Defender Ritchie De Laet has left Stoke to sign a three-year deal with Manchester United.
He dived out.
Source : *fourfourtwo.com/news/england/23106/default.aspxThe Equifax Table
Best managed clubs
98 Arsenal 8)
93 Man United
71 West Brom
65 Tottenham
43 Blackburn
40 Manchester City
37 Sunderland
37 West Ham
26 Liverpool
--------- CLUBS BELOW THIS LINE TECHNICALLY INSOLVENT
18 Everton
17 Stoke City
10 Chelsea
7 Middlesbrough
5 Newcastle
5 Bolton
2 Aston Villa
2 Wigan
2 Fulham
1 Hull
0 Portsmouth*
* No accounts filed for Portsmouth at Companies House
Here is the content of Rafael Benitez's press conference, where he read from a dossier in response to Sir Alex's complaints about the Christmas fixture programme...
"The referee (Steve Bennett) was the referee when they played against Wigan - he could not see the handball against Wigan by Rio Ferdinand, he did not give a penalty. They won the game and they won the title in this game.
"I think it will be the same referee who will be in charge of their game in hand this season (against Wigan).
"During the Respect campaign - and this is a fact - Mr Ferguson was charged by the FA for improper conduct after comments made about Martin Atkinson and Keith Hackett.
"He was not punished. He is the only manager in the league that cannot be punished for these things.
"Then he was talking about the fixtures. Two years ago we were playing a lot of early kick-offs away on Saturdays when United were playing on Sundays. And we didn't say anything.
"Now he is complaining about everything, that everybody is against United. But the second half of the season will see them playing at home against all the teams at the top of the table, it is a fantastic advantage.
"But at Christmas, United played on the 29th and the rest of the teams played on the 28th. We were away against Newcastle two days after playing Bolton. They were playing about 40 hours later, they were not complaining then.
"If he wants to talk about fixtures, and have a level playing field as you say in England. There are two options if we don't want more problems with fixtures.
"One is the same as in Spain, the draw for the first part of the league is known, everyone knows which weekend. In the second half everyone plays the opposite, so you all know.
"Sky and Setanta have the right to choose their games and it will be the same for everyone. So Mr Ferguson will not be complaining about fixtures and a campaign against United.
"Or there is another option. That Mr Ferguson organises the fixtures in his office and sends it to us and everyone will know and cannot complain. That is simple.
"To hear someone talking when he has problems with referees every single week, and now complaining about the fixtures and complaining about everything, I think that is not fair.
"You can see every single week how they put (referees) under pressure, we know this. We have seen it before. We have seen players sent off at Old Trafford and we do not see our opponents sent off.
"We had a meeting in Manchester with managers and FA about the Respect campaign. And I was very clear, forget the campaign because Mr Ferguson was killing the referees, killing Mr Atkinson, killing Mr Hackett.
"But he is not punished. How can you talk about the respect campaign and
criticise the referee every single week?