A decade since Ronaldo left

rcoobc

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I think he wore 8 the most
Best played at United when shirt numbers were assigned to positions, and not the player. When Best played at right wing, as he famously did during the later stages of the 1966 and 1968 European Cups, he donned the number 7. As a left winger, where he played exclusively in his debut season and nearly all of the 1971–72 campaign, he wore the number 11. Best wore the number 8 shirt at inside right on occasion throughout the 1960s, but for more than half of his matches during 1970–71. He was playing at inside left (wearing the number 10) in 1972 when he famously walked out on United the first time but was back in the number 11 for the autumn of 1973 before leaving for good. Best even wore the number 9 jersey once for United, with Bobby Charlton injured, on 22 March 1969 at Old Trafford, scoring the only goal in a 1–0 win over Sheffield Wednesday.[60] In total Best made 470 appearances for Manchester United in all competitions from 1963 to 1974, and scored 179 goals. Over the next decade he went into an increasingly rapid decline, drifting between several clubs, including spells in South Africa, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, Scotland, and Australia.[61]Best played at United when shirt numbers were assigned to positions, and not the player. When Best played at right wing, as he famously did during the later stages of the 1966 and 1968 European Cups, he donned the number 7. As a left winger, where he played exclusively in his debut season and nearly all of the 1971–72 campaign, he wore the number 11. Best wore the number 8 shirt at inside right on occasion throughout the 1960s, but for more than half of his matches during 1970–71. He was playing at inside left (wearing the number 10) in 1972 when he famously walked out on United the first time but was back in the number 11 for the autumn of 1973 before leaving for good. Best even wore the number 9 jersey once for United, with Bobby Charlton injured, on 22 March 1969 at Old Trafford, scoring the only goal in a 1–0 win over Sheffield Wednesday.[60] In total Best made 470 appearances for Manchester United in all competitions from 1963 to 1974, and scored 179 goals. Over the next decade he went into an increasingly rapid decline, drifting between several clubs, including spells in South Africa, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, Scotland, and Australia.[61]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Best

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/george-best/rueckennummern/spieler/174986
 

Luke1995

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Has the club showed any serious desire to bring him back since ? Moyes said he wanted him in 2013 and Mourinho said signing him last year was never a possibility but that's all i've heard
 

JDoe

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Ronaldo for 90m definitely wasn't cheap at that time. For comparison, you could have bought Robben, Modric and Agüero around that time who would have arguably compensated for his loss and who were all known world-class and proven players. 90m back then was more than Neymar money currently.
 

Snow

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Didn't Best wear the number 11 shirt more times than he wore the 7 ?

Anyway,that's a damning stat regarding the goals.
The 7 thing is something that SAF basically came up with. There wasn't anything special about that Manchester United number before his time.
 

Red4Life_#7

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That's a disgrace and shows why we are in such problems, we need Mid more goals from the midfield and not just relying on Pogba or possibly Lingard.
 

Infordin

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Lastly its worth nothing that if we adjust for inflation. £80m in 2009 is worth £105m (117m euro) in 2019. That makes Ronaldo in 2009 still the 4th most expensive transfer in history even in todays bloated market 10 years later. Just to give a sense of scale.
Annual revenue of the richest football club by year:

2009: Real Madrid - 365.8m euros
2019: Real Madrid - 750.9m euros

Adjusted for football inflation, Ronaldo’s transfer fee today is 193m euros.
 

Lentwood

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We didn't sell Ronaldo on the cheap - we just didn't re-invest it at the right time because it was spent restructuring the PIK loans the Glazers had leveraged against the club

We sell the worlds best player and spend the fee on interest payments and people defend these parasites
 

tenpoless

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We didnt sell Ronaldo. We gave him to madrid for free if you look at what Ronaldo gave them.

And We knew He was always going to be a virus there.
 
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simonhch

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This “sold on the cheap” business needs to stop.

He went for 42% over the previous world record which itself had just broken a world record which had stood for 8 years.

Pogba broke the world record 7 years later and that was only £9m more.


We didn’t sell him for cheap, he just proved to be incredible value.
Spot on. It was massive fee at the time. All paid up front too.
 

tenpoless

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Regarding the number 7, it's not so much about the number, it's the players who are mostly shite.
  • Michael Owen - Wasn't even meant to be a first teamer, injury prone, old, captain obvious, got him for free ffs
  • Antonio Valencia - Okay, He was a speedy winger with good crosses but never the type who could change the game by his own efforts, He's a classic winger. If what people mean by "successful number 7"s are those players who are capable of pulling magic tricks out of their hats, Valencia would have never been one - it's simply not his style
  • Angel Di Maria - As the name implies, an angel who unfortunately got robbed, had a loyalty of a hen and fecked off to France to became a cock instead. Was never a strong character
  • Memphis Depay - Fast but can't run fast in PL apparently. Luke Shaw's best mate. His duo with Shaw was most anticipated but it turned out to be turtles duo. One had too much fat on his lower body and the other had too much muscles on his upper body. Was always a gamble when We signed him
  • Alexis Sanchez - Didn't come here when He's at the peak nor when He's on the rise as a player. Even so, He's the player I thought would do very well in number 7 shirt. But alas, the way that He never adapted properly with the team means that you could have given him any number and He'd still be as bad. I don't think it's so much about the shirt's pressure on this guy, He just cannot be arsed. So many mistakes He made due to bad communication with the rest of the players
Now let's say if We sign one of Neymar, Mbappe, Hazard.. and give them the number 7. Will the number still be cursed then? Out of all 5 We signed to wear the number 7 after Ronaldo, only one seemed like a decent attempt of restoring the legacy and that was when We gave the number to Alexis.

But people like these kind of myths so.
 
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Jibbs

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One of the few glaring mistakes of Sir Alex's career was not recruiting a suitable replacement for Ronaldo. Wish we would have signed anyone of Bale, Suarez or Robben in summers of 09 and 10.
 

Hampshire Rec

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Ronnie was a machine and worked hard to be the player he was and is, our recent No7 don’t have that ethic.

When you look at that stat it makes you realise we were insanely lucky to have him at that time, but also that our recent 7’s were and currently are dreadful!
 
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One of the few glaring mistakes of Sir Alex's career was not recruiting a suitable replacement for Ronaldo. Wish we would have signed anyone of Bale, Suarez or Robben in summers of 09 and 10.
I felt we really should've went strong on Ribery.
Ribery,Nani,Valencia,Park and Giggs as wide men would've been great strength in depth.
 

fergiesarmy1

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Can’t believe the marketing machine that is man united have let this go on so long.
 

Moriarty

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Yeah, lots of players wore it, trying to find someone of 'worth' and don't think anyone's anywhere close.

Morgan only had it a while? and I was never a fan of Coppell.... maybe it was because he was a Scouse student but never took to him (more of a Daly or Hill fan).
I loved watching Steve Coppell playing. Terrific crosser of a ball and had a wicked right foot. With him on the right, Hill on the left, and Pancho and Jimmy Greenhoff in the middle, we were pretty good. Morgan was a very good orthodox winger. Good close control and could beat a man. Always lived in Best's shadow until the Doc came in, then, after a couple of seasons, was elbowed out.
 
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I loved watching Steve Coppell playing. Terrific crosser of a ball and had a wicked right foot. With him on the right, Hill on the left, and Pancho and Jimmy Greenhoff in the middle, we were pretty good. Morgan was a very good orthodox winger. Good close control and could beat a man. Always lived in Best's shadow until the Doc came in, then, after a couple of seasons, was elbowed out.
Yeah, loved the 70s team (once Best, Charlton and a couple of others gone.... nothing against them but we needed to move on). Regardless of the result, always felt like they gave 100%?

I'm probably biased on Coppell as I went to the Wales England game in 80 and I was autograph hunting after. Got Neal, Mariner and a few Wales ones... Coppell walked past us, in a mood. Pffft :)
 

Trezeguet17

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We sold ronnie for 90mil and ten years later we pay our current nr7 25mil to warm the bench.
 

Moriarty

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Yeah, loved the 70s team (once Best, Charlton and a couple of others gone.... nothing against them but we needed to move on). Regardless of the result, always felt like they gave 100%?

I'm probably biased on Coppell as I went to the Wales England game in 80 and I was autograph hunting after. Got Neal, Mariner and a few Wales ones... Coppell walked past us, in a mood. Pffft :)
Is that the one Wales won 4-0? No wonder he had the hump.
 

ricky-romeo

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Ronaldo for 90m definitely wasn't cheap at that time. For comparison, you could have bought Robben, Modric and Agüero around that time who would have arguably compensated for his loss and who were all known world-class and proven players. 90m back then was more than Neymar money currently.
Sir Alex should have asked for Sneijder and Robben as part of that Ronaldo transfer deal. I would have taken 50m + these two players without a doubt.

to think back that summer we used that Ronaldo money to buy Valencia (16m), Owen (free transfer) and Obertan (3m) :(:(:(
 

Sandikan

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Sir Alex should have asked for Sneijder and Robben as part of that Ronaldo transfer deal. I would have taken 50m + these two players without a doubt.

to think back that summer we used that Ronaldo money to buy Valencia (16m), Owen (free transfer) and Obertan (3m) :(:(:(
But Valencia was fantastic for a couple of seasons and we still got to the champs league final and were second in the league.

Imagine that seen as underpar now!
 

ricky-romeo

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But Valencia was fantastic for a couple of seasons and we still got to the champs league final and were second in the league.

Imagine that seen as underpar now!
Valencia was fantastic for a few years but that's just it. We alongside Barca were the two best sides in Europe but the standard dropped massively from Ronaldo and Tevez to even a fantastic Valencia and 30 year old Owen.

we probably would have won one more CL around 2010 to 2012 or 2013 had Sir Alex properly replaced Ronaldo.
 

Zlatattack

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Yeah since he left Fergie only won 2 premier league titles in 4 years. :rolleyes:

Post Fergie - Ronaldo and Messi combined couldn't have helped us. We've been well and truly shite.
 

Sandikan

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Valencia was fantastic for a few years but that's just it. We alongside Barca were the two best sides in Europe but the standard dropped massively from Ronaldo and Tevez to even a fantastic Valencia and 30 year old Owen.

we probably would have won one more CL around 2010 to 2012 or 2013 had Sir Alex properly replaced Ronaldo.
It really is criminal looking back at that fantastic team and the way the dynamic was totally killed by bringing Berbatov in, then losing Ronaldo.
But I suppose Tevez was always a mercenary who would have taken a colossal fee. Wasn't it about 47m he moved to City for, at a time that was still a massive fee.
And Ronaldo had started a long road of agitating for Madrid.
 

Jinn

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It's the profile of player we have given it to since Ronaldo has left.
Owen - past it
Valencia - didn't want it
Di Maria - did not want to be here
Memphis - weak mentality
Sanchez - mercenary

Compare these personalities to Beckham, Cantona, Robson, Ronaldo, Best etc.
There really is no comparison (I'm not talking of talent here)

We just need to keep looking for the next one.
 

kouroux

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Honestly think Fergie thought Obertan could be next Ronaldo. 6ft plus speedy wide forward capable of playing left or right.
There used to be a massive fanboi of Obertan back then on the caf. I could never make him understand that Obertan was shite and that he was never gonna make it at United. SAF should have listened to me
 

Striker10

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We should really have picked up Robben and someone else maybe rather then the money. It was a terrible injury we inflicted on ourselves - thanks to the owners.
 

Joeace2020

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It was a poor business by us. We could have easily asked 80m + Robben or SNeijder and Madrid won't have had any issue. We just succumbed to their demand. Definitely start of our downfall.
Everybody's got some power of insight looking back now.. If any of Owen, Valencia, Di Maria, Depay or Sanchez worked out, this would be a moot discussion and we'll be talking of how shrewdly we replaced Ronaldo. People look back at deals the club could have milked more out of because what we are getting now is next to nothing.
 
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Eddy_JukeZ

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We should really have picked up Robben and someone else maybe rather then the money. It was a terrible injury we inflicted on ourselves - thanks to the owners.
Robben and Sneijder from Real should have been acquired in the deal. It's just maddening when you think about it.

Considering how good both were the following season(and how good Robben has been in general), we likely add another Premier League title at least(potentially 2) and perhaps another CL title.

So frustrating.
 

Class of 63

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Robben and Sneijder from Real should have been acquired in the deal. It's just maddening when you think about it.

Considering how good both were the following season(and how good Robben has been in general), we likely add another Premier League title at least(potentially 2) and perhaps another CL title.

So frustrating.
For the umpteenth time, Robben and Sneijder both said at the time they would not be involved in any deal to take Ronaldo to Real Madrid.

So what were United supposed to do? And if we'd tried to sign them after the event Royal Madrid would have screwed us for the £80m they'd just paid for Ronaldo, and then some for the two, or most of it for just one.

Plus Robben had turned us down previously when he moved to Chelsea which for some fans is a reason never to go back in for him so i'm not sure he'd have been welcomed with open arms anyway.