Manchester United have bought Diogo Dalot from Porto. He is a 19 year-old right wing back who is also comfortable on the left and in midfield so, on this basis and unless he is exceptional, he is one for the future.
It is expected that he will be used to provide cover for the wing back position. He has been at the club for around two minutes and speaks fluent English.
Antonio Valencia is 33. He used to be a half decent winger until he broke his leg and became nervous about taking on defenders. He was, consequently, shifted back into the right wing back position at which he isn’t very good.
He is constantly caught out of position, forever giving away free-kicks and he regularly plays the opposition onside. He has been in England since 2006 and still doesn’t speak English yet he is regularly given the Manchester United captaincy!
So here is one position which needed a top quality, ready-made replacement brought in and, as yet, it hasn’t happened. With a little luck though, it still might.
The defence also still requires strengthening at left wing back and with at least one top quality centre back. Again, there is plenty of time left for these signings to be made and it looks as though the club may be trying to sign Toby Alderweireld from Tottenham Hotspur.
If that could happen along with another full back then the defence would have a more solid look to it and David De Gea could sleep a little easier in the knowledge that he wouldn’t have to win the player of the season award again for United to appear to have a good defence.
Fred – A Manchester United player when announced and not before!
The addition of Fred in midfield is bad news for the likes of Ander Herrera and Juan Mata, particularly when the team play with three in that area, as they are likely to be Matić, Pogba and Fred but, if that is how progress is to be made, then so be it.
Further upfield another creative goalscorer could be added to the equation to compliment the battering ram approach of Romelu Lukaku. That player should have been Antoine Griezmann of Atlético Madrid but it now appears that he will either stay where he is or go to Barcelona.
Gareth Bale is another who could do a job but is probably not the answer. It always leaves a bit of a sour taste in the mouth seeing a club like United fawning over injury-prone players who aren’t deemed good enough for Real Madrid, particularly when even Manchester City make it fairly obvious that he is not a player in who they have any interest either!
United always used to SELL players who WERE good enough to play for Real Madrid, such as Ruud van Nistelrooy, David Beckham, Gabriel Heinze and Cristiano Ronaldo. Now they are talking about BUYING players who AREN’T good enough for Madrid. How the mighty have fallen!
So an opening exists for a ball-playing second striker in the mould of Lionel Messi or Neymar to come in and improve the team.
Hopefully, if Alexis Sánchez can find his goalscoring touch again, the need for this extra striker can be put on the back burner and the club can go all out strengthening the areas where urgent surgery is required.
This man will start scoring regularly next season, you just watch!
Manchester City will strengthen and, if possible, improve on last season. If they succeed then United have to improve considerably more, particularly when bearing in mind that they were 19 points worse than City at the finishing line!
The others shouldn’t provide too much competition as they will be unable to improve as much as the Manchester clubs.
Arsenal will expect to be better as will Liverpool but Chelsea, at present, will be an unknown quantity and Spurs will be….. well……Spurs!
So although we don’t expect any new members to be inaugurated into the top six next season we do expect a couple of clubs to be a lot closer to it which could make things interesting for the fifth and sixth places.
And finally…..
Poor old Manuel Pellegrini. Goes back to Chile to visit his favourite restaurant and gets mugged on the way there. Takes the West Ham United manager’s job and gets mugged there as well!
Apparently, having been promised the world by a certain cockney wheeler-dealer when accepting the gig, it now seems that the world he was promised is different to the world he wants.
He keeps putting forward the names of players he would like the club to buy and the club keep marking them “return to sender”. He only really wants ONE big name player because, as he rightly says, that gives his whole project credibility and will attract others.
His could be a very short stay at West Ham unless the owners are prepared to join the rest of us in the real world!
There are certain people on the board at West Ham United to whom this type of common sense is completely alien and, while they continue to sit on the board, the club will continue to sit in the lower reaches of the Premier League.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 