Javier 'Chicarito' Hernandez: thank you and goodbye.

Wrong to get rid, or wrong to not replace him adequately?

I don't think you can blame Van Gaal for shipping him out when he'd been poor for two years. Most here conceded that he would never amount to more than a squad player with us, or even match the form of his debut season. The consensus was basically that at 27 he needed to get first team football. Sure playing first team football has helped him, but it's clear he's currently playing a fair few levels above what he showed for both us and Madrid in a side much more suited to his abilities.
Well both were wrong. He packed him off on loan after barely giving him a chance. So at that stage he'd had one poor season under Moyes. Which almost everyone did. It would've been stupid to form an opinion on him based on the way he was under used by Moyes. Selling him without a fair chance and no replacement was moronic.
 
Well both were wrong. He packed him off on loan after barely giving him a chance. So at that stage he'd had one poor season under Moyes. Which almost everyone did. It would've been stupid to form an opinion on him based on the way he was under used by Moyes. Selling him without a fair chance and no replacement was moronic.

He didn't exactly do much at Madrid either. I don't blame him for wanting an upgrade on Cheech, i blame him for not then signing said upgrade.
 
He didn't exactly do much at Madrid either. I don't blame him for wanting an upgrade on Cheech, i blame him for not then signing said upgrade.
He still had a perfectly decent scoring record. It's fine to want an upgrade if that is possible but it wasn't. I'm not going to sell my car because I want a better one and then end up walking everywhere.
 
Love the little pea & happy for him. Correct career move for him.
Exactly, some supporters really liked him, and were excited when he got an opportunity.

All the rubbish people chat about him not being consistent or offering anything else, is utterly bloody stupid when you look at the current squad,and the way they perform.
Many united fans are delusional at this present moment, because no 'world class' players want to come to united with the way the club is being run.
 
He still had a perfectly decent scoring record. It's fine to want an upgrade if that is possible but it wasn't. I'm not going to sell my car because I want a better one and then end up walking everywhere.

9 in 33 i think, although he was off the bench a lot like he was here. He did need to reinvigorate his career though, so i don't blame him for moving on. Had we kept him, we'd likely have seen the same form we'd seen for the last couple of years. But i'd rather see that than Fellaini up there.

As for the car analogy, that's my point. Not replacing him was poor from Van Gaal. Or if you point to Martial, not bringing in another striker as well. We did lose 3 in the summer.
 
9 in 33 i think, although he was off the bench a lot like he was here. He did need to reinvigorate his career though, so i don't blame him for moving on. Had we kept him, we'd likely have seen the same form we'd seen for the last couple of years. But i'd rather see that than Fellaini up there.

As for the car analogy, that's my point. Not replacing him was poor from Van Gaal. Or if you point to Martial, not bringing in another striker as well. We did lose 3 in the summer.
A pretty good scoring record. If you looked at minutes played then it's probably a great record. He also had a knack for scoring important goals.

But both were wrong. He sold him at a stage where he knew he couldn't get any replacement never mind a better one.
 
Exactly, some supporters really liked him, and were excited when he got an opportunity.

All the rubbish people chat about him not being consistent or offering anything else, is utterly bloody stupid when you look at the current squad,and the way they perform.
Many united fans are delusional at this present moment, because no 'world class' players want to come to united with the way the club is being run.
Aye, I'm not a massive fan of the way we're simply trying to "name your price" for world class players. Reeks of desperation and it's a bit classless, all IMO of course. But alas, it's the way the game has headed a long time ago with the stinking money in the game these days.
 
A pretty good scoring record. If you looked at minutes played then it's probably a great record. He also had a knack for scoring important goals.

But both were wrong. He sold him at a stage where he knew he couldn't get any replacement never mind a better one.

I think Van Gaal was resigned to him leaving even the season before. He had an option to buy clause in his deal with Real, and we brought in Falcao. He was basically gone to at that point. The replacement was Falcao really, he just never worked out. We should have signed another this summer just gone though.
 
I think Van Gaal was resigned to him leaving even the season before. He had an option to buy clause in his deal with Real, and we brought in Falcao. He was basically gone to at that point. The replacement was Falcao really, he just never worked out. We should have signed another this summer just gone though.

However which way you look at it, I don't think anyone can say that van Gaal made anything other than a complete mess of the striking situation in the summer.

Anyone with vision knew Falcao was finished last season, so there's no praise for not taking up that option. We then start the season at least one striker short after also selling van Persie in July, with one of our only remaining options left (Hernandez) probably not even wanted anyway. But for some reason we leave it until the absolute last minute to gamble on Martial once we're already six games in. And despite Rooney being in poor form and Januzaj on his way out to Germany, we decide to get rid of Chich too for some bargain basement price? What kind of strategy is that?
 
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Let's be honest, when he missed that sitter in the summer the majority were laughing and posting LvG-Giggs reaction over and over. The love-in with him was long gone since his rubbish stint at Madrid and criticized both his abilities AND the stuff he said about Madrid being the biggest a minute after he touched down there. Most did not want him here anymore or did not care either way, he was another Cleverly/Fletcher/Nani/Evans category footballer to them. Get rid and if we don't we'll moan when he next has a bad first touch.

Hindsight is amazing, now everyone suddenly knows what an amazing player our beloved Chicarito is.

7 goals and 7 assists in 855 minutes. That´s the same as the whole United team in the last 900 minutes. :nervous:
 
Can we have some stats as to when/why he suddenly became not good enough? As I remember it, from his second season onwards, he was injured and/or in and out of the team, with no decent run. I don't recall him doing a Rooney (just one example) in the side game after game, and letting us down.
 
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Only Hernandez can be considered "not good enough for United" when he's on pace for 30+ goals playing in the Bundesliga :lol:. You cant judge him on his season under Moyes where everyone suffered. Also, his last few months in Madrid were quite positive. But no let's stick to the same garbage talking points, "bad touch, no play build up contribution" etc. While he proves everyone wrong.
 
9 in 33 i think, although he was off the bench a lot like he was here. He did need to reinvigorate his career though, so i don't blame him for moving on. Had we kept him, we'd likely have seen the same form we'd seen for the last couple of years. But i'd rather see that than Fellaini up there.

As for the car analogy, that's my point. Not replacing him was poor from Van Gaal. Or if you point to Martial, not bringing in another striker as well. We did lose 3 in the summer.
About a goal every ~150 minutes. Way better than any United player in the last few years. He also had 9 assists. While you might think "well it's Madrid and they score a lot" his goal record was very similar under Moyes and I consider that a very good record considering that he played on average 40 minutes per match if you only count the matches he was involved in. Strikers who play 90 minutes (like Pelle) struggle to score for many games. Never been a problem with Hernandez.
 
Wrong to get rid, or wrong to not replace him adequately?

I don't think you can blame Van Gaal for shipping him out when he'd been poor for two years. Most here conceded that he would never amount to more than a squad player with us, or even match the form of his debut season. The consensus was basically that at 27 he needed to get first team football. Sure playing first team football has helped him, but it's clear he's currently playing a fair few levels above what he showed for both us and Madrid in a side much more suited to his abilities.

Despite the fact that his best ever goalscoring ratio came 2 seasons after his debut season (where he had a 1 in 2 goal to game app scoring ratio). His form in Madrid which was basically nothing much, is still better than what we have now. Now that we are stuck with Martial on the wing because he is embarrassingly better than all of our wingers (despite being a striker), we have one striker only and that's Rooney, for whom the less we speak about the better.
 
9 in 33 i think, although he was off the bench a lot like he was here. He did need to reinvigorate his career though, so i don't blame him for moving on. Had we kept him, we'd likely have seen the same form we'd seen for the last couple of years. But i'd rather see that than Fellaini up there.

As for the car analogy, that's my point. Not replacing him was poor from Van Gaal. Or if you point to Martial, not bringing in another striker as well. We did lose 3 in the summer.

Releasing Van Persie, Hernandez and Falcao in one go and replacing them all with a rookie called Martial is probably LVGs worst decision during his tenure so far.
 
Is it any wonder we're not scoring goals - Martial on the wing, Rooney all over the pitch (except the centre most of the time). I don't give a flying feck if he does nothing else - I'd sooner have Chico in the team and hovering round the penalty box doing nothing more than waiting to score a goal. 22 for Leverkusen now ... I'd adapt the team to play his way ffs!
 
Is it any wonder we're not scoring goals - Martial on the wing, Rooney all over the pitch (except the centre most of the time). I don't give a flying feck if he does nothing else - I'd sooner have Chico in the team and hovering round the penalty box doing nothing more than waiting to score a goal. 22 for Leverkusen now ... I'd adapt the team to play his way ffs!

this is what happens with two incompetent managers in charge.
 
Just saw some of his bundesliga highlights. He's still brilliant. 17 league goals over there in his first year.

Didn't Scholes say to Fergie '20 goals' when he first trained with him?
 
Just saw some of his bundesliga highlights. He's still brilliant. 17 league goals over there in his first year.

Didn't Scholes say to Fergie '20 goals' when he first trained with him?

I hadn't heard that, but mid-way through the '12/'13 season, Fergie defended using Hernandez mainly from the bench and said "bet you he still gets 20 goals this year"
 
Did his form tail off quite a bit towards the end of the season? At the beginning it seemed like he was scoring every week, hadn't heard much from him since christmas.
 
I loved Chicha but you could tell he didnt wanna be here any more.
True, his first manager loved him. The second didn't know how to use him, the third one flat out got rid. To be honest, I don't think "didn't want to be here" encapsulates the entire situation. His position at the club was made untenable and chose to leave for the good of his career. I don't really blame him though.
 
True, his first manager loved him. The second didn't know how to use him, the third one flat out got rid. To be honest, I don't think "didn't want to be here" encapsulates the entire situation. His position at the club was made untenable and chose to leave for the good of his career. I don't really blame him though.

Well yeah, LVG being the arrogant manager he is would never admit that giving up a 15 goal a season striker up was a bad idea.
 
Well yeah, LVG being the arrogant manager he is would never admit that giving up a 15 goal a season striker up was a bad idea.
He'd have never gotten 15 goals out of him. I'd struggle to come up with a handful of players you could say with confidence that LVG would get 15 goals out of in the PL.
 
He would have if he played enough. Rashford wouldnt have played any though.
He wouldn't have scored, he's less of a hold-up striker than Rooney and we don't create overloads in the final third with precise dribbling and movement on the flanks under Val Gaal. We'd probably not have signed Martial, however that probably would have changed things. He left for the good of his career and fair play to him.
 
Did his form tail off quite a bit towards the end of the season? At the beginning it seemed like he was scoring every week, hadn't heard much from him since christmas.
He had a crazy run from late October for 2 months, when he scored 10 goals in 10 games in the league and the 4 goals in 2 games against Roma and 1 game against Barca in the CL. In the second half of the season he scored only 6 goals in 14 league games, none in 4 EL games and 1 in the cup quarterfinal that Leverkusen lost.
 
Did his form tail off quite a bit towards the end of the season? At the beginning it seemed like he was scoring every week, hadn't heard much from him since christmas.

Yeah, he was tearing everything apart before the winter break. Then shortly after it ended he got injured for like 2 weeks and it took him quite some time to score again. I believe he went scoreless all february.
 
True, his first manager loved him. The second didn't know how to use him, the third one flat out got rid. To be honest, I don't think "didn't want to be here" encapsulates the entire situation. His position at the club was made untenable and chose to leave for the good of his career. I don't really blame him though.

He'd have never gotten 15 goals out of him. I'd struggle to come up with a handful of players you could say with confidence that LVG would get 15 goals out of in the PL.

Agree with everything you've said. Van Gaal is a blight on Man Utd.
 
Hernandez leaving the club isn't exclusive to Van Gaal.

Ferguson decided he wasn't good enough to start regularly here. Moyes thought it and so did Van Gaal. Ancelotti and/or Perez and Benitez came to the same conclusion, too.

Hernandez was doing himself no favours sitting on our bench. A manager was always going to have to let him go at some point.
 
Well yeah, LVG being the arrogant manager he is would never admit that giving up a 15 goal a season striker up was a bad idea.

Him leaving had very little to do with Van Gaal. He wanted to be first choice striker but he wasnt going to get that with us. LVG didnt think it and neither Ferguson or Ancelotti. He would still be here if he was happy to play from the bench, but he wasnt and thats fair enough. Not something you can blame LVG for.
 
Hernandez leaving the club isn't exclusive to Van Gaal.

Ferguson decided he wasn't good enough to start regularly here. Moyes thought it and so did Van Gaal. Ancelotti and/or Perez and Benitez came to the same conclusion, too.

Hernandez was doing himself no favours sitting on our bench. A manager was always going to have to let him go at some point.

He wasn't regular under Ferguson for few years, and still stayed. Only under van Gaal he decided to leave. Couple of other players did the same too, and many of them were valuable squad players, not just players like Anderson.
 
If he would have stayed he would have been just a short term solution. He's a good striker for the Leverkusens and the Evertons of this world, but our aim should lie higher, also for the bench. Considering that Rashford might have not gotten into first XI if he had stayed, I think it was for our and his best that he left after last season, most definitely on the long term.
 
He wasn't regular under Ferguson for few years, and still stayed. Only under van Gaal he decided to leave. Couple of other players did the same too, and many of them were valuable squad players, not just players like Anderson.

He was younger when Ferguson was here. Now he must be about 27 years old and he left at a point in his career in which he needed regular game time.

He's no great loss and never was, really. We need better starting up top, as does every big club, and I'd take somebody with game like Rashford to play in his squad role all day long.

He wasn't good enough.
 
He was younger when Ferguson was here. Now he must be about 27 years old and he left at a point in his career in which he needed regular game time.

He's no great loss and never was, really. We need better starting up top, as does every big club, and I'd take somebody with game like Rashford to play in his squad role all day long.

He wasn't good enough.
True but he would still supply team with additional goals even if just for this season. It would probably help us getting more points from sides like Newcastle.

Still it feels extermely lucky that Rashford excelled.
 
True but he would still supply team with additional goals even if just for this season. It would probably help us getting more points from sides like Newcastle.

Still it feels extermely lucky that Rashford excelled.

I don't deny that at all. But I think United are a fair club and no player in his mid 20s as good as Hernandez should be hanging about in a reduced role.

A club like Leverkusen was a great move for him and, in truth, one he should have made a little earlier.
 
I don't deny that at all. But I think United are a fair club and no player in his mid 20s as good as Hernandez should be hanging about in a reduced role.

A club like Leverkusen was a great move for him and, in truth, one he should have made a little earlier.

You could have said the exact same thing about Solskjaer. For a club like United who (should) play multiple games in multiple competitions, he would have had a significant role to play under the right manager.