You want to know what I want Scoop. I want my cake and eat it too. I want that striker as well as Ronaldo and Rooney scoring. I want Tevez coming off the bench and making the odd start. Above all, I want that depth and that balance in our attack with the added option to our attack that a tall goal poacher brings to the team. Nothing has to change. Instead of spending most of his time in the offensive end of things patrolling outside of the box (like Rooney and Tevez), this striker will boldly go where only Ronaldo feels like going. This can only work well for us.

All I was saying was that Utd play better without an out and out striker and look better going forward with a more flexible forward line that can interchange with each other. A RVN type play can’t fit into that type of system and thats why I thought Benzema would be more suited to that style of play.

An out and out striker would be a great plan B if things aren’t going well or we need to nick a goal. At the start of last season when we were struggling to score that would have been the perfect solution.
I think Newcastle got Mark Viduka on a free transfer last year he would have been perfect to bring on as an out and out striker to grab a goal if things weren’t going our way but buying a high profile out and out striker is not the way to go.

What a lot of people are forgetting is the youthfulness of our team. “We need to buy players to strengthen!” “Everyone else is buying so-and-so and is after 5 other players!!!” Do you not think that our young players (I include Rooney, Tevez, Ronaldo in this group) will only improve next season and make the team stronger by doing so? Why would you want to disturb that? Let it flourish, as we did in 94 with our renowned batch of youngsters.

Personally, I would be more than happy with one signing (and not dissappointed at all if we made none at all – just a little concerned) and that is a striker. Like many I’ve subscribed to the sad actuality that Saha, despite being a brilliant player on his day simply cannot be relied upon. How many times did we end up shoving John O Shea up top as our striker when we were out of ideas last season? Having said that, if he could stay fit for a season, then there would really be no need for any signings at all.

Other than this I think the team were brilliant and as I’ve said, with time on their side they will only get better. That’s the whole point of buying youth. You get year on year of improvements from gifted players so that you DON’T HAVE to buy a new group of players each summer.

This is all of Rooneys chances this season.

Reading- Missed 1-on-1 with Hanheman, headed outside from 7 yards, shot over from Carrick cross(broke foot), passed to Giggs instead of shooting from 10 yards.

Sporting- Return from injury, no big chance.

Chelski- Shot from 28 yards that would have gone into the top corner had it not been for an amazing save from Cech, Saha 1-on-1 Rooney was free but Saha shoots over. Rooney gets angry.

Bimingham- Makes contact on a cross from Ronaldo that Taylor saves.

Roma- Shoots over on volley from 8 yards on cross from Nani, Doni saves shot from 18 yards, scores goal assisted by Nani.

Wigan- Only gets 1 chance that he converts with a header from Simpson cross.

Aston Villa- Scores two goals, misses penalty, hits crossbar from 6 yards.

Dynamo Kiev- Scores one goal from Wes Brown pass, passes to Anderson from 12 yards who hits post.

Middlesbrough- Scores one goal, heads over from Nani cross, doesnt hit target from difficult angle, shoots over on hard volley inside the box, passes to Tevez who scores.

Arsenal- Shot on Gallas that becomes own goal, heads outside from Giggs cross.

Dynamo Kiev- Scores one goal from Nani cross.

Fulham- Shoots outside from 6 yards.

Derby- Hits post on open goal, keeper saves from 1 yard, shoots just over from 25 yards, shot cleared off line from 20 yards.

Roma- Doesnt get a single chance.

Liverpool- Shot that Tevez converts from 20 yards, misses 1-on-1 from 12 yards after Ronaldo pass.

Everton- Chip cleared off line, hits crossbar from 25 yards.

Sunderland- Scores 1 goal.

Aston Villa- Comes on in second half and scores one goal.

Newcastle- Misses 1-on-1, should have had a penalty, shot just outside from 25 yards, headed over from Giggs cross, shoots outside from Tevez pass.

Spurs- Wins penalty.

Pompey- James saves chip from 12 yards, volley just outside from Scholes pass.

Spurs- Doesnt get a single chance.

Arsenal- Headed goal, shoot outside, Lehmann saves, volley on target that Lehman saves with foot, Lehman makes another easy saves in second half.

Lyon- Chips over from 20 yards.

Newcastle- Scores 2 goals.

Fulham- Passes instead of shot from 10 yards.

Lyon- Shot saved from Coupet.

Pompey- James saves 1-on-1.

Derby- Hits side netting from 10 yards, heads right on Carroll, shot saved from 20 yards, then 10 yards, then 2 yards.

Liverpool- Shoots at Reina when 1-on-1, again from VDS long kick.

Aston Villa- Misses from 18 yards from Tevez pass, scores 2 goals, goal gets disallowed for offside.

Roma- Scores 1 goal.

Middlesbrough- Scores 1 goal.

Arsenal- Lehmann saves from 1 yard, Lehmanns foot saves shot from 18 yards when 1-on-1, Lehmann saves shot from Evra pass.

Blackburn- Passes to Ronaldo instead of shot from 18 yards.

Chelsea- Scores 1 goal.

Wigan- Wins penalty, Kirkland makes one of the saves of the season from his shot from 20 yards.

Chelsea- Doesnt get a single chance.

This is all the chances I remember Rooney getting, and I bet I dont remember everyone. If he had scored on half of his chances he would have scored more than Ronaldo. So if he just learns a lttle from Ola, he might get more goals next season. Hopefully!

Berbatov who we will sign in my view, Huntelaar ideal but somw how we won’t make a bid for it seems, very odd. So we will only buy Berba this summer.

We all now, we were in for Ramsey… that’s £5 mil. Giovani dos Santos has said, we made a good offer for him… that’s £11 mil, and then SAF has said, we’re in for 1 or 2 players… one of them being a young important player that a team doesn’t want to part with. Doesn’t sound cheap to me.

To me, these statements smell more like SAF being almost satisfied with his current team and only wanting to sign for 1 position (striker, hopefully) and then build even more for the future. SAF always looks to how he can assure our future team, and he always has. That’s how he operates.

I’ll state again that neither van der Vaart, Arshavin, Pavlyuchenko nor Huntelaar are good enough for our team. I might be proven wrong, if we buy one of them, but it doesn’t look like we will.

None of them fits the bill really – maybe Huntelaar, yes. He almost fits it. I’ve always liked him, but my reasoning tells me that SAF doesn’t value him as high as many. I think, SAF has been interested in Huntelaar at some point (I think, he actually said so), but he may have been unsure of him and wanted to wait to see, how he developed. Now, it appears, he doesn’t like the look of things.

And yes, Huntelaar has scored a lot of goals, but let’s be honest… the dutch league is bad and getting worse, which means it’s the perfect place for almost world class to thrive (aka. Huntelaar). Another part of my reasoning is that he’s behind Rvn, van Persie and at par with Hessellink in the national team. He’s not that young anymore at almost 25.

I don’t question his goal scoring abilities, but I doubt SAF sees him in our style of play.