Chelsea,
Manchester City bought their new players rather early and spend the remaining
weeks of the transfer window ‘doing window shopping’ – only to buy when there
is a proper need (in City’s case), or ‘indulging purchase (for example Chelsea
signing of Willian). Tottenham Hotspurs did remarkably well with club record
signing one after another plus cashing in massively over the sale of the
overvalued Gareth Bale. Only Manchester United and Arsenal were left behind…in
terms of new players arriving.
July 1, 2013, David Moyes officially takes over from the great Sir Alex Ferguson....
Saturday, 7 September 2013
Thursday, 5 September 2013
Wednesday, 4 September 2013
Transfer News: Latest updates – Manchester United left ‘red-faced’
Never
before in the transfer market have supporters seen such ‘disorganized’ last
minutes scramble for signature of targeted players, not even those last minutes
deal involving a certain Daniel Levy and his Tottenham Hotspurs’ players –
Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov. The farce on the deadline transfer will
make Manchester United a laughing stock among rivals’ fans for weeks and months to come.
Monday, 2 September 2013
Transfer News: Final – Welcome Marouane Fellaini (and Fabio Coentrao..??)
Manchester
United were kept busy until the very last minutes and in the end secure
Marouane Fellaini from Everton at £27 million and pull a last minute coup on a
possible loan signing Fabio Coentrao from Real Madrid, while the deal for
Athletic Bilbao’s Ander Herrera collapsed on the last hour. A midfielder (instead of two) and a leftback for United.
Transfer News: The last hours… Ander Herrera and Marouane Fellaini in
With
less than 6 hours before the transfer window closes, it has been frantic – with
clubs engaged in multiple transfer deals, most of these deals have been stream
live over major media organizations. Let’s concentrate on Manchester United’s
transfer activities…
The
biggest news would be the arrival of 24-year-old Ander Herrera from Athletic
Bilbao. Manchester United had reported agreed to meet Athletic Bilbao’s release
clause for Herrara – reported to be in the region of £30.5 million. Herrera is
a midfielder in the mould of former Bilbao’s man – Javi Martinez, now at Bayern
Munich. Not a world class player but rather a midfielder with a lot of
potential. At 24 years old he will fit into United’s buying policy.
The
other credible news for Manchester United’s fans is the expected signing of Marouane
Fellaini from Everton. While it seems that United had given up on Leighton
Baines, the news on Fellaini are more credible. Baines had reported for
international duties with England while Fellaini has been given extra time by
the Belgian FA – presumably to conclude the deal with United.
Elseway,
Roma has flatly rejected Manchester United’s attempt at signing Danielle De
Rossi and Mesut Ozil has reportedly agreed terms with Arsenal just hours ago. Ozil,
a creative midfielder had been reported to be in favour of a United move but with
United eyeing Luka Modric, he settle for Arsenal instead.
Meanwhile
Manchester United’s supporters had to ‘feast’ their eyes on Gareth Bale being
unveil – as Real Madrid player!
Well,
enough said, we wish him the best, if La Liga for some reason do not work out,
a loan move to Old Trafford is possible – seriously, Bale will be fine,
everything could however hinges on Cristiano Ronaldo….
There
are still a few hours of the transfer windows remaining. It may looks like two
quality (but hardly marquee signing) midfielders are coming to Old Trafford but
be prepare for further twists in the transfer market (remember Manchester United’s
‘cheeky bid’ at Neymar on the last day of previous summer transfers?). Watch
this space!
Transfer News/Updates: Desperation signing time!
Less
than 12 hours to go, we take a look at Premier League title contenders’ last
minutes probable signings. And out of the six from the Manchester clubs, and
the London’s top clubs (Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspurs), Spurs, Chelsea
and City had done their signings – the bulk of them. Only Arsenal and Manchester United
are now frantically working out last minutes deals.
Sunday, 1 September 2013
The business of football transfer and its importance for the Manchester United fans.
The
usual terms associated with football transfer – transfer windows, summer
transfers, transfer gossips, transfer speculations, all comes down to one thing
– the start of a new (football) season. According to one columnist, transfer
speculation is like sport’s soft porn. He is not wrong. Any news, regardless of
the source – is news. It makes reading materials for millions of fans, no
matter how ridiculous it gets.
For
most football fans the transfer window is one of the many parts of the football
season .It is the beginning of a brand new season. It is the start of a new
hope (winning trophies), a new wish (new players sign to be sign), a new
outcome (a better finish than before). This is where fans get down and
speculates, who should comes in and who should go. Mind you the players do the
same too. At the club level the management goes about their business of signing
new players, extending contracts to key players, off-loading players and to
many extents – persuading key players to stay. Hence the frenzies at transfer
news - be it in speculations or actual deals happening. It gets the excitement
going, it gets the adrenaline pumping – all for the starts of the season. It
gets even more exciting when ridiculously large amount of money being bandied
for certain players.
For
Manchester United this season is unique. Unique in the sense that a new manager
comes in, and in the process replace the irreplaceable. While supporters of
other clubs are rather immune to changes at the managerial level, this is not
the case for Manchester United and its supporters. Most of United’s fans in the
20’s and 30’s have not even heard of any other names associated with the title
– Manchester United Manager. It is just the one and only Sir Alex Ferguson all
along.
In
David Moyes Manchester United’s supporters’ opinions are divided. On one part,
most supporters would heed Sir AlexFerguson’s advice – to support David Moyes. This man is new to the job,
a job most football manager would die for but would rather not admit to wanting
it openly. A job with such enormous expectation from the supporters as well as
from the club itself. The very fact that David Moyes was handpicked by Sir Alex
Ferguson speaks enough of the what the new man is and will be capable of – delivering
football results.
The
other part of Manchester United supporters meanwhile have a more ‘impatient’
tone in their opinions. This could be down to the fact is that we are all
living in the result-oriented societies and football is no different. Football
clubs are being managed like businesses these days. Success will be judge on
silverware (s) and further translates into revenue. Gone are the days of
‘romantic’ football notion, where football is pure football and nothing else
matter. This group of supporters may consist of die-hard fans, casual fans, new
fans, or even ‘glory hunters’. But their voices have common ground in the sense
that judgments is based on what they see and read. And what they read – in
terms of David Moyes performance so far – unconvincing pre season results, the Wayne Rooney saga, and mostly – players targeted and bid but none show up at
Old Trafford. Most supporters would readily agree that for the past years, most
of United’s transfer were done long before the window closes, with few notable
exceptions (which by the way have something to do with a certain Daniel Levy).
Herein
lies the importance of this season transfer windows in particular. In this
aspect, supporters judge and will continue to judge David Moyes until 2nd
September when the transfer window shuts. Being new to Manchester United and
the job is one thing, but being able to use your personality to make the
difference in persuading players to join your team is another thing. David
Moyes will be severely tested even before the actual season started, having to
deal with the Rooney saga being his priority now. A marquee signing may not
silence the doubters but it will definitely help Moyes further in easing into
his new role at Manchester United.
In the end, he may just abandon the part of football transfers and make do with the title winning squad he inherited, and plays them the David Moyes way. After all he is being good operating without big funding and producing results (at Everton), comparatively to their ‘more established’ neighbor at Anfield.
In the end, he may just abandon the part of football transfers and make do with the title winning squad he inherited, and plays them the David Moyes way. After all he is being good operating without big funding and producing results (at Everton), comparatively to their ‘more established’ neighbor at Anfield.
Liverpool 1 Manchester United 0: Ouch.. that hurts!!!
Never
mind if they said Liverpool took their chances well, got the lucky break and
hang on their life for it. Or, David Moyes saying Manchester United actually
played well (in his words – “the best so far this season). Any defeat hurts –
what more against Liverpool!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)