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Manchester United secure first league win

Manchester United notched their first league win of the season last night as they beat Portsmouth at Fratton Park, securing the South coast club to the foot of the table.

With Chelsea and Liverpool leading the way with 2 wins from 2, United couldn’t afford to lose any more ground after their home draw to Newcastle on day one. They didn’t, and managed the win with a first half Darren Fletcher strike after Wayne Rooney set up the Scottish midfielder.

After their opening 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Chelsea, Portsmouth were counting on the sort of home form that saw them undefeated last season against the top four sides, United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. However it was not to be today for Portsmouth, as United held on to secure the win and leave Pompey without a point from two games.

The win for Manchester United sees them jump up the table to third spot, behind Chelsea and Liverpool.

Berbatov demands United move

Tottenham’s Bulgarian forward Dimitar Berbatov has apparently requested a transfer to Manchester United, this after starting Spur’s opening league game, a defeat to Middlesbrough, on the bench.

United’s pursuit of Berbatov so far has seen a £20.5 million bid refused from Tottenham, who do not want to part with their star player, especially after losing Robbie Keane to Liverpool already this summer.

Berbatov stated:

I’m now in Tottenham but no-one can disagree with me wanting to follow my dream.

It is thought that Berbatov handed in a transfer request at Spurs after he was omitted from Tottenham’s opening game.

Emil Dantchev, Berbatov’s agent, stated:

We have two more weeks until the end of the transfer window and I think this will be the most important week.

I read Alex Ferguson’s statement that he wants another striker and I hope that this striker is Dimitar Berbatov.

Berbatov cost Spurs just £10.9m two years ago, so they would stand to make a decent profit if they do sell for United’s offer.

Spurs were looking at the Russian striker, Andrei Arshavin, who excelled at Euro 2008, but their interest in the player seems to have cooled.

Keegan just loving United point

Manchester United dropped two points on the opening day of the season for the second year in succession as they battled out a one all draw with Newcastle.

Kevin Keegan’s side have been the subject of much media speculation over the summer, and the Toon certainly look to have not really added anything meaningful to their ranks since the end of last season. This has led many to believe that the legendary gaffer has fallen out with owner Mike Ashley as he believes that progress cannot be made without investment – and to be fair you can see his point.

Yet, the heart and determination which the Geordies played with yesterday would have filled Keegan with so much pride. Never once did they sit back and defend their unlikely point and they got their just rewards at the final whistle.

Martins even put Newcastle ahead mid way through the first half after what seemed like a cast iron penalty decision was waved away. Yet thirty five seconds after the restart the defending champions were level courtesy of a Darren Fletcher strike.

Although both sides had chances to increase the scoring, a draw seemed a fair result and would be one which Keegan would have taken with open arms – in fact he would have loved it!

Silva says no to Manchester United

David Silva, one of the stars of Spain’s victorious Euro 2008 team, has turned down Manchester United’s offer of joining the European Champions. United are desperate to bolster their attack with both Rooney and Ronaldo out for the start of the season, and Silva is the sort of attacking player that Sir Alex would dearly love at Old Trafford.

However Silva’s current employers, Valencia, have turned down the offer from United. According to reports, the £20 million rated striker would rather stay at Valencia, and would only consider leaving for either Real Madrid or Barcelona.

Julio Llorente, Silva’s agent, stated:

United made an offer for David Silva, but this has been turned down by Valencia.

Silva doesn’t want to play in England because he is happy at Valencia. His family are settled and if he was to move it would only be to another Spanish club, like Real Madrid or Barcelona.

David Silva will start the new season at Valencia.

Silva has been linked with a host of clubs during the summer since his performances in the European championships. However he looks unlikely to move on as his current contract has another five years to run. Valencia don’t have to sell him, so any team wanting to prise him away would have to come up with a very big offer.

United win the season curtain raiser

Manchester United triumphed in an uneventful opener to the Premier League season by defeating FA Cup holders Portsmouth 3-1 on penalties.

United had much the better of the game, dominating Pompy at times, but couldn’t make the most of their chances. In the shootout in was Portsmouth who faltered in front of goal, missing three penalties, handing victory to the Premiership champions.

For United, both Darren Fletcher and Carlos Tevez missed gilt edged chances for United, with David James in fine form. With Rooney and Ronaldo both absent today, and from the first game of the season next Sunday against Newcastle, it was clear from today’s performance that United need more firepower upfront.

Giggs was partnering Tevez in attack, but made little impact on the Portsmouth defence. Creating chances wasn’t United’s problem; it was finishing them they were having trouble with.

Nani looked impressive the whole game, but all too often his work lacked an end product.

Rooney out for start of season

Wayne Rooney will miss the start of the Premier League season for Manchester United because of a virus he picked up in Nigeria. United’s opening game is on the Sunday against Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle, and they’ll be without both Rooney and Ronaldo after the Portuguese player had surgery on his ankle in the summer.

Rooney’s virus was picked up on the pre-season tour of Nigeria. Rooney hasn’t set foot on the training field since falling ill.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson stated:

I doubt Wayne will be fit for the start of the season.

It’s a virus he picked up in Nigeria and it’s not a nice one. He’s not been back in training yet.

According to Ferguson, the whole United squad were vaccinated before they left for Nigeria and they’ve had to have vaccinations for Yellow Fever in the last 10 years.

The absence of players for United means that Newcastle may fancy their chances in the opening game at Old Trafford, and King Kev will surely love it if they beat them!

Fergie begins mind games with Big Phil

The season is some weeks off yet but Sir Alex Ferguson is already underway with the mind games. Speaking in an interview the canny Scott has already written off Chelsea’s title challenge for next season, insisting that Scolari’s team are too old to improve.

Instead Ferguson believes that Liverpool and Arsenal are more of a challenge. This is clearly Sir Alex chancing his arm with Big Phil early on, seeing if he can poke a reaction from the Brazilian.

Fergy stated:

Chelsea are an experienced side and I don’t see outstanding progress coming from a team in their 30s.

I wouldn’t write off Liverpool or Arsenal. It has been understated what Arsenal achieved last season.

They suffered injuries at a bad time, Arsenal - in February they lost most of their midfield.

Who is to say that it would not have been closer if Arsene Wenger had kept his players fit?

Ferguson’s intentions are obvious, even to newcomers to the game, as he obviously will be very wary of Chelsea and will consider them his main challengers. Especially after the blues have spent £24 million on two Portuguese players, Deco and Bosingwa.

Fergie however went onto say that Chelsea will find it hard to improve, even with the experienced Scolari at the helm.

I’m not concerned about Chelsea, I just don’t know how far that team has got to go.

They have lots of experience and big-game temperament and in a sense Scolari is fortunate, joining a big club with a team of internationals.

Fergie to lead team GB?

Lord Sebastian Coe has stated that he would like Sir Alex Ferguson to lead the Great Britain football team in the 2012 Olympics, to be held in London. Lord Coe says he has already spoken to Ferguson about the idea, saying he’s by far the best man for the job.

I would love to have him there because he is a phenomenal coach and a great man manager.

Who else would you want to have that mentoring role with under 23 players for a build-up to the games?

We have had a few conversations, but I stress that it is for the British Olympic Association and the Football Association to make that judgement and I leave it with them.

The idea of having a Great Britain team has been very controversial, as it means players from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland would have to play together, and the football associations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland fear that having a joint GB team could compromise their status.

Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, has already gone down on record as stating that a GB team would be better if it just included players from England.

Liverpool and Manchester United reported to Premier League by Spurs

Both Liverpool and Manchester United have been reported to the premier league by Tottenham Hotspur, over their pursuit of the players Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov respectively.

Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, has stated that he expects the capture of Tottenham striker Berbatov to go through in a matter of days. This has angered Spurs, who say they haven’t accepted any offers from either Manchester United or Liverpool.

Daniel Levy, the chairman of Tottenham Hotspur, said of Sir Alex Ferguson:

It is unbelievably hypocritical given his comments in respect of Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid.

The behaviour of both clubs has been disgraceful. We told both clubs very early on that we had no interest in selling Robbie or Dimitar, respectively, and that they should refrain from pursuing the player.

Both clubs arrogantly chose to ignore this request and we now have evidence that both clubs have systematically been working to prise the players away from us, outside of Premier League rules of conduct.

Manchester United have made an offer for the 27-year-old Bulgarian striker Berbatov, but Spurs have not accepted. Liverpool meanwhile have made very public their interest in Robbie Kean.

Levy was particularly angered by Manchester United however, and explained how Spurs have made an official complaint about their conduct.

Today’s public comments by Manchester United’s manager, announcing that he has made an offer for Dimitar and is confident that the deal will go through with time working in their favour, is a blatant example of sheer arrogance and interference with one of our players.

It is also probably one of the worst offences by any manager in the Premier League to date

As a result, we have today made an official complaint to the Premier League about the conduct of Manchester United.

Tottenham are holding firm over their insistence that they do not wish to sell either player.

Ronaldo going nowhere, says Sir Alex

Sir Alex Ferguson insists that star winger Cristiano Ronaldo will be at Old Trafford next season, amid strong speculation that he’ll be joining Real Madrid in the next few weeks.

Ronaldo is currently sidelined for approximately 3 months following surgery on his ankle. He met with Ferguson last week in Lisbon to discuss his future.

Sir Alex says about the meeting:

It went well. We put across our points of view, where we stand and where the player stands.

I can say he’ll be a Manchester United player next season. He won’t be sold.

This should end any talk of Ronaldo leaving the English and European champions in the summer.

Sir Alex continued:

It’s not a difficult position. I was on my holiday and I was not going to interrupt my holiday, believe me.

I wasn’t panicked because the player is under contract so the strength and the rights are with Manchester United.

What we have done well is to say nothing. We’ve kept quiet on this matter and kept it private and what I said to Cristiano remains private.

Ronaldo is under contract at United until 2012, and was their star player last season scoring 42 goals, including one in the Champions League Final against Chelsea.

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