Nobody can ever accuse Sir Alex Ferguson of sitting on the fence about anything so it was no surprise to hear him predict that Wayne Rooney will be one of the biggest stars of the next World Cup. The Manchester United manager also feels that England may have had it too easy in qualifying for the 2010 Finals and that the only regret he has about showing Diego Forlan the Old Trafford door in 2004 was that he sold him too cheaply.
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Having your family around you when you’re a long way from home might be the preferred option for most Being 3,500 miles from familiar surroundings and well away from the comfort zone, it would maybe be nice to have your big brother there. Teenage Manchester United midfielder Corry Evans, however, is happy to go it alone as he goes about establishing himself in the Northern Ireland senior squad.

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Watching former Manchester United starlets Jonathan Greening and Erik Nevland bravely battling away for Fulham in a vain attempt to try and salvage something for their club last weekend one could not help but wonder how often they must have thought of what might have been when looking back on their careers.

The 31 year old Greening made 14 senior appearances in midfield during his 3 years at Old Trafford between 1998 and 2001 before going on to build a decent career for himself at Middlesbrough and West Bromwich Albion then settling at Fulham last year. Read the full story

Football can offer many rewards both financial and otherwise for those who are successful yet the good days can come to an end at a relatively young age. One such player was Norman Whiteside whose career was certainly not so much a fairy tale as a roller coaster ride of wonderful highs and devastating lows because of chronic injuries.

He will always be remembered for being the youngest at everything. At 17 he was the youngest United player to play for the first team since Duncan Edwards, the youngest to score in an FA Cup Final and the youngest to appear in the 1982 World Cup Finals for Northern Ireland. Those same finals saw him break the previous record set by Pele as the youngest player ever to appear in a World Cup aged 17 years and 41 days old.

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