The Manchester United Thread

Yeah we need more creative than Fellaini but we also need someone who offers defensive stability. Too many times opponents just went through our midfield without any resistance, at least with Fellaini they will have to battle hard physically and we will have someone who is not afraid to play dirty if needed.

Would finally be a Keane replacement of some sorts. People go on about us needing to replace Scholes, we still haven't replaced Keano!
 
Would finally be a Keane replacement of some sorts. People go on about us needing to replace Scholes, we still haven't replaced Keano!

Yeah, we changed our style of play though. This team with Keano/Robson would be just awesome. We need a player who can play box to box role.
 
Yeah, we changed our style of play though. This team with Keano/Robson would be just awesome. We need a player who can play box to box role.

Even if we've changed style, it gives us more options. No one in the squad like him.
 
Even if we've changed style, it gives us more options. No one in the squad like him.

What I meant was when we signed Carrick, we changed our style of play. From Keano - Scholes aggressive partnership to Carrick - Scholes partnership.

Yeah, we don't have any box to box midfielder at all. Fletcher was good one, shame really about his injury.
 
What I meant was when we signed Carrick, we changed our style of play. From Keano - Scholes aggressive partnership to Carrick - Scholes partnership.

Yeah, we don't have any box to box midfielder at all. Fletcher was good one, shame really about his injury.

Shame about Hargo too. Loved him.
 
Shame about Hargo too. Loved him.

2007-08 our CM choices were:

Scholes: At his deep lying play making best.
Carrick: One of the best CM in the league and also Europe. He was far more expansive
Hargreaves: One of the best DM and best performer for England in WC
Anderson: One of the best young talents in the Europe and very very highly rated player.
Fletcher: Was our squad player.

Such a disappointing downward spiral we went through in CM dept. since then.
 
I said of sorts! No one will ever replace Keane, like no one will replace Scholes..
(6)

Anyway, Fellaini can only be squad player. Only as squad player I can accept his transfer, which is very important.
 
(6)

Anyway, Fellaini can only be squad player. Only as squad player I can accept his transfer, which is very important.

For me personally he would be first-choice alongside Carrick rather than Anderson/Cleverley.
 
For me personally he would be first-choice alongside Carrick rather than Anderson/Cleverley.

If we signed no one else, maybe. Each have individual strengths that can be tailored to different games, Carrick is the only one nailed on. Moyes was always a very reactive manager at Everton, so it'd suit him, although we don't know a great deal about his tactical plans with United.
 
Unsavoury tale will follow predictable path


Supporting blast: United’s fans will not forgive quickly Rooney’s attempts to force a transfer to Chelsea whether he stays at Old Trafford or leaves this month
John Walton/EMPICS Sport

Share via

  • 134321509_Banner_440646c.jpg
    Supporting blast: United’s fans will not forgive quickly Rooney’s attempts to force a transfer to Chelsea whether he stays at Old Trafford or leaves this monthJohn Walton/EMPICS Sport
Matt Dickinson Chief Sports Correspondent
Published 1 minute ago

At Old Trafford, they are braced for the written transfer request that has been promised but not yet delivered. They are ready for the wail of frustration from Wayne Rooney’s lips, perhaps uttered conveniently while on international duty and out of club hands.
Perhaps there will be another coy briefing about how upset Rooney is at Manchester United, followed by a not-so-coy interview in which he pours out his heart about how intolerable his life is in the North West. Perhaps a sulk will follow, even a full-blown tantrum.
They are prepared for it all. And still, they insist, they will not budge.

United repeatedly, consistently say they have no intention of selling Rooney to Chelsea this transfer window and the only question now seems to be how much the England striker will test that claim, if not to destruction then as close as he can possibly manage — and how much of his own reputation he will risk in doing so.

Is Rooney really willing to become a ludicrous, scorned mutineer when it must be as obvious to him as the rest of us that United would be mad to sell him to Chelsea, even if the offer rises above £30 million?

We should probably fear the answer.

“To Paul Stretford, for his wisdom and advice,” Rooney wrote in the acknowledgements to one of his many autobiographies. Remarkably, the reference to his agent was not ironic.

Rooney remains in thrall to his representative, backing Stretford through his own dark troubles with the FA (banned for 18 months), the courts (a judge called him an unreliable witness), through complex legal fights over Rooney’s commercial rights and damage to both men’s reputation.

Even as respect was lost and trust broken with United’s manager, team-mates and supporters during Rooney’s previous, spectacularly tactless contract stand-off in October 2010, Stretford’s role went unquestioned.

“Who’s the ***** now?” one Old Trafford banner taunted Rooney, but what did the striker care when a big pay rise had been banked. Rooney came through that turbulence and maybe he thinks he can handle any amount of trouble now, but with fewer than three weeks of the transfer window remaining, time is running out if he is to try to convince United that, somehow, he will be less aggravation wearing Chelsea blue and feeding off Eden Hazard, Oscar and Juan Mata.

It is a hard argument to sell at a club that has already been through seismic change this summer with the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson.
David Moyes has enough to handle without having to find a replacement for his second-best striker, which Rooney remains when not in a funk. The new United manager will not find an adequate replacement by the end of the month.

Disaffected by internal politics at Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo is open to the idea of returning to United one day but it will not happen imminently. Meanwhile, if Gareth Bale is bound for anywhere, it is the Bernabéu.

With Cesc Fàbregas remaining at Barcelona, this is shaping up as a transfer window when the United fans may be required to be patient as Moyes, and Ed Woodward, the executive vice-chairman, grapple with new roles. What would be intolerable is to strengthen rivals.

The risk for United in keeping an unsettled Rooney, gambling that he will rediscover his zest once he realises that he is tied to Old Trafford for another season, is far smaller than the potential backlash if the striker falls into José Mourinho’s hands. Surely not even Ferguson would have taken that risk had he stayed at Old Trafford, despite his unhelpful, vengeful swipe at the striker on the way out.

It is not as though United need the money. Indeed, it makes more sense for the champions to offer Rooney a new contract, if only to protect their asset, than to sell him to Chelsea inside the next 12 months.

Their intransigence leaves Rooney and Chelsea contemplating their next move, though for the London club this dance may have already served one purpose in destabilising a rival.

Unless Chelsea offer silly money, Rooney is left wondering how far he should go to drive through a move to London. We can imagine that someone, somewhere is weighing up on the forward’s behalf just how obnoxiously destructive he may have to be to force his way out.

As the new Premier League season looms, with perfect grass, high hopes, fresh players and expectant supporters, it is a charmless thought eased only by the knowledge that September 3, and the end of the transfer window, will come around soon enough.

And if United have kept their word and Rooney has still not escaped Manchester, what is he going to do? The poor chap will just have to soldier on alongside Robin van Persie on £250,000 a week — and play well enough to hope that Chelsea are still interested in another 12 months.





 
Supporting blast: United’s fans will not forgive quickly Rooney’s attempts to force a transfer to Chelsea whether he stays at Old Trafford or leaves this month

They did last time...
 
Depends who you talk to. He basically became marmite.

This time it won't work out like that, most true fans are sick to the teeth with him, just like me. I really hate how he acts and would love to see him gone for a good price. He doesn't deserve to wear the shirt anymore, I just hope Moyes is holding out for a price that is worth it, rather than actually wanting to keep this.
 
Back
Top