- Scholes is one of the greatest midfielders United has ever seen, it is obvious that sharing his experience and skills would be tremendously beneficial to our players young and old. Whilst I would respect his wishes to spend more time with his family, I would also seek to find an inbetween ground, an irregular trainer as it were. He could come in for a week a month, which would mix up sessions, give Scholes coaching experience and help to provide continuity through his presence even if less regular. Again I'll repeat maybe all these conversations were had and if he had strong feelings against it there would be little Moyes could do. But, we can only speculate and as such if Moyes wanted something and it didn't happen, you can only add it to his list of arguably less positive points!
Scholes apparently wanted some time out of football. Knowing Scholes no-one could have changed his mind. There is also the possibility that Moyes didn't want even more changes in the staff that he actually made, so he wasn't found of the idea to get another new coach. Probably it's better that the coaches to be settled here, and then to add Scholes when he actually is ready to return
- No match should be meaningless, pre-season or not. Instilling a mentality of winning should happen from under 8's through to full team pre season through to Champions league finals. If you demand winning you'll demand the work rate to ensure the wins. Yes we don't want to burn out, but this is pre-season training. Now is the time to get fit and by doing that the least we should be able to achieve is beating a Thai team.
It is preseason. Sir Alex had a great winning mentality but at times we lost preseason matches. We lost against Chivas that season we signed Hernandez (and he scored against us). We then won the title and made the final on UCL. Pre-season friendlies are meaningless and they are only for fitness, to make some tactic changes and to watch young players. No one cares if we win or lose there and certainly you don't make a winning mentality by winning against a Thai team in a meaningless match
- The point about Rooney was not forcing him to sign a contract, the talk at the moment is that this conversation will not even happen. There is potentially a very viable reason for this, i.e. to assess his fitness and commitment over the next 6 months, however the risk does need to be considered and right now I would argue that the risk of losing Rooney at a lower price outweighs the risk of Rooney not being committed and fit for the next 3-4 years!
We don't know what is happening behind the scenes. We haven't received an offer for Rooney yet. Moyes comments were spot on until now. There won't be a contract for Rooney because he wants one, he has yet to earn the last one. As Moyes said, Rooney is not bigger than the club and I full agree with him.
- Yes I do think bragging about unlimited funds does have a negative influence in negotiations. It's a lot easier to say we can't afford so much because of those loans that you have heard to much than to say we don't want to pay more!
Clubs don't care if we have money or not. If you want to sign a player you must pay the money that club is willing the player to go for. You can say that we are starving but if you don't pay the amount of money the selling clubs is willing to accept for a player, there's nothing you can do. It is just media bollocks and nothing more.
- The point on Thiago could be completely true. He might see Pep as his mentor, but that is the point where Moyes should convince Thiago that he would be an equally great mentor, but highlight other points, like the fact he would make a big difference to United, not just be another making up numbers at Bayern. He could argue about the perceived quality of the Premier League and the point that it is the most marketable league in the world. He could do the speech about the 7, the great history of United, etc, etc. And again maybe all of this has happened, or maybe Moyes wasn't even interested, or not that interested, but we can only speculate as with much of this thread.
Pep send Thiago to Barcelona B and then made him a first team player, playing 45 games in Pep's last season there. He always praised and believed on him. Pep's brother is Thiago's agent who would have told Pep anything about our discussions with Thiago (if there were in the first place). If Pep promised him playing time, Thiago would have been a fool to refuse him. His chances to feature in World Cup are actually much bigger playing in a system similar to that of Spain (if Pep will play a similar game to that of Barca) than playing in a formation completely different in United. Bayern has a great history, as much great as United. The only things we could have beat Bayern was playing time and money, but Bayern pay well too and if Pep guaranteed him playing time, then nothing was in our favor to sign him.
So whilst there may be more negatives in this thread than positives, I have not said anything to suggest that he could not turn around this thread substantially. For example, the £35m bid for Fabregas if real, could result in an arguably even greater signing than Thaigo, albeit not value could be debated at almost twice the price!
This is not the point. The point is that nothing has happened to make an evaluation about Moyes pro and contra key events, because you know, there haven't been a key event.