The Wrap’s guest editor this week is Ian Herbert/The IndependentSome serious squad rotation was called for to get the Wrap out this week because some of the guys just weren’t up for training.
Not a calf strain or torn adductor muscle between them, you understand. It was just the effects of Monday night’s
North West Football Awards – inspired by How-Do, of course. The signs were good (for those not of a Blue or Merseyside disposition, at least) when Fergie, who picked up manager of the year, hove in to view at the Midland hotel elaborating on his theory about the current squad being his best. I have it on good authority that this was one of those rare occasions when his one-time midfielder Mark Hughes, approached about joining in the revelry himself, revealed he had given up the ghost on a prize. Not the kind of candour you get from Sparky before a league match.
It was a night to remember in many ways. Ashley Williams – every bit as priceless to Stockport as Ronaldo was to Fergie last season– winning player of the year, ahead of the usual suspects; Blackburn’s £1m investment in cutting season ticket prices getting the acclaim it deserves. An awards do that reached beyond the football soap opera.
You’ve got December 16 in your diary for the clash of titans, right? Liverpool/United at Anfield? Put the entry back 24 hours. Crain’s Manchester Business launches on the 17th and now we learn that
Martin Regan is returning to the helm at EN to slug it out with the Americans. I know Steve Brauner doesn’t go in for sentimentality but it’s great to see him back in
Manchester for Crain's and maybe there's a little of the Wenger-Ferguson Psy-Ops battles in Regan’s promise to “show Mr Brauner and his hillbillies a trick or two.” This is some prospect. Let publication commence.
Ian Herbert is northern football correspondent at The Independent
