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Last updated on Thursday, 29th July 11:08pm.
SIR Alex Ferguson admits Darren Fletcher’s success as a ball-winner can get up the noses of rival managers but has backed his midfielder as one of the fairest players in football.
Arsene Wenger appeared to target Fletcher after Arsenal’s defeat at Old Trafford a fortnight ago, talking of one Manchester United player being “anti-football” and committing 20 fouls without being booked. 
• Striker picked up knee injury on World Cup duty
• Robinho waiting for results of scans on ankle swelling
Carlos Tevez is struggling to be fit for next weekend’s Manchester derby.
The Argentinian tweaked his knee during World Cup duty with his country last weekend and has been ruled out of Manchester City’s game with Arsenal tomorrow.
Early indications are that Tevez will also sit out the Old Trafford encounter with United on 20 September.
Tevez is desperate to play against his former club, having assumed cult hero status at City due to his bitter departure from United.
Mark Hughes, the Manchester City manager, will give the striker every opportunity. “The Argentine medical people said it would be two or three weeks,” Hughes said. “We think it might be less than that but he is a doubt for the derby next week.
“However, we will do everything in our power to get him fit because, for obvious reasons, he would love to play in that match.”
Meanwhile, City will wait for the results of scans on Robinho’s ankle injury before deciding whether the Brazilian will face the Gunners.
“He had a little bit of swelling on the ankle,” Hughes said. “We do not think there is a significant injury there but it is best to check to make sure there is no stress fracture. Once we get the results we can decide whether he plays tomorrow or not.”
Manchester City assistant manager Mark Bowen says it is “very doubtful” Carlos Tevez will be fit for the game against Manchester United.
Manchester United fight back from a goal behind to condemn Spurs to their first defeat of the season, despite Paul Scholes’ sending off.
From ‘WILLGETAREDCARD!’ to ‘Ab-so-lutely beautiful!’ – it’s not just the commentators who have been excited by this classic fixture
Back in the days before football began in 1992, red cards had serious scarcity value. England, for example, had only four players sent off in the first 126 years of international football; since then the figure is seven in 11 years. Whether for club or country, you were in real danger of becoming a black sheep if you got a red card. If we’d had watercoolers in those days, nothing else would have been up for discussion. So when the darling of English football, Paul Gascoigne, was sent off on live television halfway through his season-long post-Italia 90 tour, it was almost a JFK moment. Two thirds of the match report in this paper (and it was a very good match between two emerging sides, won by Brian McClair’s last-minute winner) was devoted to Gascoigne’s indiscretion.
He was given a straight red for dissent – which, given how rare such punishment was in those days, suggests either the use of a bad word or 17, or a referee who wanted to make a name for himself* – after Gary Lineker had been denied a decent shout for a penalty with the score at 1-1. The drama and shock was captured perfectly by the ITV commentator, Brian Moore, who usually spoke so deliberately that his sentences took longer than a Banzai handshake: “And Gascoigne … for his protests … WILLGETAREDCARD!” At the time it seemed a vaguely amusing diversion on an inevitably rocky road to the pantheon. Given what we know now, and what would happen when a referee declined to show him a red card at Wembley later that season, perhaps it was one of the first signs that Gazzamania was giving way to Gazza’s mania.
*Well, can you remember anything else Vic Callow did?
What’s less painful: an intimate goodbye or the memory of an intimate moment which, unbeknownst to you, was actually a goodbye? Nobody realised as much at the time, but the last two great Manchester United sides produced their final great moment in north London: Cristiano Ronaldo’s counter-attacking masterpiece at the Emirates in May and, six years earlier, Paul Scholes’s opening goal at White Hart Lane. It was the last hurrah of the last great British and Irish midfield.
United, who needed a win to take control of the title race after Arsenal had dropped points at Bolton the previous day, battered Tottenham from the start but were denied time after time by Kasey Keller. Then, with 21 minutes to go, they struck. The five touches from David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Scholes were all perfectly judged, with Scholes’s deft flick-on deserving particular praise; all the while, Roy Keane watched over proceedings like an old don. In its devastating economy, absence of gratuitous frills and influence on winning the Premier League, this was truly a fitting legacy.
3. Manchester United 4-1 Tottenham Hotspur, Premier League, 09/01/1993
If that was a farewell to Ferguson’s second great Manchester United team, this swashbuckling victory was a hello to his first. In the Guardian, David Lacey wrote that it was “the stuff of which kings are made … [it] relived the sights and sounds of the Sixties”. The victory took United top of the league for the first time since their heartbreaking collapse the previous season; and this in their first league game of 1993, a year in which they would leap from being a pretty good team to a great one.
For once, statistics tell the story. In 1992 and 1993, United played 43 league games. In 1992 they won 17 and amassed 67 points; in 1993 they won 31 and amassed 102. And to think some people say Eric Cantona, who joined in November 1992, was overrated. It is hard to imagine that there has been a more significant catalyst in the history of the game.
His part in this victory was enormous. He scored the opening goal and then made Denis Irwin’s second with a return pass of outrageous imagination and technique that spun straight on to Irwin’s left foot and, at precisely the same moment, into folklore. “I don’t think I played badly, but the team’s personality is more important than my own,” he said after the game. “If I wanted a lot of personal attention I’d have taken up tennis.” Whether he wanted personal attention or not, that pass ensured that he would get it for the rest of his days.
4. Roy Carroll drops the ball, Manchester United 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur, Premier League, 04/01/2005
Spurs have often come away from Old Trafford choking on their own vomit. They should have had a corner in April 1996, and Eric Cantona scored the only goal from the wrongly awarded goalkick. Later in the game, Gary Neville took a blind free-kick towards Steve Bruce, who was daydreaming about his first novel; Teddy Sheringham nipped in and would have had a one-on-one had Gerald Ashby not bottled it/blown his whistle (delete as appr … actually it’s the first one). On the final day of the 1998-99 decision, they felt Tim Sherwood was fouled in the build-up to David Beckham’s equaliser. In 2002, Mauricio Taricco was sent off and a penalty awarded even though his professional foul on Paul Scholes occurred outside the box.
None of that, however, prepared them for this staggering injustice in 2004-05, when, in the final minute, Pedro Mendes’s Nayimish effort from the halfway line was inadvertently thrown over his own shoulder by a backpedaling Roy Carroll. The ball was almost halfway between the line and the net when Carroll clawed it out. If that wasn’t obvious, you just had to look at Carroll’s face; he had the palpable shiftiness of a man who had found the American Dream in a gym bag. This wasn’t so much Old Traffordish as the greatest cock-up in Premier League history. Spurs fans weren’t the only ones left choking on their own vomit in disgust.
Gary Lineker has always done his work inside the box. His Match of the Day puns are diabolically unoriginal, and in his playing days he was the archetypal sniffer, who only left the penalty area to avoid being offside. So when he curved a gorgeous long-range winner past Jim Leighton at Old Trafford in 1989, it was hard to know who was more shocked: us or him. It was as pleasingly incongruous as seeing Lady Gaga in a head-to-toe dress. We doubt it was Lineker’s only goal from outside the box in his career – frankly it would take hours to find out and we can’t be bothered – but it certainly felt like it was.
6. George Best scores, Manchester United 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur, 06/02/1971
When we see old footage of the game’s greats at work, we tend to think only of the good times: that it never rained, that they were always scoring great goals and winning trophies. Far from it. Johan Cruyff, for example, won only one La Liga in five years at Barcelona; and in George Best’s final six seasons at Old Trafford, Manchester United finished 11th, 8th, 8th, 8th, 18th and 21st. When he scored his famous lob against Spurs in February 1971, United were actually in 14th place.
Not that this in any way diminishes the tender majesty of this goal. Five things stand out. First, Best’s little sprint to where his instinct told him the ball would go; second, the perfect arc of the lob, which bounces before it hits the net; third, the way the five Spurs players between Best and the goal turn their heads one at a time, as if choreographed, each realising that they had been stripped naked by genius; fourth, the effortlessly cool celebration; and fifth, Barry Davies turning into Bernard Matthews. Not that you could argue with his appraisal: “Beautiful. Ab-so-lutely beautiful.”
SIR Alex Ferguson is not unduly worried about World Cup hangovers when United return to Premier League action at Spurs.
The Reds Carrington training HQ is normally a ghost town in the international break but Ferguson had the luxury of a number of first teamers in work this week. 
MANCHESTER United are reportedly watching Russian goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev.
The Reds will have the chance to see the 23-year-old CSKA Moscow goalkeeper at close quarters when the sides meet in the Champions League. 
OWEN Hargreaves is set to become United’s VIP after being earmarked for a Champions League comeback in early November.
The 28-year-old midfielder’s return after 12 months out with knee problems is a boost for Sir Alex Ferguson and could be a plus for England coach Fabio Capello ahead of the World Cup in South Africa. 
Today’s guff wants a bacon sandwich
When the rumour fields lie parched and barren. When you need a helping hand. When times get rough. When you feel that you can’t go on. When the choicest nugget of tittle-tattle in today’s Sun is some arm-chancing wiffle from actually-quite-good baby-faced Russia goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev about fancying a go sitting next to Ben Foster and that crazed flailing pole on the Manchester United bench at some stage next year.
At times like these the Mill usually puts on its brave face. It’s a very good brave face. It quivers with sickly piety. It seems wise and sad and strong. It involves a jutting of the jaw and a faint, wistful smile. It’s the kind of face worn by a high-end American soul diva, perhaps Whitney Houston, while singing a really slow, quivering ballad about getting dumped, or being proud and strong and strongly taking pride in your strength while loving you for being you loving you. The Mill is wearing this face right now. OK, perhaps it’s closer to the kind of fearful, beatifically transported face adopted by a middling X-Factor hopeful while belting out a disturbing version of The Greatest Love Of All that inserts a kind of panting, husky “huhhhh” in between each word of the song.
But it’s still a face that has served the Mill well, particularly when it finds itself reporting the news in today’s Sun that it’s “NO SEX PLEASE WE’RE ENGLISH… DETERMINED Fabio Capello has laid down the law to the Wags as England plot their challenge for World Cup glory”.
The Mill is still wrestling with the disturbing – and even disgusting –notion of Fabio Capello actually knowing about sex, or thinking about it ever. Or worse sitting the Mill down in a small railway station cafe, ordering two banana milkshakes, removing his glasses, frowning, slowly rubbing his eyes and beginning to talk in a quiet voice about “when a man and a woman really like each other” while the Mill flushes and stares at the door and tries to pretend it didn’t just hear him say the word “vagina” in his halting, blunt, heavily-accented English.
“Boss Capello has ruled his current squad can have just one day with their partners and families after each game next summer.”
Which actually doesn’t sound too bad. One day a week. There you go. Ooops. Time to get on the bus. Cheers. Off you go… Now. Snooker anyone?
In more familiar surroundings, West Ham are on the verge of signing someone described as “Mexican free agent Guillermo Franco”, who used to play for Villarreal, carries a small knapsack, chews wearily on some kind of spitting tobacco and at the end of each 30-minute episode of gentle, feel-good made-for-TV Guillermo Franco vehicle The Mexican Free Agent, walks off slowly into a retreating sun down a gently winding cinder track, disappearing into the middle distance with a carefree swing of his poncho while a country-ish voice a bit like Willie Nelson sings “don’t keep me in, don’t follow me, don’t miss me when I’m gone, I’m the Mexican Free Agent and I’ve gotta be rolling on” and some really fast tiny credits whizz down the screen.
Meanwhile handsome, brooding 1970s chain-store knitwear model Juande Ramos is the new manager of CSKA Moscow. CSKA will play Manchester United in the Champions League. Igor Akinfeev plays for CSKA. What does it all mean? Perhaps the Mexican Free Agent might know. But he’s long gone.
In The Mirror it’s FAB BANS WAGS. Apparently “Some plan to stay on the isle of Mauritius three hours away by plane. They will fly in for matches – but will see the players only after the games.”
This sounds like an unnecessarily complicated way of getting in the paper. Also in the Mirror, “Beckham gets World Cup nod from Capello”, which is so obviously not true, and so clearly a desperately stretched headline drawn out from some bland, non-committal remark that the Mill can’t be bothered to read it. Hull are now giving a trial to Glauber Berti, who will wear his T-shirt that says: “I played for Brazil once. Really. Yes, really. Look it up on my Wikipedia page then.”
And Arsène Wenger has “issued a transfer warning”, albeit the kind of transfer warning that makes him sound slightly deranged and sweaty and like he’s in a film directed by Martin Scorsese where he’s just completed a massive deal involving brown leather suitcases full of cocaine and he’s about to attack someone with a tyre iron.
“If you ban players from moving before the age of 18, you know what will happen? The player will be sold anyway. To whom? To agents. At what age? At 13, 14. Where will they go? Not to top-level clubs with top-level education,” Wenger said, answering all his own questions in an Al Pacino-style voice and doing lots of eh-whaddaya-gonna-do shrugging.
The Mail believes Bryan Robson is about to replace Peter Reid as Thailand manager. The Mill wants to know who exactly is running Thai football? A publican? Or someone with an England World Cup 1986 midfield fetish? Who’s’ next? Steve Hodge and Trevor Steven?
And yes, David Beckham. More David Beckham. Because Beckham’s people have been talking to some other people who have sub-contracted out to some other people a story on Sky Sports Italia via Goal.com that “a deal has already been struck” to take the bandy-legged hobbling horse with the jumper-sleeve tattoos back to genteel gentlemen’s retirement home Milan. Just as soon as he’s finished getting into fights with men in baseball caps holding up furious, weirdly phrased hand-painted signs and scoring with a goal-strike free-punt one-pointer against the Miami Chicken Bucket.
And still the Mill is looking saintly and calm and above all forgiving. It’s wobbling its lip. But it’s not going to cry. Oh no. The Mill is strong.
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson says centre-back Rio Ferdinand is on the verge of a return to action against Tottenham on Saturday.
• ‘We are good at it and it rankles,’ says Sir Alex Ferguson
• Manager insists United have behaved correctly in all dealings
Sir Alex Ferguson has expressed his irritation about the way “people jumping on the bandwagon” had brought Manchester United’s policy of signing young players under scrutiny and questioned whether it was based on jealousy because of the club’s success at unearthing outstanding talent. “We are good at it and, obviously, it rankles with a lot of people,” the United manager said.
The president of Le Havre, Jean-Pierre Louvel, accused United this week of offering a house and £170,000 to the parents of a 16-year-old player, Paul Pogba, to persuade him to move to England. United have threatened Louvel with legal action and Ferguson said: “This was an accusation aimed at us by some frustrated director, and he is now going to have to retract it.”
Chelsea have been banned from the next two transfer windows for inducing a teenager to break his contract with Lens and United’s dealings have also caused consternation at Fiorentina, who have written to Fifa about the Premier League champions’ signing of a 16-year-old Italian defender, Michele Fornasier.
“They [other clubs] are always going to bring Manchester United into it because we are the biggest club, but they do it without any foundation, or knowledge about the situation whatsoever,” Ferguson said. “There are a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon, but I can assure you that Manchester United behave absolutely correctly in all their dealings with young players and their parents.
“There has never ever been a case of us paying parents. It would be crazy to contemplate that because it would be the biggest headache you could ever have. We behave impeccably – what other clubs do is obviously subject to a lot of controversy and speculation, but I’m confident about our own club.”
As for the moral issue of taking a young boy from abroad, Federico Macheda being one example after moving to England from Rome at the age of 16, Ferguson said: “The EU allows players to move. That’s a fact. You can’t stop a boy, once he has left school, moving from his country. So, that’s not an issue. We are well within the regulations.”
A lot of the problems, according to Ferguson, originate from the Football Association’s 90-minute rule, which limits the choice of young English players depending on where they live.
“There is a weakness in the academy system as far as Manchester United are concerned. We can’t scout a boy on the south coast of England, or the north-east, or anywhere in the east of England. Yet we can bring in a boy from Brazil. It seems ludicrous. We have said from the day the system started there is no doubt there is a weakness in that respect.
“We would never have got David Beckham under the present situation and you have to ask what would a boy’s best chance be of getting to the top. Would it be at Torquay, or somewhere like that, or at big clubs like Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, all the big clubs, historically?”
Ferguson revealed that Rio Ferdinand was in contention for United’s match at Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, but John O’Shea will be missing after suffering a calf injury on duty with the Republic of Ireland. “Rio has been in training this week and has a got a chance for Saturday; I’m not sure how big a chance but he has got a chance.”
Staycationing millionaire footballer kicks back at a caravan park in north Wales
He earns an estimated £120,000 a week and lives in a £5m mansion, but instead of passing the summer on a far-flung beach, Manchester United footballer Rio Ferdinand spent some of his time at a caravan park in north Wales.
The millionaire sports star, his partner Rebecca Ellison and their two young sons joined other families “staycationing” at the Presthaven Sands park in Prestatyn, run by Haven Holidays.
The company’s website describes a stay at the park as an “All-action adventure” and says a typical day “could include coffee and scrambled eggs in the Café Bar. A Wake & Shake family session. An energetic hour at the pool and SplashZone. Dinner at Mash & Barrel. Disco then relax.”
It adds: “For those wanting a beach holiday – and a bit of peace and quiet – explore seven miles of sandy coastline right on your doorstep. With so much to do, it will be hard to leave.”
Pictures of Ferdinand taken by fellow holidaymakers show him enjoying a circuit on the go-karts with one of his sons.
According to the Sun, the England defender spent around £400 on a “prestige” caravan, which is larger than normal and “comes with extras like a microwave and DVD player”. Unlike the cheaper models the caravans also have heating in the bedrooms and bathrooms, which could have proved useful during this year’s not-so-great British summer.
A spokeswoman for Haven Holidays said the break had been booked “primarily for his family”, but was unable to confirm if Ferdinand had actually slept in the caravan. However, she said other celebrities had also been staycationing with the firm this year. Actor Robert Lindsay had been camping on a park in Cornwall, while Jeff Brazier, the former partner of Jade Goody, and their children had stayed at another caravan park.
“The figures vary from park to park, but we’re 15% ahead for visitors this year. And it’s not just people hiring caravans, we have seen an increase in sales this year too,” she says.
It’s the type of break that is unlikely to make it into the pages of Ferdinand’s online lifestyle magazine, #5, but the footballer has previously spoken about how he eschews the kind of flash lifestyle most people associate with his sport.
Earlier this year he told the Sun: “I’m not in nightclubs every night, that’s for sure. I spend a lot of time looking after my two boys Lorenz and Tate, who was only born in August. I also spend a lot of time listening to music and watching Corrie and EastEnders. That’s all I do.”
BRIAN McClair insists there is no “post-Ronaldo crisis” at United. United lost to Burnley last month and often looked second-best in their last match against Arsenal - before winning 2-1 - but McClair is happy with the start of life without Cristiano Ronaldo.
McClair said: “As far as everybody at Old Trafford is concerned the start of the season is going well. The team was always going to come under more scrutiny than usual after the departure of Ronaldo and what some saw as unspectacular activity in the transfer window.
Rio Ferdinand has a chance of recovering from injury for Saturday’s game.
Joy for Wayne as England seal a spot at next summer’s World Cup finals.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson defends the club’s approach to signing young players.
• Manager says club have ‘behaved absolutely correctly’
• Says Le Havre president will ‘have to retract’ Pogba claim
Sir Alex Ferguson has launched an impassioned defence of Manchester United’s signing of young players and insisted it would be “crazy” to even contemplate paying parents.
United were accused by the president of French club Le Havre, Jean-Pierre Louvel, of offering the parents of 16-year-old Paul Pogba a house and £170,000 in cash.
Chelsea have been banned from making signings for two transfer windows for inducing a teenager, Gaël Kakuta, to break his contract with another French club, Lens. A number of other complaints against English clubs have since been made.
Apart from the Pogba case, Fiorentina have written to Fifa over United’s move for the 16-year-old Italian defender Michele Fornasier, though a formal investigation has yet to be launched.
Ferguson said today: “There has been a lot of jumping on the bandwagon of course but I can assure you that Manchester United have behaved absolutely correctly in all their dealings with young players and their parents.
“There has never been a case, ever, that we have paid parents. It would be crazy to even contemplate that because it would be the biggest headache you could ever have, paying a parent.
“This was levelled [at us] by some frustrated director at the French club and he’s now going to have to retract.
“We do it impeccably. They were always going to bring Manchester United into it because they are the biggest club, but without any foundation, without any knowledge of the situation whatsoever.
“What other clubs do is subject to a lot of controversy at the moment but I’m confident at our own club.”
Ferguson also said that Rio Ferdinand was in contention for United’s match at Tottenham on Saturday evening. John O’Shea is likely to be missing after suffering a calf injury on duty with the Republic of Ireland.
Ferguson said: “Rio has been in training this week and has a got a chance for Saturday, I’m not sure how big a chance but he has got a chance. I don’t know if there’s any injuries with the players coming back from games but I think the England players are all right.”
Ireland’s coach, Giovanni Trapattoni, had warned that O’Shea could be ruled out for a couple of months if he is rushed back into action too soon.
Ferguson said: “O’Shea has not trained – he came back with a calf injury from Ireland’s game in Cyprus and is doubtful for Saturday so we will see what he’s like.”
SIR Alex Ferguson has launched an impassioned defence of Manchester United’s signing of young players and insisted it would be “crazy” to even contemplate paying parents.
United were accused by the president of French club Le Havre, Jean-Pierre Louvel, of offering the parents of 16-year-old Paul Pogba a house and £170,000 in cash. 
BEN Foster can take the European road to South Africa and the coveted England number one spot. United’s current first choice keeper has lost out in the battle to be Fabio Capello’s international pick.
West Ham’s Robert Green has taken advantage of veteran David James’ shoulder and knee injury problems to secure his place and win five caps since April including three World Cup qualifiers.
ENGLAND’S transformation from joke to a genuine force to be reckoned with was completed last night with the typical lack of fuss that has been the hallmark of Fabio Capello’s reign.
Eight successive competitive wins betters the record of the 1966 World Cup winners - and thoughts will already turn to other ways in which Capello may emulate Sir Alf Ramsey.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter believes a number of clubs are worried about their own positions following Chelsea’s transfer ban.
Chelsea have been banned from buying players in the next two transfer windows after being found guilty of irregularities over the move of former Lens teenager Gael Kakuta to Stamford Bridge in 2007. 
Fifa says Italian club Fiorentina have been in contact with them about Manchester United’s signing of 16-year-old defender Michele Fornasier.
Reds legend Paddy Crerand says Darren Fletcher is United’s first-choice midfielder.
Skipper is fully focused on keeping fit and helping Reds to more success.
• Fiorentina have made approach to Fifa about transfer
• Centres on deal for Italian U16 captain Michele Fornasier
Fiorentina are considering a formal complaint to Fifa over the signing of the teenage defender Michele Fornasier by Manchester United. The club have made initial contact with Fifa but no investigation has yet been launched.
United are confident of their legal position – players aged under 18 are not legally permitted to sign contracts in Italy and Fornasier was not contracted to Fiorentina when he was signed by the Manchester club this year. But Fiorentina are furious at losing out on the 16-year-old.
A Fifa spokesman said: “Fifa can confirm that we were contacted by Fiorentina with regard to the potential transfer of the player, Michele Fornasier, to Manchester United.
“However, so far no formal investigation was opened since the relevant documentation still needs to be completed. Only then will we be in a position to evaluate possible future steps to be taken.”
Fornasier is not the first Italian teenager signed by United: the striker Federico Macheda joined from Lazio when he was 16, and another defender, Alberto Massacci, joined from Empoli this summer.
Empoli have not complained but United have asked the Football Association to seek international clearance from Fifa for Massacci as none has been forthcoming from the Italian FA.
The Fifa spokesman added: “Our services were contacted by the Football Association on behalf of its member club, Manchester United, with regard to the international clearance for the player Alberto Massacci, since the FA was not able to receive the pertinent international transfer certificate from the Italian Football Federation.”
ITALIAN club Fiorentina are considering a formal complaint to FIFA over the signing of teenage defender Michele Fornasier by Manchester United.
The club have made initial contact with FIFA but no investigation has yet been launched. 
SIR Bobby Charlton is backing England talisman Wayne Rooney to end 43 years of international hurt.
The United striker is the number one goalscorer in the European qualifying groups with eight goals. 
GARY Neville has admitted his mounting list of injuries has been a major concern.
Although Neville is fit and aiming to play a part in Manchester United’s trip to Tottenham on Saturday, the 34-year-old has spent more time on the treatment table than he would have liked lately. 
• ‘United understood it was impossible to make a deal’
• Rennes general manager says City knew of Hélan contract
The Rennes general manager, Pierre Dréossi, has said that Manchester United had initially tried to sign the teenage defender Jérémy Hélan, the subject of a complaint by the French club to Fifa. The world governing body is investigating Manchester City over claims by Rennes that they illegally poached the 17-year-old in February. City have insisted they acted within the rules and did not induce the player to breach his contract.
“United understood that it was impossible to make a deal as they didn’t want to steal the player from us,” Dréossi said. “They stepped back.
“We asked Fifa to intervene on 19 March, after City took him from us at the end of January. City had the feeling that the player was free, but we had told them that he was under contract with us for the 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons.
“We think that City should have got more information before trying to sign him.”
The dispute between Rennes and Hélan is currently going through the French courts.
“The player didn’t want to stay at Rennes and wanted to go to City so he asked all the French league’s commissions to rule in his favour,” Dréossi said. “He even went before the French Olympic Committee and every time his request was denied. So he decided to refer the matter to the French labour courts.”
City claimed the dispute pre-dated their interest in Hélan. “City obviously cannot comment on the case until the French judicial process has run its course,” a spokesman for the Premier League club said. “However, we are comfortable that we have acted within the rules throughout the process and in no way induced any breach of contract by Jérémy Hélan.”
• Chief executive David Gill blasts Le Havre over Pogba case
• Club may submit their own complaint to Fifa
Manchester United’s chief executive, David Gill, has accused the French club Le Havre of “insulting” the English champions in their increasingly bitter wrangle over the transfer of the prodigious 16-year-old talent Paul Pogba.
Hours after Chelsea were last week banned from making any new transfers until 2011 for illegally inducing the Lens player Gaël Kakuta to break his contract in 2007, similar allegations surfaced from Le Havre over United’s conduct.
“It’s not intimidation but they can’t insult us,” Gill said. “We are not intimidating Le Havre, we have no intention of intimidating Le Havre, they can take whatever action they feel appropriate.
“We will not accept the good name of Manchester United being trawled around on websites and the press to say that we have done these things which we are not allowed to do and we would never do. We’ve done everything, we think, by the book.”
Gill, speaking after the general assembly of the European Club Association in Geneva, added: “It is an insult by Le Havre to suggest that Manchester United and the employees of Manchester United have paid the players’ parents and bought the parents a house.”
On Monday, United threatened to sue Le Havre over allegations that the club had bought Pogba’s parents a house and offered them a cash payment in return for his signature.
In an interview with a French football magazine, the Le Havre president, Jean-Pierre Louvel, claimed that the inducements included £180,000 to be split between Pogba’s parents and a promised salary for the player of £16,500 a month when he turned 17. But Fifa has yet to receive an official complaint from Le Havre and the player remains trapped in limbo, with his registration held by the French Football Federation.
“They can do whatever they feel is appropriate,” Gill said of Le Havre’s threatened complaint to football’s global governing body. “We can defend our case in the football bodies. We are very comfortable doing that.”
Insisting that the transfer was above board and that no contract was broken, United will themselves submit a complaint to Fifa if Le Havre take no action and the deadlock remains. Gill insisted that the club was not attempting to bully its smaller French rival.
Along with Real Madrid’s president, Florentino Pérez, Gill was yesterday voted on to the 15-strong ECA executive board. The ECA, which consists of more than 100 clubs across Europe, effectively replaced the powerful G14 lobbying group in 2008, and was designed to promote a more productive relationship between clubs and the game’s governing bodies.
Chelsea’s chief executive, Peter Kenyon, who is also a member of the ECA board, moved to distance the club from allegations of “child trafficking” in the wake of the Kakuta case and said it supported Uefa’s bid to ban all international transfers of players under 18. “It was something that happened two years ago that was in no way child trafficking. I think you’ve also got to distinguish between the issues,” Kenyon said.
He added that Kakuta, now 18 and one of the best young French players of his generation, had also been stunned by Fifa’s verdict.
“He wants to play his profession, which is football. We need to take account of that and understand this is something that happened two years ago, and make sure we’ve got enough support around him to ensure he’s fully supported at a difficult time.”
Kakuta, who was banned for four months and ordered to share joint liability with Chelsea for a €780,000 (£685,000) fine, had been due to play for the France Under-19 team in a tournament in Japan but instead returned to London.
Kenyon, speaking after the ECA meeting, insisted Chelsea would support a ban on the international transfers of players aged under 18 if if Uefa managed to persuade the European Commission it was compatible with laws on freedom of movement.
He said: “This has been talked about for the last 12 months and we have signed up fully to the ECA and Uefa’s position, along with Fifa’s. We need to separate our overall position with the specific case. The fact we are appealing tells you our position.”
The club, which believes that the pre-contract agreement Lens had with Kakuta is not legally enforceable, is awaiting the delivery of the full rationale for the ruling of the Fifa Dispute Resolution Chamber before lodging an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.
Betfair have all the odds covered ahead of the midweek internationals.
Wayne’s hunger for goals is natural, not new-found in Ronaldo’s wake.
UNITED will get their first indication of the true power and strength of the Big Four wannabes in their next two Premier League matches. And the Reds will need to have to up the ante if they are going to remain among the early front-runners after the two crunch matches against Tottenham and City.
Spurs have been the new force at the top of the Premier League after the opening matches. 
Andrew Cole backs Rooney, Owen and Berbatov to fire United to glory.
David Gill has been elected to the European Club Association board.
Today’s piffle believes only big books can reverse the broken window syndrome
We’ve seen the future and it is looking bleak. With Manchester City and Liverpool the latest clubs to face accusations of dodgy dealings with youth players and the threat of transfer bans looming like Andre the Giant at an Oompa-Loompa convention, how many clubs are going to be left for the Mill to link with the latest six-year-old African wonderkid, toddling east European new Pelé or foetal South American superstar? We’ll be left with gossip like this:
LUCIANO SPALLETTI IS TO JOIN MANCHESTER UNITED! To study their training methods.
CHELSEA WANT SIX NEW PLAYERS! To come up through their academy.
CITY LOOKING AT FRESH TARGETS! For pencil case sales from club shop.
ARSENAL WANT INTER’S MARIO BALOTELLI. No, that one’s a real one.
It’s just as well, then, that some clubs prefer players at the other end of their careers. Spurs, for example, who were turned down by Corinthians’ Ronaldo this summer, are ready to make a January move for O Fenomeno. Failing that ‘Arry Redknapp fancies Manchester City’s Benjani or Real’s Ruud van Nistelrooy.
And Hull’s Phil Brown isn’t mad keen on players who possess talent only in potential. He’d rather have players who have shown potential but then spent a season or so suggesting they can’t quite cut it at the top, and Sunderland’s Fraizer Campbell fits the bill.
Come the next transfer window, by which point the African Cup of Nations will be looming, the Mill will also be able to rely on a bit of continental panic-buying. Sure enough, Barcelona want Roma’s Julio Baptista and PSV’s Ibrahim Afellay to plug their gaps.
And with the January window shining in the distance like a gold-plated Arc d’Triomphe, we can console ourselves with the cracked and muddy catflap in a paint-peeled door at the back of an overpriced Champs-Elysées boulangerie that is the loan window.
Middlesbrough, for example, want to sign the best/only Saint in football since Ian St John with the signing of the Preston defensive linchpin Sean St Ledger as a replacement for the not-particularly-saintly-but-you-could-picture-him-in-a-habit-if-you-really-tried Robert Huth. Blackpool want to borrow Barnet’s Albert Adomah and Aston Villa’s Isaiah Osbourne, and promise they’ll be really, really careful with them. Notts County are ready to do likewise with three loan targets.
There’ll also be the Mill’s old favourite, the free agent. For example the suave Swansea City manager Paulo Sousa wants to pair the former Ajax striker and headline-writers dream Cedric van der Gun with the former Nice and Marseille striker and not-quite-so-page-furniture-friendly Matt Moussilou.
And down at the bottom of the page there’ll always be a bit of managerial tittle-tattle, even if it’s as underwhelming as the suggestion that Southampton are lining up Steve Coppell for the director of football job at St Mary’s.
UNITED and City have handed police £10,000 each to prevent trouble in the aftermath of one of the most eagerly anticipated derbies in decades.
The bitter rivals will face off in what is sure to be a white-hot Old Trafford showdown on September 20. 
In the fourth of a six-part series, Barney Ronay looks at management in the 1960s
UNITED defender John O’Shea has been sent back to the Reds to avoid further damage to his calf.
Republic of Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni has allowed the 28-year-old, who played in Saturday night’s World Cup victory in Cyprus, to return to Manchester for scans on the muscle problem. 
• Gill joins Real Madrid president on 15-man board
• I’m pleased to be elected, says Gill
Manchester United’s chief executive, David Gill, has been elected a member of the European Club Association’s 15-man board along with the Real Madrid president, Florentino Pérez. They defeated the CSKA Moscow, president Evgeny Giner, in a poll to choose two new board members.
“I’m obviously very pleased to be elected,” said Gill. “The ECA has a very important role to play in the relationship with Uefa and other bodies within European and world football.”
Pérez, who orchestrated Real’s €250m (£220m) off-season spending spree, said he was “very happy to be able to work for the clubs inside the big European football family”. Gill and Pérez, whose clubs are valued together at $3.22bn by Forbes magazine, will take their seats at the centre of a debate on how to control excessive spending in football.
The ECA sends delegates to Uefa’s strategy council which will propose detailed “financial fair play” rules next year. The European authority wants clubs to break even on football activities by 2012 or face being barred from its lucrative Champions League.
“We are the people who run the clubs, we understand the issues,” Gill said. “All parties need to work together to come up with a set of rules and regulations that everyone buys into.”
The ECA comprises 144 clubs from Europe’s 53 football nations who have been successful in the Champions League or Uefa Cup, now rebranded as the Europa League. Monday’s poll was open to ECA members from Europe’s six most successful leagues – England, Spain, Italy, France, Germany and Russia.
More than 100 clubs are expected to attend a six-monthly general assembly Tuesday, which will discuss releasing players for the Olympic Games and how European Union labour and competition laws affect the sport.
• Defender returns to club for scan on a calf problem
• United must have an input, says manager Giovanni Trapattoni
The Manchester United defender John O’Shea has been sent back to his club to avoid further damage to his calf. The Republic of Ireland manager, Giovanni Trapattoni, has allowed O’Shea, who played in Saturday night’s World Cup victory in Cyprus, to return to Manchester for scans on a calf problem.
Trapattoni revealed tonight that the decision had been taken in an effort to prevent the damage from getting any worse and incurring a lengthy lay-off. He said: “Today, he could not play because he had a bleed on the calf. He couldn’t run today. I told him to be careful because when you pull that muscle, it is two months. It was not just for me, it was also for his club to decide.”
On the latest Football Weekly podcast, James Richardson is joined by Barry Glendenning, Barney Ronay, and Raphael Honigstein to look back on the weekend’s international fixtures and ahead to the midweek ones.
Has Slaven Bilic’s Croatia got the beating of England? Are Scotland going to fail against Holland - in spectacular but no doubt heroic fashion? And what now for Diego Maradona’s Argentina after they were humbled by Brazil?
Also in the show, the pod reflects on John Terry’s ridiculous claims that English players don’t dive
Plus, we finally get round to discussing Chelsea’s transfer ban. The Blues are busy mounting their defence - but are there further revelations to come about the methods of Frank Arnesen and his associates? Is it also squeaky bum time for Manchester United as their own case is dragged into the spotlight?
Have a listen and post your comments on the blog below. Remember we’re also on Twitter and Facebook too.
And if you thought that podcasts were so 2008, get ready for the first ever Football Weekly Live - streaming to you across t’interweb on Sunday 20 September at 6pm.
Stay tuned for more details …
• Club threaten legal action over financial inducement allegations
• United say teenager had no contract at French club
Manchester United have warned Le Havre they will take action against them unless they stop repeating claims that the Premier League club offered financial inducements to Paul Pogba’s family to lure the teenager to Old Trafford.
United have grown angry at the sustained assault by Le Havre, which came in the wake of a transfer ban imposed on Chelsea last week for an infringement of the rules. Now Old Trafford officials have written to the French club, and made them aware that they must either provide evidence, or shut up.
“In response to the wholly unfounded comments widely reported in the media of Le Havre president Jean-Pierre Louvel, Manchester United wish to categorically confirm that as a matter of club policy and in accordance with the applicable football regulations, we do not offer inducements to the parents of players who sign for the club such as monetary payments or the purchase of houses,” said United.
“Manchester United have today written to Le Havre to put it on notice that action will be taken if such allegations are repeated in relation to the transfer of Paul Pogba.”
Le Havre said the matter is being referred to Fifa to investigate, although the world governing body has not acknowledged receipt of a complaint.
When the Pogba issue was raised last week, United officials suggested there was no contract for the 16-year-old to break, therefore the club could not be offering inducements to do so. However, they have been annoyed by Le Havre’s allegations of impropriety, which prompted today’s response.
“Manchester United are entirely satisfied that the transfer of Paul Pogba has been conducted in accordance with the regulations set down by the world governing body, Fifa,” the club added.
“We are ready to defend any claim brought by Le Havre at Fifa. It is to be noted that all contractual documentation relating to the player’s registration with the club has already been fully ratified by the Football Association and the Premier League.”
Manchester United say they will take legal action against Le Havre unless they stop making allegations involving the transfer of youngster Paul Pogba.
MANCHESTER United have warned Le Havre they will take action against them unless they stop repeating claims that the Reds offered financial inducements to Paul Pogba’s family in order to lure the teenager to Old Trafford.
United have grown angry at the sustained assault by Le Havre, which came in the wake of a transfer ban imposed on Chelsea last week for a similar infringement of the rules. 
WILL Harry be hailed the undisputed king of White Hart Lane or will Fergie outfox his mate and spoil Spurs’ party?
Who knows what will happen in the biggest game of the season so far when Spurs take on United. What a match Saturday’s Premier League showdown promises to be. 
SANDY Busby travelled to Scotland to honour the memory of his father, Sir Matt, and commemorate his 100th birthday in the most fitting way - the son of the United’s late inspirational manager sat on the coach with the next generation of Reds wannabes.
Sandy was a welcome guest on the coach with Ole Solskjaer’s United reserve side as they motored North of the Border to play Motherwell in a tribute match for Sir Matt.
Ole’s boys lose to Motherwell in the inaugural Sir Matt Busby Shield.
Andrew Cole backs strike trio Rooney, Berbatov and Owen to fire United to glory.
Solskjaer’s boys lose out to Motherwell in the inaugural Sir Matt Busby Shield.
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