Speaking in a Portuguese newspaper, he was quoted as saying:-

“Ferguson is a very complicated man. He’s tough. If things are all right, then they are all right. But when he thinks something is wrong, everything is screwed. He can go from complimenting you to just plain trashing you in a matter of minutes. Has it happened to me? Hell, yes! He’ll say ‘Nani, how could you miss this or this’?”

“People expect more from me and it’s not easy. But they are also not doing what they said they were going to. I can have a spectacular game but nobody guarantees me I will be starting the next match. It shatters your confidence. I did not play the important matches, against Liverpool, Manchester City or Tottenham. Not playing these games, I am a bit sad. But for now I am not considering leaving.”

Just who does he think he is?!

Sir Alex Ferguson is probably the best manager ever to have walked this earth. His record at dealing with players of all mentalities is second to none. Speak to any of the current squad (obviously aside from Mr Nani) and they will wax lyrical to you about how he knows instinctively when a player needs an arm around the shoulder and when they need a kick up their proverbial backside.

I think most fans would agree that, at the moment, the Portuguese winger definitely needs the latter. His performances strike of a man who believes he is ten times better than he actually is, of someone who shouldn’t have to ‘deal with’ playing in lesser games. He almost has the attitude that we should be grateful that he graces Old Trafford, rather than the other way round…and as far as I’m concerned no-one, no matter who they are, should have that mentality, let alone a player who has rarely, if ever produced anything to back up those claims.

His comments of last week, almost intimating that it was a travesty that he was omitted from the bigger games, are laughable. I’m sure most United fans were glad that the selection did not include a player who can be wasteful in possession, lightweight on the ball, and ridiculously inconsistent from one minute to the next.

There is no doubt that he has the potential to improve. He has shown occasional flashes of brilliance – his goals against Liverpool and Middlesbrough have shown that. But they are so few and far between that they stick out like sore thumbs. Something you cannot say about his numerous lacklustre displays.

I will always support anyone chosen to wear the red shirt, but there is nothing more irritating than a player with ideas above their status. The only way Nani is going to realise any potential he has, is to knuckle down to work and improve. And realise that he is NOT anywhere near what we require as a finished product. And in order to be where he thinks he already is, he could do a lot worse than listen to the man he dares to criticise. A man with a proven judgement of players.

“ I am a bit sad. But for now I am not considering leaving” states the 23-year-old. Oh well thanks Nani, that’s very big of you. But, unless you change your attitude, unfortunately for you there are few of us who would shed a tear if you did. And if I were taking bets on who would make that decision, at this moment in time I wouldn’t be making you odds-on favourite for the job!

Please leave your comments here, or go to my twitter page.

Somehow, someway, someone up there is smiling down on us for the first time in about two weeks.

Wayne Rooney, despite his Mascherano-esque behaviour after being sent off for two yellow cards against Fulham, has escaped any further ban other than the compulsory one-match ban for two yellow cards from the FA.

Rooney was given his second yellow card by Phil Dowd for throwing the ball ‘away’ in the direction of the free-kick that was about to be taken. Some say he deserved to be sent off, some say it was harsh but it’s irrelevant.

Honestly I’m really surprised that he’s evaded extra punishment. His anger afterwards, however warranted, was more exuberant than is usually accepted by any Premier League ref.

So, as it is he’ll only miss the upcoming home match against Villa. And how glad are we that he won’t miss anymore matches, he was the only player who showed any heart against Fulham and we’ll need his attitude (perhaps without the outbursts) during the run-in.

(Photo by Getty Images)

Villarreal vs Arsenal
Man Utd vs FC Porto
Liverpool vs Chelsea
Barcelona vs Bayern Munich

So, in the general swing of things it’s not a great draw for either Chelsea or Liverpool who once again face each other in the Champions League. It’s kinda getting ridiculous now really. Elsewhere, the Yellow Submarine drew Arsenal and Barcelona drew Bayern Munich. Villarreal’s tie with Arsenal will be interesting, they faced each other in the CL Semi-Final back in 2005/06 and it was a very, very close game. Barca against Bayern should be a cracking match between two European heavyweights. Lots o goals, me thinks.

So onto the main issue here. We have drawn FC Porto in the Quarter-Final, with the possibility of facing Arsenal or Villarreal. I am really quite pleased with the draw. We’re on a different side of the draw to Barca, ‘Pool and Chelsea, who are arguably the other three strongest teams left in the draw. We can only face any of those three if/when we reach the Champions League Final, where by that stage one or both of Chelsea and Liverpool will be out of the tournament. So not too bad at all.

Porto faced Atletico Madrid in the last round of the competition. They’re matches finished 2-2 at the Vicente Calderon whereas it finished 0-0 during the return leg at the Estádio do Dragao. Porto were okay away to Madrid but got sort of lucky after some absolutely horrible defending from Atletico. Lisandro Lopez scored both their goals and he, to me at least, really is their main threat. He’s got a nice turn of pace, is strong and has a real, genuine eye for goal. So we’ll have to watch out for him.

Since the draw was only just made I’m gonna end this here as we’ll want to go into more detail shortly before the games. So that’s it, a good draw for us and some tasty looking ties for the other teams. It’ll be interesting to hear comments from officials from the club about the draw, I’m sure they’ll be happy enough. Check back here for the club’s quotes when they’re available.

Just one thing, are you guys happy with the draw or would you have preferred another team? Perhaps to get one of the big boys out of the way early? Let us know by commenting..

UPDATE: Some quotes from Fergie regarding the Champions League draw after he spoke to the Man Utd official website:

“This is a good draw for us. You sometimes wonder if being at home first is a good or a bad thing but I think in this modern-day competition there’s no indication of what is better.

“The only thing you hope is that you don’t lose a goal in the home tie.

“We’ve met Porto before and obviously we respect any Portuguese team. We have had a huge Portuguese influence in the club, firstly with Carlos Quieroz but now with Cristiano and Nani. So we understand Portuguese football.

“We’re happy with the draw and we’re looking forward to the tie.”

(Photos of FC Porto vs A. Madrid by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

So we host ‘Pool at Old Trafford today. It’s a huge match that, if we win it, will end Liverpool’s title dreams for another season and bring us one step closer to that eighteen titles mark that’s currently held by Liverpool. Let’s do it..

Here’s a few quotes from Fergie regarding today’s match:

“I won’t be holding anybody back,” he said. “It’s United-Liverpool, it’s not the time to hold back. It’s the time to go forward, to enjoy it, to express ourselves in the way we have been doing, and not to fear the situation.

“That’s what we’ve been doing for the past two or three years. This team is full of optimism, with great belief in themselves. They’re young and only going to get better.

“These matches don’t change. No matter what happens, it doesn’t make it any more intense. This game will have all the usual intensity.

“It will be fierce and competitive, it’ll be a wonderful atmosphere and one you don’t want to miss. The number of people who have phoned me up for tickets… one lad, who I haven’t spoken to in 20 years, phoned and said, ‘I’ve been trying to get hold of you for two weeks’. I said, ‘Really, what for?’ He was just thinking about coming down for the Liverpool game. I said, ‘You can keep thinking about it, because you’ve got no chance!”

Some typically jumbled words from Rafa:

“We are both in a good position and have done well. You can say yes, but it would just create headlines. Looking at Europe, you can see the four English teams are still there, but I’d rather be in the final and then we can talk about these things.

“Yes, this is the kind of game everyone wants to play in. It was the same against Real Madrid. They all want to play.

“Clearly we’re still the title race, if we can beat United you never know what can happen. If we can reduce the gap it will give us more confidence and we will approach the forthcoming games with positivity.”

Sorry for the bad quotes, couldn’t find anything better.

Anyway, in the spirit of the match here’s my starting XI for the match, as I’d pick it.

GK: VDS
DF: Evra – Vidic – Rio – John O’Shea
MF: C-Ron – Scholes – Carrick – Nani
FW: Berba – Rooney

It probably won’t be that line up but that’s what I’d like to see, with Scholes pulling the strings in the centre and Nani plundering the wings.

C’mon United!

So, first off, what a game on Saturday! Many people had predicted a tight match and Daryl even predicted United’s Quintuple dream to end. How wrong some people were. United were brilliant against Fulham, controlling the match from start to finish and showing again what depth we have. Two goals from Tevez and goals from Park and Rooney settled a tie that United never looked like losing, or drawing! If you haven’t seen them already, highlights here.

The FA Cup Semi-Final draw was yesterday and United drew Everton, who disposed of Middlesbrough 2-1 at Goodison yesterday. I’m kinda happy with the draw. Don’t get me wrong, Everton are good but I’m glad we haven’t drawn Arsenal or Chelsea. Of course Arsenal still have to play Hull, but I expect Arsenal to overpower Hull. I hope that it’s an Arsenal-United Final. The reason I say this is that I don’t want a repeat of the borefest of an FA Cup Final that was United vs Chelsea in 06/07. Aside from losing that one, it was such a poor match to boot. I don’t think United vs Arsenal would be that bad.

I’m really looking forward to the Everton match. They’re a good side with shitloads of spirit and it’ll be a good test for United to play against them.

So, Fergie took my hint and rested Ronnie for the FA Cup game. So presumably the boy from Madeira will be fresh as a daisy on Wednesday. A note of worry however is that Rio got injured after 40 minutes at Craven Cottage and is a doubt for Inter on Wednesday. Of course, Jonny Evans can stand in, preferebly we’d have Rio playing but Evans showed what he can do at San Siro.

As I said, this is a short post so I’m gonna end it with some intriguing tidbits I found on my travels;
Over at TEAMtalk, Simon Welkes thinks that Fergie should retire if United win the Quintuple, to be replaced by one man, and one man only.
While over at the Guardian, Sir Alex thinks that Internazionale will play for penalties.

He could be right. Until next time (either tomorrow or Wednesday), peace out!

A few days ago I contacted Johonna over at the Inter Milan Offside with the idea of doing a Man Utd/Inter Offside crossover. Basically, we asked each other questions and are posting each other’s answers on our blogs. Here are the gruelling (not really) questions that I asked Johonna, and the answers to those questions..

Wayne: So here we are, on the eve of the big match. It’s the Serie A champions against the European, World and Premier League champions. Do you think that this is the tie of the round?
Johonna: Well, it certainly is for me. To tell you the truth, though, whichever team Inter were paired with would be the tie of the round for me. I do think that it is interesting that both teams are at the top of their respective leagues and both were tipped as potential winners before the beginning of the league, but I do not think this tie will be any less or more exciting than any of the others.

W: Do you think it’s an advantage for your team to have the first tie at home, or would you rather have the first tie away?
J: I would rather have the away first. That way, you can try to get some precious away goals the first time out. I know it is nice to have home-field advantage, but I hate playing catch-up.

W: Man United are having some major injury problems ahead of the game in terms of the defence, how do you think Jose Mourinho will go about trying to capitalise on this?
J: I think Mourinho has his game plan and his team, and he has for some time. Looking at the call-up list, I cannot think of who he would change. I think we are going to play compact, possession ball in the midfield, the wingbacks will press, and Zlatan and Adri will try to muscle through the defense. On our side, we are without our defender Walter Samuel. He has been in great form recently and his injury is a blow for us.

W: Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson have had a very healthy rivalry in previous years, in the CL and the EPL, do you think this will have any bearing on the match?
J: Actually, I think it does. When you read interviews with team members, one thing they say is that Mourinho knows Manchester United and Ferguson and that this gives them confidence in front of the match. I dont think it would be quite the same if Inter were to play Lyon or something. I think, though, that both managers play to win so would be just as ferocious no matter who the opponent is.

W: Where do you think Inter need to dominate if they’re going to win the first leg?
J: First and foremost, we cannot allow any goals. Away goals are the devil in a tournament like this. Still, we also have to score a goal (or two). I think if we can control the midfield (like we did against Juventus), the rest of the game will fall into place.

W: Who do you think is the biggest threat on the United team for this first leg?
J: Edwin Van der Sar. He has an amazing record and will be very difficult to beat. Ronaldo, but only because he has tricky feet that draw fouls and has the potential to be very dangerous in dead-ball situations.

W: What area do you think is Inter’s weakest on the pitch and do you think this will effect the game at all?
J: I think our weakest link is also our strongest. If Ibra is not playing up to his potential then we will suffer. If he is playing like he can, we will be golden. Another big question mark is Davide Santon. He has recently been promoted from our youth team, and while he has been playing well, he has only played 7 games with the first team. If he plays, this will be his first Champions League match. That is a little scary.

So there we go, some interesting answers from Johonna. Head over to the Inter Offside if you want to check out my answers and even to answer the questions yourself. If the answers are not up yet, I’m sure they soon will be.

Let us know either here at the Man Utd Offside or over with Johonna at the Inter Offside what you think of this feature. Cheers folks.

So here we are, on the eve of the big Champions League game against Inter Milan and the identity of the man to partner Rio at the back against the Italian giants is no clearer. It was enough of a mystery a while ago when all we knew was that Vidic wouldn’t be playing. But whereas back then we thought that it might be Jonny Evans, John O’Shea or Wes Brown who’d partner Mr. Ferdinand, it looks increasingly likely that it’ll be none of those men. Wes Brown is out for sure, and it’s looking like O’Shea and Evans have got knackered legs too, which sucks ass, really!

So if those guys are out, and they probably are, who is going to play alongside Rio Ferdinand at the San Siro on Tuesday night? There’s no obvious choice, Christ, there isn’t even a hint of who could play there. There has been talk that Fabio could make his United debut, but c’mon! Talk about throwing the little guy in at the deep end!! He could prove me wrong if he plays, and I really hope he does prove me wrong. If he’s as good as people are saying he is (better than Rafael) than he might actually be able to cope with the cauldron that is the San Siro.

Then of course there’s another young lad. Sir Alex brought Richard Eckersley to Italy but that’s probably a precautionary measure on his part. Sir Alex obviously thinks highly of the guy, otherwise he wouldn’t have brought him. But he’s one for the future and I really don’t think he’d flourish in this situation so early in his career.

But what if there are no defenders available to play at centre back? Who’ll fill in? You’d want experience for sure, but Giggs and Scholes don’t seem like stand-in centre backs to me. So who’s our most defensive-minded midfielder? Owen Hargreaves! But that’s right, he’s injured for the rest of the season. So maybe Michael Carrick? Me and a friend discussed this the other day and it seems like the logical choice. He’s a top quality player, is good defensively and more than anything, needs must!

I think I’d go for Carrick if all other avenues were closed, but what do you guys think? Should he play Fabio? Or perhaps the incredible risk of Eckersley?

What do you think?

According to The Guardian, Wayne Rooney has suffered a setback in training during his rehabilitation from the hamstring injury he suffered against Wigan in January. The injury ruled him out of England’s friendly tonight with Spain and out of United’s past few games.

Ferguson had been saying last week that he would let Fabio Capello decide whether or not to bring Rooney into the squad, but he has apparently suffered an injury in training and it’s said that Ferguson has already ruled him out of the weekend’s FA Cup tie with Derby. He’s only a ‘maybe’ to be back for the midweek against Fulham.

There’s not been much on this so I can’t imagine it’s too serious, especially as Fergie regards him as a ‘maybe’ for the Cottagers match. Hopefully he’ll be up and scoring soon.

Little United fact that I read over on the Man Utd website; 923, yes 923 Football League managers have lost their jobs since Fergie took the United reins in 1986! That is one hell of a statistic, in my opinion.

Wayne’s Fact Of The Day: Although Fulham’s nickname is The Cottagers, a ‘cottager’ is actually a man who has anonymous sex with other men in public toilets, rendering Fulham’s nickname rather amusing. Hope that’s brightened up your day!

He won’t start but Wayne Rooney will be on the bench for United’s EPL game against West Ham at Upton Park on Sunday. Wayne has been out since the Wigan match in January, getting injured only minutes after he scored the decisive, and only goal. It’s a boost for us, even though things are going brilliantly anyway. Seeing Rooney back will be great for the team and the fans, hopefully providing the goals that ahd been missing for a while. He starts on the bench and I could put my house on the fact that he’ll replace Tevez at some point during the game.

Strangely, although Rooney’s been out for a while, Sir Alex has said that he won’t stand in Fabio Capello’s way in picking the striker for England’s upcoming match with Spain.

Ferguson said, “I have no strong issue with that. It is a question of whether he would play or be a substitute, which is the same position as I am in.

“It is up to Fabio. I really have no strong objection to that.”

All of which I’m pretty surprised about. But he must be pretty confident about Rooney’s fitness. It also hints that Fergie and Capello have a good relationship, or perhaps I’m over-analyzing. I have a habit of doing that.

In another wee bit of news, United are believed to be front-runners for the signature of Michael Jackson circa 1982. The American singer’s displays since joining Wigan a few years back have apparently convinced Fergie he’s good enough to play for Man Utd, but United have competition in the form of nearly everyone, including Madrid. Will Jackson circa 1982’s potential arrival spell the end for United’s current Michael Jackson lookalike, Nani? Only time will tell.

A good day today for United. An exciting if not very solid win against Derby County in the Carling Cup Semi-Final sees us through to the Final to face either Spurs or Burnley, probably Spurs.

Aside from the usual stuff, turns out that Sir Alex was today voted the best manager of the last 12 years. The IFFHS, or the International Federation of Football History and Statistics have released their new list of the best football managers of the last dozen years. Why do it over 12 years? I have no idea, but I’m sure a federation with a name as important sounding as that doesn’t need a reason. Anyway, Fergie sits in first place, followed by Italy manager Marcello Lippi and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. I’m not going to go through the whole list, mainly because it’s not much of a laugh. But at least we know that historically and statistically Ferguson’s the best manager of the last 12 years.

Second bit o’ news is taken from yesterday’s Daily Dose, posted by Chris. Amongst the many interesting pieces, there was one that surprised me. It was news of United’s home kit for next season, a red jersey with a white v-shaped sash down the front (much like Bordeaux’s jersey).

Apparently it will be made by Nike to commemorate United’s first FA Cup win 100 years ago in 1909 against Bristol City. United will allegedly wear the kit for the whole of the 2009/10 season. I’m really looking forward to what it will look like. Will Nike go with a real traditional look or try to glam it up? Only time will tell. I can’t upload a pic at the mo so check it out here.

Some other potentially important news that I read over at the Football Shirt Culture Blog is that Indian company Sahara India Pariwar, shirts sponsors of the India cricket team and multi-conglomerate involved in real estate and finances and other shit, have been approached by Man Utd with a sponsorship proposal. Sahara’s head of Corporate Communications Sahara Abhijit Sarkar said; “Yes! We have definitely received a proposal from Manchester United. It is an elaborate proposal from Manchester United. We are still studying it and I cannot comment further.”

Love the firmness of his ‘yes’.

Apparently, United sent over samples to the Indian company and photos of Rooney and Ronaldo wearing United jerseys with the company’s name across them. Sounds a bit desperate by United, or maybe that’s how these things work.

That’s all the random news for now. Peace plebs…