The England captain showed no ill-effects from his injury during a 45-minute Manchester Senior Cup exertion against Oldham Athletic’s youthful second string at Stalybridge Celtic’s Bower Fold ground.

And with the trip to Everton beginning a crucial week of fixtures for United, who face Rangers in the Champions League on Sept 14 before entertaining Liverpool at Old Trafford five days later, Ferdinand is now likely to challenge for a swift return to first-team action after proving his fitness. The 31 year-old has been sidelined since suffering knee ligament damage while training with England in Rustenburg on June 4, a week before the start of the World Cup in South Africa earlier this summer.

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Manchester United & Rangers Plan Joint Security Operation For Champions League Clashes: Manchester United and Rangers are implementing unprecedented joint security measures in order to prevent crowd trouble when the clubs meet in this season's Champions League. Club chiefs are keen to avoid a repeat of the scenes during and after the 2008 UEFA Cup final, held at the City of Manchester Stadium, when thousands of Rangers fans descended on the city.

There were major outbreaks of trouble during that evening, with police officers attacked and extensive damage to property around the city centre. Rangers fans travelling to the Old Trafford tie will have to travel on official coaches or not be allowed to attend the match at all, according to the report. Their coaches will also be directed to Wigan Atheltic's DW Stadium, some 17 miles or so from Old Trafford, where their match tickets will be distributed, in order to decrease the risk of trouble in Manchester.

Rooney, currently on holiday following his participation at the World Cup with England, was instead ordered to pay a 'restititional remedy' of £90,475.25 to Proactive, who had sued for unpaid commission, by Judge Brendan Hegarty QC at a hearing at Manchester Mercantile Court on Thursday.

The conclusion of the court case has removed a significant obstacle preventing United from thrashing out a new long-term contract for the 24 year-old, whose £90,000-a-week deal expires in June 2012. Although United are confident that negotiations with the player and his advisers will pass smoothly, securing last season's 34-goal top scorer to a long-term deal is regarded as crucial by manager.

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Cleverley, 20, is highly rated by manager Sir Alex Ferguson and recently inked a three-year contract extension to secure his long-term United future. Despite that deal, though, a season-long temporary move was mooted to continue his progression away from Old Trafford.

The England under-21 international enjoyed a successful spell at Championship outfit Watford last season and claimed the club's player of the year honour despite his season being cut short by a knee ligament injury in April. This performance is believed to have impressed Ferguson - and with Owen Hargreaves sidelined with further fitness problems - Cleverley could be handed the chance to stake his claim for a first-team place at the Premier League runners -up. -

The talented but temperamental teenager has been linked with a move to the Premier League this summer with City reported to have had an initial offer rejected. Inter president Massimo Moratti insisted earlier this week that Balotelli would remain at Giuseppe Meazza under new manager Rafa Benitez.

Technical director Marco Branca backed the stance of the Nerazzurri supremo, but revealed that the interest from former Inter boss Roberto Mancini was being matched from across Manchester.
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Branca is quoted in The Sun as saying: "We are fortunate to have good players so it's normal big teams in Europe are thinking about them. "There is interest from Manchester United and from Manchester City in Balotelli. "But it is very early to say if there will be any business done. "Inter are in first position and we have to think about our future."

Sir Alex Ferguson believes Wayne Rooney's poor performance at the World Cup was principally down to the weight of expectation on the striker. The 24-year-old failed to score in four matches for England, who were eliminated in the second round after a heavy defeat by Germany.

Rooney had been widely expected to demonstrate the form for England which brought him 34 goals for Manchester United this season but never looked at his best. Ferguson has denied that Rooney was hampered by an ankle injury suffered during the run-in with United but has admitted that pressure played a part.

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Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has declared that he wanted to secure the services of Spain striker David Villa prior to the start of the World Cup.

Villa has been in amazing goal scoring form and has scored five goals in the World Cup so far. He is the leading goal scorer at the tournament.

Widely considered as one of the best strikers in the world, Villa left Valencia to join Barcelona on May 19 for a transfer fee of £35 million.

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The Spanish AS newspaper reported that the Frenchman would cost Manchester United 30 million euros, five million less than Real Madrid paid Olympique Lyon for his services a year ago. Benzema, 22, had a rather disappointing first season at the Bernabeu, scoring just nine goals in 32 appearances. His lack of first team action led to his exclusion from Raymond Domenech’s French World Cup squad.

He has been linked with Manchester United for a while, and there have even been reports that Real would be willing to include him in a swap deal to secure Nemanja Vidic ’s signature. Benzema’s contract at Real expires in 2015.

Michael Owen last night tipped Jonny Evans to be a cornerstone of the Manchester United defence for years to come.

United striker Owen, battling to be fit for the new season, sees the Northern Ireland defender.

As the obvious choice to eventually succeed Rio Ferdinand or Nemanja Vidic. Evans (22) has been steadily establishing himself at Old Trafford since making his debut less.

Than three years ago. “Jonny is the future of Manchester United. Obviously Rio is in his 30s now and has.

A good few years left but Jonny has the potential to be every bit as good and commanding as Rio,” stated Owen.

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Manchester City’s buying spree just does not seem to end. They spent millions last season and brought in some big names such as Adebayor from Arsenal, Carlos Tevez from Manchester United, Santa Cruz from Blackburn Rovers, Kolo Toure from Arsenal, Patrick Vieira from Inter Milan and plenty more, but money does not guarantee success, atleast not instant success. That was proven when Man City could not end the season 4th, which was their target at the start.

This season, they have once again started splashing the cash and started their summer shopping with the big name signing of Spanish left winger David Silva. The Valencia man was on the radar of a number of big European clubs and no less than Man City’s neighbours and old rivals Manchester United.

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