Or Why does no one bat an eyelid when Man city pay 27 mill for Milner and 24 mill for Lescott??? Or villa paying 24 mill for Bent??? Or Ferdinand for 30+ mill 10 years ago? when Liverpool spend cash we are being mugged off when we dont we are in the dog mess.. Make your minds up !!!!
UIR. Take off your rose tinted glasses for a minute. Carrick is one-dimensional,one paced and he can only pass the ball side-ways and back-ways.And is a 7th choice England International,which means that the likes of Gareth Barry,Scott Parker and James Milner have to get injured before he's even considered making the squad.And none of these are what you would class as world class. Anderson is a £20 million midfielder with one talent....thats the ability to pass the ball to the opposition.He had potential...3 years ago...he's never fulfilled it. Nani,at times can look world class,can cross the ball with superb precision,but he's erratic.He can go from the sublime to the pretty awful,there is occasions when he can't cross his legs. Rooney,he's decent,and thats being fair,but the creme de la creme,he's hyped because he's English,the English media talk about his ''amazing techique''.However I must be blind,I've never seen it.Maybe I'm too used to watching Luis Suarez in action a player,that does actually have amazing technique.Carlos Tevez is another that does have amazing technique. Fletcher is a hatchet man if there ever was one,but he's more than just a hatchet man...he's an average hatchet-man and not in the same class as Javier Mascherano and Sergei Busquets or Michael Essien....more like Joey Barton and Felliani and Lee Cattermole.
My feelings exactly. Think this summer is one last gasp from the media and opposition fans who have enjoyed sticking the boot in when we were struggling, but Kenny will have them wiping his arse soon enough
Great comment mate. It seems we're damned if we do and we're damned if we dont. MU's asskissers SSN even made a point out of making an un-needed comparison between Downing and Young and doctoring stats to "prove" that utd got a better player and a better deal with Young.
I still like how Henderson is still being questioned ( although he has an England cap) and not word one has been said about Jones. Both should be judged down the road.
People are still laughing about Milner and Lescott haha. Come to think of it.....Villa have made a fortune in recent years selling half decent players for massive sums. Young 20million Downing 20million Milner 27million Anyway people are laughing at Downing because thats what everyone has always done. Like I said, hes just that sort of player. Ferdinand was highly rated then and was also very good. Sort of like Rooney. People didnt think much of the fee as we all sort of knew they would be great. Everyone in England would of signed them if they could. Dont think its the same with Young, Downing, Henderson, Jones and others.
Personally I think Kenny got it spot on. Theres reasons for it.I don't think Kenny likes ''fancy players''.I reckon he wants competitors.Look at the five signings he has made thus far.Nothing fancy about any of them.There is one thing that each of them have in common....Grit. Luis Suarez is exuberance and skill.He's also proved that he will work his socks off..he's like a bull in a china shop.He plays the same way he trains. Andy Carroll,an uncompromising traditional centre forward.What you see is what you get.If he gets the right service...he's unstoppable.He will kill defenders.He will make their life a living hell. This is where Stewart Downing comes in,no nonsense,gets on with his job and does it.Nothing spectacular in a way like Antonio Valencia.But applies 100% effort.Nothing fancy. Charlie Adam,the epitome of grittiness.Well he is Scottish. Jordan Henderson,he will be Charlie Adams legs.Bags of energy,no nonsense,again does what it says on the tin. He'll let his luxury players come off the bench when Liverpool are 3-4-0 up to finish the job.Its a results business and when you want results you need competitiors.
Oh and i would say our central midfield is significantly stronger than Utd's as it has been since Benitez was in charge. It is more the players that surround them. Utd have a top class defensive unit, and then importantly surround those mdifielders with: Rooney- £26mil Berbatov- £31mil Valencia- £16mil Nani-26million euros (exchange rate has changed but still over £20mil) Cristiano Ronaldo- £13mil Carlos Tevez- £20mil Then throw in: Tosic- £8mil Obertan- £3mil Bebe- £8mil and various others who have contributed and not worked out, and you can see why the 'they were in a title winning side' doesn't necessarily cut it. You paid over £18mil for Carrick, and yet the same for Downing is crazy apparently. Double standards.
Jones, Henderson, Young, Downing have a **** load to prove. its all well and good being decent for Villa, Blackburn or Sunderland but its a whole different story playing at this level.
Skrtels Nips. You forgot Hargreaves..a player that has played 7 minutes in the last 3 seasons and cost £17 million. Anderson..who has one talent...the ability to pass the ball to the opposition and cost £20.4 million
Carrick has been good at United for the majority of his time here. Not worth the money paid though imo. £13million would of been fair.
Yeah, both over priced but it is impossible to argue that Carrick has been a success and so worth the money, regardless of what you think of him and what spin you'd all like to put on his apparent lack of contribution. Time will tell on Downing, if he also wins a league medal in his first season then he'll have also been a success and worth the money, eh? Too early to possibly tell.
£13 million.Nah I don't think so. I still think he wasn't worth the £2.75 million Spurs paid West Ham for him.
This is more directed at others as i think you're merely saying they haven't justified their price tags yet. It's more those that say he's 'only played well at Villa' that do my head in, as if without a transfer he can play somewhere else. It's the kind of chicken and egg situation you can't avoid. We can't have everyone proven at the top level else we'd have 1 club with thousands of players. There's 20 teams in the league with loads of different players who learn and mature at different rates. It's like not giving any youth players a chance as they have never played senior football. The cream rises to the top and Downing has steadily been doing that throughout his career, despite the fact his boyhood club got relegated during his formative years and the fact he broke his foot during the transfer window he was to make his next step up in and at the point he was starting to get more involved for England. I imagine these things have affected his popularity as much as the fact his name is Stewart Downing rather than Pele Galactico.
Yes mate but was more getting at the fact those centre midfielders for various reasons haven't worked out, hence my opinion we've had a better central midfield. I was kind of paying them a compliment but also making it clear that we have our own strengths, central midfield being one of them, as this thread is about midfielders and that is definitely one area i won't be told we lack quality!
Well yeh when big fees are paid they have to now go and justify them on the pitch. Fair enough downings not a terrible player but to imagine him being a top level player is weird. Cant see him making the grade tbh. Will be a solid mid table team player with a surprise or two up his sleeve every now and again. May prove me wrong mind...
Yeah i get that fair enough pal. There's no doubting Downing is very unfashionable: "Stewart Downing reveals his far from extravagant lifestyle to court" http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/mar/08/stewart-downing-lifestyle-court-agent Sometimes think he doesn't get credit because he keeps his head down. If he was crashing cars and having training ground bust-ups and claiming home-sickness then maybe his reputation would be a bit better! Understand where you're coming from, it's hard to imagine the Spanish media going mad for Downing after the CL final! Also i'm quite happy with consistent with the occasional moment of brilliance, we have Suarez to do that the other way around!
It is a system that will if you don't have it near perfected and that means midfielders and defenders acting as aunit when defending. 3 at the back exposed would be disasterous. If it works though, you suffocate the midfielf up to 35 yards out from their goal pin them back and use the width. Our midfield did not perform in the last two games so we lost, quite often against Villa our midfield got cut out by passes and runs, we were not solid and there was far too much space in our half of the pitch, to much time for opponents to choose. We looked knackered tbh in those last two games. Deflation after elation probably.
