8/5: Latest News …
Sky: Dimitar Berbatov has reassured Martin Jol that he is happy to stay at Tottenham Hotspur.
Following an excellent first season in English football, the Bulgarian striker has been heavily linked with a summer move to newly-crowned champions Manchester United.
Spurs boss Jol revealed last week that he was confident Berbatov was happy at White Hart Lane and that he is under no pressure to sell. And, after watching Berbatov score his 22nd goal of the campaign against Charlton Athletic on Monday, Jol confirmed further talks had soothed any fresh worries.
“Berbatov is very happy at our club,” Jol said. “I had a word with him yesterday and he said he is so happy here. The crowd and the supporters are always positive and he said ‘what more do I want?’
“I said ‘yeah’ because I’m always happy when my players are happy.”
Berbatov was a £10.9million signing from Bayer Leverkusen last summer and has quickly made an impact in the Premiership. He was named in the PFA Team of the Year and Jol feels the 26-year-old is among the best buys of the campaign.
When asked if Berbatov was the signing of the season, Jol added: “Could be, could be. For us, he’s excellent quality.”
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Times: Saha’s future with United appears problematic, particularly after Ferguson revealed that the France forward had again declared himself unfit before the derby victory over Manchester City on Saturday. It was the third time in recent weeks that Ferguson had included Saha in his squad, only for the player to say that it was too early to risk the hamstring injury that has restricted him to 26 minutes of action since March 3.
Saha may yet be involved in tomorrow’s match against Chelsea which, having been billed as a title-decider, may amount to little more than a reserve-game as both teams rest players for the FA Cup Final on May 19. Ferguson did indicate that he would field something approaching his strongest team against West Ham on Sunday, out of respect for the league, given the potential repercussions at the bottom of the table.
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Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson admits their success this season has been down to the impact made by Nemanja Vidic.
He said: “Vidic has been the best centre-half in the country this season. He’s been absolutely outstanding. You could see the difference his partnership with Rio Ferdinand made to us on Saturday against Manchester City.
“It was absolutely peerless, a fantastic performance by both of them.
“That foundation of strength in the central defensive position is something we’ve been wanting for a long time, going back to Pallister and Bruce. We’ve had some good combinations but none lasted as long as hopefully these two will do.”
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Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson rates this season’s title success as the club’s greatest ever triumph.
Ferguson admitted he never lost faith, either in himself or his team. But there were times when he wondered if United would ever be able to match their cash-rich rivals from Stamford Bridge.
“It was a difficult task given the amount of money Chelsea have,” said Ferguson. “They were also the most resilient opponents we have ever come across.
“But I thought the signings of Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko were designed to win them the European Cup and I just kept hoping that is what they were concentrating on.
“I knew we had to reach 90 points, which is a hell of a total. But we tried to instil into the players’ minds that we needed to get off to a good start and stay with Chelsea. It was something no-one else had done in the previous two years.
“Not only did we do that, we got in front of them and stayed there, which was a fantastic achievement, possibly the club’s greatest achievement simply because it is a relatively new team which will hopefully get better.
“It is this team’s first attempt at it. That is why we are all encouraged.”
Ferguson has already spoken of how he felt energised by United’s challenge.
And while he confirmed he will not still be in charge by the time he reaches his 70th birthday, at 65 the Glaswegian still has the fire to fight a few more battles yet.
“Age creeps up on you,” he smiled. “I still think of myself as being in my 50s. All of a sudden you read in the paper you are 65 and think ‘that can’t be right’.
“I don’t see any dramatic changes in myself from five or six years ago, although there must be some.
“I will not carry on until I am 70 but I have enjoyed this season.
“There have been moments when my nerves were jangling or it was a bit tense. But you can have that anywhere if you care about things.”
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Guardian: Sir Alex Ferguson, basking in the glory of his ninth Premiership title, has asked the Glazer family to finance an extensive recruitment programme to help Manchester United maintain their superiority over Chelsea next season. “We have identified three targets,” said Ferguson, who wants in the region of £50m to spend this summer.
United have already begun negotiations with Sporting Lisbon for the Portugal international winger Nani, regarded as the brightest young player in the country. Owen Hargreaves, the England midfielder, is expected to join from Bayern Munich despite the two clubs as yet being unable to agree a fee, and United also have a longstanding interest in Southampton’s left-back Gareth Bale. Ferguson’s success in recruiting those three players will determine whether he goes in for another striker. He is an admirer of Dimitar Berbatov and considered bidding for the Bulgarian before his transfer from Bayer Leverkusen to Tottenham last summer.
Ferguson expects Roman Abramovich to flex his financial muscle at the end of the season and he is asking the Glazers to do the same. “I expect Arsenal to add to their squad, Liverpool to add to their squad and certainly Chelsea will,” he said. “We have three targets and the club’s owners are aware of who I want. David Gill [the chief executive] is aware too. There is competition for the best players and, if there is competition, they will cost.”
United have been reminded of that in their negotiations for Hargreaves and are becoming increasingly frustrated by Bayern’s refusal to lower their valuation. “Everyone thinks it is a done deal but you may be surprised,” a leading source at Old Trafford said last night. “They are asking for a ridiculous amount of money. It’s not certain at all. They want 20-odd million pounds and it’s ridiculous.”
Despite describing the sale of Ruud van Nistelrooy as “not a big decision at all,” Ferguson is still on the lookout for another striker. He is exasperated by Louis Saha’s injury problems and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Alan Smith are considered only back-up options. “You look through the world and say to yourself: ‘where are all the strikers?’ There are not a lot of them going around, believe me.”
The task of overhauling Chelsea was, in Ferguson’s words, his “biggest achievement” in 20 years as United’s manager and he toasted the occasion with champagne at the club’s training ground yesterday. Ferguson said he expected both Abramovich and Jose Mourinho still to be at Stamford Bridge next season but he had a warning for them. “I don’t think we have an easy task but I do think this team will get better and if they stay together it will give them a real chance,” he said.
Ferguson, who will recall the goalkeeper, Ben Foster, from his loan spell at Watford, is wary of losing potential transfer targets to Chelsea. Arjen Robben, Mikel John Obi, Michael Ballack and Michael Essien have all turned down moves to Old Trafford because they could earn more at Stamford Bridge and Ferguson believes there is a definite trend of Chelsea trying to gazump them in the transfer market.
“We are always an attraction for new players because we have 76,000 watching us every week and this club has a celebrity status throughout the world. However, the real competition comes when you have to pay £27m for Essien. Chelsea can do that. We are trying to identify players as quietly as we can so we can do the deals as quickly, and as quietly, as we can.”
Sir Alex Ferguson yesterday reserved special acclaim for Cristiano Ronaldo and warned Premiership defenders that the Portuguese winger could not be intimidated. Disgusted by Michael Ball’s stamp on Ronaldo on Saturday, which could result in a disciplinary charge today, he praised the Footballer of the Year’s composure.”I didn’t know the full extent of it until seeing it on TV . . . I couldn’t believe it,” said Ferguson. “But Ronaldo was never going to disappear from the game. It is a quality that the greatest players - Pele, Eusebio, Cruyff - have all had. You see some of the tackles on George Best - that one by Chopper Harris that almost cut in him in half - he rode them and rolled the ball in the net. It is a great example of a great player. And Ronaldo is like that.”
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Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has likened Cristiano Ronaldo to Scottish great Jimmy Johnstone.
He said: “The great thing about Cristiano is that he always gets up and wants the ball.
“He reminds me of Celtic’s Jimmy Johnstone. He was exactly the same. He would get kicked all over the place but he would just want to attack the big bully who had kicked him to the ground. He would just run straight at them.
“Courage is a quality the greatest players have always had. Pele, Eusebio, Johann Cruyff and George Best always had great courage. That is why they could paint the canvass any way they wanted.”
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FIFA president Sepp Blatter has thrown his weight behind calls for Manchester United to reschedule this summer’s controversial tour of Asia.
The newly-crowned Premier League champions have caused uproar by scheduling their visit to the continent to coincide with the running of the quadrennial Asian Cup, which will be co-hosted by Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand in July.
Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed bin Hammam launched a scathing attack on the English champions yesterday and Blatter has backed demands for United to reconsider.
“The Asian Cup is on a date reserved for competitions for the confederations and they should also be respected by clubs who are touring in the same region where these competitions are taking place,” said the FIFA president.
“I would personally appeal to the club, to the associations, but also to the organisers in the different countries. We have an opportunity for solidarity for football.”
Malaysia is the last stop on United’s jaunt on July 27, with the tour kicking off in Tokyo on July 17 followed by a stop in Seoul three days later and a match in Macau on July 20.
Those dates clash with the latter stages of the continental championship, which will feature all four co-hosts as well as defending champions Japan and nations such as China, South Korea and Iran among the 16 participants and runs from July 7-29.
As a result, the tour was not ratified by the AFC during their Congress in Kuala Lumpur.
The FIFA president has already been in contact with Football Association chairman Geoff Thompson and he hoped the Old Trafford club would reconsider.
“I had an opportunity to speak with him the other day when we met in Nyon and he said ’I will work on that’ but that it’s not so easy because this was an invitation by the government (of Malaysia), not the federation,” said Blatter.
“But we have a structure in FIFA and I told the sports minister here in Kuala Lumpur yesterday that when you organise a tour you have to go through the national association. They have to ratify such a match. They have to inform the confederation.
“For the clubs, FIFA’s okay is not necessary but I’m sure if such a case will be presented to the club, Manchester United, that the organisers of the tour will understand such a situation.”
The match was to form part of the country’s celebrations of 50 years of Malaysian nationhood but Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, the president of the Football Association of Malaysia, conceded the game may not now go ahead.
“We have to abide by the ruling, I guess,” he said. “That’s the order of the day and we have to abide by that. If they want to come at that time they can’t come. Now the sanction has not been given so we have to follow the ruling. They can’t come during the Asian Cup, they have to rearrange.
“By the look of it, the Asian Cup will have to take precedent. This is bad news for the fans but this is the feeling of the family of Asia.”
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Express: SIR Alex Ferguson will be given a £50 million transfer war chest this summer to ensure Manchester United keep Chelsea in their slipstream.
The United boss will attempt to clinch deals for long-time targets Owen Hargreaves and Gareth Bale and will also bring in a new striker with Dimitar Berbatov, Fernando Torres and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar all on his radar.
Rumours are rife that a swap deal with Tottenham involving Louis Saha going to White Hart Lane and Berbatov heading north is on the cards. Ferguson has grown impatient of Saha’s persistent injury problems and needs reliable support for Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo up front.
“This team are only going to get better but we have two, maybe three targets,” said Ferguson. “The owners [the Glazers] are aware of that, and David Gill [United’s chief executive] is aware of that. There is competition for the best players and if there is competition they cost.
“We are always an attraction because we have 76,000 watching us every week. The real competition comes when you have to pay £27m for a player like Michael Essien. Chelsea can do that.
“We are trying to identify players as quietly as we can and do the deals as quickly as we can. It is not always easy. I expect Arsenal and Liverpool to add to their squad and certainly Chelsea.
“Hargreaves would give us an alternative. Maybe we should play a three in midfield in Europe as our away form isn’t good enough.”
Ferguson may also try to compete with Chelsea for the services of Steve Sidwell, who is out of contract at the Madejski Stadium this summer and has so far refused all offers of a new deal from Reading.
Both United and Chelsea have offered Sidwell pre-contract deals, including a pay rise from £7,000 a week to £50,000 a week.
While Ferguson will make wholesale changes for the visit to Chelsea tomorrow, he has reassured relegation-threatened Fulham, Sheffield United, Wigan and Charlton he will play his strongest team against West Ham at Old Trafford on Sunday.
He said: “This is a very important issue. We have to respect the integrity of the league. [West Ham manager] Alan Curbishley is a very good friend of mine, but he understands I have to respect the issues of other coaches.”
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Mirror: SIR ALEX FERGUSON will be handed £50million to strengthen his Manchester United squad this summer after steering the club to their first Premiership crown in four years.
Fergie will use the huge transfer kitty to land Owen Hargreaves, Spanish striker Fernando Torres, Gareth Bale from Southampton and Portuguese prodigy Nani - while Tottenham’s Dimitar Berbatov and Reading’s Steve Sidwell are also on the United manager’s wanted list.
Despite beating Chelsea to the title, Fergie admitted the limitations of his United squad were exposed by a clutch of injuries towards the end of the season, and he has vowed to bolster his personnel to ensure there is no repeat of that potential crisis.
The United boss knows Chelsea will spend big in a bid to reclaim the title and win the Champions League, which is why the Glazers are ready to back Fergie to the hilt in the transfer market.
He said: “We’ve outlined three targets and our chief executive David Gill is aware of them. As everyone knows, there’s competition for the best players and when there’s competition it costs, so we will just have to wait and see.
“But Manchester United has always been a huge attraction for players. We have 76,000 people watching us every week and a celebrity status which means we’re known throughout the world.
“So it’s not a question of us needing to attract players. The real competition comes when Chelsea pay £27million for someone like Michael Essien. They can outbid us all.
“We identify players as quietly as we can so we can do things quickly. It’s not easy, but that’s what we’re trying to do. We were a bit short on numbers when we got injuries near the end of the season, so that’s something to address.”
Berbatov is the most intriguing of Fergie’s targets. Spurs are unwilling to part with the striker, but a £10m cash bid which could include Louis Saha going in the opposite direction may sway to board at White Hart Lane.
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The Journal: Jonny Evans has admitted he remains in the dark about his future as Roy Keane attempts to persuade Manchester United to send him back to the Stadium of Light next season.
The loan signing of Evans proved to be just one of many masterstrokes by Keane in his first season as a manager and the re-signing of the highly-promising centre-back will be one of the main priorities for the Sunderland boss this summer.
But it will take all the Irishman’s powers of persuasion to talk his former manager Sir Alex Ferguson into letting Evans return to Wearside in the Premiership next season.
The young Northern Ireland international has shown what a fantastic prospect he is during his five months with the Black Cats and he may be needed by Manchester United, particularly if, as expected, Wes Brown leaves Old Trafford at the end of the campaign.
“I really don’t know if there’s a chance of me coming back,” said Evans, as he faced questions about his future as he attempted to enjoy Sunderland’s 5-0 win at Luton Town on Sunday, which secured the Championship title for the second time in three years. “I know as much as anyone else.
“The gaffer has said he will speak to Sir Alex Ferguson but he doesn’t know what is going to happen until Man United’s season has ended.
“At the moment, the plan is for me to go back to United for pre-season and see what is happening. I don’t think it will be decided until quite late on, if anything was to happen.” Whatever happens next season, Evans is adamant he will return to Manchester a better player and Keane may still feel he has a chance of continuing his education on Wearside.
Evans added: “I will go back a better player. To have been playing with good players in training every day, and the standard of football we have been playing anyway, has been fantastic for me.
“The standard of football in our training has been better than some of the football we have been playing. That’s because the lads can be more relaxed and enjoy it more. But even as a person, I feel I have grown up more. I am still young and I have had to fend for myself in a different part of the country. I have enjoyed that part of things.”
Despite his tender years, the 20-year-old has been a reassuring presence at the heart of the back four as he formed a formidable partnership with Nyron Nosworthy. It is a measure of his success that the youngster only experienced defeat twice as a Sunderland player - on his debut in the FA Cup against Preston and the 3-1 defeat at Colchester last month.
Unsurprisingly, Evans will always remember his time with the Black Cats fondly. He said: “Last week at the home game (against Burnley) me and Danny Simpson, the fans gave us a really good reception. It was quite emotional.
“Even though we have only been here a short time, it’s been like a massive climax to the end of the season and something you don’t want to end. It’s been nice. You can’t get better than going up as champions.
“When I joined, the side was sitting around in mid-table and it was nice to be part of the squad that climbed up the table and eventually became champions.
“It’s something I will take with me for the rest of my career. Not many people can say `I won the Championship’, well I can already. It’s great to go up to the Premiership with the winner’s medal. To be part of this set-up which won the trophy is a great feeling.”
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Sky: Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson says it was not a difficult decision allowing Ruud van Nistelrooy to leave for Real Madrid last summer.
The Dutch marksman was a big hit during his time at Old Trafford scoring nearly a century of league goals for the Premiership giants.
Ferguson has hinted Van Nistelrooy had become a disruptive influence in the dressing room and that something had to give for the club to move forward.
The experienced Scottish tactician was much more aggrieved when calling time on Roy Keane’s tenure at United, but feels the right decisions have been made.
“Well, Roy was certainly a difficult one,” Ferguson said in the Daily Star. “He has been such a big influence on the club.
“I’m not so sure about Van Nistelrooy. That was not such a big decision at all.
“You need a good team spirit in the dressing room and from day one this group seem to gel straight away. That was what I wanted.
“I kept referring to that through the season. The spirit was brilliant and that was important.
“We had to made big important decisions about how we change the team. That’s not easy.”
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Reuters: Deflated and leg-weary, Chelsea host Premier League champions Manchester United on Wednesday in a dress rehearsal for the FA Cup final on May 19.
Chelsea’s hopes of securing a third successive league title ended at the weekend, their pursuit of Alex Ferguson’s side brought to a halt by London rivals Arsenal.
Jose Mourinho’s team celebrated last season’s title after crushing United 3-0 at Stamford Bridge but it will be the visiting fans in party mood this time.
The Portuguese has promised that United, like his own side received two years ago, will be given a guard of honour.
“It is obvious we will give them a guard of honour on Wednesday, as they did with us at Old Trafford,” Mourinho told reporters.
But Mourinho, unaccustomed to being a runner-up, could not bring himself to say the new champions were the better side, choosing instead to describe his own team as “heroes”.
“They are the team with more points, for me that is enough. I see football in a very pragmatic way,” he said of United’s triumph.
Mourinho motioned to Chelsea’s fans to “keep their chins up” after the 1-1 draw at Arsenal and is already looking to the 2007-08 campaign.
“Next season we will be ready,” he said. “We have still the FA Cup final to play but July 9 (in training), we will start again and this game gives, in terms of spirit, the standard for what we have to do.”
With the league done and dusted, both sides will hope to sign off the season with more silverware at the new Wembley.
“We’re certainly looking forward to the cup final,” said Ferguson.
“When people were saying they hoped Wembley would be ready for May, I was hoping we would get there. If we’d got knocked out then I was praying it wouldn’t be finished.”
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Mirror: MANCHESTER UNITED chief executive David Gill has revealed Joel Glazer was one of the first people on the phone to congratulate Sir Alex Ferguson’s Premiership title-winners.Chelsea had barely left the pitch after their 1-1 draw at Arsenal when Glazer called from the US to celebrate United’s first major trophy since his father Malcolm completed his controversial takeover in 2005.
“Joel rang to express his congratulations to everyone at the club,” said Gill.
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“All the doomsayers who said we would be in trouble have been proved wrong.
“They Glazers brought a stability to the club and stability is the key element of any football club.
“They’ve got involved with areas they think they can add value and let Alex and the rest of us get on with the football side of it.”
