Ronaldo backs Rooney, will the Moneyball approach work at Liverpool & why is Chris Hughton under pressure at Newcastle

Comment & analysis round-up

Quote of the day:Wayne has not started this season very well but he is still a fantastic player and I know that very soon he will be back to show that. He has made his decision to stay with United and sign a new contract and we must all respect that. Its not my position to give him advice on that. But I know that things can change very quickly indeed I didnt start this season very well, either, but it is difficult to play at the highest level all the time. I just stayed calm, worked hard and did my job for the team and suddenly I scored a few goals and everything changed. Football is like that. Sometimes we play bad and then you score a goal and everyone thinks differently about you. That will happen for Wayne. Cristiano Ronaldo.

Runner-up: We dont need the money and we dont want to sell. Weve heard nothing from Manchester United and, more to the point, we dont want to hear anything from United. If Sir Alex Ferguson is looking around at the end of the season and he has got lots of money to replace Van der Sar, he might very well want Pepe Reina because hes the best around. We dont want to sell him. Id like to think were going to become a successful club once again and Pepe is crucial to that. Hes the lifeblood of this team. Hes a player who we hold in the highest esteem. We want to promise the players that were going to be up there fighting once again and we are absolutely not looking to sell our better players. Roy Hodgson.

Todays overview:Its a very mixed bag this Friday morning.

Interesting articles on Manchester United include a mega-Dubai offer for Ryan Giggs and Daniel Taylor has a fine piece on Edwin van der Sar who turns 40 today.

On Liverpool, Paul Hayward wonders about the Moneyball approach by NESV and there is prais! e for So tirios Kyrgiakos.

Chris Hughtons position at Newcastle also comes under scrutiny and the rumours persist around Avram Grant.

Elsewhere, there is continued reporting on the World Cup 2018 bid, some possible corruption by Poland and Ukraine to host Euro 2012 and a thaw in relations between the Rooneys.

Manchester United: Neil Custis reports Ryan Giggs is to be offered 200,000 a week to finish his career in the Middle East. And fellow Manchester United veterans Paul Scholes and Gary Neville can also expect mega deals from Dubai clubs. Top oufits in the UAE League, including David OLearys Al Ahli, have already discussed signing the trio next summer.

Daniel Taylor features Edwin van der Sar, who turns 40 today. Fergusons hope is that Van der Sar, the ninth man to play at the age of 40 since the Premier Leagues formation (seven of them goalkeepers), will delay his retirement by another season. After five years of working with him, Uniteds manager now openly talks about the Dutchman, the most capped Holland international in history, being the equal to Peter Schmeichel as one of the two most supreme goalkeepers in the clubs history.

The Daily Mail ask: A simple message to Manchester United: Why wont you wear the poppy with pride? Liverpool players will wear poppies on their kit this November after the personal intervention of manager Roy Hodgson. The Anfield club were one of only two sides to ignore last years Sportsmail call for Premier League teams to have commemorative strips over the Remembrance weekend. Manchester United, the only other side who refused, have so far not said whether or not they have had a change of heart. Blackpool and Manchester City, who both wore the poppy with pride last year, were last night unable to confirm they would do so again.

Liverpool: Paul Hayward wonders if! Liverpo ols new ownersshould go with a Moneyball approach. Coming soon to a movie theatre near you: Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, the story of how the trampled-on Oakland Athletics rocked baseball using statistical models to unearth buried talent and win for the little guy. Coming just as fast to Anfield, by the looks of it: a Premier League variant to stop Liverpool spending 20.3m on another Robbie Keane and 17m on Alberto Aquilani when better software and a lower payroll would do. Trace the movements of Liverpools new American owner before Tom Hicks and George Gillett were finally ousted and they indicate the adoption of the sabermetrics talent-spotting model the men behind New England Sports Ventures copied from the Oakland As at Bostons Red Sox, the Rip Van Winkle of major franchises.

Rory Smith profiles an unlikely hero at Liverpool. One man, though, has transcended the wreckage of 12 months of despair and doubt to emerge with his reputation not only intact but enhanced. That man is Sotirios Kyrgiakos. Hence the sequence of rather unnecessary Iliadic parallels. To recap: when Kyrgiakos set sail for Merseyside, that fabled land of demigods, from AEK Athens, he did so as the nominal replacement for Sami Hyypia. It was quite a task. Hyypia, of course, had been one of the clubs greatest servants, a rock at the heart of the defence for Gerard Houllier and Rafael Benitez for a decade.

Newcastle: Louise Taylor wonders about the constant sack rumours surrounding Chris Hughton. It is rare in England for managers in the final year of their contracts to have not renegotiated an extension or at least switched from a fixed-term arrangement to an annual rolling deal by autumn so the gossip will not disappear entirely until pen is put to paper. Virtually all Hughtons peers remain merely a bad run removed from the sack but the majority are cush! ioned by minimum two-year arrangements offering generous compensation in the event of dismissal. The feeling within football is that Mike Ashley, Newcastles owner, has not properly recognised the sterling work his manager has done during a time of budgetary restraint on Tyneside and that Hughton deserves a longer deal and a higher salary than at present, which has been reported as being around 300,000 a year. Most people outside the game would regard that as a kings ransom but it remains extremely low for Premier League circles. Ashley, though, belongs to a branch of modern business thinking very much in tune with these fiscally prudent times which believes in rationing reward.

Robbie Savage is unhappy at how Hughton is being treated. Newcastles treatment of Chris Hughton is out of order. United are ninth in the table and have scored more goals than anyone outside the top three. Their manager is turning Andy Carroll from a raw-boned kid into a man. Yet as he prepares for arguably the most crucial game of his tenure so far Sundays Tyne-Wear derby there is again speculation linking him with the sack. First Joe Kinnear was being tipped to take over, now its Alan Pardew.

Steve Brenner reports Chris Hughton has failed to bring Steve Clarke back to Newcastle as his No 2. Toon boss Hughton wanted the former Chelsea coach, who worked under Ruud Gullit on Tyneside in 1998, to fill the hole left by Colin Calderwoods move to Hibernian. But Clarke could not agree personal terms, leaving Hughton without a right-hand man ahead of Sundays derby with Sunderland. It is a blow for the Newcastle boss coming just hours after the Toon board insisted they will begin his contract talks in the new year.

West Ham: Dan Ripleywonders if Avram Grants time is up. Just when it looked like Avram Grant was turning things around at West Ham, Newcastle come to Upton Park and play his side completely off the park. It was a performance that seemed to lack any effort and urgency and the visitors will unlikely ge! t an eas ier away win all season. With fans and now the board losing patience over the Hammers terrible Premier League start that sees them bottom, was the Carling Cup win over Stoke just a stay of execution for Grant?

Phil Neville: Andy Hunter speaks with Phil Neville. My career is going full circle now, Neville says. I am going from an experienced player back to square one as an inexperienced coach. Preparation has underpinned Nevilles longevity at the top but there is an element of the unknown about the next step. I want to give management a go but it is going to be a massive challenge. From facing a manager for the past 16 years to suddenly being the one person everyone is looking at is a daunting prospect. Its something I want to be prepared for. If I get the opportunity I dont want to let myself down.

Transfer gossip: The Daily Mail link Manchester United and Manchester City to River Plate sensation Rogelio Funes Mori and Sours are keeping tabs on Dereck Boateng and Karim Benzema.

The Daily Mirror claim Sunderland have slapped a staggering 20m price tag on England prospect Jordan Henderson and Gerard Houllier wants Roque Santa Cruz. And Chelsea are keeping tabs on Bastian Schweinsteiger who is a free agent in the summer and Liverpool have been offered Lisandro Lopez.

The 2018 World Cup bids: Owen Gibson reports The chairman of the Russian 2018 World Cup bid has apologised publicly for his countrys derogatory remarks about England in an attempt to defuse the bitter row between the two rivals. Vitaly Mutko, who is also the Russian sports minister and sits on the Fifa executive committee, approached his opposite number on the bid, Geoff Thompson, and England 2018s chief executive, Andy Anson, over breakfast in Zurich to try to draw a line under the dispute. I have great re! spect fo r the England bid and we have no desire to say we are better than any other bid, said Mutko, ahead of the first Fifa executive committee meeting since corruption allegations rocked the world governing body. If there had been any misunderstanding I was ready to apologise for it.

Sam Wallace also reports on the apology. Mutko, a member of the Fifa executive committee (ExCo), yesterday approached 2018 chief executive Andy Anson in the breakfast room of the Baur au Lac hotel where all the ExCo members and bid teams have been staying in Zurich over the last week. According to one source he apologised in full view of lots of people to ensure that there was no doubt the gesture had been made.

Matthew Norman jokes: did Englands World Cup rivals order assassination of Paul the Octopus.Whether Paul will become the Franz Ferdinand of octopi, and spark a Sino-Germanic sporting war that spreads across the planet, time alone will tell. The irony is that if only he had lived, he could instantly defuse our own diplomatic war by announcing which of England and Russia, or the joint bid of Spain and Portugal, will win. On reflection, it seems very likely that Paul did just that, picking England, and that the Kremlin got wind of this and ordered his execution. Would anyone have the number for an octopus coroner with a Geiger counter?

Charles Sale adds The paranoia of Englands 2018 World Cup bid team, who are seeing dirty tricks at every turn, starkly contrasts with the confident demeanour of their Russian rivals.While the England contingent wouldnt speak and were barely visible in the FIFA corridors in Zurich this week, Russian bid leader Alexei Sorokin didnt mind discussing Korea ExCo member Chung Mong-joons proposed visit to Moscow next month as English journalists listened in.

Euro 2012 corruption: NickHarris reports Uefa has opened legal proceedings against a Cypriot FA official who has alleged that the decision to make Ukraine and Poland joint hosts of Euro 2012 was rigged by pa! yments o f more than 9.15m (8m) to at least four members of the European governing bodys Executive Committee (ExCo) who voted on the matter in 2007. Uefa had set Spyros Marangos, a former board member of the Cypriot FA, a deadline of Wednesday to provide evidence to support his claims. He failed to do so, and with Cypriot sources saying the claims are nothing more than a mischievous ploy in a local power struggle, Uefa has started legal action on two fronts: a defamation action, and what is effectively a put up or shut up action to force Marangos to provide evidence.

Smut: Nick Parker has the latest on the Rooneys holiday in Dubai. Wayne and Coleen Rooney finally ended their frosty holiday stand-off yesterday with a steamy clinch. Coleen, 24, hugged Man United ace Roo, 25, in the pool of their Dubai hotel the first intimate scene since they arrived. But the passionate pair risked ARREST in Dubai as they made up with their sizzling embrace. Coleen wrapped her arms round her husbands neck and pulled him close to her bikini-clad body in their palm-ringed hotel pool. Wayne responded by tenderly stroking her back. The cuddling couple seemed oblivious to the fact that their behaviour could be deemed INDECENT in the strict Muslim emirate even for married couples. Just holding hands is considered provocative. The Daily Mail also have a report on the thawing of relations between the Rooneys.

Also in The Sun we learn that Ashley Cole has stepped up his search for a replacement for ex-wife CHERYL and he may have found one by channel surfing on TV. No, hes not been on Babestation. Canadian actress JESSICA LOWNDES, who stars in US teen show 90210, caught the Chelsea stars eye during a string of telly appearances over the past week.

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