muckypups

"Walk the Line" Johnny Cash

"Walk on the Wild Side" Lou Reed

"Trouble in the Fields" Nanci Griffith

Wonder what this guy's been on..

Mourinho is going to leave Chelsea. Abravomich doesn't want any trouble next season. He will bring in Guus Hiddink.

There will be a mass leaving Chelsea:

Lampard (Barcelona) 8mil

Bridge (Newcastle) 8mil

Sinclair (Liverpool) 6mil

j. Cole (Liverpool) 16mil

Makelele (Madrid) 5mil

In will be coming:

Quaresma (Porto) 14mil

Andrade (deportivo) 11mil

Alves (Sevilla) 17mil

Team: Cech/ Alves/ terry/ Carvalho/ cole/ Quaresma/ Ballack/ essien/ Robben/ Drogba/ Shevchenko

Cudicini/ Andrade/ Mikel/ SWP/ Kalou

Shock I know, but this Chelsea team has a lot more balance to it

I wasn't going to open this thread until we hit the business end of the transfer season.. but there are just too many rumours to ignore..

Kieran Richardson's blip will disappear off Lord Ferg's radar when he hotfoots it to Everton in the summer.

To the surprise of exactly three people, Carlos Tevez will leave West Ham for Milan or Liverpool.

Jason Roberts - Jason Roberts!?!?! - is Sevilla's transfer target of choice.

STRIKER TRANSFERS -

AC Milan - A. Shevchenko (£25m)

- Klaas J. Huntelaar (£12m)

Chelsea - Adriano (£20m)

Arsenal - Nicolas Anelka (£8m)

or - David Trezeguet (£8.5m)

or - Carlos Tevez (£10m)

or - Michael Owen (£9m)

Internazionale - Luca Toni (£14m)

Manchester United - Fernando Torres (£21m)

Liverpool - Dimi Berbatov (£10m + Peter Crouch)

(thus the reason for the signing of Voronin)

Lyon - D. Cisse (£8m)

AS. Roma - Antonio Cassano (loan)

Juventus - Roy Makaay (£5m)

Tottenham - D. Bent (£9m)

Newcastle - Dean Aston (£7m)

- Kevin Davis (£4m)

- Brian McBride (£2.5m)

Blackburn Rovers - Craig Bellamy (£5m)

Everton - David Nugent (£6m)

Bolton - Darius Vassell (£3m)

- Collins John (£3.5m)

Birmingham - Robbie Earnshaw (£4.5m)

Celtic - Jason Roberts (£3m)

European Transfer Rumours Signings

Bayern Munich: H. Altintop, Schlaudraff, Sosa, Van der Vaart, Huntelaar

AC Milan: Saviola, Cassano, Elano, Lucio, Amelia

Juventus: Quagliarella, Baptista, Makelele, Barzagli

Barcelona: Palacio, Ribery, Jansen

Real Madrid: D. Milito, Robben, Diego, G. Milito

Valencia: Alexis, Sneijder, Boruc

Liverpool: Richards, Wright-Phillips, Defoe, Voronin

Man United: Hargreaves, Nani, Torres

Chelsea: Alex, Sidwell, Quaresma, Tevez

Thierry Henry will be signing for Barca this summer, Joey Barton will sign for Everton for roughly 5.5 mil, Roy Maakay will sign for Celtic in a 3-year-deal and Sunderland are currently chasing Celtic's Evander Sno and have reportedly bid £1.2 mil.

Spurs plan a £7m raid for Reading and England B left back Nicky Shorey.

Shorey who only recently signed a new deal at Reading signed for Reading from Leyton Orient for 25k under Alan Pardew back in the old 2nd division.

Not sure what TP will think about that last one...

You're welcome Mig.. here's some more...

We have failed and I must take the blame, says Wenger

Arsene Wenger on Friday gave himself a damning end-of-season report by admitting he has failed Arsenal this season.

The club are fourth in the League going into Sunday's final game at Portsmouth and were out of all cup competitions by the first week of March.

Wenger admits this season has been his worst since joining the club.

"We are 22 points behind the leader, so I cannot say I did everything perfectly," he said.

"I am responsible for the fact we didn’t fight for the championship. I have to stand up for what I call a failure."

But Wenger believes his side will be challenging on all fronts next year.

"We have shown qualities that nobody else has," he said. "We have mental strength and technical quality."

The rebuilding has begun with the £2million capture of Poland keeper Lukasz Fabianski, 22, from Legia Warsaw.

He is seen as the long-term replacement for Jens Lehmann, who has signed a contract to stay for one more year.

The rebuilding has begun with the £2million capture of Poland keeper Lukasz Fabianski, 22, from Legia Warsaw.

I read an article about this guy a while back.. apparently he's in the Peter Czech mode, could be a very good signing...

"Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" Paul Simon

The right thread for this I hope?...James Lawton in The Independent..:

Comment and prejudice are free, so are the facts

Rod Liddle, a former BBC person who writes a football column that is capable of sparking a fleeting if almost exclusively morbid interest in his views, tells us of how he and the nation felt when in 1972 Leeds United put on a spell-binding show of keep-ball against a Southampton trounced 7-0.

He said that if Manchester United - who, as it happened, had two weeks earlier conceded five goals at Elland Road - had put on a similar show everybody would have been entranced. But apparently "we" were so entrenched in our hatred of Don Revie's team we were muttering to ourselves, "Go on Bobby Stokes, kick that cultured thug Johnny Giles six feet up in the air. Break a leg or two. Especially Billy Bremner."

One can only guess where and in what state of mind Liddle was in when all this was going on, but the odds are he had been reading similarly overwrought drivel on some southern-circulated backpage.

After insulting gratuitously two of the greatest midfielders ever to play the game, he went on to say that Leeds' "pragmatism and invincibility" brought them only two titles and "nothing in the way of European success". Leeds qualified for Europe every year for 10 years, appeared in five finals, winning two Fairs Cups - which were competed for by clubs placed second in their national leagues - losing one, and finishing runners-up (after disgraceful refereeing) in the European Cup, against Franz Beckenbauer's Bayern Munich, and in the European Cup-Winners Cup.

Break their legs? Comment and prejudice, however crass, is free, but then so are facts. In the end, no team did more than Leeds United to earn a fair hearing.

Needless to say after reading this rebuttal I had to look for the original article; The Times..:

Football’s rough justice favours the big boys

Leeds and West Ham have got off lightly while so-called lesser clubs are the losers

Rod Liddle

DO YOU remember that game from 1972 when Leeds United, imperious and unassailable, trounced Southampton 7-0 at Elland Road? At one point the Leeds side engaged in a magnificently contemptuous game of keep-ball, the Southampton players scurrying hither and thither wishing that the ground might swallow them up. I reckon if Manchester United did a similar thing today we would be transfixed with awe and respect. Back then, we were instead transfixed with utter hatred. Go on, Bobby Stokes, we will have muttered to ourselves, kick that cultured thug Giles six feet up in the air. Break a leg or two. Especially Billy Bremner.

Leeds were loathed then for their wily pragmatism, their apparent invincibility (an invincibility that, paradoxically, brought them only a couple of league championships and nothing in the way of success in Europe). The loathing continues; their current misery is a source of jubilation throughout the land. Last weekend, on one of the Leeds supporters’ websites, fans of virtually every club across the four divisions posted messages dripping with bile and spite, revelling in the extreme likelihood of Leeds being relegated, for the first time in their history, to what all normal people call Division Three.

I cannot think of another team that could provoke such unanimous dislike – and especially not one from the lower reaches of the second division, a side beset in recent years by the most terrible misfortunes that could afflict a football club, ie Peter Ridsdale and David O’Leary.

As ever, the final satisfaction of seeing Leeds finally consigned to the third division was stolen from us at the last moment, in a very Leedsish manner. To have escaped relegation this weekend Leeds would have needed not only to win at the excellent Derby County but make good a nine-goal deficit on their closest rivals, Hull City. Let’s be clear: they were effectively relegated by last week’s home draw with Ipswich Town.

So to see them suddenly claim sanctuary in administration and have a meaningless 10 points deducted this season rather tarnishes the pleasure we might take in their humiliation. We wanted to see them start next season with minus 10 points: go on, Wisey, sort that one out. But it also seems to me against the spirit of the law and quite possibly against the letter of it. The 10-point deduction is intended as a punishment imposed as a result of a football club living way beyond its means. In Leeds United's case, way, way, way beyond its means. And yet in this instance it is not a punishment at all as Leeds were already down.

And so the laws that apply to the little clubs – such as nearby Rotherham United, forced to claw their way back from a 10-point deduction in a lower division (they almost did it, bless them) and, for that matter, Crawley Town – do not apply to the gilded likes of Leeds. So there we are, another reason to hate them and to further despise the football authorities, who must recognise this as a blatant piece of chicanery but are, as ever, disinclined to do anything about it.

The suspicion persists that there is one law for the big clubs – the Premiership sides, the supposedly sleeping giants from the lower divisions – and one law for the rest. Take, as an example, that footballing academy (by which I mean the likes of Marlon Harewood and Christian Dailly), West Ham; a £5.5m fine that will be wiped out at least sixfold by the money they will get for not being relegated. Now, I have little time for Dave Whelan and his clodhopping Wigan side – an artificially created Premiership club if ever there was one – and still less for al-Fayed’s Fulham. But it is inconceivable that a smaller club would have been treated with the leniency afforded to West Ham: indeed, they weren’t. AFC Wimbledon got told they were being clobbered with an 18-point deduction for fielding an ineligible player, before having this ludicrously severe penalty reduced to three points when the West Ham business hove into view. But still, three points – three points that, if applied equitably, could send West Ham down to the Championship.

The FA, in reaching its conclusion over the Carlos Tevez affair, took note of the fact that the corrupt dealings with the player were not the fault of the loyal West Ham supporters, who shouted really loudly during matches and were decent and blameless human beings. Well, sure, but what of the AFC Wimbledon supporters or, for that matter, the fans of Rotherham? Were they to blame for, respectively, their club’s incompetence in fielding an ineligible player or for sinking into administration? Of course not; they were as loyal and blameless as the West Ham fans. If you wanted prima facie evidence of one rule for the rich, one rule for the poor, you have it in the cases of Leeds United and West Ham.

Rod Liddle sounds like a man with a sharp axe and a busy grindstone to me...

City, beyond the..

From The Independent..

Curbishley rules out conspiracy theories

Five months as West Ham United manager and Alan Curbishley has already lived through some of the most outlandish football sub-plots ever to have hit a club but he refused to accept yesterday that one more waits in store. As his side play Manchester United tomorrow, with their Premiership status at stake, Curbishley said that he did not believe that Sheffield United and Wigan would conspire together to send his team down.

Survival Sunday has many implications but for a club with the pariah status of West Ham - after the Tevez-Mascherano affair - there is one that they may fear the most. Should United beat West Ham and Wigan win at Bramall Lane by anything up to two clear goals, then it would be Curbishley's side going down on goal difference. And given the level of feeling against West Ham, would Curbishley rule out an anti-West Ham conspiracy?

The West Ham manager still wears the thousand-yard stare of a man who has lived life on the brink this season but even he would not let that kind of paranoia gnaw away at him.

"There has been lots of talk this week and I think Sheffield United and Wigan have got to do what they have to do and secure their result and hope it all falls into place," he said. "In the last game of the season there are so many twists and I don't think Sheffield United will forget what happened in 1994 when they played Chelsea and for a lot of the game they were safe, then it got turned around. You can't legislate for what can happen on that day. Wigan know what they have to do and if we pick anything up we have done our job. I don't think anyone can go into it other than flat out to try to get their result."

The omens are not encouraging. It was West Ham who denied Sir Alex Ferguson the title on the last day of the season in 1995, a game in which they had nothing to play for yet still put in an "obscene" amount of effort according to United manager Alex Ferguson. And he never forgets, apparently telling his players to make sure they sent Harry Redknapp's South-ampton down two years ago as a payback to West Ham's former manager.

This time, with the Premiership trophy safe, United have nothing to play for but Curbishley said he expected that Ferguson would be true to his word and pick a strong side.

"I am sure there will be a lot of familiar names on the team-sheet," Curbishley said. "Whatever side they put out they will be going out to win and I am sure it will be packed with familiar names. Not as unfamiliar as the Liverpool team last week."

There was a minor dig there at the Rafael Benitez selection that gifted Fulham three crucial points last Saturday, and again history is not with West Ham. In the last home game for United's first title in 1993, the trophy was already won but at 1-0 down to Blackburn at half-time, Ferguson tore into his players who had spent much of the previous 48 hours celebrating. They won the match 3-1.

A little light relief..unless you support West Ham, Wigan or Sheffield United I imagine...

Spotters guide to relegation

What to look out for if your club is going down

Sheffield United going down!

Shot of sombre Sean Bean sitting in stand. Commentator says, "well, so far this certainly isn't the script he'd have wanted." Interruption to bring, "some very important news from Old Trafford," shows split-screen replay of crazed-looking Carlos Tevez leaping into West Ham fans section in his vest.

Neil Warnock capers around on touchline making 'gee up' gesture to crowd, ahead of gung-ho triple substitution involving three journeyman centre forwards with unconvincing goal records. Commentator says, "for some, it's all just too much," over shot of tearful child with red and white face paint being comforted by dad in replica shirt.

West Ham going down!

Close-up of really tired-looking Alan Curbishley standing with arms folded and slowly shaking his head. Home crowd spending a lot of time shouting, "Ole!" and offering extended rounds of applause to substituted star players. Shot of tearful Anton Ferdinand walking backwards and pointing sulkily at fellow defenders.

Commentator says, "sadness for some inside Old Trafford," over pictures of furious, tattooed skinhead contingent chanting about not being fit to wear the shirt.

Wigan going down!

Close up of Emile Heskey holding his head in his hands in six yard box while team mates trudge back towards halfway line. Shirt-sleeved Paul Jewell runs on to pitch in order to point aggressively at referee. Continues pointing aggressively at referee while being hauled away by track-suited backroom staff.

Commentator says, "could the club that defied gravity by reaching the Premiership be about to come crashing back down to earth? You know what they say about what goes up!"

Neil Warnock seen engaging in touchline by-play with 6,000 abusive away fans. At final whistle tells interviewer, "I'll have to apologise to all those people out there who didn't want us around next season."

Cheers HH.. I'm well on the way already...

Perhaps the first article was good enough to post twice

I didn't notice that HH.. (message to self... Ctrl V once...).. no wonder it was lengthy..Still, it is my Birthday.. I may have started a little early...

I couldn't think of a more appropriate thread to post this...

At last, Moore is on the pedestal he deserves

By Jim White

Supporters turning up at Wembley during its busy opening period of cup finals, play-offs and internationals will be confronted by a familiar figure standing sentinel outside the ground. Just off Olympic Way, towering six metres high, is a statue of Bobby Moore. It could be no one else. He stands in his brass incarnation exactly as he did in life. Relaxed, unflustered, arms folded, kit immaculately pressed, he has his foot

This is not the first time the artist Philip Jackson has worked on an image of England's greatest captain. He is responsible, too, for the Moore who sits on the shoulders of his team mates Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst, holding aloft the Jules Rimet trophy in a work outside Upton Park which celebrates what in those parts has, for 40 years, been referred to as West Ham's victory in the World Cup. Maybe it is the practice, but in the Wembley work Jackson has captured Moore uncannily.

Unlike the effort for Ted Bates recently unveiled (and then hastily removed) at Southampton, this is a statue in perfect proportion, capturing him with his shirt apparently catching a passing breeze and tightening over his formidable physique. But it is not just the easy, elegant muscularity that speaks of Moore. Before starting work on the piece, Jackson consulted many of the skipper's playing colleagues and the thing they all mentioned was his remarkable inner confidence.

Moore was not only a magnificent defender, a man who could read a game of football with the fluency that Stephen Fry brings to the works of PG Wodehouse, he also knew it. That knowledge, however, did not manifest itself in arrogance, but in a relaxed self-certainty that was communicated around the dressing room, suffusing his colleagues with confidence. It is all there on the statue's face. He looks a man utterly at ease with himself and his destiny.

"Football is a team game, but every team needs a leader," said Bobby Charlton at the unveiling of the statue yesterday. "And Bobby was the ultimate leader, respected by everyone in the team and the manager. He was the key to England winning the World Cup."

Charlton was joined at the ceremony by his England team-mate Hurst and Moore's West Ham protege Trevor Brooking, knights of the realm all three. Perhaps more surprisingly, however, it was the Prime Minister who was on hand to do the honours and pull the cord that unveiled the statue.

"No one can ever forget the contribution Bobby Moore made," said Tony Blair of 1966 and all that. "It set a standard for achievement that we constantly want to be replicated. Throughout the entirety of his playing career, he was a superb footballer. He was someone who inspired a great deal of respect, affection and admiration for the way he carried himself. If you are looking for a role model for people in public life, Bobby Moore is a good one to take. A true gentleman, he was somebody who represented the best of our country."

It was well said. The tragedy of Bobby Moore is that no one of Mr Blair's significance was saying it 15 years ago when the player was around to hear it for himself. The key to the World Cup victory he might have been, but in his lifetime he never received higher official recognition than an OBE, the kind of gong handed out to junior members of the Ashes winning squad these days. Worse, the most successful player ever to wear the white of England was assumed by the game's establishment to be of no use in retirement. He once sent in a letter of application for the England manager's job and never mind not being considered for the post, or even being asked to contribute in a lesser role as a coach, nobody at Lancaster Gate even bothered to reply. The only Englishman to lift the World Cup was, seemingly, not worth a stamp. Few outside the FA thought he had much to offer either: the peak of his coaching career was a brief spell in charge of Oxford City in the Southern League. Financially, too, he was by no means secure and, in his last years, he was obliged to do bits and pieces of low grade media work, including filing match reports for the ludicrous Daily Sport.

Moore succumbed to bowel cancer in 1993. The first of those involved with the 1966 World Cup victory to die, he was just 51. And it was only in his death that we, as a country, seemingly began to appreciate quite what he meant. Maybe there was a little bit of guilt in our reaction, a recognition that we should have made a fuss of him at the time, but the outpouring of grief was widespread. At West Ham, they named a new stand after him and paid £2million for a collection of his memorabilia, which formed the centre piece of a new museum. Hammers fans collected a 30,000 signature petition asking that the No 6 shirt be retired in his memory. Despite the pressure, the club decided not to make such a gesture and this season it has been worn by George McCartney. Which, the cruel might suggest, is roughly the same thing as retiring it. Meanwhile, the Bobby Moore Fund, set up and run by his tireless widow Stephanie, every year raises more than £1million for research into the disease which killed him. Mourners at Alan Ball's funeral recently were asked not to bring flowers, but to make a contribution to the fund.

It was to Moore's ill fortune that his retirement was lived out in a very different era from today. This was a time before the football boom took hold, when the game and those who played it still suffered from a poor image in the wider world. Football has achieved a far greater prominence in the public mind in the 14 years since he departed to the point where it is inconceivable that a man of his stature would be languishing in reduced circumstances were he around today. Had Moore lived into the time of the Premiership, you can imagine him sharing a Sky studio with Richard Keys, acting as an ambassador for the 2012 Olympics, appearing in that Carlsberg "probably the best pub team in the world" commercial with all the other old England lags, still looking by far the coolest player on the park. Nowadays, if nothing else, the FA would bite the hand off anyone of his importance who put himself forward for the England job, astonished to receive an application from someone who was not certifiable.

And it is not just football, sport in general has moved closer to the centre of our cultural life, recognised more readily for its place in our sense of national pride and wellbeing. That's why the Prime Minister's presence at yesterday's Wembley ceremony was significant. It has taken a while but at last we have put Bobby Moore on the pedestal he deserves.

Thought I'd stick this here..Henry Winter in The Telegraph:

United hold the key to justice in Tevez affair

On the last weekend of the season, when the Grinning Reaper called relegation stalks benighted clubs, a maths degree is traditionally required to juggle all the permutations. Tomorrow, when Wigan Athletic, Sheffield United, and Carlos Tevez's West Ham United fight for survival, a law degree is needed.

If natural justice prevails, the points deduction West Ham deserve for the lies told over the Tevez deal will effectively be inflicted by Manchester United while Wigan prevail at Bramall Lane. The innocents in this mess of West Ham's creation, and the Premier League's incompetence, are Paul Jewell's Latics and Neil Warnock's Blades. Honest clubs, neither deserve booting downstairs to the Championship.

The situation stinks. West Ham are a wonderful club, with supporters whose noise and passion shames most others in the Premiership, with a new chairman inheriting the subterfuge of a previous regime, but the simple fact is that they have been fielding an ineligible player who has been hugely instrumental in their recent renaissance. Tevez, the whole-hearted, skilful Argentinian, has even been voted Hammer of the Year.

If regulations are to carry weight, West Ham should have been punished properly; a £5.5m fine is nothing when compared against the potential £30m loss that accompanies demotion. No wonder the Upton Park hierarchy did not appeal; they were too busy counting their blessings and potential savings.

The credibility of the Premiership has taken a battering through the grievances stirred by the Tevez affair, understandably stoked by distressed people at Wigan, Sheffield United and Charlton Athletic. Yet it remains hard to see how these angered parties can actually win in the courts as the original dispute was primarily between West Ham and the Premier League. Dave Whelan would need a magician as much as a QC to guide a successful course through the legal minefield, regardless of any sane footballing mortal believing that West Ham have transgressed.

So only Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs can administer justice, ripping apart West Ham's defence tomorrow. Even then Wigan must somehow hold on to a lead at Bramall Lane. And this is the way football should be: the season's fortunes decided by events on the field, not in the court of law.

What the furore particularly highlights is the importance of the Barclays Premiership. Clubs are desperately relying on prosecution counsel to cling to their place amongst the elite. What the whole mess also underlines is the integrity of the competition, as no one seriously believes United will give West Ham an easy ride or Wigan and Sheffield United orchestrate some mass collusion.

All the focus has inevitably been trained on Tevez, but Javier Mascherano's presence on these shores is arguably even more complex. Liverpool's new holding midfielder has played for three clubs in one season, which Fifa allow because of South America's different calendar, but it seems bizarre to see him preparing to end his term in the Champions League final facing AC Milan, when he started the European year in the Uefa Cup. But then Milan should not be in Athens after their points reduction. Madness rules. The review of the season should really be undertaken by m'learned friends.

From The Telegraph..interesting (if lengthy) article on the 'ammers..:

Curbishley hoping 'quiet' game pays off

West Ham face a game of inverted incentives to complete their astonishing Premiership turnaround. Cast your minds back 15 years - to another anxious run-in, and to another momentous engagement with Manchester United.

Then, the club were already relegated, but contrived a remarkable 1-0 win that effectively ended United's title ambitions. Sir Alex Ferguson bemoaned his opponents' "obscene" amount of effort. Now, with Old Trafford ready for a champions' jamboree tomorrow, West Ham have to show the same pride and perseverance in the service of a far greater cause - even if the result threatens to be even more unpopular.

The background to the tie is such that manager Alan Curbishley expects few favours. Ferguson may have fielded a shadow side against Chelsea, but more established figures are likely to conduct United's final flourish.

"I'm sure there will be a lot of familiar names on the team sheet," Curbishley said. "Sir Alex has said that he has to respect the league, and he'll be putting a strong side out." A coded reference, no doubt, to the improvised Liverpool line-up that helped Fulham ensure their Premiership survival last week - much to the chagrin of Wigan's Paul Jewell.

Unlike the expressive Jewell, overt resentment is not Curbishley's style. Knowing Wigan and Sheffield United want blood over Carlos Tevez's inclusion in the West Ham team, he subtly suggested that his rivals straighten their priorities out. "The Premier League have come to their conclusion and everybody has to get on with it. I think they should be concentrating on their football."

There is a sense West Ham are relishing their role as quiet assassins in the relegation duel. Players have been gagged following this season's surfeit of adverse publicity, while Curbishley has resolved to brave the barbs in his typically deadpan style. "We have been coming up quietly on the rails," he said. "Everybody has had their say, and it's becoming louder and louder in some respects. We are keeping quiet."

Tevez himself has been a model of reserve, trying to maintain a model of studied professionalism while the crossfire intensifies around him. By his goals and dedication, the Argentine has acquired a cult status in the eyes of West Ham supporters unfazed by his controversial contract. When looking back at his faltering start in the Premiership, the change appears improbable - and forms a sharp contrast with the progress of Javier Mascherano, forced to move to Liverpool to find his place in England.

Curbishley was clear on why their paths have diverged. "When I came in, Mascherano was on the floor - he was really down. But Tevez could see a bit of light."

Come tomorrow, the dark recesses into which West Ham have retreated of late could also be illuminated. The club would at last envisage a future that stretches further than the next game, with Curbishley expected to receive chairman Eggert Magnusson's backing for a major overhaul of the squad. But in the short term he stuck to the diplomatic line, denying that players would essentially be fighting for their careers against United.

"We know how important the game is, and there are still so many twists," he said. "Sheffield United and Wigan both know what they have to do, and nobody will be taking these games lightly. Nobody can go in anything other than flat out." It is in West Ham's hands to make sure they are not the ones who finish flat on their faces. By Oliver Brown

West Ham face a game of inverted incentives to complete their astonishing Premiership turnaround. Cast your minds back 15 years - to another anxious run-in, and to another momentous engagement with Manchester United.

Then, the club were already relegated, but contrived a remarkable 1-0 win that effectively ended United's title ambitions. Sir Alex Ferguson bemoaned his opponents' "obscene" amount of effort. Now, with Old Trafford ready for a champions' jamboree tomorrow, West Ham have to show the same pride and perseverance in the service of a far greater cause - even if the result threatens to be even more unpopular.

The background to the tie is such that manager Alan Curbishley expects few favours. Ferguson may have fielded a shadow side against Chelsea, but more established figures are likely to conduct United's final flourish.

"I'm sure there will be a lot of familiar names on the team sheet," Curbishley said. "Sir Alex has said that he has to respect the league, and he'll be putting a strong side out." A coded reference, no doubt, to the improvised Liverpool line-up that helped Fulham ensure their Premiership survival last week - much to the chagrin of Wigan's Paul Jewell.

Unlike the expressive Jewell, overt resentment is not Curbishley's style. Knowing Wigan and Sheffield United want blood over Carlos Tevez's inclusion in the West Ham team, he subtly suggested that his rivals straighten their priorities out. "The Premier League have come to their conclusion and everybody has to get on with it. I think they should be concentrating on their football."

There is a sense West Ham are relishing their role as quiet assassins in the relegation duel. Players have been gagged following this season's surfeit of adverse publicity, while Curbishley has resolved to brave the barbs in his typically deadpan style. "We have been coming up quietly on the rails," he said. "Everybody has had their say, and it's becoming louder and louder in some respects. We are keeping quiet."

Tevez himself has been a model of reserve. By his goals and dedication, the Argentine has acquired a cult status in the eyes of West Ham supporters unfazed by his controversial contract. When looking back at his faltering start in the Premiership, the change appears improbable - and forms a sharp contrast with the progress of Javier Mascherano, forced to move to Liverpool.

Curbishley was clear on why their paths have diverged. "When I came in, Mascherano was on the floor - he was really down. But Tevez could see a bit of light."

Come tomorrow, the dark recesses into which West Ham have retreated of late could also be illuminated. The club would at last envisage a future that stretches further than the next game, with Curbishley expected to receive chairman Eggert Magnusson's backing for a overhaul of the squad.

"We know how important the game is, and there are still so many twists," he said. It is in West Ham's hands to make sure they are not the ones who finish flat on their faces.

Fergie on the match tomorrow..From The Times:

No place for friendship as United vow to play fair

With the Premier League title already won and an FA Cup Final on the horizon, Manchester United’s players might be tempted to go easy on West Ham United tomorrow – not least Rio Ferdinand, whose brother Anton, faces the threat of relegation with the visiting team – but Sir Alex Ferguson has promised Sheffield United and Wigan Athletic that there will be no favours for his good friend Alan Curbishley.

When Curbishley signed off as Charlton Athletic manager last season, Ferguson surprised him by presenting him with two first-class return tickets to visit his sister in New Zealand, but the United manager insists that there will be no charity in terms of his team selection tomorrow, even if Cristiano Ronaldo or Wayne Rooney may again be left out of the starting lineup in readiness for next Saturday’s showdown with Chelsea at Wembley.

“It’s a difficult game for us, against a team at the bottom of the league fighting for survival, and, while one or two players won’t play, in the main it will be a strong team I put out,” Ferguson said. “We will do that to represent ourselves in a proper way and to be fair to everyone. I think that everyone knows the English game is 100 per cent honest and people do their best. That is what we will do on Sunday.

“Alan Curbishley is a very good friend of mine, but he understands I have to respect the issues of the other managers as well. They [Wigan and Sheffield United] deserve our best attention to the game and I will be picking a team to win.”

Ferguson has plenty of reasons to want his team to end their Premiership campaign on a high. He recalled yesterday how West Ham’s supporters delighted in depriving them of the league title at Upton Park in 1995; victory would give United 92 points, equalling their record from the 1993-94 season, when they played 42 matches rather than 38; and of course there is the incentive to put on a show for the supporters before being awarded the trophy after the game.

The trophy will be lifted by Gary Neville, but the United captain will play no part in the game and, like Louis Saha, is losing his race to be fit for the FA Cup Final. Neville has not resumed full training since damaging ankle ligaments on March 17 and Ferguson said he was doubtful that the full back will be fit to face Chelsea.

Saha has disappointed Ferguson with a cautious approach to his rehabilitation from hamstring and knee injuries, but the France forward said he was keen to remain at Old Trafford. “I want to stay. I have just won my first title with United and I want so much to win other titles [here]. I love my club and I don’t want to leave it,” he said.

— Any Chelsea or Manchester United player sent off tomorrow will be suspended for the FA Cup Final next Saturday, but no one at the two clubs can be banned from the Wembley match because of an accumulation of yellow cards. At this stage of the season, only players who have received 15 bookings are given a suspension and no Chelsea or United player is at risk.

From The Sun:

Kop can have Owen for £9m

FREDDY SHEPHERD has sensationally been caught out saying: “I’d f***ing carry Michael Owen back to Liverpool for £9million.”

The Newcastle chairman dropped the own goal after being filmed in his car by Reds fans.

England ace Owen has a get-out clause in his contract which could see him move to Manchester United or Liverpool.

Shepherd, who earlier this week ordered Owen to show his loyalty to the club, tells a group of Kop fans: “I’ll f***ing carry him back for you . . . for £9million.”

Asked if the hitman will actually leave St James’ Park he then replies: “No, he’s a good lad. It’s the agents, *******. He’s OK, a decent lad.”

But the club later played down Shepherd’s blunder, saying: “The chairman shows just how approachable he is by having a laugh with a couple of fans.

"Geordies and Liverpool fans are renowned for enjoying a joke.”

"Geordies and Liverpool fans are renowned for enjoying a joke...

We know Newcastle are.. they signed Titus Bramble..

From The Sun...so it must be true..

Dimi: I'll snub Utd and Blues

DIMITAR BERBATOV has given Alex Ferguson the news he was dreading by insisting he is staying at Tottenham.

The red-hot Bulgarian striker will snub a summer move to Fergie’s Manchester United and sign a new £45,000- a-week Spurs deal.

He said: “I am really happy that I made the choice to come here to Tottenham to work with the manager Martin Jol — he is a great man.

“I have said it many times, when you play good, when you score goals, especially here in England, everyone is watching you.

“Manchester, Chelsea they take an interest but I’m settled at Tottenham.”

United boss Fergie wanted to sign Berba last summer but Jol nipped in to bag the hitman from German outfit Bayer Leverkusen.

Berba’s new Spurs deal will double his wages — reward for scoring 22 goals this term.

Hossam Ghaly has survived the axe at Spurs after making a grovelling apology for his shirt-throwing shame.

The Egyptian midfielder was fined £40,000, two week’s wages, for his angry reaction to being substituted against Blackburn on Thursday.

Hope you managed to see the game dsfbrit, good result for a Forest fan..

The BBC:

Yeovil 0-2 Nott'm Forest

Nottingham Forest scored a penalty in each half to take a giant stride towards the League One play-off final.

Kris Commons put Forest ahead, calmly slotting home from the spot after Nathan Jones felled James Perch.

Perch made it 2-0 late on, striking his spot-kick into the corner after Jack Lester was upended by Terrell Forbes.

Yeovil created the better chances but Forest keeper Paul Smith was in fine form and Marcus Stewart headed wastefully against the post late on.

The Glovers will rue that missed Stewart chance, particularly as they were on top for large parts of the game.

Forest won both league meetings between the sides but without injured top-scorer Grant Holt, the man who scored the only goal in both games, they struggled to retain possession and looked second-best in the opening 20 minutes.

The pace of Aaron Davies and Wayne Gray and the knowhow and trickery of Stewart and Lee Morris troubled the visitors early on.

Keeper Smith was forced to make a stunning stop low to his right to keep out Davies' fierce strike and Stewart also tested the Forest number one.

Forest had to wait until 21 minutes for their first chance, the impressive Lewis McGugan blazing a shot over the bar from the edge of the box after some neat footwork.

But within seconds they were ahead.

Commons played a teasing through-ball into the penalty area and Jones tried to nip the ball away from the on-rushing Perch but only succeeded in sending the Forest man tumbling.

Commons took the responsibility from the spot, calmly stroking the ball into the bottom corner.

Forest were enjoying their best spell of the match and only a superb last-ditch blocked tackle by Forbes prevented Commons from doubling the lead.

But the Glovers continued to create half-chances.

Chris Cohen shot tamely at Smith before the break and two minutes after the restart the impressive Davies beat three men but delayed his shot too long, giving Ian Breckin enough time to get in a vital block.

Forbes then sent a header inches wide after a fine Stewart cross and Stewart headed a difficult chance wide while Gray was also denied by another superb diving stop from Smith.

At the other end Commons saw a well-struck half-volley deflected over and Scott Dobie sent a shot narrowly wide after a positive run from the half-way line.

With 18 minutes left Stewart squandered Yeovil's best chance of the game, heading Anthony Barry's cross against the post from point-blank range.

And with the home side pouring forward late on, Forest took advantage to put one foot into the Wembley final.

The Glovers were caught on the break and when Lester's run was clumsily stopped by Forbes, Perch tucked away the resulting penalty to put Forest firmly in control for next week's second leg at the City Ground.

Yeovil: Mildenhall, Lindegaard, Guyett, Forbes, Jones, Gray, Barry, Cohen, Davies, Morris, Stewart.

Subs Not Used: Behcet, Brittain, Kalala, Lynch, Knights.

Nottm Forest: Smith, Curtis, Chambers, Breckin, Wright, Perch, McGugan (Bennett 87), Gary Holt, Commons (Weir-Daley 79), Dobie (Morgan 72), Lester.

Subs Not Used: Pedersen, Bastians.

Booked: Curtis, Morgan, Commons.

Goals: Commons 23 pen, Perch 90 pen.

Att: 8,935.

Ref: N Miller (Co Durham).

Neville still injured, and it looks like Saha's on his way out...From The Guardian:

Ferguson fears the worst for final as Neville runs out of time

Gary Neville will lift the Premiership trophy for Manchester United at the end of tomorrow's match against West Ham at Old Trafford but the club captain is having to come to terms with the news that he will almost certainly miss the FA Cup final.

Sir Alex Ferguson also has to plan for next Saturday's contest against Chelsea without Louis Saha with the striker ruled out for the rest of the season. Neville has not played since injuring his ankle during United's 4-1 defeat of Bolton Wanderers on March 17 and Ferguson does not believe there is sufficient time to recover.

"He has been doing some running but he's obviously up against it in terms of making the final," said the United manager. "We'll give him a chance because he deserves that but he will have to do some serious work in full training next week to have any hope. Whether it's soon enough, I have my doubts unfortunately."

The absence of Neville is offset by the fact that Chelsea's manager Jose Mourinho has given his influential centre-half Ricardo Carvalho a "one per cent" chance of being fit. John O'Shea and Wes Brown have been capable deputies in the right-back position and, likewise, Saha's recurrent injury problems have not affected the team too badly. Nonetheless, Ferguson has become increasingly exasperated by Saha's susceptibility to injury and it has led to angry words behind the scenes at the training ground. Saha has started only four matches in 2007 and there have been three occasions in the past six weeks when Ferguson has thought the player was fit only for him to pull out at the last minute.

"He has picked up an injury in his knee, believe it or not," said a frustrated Ferguson. "He was pencilled in to play against Manchester City last Saturday but he got an injury the day before in training. He felt it on the Saturday morning. We were ready to pick him for the team but unfortunately this knee injury surfaced. I would say he has no chance [for the final]."

United yesterday released a statement to re-iterate they had broken no regulations regarding Tim Howard's transfer to Everton. They say the gentlemen's agreement with Everton that Howard should not play in the league fixture against United was ratified by the Premier League.

I would hardly expect you to roll over when you have so much to play for Keddy, and there's no doubt that West Ham have been on fire in recent games. Ignoring all the off-pitch argy bargy (ahem...) Curbishley has you playing great football at the moment. Of course United will want to win at home.. but they can live with a defeat now the Trophy is safe. I have nothing to base my prediction on other than I feel it.. United to win. I may well be wrong.. and you'll stuff us 3 or 4-0.. everything is possible on the last day of the season..

I've gone from thinking that the game was a certain draw to predicting a United victory.. celebrate in style and all that. Plus.. West Ham have a decent set of results against us, Wigan don't.. Therefore; United to win 3-1...

He did it the odd time for us Mr. B.. and for England if I'm not mistaken.. Still, makes you wonder if United will award him some sort of "medal" as they are for Laarson.

(Actually Howardgate surfaced again today in the news, seems it took Scudamore of the FA TEN days to talk Gill out of inserting the "can't play against us" clause in the permanent contract.. Scudamore insisting that it was a total breach of Premier League rules and would be bound to land United in trouble! The mind boggles.. )

"Green Onions" Booker T and the MG's