The Observer puts the spotlight on Diego Tristan:
Depending on your footballing perspective, you might have any number of images of Diego Tristán from the past couple of seasons. There will surely be the bizarre sight, just over a year ago, of Fabien Barthez presenting the Deportivo La Coruña striker with the winning goal at Old Trafford. Then there was a 'must' for the annual 100 Worst Tackles Christmas video - that ninja-assassin lunge at David Beckham in the dying moments of last season's Champions League quarter-final.
But since Spain's Primera Liga kicked off in September, there has been a very different image of the man who was, pound for pound, Europe's best striker last season. Tristán may be a genuine phenomenon - a footballer who combines all the creativity of Francesco Totti and the muscular goal power of Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Week after week, though, he has sat on the Deportivo substitutes' bench, staring boggle-eyed and disconsolately at match after match
Javier Irureta may resemble a mild-mannered librarian, but he is actually a ferocious disciplinarian who, during his own playing career, had to put up with coaches such as Helenio Herrera phoning him at night just to check that he was going to bed on time. He sounds like Brian Clough when he explains his feelings about Tristán thus: 'If he was my son, I'd give him a couple of slaps round the head.'
'Tristán is lucky that he is an intelligent boy and he has natural qualities as a footballer, but I'm worried that all the advice I'm giving him may only sink in when he's 40,' says Irureta. 'He has to look after himself because what he does is like a surgeon who downs a few whiskies just before performing an operation.
'I'm not going to turn into a policeman and guard his every move, but it is so naïve of people to say I was wrong to criticise him publicly and drop him from the squad to face Madrid. Do they think that that was the first time I've spoken to him about this? No player should be out at night 24 hours before a match against Madrid. This can never be in a team of mine.'
One lingering question, for Tristán, may be whether his behaviour has dimmed Sir Alex Ferguson's view of a player he has long admired. United and Tristán have made eyes at each other since last season. Privately, Ferguson sees Tristán the footballer as among the best three or four all-round players in Europe. If you discount Zinedine Zidane and Gigi Buffon then Tristán, neck and neck with Totti, would be top of the list of players the Manchester United manager would buy in January - in a perfect world.
Although Tristán says he has 'no real intention of quitting Spain', he adds: 'Having said that, of course, playing for United is, I think, a dream for any football player and that includes me.'