MANCHESTER UNITED FC: 04/30/10

Friday, April 30, 2010

Boss: Liverpool will give their all

Sir Alex Ferguson is confident Liverpool will do their utmost to beat Chelsea at Anfield on Sunday, even though a win or a draw for Rafa Benitez's men would hand bitter rivals United a massive advantage in the title race.

Few footballing rivalries can match the intensity of Liverpool and United's, but Sir Alex dismissed suggestions that the men on Merseyside would go easy on Chelsea to help prevent a record-breaking 19th league title ending up at Old Trafford.

"Great clubs don't throw their history and traditions away for one game," Sir Alex said. "I think Liverpool will do their best on Sunday – they have to. You depend on that resilience of the British players and players playing in British football – they know they have to go out and produce Saturday and then midweek and Saturday again. They show great attitude and character all the time."

This isn't the first time since the Premier League's inception Liverpool have had the chance to do United a favour in the championship race. In 1995, title-race rivals Blackburn Rovers went to Anfield on the final day of the season.

"We hoped and depended on Liverpool doing us a favour then and we got it," Sir Alex recalled. Unfortunately, United were held 1-1 by West Ham at Upton Park and the title went to Ewood Park.

"Liverpool had a lot of English players at the time and they understood the history of their club very well," Sir Alex said. "But I don't think there's been such a swing that the players there now don't understand their club's history. You don't throw that away."

Wayne's a winner... again

England's top football scribes have honoured Wayne Rooney by voting him Football Writers' Association footballer of the year.

Rooney, who's netted 34 goals for United this season, polled a remarkable 80 per cent of the vote, leaving him way ahead of Chelsea's Didier Drogba and Manchester City's Carlos Tevez. This latest individual honour comes in the same week the 24-year-old picked up both the Professional Footballers' Association players' player of the year and fans' player of the year.

Of the FWA award, Rooney said: "I'm delighted to win an award with so much history and tradition," he said. "To follow a long line of wonderful players who have been honoured by the FWA since 1948 gives me real pride.

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank Sir Alex Ferguson, the coaching staff and my team-mates, without whose help and support this award would not have been possible."

Wayne is the eighth Manchester United player to win the award since its inception, following in the footsteps of Johnny Carey (1948), Bobby Charlton (1966), George Best (1968), Eric Cantona (1996), Roy Keane (2000), Teddy Sheringham (2001) and Cristiano Ronaldo (2007, 2008).

FWA chairman and The People journalist Steve Bates said Rooney was a worthy winner of the prestigious award.

"It's testimony to the marvellous season he has had for club and country. On his day you have to call him the best player in the world. His tally of 34 goals so far this season is certain to have captured the attention of our members but I'm sure the overall improvement in his game has been of equal significance."

New deal for Neville

Gary Neville has been rewarded for his recent performances and overall commitment to United with a new one-year contract extension.

The 35-year-old has been a regular at right back for much of 2010, and he will continue as club captain for another year at Old Trafford.

"We've agreed a contract with Gary Neville for another year," Sir Alex confirmed on Friday morning. "We've been working on it for a couple of weeks now.

"We're delighted with that. We think he deserves it because his contribution to the club has been fantastic. As I've said time and again about certain players, they make a career out of their will and determination to do it. Gary is one of those players."

The Reds skipper was praised by Sir Alex for his "astonishing" comeback from 18 months out with a series of injury problems, which began with an ankle ligament problem he suffered in a challenge with Gary Speed against Bolton in March 2007.

"The amazing thing he has achieved is coming back from a year-and-a-half out in his thirties," said the boss. "To get to the level he is playing at today is astonishing. The man is doing it because he wants to do it, he has the determination and drive within himself not to give in on his career. He's getting the rewards for that because his performances levels have been outstanding, and at an important time for the club.

The boss admits there were times when he did harbour concerns that the 35-year-old would ever return to his former levels of performances.

"We worried about it," he said. "When you're out for 18 months in your thirties, it is a concern. We knew he was putting everything into it. You don't worry about Gary's commitment and his endeavour to come back from injury. We leave it to him because he is more determined than any of us. We wanted to make sure he was back and tried to give him the right treatments. But at that age you have to have concerns, but we're delighted he has recovered from the injury."

Neville has an invaluable contribution to make because of his experience, but Sir Alex insists his performance levels have to be right, too. "I think experience could also be misinterpreted in the sense of the ability to play in games," he added. "You could keep a player with great experience and not play him. I don't think Gary would enjoy that, I don't think Scholes, Giggs or van der Sar would either. They want to play, nobody more than Gary."