United played AC Milan last night and easily won 4-0 (7-2 on aggregate). In the end it was pretty easy as Milan were very poor. Arguably it could have been different if Ronaldinho scored with a header early on but Rooney scored after 13 minutes and that more or less settled the tie.

After Rooney scored, there wasnt too much from United in the 1st half. However, the 2nd half was a great performance. Another goal by Rooney from a brilliant pass from Nani, a goal by Park after great work by Scholes and Fletcher scored near the end.

As I said, Milan were pretty rubbish. There front 3 just didnt track back for a start. No one came out with credit – no idea how Huntelaar is so highly rated – the only one you could possibly say did alright was maybe Seedoof who came on at half time and Beckham did well. Put in a few trademark brilliant crosses and one brillant volley from about 25 yards out. He connected with the ball so well, properly too well and it was more or less straight at Van Der Saar.

Beckham, as expected, got a great response from the United fans he loves and who love him. When he came out with about 25 minutes to go it looked quite emotional. He was cheered and clapped on the pitch but then when he got the ball the United fans booed him. All a bit of fun and he knows we love him. Hes a legend!! Not only was he one of the best players ever to play for United, he has said great things about United, the fans, the managers since leaving. He will always be a United fan. Even during the match, with his current team losing 3-0 he was still shown smiling. In a post match interview he said about the fans and United:

“It was an unbelievable reception I got, incredible, and I have to say thank you.

“If this is my last appearance at Old Trafford, I’ll take the memory of the fans away with me – they were incredible.

“Of course I now want United to go on and win it. They deserve it.”

After the final whistle, Becks clapped and applauded each side of the stadium. He walked towards the tunnel and grabbed one of the “anti-glazer” green and gold scarfs.

He later on said he put the scarf on because it was the old colours of United and that he said thats all he knew:

“I’m a Manchester United fan. I saw the scarf there. I put it round my neck, it’s the old colours of United, that’s all I knew.

“To be honest it’s not my business. I support the club. I always have done and I always will do.

“It’s nothing to do with me the way everything is run, that’s to do with other people but I’m a United fan and I will always support them.

“Obviously you can hear it week in and week out. There’s always protests going on. Let’s hope it gets sorted out.”

Personally I think he knew exactly what the scarf was all about but being David Beckham he can’t say 100% what he think about the whole “anti-Glazer” protest.

Just briefly going back to the match, as well as Rooney played great (as usual). Park played excellently in possibly MOTM in my book. Nani played better than last few matches but not quite as good as his brilliant 3 game run (but it wasnt all same old Nani), Fletcher marshalled the midfield and it was good to have Rio and Vidic back playing in the same team and getting a clean sheet.

England played Egypt last night in a friendly and won 3-1. There were some positives and some negatives. The 1st half was pretty bad – as usual England could keep hold of the ball. Egypt scored a goal which was very well taken.

One thing I have to say before talking about the 2nd half is the England ‘fans’ at the match last night. First about the booing of the Egypt national anthem. Why??! Its showing no respect, is rude and there is no reason at all. Second, is the constant booing of John Terry. Don’t get me wrong, I hate the man but how is booing an England player during the match any good for the team. Boo when his name is announced before match – fair enough but during the match. Why pay £40 just to do that?? I am sure its a minority but its not good. (Almost as bad are the fans after the match calling John Terry a “legend”. What?? Really???!). Anyway, back to the match…..

The 2nd half was much better. Crouch came on and once again scored a couple and played well. SWP came on for the rubbish Walcott and scored a goal too. Rooney as usual played well. He properly should have got the MOTM award but it was awarded to Crouch. Another time when a sub gets the MOTM award. It seems goals cloud people’s minds – the MOTM award was decided by Gareth Southgate. As I said there are positives and negatives to be taken from the game. For a start it was a win against a very decent team. They have won African Cup of Nations last 3 teams, recently built Italy and narrowly lost to Brazil. Personnel wise Crouch, SWP, Carrick and Milner did their England chances no harm. Gerrard played a bit better than he has recently and some of his hollywood balls actually worked.

The negatives were Walcott who only has one good attribute (pace) and does use it effectively. Hes told to stay out wide but kept going in-field – and losing the ball. The final ball into the box was terrible from freekicks and corners. This is why Beckham needs to be in the squad.

Also, the defence is a worry. We dont have 1 outstanding keeper. Robert Green looks to be 1st choice. Other options either not that good, not playing well or just not playing much. Then there is the back 4. Starting at left back, Ashley Cole is out and his stand-ins are just “decent”. Then we have John Terry – hes not playing well and of course lacks pace. (And thats not mentioning all the off-field stuff). The other central defender would usually be Rio but hes not played for ages and when he has hes not been that good. The central defender stand-ins are not that good either. Upson showed that last night. Finally the right back position and this would be Glen Johnson. He is also out injured. The backup would be Wes Brown. Playing well hes a very good defender but hes not playing right back for United and when playing in central defence hes had some dodgy moments. He will properly still go to WC because of his versatility.

Looking at the positives, there is still a few months to the world cup (I think its not 98 days) and there is time for players to get fit and find some form.

If I was to choose the 23 man squad now it would be (assuming all fit and in-form):

David James
Robert Green
Joe Hart

Rio Ferdinand
John Terry
Ashley Cole
Glen Johnson
Wes Brown
Leighton  Baines
Phil Jagielka (or Ledley King if he could still fit for more than 1 game in a row)

David Beckham
Aaron Lennon
Steven Gerrard
Frank Lampard
James Milner
Gareth Barry
Michael Carrick
Shaun Wright Phillips
Joe Cole

Wayne Rooney
Peter Crouch
Emile Heskey
Jermain Defoe

I think Stewart Downing and Ashley YOung still has a chance especially if Joe Cole doesnt make it and if Capello takes 5 strikers it will properly be Carlton Cole or Gabriel Agbonlahor. (Its too late now realistically for Owen). Also if Hargreaves somehow gets himself fit and plays from now till rest of season he will go.

First 11 would be:

Robert Greet

Ashley Cole
John Terry
Rio Ferdinand
Glen Johnson

Gerrard
Lampard
Milner
SWP

Rooney
Crouch

Who would be in your squad/team?

It was revealed a few days ago that John Terry had an affair and slept with the girlfriend of his former team-mate Wayne Bridge. It was announced today that he has been “sacked” as England captain. Personally, I never thought he should never have been captain. There is too much evidence that hes not a pleasent guy.

Some people are saying that he is being made a scapegoat and other people are involved – they are right. Other people are involved (and other footballers have been “dodgy” things). Also, you have to say that the woman involved isn’t exactly “whiter than white”. If the papers are right she has slept with 4 other Chelsea players (and who knows who else). You have to feel sorry for Wayne Bridge!

As well as this latest John Terry scandal it was also reveals that he sold his own corporate box at Wembley for £4000. (Which hes not allowed to!). He has to pay £80,000 a year for the box – if he wasnt captain it would be £120,000. A few months ago, it was also reveals that he was taking a share of £10,000 for private tours around the Chelsea training ground. Thats just 3 things recently. I could add to the list!! The main earns £170,000 a week but still wants to earn a few extra ££ on the side “dodgy-ly”.

The new England captain has been announced today as Rio Ferdinand – who isnt exactly “whiter than white”. Personally I would like Rooney to be captain. Hes been captain for England. However, maybe its best to have him concentrate on just playing. It seems the top contenders for England captain are have had “scandal” in their past. Maybe the best one is Lampard??

Anyway, as long as England play well and win I dont care. Some people have been saying about England captain (and other footballers) being role models. I think footballers (the vast vast majority) should not be role models.

The loan deal which would have seen David James move to Stoke on loan has failed. I personally thought it was a strange reason it failed but even stranger why the loan deal was trying to be arranged.

It apparently failed because of wage demands. Portsmouth wanted Stoke City to pay wages up to end of June but Stoke said would only pay his wages up to end of May. All for an extra £200,000 they could have got James. James contract expires at end of season but crucially, if he plays 20 games this season will automatically get a 1 year extension. That will cost Portsmouth even more money!

The reason I think the deal in the first place was an odd one is why would Stoke want James. They have already got a very good keeper in Sorenson who is the no.1 keeper for Denmark national team. (If they did sign James, I am sure Sorenson would have been on his way out or risk losing his national team place – just before the World Cup).

Its getting  a bit worrying being a United fan if all the things happening regarding the debt and what will happen to the club/stadium/players/training ground.

The latest in the papers was that United may have to sell Rooney and also to sell their training ground (and lease it back). Everyone knows now that United have a debt of  millions – its £699m to be precise. The big problem with this debt (apart from the amount) is that debt is being paid off at very high interest rates – I know sounds mad in these low interest rate times but there you go!

Anyway, the latest plan (and dont know why wasnt done earlier) is to ease to burden of the debt with a £500m bond deal. This £500, will pay some of the debt off while rewarding the new bond holds with a return at a lower interest rate. The “Preliminary Offering Memorandum” was distributed to potential investors this week and from it their are 5 possible outcomes on what may happen.

They are:

- Selling Old Trafford and Carrington training ground- highly unlikely to sell Old Trafford short term but apparently selling training ground is being “considered”.

- No new players

- Debt could get even worse

- Selling players – as I said there is rumour United may have to sell Rooney. Hes the only player we have who is likely to get anything near what we got for Ronaldo. United only made a profit because of the sale of Ronaldo – without it, it would have been a loss.

- Spending money they dont have

Its just crazy that not that long ago United were, as were as being a great football club, a well run business. Now we are seriously in debt and the Glazers have quite frankly messed with United!  For example, there was loans totally £10m to the Glazers under the heading “Related Party Transactions”. It was also stated in the document that United agreed to pay a company connected to the Glazers an annual fee of £2.9m under “consultancy agreement” and “management and admin fees” of £0.6m, £1.8m, £1.4m, £3.1m and £3.1m have been paid to ‘affiliates’ since July 2006.

You can read more about this in this Daily Mail article. There is also a link to read the document – if you want – it is 298 pages!

A lot of people may think it could never happen to United that we go “bust” or just drop down the league but not that long ago, Leeds United were fighting for the league title and got to semi final of Champions League. Now they are in Division 1 and only this season looking like they are getting their act together properly.

There was an article in The Times the other day that United have, since Glazers took over, paid £325,000,000. I think I am right in saying this is all just the interest!! We could have bought Messi with that money (and just a few others)!!

There has been a lot of news in the press recently about Manchester United (and a few other clubs) and how much is owed and how much in debt they are etc. Its starting to get worrying for many clubs.

There is an excellent blog post byMatt Slater on the BBC News sport site explaining it all – a lot better than I can explain it! Basically the owners of United are considering a bond issue to refinance debts which are believed to total £700m.

Just incase you dont remember, back in 2005 the Glazer family completed a deal to buy United which involved them borrowing a load of money from many different lenders. A year later they refinanced all the borrowing and split it between themselves and the club. However, the interest on the debt was to be paid by the club. Dont know how they managed to wing that!!

In no world does it make sence to turn the world’s richest football club into the most indebted football club!

One thing I didnt know is that the list of IOU-holders includes three New York hedge funds charging HUGE interest. The loans account for only a quarter of the total debt but they have “skewed an otherwise decent mortgage deal into the financial equivalent of a ball and chain”. The average annual interest rate for the total debt is close to 10%. Crazy in these times of record law interest rates!

As the blog post says, United will be OK but it could be bad for other clubs like Portsmouth, West Ham, Hull City,….

Related links:

United Rant – United’s bond issue: a primer – Excellent article which explains more about the bond issue.

Well everyone seems to be talking about the France vRep. of Ireland game which happened on Wednesday but not about the actual match. It was all about Hnery handled the ball which directly led to France’s goal in extra time.

Here is the Hand of Henry:

There is no denying the Henry handled the ball. In fact he handled it twice. Henry himself has admitted it and said it was “instinctive”. Looking at the replays it looks like the 1st one may have been but the 2nd touch he seems to scoop the ball into the penalty area for Gallas to head to ball into the net. (Looking at replays there was properly an offside too).

Apparently Henry told the ref that he handled it but not clear if it was after the final whistle or the goal. Hand balls happen all the time in football whether deliberate or not but most of the time the ref or linesman spots it, stops play (or disallows goal), maybe gives a card and the game goes on. If the ref/linesman spotted this incident (not idea why the linesman didnt), then there wouldnt be this huge “controversy”.

So far Blatter and Platini (heads of FIFA and UEFA) have not commented on it. No surprise as they are generally hopeless. Who knows what would happen if it was the other way around and e.g. Robbie Keane handled the ball. Maybe this is time to finally have video replays/refs. I dont think it would work having it all the time as football is fast paced and we dont want lots of stopping in the action like other sports. However, having it for goal mouth incidents. To see if the ball went over the line or if there were any fouls etc in the penalty box leading up to a goal.

Its all to late now for Rep. of Ireland and the likely hood of a replay is very very slim. I think real sorry for Ireland. However, one way of looking at it is that they had 3 very good chances to score another goal and maybe should have cleared the ball before it even got to Henry. Also, they were awarded a penalty in the Georgia game in the qualifiers which was for absolutely nothing so maybe everything balances out?? I personally think if they was a replay it would open a huge can of worms. It would set a precident and mean all games in the future with controversal incidents could be replayed or teams would demand replays after games they had lost because of silly things. It would be madness!

It has to be said though that the reputation of Thierry Henry has certainly gone down for many people. He doesnt seem the type of player to “cheat”, maybe it all instinctive. Either way, he will have to do some very good PR to improve his reputation now – he may now be remembered not for a really really good player but for that hand ball.

As I have said there has been many comments from players and managers but one of the most vocal is Roy Keane. Now as a United fan I think Roy Keane is a United legend. However, that is as a player and not as a person/manager. He certainly has seem issues with the FAI (Football Association of Ireland)! He said that they (Rep. of Ireland team) should get over it. I am sure if it was his team he wouldnt let it drop. Although a different type of situation, he certainly didnt forgot about it back in around 2001 when he basically tried to break Haland’s leg with a knee high “challenge”. This was after an incident in around 1998 when Keane tried to tackle Haland and suffered a cruciate ligaments injury.

You can see the Keane press conference where he talks about the Henry incident - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8370497.stm

(Reading in news this morning that Eric Cantona said about the Henry incident. “What shocks me the most is that this player, at the end of the game, in front of the TV cameras, went to sit down next to an Ireland player to comfort him – when he had just screwed him,”. “If I had been an Irishman, he wouldn’t have lasted three seconds.”).

Well its been awhile since I blogged. Tweeting on Twitter seems to have taken over! If you want to follow me on Twitter my username is @andrewyee.

Anyway, heres my latest post. As per usual its football related!!

Last week, England played a qualifier game against Croatia. At the start of the match, England only needed a draw to get enough points to qualify for World Cup in South Africa next year. In the end, England won 5-1. It was an excellent performance by England. Everyone played really well especially Lennon on the right. England now have 2 more games in qualifiers so Capello can experiment abit – maybe. WOOHOO!!! Come on England!!

In more football related stuff, there were some great football games this weekend. Lots of goals as well – 32 goals just on Saturday. United played Spurs and won 3-1. It was a great performance only spoiled by Scholes getting sent off for 2 yellow cards. His 1st yellow was a typical mis-timed tackle. He 2nd he was abit unlucky. He went for a challenge and actually pulled out of the challenge. His boots ended going abit “high” when he was on the floor. The tackle was on Huddlestone and he pretended to be hit on the head The result takes United up to 2nd on goal difference with Man. City in 3rd. Its the Manchester derby next weekend which should be tasty!!

The only game with talking points was the Man. City v Arsenal game. City won 4-2 with an excellent performance. Adebayor was playing against his former team and he certainly had an up and down game!! He scored a good game and made one particularly great run.

However, the game will be remembered for the idiocy of Adebayor. First, in the pre-game warmup he warmed up in the Arsenal half. Its just not the done thing and shows disrespect. During the game, he stamped/kicked out at Van Persie. Van Persie should have got at least a yellow card for his challenge which went right through Adebayor but that gives no excuse to him kicking Van Persie. He ended up needing stitches and he could have injured his eye! Van Persie was not happy and released a statement on the Arsenal web site. Van Persie has said he was “sad and disappointed”. He added: “He set out to hurt me today. I do feel lucky that I have not received a greater injury”. “I knew he was aiming for a collision because he changed the angle of his body to allow contact to be made”.

The final stupid thing Adebayor did was when he scored, he celebrated by running 90 yards up the pitch to the Arsenal fans. The Arsenal fans were clearly and understandly angry.

I would not be surprised if Adebayor ended up getting fined or maybe even banned. (Apparently The FA is going to “have a close look at it“). He did apologise but it was not enough. He has apparently not appologies to Van Persie.

In an interview in Zoo Magazine (online) became is asked “You’ve said you might come back to the Premier League. Would you go back to Manchester United if you had the chance?”

He said “I’d love to go back to United because they are the team I support. They’re the best club that I’ve played for, but I’m 34 years old now – I’m getting a little bit older. I was very successful there and made a lot of friends and for me they are the best fans in the world. As a supporter, I’m really happy they’re having a lot of success. Manchester United is always a team that any professional would want to play for.”

A United legend!

Read the full interview here – he talks about England, freekicks and his favourite game (which is the England v Greece game at Old Trafford in 2001 and scored the freekick to get us to World Cup – and the match I was at!)

Steven Gerrard has been cleared of affray after punching a man in a bar. The incident happened back in December after Liverpool had won 5-1 and Gerrard was out celebrating with friends.

Even though he admitted he threw the 1st punch (in self defence apparently) and CCTV proves it, he was cleared. He said he “firmly believed” he was about to be punched, and swung out in self-defence.

Dont get me wrong, I dont think he should be locked up for it. Even though hes a Liverpool player as a person he seems “OK”. Just seems odd that he throws the 1st punch (actually 3 punches but only 1 connected???? I think).