Manchester United Thread [2005/2006]

[barthez4]

I definitely agree with that article, although it fails to mention the signings of VDS, Park, Rooney, Heinze, and Ronaldo, as well as future players such as Rossi and Pique.

 

[MiCk_10]

........have to win against wigan.......because trip to villa park wont be pretty

 

[ngyc]

great article . this is so true that fergie is a stubborn old man. departure of stam and beckham shock me. nistelrooy definately the man who miss beckham most. even though he have a bad last season but he still the one who can send the ball to nistelrooy to finish it, the most assist and score from freekick. someone tell me how many freekick we have scored since beckham left?

another thing that drives me crazy was playing players out of their position. i'm sick of it. first of all, ole for beckham. i said this idea was 99% fergie excuse to replace beckham. why the fvck using ole as right winger? then try to play o'shea, smith, fortune and ..... in keane's role because he thinks that keane will never get old and always stay fit for 100 years. if once a while we are the richest club in the world, can't we just spend certain amount of money to get a proper defensive midfield? is this necessary to play certain player out of their position just because "he think they are capable of"?

i'm sick of this and the rotation policy. if lampard can play 162 league game in the role. why we have to rotate our players so frequent?

 

[TheBlueBalla]

Excellent, excellent article.

Normally, I actually admire fergie a good bit and respect him for what he has managed to achieve and his forthrightness. But the assessment of the sale of Stam and Beckham was dead on. Both of them are still world class now and they were cast aside years ago, seemingly for the sake of Fergie's vanity. I am the first one to claim that no player is ever bigger than the club, but mediation is not capitulation when it comes to a crisis between a player and manager.

 

[m3th0d]

I want Scott Parker.

 

[Fernandez]

Beckham is not the reason. If Beckham was still around, we wouldn't have seen him try freekicks and efforts outside the box. We lose against silly teams because we put a starting 11 that would get relegated throughout the season. Some of the draws this season were more like losses. In fact all four draws should have been wins. Silves and Rio looked shaky. Parker gets paid about the same amount Rio had but Rio can't probably match Parker in terms of tenacity and passion.

 

[TheBlueBalla]

No, Beckham by himself isnt the reason, at all. A right sider can hardly fix the defensive woes of a side. However, the point about Stam certainly is valid. Now imagine if Fergie hadve hit the ol' whiskey bottle when he read Stam's book or heard Beckham's comments, and he just decided to let it all slide.

Lets imagine were back in the summer of 2003: Beckham is kept, and Stam is still in the team. Of course, its likely that the loss of Stam both funded and necesscitated the purchase of Ferdinand, but for the sake of argument, lets say he was purchased the previous summer and paired with him

Thus, the Ronaldo transfer to replace Beckham on the right becomes completely unnecesscary, and the need for a creative attacker, i.e. Ronaldinho, can be pursued more feverishly.

That side might look like:

---------------RvN
------Ronaldinho
---Giggs-----Scholes----Beckham
-------------Keane
--Silvestre--Rio---Stam---Neville
-------Howard or some clown

and that side might have easily stopped Arsenal's unbeaten run before it reached a full season, to say nothing of the title possbilities

With that, the purchase of another attacking option in someone like Saha becomes somewhat moot. Money such as that and the cash earmarked for Ronaldo can be put towards the purchase of a proper Holding midfielder to replace Keane.

This is all to say nothing of the fact that the biggest celebrity and the best player in world football today would be flogging merchandise all over the four corners of the world for your team. That financial rake is immesureable, and might perhaps mean that you can afford a player like Rooney in the summer of 2004 or Essien the following winter with much more ease.

 

[barthez4]

No, Beckham by himself isnt the reason, at all. A right sider can hardly fix the defensive woes of a side. However, the point about Stam certainly is valid. Now imagine if Fergie hadve hit the ol' whiskey bottle when he read Stam's book or heard Beckham's comments, and he just decided to let it all slide.

Lets imagine were back in the summer of 2003: Beckham is kept, and Stam is still in the team. Of course, its likely that the loss of Stam both funded and necesscitated the purchase of Ferdinand, but for the sake of argument, lets say he was purchased the previous summer and paired with him

Thus, the Ronaldo transfer to replace Beckham on the right becomes completely unnecesscary, and the need for a creative attacker, i.e. Ronaldinho, can be pursued more feverishly.

That side might look like:

---------------RvN
------Ronaldinho
---Giggs-----Scholes----Beckham
-------------Keane
--Silvestre--Rio---Stam---Neville
-------Howard or some clown

and that side might have easily stopped Arsenal's unbeaten run before it reached a full season, to say nothing of the title possbilities

With that, the purchase of another attacking option in someone like Saha becomes somewhat moot. Money such as that and the cash earmarked for Ronaldo can be put towards the purchase of a proper Holding midfielder to replace Keane.

This is all to say nothing of the fact that the biggest celebrity and the best player in world football today would be flogging merchandise all over the four corners of the world for your team. That financial rake is immesureable, and might perhaps mean that you can afford a player like Rooney in the summer of 2004 or Essien the following winter with much more ease.

Very hypothetical and optimistic, but that certainly holds many truths. Man, that team would be sweet. But it means no Heinze.

 

[TheBlueBalla]

True, Barthez. It is very hypothetical and going back three years, its impossible to tell what might have led to what in terms of transfers. For example does Ferguson buy Ronaldo anyway as a Giggs replacement? Does buying Rooney even become necesscary.

Anyway, that was just me going off on a little hypothetical loop. Another one that often makes me wonder is what if Chelsea had gone into financial oblivion a summer later and Roman had not come along? A few top sides in England would look pretty different.

 

[ngyc]

we can't outbid barcelona to get ronaldinho was a first failure to get a playmaker. if we said that PSG demand was out of our target is the reason we stop increase the bid then what is the reason that we splash 30m to get rooney instead of 20m to get ronaldinho?

get rid of beckham and brought ronaldo as a replacement isn't wise enough. true ronaldo is talented but he is certainly need more games to gain big game experiences instead of straight away throw him into first team and hope he is a life saver for us. since ronaldo is able to play both side, so he will be ideal backup for the first team if either giggs or beckham is out of injury.

fergie relunctant to admit that keane is getting old and pass his best is another failure for us to bring in another defensive midfielder. playing players out of their position, getting those so call "talented" defensive midfield like djemba-djemba, kleberson can't solve the problem.

youngsters or talented kids could be a boost for a team but also can turn into a failure. instead of getting a bunge of young kids and hope their "talent" able to bring us success is like gambling, 50-50 either success or floop like those players

 

[Callum]

but that means rooney wouldnt be as good as he is now, possibly. And I can only see him getting better, which helps us and england. So many choices and possibilities, quite interesting.

 

[garlei]

am I the only that was thinking this while I was watching the game last night?

"If only Phil was in our team now..."


In my opinion, Phil played a good game for Everton and he was certainly an important player of the team. He was everywhere, clearing dangerous crosses from his brother, though he did give away that free kick 4 minutes from time to give a chance for Giggs, although I'd say it shouldn't be a foul.

Phil Neville is doing miles better than Smith and he doesn't just go nuts and tackle all the time like Smith does, he can actually distribute the ball and little and he's versatile... He's red through and through and he certainly would give us 100 percent every game.

Why Smith?....Phil Neville is a much better option until we find a better defensive midfielder. I've watched quite a lot of Everton games as well and Phil has certainly played well in most of the them...

 

[m3th0d]

I agree. Smith is NOT a midfielder.. he doesn't know how to hold the ball or push forward, all he does is tackle. And when he does get the ball, he never has it longer than for a couple seconds. He just passes it off to someone else. Even Tim Howard could do that... absolutely useless. Even as a striker he's average but he has heart and he's always committed on the field so that kind of makes up for it. But in the end we're going to need more from him. We need someone like Parker, he'd be the absolute best replacement for Keane.. screw Ballack. From all the games I've seen Parker play, he's been absolutely brilliant. If he comes to United, he can be the next Keane, he can be respected like Lampard and Gerrard etc., which won't happen at Newcastle. Only if Fergie would realize what he's missing out on.

 

[shrekiejai]

SAF mentioned he got a target in mind, but he is cup-tied. Now that we are out of the CL, wonder if we'll get him early since cup-tied no longer matters....

Or... we don't have the money to go for him now that we've missed the CL $$$...

 

[shrekiejai]

No, Beckham by himself isnt the reason, at all. A right sider can hardly fix the defensive woes of a side. However, the point about Stam certainly is valid. Now imagine if Fergie hadve hit the ol' whiskey bottle when he read Stam's book or heard Beckham's comments, and he just decided to let it all slide.

Lets imagine were back in the summer of 2003: Beckham is kept, and Stam is still in the team. Of course, its likely that the loss of Stam both funded and necesscitated the purchase of Ferdinand, but for the sake of argument, lets say he was purchased the previous summer and paired with him

Thus, the Ronaldo transfer to replace Beckham on the right becomes completely unnecesscary, and the need for a creative attacker, i.e. Ronaldinho, can be pursued more feverishly.

That side might look like:

---------------RvN
------Ronaldinho
---Giggs-----Scholes----Beckham
-------------Keane
--Silvestre--Rio---Stam---Neville
-------Howard or some clown

and that side might have easily stopped Arsenal's unbeaten run before it reached a full season, to say nothing of the title possbilities

With that, the purchase of another attacking option in someone like Saha becomes somewhat moot. Money such as that and the cash earmarked for Ronaldo can be put towards the purchase of a proper Holding midfielder to replace Keane.

This is all to say nothing of the fact that the biggest celebrity and the best player in world football today would be flogging merchandise all over the four corners of the world for your team. That financial rake is immesureable, and might perhaps mean that you can afford a player like Rooney in the summer of 2004 or Essien the following winter with much more ease.

Heck, if we got Ronaldinho .. it wouldn't have mattered if Beckham/Stam wasn't here.. basically, Kenyon stuffed it up and now we are a mess in the midfield.. wonder if SAF sold Beckham thinking that we'll get Ronaldinho...

 

[ryan_goal]

SAF mentioned he got a target in mind, but he is cup-tied. Now that we are out of the CL, wonder if we'll get him early since cup-tied no longer matters....

Or... we don't have the money to go for him now that we've missed the CL $$$...

Think with your head before you post.

Why would any player on earth that's playing CL football want to join a club, out of Europe altogether and seem to be heading for a wrong direction long term, in the middle of a season?

Plus if he's really that good you think his club will let him go in January?

Unless...he's from a club not playing CL anymore...either eliminated in the group stages or even before that...but that seems highly unlikely.

 

[houston3721]

I agree. Smith is NOT a midfielder.. he doesn't know how to hold the ball or push forward, all he does is tackle. And when he does get the ball, he never has it longer than for a couple seconds. He just passes it off to someone else. Even Tim Howard could do that... absolutely useless. Even as a striker he's average but he has heart and he's always committed on the field so that kind of makes up for it. But in the end we're going to need more from him. We need someone like Parker, he'd be the absolute best replacement for Keane.. screw Ballack. From all the games I've seen Parker play, he's been absolutely brilliant. If he comes to United, he can be the next Keane, he can be respected like Lampard and Gerrard etc., which won't happen at Newcastle. Only if Fergie would realize what he's missing out on.

Smith has done well in the midfield for us but it seems that he doesnt know what to do when he gets the ball. He spends a few seconds standing there facing and looking at Scholes or the player he wants to pass the ball to. He should decide much quicker and pass the ball to a player who is in a better position.

Giggs's goal was nice and his comment on the team was right. We really can create chances but we just cant put the ball into the back of the net.

and yes, Saha played quite well.

 

[SeekK]

Unless...he's from a club not playing CL anymore...either eliminated in the group stages or even before that...but that seems highly unlikely.

udinese is out...

 

[mnj2x]

can we request to FA to play all our games away...cuz we totally suck at home. No one fears us anymore.

We have to tighten up at the back cuz once we concede we find it really hard to come back. The title race is almost over...chelsea have both luck and class.

 

[ladylover]

I am expecting Muntari and De Jong, we always seem to get the first goal of the match within 5 minutes, this defence can do alot better, even without Heinze, if he comes back, that will be a big boost for the defence. All the goals we concede are silly,