Anyone who remembers the saga connected with the move of French youngster Gael Kakuta from French club Lens to Chelsea last year will realize how messy these type of transfers can become. Chelsea were initially banned from signing any players in the following two transfer windows due to their involvement in inducing Kakuta to break his contract at Lens. That ban was subsequently lifted but Manchester United faced similar sanctions over the wrangle of 17 year old Paul Pogba’s transfer from Le Havre before the issue was finally resolved.

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Watching the action in South Africa from his holiday base in the south of France, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is not at all impressed with what he has seen so far. “It’s been a disappointing World Cup but I had a feeling it would be” he told a New York radio station “I have been disappointed with the quality levels I have to say. I haven’t been impressed at all.”

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The famous old saying that “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire” has convinced some pundits that there was much more than meets the eye  to the bizarre events involving Manchester United and Portugal star Nani on the eve of the World Cup. The official line from the Portugese camp was that the tricky winger suffered a collarbone injury during a training camp in Lisbon yet he still flew out to South Africa with the team. After training with Carlos Queiroz’s squad for two days however, he was ruled out of the tournament, flew back to Portugal and was replaced by Benfica midfielder Ruben Amorim.

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