English Football League / Ben Herd / 07 January 2009 /

The Shrewsbury right-back discusses donuts, Phil Collins, his desire to get back into the team and what he expects from Sunday's big game between Manchester United and Chelsea.

Firstly I'd like to start off by wishing everybody a happy and healthy New Year - I wonder how many of you have already broken your resolutions?

My New Year's resolution goes without saying...getting back to playing football! I need to get going because I'm already wearing out the Nintendo Wii that I got for Christmas. I'm currently the world record holder in just about every sport on Beijing Olympics!

As I mentioned before, winter breaks would be a good idea this time of year, due to the amount of postponements that there are. As I write this (Tuesday), every single league game has been called off due to the arctic conditions we're experiencing. I must admit that this is the coldest I can remember it being during my career. I've even resorted to wearing gloves in training and have even pranged my car as I attempted to park. On the plus side, it has given me the opportunity to practice doing 'donuts' and 'power slides' on the icy car park at the ground.

As far as training goes, it's difficult to get on the grass pitches, I know I've had a pop at the groundsman (good old 'Groundo') in the last few weeks but I don't think there's anything even he could do about the weather. Fortunately enough, we have a Power League on site at the ground, which means there's plenty of 5-a-side tournaments on the astroturf.

Early January sees Christmas songs being put back in the box for another year but I see that Liverpool's Stevie G has revealed one of his favourite artists - who ironically we both share - is big Phil. No not Scolari, Collins. My missus says I'm old before my time as I can list Elton John, Seal, Sting, Rod Stewart, Bryan Adams as some of my favourite artists - how sad is that?!

It's funny coming from the south, because the tastes in music seem to differ from the northern lads - whereas the south seem to prefer a bit more R'n'B, the northerners tend to go for Indie/Rock music. I won't mention the players name (he's number 8 if you're interested!) but he's got the Will Young album in his car at the moment, taking pride of place next to his Westlife compilation.

January also sees the merry-go-round that is the transfer window. Admittedly, it does make great TV as Sky Sports News plough all their resources into finding out the latest rumours. There's no doubting that there will be a few panic buys with inflated prices towards the closure of the window.

Stewart Downing has submitted a transfer request which conveniently coincides with Tottenham's interest. It is a strange one, because someone like Downing who is 'Boro born and bred', is idolised by the fans. It will be interesting to see how they react if he is forced to continue to play for Boro. I can't see how this is going to be any good for the club or the player when he has made it public that he wants to leave. For me, the only way it can be resolved is if the player is granted his wish and Middlesborough get the maximum that they can for him.

Another player who has generated a lot of headlines is Carlos Tevez. Like myself, it would seem that he is in contract negotiations. The question is, can Man United afford to let him go?

I heard Jamie Redknapp and Andy Gray say that it is not a bad time to be an average striker, due to the lack of quality ones but who would United go after to replace the stocky Argentinian? And if they did identify another striker, how much would it cost to bring him to Old Trafford? Then, even still, there's no guarentees that he will perform to the same level that the Old Trafford faithful have seen of Tevez him this season.

United do seem to be a little short in attacking options, so there's no doubt in my mind that Fergie will keep the little maestro. They take on big Phil's (no, not Collins) Scolari's Chelsea at Old Trafford on Sunday.

As I got my half-time prediction right last week (Blyth vs Blackburn draw) I'm going to stick with the same type of market and go for 0-0 at Half-Time at [2.6].

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