Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.
Ferdinand was the most expensive British british player in history when you signed him in 2002 and the most expensive defender in the world (beating Thuram) at the time. Barthez was the record transfer fee for a goalkeeper in the UK. Andy Cole was the most expensive transfer in British history when you signed him in Jan 1995. Veron was a UK record transfer too. Even relativly recently you've also signed Berbatov for £30m.
2-3 years ago you had, on paper, what could have been described as the best strike force in the UK, maybe even the world - Ronaldo, Tevez, Rooney. Now it looks like all 3 are gone, and the days of you spending £20-30 million on the likes of Veron / Berbatov seem to be behind you. The team is getting very old in key areas (Giggs, Scholes, Van Der Saaar) and unless serious money is spent how can these players be adequatly replaced ? Sure, Fergie can tow the party line about growing youth players into the team, etc etc, but there will be gaps of at least 3-4 years and even then you can't assume youth players will reach their potential (look at him shipping out Ben Foster).
Even the likes of Vidic, Evra, Carrick, Berbatov are approaching 29/30, so by the time the youth players (may) have developed to replace Scholes, Giggs, Van Der Saar, say 4 years down the line, these other players will need replacing.
I wouldnt say you're a sinking ship, but you are not competing the way you used to in terms of transfers. There is no Andy Cole or Dwight Yorke being brought in to strengthen the team immediatly. It looks like you're in a financial tight spot, and you might need to take a Wenger-esque approach and sign young players to keep building up a team. The difference is it looks like finances will improve for Arsenal as they've nearly paid off the stadium debt and are financially sucessfull. The debt that looms over Old Trafford doesnt look like it will go away for a while.
Rooney has asked for assurances about signing players and he hasnt got answers that make him optimistic, that seems to be the main reason why he looking to leave.
I take your point mate, but I didn't say we didn't ever spend big money, I said we didn't buy the worlds best players and we haven't.
Veron like I said was one that broke the mould and I forgot Barthez, he was very highly rated when we signed him.
But the others, were either promising foreigners or the better players at other clubs in the league.
Andy Cole: lots of goals but only 15 England caps, a bit like Darren Bent in a sense. That transfer record was broken by Arsenal only a few months later.
Ferdinand: wasn't the best in the world when we signed him (despite the price tag), he didn't reach that level until 2008
Berbatov: Bulgaria's best player, but I've never heard him mentioned as one of the worlds best strikers.
Yorke: Again, proven in the domestic league but not seen as one of the worlds best players when we signed him
Van Nistelrooy: Great record in Holland but injury prone and certainly a risk
Nani: Promising player
Anderson: As above
This season we've signed Bebe for £7m, Chris Smalling for £10-12m and Hernandez for £7-10m. Hernandez had a fantastic World Cup and looks to be one of the most promising young goalscorers in the game, just because nobody had heard of him a year ago does that mean we lack ambition and financial clout? Or does it just mean our scouting's got better? Smalling looks brilliant too, just one who slipped through the net and ended up playing lower division football instead of in an academy, Arsenal wanted him too remember. Bebe is a strange one but if we can spend £7m on him without knowing much about him then we're not penny pinching there.
I accept we're not spending as much, that much is obvious but after the criticism we got for spending big money on Berbatov, Nani and Anderson as they didn't settle in straight away can you blame Ferguson for trying to do it a bit differently?
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Nice to read in the paper this morning "United began life without Wayne Rooney and the future doesn't look too good" etc, conveniently forgetting that would also be an insight into life without Berbatov, Valencia, Scholes, Giggs, Ferdinand and Van Der Sar. Plus Fergie indicated he's got plans to spend money when the time's right.
