Owen not first choice, admits Ferguson

Michael Owen has admitted he owes it to himself to prove he is still "hungry" for success at his new Premier League club Manchester United.

He also has extra reason for motivation given Sir Alex Ferguson's admission that the former Liverpool, Real Madrid and Newcastle goal-getter was not his first-choice target.

The Scot had wanted to sign Karim Benzema but was put off by French football club Lyon's valuation of the France international and allowed Real Madrid to continue their astonishing summer spending spree with a free run at the 21-year-old.

Ferguson even tried to keep Carlos Tevez at Old Trafford by offering him a five-year contract in January, so was left with little alternative but to turn to the bargain bucket for Owen when it became apparent the Argentina international was already thinking of pastures new.

"Michael knows that," Ferguson explained. "We looked at the situation and mulled it over for quite a few months. We knew that his contract was coming to an end but I still had an intention to bring in another player [Benzema]. "

Ferguson revealed the situation was compounded by the uncertainty surrounding Tevez, although he did admit if all else failed he was prepared to sit tight with the four strikers already at Old Trafford.

He added: "What confused us was waiting for a decision from Carlos Tevez. That confused us as we were not getting any answers, which put us in quite a quandary in terms of what we should do. We waited long enough. We tried to get Benzema but as soon as that fell through we went for Michael. I've explained this to Michael – that, at 21, Benzema was a possibility. But as soon as that looked to be floundering I contacted Michael.

"We had the four strikers anyway - [Dimitar] Berbatov, [Wayne] Rooney, [Federico] Macheda and [Danny] Welbeck. I know two of them are young but, listen, youngsters with ability will always get a chance here."

Nick Walsh writes features and betting previews for Betfair.

The Emergence of Dejan Jakovic

Dejan Jakovic had only played for the Canadian National Team two times before the Gold Cup. Both of those matches were friendlies, and the second was a pre-Gold Cup friendly. With this in mind Jakovic went into the Gold Cup probably expecting to be behind Hainault and Hastings in the pecking order at centre back, but Hart gave him a start in the first game against Jamaica. A decision which payed off.

The twenty-four-year-old defender is currently applying his trade in the MLS with D.C. United. His performances with D.C. have been very impressive, and they obviously caught the eye of Stephen Hart.

Since the first minute of the Gold Cup Jakovic has been incredible. He was The Canadian Stretford End's man of the match (there are very few higher honours) in the first game against Jamaica. He also played a very solid game against El Salvador in another 1-0 win. Paired together with McKenna, Canada kept clean sheets in their first two matches.

Jakovic and McKenna have complimented each other very well in the tournament so far. McKenna is a typical tough, good in the air, centre back, but Jakovic provides something very different. He is technically very strong with the ball at his feet. He can distribute the ball from the back line quickly, and he is very calm playing the ball around in the final third.

He is also a very patient defender, something that Canada needs more of. Too often are Canadian defenders caught lunging into tackles, committing too early and getting beat. Jakovic is a smart player who shows incredible patience, jockeying and sticking with opponents.

When Canada tied Costa Rica in the final game of the group stage 2-2, it became evident just how important Jakovic has been. The difference in distribution between Hastings and Jakovic is like night and day. Jakovic also seemed to calm McKenna down in the first two games, because against Costa Rica Mckenna had returned to the old Canadian long ball style.

Jakovic kept opposition breaks to a minimum, making sure he slowed down the attack every time an opponent would run at him. Against Costa Rica the lack of discipline in the back line became obvious purely because of the number of quick attacks that the Ticos had.

Jakovic is a refreshing change on the Canadian back line from the "boot it long", "get stuck in", Hasting, Serioux, or McKenna type defenders. Without a doubt Dejan Jakovic has been Canada's best player of this tournament so far.

Manchester United Training Camp Week One

At the end of every week of Manchester United's preseason I'll have a quick update on whats going on.


Preseason Results:
none

Injuries:
Michael Owen none

Transfers:
Lee Martin: United to Ipswich - Fee Undisclosed
Gabriel Obertan: Bordeaux to United - Fee Undisclosed
Fraizer Campbell: United to Sunderland - £3.5m

Rumour of the Week:
Ibrahimovic to Manchester United (literally five minutes after I posted this Inter announced that he wasn't up for sale)

Ridiculous United News Story of the Week:
No one wants a Owen shirt (just to be fair he doesn't yet have shirt number)

7 days until Preseason kicks off!

Costa Rica 2:2 Canada

Canadian Man of the Match: There weren't really any exceptional performances on the Canadian side, but De Jong put in a good ninety minutes. He had a beautiful goal, by far Canada's nicest of the tournament. He looked much better at left back than he had looked at left midfield in the first two matches. De Jong is a young player who has a bright future with the national team, and he may not start in the knockout stages of the tournament, but he is certainly putting his name into the hat for 2014 Qualifying.

Poor Defending: This game showed just how good Dejan Jakovic is. Hastings was poor defensively and he brought back a good old Canadian tradition to the back line, kick and run. Not only was Hastings booting the ball up the pitch every time it dropped at his foot, but McKenna was too. McKenna had his shakiest game of the tournament as well. The hole left by DeGuzman was evident on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. Peters did a good job going forward, but he was a liability on the defending. He was never going to win a header, and he is not a strong enough tackler to be playing as a central midfielder.

Winning a Spot: Peters, Hastings, Hainault, Nakajima-Farran and Cann all got their first action of the tournament against Costa Rica. All of them would have hoped to give Hart some selection dilemmas, but none of them played a good enough game to give Hart any problems. Hainault looked solid at right back, but Stalteri has been playing better than usual so he doesn't have much hope of starting in the quarterfinal. The other players were all well below the starters they were deputizing for. Not a big surprise, but some competition for spaces would have been nice to see.

Top of the Group: For the second Gold Cup running Canada has won their group. This time Canada is going into the quarterfinals undefeated, and with confidence sky high. The team can be very proud of the football they've played to get there. With a week to relax until the start of the quarterfinals, it gives the supporters a chance to look back on a tournament (regardless of what happens in the knockout stages) that has been a success for Canada.

Hart's Selection: Giving some of the starters a rest seems to have been the right decision as the squad he sent out held on to first place in the group. The one baffling decision was to play Jamie Peters in the centre of midfield. Peters actually had a decent game going forward, but he had his best moments when he ran to the outside. His poor defensive play in the centre of the park was part of the reason Canada's defense looked so shaky. This is nothing against Peters who is a good player, but he is not a central midfielder.

Player Ratings:
Sutton - 4
Hainault - 6
McKenna - 6
Hastings - 5
De Jong - 7
Johnson - 5
Bernier - 7
Hutchinson - 6
Peters - 5
Simpson - 6
Jackson - 5

Subs:
Nakajima-Farran - 5
Gerba - 5
Cann - 5

United Sign French Youngester Obertan

Hello! This is Jennifer from the Bordeaux Offside. Sam contacted me recently after the Obertan transfer to write a little about Obertan for you guys, so here I go.

Gabriel Obertan, affectionately called Gaby by Bordeaux fans (such as myself) joined Bordeaux not too long ago in 2005 after training at Clairefontaine. He spent a season playing for the CFA (youth) team with other youngsters such as Grégory Sertic, with whom he makes a pretty good partnership. He fared fairly well in the CFA, and also with accordance to his age he was promoted to the first team and signed a pro contract, but for that first professional season he stayed mostly on the bench, most of his appearances as subs (he did put in a winner against dreadful ASSE).

This past season, he was quite impressive for me. It was evident that he has lots of talent, and none of the staff or players ignored that. He extended with Bordeaux and Blanc talked about his talent. I can tell you that he really came in for me at a difficult time during CL qualifications when Gourcuff was out on injury. He filled in Gourcuff’s role pretty decently and was even praised by Blanc for the good job he did. He even scored a brace in a Coupe de la Ligue game that made us all ecstatic.

I think one of the main reasons he never quite broke out into our squad is simply that we haven’t quite tapped into his talents. It’s the curse of many a young player. Without much playing experience, you don’t know if the decisions you make are the right ones, and Gaby made many subpar decisions on the pitch when he played. It’s that indecision that Blanc didn’t trust, and the lack of experience at that level of playing is dire when you’re trying to win the title. Gaby has a great deal of technical proficiency; he IS a technical player but not a strategically player. He needs to work on communicating with the rest of the players and making better decisions.

At the beginning of the year, I compiled a list of the biggest in Bordeaux in 2008. This was what I wrote for Gaby:

Biggest Promise: Gabriel Obertan
Gaby has all the makings of a star (in the strict non-womanizing, non-Drama Queen, excellent footballer way). A loan away will allow him he the experience he needs to excel. FC Nantes really wants him now, too. Not surprising.

Gaby did get that loan, to FC Lorient. That was all we had hoped for him, to get to a smaller L1 club and get more experience, and come back to shine. He was off to a great start with a goal and I think he even started again Lyon. Christian Gourcuff is quite a conservative coach though, and didn’t give Gaby too much confidence or playing time, and after a few bad performances Gaby fell out of favour, making his loan a terrible one.

I know a lot of people are complaining about how Gaby isn’t a goal machine (it’s true; his goals are a rare occasion for celebration... I’ve only personally seen 4), but this is a young player, something like a diamond in the rough that needs a lot of polishing and playing time. With the experience and the right team, he really will shine. And while I don’t believe United is the place to accomplishment (for me it makes more sense to stay at Bordeaux seeing as a lot of players are departing…), but he does deserve a chance at United and I hope Sir Alex would give him that. I can only wish him the best of luck.

Canadian Terrace Talk Episode Three

In this latest episode Kevin Elder (aka Pompey Canuck) of Think All In and I look at Canada's Gold Cup wins over El Salvador and Jamaica, some other Gold Cup results, the transfer window (including Julian De Guzman) and more!

Enjoy!

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Patience pays off as Ferguson finally snares Obertan

Sir Alex Ferguson has provided Manchester United with another injection of youth by completing the signing of exciting French forward Gabriel Obertan from French football side Bordeaux on a four-year contract.

The Scot has wasted no time in plugging the gaps created by the high-profile departures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez and 20-year-old Obertan becomes the third new face in at Old Trafford following the arrivals of Antonio Valencia from Wigan and free-transfer capture Michael Owen.

It also gives the game's longest-serving manager yet more midfield options because Obertan can switch between wings and play as a centre forward. Ferguson used his connections with Bordeaux manager and former United centre-back, Laurent Blanc, to land the Paris-born France Under-21 international for a fee in the region of £3m, although an unspecified minor injury means he will not travel with the squad for the forthcoming tour of the Far East.

"Gabriel is a player we have tracked for a few years now, but because of his educational programme our efforts to get him here have always been delayed," Ferguson told the official club website. "We are delighted to get him now as he is an exciting prospect. We like to get young players and develop them, and we will see that in Gabriel over the next two years."

Obertan, who spent last season on loan at Lorient, said he had no hesitation in moving to England and was delighted at the prospect of joining up with the Premier League champions. "I am very happy to join Manchester United," he said. "This is a big opportunity for me to play at such a great club. I am very excited to be here and I look forward to proving what I can do."

Nick Walsh writes features and betting previews for Betfair.