One of the world's best, but not United's.
Sir Alex bought Juan SebastienVerón under the pretence he was acquiring the best midfielder in Europe and, while only a moron can question Verón’s ability, he was never able to adapt to the Premier League. Since Verón’s disappointing tenure at Old Trafford, Sir Alex has refused to spend big on a superstar midfielder from a foreign league.
Sir Alex’s reluctance to overspend on foreign imports has led to us constantly missing out on every major target we’ve openly competed for against European powerhouses.
In the summer of 2003, we had struck a deal for Paris St. Germain’s Ronaldinho, only to be thwarted when Barcelona offered more and we refused to match it. In January 2004, we showed Robben around our training ground and were extremely close to signing him when the same thing happened with Chelsea. We recovered and won the Champions League four years later but, Porto and Liverpool won the Champions League in the seasons following our failure to buy the duo. Hardly Europe’s elite at the time. And what an increase our chances would have taken, had we paid that little bit extra and bought either of them. Similar things have since happened with Benzema, Essien, Ballack, Ozil, David Silva, Yaya Touré, Alexis Sanchez and now Eden Hazard. Each of those players was in our grasp, but we didn’t sign them because we refused to spend that little bit extra that was necessary. Have we ever competed for a player with a Barcelona or a Real Madrid and won?
Fans, who say players should choose us for trophies and Chelsea or City for money, are delusional. And sound like bitter, Liverpool fans. Chelsea are the champions of Europe and City of England. Both have more to offer than just the lure of money, and we need to realise that to compete requires us to spend big.
Some fans will also point to the fact that we only lost the title on goal difference, but why did we lose it and not win it by that means? Because we don’t have enough match winners. We don’t have enough players who can create something out of nothing when it really matters. Samir Nasri was average all season but stepped up to the plate when the pressure was on. He was another player we missed out on because we refused to match City’s offer.
In an ideal world, we would win the Treble next season with a midfield of Phil Jones and Tom Cleverley but, could anyone see that as a realistic option? The fans need to be excited. We won’t win the Champions League with Michael Carrick as our leading central midfielder. People eulogise over him, but would he get in any other of the top 7 teams’ midfields? Let alone the rest of Europe’s elite. He’s not a ball winner, and he doesn’t create goals. It’s OK to have a player like that when you have Cristiano Ronaldo, Tevéz, Scholes and Giggs in their peak playing around him, but when he needs to step up he isn’t good enough. With him in the team we are less attacking and play less attractive football; and we lost the league on goal difference at the end of the day. Carrick is a good squad player. A useful player to bring on when we’re 2-0 up with 20 minutes to go away from home, but if we have aspirations of ruling Europe, we can’t depend on him as our leading central midfield player. He needs to be replaced by a match winning playmaker and an aggressive ball winner.
Sir Alex is the greatest manager of all time and, there’s no one who could do his job better than him but, he needs to get with the times. He needs to target a player and spend whatever is necessary to obtain him. Sir Alex needs to realise that Verón was a one-off. He needs to realise that he may have to spend £35m on a player worth £25m; but, if that player scores the winner in the Champions League Final, can it still be classed as overspending?
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I am an unwavering ManU fan since I started supporting the game. I urge our fans to open our eyes to the reality on the ground and that is that a gap is fast opening between us and the elite of European soccer. Let me start at home: Man City are stronger, Chelsea has made a statement of intent with Marin and Hazard’s signings and the pursuit of Hulk. If they continue they will be in a better position that us. Arsenal has the ability (with Podolski) to better challenge for honours than us. We will end up competing against Newcastle, Tottenham, Everton and Liverpool for the 4th place if we continue this way. We are clearly a team in decline. Going a bit further, teams like Real, Barca, Milan, Inter, Juve, Napoli, Athletic Bilbao and Bayern have overtook us on the field of play. Who in our midfield would stake a claim in the midfields of these teams? No one! Who in our defence would enter these teams? Vidic ONLY.Our forwards? Rooney ONLY!
Let face the truth and stop crucifying Andrew for a thought-provocing article. Carrick is ok, but not good. Scholes won’t last forever. Giggs misplaced 75% of his passes this year and still claim to be in good shape! What shape is that? Would I rather have Essien, Dombele (he ran thorugh our midfie)Lassana Diara vs Carrick/Fletcher etc? We are crab and it has shown as we were dumped out of the Champs League and humiliated in the Europa League. We lost the EPL crown by a goal-difference after we were humiliated by team like Wigan and Newcastle.
As loyal fans we should engage on how to stop this ship from sinking and not become defensive when faced by articles that “say it like it is”.
If we dont spend money on quality players, we need to replace the golden oldies, we will be left behind by chelski and shittty. are midfield is weak and so is are defense.
I agree with Richardson. Utd. bought Rio 11 or 12 yrs. ago for £30 mil. unheard of for a defender but 10 years later he said £35 mil for a young world class centre forward was to much. Ever since the Glazers took over we have counted the pennies. We lost 2 players in December and he would not play Berbatov.Our saviour was supposed to be Cleverley. The team was short so instead of spending money he brought back Scholes and that was what cost United the league
Do y’all see what mikel is to chelsea,that’s what
carrick is to us, buh we don’t have the likes of mata,silver, to support him up front…and as regards hazard,I’m happy he didn’t choose us,gonna disturb our wage structure,he’s arrogant, he might be a dressing room poison and what difference will he make than alexis sanchez made for barca???
Might i add that Carrick has had to suffer if you like, a lack of a consistent partner in midfield. One day hes played with Giggs, another with Park or Jones. Hes always partnered with someone who is not a natural centre midfielder, bar Scholes but the fact is Scholes does not have the legs anymore and extra leg work is required of Carrick. Look at it this way, would there be any other midfielder who could replace Carrick like for like and do even better? I cant think of anyone besides Yaya Toure.
You can say what you want about Hazard being an arse, facts are he’s a world class player and will only improve. Anyone who says that they wouldn’t rather have Hazard than our current wingers is delusional.
In life, being outstanding fosters arrogance. There are very few top performers, especially in sport, who haven’t shown a childish egotistical side. Even ‘model professional’ Lionel Messi has been know have a tantrum when he’s not picked. A good manager doesn’t avoid big characters, he manages difficult players and keeps everyone happy.
To say that Hazard being egotistical means that he shouldn’t be a United player is incredibly naive. We missed out on one of the world’s best (again). There are no excuses – it simply isn’t good enough.
carrick is a wank stain!!!!useless cunt
this article is a call up for SAF and the Glazer familyto spend when the tranfer market opens come june. i think Kagawa with tiote/martinez will go a long way in achieving our goal come 2012/2013 season
Good article in the main. I agree with those who think Carrick is a More than a squad player but I think the Glazers are sucking our club dry. We are the only club which enabled there owners to take 500 million out of the club since the have owned us and survive. I don’t unferstand the Glazer plan. You need to speculate to accumulate. The wise things is the leeches will only leave whme they have taken everything. We are Man Utd, our fans have very right to expect big signings with the money we generate and the history we have. Whilst the Glazera are around it’s gonna get worse and worse. Btw two of our best players of the great year Cantana and Romnu were arrogant.
UnitedSeven
May 29 – 8:48 pm
Good article in the main. I agree with those who think Carrick is a More than a squad player but I think the Glazers are sucking our club dry. We are the only club which enabled there owners to take 500 million out of the club since the have owned us and survive. I don’t unferstand the Glazer plan. You need to speculate to accumulate. The worse things is the leeches will only leave when they have taken everything. We are Man Utd, our fans have very right to expect big signings with the money we generate and the history we have. Whilst the Glazers are around it’s gonna get worse and worse. Btw two of our best players of the great year Cantona and Ronny were arrogant.