Prior to the World Cup kicking off this blog warned that the transfer alarms should be ringing within Old Trafford, but there's no sign of any proven stars arriving at this juncture.
Following a stop-start season with injuries we warned United fans that Rio Ferdinand's days could be numbered, sadly, the England captain sustained a new injury and as a result he will miss the World Cup because of knee ligament damage.
Then we come to Nemanja Vidic and it's bad news as far as the Serbian is concerned too. According to his agent, Vidic wants out of Old Trafford, but here again, no one should be surprised, given some of his antics in the last 12 months.
The question is, knowing Rio Ferdinand's days could be numbered and knowing about the possibility of Vidic handing in a transfer request, what has Ferguson done about it? It is reasonable to ask has the manager has done anything at all, apart from sign Chris Smalling from Fulham - a player who was plucked from non-league obscurity a couple of years ago.
If Vidic leaves and Ferdinand does not fully recover for several weeks (if at all), then Ferguson could well be starting the the season with a new centre-back pairing, in fact that will almost certainly prove to be the case.
Even without the central defensive problems, the manager needed to buy at least three top quality proven stars; the manager's shopping list should have included a striker, a play-maker and a central defender. You can also a 'keeper to the list, but while Van der Sar is still at United, the matter isn't so pressing.
The truth is, Ferguson knows full well what the problems are, but his hands are seemingly tied due to lack funds.
So there's very little chance of Ferguson signing any proven quality this summer, not unless Joe Cole opts for a move up north, the problem being according to reports, his family want to stay in the London area.
Cole is available on a free transfer, just like Michael Owen and then today we hear that 32-year-old Raul could also be on Ferguson's radar. Signing Cole would be good business, but as good as Raul has been, it would surely be a very short-term signing.
When United were knocked out of the Champions League, Ferguson hinted he would embark on a squad rebuilding mission, but since then the manager has dampened the fans' expectations when saying there is likely to be just one more signing. According to David Gill, Ferguson has money to spend, but no one is actually sure how much.
Whatever Gill says, actions speak louder than words and no amount of spin will convince the fans' that the manager is being backed with sufficient funds until we see firm evidence with the arrival of some real quality, but will it happen given the owners huge debt problems?
The Glazer family are in debt to the tune of £1.1bn; the family also own the Tampa Bay Bucs and like Manchester United, the NFL outfit are not spending big and as a result they are really struggling.
United fans won't be that surprised to learn that according to reports, Bucs fans are turning their backs on the Bucs and waiting lists for season tickets are a thing of the past - demand is being driven down because the team is sinking.
There has only been one major signing in Europe and that was Villa to Barca. There is somethign called a world cup going on and it means most of the players we would want to sign are unavailable for transfer talks.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention that the NFL has a different policy on player recruitment to our game, and we also have a very healthy youth academy and reserve side. When we lost the league to Blackburn and sgined nobody, we played the kids & we know what happened next.
We lost the league by a point after two bad results against CFC and you could argue strongly that decisions went against us. We went out in the quarter-finals in bad circumstances, and we went one round further than CFC. This was achieved after winning the league for three years and two successive European finals. I understand the need for improvements, but timing is everything, and if we did sign four or five players it would unbalance the team.
Patience is a virtue and Sir Alex is god! We'll be alright come the start of the season.
Kendall,
ReplyDeleteOK, well promise me you'll come back when God has done his work after the window closes.
Perhaps a Vidic to Madrid move could be leveraged into a move for Van Der Vaart much like we should have done with Scheijder when selling Ronaldo. Van Der Vaart would be a good play maker. That would mean that we would only need to worry about an attacking option and another center back.
ReplyDeleteEvgenni,
ReplyDeleteThat would be good, at least it would be potentially a half decent solution...