Eden Hazard is wanted by Real Madrid. Big deal. Real Madrid, like many other big clubs, has a scouting network which only seems capable of finding world class players after they have become world class.
Whether or not Hazard wants to go to Madrid is, to an extent, irrelevant. Usually when Real want a player they get that player. If Hazard does opt for the riches in Spain it should be seen as a cop out by the Chelsea fans. (more…)
Starting with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who looks pretty nailed on to arrive at Old Trafford in the very near future. His purchase will sell a lot of shirts and will certainly please some sponsors but is it a good deal? Judging by the way he has totally underwhelmed at the Euros the answer has to be “No”. Also, at 34, he is not in the age group of players a club like United should be signing.
Scoring a lot of goals in the French league is not too difficult a task for a decent striker. Defences are not even Championship level and the margin by which PSG won the title should warn any potential suitors of players that they may not be as good as the league makes them look.
Chances of being a success at United: 4/10 (more…)
I am not so sure that this is a good move. The only possible losers in this deal are United. Ibrahimovic signs a one year deal, gets paid even more money that he doesn’t need and performs or not depending on his mood at the time. Is he another Falcao? Or is he another Sheringham? United fans would prefer the latter but, again, I am not so sure.
Ed Woodward’s almost paranoid desire to sign a big name has already backfired on the two occasions he has done it.
Falcao proved one of two things. Either that he is past it or that he was never really good enough for the Premier League. I think that his subsequent move to Chelsea actually proved that both are true.
Angel Di Maria proved something I have always thought, he is a decent player, nothing more, who, again, doesn’t have the right attributes or mentality for the Premier League. (more…)
He must have, you only need to read the amount of players he is going to buy and look at the total cost.
All this talk of United giving him a kitty of ÂŁ250 million to spend on transfers is obviously a smokescreen so that clubs are not aware of how much is really available.
Ed seems to have learnt his lesson! Gone are the days when he would brag that United could afford any player in the world because money is no object. Maybe he realised, shortly after making his stupid statement, that any player in whom United expressed an interest suddenly experienced a sharp hike in price. When you add that to the fact that, thanks to Ed’s propensity for dithering, they also paid ÂŁ4 million more for Fellaini than they needed to, then it is understandable that their budget is being kept a closely guarded secret and that a completely false figure has been circulated. Only the really intrepid football journalists have figured out the truth.
So, following the arrival of Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic will come riding into town on his white horse. (more…)
Manchester United: Not too long ago I wrote an article which described how United weren’t too far away from having a team to win the title. I thought, at the time, that they were short of two, maybe three, top players.
I have since revised my opinion. Whilst playing quite well recently they have relied on injuries to force through some of the promising youngsters. This is a sad indictment on the transfer windows where adequate players were not purchased. If van Gaal sees out the final year of his contract then they will again struggle to reach the top four.
If, however, they take the logical option and appoint Mourinho, then I would make them slight favourites to win it.
Manchester City: Should be a lot closer to winning the title than where they are now. Having said that, with the bonus of the Capital One Cup win, they could very easily go on an unbeaten run that still achieves their goal! (more…)
It is not a case of the lunatics having taken over the asylum, not yet anyway. It is more that the clown is in charge of the circus and people are laughing, as they should be when watching a circus.
Manchester United PLC is, to the vast majority of supporters, a massive company such as BP, BT or Natwest Bank for example. Those supporters are not interested in the balance sheets, the profit and loss accounts or the day to day ups and downs of the stock market.
Not in the slightest. There will be some who have shares and therefore take an interest in their performance on the market, but not many.
Manchester United Football Club is different. To the supporters this is THEIR club.
They ARE interested in the day to day goings on at Carrington and Old Trafford, in the same way as, when I was a young supporter, I wanted all the news I could get from the ground and the Cliff.
The point I am making is that, to Manchester United fans the world over, Manchester United is about football and nothing else. (more…)
(This is an article I first posted back in August of last year. The reason for republishing this edited version is simple, it is still pretty relevant.)
Well, that ‘s the halfway stage reached with United in fifth place. The expectation after the last spend would have been a little higher, maybe fourth or third, as everybody expected Chelsea and City to be one and two, so a little down on target to date.
Now, all that remains to be done is to strengthen the squad so that the second half of the season culminates in a top four finish.
So let the problems begin. Firstly, everybody who is anybody will be linked with a move to United except the three, now untouchable, at Barcelona, (as eagle-eyed readers will know, since this article, Neymar actually has been linked with United).This, in itself, is a problem. Gone are the days when you merely had to say that you represented Manchester United for the targeted player to immediately pack his bags and instruct his agent to negotiate his departure. (more…)
Good old Gary. You have to admire his optimism, don’t you? He was a dopey defender, as Rodney Marsh used to say, who has turned into football’s answer to ‘The Man Who Knew Everything.” Very likeable and speaking a lot of common sense he is a refreshing addition to the world of punditry which previously boasted Paul Merson and his twenty words vocabulary as one of the leading lights, (and still does, to be honest).
According to Neville the elder, Manchester United are just TWO, yes TWO players short of being like Barcelona, whatever that means.
I suppose if Messi and Neymar were to sign for United tomorrow they would then be more like Barcelona. Only they wouldn’t be, because Barca would no longer have Messi and Neymar. They would still have Luis Suarez, which would make them more like Manchester City who also have only one world class striker in Sir Joe Aguero.
Trying to be more logical than Neville isn’t particularly difficult. All we need to do is work out which two players he means then, obviously, whoever is left would get into the Barcelona team. So let’s start up top. (more…)
Poor old Arsene Wenger. Nobody loves him, except the Arsenal fans.
Even the Welsh national team conspired against him. Aaron Ramsey suffered a delayed injury whilst playing for Wales against Andorra. Nobody really noticed until he had played ninety minutes against Watford, then another seventy against Bayern Munich then crack!! the injury he definitely suffered whilst playing for Wales two games previously, suddenly kicked in. Why oh why didn’t that nasty Chris Coleman tell Arsene Wenger all about it?
The fact that Gareth Bale was also injured in the same match for Wales almost threatened another panic attack for Arsene until he realised that Bale doesn’t play for Arsenal.
So to the game against Bayern which Arsenal needed to take something from if they were to, realistically, have a chance of progressing to the knockout stage. All they ended up taking from it was the realisation that they had met Bayern on an off night at the Emirates two weeks previously. (more…)
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 