Ashley Young heads to Manchester United but Phil Jones deal stalls

Manchester United will officially sign Ashley Young when the Aston Villa forward returns from holiday later this month but their capture of Phil Jones from Blackburn Rovers has been delayed by a dispute over the defender's transfer fee.

Jones passed a medical and agreed personal terms with United on Wednesday after the Premier League champions met the £16m release clause in the contract Blackburn awarded the 19-year-old in February. He then joined the England Under-21 squad in Denmark in preparation for the European Championships convinced, along with United and his agent, that the deal had been done.

Blackburn's owners, Venky's, have since said they do not have to accept a £16m transfer fee and, mindful of interest from Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal, believe he is worth more. Venky's have refused to transfer the player's registration and it may fall to lawyers to decide whether the wording in Jones' contract allows him to be sold at £16m or merely speak to clubs who meet that price. United are said to have no concerns that Jones' transfer will be completed and for £16m.

Young is believed to have agreed personal terms on an initial £16m move to Old Trafford from Villa Park but the transfer will not be formally announced until he has completed a medical. The England international is due to travel to the United States on holiday and is not expected to have had his medical before then. But Young, who had also been courted by Liverpool and Tottenham, has agreed to join United and, with an £18m deal in place for the Atlético Madrid goalkeeper David de Gea, will take United's committed spending to £50m.

Wesley Sneijder has committed his immediate future to Internazionale despite interest from Sir Alex Ferguson as he attempts to rebuild the United midfield for next season. The Holland international and Tottenham's Luka Modric were both under consideration by the United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, who is also keen on Arsenal's Samir Nasri but Sneijder has said: "There is a family atmosphere at Inter and there are all the ingredients to aim high. Milan is marvellous, picturesque and full of elegance. I love it. At the moment I am very happy here and I don't see why I should leave."

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed Eric Cantona will take charge of New York Cosmos when they provide the opposition for Paul Scholes' testimonial at Old Trafford on 5 August.

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Liverpool and United splash cash but where are Arsenal?

It is three years to the month that Arsène Wenger pulled off his last notable transfer coup when he persuaded Aaron Ramsey to choose Arsenal over Manchester United when it had looked like the then 17-year-old was a cert for Old Trafford. Ramsey was invited to fly out to Switzerland to meet Wenger who was then working as a pundit covering the France team at Euro 2008.

Ferguson had relied upon his assistant Mike Phelan to sell Old Trafford to Ramsey who was also sent on a stadium tour open to members of the public, which was not quite the gold-plated reception that a nervous teenager anxious to meet his prospective famous manager had hoped for. He met Wenger, got his assurances in person and agreed to sign for Arsenal there and then.

Three years on and Ferguson is not taking any chances this time. The transfers of Phil Jones, the 19-year-old from Blackburn Rovers, and Ashley Young, the emerging star of the England team, now on his way from Aston Villa, have both been negotiated by United within 17 days of the end of the season. It is widely regarded as Liverpool who have lost out in both deals but where were Arsenal?

Arsenal met with Jones but failed to convince him, just as they did with Chris Smalling before he joined United 18 months' earlier. Jordan Henderson has gone to Liverpool. Signing the best young players – the likes of Theo Walcott and Ramsey – was once Arsenal's answer to their big-spending rivals, but now everyone else is doing that, what exactly is the policy that they intend to pursue?

As is his custom, Wenger was watching France play Poland in Warsaw last night, although not as a co-commentator on French television, and is to go on holiday today. The club's head of youth development, Liam Brady, promised yesterday that the club would be active in the transfer market this summer and it is not implausible that Wenger might be about to pull a stroke that will fire the imagination at the Emirates.

But as ever yesterday, it was more about who will go. The perennial Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona story is spinning again. The Spanish newspapers are already anticipating that Fabregas will spend his summer in Ibiza with Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol. "He [Fabregas] is a great player and he's a player for Barcelona because he already knows the language we speak on the pitch," Pique said yesterday. "He is a great friend of mine and of course I want him to end up wearing the Barcelona shirt."

We have heard it all before but if Barcelona offered £45m-£50m Arsenal would let him go. They are working on the basis that if Darren Bent is worth £24m then an offer of, say, £30m for Fabregas would simply not be entertained. Wenger is opposed to deals that involve players coming in the other direction – to the extent that even if he wanted a Barcelona player he would do that transaction separately to any deal for Fabregas. It is about making the player joining Arsenal feel that he is not a simple footnote to a transfer, but a valued individual himself.

Wenger has sold his last two star-name captains at just the right time and, while Fabregas is still young at 24, injuries have meant that last season he was eclipsed by Jack Wilshere. The 19-year-old Englishman is ready to be the new stellar presence in the side and the club obviously think so, too. You can see that by the prominence he is afforded in all their marketing for next season.

The real scandal at Arsenal, however, is how Samir Nasri and Gaël Clichy have been allowed to drift into the last year of their contracts without anyone at the Emirates being able to shore up two of the most valuable assets in the squad.

This newspaper's revelations that representatives connected to Nasri have already made contact with United show just how close Arsenal now are to losing the player. Whether they sell him this summer at a reduced price or lose him for nothing in 12 months' time, it is an unsatisfactory scenario either way. In the event of a major offer for Nasri failing to materialise, Wenger is understood to be in favour of keeping the player in the hope that he will sign a new deal next season. It sounds like wishful thinking.

Had Nasri been a United or Tottenham player the club would have offered him the stark choice last summer of either signing a new deal or being sold immediately. Somehow, Arsenal took their eye off the ball and they have now surely lost him for good. Nasri was close to signing before the first leg of the last-16 Champions League knockout round tie against Barcelona in February. The deal was all but agreed between the club and his agent but at the last minute Nasri decided to hold off and Arsenal have been unable to bring him back to the table since then.

As for Clichy, the consensus is that he can go, with Liverpool the key English club interested and failing that, an offer from Italy is expected. The player will not give the club another season – he wants to go now – so they will sell him providing they get the valuation they want of around £7m to £8m.

As with most professional footballers, the money on offer is important. But the growing anxiety among the likes of Fabregas, Robin van Persie, Nasri and Walcott – who is entering the last two years of his deal – is whether they will ever be in a position to win something with Arsenal. And when that anxiety is heightened by the departure of high-profile team-mates, it stirs up even more unease.

The signing of 19-year-old Carl Jenkinson from Charlton Athletic for around £1m in compensation is intriguing but not quite the deal that might kickstart a summer of optimism. The likes of Mamadou Sakho (Paris St-Germain), Eden Hazard and Gervinho (both Lille) and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Southampton) remain possibilities. At least, unlike Chelsea, Arsenal have a manager in place to make the big strategic decisions but they have made a slow start to the summer and after last season that is not something that they can afford.

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Manchester United star Paul Scholes the best of all time

It was right at the start of the ’90s that I heard the name Paul Scholes for the first time. The football world and the media, this newspaper in particular, was waking up to the fact that something unusual and wonderful was taking shape at Manchester United.

A group of kids who were growing up together at Old Trafford were starting to make ripples. Some of them who were aged just 16 or 17 were already pushing for a place in Alex Ferguson’s first team.

So I took myself off to United’s old training centre, The Cliff in Salford, to have a chat with the Reds­ youth team coach Eric Harrison who watched over that talented bunch of youngsters like a mother hen. Of course Eric was eager to sing the praises of David Beckham, Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt.

But Eric became even more animated when talking about the boy I had never heard of. That boy was Paul Scholes. “You won’t believe this,” said Eric, “but Scholesy has got a fan club. “Have you ever heard of a 17-year-old footballer with a fan club, because I haven’t. “But scores of young girls turn up at The Cliff just to watch him training.

“He’s tiny, he’s got a mop of ginger hair and he suffers from asthma. But to those young girls he’s already a star. Of course Scholesy doesn’t take advantage of his stardom. “He’s only interested in playing football. At least that’s what he tells me. “What those young fans are seeing, I believe, is that they are watching the birth of a great career in professional football at the very highest level.

“And do you know what? I couldn’t agree with them more. The scrawny ginger haired kid I am talking about is going to become a superstar over the years ahead.”Let’s wind the clock on 20 years to an interview with Thierry Henry broadcast by Sky Sports earlier this season.

The programme was filmed in New York where the brilliant French striker was giving the interviewer a grand tour of the Red Bulls Stadium where he now plays. The conversation turned to the days in the late ’90s and early 2000s when Arsenal and United comprehensively dominated the Premier League.

Henry was asked if he and his Arsenal team-mates feared any of United’s players. Roy Keane for his ferociousness perhaps, or maybe Ruud van Nistelrooy for his goal-scoring ability?

Henry’s reply was instant and revealing. “We respected all of United’s players,” he answered diplomatically. “But there was one United player we genuinely feared – and that player was Paul Scholes.

“Scholes had everything.

“We prided ourselves on our defence but he could split it open with one pass.

“He could score fantastic goals out of nothing and, although he was small in stature, to say he could take care of himself on the pitch is a massive under-statement. “At his peak he was one of the greatest midfield players of his generation, not just in the English Premier League but right across Europe.”

Genius: So there it is. Two tributes to the ginger genius from north Manchester separated by two decades. The first from his former youth team coach Harrison could be expected. Eric treated the members of that famous class of 1992 as though they were his adopted sons. But when you look again at that second tribute 20 years later from one of the world’s greatest strikers, there is only one conclusion to be reached.

That scrawny asthma-stricken kid, born in Salford but raised in Langley, was THE greatest English midfield player of his generation and arguably the greatest English midfielder of ALL time. Why then was Scholes not showered with personal honours throughout his glittering career?

Why no PFA Player of the Year award? Why no Football Writers’ Player of the Year honour? Those questions are difficult to answer. The only explanation I can come up with is that throughout his career Scholes preferred to keep himself under the radar.

He never sought publicity. Quite the reverse. He was dynamic on the field but purposely anonymous off it. To him giving an interview to the press was the equivalent of having your teeth pulled out with pliers – without the anaesthetic.

Had he been more media-friendly he would certainly have banked extra millions during his career from sponsorships and various TV advertising campaigns.All right, he didn’t have the film star looks of a Beckham or a Jamie Redknapp, but that hasn’t stopped Peter Crouch making a fortune outside the game has it?

And he’s twice the size but half the talent of Scholes, that’s for sure. But that was the Ginger Prince wasn’t it? Turn in a match-winning performance, take a shower, get dressed and then it’s off home to take the wife and kids to the pictures.

A man who somehow managed to live a normal life in an abnormal profession. United have granted Scholes a testimonial match later this year to celebrate his extraordinary career.

If the organisers of that match haven’t yet fixed up an opposing team for Scholes’s testimonial I would urge them to look no further than United’s ‘noisy neighbours’ from Eastlands. For almost two decades now my fellow Blue Mooners have ‘hated’ the little ginger haired midfield genius from Old Trafford.

But I’m sure I’m speaking for every true City supporter by saying that if Scholes had been wearing the sky blue shirt instead of a red one throughout those years he would have been idolised.

The Eastlands congregation would flock to Old Trafford in their thousands to say a last goodbye to one of football’s true greats. A fellow Mancunian who reached the very peak of his profession with the minimum of fuss and the absence of publicity. We will not see the likes of him again, more’s the pity.

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Samir Nasri hints at move to Manchester United

Samir Nasri has infuriated Arsenal by refusing to dismiss a move to Manchester United. The midfielder issued what amounts to a 'come and get me plea' to United manager Sir Alex Ferguson with his comments in a French TV interview. His stance echoes that of Spurs star Luka Modric, who last week dropped more than a few broad hints about a possible switch to Old Trafford.

Nasri is coming into the final year of his contract at the Emirates and Arsene Wenger may be forced to cash-in rather than lose him for nothing next summer. The Arsenal manager insists his 23-year-old French international will not be joining United - but unless Nasri commits himself to a new deal soon, Arsenal may have no choice but to let him leave the club.

Nasri, on international duty ahead of France's Euro 2012 qualifier with Poland, said on TF1: "I don't know if I will sign a new contract. Anyway, the discussions are ongoing. "For the moment, I don't think about this. We will speak about it after the match with Poland. "Do I want to go to Man United? First, we should see if it's real and if it is concrete."Ferguson is determined to revamp United's midfield for next season, especially after seeing that particular department swamped by Barcelona in the Champions League final.

He wants Modric to replace the retired Paul Scholes, while Nasri is earmarked as a successor to Ryan Giggs. Nasri's international colleague Patrice Evra infuriated Arsenal fans ahead of United's Champions League final with Barcelona when he claimed the Arsenal player would have to head to Old Trafford to fulfil his ambition for silverware.

Evra said: "Little prince, if you want to become king you know where you should go. "Every year at Manchester is a guarantee of a title. "I have been here five years and cannot keep count of the trophies I've won - 12? 13? 15?"

But Wenger remains determined not to lose one of his star players to Ferguson. "One thing's for sure: we're not selling him to Manchester United," he said. "Are we still in discussions with Nasri? Yes, but we are still in disagreement over the financial contract on offer, which we haven't settled. "We are trying to extend his deal."Arsenal, who have Clichy in a similar position, had hoped to secure Nasri on a new five-year deal worth around £90,000 a week.

Both players' contracts expire in the summer of 2012 and Wenger is unwilling to allow them to leave for nothing under the Bosman ruling, as Mathieu Flamini did for Milan three years ago. Nasri played in France's 1-1 draw in Belarus on Friday and is expected to feature in tomorrow's friendly in Poland; talks will resume upon his return.

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Manchester United must be punished if they field weakened team against Blackpool, says Wolves chairman

Wolves were given a £25,000 suspended fine in February 2010 after Mick McCarthy rested 10 first-team regulars for a game he did not expect to win at Old Trafford. Wolves lost 3-0 and nine of the players were promptly recalled for the next fixture, against relegation rivals Burnley, which Wolves won. A precedent having been set, Morgan said he expected Manchester United to be fined if Sir Alex Ferguson rested Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs and Nemanja Vidic against Blackpool, who are fighting with Wolves, Wigan and Birmingham to avoid following West Ham down.

“It would be pretty hypocritical if they weren’t fined,’’ said Morgan, although he stressed his admiration for United. “United put out a second string XI against Schalke and it didn’t do Schalke much good.”"United are a very professional club and they’re not going to want to lose on the last day of the season, the day they get presented with the Premier League trophy. They might put their full XI out. Chances are they probably won’t.”Blackpool manager Ian Holloway, however, says it would be insulting to Blackpool for the FA to charge United.

Holloway said: “It’s pretty annoying to think United might be fined if they make a load of changes and we beat them. People are saying we cannot beat them, and I just can’t see that. It is massively disrespectful to us. "The suggestion is that they should always beat us, because we’re supposed to be crap. Don’t try telling me that.

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Manchester United will not be intimidated by Barcelona in the Champions League final, says Rio Ferdinand

Rio Ferdinand can give no guarantees about Manchester United lifting the Champions League trophy at Wembley Stadium on May 28.

But one thing the England defender can state, without any fear of contradiction, is that Manchester United will not stand beside Barcelona in the Wembley tunnel prior to kick-off and feel intimidated. It is often said football is a game played in the mind. Ferdinand knows it is true. He has emerged from the home dressing rooms at Old Trafford often enough to know there are days when he looks his opponent in the eye and knew he was going to win. Barcelona experience similar sensations at times. With Lionel Messi leading their team and Xavi and Andres Iniesta offering pretty substantial support, who wouldn't excuse the Catalans from nursing a sense of superiority?

They have been talked up as the best team in the world so often, it must be true. Indeed, earlier this season, Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp suggested Barcelona were the best club side ever. However, after securing a record 19th league title and reaching the Champions League final for the third time in four years, something Barça cannot match, Ferdinand does not see why United should be the ones with an inferiority complex. ''You do see the aura a little bit,'' said Ferdinand.

''We had it here. There would be times when we felt in the tunnel we had a game won. But I can guarantee that won't happen with us. ''We have experienced players who have played against a lot of great teams throughout their careers. ''When I look around my own changing room, it instils me with confidence.''Not that Ferdinand is downplaying the abilities of Barcelona's 'Holy Trinity'. As Messi is widely acknowledged to be the best player in the world at present, and Xavi and Iniesta were the inspirations behind Spain's World Cup triumph last summer, he could hardly do that. But the 32-year-old does feel it is pointless getting hung up on three players, when there are another eight who could cause damage as well. ''You watch the games and see Barcelona on TV and they obviously have fantastic players,'' he said. ''They have got three of the best in the world if you go by the various awards. But it is not just down to them.

''If you try to mark one player out of their team, you still have another 10 to contend with. ''They are experienced and they know how to win. They have consistently collected trophies over the last two or three years. ''But I am sure they will be thinking exactly the same about us.''And, though the defeat to Barca in the 2009 Champions League final conjures up largely negative thoughts in Ferdinand's mind, in the context of the rematch, there are some positive ones. For a start, as badly as United performed, they still created opportunities, so who would argue they will fail to muster any if they actually produce a display to match their ability?

''We had opportunities that day without playing to anywhere near our maximum,'' said Ferdinand.

''It makes us think we will have chances again. We know we are capable of causing them problems.

''I am not bothered about it being a good match. I wouldn't mind it being the best Manchester United against the worst Barcelona. ''We will try and do whatever it takes to win. The biggest thing in football is to never come off the pitch with any regrets. ''There were regrets that night and I don't want to experience that again.'

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