What's Happening With The Rags?

[Beefymcfc]

Seems Carrick has been pulled from the England squad with an eye infection following the withdrawal of another Rag player, Ashley Young.

I wonder if any of them will play on Saturday?

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

Seems Carrick has been pulled from the England squad with an eye infection following the withdrawal of another Rag player, Ashley Young.

I wonder if any of them will play on Saturday?

Let's hope so.

[Slim]

There's still a few weeks of the transfer window to go before we can happily call their transfer window a failure, but they do really seem to be struggling to sign players.

Whether there's a reluctance on the Glazers' part to spend, or if playing under Moyes puts players off, I don't know.

With us and Chelsea improving our squads, United can't afford to stand still. We learnt this last summer, but would be fantastic if they get no one of note in.

Furthermore, with Arsenal still making no progress, it's great for us to have done our business so early.

Have they actually stood still or have they gone backwards, so far?

They've got a very good side from last season but so far they have lost Scholes and Giggs (backroom team), and the likes of CamelGob won't be playing every game; not forgetting Shrek of course. The Rags will take a top 3 place as a given but if they fail again in the CL, and the cups, then that's less money in the coffers for next season, again.

I'm sure they'll strengthen but can they do enough, and of such quality, to improve their side? It reminds me of us last season and the last minute buys we got.

I agree - they seem to be heading into the same situation we found ourselves in last season.

A few Bebe-type last minute panic buys would be welcomed :-)

Just waiting a few more days before we count those chickens, Princess was signed on the 17th August and he pretty much won them the league, along with our own foot shooting contest. If they get to Friday and roll out Tranny I don't think we'd be as cocky.

[Beefymcfc]

Just waiting a few more days before we count those chickens, Princess was signed on the 17th August and he pretty much won them the league, along with our own foot shooting contest. If they get to Friday and roll out Tranny I don't think we'd be as cocky.

I'll be crying in my cornflakes mate.

They better hurry up though, Tranny's with the Portugal side at the mo and then their 1st game is on Sunday. From that point, I can't see any move.

[aaron bond]

Just waiting a few more days before we count those chickens, Princess was signed on the 17th August and he pretty much won them the league, along with our own foot shooting contest. If they get to Friday and roll out Tranny I don't think we'd be as cocky.

I'll be crying in my cornflakes mate.

They better hurry up though, Tranny's with the Portugal side at the mo and then their 1st game is on Sunday. From that point, I can't see any move.

I agree with you Slim - they usually fall on their feet, and I fully expect that to happen again.

Although on the slight chance they didn't this time...

[Ted Hughes]

I thought the transfer window was open til September ?

Anyhow, what we are seeing with Moyes is similar to what we saw last season with Mancini; limited budget.

If a huge 'club' signing like Ronaldo was to come along, then they would probably be interested as it could profit them finacially, but they are clearly unwilling to throw money at players like they did with RVP.

The big difference is that Mancini got two big transfer windows before Khaldoon tightened the purse, & Pellegrini has already had one, may possibly get one more.

Moyes has so far had fuck all, which basically isn't fair. But tough shit. Cunt.

[Beefymcfc]

Moyes has so far had fuck all, which basically isn't fair. But tough shit. Cunt.

[london blue 2]

I thought the transfer window was open til September ?

Anyhow, what we are seeing with Moyes is similar to what we saw last season with Mancini; limited budget.

If a huge 'club' signing like Ronaldo was to come along, then they would probably be interested as it could profit them finacially, but they are clearly unwilling to throw money at players like they did with RVP.

The big difference is that Mancini got two big transfer windows before Khaldoon tightened the purse, & Pellegrini has already had one, may possibly get one more.

Moyes has so far had fuck all, which basically isn't fair. But tough shit. Cunt.

So what you're saying is they won't sign a marquee player as they're on a budget but they could sign a marquee player?

[Beefymcfc]

I thought the transfer window was open til September ?

Anyhow, what we are seeing with Moyes is similar to what we saw last season with Mancini; limited budget.

If a huge 'club' signing like Ronaldo was to come along, then they would probably be interested as it could profit them finacially, but they are clearly unwilling to throw money at players like they did with RVP.

The big difference is that Mancini got two big transfer windows before Khaldoon tightened the purse, & Pellegrini has already had one, may possibly get one more.

Moyes has so far had fuck all, which basically isn't fair. But tough shit. Cunt.

So what you're saying is they won't sign a marquee player as they're on a budget but they could sign a marquee player?

He was pissed, leave him alone.

[Breks]

They don't need a marquee signing they got Danny wellbeck, he pushed them to glory last year with his 1 league goal.

[CTID Hants]

Just catching the 'highlights' Wanbeck appeared to have a chance to pass to shrek and clearly ignored, was I the only one to notice this?

[kinkylola]

I just puked all over my keyboard. I wouldn't recommend reading the article if you have any reaction at all to the title, because it just gets worse.

United's marquee mishits
Manchester United's struggle to sign marquee players over the years has forced them to grow stars, not buy them, Richard Jolly writes.

http://espnfc.com/columns/story/_/id/15 ... ts?cc=4716

what a shit "journalist"

[Evenmydoghatesunited]

I just puked all over my keyboard. I wouldn't recommend reading the article if you have any reaction at all to the title, because it just gets worse.

United's marquee mishits
Manchester United's struggle to sign marquee players over the years has forced them to grow stars, not buy them, Richard Jolly writes.

http://espnfc.com/columns/story/_/id/15 ... ts?cc=4716

what a shit "journalist"

Link not working

[kinkylola]

I just puked all over my keyboard. I wouldn't recommend reading the article if you have any reaction at all to the title, because it just gets worse.

United's marquee mishits
Manchester United's struggle to sign marquee players over the years has forced them to grow stars, not buy them, Richard Jolly writes.

http://espnfc.com/columns/story/_/id/15 ... ts?cc=4716

what a shit "journalist"

Link not working

works for me, dunno what's wrong. I'll paste it below

Marquee mishits
August 15, 2013
By Richard Jolly

To the casual observer, it seems another indication of the Fergie factor. Equipped with ambition and boasting an enviable budget, Manchester United set about securing a marquee signing this summer. Lacking the aura and allure of the retired Sir Alex Ferguson, David Moyes has so far failed to secure one. It seems a damning indictment of the mere mortal who has stepped into the shoes of a legend.

Moyes' explanation of his failed pursuit of Cesc Fabregas seemed an obvious assertion. "Because Manchester United go after the best players in the world," he said. Yet, more often than not, they don't. Or to be more specific, they don't often go after the footballers widely acknowledged as the finest on the planet, already playing for its biggest clubs and coming at a commensurate cost.

And when even the great Ferguson did, he was often frustrated. He targeted Patrick Kluivert, Gennaro Gattuso, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Wesley Sneijder and signed none of them. Perhaps the one supposed triumph, the purchase of a proven world-class player from an elite club in a major league, was actually a failure: Juan Sebastian Veron rarely replicated his Parma, Lazio and Argentina form for United and left at a large loss.

No other arrival gets automatic entry into the category of the best. Owen Hargreaves came from Bayern Munich, but at a time when German club football lacked its current pre-eminence. Shinji Kagawa joined from Borussia Dortmund, but the year before they blazed a trail on the continent. Patrice Evra signed from Monaco, 20 months after playing in a Champions League final but leaving a club who were already in decline. When Ferguson tried to raid France for Ronaldinho, the World Cup winner preferred Barcelona.

The reality is that his pivotal buys came almost exclusively from lesser leagues and lower-ranking English clubs. Though Nemanja Vidic and Andrei Kanchelskis were recruited from Russia - and at a time when fewer billionaires were investing there - and the net was cast wider to find Tim Howard, Javier Hernandez and the Da Silva twins in North and South America, the three principal areas were Scandinavia, Holland and Portugal.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Peter Schmeichel crossed the North Sea, one to deliver the 1999 Champions League and the other to lift it. Jaap Stam, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ji-sung Park traded the lowlands of the Netherlands for the heights they reached in Manchester. Cristiano Ronaldo spearheaded the arrival of the Portuguese armada, planned by Carlos Queiroz.

The common denominator is that United was a step up for each, a bigger club in a grander league. They were given a platform to perform. Fabregas and Thiago Alcantara, already at Barcelona, did not need that. Indeed, United's dealings from the Nou Camp have only produced the homesick and returning Mark Hughes, the fringe player Jordi Cruyff and the teenage Gerard Pique, who realised his potential on his return to Catalonia. Their major additions from the top Italian clubs number two: Veron and Denis Law, signed by Sir Matt Busby in 1962.

Nor, indeed, do United often buy from the best in England. In one sense, Moyes himself is a classic United recruit, plucked from a smaller Premier League club. So was Ferguson, lured south from Scotland in the days when that constituted the club's foreign policy.

When he concentrated on the domestic market, the 71-year-old signed successfully from Norwich, West Ham, Middlesbrough, QPR, Oldham, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Tottenham, Everton, Wigan, Fulham and Blackburn. Rarely, however, did he succeed in strengthening his own side and weakening a major rival in one fell swoop. Andy Cole, a £7 million arrival from Newcastle in 1995, is very much an exception to the rule.


United's failure to sign Cesc Fabregas was seen as a stumbling block for David Moyes.
In part, that is because of the dynamics of the English game. The two Milan clubs trade with one another more often and willingly than United and their major enemies. Famously, no player has been transferred between Old Trafford and Anfield, or vice versa, since Phil Chisnall in 1964. Nor do United sign from Manchester City even if, until recently, they rarely had reason to.

Their foes from across the Pennines, Leeds, made the monumental mistake of selling Ferguson Eric Cantona in 1992 - Howard Wilkinson was struggling to find a place for the Frenchman in his side - but by the time they flogged off Rio Ferdinand and Alan Smith to the other United in successive summers, it was because a financially-imperilled club were not in a position to refuse any offers.

When Arsenal let Robin van Persie join United last summer, it was a tacit acknowledgement that they were competing in different leagues. The Dutchman's fee made him Ferguson's biggest buy since Dimitar Berbatov, his age and profile a status enjoyed by few of his other conscripts to the United cause, yet the fact remains that seller and buyer were no longer peers.

Van Persie probably belongs among the world's best players now. Yet in Ferguson's long reign, United sold them - Ronaldo, Van Nistelrooy and David Beckham to Real Madrid alone - more often than they bought them. Their diamonds have been unearthed in the academy or been polished and given a chance to shine after emerging in less glamorous surroundings. While they are now looking to bring in a ready-made match-winner, over the years United have not signed superstars. They have made them.

[Beefymcfc]

That's the biggest load of pish I've ever read, so many holes it's unreal. For one, he says that they rarely buy a player that weakens other teams but then goes on to mention the Berbatov transfer. He also says that Taggart rarely gets players at the top of their game as if they always go for the lesser players yet this window has proved that they at least try, it's just that the top players don't want to go or they cannot afford the said player.

What did we say about re-writing history to pander to the Rag hoards.

[Breks]

Deep down the rag hoardes are seriously worried. Our time is now their time is finally over.

[Beefymcfc]

Just said on TS that 28 million will not be enough for Fellaini and Baines, the club have turned it down out of hand.

Seems we were right all along, they weren't really after possible WC players in Tranny, Fabregas or Alcantara, they were just playing Everton to get the price down.

I bet their fans are well happy!

'A derisory bid'.

If Everton turned down a bid of 12 mil fo Baines, that says that the Rags value Fellaini at 16 mil. Is he worth that much?

[Beefymcfc]

They're not saying they won't sell, they're saying the valuation was shit. I wonder if Kenwright and Moyes have already agreed a deal but Kenwright is saving face by rejecting this one? Saying that, Moyes maybe off his Xmas card list now.

Club Statement
Monday 19th August 2013 12:35

A Club statement confirms bids for two players rejected.


Everton can confirm that it has received bids from Manchester United for two players. Those bids were immediately rejected out of hand as derisory and insulting.

The Club did not make public these details as it was vital Roberto Martinez’s preparations for the opening game of the Premier League season were not disrupted in anyway.

Alan Myers
Director of Communications

[lets all have a disco]

22 Million each or fuck off should be the reply.

Everton played like fuck with us over Lescott and the rags should be no different.

[Hazy2]

Moyes is playing the game, Eez normal. They are skint and will want to go to the rags if they can.