Im pretty sure this is just newspapers usual made up drivel, however, i'll discuss the possibility. Fergie will not and never has paid over the odds for someone this young and unproven. Players like gaitan are signs of how the transfer markets gone absolutely sh1t crazy, he should cost around about 8-17 mill back when the market use to be normal. theirs far better talent that im sure the united scouts will find for a fifth of the price, they always have and will continue to do so. when player's like silva costed 25 mill who would be so thick to pay 35 + mill for this average player playing in a joke of a league?
Berbatov was never a flop, scoring 50 goals for his club is something carrol and torres could only dream of!
I suggest you read Swarbs post a bit more carefully. I think he is implying the value of the investments made in Torres and Carroll compared to Aguero considering they all cost £35m+ (Actually can't remember how much Aguero cost). And Gaitan has a release clause in his contract which is around £40m I believe so around £30m for him would be a bargain considering his contract status. Also, apparenly Rene Meulensteen has said we are monitoring the Ajax playmaker Cristian Eriksen, obviously any move in January would be risky also considering that he would be cuptied. So chances are a bit would depend on his performance against us. Gaitan impressed against us also and has been strongly linked, even reports of the clubs having initial talks.
This. My comment was in response to The_Post's comment that City would be the most likely to waste money on a substandard player. Yet of the three £35m+ players to have been bought by English clubs, it's quite ironic that the best value has been achieved by the club with the most cash to burn...
Personally, I don't think Torres is worth £50m BUT the fee paid isn't too shocking. He is a world class striker, hard to see that these days but his time at Liverpool (apart from his last half a season), he was class. I just don't think Chelsea are using him right. Trouble is, Chelsea don't have any wingers so playing 4-4-2 is pretty much out of the question yet I think that would get the most out of Torres if he and Sturridge played up front together as a partnership. Carroll is a player that I actually held in high regard back on old 606. Again, £35m for a young Englishman with promise, considering Liverpool just got £50m for Torres. I think Ashley was laughing all the way to the bank with that. But again, not using the right system for him. He isn't going to be a lynchpin of attacks, he is more of a target man and I don't think any big club in the world can be sucessful with purely a target man. You need to be able to play in midfield these days. Strikers are expected to be like Rooney, Suarez, Sturridge with talent on the ball as well as off it. I think it's just a bit silly that teams buy such players for such big money and then don't make them integral to the team. And United are guilty of that at times as well. I believe Nani to be our best player this season so far and it's a little disconcerting when he has to play on the left. But the player himself has adjusted aswell so both parties have to be able to make the most of it even if a compromise doesn't get the best out of a player but helps the overall team.
Actually I think that's the reason Utd do so well when compared to other teams with similar or superior resources. Far too many managers buy a big name player and then try to shoehorn the rest of the team around them rather than vice versa. Net result, the player plays great but the team fails. Newcastle with Shearer was a great example of this - Shearer was the best striker in the UK, arguably the world at the time, but he ended up being the focus of everything Newcastle did, and as a result they never won a trophy with him despite also having loads of other talented players. Likewise with RVN at Utd - probably our best out and out striker since Denis Law, but his time at Utd was our worst period in the last twenty years cos no one else got a chance to shine with him dominating the attacking side of the team and telling players like Ronaldo to always cross for him. I think that's one of the reason Utd have so many high profile 'flops' - SAF refused to change the team to pander to the playing styles of players like Veron, Kleberson or Berbatov. They either adapt to the Utd style or they are moved on. Hard luck on the player, but ultimately almost always good for the team. I think Chelsea and Liverpool could learn a lot from that approach - I don't think they will move forwards until their managers accept that Torres and Carroll don't fit their style of play, cut their losses and bring in players that do. Much like Mourinho did in ditching Crespo for Drogba back in 2004.
Aguero is good, not worth £40 million, not yet at least, but he is very good. Torres and Carrol were bad buys. To me Torres has lost his extra yard of pace and can't beat a man anymore and Carrol has never been anything better than average in the first place.
I didn't want to sound completely arrogant or biased but that Nani example was probably the best I could come up with in recent years. But I agree. That RvN example is pretty much perfect. He was a legend, one of our best ever goalscorers but in order for us to progress and re-dominate in the way that we did after his departure, we had to allow the team to grow and if that involved selling our main striker and playing a supporting striker (Saha) that allowed others to flourish (Rooney, Ronaldo).
I don't completely agree with swarbs. I think teams should either be based on a system that the players fit into or have a team play to a players strenght. Now, I believe that the former is better at club level while the latter may be better suited for international teams or short periods for clubs (around 2 to 3 seasons). The latter has problems when said player is out, but the former will have problems if you do not have players that are adaptable or able to play said system. Torres for example, needs a system best suited to him, this doesn't mean everything has to be put on a plate for him and others cannot score goals. Likewise a system that the team is based on doesn't mean Torres would not be able to play a part, it just depends on whether that system is good for the team depending on what players they have. Look at our system, it is different from Chelsea's. Chelsea could get the better of Torres if they played a system like ours but they do not have the players to do so effectively and vice versa, we do not have the players to play in chelseas systems. I think i started rabling on...but I hope the point I am making is clear....
Sneijder hasn't been hitting the heights recently and where would he fit into our system? I don't think he would work in a 2 man centrel midfield with wingers. He works in a 3 man midfield.
