An eventful week with lots of news around the club for a variety of different reasons. We kicked on from the defeat against Aston Villa last week with a good win against an under strength Wolves sides and sandwiched in between that was a well deserved sports personality of the year award for Ryan Giggs. I was finding it pretty hard to keep up with all the news so here are the main talking points…
Champions League Draw
The general feeling about drawing Milan seems to be pretty positive with most people making us favorites to go through but we shouldn’t forget the 3-0 drubbing that we suffered only 2 years ago at their hands and I think it will be a lot harder than people think. Milan are certainly not what they once were but they still have a host of very handy players and will be very well organized and tough opposition. The main things going for us is that we will likely have a full team back by the time the matches are played in February, the 2nd leg will be at Old Trafford and we are a much more solid and more experienced European outfit than we were 2 years ago after 2 visits to the final since. I don’t think Beckham coming back is going to be a huge factor as you would have to fancy Evra to keep him quite busy and it is not even sure if he’ll be in the first 11. I’m pretty sure he will get a massive reaction from the home fans for all the good years and positive things he has said since and I wouldn’t even be surprised to see Sir Alex saying some positive things about him and mending some bridges there as enough water has passed under the bridge to hopefully mend any old wounds. All in all happy enough with the draw and I think we will sneak through but it won’t be as straight forward as many think.
Fulham Away
This is not going to be an easy game and this is exactly the time that we need to be keeping the pressure on the Rushkis but Craven Cottage is not an easy place to win and Fulham look very solid under Roy Hodgson and will fancy this one. The take points off a lot of the big 4 down there and with our patched up defence not showing any signs of getting better we are going to need to play well to win this one. Carrick will continue at the back and he must be starting to actually feel like a proper center half at this stage after a good few games there but the big one is waiting to see if Vidic starts or not after coming off early with a calf strain early in the week. I can only hope we don’t see any of Anderson and Nani tomorrow as they are just so off form at the moment and we need to be at the top of our game to get 3 points on Saturday.
Giggs Contract Extension
Well I just don’t know where to start praising this man and the truth is there are not enough words in the English language to describe what this loyal servant has done for our club. He has shone bright in the last 18 months in an Indian summer to his career that has just seen him use his outstanding football brain to win us countless matches and the sports personality of the year award and new contract he signed today are the very least he deserves. Sir Alex has been praising him extensively in interviews and making noises about having him around the club for many years to come. Watch out for a full feature on the Welsh Wizard in the coming weeks as he really does deserves a whole post dedicated to his achievements.
