Alex Ferguson tells Edwin van der Sar not to extend stay at Manchester United
Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, has gone on to tell Edwin van der Sar that he should ignore any pleas that he hears and should not decide to go back on his decision to retire at the end of the season.
Van der Sar, United’s Dutch shot-stopper went on to announce that he was going to be retiring from club football earlier this year. However, since then the player has been putting in some highly impressive displays and as a result, a number of United players
have been urging him to stick around for another season.
However, Ferguson feels that the keeper should go ahead with his decision, since if he decides to pull out now, he might witness a steep drop in his performances and the keeper wouldn’t know what to do about it, should that happen.
When talking about Van der Sar and his future at the club, Ferguson is reported to have said:
"If I was giving advice to Edwin van der Sar, right now, I would say retire. He is at the absolute pinnacle of his career but sometimes, when a player gets to that age, age comes onto you very suddenly. I wouldn't want to see Edwin van der Sar in that situation.
He deserves to go out at the very top and hopefully he does that. My advice to him is that this is the time. There is no reason for him to risk another year and maybe drop below his standard".
It is easy to see why everyone has been trying to spur the keeper on to stay around for another year. The Dutchman has been putting in some of the best performances of his life this term and most of that is due to the experience that he has picked up over
the years.
The forty year old shot-stopper joined United at the start of the 2005 season and has since then gone on to make a massive two hundred and sixty two appearances for the team. At the moment, the keeper is looking to winning his third UEFA Champions League
crown – his second with United. Should the keeper manage to achieve that feat, then he could quite possibly go down as one of the greatest keepers to ever play the game.
The most notable aspect of the keeper’s game, is the fact that he has managed to be consistent through-out his years and has almost never gone on to make a blunder in the twenty-one years that he has spent as a professional goal keeper.
That being said, irrelevant of when the keeper retires, he is bound to go down in United folklore. His departure is also at the same time, going to spark a mad search for the Red Devils to find an heir to his throne, which is going to be close to impossible
to do.
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