Arsenal v United: Pre-Match Randomness… Oh, and a £63m Bid for Franck Ribery… That Too…

By: Taylor Rockwell | May 4th, 2009

The Arsenal v United match preview should be up here in a little while, but for now I thought you all might want some randomness to start your day off right.

To start with, the big news coming in from Soccernet.com is that Rio Ferdinand will be fit for the trip to the Emirates. Ferdinand had a limited training session, and was limited to light running, stretching, and developing elaborate, eagle-esque goal celebrations. A good omen? I like to think so.

Meanwhile, United have been given an off-field boost of stability when Slave stated yesterday that, “I’m no longer thinking of Madrid. That dream is dead.” The gelled one then paused, stifled a small whimper, and then left the door completely open for speculation regarding his future AFTER this season. “The only thing I dream about now is Manchester United and winning the Champions League again in Rome.” So, essentially, the only thing he dreams about is another month in Manchester. Man, the Riberry Era is going to be awesome.

Speaking of that, The Guardian have taken my completely unresearched comments about Riberry and taken them to a whole other level (READ: actually investigated the issue), and have come away with a surprising conclusion. Indeed, The Guardian’s own Raphael Honigstein is reporting that “Manchester United have made an offer of about €70m (£62.5m) for the Bayern Munich midfielder Franck Ribéry as they close in on a deal that would shatter the world transfer record.” If this report is true, you’ve got to believe that Carlos Tevez is the biggest proponent of the move. For the first time ever, he wouldn’t be the ugliest man on any given team.

With United already looking like a solid choice to advance to the final in Rome, pundits across Europe are lining up to point out that history isn’t exactly on their side. And by “exactly” I mean “isn’t really in any way.” John Brewin spares you his own editorializing, and instead gives a detailed account of how every Champions since AC Milan in 1991 has failed to retain the title. He forgot to include the part where United retained their title this season, but I suppose that that would ruin his whole “objective journalism” angle.

For those of you out there (looking in a mirror while writing this) who have already decided that Berbatov isn’t quite worth ousting Carlos Tevez, David Pleat argues that perhaps the two “bring an abundance of quality” to the Manchester United squad. No one is disputing that both strikers have large amounts of talent… but some could be quick to point out that Berba’s ability is fueled by fast food and sleep, while Tevez’ is fueled by, say, desire and a will to win.

Anyway, those are just a few articles to get the blood going prior to Tuesday’s all important contest. Hopefully they will spur some amount of dialogue prior to the actual match preview going up.