Gary Neville:
"I am full of optimism for next season," he told The Times of Malta.
"In the past, United have shown that we always bounce back from the disappointment of the previous campaign and I'm confident we will do the same this year.
"The (FA Cup) victory ensured a positive end to a difficult season. Our performance in the first half of the season was good but then we had problems in our defence.
“Rio Ferdinand was banned, Mikael Silvestre and myself had to sit out a number of matches due to injury, and we lost our momentum. Despite all these difficulties, we still managed to beat Arsenal in the semi-final of the cup.
"And since then the squad has been strengthened with the signings of Gabriel Heinze and Alan Smith.
"We can only prove that United are back to their best by winning the championship and I'm full of optimism for next season."
Is it at all significant that the day after the Telegraph suggested that Rio could well be targeted by Chelsea that both the manager and one of the most senior players have come out and blamed his ban for last season’s league performance?