itu from china one

guys is van der sar injured ?

Edwin van der Sar is available for Saturday's trip to West Ham having missed the last three games through injury, but John O'Shea, Jonny Evans and Rio Ferdinand are still out.

O'Shea is struggling from a dead leg which he suffered whilst on international duty with the Republic of Ireland last month, while Evans has a calf problem.

Ferdinand, who has not featured since the end of October, remains unavailable as he continues his recovery from a persistent back injury.

"Rio is progressing with his treatment," revealed Reds' assistant boss Mike Phelan, who stood in for Sir Alex at Friday's pre-match press conference.

"He’s as optimistic as he can be. We haven’t set a target for him to be back yet. We just need to make sure that when he is back, he is available for the rest of the season.

"We still have a problem with Evans and O'Shea. Jonny's calf is responding slowly to treatment, while John is still suffering from a dead leg that doesn’t seem to be improving as quickly as we expected.

"We've got Edwin back though - he's been training and is available along with the other goalkeepers."

Phelan also revealed that Owen Hargreaves is making good progress with his rehabilitation from a long-term knee problem, but insisted the Reds will not be rushing the midfielder back until he's completely ready.

"It's a sort of softly, softly approach with Owen," said Phelan. "He’s been out a long time now, but he’s back on the training ground. He has a lot of rehab work to do which is going to be a continuous thing for him now.

Edwin fit, but trio still out

"He's doing some ball work out on the training ground and his fitness is looking very good, but obviously he hasn’t got into a big group situation yet.

"He’s as keen as mustard to get back in there with the squad and the time is definitely getting shorter until he is back in training fully."

Wes Brown insists Manchester United will not be distracted from their relentless hunt for silverware despite the emergence of Manchester City as wealthy new challengers.

According to one club president in Europe, United are a club in "financial crisis", a concept that would position United as the paupers to City's princes. But Brown believes United's intention to challenge for titles year after year won't be derailed by increased competition from their bitter rivals.

United head to West Ham on Saturday looking to close the gap on Premier League leaders Chelsea to a couple of points before Carlo Ancelotti's men tackle City at Eastlands half an hour later. Yet it is the Carling Cup that remains the talk of the city, as it pits United against City in a two-legged semi-final where the prize is a place at Wembley.

While United have been there on numerous occasions in recent years, for City it would represent their first major final since 1981 and confirmation the multi-million pound investment of Sheikh Mansour may eventually change the landscape of the English game. But the Red Devils have no intention of simply standing aside.

"You are aware of the shifts in power but we have always been up there, which is a good achievement,'' Brown told Inside United. "We set out to challenge for the title at the start of every season and to continue doing that we have to keep working hard.

"City have got a lot of money to spend and have therefore bought good players and will probably continue to do so. That means they are going to be challenging - they have to be with the players they have. We have just got to keep doing what we are doing, continue improving and hopefully we can keep on doing as well as we have over the last few years.''

Having placed his trust in youth to get United past Tottenham in midweek, Ferguson will bring back all his big names at the weekend, although there is still a question mark over Edwin van der Sar, who missed the win at Portsmouth last weekend after suffering a bang on the knee in a collision with Everton's Tim Cahill the week before.

However, it is the decision not to pursue a stated interest in Partizan Belgrade youngster Adem Ljajic that has vexed many United fans. Old Trafford sources insist there is no truth in the claim by Partizan president Dragan Djuric that United - who have confirmed debts of £790million - are in the midst of a "financial crisis''.

That has not stopped questions being raised by the Manchester United Supporters' Trust, who have been fiercely opposed to the Glazer family since they completed their controversial takeover in 2005.

"The true picture will not be clear until after the January transfer window but with the £80m Ronaldo transfer fee plus the supposed £25-30m annual transfer kitty a spend of £100m would effectively be break-even and supporters will rightly be asking where has the money gone when they've been forced to pay more and more through the huge ticket price rises in recent years,'' said MUST chairman Duncan Drasdo.

"If that money is not reinvested in the club, many will see it as little better than theft and feel entitled to demand ticket prices are slashed to pre-takeover levels.''

Mike Phelan has revealed that paperwork issues were the main reason behind United's decision not to sign Adem Ljajic in January.

Speaking in Friday’s pre-match press conference, the assistant manager said the Reds had been advised that gaining a work permit for the young Serbian may have proved difficult.

“We went down the road of trying to obtain a work permit,” Phelan said. “We made a tentative approach to get one, and what we got back from the Home Office (or these people you deal with) is that we couldn’t get it through in time for when we had to make a decision on Adem in January.”

“The point then is do you lay out the money for Adem when there is the possibility you could or couldn’t get the work permit? We decided it wasn’t the time to do it.

“I’m not sure how we’ve left the situation to be honest, the manager would be better to answer that, but as it stands at the moment Adem Ljajic won’t be joining us in January.”

Rumours have circulated in the press that a lack of funds were responsible for United’s decision to pull out of the deal, but the Reds’ assistant manager was quick to quash that notion. He insisted that the approach to obtain a work permit is proof that money is not an issue.

“It’s not to do with money that I know of, I don’t think it’s an issue. We definitely went to try and get the work permit or made a point to get it and we were told it would be an issue, so we couldn’t make a decision from that point on.”

With United’s policy of producing a healthy number of youngsters, Phelan admitted that it was slightly disappointing to not have the chance to bring Ljajic to the club, but with the rules that are in place, it was just unfortunate that the deal could not go through.

“As you can see we’ve got young players and we’re a team that requires young players to come through and develop and bring into the first team. We’ve looked at Adem and he has the potential to do that but you can’t fight these things sometimes.

“Some people you can get work permits for, some you can’t. Adem fell into the category of being hard to get a work permit for, so we made the decision (not to pursue it).”

Form guide: The term inconsistency is one that can certainly be applied to the Hammers. In the few years since they were promoted back to the top flight in 2005, they have achieved mid-table mediocrity, survived a relegation battle and latterly claimed a top-half finish in 2008/09. Their 5-3 victory over Burnley last week was only their third win of this campaign and they currently lie seventeenth in the league table. West Ham's failure to keep a clean sheet since August will also encourage United following the Reds' convincing wins over Everton and Portsmouth.

Ins and outs: Kieron Dyer will be hoping to feature after making a comeback in West Ham's reserves recently, but star striker Carlton Cole is expected to be out for a number of weeks with a knee injury. Valon Behrami will also be unavailable as he is due to undergo surgery. United have no fresh injury problems from the midweek Carling Cup tie, but the existing ones remain at the back - John O’Shea, Jonny Evans and Ferdinand will all miss the clash.

Star man: Vice-captain Scott Parker is the heartbeat of the West Ham team. He has represented England at every level, and was voted Player of the Year by Hammers fans last season. He loves a tackle and can be creative on the ball too.

Manager: As a player, Gianfranco Zola netted three goals against the Reds in his Chelsea days, but has lost his two games against them as West Ham boss. He is still a rookie in management terms, having only been in charge of the Italian Under-21 side before moving to Upton Park in 2008, but ninth spot in the league last season suggests Zola has a lot to offer in the top flight.

Referee: Northamptonshire’s Peter Walton will have the whistle on Saturday. Both teams won their last matches with him in charge, and his last game between the two sides was last season when United won 2-0 at Old Trafford. Perhaps there will be plenty of goals, as Walton oversaw Tottenham’s 9-1 demolition of Wigan nearly a fortnight ago.

Rivals watch: It’s another important weekend for United’s rivals this weekend, as Chelsea travel to Eastlands in the Saturday evening kick off. Liverpool will hope their revival continues as they play Blackburn at Ewood Park. Arsenal host Stoke and Aston Villa play Hull; Tottenham are at Everton on Sunday.

United’s desperate defensive injury problems were only exacerbated at Upton Park - the term 'down to the bare bones' barely does the situation justice.

Sir Alex Ferguson could be without seven players for the trip to Wolfsburg on Tuesday, and the extent of the issue is measured by the fact that the United boss is anxiously waiting to see if Nemanja Vidic recovers from a bout of flu to partner Michael Carrick in the centre of defence.

Along with Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, John O’Shea, Jonny Evans, Rafael and Fabio all missed Saturday’s 4-0 win over West Ham, while Gary Neville and Wes Brown were forced off during the match to add to an already depleted rearguard.

“Losing defenders the way we are doing at the moment is a bit of a headache to us,” admitted the boss. “Nemanja Vidic was out with flu, meaning we had to put Gary Neville at centre-back and then he goes off after half an hour. Then Wes Brown came off at the end.

“I don’t know how we’re going to get a back four together for Tuesday. I’m hoping Nemanja will be OK and I will probably play Michael Carrick with him in defence.”

Carrick didn’t look out of place at centre-half against his former club, althoug Wolfsburg's forwards Edin Dzeko, Grafite and Obafemi Martins, pose a more potent threat.

“Michael came in and did very well, we were very pleased with that,” added Sir Alex. “The reason we put Michael on the bench this afternoon was to cover us in event of anything happening to the back four.

“He has the height, the composure, the pace and the experience to play there. There was an option to play Ritchie De Laet, but away from home against West Ham – it’s a difficult place to go to. I felt that an experienced player was important.

"I would actually like to have played Michael [in midfield] from the start because he’s in good form. But I felt like I had to err on the side of caution, and I’m glad I did.”

angry bcoz of late sub made by SAF lor...

how many defender injured liao ?

no live of ucl match again!

Try to look from another point of view, now we can finally have all our midfielders on field together

Serbian champions Partizan Belgrade will suffer a serious financial blow after Manchester United opted out of signing their midfielder Adem Ljajic, club officials have revealed.

United said earlier this week they were no longer planning a bid for the 18-year-old due to work permit issues. Reports say Ljajic would have cost the Premier League champions £10 million.

"Manchester United's decision will inevitably force us to change our business plans, meaning that we will have to sell more players than we would like to in January," Partizan's director Ivan Tomic told Belgrade media on Saturday.

"This is a heavy financial blow to us and it certainly hasn't made anyone at the club happy. As far as Ljajic is concerned, he is obviously disappointed but I am sure he will bounce back very quickly and prove his worth, he has a great future."

General Secretary Darko Grubor added: "It is a shame the deal fell through but life goes on and we will survive without the money we would have got from selling Ljajic."

Partizan are chasing their third consecutive league title and are one point behind leaders Red Star Belgrade with two games left before the December-February break.

They are at home to fourth-placed OFK Belgrade on Sunday behind closed doors after they were punished along with Red Star for crowd violence during their derby last Saturday.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is facing a major defensive headache afterbeing left with just two fit defenders in his first-team squad.

United ended yesterday's 4-0 Premier League win over West Ham with Michael Carrick and Patrice Evra at centre-back and Ryan Giggs at full-back after Gary Neville and Wes Brown added to an already-lengthy injury list.

Evra and young Belgian Ritchie De Laet are United's only two fit defenders, with reserve player Corry Evans -brother of centre-back Jonny - likely to be called into the squad for Tueday's Champions League clash with Wolfsburg.

Both Neville and Brazilian Fabio are suffering from groin problems, Jonny Evans and Rio Ferdinand have calf injuries, John O'Shea is out with thigh trouble, while Edwin van der Sar, Rafael and Brown are all missing too.

Young centre-back James Chester, winner of the club's Reserve Player of the Year Award last season, was included in United's Champions League squad, but is currently on-loan at Championship side Plymouth Argyle, while fellow defensive prospect Craig Cathcart is also on-loan, at Watford.

A draw for United against Wolfsburg would win the group but Ferguson's more pressing concern is being able to field a defence that can compete with the reigning Bundesliga champions.

First choice centre-back Vidic was missing from yesterday's line-up with flu but is expected to return to form a makeshift central defensive partnership with midfielder Carrick in Germany, with Darren Fletcher starting - as he did against West Ham - at right-back.

"Evra must be the smallest centre half in the world,'' said the United boss. "But he's a good reader of the game. He's quick and determined.

"I don't know where I'm going to get a back four for Tuesday. Probably Nemanja Vidic will be back from flu and I'll probably play Carrick alongside him.''

Manchester United assistant Mike Phelan rates Wolfsburg striker Edin Dzeko as "ideal for the English league'' and has hinted the Red Devils could consider a move for the player.

Dzeko, 23, has attracted interest from teams in Spain, Italy and England, with United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal all linked with him in recent weeks.

But the Bosnia forward had repeatedly hinted that his preferred destination, should he move from Germany, would be Serie A side AC Milan.

The striker scored 30 goals in 33 appearances to help Wolfsburg lift the Bundesliga title last season and has 11 already this campaign.

Dzeko scored against Sir Alex Ferguson's side when the sides met in the Champions League earlier this season and Phelan has admitted the club have been looking at him since.

"I'm sure there are a number of teams looking at him. Are we one on them? We are looking at talent all of the time and we are in there with the rest of them,'' Phelan said.

"He showed his threat in the game at Old Trafford and he appeals because he is a tall, skilful boy and in some ways he is an ideal player for the English league.

"He has stature, his feet are good and he is producing some good performances. I am sure everybody has looked at him.''