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
- Tuesday’s News Round-Up: Wayne Wants A Long Stay But Will Dimitar Be Out The Door
- All Quiet on the Berba Front and Nothing Else…
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (541)
Stephen (485)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Craig Mc (345)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
MERCENARY is an interesting word you have used there Red Ranter!
Echoes my sentiments entirely….
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Liked the look of podolski.intelligent player.
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Thought it was really classy that Podolski didn’t really celebrate. A bit like Ronaldo against Sporting. Podolski is always great in tourneys it seems (WC was quality too) but I’ve not heard great things about him at Bayern. Could we be an outlet for him to get more games? I’m not sure. He certainly isn’t hte big, strong front man we apparently need.
Is anyone else dissapointed with the quality of football so far in the Euros? I guess that’s what happens when you’re used to watchign United, but before the Germany match, there had been barely any free-flowing stuff on display. Oh and the diving in the Portugal Turkey match should have shamed anyone watching. I was blushing while I tried to explain to a North American visitor that it’s not always that bad. Must be the Scolari effect…
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I’ve got to say that guy Gomez didn’t impress me one bit yesterday. Yes he ran a lot at times, but he didn’t appear that concentrated and had quite a few bad touches. Now, I haven’t seen him play before, so I’d like to hear anyone’s opinion, on whether that was his level of football, or if he’s better?
He’s young, I know, and he has some interesting attributes, but he disappointed me a bit, because he’s been so hyped over the last month in here.
Lahm was really impressive. I know, I shouldn’t mention him, because he just signed with Bayern, but he really showed quality.
I for one am looking forward to seing Benzema in action tonight. I know, it may be a longshot, but I’d like us to sign him very much. If we have the cash, which it appears, we do, we should definitely test Lyon’s ressilience.
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Given how slow today is, I thought I’d share a website for people trying to keep up with all the latest speculation, rumours and actual articles surrounding united.
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/Sport/Football/Premier+League/Manchester+United
I stumbled onto redrants.com thanks to the above site. If we’re not supposed to post URLs here then I apologise ….I hate spam as much as the next person… I hope this isn’t seen as spam.
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By the way does anyone if nani is okay he picked up areally nasty tackle the other day.
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Found an interesting article Why Ronaldo should leave Manchester United?
May be Man United supporters might be after me for this. But he really bring some points to the board..
Love the concluding lines….”He’s openly flirted with the woman of his lifelong dreams, but is taken by the one who pursued him when he was young. Will she understand if he has to leave to fulfil a dream? I doubt it. But it’s a dream he just has to go for. It’d be cruel to deny him that opportunity”.
Sorry RR for bringing this up again..
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Behrami looked alright for switzerland in the opening game. Bosingwa was impressive for portugal it has to be said, looked very quick. Also, lahm was good at right back. The right midfielder, fritz, was poor, as was the left back. Gomez never had the best of games, but podolski was good. I look forward to seeing a lot more of luca modric next season too, he looked a very good player.
The games tonight should be good. Hope benzema plays. Hope huntelaar doesn’t.
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RR, it’s not when the great man makes his decision as you put it!. United have already made their decision, he is not for sale at any price. So if they hold to that, barring a long drawn out court case, as the one we had with Heinze, and Tevez, (both of which we won), I cannot see a departure. All depends on whether Fergie feels Ronaldo has fuelled the RM banditry with underhand secret negotiations. Course the bandits will always deny that, won’t they?.
I still feel Berbatov might come to us!. Also RR do you know if Ronaldinho is getting £200,000 quid a week because he is a free transfer?. Is he a free transfer, because he’s only 27, and a talented player like him doesn’t lose his giftedness overnight. Utd should think about hijacking the deal if it hasn’t gone through already. Anyone else think he might be worth risking money on??????
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Despite his obvious lack of presence this year. Ronaldinho still would make anyone excited if there would be speculation linking him with us. So yah why not, but not for 200k thats just absurd. These big foreign owners are just phucking up everything. Good thing the Glazers stay out of these affairs at United.
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We need podolski
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Question to the guys who follow La Liga:
How good is Sergio Aguero?
I know he is another midget of a striker and that he would possible be too overpriced even for united, but how good is is he? More importantly is a proer forward or more of a second striker like rooney/tevez?
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Frankie AG, that was one hell of a rant mate, and I do believe a lot of your points in it. It does all come down to Commerce in the end, but that is not the reason that many Media and other people feel we should let him go is it?. Unlike your thoughts on loyalty not playing a part in the decision making, that is exactly the card though that is being played here when saying United should let him go. After all they plead, RM is his boyhood dream, and he feels an affinity (loyalty) with them, because he loved them and thought of them as family since boyhood. Money seems to be a secondary issue in his decision if he decides to go to Madrid they say – bollocks I say!.
In Rooney’s defense mate – If anyone carefully examined the standing on Carvalho’s B**** episode, Rooney was off balance and landed (I do not believe with deliberate or menacing intent, in the incident. The referee thought so obviously, because he was not going to send Rooney off, until Ronaldo mouthed off and made pleas to the ref crying foul. Rooney not being happy with Ronaldo.s attempts to get him red carded, shoved Ronaldo away, and it was that shove I believe that caused the ref to show the red card. Look at the incident again mate, before judging Rooney as the baddie here.
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Shreyas
To put it simply… Sergio Aguero is Bloody Good!!
He isn’t as renowned as other players such as Messi and Ronaldo due to him playing for Athletico Madrid.
Though by many in Argentina he is regarded as the best (yes, even better than Messi!)
He plays more as a second striker, but completely different to our own Tevez or Rooney. He is absolutely phenominal with his link up play and can certainly finish.
If “The Departed” was to leave United… He’s the ready made replacement.
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Speaking of replacing “The Departed”…
This would certainly be an interesting coupe!!
http://footylatest.com/news/news.php?extend.746
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tomas: MARIO GOMEZ is a top quality striker he would be perfect for man utd because he is young and good in the air he has also scored 28 goals this year i would definatly get him.
moya:aguero is good and he even said he would consider coming to us but he does not play as a proper striker he plays like tevez and rooney who play more deep and we need a tall striker aways stays where we need him
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john:we dont need podolski although he played brilliantly against poland he does not play well in the bundesliga he was even critisised by franz bekenbaur so he could not hack the premier league
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the sad thing about the 06 world cup incident is that Rooney basically got sent off for not diving. He was bring fouled the whole play but he did the right thing and kept playing. I think that is why he was do frustrated.
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Its official we have just reported real madrid to fifa … finally
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NIKOS
I said yesterday that I wanted Podolski to join us based on what I’ve seen from him in the WC, the Euros and the odd time I’ve seen him play for Bayern. The fact that Grognard agrees and he watches Bayern week in week out shows that its hardly football manager telling us who to buy, the fact is that nearly every time I’ve seen him play I’ve been impressed. He seems to posess similar attributes to Benzema and even seems a little quicker.
Tevez
sorry but Fritz was one of Germany’s best players last night.
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http://www.eplblog.com/manutd/manchester-united-75m-ronaldo-out-35m-kaka-in/
This just seems false. Great but false…they cite no real sources, just seems like a story to get hits on their blog. What do you guys think? If its true…God help the rest of Europe. Seriously…a strike force of Rooney, Tevez, a new striker(Benzema, Huntelaar, Berbatov), the unspoken one(if he stays of course), Nani, KaKa….Wow.
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I would love to see us get Cassano. I know he’s a bit of a headcase, but SAF has specialized in getting difficult personalities to channel their idiosyncracies into football instead of the extraneous bs. I think Cassano can be had (b/c of the personality issues, which SAF could temper) and he’s absolutely world class.
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It would be a cold day in Hell, when Kaka goes for 35 million pounds.
The fact that this rubbish isnt even on Tribal Football, lets you know how outlandish it is. I honestly thought TribalFootball had no news filter but apparently it does.
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Tomas; Gomez is a stud. Don’t judge him on one game in his first big tournament. He will get better. The skills are all there and he should improve with time. The number of great superstars who have not shown up well in their first big tourney is huge. The best name I can think of is Maradona in 1982. He stunk and then got a red to end his hopes for the tourney.
Beachryan; Poldy showed a Hell of a lot of class because he showed that respect to a country and club he has never played for unlike Ronaldo who had played for Sporting. Too much is being made of birth places in my mind. A birth place is just a patch of dirt. Your country is the place you grow up in and culturally and educationally develop in. Both Klose and Podolski came to Germany as very young infants and so for Poland to honestly feel they are one their own is sort of absurd in my opinion. It’s like being American and being born on an army base in Iraq. It’s Iraqi soil but I doubt very much if any American will insist his or hers baby is Iraqi born. In the case of Hargreaves, he can call himself English all he wants but he is Canadian as he left the country in his late teens. Canada brought him up right into his early adulthood. Still, I don’t blame him for wanting to play for England because Canada has no future in International football and his talent would go to waste here. Perhaps if there were more like him but there aren’t. Oh and Poldy will get more playing time at Bayern this year guaranteed as Klinsmann is a big fan of his an he will incorporate a 4-3-3 at times to make it possible.
Tevez; I just can’t figure you out mate. Fritz was poor? What bloody game were you watching? He was excellent and made great runs all game.
NIKOS; Very well said my friend. Very well said. There are so many people on this blog and off that love jumping on and off the bandwagon for exercise.
RAZA; I for one wouldn’t touch Cassano with a ten foot pole. Italian managers can’t handle him and they speak the same language. The guy is a colossal idiot with great talent. We don’t need that combination at OT.
A little article I read today is fuel for thought; It goes like this….
“AC Milan’s Kaka admits Man Utd dream
Monday 09 June 2008 – 08:42:37
The World Player-of-the-Year Kaka, is possibly the only possible replacement for Ronaldo at Man Utd. He is acclaimed as an even better player than the United legend and has now admitted he would love to have a chance to play at Man Utd. Speaking in an exclusive interview with a Milan radio station Kaka admitted he was thinking about a new challenge:”
Very interesting indeed. I don’t know how much validity it has but I suppose one can believe Milan Radio, no?
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It just seems odd…we all keep reading these articles, yet they never show up on the major sites (ESPNSoccerNet, Sky Sports, BBC, Tribal Football
lol) Makes me really wonder if any of this actually happened.
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err no grognard, where you are born is an important thing in your life, doesn’t matter where you grow up.
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Our golden boy Benzema had a stinker!!
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I think we will see what the fuss, about Huntelaar, is all about in the next match. Mind you he will have to create most of his own chances as Robben and Babel are both injured.
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Benzema and Gomis didn’t have much of an impact to the game imo.
Let’s see what Huntelaar has to offer
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This is interesting…really really interesting…coz i heard he is a great young STRIKER!!…i am not surprised that we are linked with him..
Balotelli wants Inter exit
But is he any good?..any comments about him?
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well for someone who has been said to be the next big thing to happen in football, i have to say, over-hyped and over-rated, he obviously cant preform in big games, this will be my opinion of him until the next france match, where i look forward to him coming of the bench-possibly, i mean, witha performance like that, for england, i would want him dropped in an instance, same with anelka. they really sucked.
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I doubt Kaka would come that cheap. I imagine Milan rate him as highly as Ronaldo so would be looking for something in the 60 million region.
Balotelli sounds like a prima donna. If the reports are true and he said he “feels nothing” for Inter, that is very unprofessional. At his age it is ludicrous to expect a first team place. Sounds more trouble than he is worth.
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ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! What a snoozer. Games like this are an absolute disgrace and show everything that is wrong with the modern game. I thought I was watching Serie A. France were just awful and Romania are the biggest cheaters I’ve seen in a long time. Foul at every cost for both teams and absolutely no intensity or initiative in the game.
Romania are just a bunch of divas. All they were able to do is dive and feign injuries all game. They never even had a sniff at goal. France just look old and uninspired. When you have so much talent and you put shackles on them by playing a coward-like technical game of chess is just a black mark against their manager Dominech. He is a total quint and France should hang him from the Bastille.
Yesterday people were quick to jump on Gomez for having a poor game. Well I have news for you, he looked a lot better than Benzema did today. Totally invisible and uninterested. At least Gomez was involved and tried hard yesterday but had no luck. Benzema was absent all afternoon. France does not have a CMF player with passing skills like a Platini or Zidane who can dissect a defense. Ribery is played to far wide to be that player. Romania were disciplined and well organized in the back but France did not even attempt to pressure them with numbers or innovative play. Today was like watching Bolton slog it out with Reading in a long ball classic. No imagination or creativity from either team and no midfield link between forwards and defenders. Honestly, how many of you still feel France is going to win this tournament? Yes it’s only one game and they got a point but both Italy and Holland should be a tougher challenge. France won’t do anything in my opinion because their manager is an idiot who is technically naive and who has a problem relying on dinosaurs like Sagnol, Coupet, Thuram, Vieira, Makalele, Anelka and even Henry when they had much better and younger players on the bench or back in France.
I expect them to come out for their next match with walking sticks. Experience is great but this bunch looks slow and not capable of handling younger and faster teams than them.
Now for Italy v Holland. I expect more of the same as this is the Group of cowards, not death. Hope I’m wrong and they put on a show but I predict another 0-0 game.
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Benzema and Gomis had both bad games, but that’s especially because service to them was abysmal. The french midfield was inexistant, considering they were playing against Romania and Malouda and especially Ribery were quite poor.
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OH RAPTURE! OH JOY! OH HAPPY DAYS! The Italians are getting thumped. Not even my beloved Germany winning the whole thing means more to me than watching the Italians getting blasted. Go Holland. I love it. RVN scores and offside goal and it counts. Sound the death knell for Donadoni. I think they look horrible without Cannavaro and with all those senior citizens in the midfield. I hate wop football. I don’t even feel sorry for my Bayern buddy Toni. Still, it’s early and you never know. NAH! What am I saying? This team is not managed by Lippi. They have Dumbassdoni as their manager.
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watching this making me miss RVN , he was like ronaldo but he would have stayed till the end of his career.
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Oh what the hell, lets put RVN and Sneijder on our shopping list too. In fact I think we should buy anyone who scores in this tournament just in case.
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All: That would be the same RVN who put in a tansfer request?
Grognard/Colver: On the Kaka story I am afraid you have been the victim of RedCafe’s experiment to see how much media attention they can get for a fabricated transfer.
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I will say til this day that selling van nistel rooy is our biggest mistake especially for the price we sold him at… The guy is born goal scorer!
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Viz: Biggest mistake? In the 2 years since he left we have won the premiership twice and the champions league so wouldnt say it was a mistake! It was cheap but that came because of the situation. Great great player though. The dutch have looked fanrtastic tonight, great counter attacking football.
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Sneider is feckin magic. What an exciting edge of your seat game this is. Holland players have worked their arses off in the dutch cause. Boulharouz was shit in the prem wasn’t he?. Considering the dutch lost a couple of their top players, they did good!. The dutch fans are going to party tonight. Italy in all fairness did try to make a game of it in the second half, and how Toni misssed that sitter, is a joke. Edwin, aaaah what a save at 2-1 mate, world class. Come on you Dutch!.
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King Eric on Ronaldo Video
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…and he talks about future management role
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Grongard….I’m not Italian in any way. But did you really say you hated wop football? That’s pretty bad dude. It doesn’t offend me but I don’t think you should throw it around. I mean you can do what you want, I just don’t agree with it.
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VDS had an immense game out there, would love it if he got a hattrick of titles, totally deserved for such a remarkable servant for club and country!
And the euros have come to life! Roll on Spain…
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Off topic, but just makes you wonder of what might have been…
Damn, he was good
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JB; I don’t go to Red Cafe so I’m not sure what you mean?
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Brian Lomax; Save your PC stuff for some other blog. I have read a hell of a lot worse on this site and others believe me. Besides, if they can use the words on legendary comedies like Black Adder, Fawlty Towers and Allo’ Allo’, then I feel I’m in the right to do so also. It’s no different than the numerous individuals on this site who refer to my beloved German teams or players as Krauts or the French as Frogs. It’s low brow racism meant in jest and it’s totally harmless. I for one have nothing against Italy as I think it’s a fantastic country with great history and beauty. I just think their football is a disgrace despite their success and they deserve as many insults as I can throw at them.
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Grognard: They have made the transfer up, wrote fake stories/articles about it, quoted false Milan radio stations etc to see how far the story can carry. Given that you have read it somewhere else they seem to have had some sucess in their venture.
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Well Italy are toast. Good for them.
They did come on a bit in the second half but the man of the match EVDS Kept the gate closed and that’s that. This Italian team has 13 players over the age of 30. Just a joke. I’m all for experience but that many seniors on the team means they should be staying at an old folks home and not a hotel. For me the EUROS is a time to break in new blood so that they get the feel for pressure and the big occasion and thus be ready for the World Cup. I may be wrong but I think Italy is going through a very bleak period in terms of their domestic game, national team and development of young talent. There are some young players of quality in Italy but not at the same quality or quantity as in the past. Perhaps they are finally paying the price of too many foreigners in their league, too much corruption, dwindling attendance and poor domestic development of youth. It’ just a cycle and they probably will recover but it may take a while. The country that should be kicking ass with young talent but is bogged down with yet another manager that likes old experience is France. They are a real football factory right now yet most of that talent will not get a chance to prove itself until the manager is fired and the next World Cup comes. Germany also have some real fine youth developing well for 2008.
As for Holland, I’m not won over by this big victory. One goal was offside but they are full value for their victory and did a good job on the counter. But I am still of the belief that this Italian side is just not that good. Holland’s back four other than van Bronkhorst aren’t good enough to play on any of the top 8 or 10 clubs in England. Boulahrouz, Ooijer and Mathijsen as well as Bouma and Heitinga are Wigan and Bolton class defenders. I just can’t see them fairing as well against a team that is not in internal chaos like Italy. Germany,
Portugal, Russia, Greece and Spain seem better bets to me. Still, they did get a big win today and full credit for a good game plan from van Basten. They had the intensity and desire that the France and Romania never had.
Also, I am actually very happy that RVN played well. The less we see of Huntelaar in these EUROS, the cheaper he will come at the end of them for a transfer to United. It’s hard to argue with not starting RVN because he still is a great player but bringing in Van Prissy (not a misspelling) as a sub over Huntelaar makes no sense. Now Craig, van Persie is what I would call a tosser, not Ballack.
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