Here is more on Davide Petrucci from http://manunitedyouth.wordpress.com/ ~ Davide is 16 years old and will turn 17 in October. ~ He comes from the San Basilio suburb of Rome. ~ He top-scored for Roma’s youth side last season with 14 goals in 17 games, and was expected by some to push on towards the first team next season. ~ Davide is widely considered to be an attacking midfielder or support striker rather than an out and out forward (what the Italians call a trequartista), which paints his goalscoring record in an even more impressive light. ~ He has been a regular in the Italian Under-17 setup over the last 12 months, and has been described as the finest talent in his age group in Italy. ~ Petrucci’s departure from Roma has been sorely felt by the Giallorossi. “It is a nightmare,” said Il Romanista, a Roma-focused newspaper. “Manchester United have dealt us another low blow, stealing Petrucci from under our noses, probably the best product of our youth system. In three to four years, he will be worth 100 times as much.” ~ Speaking about the move, Davide said “Going to play for the strongest club in the world in United is a great opportunity for me. It was hard to say no, even though I am a Roma fan and would gladly have stayed with them throughout my career.” ~ It’s a somewhat controversial transfer, and the teenager has been keen to put across his side of things. “A month ago Roma offered me a contract at the minimum rate, without clarifying whether it would be for three or five years,” he said. “I asked for a bit of time to think about it, Man Utd had already made their proposal, but Roma only gave me three days and left me out of the squad. To a certain extent they closed the door on me while Man Utd opened a big door.” ~ The youngster has also revealed United have offered his father Stefano a job at the club as a gardener (probably meaning groundsman), and that he will move to Manchester on June 30th, ready to start with the United Academy the following day.
He's a talent alright please let this be the one. I have hopes for Macheda too as he is physically what you say ready-ish.
Its hard to stop from getting excited when we sign up some quality youth. It would be easier to ignore this move if it wasn't an Italian youth. Easier still if it wasn't from Roma's system that has produced some very good talent recently.
I think its the fuss they're making that excits me most i wouldve thought after losing him theyd not try to make themselves look so silly.
Can hardly be bothered. I wouldn't be surprised if 3-4 years ago, the exact same post above was typed out with the names "Giuseppe Rossi" wherever you see Petrucci's name. If he makes it, great. If we can cash him out back to Italy, f**K it, why not. Hard to be excited about our youth system these days - we don't get excited when a new company adds their name to our digital signboards at OT, and this move probably generates even less cash for us.
We already had two gems in Pique and Rossi, and where are they now? Anyways, this Petrucci guy seems like a really good prospect and it sounds like he has a really bright future ahead of him. If he's as good as he's supposed to be, I'll enjoy watching him play in Serie A in 3-4 years time.
They wanted to go themselves. Pique wanted to start ahead of rio and vidic and go back to his boyhood dream club in barca.Though at the moment brown was better than him at cb. While rossi wanted to play regularly ahead of rooney,tevez and saha and was always mre suited to the la liga than in englanD. They at the moment were not ready for first team action(specially pique) for a top top club.
Do you understand anything about developing players? Pique didn't expect to start 50 games a season. However he sure as hell wasn't content starting 6 or so. He's at a level where he wouldn't have dropped our level of play against half the teams in the league and that's being conservative. He could have got more games and he didn't and wasn't going to. Vidic and Rio are excellent defenders today because at Pique's age they were allowed to play and to make mistakes and iron out their games. Rossi on the other hand is possibly as talented as any attacker we have just minus experience and exposure. He can't get seasoned if he's never given a shot. That he could go to a new country where he doesn't speak the Language or know the league and fit into place in a title challenging side is a testament to how good his is and that we should have given him a shot. Had we given Rossi 12 games or so season before last he'd have proven himself useful enough for us to probably not go after Tevez or at the very least to let him feel like he had a place in the team. No youngster is ready for first team play until they've had some of it.
Rossi would have got a lot of games if he stayed. He was ready to leave before he even returned from the Parma loan and said as much in interviews during the closing weeks of the Serie A season. He saw a 21 year old Rooney in front of him and wanted assurances Fergie could not give. As for Pique, wrong place, wrong time. We had no major injuries in the back last season (Neville aside). And contrary to popular myth, there was a drop off when he filled in for Vidic. He did well, but Vidic was much better.
Fergie publicly promised him 25-30 games next season a month ago and he played about 15 games for us this season. It's not as if he would get more games at barca then 25-30 next season ,which fergie promesie him here,the fact was that he was more willing to sit on the bench of barca than the bench of manchester united.He did not have much time left on his contract and we had to sell. Vidic and rio are excellent defenders today because they were thrown in to the deep end at the right times with their clubs.Sometimes throwing a player too early into first team football can leave a scar which is almost impossible to cure. Btw, for your information,vidic at the age of 20 was not even starting for red star regularly and was on loan to another lower club.This aided his development and even when he came back it took almost more than 1 year to establish himself at red star.Was pique willing to do so? If you were expecting us to drop rio and vidic for Pique,who at the moment is worse than brown at centre back then you are sadly mistaken. Here we go again. The season before last rossi had a failed loan spell at newcastle and a succesful loan spell at parma.What do you suggest we should have done? After a miserable loan spell at newcastle thrown in him into important games in the same league he was struggling in?The loan spell at parma helped him more than that for his development. Though after tasting regular football in a league that suited his style more ,he wanted regular football as a first choice which we could not guarantee,so according to his own agents words left for a league which suited him better and a team that gave him football week in week out. He would have easily gotten more than 12 games for us that you imply,but to say that he would have done better than tevez is simply ridiculous.If we had not bought tevez then quite possibly we would have not won the double. It's not as if we are afraid to give games to youngsters who are patient and willing to wait as has been demosnstrated before,but that is done on our terms not theirs and that was the right way. Just look at nani,anderson-as they have said themselves that when they came here they were willing and expecting to play a bit part role but since they were ready we threw them in(even in the cl).It's not as if they are absolutely ready and are not developing and not making errors and ironing them but they are at a certain level which fergie thought last to last season rossi was not.And when he reached that level ,he instead of wanting to wait for his turn and grab it wanted absolute regular football.so he went for regular football at a decent la liga team,instead of slugging it out at the absolute top level.
The Question that this asks me is Danny Wellbeck and frasier Campell good enough for united if we go out and get this kid from Roma.
Davide Petrucci is 16, these guys are much older so it's impossible to compare really, there absolutely no chance that any of the people you mentioned are going to be introduced into the first team any time soon. Especially as it is likely a new striker is going to be coming in.
Ferguson's promise to play young players will fall on deaf ears. You don't think Ferguson told Pique he'd have got games this season last year? Pique came to United for first team play and has had none of it for 3 years. I should have specified that at Pique's skill level most defenders would be playing for the first team. Top defenders don't become top defenders playing in the reserves. Pique hasn't been tested in the reserves for 2 years at least - should he have stayed at reserve level indefinitely? Players need to be challenged consistently to develop and Pique wasn't getting that. You can underrate Pique all you like - given a run of games in the team he'd have excelled. There were plenty of occasions when playing him against weaker opposition would have helped his development - same for subbing him on in games we've won. He wasn't even getting that so he's moved on. Rossi never struggled in the premier league. He was never given a shot. He had what 90 minutes on the pitch at Newcastle? I'd be shocked if he had that much time on the pitch for a shit side that had no technical ability. You clearly didn't read what I said re-Tevez properly. I said if we were giving Rossi games like we should have he may have disuaded us from pursuing Tevez OR have given him the confidence to fight for a place. However if you consider the situations we've been in when we could have used Rossi who did everything to prove he was ready from Rossi's view point what the hell is the point of staying??? Rooney, Tevez and Saha to beat for a spot? Rossi's a better finisher than the lot of them. His link up play is as good as their's and his passing is almost on par. He lacks the physical tools but he's got guile and could have done a job for the team this year if only, if only we'd blooded him when we had the chance to. If you don't expose players they will stagnate & they will be discouraged as to whether or not they have a chance at this club. To bring up Nani and Anderson in this debate is foolish. For starters, Anderson only played due to horrendous injury crisis in midfield and even so, he and Nani both cost about 17 times what Rossi did. They were first team players when they arrived.
Fisrt off. Rossi decided he was going to leave while he was still at Parma. He told the Italian press he didn't know where he was going to play next season and said he needed to be at a club where he would be first choice every week. Tevez was not even in the picture at that time. Basically he was not prepared to fight it out with Rooney and Saha. He was not willing to be third choice striker even though that would have gotten him 20 plus matches. The bottom line with both Pique and Rossi is that they were not prepared to fight for their place in the team. I can assure you, that players can win starting spots in practice. If Pique was consistently better than Vidic in practice, Fergie would have given him more matches to let him prove himself on the pitch. But at this point in time, Vidic is the better defender. Your CB pairing is part of the spine of the team. If they are performing, the only time you break that up is due to injury or to rest a player. One more thing. In Rossi and Pique's defense, I believe they would have been be willing to fight for a place at clubs in their own countries. Just like young Heaton does at United. Here is a lad that is fourth choice keeper that is nowhere near giving up on his dream to be United's #1. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...ted/s/1054045_heaton_holding_on_to_reds_dream Having said that, perhaps I'm wrong about them being more willing to fight for a spot in their own countries. After all, they left their home countries to play here. Perhaps the road was a little tougher than they originally envisioned
Typical policy. The club gave Macheda's dad a job too, ensures that the whole family moves and the kid is not left alone.
I'll just say that if we'd given Pique or Rossi any reason to believe that they had a fighting chance earlier, they'd have stayed. There's no way Rossi would have got 20 games this year. There were times when he was here and there weren't 2 fit strikers and he didn't even make the bench. How was he to feel when he made Saha look a mug when they played together only to see Saha on the bench ahead of him? As for Rossi's statements at Parma, iirc he said he didn't know where he'd be and that it was up to the manager. He also said that he wanted to be in the first team but as far as I remember it was positive stuff. Regardless though, he'd had no development at United for the last season and a half or more. Then went to spain and slotted right into a Title challenging team playing next to you guessed it, a support striker.
Obviously there's going to be a lot of cynicism surrounding this move due to what happened to Rossi and Pique, but I don't think he should be written off as quickly as he has been so far. Pique and Rossi are both very good players, that is true, and I'm sure both will have successful careers. The question has to be asked though - how will they fit into the team? Rossi had the technique to play for us certainly, but one thing I'm sure Fergie was worried about was his physique. Rooney and Anderson were both as strong physically as players in their prime when they arrived here, and Nani, as well as Ronaldo before him, had pace combined with huge amounts of flair and ability to run with the ball. I.e, they could all hold their own and put their talents to good use in a league known for physicality. Would Rossi have been able to do the same, with his small frame and slower style of play? Maybe, we'll sadly never find out, but can anyone say they'd want any other Italian-style, small-but-agile technician of a forwards? To me, that's not the player we need to be going for, and while it would have been great for Rossi to have proved himself for us after being signed for hardly anything, its understandable that he never quite made it. With Pique it's a lot simpler - you don't split up probably the best central defensive partnership in the world at the moment, so as to give a youth team defender the odd run out. With the attack its possible, that doesn't require the match to match stability that your back line does, you can mix and match all you want. However, youjust cannot afford these days for your back two to make one mistake in a game , or you might end up losing the match, however low the team are in the league. The keeper needs to be able to know how they'll respond to situations so he can act accordingly, they need to know how each other play inside out, which our two do, brilliantly. Whats more is that neither are hugely old. Rio is 29 I think, and the only thing he'll begin to lose after the next 3 years or so is pace, which he could play without easily in my view. Vidic is around 2 or 3 years younger than that too, he'll probably be going strong well into his 30's as well. So what did we expect Pique to do, keep on signing new contracts, getting the scraps that Rio and Vidic leave him from injuries each year? Wasn't going to happen. He isn't a United fan at the end of the day so we can't expect the loyalty that the likes of Brown and O'Shea have, and if everyone is right and Pique's more talented than both, then Pique's got even less reason to be happy at being a squaddie. Good luck at Barca, Gerard. With Petrucci, I've never seen the lad play even on archive footage or anything, so I can only go on what other people say about him, and in another topic he was described as being very quick and big for his age, with some physicality to his play. To me that suggests one thing - premiership player. I could be wrong and everyone else may end up being right after all, we've only signed him so we can improve him to the extent where we sell him for £8m or so to Italy or Spain in 4 or 5 years, but if he gets his head down and proves to the management that he has the talent, and, just as importantly, the physical ability, to prove himself in the league, then we could have ourselves a bargain. I doubt we'll see much of him this season or maybe even next, barring the occasional Carling Cup game and perhaps the early FA Cup rounds if we get a low level team, but he's 16, what else would anyone expect? Here's hoping to some first team action for Rodrigo next year too.
Nah, he has the physique, technique and range of passing to be able to play in Carling Cup/FA Cup games as well as a few sub appearances here and there in the league.