Manchester United Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 11/12

Trilla wrote: »

war of wards

Patrick Vieira has expressed his disappointment and anger at what he feels is a serious and cynical misrepresentation of an interview he gave to the BBC.


Manchester City’s Football Development Executive shít-stirrer extraordinaire gave the interview at the annual SoccerEx exhibition at the GMEX Convention Centre on Wednesday afternoon. He was representing Football Against Hunger, a campaign to tackle starvation in Africa.

An interview given to the BBC’s Dan Roan contained what Patrick feels was a very leading line of questions regarding Manchester United supposedly receiving favourable treatment by referees. Patrick feels that his views have been deliberately taken out of context.

He said: “I am very angry with Dan Roan. I feel he has misrepresented me. I made it clear in the interview twice that I wanted to avoid criticising United and even stated that I didn’t watch the United game against Fulham and had not seen the incident to which the reporter referred.

“That part of the interview was ignored and my comments were taken completely out of context. I called the reporter twice to ask for a retraction and an apology which has not come. I feel Dan Roan and the BBC have shown a complete lack of respect for me, the ‘Football Against Hunger’ charity and Manchester City Football Club.”

Manchester City support Patrick in his strong feelings on this matter and have confirmed to the BBC that the reporter will now be banned from all Manchester City media activity.

Chief Communications Officer, Vicky Kloss, said: “Despite the Charity arranging the interview with Dan Roan for the purposes of promoting the Football Against Hunger campaign, the reporter pursued a leading and aggressive line of questioning, through which Patrick was very careful to tread a diplomatic path.

“A misrepresentative article by Dan Roan appeared on the BBC’s website a short time later which omitted significant comments of clarification and took the interview completely out of context. Manchester City promotes a positive and welcoming approach to media outlets, however it is felt, in the absence of any correction or apology that there is no option but to issue an immediate ban to Dan Roan from future media activity.”

Trilla wrote: »

Mr Alan, you gotta love him.

SoulTrader wrote: »

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/9172732/It-doesnt-always-go-Manchester-Uniteds-way-Patrick.html

These things even themselves out over the course of a season... An impartial analysis of wrong decisions at Old Trafford this season.

Manchester United keeper Anders Lindegaard has been sent on a week's holiday after suffering a small setback in his recovery from an ankle injury.

Lindegaard suffered the injury in training prior to the Premier League encounter with Stoke at the end of January.

It came at the worst possible time for the Denmark international, who had just ousted David de Gea as United's number one keeper and appeared in six games out of seven as the Red Devils tried to stabilise their season.

Sir Alex Ferguson initially claimed Lindegaard would only be missing for a matter of weeks, however, on Friday, the 27-year-old admitted he did not know when he would be fit enough to play again.

Now Ferguson has confirmed Lindegaard has been given a break after pushing himself slightly too hard.

"He was training very well and maybe overdid it," said the United boss.

"We have given him a week off to give him a rest but he should be back before the end of the season."

In theory, Lindegaard still needs to make two more appearances to qualify for a title medal should United retain their status as Premier League leaders.

However, in recent years special dispensation has been agreed with the league for additional medals and under the circumstances, Lindegaard is unlikely to be denied.