O'Shea and the 7-man bench next year

[dru_jones]

With the EPL going to a 7-man bench next year, what becomes of O'Shea. Admittedly, his versatility is a great thing to have, but with more slots on the bench, jack-of-all-trades like him are going to find playing time harder to come by. specially with squads as big as United's.

He's going to become a luxury especially considering his weekly pay packet.

[Mighty_Mouse]

With the 7 subs rule, he'll definitely become surplus to requirements. I don't see any need to have him on the bench. His sale would help bring in some money for the few areas where the team lacks good cover. Sell.

[gazza]

Johnny O better be going nowhere. :mad:

Always good to have a versitle player on the roster. Midfielder, centerhalf, fullback and goalkeeper he is.:D

[johno]

Fergie won't sell him on even if that is what he should do. Fergie won't sell on a player who is of a level that we could use as a back up who is happy to play that role. Those players are too hard to come by.

Still, I'm not 100% convinced he should go. The only way I think he should be sold is if we keep Silvestre and Pique.

Otherwise, O'Shea may prove useful. Having him as cover for both FB positions as well as CB in emergency would mean that after a GK and him, we'd only need a back up CB on the bench to be completely covered in the back 5. Allowing us to put 3 attackers and a CM on the bench.

[doubletrouble]

We need to keep O'Shea

[prymetyme]

Pique and Silvestre are on their way out, O'Shea will certainly be on the bench. It will be quite nice to always have O'Shea and Fletcher on the bench next year.

[Republic of Mancunia]

Can't see him going anywhere. 'specially as he made at least the bench in 12 of 13 Champs League games this season with the 7 man bench, and the one time he didn't was through injury.

[holytoledo]

He's here, he's queer, get used to it.

[Invincible]

he's queer,

Que?

[holytoledo]

Que?

Get bent breeder!

Attica! Attica!

[Invincible]

Get bent breeder!

Attica! Attica!

Pardon?

[pgr17]

However, he knows the quality within Sir Alex Ferguson's squad as well as anyone, and while he is desperate to win regular place in the starting line-up - around half of his appearances this season came from the bench - he is not looking for a new challenge just yet.

O'Shea said: 'You just have to get on with it. The club has so many players and in the build up to the final, he [Ferguson] had every player fit. He said it was funny how this happens and said he wished that we could play European Cup finals every week!

'It's a hell of a squad when everybody is fit. That's what he wants and that's what he felt let us down in years gone by when he had to keep picking the same players towards the latter stages.

'Tiredness played its part in major games, but there was a freshness there this year, and you can see the rewards there now with two major trophies.'

Asked about his own future, he replied: 'That [leaving] is crossing my mind a lot of the time, but then I think `where do you go when you leave a team like that?'

'That's an even bigger question. For the time being, I will stay where I am.'

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=539281&cc=5739