All posts by h716a5.icu

Former Everton star Michael Ball insists that Alex Iwobi simply isn’t good enough, tactically, to play for the club.

The Toffees star has struggled since his arrival at Goodison Park and has failed to really nail down a consistent position.

The ex-Arsenal man has made a total of 66 appearances for the club, featuring on the right-wing, the left-wing and in attacking midfield throughout his time on Merseyside.

In that time, he has scored just four goals and laid on a mere five assists, and Ball does not think he has the required ability to make a real impact at the club.

He has stopped short of criticising him too harshly, and has actually praised Iwobi’s work ethic, but he does not think he has shown enough during his time in Merseyside so far.

Ball said: “He’s complained in the past that he’s not playing in his favourite position. What position that is, I’m not too sure.

“Desire and effort he’s got, he shows it, when he’s playing out of position he does work hard so you can’t fault him on that but I just think his ability, especially under Rafa and under Carlo, tactical wise, lets him down a little bit.”

Iwobi has a contract that runs until 2024 at the club and he is valued at £19.8m by Transfermarkt.

Aston Villa were soundly beaten 4-1 in a behind-closed-doors match against Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday [Liverpool Echo], much to the dismay of some Villa fans on Twitter.

In a fixture shrouded in secrecy, the Reds dished out a comprehensive beating to their visitors with goals from Divock Origi, Neco Williams, Curtis Jones and Kaide Gordon. The Liverpool Echo’s report didn’t specify who netted for Villa.

Of course, this defeat comes as another disappointment for Dean Smith’s men over the weekend, following their opening day 3-2 Premier League defeat to Watford at Vicarage Road [BBC].

Sunday’s encounter will have no real bearing on the eventualities of the 2021/22 campaign, with fitness for fringe players more likely the prior motive behind the match taking place.

However, plenty of Aston Villa fans still took to social media to vent their frustration at the result.

Aston Villa FC fans react:

Replying to popular Aston Villa fan outlet AVFC Faithful, here is what some fans had to say about the friendly defeat to Liverpool:

“If this doesn’t say ‘sack everyone’ I don’t know what does”

Credit: @ajsfounded71″Not good for our confidence”Credit: @DanIonasca

“We’d have preferred that to have remained secret.”

Credit: @jamsey55

“Everything’s just been going downhill since Elmohamady left.”

Credit: @VstonVilla”Loooollll #avfc”Credit: @Harry34740948″Tears”Credit: @LantharrIn other news, many Aston Villa fans loved this update from the club.

Lee Ryder has said that Newcastle United are now willing to let Matty Longstaff go out on loan before the summer transfer window ends.

The Lowdown: Limited games

Longstaff was limited to a mere five senior games in the Premier League in the 2020/21 season (Transfermarkt), and with the arrival of Joe Willock on a permanent deal from Arsenal, the central midfield player could see even fewer minutes on the pitch in this campaign.

Thus, he may want to think about leaving St. James’ Park in order to guarantee himself more matches and further his development.

The Latest: Ryder on Longstaff

Writing in his latest piece for The Chronicle, Ryder has said that the North East club have agreed to allow Longstaff to leave on loan.

The Englishman is hoping for a move to the EFL Championship, with Sheffield United, Blackburn Rovers and Huddersfield Town all said to be interested in his signature.

The Verdict: Right move

It would certainly be the right move for all parties involved if Longstaff did move out on loan, especially down to the Championship.

Described as a ‘talented’ player by pundit Kevin Campbell back in June, the 21-year-old still has a lot of potential, and as a local boy, the Tyneside club should be looking at keeping him for the future.

However, a loan move would mean that he would get more game time, and could come back into Steve Bruce’s squad a much better player after a season in the extremely physical second tier.

In other news, find out what the latest is on NUFC’s alleged pursuit of this £55k-p/w ace here!

Confusion continues to surround the reasons behind Mohammad Yousuf’sunavailability to play for Pakistan in the recently-concluded Twenty20four-nation tournament in Canada

Osman Samiuddin14-Oct-2008
Mohammad Yousuf was picked in the 15-man squad for the T20 Canada but couldn’t travel after he didn’t receive a visa in time from Canadian authorities © AFP
Confusion continues to surround the reasons behind Mohammad Yousuf’sunavailability to play for Pakistan in the recently-concluded Twenty20four-nation tournament in Canada.Yousuf was picked in the 15-man squad but couldn’t travel after he didn’treceive a visa in time from Canadian authorities. Cricinfo has learnt he has still not received back his passport, which is believed to be going through an unspecified review process.Remarkably, both Yousuf and the Pakistan board say they have not beengiven any concrete reasons over why his visa application should take anylonger than normal. All applications were made on October 7 and visas weregiven the next day. The team flew out the same evening. “I wasn’t toldanything about why there was a delay,” Yousuf told Cricinfo. “You willhave to ask the PCB.”The board, however, wasn’t in a position to shed further light. “At thetime the Canadian High Commission told us only that the visa was still inprocess,” Shafqat Naghmi, chief operating officer PCB, told Cricinfo. No one from the High Commission was available for comment.One well-placed diplomatic official said the board didn’t pursue the matter at all. “After the visa didn’t happen in one day, the board also didn’t pursue it at all,” the official told Cricinfo. “They dropped him immediately.”There was speculation also that Canadian authorities wanted to review pasttrips made by Yousuf to the country, where incidentally as Yousuf Youhana,he scored his second ODI hundred in 1999. “It could be that there are oldissues they are looking at, a visa he didn’t travel on or somethingsimilar,” a board official told Cricinfo.The matter, unfortunately, wasn’t pursued to any great degree by theboard, a lack of proper organisation and thus time – the applications weremade just one day before departure and the squad was finalised one daybefore as well – hampering efforts.If it is difficult to imagine a top cricketer from another country facingsimilar problems, it is more difficult still to imagine a cricket boardnot making a bigger fuss. “We got in touch with the Ministry of ForeignAffairs but they said the visa hadn’t been rejected and was just beingreviewed,” said Naghmi.The board’s inactivity is made more remarkable still by the fact that theyhave paid for and facilitated the trip for a number of journalists tocover the tournament. Though it is official policy, it raises the basicquestion of why the board could so easily ensure the presence of such alarge media contingent in Canada – some counts had the figure at 15 – butnot of arguably their best batsman.The situation comes against a backdrop in which Yousuf’s place in limited-overs cricket is being openly discussed, despite being a leading ODIscorer over the last two years. Though he was eventually selected in thesquad, he wasn’t in the initial list of probables. He was picked after helashed out at selectors for not considering him. He was also not picked last year for Pakistan’s squad for the Twenty20 World Cup.This latest setback aside, however, Yousuf says he has no intentions ofstepping away from the shorter versions of the game. “Why should I stepdown? We can’t tell the future but I want to play on in all three formatsof the game.

Sky Sports journalist Keith Downie has dropped a Newcastle United update that is sure to leave Steve Bruce buzzing.

What’s the story?

While the Magpies are closing in on the signing of Joe Willock from Arsenal on a permanent deal, it appears they have received a significant windfall from a player they let go a couple of years ago.

Former Newcastle academy graduate Adam Armstrong saw his move to fellow Premier League side Southampton confirmed, and Downie has revealed the positive implications it has for Bruce and Newcastle.

Writing on Twitter, he said: “Southampton agree a fee with Blackburn for striker Adam Armstrong. Newcastle to net 40% of the profit from their £1.8m sale three years ago. Personal terms not expected to be a problem.”

Bruce will be buzzing

It was only a few months ago back in May that reports had suggested Bruce had been informed by the Newcastle hierarchy that he would have a transfer kitty of less than £10m to work with this summer.

It was even suggested that the budget ruled out any potential chance of signing Willock permanently, unless the Magpies cashed in one of their prized assets.

But now, with the club close to sealing a deal for Willock, the good news doesn’t seem to end there.

Confirmation of Armstrong’s switch to St Mary’s sees the Tyneside club net a very healthy sum of money as part of the 40% clause that Downie claims was inserted into the deal to sell him in the first place.

With reports claiming that the fee Saints are paying Blackburn to be in the region of £15m, and Newcastle having initially sold him for £1.7m, the Magpies stand to make a fee in the region of £5m for Armstrong.

While the striker’s departure from St James’ Park may not have gone down too well with supporters, the fact they’ve made a good chunk of money on him years later, and at a time when they could desperately do with the cash to strengthen their own squad, is sure to have Bruce delighted.

That extra bit of money could be crucial in landing another signing after Willock.

Meanwhile, Newcastle could sign a dream partner for Joe Willock in this star…

A challenger for the title of the ball of the century

Saad Sultan07-Sep-2015For years now, one of Shane Warne’s delivery in an Ashes Test in England has been touted as the ball of the century, i.e. the Mike Gatting ball. That regulation legbreak, drifting in as it pitched outside leg, fizzing away to beat Gatting stretching forward, clipping the top of off to send the disbelieving batsman on his way as the umpires looked on mesmerised.But why was that ball not the ball of the 20th century?The clue lies in the name. No disrespect to Gatting, but with an average of 35.55 across 79 Tests he deserves to be damned by faint praise. He didn’t achieve the heights he would have wanted to in his 17-year Test career and, therefore, that ball will always be a highlight in his career. The ball of the century may have already been bowled to a player who has done more on the field than merely face that legspinning ripper from Warne.If it was the sheer aesthetics of the ball delivered that counted, then which delivery could match Wasim Akram’s mindboggling “double-swing” yorker to Dominic Cork? The ball was angled in from around the wicket to the right-hander and seemed initially to swing in with the angle, only to change direction and move away about a third of the way down, squaring Cork up, beating his outside edge and hitting him flush in front of middle. Now there would be a couple of problems with calling this the ball of the century. Firstly, the batsman wasn’t given out. Secondly, the batsman was Cork. And the ball of the century cannot, by default, be one that was delivered to a bowler who bats a bit. It doesn’t matter how great the delivery was. It just doesn’t fit.Besides, the ball Warne delivered to Gatting wasn’t that great. It was just a case of Gatting making a delivery look a lot better than it actually was. Don’t take my word for it, take the word of Garry Sobers, one of the sport’s all-time greats, who writes in his autobiography:

“… this dismissal was as much Gatting’s fault as it was Warne’s ability. If a bowler bowls a ball outside leg stump on a turning wicket, you should cover your stumps – that’s basic. You cannot be out leg before wicket. If Gatting had gone across instead of trying to play the shot or stand up, it would have been no problem.”

Yes, if ever an innocuous legspinner pitching outside leg was forced to look like a magic ball, this was it.To call the Gatting ball as the ball of the century is similar to calling Muhammad Ali versus Chuck Wepner the fight of the century. You were very courageous, Chuck, but a fight can’t be the fight of the century if you’re in it. Or it’s a bit like calling Rosaline the greatest love of Romeo’s life. The truth is, Rosaline, you were just a silly crush, nobody remembers you; where’s Juliet? Or like saying that Frodo and Sam taking back the Shire from Saruman was the most valuable thing they did for Middle-earth. Nobody cares about what happens after you’ve destroyed the ring; it wasn’t in the movies.So don’t be fooled by the hype, cricketing world. To call that ball the ball of the century is, in fact, a travesty.So which ball was the best in this century?The Gatting ball, for all of its flaws, was undoubtedly bowled by one of the all-time greats of the game, Warne, the Earl of Twirl. But that, as I say, is not enough. There has to be greatness at both ends for a delivery to count as the Ball of the Century. And what delivery could be greater than one that not only gets the greatest batsman of his time out, but actually brings him to his knees?It is 1997. On a sweltering afternoon in Rawalpindi, Brian Lara, the Prince of Trinidad, is facing up to Waqar Younis, the Sultan of Swing. Lara has already taken ten off the over, going onto the back foot to relatively well pitched-up deliveries, and smashing them through cover and mid-off. Waqar, undeterred, steams in from over the wicket, hurtling down a yorker that looks certain to go well wide of off with the angle. Lara shapes up to go through the off side again. But before he can blink, the ball, as if by magic, changes direction, tailing into his toes. Lara tries to adjust but looks completely flummoxed as the ball clatters into his stumps. The best that he can do is to avoid having his toe broken, desperately moving his feet out of the way of the swinging thunderbolt, and in the process knocking himself off his feet, splattering down embarrassingly on all fours.Now here is a ball that even Sobers would approve of; unplayable off front or back foot, even by the best in full flow. This is the image, the image of Lara brought down to his knees by Waqar, that the Ball of the Century needs and deserves. So, cricketing world, the next time you are asked about the ball of the century, don’t make a reference to the Gatting ball. Let the world know that we have higher standards than that. Our ball of the century will be nothing short of greatness bringing greatness to its knees.If you have a submission for Inbox, send it to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line.

Chelsea made it four out of four in the UEFA Conference League, beating Heidenheim 2-0 away from home, with goals coming from Christopher Nkunku and Mykhailo Mudryk on Thursday evening.

The Blues held 67% possession against the German outfit, taking 17 shots, creating five“big chances and generating 2.90 xG.

Unfortunately, the performance ended with Cesare Casadei being sent off, receiving a second yellow card, which means he will not be available to face Astana in their next Conference League game.

It was a game full of good performances though, and one of the best came from the goalkeeper, Filip Jorgensen, who is now breathing down Robert Sanchez’s neck for the number one spot.

Filip Jorgensen's performance in numbers

So far this season, Jorgensen has found himself as the back-up to Sanchez, with the youngster playing in cup competitions, whilst the latter starts in the Premier League. However, after the Swede’s performance against Heidenheim, Maresca could have a decision on his hands.

The 22-year-old was impeccable, making as many as 11 saves in the game. That meant he prevented a total of 2.18 xG while making seven saves inside the box, and completing 37/44 accurate passes (84% completion).

It’s safe to say that both his shot-stopping and composure on the ball were brilliant, the latter being a big deal for his Italian manager.

And Jorgensen isn’t the only one knocking on the door for a Premier League start, as another Chelsea man put in a brilliant display returning from injury, stating his case to start against Aston Villa this weekend.

Performance in Numbers

Want data and stats? Football FanCast's Performance in Numbers series provides you with the latest match analysis from across Europe.

Jadon Sancho's performance in numbers

Jadon Sancho put in a brilliant display against the German club, where he had so much success with Borussia Dortmund in the past. The 24-year-old winger received a 9/10 match rating from The Express, playing a big part in both goals in Chelsea’s 2-0 victory.

Minutes

89

Assists

1

Touches

61

Accurate Passes

44/48

Key Passes

2

Long Balls

1/1

Successful Dribbles

3/6

Ground Duels Won

4/7

Tackles

1

But it wasn’t just his assist and part in both goals, Sancho also made two key passes, kept things simple at times to circulate play, making 44/48 accurate passes (94% completion).

He completed 50% of his dribble attempts, and also worked hard on the defensive end to make one tackle and win four ground duels.

Maresca has been playing with Noni Madueke and Pedro Neto on the wings in recent weeks, with João Félix the player who came in at the weekend in the absence of Neto, but after Sancho’s performance, he could be knocking on the door for a place in the starting XI against Aston Villa, on either the left or right wing.

The Italian boss has proven he isn’t afraid to make big decisions, and if tonight’s performance is anything to go by, both Jorgensen and Sancho could be called upon this weekend in an important Premier League fixture against the Villans.

Chelsea must sell £100k-p/w flop who Boehly thought was "hugely exciting"

The Chelsea flop has failed to live up to expectations since his move to the Bridge.

ByEthan Lamb Nov 27, 2024

Ipswich Town have now last back-to-back games in the Premier League by a single goal, as Oliver Glasner’s Crystal Palace just about got the better of the Tractor Boys on a cold winter’s night at Portman Road.

The 1-0 win was secured in Palace’s favour courtesy of a sumptuous Jean-Philippe Mateta strike, after the number 14 had somehow wriggled free of various Ipswich markers, before then delicately lifting the ball above Arijanet Muric.

Kieran McKenna was crying out for one of his players to come up trumps in a similar way, but in the end it was a drab defeat for his men to take, with a number of Ipswich shirts underwhelming.

Ipswich's underperformers vs Palace

Not even the likes of Liam Delap could spark into life for the Premier League strugglers in order to attempt to pull off a result, with all three of the former Manchester City striker’s shots unfortunately not finding the back of Dean Henderson’s net.

In truth, it was a poor overall showing from the Suffolk side in the forward areas, with Omari Hutchinson lackadaisical in the number ten role just behind a misfiring Delap, as the ex-Chelsea midfielder squandered possession a hefty total of 19 times.

There were some positives to cling onto defensively at least, with Jacob Greaves standing out as a powerful presence in the heart of defence by completing 12 successful duels, but that wouldn’t matter much considering Ipswich lacked end product up the other end.

On top of that, even for all of Greaves’ glowing numbers, Mateta still managed to waltz through and break Ipswich hearts with his solo strike, with the slim defeat sending McKenna’s men all the way down to 19th spot in the league standings.

The frustrated Tractor Boys boss could well need to be more cutthroat with his team selections moving forward to try and get more out of his up-and-down troops, therefore, with Wes Burns in danger of being axed after a poor showing versus the Eagles.

Burns' performance in numbers

Away from Delap regularly fluffing his lines and Hutchinson continually losing possession, Burns really struggled to get going against Glasner’s visitors too, which would act as a detriment to his side attempting to fashion an opening down the right wing.

Only managing one assist to date since making leap up to the Premier League, it could be that the Welshman isn’t cut out for the huge step-up in quality from the EFL, as the lacklustre Ipswich number seven failed to strike any sort of fear into the Palace defence whenever he roamed forward.

Stat

Burns

Minutes played

66

Goals scored

0

Assists

0

Shots

1

Touches

33

Accurate passes

8/13 (62%)

Accurate crosses

1/8

Possession lost

15x

Total duels won

2/3

Looking at the table above, not a lot went right for Burns at Portman Road, with his 33 touches coming in at less than Muric’s 51, whilst the experienced attacker regularly failed to beat the first man when firing crosses into the box, resulting in just one accurate cross being tallied up from eight attempted.

Also giving up possession a costly 15 times, it wasn’t a great shock to see East Anglian Daily Times journalist Alex Jones dish out a 5/10 rating to the 30-year-old post-match, as he could now find his right wing spot is taken up by a new face for Ipswich’s next league encounter versus AFC Bournemouth.

Beloved in Suffolk for his heroics last season on the way to promotion being reached, with Burns helping himself to an impressive ten goal contributions in the Championship, it’s clear that the Premier League might just be a bridge too far for the out-of-sorts forward to handle.

Therefore, a fresher option could be thrown into the XI by McKenna next, who will want a reaction from his camp when the Cherries travel to Portman Road shortly.

Hutchinson 2.0: Ipswich could sign £100k-p/w "superstar in the making"

The incredible talent could provide Ipswich with what they need to stay up.

ByJack Salveson Holmes Dec 1, 2024

Independent body will be tasked with making recommendations in time for 2023 summer

Cameron Ponsonby14-Mar-2022The ECB is set to launch a high-performance review into English cricket with the ambition of making the England men’s team “the best in the world in all formats”, according to Interim managing director Andrew Strauss.Speaking in Barbados where the second Test is due to start on Wednesday, Strauss laid out the plans for the review, for which recommendations are due to be published in September with a view to potentially restructuring the English season from 2023. He also confirmed that England hope to have a new head coach in place for the first Test of the summer, against New Zealand at Lord’s in June.Addressing the Test team’s so-called “reset”, Strauss said: “The perception so far is that it’s all about red-ball cricket and that it’s all about the domestic game. But the way we’re approaching it, and I believe the only way you can approach these things is to start at the beginning, which is what is the scale of our ambition for the game in this country?”And I believe we’re looking very strongly at being the best in the world in all formats. I think the knock-on effects, right the way through the game if the shop window is functioning well, are enormous, so as a game we need to get alignment behind that ambition.Related

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Anderson-Broad absence a chance to grow leadership options

“If you take a longer-term perspective on these things you have to say, ‘How can the two teams run concurrently alongside each other?’ and ‘How do we best support our white- and red-ball specialists to allow that to happen?'”The review will be led by an independent body that is yet to be chosen and who will undertake the first two stages of the review before their recommendations are presented to the ECB board and the county chairs.”We need to look at how the game is evolving,” Strauss said. “All of us know that the rise of white-ball and T20 cricket has been hugely dynamic and happened very quickly. So we need to understand how that affects our game and on the one hand how can we leverage that and on the other how do we protect the relevance and importance of the game in our country. And then we need to do a lot of independent analysis on getting information from the game on what’s working well and what’s not working well currently. So a very big consultation piece needs to be done.”We want recommendations to be signed off in time for the 2023 domestic season so that really means by the end of September this year ideally. You could stretch it a bit but these projects can get very broad and you can get stuck. So it’s important to focus on people’s minds. If we’re going to do it we’ve got to do it for 2023.”The review is just one of many significant developments expected at the ECB over the coming months, with a number of senior management positions only filled in an interim capacity. As well as the head coach vacancy, applications opened on Monday for the full-time men’s team managing director role (which Strauss is currently performing).

“I think the reaction [to dropping Anderson and Broad] was entirely predictable. You don’t do these things worried about the reaction, you do it because you think it’s the right thing to do”Andrew Strauss

It has also been reported that England will revert to having a full-time selector, separate from the head coach, as was the case before Chris Silverwood’s job specification was expanded last year.Asked whether he considered himself a candidate to return to the managing director position full time, having held a similar position between 2015 and 2018, Strauss was non-committal.”I haven’t considered that really,” he said. “I’ve got unique personal circumstances that makes doing that role difficult and quite frankly there’s always value in getting a new perspective and new views. Nothing ever stays the same or goes backwards. I’m certain there’s going to be some good candidates for this role.”The ambition is certainly to have the Test coach in place by that first Test of the summer. With recruitments there are all sorts of moving pieces, including notice periods. I don’t think we can categorically say that, but it’s the ambition.On the question of splitting the head coach role between red ball and white ball, he said: “Ultimately, that will be the new director of cricket’s decision to make. My perspective is that it’s time to go down that route. We have unique schedules in this country. It is very hard to plan, prepare, play and review for one coach doing all formats. There are opportunities for us to make some performance gains in that respect. But again, that’ll be up to the new director of cricket.”England produced a battling performance in Antigua•Gareth Copley/Getty ImagesOn the field, England came away from Antigua with a creditable draw. But the failure of their seamers to take a wicket with the new ball across the Test match, with Chris Woakes and Craig Overton proving particularly expensive in the first innings, led some observers to bemoan the decision to leave James Anderson and Stuart Broad at home – a decision that had already provoked severe backlash from England’s fans.”I think the reaction was entirely predictable,” Strauss said. “You don’t do these things worried about what the reaction is, you do it because you think it’s the right thing to do. I think it’s great to see [Matt] Fisher and [Saqib] Mahmood as part of the England set up.”I think we’re learning about them all the time and they’re getting more and more comfortable in this group. And as we said right at the start it’s forced some of our senior players to have slightly different roles.”It’s early days but the feedback I’m getting from the dressing room is that they’re accepting the challenge as a group of not having those senior players involved and I thought in terms of attitude, the willingness to do the hard graft, the spirit and togetherness were there to see. We didn’t get the result we wanted in Antigua but there were a lot of positives coming out of it.”

Cycling legend Bradley Wiggins has taken a cheeky dig at former boss Dave Brailsford for his role in Manchester United's terrible season.

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Former cyclist criticises Man Utd directorRidicules plans to win 21st league title'No time for him', says WigginsFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

The 2012 Olympic road cycling champion and Tour de France winner did not wish to hide his feelings about his former boss at British Cycling and Team Sky, who has been working at United since Sir Jim Ratcliffe purchased a 28 percent stake in the Red Devils. Brailsford has been working on 'Mission 21', the plan to deliver United's 21st league title by 2028. But the plan is not exactly on track as United are on course for their worst league finish since being relegated in 1974. The club is also in disarray off the pitch amid the decision to make a further 200 staff redundant. Wiggins ridiculed his handling of the club while speaking at an event on Friday.

AdvertisementWHAT WIGGINS SAID

"I’m not a fan of Dave Brailsford. I couldn’t even sit here and say, ‘I don’t like him, but I respect what he has done.’ I really haven’t got a lot of time for him, to be honest," Wiggins said, via . "Mission 21? More like Mission Championship."

Getty THE BIGGER PICTURE

Wiggins fell out with Brailsford in the aftermath of the 'jiffy bag' scandal which tarnished his and Team Sky's achievements, as well as the revelation that Wiggins had gained therapeutic use exemptions to take a banned substance. In 2017 Wiggins dismissed Brailsford's 'marginal gains' theory, which he put forward as the secret to his success in cycling, as 'a load of rubbish'.

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DID YOU KNOW?

United players were reported to be unimpressed when they met Brailsford. According to , Brailsford told the players that he lived on the most exclusive street in Monte Carlo, but that he was coming to Manchester because he was going to help make United better.
 The players left the room rolling their eyes and shaking their heads.