Manchester United is becoming like Arsenal?
There was a time last season when every United fan was in great anger, anguish, and was frustrated by their team. This was the time when Manchester United drew 1-1 with Aston Villa and lost 3-0 to Everton and then in April again lost to Chelsea and then played another drab 1-1 draw at Blackburn.
But in the midst of all that there was some positive feeling about the club as after every dark night there is a sunrise. There was hope of a brand new day in the summer when the transfer window would open.
United had a defensive crisis and there was a point when Fletcher and Carrick started for Manchester United in central defence. But all and sundry knew that it was just a mere coincidence that O’shea, Rafael, Fabio, Rio and Vidic, Neville and Brown were all injured at the same time. United navigated through the problem without too much serious damage but later in the season everyone noticed what the real problem was. It was not the fact that Rooney got injured and Manchester United did not have a decent enough replacement for the man, but in fact the problem was that the midfield was not creative enough to provide Dimitar Berbatov with enough chances. There was no creativity in the midfield to take the pressure off Rooney’s shoulders.
The reason why there was an upbeat feeling about the next season was the thought that Alex Ferguson could see what the millions of fans worldwide could so painfully see, that Manchester United needed to overhaul their midfield.
There is no point in going into the Paul Scholes debate as he has proved time and again that he, even at the age of 35 is a World class act but a club of Manchester United’s stature just can’t depend on a 35-year old to give stellar performances week after week.
Michael Carrick has disintegrated into something of a Championship footballer and even if he is loaned off to a smaller club like Cardiff or Acrington Stanley, he would remain as anonymous as he is right now. Darren Gibson is at United so that his market value could rise and Manchester United could cash in on him when they inevitably decide to sell him. Anderson just doesn’t want to be at United, let alone provide the midfield with the spark it needed.
So why didn’t United buy a decent midfielder in the transfer window? Why did they let Mesut Ozil slip from right under their noses? Why were they sleeping through the 8 million pound transfer of Rafael Van Der Vaart?
When they have 7.4 million pounds to waste on a striker named Bebe, and then leave a place blank on their Champion’s League squad sheet rather to include Bebe or Hargreaves, they surely could have bought a decent enough midfielder for the money that was wasted on Bebe.
The striker so far has not even played for the reserve and is just simply not good enough to be at Manchester United and is going through endurance tests at Carrington to improve his physical fitness.
The fact of the matter is that United are no longer a giant in the transfer market. Gone are the days when United spent insane amounts on players like Seba Veron, Van Nistelrooy and Berbatov. Now the policy at United is to buy youngsters and nurture them into good players. United did the same with Anderson, Ronaldo, Nani and Rooney but that was a time when there were established players like Keane, Scholes, Giggs, and Beckham, who were at their prime at the club. Now all the veterans are spending their last hurrahs and Alex just cannot commit the same mistake as Wenger, and expect a talented yet inexperienced breed of youngsters to win him the Premier League.
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