Manchester United Watch

1. Utterly gratuitous Beckham mention in the New York Times Sunday travel section article on Madrid. The headline: Beckham days in Madrid*. The opening sentence

A new star shines in Madrid's firmament this fall: the world's most famous - and most fashionable - soccer player, David Beckham, has just moved to the Spanish capital etc etc

We ask: was there nothing in Madrid before Beckham got there?
*Mysteriously, this headline from the print edition is not reproduced on the website version.

2. From the BBC:

Man Utd dismiss takeover talk

Manchester United have played down newspaper reports that they are the subject of a possible £600m takeover.

"newspaper reports" means a single completely unsourced article in the Observer that did not name any of the three supposed billionaires who supposedly want to buy the club.

The more relevant information is that the share price has surged on the takeover speculation, a nice little capital gain for the club's largest shareholders, Oirish crony capitalists John Magnier and JP McManus. Hmmm.