in part-exchange. The Baggies want Curtis Allen from Bournemouth, and would like to make Marc-Antoine Fortuné’s loan deal from Nancy permanent, but he’d prefer to go to Fulham or Wolves if you don’t mind. “He wants to stay in the Premier League and he has proved that he has the talent to impose himself in this competition,” says his agent.

Portsmouth will appoint Sven-Goran Eriksson as manager – then sack him six months later and give him a seven-figure pay-off – if Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim’s takeover is approved by the Premier League. Slaven Bilic and Avram Grant are the other names in the frame.

Go ahead and add your own baseless guff below

• Paul Scholes expects to play for one more season
• Stoke manager Tony Pulis linked with coaching offer

Manchester United stalwart Paul Scholes could leave Old Trafford, having been tempted with the offer of a playing-coaching deal at Stoke.

Scholes, who joined United as a teenaged trainee, has previously hinted he would consider a stint in management after his playing days come to an end. It is understood the Stoke manager, Tony Pulis, has offered Scholes the chance to combine a coaching role with a playing contract at the club next season.

“Not playing every week is an adjustment you don’t like making,” the 34-year-old midfielder said. “You train all week and you want to play games. I think there comes a time when you have to accept you won’t play every week.”

Scholes is scheduled to attend a series of coaching courses over the close season and said he felt ready for the demands of management.

“I would have thought next season will be my last one. After that I would not rule out management. Let’s see how the coaching goes first but I would like to be a manager one day. I think I could put up with the demands it brings.”

Steve Bruce is expected to be installed as Sunderland’s new manager in the next 48 hours after Dave Whelan, Wigan Athletic’s chairman, granted him formal permission to speak to the Wearside club yesterday afternoon.

This suggested that the clubs had agreed compensation for Bruce’s services. Whelan had been demanding £5m, a sum Niall Quinn and Ellis Short, Sunderland’s chairman and owner respectively, balked at during negotiations on Wednesday.

Disillusioned by being forced to sell his best players at the JJB Stadium, Bruce, a lifelong Newcastle United fan who was paid £45,000 a week by Whelan, is keen to join Sunderland. Whelan has lined up Roberto Martínez, the Swansea City manager and a former Wigan player, as Bruce’s replacement.

Sunderland, though, perhaps anxious to conclude a deal on their terms, are taking time to commit and have done nothing to discourage speculation linking Slaven Bilic and Frank Rijkaard with their vacancy. “It’s still not a one-horse race,” said a club spokeswoman last night. Even so, it will be a major surprise if Bruce is not unveiled as Ricky Sbragia’s successor.

Meanwhile Short, the club’s reclusive new billionaire owner, has spoken for the first time since taking complete control at the Stadium of Light earlier this week. Talking to Sunderland’s official website, the Irish-American financier said he does not want a repeat of this season’s struggles, which ended in the narrow avoidance of relegation.

• 24-year-old refuses to commit to Premier League champions
• ‘We didn’t show up’ in Rome, complains Portugal forward

Cristiano Ronaldo has refused to commit himself to Manchester United as rumours of a transfer to Real Madrid resurfaced. The Portugal forward also criticised his side’s tactics and performance in the Champions League final, saying ‘everything went wrong’ in Rome.

“My future for now is the national team, we must win to be back on track in the world cup qualifiers,” he said in response to questions about his future. “I don’t want to talk about clubs, I want to rest, to go on holidays because I’m very tired. I’ve played many games under a lot of pressure. The future… we’ll see.”

The 24-year-old was philosophical about United’s 2-0 loss to Barcelona, but critical of his side’s approach to the game. “It’s always hard to lose finals but you must pay for not playing well,” he said. “Man United had only 10 minutes good in the game. After that, we didn’t show up. We, the players, didn’t play well. The tactics was not good either. Everything went wrong.

“I’m a player used to great stages and I’m not upset by anything. The things I’ve won give me maturity to stand the pressure. There was no problem.”

He also took a swipe at Barcelona, saying the Spanish champions were lucky to be in the final at all.

“We must give credit to Barcelona but they were lucky to be here, because Chelsea deserved to win the semi-final and nobody mentioned that. I must congratulate Barcelona but that’s football, you only talk about those who win.”

Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs says defeat in this season’s Champions League final will motivate the side to challenge for honours next year.

Disappointment reigns in the cold light of day, but Edwin says we’ll be back.

Cristiano says United paid the price for bad mistakes against Barcelona.

Cristiano Ronaldo says Ferguson’s tactics were at fault. Is he right?

• ‘Too many players made too many errors,’ says defender
• Ryan Giggs reminds team it has been a great season

Rio Ferdinand says his Manchester United team-mates are big enough to handle the shattering disappointment of last night’s Champions League final defeat in Rome. He was eager to enter the record books as a back-to-back European Cup winner but those dreams were quashed at the Stadio Olimpico as Barcelona registered a richly deserved triumph.

So instead of a bus parade around the city, United flew back to Manchester with an acute sense of deflation. For a side who have just completed a hat-trick of Premier League title successes, it was a harsh way to end the campaign. But Ferdinand thinks United are strong enough to bounce back.

“If we had won, it would have been an unbelievable end to the season but we knew if we lost we would be finishing on a low, no matter what we had achieved before,” he said. “We are not silly enough to think the garden will always be rosy. We are grown men. We can handle it. We just have to brush ourselves down and come back stronger.”

Ferdinand is happy to postpone the debrief that must follow as Sir Alex Ferguson works out why United were so badly outplayed. Poor tactics are being blamed in some quarters, although the argument is difficult to fathom given United set up in exactly the same way as when they defeated Porto and Arsenal earlier in the competition. Ferdinand has no in-depth answers. However, his gut feeling was that too many players made too many errors at the wrong time against talented opponents well capable of taking advantage.

“To play a team like Barcelona you need your A game. We didn’t have it,” he said. “We did well in those first 10 minutes. If we had scored then it might have been a different game. But we gave away two soft goals at crucial points in the game and didn’t put away the chances we had. In a Champions League final, if you do not play well, either as individuals or a collective unit, you do not deserve to win.”

Ferdinand accepted it was scant consolation for the 30,000 United fans who bellowed their backing to the team and magnanimously applauded Barcelona at the end. At train stations and airports around the Italian capital, fans were coming to terms with the truth of their side being distinctly second-best.

But Ferdinand is confident that, when the new campaign begins again in August, the Red Devils will be fully motivated and ready for battle. “The belief is still there,” he said. “We have come a long way in these last few years. You do not lose all that by getting beaten in one match. We need strength of character now but we have it in abundance.”

Ryan Giggs has told his devastated Manchester United team-mates not to forget it has been a season to remember. “Great teams bounce back after big disappointments,” he said. “It has been a fantastic season and we must not forget that. We have achieved so much.

“All we have done is fall just short at the final hurdle in the Champions League. We are still a great team and we have great players in that dressing room. Next year we will come back stronger and look forward to the challenge.”

And the challenge is not an insignificant one. Whereas this season history beckoned in Europe with the ultimately doomed attempt to become the first team to retain the Champions League since its inception in 1992, next year it will be at home.

Having drawn level with Liverpool on 18 league titles this term, Giggs knows one more – which would be his 12th personally – would not only allow the club to overtake their north-west rivals, it would also see them become the first side in English football to win the championship four years in a row.

“To win three Premier League titles on the trot is an unbelievable thing to do,” said Giggs. “Now we must look to make it four.”

• Anfield club would face stiff competition for him if he left United
• Mascherano says the forward would be ‘great’ for Liverpool

The Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano wants the club to sign his Argentinian team-mate Carlos Tevez. The forward’s future is in question as he has come to the end of his lease arrangement at Manchester United, who are reluctant to pay a quoted price of around £25m to make the deal permanent.

United’s chief executive, David Gill, is planning more talks with Kia Joorabchian, who owns Tevez’s economic rights, but Mascherano wants Liverpool to move in as several clubs monitor the situation.

“I hope we can count on him,” he told Radio La Red in Argentina. “Because of the type of player Carlos is, he would be great for us. However, it will be a tough fight because so many clubs are interested in him.”

Manchester United’s goalkeeper is a doyen of his profession but the fact remains he is not a great shot-stopper

It was, as Rio Ferdinand acknowledged, a night when not one of Manchester United’s players could feel they played at the point of maximum expression. It happens, and it would be unwarranted to be hyper-critical on the back of another season in which Sir Alex Ferguson’s team have greedily stockpiled another three major trophies.

There are, however, a number of issues that will be weighing heavily on Ferguson’s mind when he and Cathy head off for their three weeks on the French Riviera and one of the questions that might be turning over in his mind is this: is Edwin van der Sar as accomplished in the art of goalkeeping as his large and devoted fan-club clearly believes?

For many, singling out Van der Sar will inevitably provoke allegations of kneejerk and excessive scapegoating on the back of what was, in short, a peacock-like spreading of Barcelona’s feathers. The Dutchman’s sympathisers have plenty of evidence for their argument, too. They will cite his record-breaking run of 14 successive clean sheets earlier this season as irrefutable verification that it would be remiss to consider him, just a few months short of his 39th birthday, as a player on the wane. They will point to a gleaming curriculum vitae and a bloated collection of medals, trophies and Dutch international caps and ask what more he possibly has to do.

But does he make great saves? How many times in a season does he bring a crowd to its feet by getting some part of his anatomy to the ball through the speed of his reflexes and agility?

It is not often that Ferguson criticises his team in public but the United manager spoke tersely of conceding “shoddy goals” in the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday and Van der Sar, though not the only culprit, cannot be absolved of his part. They could not be classified as obvious mistakes but his attempts to keep out the ball were hardly convincing either – particularly in the case of Samuel Eto’o’s tenth-minute toe-poke, when he did little more than flick out his left hand at the shot. Van der Sar might have been quicker to leave his line to try to narrow the angle or smother the shot. Instead, he was guilty of what is considered the first sin of goalkeeping: being beaten at his near post.

This is not to persecute a goalkeeper who is entitled to be thought of among the doyens of his profession over the past two decades. Yet Van der Sar, despite all the eulogies that come his way, has averaged out as a six-out-of-ten performer this season; sometimes seven, sometimes six-and-a-half, but mostly six. Those who have watched him regularly will not have recoiled in shock, for instance, when he made that ungainly attempt to gather Lionel Messi’s low cross late in the first half, and ended up allowing the ball to bounce off his body and briefly run away from him.

He is an unconventional goalkeeper in some ways. This is a man who inspires calmness among those around him, an accomplished penalty-area organiser and probably the best catcher of crosses in England’s top division. His distribution is good, his organisational skills exemplary, and when the story comes to be told of the 2008-09 season, that 14-game run will be remembered as the most significant factor for United now being level with Liverpool on 18 league titles.

But there is also a legitimate argument that this sequence of shut-outs was not actually a story of one man’s brilliance between the posts but a victory for the manner in which United keep hold of the ball and protect their back four. Van der Sar was making, on average, two or three saves in every match and it is difficult to remember any that were particularly memorable. In essence, he is not a great shot-stopper.

His admirers will argue that his skills are in other departments and that the good outweighs the bad, and perhaps it is true, but is that ideal for a club of United’s ambitions? At Manchester City this season Mark Hughes has brought in Shay Given to take over from Joe Hart for the very reason that he does not believe the England Under-21 international goalkeeper is a good enough shot-stopper. Publicly, Hughes has said it was because he wanted someone with greater experience. Behind the scenes, however, it has been depicted as something completely different, namely Hart’s ability to “make good saves, even very good saves, but not great saves, not match-winning saves”.

The problem for United is that Ben Foster has not been able to sustain his trajectory since returning from an exceptional loan period at Watford and, most worryingly, that he seems increasingly vulnerable to injury. Any hopes of Tomasz Kuszczak proving himself, meanwhile, have long since evaporated. Kuszczak will almost certainly be moved on this summer and if that happens it will be intriguing to see whether Ferguson brings in another back-up goalkeeper or someone he genuinely believes can challenge Van der Sar and Foster for a regular first-team place.

• Five times more bets on United than winners Barcelona
• Opening goal from Eto’o bags one lucky punter £12,000

Barcelona foiled bettors who had taken a massive gamble on Manchester United as the bookmakers celebrated the Catalan club’s 2-0 Champions League final win in Rome. William Hill’s spokesman Graham Sharpe described it as “an excellent result for us all round” while Paddy Power reported five times more bets on United than Barcelona.

Five and four-figure bets were commonplace on Sir Alex Ferguson’s team with Hill’s reporting a couple of £20,000 punts, Paddy Power one of £5,500 and Ladbrokes a £3,000 single bet. Barcelona did have their backers – Ladbrokes took a £10,000 bet at 19-10 while extrabet.com reported one of £10,000 at 10-11 – but most of the money was for United. Extrabet.com paid out £12,000 to a customer who staked £3,000 at 4-1 that Samuel Eto’o would score the first goal and were also stung courtesy of a £100 seller of the time of the first goal at 38 – netting him £2,800.

Last weekend saw Hill’s get involved in a Help for Heroes promotion. The Leeds firm gave 28 free £50 bets to tipsters and celebrities towards the cause. But unfortunately it was a case of “where the money didn’t go”, as most experts couldn’t find a winner. However, £6,736 was raised – a sum boosted by £3,000 from Hill’s.

Punters had a better time of it on Sunday as inflated prices on Premier League teams who had ostensibly nothing to play for saw all of those teams win. Paddy Power reported a record £2.5m payout while Hill’s reckoned the set of results were one of the worst ever. Backers helped themselves to bigger odds than usual with Ladbrokes taking one bet of £16,000 at evens on Aston Villa beating Newcastle, while extrabet.com accommodated a £10,000 bet at 1-2 that Alan Shearer’s side would be relegated.

Elsewhere, punters are finally starting to believe in Jenson Button. Ladbrokes saw a £3,000 bet at 6-4 while extrabet.com took two £5,000 wagers at the same price for the Brawn GP driver to win in Monaco.

James looks at the week’s Champions League headlines and talking points from the European press

James Richardson, Barry Glendenning, Sean Ingle and Rob Smyth are the men that matter in this Champions League final pod special.

They will be answering such questions as: just how good are Barcelona? Could United have approached the game differently? And why did the British media - including the sagacious Tim Lovejoy - get it so wrong about the Spanish champions?

Sid Lowe joins the fun with a Spanish take on proceedings, as even the Madrid press descibe Barça as “perfection”. He also has news of Real Madrid’s summer spending spree.

Elsewhere, Burnley are back in the top-flight for first time since 1960 and the pod salute Owen Coyle while discussing the vacancy at Celtic Park.

Finally, the pod discusses the FA Cup final, Michael Essien’s new £80,000 watch with his own face on it, and Phil Neville’s interior design skills.

Got something to say? Below is the place to say it.

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Ferdinand says Barcelona were deserved winners against United in Rome.

Cristiano Ronaldo says Barcelona were worthy winners on Wednesday night.

• Manager convinced Henry to stay after disappointing first year
• Arsène Wenger says Arsenal missed French striker last season

Thierry Henry has credited his manager, Pep Guardiola, for his decision to remain with Barcelona in a season in which the Catalan side has won an historic treble. The former Arsenal striker endured a difficult beginning to his Camp Nou career, but last night collected a Champions League medal to go with the league and cup titles already won by Barcelona this year.

His comments came on the day that former coach, Arsène Wenger, admitted Henry’s presence may have helped his team to prevail in the 2007-08 Premier League title race. Arsenal finished third in their first season since allowing Henry to leave for Spain in a £16m deal.

“I didn’t arrive at Barcelona just to win the Champions League but to win everything,” said Henry. “The coach [Pep Guardiola] wanted me to stay. He was the man that convinced me to stay.”

“This is incredible. I had wanted to win the Champions League for a long time. It’s something that I was missing. It’s a special feeling because to win a treble in modern football is not easy and yet we have done it.

“No Spanish team has achieved what we have, to win a treble, and I think everyone will remember this Barça side. I’m delighted because I always wanted to make history at this club and we’ve done just that. Now we will celebrate.”

Henry played against Barcelona in the Champions League final three years ago with Arsenal but was on the losing side. He was a doubt for this week’s showdown with United but recovered from a ligament injury to his right knee that had kept him out since early May.

“For me it’s wonderful to have been able to make it to the final and play,” he said. “It’s not easy to come back after several weeks out of action but just like Andrés Iniesta, [I was] determined to play.”

The Spanish champions went into the final without four regular defenders, with Rafael Márquez and Gabriel Milito out injured and Éric Abidal and Daniel Alves both suspended. But the strength of Guardiola’s side is such that numerous other players were able to contribute.

“I think this game is a mirror of a season,” said Henry. “It doesn’t matter which player plays, it is the team as a whole that has done the job. Our strength was doing what we have done all season, which is to keep possession, play touch football and recover balls. We executed our plan of attack, as usual.

“I don’t know if we won the tactical battle, but Manchester United also played attacking football. The whole team played well. We had several players injured and suspended but those who came out to play did a great job. I knew before the game that I had never lost in Rome. Rome for me is a great city.”

Whilst Henry celebrated his side’s Stadio Olimpico triumph, Wenger was left to reflect on how the Frenchman’s abilities could have contributed to last season’s title race. The Gunners finished four points behind Manchester United, after fading badly in the last months of the campaign.

“Maybe he could have made a difference last year,” said Wenger. “We had 83 points and with him we could have gained two or three more that could have won us the championship. But at that time I felt that a guy who has played eight or nine years for you, and has shown that kind of desire, it’s difficult to stand in his way.

“If he had done two or three years I would have said ‘My friend, you stay here’ but when he has given so much [it is different]. He had this opportunity at Barcelona. He had a first very difficult year but I am very happy he made it this year. He has convinced everybody because he is a top-class player and you want them to be successful.”

Wenger stressed it was only Henry who received special treatment in being allowed to leave in pursuit of silverware. He also indicated that he would take a more strident approach to holding onto players in the future.

“Thierry played a long time for us, nobody else did that and he was close to the end of his career. All these players [in the current squad] are at the start of their careers so it’s completely different. I think the exact opposite now – I don’t see why we should educate the players, get some stick and when they’re ready we sell them. That would be masochistic.”

RIO Ferdinand insists his United team-mates are big enough to handle the shattering disappointment of Wednesday night’s Champions League final defeat in Rome.


Ferdinand was desperate to enter the record books as a back-to-back European Cup winner but those dreams were quashed at the Stadio Olimpico as Barcelona registered a richly-deserved triumph.

Police in Barcelona, Spain, say 80 officers were hurt in clashes with fans celebrating its football team’s Champions League victory.

CRISTIANO Ronaldo blamed United’s tactics for the Champions League final defeat - and cast further doubt on his future at Old Trafford.

CRISTIANO Ronaldo blamed United’s tactics for the Champions League final defeat - and cast further doubt on his future at Old Trafford.

CRISTIANO Ronaldo blamed United’s tactics for the Champions League final defeat - and cast further doubt on his future at Old Trafford.

Click here from 7.15pm on Wednesday evening for live text commentary on the Champions League final between United and Barcelona.

Click here from 7.15pm on Wednesday evening for live text commentary on the Champions League final between United and Barcelona.

Click here from 7.15pm on Wednesday evening for live text commentary on the Champions League final between United and Barcelona.

Barcelona’s convincing win over Manchester United provokes a torrent of views in the British, Spanish and Italian press