The best recent centre-back pairing at Old Trafford has been Rio Ferdinand alongside Nemanja Vidić.
Since then there have been numerous partnerships tried, millions of pounds wasted and José Mourinho is STILL moaning about needing a new centre half!
Currently at the club, not including the younger players, are Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Marcos Rojo, Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly.
Rocket scientists may choose to disagree but we don’t think that ALL the managers who have been involved in these purchases were bad managers. They certainly made some bad choices at times but to continually get the centre-backs wrong is just plain careless.
Phil Jones was bought by Sir Alex Ferguson and, at the time, was one of the most promising defenders in England. Unfortunately he has never fulfilled his potential, mainly because he is injury-prone, and may now find that his future lies away from United.
Chris Smalling was also bought by Fergie and we have never really seen anything in him to make us understand why. He was an average defender at Fulham and United’s scouts, who must have got lost on their way to watch Chelsea or Arsenal, somehow convinced the manager that he was worth a punt.
He has always been clumsy, late in the tackle, hasn’t a clue about positional play and his passing is atrocious. Other than that, he was a decent signing!
Marcos Rojo was bought by Louis van Gaal and, initially, looked a good prospect. He has also turned out to be injury-prone and defends in the way you would expect a bull to defend a china shop.
José Mourinho himself was responsible for bringing Bailly and Lindelof to the club and, given time which they don’t particularly have, they should become great defenders.
Marcos Rojo – Hardly the most stylish centre-back at United!
No matter how good or bad these five players are, perhaps the biggest problem is that none of them is a leader. The back four requires the three C’s, co-ordination, co-operation and collaboration and, therefore, one of them needs to be able to step forward and take control.
Manchester City have Vincent Kompany and, until recently, missed his leadership whenever he was injured. Chelsea had John Terry and now have Gary Cahill. These are leaders. Players who know what to do if things start to go wrong.
At United the players stand around looking at each other whenever it isn’t going according to plan. This is what is frustrating Mourinho and is why his first choice purchase would be Toby Alderweireld who tends to boss the back four.
He is shying away from Yerry Mina of Barcelona but may be tempted into buying him if he can also get the Belgian from Tottenham Hotspur.
Jerome Boateng shouldn’t even be being considered. He has been bang average for Bayern Münich all last season. He was awful for Germany during the World Cup and he hates England. He even managed to injure himself on the plane when he was travelling to sign for Mancheater City.
Also, and this is the bit that has us puzzled, he is the same age and price as Toby Alderweireld so why would Mourinho buy Boateng? Or is this another case of Ed Woodward sticking his nose in and muddying the waters for everybody?
Anyway, Boateng has since said he doesn’t want to go to United which, for the majority of United supporters, will be very good news indeed.
And so the search goes on.
And finally…..
Sky Sports News transfer centre opened with the “massive news” that Jack Grealish wouldn’t be sold by Aston Villa. This isn’t the first time that they have led with a transfer that isn’t happening so maybe a more appropriate name would be the “no transfers centre”
Despite being shown the love by the fans, Aston Villa supporter Jack Grealish wants to play for Tottneham Hotspur, proving that his ambition isn’t really much higher than where he currently plays
They followed this, after a couple of minutes discussing the movement of goalkeepers between London and Spain, by looking at the different heights between goalkeepers past and present at Stamford Bridge.
This segment, during the “transfer centre” remember, was closed with a piece on how well David De Gea has done at Manchester United.
They then conducted a completely meaningless interview with ex-Everton striker Wayne Rooney who now plays for DC United, whereby they asked him how well Manchester United would do next season! What does he care and why even ask him?
They must be pretty desperate for something to happen so that they can stop the headaches caused by having to find some absolutely irrelevant nonsense to fill the gaps.
Never mind, tomorrow is another day.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 