players back from Portugal after the international friendly
held there, thus allowing them a few more hours sleep on
Wednesday night:
‘The FA had arranged for the England team plane to fly on to
Manchester after touching down at Luton but Sir Alex
Ferguson decided to save a couple of hours by organising a
private jet to fly into the Algarve to take Paul Scholes,
Nicky Butt, Phil Neville and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo
straight back home.
‘So while the rest of the squad boarded the team bus for the
airport, Scholes and his club-mates were ushered into
limousines and rushed to the tarmac to board their own
plane.
‘Players from cash-strapped Leeds, who faced United
at Old Trafford yesterday, had to take the more tortuous
route. It included an hour's journey by car, provided by the
FA, after the flight, and dawn was breaking when Paul
Robinson and Alan Smith arrived home on Thursday.’