[abojodeh]

Originally Posted by versa

Lol. You really swear (ok, you did not technically) each time an article about him is posted.

lol.
he deserve the swearing

[versa]

setanta

Sir Alex defends Tevez over Ron row

Sir Alex Ferguson has poured scorn on reports claiming that Carlos Tevez has backed Cristiano Ronaldo’s desire to join Real Madrid, with the Manchester United boss blaming ‘a mad media' for a proliferation of stories regarding his club in recent days.

Having already been forced to clarify his comments about the age of Chelsea’s squad on Friday, Ferguson then went on the offensive following reputed quotes from Tevez that appeared in the Spanish press on Wednesday.

Spanish daily AS reported that Tevez understood why Ronaldo was keen to join Real, and that United would ‘have to respect it’ if the player did confirm his desire to move to the Bernabeu.

Such sentiments would clearly not sit well with Ferguson as he has spent the summer insisting that Ronaldo will not be moving to Spain, despite a constant stream of stories to the contrary.

Now the bullish Scot has denied that Tevez weighed into the Ronaldo debate and has criticised the press for their treatment of the transfer saga.

“Carlos Tevez did not say that,” said Ferguson.

“At this moment in time we’re driven by a mad media who have to get stories out every day.

“I can’t wait for the season to start so we can get back to some sense of normality and we can all settle down to play football again. These guys in the press are just crazy.”

[Robson94]

Originally Posted by versa

setanta

Sir Alex defends Tevez over Ron row

Sir Alex Ferguson has poured scorn on reports claiming that Carlos Tevez has backed Cristiano Ronaldo’s desire to join Real Madrid, with the Manchester United boss blaming ‘a mad media' for a proliferation of stories regarding his club in recent days.

Having already been forced to clarify his comments about the age of Chelsea’s squad on Friday, Ferguson then went on the offensive following reputed quotes from Tevez that appeared in the Spanish press on Wednesday.

Spanish daily AS reported that Tevez understood why Ronaldo was keen to join Real, and that United would ‘have to respect it’ if the player did confirm his desire to move to the Bernabeu.

Such sentiments would clearly not sit well with Ferguson as he has spent the summer insisting that Ronaldo will not be moving to Spain, despite a constant stream of stories to the contrary.

Now the bullish Scot has denied that Tevez weighed into the Ronaldo debate and has criticised the press for their treatment of the transfer saga.

“Carlos Tevez did not say that,” said Ferguson.

“At this moment in time we’re driven by a mad media who have to get stories out every day.

“I can’t wait for the season to start so we can get back to some sense of normality and we can all settle down to play football again. These guys in the press are just crazy.”

Why not a liable suit? If all this is ungrounded in truth, it is certainly reputation damaging, the lawyers of the team should look in to suing.. unless Ferguson is trying put put out fires and seem as if he has the situation under complete control.

[Brock]

Football has so much drama these days...

[andersons_left_foot]

im just waiting for a montarge with ronaldo and fergie footage and backing track being, should i stay or should i go by the clash,

[NateR]

"We can't talk about footballers who aren't ours," he told Spanish television channel Atena 3.

LOL. This statement is unbelievable. He's done nothing but talk about Ronaldo and then says that. Calderan is something else.

[manutd004]

Originally Posted by NateR

LOL. This statement is unbelievable. He's done nothing but talk about Ronaldo and then says that. Calderan is something else.

Saying Calderon is something else is being a bit polite is it not?

[versa]

the sunday times

Alex Ferguson: I know stories about Cristiano Ronaldo's drinking are absolute rubbish
Sir Alex Ferguson is totally relaxed, knowing a United 'spy' is watching his star player's every move in LA

At the Loftus Versfeld stadium in Pretoria, Sir Alex Ferguson is on the pitch encircled by journalists, his talk as compelling and flab-free as ever. A football, gently lobbed, lands against a reporter’s backside.

Who would dare caper when Ferguson is in full flow? The writer turns round to see it’s the only person, perhaps on Earth, who could: Manchester United’s chief executive David Gill. Gill and Ferguson laugh a hello and share a joke about the chairman of a rival club. Then Ferguson, smiling, proceeds. Success sires serenity and it is more than the fact he is in South Africa, one of his favourite places, that is making Europe’s champion manager happy. On Thursday Ferguson spent the afternoon lost in pleasure at a Johannesburg art gallery. Today, Friday, he is enthused by another passion: he has a tip for the 2.10 at Ascot.

Here is a man not creased by cares. Pictures of Cristiano Ronaldo on the tiles in Hollywood? No problem. Under control. Ferguson, taking a leaf from his old mentor, Jock Stein, who they said monitored his Celtic players with more spies than the Stasi, sent a chaperone to Los Angeles. Like a human surveillance camera, he is relaying Ronaldo’s every move.

Ferguson is satisfied with Ronaldo’s behaviour and that the trip is not affecting his recovery from ankle surgery. Reports of vodka binges are “absolute rubbish”. He is not, believes Ferguson, turning into another David Beckham. United may have had to cool their interest in Dimitar Berbatov because of a breakdown in relations with Tottenham but Ferguson is sanguine, now turning attention to other transfer targets.

The goal he is setting his team is the small one of retaining the Premier League and European Cup this season; they are capable of it, he says. Longer term, his plans, contrary to reports, may yet include coaching a Great Britain football team at the 2012 Olympics, though he concedes this would be awkward should a boycott of the side by Scotland materialise.

You've never rested on laurels but after conquering England and Europe last season, what are the goals for 2008-09?

Well, it’s straightforward for me. I’m thinking always of what I can say to the players in that first team meeting of the season. This time it was “what do you want your-selves?” I think it was summed up perfectly by Ryan Giggs at the dinner after the Champions League final. He made a speech, ‘I’ve had to wait nine years to win this trophy again’. Nine years is a long time and hopefully that registers with the players. They’ ve got a chance to win it again this season. That’s my immediate thought.

Having won in Moscow with a youngish team, we could do it again. The league will always be important because of the tribalism in your country and we start off with Newcastle – you know what the Geordies are like, fantastic atmosphere – then go to Portsmouth, Liverpool and London. Chel-sea, they’ll be wanting to confound my comments about them being an old team (mischievous laugh).

But if this team can win another European Cup it puts them on a different platform to any other United team in history. AC Milan have won the trophy seven times, Liverpool five, Bayern Munich and Ajax four, and we should really be in that frame. Europe is our priority in the sense it’s the big challenge for us, to get on to the level at least of the Liverpools and Bayerns.

How will you manage Ronaldo when he returns?

The boy loves to play football. He loves training. He’s always last off the field and that won’t change. The injury? Right now he can’t do any fitness work because he’s got the crutches, you see. He’s out of plaster in eight days’ time. At that point he will return to us to start rehabilitation.

It’s okay that he’s in LA?

There’s no harm in him going there. He’s gone to do a commercial thing. I think he’s signed up with a new commercial company, an LA-based company.

There are photographs of him in nightclubs . . .

Listen, I’ve got someone with him there. It's a load of rubbish. He’s not drinking for a start. They (newspapers) had him drinking vodka and that. I said to myself: “Drinking vodka?” I phoned my friend who’s with him and he says: “Boss, there’s no truth in that.” Ronaldo doesn’t drink, we know he doesn’t drink. Stories about some of the other stuff he’s doing are rubbish too.

You sent a club employee with Ronaldo?

We (United) have got someone, aye.

You mentioned Ronaldo’s dedication yet he’s being portrayed as a glamour boy. Are you confident he hasn’t changed?

Any young player who’s had that type of success is going to get attention. The important thing is how they handle it. We know success changes people but the change you like to see is when there’s an elevation in the player’s own esteem which helps them become better. That’s the case with him. At 23 he is reaching the stage where his maturity, his personality and the presence he has on the world stage should help him.

Is there any similarity with Beckham in that he’s no longer being seen as just a footballer?

No. I don’t want to go into it (the differences between Ronaldo and Beckham) but it’s obvious.

How does losing Carlos Queiroz as your number two disrupt plans?

We’re not in a hurry to find a replacement, though we’re looking. When you lose a good man you take your time before filling the position. But with our experience, hopefully it’s not too big a loss. Carlos did some great work but Mike Phelan has been with me 10 years, Les Kershaw, Jim Ryan nearly 20 years. And there’s Rene Meulensteen. They’re all good coaches.

Nonetheless, it puts an extra burden on you – and you’re 67 inDecember.

Naw. Naw. I was going to maybe take a week off now and then, but that’s that ******ed. But, really, the only time I’ll have to do a lot extra is if we pick a new assistant, because you have to bed them in.

You’ll miss Queiroz’s language skills?

Without question. We’re going to have to work hard with our language teachers, with the players who are still adjusting to the English language, such as Nani, Carlos Tevez and Anderson.

So the new No 2 won’t necessarily be British?

He could easily come from abroad because that would give me an advantage in terms of language, but I’m open-minded.

Would you manage a GB team at the 2012 Olympics?

Seb Coe did have a meeting with me. I said: “2012, that’s a long way off and I don’t know my retirement plans.” But I told him I would give it consideration, because I may have retired by then and want to accept those kinds of challenges that come up on a short-term basis.

If Scotland boycotted the team?

Well, obviously that would make things difficult.

You made Ole Gunnar Solskjaer reserve team manager, a rapid pro-motion for a coach in his first year. Could he be a top manager?

He’s taking his badges and he’s got a lot of qualities, a good manner with the players and a different way of getting things out of them, because he has a quiet-spoken nature. He’s improved his voice levels, which is important in coaching, but I don’t know his ambitions. Coaching’s always the best thing. Anyone who wants to take the next step into that unknown valley of snakes and rats and all the rest of it . . .

You’re surely not talking about the press?

Exactly! That’s where the valley is.

[Red Warrior]

Fergie Not Worried By Ronaldo's Superstar Status

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson insists that he is not worried that Cristiano Ronaldo will let his new-found global celebrity status get to his head - at least not in a bad way.

The Portuguese phenom's celebrity status has reached even higher heights over the past months, with even the American paparazzi tracking his every move during a recent trip to Los Angeles, which evidently a little business and a whole lot of pleasure for the 23-year-old

"He was always scheduled to have this time off in Los Angeles," Ferguson explained to Sky Sports News.

"There was no harm in going there. He was doing some commercial things. We have someone out there with him.

"All the stuff we have seen about him, well, it's a load of rubbish."

"As far as the comparisons with him and David Beckham are concerned, I'm not going to discuss that," added Sir Alex, who famously pushed Beckham to Real Madrid after deeming that the then England captain had become more concerned with matters off the field than on it.

"Any young player is going to get attention. The important thing is how they handle that.

"We know success changes people but the change you like to see is an elevation in esteem and personality, which makes them better players a lot of the time.

"Cristiano is now reaching that stage with his maturity, personality and presence he has on the world stage. We should help him."

http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=793918

[versa]

Guess who's talking?! Still rubbing my eyes.....

Chelsea support Manchester United in Cristiano Ronaldo contract dispute
Peter Kenyon believes players should not be allowed to walk away from their contract when they want, in a show of support to Manchester United in the Ronaldo dispute.

The Chelsea chief executive, who occupied a similar post at Old Trafford before his departure four years ago,did not want to discuss the Cristiano Ronaldo saga in too much depth but stressed the importance of contract stability in football.

The Portugal international, 23, has four years remaining on his contract with United but has so far refused to rule out a potential move to Real Madrid who have courted the player throughout the summer, attempting the unsettle him since May.

Supporting Chelsea's Premier League rivals on the matter, Kenyon insists contract stability, and principally obiding by their agreed terms, is essential for the greater good of the game.

He said: "Clubs should not have the ability to not honour a contract, and so we should expect the same from our players. If a player is injured and doesn't play for 12 months we fulfill our obligations.

"From a coach's point of view, you need to be able to think this is not just my team for this season, but these lads are here for two or three seasons because you have to plan.

"And then there's the fans. A large part of football is connecting with the fans, and the fans connecting with the players.

"If fans felt there would be another 23 players at a club next season, then football will lose something.

"Football needs to look at this issue seriously because it's all about passions and relationships. You can't start with a fresh bit of paper every year.

"I really don't want to comment on Ronaldo but I think the contract stability issue is very important for football."

Speaking ahead of Chelsea's final game on their pre-season tour of Asia, tomorrow against a Malaysian XI in Kuala Lumpar, Kenyon reiterated the club's stance that Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Andriy Shevchenko will not be leaving Stamford Bridge this season.

The trio have been linked with respective moves away from the club in recent weeks. Lampard is the prime target of former coach Jose Mourinho at Inter Milan; Shevchenko subject to interest in Italy; while Drogba's reluctance to sign a new and improved deal has attracted serious interest from Barcelona and AC Milan.

But Kenyon said: "We have always said, whatever happens, we want Frank to stay. He's still got one year left and we expect him to be in a Chelsea shirt next season.

"As for Didier, he has two years on his contract. There are always noises about Didier but the only reason he is not here is because of rehab because we want him 100 percent fit for next season.

"Sheva is a part of the squad of 23 and there's no one is that squad who is not contributing. Everyone we believe is capable of delivering the goods."

"There is a Chelsea position that we do not sell our best players. We don't want to and we don't need to."