Jun 19
Benzema ‘Prefers’ Madrid but United better sporting brand than Madrid
Jean Michael Aulas, Lyon’s chairman, who’s allegedly charismatic according to reports has revealed that whilst Karim Benzema will most likely stay with Lyon for another year, if he decides to depart, it would be for Madrid.
Don’t trust me? Well, here’s the quote:
“No-one is intransferable, but knowing Karim, if he did leave, it would be to Real Madrid. For the moment, we are not talking about transferring Karim.”
Of course, the obvious question will be, Fergie, are you still interested in him? Why are we still hearing incessant rumours linking us with this player — who, despite his obvious talents, has questionable taste in clubs — yet not even a murmur on cheaper strikers like Huntelaar? Also, he’s erm, French.
Today is Friday, which means another week whizzes past us, with Valencia still looking the most likely signing — assuming Real Madrid agree to add the requested one year supply of hair gel, sun tan, Iberian escorts, into Ronaldo’s contract, by the end of this month. In fact the number of eligible transfer candidates have dwindled over the past week. The under-26 age policy might have ruled out a few targets right away. We mused, a couple of days ago, if United were being naive about it, whilst, Penguin United came up with a theory that it may just be a smokescreen for driving the price for United targets down.
All that said, it sort of rules us out of reckoning for Villa (Spain Lover), Ribery (Madr!d lover), Eto’o (Dirham-lover, City-bound perhaps?) and possibly Benzema. But if we still are in the hunt for Benzema, there’s only one theory that can possibly explain it: We might want to buy him for about £25m and hope Madrid are still foolish to come back and buy him off us for £100m in three years’ time, just two months after Fergie would have said, he wouldn’t sell them a tadpole.
Nothing else explains why Fergie might still want Benzema.
Meanwhile, Manchester United is the 8th best Sporting Brand in the world, according to SportsPro magazine. Predictably American sports brands NFL, MLB, NBA and Nascar grabbed top four spots. But the most interesting entry in that list was the Indian Premier League, a cricket league that is now just two seasons old but is valued just $100m lower than the world cup, according to the Guardian article. From United’s perspective, we are valued at about $1.5bn.
The list also includes Ferrari, Formula One, and the Dallas Cowboys.
The whole list is as below:
1 NFL ($4.5b)
2 MLB ($3.9b)
3 NBA (2.35b)
4 Nascar ($1.9b)
5 FIFA World Cup ($1.7n)
6 Indian Premier League ($1.6b)
7 Ferrari F1 team ($1.55b)
8 Manchester United Football Club ($1.495b)
9 Formula one ($1.45b)
10 Dallas Cowboys ($1.278b)
[via]
And finally, we’ve been mentioned in the EPLTalk website as among the 10 English football bloggers you must follow on Twitter. For those who aren’t aware or are cynical about twitter, think of it as a microblogging service that you can use for a myriad of things. Some use it for PR, companies use it for customer service, some use it to follow breaking news. Quite recently it has received enormous praise when the Iranian government banned complete coverage from foreign media. So Iranian citizens used twitter to send updates to the outside world, breaking barriers etc.
Anyway, we are happy to see ourselves on the list, and since we usually don’t win awards, we’ll lap up any credit that comes our way. Those interested can follow us on twitter, here. If I’m not on the blog, you will see me put up some small questions/thoughts on United and football in general over there for you to reply to/discuss. Plus, I may put up some interesting links to articles I encounter during the day since it’s far easier to do it there than on the main blog. So do follow us there, if you please. Oh, and do follow those 10 other folks mentioned in the post referenced above.
Enough about us, over to you…
Related items from Red Rants:
- Breaking News: United accept 80m Ronaldo bid
- Manchester United’s 08/09 Champions’ League Opponents
- How’s the latest episode of the Ronaldo-Madrid soap opera an ‘exclusive’?
- Benzema, Benzema and more Benzema. But it’s only talk.
- Why Becks and van “the man†were sold so cheaply to Real
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (541)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Stephen (454)
Craig Mc (344)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
@Rd: Listen mate, when you have 100 million to spend, you are going to overspend anyway. Teams see you flashing that kind of wad around and they get greedy. Also, we are Man Utd. We always pay more for players. It’s our unfortunate lot in life. But make no mistake, we need to buy a few players that will make up the difference in the goals we lose from Ronaldo. We can never replace Ronaldo as he is a God, but with two or three key players added to the starting eleven, we can make the team as good if not better and more balanced. But in order to do that, we must spend money. There is no getting around that. And standing pat and doing little will just lead us to struggle for fourth place.
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@Grognard: Yeah, lets go and get Fergie Grog, and duff him up at the Railway sidings by OT. He will play Nani then out of scared shit-less-ness
.
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@Grognard: They are not doing nothing Grog. SAF said that they will have all the players they intend to bring in at the end of July/beginning of August, so something is afoot. He is not going to buy big name players though, just because they have a big name. He has to think TEAM. His words, not mine!
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Well, I am off now to watch the Euro under 23 games. See you later!
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@Grognard: I certainly care about Tevez leaving, in fact i care a lot.
I’M FUCKING ECSTATIC!!!
The two things that puzzle me the most about his departure is why would we dangle the 25m, my god he might even have snapped it up, and secondly, why did so many fans love him so dearly?? He played like utter crap for most of last season, and then aired his grievances to the press and the OT crowd. Doesn’t make any sense to me, we can do soo much better than him!!
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@Craig Mc: Central midfield requires twice the amount of concentration as well as duties. It is the bridge between defense and offense and therefore, the player has twice the responsibilities and pressure on him to perform. He will need to mature more before he gets that chance. I predict we will see him in some Carling Cup action this season but we won’t see him on the team in EPL action until the following season unless we have clinched early and Fergie throws him in to game similar to the game vs Hull at the end of the year.
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@johnsom33: hahaha the new ronaldo for sure
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@Craig Mc: Money is not an issue. Just stroke my ego by telling me how brilliant and visionary I am with my training regiments and tactical nuances and how irreplaceable I am to both you and Nani.
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@Craig Mc: Nani has the talent but he needs to know when to turn it on and off. Become a more complete player. And he needs to stop thinking independently of the team. Once he does that, Fergie will have succeeded and Nani’s path to glory will be defined.
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@Grognard: 2 big signings aguero and silva for me
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@Craig Mc: The only big name player and by big name I mean over 30 million that I would dream of having is one Sergio Aguero. Other than that, I am fine with 3 or 4 player in the 15 to 30 region. But I want them to be players that can fit in immediately. We have more than enough kids right now. We need players to make the club more dynamic and also make the club look and feel different than it has for quite a while. I would like to see the following done within the concept of quantity rather than extreme quality. Valencia, Huntelaar, Hernanes and either Yaya Toure or Felipe Melo. I wouldn’t mind a Douglas Costa or an Alex Sanchez either. Also, if their is a sliver of a chance that we could pull of a real coupe and sign Casillas, that would be frakken fantastic. But I’m not holding my breath on that rumour
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@Redrich: I don’t get the love affair many of the blue collar faithful had for him either. I mean I think he was a solid player that did offer a specific dynamic to the club which was an energy boost, desire and chaos to defensive units trying to mark him. But when the ball was at his feet he would often make a meal of things and had a terrible first touch and ability to mess up the simplest of passes or shots. Sure he occasionally scored some really spectacular goals but they were far too few and not too often for a player that was being offered for 25 million not to mention his ridiculous wage demands. He just wasn’t good enough and i for one wouldn’t pay 15 million for him. So off with him and I wish him luck as he tries to prove us wrong
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Grognard Ive not seen much of Hernanes but I have a Brazilian penpal who supports Sao Paulo and she says he is a class act.
Ive seen Melo play a bit as well and I think he’d be superb for us.
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@Craig Mc: I feel a little sorry for Tevez, apart from the last few months, he was very professional about everything. Still happy to see him go though.
Inside info or is there a link to SAF saying we’ll have all the players we are after or need by july/august?
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@Grognard: Once again (see above) sorry to disappoint re the ‘game’ references but I don’t use them. Isn’t that becoming a lame sort of a standard pretensious opening comment now?
Re: ‘Buffon is not for sale’ Buffon is ripe for a sale! and for the Premier league! and is exactly the sort of buy who would quickly make other players reassess Utd as World Champions.
Re: ‘I wouldn’t sit Huntelaar over Berbatov’ I hadn’t but we do need to provide cover in both of the main striker positions and provide the option to rotate. I’d definitely lead with Berbatov and Rooney.
Re: ‘nor would I sit Valencia’ I see Valencia as being a cover player for this season.
‘Carrick as a wide player. The guy is such a lead foot it’s hilarious to just think about it.’ So why are you thinking about it – Read what I put above.
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@gator: nice piece of skill that!
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ranter and all the rest of you guys seriously need to keep writing reports you have talent, but its your lack of attention and at times care tht is frustrating me you call yourselves bloggers but that involves being up to date with the rest of the world of sport around manchester united but right now you really need to up your game and I hope you do because you have potential enough to be up there with top bloggers. Consider this a serious message though up your game or just stop it becuse you should be able to write atleast once every 2 days!!!!!!!!!
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@Grognard: No offence mate, but thank God you are not the manager. If you would rather play O’Shea and ‘blend Fabio in’ than Evra…
Anyway, for reference, Rafael is not an exceptional right-back, he is not even a good right-back, he is not even as good as Liverpool’s Arbeloa. The reason that we are excited about him is because he is very good for an 18 year old. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that he is United quality. He has tons of potential and it looks like he will deliver on it but he will not be part of the Brazil national team any time soon.
If we were to play the two twins now, Rio and Vidic would have their work cut out. Evra helps our centre-backs immensely and he is good at going forward when our team does go forward (which was not very often this season).
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@Andrei: That assessment of Evra was true till the early part of last season. Not after that. He’s become a pale shadow of himself and suffered a puzzling dip in form.
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this is the best united blog by far¬ so i dont know what you are talking about Julio
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@Julio: I suggest if you don’t like it mate, that you go and frequent those other wonderful blogs you are pontificating about
. Nobody is chaining you to this blog eh?
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@Roge9: SAF’s comments were reported on Sky and the Radio mate. Why do you feel sorry for Tevez, he has got what he wants, to be away from Our club, and he will be collecting more money weekly mate, than you will see all your life. I notice now, that his agent can’t stop talking about United, and what a marvelous British record offer we made to Tevez, to prove that we wanted him. I mean who is he trying to kid
. We were paying the contracted agrred price, and that was it. United had not budged on the price of that contract, which incidentally they were trying to reduce. His agent didn’t like that United said he, and other party ownership agents are most difficult to deal with. Now he is just trying to build up Tevez, that United wanted to break the British transfer record to get him. Absolute shite, but he has to do that rather than admit that it was Man United in the end that pulled the plug.
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@Craig Mc: Nani Davis Jnr is rubbish
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@Andrei: Id rather have grog as our manager then you
Are you evras agent? hes shit, no, shit would be too good for him, hes beneath shit. Hes a member of parliament type of shit!
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@Craig Mc: just kiddin mate, he does look like Sammy Davis Jnr though.
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@Andrei: I’d play O’She at first to give Fabio time to blend in. Certainly wouldn’t be for very long and he still would be a safe if unspectacular alternative to the Skinned Sausage who prowls that area like the albatross from the poem of the Ancient Mariner. Once again someone comes out and shows a complete disregard and disrespect for a true United specialist like John O’Shea. Just comes out and does his job and still gets no respect. Instead we would rather have Evra screw us over game after game with his ineptitude and stupidity with the ball.
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@Julio: I’m not sure you what you mean about upping our game Julio? What exactly are we not doing? We see the same reports and news about United you do and we comment on them daily. We also try to avoid the most ridiculous reports from the internet as well the terrible tabloids, so I’m not sure exactly what your point is?
Are you asking us to be rumour mongers and make up stuff to satisfy the ravenous nature of readers out there? Please explain more fully and give examples.
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@Dan: And under that wise regime, Dan would be the starting attacking midfielder……Right?
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@Craig Mc: Like yourself mate Im glad to see Tevez go, not because of anything he has said or his behavior, its simply a football decision.
When I heard the news today I had mixed emotions, from a footballing point of view I think he was overpriced, overrated and was little more than an impact player who hadnt improved us in the way I would have liked.
Also todays news will hopefully galvanise SAF and spring him into action coz there are targets out there that will add a new dimension to our play, so the longer we waited on Tevez to make a decision the more chance these targets would be snapped up by different teams, those are the positives that I take from todays news.
But whenever I heard that United had met MSIs evaluation of the player it worried me coz when you look at it from the perspective of us keeping him it then brings into qusetion what the gaffers plans for the team actually are, coz in my opinion we would have been vastly improved by letting Tevez go and using the money on players or a striker in particular that would have improved the squad and our goalscoring potential, something that signing Tevez would not have done.
Now at least SAF will be forced into trying something different and aquiring different players, players that will hopefully add a new dimension and bring us something fresh and new, but I must admit mate, I have a bad feeling about this summer and have a gut feeling that maybe SAF has went off signing players from outside the premiership, if this is so, and I hope Im wrong, it will be a bad move.
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@Fred The Red: What the F…, I will not be responsible for my actions towards you on this blog, if you start on Super man Nani
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@Grognard: too right
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@frankie: I agree that management fucked up on the Tevez deal. They had 2 years to sort it out and they waited till the last minute and fucked up, just like they got fucked with the Berbatov deal. Thing is, United’s management has a history of doing this. I really though that perhaps the ONE good thing that could come from the Glazer takeover was that they would sort out the management…alas.
I for one care about Tevez leaving. Should Nani decide to leave, I think we will be fucked as a team. Not for their importance, but for the question as to why high-profile players want to bail ship, and why are non-Europeans (or in this case latinos) never successful at the club (exception Ronaldo).
To those with logic, consider that:
1. United met the asking price
2. United reports that Tevez turned down a deal that would have made him the highest paid player in the PL
3. SAF called him personally
As Frankie said, wether we think he’s worth it or not, management fucked up.
4. If Tevez was really after the money, why not accept United’s offer? Why opt (as is reported) for City where he might also end up being rotated?
I think, as greedy as what MSI might be, Fergie hurt the boy.
I will miss Tevez. I am not upset at his decision because I would have done exactly the same. I wish him well.
Now that that is behind us as well…Tevez who
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@Dan: Who are we talking about here? Evra is having a terrible dip in form, but he’s hardly shit. Talk about exaggeration, you’d think we were talking about some League One player here.
@Grognard: He probably means like the way ROM operates, with daily updates, sometimes twice or thrice. Users here already post rubbish from tabloid rags anyways, so not sure what difference it’d make.
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@Fred The Red: Listen Fred, United had no intention of signing Tevez. Yet they had to do things in such a way, to appease those misguided and Tevez minded United fans, who would have blamed SAF and the club for letting him go. So the engineered things to the degree, that they would see that the statement that went out, was that Tevez didn’t want to remain with United. So the fans wouldn’t start their boo hooing again. Do you really think that IF SAF had wanted Tevez really, he wouldn’t have seen to it that he got his man. Joorabchian himself is not saying that Tevez wanted to leave, but that he just wanted more time to think. SAF wasn’t prepared to give him that time, because he wasn’t that arsed, and Joorabchian is publically stating that Man United wouldn’t give them time. In other words WE PULLED THE PLUG. Now Joorabchian is making all kinds of boasts that United wanted Tevez so badly, that they would smash the british transfer record. PLEASE, its all Tevez machine propoganda. United pulled the plug, trust me on this mate!
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@Karl: Answer me this, why should we have sorted out the deal earlier? Is there anything wrong in waiting till close to the end of his contract to sort it out? What if after we’d signed him, he gets a horrific or a career ending injury, what happens to the £25m then? We have a time limit and that was till the end of June, we DID NOT have to sign him a minute before that because Fergie and Gill all throughout the season have assured him numerous times that they wanted him on board, what else does he want?
Cry me a river, the management acted like anybody in their right business mind would have. He’s more likely to be first choice than at United and he’d probably play all their games except when he’s injured and City probably offered him more as they can afford to.
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What bothers me about this whole scenario is:
United obviously did not feel Tevez was worth the money being quoted, therefore the long extended negotiation talks. I cannot believe that is was ever a case of we could not afford him (that would worry me even more). Suddenly, the club realise that they need and want him, offer his agent the requested amount, and agree to make him one of the highest paid players in the league? I cannot help the cinycism, but to me this indicates that there is no real plan of action at OT. I would have imagened that the roadmap would have been clearly drawn up some time ago already. I mean, I am not a United player, but even I knew that Ronaldo was leaving at the end of this season. Where’s the contingencies? To be honest, it appears as if there is none. For this I would advocate that the wisest course of action would be to NOT sign anyone.
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@Rd: Most of it turns out to be NOT RUBBISH though mate, in spite of the folk on here, who like to bollocks everything as rubbish! I told on here months and months ago many of the things that have happened at our club, and was told about scaremongering, but what I have said has proved right. I could tell you more, but I won’t because those who like to say everything is bollocks will no doubt continue doing so
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@Hannoodi: Hey Superman, my bet is for No.7 to go to Berbatov. I don’t see it making sense to had it to anyone else.
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@Craig Mc: You don’t bid £25m for a player you never wanted to keep. Like I said above, what he had accepted this fake offer? What does Fergie do then? Manchester United gave him NINE days, if that isn’t enough for him to decide between United and City, then he doesn’t have his head screwed on right. Do you really think Fergie cares if the fans boo till they’re blue in the face. Fergie DID really want him, imo and Tevez turned it down.
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@Craig Mc: I disagree mate, we pulled the plug because Tevez wanted to take his time and consider his options and we needed him to make up his mind asap. Phoning the player twice while he was away and listening to the rumblings coming ouy of OT this last week or so did not give me the impression that we were simply going through the motions of pretending to want him ,coz the real reason that we delayed meating his valuation was not because SAF did not want him, its because he thought that he was overpriced and did not want to pay so much for him.
Its not often mate that I disagree with you mate but on this one I think you are wrong mate.
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@Karl: The very opposite to what you have said is true mate, and as Rafa says, that is a fact! It was the rent a mob fans who wanted Tevez to stay, not SAF. They had to make it look like they wanted him, because of those said fans! After all the lies about the Ronnie never leaving etc, you should know by now Karl, that Man United SAY THE OPPOSITE to what is actually truth. So yes we want Tevez meant, no we don’t but the fans have to think we do. I know that is the case mate. Even Joorabchian is saying that United would not give them time, so pulled the plug. United however are saying that Tevez chose to leave –
, the plot thickens. United never wanted him that badly, end of.
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@Rd: First of all, the fact that they agreed the amount, AND opted to make him the highest paid league player is an indication that they wanted him. He has been crying for over a year to get his contract sorted out. They delayed.
Secondly, if he gets injured, there’s such a thing as insurance. That particular scenario pertains to ALL players.
Thirdly, even though Fergie told him he was wanted on board, his actions towards him surely did not portray that he is wanted. I mean, demoting him to the CC games with youngsters, and then after he scores 4, benching him again? He was never given a fair chance since the arrival of Berbatov. You don’t do that to someone you ‘want’.
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@Craig Mc: Like what? Do tell
@Karl: Not sign anyone? You really want the suicide rates on here and in Manchester to rise do you. If that happens, we’ll probably have “FERGIE OUT” chants next season.
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New post up, and it’s on the United-Tevez-Kia soap opera. Jeez! A lot of soap operas are ending this summer, aren’t they?
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@Rd: About Ronaldo having told his United team mates that he was leaving at the end of this season. But then he also said Nani will be moving this summer.
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@Karl: Like I said, while you’re saying they delayed, what reason do they have to sort it out earlier? As long as he’s under contract, we can sign him anytime, just as long as he’s its within his contract window.
He wasn’t convincing even when given the chance. The only time you could say he was dropped was after Blackburn and Fergie had good reason to because there was another game 3 days afterwards. He came out himself and said he wanted to play most games, not possible at United.
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@Craig Mc: If management decided to ‘offer’ 25m for the player and announce that they wanted to make him ‘one of the highest paid players in the league’, just because they did not want him and wanted to save face afterwards, then I’m sorry, I will have even less respect for them. Compare to a saving of 25m, I don’t think Fergie will give a rats ass if the crowd boos him. Besides, it is the job of PR to clean up afterwards, not management. Trust me, they fucked up.
I don’t want to cry over Tevez leaving (even though I personally am very gutted), but moreso, as I’ve mentioned in my other post, it does not appear as if there is a vision or roadmap at OT. If there is, it is seriously going wrong.
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@Fred The Red: I know I am right Fred, just like I knew I was right about Ronnie, and told you all 12 months ago. Everyone told me I was wrong, and also when I told you all the players knew about it. I knew because my friend is a very good friend of one of the UNited 1st team players missus. I know also that SAF was absolutely incensed with Tevez going public with everything, and especially incensed that he referred to SAF as the Old Man who didn’t like him, and that he didn’t agree with the way that SAf ran things. We all know that anybody who fucks with SAF, gets kicked out the door!
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@Julio: Ok I believe when you meant bloggers, you meant those who write and contribute to the main articles on the top. Of course, regarding the strict definition of bloggers, you are right because bloggers are those on the top of the page and those below the fold are commenters. Ok, since we’ve cleared that up let me address your concern on upping my game (even though that question assumes I am in some competition, in which case it entirely misses the point). I see it like this:
If I’m not doing a good job of it, I’ll see fewer and fewer people interested giving up and moving on to other places. That’s how the internet works, so that itself is a good indicator of the job I’m doing. Even though I don’t see this a numbers game.
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@Rd: My THEORY is this. United was not sure that they wanted him. They were resigned to not having him sign up because they felt he was not worth the asking price. With the Ronaldo issue, their hand was forced. Similiar to what happened with Berbatov and City. Therefore, if you want someone, sign him up. There is a belief that Fergie always gets his man irrespective of the price. At least, that was the excuse after the Berbatov fiasco. If they really wanted him, why not sign him up then? If they then really though he was overpriced, why offer to meet all terms? Fact is, they were not sure. and that is the worrying part.
It is thereofore quite evident why they had to sort out things in time, and not at the end.
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