Wheres the fear gone? That red jersey used to scare teams, now Fergie needs to pull his finger out and fast. We've bought too many what ifs im getting pissed off and fast.. Only last week we announced we're the richest sports team on the planet, and announce more profit each year for the shareholders to glee at. The ground will soon be 75,000, and bring in yet more cash and profit. Whats the point in all this? Nothing if we keep missing out on WORLD CLASS players not WHAT IF'S!!! whats the point in all this money if we never get the best? Maybe Manutd fail to understand simple economics and ROI's example 35 people bought a diego jersey 35 * £40=£1400 Deigo cost £7,000,000 total loss £6,998,600 bad business... An example of good ROI: Madrid buy Beckham, 4 million jerseys got sold worldwide 4,000,000*£40=160,000,000 cost £25,000,000 profit = £135,000,000 I can mention many more. Long term it makes more sense to buy better instant "world players" ala galactico. Profit will fall not increase unless we splash the cash and put the fear back into mufc. Im not saying willy nilly Leeds style buying or even the poor buys of chelski, but world class quality now! will make us both stronger and more wealthy 11 not 5!! WORLD CLASS players need to wear that jersey. Then the Global market will remain one of mass appeal and not some niche appeal like that of some fans who call diego a hero in salford and thus bought the shirt, from the trafford centre. Lets act now, before chelsea start to chissel slowly away at our global dominance!!!
Perhaps it was just exaggeration to illustrate a point but the profit for a club on a 40pound shirt is not 40pounds.
I've noticed that fans are demanding big signings like that of Ronaldinho Gaucho, but the dilemma IMHO is that a hard-nosed manager like Ferguson doesn't seem very good at handling superstar egos (which I guess is what Stam and Ince had, and what Beckham seemed to be developing). SAF works best with humble, loyal, hardworking players like Giggs and Scholes, which may explain his skill at handling youth talent. The exception might be Keane who has a sizeable ego but he's very self-motivated so maybe doesn't need the old 'boot-to-the-face' treatment. With signing a glamorous name like RG, it's easy to foresee another rift growing that would have the guy on a jet to Spain or Italy within a season or two. So it's either about sticking with Ferguson and relying on him to sort things out his own way (maybe return to 4-4-2), or releasing him and going with the Real Madrid superstar approach (in which case someone like Fabio Capello might be a nice fit for quick success).
Hi Panzo I would agree with you when talking about players who have questionable motivation or a laid back approach. This definitely rubs SAF up the wrong way owing to his background and work ethic. Having said that, these types of players typically will not thrive on a windy cold night in Manchester anyway. I think Ronadinho would probably not have been successfull at Man U, great player though he is. Wanting an 'exotic' lifestyle and coming from Brazil, London is probably as far north as he would have been happy to venture. However self-motivated stars have not presented a problem to SAF - Cantona, Keane, Beckham and Schmeichel have all provided challenges in their own ways. Got more out of Yorke than any other manager for a couple of seasons. He does seem to be getting less tollerant in his old age though and his management style definitely didn't suite Veron ...
I dont disagree with strengthening the squad, which is what we did over the summer... Saha was an excellent purchase, especially comming in the winter... Kleberson and Ronaldo both look like they are one season away from being everyday type players... the only problem is that Kleberson is best suited to Scholes' position. So i think that for now he will just add depth... Now that OGS is fit, we should stick to playing him or Ronaldo on the right wing, as they are our best players there. Fletcher, Butt, Keane, Scholes and Kleberson are our central midfielders who are fit... Giggs is the only left wing option really, so we have to be careful, perhaps rest him and play Fletch wide right and CRon wide left a few games to rest the welshman. Our needs right now are a winger, Ronaldo can perform well on both wings, he seems to have no bias, and that is excellent so we could get either a left winger or right winger so that we have at least 2 players who can play the flanks... I think that now we have enough good players, to give our squad decent depth. Another young defender as I have stated other threads would be nice, but if we buy anymore players, they must be instant inserts into the starting line up... or atleast make us think twice if to play them or a regular... If we sign Van der Vart and another defender I believe we will be the team to beat next year in both the EPL and the CL for these reasons... Rio and Silvestre became one of the best CB pairings in the world this season... Ruud is Ruud, Saha will have spent time getting used to Ruud... Scholes continues to have the out put of a striker Ronaldo is getting better by the minute. If u add a Van der Vart, or a Gattuso, or a Ballack to this team look out... we really should not be that disapointed, there was a very small period of time this season when we had all our players playing and we went through 3 periods of massive injury problems... the defenders at the start of the season... Scholes and Ole both out (experienced creative midfielders) and our defender crisis now... the only time we had all our players together we were atop the league... I think considering all the misfortune we've had this season, we have done well...