Ribery Move Not Ruled Out

Manchester United are one of four clubs in the running to sign Frenchman Franck Ribery from Bayern Munich. Real Madrid, Chelsea and Champions League winners Barcelona are all said to be chasing the highly rated left winger this Summer and after stern interviews claiming Ribery would not be going anywhere, Bayern hinted that a move could take shape this Summer.

Vidic Staying At United

Nemanja Vidic will be staying at Manchester United after reports were linking him heavily with Real Madrid and most notably, Barcelona. However, the Serbian will be seeing his current contract out with the English Champions and will hopefully be renewing it.

Vidic’s agent, Paolo Fabbri, spoke of his belief that unless there was a moment of madness from “some Arab,” Vidic would be a United player next season, dismissing reports from Spain and Italy.

United’s Highs & Lows

Another season has come and gone in the world of football and as always, it brings its highs and lows. MUN has comprised a list of United’s Five Highs and Five Lows for the 2008/2009 season. Some are blatantly obvious, and some maybe not so much, but either way, everyone will have their views on the season.

While the lows were hard to come by in all fairness, the highs list was endless and triumphs in the World Club Cup and Carling Cup miss out on MUN’s top 5 believe it or not along with Ryan Giggs stunning achievement of landing the PFA Player Of The Year award for the first time in his illustrious career.

Ferdinand Insists United Will Bounce Back

Rio Ferdinand has wasted no time in telling the media of United’s success already this season and that the team and club will bounce back stronger then ever after their 2-0 defeat to Barcelona in Rome’s Stadio Olimpico.

Ferdinand who admitted he should have done better for Barcelona’s insurance second goal has jumped to the defence of the team who has an impressive haul after a great season. Premier League – winners, League Cup – Winners, World Club Cup – Winners, Charity Shield – Winners, Champions League – Runners up – FA Cup – Beaten finalists.

I don’t know if I speak on behalf of all United fans here, but if I was told last August, when Cristiano Ronaldo was looking set to leave, no new signings had been made and Chelsea had appointed a World Cup winning manager, that we would end up with the titles above, I would have snatched your hand off in an instant. Hindsight, a wonderful thing…

Ferdinand, before United boarded their luxury bus driven all the way from Manchester – with no Carlos Tevez – commented,

United Fan Kills Four Barcelona Supporters

A Man United fan in Nigeria has been arrested after he killed four Barcelona supporters and injured ten others in the town of Ogbo. The man who has not been named yet, seemingly took United’s defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League final very badly and when driving by a large group of Barcelona fans celebrating after their win, something clicked in the drivers head, who made a sharp U-turn and drove straight into the crowd.

Rome 09: Barcelona 2-0 Manchester United – A Footballing Lesson

All the build up midweek, all over the world was tipping Manchester United, the holders of the Champions League and English Champions, but how could we have got it so wrong? Barcelona handed us a footballing lesson and surprisingly it doesn’t pain me to say, well done Barcelona, the new European Champions, and winners of the Spanish treble.

It was the dream final according to everyone, it was the dream performance by Barcelona but a nightmare of a display from the “White Devils”, who didn’t shed a tear after the game as they all simply knew they hadn’t shown up and were consequently beaten by a better team, who by the way were missing 3 of the preferred back four.

Rome 09: Rooney Is The Key – Iniesta

Barcelona star, Andreas Iniesta and scorer of the goal that has them in the final tomorrow believes that United’s number 10 in Wayne Rooney may hold the key to United winning the Champions League for the second season running.

Iniesta who was a doubt for the game earlier in the week leading up to the final is expected to play after taking part in a light training session after picking up a slight knock on his thigh.

The silky midfielder is amazed by the Englishman’s work ethic and desire to do what is best for the team. Whilst Rooney is a forward player, he will give up on getting goals to help the team out defensively and Sir Alex is tipped to play Rooney on the left side against Barcelona.

Rome 09: Hopefully Not Penalties – Berbatov

Manchester United front man, Dimitar Berbatov has spoken out of his wish for the final in Rome to not go the distance and end with spot kicks. Speaking to the Daily Mail, the Bulgarian admitted he didn’t want to see a penalty shootout between Man United and Barcelona, and this if it did come down to it, he wasn’t sure if he’d step forward to take one for the English Champions.

Berbatov was heavily criticised by United fans after their FA Cup semi-final defeat to Everton after a shootout at Wembley, when Berbatov took a very lazy penalty and saw it comfortably saved by ex-United ‘keeper, Tim Howard.

Rome 09: UEFA Confirm Referee For Final

UEFA confirmed earlier that Swiss referee, Massimo Busacca will the the man with the task of overseeing the biggest club game of the year as Manchester United and Barcelona meet, on Wednesday at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.

Busacca who has an impressive CV in terms of refereeing will take charge of his first ever UEFA Champions League final, and he’ll be hoping he won’t be a talking point the next day.

Rome 09: Alcohol Lockdown!

As of 11pm tomorrow morning until around 6am Thursday morning, Rome will be implementing an alcohol lockdown where no drinks with alcohol will be sold in shops, supermarkets, pubs, the Stadio Olimpico and any other places where alcohol can normally be bought.

It comes after Rome officials decided that if there is any trouble at the Champions League final between United and Barcelona, and then the AS Roma fans, then it would be alcohol related and this measure has been taken “for the safety of the travelling fans, the residents and the sporting event”