What Direction Should Manchester United Take Regarding Players?

[funkdoctorspock]

United have lost Ronaldo and Tevez from the current squad.

United have brought in Antonia Valencia from Wigan.

United have lost the sweepstakes for Karim Benzema and rumoured targets David Villa and Frank Ribery.

I would like to discuss what everyone thinks regarding:

i. The types of players United should be bringing in (from EPL clubs/non EPL clubs) and why.

ii. The possible stigma that Manchester isn't an ideal location for a professional to ply their trade.

iii. The possible policy that United will not be bringing in players older than 26.

iv. The current youngsters. Should they be given a proper chance or should additional players be brought in?

To me, this offseason has been extremely weird. It's the first that I can remember where so many players have blown off Manchester United, despite the clubs exploits over the past 3 years.

I am trying my hardest not to be believe that it's down to the weather, since these players at one point or another will play in less than ideal conditions.

So what gives?

[Keep it civil and thoughtful]

[.JAMES']

i really don't see how players could knock England because of the weather, especially this summer, because its so f'ing hot here now!!


To the players, i would like to see us bring in Sergio Aguero (i doubt that suprises you Matt lol). He is a top, young striker and will get at least 15 goals. i think he can work well up front with Rooney. Because Aguero is very quick and agile with great dribbling and finishing; and Rooney's excellent vision and passing will link up well with Sergio.

I also think we should bring in a solid centre mid. I know people harp on about the likes of De Rossi, and Veloso and Yaya Toure. However i think Hargreaves is a fantastic player when fit, and will start a lot of games. so bringing in any of those others would certainly cause a problem. Someone who i would suggest though, recently impressed me a lot, and i would definitely welcome him in. That guy being Fabrice Muamba, of Bolton. He was quality in the under 21 tournament, and i think has a very good future ahead of him. He is still young, he English, and i'm sure would be more content with rotation with Hargo, than any of the other players i mentioned.


so that is the way i would go if i were Fergie.
thoughts............

[simonhla]

Ok. Good post. I'd like to be one of the first to reply.

i. The types of players United should be bringing in (from EPL clubs/non EPL clubs) and why.

The proliferation of foreign talent into the Premier League in recent years has not only modernized the game in this country but it has also gone a long way to dispelling the myth that the physicality of the English game is too much for the smaller flair players. The Premier League is now awash with players who five or ten years ago would never have made it but the clamping down of tackling from behind, excessive use of strength and the influx of foreign management has made it much easier for foreign talent to not only assimilate but thrive. Therefore it is less important than ever to sign players with proven Premier League experience. If they are excelling in the top flight in Spain, Italy, France or Germany they probably have what it takes to make the jump.

It has been said recently that Utd is a place where stars are made, whereas Madrid is a place where stars are signed. I don't see any reason for us to deviate away from this policy that has served us so well. It's easy to see the attractiveness in signing ready made big name players who have the potential to deliver instant rewards but the evolution of players like Ronaldo whom we signed as a teenage prodigy and turned into a world star should embolden us on the merits of such a system. I would expect Anderson to potentially follow the same trajectory. So with that in mind i think we should be looking for a mix of established quality that is ready to deliver now but can still improve (Valenica fits the bill ideally), and raw potential that has the possibility of developing into something special. There are a number of names that fall into this category, most notably Costa, Sanchez and lajlic.

Football fans and the media are football's very own hype and marketing machine. The market value of a player is so often determined by his perceived worth to the fans. Yet as we should have learned by now, Fans....for the most part......are pretty stupid. Managers on the other hand (Ferguson in particular) are much more astute. I am less and less interested in paying over the odds for a player who might be very good but whose price is solely determined by a perceived value rather than an actual one. Not when we can probably find equal ability elsewhere for less and allow him to forge his own reputation at Utd. Every year several new stars are born and even more fade out.

ii. The possible stigma that Manchester isn't an ideal location for a professional to ply their trade.

This is an unfortunate reality. It is a hindrance, there can be no doubt, when competing for top latin players. And it does seem like much of the top talent is currently, and historically, latin. Yet, if we move away from the very top of the market (the Kaka's, Villa's, Benzema's etc) I don't see it being a problem. A burgeoning talent like Ronaldo was all too thrilled to join Utd as a 17 year old. Keeping hold of him once he became a global superstar and the offers rolled in was another matter.

Working within these expectations and reality can help us formulate our recruitment policy more effectively, something which I feel the club has excelled at in recent years.

Let's not forget that Utd is a huge club, with a global reputation of the highest order. It is the most supported club in the world. It is really only at the very top end of the market when we come head to head with the likes of Madrid or Barcelona for highly sought after players that the disadvantage comes into play. And Like I said, this is not an end of the market we should be frequenting too often. It's just not worth it. Let's leave that to the Chelsea, City and Madrid's of the world.

iii. The possible policy that United will not be bringing in players older than 26

.

The media of course have gotten a hold of this and spun it in a silly direction. The original wording of this, from what i understand, is that we will not be signing any players over 26 on BIG MONEY DEALS. Presumably therefore there will be no issue with signing a 26 - 32 year old player providing their price reflects their age. I think what has gone out the window is not the idea of signing a Marcos Senna (32) for 5M but the idea of signing a Pirlo (31) for 25M. This is basic financial common sense and I cannot impune them for that.

The media of course have begun to spin it into the fact that we cannot sign any players over 26 which is just silly. Madrid for example just paid 60M for a 27 year old. That doesn't make sense to me. He could feasibly drop off significantly in ability in the next 2 to 4 years and leave them with no resale value and rapidly dimishing footballing and marketing value. If you factor in his wages (which are gargantuan and increase 25% p/a) then you'd have to be drunk to think you'll ever get a return on your investment, trophy haul or no trophy haul.

iv. The current youngsters. Should they be given a proper chance or should additional players be brought in?

It takes some guts to blood youngsters. Especially in this era. We expect far too much, far too soon. We also expect to win every year. And by "we" i mean football fans. Managers all over the world are not playing their youngsters (at top clubs) because the pressures are too great. They need players who will deliver now! Instead we sell our youngsters to smaller clubs and then buy them back at crazily inflated fees. For example, we apparently wanted Carrick before Spurs got him for 5m. Two years later we spent 18.5 on him. This is the same player...we paid a 13M premium for two years of experience. Why? because we couldn't risk blooding him ourselves.

Thankfully we have a manager who is braver than most but even he doesn't want to watch a star studded Chelsea, resurgent Liverpool or cash laden city beat us to the title, so can he afford to take the risk and make the Welbecks of this world regular members of the first team squad? I for one hope so.

I do not think we should be necessarily relying on two young forwards to provide our depth but there is an old saying; If you're good enough, you're old enough. Macheda has already proven he can do it in pressure situations in the Premier League. So what if he is 17? He scored two goals that without which we wouldn't have won the title. Could he do any worse next year than the 5 premier league goals Carlos Tevez managed this year? Will we really miss Tevez's goals in the League Cup? Do we even care about the league cup? Again the perceived risk here is much greater than the actual risk.

Not having to start but getting regular games could be huge for these guys. Had we had a little more faith in Guiseppe Rossi he might be with us now but instead we kept farming him out on loan and then sold him because we couldn't guarantee him game time. I think we'd all agree that it'd be nice if he was still with us now. I do not want to do the same thing with Macheda, Petrucci, Tosic or Laljic. It'd be saddening and cynical to think we are signing these players for next to nothing only to sell them on at a big profit once they hit 19 or 20. I think we'd all like to see them given a chance.

Rafael will continue to benefit from playing regularly but having Brown or O'shea for the big, big matches is important. The same goes for Fabio and Evra, Evans and Ferdinand/Vidic. Why spend 15M on a 25 yr old like Huntelaar to be an understudy when we have two players like Welbeck and Macheda who have the potential to be not only better than him eventually but also improve rapidly? We have so much more to gain. Signing out of fear is pointless.

The best example any one can give is Ronaldo. When he came he played a lot. Not every game but very frequently. He was only 17. And it was frustrating more often than not. The end product was rarely there but the raw talent was palpable. Suddenly at 23 he came of age and a world star was born. But he only became a Utd star because we gave him the chance. It might have held us back in the beginning a little but in the end it payed off for us in a massive way. I think we have a number of youngsters who have the potential to make a similar name for themselves. But we have to give them the opportunity. It's the Manchester United way. We have enough established stars to make this transition not only doable but feasible.