David McCourt’s Midweek Football Round Up: 08/02/12

FORMER Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar has been offering his words of wisdom this week, saying that 21-year-old David De Gea has to “deal” with the tough start to his first season in the Premier League and “come through” it.

The Spaniard has attracted criticism after struggling to adapt to life in the English game, which is punditry talk for ‘not bullishly coming for crosses in a British enough way’, despite displaying some fine shot stopping ability.

Van der Sar, who had his own tough post-big-money-move spell at Juventus, also insisted he has no intention of following Paul Scholes out of retirement.

He said: “I got a few text messages from friends saying, 'What about you?' I'm quite happy at the moment. There's no doubt in my mind.”

Meanwhile the tedious ticket allocation spat between United and Liverpool continues to plough on after United confirmed that Liverpool’s travelling crowd will be cut by a third to 2,100 for their Premier League clash this weekend.

If this pettiness continues any further one of the Premier League’s most fiercely contested rivalries will be played out to an away crowd about as intimidating and atmospheric as Anfield’s new feline contingent.

Sir Bobby Charlton has undergone minor heart surgery after falling ill last week. The 74-year-old United legend was supposed to be picking up a lifetime achievement award at the Laureus Sports Awards but had been suffering from a gall stone complaint.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson collected the award on Sir Bobby’s behalf and said: “Bobby is fine, but it was felt he should go back to Manchester.”

Former Stockport County manager and Manchester City midfielder, Dietmar Hamman, has revealed details of a gambling problem he suffered towards the end of his career. The 38-year-old lost £200,000 in a single night as he started gambling to forget about the breakdown of his marriage.

He said: "You've got face up to it and when you wake up the next morning you look in the mirror and don't like what you see."

City travel to Aston Villa this weekend for Sunday’s afternoon fixture but it is unlikely expatriate Carlos Tevez will be in the squad, despite Roberto Mancini last week suggesting the striker could play for City again this season.

The Italian manager has included Tevez in his 25-man squad for the second half of the season but his player still remains AWOL in Argentina.

He said: “I hope for him he’s been training in the last three months to help his condition.”

Greater Manchester’s Football League clubs face a battle to give their weekend fixtures the go-ahead after as temperatures in the northwest plummet below zero.

Bury, Macclesfield, Oldham, Rochdale and Stockport County were all forced to call-off their last round of matches due to frozen pitches, and as the forecast shown no signs of warming up in time for the weekend, clubs are facing a difficult task to get the pitches playable.

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