Wayne Rooney reveals management ambitions

Manchester United and England star Wayne Rooney has already started planning for life as a manager.
Sir Alex Ferguson has often reported receiving hints from Rooney about his United team selections, advice he usually ignores.
However, it seems the 25-year-old is serious when considering what to do when his own playing days are over.
In an extensive MUTV interview with former United European Cup winner Paddy Crerand, Rooney confirmed he has started to take his coaching badges, and has no fears about beginning a new career on the bottom rung of the ladder.
"I would like to be a manager. That would be my ambition when I finish playing," said Rooney.
"You see the players who have played for Sir Alex and gone on to be good managers. I am hoping to do that one day.
"But I wouldn't like to follow the manager here, or start at an Everton or Manchester United.
"I want to learn something about the lower leagues and build a reputation that way rather than just jumping into a big club.
"It is not right if someone goes in and gets a big job with no experience. There are managers who have worked for years trying to get that."
Of course, United are hoping Rooney remains an invaluable member of Ferguson's squad for some time to come given he only recently signed a lucrative five-and-a-half-year contract extension.
The controversy surrounding that saga will linger for a good while yet.
But, in a revealing insight, in which Rooney confirmed he likes to relax before matches by listening to former Britain's Got Talent contestant Susan Boyle, the striker now concedes he was out of order to demand assurances about United's continued progress from Ferguson and chief executive David Gill.
"I went to see the manager and David Gill and asked them for answers," he recalled.
"Now I realise it has nothing to do with me but I wanted to make sure it was the right thing for me to do.
"I got the answers in the end but looking back it was probably wrong of me to do that."
Rooney did not commit himself to Old Trafford until after a visit from a hooded gang of around 30 to his plush mansion in Prestbury.
It was an alarming evening for Rooney, who could not even venture out to tell his "visitors" that agreement had already been reached.
"I looked out and saw 30 blokes with their hoods up. I wasn't going to invite them in for tea," he recalled.
"I understood some of the fans were disappointed and felt let down. But it was just one of those things I had to get right.
"Thankfully I have sorted it out now. I have made the right decision and made myself happy.
"But I didn't even think about where I was going to go. There was no way I would have gone to Manchester City and there was more chance of me going to City than Liverpool."
Rooney also reflected on England's "terrible" World Cup campaign and his attack on the national team's supporters immediately after the goalless draw with Algeria in Cape Town.
"The emotions were high because we weren't winning," he said.
"Our fans were booing after 10 minutes. That is what I was saying. It was disappointing."
In addition, he also reveals that on the day four years earlier when Cristiano Ronaldo was condemned for trying to get Rooney sent off in Gelsenkirchen, the England man had been guilty of a very similar offence earlier in the game when his then team-mate took a dive.
"I went up to the referee and said he had dived and he should be booked. No one saw that," he shrugged.
"Everyone saw mine because it was a red card."
Rooney still misses Ronaldo now and cannot believe the Portugal superstar is not among the three nominees for this year's Ballon D'Or.
United will not get him back though, which means Rooney must take the scrutiny of his own career, and the present failure to score a goal in open play since March.
"I want to score in every game," he said.
"But the most important thing is for the team to win.
"We have been doing well since I came back and I know I will start scoring goals again, I have no worries about that."

Holloway wants revenge against Manchester City

Blackpool boss Ian Holloway is looking for revenge when his side take on Manchester City at Eastlands tomorrow.
Holloway was incensed at the way the Seasiders lost to City at Bloomfield Road in October, claiming that three crucial wrong decisions had swung the game.
The 47-year-old was aggrieved that Gary Taylor-Fletcher had an effort disallowed when it was still 0-0, thought Carlos Tevez had been offside when opening the scoring and also felt that a foul had been committed against Ian Evatt in the build-up to the Argentinian's second goal, which put City 2-1 ahead.
Roberto Mancini's team eventually triumphed 3-2 and Holloway believes he has a score to settle.
"I want some revenge if we can possibly be good enough to get it," Holloway said.
"I think Man City have improved massively in the period since they played us and that they are going from strength to strength, but we are going to go to their ground and I want to see if we can beat them this time.
"I won't be going there to shut up shop or say 'goodness me, they are fantastic'.
"We are going to try to attack them, so hopefully it will be a good game."
City moved up to second in the table with the result in October and are back there at the moment, with their push for the title seemingly only set to get stronger as they prepare to flex their considerable financial muscle in the January transfer window.
Blackpool, currently eighth, have had a successful time of it themselves in their maiden Barclays Premier League campaign and Holloway is adamant he would not swap positions with Mancini.
Asked if he ever looked at clubs like City and wondered what he might do with the sort of money they have, Holloway said: "No, not at all - I wouldn't want it.
"It's quite obscene at times, isn't it? Trying to keep all of (the players) happy? I wouldn't want it.
"I'd rather do what we're doing. It would be nice to have that sort of wage budget to a point, but it causes all sorts of hassle.
"I'd rather be where we are and I am delighted with it. I wouldn't want the pressure that (Mancini) has got."
One of City's expensive acquisitions who has been in the spotlight recently is striker Mario Balotelli, who notched a hat-trick on Tuesday against Aston Villa to take his tally for the season to eight.
The Italian, bought from Inter Milan in the summer, has rarely celebrated when scoring those goals and Holloway knows it will not necessarily be enough for his side to keep the 20-year-old from smiling on New Year's Day.
"I don't know the kid and I can't really comment on other people's players," Holloway said.
"I hope he is not smiling against us, but that doesn't mean he might not have got a hat-trick! I hope he doesn't score against us is what I should say."
Holloway admits he does not want 2010 - in which the Seasiders have defied expectation by winning promotion and taking 25 points from 17 top-flight fixtures - to come to an end, and thinks the team have a "season-defining" period ahead of them, with seven games currently scheduled for January.
Postponements due to the freezing weather meant Blackpool only played twice in December and Holloway has voiced his support for the introduction of an official winter break.
"The goodwill around here has been great and I feel for the people of the area," Holloway said.
"Saturday games are what we need - then people might come up on the Friday, stay over on Saturday, might even stay until Sunday and we get all that extra business.
"Unfortunately (rearranged) night games aren't the same because people have to go to work the following day.
"So really, I'd like to extend the season. Maybe we should have a winter break if we get winters like this in future.
"It would be nice to let the people of the area benefit fully from this."

Thirsty in Thirsk: 3,000 homes without water

Around 3,000 homes and businesses were left without water today after a burst on a major pipe which supplies a pumping station.

Yorkshire Water said it hoped to fix the problem in the Thirsk area within hours, after customers found around 8.30am that their supplies had been cut.

A spokeswoman said: "We apologise to any customers in the Thirsk area who are currently without water due to a burst water main this morning.

"We are working as quickly as possible to carry out repairs to the pipe and hope to have this completed as soon as possible.

"Once the repairs are complete water will start to return to homes, which we expect to happen in the next few hours.

"When water supplies do start returning we would ask customers to use their water sparingly to allow the system to fully recharge as quickly as possible.

"Again we apologise for any disruption that this burst may have caused to customers in the area and thank them for their patience."

A pipe into a pumping station serving Thirsk burst last night and a by-pass was put in place overnight, but when customers demanded water in greater amounts this morning, the temporary system could not cope.

Meanwhile, a major repair operation was swiftly put into action after a burst threatened part of the route of the London 2011 New Year Parade.

The spectacular involving 10,000 performers from 20 countries is watched by 100 million Americans on television as it passes through central London.

A burst water main in Victoria Street, near Great Smith Street, caused the road to be closed off to traffic yesterday, threatening to disrupt travel for revellers and potentially diverting the route of the parade.

Thames Water was praised by Westminster Council for quickly getting a team to the site who spent all day on the repair.

Work to rebuild the road over the top of it is expected to be completed today.

Martin Low, Westminster Council's City Commissioner of Transportation, said: "This helped save the parade, which will be watched by 100 million Americans, from disaster."

The latest burst follows a spate of problems around the country, as the big thaw caused damage to the water infrastructure.

Since Christmas Eve alone, one company was deluged with 40,000 calls reporting problems.

United Utilities, which operates in the North West, said the "unprecedented" volume of calls was 10 times the usual number.

Melting ice can cause the ground to move, putting stress on pipes, making them leak or burst.

Above ground, frozen pipework in homes and businesses is beginning to thaw, leading to more leaks.

Customers have jammed phone lines reporting frozen pipes in their own homes, although companies are not responsible for pipes inside people's houses.

The thaw has caused acute problems in Northern Ireland where thousands of customers' supplies have been cut off.

It could be early next week before all customers are reconnected.

Around an extra 250 megalitres are being pumped into the system every day, Northern Ireland Water said today, but most of it is being lost in leakages from burst pipes.

Newspapers warned over contempt law

The Attorney General warned newspapers today to be mindful of the contempt of court laws in their coverage of Joanna Yeates murder suspect Chris Jefferies.

Dominic Grieve indicated he was considering what action he should take to ensure that the course of justice was not impeded in any way.

"We need to avoid a situation where trials cannot take place or are prejudiced as a result of irrelevant or improper material being published, whether in print form or on the internet, in such a way that a trial becomes impossible," he told BBC Radio 4's The World At One.

Asked whether he was preparing to issue an advisory notice to newspapers, he said: "Clearly, we are considering what I have seen in the newspapers today and we will try to take such action, and it is right to ensure that the course of justice is not in any way impeded."

Mr Grieve stressed that there was "freedom of the press", but newspapers have to comply with the Contempt of Court Act to avoid prejudicing possible future trials.

His comments come amid heavy media scrutiny of Jefferies, who was arrested yesterday on suspicion of murder.

"I don't want to comment on the precise coverage today, but I think it's important to understand that the contempt of court rules are there to protect the rule of law and the fair trial process and they require newspapers, and indeed anyone who is covering material, to do that in a way that doesn't prejudice the possibility of a fair trial taking place at a later date," Mr Grieve said.

The Attorney General - the Government's top law officer - added that newspapers were "pretty familiar" with the contempt of court rules.

"In those circumstances I would simply ask them to reflect carefully on how they provide proper coverage on a matter of public importance while at the same time, mindful of how our legal system works, they can also ensure that a trial process - if one were ever to happen - would not be prejudiced by material being published that may be irrelevant to any case that comes before the court but could be seriously prejudicial to an individual who is standing trial.

"That is the key issue that needs to be considered."

Australia floods strand 200,000

Military aircraft dropped supplies to towns cut off by floods in northeastern Australia as the prime minister promised new assistance today to the 200,000 people affected by waters covering an area larger than France and Germany combined.
Residents were stocking up on food or evacuating their homes as rising rivers inundated or isolated 22 towns in the state of Queensland.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard toured an evacuation centre in the flood-stricken town of Bundaberg today and announced that families whose homes had been flooded or damaged would be eligible for disaster relief payments of $1,000 per adult and $400 per child.
"My concern is for the people in these very difficult times," Gillard said.
A day earlier, she pledged $1 million Australian dollars in federal aid to match a relief fund already set up by the state government.
Bundaberg resident Sandy Kiddle told Gillard she lost cherished items after floodwaters surged through her house. She said may not be able to return home for a week.
"It was just a sea of water, and I thought the beach would never come to our house," she told Gillard, who gave her a hug.
Officials say half of Queensland's 715,305 square miles is affected by the relentless flooding, which began last week after days of pounding rain caused swollen rivers to overflow. The flood zone covers an area larger than France and Germany combined and bigger than the state of Texas.
While the rain has stopped, the rivers are still surging to new heights and overflowing into low-lying towns as the water makes its way toward the sea.


The muddy water inundating thousands of homes and businesses has led to a shortage of drinking water and raised fears of mosquito-borne disease.
"This is without a doubt a tragedy on an unprecedented scale," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Bligh warned that drenched communities could be stuck underwater for more than a week, and cleanup efforts were expected to cost billions of dollars.
The Department of Community Safety said supplies of food and bedding were delivered by road and by military aircraft today to the towns of Rockhampton, Emerald, Springsure and Blackwater in central-east Queensland.
Northeastern Australia often sees heavy rains and flooding during the Southern Hemisphere summer, but the scope of the damage from the recent downpours is unusual.
The entire population of two towns has already been forced to evacuate as water swamped their communities, cutting off roads and devastating crops. The next city in the water's path — Rockhampton, near the coast — is bracing for flood levels forecast at 9.4 metres by Monday or Tuesday.
Roads and railway lines were expected to be cut off by Saturday, and the city's airport planned to shut down over the weekend.
"This is a very serious situation," said Rockhampton Mayor Brad Carter, saying that level would affect up to 40 per cent of the city. "Police are ordering people in affected areas to leave their homes."
Officials were evacuating residents today, starting with the elderly and those living in low-lying areas.
There were concerns over food supplies in the city, with many stores already sold out of bread, milk and fresh meat, Carter said.
Gary Boyer, regional manager of supermarket chain Woolworths, said the company was sending 43 trucks full of supplies into Rockhampton on Friday.
Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes this week. In the central Queensland town of Emerald, about 1,000 people were evacuated in the last 24 hours.
The town was facing food shortages, power outages and sewage-contaminated floodwaters, county mayor Peter Maguire said. Three evacuation centers have been set up to help displaced residents.

Britain's rivers come back to life

Britain's rivers, some of which were little better than sewers a generation ago, are now at their cleanest for more than a century.
In the past decade, our waterways have returned to conditions not seen since before the industrial revolution, the Environment Agency says.
Water quality has improved so much in some places that a number of wildlife species are returning to watercourses from which they had vanished, including salmon, otters and water voles. Figures show that water quality has improved year on year for the past two decades, and serious water pollution incidents have more than halved since 2001, according to the agency.
Meanwhile, the river Thames, which half a century ago was declared "biologically dead" at Tower Bridge in London, won a coveted international prize this year for its environmental value.
"The last decade shows how far we've come in reducing pollution and improving water quality and river habitats," said Ian Barker, the agency's head of water. "Rivers in England and Wales are at their healthiest for over a century, with otters, salmon and other wildlife returning to many rivers in record numbers in locations across the country." The agency's claims need to be qualified, because by other, European, standards which are tougher, a majority of our rivers still have a long away to go.
But there is no doubt that the picture of solid improvement painted by the agency in an end-of-year review is a genuine one. A generation ago many British rivers were little better than foul-smelling drains. Such channels of untreated pollution are now largely a thing of the past, thanks to policing by the agency and investment by water companies (and also to the fact that most of Britain's heavy, old-fashioned smokestack industry, once the major pollution source, has disappeared).
As a result, water cleanliness has improved everywhere, and even rivers associated with great cities, such as the Thames in London, the Mersey in Merseyside and Greater Manchester, and the Tyne in Newcastle, are seeing a major resurgence of life.
This year the Thames beat hundreds of other rivers across the world to win the International Theiss River Prize, which celebrates outstanding achievement in river management and restoration. The prize recognised the astonishing transformation which the river has undergone, especially since the introduction of treatment for London's sewage, which once was dumped raw into the river.
Whereas a 1958 survey at Tower Bridge found no fish in the river, the Thames is now home to at least 125 different fish species, including smelt and shad – while its estuary supports shellfisheries and is a nursery for commercial sole and bass stocks.
The river is now clean enough for salmon to swim up (although 30 years of effort have not yet succeeded in producing the Thames's own self-sustaining salmon population). Once polluted tributaries, such as the river Wandle in the heart of London, are now so clean that they can support brown trout.
The Mersey, which once was also biologically dead, now also has a run of salmon and sea trout, while the river Tyne is now the most productive salmon river in England. July this year saw a record month for levels of Tyne sea trout and salmon, with 9,240 counted – the highest since records began.
The widespread return of the otter, which had undergone a catastrophic population decline because of pesticide pollution, is also evidence of rising river water quality. The number of sites with evidence of otter life has risen tenfold in 30 years, with records increasing from 5.8 per cent in 1977-79 to 58.8 per cent in 2009-10. In the South-west and the river Wye catchment, otter populations have probably reached maximum capacity, with those in Northumbria, Cumbria, Wessex and the upper Severn close to that, and Kent being the only county in England where no otters have yet returned.
Otter recovery is spreading towards the South-east from traditional strongholds in the north and South-west, and it is predicted that the population will spread to Kent within the next 10 years, the agency says.
There is also encouraging news about the water vole, immortalised as Ratty in The Wind in the Willows. The animals were once a common sight on waterways across the UK but in the 1990s their populations began to decline dramatically, until 90 per cent had disappeared, making them the fastest declining mammal in the UK. However, the water vole is also making a welcome comeback, and, earlier this year, a survey discovered 30 locations where the mammal is regrouping
The agency's claims should be qualified, however, by the fact that its yardstick is the level of chemical pollutants found in the water, and this has indeed steadily declined year on year. But there is another way of measuring river health, which is how much life in total exists in the river (such as invertebrates, fish and plants) compared to what would be expected in a pristine state – in other words, its ecological as opposed to its chemical quality.
A new European law, the Water Framework Directive, will make ecological quality the new benchmark, and from 2015 Britain's rivers will be expected to be of "good" ecological quality. Yet, at the moment, only 26 per cent of rivers in England and Wales hit that target, with 56 per cent of "moderate" quality, 14 per cent "poor" and 2 per cent "bad".
Case study: 'Dead' waterway where 100 fish species now live
The restoration of the river Thames has been a remarkable achievement, at last properly recognised with the International Theiss River Prize in October.
For nearly 150 years the river was dead; its dying began at the end of the Napoleonic wars, when the introduction of the water closet meant that raw sewage was dumped into the river, and the advent of gas lighting in the capital meant the pollution residues from gasworks went into the river too. It was an excellent salmon river, but the last free-run Thames salmon was caught in 1833.
The river remained lifeless and filthy until, in the 1950s and 1960s, the two enormous sewage outlets, at Crossness and Beckton in the Thames estuary, which were pouring thousands of gallons of untreated filth into the river every day, began to be cleaned up. The water quality improved dramatically and, on 12 November 1974, the amazing happened – a 9lb (4kg) female salmon was found in the intake screens of West Thurrock power station. It was so surprising that it was sent to the British Museum for positive identification.
Since then the improvement in the Thames has been unceasing, and the once-lifeless watercourse now hosts more than 100 fish species. The biggest efforts have gone into restoring salmon, the iconic symbol of a clean river, but a self-sustaining population has not yet developed.

Millions gathering worldwide to ring in new year

New Zealanders sang and danced their way into 2011, with firework displays and sold-out concerts entertaining revellers in one of the first countries in the world to welcome the new year.

In the biggest city, Auckland, explosions of red, gold and white burst over the Sky Tower while tens of thousands shouted, danced and sang in the streets below.

In the southern city of Christchurch, thousands of partiers shrugged off a minor 3.3 earthquake that struck just before 10pm and celebrated in Cathedral Square. The city has rumbled with thousands of aftershocks from a powerful 7.1-magnitude quake that damaged buildings across the city on 4 September.

New Zealand police reported only minor incidents as revelers in dozens of towns, cities and rural gatherings celebrated at open air concerts and pyrotechnic displays.

As the clock ticked closer to 2011, cities across Asia readied for midnight events ranging from traditional prayers in Japan to a massive pyrotechnic display in the shape of a dragon in Taiwan. Europeans were looking forward to celebrations that could help them forget their economic worries.

Across the Tasman Sea in Sydney, Australia, 1.5 million people gathered on folding chairs, picnic blankets and blowup beds to watch the spectacular fireworks over the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Organisers have promised a special midnight finale to the display, always one of the world's top New Year's pyrotechnic shows.

A 9pm preview wowed the crowds who had been waiting all day.

"I'm so glad they aren't disappointing after such a long wait," said Ross Bagnato, 35, who said he was nearly falling asleep after waiting almost 12 hours.

At the Opera Bar Beach House, hundreds of people paid up to $500 for the view and a party with a beach theme.

"This has got to be the best place to be in the world tonight," said guest Marc Wilson, 41.

In New York City, nearly a million revelers were expected to cram into the streets around Times Square to watch the traditional midnight ball drop. The 20-inch snowstorm that blanketed the city will be just a memory thanks to work crews and warmer temperatures.

At midnight yesterday — with just 24 hours to go — hundreds of people milled around Times Square as crews finished preparing TV sets for New Year's Eve broadcasts and vendors sold hats and noisemakers.

Among the tourists were students from Grand Valley State University near Grand Rapids, Michigan, who were scoping out a good location for Friday night and marveling at the preparations.

"For sure, we're going to be here," said Ahmed Lachheb, 23, from Sfax, Tunisia.

"I'm going to be here near the closest restroom just in case," added Mohamed Azuz, also 23, from Tripoli, Libya.

This year marks the first time Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, officially celebrates the new year with a countdown blowout, complete with a light show and foreign DJs in front of the city's elegant French colonial-style opera house.

Vietnamese typically save their biggest celebrations for Tet, the lunar new year that begins on 3 February. But in recent years, the Western influence has started seeping into Vietnamese culture among teens, who have no memory of war or poverty and are eager to find a new reason to party in the Communist country.

At midnight in Taipei, Taiwan, fireworks will form a spiraling dragon climbing up the city's tallest skyscraper.

In Japan, New Year's Eve is generally spent at home with family but those who venture out go to temples to pray for good luck in the new year. At Zojoji, a 600-year-old Buddhist temple in central Tokyo, thousands were expected to release balloons at midnight carrying notes with their hopes for 2011.

In the Philippines, powerful firecrackers have injured at least 245 people in recent days and Health Secretary Enrique Ona urged safety during today's celebrations, saying he feared up to 1,000 injuries.

Many Filipinos, influenced by Chinese tradition, believe that noisy New Year's celebrations drive away evil and misfortune. But they have carried that superstition to extremes, exploding huge firecrackers sometimes bigger than dynamite sticks to welcome the new year.

In Europe, many people will be partying simply to forget their economic woes after a year that saw Greece and Ireland needing financial bailouts and others, such as Spain and Portugal, battling speculation that they will need similar aid.

In London, thousands will witness a musical and firework display at the London Eye. The Eye, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, lies almost opposite the Big Ben clock tower at Parliament that will chime in 2011.

If not at home or at private parties, Spaniards traditionally gather in their main town squares to eat 12 grapes one by one as the bell in the square marks the countdown to 2011.

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in her New Year message that Europe is dealing with a major test and must strengthen the euro, even as she celebrated Germany's emergence from the economic crisis, powered by strong exports.

Merkel said in her televised message being broadcast Friday that "it was a good year for Germany."

Still, Merkel said that "we will have to prove our strengths in future too."