It is summer. The transfer window is dragging ass. The tourneys are sub-par. Looking at the squad made me think of all those regrets I have about the club and it has started to seep into my posts. So this is where I begin.... Carlos Tevez He should have been bought outright. The club should have never purchased Berbatov. Your lament does not have to be transfer-related.
JC and benni were very keen on Carlitos. Some of us, including myself, were less so. I wouldn't have been if I knew we already had a deal in place to sell Ronaldo to RM.
That is not my lament, I have plenty of others. Never wanted Berba, wanted Modric, he was regarded too old or not elite enough at 27. Kept missing on world class talents, did not spend any money after Nani/Anderson, kept players way past their useful date, not using the top class youth talent. There are just too many.
My main lament ATM is not signing/developing another young star post-Ronaldo and becoming too reliant on and beholden to Rooney.
Eat shit. Best. I think Modric was one of those "we are not going to be bullied in the market" players. The club would refuse to pay for top quality players and went with the "no value in the market" for too long. I am sure the debt had a lot to do with that. Fergie winning was a smoke and mirrors trick. Once his control of the club was done, it was always going to struggle because no plan existed moving forward. The club was supposed to get by and endure just based on the fact that it was Manchester United, as if results and the like did not matter.
One of my biggest is that Anderson could never kick on following his first season to become Uberson more consistently. He had something really special I felt and a few key skills that are so hard to teach and find in players. And he was so infectious on the field as well.
I agree with that one, but I also wonder if it was partly because he needed to be played higher up the pitch in a more attacking role, which frankly would never happen here because we had better players in front of him.
Personally, I think it was an issue of fitness, with systems and position being the lesser problem. If he could have ever fixed his injuries and ability to properly go 90, he could be terrific in any number of midfield positions.
He took to a box to box role like a duck in water in his first season and he was absolutely fearless: his performances vs Gerrard at Anfield and Cesc are the stuff of lore really. Fitness is really what did him in above all else: every time that he'd appear to get set for a good run, some type of injury would cut him down. He and Clev even looked like a promising partnership at one point: the way they'd find each other on the pitch with such ease and how they covered for one another, looked almost surreal, but of course injuries again shut that down. And that last injury was probably the final straw as he just was never the same after that, until he left. Ando is definitely for me one of the biggest regrets of recent years for United.
Never? Really? See, while everyone here was always getting so annoyed with Nani, I was annoyed with Anderson. Always thought he had potential to be a key midfielder for us for years. Still bums me out.
I'm still sour that Berbatov and to a lesser extent Nani never worked out. Berbatov is still one of my favorite players ever. Say what you will about his style and work ethic, he routinely did things that most other players couldn't do and made it look effortless. He may have had the best first touch I've ever seen. He just didn't fit with our fast, counterattacking style at the time. I'll style never forget his spinning assist on one of Ronnie's goals and his bike/hattrick against Pool. Nani upsets me because he fit perfectly with the style of play and was exactly what we needed. Problem was that he couldn't sustain any form other than the season where he was completely dominant. He had the pace/power that CR7 had but never developed the end product that Ronnie did. Still, when he was on he would shit all over the opponent and they couldn't do a thing to stop him. I think a lot of his issues were because SAF treated him like the next Ronaldo, which he was not, and because his form was so closely tied to his confidence level at the time.
Starting a match with Ronaldo, Tevez, Rooney, and Berba. I just want to see that. I remember we played them once together vs Spurs in the second half at home to overturn a 0-2 and won 5-2 (IIRC). Would love to see that more often.
Agreed completely about Berba: great and class player, but he just did not fit what we had going on when we got him. SAF was desperate to recreate the Cantona magic with him, but it just was a different time and that's not what was needed then. Berba's first touch is probably the second best I've seen. Canto's is still far and away the best I've seen in that dept ever.
I often wonder if Ferguson thought he was buying a second Ruud and got a poor man's version. A prime Ruud would have been a beast in that attack. I hated Berbatov, but I will admit that turn against West Ham was sick.
Berba wasn't a fit at all, but goddam it was fun. The better move would have been to find a forward that could at least meld with Rooney and Tevez. Obviously no one could be found as skilled as Ronaldo, but someone who could have at least kept that trident ticking even 60-70% as well would have been amazing.