Smith's opinion was based on fans in this forums, manutd.com forums and news reports at the time. If i can't say that he was the most hated player between the two clubs (even though United definietly hated Leeds more than Arsenal), than you can't really say that he wasn't either, unless you surveyed those thousands of fans with the question of who they hate the most.untouchable said:
Again, first you are saying that we should look long-term and maybe have a few more crap seasons risking losing players in the same way as we are losing Ruud, but then go on saying how we need to take care of little teams first. My point was that Toure and Mascherano might need time to adapt to EPL and we will again be losing to small teams and falling further behind, even maybe behind Liverpool, while Vieira won't need ****, he will know exactly what to do and he will do it, which will cut the gap between us and Chelsea for sure and keep us away from Liverpool as further as possible. Brazillian and Greek leagues are not exactly of the same pace and speed as english and french leagues (heinze argument), are they?
Vieira is at his peak age right now and he might get a little worse in 1-2 years, but for 8 million, we can't afford to fall behind Liverpool and right now with to do that Vieira is the smartest and safest option. If he can strengthen our second position and maybe get a few points closer to Chelsea, then that will already give us more strength in the market and will attract better players. But if Mascherano doesn't fit in (just if, not saying that he won't, but you never know), then we will be stuck with again a very inexperienced, young central midfielder and twice or three times as less money then we could have had.
At what age did Zidane own Spainish, brazilian and italian midfields? 34.
You got to understand that there will always be great talent on the market, but if we begin to lose our grip on Chelsea and Liverpool, then that talent will come to us.
