Anyone know any tricks to get around the firewall issue?

Wise Wise wherever you may be,
You took Leeds to the old division 3,
You'll never win a cup,
You'll never win a shield,
Your biggest game is with Huddersfield

To the tune of Lord of the dance

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson insists he has not been told he cannot spend heavily in this summer's transfer window.

The Red Devils allowed Cristiano Ronaldo to join Real Madrid for a world-record fee of £80million in July as the Premier League champions finally agreed to sell.

It was thought that the profits generated from that sale would be used to reinvest, but the only significant expenditure has been on Antonio Valencia and Gabriel Obertan.

Rumours have suggested that United's owners, the Glazer family, have prevented Ferguson from investing, but the Scot insists that is not the case.

"Pay no attention to the cynics who have suggested our owners have stopped us spending," he told United Review. "Believe me, it was purely a football decision.

"Maybe it is the Scotsman in me but I believe in value, even when I am spending someone else's money, and the asking price for players we were looking at just wasn't realistic.

"What you must remember is that we are working from a position of strength.

"We don't suddenly have to splash out to try and compete at the top."

Hi guys and gals,

I'm Ash and have signed up today. Just finished working in Azerbaijan where I never missed a game in 6 years, had to watch them in Russian and Arabic a lot of the time though. We also had Gary Bailey on South African Supersports overseeing a lot of the games and it was obvioud his heart was still with us!!

Moved to Cyprus on Friday and desperately want to see the match tonight so haave to send posts, so sorry if it's a bit dull!!

Gutted to see Ronaldo go but it was inevitable, anyone who's played the game has a dream to play for his childhood team and I respect his decision. I was there when he came on v Bolton for his debut and the place was buzzing long after the final whistle.

Anyway, plenty of time to kill here between jobs so I'll speak to y'all soon.

Ash

United have been dealt a blow ahead of the 2009/10 season after confirming that Edwin van der Sar has been sidelined for the start of the campaign.

The 38-year-old Dutch goalkeeper has this week undergone surgery on a broken finger and bone in his left hand, and will be out for up to eight weeks.

Van der Sar suffered the injury saving a penalty from Danijel Pranjic in United's 7-6 shoot-out defeat to Bayern Munich in the pre-season Audi Cup tournament in Germany.

The prognosis means that van der Sar won't be back to full fitness until the end of September. It is frustrating news for Sir Alex, especially as van der Sar was so important to United's defensive solidarity last season. However, Ben Foster signed a new contract in July and Sir Alex said at the time that "[he] is seen as one of the best young goalkeepers in England and we genuinely see him as a successor to Edwin."

This could be the opening Foster has waited so patiently for, although Tomasz Kuszczak will also see this as an opportunity to prove his worth. Sir Alex's selection will be an interesting one for Wednesday's friendly against Valencia and at Wembley this weekend against Chelsea in the Community Shield.