Fergie's next four top targets

Richter

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MANCHESTER UNITED boss Alex Ferguson has already identified £40million of new talent to help sustain his stranglehold on the Premier League.


The Reds are on the verge of retaining their title and hold a five-point lead over Chelsea with just four League games to go this term.

And SunSport can reveal the names of the four young stars that Fergie has his eyes on ahead of next season.

Portugal and Sporting Lisbon stars Miguel Veloso and Joao Moutinho are top of the shopping list.

And Ferguson is also targeting Wigan aces Wilson Palacios and Luis Antonio Valencia.

Old Trafford No 2 Carlos Queiroz has been on scouting missions over the last few weeks to run the rule over all four players.

Last summer Ferguson had finished his transfer business almost as soon as the team secured the title — and this year looks to be no different.

SunSport exclusively revealed in October that Fergie was interested in midfielders Veloso and Moutinho. Both players will be part of Portugal’s Euro 2008 squad.


Moutinho, 21, has 11 caps for Portugal and his quick-footed, artistic style is perfectly suited to United.

Veloso, also 21, is a more defensive midfielder who can also play as a centre-half or as a full-back. He has five Portugal caps to his name.

United have a terrific relationship with Sporting Lisbon and bought current stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani from the Portuguese side.

Queiroz watched the Sporting players in their Uefa Cup defeat to Rangers last week.

And it is believed that United have first refusal on the young stars but the champions-elect know they will need to shell out around £30m for the pair.

Before his trip to Lisbon Queiroz watched Wigan’s game with Birmingham where £6m-rated midfielder Palacios, 23, and £4m winger Valencia, 22, starred in a 2-0 win.

Palacios has been a key figure in Wigan’s relegation battle since his January switch from Honduran side Olimpia.

Wigan boss Steve Bruce also signed Palacios on loan when he was the manager of Birmingham earlier this season.

Valencia moved to Wigan after impressing for Ecuador in the 2006 World Cup.

Last season United forked out £80m for Anderson, Nani, Owen Hargreaves and Carlos Tevez.

But this year Ferguson wants to improve the depth of his squad and will give the new youngsters time to make their mark at Old Trafford.

While midfielder Anderson has made a big impact in the Premier League and in Europe this season, winger Nani has been used more sparingly.

Ferguson knows his starting team is as strong as he could hope for and it would be difficult to improve.

So now he is eyeing long-term replacements for veterans Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville.

Nani is seen by many as the long-term successor to Giggs and Moutinho is considered a perfect replacement for Scholes.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/article1050423.ece
 

Twisted_Woody

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I wouldn't be surprised if we picked up a few more youngsters - I think Fergie wants to have an established team in place for the coming years. Part of me says he wants to set it up, then retire, but I hope that's not the case.
 

Kaos

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:lol: So much bullshit in this story

Richter said:
And Ferguson is also targeting Wigan aces Wilson Palacios and Luis Antonio Valencia.
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:houllier:

Last season United forked out £80m for Anderson, Nani, Owen Hargreaves and Carlos Tevez.
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£80mil?! :lol:
Nani is seen by many as the long-term successor to Giggs and Moutinho is considered a perfect replacement for Scholes.
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So why the feck did we buy Anderson?
 

sincher

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Crikey - doubt it. Of those four, only Veloso looks like a red.
 

Wes

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Veloso and Moutinho are decent-looking players. I really don't understand why we're being linked with the other 2.

as suggested, we don't need midfielders.
 

Twisted_Woody

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We need a striker, a right back, then cover for the wings/a Scholes type player since they will most likely be on their way to retirement at the end of next season
 

Man-United

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Wigan-Birmingham hmmm..

Could be Mauro Zarate instead of Valencia/Palacios. Zarate will become a great player.
 

Coca Cola

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3 central midfielders and a winger. 2 areas we really don´t need to strengthen.

I´ll be surprised if this is true.
 

Bape

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Don't need the first two, don't want the other two.
 

Top

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They could at least have made a genuine and somewhat realistic guess - this is just silly.
Palacios and Valencia - who do they think we are? Liverpool?
 

AttackingFlair

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Why would we need 3 midfielders when we have Carrick Anderson Scholes Hargreaves Fletcher? Do we really need 8 central midfielders? Valencia wouldn't be a bad back up winger but not really needed.
 

giggs-beckham

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Dont want any of those feckers, dont rate veloso.

i want us to buy benzema,ben arfa and lahm (unlikely i know)
 

Count Duckula

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If Queiroz was at the Wigan / Birmingham game, is not more plausible he was taking a look at Zarate? We don't really NEED another winger, but when Giggs finally hangs up his boots, we'll be down to three, and only two of them will really be world class (Park is excellent as cover when Nani / Ronaldo need a rest, but he's not going to do anything special against the big teams if someone's injured).
 

Alex

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Think Veloso or Moutinho would be good buys and strengthen the clubs relationship(1 of the 2 we have a stacked midfield atm, people must remember Scholes is nearing the end though), maybe we send Possebon the other way on a year loan as a measure of good faith that will help our player as well. That said Saha must be replaced United have 2 great strikers in Rooney and Tevez, but preferably they get someone with good size, pace, and good in the air, Benzema is the ideal buy and I would love to see, but there are other alternatives out there. A right back must be in the thinking too, maybe not in the summer if Wes is signs a new contract, as he has proven that he can be the RB on a big time team, even if he isnt the best player in the world, notching a goal v Pool doesnt hurt much either, but definently either in the Jan window or summer of 09', wouldnt mind getting Lahm but dont really want to have to waste our time dealing with Bayern them again, well I guess it paid off over the weekend in the seventy second minute!
 

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Zarate is pretty much Tevez with less work rate and scrappyness. Unless we're looking to have him instead of Tevez, it's pretty unlikely.

Valencia is someone we could definately be looking at. He's technically a very good player and still young, but he's not high profile and would likely be very happy to warm our bench for the forseeable future. With Giggs on the decline and inevitably retiring in the next few years, it wouldnt hurt to draft him in - if we do need another winger, that is.

Veloso and Moutinho are both good players but CQ has already said we're full in their positions in the middle of the pitch. Unless one of our midfielders is moving on or retiring at the end of the season, we wont be signing either.
 

Alex

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Ekeke said:
Zarate is pretty much Tevez with less work rate and scrappyness. Unless we're looking to have him instead of Tevez, it's pretty unlikely.

Valencia is someone we could definately be looking at. He's technically a very good player and still young, but he's not high profile and would likely be very happy to warm our bench for the forseeable future. With Giggs on the decline and inevitably retiring in the next few years, it wouldnt hurt to draft him in - if we do need another winger, that is.

Veloso and Moutinho are both good players but CQ has already said we're full in their positions in the middle of the pitch. Unless one of our midfielders is moving on or retiring at the end of the season, we wont be signing either.
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Zarate aint got nothing on Tevez and it's more than you just mentioned, and I would change scrappyness and work rate to desire and big balls. How many times has Tevez the smallest player on the pitch at any given time gone diving into a blind header only to see it end up in the end of the net, how big was that goal v. Roma, pretty big, nothing in retrospect to how he opened up his OT account v. the only team in contention with us, all the more special that it was the winner
 

Ekeke

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Alex said:
Zarate aint got nothing on Tevez and it's more than you just mentioned, and I would change scrappyness and work rate to desire and big balls. How many times has Tevez the smallest player on the pitch at any given time gone diving into a blind header only to see it end up in the end of the net, how big was that goal v. Roma, pretty big, nothing in retrospect to how he opened up his OT account v. the only team in contention with us, all the more special that it was the winner
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Well yes, he does seem to have a lot more character - you only have to look at their career paths. Tevez has travelled to Brazil and then to England to prove his worth, Zarate went straight from Argentina to Quatar for a big wad of cash. But the main point was that he's a very similar player to Tevez, who is already a similar player to Rooney. It would be one of the weirdest quartets of strikers ever seen... Rooney, Tevez, Zarate and then Manucho. Normally when you want 4 strikers you want each of them to give you something different... Not 3 of the same and 1 different.
 

Alex

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Ekeke said:
:angel:

Well yes, he does seem to have a lot more character - you only have to look at their career paths. Tevez has travelled to Brazil and then to England to prove his worth, Zarate went straight from Argentina to Quatar for a big wad of cash. But the main point was that he's a very similar player to Tevez, who is already a similar player to Rooney. It would be one of the weirdest quartets of strikers ever seen... Rooney, Tevez, Zarate and then Manucho. Normally when you want 4 strikers you want each of them to give you something different... Not 3 of the same and 1 different.
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Yeah no way I go for that, not at all there is absolutely no reason to go after Zarate imo
 

reddevilcanada

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none of them are good enough atm and we're packed in midfield. Valencia and Palacio :lol: Even I could come up with better shit than that.
 

Alex

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reddevilcanada said:
none of them are good enough atm and we're packed in midfield. Valencia and Palacio :lol: Even I could come up with better shit than that.
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Yeah I was like wtf after I saw Veloso and Moutinho, I mean they are decent enough but come on Manchester United players ummmmmm NO!!!!NOT IN A MILLION YEARS!
 
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