Laurent Blanc:
"It's true it nearly came off on a number of occasions and I'm very grateful to Mr Ferguson for maintaining his interest and the confidence he has shown me at this stage of my career. Such belief in an experienced player doesn't happen too often in football.
"With hindsight and having now experienced life at the club, I would have liked to be part of all this earlier in my career. It's often said that an experienced player can bring something to the development of a young player, but it is a two-way street.
"An experienced player can also learn a great deal from a younger emerging player. Their desire and fresh outlook can rub off on the more experienced players. It's really a reciprocal arrangement."
Bobby Robson on Reds:
"They will not be satisfied. They will know where the little bit of the jigsaw needs to be completed. I think the team that beats Manchester United this season will again win the championship."
From the Guardian:
Lee Bowyer's proposed move to Liverpool appeared to have stalled last night after a second day of talks over personal terms left the Leeds midfielder's £9m transfer unresolved.
Gérard Houllier agreed the fee with the Yorkshire club last week and resumed talks - already held over from Monday - with Bowyer and his advisers yesterday.
But, though the Merseysiders are confident that a deal can still be concluded, the player returned to Yorkshire after another day spent haggling over the financial package on offer, leaving the French manager on tenterhooks for a while longer.
Liverpool have offered the 25-year-old midfielder a five-year contract worth around £35,000 a week, a considerable rise from the £17,000 a week he earns at Elland Road. Nevertheless Bowyer, who was ordered to pay legal costs of almost £1m this year after being found not guilty of all charges in relation to an assault on a student, is holding out for considerably more.
Chelsea's financial situation took another nosedive when their pre-season tour of Malaysia and China was cancelled.
The news came as Stamford Bridge legend Peter Osgood was sacked from his PR role at the club - and claimed: 'Chelsea can't afford £10,000 a year'.
Chelsea were to play a Malaysia XI in Kuala Lumpur next Wednesday followed by matches against two Chinese sides but the tour, a source of much-needed revenue, was called off after organisers failed to come up with the agreed financial guarantees. (Imagine how the Rentboys who'd booked flights out to watch them feel about it)
Chelsea now face losing Hasselbaink to Barca, who are believed to be hovering with a £20m bid.
From the Times:
From the Sunday park pitches to the FA Barclaycard Premiership, the verbal abuse of match officials by players has long been accepted as part of the national game. The venting of one's spleen at the men in black somehow cleanses the soul. No more. Foul language of the most vile kind directed at referees and their assistants this season is to be more rigidly enforced and punished by a red card.
While players will not be expected to address the referees as "Sir" - as in rugby union - or question their decisions too politely, it is the harsher expletives that must be eradicated or at least uttered out of earshot of the officials. Spouting forth the F-word will be met with instant dismissal.
Philip Don, head of referees for the Professional Game Match Officials' Board, which controls the 24-strong elite band of Premiership referees, has had enough. And he has won support from the League Managers' Association (LMA) and Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), who will be leading a poster campaign to make the players mind their manners.
"If the remarks are made spontaneously or out of frustration, then a quiet word will do," Don said yesterday. "We don't want to be seen to be going overboard or looking for trouble. It is the insulting or abusive behaviour, especially when in the face of the referee or his assistants and when done wilfully, that we are talking about here.
"There is a fine line between what is frustration and what is dissent. Dissent is a cautionable offence, not frustration. But if they step over that line, and frustration becomes dissent, then that's a caution, and if the language is wilful and is directed at them, then that's a dismissal offence."
Foreign players in the Premiership will not escape, either. "Gestures will be dealt with as well," Don said. "Many of our referees are used to refereeing abroad and I think that they know when they are being insulted in any language."