FFS everything he says is bang on, how anyone could question his character after such a truthful piece is beyond me.
southgate has the bones of 60 caps for England and was an established player in the English first team before Paul Scholes won his first cap how on earth could he be talking about Southgate using getting in the England squad as a stepping stone when he spent his best years at Villa
I wouldn’t worry about it mate
Don’t think he literally meant Villa only. He said “your Aston Villas” which would imply clubs of that ilk rather than just them specifically, would it not?
It would indeed.
Likewise. He obviously has a bit of an irk with them though to name them specifically mind you.
goal.com reporting the United and Inter have agreed a €40m fee for Wesley Sneijder.
I’m still a bit skeptical abou this move. Gasperini and Sneijder have both issued statements suggesting Sneijder will stay. I do however, feel that Gasperini is not too keen on Sneijder and his ability to adapt to his favoured 3-4-3 formation.
It has never in my memory been the players from unfashionable clubs that have let England down in big tournaments. More the likes of Scholes, Rooney, Gerrard failed continuously and then to cap it all Scholes gave up and has the gall to point the finger at others for quitting.
In other news, McGeady linked with Villa…this could be good haha
Did Scholes completely remove himself from blame? I don’t think he did, he was making reference to the squad attitude the spread due to a lack of focus from some players who were not focussed on it.
Patrick Viera has announced his retirement. He’s taking an upstairs role at City.
I wouldn’t place much faith in goal.com - they were badly caught out last week copying an invented story on twitter.
The approach the Oakland As took (subject matter of moneyball) was picking up players who were undervalued i.e. their performances were not valued by most viewers of the game based on widely accepted conventions/statistics etc, went looking for different sets of stats to value players. Heard an example that if you dig behind passes completed statstic for the EPL, and focus on passes completed in final third in plays that result in a goal (or something like that) then the top three over last few season were Gerrard, Fabergas and Kevin Nolan, theory is then that Nolan is undervalued relative to so many more midfielders who are not as effective and is a ‘moneyball’ purchase.
Key to it was a willingness to take an undervalued player, improve him, and sell him on for more, regardless of how important he was to you. Cant see how what Liverpool are doing is remotely like it. In fact Id say Newcastle getting rid of Carroll would be a perfect example of it.
Ferguson has just come out and said the Sneijder story is nonsense… It’s probably true then.
BBC are saying that Ferguson/Utd have told them they are not interested. Didn’t think Utd gave many interviews to the BBC. There looks to be too much media reporting on this for there to be nothing at all to it. No guarantee of any definite move but it looks like there has been some communication.
According to reports and Twitter rumours, N’Zogbia has agreed to join Villa today, I’d be happy enough with the signing if we get him. He is a bit inconsistent but when he is on his game he can be excellent.
Fergie certainly didn’t tell the BBC anything so I’d like to know where they’re getting the quote from.
The interview was with ESPN , it is on sky sports.
Edit::Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has dismissed reports that he is close to sealing a £35m move for Wesley Sneijder.
Inter Milan have insisted the Holland international is not for sale, but several reports on Thursday suggested United had agreed both a fee with the Serie A side and to the player’s £190,000 a week wage demands.
“I keep reading about this, there’s absolutely nothing at all to that,” Ferguson told ESPN.
"First of all I don’t think Inter are prepared to sell him anyway.
"You get conjecture and you get speculation every week in newspapers unfortunately.
“And we have to answer these for some reason - why, I don’t know, but we have to find a reason without adding insult to any particular club, or embarrassing any particular player. There’s nothing we can do about it.”
Man United fans are clinging their hopes on this in a big way. Ferguson will probably end up buying some no name dross in the end.
Downing is at melwood, medical later or in the morn.
Let’s hope he is crocked
Im clinging alright. Fergie has been talking up the youth cup team so he probbably wont be signing anyone else this summer.