Inertia rules - OK?????

[chiff]

Another excellent article in Rant yesterday. I think they must be the only people more pessimistic - or cynical - than me.

The crux of any purchase, whether it be players or popcorn, is timing. Assuming that the quality is OK, then if you buy at the right time the price will be right. But there are two kinds of purchase; one is to use and the other is to resell. Now players are a compromise between the two uses. You obviously want to buy the best quality if you can afford it but have to remember that there is a potential resale value.

Sorry about the boring bit but this seems to me where SAF or whoever is totally inept. With the exception of Mikel - and that really was a one-off - they seem to have a surprising talent for buying dear and selling cheap. Ruud must, when you consider his record, be worth at least £15 mill but because SAF has thrown his toys out of the pram and everyone knows that he MUST unload him, we'll be lucky to get £8 mill. Consider the difference with Riquelme or Diarra. Both clubs say "we love you and you're not leaving" and hold out for £25 mill or thereabouts. And because we've been dithering for at least 12 months over a midfielder, they know we have to pay it.

So we haven't bought BEFORE the WC - and now market forces will be influenced by a few games which are totally unrepresentative of club form. (Would you pay £35 mill for Henry on his form for France?)
As "Rant" points out - "Remember Poborski" and then there's Kleberson and Veron. They also point out that SAF and Gill are off sunning themselves while OT waits impatiently for action. I hope that this is because the ink has already dried on the contracts and that the deals are not being announced until after the WC so that we can get maximum publicity. But I bet they're not!!!

So like I said, I'm a pessimistic cynic - alright then a grumpy old man - but quite honestly, this lack of action won't change now until when - the middle of July - and by then we'll be almost into pre-season friendlies. So I reckon there's not a lot going to happen AT ALL. I would not be surprised if the Glazers have decided to save the dosh for the overdraft and wait until FIFA start kicking Chavski with Salary caps. And that's why SAF and Gill are missing. #nono#

I hope I'm wrong. #nono# #nono#

[Red Yank]

I wonder if we would be feeling this way if Chelsea hadn't gone on an obscene spending spree? There's no doubt we need to bolster the midfield and find a proper replacement for Ruud if indeed he "must" go, but I gather that this sense of panic is a result of the action from that blue side in London. If we haven't sealed any deals as of yet and are waiting to pay inflated fees after the WC then that just doesn't make much business sense to me but hey, what do I know?

[sammo11]

It's got nothing to do with who Chelsea have bought, our midfield isn't good enough, period!
Fletcher, oshea, giggs in the middle, scholes is past it, we need to spend some decent money and do it now we need 2 quality central midfielders, then we will have a quality team that is capable of winning the premiership, Fergie sort it out and lets stop having these 'prospects' (djemba, kleberson, miller the new Keano?,) stop being cheap and buy some quality. United is still one of the biggest names in world football and Chelsea can't buy everyone!

[jogabonito]

the way i see it...is that latelly we r heavily linked wiv a player for a few days then it all dies down...i fink we r trying activelly to sign players but each singing for wateva reason (wether that be inflated price ir plain rejection) has failed to come off.....

and to answer the point bout utd buying expensive and selling cheap....even though that does seem to be the case, we only seem to sell wen we have got as much out of the players as possible...i mean which player has left utd and gone on to bigger and greater things? veron? no, he flopped at chelski n is now back in argentina. becks? how many trophies he won since utd? kleberson is at besiktas....stam failed a drugs test and was banned for ages.....cole n yorke never hit their utd heights again.....so in short we might make losses on players, but we get as much out of them as possible before we sell....with the exception of forlan.. (anyone here barca activelly persued him? haha i mean we couldnt give him away a few years back)

[chiff]

You are right about the success or lack of it when they leave - I just think that some of them go too cheap in relation to what we have paid. Perhaps we sell for the right price but pay too much in the first place. For some reason, players don't want to come to OT whereas they do want to go to Madrid etc and as a result, they don't seem to pay as much. Look at the classic deal they did with Owen - bought him for next to nothing and then raided Shepherd's back pocket for megabucks.

[Scott]

Big players dont want to come to United because we've done naff all in the CL over the past couple of years. We can get on our pessimistic high horse all we like and blame Fergie for this, that and the other...but at the end of the day, we havent shown the passion we need to have done in Europe to attract the big players.

Players who are familiar with the English league will see that United have actually had a pretty impressive season considering the injuries, but do any European based multi-millionaire football players pay attention to the Premiership? Nah course not. We finished 8 points behind Chelsea, we won a cup they've never even heard of, and we didnt make it past the group stages in Europe.

Once we get our European status back again, which I hope and am confident we'll do this season (a quarter/semi final would be nice) then it'll be a different story in terms of transfers.

This is one thing the cynics can't really get away with blaming Fergie for (so to fill up your time, tell us again how badly Fergie fucked up when he got rid of Stam and Beckham )

[Red Yank]

#beer#

Here's to a good showing in the CL next year!

[chiff]

Even after all this time, the Stam thing was surprising. I suppose that I'd always thought that we were a bit more whiter than white than we actually were and that SAF was really a nice chap. The episode exploded that myth so that we actually exported a player for reasons other than football. In that case, I don't think that he had any choice and he made good money.

Beckham was different. I still believe he wanted out and engineered things so that he actually went - Just like Ruud has and Rio will do next. But there I don't think we got nearly enough for him. His marketing rights made him the most valuable player in the world and we sold him only for his football valuation. We goofed from the money angle; the fact that we didn't replace him properly but not , I think from the football aspect.

I definitely respect SAF from the football side. But his business skills are shit - except from a personal point. I still don't like the smell from some of these agent/son transactions. But, that aside, there seems to be a lack of desire to come to OT. Surely players must have ambitions - it can't just be money. Don't any Portugese players of quality want to join CR and CQ - Argentinians join Henze? Surely the historical problems re Catholics/Protestant dont STILL apply? Do they?

[Scott]

Lol I was joking when I said you should talk about the likes of Stam and Beckham. Those decissions (which I 100% agree with Ferguson on) always seem to be throw back in Fergie's face by the more cynical fans.

And yeh, there is a lack of desire, because of the reasons I mentioned. Which world class player is going to want to join a team who couldnt even make it past the group stages, especially when looking at the teams in United's group. That's not down to Fergie.

Before Jose landed Ballack and Shev, name a single other Premiership manager who has made better signings than Fergie in the past 4 years? I cant think of someone who even comes close.

[sfyyaz]

Some weak CL group we had.

Benifica gave barca a damn good run for their money, they progressed to the Quarter finals!

Villareal got to the semi's! I mean, that group was nowhere near as weak as we thought it was when we were first drawn.

Besides, who wants to come to rainy Manchester, when instead they can go the the likes of sunny Spain - Chelski are an exception, the money they earn there well, need i say more?

[matkaman]

We are not doing enough or should i say SAF to get the players in we desperatly need,the players who are Utd will jump at the chance of joining us anybody that is linked to us and then goes somewhere else can fuck off.I thought Fergie would of got someone in by now,gave him the benefit of doubt up til now,what the fuck is going on,anybody who does well in this world cup will double in value,we pay too much again for average players.Instead of focusing his fury on anyone that pisses him off he should be re building a fairly ordinary Utd team,evan with the rain playing in front of 75,000 a week at old trafford for a legend of a football club should bring the best in.........

[rewdie]

We WILL sign players, Riqueleme wont be more than 8 mill, release cause people.
Be patient, i think OT does have the pulling power, and players know going out in the groups was a one off it doesnt happen consistently, so that wont affect us too much and as for winning the champs league gets you buying rights, its a load of rubbish, last 2 yrs its been the scousers and porto, do you see world cup players lining up at their doors? Footy players have brains, they can see the past, potential and future.