Manchester United news and links

Impending return of Gary Neville, Jonny Evans and Rio Ferdinand is a real fillip.

Sir Alex Ferguson warns his side’s title rivals that Manchester United will only improve in 2010 following their 5-0 win over Wigan.

• United is ’such a special place for me’, says Beckham
• ‘I miss the club, I miss the fans and friends at the club’

David Beckham said he almost shed tears when he heard that Milan, whom he is joining on loan next month, had been drawn to play Manchester United in the last 16 of the Champions League. “When I first heard about the tie I think I almost cried because it is such a special place for me,” he said.

Beckham will return to Old Trafford in February when Milan face United in the last 16 of the Champions League. He was adamant there would be no conflict of interest on the pitch: “I would like to progress further in the competition and, of course, when you come up against a club that you support and a club you have spent so many great years at and where you have still got so many friends at the club, those things are always difficult, but it’s a nice problem to have.

“I’ve not returned to Old Trafford as a player in seven years. I miss it every day; I miss being a Manchester United player, I miss the club, I miss the fans and friends at the club. So it is always going to have a special place in my heart.

“To return as an AC Milan player makes it extra special, that’s the big thing for me – to return with a team like this and a club like this that has got so much history, which is the same as Manchester United, it’s such a special occasion. To be there in front of the fans and the manager and friends is going to be incredible.”

Beckham said he is taking nothing for granted despite Fabio Capello’s assertion the 34-year-old LA Galaxy player will be in his World Cup squad if he remains fit at Milan. But, following his first training session with Milan, Beckham told Sky Sports News: “It makes me happy but I know I need to work hard. It’s not guaranteed. If I play in games and I do well then obviously I’ve got a chance because I’ve been part of the squad for most of the games.

“It’s great the manager says that, I’m really pleased he says that, but I know I’ve got to work hard to be part of the squad. It’s not that easy but like I said before I’m really happy to be back here, happy to be training with Milan again and everything to do with the club. It’s going to be hard work. I’m ready for that.”

Beckham said he was delighted to be back at San Siro. “I missed being in Milan and being with the club because my experience there was so special in six months and it makes you miss the club. I missed playing, being around the team, the players, the fans and everybody at Milan.”

Wayne Rooney is aiming to smash his previous best tally of 23.

Sir Alex Ferguson will enjoy his 68th birthday today after the easiest win his Manchester United team are likely to have all season. Overawed by the reputation, as much as the quality of the opposition, Wigan hardly made a tackle all night, subsiding feebly to a morale-sapping defeat engineered by the player they sold to United, Antonio Valencia. The winger from Ecuador was the man of the match, his surging incursions and crosses from the right flank setting up three of the goals before he added the fifth himself.

United closed up to within two points of Chelsea, the league leaders, and boosted their goal difference, with a men-against-boys victory set in motion by Wayne Rooney’s 14th league goal of his most prolific season to date. Michael Carrick, Rafael and Dimitar Berbatov added the others on what was a fill-your-boots occasion, which enabled Ferguson to withdraw and rest three key players midway through the second half.

Ferguson has been making much of the fact that United are no worse off than they were this time last year, when they went on to retain their title by a comfortable margin and the stats bear him out. Twelve months ago, United were third, behind Liverpool and Chelsea, then from Boxing Day until 4 March they put together a blistering sequence of 11 successive wins to burn off all opposition.

Those who say the defending champions are missing Cristiano Ronaldo may be right from the aesthetic viewpoint, but not from the arithmetical one. Portugal’s strutting genius contributed just four goals to that barnstorming run. Berbatov outscored him with six, and if the Bulgarian recovers that form, United could well make another irresistible charge. So far, it has been Rooney who, in the argot of the dressing room, has stepped up to the plate. A year ago, England’s most gifted footballer had scored only four times in the league, and finished the season with 12 goals from 30 appearances. This time he has 14 already, from 19 games. It must be a worry for Ferguson, however, that nobody else has weighed in with more than Berbatov’s five.

Wigan were seventh a year ago and only fell away after selling Valencia and Wilson Palacios. Neither player has been adequately replaced, and so the rot that set in at the turn of the year, and brought only three wins in the last 18 league matches in 2008-09, continues. Thrashed 9-1 at Tottenham in November, they have now won only one of their last nine.

United rested Ryan Giggs, Wigan contented themselves with one change after the 1-1 draw with Blackburn on Boxing Day, recalling the South Korean Cho Won-hee at the expense of Jason Scotland [no goals in 18 league appearances], and opting to play with only Hugo Rodallega in attack.

To nobody’s surprise, United made all the running and created all the scoring opportunities. Wishful thinking, maybe, but Hendry Thomas seemed to believe Valencia was still a Wigan player, judging by the dreadful pass which gifted him the first shooting opportunity of the night. To the errant visiting midfielder’s relief, it was no more than a sighter, and came to nothing. Full of running against his old team, Valencia then made a charge through the middle, combining with Rooney to set up Berbatov for a header which flew straight at Kirkland. There was a much greater degree of difficulty for the Wigan keeper with shots from Rooney and Vidic, the second of which was repelled on the goalline by Paul Scharner.

After 20 minutes Rooney, cutting in from the byline on the left, nutmegged Maynor Figueroa before shooting against the far post, then Berbatov touched the ball past the advancing keeper but wide of the target. A United goal was inevitable, and it came after 28 minutes, when young Rafael’s centre from the right was met at the near post by Rooney who, six yards out, turned it across Kirkland and inside the far upright.

The second that effectively removed Wigan from contention came four minutes later, from the same direction. This time it was Valencia who provided the service from the right for Carrick to amble through the middle unopposed and shoot past the ludicrously under-protected Kirkland from 16 yards.

By half-time it was 3-0 and Wigan must have had visions of White Hart Lane all over again. Their defence was appalling once more, allowing Rafael ridiculous time and space just inside the penalty area to manoeuvre into optimum position before shooting low, past Kirkland’s left hand.

Wigan replaced Kirkland with their reserve keeper, Mike Pollitt, after the interval, and within five minutes the substitute was picking the ball out of the back of his net, betrayed by Emmerson Boyce, who fell over, à la Norman Wisdom, to allow Berbatov, on the edge of the six-yard box, to tuck away another cross from Valencia. In a fitting finale, the man from Ecuador had the goal his overall contribution deserved after 75 minutes when, supplied by Rooney, he fired past Pollitt on the run.

FIND out how we rated the Manchester United players for their performance in the 5-0 win over Wigan at Old Trafford.

MANCHESTER United crushed Wigan at Old Trafford thanks to goals from Wayne Rooney, Michael Carrick, Rafael Da Silva, Dimitar Berbatov and Antonio Valencia.


The win leaves United just two points behind leaders Chelsea going into the new year, and if anything the margin of victory could have been greater with Rooney twice hitting the woodwork.

United’s 5-0 win over Wigan was about the team effort rather than individuals.

Wayne Rooney and co and 2009 in style by hitting helpless Wigan for five (again).

CRISTIANO Ronaldo has asked the Real Madrid fans to be more like those of Manchester United.

Applications open for the Champions League first knockout round 1st leg…

Click the button below for automatic updates. And if that’s not exciting enough for you, email tom.lutz@guardian.co.uk with your thoughts for the day

Tom will be here from 7.30pm. In the meantime you can peruse Daniel Taylor’s blog on how Sir Alex Ferguson came football’s new tinkerman.

When Sir Alex Ferguson was asked recently about the team he was planning to play in the next match he leant back in his chair and announced to the assembled journalists that if anyone predicted his side accurately he would pay for them to have a weekend in Loch Lomond before adding, Fergie being Fergie, that he would make sure “the midges were out”. The prize, as you can imagine, went unclaimed. It has become football’s equivalent of nailing a jelly to the wall and tomorrow, when Wigan Athletic visit Old Trafford, we can expect it to be the 99th consecutive game in which the Manchester United manager has not kept the same side.

Another manager would have been rumbled by now but Ferguson has managed to put together one of the more remarkable runs of modern-day football almost under the radar and without any of the scrutiny that plagued Rafael Benítez when he did the same thing three years ago or, before that, the misgivings that surrounded Claudio Ranieri’s judgment during his time at Chelsea.

The critique of Ranieri’s methods often bordered on derision and when Benítez finally sent out an unchanged team it was tempting to conclude that the decision owed partly to him trying to appease a hostile media. Ferguson, in stark contrast, is not facing any calls to abandon the habit and revert to something more orthodox and on Sunday, when Leeds United are the opponents in the FA Cup, we can safely assume the run will reach 100 and counting. As the man himself says: “The days when Liverpool won the league only using 14 players are no longer possible – nobody even thinks about that now.”

It has become a demonstration in how the oldest manager in the business has not only moved with the times but managed to stay in front of his contemporaries. Ferguson learned from the Champions League in 1993-94 that the same players could not be used in all competitions and it was from that point onwards that he started introducing the younger members of his squad in the League Cup and some European matches, gathering momentum to a point now when he has not named the same starting XI since the final weeks of the 2007-08 season.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

• National captain has ‘heard great things’
• New manager has not decided on captaincy

The Scotland captain, Darren Fletcher, has welcomed the appointment of Craig Levein as his country’s new manager.

Under Walter Smith and then Alex McLeish, the Scots came close to qualifying for the 2008 European Championship from a group containing France and Italy. In the more recent 2010 World Cup qualifiers, Scotland looked set for a play-off before a catastrophic defeat in Norway in August which eventually cost George Burley his job. Levein has left Dundee United to be his replacement.

“It is important for Scotland that we went back to what we were a few years ago,” said the Manchester United midfielder. “We were on the brink of something good. We were a dogged, hard-to-beat side who teams didn’t like to come up against. We need to get back to that under the new manager.

“I have never worked with Craig Levein before but I have heard a lot of good things about him and I am looking forward to it.”

Levein is yet to decide whether Fletcher will remain as captain, although given that the United player has established himself as one of the most effective central midfielders in the Premier League he would appear to be the obvious choice, even if Birmingham City’s Barry Ferguson ends his international exile.

Levein will find out who Scotland’s Euro 2012 qualifying opponents will be when the draw is made in Warsaw on 7 February. His first match in charge will be against the Czech Republic at Hampden Park on 3 March.

“We are desperate to get to a major championship,” said Fletcher. “As a country we need it and as supporters, our fans deserve it. That is where all the focus will be.”

TRADITIONALLY Sir Alex Ferguson’s January transfer activity at United has centred mainly on his attack.


Even pre-transfer window days when it was an open market all year round, the Reds’ boss liked to inject a winter booster up front.

ANTONIO Valencia has been handed the ultimate accolade by Sir Alex Ferguson.


The former Wigan player faces his old club tonight at Old Trafford with praise ringing in his ears for the way he has filled the right-wing gap left by the £80m World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo.

Can Rooney and co round off 2009 with a home win? Get the odds here.

SIR Alex Ferguson has warned United’s Premier League rivals the champions are ready to take the title bull by the horns.


The Reds boss is convinced a consistent run over the next few weeks will shatter any hopes Chelsea and Arsenal have of wrestling the Premier League trophy away from Old Trafford.

WAYNE Rooney is poised to shoot the lights out as United prepare for action on four fronts in the New Year.


The champions are second in the Premier League, have a Carling Cup semi-final double header starting with City next week, an FA Cup home third round tie with Leeds on Sunday and the last 16 Euro clash with AC Milan in February.

Read about the web team’s activities and observations in Christmas week.

Today’s Mill was persuaded to throw out a football programme collection only a fortnight ago and is not at all resentful

The Rumour Mill is minding its own business in a graveyard at dawn, attempting to roast its frozen chestnuts on a puny brazier when who should turn up but Blackburn Rovers’ El Hadji Diouf muttering something about weather. “Ha! Ha!” he says. “‘Tis ever and so nuncle, with the Black Monks. Scream did he, scream and gurgle as they skewered his cat flap for want of a farthing? Oh! Poor Diouf’s cold! Pity poor Diouf, for his nose is frozen, and he does shiver.” Apparently, it’s taters out and the cold snap has badly affected his form.

Real Madrid are hoping to capitalise on Mrs Vidic’s similar contempt for the Lancashire climate by making a £20m summer bid for her husband, Nemanja. Manchester United are lining up Porto’s Bruno Alves as his replacement. If that sounds familiar it’s because Sir Alex Ferguson has had to go back to Plan A having been told by Palermo’s Simon Kjaer that he has no intention of moving to England despite both United and City being prepared to trigger the £18m release clause in his contract.

There’s a lot of United ire in the tabs this morning, inspired principally by how comments made by Fabio Capello – United are no longer a “war machine” – were spun yesterday. “Get stuffed, we don’t miss Cristiano Ronaldo and we’re well placed to win the title,” is the gist of Ferguson’s rapid rebuttal.

Manchester United will move, however, to bring in a goalkeeper and fancy Lyon’s Hugo “Slender” Lloris but not the £20m asking price.

In other Lancashire news, Darren Ferguson is on the verge of replacing Alan Irvine at Preston North End unless Gary Megson-less Bolton Wanderers beat them to it. Blackburn’s Benni McCarthy has been heard humming the Kinks’ Set Me Free. “Enough’s enough,” he told the Mail. “I feel I’ve been stepped on too much and it’s best to go.” And when it’s Big Sam stepping on you, a £2m move to Birmingham City would relieve the South Africa striker of a great weight. Burnley, meanwhile, are close to agreeing terms with Algeria’s captain, Yazid Mansouri. A million quid will persuade Lorient to let the midfielder strut in front of the David Fishwick minibus ads at Turf Moor.

Moving south Arsène Wenger has outed himself as a Craig Bellamy fan but thinks getting him out of Manchester City is a non-starter. He’ll turn instead to QPR’s 15-year-old “wonderkid” Raheem Sterling and stop Jack Wilshere joining Burnley on loan following injuries to Cesc Fábregas and Denilson.

Birmingham are going to sign Joe Hart on a long-term deal from Manchester City for £3.5m instead of waiting until June when they fear the price might be more.

Ruud van Nistelrooy’s wages have scared off Blackburn but Liverpool can just about run to the £87,500 a week he wants to leave Real Madrid.

Wee Gordon Strachan, former chalkboard purveyor of this parish, is going to splash £6m on Celtic’s Stephen McManus, Barry Robson and Scott McDonald while Paul Telfer sits by the phone wondering if he may have been inadvertently cut off.

Mick McCarthy thinks Derby’s Kris Commons would look dandy in old gold and Chris Hughton is eyeing up Leeds’ Jermaine Beckford. Both men reckon £1.25m should swing the deals with Newcastle particularly bullish given Beckford has only six months of his contract to run and will tempt the Elland Road supremo, Bad Santa, with a cheeky bid.

And finally, for Liverpool fans, here’s a titbit from the web deep throats’ site of choice: “Ryan Babel to Birmingham for £10m. Andriy Voronin to Zenit St Petersburg for £3m. Philipp Degen will move to Wigan for £2m and Andrea Dossena is going to Atlético Madrid for £4.5m. With £20m at his disposal, Rafa will spend £11m on [Galatasaray’s] Arda Turan, £3.5m on [Standard Liège’s] Milan Jovanovic and £5m on [Crystal Palace’s] Victor Moses.”

Please feel free to add your own guff below.

The Reds’ fabled youngsters recovered the FA Youth Cup in May 1992.

United fans were truly privileged to see Cristiano Ronaldo in action.

Roberto Martinez says his Wigan side can upset United on Wednesday night.

Wes Brown wants United to end 2009 with a win against Wigan Athletic.

Sir Alex says Dimitar Berbatov will not require surgery on a knee injury.

Real Madrid are allegedly set to bid for Nemanja Vidic next summer.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson says he still expect a two-horse race for the Premier League title with Chelsea despite other teams threatening.

Manchester United’s manager is ready to field a different side for the 99th consecutive game – with rather more success than Ranieri or Benítez

When Sir Alex Ferguson was asked recently about the team he was planning to play in the next match he leant back in his chair and announced to the assembled journalists that if anyone predicted his side accurately he would pay for them to have a weekend in Loch Lomond before adding, Fergie being Fergie, that he would make sure “the midges were out”. The prize, as you can imagine, went unclaimed. It has become football’s equivalent of nailing a jelly to the wall and tomorrow, when Wigan Athletic visit Old Trafford, we can expect it to be the 99th consecutive game in which the Manchester United manager has not kept the same side.

Another manager would have been rumbled by now but Ferguson has managed to put together one of the more remarkable runs of modern-day football almost under the radar and without any of the scrutiny that plagued Rafael Benítez when he did the same thing three years ago or, before that, the misgivings that surrounded Claudio Ranieri’s judgment during his time at Chelsea.

The critique of Ranieri’s methods often bordered on derision and when Benítez finally sent out an unchanged team it was tempting to conclude that the decision owed partly to him trying to appease a hostile media. Ferguson, in stark contrast, is not facing any calls to abandon the habit and revert to something more orthodox and on Sunday, when Leeds United are the opponents in the FA Cup, we can safely assume the run will reach 100 and counting. As the man himself says: “The days when Liverpool won the league only using 14 players are no longer possible – nobody even thinks about that now.”

It has become a demonstration in how the oldest manager in the business has not only moved with the times but managed to stay in front of his contemporaries. Ferguson learned from the Champions League in 1993-94 that the same players could not be used in all competitions and it was from that point onwards that he started introducing the younger members of his squad in the League Cup and some European matches, gathering momentum to a point now when he has not named the same starting XI since the final weeks of the 2007-08 season.

Yes, Ferguson is helped by having a bloated squad after some hard and sustained spending but he is also, undeniably, the doyen of rotation and, in another sense, a trend-setter when you consider the number of managers who have tried to copy the same methods.

At the halfway point of their season, the United manager has already used 30 players, acting on a combination of computer analysis as well as his own judgment to work out when players need to be rested and look for the first tell-tale signs of fatigue.

A decade ago, the concept of playing, and sticking to, a regular team was so ingrained on the football world that the critics would have solemnly dismissed such methods as a recipe for disaster. Now it can be described as flexibility, or ingenuity, or simply being one step ahead of the rest. “The idea is to get everyone making a contribution,” is Ferguson’s take. “You might get some players who you would not say are automatic to play but they know that, come the end of the season, they can look back and say they contributed. The modern-day game is all about a squad.”

Ferguson spent long parts of his press conference today praising his squad for the way, in his opinion, they had managed to cope since Cristiano Ronaldo moved to Real Madrid. The team, he felt, had become too reliant on Ronaldo’s goals and at the start of the season he made a point of informing his players that, without their star performer, it would be more of a squad responsibility now than it had ever been.

United have had to contend with considerable injury problems but, even so, Ferguson has manufactured it so that only eight players – Ryan Giggs, Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Carrick, John O’Shea, Antonio Valencia, Wayne Rooney, Darren Fletcher and Patrice Evra – have started 10 or more of their 19 league games.

Giggs might be on that list but, a month into his 37th year, the club’s longest‑serving player is increasingly being used with strategic care. The same applies to United’s oldest player, Edwin van der Sar, and the club’s other thirty-somethings, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville and, newly, Rio Ferdinand. Van der Sar, to cite one example, has sat out every League Cup tie since the final against Wigan in February 2006. In the last international break, he and Giggs were both given time off to take their families on holiday to Dubai.

The idea, according to Ferguson, is that his players are “fresh” for the business end of the season and, by asking them to share the load and repeating the process every week, a culture has developed in the dressing room whereby they have come to expect it, and accept it is the best strategy.

Last season United played more games (66 in 290 days) than any other campaign in their history. Only once, when Liverpool got through 67 in 1983-84, has an English team shoehorned more matches into a single season. Another successful campaign for United would mean playing a similar amount this season and that is why Ferguson will continue to rotate more than a fairground ride.

Probable teams: Manchester United (4-4-2): Kuszczak; Neville, Vidic, Brown, Evra; Valencia, Carrick, Anderson, Park; Rooney, Owen. Subs from Foster, Rafael, Scholes, Giggs, Gibson, Obertan, Berbatov. Wigan Athletic (4-3-3): Kirkland; Melchiot, Boyce, Bramble, Figueroa; Thomas, Gómez, Scharner; Rodallega, Scotland, N’Zogbia. Subs from Amaya, De Ridder, Sinclair, Kingson, Cho, Bouaouzan, McCarthy.

Homes in Cheshire street costliest outside the south as big-earning players fuel boom in new mansions

Footballers’ pay has kicked a narrow lane of former bungalows and farm cottages into the premier league of Britain’s properties, creating a cluster of Manchester mansions which are named today as one of the country’s most expensive streets.

With an average price of £1.2m, the houses along Withinlee Road – aka Footballers’ Alley – in the Cheshire village of Prestbury are the costliest outside southern England, beating rivals in the Midlands and East Anglia as well as other plush areas in the north.

Traditionally one of the wealthiest villages in the region, Prestbury’s tradition of discreet money has been swept aside by the bulldozing of old properties on Withinlee ridge – above the equally attractive Mottram St Andrew – to make way for every sort of modern baronial style.

Wayne Rooney of Manchester United has a cinema, pool and sports complex for badminton, tennis and five-a-side football in his £3.5m mock-Georgian pad. Carlos Tevez of Manchester City pays £12,000 a month to rent a “carbon friendly” property a few doors away, which extracts heat from the ground for a pool flanked by Armani-design wall panels with an underwater sound system.

The exuberant wealth, sealed off by entry phones and security company notices, but visible from the road, has lifted the north up the annual “top streets” table compiled by the Halifax. The lane, along with eight others in Cheshire’s so-called 4×4 and orange-tan belt, also comes close to many of the most expensive streets in the south, except for London.

The survey shows the capital far beyond any rival’s reach, with Wycombe Square in Kensington and Chelsea in first place, averaging £5.4m a home, more than three times that of Withinlee Road. The royal borough claims the next nine of the priciest streets, until Surrey takes over with Leatherhead in 11thwith £2,645,000, followed by Weybridge at £2,550,625 and Virginia Water at £2,543,500.

Prestbury’s modern glitz is not proving a wider source of prosperity, however, with one of the biggest shops and the best-known restaurants in High Street hit by the recession and closed.

Coleen Rooney uses the flower shop and other celebrities – who include three other Premier League players and the cricketer Andrew Flintoff in Mottram St Andrew – bought their Christmas stamps at the post office.

But many villagers describe the players and their families as usually “invisible”. “We’d welcome more involvement from them,” says Judith Cole-Clough, who manages the Spirit of the Andes clothes shop, specialising in Peruvian alpaca clothes. “They’d get a nice surprise; we’ve socks from £7 — down to £5. There are plenty of ‘normal’ people in Prestbury who need to go shopping too.”

The village is also regularly up in arms over building projects on Withinlee Road, which resembles a minor version of east London’s Olympic site. Anyone seeking seclusion and peace would be astonished at the number of trucks, skips and scaffolding on show in the street last night, and for the last couple of years.

“I only work here,” said a builder. “That’s quite enough for me.” Down in the village, an estate agent, Nick Bower, said: “It’s an issue that’s polarised Prestbury for a long time – a lot of people wish they wouldn’t keep pulling down the old houses and building new ones.”

Bower has watched the recession play havoc with carefully budgeted speculation in the area. “You would have had great difficulty buying into Withinlee back then. Now we’re getting used to £3m and £4m houses not shifting for months.”

Meanwhile, Cole-Clough hopes for a gradual return to traditional ways. “Prestbury has a name as a discerning village,” she said. “Wealth has been here, but quietly.” She is one of many locals who would welcome a Withinlee resident prepared to invest in reviving the White House restaurant, once the pride of Cheshire.

“It’s so sad to see it boarded up. Everyone used to come here,” she says, before shifting into the village’s inevitable footballese. “There was Sven Goran Eriksson – he liked it. So did Sir Alex Ferguson.”

MANCHESTER United tackle Wigan at Old Trafford with Sir Alex Ferguson admitting he would have gladly accepted being two points adrift of Chelsea in the depth of his defensive injury crisis.


Victory against the Latics will get United precisely to that point in the Barclays Premier League title race.

WAYNE Rooney gave a timely reminder of just what United need when the 2010 January transfer window opens on Friday.


His display at Hull on Sunday emphasised just how reliant the Reds are on the England striker for their attacking power.


I don’t think it is too strong to say that if the injury plague that has beset the defence suddenly spreads to Rooney then all United’s ambitions could go up in smoke.

What A Friend, part-owned by Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, wins the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown.

• ‘Wayne can step forward and be the main man’
• Berbatov, Owen and Scholes hope to take on Wigan

Sir Alex Ferguson is looking for Wayne Rooney to maintain the form that helped Manchester United to destroy Hull City on Sunday. Rooney scored his 14th goal of the season and created the other two in the team’s 3-1 victory.

With Ferguson’s defensive injury problems starting to ease, the United manager is now looking to build some momentum heading into the second half of a campaign which could yet end with his side being crowned champions for an unprecedented fourth consecutive Barclays Premier League season.

For that to happen, however, Ferguson acknowledges he needs Rooney to be fit and firing. After a couple of lethargic performances from the 24-year-old, his most recent effort signalled a revival, one that his manager is looking for Rooney to continue.

“Wayne was fantastic on Sunday. That was the Wayne Rooney we know,” said Ferguson. “He had a quiet spell for two or three matches but he was explosive at Hull. He was a constant threat. That is the kind of form we are hoping for because when he is playing like that he is hard to handle.”

However, ahead of tomorrow night’s match with Wigan Athletic at Old Trafford, Ferguson is expecting others to step forward too with Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Owen and Paul Scholes all hoping to play a part.

“Wayne can step forward and be the main man but there are a few who have to step forward in that respect,” said Ferguson. “We are coming to the time now. The challenge is there.

“The league is so tight and teams are taking points off each other that you don’t expect. It means a consistent run from someone will give them a great chance.

“Our experience of run-ins is good. We know we can handle that part. The important thing is to beat Wigan tomorrow which would put us into the position I hoped we could get to, a couple of points off the leaders coming into the new year.”

Sir Alex will be delighted with United’s position if Wigan are overcome.

SIR Alex Ferguson has called for Wayne Rooney to maintain the form that helped Manchester United destroy Hull on Sunday.


Rooney scored his 14th goal of the season to put the Reds ahead then created two more after his mistake had allowed the Tigers to level at the KC Stadium.

GARY Neville returns to the Manchester United squad for Wednesday’s Premier League encounter with Wigan as the Reds’ defensive problems continue to ease.


Neville limped out of the win at West Ham earlier this month with a groin injury but is expected to fill the right-back berth against the Latics to complete an experienced back-four.

United’s final game of 2009 is here – read all the news, facts and figures.

TWELVE months ago United ended 2008 with two post-Christmas victories that helped catapult the Reds to the title.


A Boxing Day win at Stoke followed by an Old Trafford triumph against Middlesbrough sparked an 11-game victory roll. It overturned a Premier League lead of six points held by Liverpool 12 months ago and ended with the Reds holding a seven-point lead by the time that run came to an end.

Manchester United keeper Edwin van der Sar signs a one-year contract extension with the Premier League champions.

The Guardian claims United’s winger is seeking a January transfer to Spain or Italy.

Neville, Scholes and Anderson are all fit, while Evans and Ferdinand are close.

EDWIN van der Sar has been placed on indefinite compassionate leave by Manchester United after his wife suffered a brain haemorrhage, manager Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed.


The 39-year-old goalkeeper, who has been absent since last month’s win over Everton with a knee injury, had been given permission to return to Holland over the festive period and receive treatment from the Holland team doctor.

Messrs Ferguson and Rooney urge United to develop consistency in 2010.

Fans watched United from the OT terracing for the final time in 1992.

UNITED are armed and ready to hit the January transfer window with a host of Europe’s top names being linked with a move to Old Trafford.


Edin Dzeko, David Villa and David Silva have all come under Sir Alex Ferguson’s watchful eye, along with goalkeepers Manuel Neuer and Igor Akinfeev.

Wayne Rooney is high up our list of great Reds - and he’s still only 24.

See FA, Carling Cup and Champions League action in world-class hospitality

• Berbatov claims Chelsea pose biggest threat to United
• Fabio Capello believes United are not as daunting now

Dimitar Berbatov believes that Chelsea pose the only credible threat to Manchester United’s chances of winning a fourth consecutive Premier League title and is confident that the championship will end up back at Old Trafford.

The United striker indicated that he feels Arsenal are not capable of finishing top despite resurgent recent form which has left Arsène Wenger’s team seven points behind the leaders, Chelsea, with two matches in hand.

The first of those is at Portsmouth tomorrow night, while United, who are two points clear of Arsenal having played a game more, take on Wigan Athletic.

“I think that we are in a great position,” Berbatov said. “There are a lot of games before the end of the season and it will be difficult. I think it will be decided between us and Chelsea but in the end I think we’ll end up on top.

“We have great players so let’s see what happens. There are a lot of games this time of year and it’s a been a bit of a difficult time with the injuries but the players are coming back now.

“The boss knows what he’s doing and I’m sure at the end of the season we will be on top.”

Berbatov’s remarks came as Fabio Capello, the England manager, said that United were not as daunting a prospect as in the past.

“Manchester United were a war machine and they have slowed down,” he said in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport. “Chelsea are fine but the other teams are getting better – Arsenal and Aston Villa and then those teams further behind.

“[Roberto] Mancini’s Manchester City and [Alberto] Aquilani’s Liverpool will pick up speed.”

• Annemarie van Kesteren collapsed on 23 December
• Manchester United tell goalkeeper to take as long as he needs

Edwin van der Sar has been given compassionate leave by Manchester United to be with his wife after she suffered a brain haemorrhage.

Annemarie van Kesteren has been described as “very poorly” after collapsing on 23 December. She has been in hospital ever since and United have told Van der Sar to take as long as he needs before returning to play in goal.

Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, has been keeping in regular contact with the former Holland international and the club have explained his absence from their Christmas programme as being because he is still troubled by the knee injury that had kept him out since the 3-0 defeat of Everton on 21 November.

In the meantime, Ferguson will choose between Tomasz Kuszczak and Ben Foster to compete for the vacant goalkeeping slot in place of the man Ferguson recently described as rivalling Peter Schmeichel to be recognised as the greatest goalkeeper in the club’s history. United’s next game is at home to Wigan on Wednesday.

Ferguson prides himself on looking after his players in emergency situations and has stressed to Van der Sar that there is no pressure on him to return before he is ready. The manager said: “Annemarie had a problem when they were over in Holland about a week ago. She was admitted to hospital and that’s the best place to be until they examine her thoroughly to get to the root of it. I’ve told Edwin just to stay there; there’s no point in him being over here. He’s in the right place beside his wife and hopefully she’ll make a good recovery.”

Rob Jansen, the agent who represents the 39-year-old Van der Sar, declined to comment, saying it was “private business,” but Van der Sar is said to be deeply shocked by what has happened. Relatives have joined him as he looks after the couple’s young son, Joe, and daughter, Lynn.

Van der Sar, the most capped footballer of all time for Holland with 130 appearances, met Annemarie when he was shopping at her brother’s grocery store. The couple were married in Amsterdam in May 2006, with Ruud van Nistelrooy, the Real Madrid striker who has been a team-mate of Van der Sar with United and Holland, among the guests. They live in Cheshire, where Annemarie deliberately tries to shun the celebrity lifestyle.

Van der Sar has recently been contemplating an offer from the Dutch football authorities to come out of retirement to play for his country in the World Cup in South Africa next year, where they will compete in a group with Japan, Cameroon and Denmark. He had turned down their initial approach, but further talks were planned in the coming months.

Wes Brown has been impressed by the Reds’ resolve amid a spate of injuries.