No one at the club (other than them Glazers perhaps) wanted to sell Ronaldo.
Neville said himself in that interview with Keane, the club became relaxed in the transfer market the next few years after winning the treble. Resting on laurels slightly!
Would have been nice, but could have stopped Rooney and Ronaldo coming through! It was the summer of 03 wasn’t it, That this was mentioned ?
I maybe mis-remembering, but I seem to recall Sir Bobby Charlton had something to do with blocking Jose Mourinho joining the club in 2013, something to do with Jose not being quite the right fit for MUFC due to his character - the whole eye-gouging thing for example and I think SAF concurred*. I often wonder what Sir Bobby thought about the Jose appointment when it finally happened and if he felt vindicated when as expected he proved to be a miserable so and so who never really planned to be in Manchester long-term - living out of a hotel suite the whole time.
His replacement, Berbatov, got 9 league goals that season (in all competitions, Berbatov got 14 and Tevez 15) and slowed down our fluid play a lot. Tevez was a cnut but a sensational player - he showed that at City and Juventus after winning the title and Champions League with us.
The day the Arab regimes take over at OT my support for the club ends, no if’s I buts. Some principles go way beyond what is just a game.
Yeah 2003, we ultimately signed Ronaldo instead. Ronaldinho probably would have played a free role on the wing for us, wouldn't have affected Rooney (though might have stopped us signing him at all - Rooney came for marquee money at the time)
The problem was that year the Ronaldo money was used to pay the interest on the debt which coincidently was around £80mill. I know because I checked the P&L that year. If I could rewrite history I would have advised Fergie not to have anything to do with the Rock of Gibraltar.
Yeah, but being owned by the Glazers is really awesome.
Definitely. My friend in Argentina told me about him and I've kept my eye on him every since
As well as Zlatan I would have also signed Larsson about a decade earlier from Celtic. He was so much better than that club! I went to a match with him, Ronaldo and Rooney as the front three and it was just amazing to watch!
The Glazers are awful, but there is awful and unacceptable. Unfortuneately the only people who can afford to buy United are exactly the people I don’t want. I think it’s inevitable one day and will be a sad one for me
That softens the blow of not getting Ronaldhino then, I wouldn’t swap Rooney and Ronaldo for him imo..
United tried signing Aguero, wages + agent fees put them off.A year before Aguero moved to Athletico, I wrote a letter to United (I was a young, stupid football-scout wannabe) begging then to buy him and Berbatov. I wish SAF would have read that and acted on it
Ahh... So SAF did read my letter!
He did want to sign another contract but was asking for big money and SAF said no...
As opposed to Glazers clean money?
We could have had all that interest we wanted, there was no way in hell Liverpool would have sold him to Utd.We should of signed Raheem Sterling from Liverpool and given him the number 7. Apparently we had interest but not sure to what degree, I remember reading reports at the time that LVG didn't see much in him but again I'm not sure how factual that is. Imagine if we had also kept Wilfred Zaha and started him with Sterling in the two winger positions. We would of had two potentially elite England wingers players in our team
Any United fan should understand by now that our problem post Ferguson stem from having selected the wrong managers. None of the managers we have selected have progressive ideas and are past their expiring date. When you look at the football we play, it obviously isn’t football. But rather anti-football. We can’t pass intricately, there is no smart movement of players or decisions making, no quick thinking or ball movements. It is slow, static zombie football. As such, the one thing that most United fan should want to see after the Sir Alex years, is that we should have appointed Pochettino by now. However, maybe it takes our failures to understand why we need Pochettino so badly. Regardless, rather than appointing Ole, we should have appointed Pochettino, especially after he took Spurs to the champions league final. Something no other managers could do with that team. It was the best time. We have so many wonderful youth talent and under Pochettino, they would have thrived. Our football will get significantly better and we will be back where we should be. At the top of Europe.
It must be said, you never fail to deliver.
He was played out of place quite often and I suspect he was distracted. He did great at City with Ageuro. He could have done that with Rooney.
My man! Serious question, if it came between Klopp or Poch, would you still opt for Poch?
I said this long ago... the abuse I got was quite amusing
And David Gill tore up the reply
Klopp style is all about the intense pressing and high full backs. A philosophy Ole is trying and failing to implement at United. I rather have a manager that support the steady build up leading to a goal. A manager that supports players that has great technical abilities and can organize a team to pass from the back. A manager that can always motivate their players to perform and get the best out of what we have rather than just relying on spending big to win big. So, Pochettino definitely. I want to see an attacking prowess at United. When Pochettino destroyed Ten Hag total football philosophy in the champions league and how his side battered United last season only saved by De Gea brilliance, amongst others it is clear that that should be the football we should be playing at United.
Which of the two has showed most tactical adaptation? Both long term due to the the players that they have and in game to adapt when things go against them? Not rhetorical, I honestly don’t know because I don’t watch enough of either team week in week out.
Yes, there was a time for Jose, it was then, and would have got the club in order before finding the next long-term Man Utd manager.
It will take a ridiculously long post to explain why Pochettino has showed more tactical adaptations and the in game management ability to alter the flow of the game when things are going bad. I will just refer you to this brilliant video that explained how Pochettino has transformed Spurs and why he is so superior in those regard you mentioned. For the first aspect of tactical adaptation, the 2016/2017 season is a great use case that presents poch ability. It is explained in the video how he altered his formation throughout that season to accumulate an impressive point tally and Spurs best season ever. Xg, had him level on point with the league leaders then. His in game management is one of it not the best in football today. We saw it multiple times last season in the champions league and this season already against Aston villa and Manchester City.
No thanks.
