I was always gutted we didn't get Batistuta, I loved watching him play for Fiorentina, he had great movement, excellent hold up play, he was good in the air and could run the channels, he was truly a great striker.
Yeah that's true, he was top player in the world for a while. Would have loved him at United. Were we ever properly after him though? I know Fergie wanted him but wonder if we ever bid.
I'm sure I remember us bidding somewhere in the region of £15-16 million for him at one point, I could be wrong though.
Batistuta was great.. On the original playstation FIFA he was the first player I signed for us. Him and del piero up front..
Edwards blocked SAF from even bidding for him. Yet another example of how the plc hamstrung SAF far more than the Glazers ever could. The plc even planned to replaced SAF with Sven had he retired in 2002 http://www.tribalfootball.com/artic...batistuta-eriksson-replacing-ferguson-1331861 Did we ****. We never had a bid accepted by PSV - their chairman said our bid was only enough to afford a signed Robben shirt. As for players, Essien for me, all day. He's the only big player we missed out on that you can't say we didn't get an equally, or even more, important player as a result of missing out. Missed Gazza, got Ince. Missed Ronaldinho, got Ronaldo Missed Drogba, got Rooney Missed Shearer, got Ole and Yorke Missed Essien, eventually got Carrick Bale comes pretty close, but with Evra in the side we haven't really missed him as much as we've missed someone like Essien. Carrick does a job and gives us some strength, but Essien would have made such a difference to our midfield. Makelele is another one we were rumoured to have bid for. If so that's another massive miss - he has been Chelsea's best midfielder of the past decade. He was more important to their success under Jose than Lampard imo.
He did. We spoke to PSV, invited him over, gave him a tour, chatted him up, then the plc authorised a bid of between £5m and £7m depending on what source you believe. PSV told us to shove it, and invited Chelsea to bid. They bid twice what we did, the rest is history: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/3524213.stm
Bale .. bcz i knew he will be good . GRRRR.. what make it worst, is that we were linked to him according to the news at that time before spurs snatching him.. have to admit i never thought he gonna be playing as LM and be that good in this position ..
If only he never blocked that deal, he was arguably the best all round striker in the world at the time, I think we picked up Sheringham shortly after that deal was blocked.
I thought it was 98 and we ended up with Yorke. Not a bad replacement (see my point about Essien), but Batistuta could have been something else.
I thought it was a year or two earlier than that to be honest, wasn't the transfer blocked because it was going to cost £15-16 million? Would seem even more strange to block a move for one of the best strikers in world football because of that price tag only to go straight out and buy a pretty good domestic striker for almost £13 million, I could be wrong of course .
Good point I voted Ronaldinho, but you guys are right we would almost certainly never signed Ronaldo if we had got him. However at the time he was at the peak of his game it would have been great to have both.
I'm surprised Torres isn't up there (ie joining Liverpool Torres, not joining Chelsea Torres). SAF was close to bidding for him and I think in the past has openly expressed his regret at not
When Torres was at Liverpool we were as successful as we've ever been. Three league titles, a champions league and two more finals if memory serves, or thereabouts. Can't see how he would have possibly improved us so no, he's not on that list!
It was 1998 WC time IIRC and the wages were the biggest issue - he wanted £75k a week a year before we gave Keano £50k a week as our highest earner at the time. Sauce: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-60676271.html Never heard SAF express regret about not getting him, and Torres is not one for me at all. He's just a less prolific RVN, and would not have improved us at all. All he would have done would have gotten Ronaldo and Rooney trying to provide him with chances rather than scoring loads themselves. He's also not really one we missed out on as we decided not to negotiate. Might as well include Kluivert, Desailly, Zidane and endless others we've probably scouted / looked at over the years.
