Transfers & Rumours - Page 5

Fergie nearly bought essien before chelski offered more money if my memory is correct.

quote IcarusAbides

Fergie did seem almost hurt but at the end of the day you have to remember that Fergie is brilliant at this sort of political PR job and he will have carefully prepared this statement to maximise it's effect.

One of Fergie's good friends is Alistair Campbell...ex-spin doctor for Tony Blair's government. Fergie probably learned a lot of mind game tactics from that man.

link

back in the day with mourinho and all the money in the world.

quote LuisGarciaisgod

Sorry misread you there.

tbf though JB the failure of United to get anywhere near the title was attributed more to the spending power of Chelsea then it was to the failure of United or Ferguson.

I remember the 05-06 season when you lot got knocked by the Champions League by Benfica in the group stages and Liverpool finished ahead of you in the league. Still a better team then you had now.

Nice selective list you put there Rich however.

Alan Smith was better then Darron Gibson

Wes Brown (then used more as a centre back) was better then Jonny Evans is now

Heinze (who was in reality back up) if we are going to be talking about the dreaded 05/06 season that Johnny Boi is talking about is better then either Rafael or Fabio.

Louis Saha was better then all of your stikers at present.

Nah there was definitely blame attributed to Ferguson and United at that time. 04-05 season United were outscored by Arsenal by a total of something like 30 goals and finished a full 6 points behind them with that being 3rd place. The following United were a total of 8 points off Chelsea and probably only finished second due to the lack of CL football after being eliminated bottom of the group in the group stages. Of course Liverpool didn't finish above United, things were not that bad.

Things were so bad back then that the 06-07 season was even seen as a 'fluke' and Chelsea were widely regarded to cakewalk the 07-08 title and people still thought United would finish 5th, 6th or possibly even worse and slip into mid-table obscurity, lose all their players and their Fergie and be in serious, serious shit. Things are really nowhere near as bad now as they were then lol, I know a lot of you people don't rate a lot of United's side there but from a completely neutral standpoint 1 point off a Chelsea team with the injuries and problems that United had as well as being fairly unfortunate against them in the league double header is nowhere near as bad as the, relative, crisis of the three years I'm talking about.

But then you want to compare the teams and I still think you are wide of the mark here. Gibson, at his level today, is probably what 5th/6th choice central midfielder at United? (I say '/' 6th because of Hargreaves' problems but he'd be behind him if he ever returned even at 50% fitness). When Smith was at United he was what 3rd choice midfielder? Even then I still think Gibson is better but if you want to compare Carrick and Smith then there's no contest lol. United had Scholes (who was dogged by eye problems back then), Miller, Keane (who went crazy and ranted about the players to the press, a Keane on decline), Kleberson, Djemba-Djemba, a Fletcher held in about the same regard as Gibson is right now (even worse possibly), Richardson and Fortune. How you can even compare that to todays midfield? I don't see it personally.

I still think Gibson gets too much stick as well tbh, for 60 minutes against Bayern he absolutely shat on Schweinsteiger in the Bayern midfield and it was only when Gibson was moved to the left that Bayern got any foothold in the game after the red card. He has had promising appearances at United, all that get ignored, and he's a young midfielder learning his trade at Manchester United. Your manager Trap has said United are in fact holding him back as he's not getting first team games iirc. Fergie has a lot of faith in him, and at 22 I don't see a completely shit player or a player up to United quality atm, but I see a promising young midfielder that takes far too much stick. Much like Anderson does.

Heinze was never back up in those years, he was first choice left back and Evra had just joined looking completely out of his depth. I never really rated Heinze as much as some other people did, I think he was really suspect defensively at times and didn't have much of a brain. No contest here with the Evra of today. As for Wes Brown and Evans I rated Wes Brown of the time but probably not as highly as I rate the potential of Evans now, pretty even but even despite Evans' torrid time at the start of this season there is definite promise there.

Saha could've been one of the fantastic strikers of his generation, but injuries held him back, he only really had an extended spell in the team of 6 months (where he was by far the best striker in the league) of exposure that helped United start the season really well and put them in the driving seat for 06-07. His injuries stopped him being the player he could've been and even though he's probably my second favourite player of all time I'd still have Berbatov and Rooney (now) over him purely because he was on the treatment table more than he was on the pitch. I think Chicarito and Macheda are marked improvements on Bellion as well.

Either way you do it, player by player or by results/league positions, the United team today is far, far superior to the team of those three years. Everyone loves to hate United but they were one point off Chelsea last season and quite unfortunate at some stages and players like Nani are putting the chances on a plate for a Berbatov high on confidence and form just like they did for Rooney, what needs to be sorted is the other end and if that gets sorted I'm confident in this team Rooney or no Rooney. As for the years mentioned, that was a comparative game over to how the team is now tbh.

Rooney you *bleep*.

Some sources reporting Real Madrid are paying €50m + Benzema to Man Utd for Rooney

Please be true.

Do not understand why Rooney has done this now. Ok if he wants to leave,fine but what good does announcing his intention to leave do, when there is over 2 months left till the transfer window opens, announcing his intentions now only serve to cause bad morale amongst the team and hinder the clubs season.

People are over estimating his importance to the team, we haven't had Rooney all season and apart from our defensive problems we've been fine. ( when I say we haven't had Rooney all season, I mean the Wayne Rooney of last season.)

It wont happen but I really hope Ferguson leaves Rooney to rot in the reserves until the transfer window reopens in January. The way I see it Rooney announced his intentions to leave months before the Transfer window opens, so he should be punished and considering he's always desperate to play, it would be good to see him down in the reserves for the next couple of months.

Not really sure who I'd like to see come in and replace Rooney, Benzema seems like the more obvious option, with a swap deal with Madrid, but I'm not too sure on that one considering how Benzema has flopped at Madrid.

tbf Rooney's just told the club he wants to leave, which he is well within his rights to do, and he's better off saying it now and being able to move early in January rather than saying it at the start of January. It's also not his fault it's got out, not like he's gave anything to the press. And I'm not sure if you can afford to leave him in the reserves until January, that puts massive pressure on Berbatov.

And to say you've been fine this season apart from defensive problems is casting aside a massive problem, haven't looked anything like the Man United of old.

Loads of players either pushing 30 or on the wrong side of it, would love to know what their squad will look like in 3 years time.