You know what the papers are like

I must admit that made me laugh

The ad campaign is Rafa saying, "The bitter is perfect, the taste is perfect, they never do a bottle wrong."

I must admit, the appointment of Mancini does not fill me with any great excitement. I never thought we'd get Mourinho but Guus Hiddink would definitely have been my first choice.

Can't exactly say I am delighted about how we have gone about it. Mancini has obviously been lined up for a while and, in that respect, I feel a bit sorry for Leslie who has been an honest toiler.

That said, he was clearly out of his depth and wasn't helped by a distinctly underwhelming backroom staff. Which ever way you look at things, Hughes, Bowen, Niedzweiki and Hitchcock were never going to lead us to the promised land.

Today's game summed up perfectly the shortcomings. Once again, we concede three preventable goals and, once again, it's left to individual performances to pull us through. I have to be honest and say that if we had Taylor and Robinho playing all season rather than Given and Bellamy, then we'd be way down the table. Then again, if we'd had Arsenal bloody Ladies centre half instead of Toure then we'd be a lot higher.

Unfortunately, Hughes has been let down badly by some of his signings but he chose those players who are clearly not good enough/strong enough/mentally 'up for it' enough and he has badly neglected other areas when people could see those areas needed addressing before he started buying icing for the cake he did not have.

As for Mancini, well, I'm not exactly over the moon but if an Italian can't sort out our comical defence than no-one can

Bentez: "I have seen the replay and for me it is not a sending-off, but anyway the referee was perfect. He didn't make any mistakes. Now Javier is injured, and I will say again the referee didn't make any mistake."

Press: "We don't understand? You say the referee didn't make a mistake?"

Bentez: "No he was perfect. Perfect. He was perfect."

Press: "So why was it not a sending-off?"

Bentez: "I have seen the replay, for me it's not a sending-off, but anyway. Perfect."

Press: "Was there any particular reason why players like Gerrard or Torres couldn't get it together and perform?"

Bentez: "No, the referee was perfect so Torres, he didn't have any problems."

Press: "You were a goal down before the sending-off, the average observer wouldn't say you were controlling the game at half-time. Why do you say it turned the game when you were a goal down already?"

Bentez: "If you see we created a couple of chances and we have plenty of possession in the first half I was convinced we could change the game."

Press: "Can you just explain what you said about the referee?"

Bentez: "Perfect. No mistakes."

Press: "But you say he made a mistake with the sending-off."

Bentez: "Perfect."

Press: "Don't you think Torres was fortunate to escape being penalised for that elbow?"

Bentez: "The referee was perfect."

Rafa is a fecking clown!

Awful defeat for Utd yesterday, completely outplayed from start to finish.

Feel for Hughes, win the game in hand and he is right up there challenging for 4th spot. Not sure why they have gone for Mancini, very odd appointment.

Benitez is the most un-media friendly manager in football. His interviews baffle me.

Hughes is a victim of the transfer window system. I think he would have been given until summer if it hadnt been likely that he would spend another £70m or so.

wont the new manager be doing the same

or at least get rid of the dead wood within the team