Manchester City, greatest in the world? No way

An ill-advised soccer boast was made recently in a New York bar by the chief executive of newly rich club Manchester City. Merrily counting entire farms of chickens before they hatch, Garry Cook didn't even look like he'd been drinking.

"This football club is going to be, without doubt, the biggest and the best football club in the world," Cook declared to a gathering of City fans who seemingly had enough to drink that they cheered as if they actually believed every word.

"I'll make no excuses for saying it."Given how Manchester United put its noisy neighbor back in its place this week, in one of the most dramatic matches this season will deliver, Cook must be feeling sorry now. Ultimately, all Cook proved is that the only cheap thing left in soccer these days is talk.

Dethroning institutions — because that is what they are — such as United, Real Madrid, AC Milan or Barcelona is going to be far, far more expensive than what's been spent to date. Possibly too costly even for the deep wells of Abu Dhabi oil money being drained to refloat City, write off its debts and give the club's long suffering fans something they've dared not harbor for years: hope.The bill so far: nearly $630 million.

What Cook clearly hasn't grasped is that knocking the Reds off their perch, as United's Alex Ferguson himself once famously said of his ambition to humble Liverpool, will take more than a fat book of those outsized cardboard checks that are handed to grinning lottery winners. Buying consistent year-in, year-out success isn't as simple as taking a trip to the supermarket.

City is sixth in the Premier League ahead of this Sunday's game against bottom-dwellers Portsmouth, 13 points behind leader Chelsea but tantalizingly close to a qualifying spot for the Champions League next season. Not bad, but could do better.

It will take years for City to construct anything even close to the legacy and cluttered trophy cabinet that Ferguson has given United in 24 seasons in charge. It may never happen.

It will take time, maybe years, for City to cultivate the winning mentality that Ferguson has built into a habit. Not by chance over the decades have his teams been masters of scoring late winning goals. Under Ferguson, they have learned not to give up as the clock ticks down.

Remember Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solksjaer's stoppage-time strikes that won the Champions League in 1999? This season, Michael Owen came off the bench to score 6 minutes beyond regulation for a 4-3 triumph in September, and Wayne Rooney put United into the final of the League Cup with a stoppage time header in a fevered Old Trafford on Wednesday night.

Both of those wins came against — who else? — Manchester City.

So much for Cook's silly New York talk of beating United "yet again."

"You like to win your derby games," Ferguson said after Wednesday's 3-1 victory. "The fact that we scored so late in the game brought a special type of celebration."

What Ferguson is playing down, however, is that City is a long-term concern. And rightly so.

The financing by Abu Dhabi royal family member Sheikh Mansour gives City spending power that United, deep in debt, is struggling to match. One reason Ferguson says he has not spent heavily this season is because he feels that player prices are too high — inflation City surely didn't help by paying a British-record fee for forward Robinho and handsomely for the likes of Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure.

The challenge mounted by the cross-city pretenders also means United has yet another front to fight on. One front too many? Ideally, Ferguson might have liked to rest stars like Rooney, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes on Wednesday to keep them fresh for the Premier League match against Arsenal this weekend. Instead, with so much rivalry and pride on the line, they all played for the full 90 minutes.

Although the final result was evidence that Manchester's soccer hierarchy remains intact, Ferguson's team selection showed how seriously he takes the City threat.

Should Arsenal win this Sunday because United is short on juice, and should that defeat help ensure that Chelsea wins the Premier League this season, then at least City will have the modest consolation of knowing that, in its own small way, it contributed to the champions' downfall. But that is a long, long way from City becoming "the biggest and the best football club in the world." So until then, Mr. Cook, a little modesty, please.

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Arsenal v Manchester United to be shown in 3D on Sky

BSkyB is aiming to do for sports broadcasting what James Cameron did for cinema with special effects blockbuster Avatar, with the move to air this weekend's Premier League clash between Arsenal and Manchester United in 3D.

The satellite broadcaster, which is showing the special 3D feed of this Sunday's Premier League clash in a handful of pubs across the country, claims it will be the first transmission of a live 3D TV sports event to a public audience.

Sunday's test broadcast comes ahead of a plan to roll out the 3D TV service to hundreds of the tens of thousands of UK pubs that subscribe to Sky TV from April.

BSkyB then has the ambitious plan to bring 3D to the living room by the end of the year. The 3D channel will initially be made available at no extra cost to the million-plus Sky high definition TV subscribers who also pay for its premium sports and movies services.

This weekend's test, a chance for BSkyB to "kick the tyres" of the service, will see nine pubs kitted out with a number of 3D-ready TV sets.

BSkyB will not name the pubs, for fear of overcrowding, but has said football fans at four London establishments, two in Manchester and one each in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Dublin will find they have the option of watching the game on a 3D screen.

The company estimates that between 450 and 700 viewers will get to see the match in 3D and is confident they will not balk at having to don 3D spectacles to watch the game.

"We have done consumer testing and people forget pretty quickly that they are wearing them and if a large group is doing it people don't really worry about it. I've seen people wear far sillier things in the pub [than 3D specs]," said Brian Lenz, the director of product design at BSkyB.

"People will get a sense that they are looking through a window right into the game, a portal into the Emirates [Arsenal stadium] with the best seats in the house. It is going to become a must-have, a must-want," Lenz added.

He said TV manufacturers such as Sony and Samsung intend to make sure that up to 40% of their ranges will be 3D ready in the next couple of years.

"The programming has to be top quality, we view 3D TV as an 'appointment-to-view' proposition, we don't intend to try and fill the whole schedule with 3D programming," he added.

BSkyB plans to make the Sunday 4pm match it airs every week the special 3D broadcast.

Earlier this month mobile operator O2 said that it intended to screen two of England's rugby matches in this year's Six Nations tournament in 3D in 40 Odeon and Cineworld cinemas.

In 2008 the BBC broadcast one of the world's first live matches in 3D when it beamed back the Six Nations match between Scotland and England to a cinema in London.

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Manchester United Wayne Rooney has better numbers game than Cristiano Ronaldo

He tracks back and tackles, creates and scores. He's even kept goal at the end of England training, just messing about and saved a good few shots (and for all the problems between the posts, don't even think about it, Fabio).

But here are some cheeky little numbers to stir into the Rooney v Cristiano Ronaldo debate. Rooney's spree against Hull City took him to 84 Premier League goals for Manchester United, equalling.

Ronaldo's United total but achieved far more quickly (179 appearances to the Portuguese's 196) and mainly without the boost of penalties and free-kicks.

And here's a treat for lovers of sporting stats and symmetry: a goal for Rooney against Arsenal on Sunday will bring up his Premier League century. This includes his 15 with Everton, the first of which came against Arsenal. And one more amazing figure: 24, his age.

Rooney's best years are yet to come. Injuries permitting. Kia Joorabchian does his friend Carlos Tévez no favours Anyone who has charted Kia Joorabchian’s unwelcome journey through English football will be wearyingly familiar with the number of rancorous headlines he garners.

As a friend of Carlos Tévez, Joorabchian had every right to defend the Manchester City striker from the petty jibes of Gary Neville, Manchester United’s ‘Captain Cantankerous’.

As somebody who should be concerned about Wednesday’s Old Trafford meeting not becoming even more inflamed, Joorabchian should have waited until after the match before pontificating about Neville. But then putting the interests of English football first has rarely been a sentiment readily associated with Kia Joorabchian.

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Manchester United supporters unite in bid to unseat the Glazer family

United's fan base is huge, diverse and well organised through two main supporters' groups, and activists are seeking to use disquiet at the owners' plans to make the most of those contacts in the anti-Glazer cause.

The Manchester United Supporters' Trust is canvassing opinion on the way ahead with a view to eventually securing a change of ownership and a stake in the club. MUST believe that dismay at the Glazers' plans to take as much as £600 million out of the club's profits over seven years, revealed by Telegraph Sport on Tuesday, provides an opportunity to build momentum.

Among those who can expect to be approached is Jim O'Neill, head of global economic research at Goldman Sachs and formerly a member of the United board when the company was a plc, and bookmaker Fred Done, whose sponsorship of the club ended last season when he was outbid by Betfair.

MUST's intention is to try to build a consortium of wealthy, interested individuals so that they can take advantage of any opportunity to take a stake in the club.

There are significant hurdles, not least the Glazers' likely £1 billion-plus price-tag, but MUST spokesman Duncan Drasdo believes all avenues are worth exploring.

"We have been pointing out the problems with the owners for five years but now it is there for all to see in black and white, and already there is some momentum for change," he said.

"We are now exploring whether there are people out there who might want to participate, and we have people who move in that world making contacts.

"It could end with a consortium buy-out, perhaps with supporter involvement, or taking a stake in any public flotation of the company, which the Glazers do say is an option in their bond issue.

"There are enough United supporters out there to buy the club."

In the meantime, supporters opposed to the Glazers will make their feelings known by adopting the yellow-and-green colours of the original Newton Heath club.

United briefly sported the colours on an away shirt in the 1990s and the then owners, the Edwards, were criticised for profiteering from fans.

Now the colours will be reclaimed in protest against something similar from their successors.

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Ferguson backs Diouf debut

The 22-year-old striker came off the bench for the last 16 minutes at Old Trafford and got himself on the scoresheet when he raced on to Antonio Valencia's through ball before heading home.

The Senegal international was signed by the Red Devils last summer but remained on loan at Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's former club Molde in order to get acquainted with the European game.

Ferguson drafted Diouf back into his squad after losing Federico Macheda to injury and feels he has a bright future ahead of him. "We are quite excited about him," said Ferguson.

"The boy has great spring. He is quick, good in the air and looked to run behind their defence all the time. "He has a lot of good attributes we can use."

Van der Sar praised Ferguson also reserved special praise for goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, who kept a clean sheet on his return to the United side.

The 39-year-old has endured a miserable campaign so far with knee and finger injuries keeping him on the sidelines before wife Annemarie suffered a stroke just before Christmas.

Ferguson however had no hesitation in drafting the Dutchman straight back in for only his eighth appearance of the season.

Edwin was magnificent," he added.

"He was steady, his decision-making was great and so was his use of the ball.

"Tomasz Kuszczak has done really well for us over the last few weeks and it is no slight on him to say that Edwin made a difference.

"He is 39 and has 139 caps, two European Cup winners' medals and been in four European finals.

"You could go on and on about his experience and it shows."

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Manchester United rule out Ben Foster going on loan

The 26-year-old started the season as the club's number one but is now behind Edwin van der Sar and Tomasz Kuszczak. "There is absolutely no chance of loaning Ben out," said Ferguson.

"Let's hope he gets some football that gives him a chance. It's Fabio Capello's choice. Ben's qualities will put him forward as a definite choice." But with United out of the FA Cup, the Carling Cup semi-finals against Manchester City could be the only games Foster plays during the rest of the season.

Capello had been expected to take three keepers to South Africa, with David James, Robert Green and Foster the Italian's preferred stoppers, but Joe Hart's form for Birmingham could upset that status quo. The World Cup is four months ahead," added Ferguson. "England are not endowed with great goalkeepers."

After playing his second consecutive game for England in Qatar in the 1-0 defeat by Brazil, Foster expressed frustration with his predicament, pointing out that while he was playing regularly for his country he had dropped out of the reckoning at Old Trafford.

"I'm third choice for United yet I'm playing for my country," said Foster.

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