Wayne Rooney has urged England fans to give John Terry their full support during Wednesday’s friendly against Egypt at Wembley.

A group of leading City financiers have held talks with a view to wresting control of Manchester United from the Glazer family, the current owners of the club.

If Fabio Capello remained indifferent to the plight of Michael Owen yesterday, he will have been the only one.

Martin O’Neill launched a scathing attack on Phil Dowd last night, effectively accusing the referee of costing his team the Carling Cup.

Wayne Rooney came off the substitutes’ bench to head his 28th goal of the season and retain the Carling Cup for Manchester United.

FOR all their travails when playing the teams they must measure themselves against, Arsenal’s ability to pick off the also-rans means they have not lost to anyone other than Chelsea and Manchester United since they stumbled at Sunderland in November. With the scores level at 90 minutes, they still took three points from Stoke, firstly when Robert Huth foolishly handled...

Edwin van der Sar has signed a one-year contract extension with Manchester United. The deal means the Dutchman, 39, is tied to the club until the end of the 2010-11 season.

Fears may be growing over Rio Ferdinand’s suspect fitness, but Sir Alex Ferguson does not believe that the defender’s injury problems will force him to scale back his international commitments.

Anderson, the Manchester United midfielder, has been ruled out for the rest of the season after rupturing his cruciate ligament during Tuesday's 3-0 win over West Ham United.

There have been some frank admissions this week that South Africa would not be ready if the World Cup finals were to start tomorrow, but if Fabio Capello were asked the same question about England, concerns over Rio Ferdinand and uncertainty over the fallout from the John Terry affair would force him to apply a similarly alarmist assessment.

Wayne Rooney is sweeping all before him at Manchester United, with 19 goals in his past 19 appearances in all competitions, and his form has not gone unnoticed by the men whose teams will attempt to stop the England forward performing on the World Cup finals stage this summer.

As Sir Alex Ferguson surveyed his walking wounded before the Carling Cup final with Aston Villa, the Manchester United manager succumbed to asking for favours from Manchester City in his attempt to retain the Barclays Premier League title.

Rio Ferdinand has suffered another injury setback that rules him out of the Carling Cup final on Sunday and throws England’s World Cup preparations into further disarray.

“King Midas” was how Gianfranco Zola eloquently referred to Wayne Rooney last night after the Manchester United striker’s latest exhibition of goalscoring brilliance. “Everything he touches turns to gold, ” the West Ham United manager cooed, which is a good job because it is not only the hopes of his club that Rooney carries on those broad shoulders.

Few stand up to Sir Alex Ferguson and escape unscathed. Crossing swords with Sam Allardyce can be scary, too. Only the exceptionally brave or extremely foolhardy take on two of the biggest personalities the game can offer.