Manchester United´s FA Cup semi-final plans have been thrown into chaos and part of the blame is being laid at the door of Sven Goran Eriksson.
The embattled England coach´s fraught relationship with United took another downturn this week when he apparently went back on a deal that was struck for Nicky Butt and Phil Neville to play in Wednesday´s friendly in Sweden, while Gary Neville and Paul Scholes remained at home.
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson struck the agreement in the belief that neither Butt nor Neville would be required to play for more than 45 minutes of the game.
Instead, much to the United manager´s annoyance Butt appeared for 77 minutes of the 1-0 defeat, while Neville was one of two outfield players to complete the entire game in Gothenburg.
As a consequence, Ferguson has opted to write the pair out of Sunday´s crunch encounter with Arsenal at Villa Park completely.
" We certainly didn´t expect them to play for that long," admitted the United boss.
" We expected it to be half a game. The pair have ruled themselves out in a way and so I have had to change my thinking."
The anger at Eriksson´s handling of his players is keenly felt, although Neville and Butt were likely to be on the bench at best.
< <<<< tous nos joueurs super naze . ....
pour les internationax d´arsenal c´est parfait ils ont soit pas jouer , soit tres peu . je le sens de moins en moins ce match . ruud ne jouera sans doute pas , nos internationaux sont morts , et arsenal est meilleur que nous . ca craint