But we did spend that kind of money, on Nani, Anderson, Hargreaves, Berbatov and Valencia over the past three and a half years. If SAF isn't buying big, it's cos he doesn't think the big players that are available will fit into our team, or they're not worth the fees being asked. We all know he can be stubborn like that, like when he refused to bid high on Ronaldinho to replace Beckham, but I don't believe that someone within the club like Gill or the Glazers is telling him he can't spend the ã160 million we've got in the bank. If we're not spending big, it's cos SAF doesn't want to buy right now, simple as that.
I just don't agree with that. If Scholes and Giggs were playing every week then maybe I'd agree (probably not) but they aren't and clearly need replacing, as if they didn't, they would not play ahead of our other midfielders when their bodies allow it. We'll have to agree to disagree here but the ã160 million will not be spent on players any time soon. Since Berba signed, we have only bought potential. That certainly hasn't always been the case.
A 0-0 should be good enough. I don't think Fergie wanted us to expend too much energy with the big games we've got coming up.
Not quite - Valencia was not just potential - he had over 80 PL games, 30 international caps and a successful World Cup under his belt when he joined us. I agree that we need strengthening in midfield, particularly if Fletcher and Carrick can't recapture their form of the last two seasons, and I also agree that we won't spend ã160 million on players. But if SAF finds a player he wants and thinks represents value, the club won't stop him from buying. Personally I think SAF has been caught out, as most Utd fans have, by the decline shown by Carrick, and Fletcher in particular this year. But he's not going to rush into panic buying whilst we're top of the league and still in the FA Cup and CL. That's never been his style.
Yes but now the now the accounts have been moved to delaware its increasingly likely they will use that money. And whats 60 million going to get us? We need a Top class cm, a top class lw and a top class keeper.
What gets on my nerves is not when people say we are lacking something, but when they make a silly suggestion to remedy that lack. For example, people who say "Our midfield is so poor, we should have signed van der Vaart, he was so cheap". Completely ignoring the fact that vdV is NOT a midfielder, and wouldn't fit into our team whether we play 4-4-2 or 4-3-3. Or "Our midfield is so poor, we should have signed Ozil, he was so cheap". Even though the German had his heart set on Madrid, and is no more of a midfielder than van der Vaart is. By all means say if you think we need something, but be sensible with your choice!
People who point to the anderson berba etc transfers clearly have been in hibernation for the last 3 years and missed the global recession, the fact that the glazer malls are more at this point more failing like no tommorow. Utd are the only thing keeping the glazers heads above financial water. Since that point the word value has cropped up a lot.
Vdv is more than capable of playing as cm, just because he hasnt for totenham dont think he cannot do the job, he started there at Ajax and played there for hamburg. Aswell as being deployed on either wing. Versatile. So yes he would have fit in and would have been a good choice.
Except Utd have been bought through a completely separate company to the Glazer's shopping malls and have completely separate financial accounts. The Glazers could easily let the shopping malls go bust and their ownership of Utd would not be threatened in the slightest. I seem to remember people making exactly the same arguments about Veron and Kleberson...until they got here that is...
But did Ajax and Hamburg play a 4-4-2 as we do most of the time? I doubt van der Vaart played as a box-to-box midfielder somehow.
Yes, at ajax he was in the centre. They played ibra and mido up top before replacing ibra up top when he left. And at hamburg played in a 4-4-2 aswell, mainly on the left however. We need a decent left winger now aswell.
Well these people clearly did not have a fecking clue what the hell they were talking about. Veron before and after he left england played one position, Deep Lying playmaker. In his whol time in england fergie cand ranieri chose to play him in every position but this one and people genuinley wonder why he failed. Well klebersons not really the same is it. He was never that great to begin with. He was a water carrier in a great brazil side. People expected him to be class because he was brazzilian, the realit was very much different.
The ownership maybe different but where do you think all those "loans" they decided to give themselves went?
Actually VdV was at his best for Ajax when playing with Sneijder and De Jong in a three man midfield. That was the formation they used in 03/04 to win the Erdedivisie. VdV rarely played in the same team as Mido, as Mido only played two seasons, of which VdV was injured for around half of those and Mido was sulking for a further half. Except even when Veron played in the playmaker role he was closed down too quickly in the PL. He never got the time and space he expected based on his time in Italy, and so never delivered. Yet another example of a player that looked great in a different division, but fell apart in the PL. And Scolari claimed Kleberson was the reason Brazil won the 2002 WC. So hardly a water carrier... What, the ã23 million in loans and consultancy fees? Given their shopping malls have mortgages of around ã400m, I'm doubting they used them to prop the malls up. And given that, had the 2003/04 rate of dividend growth been maintained, we'd have paid out over ã33 million in dividends over the last five years I don't see what the problem is with the Glazers taking out around two thirds of that. In fact, if the Glazers were looking to milk Utd for cash, why haven't they taken a single dividend since they took control?
