surely thisThe summer of 2009 will live long in the memory for me. That was peak Glazernomics. I can't remember a more depressing transfer window.
surely thisThe summer of 2009 will live long in the memory for me. That was peak Glazernomics. I can't remember a more depressing transfer window.
You didn't have to get Messi, but there were players of greater pedigree than Valencia.I see this remark all the time. What was wrong with the transfer?
Ronaldo was dead set on leaving. Fergie didn't find a like-for-like transfer (only person which would have been an equal at least was Messi), but Valencia was a great replacement. He's in the sunset of his career with that but why is there collective amnesia over the 3-4 great seasons he had with us? I recall Guardiola calling him the best winger in the world before the Rome final, which was slight hyperbole probably, but I don't recall many wingers at the time being more effective. Robben had an Indian summer but still...
I'm reluctant to dismiss such remarks as sheer muppetry and say "if Valencia was Valencinho...", so what gives here? Who should SAF have bought instead that would have done a better job during that period where Valencia was nearly-unstoppable?
It's a strange thing to say, given that just 16 months later we made another European Cup Final, but I believe that summer set us back years, and I don't think we've truly recovered our position from it. Not on the continent anyway.The summer of 2009 will live long in the memory for me. That was peak Glazernomics. I can't remember a more depressing transfer window.
Yes, Kaka, Ronaldo and Benzema signed within 3 weeks of each other. I remember correctly it was Benzema 35m, Kaka 68M then Ronaldo 80M.Yeah, the same summer we lost Ronaldo?
Valencia nearly unstoppable? No. Valencia was a functional player. Quick, strong but it's night and day. I'd rather us got 60 Million and Robben then what happened. (Though I think Ronaldo should have gone for 100m)I see this remark all the time. What was wrong with the transfer?
Ronaldo was dead set on leaving. Fergie didn't find a like-for-like transfer (only person which would have been an equal at least was Messi), but Valencia was a great replacement. He's in the sunset of his career with that but why is there collective amnesia over the 3-4 great seasons he had with us? I recall Guardiola calling him the best winger in the world before the Rome final, which was slight hyperbole probably, but I don't recall many wingers at the time being more effective. Robben had an Indian summer but still...
I'm reluctant to dismiss such remarks as sheer muppetry and say "if Valencia was Valencinho...", so what gives here? Who should SAF have bought instead that would have done a better job during that period where Valencia was nearly-unstoppable?
We were fortunate to win the league that year given our woeful away form.Another issue is that Valencia had a really good 09/10 and then it seemed we were satisfied with him and Nani on the wing and didn't bring in any competition for them the following summer. While we still won the league in 10/11 with ease and got to a CL final that year as well it was pretty clear the team needed more dynamism in attacking areas even with Chicharito banging in goals for fun.
I agree. Our decline started that summer imo.It's a strange thing to say, given that just 16 months later we made another European Cup Final, but I believe that summer set us back years, and I don't think we've truly recovered our position from it. Not on the continent anyway.
Pogba is one of the top 10 (maybe top 5) midfielders in the world but Juventus are not going to be significantly weaker after selling him because they are reinvesting in Higuain, Pjanic, Pjaca, Benatia etc.No shit, Ronaldo was the second best player in the world at the time.
I honestly don't think that Ribery and Robben were many shades above what Valencia offered at his best. And for all the muppetry over them they've won only one CL and multiple Bundesliga titles in a, um, less competitive league. And why is Van der Vaart and Sneidjer being mentioned???You didn't have to get Messi, but there were players of greater pedigree than Valencia.
I remember at the time thinking, for whatever reason, that well if he wants to go it isn't that bad, we can just go and get Ribery and Aguero for that price. In hindsight, we could have. Instead we got Valencia and Owen. There is no positive way to spin it.
Real were way behind. They were the Arsenal of the CL before Arsenal. Won a few leagues in a very weak La Liga. They were not at elite levels until 2012.We started losing ground on Barca and Real that summer and we've not recovered.
May 2009, there was nothing between Man Utd, Real and Barca in terms of quality. You can argue Barca were just ahead but it was t by much imo.
I think the last couple of years of Valencia, where he has morphed into a strange style of stopping dead, and wellying in crosses with almost zero thought has clouded people's minds completely.I see this remark all the time. What was wrong with the transfer?
Ronaldo was dead set on leaving. Fergie didn't find a like-for-like transfer (only person which would have been an equal at least was Messi), but Valencia was a great replacement. He's in the sunset of his career with that but why is there collective amnesia over the 3-4 great seasons he had with us? I recall Guardiola calling him the best winger in the world before the Rome final, which was slight hyperbole probably, but I don't recall many wingers at the time being more effective. Robben had an Indian summer but still...
I'm reluctant to dismiss such remarks as sheer muppetry and say "if Valencia was Valencinho...", so what gives here? Who should SAF have bought instead that would have done a better job during that period where Valencia was nearly-unstoppable?
And we were unfortunate that Rooney got injured in 09/10 and to lose it on goal difference in 11/12.We were fortunate to win the league that year given our woeful away form.
Actually our giggys was the main creator Valencia was tired with nani also Fletcher had a beast of a season.Lots of factors, he was signed from Wigan, not Sporting or a place typically known for wingers.
Memory, people tend to only remember the most recent, so while Valencia has been on his shin breaking crusade it's easy to forget that in Rooney's best season goal wise he was the chief creator of all those goals. And at some point he was adding variation to his play like cutting inside, particularly with Wellbeck, playing 1-2 and causing havoc in the box plus the booming shot.
Yes, we were a top 5 team. But the gap between us and the top two grew and grew. At the same time Bayern began to build.Real were way behind. They were the Arsenal of the CL before Arsenal. Won a few leagues in a very weak La Liga. They were not at elite levels until 2012.
I don't understand why people sell our team of those years short, we were a top 5 team in Europe for a few years after Ronaldo left.
I've thought long and hard for 3 minutes.I think you should have picked a better title
A symbol of the "no value" era. Decent enough player, very good at times.
The Glazers had it too easy for too long with SAF virtually guaranteeing a title on alternate years regardless of squad condition/investment. Now they're literally throwing away money because there is no SAF to bail them out anymore. Had they backed SAF like they've done to others in the last 3 years, we not only would have had a better squad (Hazard, Moura.......) but we also would have fared much better in Europe in all those years.the summer of 'no value' and Fergie guarding the Glazers money like it was his own.....
with hindsight in some ways it was a time that Fergie gave up competing with the very best in Europe - that we got to the final again in 2010 was a super achievement but we couldn't compete with the best
I remember the Guardian were convinced we were signing Ribery for 68 million and I thought that was insane given he's half the player Ronaldo is....
at the same time we could have bought Robben and Sneijder for a combined fee of about 40.....
Ronaldo was only half the story - we replaced Tevez with Owen as well
A decline that saw us still win the league?Ronaldo and Tevez replaced with Valencia and Owen. Start of the decline really
Chelsea won the leagueA decline that saw us still win the league?
History has shown the transfer strategy in Fergie's last few years to have been a false economy. We are now having to pay through our noses to rectify the lack of investment.The Glazers had it too easy for too long with SAF virtually guaranteeing a title on alternate years regardless of squad condition/investment. Now they're literally throwing away money because there is no SAF to bail them out anymore. Had they backed SAF like they've done to others in the last 3 years, we not only would have had a better squad (Hazard, Moura.......) but we also would have fared well in Europe in all those years.
Instead they wanted to squeeze out as much as possible while making SAF to come out with utter bollocks like 'there is no value in the market'.
Exactly this.History has shown the transfer strategy in Fergie's last few years to have been a false economy. We are now having to pay through our noses to rectify the lack of investment.
I think Nani was a big factor in Fergie's thinking. The talent was there and if had become the player we had hoped for, it would have made a big difference. He was more of a Ronaldo replacement than Valencia, bringing us the unexpected.Another issue is that Valencia had a really good 09/10 and then it seemed we were satisfied with him and Nani on the wing and didn't bring in any competition for them the following summer.
I find this particularly annoying - when are we going to have a chance of 4 in a row again? Not any time soon.We would have probably won 4-5 titles in a row if we had invested that summer. Maybe more
I don't think anyone is blaming Valencia. But we'd money and as already mentioned by others that there were players available with far better pedigree and hence Valencia shouldn't have been our "marquee" signing!It's the equivalent of replacing Keane with Carrick. You can't get a like for like one man match-winner so you sign an effective team player and hope that someone who plays a different position will develop into the match-winner instead.
Valencia's been a reliable and important player since Ronaldo left but we've been relying on Rooney to win matches. A burden he's generally shouldered well enough but the failure of players like Nani and Anderson to develop as expected (along with Rooney's feet of clay and the Tevez/Berbatov fiasco) meant we were a much poorer team, post-Ronaldo, than Fergie hoped . Blaming Valencia for this is missing the point.
He didn't have 3-4 great seasons.I see this remark all the time. What was wrong with the transfer?
Ronaldo was dead set on leaving. Fergie didn't find a like-for-like transfer (only person which would have been an equal at least was Messi), but Valencia was a great replacement. He's in the sunset of his career with that but why is there collective amnesia over the 3-4 great seasons he had with us? I recall Guardiola calling him the best winger in the world before the Rome final, which was slight hyperbole probably, but I don't recall many wingers at the time being more effective. Robben had an Indian summer but still...
I'm reluctant to dismiss such remarks as sheer muppetry and say "if Valencia was Valencinho...", so what gives here? Who should SAF have bought instead that would have done a better job during that period where Valencia was nearly-unstoppable?
To be fair, I don't think people make that statement as a criticism of Tony.It's the equivalent of replacing Keane with Carrick. You can't get a like for like one man match-winner so you sign an effective team player and hope that someone who plays a different position will develop into the match-winner instead.
Valencia's been a reliable and important player since Ronaldo left but we've been relying on Rooney to win matches. A burden he's generally shouldered well enough but the failure of players like Nani and Anderson to develop as expected (along with Rooney's feet of clay and the Tevez/Berbatov fiasco) meant we were a much poorer team, post-Ronaldo, than Fergie hoped . Blaming Valencia for this is missing the point.
5 headers.Lets not kid ourselves, that was a shit summer... We lost the best player in the world and brought in Valencia, Owen and Obertan.
As for Valencia, he's a good player and has been a good servant to the club. I like him, he had one great season he kept assisting Rooney headers.
If Rooney, Nani and Anderson had all become as good as Fergie thought they would, then there was no need for a "marquee" signing and Valencia would have been exactly what we needed. The fact we ended up lacking in star quality wasn't Valencia's fault, nor did it make him a bad signing.I don't think anyone is blaming Valencia. But we'd money and as already mentioned by others that there were players available with far better pedigree and hence Valencia shouldn't have been our "marquee" signing!