A round-up of news and gossip relating to Manchester United over the past 24 hours.
Wayne Rooney is confident he and Manchester United will be ready for the new season. Rooney played his first pre-season game last weekend in a 0-0 draw with Valerenga and is excited about the upcoming game against Barcelona as the team steps up the intensity of their pre-season. Wayne Rooney also spoke briefly about Shinji Kagawa and is looking forward to playing with the Japanese international who Rooney believes has settled in quickly and will make an impression on the Premier League this season.
Nani is reportedly becoming increasingly disillusioned with life at Old Trafford as contract negotiations stall and the player is left disappointed by what he perceives as a lack of urgency from the club. The Portuguese winger is said to want £120,000 per week but the player still has two years remaining on his current deal and United are in no rush to come to an agreement leaving the player to feel ‘unwanted’. Read Madrid are monitoring the situation.
Manchester United captain Nemanja Vidic says the club have learnt from the errors of last season where they let slip an 8-point lead to Manchester City. The team captain admitted that injuries to experienced players had left younger players exposed in the title run-in but was confident that the same players have benefitted from the experience.
United defender Jonny Evans has returned to training after an ankle injury and provides further options for Sir Alex Ferguson in defence. Chris Smalling, Jonny Evans and Nemanja Vidic have all been returning from injury leaving the United defence depleted with two fit senior central defenders but the return of Evans and Vidic furnishes the club with additional cover.
Rio Ferdinand has warned Manchester City that United want their title back and predicted Shinji Kagawa to be a star. Ferdinand has been impressed by Kagawa and believes he can replicate his form at Dortmund with United in the Premier League. Ferdinand also spoke highly of new signing Nick Powell but believes it will be a few years before fans will see the best of the 18-year-old.
Rio Ferdinand as been as busy as ever on Twitter and has been communicating with 100m Olympic champion Usain Bolt. Bolt joked that he would play for United if given the opportunity and Ferdinand sent the champion a tweet claiming he could arrange a trial for the fastest man on earth.
images: © gordonflood.com, © gordonflood.com
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