Other news out there is that Fergie is apparently resuming his interest in Gremio’s promising youngster Douglas Costa. He’s being hailed as the ‘new Ronaldinho’, which is sorta good but then again, many have been spoken of in such a way and come to little more than average. Anyway, according to The Guardian, Gremio are piss poor at the moment and may have to sell the whipper-snapper to get by. They want £21M but United want to pay £7M and add-ons as the years go by. Anyway, here’s a video of him too.

So what do you think about all of this? Is it good that we’re buying forwards or should we focus on filling the massive gap for a tackling centre-midfielder? Tell us now.

So it actually happened. It’s been rumoured for a few days, the odds yesterday dropped from 22/1 to evens and now it’s happened; Michael Owen has signed for Manchester United. In doing so he becomes only the fourth player since WW2 to play for both Liverpool and Man Utd in his career.

Undoubtedly and almost instantly making him a huge hate figure over at the red side of Liverpool. But who cares what they think? Apparently, before he got the call from Sir Alex Owen believed his only options were either Villa or Hull but once you get that call from Sir Alex, there’s only one choice really. It’s kinda like that call in Mission Impossible.

At first I was pessimistic about this. Like most I thought that he was past it, unable to play at the top level anymore. But I’ve had some time to think about it. I genuinely think it’s quite possibly a masterstroke. Obviously, only time will tell but this guy has a great scoring record for all of his clubs. In his season at Madrid he had the highest goals per minutes on pitch ratio in the league and though he only started fifty plus games for Newcastle, he scored over twenty goals in that time. That, for us could be a really important tally of goals. And that was for Newcastle, he will be playing for us next season with far more and far better chances at his disposal.

Apparently he has taken a pay cut compared to his previous contract at Toon and it’s also been touted that he’s on a pay-as-you-play deal. this shows a lot of spirit and ambition for a guy people said was past it.

Of course, some will say that Fergie is getting desperate and with €80M at his disposal he should aim higher, but for no transfer fee and on a two year deal this could be a match made in heaven.

Either way, regardless of what people say, I think Fergie has pulled another one out of the hat here. I’m saying it now, and you can quote me on this; Michael Owen will score over twenty goals next season for us overall.

By the way, sorry folks for my absence over the last bit. It’s summer obviously and I’ve been unbearably busy with random things from helping people move house to going to music festivals to going on wild, sexy dates. Anyway, I’m back.

News just out of United today that Tevez is definitely leaving the club.

Apparently he thinks a five year deal that makes him one of the highest earners at the club simply isn’t good enough. Apparently the club agreed to pay the option price of £25M to Kia and co. but Tevez rejected the contract.

So Tevez has all but left United, he has ruled out Liverpool but wants to stay in England. So Chelsea it is then? Seems an inevitability really. He’d be foolish to go to City if he wants immediate success and Chelsea could be quite the worrying prospect under Ancho.

I don’t really care about this to be honest, because as I said with Ronaldo, it can only be a step down. The guy has claimed he loves the club etc. but I think he’s shown a lot of disrespect in the way he’s spoken about his future. Good luck to him at whatever club he goes to, and if it’s City I’ll laugh. Now the main thing is for Fergie to go and get some fucking footballers. There’s been a lot of speculation about or potential transfer activity but there’s been nothing yet.

C’mon Fergie, let’s get going.

He’s going, no doubt about that. In some cases, players struggle to agree personal terms with a club after a fee is agreed but don’t expect that to happen here. He’s dying to go to Madrid and they’re dying to have him, a match made in crude, over-exposed heaven.

So, in theory, we have £80M/€93M to play with. And hopefully we have it all to spend, if the Glazers have a bit of sense they’ll reinvest the money back into the transfer market, if not, they’ll face the wrath of us, the fans.

So who do we buy to replace the guy? We’ll have to replace him with more than one player. Not because we can, with the money but because Ronaldo, although jus one man, was far more than just one player. The guy had the attributes of a world class striker/winger and attacking midfielder. If we want to properly replace we need to buy at least two world class players; a winger and a striker.

We’ve been linked with everyone from Ribery to Benzema to Antonio Valencia even before this offer was accepted. Ribery will be expensive and so will Benzema but Valencia could be bought for under £20M.

So who do you think we should buy to replace a man who, in terms of what he delivers on the pitch, cannot be replaced by one player? Leave all your comments below.

News coming today that Corinthians seventeen year old centre-back Dodo (sorry about the picture but I couldn’t find a clear one of the youngster) is on the verge of making a move to United. This move has been mooted for about a month and a half now and it looks to be drawing closer to a reality as the youngster has been quoted as saying he expects to join us in the near future. It is unclear what the fee will be but if the move goes through, it will see the promising defender join up with compatriots Rafael, Fabio, Anderson and Rodrigo Possebon at Old Trafford.

But while I think it’s good news that another promising Brazilian defender is joining us, there’s at least one man who doesn’t share my enthusiasm; Brazilian legend and World Cup winner Carlos Alberto. He apparently thinks FIFA’s current rules on signing young players are ridiculous and has called on them to change things, with perhaps not the best choice of words:

“It is disgraceful United are allowed to rape Brazilian football.

“The big teams have the money and can take our best players. It is a big problem in Brazil.

“The clubs cannot keep good young players because they can make much more money in other countries. They should change the law so, at least until the age of 20 or 21, the best players play in Brazil and get experience before moving to Europe.

“FIFA must do something.”

To be honest, I agree with him to an extent (not about his usage of the word ‘rape’, I’m not offended, it’s just a fatally poor choice of words). Big European clubs can come in and take these wee nippers from under their club’s nose, when the players are still very young. But while the rules are as they are, big European clubs should and will buy these players for a fraction of what they’d pay two or three years of development later. So while the rules aren’t exactly perfect, they appear to be suiting us quite well for now, at least. So unless Carlos Alberto intends on going for FIFA presidency, he seems to be fighting a losing battle.

Silly summer is well and truly here at this stage. Players have moved and rumours are gathering and this truly looks like it will be the most ridiculous summer transfer window in a very long time, this is what I mean. But aside from all these silly rumours there has been one that has really baffled me. That being that Nemanja Vidic (great picture, huh?) is being linked with a move away from Old Trafford.

Sure, the crazy Serb has complained about the weather in Manchester in the past but can anyone actually see him going? Shockingly, Madrid are the club being linked with a bid for Vida, and they’re supposedly lining up a €30M bid for him. They’re apparently waiting for him to make te slightest hint that he wants to go, perhaps a sly look in a South-Eastern direction would be enough for them to act?

There are few United players who I believe to be more loyal to th club that Vida. Fergie brought him to Old Trafford when he was no more than a rough diamond and now he has become one of (if not the) best players in the world. He has never shown a desire to leave and seems genuinely like a guy who is loyal and is enjoying his football at United.

There are going to be more crazy rumours being banded about in the weeks to come but for me, this is just ridiculous. The price sound about right but what baffles me is that it’s just unrealistic; Vida seems like a smart guy who wants to play with one of best the teams around and more importantly, win trophies. And he’s got a much bigger chance of that here rather than in Madrid. Mr. Perez is casting his eye a bit too far in this case.

So it’s been going for ages, Man Utd’s Tevez saga has gone on almost as long as West Ham’s saga with the same little man. Everyone has been speaking this last month and a bit about whether Utd will decide to buy him, if he is worth €30M and in fact does he even want to stay at Utd given the amount of benchwarming he’s done as of late? Or will he simply head off to Real Madrid?

Tevez started the Utd match against Villa and barely made an impression, indeed he did all his usual running and jostling and gave 100% as usual. But there was no imagination there, he didn’t link up well with the rest of the team and dare I say it, he almost looked out of place. He made just as much (or little) of an impression when coming on as a sub in the match against the Yellow Submarine not long ago.

So how can we explain the fact that Carlos Tevez, tonight against Blackburn Rovers in the Carling Cup quarter final, scored 4 goals? Yes, 4 goals against an established Premier League side. Some may say that Blackburn aren’t the team they used to be, but, bar Bentley and Friedel they have most of their players from last season such as Roque and Benni. They may be bottom of the EPL, but given their squad they really shouldn’t be.

Utd were expected to win tonight, no doubt. They played a typical Carling Cup team; youth mixed with experience. The fact that Tevez played while Roo, Berba and Ronnie sat it out is as much a statement of Tevez’ place in Sir Alex’s thinking as anything. But good strikers take their chances, and from this evidence Tevez is, despite certain displays this season, still a very good striker.

His four goals showed the desire that he still has despite his sitting on the bench almost the whole season. It also shows his professionalism to pull on the shirt and give 100% given such a difficult season so far for him personally.

I saw the match and every one of Tevez’ goals was a treat. Sure, his first may have come off Mokoena but he showed real determination just to get his head on it. His penalty was classily taken while his third was all down to the utter unselfishness of Anderson, who despite having a chance to score his first goal for United, provided his team-mate with a much-needed hat-trick. His fourth however, showed everything that Tevez has; pure class and a never-say-die attitude. He was played through by Anderson and even though he was pulled by a defender he reached the ball and placed a wonderful volley into Paul Robinson’s far bottom corner from an acute angle. If this performance doesn’t persuade Fergie to permanently sign him, it will at least persuade him to give Tevez a more frequent role in the team. The fact that he’s gone from having absolutely no form to scoring 4 goals in a single match shows that he still can do a big job for United.

Whether or not Fergie decides to buy Tevez in the end is somewhat irrelevenat. The fact is that not only tonight did Tevez show that despite playing very little this season and being hugely frustrated due to this, he’s still the type of player who can do a great job for any team, he’s also shown that he has incredible professionalism, determination and class. They’re the qualities that everyone wants in a player.

First off, I’d like to apologise for my inactivity in recent weeks. College is tough when you’re learning how to be a journalist but I’ve got assignments done, and I’m back on track.

So, when we found out that Real Madrid’s interest was well and truly over and done with we were all pretty happy, eh? No need to worry about Ronaldo leaving anymore. It was nice.

But now the gossip mongers are back and are claiming that Cristiano Ronaldo has another suitor, in the form of Serie A champions and perennial winger buyer, Inter Milan. According to droves of websites on this interweb, Ronaldo is very keen on teaming up with his compatriot and former Chelsea manager José Mourinho at the Nerazurri.

What’s worrying is that most of the comments appear to have come from Ronaldo’s agent Jorge Mendes. He has supposedly stated to the Inter hierarchy that Ronaldo still wants to leave Man Utd and would love to move to Inter. Mendes was the agent that helped Ricardo Quaresma’s deal to Inter go through and thus he has a connection and probably trust with Inter. Yes, I mentioned the words ‘trust’ and ‘agent’ in the same sentence.

If the deal is going to happen, it would be bankrolled by Pirelli, Inter’s main sponsors who also paid for the deal to bring the original Ronaldo to Inter from Barca in 1997.

One stumbling block is that Man Utd have stated in the recent past that they categorically have no intention of selling Ronaldo in the near future. The fact that Inter, and not Real Madrid want him is hardly going to change Sir Alex’s mind…

So, basically I really can’t see this one happening. But it’s a fairly interesting story regardless.

[Update: Here's one more bit transfer speculation]

My rumour rating? 3 out of 10.