Stop Making Sense – Why Manchester United’s Transfer Policy Is The Way To Go
Now that the final whistle has been blown on the most tumultuous and insanity-inducing Premier League season in many a year, an insanity of a different sort is preying upon our football mad-minds: transfer season. As fans we become transfigured from mere enjoyers of sport to seekers of truth amongst a tumult of lies and spin.
The Eden Hazard transfer saga, while being relatively short, offered further proof that our collective standards for reporting and accountability have dropped even lower than in summer’s past. While I was not pleased that Hazard signed for Chelsea instead of a potential move to United, all of the resultant fuss over the decision has caused me greater disquiet. Suddenly the discussion becomes about what a 21 year-old money hungry Belgian from an inferior league thinks of United and how his snub of England’s most successful club is any sort of credible indictment.
This season has become one in which the very soul of the club has been tested. Many assume that because their crosstown rivals won the league for the first time in 44 years by spending over a billion pounds and one player chose to join a team that has no wingers instead of one that has three world class internationals United is a shadow of the club it once was. Well I will be happy to tell you that notion is certainly not the case.
Moderately credible reports are now surfacing of United signing the super talented central attacking midfielder Shinji Kagawa from German champions Borussia Dortmund. Unlike the Hazard speculation, there appears to be much greater cause for optimism on the part of United fans in this case. Sir Alex Ferguson and his assistant Mike Phelan have traveled to Germany to watch Kagawa, the manager has met with the player himself, a meeting that the player also confirmed. Officials at Dortmund understand that they will not be able to keep the player after next season and have admitted as much. The deal is close to being done with just the personal terms left to be negotiated. And this signing should be cause for cyber high fives across twitterland. But it has not been.
Jamie Jackson has written in The Guardian that United potentially signing Kagawa “typifies Manchester United’s new age of austerity.” All of the grumblings about the Glazers aside, I find it difficult to call the current United team a result of an imposition of austerity on Old Trafford. There are plenty of players in the current squad on six figures a week and when it came to keeping its most prized asset, Wayne Rooney, there was enough money in the accounts to get the deal done. The underlying doubt over whether or not the Glazers would be willing to spend 30+ million pounds on a proven player becomes moot considering the results of previous teams that were constructed without buying a player of that cost.
United’s most successful team in recent times, the 2007-2008 edition, featured zero players that cost north of 20 million pounds. The most expensive player brought in that summer was Anderson, who United is thought to have paid 18-20 million to FC Porto. Given how the Brazilian has done at United since that season, the argument can definitely be made that he has not been worth half of the money United paid for his services. That same summer United signed Nani (19m), Owen Hargreaves (17m), and brought in Carlos Tevez (on a two year loan). That side went on to win an historic double.
Before we all start thinking that United’s continued success is threatened in an existential manner by the ludicrous spending of its competitors, let us first think about it in this way: the silly money invested by United’s rivals is the biggest act of desperation imaginable. That City would have to spend its way to the worst financial loss in football history to win one league trophy in a 44 year span that saw United win the league twelve times ought to feel more flattering than it may now. Chelsea will inevitably spend in excess of 70 million pounds this summer alone to erase the 25 point gap between themselves and the two Manchester clubs. Sounds like desperation to me.
After City won the league this season it became a rather fashionable opinion to decry the return of the greatest central midfielder the Premier League has ever seen as an act of desperation by a strapped-for-cash manager. And yet the inconvenient truth in all of that is the simple fact that Scholes wanted to return, United still had a use for him, and only lost one game in which he started. Had United won the league this season many instead would look at Scholes’ return for the masterstroke that it was.
The simple fact that United is owned by a bunch of thieving idiots who have since taking over been the most fortunate of bystanders to success, should not justify the prevailing opinion that the club and especially the players who fight for it on a weekly basis all over England and Europe is in any state of impending doom. Yes, City did win the league, and yes, Hazard chose Chelsea (allegedly) over United. But after the club’s greatest existential crisis in its history surely all of this pales in comparison. With the pending signing of Kagawa and hopefully another midfielder, Nemanja Vidic’s return to full fitness, and the progression of stellar young players like Tom Cleverley, Phil Jones, and Jonny Evans, United will bounce back like they always have to further glory. It’s just in our DNA.
bayor, 
Paul King, 
Prince Evans, and 4 others are discussing. 
timbo 17:20 on May 31, 2012 Permalink |
You can spin the tale any way you like, and it’s obvious from the selective hyperbole you indulged in that the truth is not something you’re willing to let get in the way of some rampant and blinkered tribalism. But the sad fact of the matter is that while you and others of your ilk indulge in such myopic mind games, you do the team a disservice by not holding United up to the scathing interrogation it deserves.
Nothing exemplifies the matter more than your championing of Scholes return. No one doubts that he’s been a great servant to the club and can rightly be held up as arguably the finest midfielder the EPL has ever seen. But he is a shadow of his former self, and it speaks volumes for the paucity of real midfield talent at the club that he has so effortlessly held a place in the engine room thans to the fact that there have been no real challengers to push him back into the cameo role that suits him best at this stage of his career. The same applies to Ryan Giggs, who is not a central midfielder of real quality, given how frequently he breaks down attacks with his errant passing, poor decision making, and wastrel attitude where possession is concerned.
A greater point to note on how bad things really are at United is the constant championing of Rooney as the team’s best player. Rooney is the most over-rated, over-hyped footballer of recent times, a player of extremely limited talent, very poor skill sets, the football vision of a Helen Keller, and an equally chronic inability to beat anyone one-on-one that makes him look ridiculously inept on the rare occasions he tries. He’s football’s equivalent of a flat track bully (with copious help from his team mates) who generally disappears in the big games, especially when played as a solo striker, which Fergie inevitably opts for against quality teams as he tries to shore up the shoddy midfield with an extra body. Further he’s such a lousy strike partner, and is so limited that the entire team focus has to be on him, that his strike partners inevitably suffer for being teamed with him. The team’s most skilled player, Berbatov, couldn’t mesh with him which meant being consigned to the wilderness, while Chicharito and Wellbeck have been in a revolving door of consistency playing opposite him. One wonders how many striker partners have to be paired up next to him, or how often United fails playing him as a solo striker, before Fergie or his successor finally realize that Rooney is the team anchor, not its savior. For those who care to cite his goal tally this past season, take out the penalties involved and get back to me, especially when one considers that most of the goals were against teams in the bottom two thirds of the EPL table. His goals to minutes played is pretty poor compared to others, far worse when the penalties are taken out of the equation, all of which looks even worse when one considers that he’s supposed to be the focal point in attack for one of the best teams in the country, meaning he should be raining them in. Interesting to note is that Berbatov was top of the tree for goals to minutes.
dee 17:54 on May 31, 2012 Permalink |
Thumbs up 4 such an amazing article. Keep the good work up.
Red Devil 19:16 on May 31, 2012 Permalink |
Charlie, spot on about Hazard, who it appears would have signed for whoever put the most money on the table. I am not bitter about him signing for Chelsea, just glad he didn’t sign in the end for United!
City, to their credit won the PL but the big test is yet to come. Was it a ‘one off’ or can they really step up and do it again? For me I have my doubts.
As for Chelsea, well their squad is ageing and needs urgent replacements and players know this, so up their demands as do other clubs with their transfer fees, so if Chelsea want to spend multi-millions, but money cannot always buy success!
As regards the Glazers. Yes no United fan will ever praise these people because of their money grabbing methods and the way vital finances are going to banks and other institutions instead of on playing staff BUT as long as Sir Alex is in charge of team affairs, his judgement and management will see United continue to be strong and to challenge for honours.
Finally, the pending signing of Kagawa will hopefully not be the only signing. Another midfielder would be welcome along with a striker of some note, Lewandowski would no doubt fit the bill but his transfer seems doomed, still SAF will no doubt have others lined up and at reasonable prices too!
Jo 20:16 on May 31, 2012 Permalink |
Since I’m d first person to comment, I would say good article but tired of hearing this unfair, partial, wrong criticism on anderson. The brazilian whose brings strength, pace that the team relied on different occasions though blighted by reoccuring injury deserves more from d media. Even SAF rates him high.
Prince Evans 20:19 on May 31, 2012 Permalink |
Glazers, de owners of ManU shud better wake up and stop disappointing their fans. Get us more expirence players not minding de prize tag. We need Kagawa and more more of his types to feed Wayne Rooney, Chicarrito and de rest of de strikers.
Paul King 21:38 on May 31, 2012 Permalink |
A very interesting article. You are absolutely spot on!
bayor 05:03 on June 1, 2012 Permalink |
Teams Ar̶̲̥̅̊ε̲̣̣̣̥ spending
Money to win trophies so manchester united should spend this money and stop giving their fan heartbreak