Interruptions to the Premier League for international matches have never been welcome but Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is breathing a sigh of relief for the respite that his troops can enjoy before re engaging in the title race with the trip to West Ham. Sir Alex believes that the break has come at a perfect time as his side attempts to clinch a record breaking championship. Ferguson hopes to have key players available by the time United resume their season saying “ We have a great lead even though Arsenal have a game in hand but we’ve got the points so we don’t need to worry about that. Once we start getting players back from injury, we will have a great chance.”

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The Portugal winger Nani has apologised to his team mate Cristiano Ronaldo after denying the winger a memorable goal in their side’s 4-0 friendly mauling of the world champions Spain. Ronaldo looked to have put Portugal ahead with a superb effort in the first half, after cleverly turning inside Gerard Piqué before scooping his shot over Iker Casillas. The stunning effort was dropping into the net but Nani raced in from an offside position to head the ball in from point blank range, leading to the goal being disallowed. ”I touched the ball because I thought I wasn’t offside. Everything happened so quickly” explained Nani “after having time to think about it I apologised to Ronaldo. It was a great piece of play and I shouldn’t have ruined it.” Click on the pic to watch the video.

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Here’s a perfect example, if one is needed, which shows that we must never, EVER automatically believe what we read in the media. Much was made of Bebe having been a homeless Portugese kid when Sir Alex Ferguson brought him to Manchester United. Yet here’s his straight and unequivocal answer when asked by the club magazine Inside United if he had ever lived on the streets “No, this is not true, I have never lived on the street” It cannot be much simpler than that can it?  Bebe talks about that myth and gives an insight into his past when answering questions put to him by the magazine.

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When it comes to transfer gossip, the media does not have any bigger target than Manchester United. Most are pure lies and not worth the paper that they’re written on -like this week’s report that United will be going into a January battle with Manchester City for the signature of Liverpools Fernando Torres. City? Maybe, but an Anfield hero to United can be no more than pure fantasy. When the rumour comes out of the horses mouth however, you have to think that there must be more than a hint of truth in the story.

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Having been a lifelong, avid book reader, primarily football autobiographies of course, the release of Sir Alex Fergusons new book “Football Bloody Hell” scheduled to hit the shelves this week already has me salivating. It’s a book that has been anxiously awaited since Fergusons “Managing My Life” a decade ago and if a preview written by Andy Mitten for the Manchester Evening News is any guide, it will be sitting on my bookshelf the minute it hits the stores.

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The 2012 European Championship qualifiers on the weekend provided starkly contrasting fortunes for two of  Manchester United’s internationals. While Nani was turning on a dazzling performance in Portugals’ 3-1 home defeat of Denmark, Darren Fletcher and Scotland went down 0-1 to the Czech Republic in Prague to leave the Scots trailing in second place behind Spain in their group. They now face a crunch match with the world champions at Hampden Park on Tuesday night.

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