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Drummer

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
2000
May Fabien Barthez (G) Monaco (? 7.8 Million)

2001
Jun Ruud Van Nistelrooy (F) PSV Eindhoven (?19 Million)
Jul Juan Sebastian Veron (M) Lazio (?28.1 Million)
Jul Roy Carroll (G) Wigan Athletic (?2.5 Million)
Aug Laurent Blanc (D) Internazionale (Free Transfer)

2002
Jan Diego Forlan (F) Independiente (?7.5 million)
Jul Rio Ferdinand (D) Leeds United (?30 million)
Aug Ricardo Lopez (G) Real Valladolid (£1.5 million)

2003
Jun David Bellion (F) Sunderland (£2 million - fee set by tribunal)
Jul Eric Djemba-Djemba (M) Nantes (?4.2 million)
Jul Tim Howard (G) NJ/NY Metro Stars (£2.3 million)
Aug Cristiano Ronaldo (F) Sporting Lisbon (£12.24 million)
Aug Jose Pereira Kleberson (M) Athletico Paranaense (£5.93 million)

2004
Jan Louis Saha (F) Fulham (£11.5 million)
May Alan Smith (F) Leeds (£7.05 million)
Jun Gabriel Heinze (D) Paris St. Germain (£6.9 million)
Rooney 25mil

2005
Van de saar
Park
vidic
Evra

2006
Carrick

The players who I would say are/might be bad signings:
David Bellion
Eric Djemba-Djemba
Jose Pereira Kleberson
Diego Forlan
Lopez
Evra

Veron, in hindsight was a bad signing but I dont know how anybody can say that any manager would of known how much a flop he would be. At the time united paid 30mil for the best midfielder in the serie A and the argentine captain. Yes he was a bad buy eventually, but if fergie paid 30mil for lampard/gerrard today, most people would agree that its value for top quality and only after a season of failure would they slag him off.

2003 was our worst season for signings, no doubt fergie dropped the ball that season. But apart from that, his signings have been good IMO. Forlan proved that he was in fact a good player, that just didnt suit the EPL. But in my opinion 2004 signings made up for that one.

Ferdinand was a good signing, just bad business, but fergie doesnt decide what united spend on a player. He says to the chief exec who he wants and prioritises them in preferance. The club negotiates based on what it can afford and what it values a player in terms of importance to the team.

Evra doesnt look great, but I think its only fair we judge him after the season.

Pique and Rossi look like two quality youngsters coming through. Where they at arsenal they would get a run in the team because they have no squad and cant afford anybody. As such the youngsters at arsenal play with less pressure and expectation which allows them to flourish. United youngsters are victims of the past glories of teams and youngsters before them.

Fergies record isnt exactly perfect, but if you compare it to his nearest rivals, I would think that its certainly up there with the best of them.

The biggest problem is Chelsea. We would of won the league last year had it not been for them. As far as I am concerned, finishing second in the league to a team that buys anybody, even players who arent for sale (obi mikel!), is as good as anybody could expect.

I look forward to this season because despite chelsea and Livepools insistance on playing the most boring formations with no need for strikers, we at least will be reverting back to our tried and trusted 4-4-2 and will at least be worth watching. Pool for all their defencive qualitis will again be looking at uniteds ass when the final points have been doled out in May. Unless Arsenal hold onto the players they have or sign another, i cant see them making up 17 points.

My prediction for the season is Chelsea, united, and then liverpool, arsenal & Tottenham to battle for 3rd and 4th again.

For people who say that this is a bad season for united in the league, then I say that you are just unrealistic. United doesnt have the money to compete with chelsea, nobody does. We made over 24mil in transfers between obimikel and ruud deals yet have only spent 17m.

For those of you demanding a striker, look at the world cup, liverpool, greece, porto, milan, juve in the last 4 years. The only good striker between these things was Shevchenko for Milan. IN the world cup no striker has reached their potential, even Henry goes missing in big games for france. I think united have enough up front in this day and age.

i could go on, but one of my favourate southparks is on so must dash. I will write more later if I remember anything else.
 
Evra will get his chance, only a matter of time before Silvestre becomes his old shitty self once more.
 
Gordy said:
Evra put a lot more pressure on Silvestre to perform. Now that Gabby seems to be back. I guess none of them will be in the side that often.

I agree. I always thought Evra was bought as back-up to Gabby and I'm a bit surprised that Silvestre is still at the club.
 
Drummer said:
2000



Veron, in hindsight was a bad signing but I dont know how anybody can say that any manager would of known how much a flop he would be. At the time united paid 30mil for the best midfielder in the serie A and the argentine captain. Yes he was a bad buy eventually, but if fergie paid 30mil for lampard/gerrard today, most people would agree that its value for top quality and only after a season of failure would they slag him off.
He wasn't the best midfielder in the world at that point imo. He had one tremendous season with Lazio (where ha actually playedd on the left of a 4-4-2) and that was it really. Of couse, he was always insanely talented and did have his good points but he was always inconsistant in Serie A and was never worth £30 million.

Thing is, if he was bought for like £15 million people would have been saying he was a decent signing. Unfortunately, that £30 million price tag always loomed over his head.
 
Newton_Gold said:
I agree. I always thought Evra was bought as back-up to Gabby and I'm a bit surprised that Silvestre is still at the club.
I didn't know much of Evra before he came. From what I read around the time of his signing that he was quite versatile. Fergie could have saw the versatility as a good reason for signing him. He would be able to give cover for LB and LW. Not so sure he is able to play in either of these positions in the little I have seen so far. I have even heard he could play in a DM position. Strange and I don't think that this one is true.
 
Veron, Kleberson and Forlan, with those three, you could tell that given a decent run in the team, they would have blossomed and made very good players. All three came from very different leagues and just needed a bit more time to settle into the english game. I guess u can never get that kinda time at Man Utd.

Pity to see those 3 players go, (Forlan went ton to be one of the top strikers in spainw hen he left)...but sometimes u just have to know when to cut ur loses and move on......

I guess thats also why we spent so much on carrick, cos the english gae is all he knows.
 
i think maybe thats the reason that fergie did not go for diarra or mascherano as there was an element of risk for them
 
Discussion starter · #12 · (Edited)
Frank Nitti said:
Very harsh judgement on Evra there, he has only been here for 6 months and his chances in the team were blighted by Silvestre's surprisingly good form.
I actually said that I will give Evra the next season to proove himself. He has looked disjointed and at united u dont normally get much time to settle. I have seen so many people write him off already and this is what I am talking about. Vidic for me has settled in far better then Evra and I predict he will be a good player for the club.
The thing is, I have made the point many times to friends that people dont take into consideration that players who join united (young or older established) dont get time to settle and are judged over a couple of games. People can blame fergie and it is slightly his fault. He is a victim of his own success. Fletcher is the only player who I have seen getting a good run in the team and a chance to proove what he can do and look at the abuse thats being thrown at fergie. Fletcher is still young and while I still doubt his ability to raise his game to the right level for the club, why are people surprised that uniteds youth policy is in such a way it is?
I was only having a discussion with my liverpool friend last night who made the usual statement about united having a bad youth policy and pointed to arsenals, west hams and leeds. I agree that uniteds youth scouts isnt what it was, there are some factors which effect it. The 90 minute rule is stupid and Becks would never of played for united had that existed when he signed for the club. There is also the factor I mentioned above. Leeds, west ham and even arsenal can afford to play youngsters with less pressure. Arsenal dont have a big squad and rely on them to perform well, therefore youngsters get a good chance, a good runout and theres less pressure for them to be instant hits. Youngsters at united dont get the same opportunity or time to mature. Again Fletcher and some of the other senior players mentioned (forlan, kleberson) have shown us that unless your quick off the blocks you are lambasted by the media and your own fans.

Think about it, Scholes, Becks and the nevilles all got their chance when Kanchelskisk, hughes and Ince were let go. Yes it was a tall order, but nobody expected them to do anything so there was realistic expectations and they had a chance to get into their roles at the club. I seem to recall a famour person saying you "wont win anything with Kids" which really gave the youngsters the perfect motivation to proove him wrong, while taking alot of the pressure off their shoulders by reducing widespread expectation (including in the media which is an underestimated source of pressure for players).

And with regards to Veron, I thought at the time we bought him, he was a superb buy. Many people thought that the league and European cup was tied up with that signing. He was the best serie A midfielder (not world, zidane had moved to spain) the season we bought him. Chelsea have paid 30mil for drogba, an aging shevchenko, an unproven essien and nearly that on a full back yet everybody accepts that they had the money for it. Well united had the money to spend on veron that season (we bought ruud for nearly 20mil), why is it that united get more grief then chelsea when we bought him under the same circumstances moneywise?

Benitez and Wenger have bought many turkeys over the years, but they never get grief for it. When you compare the costliest signings of clubs you have to take into account what they can afford. I mean Benitez bought crouch to improve on their champions league win. Crouchie!!! And for people who say that pool had no money, well wheres their youth policy? Wengers teams play great football, so it doesnt really matter who he signs or who he plays, arsenal fans know their place in football and neutrals dont criticise somebody who has his team playing the way it should be. One cant but admire wengers tactics, but he gets off scot free whenever he signs bad players. People go on about eboue, fabrecas, van persie, well fergie signed, ronaldo, henize, roony in a similar period. He bought henry, we bought ruud, I could go on and teh further back i go the better it would look for fergie.

My main point here is that fergie gets judged on a level thats unreasonable in comparison to his peers. The environment of football has changed in and outside the club. People seem to want any top name player to join the club just for the sake of signing a top name. Likewise some want us to sign a top name manager, well instead of going for the headlines its about time fans started appreciating what they have at the moment. Robson, Ince and keane have spoiled us and there is no obvious replacement for these players. The most important thing is that Sir Alex is still at the helm.
 
Drummer said:
I was actually said that I will give Evra the next season to proove himself. Vidic for me has settled in far better then Evra and I predict he will be a good player for the club....
Excellent post :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
Drummer man....those are some top quality posts..

i have to admire your undying support for SAF
 
kingkobra83 said:
Veron, Kleberson and Forlan, with those three, you could tell that given a decent run in the team, they would have blossomed and made very good players. All three came from very different leagues and just needed a bit more time to settle into the english game. I guess u can never get that kinda time at Man Utd.

Pity to see those 3 players go, (Forlan went ton to be one of the top strikers in spainw hen he left)...but sometimes u just have to know when to cut ur loses and move on......

I guess thats also why we spent so much on carrick, cos the english gae is all he knows.
Especially him. He was great when he got that run of games in his first season. He scored a few goals and made some great assists.
 
Lucky Luciano said:
What about the Generals that stayed with Hitler
in the bunker, were they smart as well?

Sometimes you need to cut your losses and
know this leader has lost it :thmbdown:
That's a bit strong, he's not done yet but I agree that there comes a point when blind loyalty does you nothing but harm.
 
I know it was a bit dramatic...

So ok he signs the right players, thats one part
of the job.

The vital part follows, making a team out of them
and making a real challange to Chelsea. Can he
do that?

And at least reach the semi's of the champions
league as expected by United.

I am not so sure...
 
Drummer is right, those of you who claim Fergie's lost the plot are dead wrong.
We might be in a position where we may not win a single trophy for the next 3-4 years. But 3-4 years time, when Chelsea's superstars age, it'll be United who have the dream team. Rossi, Ronaldo, Rooney etc are going to be superpowers in the future and we have them, and we continue to sign good young players. Fergie actually is thinking about the future too with his signings. Our future is bright, it may seem all doom and gloom today...but don't let what happens today fool you on the outcome of tomorrow.
 
Lucky Luciano said:
I know it was a bit dramatic...

So ok he signs the right players, thats one part
of the job.

The vital part follows, making a team out of them
and making a real challange to Chelsea. Can he
do that?

And at least reach the semi's of the champions
league as expected by United.

I am not so sure...
I agree that we should be doing better in Europe and with the right signings I'd EXPECT us to get to the SFs at least but the league is a totally different animal altogether. Nobody can compete with Chelsea's squad and that’s what the league is all about: squads.

You could put Barca and Milan into the EPL and they would struggle to knock Chelsea off their perch but 11 vs. 11 it's a different story; that's why Chelsea haven't been able to win the CL so far because the CL is cup football and it comes down to 11 vs. 11 over two legs and not who’s got the biggest squad over 38 games.

No doubt SAF has had a bit of a wobble and that wobble has coincided with the Russian Mob taking over at Chelsea but I still believe there’s life in the old dog yet.
 
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