From The Times:
'The footballers’ Christmas party is an endangered institution as managers continue their crackdown on excess away from the pitch, but Sir Alex Ferguson, often portrayed as the biggest killjoy of them all, is not slipping into the role of Ebeneezer Scrooge. "Go out and enjoy yourselves," he told his players on Saturday evening. "Just make sure you stay out of trouble."
And so Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney and friends headed for one of the city’s more exclusive bars, packed with bottles of champagne and minor celebrities, among them Eric Cantona, who once said that he wished he could stay at United just for the parties. And there was karaoke, doubtless to the delight of Ryan Giggs, and even talk of a mock casino, but the focus would be on the bar, where the aim was to break the record set by last year’s bill, a not inconsiderable £78,000.
And hours later they will have staggered into the cold night, with Gary Neville likely to have been the one leading a chorus of "we want our trophy back". And as these drunken wailings are reported back to him, among with anything else that might have occurred under the watchful eyes of his spies, Ferguson will smile — provided, of course, that "young Rooney" and others kept out of trouble.
Such soirées, Ferguson believes, are fundamental to preserving the famed Old Trafford spirit now that those with Mancunian accents, such as Giggs and Neville, are a dwindling and ageing minority. Arsenal and Chelsea both project an image of unity, all elaborate high-fives and embraces, but just try convincing Ferguson that either club — in fact any club — has a more potent team spirit than United.
Perhaps it is just as well, since there are other areas in which they conspicuously fall short. This was one of their better performances of the season but it did nothing to convince anyone of their Premiership title credentials. Yes, they scored five times and could quite feasibly have had a few more against a spirited, if terribly limited, Crystal Palace team, but, by conceding two horribly soft goals, they managed to look less like title contenders than ever.'