Tom Doyle :: TALK

I was delighted to see the big part Ruud Van Nistelrooy played in Real Madrids 4-1 thrashing of Levante on Sunday night.

Not content with just scoring his first goal in La Liga, he had to score a hat trick. It looked like it would never come when he missed a number of chances and even a penatly, but he got there in the end with a finish any striker would be proud of.

I really hope Ruud does well with Real. I’m sure he will be a huge success. His style of play seems to suit Real very well and it will be interesting to see how he fits in once Ronaldo is fit again.

On this display, I think he suits Real better than Ronaldo. In saying that, I’d never right off Ronaldo!

I was trying to avoid saying anything on this topic. But as I’m long term fan of Roy Keane I thought I should at least comment on his apparent new profession.

We all knew Keane would end up in management, the talk of him becoming a manager when his career was over started many years ago. Ferguson always touted Roy Keane as a great manager for the future.

Personally, I was shocked I have to admit, when it was reported that Keane would manage Sunderland. Ok, he had a row with Niall Quinn, when Quinn came out against him in Saipan. But Keane is bigger than that and Quinn obviously is too.

Will Keane do well at Sunderland? Well he has the drive there’s no doubt about that. His passion will stir on the whole team and hopefully the club. But I think the most significant part of this appointed me is actually the appointment of Brian Kidd as assistant manager.

I personally think that when Man United let Brian Kidd go that it was the real change of Man United. There was no-one at United (or who they brought in) that could coach, motivate and spot young talent coming through. It’s the one area that I fear Keane may lack, which is why brining in someone like Brian Kidd will make all the difference.

So best of luck to Keano, I’m sure he’ll be a great success.

Manchester United started the season on a high by thrashing Fulham 5 goals to 1. Although it seems like an impressive scoreline, it was in fact a pretty dismal display by Fulham.

The game itself was liking watching a preseason friendly. United completely dominated every part of the field and within 20 mins were 4-0 up. Fulham just weren’t in it. It’s no wonder they are one of the favourites to go down this season.

United however looked really good. Their passing, moving and pace looked as good as it was in their hey day. But there were a few dodgy defensive errors that would have been punished by a stronger side. That worried me a little, but you could also put that down to lack of concentration due to the score in which they were winning by.

In other games at the weekend I was impressed with Chelsea. They were back to their old selves with what they call their skeleton squad. If this is not their first team, we should all be worried!!

Liverpool and Arsenal on the otherhand got off to a poor start. Liverpool just didn’t play as well as they did against Chelsea in the Charity Shield. But they did dominate the second half and looked pretty good.

An interesting start to the season, but if Liverpool or Arsenal want to be taken seriously this season they need to stop dropping points against lower teams!

Rooney and Scholes have each been handed a 3 game ban for their sendings off in the Amsterdam Tournament.

How the FA can justify this is beyond me. Would they have issued a 3 match ban if this was to have happened in a different competition? unlikely…..

Ok, Scholes deserved to be sent off, two rash challenges that we have all come acustomed to when watching Paul Scholes. But Rooneys sending off was totally unjust. He should never have been sent off at all.

But yet again, the FA think that they should be judge and jury on this and have made a decision on something that really has nothing to do with them.

It’s no wonder talk of a European super league still exists…

That time of year again, the launch of the Premiership Season 2006-2007 was marked with the traditional Community Sheild event.

This year it was the turn of Liverpool and Chelsea. A game that you think would provide immense entertainment. Chelsea ready to showcase their new signings Ballack and Shevchenko  to the preimership. While Liverpool were ready to show the rest of league that they have what it takes to be a serious contender for the leaugue this season.

Ballack had a warm welcome to the premiership. Only 6 minutes into the game, he had earned himself a yellow card for a rash challenge. Fifteen minutes later he was taken off with an injury to his hip.

Throughout the first half Liverpool looked the betterside. You could see that they really wanted to win this game and fought for everything in the middle of the park.

Chelsea to me looked like they had lost their shape as they tried to facilitate Ballack and Shevchenko. 4-3-3 just didn’t seem to suit them very well. I couldn’t understand why they didn’t drop Ballack deeper into a diamond shaoe formation to that he could be creative behind Shevchenko. But then again, maybe that’s what Lampard was supposed to be doing??

There were two moments of brilliance in the first half… Riise’s goal, which although was put down to a Goalkeeping error by commentators, was an outstanding goal in my opinion. To take the ball from his own box and score the way he did was fantastic. Even if the keeper did save it, it still would have been a magnificent effort.

The second moment of brilliance came from Shevchenko. You just knew he was going to score the moment the ball was played through the air to him from Lampard.

All in all, I thought Liverpool totally dominated Chelsea throughout the game and thoroughly deserved the win.

Chelsea to me looked over confident, lacking creativity and out of shape.

If this is the team we should all fear this season we have nothing to worry about. I do expect Chelsea to sort out these problems though and go ahead and win the premiership again this season.

My predictions for the premiership this season are:

1. Chelsea
2. Man United
3. Liverpool
4. Arsenal
I think United and Liverpool will be very close, but Chelsea will walk away with it again.

All the talk today is that Martin O’Neill is poised to take over the managerial role at Aston Villa. I admit I would be shocked if he did. It seems strange that he would turn down so many great offers and then all of a sudden choose to work with a team such as Aston Villa. No disrespect to Aston Villa, but Martin O’Neill has had much better offers!!!

There are some rumours going a round that some billionaire is planning to take over Aston Villa, Roman Ambrovich style and plans to make them into a great footballing club. If that is true, the I completely understand his decision.

However, if it is not… Why are you doing it Martin? More to the point, will you be able to do it on such limited resources?

It’s a sad day for Man United supporters as Ruud Van Nistelrooy leaves Old Trafford for Real Madrid.

No-one can deny that of late Ruud hasn’t been on top form. In fact some would say that he hasn’t been the same David Beckham left Old Trafford.

But Ruud has been one of the premierships top scorers every season since David Beckham left for Real Madrid.

I was surprised to see that there are so many Man United fan that are glad to see the back of him. I just can’t comprehend why they feel this way?

Yes, he had a poor second half of last season, but he still got the goals when we needed them.

What was more surprsing was the price he has apparently left for…. STG£10m - what’s that all about?

Fergie… please go….. leave us now before you do a Graeme Sounness on us!

Manchester United have yet to make any major signings this summer and the fans are getting worried!

However, Alex Ferguson reckons the team we currently have is good enough to challenge for the title this season…. It’s affirmative, Alex has lost the plot….

How can he think that we can compete against the likes of Chelsea to regain the title? Not only do we have the likelyhood of relying on Darren Ferguson again this season in Midfield, but we are also letting one of the best strikers to ever don a Man United jersey to leave Old Trafford.

Apparently Ferguson has €75m to play around with this season and yet he has no plans for it except to try and lure Michael Carrick from Tottenham… what an awe inspiring signing that would be eh?

I reckon he’s going to try keep this money to spend on his retirement party at the end of the season

But one good thing did come over Man United’s 3 nil will over Celtic last night, Paul Scholes. He scored twice last night and showed some of the great flair that we have missed all last season at old trafford. I look forward to seeing him line up at the start of the season!

Newcastle release a statement to the stock exchange saying the purchase of Damien Duff had only cost them £5m.

Quite an extraordinary price when you consider Chelsea bought him for £17 million!

What a great deal for the Toons, I imagine Martin Jol is bitterly disappointed at missing out on Duff after all his hard work!

I can’t believe Man United didn’t seem interested again…..

I’m just not with Alex Ferguson’s way of thinking at all. He refuses to let an arrogant and spoilt child leave Old Trafford. This, even after all the problems he has created and the lack of team spirit the boy has.

Yet onn the other hand, he’s happy to let one of the greatest strikers Man Untied have ever had in Ruud Van Nistelrooy, leave Old Trafford. Ruud was again United’s top scorer for the season with 26 goals. Ok it’s a long way from his 44 goal season he had on his second year at united, but then again we play a different style of football now that we have very little delivery from the wings. To score 26 goals with the way United have been playing is a major feat.

Ferguson - you’re getting old, I think it’s time to quit….. As each season goes by, you seem to get worse, give it up before you ruin United like Souness did to Liverpool.