Queiroz takes new post with Portugal

Manchester United assistant Carlos Queiroz been apointed as the new portugal coach, signing a four year contract which is believed to be worth around £1.5M.

The coaching role with Portugal became vacant after Chelsea appointed Luis Felipe Scolari their new coach, the same evening Portugal were set to play their final group game of Euro 2008 against host Switzerland. The lure provided by the Portugease football federation (FPF) was too hard for the 55-year-old to ignore- "Im very proud and honoured to go back and serve for my country"- in what has been an unsettling summer for Manchester United's portugease contingent, with Ronaldo continually being linked with a move away to Real Madrid.

Queiroz's decision came at just the wrong time for Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who is trying to prepare his team for their pre season tour of South Africa, and the start of their Premier League title defence against Newcastle in around 5 weeks time. Sir Alex still showed his gratitude to what Carlos Queiroz had acheived while he was at the club by commenting on the club's official website "Carlos is one of the best coaches in world football, his attention to detail, ability to innovate and will to win have been a key factor in the team's recent successes. The Manchester United manager could find himself calling on former United stars Mike Phelan and Brian Mclair - who are both currently working at Old Trafford- to take on more responsibility during the short term, while Sir Alex looks for a long term replacement. Eric Cantona has been ruled as a posibility - who has shown his interest in a possible job future job at Old Trafford- while another former United star Laurent Blanc - currently coaching at Bordeaux, Pako Ayesteran - coach of Benifica- and former player Roy Keane who is manager at Sunderland.

13 July 2008

Sir Alex Ferguson has today insisted that he is in no hurry to find a replacement for Carlos Queiroz, even though the start of 2008/09 Premier League campaign is just under five weeks away. And has refused to be drawn over the lastest comments - made by Fifa president Sepp Blatter, which have compared some players to being modern day slaves at their club - on Christiano Ronaldo's future.

After watching his Manchester United team win 2-0 - Carrick oppened the scoring in the first half with a penalty and Rooney scored later in the second half to make the game safe-, in a fairly comfortable manner against his former side Aberdeen, in a testimonial game for the Don's "European cup winners" cup winning side of 83'.

Speaking after the match Sir Alex said "You take time with these things, I knew when Portugal came for him that it would be very diffilcult for us, but we've got good staff and we'll carry on". He then want on to say "It's always disapointing losing good men and Carlos was a good man. He was honest, very loyal to me and a good coach, who brought alot of initiatives that we now carry on"

When asked about Christiano Ronaldo's future and the things that have come out of the press this week, the Scot seemed bemused by comments that had been made by Sepp Blatter this week on modern day slavery in football, but refused to make any further comments and said "No, were here to talk about football".