Didnt see this posted yet. http://skysports.planetfootball.com...nited+agree+keeper+deal&channel=football_home Not looking good for howard getting playing time this year. Ive gone from hoping he would be the number one choice this year, to just hoping he makes the bench regularly. Thoughts on the implications of this for howard? Dont really know too much about this keeper they just signed.
"Foster, who has never actually played for Stoke's first team, came through the youth system at The Britannia Stadium after joining from non-league outfit RC Warwick." You're worried about him? Frankly, if Tim can't compete with this fellow, he doesn't deserve to be on the bench anyway.
Before you all go off on yet another Howard rant... Every team needs three keepers to be competing for the first team. Foster has a lot of potential, which is why he was signed. He will be there to learn from both keepers and to push Howard, so the latter doesn't become complacent with his position in the squad. However, given his age and lack of experience, then we can all assume that he will be third choice at the moment. This added competition can only be a good thing for all involved.
Are you kidding? This guy makes up the numbers, is all. They now have 3 keepers. He couldnt make the grade at Stoke, what makes you think hes seriously going to press Van Der Sar or Howard much. Nothing has changed....ManU has a veteran keeper in Van Der Sar to both hold down the fort for a couple of years, and mentor Howard, who they very well perhaps still see as their future #1. This other guy makes for better practices, is about all.
http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/3765388 It seems the new fella is going to be farmed out to a championship side immediately. At first glance, some of the quotes near the end of the story seem pretty bad for Tim, but then I realized their from this new keeper's agent, so take them with a grain of salt.
Here's what worries me about this deal: It has potential to be worth 2.75 million pounds... 1 million pounds for sure... that's over double the fee they paid for Howard.... and part of the 1.75 million pounds in incentives has to deal with him PLAYING FOR THE ENGLAND FIRST TEAM. It sounds outrageous... but, obviously, it shows that Stoke thought well enough about his abilities to put this clause in. They laid down more capital on him than they did on Howard, he's hometown, and the expect him to be starting for England at some point in time. This isn't even an anti-American thing... not in the least... but having a chance to start an England #1 at Old Trafford has got to be pretty damn enticing... and they must have alot of faith in him... especially to lay down the amount that they did for him without him getting a first team minute above League One Timmy better get his ******** together, or we might as well start calling him Ricardo.
They can put all kind of clauses about him getting England first team minutes, it's not going to happen. That is essentially a way to make a guy feel good about his contract that costs the team nothing.
My high school put a clause in my contract that if I was elected to the Hall of Fame, I get $75 billion. So, obviously, I must be awesome.
The last point may well be true, but the first isn't. The Howard transfer cost ManU pounds 2.3 m, more than double the 1 million being paid here. Add ons for a long term project don't count for much. This is off a supporter's site, but it's on the official club report on transfers (howard is a ways in):http://suforum.org/newforum/archive/index.php?t-9765.html
My fault... I thought the Howard fee was $500,000... so... yeah, whoops on me for that one. ...there was so much potential for that to be a funny retort if it was written out right... but the execution was all wrong. More to the point though, why would Stoke insert a clause like that if they didn't think there was a chance of it being true? It's not very good business. Stoke's not going to put clauses in the transfer that they think won't be met. I mean, Stoke may not be in the Premier League, but that doesn't mean they're run by a group of naive fools. Timmy should still have a solid grasp on things for the near future... and all of this will be moot if he outperforms his competition, as we all hope he will. But, regardless, this really isn't a "no big deal" transfer.
It's called covering your ass. No lower division team wants to sell a player who then turns out to be a major star that's worth far more than they got for him. Sell on, appearance and national team appearance clauses are fairly common in transfers of lower division players to the Premier League. What percentage ever get invoked is another matter.
I suppose thats why they never let the kid play, either. They were trying desperately to keep his talent under wraps.
...then why would they not push for something like a 'first team appearance' clause w/ Man U, as opposed to a 'national team appearance' clause as the biggest one in the transfer? That's the thing... it just seems like he has alot of talent and it looks as though many see that he has a bright future. He'll definately get opportunities to show this... Timmy has to just do his job well enough for this kid's ability to not matter. Sarcasm noted... ...the fact that his value did not go up, nor did scouts rave over him prior to his loan spell and subsequent Vans Trophy run is also noted.
The fact that the Vans Trophy is a tournament for English League One and Two teams is also noted. As is Howard's FA Cup victory. Quit hyping the kid. Next you'll be telling us SAF thinks he's the next Schmeichel (which SAF may well, at this rate).
According to the Times, btw, Stoke got pounds 2 m for their third team keeper. Obvioulsy, ManU thinks he's a comer. Equally obviously, the stoke board is breaking out the good stuff about now, and wondering if Juve or Real might not have a spot for a couple of their youth team reserves...
But he's gonna be loaned out to the Coca Cola next season and should see some good time... funny how he's working his way up the ladder quickly. There's no hype involved... you look at the circumstances surrounding the transfer, and it's not just "Psssh, Howard has nothing to worry about." In relation to the top 'backup' job this season, yes, that's alllll Timmys... but we keep talking about 2 years down the line, when Van Der Sar is out of contract and Tim should be reaching a very high level of play... this kid will be the one giving him the challenge probably. Not even seeing this kid yet, you should be able to safely assume that Howard is the better goalie... that being said... ...while this is not something to ******** the bed over... it is definately something to take notice of.
Is Luke Steele still on ManU's roster? He's had a similar path (low club, signs for ManU, plays reserves, then is loaned out to a 1st div club)
Wait a second, I thought this kid was going to be the 3rd keeper. So why would they loan him out? Don't they need a reserve to hang around during the season? And signing with Man Utd automatically gets this kid time in the Championship now, despite never getting any prior? Nevertheless, read my first post in this thread. I think we agree with each other just fine.
No idea if this has been posted, but it's good reading. The more I know about Timmy the more he is, aside from the (at this point, aside from the fact that he's injured most of the time) incomparable JOB, my favorite YA is TH. His attitude is so stellar. I don't know if he'll hold onto the MUFC #1 shirt for the better part of a decade or not, but his attitude could not under any circumstances be one smidgeon better. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=sto...9/sp_usatoday/manushowardexpectsmuchofhimself
From the article: "I've played 75 games for United in two years," says Howard, who was hampered by two nagging shoulder injuries last season. He was voted EPL goalkeeper of the year in 2003-04. "If you want to nit-pick, we can say five of those have been poor. I think that's not a very bad return." That's not a bad attitude in terms of a personal ego defense,but it is still a bit naive about the realities of topflight European competition.Five poor games is four too many. CAVEAT:assumes a proper quote taken in context ,etc.
Loaned out according to his agent. Someone already posted it iearlier in the thread but, I figured I'd bring it back for ease of convenience... ...I think where our opinion differs more is in the amount of a challenge this kid could provide and the backing he may recieve from the club and/or the fans. Not this year, probably not next year... but when VDS' contract runs out, if this kid's getting Coca Cola first team minutes and Timmy's playing reserve and cup games over the next two seasons... Yeah, not a good combination.