MANCHESTER UNITED have dismissed claims they will sell Wayne Rooney during the January transfer window as “nonsense”.

MANCHESTER UNITED and Northern Ireland legend George Best opened his eyes yesterday and started to breathe without the help of a ventilator.

RYAN GIGGS maintains he is still hungry for success - and refuses to accept Chelsea have left Manchester United behind in English football’s power battle.

KEVIN KEEGAN fears the dominance of English football’s ‘big three’ clubs threatens to kill the popularity of the sport.

FORMER Manchester United midfielder Karel Poborsky has been named general manager of Dynamo Ceske Budejovice in his native Czech Republic.

ROY KEANE has been offered some dates at the end of the season to play the testimonial which was agreed as part of his severance package with Manchester United.

DAVID MOYES believes his Everton side is good enough to rub shoulders with the high and mighty of the Premiership.

MARK HALSEY has been handed the task of refereeing the potentially explosive Carling Cup tie between Manchester United and Arsenal on December 1.

Celtic earned a small measure of revenge over Manchester United for the poaching of Liam Miller by snatching young Canada star Jacob Lensky from under the nose of Alex Ferguson.

OLE Gunnar Solskjaer is hoping to extend his Manchester United career beyond the end of his current contract in 2006.

DAVID BELLION last night completed his loan move to Nice after Manchester United allowed him to end his loan spell at West Ham and return to his native France for the season.

UNDER-FIRE Manchester United defender Mikael Silvestre has insisted his future remains at Old Trafford despite widespread criticism of his recent performances.

EVERTON manager David Moyes yesterday challenged his squad to make sure all their hard work so far this season does not go to waste.

BOLTON manager Sam Allardyce yesterday snapped up Brazilian striker Mario Jardel, and then received a further pre-season boost from another of his foreign stars, when Jay-Jay Okocha announced he will only play in competitive matches for Nigeria.

JIM SMITH’S future as assistant manager at Portsmouth is in doubt as the fall-out from executive director Velimir Zajec’s appointment continues.

Rangers 4 Motherwell 1

FABIEN BARTHEZ yesterday admitted he would like to finish his career between the posts with Marseille.

BOTH as outstanding athletes and as citizens, Sonia O'Sullivan and Roy Keane are fully deserving of the Freedom of the City of Cork.

THE Football Association are expected to charge Rio Ferdinand with misconduct on Thursday as a result of his failure to attend a drugs test last month.