“I am delighted to have signed a new contract,” he said. “Who wouldn’t want to play in this fantastic team in front of 76,000 fans each week? It has been an incredible journey and I am glad it will continue. I can now fully concentrate on my club career which has worked well for me over the past few years. This is a great team to be part of and we are now moving into a new era with the club which is very exciting. I have met with David I am really looking forward to working with him and winning many more trophies with this great club.”

The Daily Mail has interviews with Beckham, Giggs, Scholes and Neville when they were youth players.

Life’s a Pitch looks at the importance of sorting out Phil Jones’ position.

Stretty News reports on the claims Rooney has opened discussions with PSG.

The Peoples Person looks at Kagawa’s regrets.

Summary of defensive impact
- Evra (82%), Smalling (80%) and Evans (76%) won the largest proportion of their tackles.
- Ferdinand (74%), Evans (72%) and Vidic (61%) won the largest proportion of ground duels.
- Vidic (67%), Smalling (64%) and Jones/Evra (62%) won the largest proportion of aerial duals.
- Rafael (10 minutes), Evra (11 minutes) and Vidic (11.6 minutes) have the best minutes per challenge rates.
- Rafael (3.1), Evra (2.4) and Evans (1.8) made the most tackles per game.
- Rafael (2.1), Evans (2) and Jones (1.6) made the most interceptions per game.
- Ferdinand, Rafael, Vidic, Jones and Smalling haven’t made any errors that have lead to goals.
- Ferdinand has the best discipline record, with a foul every 332 minutes (5 and a half hours!), followed by Smalling (169 minutes) and Evans (136 minutes).

Ferdinand is the best passer we have in defence with a passing accuracy of 90%. He has the best passing accuracy in his own half (97%) and only Evra (78%) and Evans (77%) have a better passing accuracy in the opposition half. Evans isn’t far behind Rio though. There’s next to nothing between their passing stats this season.

The attacking abilities of our full-backs are also worth noting.

Two months ago, Keane scored an injury time goal against Leeds United to secure a point for his club.

Keane returned to United U-21s and on Monday night they were crowned champions after beating Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford. Keane is grateful to Leicester for the experience he had there.

“I’d just like to say thanks to every single one of the Leicester fans for all the support they’ve given me,” Keane said. “When I first came to Leicester I didn’t really expect it to be as good a journey as it has been, and it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as good as it was if it hadn’t have been for the fans, who chanted my name and gave me the support I needed as a young centre half on my first-ever loan spell. I always thought there would be a loan spell on the cards for me this season, but I didn’t expect it to be at as big a club as Leicester, and when they came in I was absolutely desperate to join. I’ve loved my time at Leicester – all the staff, players and fans have been great with me and I can’t thank them enough for everything they’ve helped me with as it really has been a great year for me.”

Whilst this version of events seems improbable, it is not impossible. Following the fall out in 2010 it has been no secret that the relationship between the player and manager has been strained. The manager claimed he doesn’t hold grudges and several players, including Paul Scholes more recently, have supported this. Scholes refused to travel with the squad to play Arsenal in the League Cup after not being given any playing time against Liverpool. It seems unimaginable that a player like Scholes would behave in such a way and it is a source of embarrassment for him now. But Scholes, who has since claimed the manager would have been entitled to sack him for such an offence, was fined by the manager and they put the incident behind them. Still, Rooney betrayed the club in one of the worst possible ways by agreeing to join City behind our back then rubbed salt in the wounds by trying to fabricate friction with the manager as an excuse. Ferguson claimed Rooney was injured but Rooney publicly refuted this claim, saying he’d not had any problems with his ankle all season. When asked why Fergie would claim he was injured, Rooney shrugged and replied: “I don’t know.” He was of course forgetting that we had all seen Rooney icing his ankle after being subbed off with half an hour to play. Note to Paul Stretford: try harder.

So, would Fergie be entitled to hold a grudge? Probably. So the suggestion is there that after the Swansea game, when the manager claimed Rooney had asked to leave, that he was getting his revenge for 2010. He was trying to get the fans and media to turn against the player so that he would feel he had to leave. Again, whilst this isn’t impossible, it is highly improbable. Ferguson has put his pal, David Moyes, in the job. He wants him to succeed. He has repeatedly urged the fans to get behind him. Are we seriously expected to believe that Ferguson would intentionally sabotage United’s chances of success and make life much more difficult for Moyes just because three years ago Rooney handed in a transfer request?

What makes the story fairly ridiculous though is nothing to do with Ferguson. A month ago the papers reported that Rooney wanted to sign a new contract to stay at the club. A fortnight ago the papers reported that three weeks earlier Rooney had asked the club to leave. The following day, they claimed that Rooney had removed “Manchester United player” from his bio on Twitter. The fact that Rooney never had this in his bio didn’t seem to matter to the press. What does this tell us? The press’ word isn’t gospel, which is nothing new. Rooney took to his website to pen a statement though. This was his opportunity to deny the incorrect things that had been written about him. He rightly claimed that he’d never had “Manchester United player” in his bio and then denied… oh. No. He just denied the meaningless Twitter rumour but made no mention of the stories circulating that he’d asked to leave.

Had Ferguson not then gone on to confirm the player had asked to leave, surely we knew already by his refusal to deny both stories. Had Rooney ignored both stories there would certainly be more weight to today’s claims in the press, even if still fairly unbelievable, but the fact he spoke out to deny one but not the other is fairly damning.

The Mirror reports: While he admits to having clear the air talks with Ferguson, as he sought assurances about his future, Rooney remains adamant that no formal transfer request was put in. That is an official course of action in which the player puts his request in writing and waives his right to a pay-off – and Rooney maintains that has simply never happened, despite United public claims to the contrary.

Is this true? After the Swansea game, the first confirmation we had of Rooney wanting to leave was given by Ferguson. “I don’t think Wayne was keen to play simply because he has asked for a transfer,” he said. Rooney may not have handed in a written transfer request, and the club hasn’t explicitly claimed that he has either, rather that he said he wants to leave. Stretford and co. are splitting hairs, looking for any way out of this new mess they’ve created, but just like the accusation that Fergie was lying last time, they’ve got it badly wrong.

Scholes was interviewed by Gary Neville before the Swansea game and he openly talked about Rooney asking for a transfer, which suggests it’s common knowledge within the club. For the Rooney camp to think they can twist this scenario in to one that would lead people to believe the manager has fabricated Rooney’s desire to leave the club is fairly ridiculous.

So whilst it appears as though Rooney wants to leave, he’s worked out that he looks like a prick again. Handing in one transfer request is bad enough but two? Last time it was because he didn’t think we were signing good enough players. We signed players(/s) in his position who are better than him and have won the league two out of three seasons since his request. This time it’s apparently because he’s not playing as much as he would like, thanks to us signing players of the quality he demanded. “He’s not happy being taken off a couple of times this season,” Ferguson revealed. “But Rooney in top form wouldn’t have been taken off.”

So Rooney has spat his dummy out. He wanted us to sign world class players, but just not world class players in his position, and he wanted to play 90 minutes every week, regardless of how he was playing. The Guardian has reported that Rooney is earning a shocking £300k-a-week, the best paid player in the league, and he isn’t happy at having to earn his place in the team (like everyone else), so has asked to leave. Maybe he didn’t really want to leave initially. Maybe he was just saying it when he was in a strop in the hope that the club would react, just as they did last time. We bent over backwards, offered him a ridiculous contract, and were thankful he was our star player. This time the club told him he couldn’t leave and the manager continued to sub him off when he was playing badly, because Robin van Persie is our star now. It’s cut throat, something that Roy Keane has repeatedly complained about, with clubs treating the players like pieces of meat. One day you’re the hero and the next you’re replaced by someone younger or better. But you’re paid ridiculous amounts of money to do this job, one of the many perks, so you have to live with some of the drawbacks.

If Rooney isn’t prepared to work for his place in the team, ensure that he is doing everything he can to be the best player possible, then it is time for him to leave. When you consider the difference between his attitude and that of Javier Hernandez’s, it makes you wonder whether there’s any point in Moyes trying to resolve this situation. We can’t promise him to disregard poor form and play him for 90 minutes every week, not if we want to retain our trophy, so maybe he can find a club that will. Or maybe he will find a club that will pay him so much money he doesn’t give a fuck what he wins or how much he plays. And best of luck to him. But my interpretation of today’s story is damage limitation from Stretford. He’s quite happy for Rooney to leave, just as he was last time, and he would prefer it if it was under the pretence that he’s been forced out by Fergie, just like last time.

Please, just get him sold abroad, and let’s have done with this.

Greenhoff joined United when he was 15-years-old, only six months after we won the European Cup for the first time, and had to leave his family behind in Barnsley. He lived with a family who were a mile away from the training ground but went back home to be with his family on the weekends. Joe Armstrong, who was our chief football scout from World War II onwards and famously spotted Sir Bobby Charlton as a teen, amongst others, watched Greenhoff playing for the Yorkshire Boys. The following day someone from the club went to see his mum and dad and gave them forms to sign to allow him to play for our youth team. It may be strange to think of them, but when Greenhoff first arrived at the club he was unimpressed with the shabby facilities at United in comparison with those he’d seen at Burnley.

He started his career as a midfielder but Tommy Docherty moved him in to the centre of defence where he played alongside Martin Buchan. Brian also made 18 appearances for England and during his career he played against the likes of Pele and Johann Cruyff, but insisted that George Best in training gave him the toughest time.

Brian spent 11 years at the club and won the FA Cup with us in 1977, our first trophy since 1968. He played close to 300 games for us before being sold to Leeds for £350,000. His brother, Jimmy, started his career with Leeds United but joined us six months before we won the FA Cup in ’77.

Brian, who will be remembered as a United legend, was active on Twitter and regularly interacted with our fans. “Proud to have played for the best club in the world” he said in his bio. His favourite player from our most recent team team was Paul Scholes.

A few years ago, Brian was interviewed by the club, and said that FA Cup win in ’77 was his best moment at the club.

“When you win something, so that has to be running round Wembley after winning the FA Cup against Liverpool in 1977,” he said. “There were other great moments, but that one stands out.”

During his time at the club, whilst the rivalry was fiercest with Liverpool who were the ones winning all the trophies, Brian said City were the team he most wanted to beat.

“Many of the players wanted to beat Liverpool, but for the players who had come through the ranks at United, like myself, City were the big enemies,” he said. “We didn’t just want to beat them, we wanted to walk all over them.”

Rest in peace.

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Listen to Brian’s radio interview after United won the league last month
Buy his autobiography

Shinji Kagawa

Robin van Persie
A world-class player at his absolute peak. I haven’t been as excited by a United signing since Juan Sebastian Veron 11 years earlier, but of course this time we weren’t disappointed. He brought class and a near constant supply of goals, including the winner against City at the Etihad and that volley against Aston Villa.

Wayne Rooney
On the pitch Rooney’s ‘slump’ has not been as pronounced as some suggest, because 16 goals and 13 assists is a real contribution to a title-winning season. But Ferguson rightly noticed a dip and kept hauling him off. How has Rooney responded? He asked to leave yet again. If you do that twice in two and a half years many fans think there should be no coming back that.

Javier Hernandez
He’s had another impressive season when he’s played, and 17 goals from 21 starts is an incredible return. But you get the impression he won’t be content to be the new Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and simply settle for the odd start and a role coming off the bench. He’s too good for that and United could struggle to satisfy him.

Danny Welbeck
It’s hard to know how to judge Welbeck. As a striker this season has been appalling, he’s appeared in 27 Premier League games and scored once. And yet his increasing pace, strength and quick feet suggest he could yet develop in to great player, who as he proved against Real Madrid, can also do a disciplined job for the team.

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Sam writes for FourFourTwo and is responsible for the excellent Best XI Manchester United book

The Evening News sings the praises of Paul Scholes.

The Guardian reports that Moyes is keen to keep Rooney at United.

The Telegraph has published the 2012-2013 season review.

Amazon has Giles Oakley’s brilliant book on sale.