Back in 2010 we lost Roy to Liverpool and there the on/off business with Jol and Ajax. During that period of uncertainty, we apparently approached this man - Carlos Queiroz. please log in to view this image He had been assitant manager to Fergie (twice) and Real Madrid. At the time of our approach he had just been sacked by Portugal despite having taken them to the World Cup finals - losing 1-0 to Spain in the second round was not well received. In fact, the more likely displeasure was not scoring at all in 3 of their 4 games in the tournament and perhaps a little bit of behind the scenes controversy. While at United you may remember seeing him on TV quite a lot. Queiroz often fronted interviews with BBC programmes, like Match of the Day, since at the time Alex Ferguson refused to speak with the BBC. He was also cast as the villain of the piece when Roy Keene stormed out of Old Trafford, citing Queiroz's tactics as a reason. Some might say that's a feather in his cap. For whatever reason he chose not to come to the Cottage and sauntered off to manage the Iran national team. That he took them to the 2014 World Cup finals says an awful lot for his pedigree. What if MAF hadn't been so sold on getting Jol? Okay he ended up bringing in Sparky but I think it's an open secret that Jol was always his 'favourite son' and who he did of course eventually get. But what if he'd brought in Carlos Manuel Brito Leal Queiroz back in 2010?
Difficult to say... Given I don't think our eventual downfall was down to Jol, I don't think we would've fared much better. Would we have signed Berbs though?
Picking up on Bidders' comment about Berbatov and indeed Jol. Almost exactly 4 years ago Berba left Man United in the transfer window and made no secret of the fact he had "lost respect" for Sir Alex Ferguson. Being given centre stage by Jol Berba seemed to be in his element. At the time he said, "If I feel the coach is trusting my ability then I can do special things on the pitch. Now that I play for Fulham, I just want to show that I appreciate that they took me to the club. I know the coach, he trusts me. I feel good if the coach trusts the way I play and you saw that with the way I performed on the pitch." Certainly worked the weekend that was reported as we beat West Brom 3-0 and guess who was among the goals - Footnote: Blimey it seems an awful lot longer than 4 years ago !! And how was that for a penalty ?
