Low attendance & poor performances from youngsters suggest Wayne Rooney was right about Manchester United

Comment & analysis round-up

Quote of the day:He was brilliant, it was a magnificent goal. We tend to build up heroes very quickly here but the boy is justifying the praise hes getting at the moment. The kid is such a great professional and hes first in and last out of training. When he came on you just knew if he got a chance he would take it. He dummied the defender really well, shaped to shoot and it was a great finish. Sir Alex Ferguson on Javier Hernandez.

Runner-up: Im going to be in Los Angeles for the rest of my contract. Were all happy here. David Beckham.

Arsene Wenger:First of all because we have a big squad and, as well, I believe we have a good enough squad to go forward [and win] trophies. Thats why I think: OK, lets go as far as we can. If needed we can still always choose later but, at the moment, it is important for everybody to think we go for everything we can. I said to the players we will go for everything we can, as simple as that. And not really specifying one more than the other. Thats why I believe we are on a good run and we want to keep that going. Its important to keep it moving no matter what competition it is. Thats what we want to do. We are doing well in the Champions League and we have done well so far in the Carling Cup, and we are back on track in the championship. The win at Manchester City on Sunday was certainly a pivotal moment of our season because we could not afford a defeat. To keep in touch with the top teams and have a victory was mentally very important for the team. So its just all movement. We want to end our wait for a trophy. We want to respond with the maximum commitment to the demands of people. The only thing I can promise is that we will try to give our best in every competition.

Wolves chief executive J! ez Moxey : It is an absolute nonsense. Well, I hope he hears this: keep your mouth shut. Play the game, play aggressive, let everybody play. Wilshere and your [Wenger's] other players are going to make similar challenges. I had a big, wry smile listening to Arsene Wenger trying to defend Jack Wilshere for the challenge. All he said was exactly the same as every other manager has and yet he is one of the managers who goes on the front foot, moaning and complaining and bitching about it because it is unfair on his team.

Todays overview:Following their Carling Cup win over Wolves last night and with Wayne Rooney still the focus of much attention, it is another day of Manchester United-centric articles.

Daniel Taylor wonders about the low attendance at Old Trafford last night and whilst Javier Hernandez is hailed, Rory Smith questions whether many of the other youngsters on show have what it takes.

The Sun lead with an admission from Wayne Rooney that he never intended to leave Old Trafford (as told to a fellow Dubai holiday maker). And in stark comparison to the riches of the Premier League, David Conn has a piece on FC United.

There are also claims that Liverpool will not have much to spend in January, Carlos Tevez wants to leave Manchester City and speculation over Blackburns takeover by an Indian company.

Plenty of pundits question what the Ballon dOr list means for English football, there is yet more sad news on Paul Gascoigne and Jonathan Wilson has a fine piece on Barcelona.

Manchester United: Daniel Taylor assesses the Carling Cup win over Wolves. This was ultimately a satisfying night for Manchester United, who will go into the fifth round courtesy of another demonstration of Javier Hernndezs qualities inside the penalty area, but it was also an evening when it was difficult to escape the sense that the c! lubs own ers are faced with mutiny from their own supporters. The vast swathes of empty seats around 30,000 in total told their own story. To put it into context, the attendance of 46,083 was the second lowest here since the turn of the century, and 5,000 below the attendance when they faced Wolves in the third round of this competition last season.

Graham Chase concentrates on the players. So it seems that austerity really does pay after all. After seeing Bebe mark his Manchester United debut with a goal, Sir Alex Ferguson sent on Javier Hernandez to rescue his side for the second time in three days. Both signings were seen as evidence of how Uniteds spending had been squeezed and, while it is still too early to make a real judgement on the Portuguese Bebe (who Ferguson had not even seen play when he signed him for 7.4m this summer), Hernandez is already looking the real deal.

Rory Smith is not quite so positive. Quite what that future holds for the youngsters themselves, for United, for Rooney remains uncertain on this evidence. Dangerous as it is to draw conclusions from one performance, the idea that Ferguson has another generation ready to conquer the world at his disposal is a fanciful one. Bebe, all 7.4 million of him, found himself easily out-muscled and out-thought by George Elokobi for much of the game, his goal reliant on a stroke of fortune and a rare lapse of judgment from the Wolves left-back. Federico Macheda, played as a lone striker, failed to impose himself. The initial cameos of his United career suggested he was destined for greatness; injury seems to have slowed his progress. Gabriel Obertan was anonymous throughout, his 3 million signing last summer increasingly looking like folly, albeit a comparatively cheap one. Smalling, meanwhile, carries himself with the same languid demeanour as Rio Ferdinand but understandably at 20 lacks his ability to pull a defence into line.

Following Wayne Rooney and Patrice Evra is John OShea, according to the lead story in The Sun. Alex! Ferguso n has stepped up his plan to get Manchester United stars to commit to Old Trafford by offering John OShea a 16.5million contract.

Wayne Rooney:One of the lead stories in The Sun details what we all knew anyway: Wayne Rooneyhad no intentionto leave Manchester United. Wayne Rooney spoke out for the first time last night over the fury surrounding his contract wrangle saying: I was never going to leave Man United. The 25-year-old striker broke his silence when an angry Red Devils fan confronted him in the lobby of his seven-star Dubai hotel. The supporter asked Rooney: Do you feel youve let down United fans? The surprised footballer replied with a curt: No. He then explained he had NO intention of ever leaving Old Trafford, despite days of turmoil over rumoured moves to rivals Man City or Real Madrid after he said United lacked ambition. It suggests his management team, led by agent Paul Stretford, stoked up the furore which ended in him staying at United on 250,000-a-week. The Daily Mail add that Colleen gave Wayne the cold shoulder yesterday.

FC United: David Conn details the recent successes of FC United. As a palate cleanser following last weeks gluttony in Manchester where Sir Alex Ferguson, David Gill and Paul Stretford, with City waiting, negotiated to crowbar 180,000 a week out of the Glazer family for Wayne Rooney Gigg Lane, Bury, on Sunday, was a refreshing place to be. There, 2,700 fans who turned away from the whole Old Trafford money game in 2005 roared their own club, FC United of Manchester, to a nerveshredding 1-0 victory over Barrow in the FA Cup fourth qualifying round, sending FCUM through to play League One Rochdale in the first round proper a week on Friday, live on ESPN. Barrow, who play in the Conference Premier, brought 500 and the crowd, of 3,229, was bigger than those at four of S! aturdays League Two matches.

Liverpool: Rory Smith reports Roy Hodgson will not target any marquee signings in the January transfer window as Liverpools new owner, New England Sports Ventures, looks to put a stop to the profligate spending which it believes has hampered the clubs progress in recent years. NESV is believed to have been concerned by the millions of pounds haemorrhaged on transfer fees and wages by the club in recent years as it examined Liverpools finances as part of the due diligence process carried out before the 300 million purchase of the Anfield side was completed.

Manchester City: Daniel Taylor reports Carlos Tevezs future at Manchester City is back under scrutiny amid a growing feeling behind the scenes at the club that he is not fully enjoying life in England and is homesick for Argentina. Tevez has admitted recently that he is not enjoying the life of a footballer and it is becoming increasingly clear that his City colleagues are aware of his apparent disillusionment. Roque Santa Cruz, Citys Paraguayan striker, said: He wants to be among his people, who are in Argentina. Your heart goes out to his family. His siblings and his daughters are there when you feel that your homeland is calling you back, you could end up giving up everything to return. Still, I think he will see it out and fulfil his contract with City before returning home.

Arsenal: Alex Kay meets Jacques Crevoisier the brains behind Arsene Wengers youth revolution.The 62-year-old psychologist, who has known Wenger for 40 years, has delved into the minds of some of the finest young players Europe has seen, among them Henry, Anelka, Trezeguet, Walcott, Wilshere and Ramsey. Arsene Wenger always tells me that you have to be clever to play for Arsenal and that is where he starts, says Crevoisier from his home near Geneva. Without that, you cannot fit into his system. At Arsenal Ive done tests for all the young players. They were all outstanding psychologically. ! I think Wilsheres showed him to be a bit more confident than Walcott but they all had some of the best profiles you will see. Crevoisier uses a 117-question psychological assessment on youngsters to help managers deduce their strengths and weaknesses.

Blackburn takeover: Andy Hunter brings the news: Blackburn Rovers expect to become the next Premier League club to be sold to foreign investors, and the first to have owners from India, after agreeing a 46m takeover with Venkys, an Indian poultry and pharmaceutical company. Venkys, which had a 1bn turnover and made a profit of 118m according to its 2009-10 annual report, has conducted due diligence on Rovers books and held meetings with the Premier League ahead of next months expected buy-out. It is the third Indian group to express an interest in Blackburn in recent months but, without matching the extravagant 100m transfer budget promised by Ahsan Ali Syed, for example, is the only suitor to progress this far.

Andrew Buncombe writes of what the Blackburn takevover could signal in India. Could that all change if Blackburn Rovers are indeed sold to Venkys, the pharmaceutical and poultry giant located in the central Indian city of Pune? Could India, with an economy growing at more than 8 per cent and with a swelling middle class that has money to burn, represent a vast and largely untapped market for the Premier League? What might this mean for football in India? The Premier League recognised some time ago the potential of the subcontinent. Last year, Manchester United sealed a five-year sponsorship deal worth 12m with the Indian mobile giant Bharti Airtel. Investment experts at the club commissioned research that found United may have more than 20 million supporters in the country and officials have sought to expand on this by opening football academies in the coastal state of Goa and several official bars, one bei! ng in De lhis satellite town, Gurgaon.

Ballon dOr: Paul Hayward writes what it means for English football. With the reek of alleged vote-selling rising from Fifas Swiss HQ the winner of the newly merged Ballon dOr for the worlds best footballer might want to take the prize with a pair of Marigolds to avoid contamination. English football h as cleverly distanced itself from the games governing body by having no nominees on the 23-man list. There will be no English winner and probably no Premier League-based recipient, since the only candidates working here are Didier Drogba, Cesc Fbregas, a substitute in Spains heavily represented World Cup winning squad, and Asamoah Gyan, who arrived at Sunderland two months ago. The trio are long odds to beat such players as Lionel Messi, Andrs Iniesta, Xavi and Wesley Sneijder, a beaten World Cup finalist with Holland but victorious in Serie A, the Coppa Italia and Champions League in a one-month romp with Internazionale.

Duncan White writes along similar lines. It confirms what we already know: in the last two years the Premier League has been watered down. The Ballon dOr shortlist of the 23 best players in the world for 2010 contains just three Premier League players. In 2009 and 2008 the Premier League had 11 players represented on the list. In 2007 they had 14. There is not much tio take issue with, apart from the baffling exclusion of Ashley Cole. Barcelona, Internazionale and Bayern Munich were the best teams of the year. Real Madrid still have the edge over anyone in recruitment. The elite of the elite have gathered on the continent.

David McDonnell concentrates on the lack of Manchester United players on the list. For the first time since 1990, the start of the decade which spawned their revival as a football force, Manchester United have not had a player nominated for the Ballon dOr. The fact no English player made the 23-man shortlist for European footballs most coveted individual accolade, after the shambolic World Cup campaign unde! r Fabio Capello, obscured the shock omission of any United player. For while Chelsea can boast Didier Drogba and Arsenal Cesc Fabregas among the candidates, and Sunderland striker Asamoah Gyan following his heroics for Ghana at the World Cup, United have no-one at the party. But is the absence of a United player on the shortlist compelling evidence of what Wayne Rooney alluded to as a lack of ambition at the club in his explosive statement at the height of his dramatic contract stand-off?

Paul Gascoigne: The Sun report on new woe for Gazza. Paul Gascoigne was taken to hospital after drunkenly trashing a hotel room as his life spiralled further out of control. The fallen footie stars new shame came two days after he was nicked on suspicion of possessing cocaine. Shocked hotel staff found chicken curry and vomit all over Gazzas room. The former Spurs, Newcastle and England hero, 43, was incoherent and there were fears he had alcoholic poisoning.

Jonathan Wilson: The tactical genius asks Are Barcelona reinventing the W-W formation? As three at the back has become outmoded as a balanced or attacking formation though not as a defensive formation by the boom in lone-striker systems, coaches have had to address the problem of how to incorporate attacking full-backs without the loss of defensive cover. For clubs who use inverted wingers, as Barcelona do, the issue is particularly significant. For them, the attacking full-back provides not merely auxiliary attacking width but is the basic source of width as the wide forwards turn infield. The absence of an Argentinian Dani Alves figure in part explains why Lionel Messi has been less successful at national level than at club level. For Barcelona, as he turns inside off the right flank, Alves streaks outside him, and the opposing full-back cannot simply step inside and force Messi to try to use his weaker right foot. Do that, and Messi nudges it on to Alves. So the full-back tries to cover both options, and Messi then has tim! e and sp ace to inflict damage with his left foot.

Transfer gossip: The Daily Mirror cant go a say without making a spurious transfer story up. Today they claim Chelsea want Darijo Srna and Manchester City are after Sporting Lisbon defender Daniel Carrico.

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