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 hear what you’re saying, and I agree.
if we want to be considered as a top team, we need top players and Carrick is certainly not one of them. he is the biggest bottle-merchant I have ever seen play and quite frankly an embarrassment to the game. But yeah other than that I say keep him!