Former Man Utd defender slams club’s dietary regime

Barcelona defender Gerard Pique (pictured here in a dashing outfit), who left Old Trafford earlier this year, has claimed his former team-mates lived on a diet of “beer and burgers”.

“There were some incredible things happening at United. It [the players’ diet] was outrageous. Everyone ate whatever they wanted to eat and when you think about the typical English diet, you can imagine what I am talking about.

“Every two weeks we were checked out on a machine that measured the amount of body fat. You would be amazed at how many top players practically broke the machine because their diet was based on beer and burgers.”

Hmm, wonder who he means? Wazza Rooney, anyone? Still, if drinking beer and making regular trips to Burger King results in a Premier League/Champions League double, who’s complaining? You stick to tapas, son (as Andy Gray might say).

Mrs Tevez makes her son very happy 

Carlos Tevez was over the moon when his old mother paid a surprise visit to Man Utd’s training ground.

C-Ron busts a move

Another weekend, another handful of bogus penalties…

Another week of Premier League action has passed and once again it’s the officials who have been rattling football cages. Rob Styles, a smartly dressed ref, confused Jlloyd Samuel’s excellent tackle on Ronaldo with an uncoordinated lunge, and immediately pointed to the spot. Diarra handled the ball for Portsmouth and got away with it, and Steve Bennett awarded a perfectly decent penalty, albeit one involving the most elaborate Willem Defoe from Platoon impression The Spoiler has ever seen.

Everyone’s been yapping their disapproval, is it time we just said to hell with it and demanded video evidence? Bolton probably think so…

UEFA have been playing with the crazy pots again

The good officials of the Champions League gathered around the trough in Monaco this afternoon, pausing briefly to pompously remove some plastic footballs from mixing bowls in one of their favourite little rituals.

As per, various pundits and sundry authorities were on hand to discuss the mouth-watering nature of the dance card, while those associated with the managerial side of things vowed not to underestimate anybody, as decreed by UEFA’s guidelines on how to talk to the press at times such as this.

Of the English teams, Liverpool probably feel the men in blazers could have looked harder to find them a couple of soft sides, but at least

But - ouch! - the price is a little on the high side…

According to the Spanish COPE radio network, Manchester United have decided what they want for Ronaldo should the Spanish champions ever get round to actually calling about buying him. United will apparently be asking for 50 million Euros, plus Robinho, plus Sergio Ramos, plus Mahamadou Diarra.

Leaving aside for a moment the question of just how the Spaniards prised this information out of United, if indeed they ever did, that would price the world’s best player at 140 million Euros, or a little over GBP 110 million, and is likely to be a valuation that not even the Ronaldo-obsessed Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon would accept.

Ronaldo himself, meanwhile, interrupted preparations for Euro 2008 to travel to Porto to meet his agent. According to the pro-Madrid sports daily Marca - Spanish for shit-stirrer - “In Portugal they reckon Ronaldo is going to Madrid. In fact, they believe the reason for the meeting was for Ronaldo to let his agent know just how unhappy he is with United’s posture during this affair.”

No information was given as to what he could possibly be upset about, or why his agent anyone saw fit to report this unsubstantiated detail.