From Cork to Toronto

Updated to fix some dead links . For a Celtic and Manchester United supporter, this is a dream combo - "Larsson (Solskjaer 78 mins)" "Goals: Larsson 55, Solskjaer 90" The players who share a song shared the 2-1 win in the FA Cup Third Round - I trust Ole has no problems sharing with a Swede. Pity Martin O'Neill, who managed Larsson for Celtic in the glory days of the Seville UEFA Cup final , who must have feared the worst seeing him in a United shirt to face his new Aston Villa charges. Larsson is due to leave United at the end of his loan period on March 12 when Helsingborg's season begins but the buzz to keep him is merely a reflection of the desperation that sets in when you cut loose a world-class striker and have to deal with being without him. Sadly they did "take my Larsson away" from Celtic and I think it might be best that Henrik has a brief but stellar stay and leaves for Sweden with everyone getting what they originally wanted from...

Joyeux Noël. Happy Christmas. Well, that's all the official languages taken care of both over here and over there . I hope all my readers have a great day (including the ones for whom this is a day to go out on the town ).

United Position 1/Played 17/Points 44 Chelski 2/16/38 Liverpool 4/17/28 Arsenal 6/16/26 city 12/17/20 God knows how we're doing it . Fergie is still considering 4-5-1 the SAFE option even though we keep conceding goals! At any other time (well, any time before he left Celtic say) Henrik Larsson would have been hailed as the solution to the fragility of United's front line but we already have Giggs and Solskjaer so we don't need any more aging legends. His reluctance to use 4-4-2 stinks of a threadbare squad and a tightfisted board than tactical nous given the success it generally brings when he is forced into it by another lone striker fiasco. The Ginger Prince's vision was reported to be a lot less than 100% and Giggs is having that kind of great season which usually builds up to a climax of a debilitating injury. Big tests await in 2007, including Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea away. That said, I have generally respected Arsenal as opposed to the reflexive disgust...