The Manchester United Thread
- Thread starter MisterStubbs
- Start date
- Replies 105K
- Views 6M
Really? He didn't buy average players, they became average later on. You can't really blame him for that. Valencia had 2 excellent seasons for us, Nani, in his initial seasons was outstanding. Young was admittedly not world-class, but even he'd had a good couple of seasons earlier (many of the fans here actually preferred Young to Bale, at that time, IIRC). Heck, Anderson was pretty good in his first season or so, after which injuries and other stuff derailed him. And don't forget, before Moyes, all of us were happy with Cleverley's performances.
He may have left a squad to Moyes, where he needed to get rid of dead-weight, and bring in some new ones. Not Fergie's fault Moyes messed up there..
Anderson wasn't even a CM when he joined and to say he isn't average is a bit of an odd one. He's had about as many as you can count on one hand decent games for United and he's been here how many years earning wages?
Same can be said for Cleverley, he's just distinctly not good enough, he's had a few good moments but that doesn't justify him still being around.
Valencia has had few good seasons I'm not classing this one so much.
Hernandez - Looking a flop more and more.
Kagawa - Not looking much better.
Chris Smalling - Jury very much still out, but he lacks what we need at the back especially in 3-5-2, good ability on the ball.
Nani - This guy is just rubbish now, we can't look at if they've had 1 good season in their 5/6 here... that still counts as a bad signing. One season wonder, however you like to say it, it's still a bad buy at the end of the day.
Nick Powell - I thought he was better than he actually is, but he seems really poor and no where near the calibre to make it at United's first team.
Ashley Young - A few good moments, but I wouldn't ever deem him good enough and quite frankly, if what you're saying is true and people preferred Young over Bale then they must be smoking something good.
List goes on and on and on, when you just think of the money we keep spending on these players despite doing absolutely nothing for the club and looking like they can't offer anything, it's just criminal.
You cant blame SAF for:
1. Buying Ando. Apparently scout reports were to the effect that he had the potential to be better than Rooney. But you can blame him for buying him as an attacking midfielder and then trying to turn him into a more defensive player.
2. Kagawa. When we bought him he was one of the leading lights of a very good Dortmund team.
3. Hernandez was quite cheap and had an awesome first season - teams wanted him off us for 20+million a couple seasons ago.
4. Nani. Again the talent was obviously there and for the first season he was comparable to Ronie.
5. Powell was a young player - win some lose some.
What you can blame him for is buying Ashley Young (for 20 m wasnt it!!), Bebe (!) for 8m (or was it 7?) and for neglecting to bring in good players ad cm/dm.
Maybe, maybe not. Fact is Fergie gets the final word on whether to buy them or not.
I'll blame him for having useless scout called Martin Ferguson who rated Anderson better than Rooney or something ridiculous.
Dude, you're looking at it in retrospect. I didn't say that those players weren't average. I stated none of them were average when they were bought. Heck, Anderson's breakthrough tournament, he'd have made James Rodriguez look like a kid :\ You can't blame Ferguson for buying those players, because they were brilliant when they were bought, they just regressed a lot later on. You can't seriously be telling me they were average when bought.
As for converting, you really don't know Ferguson saw in him to try to convert him. I mean, noone who looked at Giggs earlier on (flair, balance, pace, dribbling, finishing) would guess that he'd be an astute CM. Or Schweinsteiger. It didn't work out, that's different, but you can't really blame him for trying (or not trying thereof). Also, the first season that Anderson played as a CM, he was actually pretty good..
He was nothing better than average, there was better alternatives then and he shouldn't ever of been bought for that price.
Actually, no. He was good. Not world-class, but good, with good pace. And this coming from someone who detests Young.. However, he had the stigma of diving even back then though.
Also, when CR7 left, there were strong rumours that Ribery would happen.. Imagine the 'If only..' scenario with him, instead of Young//
Last edited:
In retrospect maybe, but at the time the consensus was that he looked pretty impressive. If you want, I can dig out all the articles, blogs, and posts on this very forum that were positive about him, and thought he was going to be the next great United winger.
Last edited:
View attachment 340465
This pretty much backs up subtle and Sherkeys points
This pretty much backs up subtle and Sherkeys points
This is probably 2 years old (Bale at Spurs). Things have changed in the meantime.
>_> That was our point, exactly. It was stated that we signed average players, whereas they were anything but, at that time.
My bad then. A lot of your current players were good a few years back, it just seems they picked the same time to start fading away. I don't mean to sound dramatic, but i'm afraid you will go through a Liverpool crysis, trying to rebuild your squad.
Couldn't see Van Gaal using a strong side. Imagine they if they still lost?
I don't think it is that bad. Our GK is set for some time to come. In Defence, Jones is pretty good, Rojo is supposed to be good, and we have good fullbacks in Shaw and Rafael. Our midfield is worrying, mainly reliant on Carrick and Herrera. ACM is taken care of with Juan Mata and Januzaj. Same with wings, di Maria and Januzaj. Our main strikers are Rooney and RvP, and we have Wilson as backup, plus Welbeck as an engine.
If we get another brilliant CB, and a couple of good midfielders, we can easily compete for, and probably win the title. The main issue atm is that our main players are out injured, and the replacements just not good enough.. Maybe another winger. More investment required? Definitely. But then again, not everything can be done in one window..
Overreaction. Really. It was the biggest embarrasment of a decade. You can't overreact about that.
I hope you're right, except for the part where you win the title
, because competition never caused any harm in football. I may be wrong, but my prediction for this season is that you will finish 5-7. The preseason has gone to waste if you switch tactics now (Haven't followed United during preseason, but i am assuming it was all around 3-5-2, if it isn't, ignore the last sentence).