Why are all you of you saying that it was a pity that we did not sign him? He did not want to come to us when he left Ajax. When he left Juventus, he said that he has given him word so he cannot go back on it. I guess he preferred to play into form at a small club.
"No big clubs wanted me" Van Der Sar
- Thread starter FujiVice
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He did save two penalties in a row against Aston Villa.
Just like how Dean seems to have feck all to do in most of his games with us so far
A bit off topic. Shows how much a big club who competes at all levels with any ambition and good players all around can elevate a player. This is why haaland mbappe will not be able to match CR and messi.
They won't be able to match CR and Messi probably because they aren't as talented as them , they certainly won't be spending their whole career at their current clubs they would soon move to Bigger Clubs .Even so you simply can't dismiss Psg anymore either they certainly should be competing for Champions league regularly with their resources and renewed belief after reaching final last year.
I'll always remember in 2009 were on 14 league games without conceding a single goal. There was this one game at OT where we were leading 4-0 and vidic misread a ball at 80 plus minute and the ball went narrowly wide, nearly an OG there. VDS went totally batshit crazy and tore him a new one. I mean we were already 4-0 up at home and it was 80'.
And then he noticed the goal side camera was picking it up and must have realised how unreasonable it looked and gave a sheepishly look. Surreal.
It was then i actually understood what ambition and humility looked like.
No big club wanted him? This is why i believe decision making people in football aren't particularly a smart bunch.
And then he noticed the goal side camera was picking it up and must have realised how unreasonable it looked and gave a sheepishly look. Surreal.
It was then i actually understood what ambition and humility looked like.
No big club wanted him? This is why i believe decision making people in football aren't particularly a smart bunch.
There were several reasons why a move to a top club didn't materialize for van der Sar (after leaving Juventus and in subsequent years)...
P.S. There's more to van der Sar's failing and subsequent ousting at Juventus than just his individual performances — principally, many were loathe to see a non-Italian between the sticks (a position associated with Combi, Zoff, Tacconi, Peruzzi, Anzolin in the eras gone by), and the signing of would-be Azzurri legend in Buffon was supposed to be a reinforcement of traditional values as well as a resounding show of ambition given the outstanding level of performance he had evidenced at Parma.
- A lot of them had quality goalkeepers of their own: Casillas at Madrid, Kahn at Bayern, Toldo at Internazionale, Cañizares at Valencia, and so forth. Others like Milan had decent options in Abbiati/Dida, and Ancelotti at the helm — who wasn't going to sign Van der Gol after what transpired between them in Turin.
- There was the underlying belief that he had been exposed as a ‟system player”, who had failed to grapple with the rigors of a different and more positionally reserved approach in Serie A — a major impediment as sweeper-keeper types weren't mainstream back then, and many clubs wouldn't have been willing to overhaul their approaches to get the best out of him.
- Edwin's initial transfer fee from Juventus was deemed prohibitive in certain quarters. Liverpool and Dortmund were interested, but did not want to fork out ~£8 million + big wages for a goalkeeper who had committed a litany of blunders in the recent past; and later on Fulham were not going to let him go without a proper recompense for the significant investment they had made in him (second most expensive signing in club history at the time).
- His confidence and concentration seemed shot in Turin, some of his performances in the disastrous World Cup qualifying campaign for the Netherlands weren't particularly reassuring either, and there were reports of issues with his eyesight as well — too many variables and uncertainties for a position that is associated with security and continuity.
P.S. There's more to van der Sar's failing and subsequent ousting at Juventus than just his individual performances — principally, many were loathe to see a non-Italian between the sticks (a position associated with Combi, Zoff, Tacconi, Peruzzi, Anzolin in the eras gone by), and the signing of would-be Azzurri legend in Buffon was supposed to be a reinforcement of traditional values as well as a resounding show of ambition given the outstanding level of performance he had evidenced at Parma.
Correct. By their age these two took their clubs to new height at the pinnacle of world football already. This two are great talents, wasted lots of development time in France and Germany. Its almost like the only true competition for them is when they face CL teams and for haaland when he face bayern Munich twice a year. But time is on their side. It will be interesting to see their true level once they mone to genuine top clubs.
I'm curious - who else do you think we should have signed then? It's not like we are ever to sign Buffon or Casillas.
Am I wrong in saying he rejected us before going to Fulham?
VDS left Juventus as a broken man. His last season with Juve was pretty bad and it didn't help the fact that a young Buffon came in and did a much better job then him.
I think he rejected us to join Juve.
Ah Juve, fair enough. I remember my mum saying it yeaaaaars ago when he came to England and I probably got the teams mixed up. Thanks
I was concerned about the deal myself. VDS had a terrible last season at Juventus. He was struggling under pressure there and had a Taibi like moment at one point. There was concerns that he was a small club goalkeeper who would excel at clubs with minimum pressure but would fail at top clubs. I feel that the EPL is far tougher for goalkeepers then the Serie A is. The lack of protection goalkeepers get in terms of crosses and shoving is border ridiculous.
That’s because at Ajax he is CEO so he’s in the same role at Ajax as Woodward is for us, it’s the biggest job outside of the club owners.
I’m not sure why people always push for Van Der Sar as our Football Director seeing as Marc Overmars is the one in that role at Ajax and Van Der Sar has even less experience in that kind of a role than John Murtough does, if Van Der Sar was to come to us it should be as our CEO Of Football whilst Woodward would be CEO Of Commercial Deals And Enterprises.
VDS is CEO at Ajax. Which means that the DOF job would have been a demotion for him.
Also I suspect that DOF at United will have a far reduced role then that at other clubs. First of all the manager at United will still retain a veto on transfers. Secondly he'll have to work with Judge who will still be negotiating the deals. Under such circumstances its not surprising why we couldn't attract the top people for the job.
When Schmeichel was United keeper, the defence was wide open. Scholes in central midfield who couldn't defend to save his life and they played a really high line often leaving the centre backs 2v2 at the back. Schmeichel regularly made incredible match changing saves. Van der sar never did that.
With Vidic and Rio, United were more defensively solid. They didn't give up as many chances and just needed a solid keeper who could organise well and didn't make many mistakes. That was right up his alley.
Rossi played behind Milan's back 4 for years and was a pretty average keeper. Never got a look in at international level because he wasn't that good. He was good enough behind that back 4 though. Same is true for Van der sar.
Schmeichel organised the defence well
I think the official story was that we came in too late and he had already agreed to sign with Juventus.
And when he signed for Fulham, we had Barthez who just had a pretty good first season with us, so we clearly won't in for another big name signing in VDS.
Yeah, let's give him the DOF job despite not having any experience at it.
I watched a lot of him at Ajax and thought he was a brilliant keeper. There were rumours of him coming here after Schmeichel but he chose Juve, so I was amazed when he went to Fulham 2 years later. I was always a fan and glad when he came here.
Blimey mate, I can barely remember what I ate for breakfast an hour ago, let alone who I think we should have signed 15 years ago.
I have no doubt though that the media was as bad as it is now for linking United to players and I’m fairly sure that we’d have been linked to every top keeper at the time and being younger and naive, I probably bought in to the media stories and expected the best of the best to come to the club, not a player from Fulham who had finished 13th in the league.
I thought he was done after Juventus. Crazy thing is, as good as he was, I feel he underperformed in 3 CL finals but made up for one with the Anelka save.
He also went through a period where he would bizarrely punch the ball down and it cost us a couple goals, I believe against Roma and Portsmouth
He also went through a period where he would bizarrely punch the ball down and it cost us a couple goals, I believe against Roma and Portsmouth
Wrong.
Peter Schmeichel is the best ever.
Nah - I've watched United since '89. VdS was a fantastic keeper, DDG (at his best) was superb - but for me neither compare to Pete at his best. Schmeichel was absolutely immense - controlled the box, incredible shot stopper, and great at one-on-ones. Plus his long throws were a great part of our counter-attacking
I imagine him screaming his name and then punching a hole in the wall.
Edit - fecking hell I was close.
He was 34 (turning 35) when we signed him. If he was still playing right now at the age of 35 and if we knew he would give us 6 top class years, I would be happy to pay around £40m for him. That isn't a bad deal for 6 years and knowing you got a safe pair of hands and a leader!
Without knowing how good you would be, he wouldn't cost us more than £8m-£10m in today's market.
Well said. I remember the dodgy gk years when we had Bartez, world Cup winner and truly bonkers. Ben Foster couldn't handle the mental side of the club no 1, and others I've forgotten. EVDS was an absolutely amazing signing for us and he got the big ears his career deserved. Haha @ Juve who swapped Edwin out for Buffon
My friend a Juve fan back then used to blame him every time they conceded a goal. Felt he was playing with an injury or something( don’t quote me on that) and I wasn’t surprise when got sold.
I’d say £15m with a better wages would make sense.
A lot on here don’t understand business - if you’re CEO of a small business and Apple Inc want to offer you the job of, say, Director of Operations on their main Board, that’s not a demotion.
One of SAF greatest ever signings
Van der Sar signed for Manchester United on 10 June 2005 for a reported fee of £2 million
Van der Sar signed for Manchester United on 10 June 2005 for a reported fee of £2 million
Except DoF is a completely different job than CEO. DoF is focused entirely on the football side of things, CEO is on the commercial and business side. A better comparison would be like expecting a doctor at a smaller club to take a scouting role at a larger club. Two completely different sets of skills and training.
Now maybe some CEO's use their position to be heavily involved with the football decisions, but even if that were the case with VDS (I don't think it is) it is still very risky to go straight to being fully in control of that at a larger club.
And Barthez had enjoyed a fantastic first season with United with 15 clean sheets in something like 30 starts. The club went from 45 to 31 goals conceded and Barthez looked ready to be United's keeper for the next decade. No reason for SAF to go after VDS in 2001.
I think VDS is a perfect example of what a Manutd goalkeeper should be. That’s about the calmness and mental strength.
Exactly. If there were a COO role at United, that might work for Van der Sar. But he's just not at all involved on the football side at Ajax. What's more, he studied specifically to become a CEO, or at least to work on the financial/management side of sports. There is nothing in his post-football career so far that suggests that he would be interested in a management job on the football side of a club, and he also has zero experience with it (apart from seeing what Overmars does).
Such a top keeper. If we'd have gone in earlier we'd have saved ourselves the pain of the late Bartez, Howard, Carroll era. Would it have made a massive difference in terms of league finishes? Maybe, maybe not. However, it would have saved me despairing at goalkeeping that was often beyond belief.
Ajax isn't a small business. It's a large and prestigious organization. As CEO of Ajax VDS sits at the table with Woodward, Rummenige, etc. in European discussions. People in those roles aren't likely to want to give up that power and influence. VDS doesn't need money so the offer for him to be DoF at United is a loss of prestige. That's hardly a motivator.
A bit like here with Lindelof. He gets blamed for every goal we concede. Sometimes even if he is not playing in that particular match.