Jun 09
Speculation Continues in an Otherwise Quiet Day
Yes. Speculation over Ronaldo will continue for the rest of the tournament because the Great One has said that he’ll make a decision only after the tournament. So we will bow down to His wishes and wait till the end of the tournament with bated breath. After all, that’s what he meant when he said ‘two to three weeks’, a day after the Champions’ League final — who are we or the club to bother about such details as dates anyway? He will make his decision when He deems it right, and we’ll have to live with that — great man that He is.
Rio Ferdinand joined the growing chorus from United’s players, echoing Gary Neville’s belief that Ronaldo will stay.
Speaking of best players in the world and mercenaries, Ronaldinho looks likely to be making a move to Manchester City. I still rate the player and I think he needed a strong willed manager to give him some direction. He’s only 28 and Mark Hughes could be the right person to rejuvenate the player — although that thought scares me. What scares me even more is the reported £200,000 per week on offer. Insane would just about begin to describe it. More reason perhaps, for our ‘best player in the world’ to demand a wage bump?
Moving on, it seems wage demands are a stumbling block for Silvestre moving to Bordeaux. Apparently both parties want the transfer to happen. Well, if this does happen then I would deem left back to be a greater area of concern. We’ve already sold Pique which is why it seems Evans’ possible loan move is being put on hold.
Meanwhile in our mini-Euro roundup, no United player was on display yesterday. Germany put on a good display and carved Poland open on numerous occasions in the first half. Some of the passing on view was sharp. The second half looked in danger of going flat, but the second goal from Podolski killed it off. Impressive stuff from one of the tournament favourites.
Earlier Austria gave a very good account of themselves and had Croatia on the cosh for most part. Croatia did just about enough to hold on — much like Czech Republic before them — leaving the Austrians grieving over what might have been a well deserved draw at least.
So did you find any player worth discussing? Anyone that could interest our scouts? Opinions please. Take it away…
Related items from Red Rants:
- Monday’s News Round-Up: Get Well Soon Mr. Hargreaves
- Anderson talks – puts speculation to bed
- Daily News Round-Up: Buffon To United… Not A Chance
- All Quiet on the Berba Front and Nothing Else…
- Tuesday’s News Round-Up: Wayne Wants A Long Stay But Will Dimitar Be Out The Door
Tags: Manchester United News
Craig Mc (200)
RedDevilEddy (182)
Opti (142)
Ian (107)
Moscow is my heaven (99)
JB; That’s possible I guess. I just get so frustrated because it seems all media that comes from Europe is corrupt and full of lies. This is not the case in North America. Sports is trivial and thus it’s reported with honesty and integrity placed in proper perspective here. It’s politics and foreign affairs like the Iraq war or the Presidential election s that are treated with lies, bias and fed information here. Sports thank God is squeaky clean. I don’t know why journalism in sports is run with such cheap and low tabloid style?
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Hahaha Grog, you just keep on talking the talk mate. That dutch defence you say are rubbish, conceded LESS goals than any other team in the games for qualifying, as was confirmed by the commentary team on ITV. I thought the dutch defense played fantastic, and the dutch attack could have had 6 or 7 goals. As for Van Persie, I think he is a great footballer, and the pace and skill he has is frightening. His only problem is, like Saha, he gets injured a lot. But I love to watch Van Persie play, and I dare to admit this too, though I may get much flak from this board, I wish we had him playing at Old Trafford.
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Well to be fair no proper media outlet (ie newspapers, tv or radio) in the UK have reported the story. It mostly just seems to be doing the rounds on message boards and some of the less reliable football news websites.
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Grongard…I understand that it was low brow humor. All I was trying to get across was that it doesn’t make it right. None of it is right. I respect your right to say whatever you want, it just kinda shocked me to actually see it written. I haven’t seen any of the stuff towards Germans, but they’re wrong too. I just don’t really think it has a place thats all. I’m not mad or anything, just voicing an opinion.
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[Brian]
In context, it doesn’t sound offensive. Plus he hasn’t insulted any fellow commenter. So it’s ok. This site is far from PC as long as there is no personal insult directed at anyone. There, I’ve said it — let’s move beyond this and get back to talking about United/footy.
Of course, if someone particularly targets you and your family background/community/race etc etc then let me know. I’ll chuck the guy off in a jiffy.
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Van persie is a very good player. Injury prone and a bit of a nutter like, but still an excellent player. I don’t expect to see kuyt playing much more for them though, if van persie and robben can get fit.
Grognard, ‘what bloody game were you watching?’ – slightly hypocritical don’t you think…
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What an amazing game… The Netherlands really murdered Italy. Bravo, EVDS, Bravo! Van Bronckhorst was also impessive, but too bad Huntelaar didn’t surface.
Did anyone see Ibrahim Afellay’s first touches as a sub for the Netherlands? He almost beat Buffon from an acute angle, and hit the crossbar. I’ve seen a lot of him at PSV Eindhoven and he seems like a promising young midfielder. Maybe I like him so much because he shares my first name and is originally from Morocco.
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Tevez; No, I don’t think it was hypocritical at all thanks.
Brian; Sorry if I offended you mate. My comment was meant in humor as I am the last guy who could be called a racist.
Craig; The Ditch had one of the easier qualifying groups in my opinion. I don’t put much stock in the quality of qualifying groups because every group has it’s Malta’s, San Marino’s etc. Most of the Dutch defenders play for bad clubs in England. I f they were good enough Spanish, Italian and top level English clubs would sign them. I wouldn’t say they are rubbish, but I think they are average at best. However, if their midfield and attackers play the way they did, then I think they can still go far because they have a lot of quality.
As for van Persie, you are welcome to him. Yes to me he is another Saha and you know how I feel about players like that. Not worth 20% of what he gets paid based on the number of games he is ever available for.
TurkishRed; The less Huntelaar plays for them the more he slips into United’s acceptable price range. Go RVN!
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I havent seen or read the comments on here so I dont know if this was broght uo, tonight Netherlands trashed world champions Italy 3-0 and Ive found Van der Vart pretty amazing specially as a winger although that wasnt his normal position I think that was his role in this game so would do you guys think?
And one more thing lets say Van Basten stays with the national team untill the world cup what do you guys think of him as Fergies replacement after 2 years??
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It’s funny how you can throw a hissy fit at me for saying i ‘didn’t know who you were watching’ regarding huntelaar, but see nothing wrong with your comment regarding the germany game.
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RR and Grongard…no worries, Looking back on it, I overreacted a bit. So thats my bad.
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what is realy annoying me and has for a few years is some of you van nistlerooy lovers, god can you get off that subject already. and another point what is this thing of having a central striker we proved those forwards are a thing of the past and why berbertov he is old lazy and way to slow to suit our style, and how would he be a good replacement for ronaldo when he does not have half the things ronaldo provides, anyone who thinks ronaldo was a madrid fan has a child realy are idiots he is after more money and a bit of sun on his back plus he can realy dive more and enjoy the night life with his girlfriend.
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Here’s to hoping that the Hunter won’t play at all in the tournament Grognard… I’ll just have to live off the compilations until we sign him. (That is, if we don’t sign anyone else first.)
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[tevez]
Fine mate. You have the moral victory. Do you really think it’s worth talking about this and getting into some childish bickering? Yes I agree, Grognard was wrong in asking you that question when he himself took offence at it few days back. Someone has to show restraint and be the better person here. I for the world of me don’t understand what you lot gain by this.
For all you know this was in retaliation to what you had said earlier. However no two wrongs make a right. So end this now and move on.
[Grognard]
It was hypocritical on that occasion. Just accept it and move on.
I don’t want either of you to attempt a last word on this [it will be deleted].
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steve; I respectfully disagree with your comment on central strikers being a thing of the past. Far from it. They are just rained to be more dynamic than they used to be. A great striker is a great striker. The fact that he can now dribble or shoot from out of the box does not mean they can’t play or shouldn’t play the central striker role when it is called upon. Whether you like RVN is got nothing to do with it. None of us are asking for Fergie to resign him. But you are not going to prove to me that a player like Huntelaar or Gomez would not help the attack for Manchester United. If they were slow, plodding and one dimensional players I would agree with you, but they are not. And Berbatov is a great player but his attitude is the thing that makes me shy away from him. Truthfully, the game is full of flashy forwards who have pace, balls skills, moves and tricks but when they get a scoring chance they make a meal of it. I want a goal poacher and I don’t care if he scores the ugliest goals on the planet. Give me Gerd Mueller any day over Aguerro or Benzema.
Saudi Red Devil; Last time I heard van Basten is taking over at Ajax right after the EUROS are over. Also for all you Huntelaar fans who worry that he may stay at Ajax to play under van Basten, I say I don’t think so. Would you want to play for him when he benches you for RVN and then that pillock van Persie? If I was Huntelaar, I would be pissed and I’d tell my agent to contact Man Utd immediately to negotiate. How quickly van Basten forgets when Rinus Michels benched his older striker to give an unproven van Basten a chance to shine in 1988. And the rest is history.
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OK if this is true I am both happy and sad. Sky Sports (who I respect) are reporting that Bayern are chasing both Mario Gomez and Alexandre Hleb. If this is true I am ecstatic about Gomez with my Bayern boys but I am sad that we may once again be losing a top talent for United. But since he doesn’t appear to be on Fergie’s radar I am not too upset. Apparently Gomez has even signed a preliminary contract with Bayern so we shall see what happens after the EUROS. This raises some major questions if it is indeed true. What do Bayern want with Gomez when they already have Klose , Toni and Podolski. This leads me to believe that one of a couple of scenarios may be at work here. Either United are thinking of parting with either Klose or Podolski (probably Klose because he is 30) or Toni may be making noise about wanting to go back to Italy. The last I heard Toni was very happy with Bayern. I know Podolski wanted to leave until he had a good talk with Klinsmann. Now it appears he is willing to be patient. I personally think they may be willing to sell Klose because he is coming off a terrible second half and he is 30. Bayern would love to have both of Germany’s future striker partnership on their team. And they can also play Podolski on the left as a winger. If it is Podolski who is made available, Fergie should consider him as a better alternative to Santa Cruz or Berbatov but not over Huntelaar or Benzema. Food for thought. God I wish United bought players up like Bayern has in the last year. Sure they had more reason to buy but still, they are really stockpiling talent. And lets not forget if they get Hleb. Add Borowski to their new signings and they are going to be awesome in the CL.
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Grog
Hleb is not as good as he is made out to be. He is supposed to be a supporting striker/left winger, and he has scored something like 11 goals in the last 3 seasons with Arsenal and not that many assists either.
Yeah, he has great technical ability and twinkle toes, but no end product.
He gets slagged even on Arsenal fan sites. even they are not worried about losing him as long as they get nasri
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And now voldy’s brother and sister come out and say on spanish national television that they would love him to move to s**t madrid.
isn’t this the same drug addict brother who ronaldo is supporting and the same sister who is cashing in on voldy’s name by running a bouquet called CR7? or is is the other pop star wannabe sister who has changed her name to ,wait for it….ronaldi
the situation is now reminding me of the le sulk situation at arsenal around a decade back. the people around him (i.e brothers, sister, family,agent etc…) were looking at sucking out the maximum money for themselves and convinced him to move to real. and look what has happened afterwards.
the only thing left for voldy to do now is go on a strike a la le sulk.
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Shreyas; I agree with you about Hleb but as a Bayern fan I’d take hjim anyway because he was excellent in the Bundesliga before he made the jump to Arsenal. Also; the Ronaldo family stuff sounds like a tacky soap opera on Telemundo. Our little Ronny from the slums of Medeira should know that you cannot buy class.
I just read something about the Russian team that takes them off my sleeper favorites list. No Arshavin. He is suspended in the first two games and so I think that will hurt them greatly as he is their main man. I have a problem with suspension transferring over to tournaments that come along only once every four years. I think it’s far too severe a punishment for any player who gets red cards unless the crime is absolutely terrible. No Arshavin and no Pograbnak means poor prospects for Russia. It’s too bad. The Zenit contingent on that team are very talented and have a great understanding with each other.
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yea it looks like ramsey is going to arsenal, to bad i guess. we just lost another talent to them though.
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I loved the way van der vaart kept pulling the strings against Italy.He and sneidjer were absolutely fantastic considering the opposition.Gattuso’s effectiveness was non-existent.How the bloody hell Van der sar didn’t concede goals despite having a make shift defence around him.Though he had some nervous moments,his leadership was exemplary.Holland did well without babel and robben.I have never seen a team out pass,outplay the italians like that.Surely they can only get better.PS:anyone know about nani’s fitness???
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I seriously have to sit and wonder what Arsenal has to offer Ramsey that the league and European Champions don’t? Does the lad feel he will have any more chance of playing for them next year? I seriously doubt it. Somebody was giving that boy poor advice and it wasn’t his coach or owner at Cardiff. I think Wenger made promises to him about first team football that I doubt he will keep. This wasn’t about money, it was about the boy not being patient enough to wait another year before he showed up in the Prem. Therefore, I have to say in all honesty Manchester United dropped the ball on this one. While Wenger was sucking up to the boy and making him empty promises, Fergie was on vacation. I don’t begrudge Fergie his vacation but this was handled poorly and I think he should have battled it out with Wenger for the lad in a classic game of oneupmanship. David Gill isn’t going to convince the boy, Fergie is. And did Ramsey meet with his supposed idol Ryan Giggs? If he did I find it hard to believe that Ramsey chose to ply his trade working with a bunch of Frenchman and one underused English bloke. This whole thing was badly handled and I could smell this happening two weeks ago. And newsflash! The press had it right every day of this debacle but nobody believes them now do they!!!!!! Chalk one up for rags. The kid will probably end up like Gaza living the good life in London Poor kid!
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Yup, Ramsey seems to have accepted LeArse’s offer!!!
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Ohh i loved watching the Italians getting run over the top. The fact that it was a dodgy decison that started it all really makes me smile (Australian fan still seething over that penalty in the WC).
Grognard I beleive steve is right. I cant recall where, but it was recent, I read an article about the movement from 442 and 451 to a more 460 formation. United summarise this, I think that you can make a fairly strong argument that United play without a striker in the traditional sense. Yes there are still teams who operate with an out and out centre forward who wins them matches (torres) but some of the more successful and exciting teams dont operate with this system. Roma dont really play with a centre forward type role. They rely on that thumb sucker who plays a role that is traditionally behind a striker, in this case really just infront of a midfield. Even AC milan dont really play with a CF at times. They rely on kaka and seedorf to supply the goals and create for other players pushing up in to the area from their deeper postion.
The fact is that in the world there are only a select handful of world class CFs and if you dont possess one in your squad rather than using a sub par forward the best way is to set up much like United, with goals coming form deeper play and thus quick balls over or thorugh a defence or from width and just pace of play and movement. Yes you have to have the players to operate this system, but if it works it is much more efficient football in my eyes.
Is it just me, or does Bayern Munich look to be one of our biggest rivals in holding onto our European crown? They are really underestimated imo.
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to be honest, regarding Ramsey, when i heard our deal involved him going back to Cardiff for a year, and the fact that arsenal are known for giving youngsters a chance, given the type of player he is portrayed as… his nickname is Rambo for god sake, i think Fergie missed a trick, and he joined arsenal because of the chance to gain first team experience simple as… that and apparently arsenals offer was the best of the three.. still its not the best start to the season, the one transfer thats been on the cards and we loose out to the bloody gunners… wankers.
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Bugger, am shocked l’arse have pulled a fast one over us, an English player going there instead of United!? it might be for personal reasons though, no offense to those of you residing in Manchester, but seriously, London living is probably attractive.
Last night’s match was fantastic, defo the best so far. Thought the scoreline flattered the dutch a little bit, but they’re nothing if not entertaining! That group is on a knife edge now, every match is a final. If the dutch beat Romania, they’re through comfortably, and the head to head with Italy/France becomes the breaker. Awesome stuff, I love these 3 match groups.
What I thought was quite interesting about hte way the Dutch broke was that it tended not to involve Ruud (btw, Van Persie was brought on for pace, something Klaas doesn’t have in abundance). Ruud would tend to get overtaken by hte flanking midfielders during counters, which is exactly how are system would work if we got an ‘out and out’ striker that lacked a step. It just shows how, potentially, we could work with a big front man – let 3/4 midfielders use their pace to burn by him, and he can provide a bit of cover. Then when we’re not countering, we stil have hte big presence in the box. Watching Ruud’s runs last night (keep in mind he was through on goal twice wihtout the offisde, but seems to have watched Rooney’s finishing classes) made me really miss a ‘real’ number 10. It forces the defense to be so wary of their line, something Rooney only does very occasionally. Anyway, rambling, apologies.
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Oh and on the striker front, I see Eto’o has rejected a Spurs approach, saying their crap. So appears he’s available and not stupid
Is there a reason no one has been talking about him as an option?
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Yay for Holland. At times it was like watching United play.
Of course the difference is Ruud. I also noticed he was not really involved in the counter-attacks. In fact he was pretty anonymous apart from the goal and the couple of offsides and the scuffed shot.
We are a better team without him and create a hell of a lot more chances. But what I miss about Ruud is that when you give him even a half chance in the box you are 90% certain its going to be a a goal.
Et’oo is probably going to Chelsea now that Milan look like buying Drogba.
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Roma are the only team i’ve seen who play without a striker. All other teams do, including us. Rooney played on the shoulder last season. Having a centre forward in the team who provides a long option is important, and improves a team’s play greatly. Rooney can play that role well, but i bet at times last season, when rooney was injured, fergie wished he still had van nistelrooy.
Etoo is a great player and i would love to see him in the premiership. Apparently he’s in talks with chelsea, ac milan and inter milan, so tough competition for him.
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Sam; Last season we were forced to play a role that made us look like we never used a striker. That’s because Fergie realized that neither Tevez or Rooney suited the bill as a lone striker. This is not what Fergie wants. Fergie wants to play the same system Holland used yesterday and the very same system Milan use with Pipo Inzaghi up alone but having the ability to track back and go wide if necessary. Also, the way Holland played last night is not the way they will play against everyone. Todays teams work on a rotation. 8/10 games will require the old fashioned striker up front because most of the games a team plays are against their domestic opponents who mostly can’t cope with a great striker. They also don’t attack like a the few quality sides that are at the top of the table. So many times last year we clearly needed a target man against teams like Reading, Bolton, Man City because they would put 10 players behind the ball. In games like that we found it very difficult to crack their defense playing our ultra modern system that never utilized a true striker. So Huntelaar is greatly needed, even if he is not used against a Barca or Roma. We need an aerial and physical alternative in the box for slogging matches.
And Sam, finally about Bayern. The only reason why they are not scaring most people is their hiccup against Zenit. It was a case of a very tired team going up against an excellent team that was fresh and very well coached exploiting the few weaknesses Bayern had which were caused by fatigue. Bayern had played a lot of games in a short period leading up to that 0-4 drubbing by Zenit. Other than that encounter they were pretty solid last season and should get only better. They have signed Borowski and are interested in Barzagli and Hleb as well as having agreed to terms with Gomez. If they add these players their depth, especially up front will be unparalleled in the CL.
They may be from the Bundesliga but they are so much better than their own league. Their key is tremendous depth and many world class players. Add to this a more positive and attacking approach from Juergen Klinsmann and I like their chances. They are built with so much depth they would have a real advantage against others in the late stages. My only worry is no Oliver Kahn. I am not yet a Rensing believer and he could be their undoing. Look for Bayern to steal one of the two next great German keepers in Neuer or Adler. They also may go and get Hildebrand from a very unsettled Valencia. All I know is that I wish United would be as aggressive about filling their roster.
I’ll be honest, I have never been an Et’oo fan. Yes he is a good striker but he seems to have lost a bid in the last two years. He is no longer prolific and he looked pretty useless against us. You’ve got to be better in the CL Semis regardless of your opposition. He played like he didn’t care. I think injuries have taken a lot out of him. Perhaps a fresh start somewhere will revive him but I don’t want United to take a chance with him at that price.
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Grognard
The reality is the target man type forward like van nistlerooy is an out dated striker along with the dwarf micheal owen. And has for van nistlerooy add the fact I can’t stand the person who is a bitter nasty sh**. He was never a great united player who had very little ability and he won hardly anything at united.
are you mad you would not have Aguerro in your team. The likes of rooney tevez Aguerro are todays forwards, and are more effective and exciting to watch then the ineffective van nistleooy huntlaar and toni. I even hear some fans say what would we be like with van nistlerooy in the team, what do you want we won back to back titles and a european cup I think a van nistlerooy less united has been a better united.
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steve; That’s your opinion based on your own personal preferences and bias. I just don’t agree with you at all and I think you are dead wrong. Sorry but I am being honest with you. You can say the same about me if it makes you feel better. I’m just not going to get into it over something that has no resolution but to piss each other off.
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