Everything United did with Tevez was over the board with all legal documents ready. If there was any party that screwed up, it was the Premier League and Richard Scudamore. They messed up with the third party ownership bullshit, and they, along with West Ham, had a lot of shit they got into.

If there was anyone murky in the whole affair, it was the officials at the Premier League, who after making the mistake of allowing third party ownership had to let this transfer happen or West Ham and Kia Joorabchian would have exposed the League for its incompetency.

United made sure there was no legal problems to get the transfer through which is why it took so long.

Because Ronaldo is not adamant about leaving United. And United did not follow a similar practice. Let me tell you what I am talking about: If you follow Spanish football closely, Marca the Spanish daily is almost a mouthpiece for Real Madrid. El Mundo Deportivo is the mouthpiece for Barcelona. Both clubs manipulate the media to entice players. When Calderon came to power he publicly declared he will do anything possible to get Kaka, Ronaldo, Fabregas and Robben. Now who the fuck gives him the divine right to publicly declare interest in players who are under contract with other clubs. Barcelona did the same with Henry and Fabregas. These clubs have a history of constantly using underhand tactics to get players.

Even in the case of Hargreaves, United kept regular contact with Bayern which is the right thing to do. The press got wind of it and blew things out of proportion. Not to mention, Hargreaves publicly stating that he wants to come to United and does not want to play for Bayern. There is a distinct difference between a club manipulating the press to unsettle players and a player himself wanting to come to a particular club. Ronaldo has just said that it’s a dream of his to play in Spain some day — could be real or barca.

Madrid and Barca ALWAYS use underhand tactics. Go to an Arsenal blog, see how often you have them cursing Real Madrid and Barcelona. Go to even Liverpool blog, and a couple of years ago they wanted to take Alonso.

The English clubs are more straight with their dealings.

With regards to the loyalty question, I was just pointing out that loyalty is perhaps a dated concept in today’s footballers. Ryan Giggs will perhaps be the last to remain at a single club throughout his playing days. Even if we speak of Rio or Rooney, wasn’t Ferdinand holding the club to ransom over his contract both last year and this year?

Regarding loyalty, when you move to a big English club there is very little high profile transfer of players within the Big Four unless either club is getting something in return. The last case was Ashley Cole but even then, Arsenal got Gallas in return. You won’t have English players desired by clubs like Madrid. Over the past decade only Steve McManaman and David Beckham plied their trade abroad. So the chances of English players moving abroad is minimal.

IMO one thing we have to get used to is the fact he won’t finish his career here. So some day, sooner or later, he will go. Lets just pray it is a few years down the road and feel privileged that we were able to witness the worlds best player in the shirt for at least one season.

As for Madrid’s ‘seductive’ talent, I think it is worth nothing that this club did pull off the transfers of Figo and Zidane not that may years ago. We mightn’t like to admit it but for most players ‘the club’ to be at is not infact Manchester United but is actually Real Madrid

Now with the spanish interview if you read the article from one of the uk newspapers that was posted in the comments on the post before this one it states that the station was granted a 10 minute interview and wasted 5 minutes of this grilling him on him leaving in the summer to join Real. That gives me the idea the statement was forced out of him and was probably along the lines of his comment to sky and comments in the past where he has said that footballs unpredictable and you cant predict what will happen in the future which is true and its better he honest rather than some footballers who express their love for a club and then turn around and quit at the first sign of money.

If he gave a time frame and its not just spain making it up it may be that a) he knows like everyone does Real will put a bid in and theres always a chance the club will accept and/or b) the rumours over the last couple of months of him getting another new contract are true and the talks are due to start next week and he knows that. Either would mean a deicsion on his future will be made by all parties after the final and doesnt mean hes leaving

He scored the opening goal of the season, to start off our good run, scored the winner in the Benfica and Celtic matches to keep our run going, scored the winner against Chelsea, scored the opening goal against Portsmouth, the winner against Blackburn and the opener against Everton. It’s hard to deny that if we did not have Saha last season, we probably would not have won the league last season.

These facts also show that he was a main reason behind why we killed teams off so quickly last season, something we have failed to do this season. He also gave Carrick, Scholes and Giggs a target to aim at, giving them a better platform to play their game.

This season, he scored 5 goals in 5 starts, proven quality. He scored the equaliser against Sunderland(and 2 goals against them away) and the final goal in the win over Chelsea. Without these goals, Chelsea would have had hope that they could have won the league, and they would have been on top at one stage, giving them a psychological advantage.

Whether you like him or not, he’s proven he is a brilliant player no matter how much money was ‘wasted’ on him.

He uses his agility to turn players brilliantly, better than anyone I have seen and I mean that genuinely, he holds the ball up in our team better than anyone, and he has done what was asked of him when he was on the pitch.