Jul 07
Three Questions for Manchester United
This was written several hours before the time indicated against the article so there is a chance that one of my questions could already have been answered by the time you are reading this. So bear with me.
Let’s play a game folks. It’s not a game really, but still, humour me on this one. Not much has happened in the transfer front and many fans have developed an acute illness borne out of furiously refreshing Newsnow, clicking through to headlines that scream out “EXCLUSIVE: Huntelaar signs for United” or “United sign next Pele” or “Kaka declares love for United (after declaring his love for Jesus for the 12567th time)”; the chief perpetrators of such behaviour being sites like Tribal Football, Sportingo, Caught Offside, The Sun and plenty of blogs looking to generate quick cash with misleading headlines. [I may have been guilty from time to time, but then I am really too lazy to be arsed to think of catchy headlines or perhaps, I just don't have the creative spark in me.]
Moving on… here’s the ‘game’.
I am going to ask three questions to United. I will expand on each question, and then all you have to do is to either agree with my three questions or, if you disagree, post three questions of your own. These three questions can be anything from the current transfer saga to anything that concerns you about United at the moment.
A brief bit of a disclaimer before going ahead, though: I won’t be putting these questions to the folks at Manchester United — be assured. I have no inside knowledge of the people there. It’s just an open letter and anyone can answer to them.
Question 1. What is going to happen to our number two (Assistant Manager) position?
There has been no quotes from Queiroz assuring us that he’s staying at United. There is a growing chorus from the media that he has agreed personal terms. Despite the lack of clear quotes from the man himself it is certainly possible that he will quit United and head over to his homeland. So what names would crop up if that happens will be for us to wait and see. Cantona’s name will be at the forefront in media circles, and although he could be a great motivator, choosing him would be a decision of the heart, not the mind. No one knows his tactical acumen so we can never tell if he’s ideal. Update: As I write this the Mirror claims that McClair is being lined up for Number 2. Whilst he brings in continuity to the club hierarchy, I personally have misgivings on his appointment based on what I’ve heard from different people.
Question 2. Are we getting a striker?
When Fergie said it will be one signing this summer, do we know for sure if it’s a striker he’s talking about? Names like Huntelaar, Berbatov have been bandied about whilst reports circulate that Manucho may have come to Old Trafford carrying an injury. So this ‘mystery single signing’ of ours will not be known for sure until we get an official confirmation.
Question 3. Why have we taken so long to decide on an operation for Ronaldo?
This is my most important question to United. If the club have decided that Ronaldo will not be going anywhere why didn’t they have a meeting with the Portugal doctors earlier? He is still on a holiday and he could find time to meet with the doctors now, so surely, he could have done this immediately after the Euros? What were the doctors waiting on? If the club are firm that Ronaldo isn’t going anywhere and they know that he’s carrying an injury, common sense would dictate an assessment of the injury at the minimum, as soon as possible.
Ok, so these are my three questions to United. Feel free to comment on these questions (see if you can give me satisfactory answers) and add three questions of your own.
Over to you…
Related items from Red Rants:
- Revisiting the Ronaldo Debate
- Do you like Rio Ferdinand?
- Blah, Blah, Blah… Waffle, Waffle, Waffle…
- Transfer magic / what next for United?
- On the Kaizer Chiefs Friendly + Rodrigo Possebon
Tags: Manchester United News
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Ian (95)
We added four players last season and won the double?
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@Stephen: last season we needed those 4. we don’t need 4 anymore. 1 striker is enuf, anything else a luxury.
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I do see your point with continuity, be don’t think if we don’t sign at least maybe one other that we are standing still as others around us maybe start to move forward eg Chelscum?
We onlt beat them on the last game of the season and on pens in the Euro final, and if and when they invest more this summer, and they will they could potentially overtake us.
Plus teams do work out how we play, and to a degree stopping Ronaldo stops our goals, we need more than just one other new option going forward in my view.
Plus we are European champions, and the clubs profile is so high at the moment and we should capitalize on that, as a lot of players prefer London to Manchester, fuck knows why!! but we could now pos lure that sort of player, but do see your point.
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….However, the forward’s representative Arnold Oosterveer admits that, until a suitable offer is received, Huntelaar will be staying at the Amsterdam ArenA.
“For him, United is a club that is interesting, but unless a suitable club come in for him, he will be at Ajax next season,” said Oosterveer in the Daily Mirror.
“We won’t speak to Ajax any more about a new contract because they wanted to put a new clause in it, but he has two years to go.
“There has been no contact between Ajax and United, or United and myself.”
Surely, if we wanted him there would’ve been contact… Or the agent’s bluffing…
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@Stephen: There will be many ins and outs for Chelsea, and it’s difficult to say, how that will affect their title bid. Usually I’d say that replacing maybe 4 or 5 in the starting lineup equals exiting the title race, because there’s simply too much new stuff happening, plus they’ll most likely change style, which isn’t necessarily easy with the players they have. I think, Scolari wants to play like us or Barcelona, but that won’t happen with Lamps, Drogba, Ballack and Essien, who are more power players than quick and skillful.
Yes, stopping Ronaldo is part of stopping the team, but that’s the same with every team. Every team has 1 player that you need to stop first, but it’s all related. In this kind of conundrum, the problem is that said player is the man to stop, because he’s so hard to stop. Look at Ronaldo last season. He was constantly covered by 2 men, and still he’s so dangerous and quick that no one could stop him. They were aware of him last season as well, you know. It won’t change for the coming season, but neither will Ronaldo.
A list of players to stop:
Liverpool: Torres
Barca: Messi
AC Milan: Kaka
Inter Milan: Ibra
Chelsea: a little more difficult, but Drogba when on form
Roma: Totti
Real: No real class players, but they struggle without Rvn
Arsenal: Adebayor
Every team has 1 player, they can’t do without, but they still have him.
Compared to the other teams, we have Rooney, Tevez, Nani, Giggs and probably a new striker that are more than capable of turning matches, and I don’t see many other teams with that kind of depth.
I agree with you that we should take advantage of our high club profile, but that’s the case every year. The stock may have risen, now that we showed we can win the CL, but most players would still love to come to our club, even if we didn’t. I just donøt see the need for more than 1 striker, and maybe one defender, but I’d certainly be more than happy with just a striker.
Oh, just read that Benitez has said, Liverpool are interested in David Villa, but that it may be difficult for them to get him.
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Tomas, I see your point that every team has a focal point, and we do have other options ( not quite sure about Giggs theae days though!) We were also lucky with injuries last year, and if we loose Tevez and lets say the new striker who ever that maybe, we have to reliant on Ronaldo to score, if still at the club, or Rooney but I think we all agree no natrual goal scorer, and with Saha pos sold or injured.
Also if Rio and Vida get knocks at the same time, like Chelscun has last season with Captian Slipper foot, and Carvalho, then we could have a defensive partnership of O’shea and Silvestre, good squad plyers but not players you want week in week out!!!!
We also have to hope and pray that Nani and Anderson continue to progress at the rate of knots which they did last season, and not have a difficult second season, which young players can do.
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@Stephen: Do you really think, we were that lucky with injuried last season – imo you have forgotten what happened quickly.
Let me sum up the worst:
Saha – out most of season
Neville – out entire season
Silveste – out for most of season
Park – out for most of season
Hargo – injured in big parts, and even played through injury
Rooney – had 2 spells of just over a month each out, plus he was downed by a virus and had a hip/thigh injury for a couple of weeks
Vidic – had 2 concussions, a back injury, a knee injury (a couple of weeks?) and a calf muscle strain
Anderson – had a hamstring problem the first month
Fletcher – broken leg, out for 2 months plus a knee injury
Vds – had several problems with his feet and groin
Carrick – broken elbow ot for 6 weeks
Foster – ACL knee out for more than half of season
And then there were a lot of other games missed through minor injuries, so I don’t really think we were that lucky with injuries. We just adapted well to them.
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Good point Tomas!!!!
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But I will say bar Nev, Saha, Foster and Silvestre none were long term. G Nev is the only player I would say is a starter out of those, and that now is debatable due to the form of Wes.
Football waits for no man and if we don’t invest and I am not saying heavily but more than one player we could be left behind next season.
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@Stephen: That’s true – it waits for nobody. But the team is still young, so it’s not waiting either.
You may be right that of the 4 players, only Neville would’ve been regularly in the team, but at least three of them (incl. Neville) would be first backups in their position. I don’t know about Foster, since I haven’t seen him play. So at least 3 of them are very important squad members, and titles are won by squads.
Most injuries are not long term, and I consider Rooney’s 10 weeks as quite a lot away. Same with Carrick’s 6 weeks. How many long term injuries did Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool have? No more than us would be my bet. I’m not saying we were more unlucky than the rest, just that we weren’t particularly lucky.
Arsenal probably were the worst off.
On physioroom the statistics show how many reported injuries each team had last season (or at least one can count them):
Arsenal: 59
MU: 48
Chelsea: 39
Liverpool: 32
So we weren’t particularly lucky. I won’t go into details with who was injured and their importance to the team, because as I wrote – squads win titles.
Of course we were lucky that Ronaldo, Rio, Evra and Wes almost missed no games through injury, but I bet each team had star players not out for longer spells.
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@ Tomas, I pretty much agree with your sentiments but all I am worried about if we sell Silvestre which is posible, and Evra sustains a serious injury we are not over furnished with full backs. O’Shea has played there but poorly, and the Silva twins would be a huge gamble to throw them in so early.
Even if Sil stays and we sustain 2 injuries Rio and Evra Sil would go to C/B and we would be very exposed.
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Plus Ronaldo out for 6 weeks, Nani suspended for 2 games, Saha well who know same with Gary Nev, Anderson at the olympics. We do have a tricky start, just maybe a couple of squad players plus a very good striker!
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@Stephen: Of course, if we sell players, they should be replaced with others. It’ll be up to SAF to judge, if we have them good enough in our own ranks, or if we should get them from outside.
I’m not saying we couldn’t be better prepared for the first couple of matches, but we can’t buy 2 or 3 players just because the first few games are uncertain.
If Neville and Saha never return to full fitness, and if Silvestre is sold, then things are the same as last year (minus Pique of course, who didn’t play much anyway). If they return, and Silvestre stays, then we have 3 additional players to last year’s double winning squad. Now, I did have concerns about especially the backs last season, because we were short in cover, but at this moment we have 2 players for each position and O’Shea as backup. I don’t think it can be justified spending money on those positions. Brown is first choice cover as CB, and he’s probably the best 3rd chioce in the league for that position.
Of course we’ll run into injuries, and of course we might even stretch the squad at times because of them, but it can’t be any different, unless we’re go through injury free, and we won’t. What I’m saying is that we have to be realistic about how big the squad can be, and at this point we’re close to the maximum imo, if the squad is to remain as harmonious as it is now. I really don’t see a problem with our squad any other place than in the front line, and that is merely because, Saha is always injured – the numbers are there imo. You won’t find many players accepting the role of Fletcher and O’Shea, like they have (just look at Rossi and Pique – they couldn’t), so bringing in cover players is risky business.
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@Tomas: Sorry mate but that post was the most biased thing i’ve read in a long time. You go and name every team’s most dangerous player and then you offer four names from United that aren’t nearly as dangerous and not only that, but two of them are a bloody joke surely. Giggs and Nani being added in the same breath as Torres, Drogba, Messi, Kaka is absolutely hilarious I must say.
Here are players from those teams you neglected to put on and players that are far superior at this time compared to Giggs and Nani.
Gerrard, Etoo, Ballack, Lampard, Inzaghi, Pirlo, Pato, Suazo, Cruz, and Fabregas. Based on last season I’m not even sure that Rooney and Tevez qualify as dangerous threats but I’ll let them go. you are just showing your favoritism by neglecting to mention these players and just how magnificent they are and how much of a problem they are for opposing teams. For me the only two players that have to be stopped to are Ronaldo and a healthy and in form Rooney. The rest are either too old and passed their prime or too young and not ready to be a consistent threat. It’s OK too love your team and to think the world of it’s players but don’t lose objectivity and just plain fairness in the process. Last year we won the Double because of two factors. They were Ronaldo and our back four. End of story. Don’t go glorifying Nani, Giggs, Anderson or any of the midfield for our trophies because they were only average. Rooney and Tevez were good but not outstanding. Their total goal output as forwards was much less than Ronaldo’s alone. Not satisfactory for strikers who are paid to score goals. Good seasons, not superb. All the players I named except for Suazo and Cruz were absolutely world class last season yet you left them off. Not fair…..not fair at all.
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I agree regarding Giggs, but considering Nani and Anderson were thrown into the deep end during a severe injury crisis and suspension, they deserve to be glorified every bit. I remember you spelling doom last year when Carrick, Scholes and Fletch were out injured. Anderson made us conveniently forget that we had no trouble in the tail end of last year leading up to Christmas. Say whatever you want, but it’s just not easy for a Brazilian teenager to come into a new country and fit in straightaway.
Again, it was a big ask for Nani to start so many games in the beginning enforced due to Rooney’s injury and Ronaldo’s suspension. His contributions were subtle and not very apparent, but I think given the situation they deserve every bit of the applause they are getting.
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@Grognard: You completely misunderstood my post, and I can see why, when I re-read it.
My main point was that most teams have 1 player, from who most of the threat comes… you gotta admit that. That’s an in-form player, whose season is at a higher level than the rest of the players in the team. If the team didn’t have that player, they wouldn’t be compeeting for the main titles.
What I meant by the other players I mentioned wasn’t that they are as dangerous a Messi and Kaka – that should be clear enough from reading my post. I just didn’t bother mentioning the players from the other teams that are at an equal level to Giggs, Nani, Tevez and Rooney. Of course these teams have plenty of good players alongside their best player. Whether or not Giggs and Nani are jokes is a subjective matter, and I don’t think so. Nani surely brought us points, and all I said was that they are capable of turning matches. He’s proven that, and Giggs still has it as well.
I think it’s amazing btw that a team consisting of 4 defenders, 1 Ronaldo and a bunch of “past-their-prime” and “too-young” players can win the double – either nice going or poor challengers. You are way too harsh.
And don’t judge me or my objectivity. If anyone in here is objective, it’s me. I might be a notch too positive for you, but I’m certainly as objective as any fan (and isn’t a bit of biasedness part of being a fan, I think so) and I put up solid arguments. Don’t patronize me, please.
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@Red Ranter: Fine RR, but that does not make these players world class threats. They were valuable role players. United only had one player up front that displayed world class abilities last season and that was Ronaldo. Everybody else was just average or slightly better. To put Nani and Anderson up there with Adebayor, Torres, Kaka etc is just silly in my opinion and it’s more wishful thinking than reality. Nani and Anderson are not of that caliber yet, despite the fact that they were thrown into the fire without much experience. That’s not the issue you here. Tomas put together a list of players to stop. I do not think Wenger, Rafa or anybody else develop a game plan that says we must stop Nani, Giggs or Anderson at all costs or they will murder us. Far from it. There game plan simply states stop Ronaldo and possibly Rooney. That’s it.
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@Tomas: I’m not patronizing you Tomas, not at all. And yes I completely misunderstood your intentions in your post but then again, you wrote in a manner that was very easy to misunderstand. And even after your clarification I disagree with your assessments of Nani and Anderson and especially Giggs. They are not world beaters or world class talents. Giggs used to be, Anderson and Nani will hopefully be one day. On the other hand the names I added to your short list are definitely world class players and they mean just as much to their teams as the players you listed. They aren’t just good players, they are “top players”. Also, you can find it amazing that a team with four fantastic defenders and Ronaldo can win the double but thats exactly what happened. The rest were just good or just role players. But that’s more a case of good teamwork and solid depth as opposed to individual play. Carrick, Hargreaves, Nani, Anderson, Fletcher, Park, Scholes, Tevez and Rooney were all decent if not very good at times last year. None of those players belong on your list of top players in my opinion. Because none of them excelled or produced in a manner becoming of that label. With that said, Totti and Kaka probably don’t belong either as they suffered from injury plagued seasons but I guess their reputations preceded them.
I may come across as way to harsh in your opinion but in my opinion you come across as very easy to please and not harsh enough. And you know Tomas, that’s fine too. So what we if we disagree on this matter. It’s all for debate anyway and just because there is disagreement, doesn’t mean that there is any malice or negative thought behind my motives. Assuming that your views were a touch biased being a hard core United fan as you are, is not insulting and only a fair assumption based on what you wrote. There was no patronizing on my part intended. This is a blog for debate and discussion. Just because you disagree with somebody and you bring up your own well thought argument against a theory does not mean you are patronizing anyone. Your views are just as valid or as important as mine. And you certainly have not always agreed with my assessments or valuations at times. I haven’t accused you of patronizing me because you are welcome to disagree and to defend your position. I just stated my view of your comment and whether it is valid or not, all that was intended by it is to stir up debate and for you to possibly clarify your position more. You did so and although that helped, I still have to disagree with you. But that’s no problem as I still have nothing but appreciation and respect for your contributions. So please leave that patronizing comment alone as it’s far from the truth here.
As far as your objectivity goes, fair enough, but from where I was standing your post did not seem or read as very objective. I always try to be objective yet I am attacked about that all the time. Why? Because we all see players and moments in the game differently at times. It’s pretty impossible to look objective to everybody all the time especially when they know where your loyalties lye. Don’t always assume that others see your arguments as always being solid and true. I take a lot of time and effort and I write the longest and most well thought out posts and yet, time after time I am referred to as an idiot a paranoid muppet, and negative cancer etc etc. There is no pleasing everyone and I above all know the feeling of being under appreciated or often misunderstood. Putting up a great argument does not mean squat if the reader doesn’t agree with you. So please don’t take my disagreement of your points so much at heart. We just have two different points of view. Neither is right or wrong. Cheers!
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In my book Rooney is world class but as a team player. He doesn’t have the ego to be a star. That is why Capello is struggling to build a team around Rooney and why we built our team around Ronaldo. But I can guarantee that Rooney would be one of the first names in the teamsheet in ANY team in the world alongside Rio and Ronaldo.
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wat about David Villa???
if Liverpool bought him, we dead…
the partnership between Torres and Villa will penetrate our rock solid defense(i think)…..
so Fergie, SIGN DAVID VILLA!!!!
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