Morning all, i'm back early from work due to being ill, right i'll get to my point and talk about player of the season so far, he's been top quality for us this season, i'm glad we got him, the most important thing i've been impressed about him is his fitness, considering he hasn't had any pre-season training with us although he played for Arsenal against Hamburg before he joined us, i read that a stat this morning that shocked a bit and that was without his goals, we would've won 5 premier league games this season, that's how important he's been to us in my opinion, he's scored crucial goals for us this season i.e. against City in the Manchester derby, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and West Ham, he's been the sgining of the season in my opinion, although some people might claim Michu for the price Swansea paid for him. Onto my second point, i see people have compared Van Persie to Eric Cantona and i can see where they are coming from as well because i remember we lost out to the old division 1 title in the 91/92 season and we were looking for a striker, at first, we were intrested in signing David Hirst from Sheffield Wednesday but they refused to sell him to us, when the Leeds chief excutieve phoned Martin Edwards about Denis Irwin, the manager said no and he wrote down the name Eric Cantona and to our surprise, Leeds were willing to sell him for £1.2 million pounds which was a lot of money back and he had a major impact on United, helping us to win the league for the first time in 26 years, he also had an impact on the younger players like Giggs, Beckham, Butt, Scholes and the Neville brothers, 21 years on, and it sees Fergie has found himself a new Cantona in Van Persie, don't forget w've got a lot of young players in our team like, De Gea, Rafael, Smalling, Jones, Buttner, Cleverley, Welbeck, Kagawa, Chicharito, they'll be learining off him especially the 2 strikers i've mentioned. He's got us 20 goals in all competitions so far this season, i wouldn't put it pass him getting at least 35 goals for us this season, he's been that good.
[video=youtube;eh7lp9umG2I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eh7lp9umG2I[/video]
today in the Sun if am correct i read that without RVP goals UTD would had been a mid table club with only 5 wins
Nonsense Presumably we would have someone else playing and chances would fall elsewhere, we seem pretty good at creating them.
This The simplistic adding and subtracting of goals by a striker is typical of the tabloids. However I have no doubt that without RVP we wouldn't be 7 points clear. We could be first or thereabouts still...
A controversial opinion I know, but I actually think RVP is a much better forward than Cantona ever was. Cantona was a top player but I wouldn't rate him above the likes of Van Nistlerooy, Ronaldo or now RVP in terms of ability
Cantona was the symbol of the rise of the current MUFC legend. Simply the King. I know Becks was also an overpowering symbol but Cantona is simply the top dog. He represents the rise of United as the top dogs.
Funny how we actually became stronger once he left, winning the treble. 64 goals in 143 games for us is decent, but I'd hardly say it was world class. Dare I say it, but RVN, Ronaldo and RVP are/were better players than him. Rooney is on about the same level
i can see your point .. but many of RVP goals were pure class .. can't see welbeck scoring more than 30% of them tbh
This Cantona galvanised a club uncertain in its ability to become the best and greatest club this country has ever seen. United from then on went on a period of domination of the league which continues to this day. SAF struck gold with Cantona and he knows it. Cantona may not have been the best player but he was the catalyst for the production of the best group of young players turning into the best team.
There are 2 separate things. If you ask who was the most important player for United: then there is NO doubt whatsoever in my mind, no matter what United go on to achieve in the next few years: Cantona by a mile. If you ask who was the better player or striker: I think it is RVP.
Indeed, if the thread was who is the best striker then van Persie should win. It's way more than that though with Cantona, as a player he is head, neck, shoulders and bollocks above anyone else, bar none. If United win four out of the next five premier leagues with RVP as inspiration then maybe he can stand comparison. Even then he came into a side that missed out on the premier league by goal difference and had won the three before. Cantona came into a club that hadn't won the league in 27 years and had blown in to Leeds the previous season. They were lacking spark, goals and inspiration and he provided all three. This turned us into the club we are now. Proper, proper stand out legend and the best player we ever had.
We wouldn't have been relying solely on Wellbeck though would we. Our first choice without RVP would probably have been Rooney and Hernandez and Rooney would have been the main man which we know produces goals. RVP has been fantastic though and I doubt we'd have as many goals as we do, but we certainly wouldn't be mid table,we'd still be in the to 2.
Tough one to judge on pure playing ability as. Cantona brought much much more than his ability as a footballer. As an icon to the club and what he brought as far passion and inspiration he is head and shoulders above anything we've had and anything we'll ever have.
