Having confirmed that he flew to Manchester for talks with Sir Alex Ferguson, it appears that Shinji Kagawa could very well be on his way to Old Trafford.

The Japanese attacker was quick to add that he was undecided on his future, but the smart money would be on the Dortmund player ending up at Old Trafford this summer.

Whilst nothing is confirmed, Park Ji Sung feels that Kagawa would be a worthy addition to the United team, and has backed him to do well if he does in fact become a United player:

“Kagawa already has experience in Europe and good quality.

“If he comes to United, I think he’ll play well.”

With the summer here players will be coming in and out. It has already been revealed that Michael Owen won’t be offered a new contract and Park himself has been linked with a move away from United.

But if the South Korean could have his way, he would retire at the club:

“It was a disappointing season but the past is the past, I’ll focus on what to do from now on.

“It’s true that I want to retire at United, but it does not depend on me.

“The season is over now; I just want to take a rest not thinking about anything.”

There have been conflicting reports in regards to Michael Owen’s future over the past few days, but the striker took to Twitter this morning to clarify his position.

Owen has been a bit part player in his 3 year spell at Old Trafford, having to make do with substitute appearances as well as starts against smaller teams.

This season made just four appearances, injury has played some part in this but largely he has faced stiff competition from other strikers.

With that Owen has revealed that the club have decided not to offer him a new contract, and he was made aware of this following the testimonial of Harry Gregg on Tuesday:

“The Manager informed me after our testimonial match on Tuesday that the club would not be offering me a new contract.

“I have loved every minute of the 3 years I have spent at such a fantastic club.

“I would like to thank the players, staff and fans for their support and wish them well for the future.”

Ever the gentleman, United fans will remember his goal in the Carling Cup final against Aston Villa but perhaps much more importantly his winner against Man City back in 2009.

Like every United fan, we wish him well for the future.

It has been a roller coaster season at Old Trafford but one player will have experienced this more than most, Patrice Evra.

With more appearances than any other player this season, the defender saw it all: The highs of the 8-2 against Arsenal, the lows of the 6-1 against City as well as the nail biting wait for the final whistle at the Etihad on the final day, Evra experienced it all.

But it wasn’t just that, the Frenchman was caught up in a tumultuous race row with Liverpool’s Luis Suarez that gripped the footballing world.

Despite comments and gestures from Liverpool and Suarez, Evra remained silent but with the season over he has lifted the lid on how the episode made this the most difficult season of his long career:

“The whole thing was so difficult.

“People thought my celebration at the end of the Liverpool game was because Suarez had abused me, but it was more than that.

“I wanted say thanks to my team-mates. I know everybody was playing to win for Manchester United, but it was also a little bit for me.

“That game was the most pressure I’ve ever felt in my life – and all to do with shaking his hand.

“It was very difficult to decide what to do before.

“Many people would never try to shake his hand. But I tried and he refused. “For me, it was like, ‘What’s going on?’”

Losing the title in the manner United did will also have played a part in how Evra reflects back on this season, but back in October he suffered a bereavement that makes football pale in significance:

“What’s happened to me this year, personal things, have been really tough.

“I know people will think I’m only saying this because we’ve lost the title but this is the most difficult season I’ve ever had for Manchester United.

“Before the game against  City in October, my dad called to tell me I’d just lost my brother. Nothing can be more difficult than that to find out before a big game.”

With that in mind, you have to respect Patrice Evra’s contributions to our efforts. Evra can always be found with an encouraging comment to say and is already speaking on United recapturing the title from Man City.

Hopefully next season is an easier one for him.

It seems Carlos Tevez is content with alienating himself everywhere he goes, after the striker refused to apologise for the sign he held up during Man City’s title parade.

As the the bus carrying the title winning City side made it’s way through Manchester, Tevez was seen holding a sign saying “RIP Fergie”.

Man City were quick to apologise for the sign and Tevez’s brandishing of it and United later accepted the apology but Tevez has spoken out revealing his position to be at odds with his club.

Arriving back in Argentina, Tevez has been quoted by Ole as saying:

“It seems like Ferguson is the president of England.

“Every time he speaks badly about a player or says terrible things about me, nobody says that he has to apologise.

“[But] when someone comes out with a joke or banter, you have to apologise – but I won’t apologise.”

The sign was said to be a reference to Sir Alex’s “not in my lifetime” quote but despite seeing the commotion it has caused Tevez refuses to apologise.

A number of excuses were made for Tevez in the wake of him displaying the sign but the fact he refuses to apologise nullifies any of this.

As deplorable and classless player as I can remember.

Manchester United’s Patrice Evra believes his side can reclaim the Premier League title from their city niegbours if they are consistent in their form next season.

The France international reckons the Red Devils can draw inspiration from the 89 points amassed since their performance was criticised and Manchester City played their best football to win the title for the first time in 44 years.

Evra said:

“We have given the title to City, but if we play well from the beginning to end, we will win the title back easily.We received a lot of criticism this season, but we have got nine points better than last season.

“City played their best football and we didn’t always play our best football, but we still finished on the same points. So it makes you think that if we play our best football consistently throughout the season, then we are going to win the league by many points.”

Having flown to German last weekend to watch Borussia Dortmund demolish Bayern Munich in the cup final, Sir Alex Ferguson played host to Shinji Kagawa ahead of a potential move for the Japanese attacker yesterday.

Rumours of United interest in Kagawa have picked up pace in recent weeks, and Kagawa’s admission that he flew to Manchester for a face to face meeting with Sir Alex will only serve to add to the growing speculation.

The 23 year old is being hunted by some of Europe’s top clubs but it appears United have stolen a march on rivals for his signature despite Kagawa stating he hasn’t made a decision on where his future lies:

“I have not decided yet.

“Sir Alex Ferguson gave me good words. Several clubs contacted me but I can not say which is the best.

“I want to choose the club where I can challenge. It would be good to play in the Premier League.”

SIDENOTE: Transfer muppetry reached new levels this week when Kagawa’s flight number for his journey to Manchester was revealed. I salute my fellow transfer muppets, that’s some serious dedication to the cause.

Kids have a very romanticised view of football.

Not quite in tune with the finer aspects of the game, there is a reason that many flock to strikers as their first footballing heroes.

It is the striker that will take all the glory as it is he that gave his team the lead or won the game. People will remember the center back’s last ditch tackle, or the goalkeeper’s save that kept the score at 1-0 in the 89th minute of the cup final but when the final whistle blows and the headlines are written, it will be the striker who made it 1-0 that takes the plaudits.

Due to my character I always had a thing for combative players. Whilst I appreciate a good goalscorer, they didn’t quite make my eyes light up the way some like Roy Keane did as he marauded about the pitch, geeing up his team with take no prisoners, don’t give them an inch attitude.

But this all changed when Ruud Van Nistelrooy joined Manchester United.

In Van Nistelrooy I found a striker I truly loved to watch and despite the fact he was plying his trade in the Premiership at the same time as the magical Thierry Henry, I would not have traded ours for him or anyone in the world.

People loved to point out Van Nistelrooy’s short comings; he isn’t fast, crap outside the box blah blah blah, my simple response was “Give him the ball in the box and 9/10 times I’ll be smiling” or “If he is so poor how comes few defences have any joy against him?” And both hold true, Ruud was a simply a goal machine and even though you knew what to expect from him there was little you could do at the time.

I won’t profess to have known who exactly he was when we signed him, I remembered the move had broken down amidst fitness concerns but the fact we stuck it out and waited a year let me know that we were looking at some player and he didn’t disappoint.

The next 5 years were a goal laden dream as he put countless teams to the sword. 36 goals one season, 44 the next Ruud really did score when he wanted (unlike this dutch fraud parading around the Premiership today!) He became a hero to all and when he was needed to dig us out of a hole every so often, he duly obliged. Look no further than the game where he would break Denis Law’s long standing European goals record. 2-0 down against Lyon, Van Nistelrooy scored his 29th and 30th European goals for United and rescue a point.

With so many highlights to look on from his time here, is a travesty that all he has to show for his goals are a Premier League title and a FA Cup.

But I feel there was more to Ruud than his goals and what he won, he built a genuine rapport with the fans (how many of us properly felt it when he exorcised the demons scoring that penalty against Arsenal?) thus his reputation wasn’t tarnished when he left the club in the manner he did. Despite that episode he always had a good word to say about United and last year he made his peace with Sir Alex too, finally closing that chapter.

Ruud was a brilliant goalscorer and occasionally a scorer of brilliant goals, the highest compliment that can be paid to him is that he was often referred to as the club’s greatest goal scorer since Denis Law. Part of Javier Hernandez’s charm is that at moments he shows glimpses of Van Nistelrooy and if he goes anywhere the brilliant goal scoring fetes of the Dutchman then he too will be as loved.

Having plied his trade in Spain and German after United, Van Nistelrooy continued to score goals but as is to be expected found them harder to come by as he got on in age. So yesterday as Malaga defeated Sporting Gijon and secured Champions League football, Ruud announced he had played his last game.

It is probably a cruel bit of irony that on the day Manchester United lost the title on goal difference, one of the greatest goal scorers the club has ever seen bowed out of the game, but having had the chance to see him at his pomp and in his prime we can count ourselves grateful.

I’ve woken up this morning not with the hope or expectation that yesterday was a bad dream, it was all to real at the time for it to have been, but instead with a sense of disappointment, disappointment that we have a year to wait to reclaim the title.

Last week I tweeted ‘we’ve lost one title by a point and now potentially one on goal difference. Is this someone’s idea of a cruel joke?’ Little did we know that the punchline hadn’t even been delivered!

What happened yesterday was the most see-saw, roundabout final days in Premier League history as the ribbons on the Premier League trophy swapped from blue to red and ultimately back to blue.

Football can be a cruel game and all too often we have been on the positive side of it’s harsh reality, so when Man City won the title they were described as having done it in ‘the most Manchester United of ways’. I’m pretty sure I am not the only person to have seen the heart wrenching moment when Sir Alex and Phil Jones found out Sergio Aguero has got that late winner for City, the look of disappointment on Sir Alex’s face isn’t one I will forget but we have to realise we did what we came to do.

At the start of the day many presumed that City would end up winners, the fact that they flirted with disaster before rescuing the situation may have meant an emotional roller coaster for us, but essentially the script played out as it was meant to. For those of us that had resigned ourselves to second place prior to yesterday’s game, the games against Wigan and Everton will continue to burn the soul and rightly so. Those are the games where we lost the title and whilst City may have lifted their first Premiership in the most Manchester United of ways, we blew an eight point lead in the most Manchester City of ways.

One thing that is often levelled at United fans in between jibes of being ‘glory hunters’ and ‘not being from Manchester’ is that we have a sense of entitlement. Being that so many of us have only started supporting United recently (I think I left some of these out of How To Write About Manchester United) ie in the Premiership era we are only used to United winning.

Whilst that may be true of some fickle fans, most of us realise that we have no right to win the league every season, instead we go out and lay our claim to being the best in England on the field. Yet at the same time I can’t help wonder why I sit here writing this having lead by 8 points at the start of April. Our capitulation is one that will haunt these players forever especially considering who it handed the title to. But as Sir Alex said:

“The younger players will remember today because sometimes a bad experience is even better for you.”

This should provide the impetus to drive these players on next season and with more luck and some additions we are certain to be there or thereabouts next year.

Yesterday I tweeted we faced some serious obstacles this season so to lose the title on goal difference isn’t awful and whilst 1 or 2 disagreed I stand by it. I could sit here and reel off the injuries that have thwarted our attempts, I could even point to that article that debunked the myth that United get all the refereeing decision and stated we should have had the title wrapped up prior to going into the final day had refs been on their job, but we aren’t a club for excuses. The simple fact is we had the title in our grasp and didn’t seize it properly.

So instead we look to positives, the fact that this team almost pulled off a footballing miracle, and despite not doing so, lost solely by way of scoring 8 less goals than our rivals. Next season there is no way the Footballing Gods will be as cruel in terms of injuries and we can hopefully look to Sir Alex bringing in some new faces to make the task of recapturing the title that much easier.

Amidst the celebrations, the angst, the despair and a laughs the most poignant thing I picked up from yesterday was Sir Alex’s post game interview.

Whilst I previously pointed to the look of disappointment in the video when he found out that City had won, it was quickly followed by determination and defiance. Straight away looking to the future, Sir Alex knows the task that stands before him. He has seen off Liverpool, Wenger’s Arsenal including their brief incarnation as the Invincibles, he also saw off Abramovich’s oil money and the efficient Chelsea side Jose Mourinho composed.

Man City pose a much bigger threat than all of these, but I have no doubt that if anyone can topple them it will be Sir Alex – the man that has vanquished so many empires before.

As the elder statesmen of the dressing room its only right that both Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs are revered by their team mates.

Despite both being well into their 30s, Giggs and Scholes continue to turn it on when called upon and each have a medal collection befitting of their talents.

An example to their teammates new and old, Javier Hernandez has paid tribute to the pair.

Hernandez has some way to go to match Ryan Giggs’ haul of 12 Premier League medals but with his first out of the way, he feel’s if he can emulate the two it will place him in good stead:

“Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs – what can I say about them?

“They are legends.  They are 38 years old but they run like they are 20 years old.  They have so much talent and are world-class players.

“As younger players, we need to learn about them and to learn every detail about them – how they are very professional.  I am very proud to be their team-mates.”

Hernandez also paid tribute to the fans and the support they show as he spoke at Nike’s official unveiling of the 2012/2013 ‘Gingham’ kit:

“They are very very important for us.

“All the time, they go to Old Trafford.  There are 70,000 – 80,000 fans cheering, supporting, singing and celebrating.

“In times when the game is not going very well, they try to support you to motivate you.  They are very important.  All the fans are very important for us – to support us.

“They only thing we need to do is to do our best on and off the pitch to help the team win and to give the fans a very satisfactory feeling.”

Danny Welbeck has been one of this season’s success stories.

Having spent last season on loan at Sunderland, Sir Alex Ferguson held true to his word and introduced the striker into the first team and United have reaped the rewards.

A return of 12 goals including strike against Man City and Arsenal have seen him touted for a place in Roy Hodgson’s Euro 2012 England team.

It’s a popular shout too especially in light of Wayne Rooney‘s 2 game absence at the start of the tournament, and Bryan Robson fully supports the inclusion of the young striker as he told Yahoo Sports:

“Well I don’t think Danny would let anybody down. He’s a real hard worker [and] he’sworked very hard over the last couple of years to develop his talent. He’s just started to score goals now and that will give him great confidence.

“The way Danny is playing for Manchester Untied at the moment, he wouldn’t let England down if Roy Hodgson does put him in the squad and ask Danny to fill in for Wayne at this moment in time.”

For more insight from Bryan Robson and other leading managers plus exclusive Premier League highlights go to www.yahoo.co.uk/sport