2/5: Latest News …
Sun: SIR Alex Ferguson was at the centre of a “poison” alert yesterday after he was sent a mystery substance through the post.
Three people were taken to hospital for precautionary tests after one found granules in the packet addressed to the Manchester United boss. It also contained a chilling note to legendary manager Sir Alex which read: “You stupid old b*****d — why have you opened this?”
Police were last night stepping up the hunt for the sender. The package arrived yesterday at United’s training HQ in Carrington, Greater Manchester.
Sir Alex and the team had left earlier in the day to fly to Italy where tonight they play AC Milan in the semi-final of the Champions League. The package was opened by a member of Carrington staff who raised the alarm.
Specialist cops and firefighters rushed to the complex. They sealed off the immediate area before shutting down the entire facility. The worried workers were sent to hospital for checks and the mysterious substance was taken away for testing.
But it later emerged that it was NOT dangerous and that no-one has suffered any ill-health through handling the package.
Last night a source at the Old Trafford club said: “Sir Alex has never been sent anything like this before. He gets stacks of mail, most of it complimentary and some of it just rants from rival fans. But this is obviously something to be taken much more seriously.
“We still don’t know exactly what these granules were and we’re just relieved no one has come to any harm.”
A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: “We were called to the training ground following reports of a suspicious package. The package was opened by a member of staff and an unidentified substance was discovered.
“Police and Fire Service officers attended the address as a part of a pre-planned operation. Tests were carried out on the substance in an effort to establish its nature. Officers are also investigating the origins of the package and our inquiries are continuing.”
Police later confirmed the mystery substance was not harmful — but vowed to catch the offender behind the prank.
A police source said: “It could have been toxic — then we’d have been dealing with a very different situation. But this has still taken up a lot of police time and was being treated seriously. We are still investigating the origins of the package. We are determined to catch the culprit.”
A Manchester United spokesman said last night: “We are referring all inquiries to the police. It’s just fortunate that the substance turned out not to be dangerous.”
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Sun: ALEX FERGUSON has accused Jose Mourinho of having ‘no principles’. Chelsea boss Mourinho claimed Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo lacked education due to a poor upbringing.
But Old Trafford chief Fergie rapped: “That was very below the belt. Some people from very poor backgrounds have principles but some people with education have no principles and that is the case here.
“Coming from a poor background does not mean you are uneducated. If his tactic is to unsettle the boy then he is barking up the wrong tree.”
AC Milan have also targeted Ronaldo for abuse ahead of tonight’s semi-final second-leg showdown in the San Siro. Keeper Dida said the Portuguese ace froze in the first leg — despite scoring in United’s 3-2 victory.
The Brazilian also reckons Ronaldo was outplayed by Milan’s two-goal hero Kaka.Dida said: “The duel between Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo did not even exist in the end. Kaka won that one clearly — not only by two goals to one but by his work on the field. Ronaldo was just not that great. I believe the nerves and the responsibility proved too much for him.”
United carry that slender lead into the second leg thanks to Wayne Rooney’s last-gasp strike.But Dida insisted: “Rooney’s goal was just lucky. It was so far out anything could have happened. By beating us, Manchester United have not proved they are better than us. In fact, they are very lucky the tie is not over already. With the score at 2-1 to Milan they were very close to going out. If we had taken our chances to make it 3-1 then the match and the tie would have been closed out.”
Italian World Cup winner Gennaro Gattuso has recovered from the foot injury that cut short his game at Old Trafford.
The former Rangers midfielder said: “For me, this match is more important than the World Cup final. Manchester United should be aware they are still not in the final.
“It will be an enormous error if they go to Milan with excessive confidence.Surely it will be impossible for us not to arrive in the final.”
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Guardian: Manchester United are arguably the most dangerous opponents in the world of football. Beating them to reach the final will, the Italian media are agreed, need a minor miracle. Still, yesterday’s Gazzetta Dello Sport knew how to comfort the fans: “Tomorrow, He’s Back!” read the front page headline, across a half-page shot of centre-foward Filippo “Pippo” Inzaghi. Now who’s scared, eh?
The thought of thousands of Milanisti warming their chilled morale with puny Pippo might sound comic - Inzaghi is after all perhaps Milan’s least respected player, a man who’s extraordinary career has been buried under a deluge of jokes about diving and the famous quip by Sir Alex Ferguson that he was “born offside”. But while his spindly frame and perpetual pout have done little to win over fans worldwide, it is worth going back and checking the numbers; over the last decade they show there have been few more effective goalscorers anywhere in football.
In Serie A, 125 goals in 269 appearances. For Italy, 22 in 53. In the Champions League, an Italian record 40 in just 67 games. Put simply, Inzaghi is one of those things that should not work but does - like bumble bees, say, or the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
“I remember the first time Pippo got called up for Italy,” a former international once told me. “In training we all stood stunned because his technique was the worst we’d seen, but despite it all he just scores and scores.”
“Look, actually he can’t play football at all”, offers a presumably deeply frustrated Johann Cruyff. “He’s just always in the right position.”
Not according to most linesmen, who have made Inzaghi a legend for his ability to draw a yellow flag and moaning about offside decisions afterwards. Still, there is no doubt that positional sense is part of what makes Inzaghi so special. He plays off the shoulder of the last defender and while it can be frustrating it is also, as the numbers suggest, frighteningly effective. Ask Petr Cech, left sprawling during the last World Cup after “Super Pippo” sprang the Czech offside trap with practised ease.
But perhaps an even bigger factor in Inzaghi’s success is his ravenous appetite for goals. He needs them like few players in the world. He watches and re-watches recordings of his matches compulsively and barely sleeps before games. Aware of the criticism that surrounds him and that he physically does not measure up to other players, Inzaghi sees himself as permanently on trial.
A rare goal drought during his time at Juventus brought a typically fierce response: “If they’re calling me into question, why, that’s the end of football.” For Inzaghi, scoring is a very, very personal business and any chance, any ball, is seized on greedily.
Recent seasons have only heightened this desire to prove himself. Many thought he was finished after the long sequence of knee, back and ankle injuries that ruled him out of a starting role for almost two seasons. The much-feted arrivals at Milan of Alberto Gilardino last season and Ronaldo midway through this seemed like further nails in his coffin. However, with the Brazilian cup-tied and Gilardino apparently intimidated by club football’s biggest stage, the 33-year-old Inzaghi has returned to repeatedly pull off his old trick of being at the right place, at the right time. It was his goals that saw Milan through their Champions League preliminaries with Red Star Belgrade last summer, and it was his goal (from a slightly offside position, as it happens) that capped the rossoneri’s recent 2-0 quarter-final win at Bayern Munich. Now comes an even bigger test.
“These are the games you always want to play in,” says Inzaghi, who barring major surprises from the coach Carlo Ancelotti will line up as the lone striker. It is the role that suits him best; sharing scoring duties rarely worked well for him, as his stormy relationships with like Andriy Shevchenko and Alessandro Del Piero attest. At Juve, Del Piero would often pull up short, waving his arms in exasperation as Inzaghi ran off to mount another one-man assault, oblivious to his team-mate.
Now, however, Inzaghi can have the services of Clarence Seedorf and Kaka all to himself as he strives to prove his critics wrong once more. He has not taken the field since the Bayern game but he says he is fit and “in good shape”. He is also pretty buzzed at having his photo back on the front page.
“I’m flattered everyone’s counting on me, it’s so important to feel that trust, because that really helps me,” says Inzaghi. “But I am convinced that to beat Manchester United we will need a great Milan performance, not just from me.”
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M.E.N: MANCHESTER United can this week leap-frog Chelsea in the millionaire stakes.
The Old Trafford coffers are already swelling with cash from their Champions League and FA Cup runs and a Premiership jackpot is already guaranteed.
Europe has netted the Reds around £8m in UEFA prize money for getting to the semi-finals. If they can knock out AC Milan tomorrow night in the San Siro after their 3-2 Old Trafford first leg success then they will secure another £4m for being a finalist in Athens.
Victory in the May 23 showpiece will add another £3m to the credit column.
There is a £1m difference up for grabs at Wembley between losing and winning the FA Cup against Chelsea on May 19.
In the Premiership the difference between title winners and runners-up is minimal and United’s bank balance will increase to the tune of £10m whether the Champions-elect succeed in dethroning Chelsea or not.
Prize money alone could land Gold Trafford around £18m over the next six matches and that doesn’t take into account the extremely lucrative TV pot.
Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon is aiming to make the London club the world’s No1 soccer brand by 2014 and that has added spice to the on-field battle between England’s Big Two.
But a leading financial expert believes the Reds could blow the Stamford Bridge outfit away in the global financial league if they were to land the Treble again.
“If United were to win the three big competitions again it would push them into a world football league that even Chelsea would struggle to keep up with,” says Wisespeak financial expert Vinay Bedi.
“United did very well in 1999 on the back of the Treble in terms of a wider global market becoming interested in the club and the brand. The problem was things quietened down a bit for United after that. They didn’t build on their Champions League success. The club didn’t really move on.
“If that could be avoided if they won the Treble this season and there was substantial investment in the transfer market in the summer as well, then you would really see them move on and they’d really lead the way.
“I’d take Kenyon’s 2014 world domination comments with a pinch of salt. I think it will be a slower process than he says. They haven’t got the history United have and the name of Manchester United.
“If United were to overhaul them on all fronts then they’d leave Chelsea behind off the field and also topple Real Madrid of top perch as the richest club.
“The short-term cash benefits of winning the FA Cup, the Premiership and the Champions League are good but it’s not the immediate or short-term benefits its the long-term knock-on effects that would set them apart.
“Chelsea though are still a major player in the financial league and defeating Jose Mourinho’s side in the league, at Wembley and possibly in Athens would be a huge cash coup.
“For United the overall impact of beating Chelsea in those competitions would secure bragging rights in a lucrative world football market,” Bedi added.
“It would be a staggering achievement for United to do it again, and with their history as well, it would thrust them well into the nooks and crannies of the Far East, American and Chinese markets.
“With United having American owners they’ll want to make an impact in the States. But there is a very big pay-day to be had in China.”
United fans, who are still reeling that the Reds have bucked the current trend for reducing or freezing most ticket prices, will be hoping some of the future bounty will bring more big names to Old Trafford to hold off Roman Abramovich’s huge personal financial clout.
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Guardian: “I’ll be in Athens for the final, whether it’s with or without Manchester United,” Ferguson reported, but it will not be a pleasurable experience unless United survive what Kaka et al can throw at them and he is “praying” Paul Scholes, who was suspended from the 1999 final and is one yellow card away from another ban, does not suffer the same fate again. “It would be a tragedy,’ he said.
