http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14285602.stm Ha, I have defeated the point of your other thread!
I just hop the rumour about buying a few brazillians is not true.. never heard of this ganso who we seem to being linked to.. plus we dont have the best track record in bringing south americans to us Kleberson springs to mind as being utter ****e.. I want sneijder or schweinsteiger..
Schweinsteiger would be excellent, top player, gets goals and has a great engine for getting up and down the pitch. Cannot see Bayern selling to one of their European rivals though.
I dunno, the Da Silvas, Heinze and Valencia worked out great, Tevez was good for a couple of seasons and Anderson still has time to impress. Admittedly Kleberson and Veron weren't great, but then you're always going to get a few flops, no matter what country or region you buy from. Ganso will be a gamble, but with Bayern not willing to sell Schweinsteiger and the Sneijder deal not being guaranteed I'd rather we signed a talented youngster than just made do with what we have.
Da silvas have been there years though, Heinze was playing european football and valencia had 3 season prem experience too.. Tevez yes was very good.. Anderson has been hit an miss and really no come on the way we expected him too.. Just makes me nervous picking someone unknown from the brazilian league..
Ganso's not particularly unknown. He's a regular in the national side and is an excellent passer, who can also finish. The rumour is rubbish though. Only caught offside could decide that we are going to sign 3 Brazilians, who would cost an absolute fortune combined, a day after Gill said we would make ONE more signing.
Schweinsteiger would of been the perfect player for us, he would definitely of been my first choice but I'm pretty sure he signed a new contract a few months ago and said he wasn't interested in leaving Bayern. Ganso is a quality playmaker but I'm not sure if he would suit our usual style of play, and I think I read somewhere that he wants to head for Italy to play for AC Milan. The Sneijder deal seems to have gone quiet at the minute, but it hasn't gone away which makes me think talks are still ongoing, at least I hope so because he really is a great player, and he works very hard for a team, he tracks back a lot more than he seems to get credit for.
The Da Silvas came here directly from the Fluminese youth set up, so they weren't tried and tested to any degree. And remember Chicharito was also pretty much an unknown from the Mexican league. I see what you're saying about it being a bit of a gamble, but ultimately it will always be difficult to convince clubs to part with high profile world class signings, particularly in CM. Also in the past Utd have generally done best by bringing in young players like Rooney, Ronaldo, Hernandez, the Da Silvas and Solskjaer before they get global recognition and clubs like Real or Barca come in with £200-300k per week wage offers. After all, it's hard to think of any well established world class players Utd have signed who have then gone on to fully live up to their reputation at Utd.
Only real one I can think of is Rio Ferdinand who was already recognised in the top bracket of defenders imo. Suppose it depends on your definition of world class, I guess.
We need someone else without doubt.. though I would like to see cleverly get a run in the side and maybe pogba too.. but I think if we want to compete with Barca we need another marquee signing ala Sneijder calibre of player.
I've said this before in another thread, I think SAF sees Cleverly in the Scholes's mould and eventually a central midfielder, but he hasn't got the allround game to play there yet, not for our 1st team anyway. So naturally, he could be played out wide but is he really going to get past Nani, Valencia, Young and Park? Highly doubt it. I don't get why so many people are hankering after Pogba to play first team games. This isn't the way of SAF normally, he will start to include some youngsters in first team squads for CC games for instance and send them out on loan if he thinks they are good enough. Look at Josh King, came from the youth, into the reserves, appeared in a few first team matchday squads and he is on loan hopefully going to do very well. Personally I think Tunnicliffe is the better player although I rate Pogba highly as well. Future looks good in the centre of the park, but that is exactly that- the future. Do we need a marquee name or a Sneijder type player? I think neither. I'd be a lot more happy if we bought a more classical centre mid. Schweinstieger would be perfect but almost an impossibility so it's hard to think of centre mids that have such an allround game.
