Having seen we've recently been spammed by a few United idiots (no generalizations, all clubs have them), and that the old '£7mil for Hernandez, £35mil for Carroll' argument was again put rather nicely to us, i was curious to see your opinions on your new hero. No 'lfc fan in peace' or any of that crap, and this is genuinely the first time i've been on your board, i'm just interested so see if i can get coherent responses from our rivals. Why do i care? Small things like fantasy football for next year, the number of times i expect to be reminded of how brilliant this guy is, and because the day we started putting 'Little Pea' on the back of shirts, football was officially confirmed mad. As for Hernandez, he's clearly a great buy. I do however wonder exactly where he will go from here? He seems (to me) to offer little other than his predatory finishing (distinct lack of assists or contributions to play, summed up rather obviously against Barcelona), so in a season where he has finished with an exceptional strike rate where can he go? (Easy on the rage, compliments to follow...) Will his goals to games continue to improve to the point where he is leagues above any other forward the league has recently seen? Will he maintain his form from this season? Or is he the classic Jermaine Defoe type predator- in a good season bangs in the goals but during a dip in form is a complete spare part? I would imagine with no experience of a dip in form you would likely be very optimistic fans, but all players have them. I would have him in our team/squad in a heartbeat, of course, the guy is class, and when i say 'little other than his finishing' that is not to downplay what is the most valuable skill in football (scoring goals). I had him in my Fantasy Football team for a good few weeks, but found that even though he scored often, because he didn't seem to get any assists or make any other contributions he picked up very few extra points and therefore wasn't that great for me. So basically if he stays at the same level next season, great for you guys trying to retain the title, but not great for me trying to win some money off my mates.
All team make good buys. All teams make poor buys. Pea will get better, how much we don't know. He's kinda like Gary Lineker & Michael Owen in one. He might not have got you many points but fantasy football is just that. He made a great contribution to our championship winning season.... Carroll isn't a BAD player, he just worth about £10m tops. Still, good move in offloading Torres
Next season can go two ways for Henandez, it doesn't all depend on him either. He may improve and his goals return may go up and he might start to assist more too. But on the flip side, opposition players might get a better understanding of how he plays and how to stop him. We'd all (United fans) love to say Hernandez is going to be incredible next season, and he might, but it's very hard to say what will really happen. He is brilliant at what he does, but then if opposition players wise up to him, he'll find it harder to emulate last season and he will need to improve to continue to be as effective as he has been so far. How well he does next season depends as much on opposition players as it does on him.
I think that's the key point - you can't really judge a player until they've had a serious dip in form. Rooney had one from March last year, but kept working hard and playing his game and eventually sorted his game out and made a vital contribution towards the end of this season. Torres had a dip starting around the same time, and seems to have completely lost his game as a result of it. Hernandez is almost bound to have a dip in form at some point next season, I guess we'll just have to see how he handles it. Personally I almost hope he does remain relatively one dimensional for us in terms of just being a goal scorer. Whilst it would be nice to imagine him as the ultimate poaching, assisting and creating forward, I think if he tries to change his game too much too soon he may struggle to keep his scoring instincts. After all, Wright, Lineker and Owen (prior to RM) all made great careers for themselves doing pretty much nothing but scoring goals!
A story about Carroll Back in 2009 when Liverpools assistant manager or coach(can't remember the actual job title) was at West Ham he was offered Carroll for £1m, his response was no as he thought he wasn't worth it. You know the rest No wind up just a well documented "report" around the time he signed for Liverpool. I personally think Chico will score lessgoals next season, but his all round game play will improve , which needs too, similar to Rooney when he first came to United. He, the latter, is a far more established player now and only 26. Plus with all United'd success he can afford Hair Loss Treatment.
I take it you are referring to Steve Clarke. Any link to this story (press quote etc). If true I'll pee myself with laughter!!
Not the exact report, but this one does reference the £1m valuation. http://www.footballobserver.com/201...ve-signed-andy-carroll-for-1million/#more-340 I'm going to have to find the Steve Clark report
Nobody stopped Gary Lineker from scoring for fun, so why do people think they will stop Hernandez next season? Hernandez is a goal poacher not a goal maker, Rooney, Nani and Valencia do that.
Cheers those who responded properly! I have to say i agree on the Owen point, and who knows maybe having Owen around for Hernandez was part of the reason you guys renewed his deal. Re the Carroll story, i think it reflects more on Steve Clarke, but then i'm surprised Steve Clarke had the power to veto transfer deals as an assistant manager well before his Chelsea successes. Plus most managers have a story like this, Redknapp and Ian Wright for example. Of course it is convenient for most Utd fans when slating Carroll to forget that Newcastle were effectively given free reign on his fee only because we had Chelsea willing to make up the difference. Torres was probably worth £30million, and Carroll £15million, so i don't really think we ended up out of pocket. He is also, like Hernandez pretty much one of a kind in the league at the moment, and both of them i'm sure will make a lot of headlines next season, for whatever reasons. Obviously i have a healthy dislike for your club and will allow a smile when you crash and burn next season (i know it's predicted every year, but i think next year is YOUR year to fall away) heavy sarcasm but thanks again for the chat lads.
I think the main reason we've renewed Owen's deal is that he's an experienced international who is willing to sit on the bench and doesn't expect lots of games. So we can keep him as 4th choice without worrying about him whinging about not getting enough games. I think it's always useful to have a striker like that, particularly when you consider how much whinging players like Babel and Bendtner have done despite clearly not being good enough for regular action. I think it also reflects that back then Carroll wasn't particularly well known and had only scored four first class goals. Also West Ham didn't have enough money to gamble on a player that might make it or might not. Clarke didn't veto it, but he probably said he didn't think we was worth it, and Zola agreed with him. No no, you're clearly confused. Next year is Liverpool's year, remember?
Every ****ing summer. It's like the Liverpool cycle. Summer of expectation, Autumn of hope, Winter of despair, Spring of mouth foaming anger, bitterness and jealousy.
