What do the following have in common: Dimitar Berbatov, Arron Lennon, Michael Carrick and Jermain Defoe? Yes, that's right they all were signed by Spurs, and the three Englishmen were signed relatively inexpensively, which belies the often used argument that top quality young players from this country cannot be bought cheaply...
Carrick as we know was eventually signed by United for a ridiculous £18.6m - once the signing was complete sources close to Spurs let the media know that they'd have accepted a lot less for a player that they'd signed for only £2.75m. So United had their collective trousers pulled down again over the fee by paying a hefty price for not spotting / acting on Carrick's potential earlier...
Move forward to the events of the last seven days and Spurs have signed yet another young British player in Gareth Bale, the transfer fee could eventually go up to £10m. Ok this time the fee isn't cheap, but have Spurs once again put up the cash to sign a player who may well prove to be good value. In signing Bale Tottenham have backed their manager who in turn has had the nerve to back his own judgement on a very good young Welsh player.
I'd actually argue that Spurs did the same with Michael Dawson - who by the way is another player like Bale who was linked strongly to United before eventually signing for the North London club.
With question marks hanging over the future of Heinze, who is tipped to leave this summer, it raises further question marks about United's ability to act decisively in the transfer market when such obvious young talents like Bale become available, because if indeed Heinze does go this summer then it leaves the Red's with only Patrice Evra and maybe Silvestre for the left back slot, but Silvestre is tipped to leave too.
Has Fergie cocked it up again by not signing Bale? Time will tell, but there has been suggestions coming out of Old Trafford that Fergie believes Bale will be a winger - this has all the hallmarks of an excuse actually.
Smoke and mirrors aside, Ferguson also needs to sign two strikers, as Saha is expected to be turfed out and of course there's the long-winded transfer of Hargreaves to complete - which has gone strangely quiet.... perhaps there's issues over cash being avialable to the manager, and perhaps that is the real reason United didn't try to sign Bale?
Will the Glazers back Ferguson in the summer transfer window or not?
what the hell is going on with manchester united? all we have now is hargreaves, and with the money we have had to pay, he might not be completely worth it, no offense to his talent. well, at least chelsea will not overdo it this summer, so maybe, just maybe, we can snap up some quality.
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