Beckham will not celebrate scoring against Man Utd
David Beckham is on loan at AC Milan from LA Galaxy
English Premier League News – BBC Sport : David Beckham will not celebrate if he scores for AC Milan against Manchester United in the Champions League.
He will face his former club for the first time since leaving in 2003 when AC Milan host United on 16 February.
Beckham told Inside United magazine: “I do not think I would celebrate. I respect the supporters and the club.
“To me they are the best fans in the world and the support they gave me week in, week out was incredible. Nothing will ever better that.”
The midfielder, who is on loan at Milan from LA Galaxy, still remembers and appreciates the support given to him by United fans after he was sent off while playing for England against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup.
“The relationship I have with the fans is still important to me,” he said. “I went through some difficult times but they never stopped supporting me.
“I would not have got through everything without them.”
Beckham played 394 times for United over eight seasons, helping the club win six Premier League titles, two FA Cups and the Champions league.
“I always wish I was part of Manchester United, it is just in me. Even though I am not there any more, I am still a huge fan,” he said.
“Coming to terms with not being a United player was certainly the toughest thing I’ve ever had to deal with.
“When you are a Manchester United player and a Manchester United fan you never want to play for any other club.
“I always want them to do well and be successful because the club still means so much to me. I’ve still got season tickets and I will always keep them because I love to watch every game where possible.
“I would love to take my sons one day. United will always be such a special place to me, so we will just have to see what the future holds.”
Beckham will go back to Old Trafford for the first time as a player when Milan travel to Manchester for the second leg of their Champions League clash on 10 March.
“When I was at Real Madrid it just never felt right to come back to Old Trafford. The thought of playing against United always gave me that sick feeling because I missed the club so much,” he said.
“But when the draw was made this time it felt as though it was the right time to go back. I felt really emotional.
“It will also be extremely emotional for myself and my family on the night. I met so many amazing people during my time there, on and off the pitch, that I am looking forward to seeing everyone again.”
Source: English Premier League News, BBC Sport.
Wayne Rooney as good as Ronaldinho says David Beckham
Beckham (left) and Rooney (right) are England team-mates
English Premier League News – BBC Sport : AC Milan midfielder David Beckham believes Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney is now as good as two-time world player of the year Ronaldinho.
Beckham and team-mate Ronaldinho will face Rooney when United travel to Milan for Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final first-leg match.
Asked if England team-mate Rooney was comparable to the Brazilian, Beckham said: “Without a doubt.
“I’ve always said Wayne is one of the best goalscorers in football.”
Rooney has scored 23 goals in 32 appearances for United this season as the club seek to retain their Premier League crown as well as progress to the knockout stages of the Champions League.
The 24-year-old has shouldered much of the goalscoring responsibility following world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo’s £80m departure to Real Madrid in the summer.
And Beckham insists Rooney is on a par with Ronaldinho, who twice won the Spanish league with Barcelona and the World Cup with Brazil in 2002.
“He is at a great club like Manchester United and he’s doing what he does best – scoring goals,” said the 34-year-old, who is on loan at Milan from LA Galaxy.
The match at the San Siro represents an emotional occasion for Beckham, who joined United as a youngster and won six Premier League titles and the 1999 Champions League before leaving for Real Madrid in 2003.
Robert Heenan
“It’s one of the biggest games for me personally. But the most important thing is the team going through and beating United which I hope we do,” explained Beckham.
“United are on fire, they’re playing well. Wayne is scoring goals like he can. It’s going to be a tough game.”
Like United, Milan lost a prized asset – Kaka – to Real Madrid in the summer, as well as coming to terms with the retirement of legendary defender Paolo Maldini.
Their performances this season have been inconsistent – Friday’s victory 3-2 win over Udinese ended a run of four straight defeats – but Beckham feels the Rossoneri can still match favourites United.
“Obviously there are a couple of players not here but the team is just the same, they’ve got this great team spirit within the squad and that’s definitely not changed,” added Beckham.
Coleen and Wayne Rooney Become Parents
She did it!
Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney and his wife Coleen are the new parents of a healthy little baby boy named Kai Wayne Rooney at 13.45 this afternoon. We’ve not checked the exact dates, but we’re quite sure Coleen was pregnant for several years.
Not possible? Really? Well, maybe it seems that long because of how highly anticipated this little bubba was – from baby pools to non-stop media coverage – we’ve been ready to see baby Roo from the second we heard the news. Seriously, doesn’t this photo seem at least three entire fashion seasons old? Yet it was taken in July. Curious.
Anyhoo, let’s not get hung up on those details – here’s the preliminaries with more to follow soon:
Baby Kai was born at Liverpool Women’s Hospital mere minutes ago and mother and baby are doing fine. As we reported earlier, Coleen checked into the hospital last night and Wayne was absent from a training session this morning.
For those that need to know, Coleen walked into the hospital herself and had a fetching black bag over her shoulder. Sadly, we have yet to confirm the designer name.
A huge congratulations to the new family. We love it when two become three, don’t you?
Update: In Welsh/Scottish, Kai means “keeper of the keys”. Their spokesperson has officially noted the baby’s time of birth to be 14.20 today. Apparently Wazza stayed by Coleen’s side throughout and everyone is – understandably – over the moon.
Topics : English Premier League Gossip, Man Utd Gossip, Wayne Rooney Gossip.
Hull 1 – 3 Man Utd
English Premier League News by Les Roopanarine : Manchester United edged an error-strewn encounter with Hull to close to within two points of leaders Chelsea in the race for the Premier League title.
Wayne Rooney drew first blood for United on the stroke of half-time, but later made a calamitous back-pass which paved the way for a Hull penalty.
Craig Fagan levelled from the spot, but Rooney made amends when his low cross led to an Andy Dawson own goal.
Dimitar Berbatov then sealed the win after a pin-point pass from Rooney.
At a stage of the season when champions United traditionally begin to hit their stride, the victory closed the gap on Chelsea after they were held to a goalless draw at Birmingham on Saturday.
But for all Rooney’s influence, Sir Alex Ferguson’s men – who arrived on Humberside in wounded-animal mode after suffering two defeats in their previous three Premier League outings – were rarely at their best.
In fairness that had much to do with Hull, whose industry and commitment proved formidable obstacles despite some hairy moments for goalkeeper Boaz Myhill, most notably when he miscued a first-half clearance.
Having seen his team charged by the Football Association after last weekend’s mass confrontation at Arsenal, Phil Brown had looked to foster a siege mentality among his players in the build-up.
And his players clearly bought into the billing of unfairly-punished underdogs as they absorbed United’s strong start and were unlucky to be denied an early penalty.
Fagan found Richard Garcia with a precise through-ball, but as the Australia international raced into the area he was upended by a sliding tackle from Nemanja Vidic that prompted furious protests from Hull.
It was Alan Wiley, the referee whose fitness was questioned by Ferguson after United’s 2-2 draw against Sunderland earlier this season, who came to the visitors’ rescue.
Wiley saw nothing wrong with the challenge, but no sooner had he waved away the complaints than Hull were at United again, Seyi Olofinjana forcing a fine reflex save from Tomasz Kuszczak.
Another opportunity to open the scoring went begging when Olofinjana put Stephen Hunt through only for the Republic of Ireland midfielder to shoot wide.
As the misses mounted for Hull, the feeling grew that there would be a price to pay against a United side desperate to bounce back following last weekend’s 3-0 defeat at Fulham.
The return of a trio of defenders in Rafael da Silva, Vidic and Wes Brown provided a platform for United to go forward with greater confidence, and although their attacking fluency was never at its best, they nonetheless offered plenty of threat.
Giggs twice went close early on, volleying on to the roof of the net before rippling the side-netting with a free-kick, while Rooney and Rafael both forced acrobatic saves from Myhill.
The danger was clear and, sure enough, with the interval beckoning Darren Fletcher swung in a near-post cross from the right flank, Giggs deflected it to Rooney, and the lurking England man prodded home from close-range.
With the hour mark approaching, however, Rooney gifted Hull a reprieve, directing a woeful back-pass to Kuszczak which was intercepted by Fagan.
Da Silva bundled over Jozy Altidore from the resulting cross, and Fagan shot unerringly past Kuszczak to ensure that there would be no repeat of Geovanni’s missed spot kick against Arsenal last week.
Sensing the possibility of a win that would lift them clear of the relegation zone, Hull poured forward in search of a winner, but their enterprise was to prove their undoing.
With 17 minutes remaining, Giggs led a United counter-attack, slotting the ball through for Rooney to direct a low cross towards substitute Ji-Sung Park which the sliding Dawson could only direct into his own net.
And Rooney was once again at the heart of the action as United put the polish on their win with eight minutes remaining, directing a slide-rule pass through the legs of Anthony Gardner that enabled Berbatov to score with a tap-in.
Source: English Premier League News, Man Utd News, Wayne Rooney News at BBC Sports.
Man Utd 2-1 Bolton
English Premier League News : Man Utd 2-1 Bolton By David OrnsteinManchester United moved top of the Premier League with a nervy victory over Bolton at Old Trafford.
The champions took an early lead when Michael Owen’s header was deflected into his own net by Zat Knight.
After Antonio Valencia lashed home his first goal for United, the hosts looked to be cruising to the three points.
But Matt Taylor headed in from Kevin Davies’ cross and Bolton began to flood forward in search of an equaliser, only to be denied by some dogged defending.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s men will be mightily relieved to have secured the win, which was far from convincing but sees them go a point clear of Chelsea after the Blues were beaten at Aston Villa earlier on Saturday.
Such was their dominance, United seemed to switch off mid-way through the second half and were fortunate not to be punished as Bolton laid siege to their goal.
They will have to raise their game for the trips to CSKA Moscow in the Champions League on Wednesday and then Liverpool in the league four days later.
Bolton, who drop a place to 13th, will feel their late rally was worthy of a point but, in truth, they would have been out of contention far earlier had United taken a few more of their numerous chances.
A seventh straight defeat at Old Trafford looked likely for Bolton as early as the fourth minute when Owen found himself unmarked to meet Ryan Giggs’ precise cross with a glancing header.
The ball was heading wide but, unfortunately for the visitors, it struck Knight’s leg and trickled into Jussi Jaaskelainen’s net.
Owen, benefitting from Wayne Rooney’s calf injury to make only his second league start for United, was at the heart of United’s electrifying start.
The 29-year-old was one of eight changes to United’s starting line-up and caused the Bolton defence no shortage of problems in the opening exchanges.
United’s outstanding performer, however, was Giggs and the 35-year-old winger almost set up a second as his cross from the right was headed goalbound by Jonny Evans, only for Jaaskelainen to save brilliantly on to a post.
Bolton’s five-man midfield was providing little cover for their back four – but to their credit they did get forward to support lone striker Davies whenever possible.
On one such occasion, Davies escaped the attentions of Rio Ferdinand but headed wide from an unmarked position following Sam Ricketts’ centre.
Nine of Bolton’s 10 league goals this season have come from set pieces and they almost continued that sequence when Taylor drove wide after Davies had chested down Gary Cahill’s long punt forward.
But United were in a comfort zone and reasserted their authority with a second goal, Valencia playing a one-two with Gary Neville before drilling a powerful strike past Jaaskelainen.
Bolton had the first chance of the second half, Knight heading Taylor’s free-kick straight at Edwin Van der Sar, but United, and in particular, Dimitar Berbatov ensured they were soon under the cosh once more.
The Bulgarian, laid on two chances for Owen , the first of which was dragged wide and the second clipped wide under pressure from Knight, and one for Valencia, who was expertly challenged by Jlloyd Samuel.
With the match turning into what seemed like a United training session, Berbatov, on a high following the birth of his daughter, Dea, in Sofia on Thursday, had an acrobatic volley repelled by the marvellous Jaaskelainen and Valencia’s low effort was again saved by the Fin.
It took the introduction of Mark Davies to spark Bolton into life and the zest with which they attacked appeared to take Ferguson’s men completely by surprise.
After Mark Davies’ superb run, Kevin Davies crossed at the second attempt for Taylor to rise above Patrice Evra and nod powerfully past Van der Sar.
Bolton’s two other substitutes, Ivan Klasnic and Chris Basham, troubled United time and again with the former having a goal disallowed after Ricardo handled.
Klasnic and Knight both had chances to draw their team level and, deep into stoppage time, Cahill headed straight at Van der Sar, but United managed to hold on.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson: “It was more tense than we would have liked.
“We made it hard for ourselves and we were panicking at times. But we got through it, just.
“This is a tough league. There have been some surprise results already.
“But we have had a couple ourselves, losing at Burnley and drawing at home to Sunderland.”
Bolton manager Gary Megson on Ivan Klasnic’s disallowed goal and Manchester United’s succession of narrow wins: “It was a ridiculous decision. Ricardo (Gardner) clearly got to the ball in front of (Edwin) Van der Sar.
“I didn’t think it was a free-kick at all.
“The point is words that people are using (for United) are ‘almost’, ‘nearly’ and ‘might have’.
“The fact is, they haven’t.”
Story from BBC SPORT: English Premier League News, Man Utd News, Bolton News at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/8305403.st