From The Guardian

This table shows the percentage of the club’s turnover which is spent on wages.

From The Guardian

David de Gea – The United number one has been included in Vicente del Bosque’s squad for the international friendlies against Serbia and South Korea, and has a chance of being included in the final squad for Euro 2012. However, with Iker Casillas as captain, De Gea chances of gametime are very small.

Anders Lindegaard – The five-times capped stopper has been included in Denmark’s squad for the tournament, but similar to De Gea will need to oust the more experienced Thomas Sorensen to play.

Patrice Evra – The United full-back will be a key player for the French national side this summer, and will most likely face club team-mates in the opener against England. With Eric Abidal’s health issues, Evra will be up against Gael Clichy for a place in Laurent Blanc’s side.

Phil Jones – The former Blackburn man’s versatility could well be a factor for Roy Hodgson’s men this summer, and Jones will compete for a place in the centre and on the right flank of England’s defence.

Nani – Along with former United man Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani will be charged with helping Portugal out of the ‘Group of Death’ and be one of the Iberian nation’s most dangerous attackers.

Ashley Young – Young could well be a wild card for the Three Lions this summer, and is one of Roy Hodgson’s most incisive attackers. The former Aston Villa man could well start for England, on either flank

Wayne Rooney – England’s top forward Wayne Rooney is suspended for the first two games of the competition, but will look to return in the final group stage fixture against Ukraine to seal qualification.

Danny Welbeck – The home-grown forward has had a strong season at Old Trafford and was duly rewarded with a place in the England squad. With Rooney’s suspension Welbeck will hope to play, and may partner his club team-mate up front once both are available.

One quarter of Europe’s football faithful (41 million) are classed as Fans Without Borders, with FC Barcelona the most popular foreign team (29%), followed by Real Madrid CF (10%) and Manchester United FC (8%).

Fans Without Borders have been categorised into three groups:
1. Highlight Fans, representing 60% of all Fans Without Borders, are attracted to a club’s playing philosophy (85%) and success (79%).

2. Regional Affinity Fans account for 12% of the total number of Fans Without Borders. Many of these faraway followers feel a special connection with the team because of a link to the city, with 55% of these fans regularly visiting the club’s region.

3. Star Followers represent 11% of Fans Without Borders – their loyalties are firmly set at the feet of great players and coaches and these fans are prepared to switch allegiance in line with wherever their favourite stars go.

Fans Without Borders ring up €35bn worth of spending each season and here’s how:
- One fifth of the total spend, or €7.5bn, is on Pay TV.
- Merchandising (club-branded goods) earns 13% of our far-away follower’s money.
- Actual match attendance consumes 10% of Fans Without Borders’ spending, with an additional €2.5bn allocated to food, drink and other goods purchased when there.
- 6% of spend is given over to visiting a pub or sports-bar to take in a game on the big screen, and subscription to a club’s own TV channel takes 5%.
- One in four fans attends home matches abroad. Accommodation and travel relating to match attendance, or visits to their favourite stadia, cost Fans Without Borders €8.75bn each year – one quarter of the total spend.
- The impact on tourism is positive; one third of all Fans Without Borders have booked a trip for the sole purpose of watching a match or visiting a stadium. One fifth intentionally combine match attendance with a short city break, or integrate the game into a regular holiday. In total, cities hosting Fans Without Borders at live matches, benefit by around €4.5bn per season.

Caught Offside looks at the five players we should buy and sell.

Beautifully Red has all the gifs from our best moments of the season.

Soccerlens looks at Ferguson’s big decision this summer.

RoM has a Valencia 16 Ecuardor shirt to give away.

The Telegraph looks at Michael Owen’s rise and fall.

The Guardian looks at how visualisation helps Wayne Rooney.

Sport Witness has pictures of United fans invading the pitch after the Reserves’ cup win at the Etihad.

Follow RoM on Twitter and #ff @R_o_M to spread the word.

After Cristiano Ronaldo missed his penalty and Chelsea scored all of theirs, it came to John Terry to win it for the blues. Terry slipped and the rest is history but Grant has today talked about how his captain asked to take the deciding penalty in place of Didier Drogba, who had been sent off in extra time.

“Terry was not on the list,” he said. “But because Drogba was sent off we changed it because Kalou needed to be the fifth and then, because it was the deciding penalty, JT wanted it. He did his best. I thought he would score. But JT missed and Anelka missed again and that was the end of the story. Finish.”

However, it wasn’t Terry’s miss that won the cup for United, but the sudden death save from Nicolas Anelka’s penalty by Edwin Van der Sar.

Grant has revealed that Terry asks his former manager why that penalty is often forgotten, whilst everyone always remembers his.

“People forget about Anelka,” said Grant. “John Terry always says to me, ‘Why do people always talk about my miss?’ I say, ‘If you had not missed nobody would speak about it’.”

I think the fact he spent the next hour crying like a little girl probably makes it more memorable too. Just a thought.

Schmeichel; G Neville Adams Vidic Cole; Ronaldo Scholes Gerrard Giggs; Henry Shearer

Subs: Amos, Rafael, Park, Nani, Owen, Berbatov and Chicharito.

Reflecting on a season as a whole will come after the conclusion but it’s desperately disappointing to be in the position we’re in now, all but waiting for City to be confirmed as champions.

Following our 2-0 win over Swansea last weekend, Sir Alex Ferguson finished his short end of season speech by saying he hoped we’d have the celebration of our lives in a week’s time. City’s earlier victory over Newcastle had more or less sealed our fate for this season and the manager’s hopeful claim wasn’t met with a roar of appreciation. In his end of season speeches in 2008, 2009 and 2011 he got to talk about the upcoming Champions League final we’d be playing in, whipping the crowd up in to the frenzy, but there was none of that last Sunday. We were pretty much resigned to City winning the title and have to deal with the fact we’ve gifted it to them.

However, as someone said to me last week, if there are any two clubs that could manage to pull off an incredible shock today it’s United and City. United never seem to know when they are beaten, picking up victories in situations they have no right to, and winning games or cups from positions you’d never expect them to. In contrast, if ever there’s a club capable of messing this up, it’s City. Their fans’ horrible condition of Cityitis has meant there has been very little bragging from their side. They have been let down by their club too many times to believe the title is theirs until the final whistle on Sunday confirms it. It cheered me up to learn that Garry Cook will be attending the game, just to give us that extra helping hand.

I don’t mean to get your hopes up. It’s the hope that kills you. But thanks to all the ridiculous triumphs we’ve celebrated, victories that never seemed possible, there’s a nagging voice telling you anything is possible. I’m doing my best to ignore it at the moment. I remember a couple of seasons ago turning up for United against Stoke knowing that if Chelsea beat Wigan at home the title was theirs. Whilst of course knowing that Chelsea would beat Wigan at home, I sat in my seat ahead of kick-off allowing myself to imagine us lifting the (replica) trophy in a couple of hours time. We then had to endure Stoke fans cheering every single one of the eight goals Chelsea put past Wigan to secure the title.

There is more chance of City beating QPR 8-0 on Sunday than there is them dropping points. I know this, you know this. Still, no matter how much I tell myself that, I can’t help but imagine how fantastic it would feel if we pulled off our greatest ever title win at the weekend. Fergie is right when he says it would be the biggest celebration of our lives. That’s what made the title win of 2009 so enjoyable. Winning the league is fantastic but it’s killing two birds with one stone when you get to deny your hated rivals at the same time.

Mark Hughes won’t be looking to do Ferguson any favours. He has distanced himself from United ever since he left. His stint at City, revelling in that ridiculous Tevez poster, confirmed there was no love lost between him and the manager. But it’s the way he was dumped by City that aids our chances. A club in a relegation battle shouldn’t need any extra incentive to play the game of their lives but as Ferguson correctly claimed after Swansea last week, Hughes won’t have forgotten the way they got rid of him.

“He was sacked by City in a very unethical way and he’ll remember that,” he said. “Mark Hughes teams always fight but QPR players are fighting for survival.”

They also have Wright-Phillips, Barton and Onuoha in the squad who might feel as though they have a point to prove.

“I can’t wait for the game. I can’t wait to go to Man City,” said Barton. “They expect us to turn up and them to probably stuff us and win the league. If that is their attitude, they will get a reality check. It’s 11 men against 11, there is a lot of pressure out there. I can’t wait for it.”

In 1995, United just needed to beat West Ham, who were five points clear of the relegation zone, to win the league. There wouldn’t have been a single Blackburn fan watching their side losing to Liverpool that day who didn’t think United would win. But we didn’t and I’m sure it still bothers you as much as it does me. Football is a funny ol’ game and it’s the unpredictability which makes us love it so much.

“We cannot think about what Manchester City are doing,” said Evra. “We just have to make sure we win. The Sunderland game isn’t easy but if we score first then maybe the City fans in the stadium will start to get nervous. When you are nervous then you can rush things and you don’t do things as well as you’d like. We have to believe.”

Chances are we won’t be winning the title today though and we can spend the next few hours trying to suppress any slight excitement our brain cruelly teases us with. But whatever happens, however angry we will feel for throwing it away and however long that pain may last, we will have to console ourselves with being fans of the best club in the world. I wouldn’t trade any of City’s probable celebrations today for a single second of being a United fan, so we’ll just have to suck it up and wish away the summer so we can start it all over again.

We’ll never die.

ManUtd24 says that Rooney’s goals don’t make him our player of the season.

Here Is The City looks at what happened to Kleberson’s career after leaving United.

Dirty Tackle looks at how Fred Done is set to lose £500k for paying out on United winning the title.

Roker Report talks to Scott ahead of the Sunderland game.

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