"Replacing Ronaldo with Valencia"

[adexkola]

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?

 

[krazyrobus]

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.

 

[RonaldoVII]

I always thought that people criticised our only 3 signings that summer as Valencia, Obertan and Owen. Valencia himself was a good signing but we should've reinvested the £80 on strengthening the squad rather than not spending any of it.

 

[ADJUDICATOR]

I wish Valencia had never worn the #7 shirt.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

I don't think Valencia was nearly unstoppable, but he was pretty good.

And I don't think people have a problem with the purchase of Valencia. I certainly don't.

More so the fact that the summer as a whole was a wasted opportunity. When you consider the funds we had from Ronaldo and leverage to get a Madrid cast off.

Our business was Valencia(good buy), Owen(eh), Obertan(eh). Lost a world class player and a good player in Tevez(albeit his last season for us is overrated).

We didn't do enough and in the process lost a chance at another CL final visit and another Prem title.

 

[Oo0AahCantona]

Iirc, Ribery, snjeider and robben were all on the move at a similar time.

 

[KiD MoYeS]

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.

 

[charlenefan]

Valencia was brilliant in his first season with us (09/10) and then again in 11/12 (obviously had the leg break in 10/11) but it's safe to say he's been a shadow of that player since. At the time he was as good a replacement position wise for Ronaldo as we could get (especially as Fergie was all about the value in the market)

 

[KiD MoYeS]

Iirc, Ribery, snjeider and robben were all on the move at a similar time.

Benzema too I think.

 

[Adisa]

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.

 

[krazyrobus]

Benzema too I think.

No, he was part of the Kaka, and Ronaldo transfer to Madrid summer.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

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.

Worst transfer window as a fan for me.

Such a depressing summer.

 

[Bubz27]

A symbol of the "no value" era. Decent enough player, very good at times.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Iirc, Ribery, snjeider and robben were all on the move at a similar time.

We were linked with Ribery, but I don't think there was anything in that.

Sneijder and Robben were at Real Madrid and were being 'forced out'. Could have potentially got 1 because of their interest in Ronaldo.

 

[Adisa]

Iirc, Ribery, snjeider and robben were all on the move at a similar time.

Yes.
The criticism isn't against Valencia.
It's the fact that we lost two genuine world class players and then preceded to shop from the bargain basement.
I remember being told by a Liverpool fan that we had signed Owen. I thought he was having a laugh.
Imo, we started to decline as a big club hat summer.

 

[Someone]

Valencia had one good season, and it wasn't that incredible either.

The mistake fergie made wasn't signing him though, it was in not signing a world class player to make up for the loss of ronaldo. The money was there but maybe the glazers had other thoughts back then.

 

[krazyrobus]

Worst transfer window as a fan for me.

Such a depressing summer.

Worse than the Moyes Fellaini final day debacle?

 

[charlenefan]

Worst transfer window as a fan for me.

Such a depressing summer.

Worse than 2013 and Fergie retiring, Moyes coming in, missing out on Thiago to chase Fabregas all summer and then only Fellaini on deadline day?

 

[Gopher Brown]

The problem is we replaced one brilliant player, with 2 okay players and one youngster. You can only play 11 players at a time, so you must replace quality with quality.

 

[AR87]

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.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Worse than the Moyes Fellaini final day debacle?

That was pretty bad, but yeah 2009 was worse for me. We lose Ronaldo and just didn't react well at all. It was depressing.

 

[Adisa]

Worse than the Moyes Fellaini final day debacle?

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much.
After selling Ronaldo for £80m and losing Tevez, I expected us to go and find some quality players.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Worse than 2013 and Fergie retiring, Moyes coming in, missing out on Thiago to chase Fabregas all summer and then only Fellaini on deadline day?

Well if you bring Fergie and Moyes into it as well, then it's not obviously.

I meant only player-wise.

 

[Adisa]

No, he was part of the Kaka, and Ronaldo transfer to Madrid summer.

We were in for Benzema to. I remember feeling confident we would sign him after losing Ronaldo to Real.

 

[ivaldo]

Valencia was a very good player, but when we lose the world's best player and receive £80mil in his place, we hoped to bring in a world class winger, Valencia wasnt the best we could get. Going from Ronaldo to Valencia was a big step down.

 

[Adisa]

Worst transfer window as a fan for me.

Such a depressing summer.

By some distance. I remember feeling depressed going into the season.

 

[buckooo1978]

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

 

[2cents]

Valencia has been on balance a good signing, but it showed a massive lack of ambition at a time when Barca had overtaken us in Europe. Replacing Ronaldo and Tevez with Robben and Sneijder, for example, and we likely would have won the Champion's League in 09/10 (consider the roles those two played in getting their new teams to the final, with Robben knocking us out along the way).

We basically just let Barca relegate us to also-rans in Europe, when some proper strengthening that summer would have seen us remain genuine contenders. Around the same time, or the following summer, we started allowing City to snap up the likes of Aguero, Toure and Silva without (apparently) even trying to get involved, and in doing so letting standards slip domestically as well.

 

[Raoul]

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?

That thread title answers the question. We replaced Ronaldo with Valencia.

 

[ChaddyP]

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 should have signed Robben instead

 

[Adisa]

People should remember we didn't lose only Ronaldo. We effectively replaced Tevez with Owen.
I can laugh about it now but it was depressing at the time.

 

[Chorley1974]

Valencia is a good player, Ronaldo was best in the world at the time. Not sure the point of this thread.

 

[settembrini]

'What was wrong with the transfer?' has a pretty simple answer...

It left us a worse team.

In general it's a good idea if your transfer dealings do the opposite.

 

[adexkola]

This thread is not going the way I would have hoped.

 

[J-Stander]

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?

Nearly unstoppable? He was a good winger for a couple of seasons but christ... What a diabolical transfer window that was.

 

[adexkola]

'What was wrong with the transfer?' has a pretty simple answer doesn't it?

It left us a worse team.

No shit, Ronaldo was the second best player in the world at the time.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

This thread is not going the way I would have hoped.

I think you should have picked a better title

 

[krazyrobus]

We were in for Benzema to. I remember feeling confident we would sign him after losing Ronaldo to Real.

Didn't;t Madrid break the transfer record twice in a week and then sign him. No way was he going to pass up the chance to play with Ronaldo and Kaka.

 

[Adisa]

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

Yes. People can goo back to 2013. But in my opinion, our decline as a club started that summer.

 

[KiD MoYeS]

No, he was part of the Kaka, and Ronaldo transfer to Madrid summer.

Yeah, the same summer we lost Ronaldo?