Are Manchester United screwed?
The trouble with making jokes about potential disasters is that when they come true, you’re torn between the urge to shout ‘I told you so’ and, depending on your social stereotype, the urge to cry / pray / drink / blow yourself up.
At Manchester United, by no means are we near any financial disasters, but that will be the talk of the town after United backed out of the Adem Ljajic deal. Fair play to Ferguson – he saw that his young crop of players were improving this season and he chose to back them instead of paying a few million to bring in another unproven player.
Saving money while still getting results – whether you’re a debt-free club or saddled with 700m in debt – is always a good thing and United’s act of financial prudence should be celebrated. Here’s a club that is focusing on bringing through players from their own ranks mixed with a few choice foreigners instead of stocking up on young talent from all around the world.
Rafael, Fabio, Macheda, Obertan were bought, but Evans, Gibson and Welbeck started at the academy and as United mount their challenge for a fourth consecutive league title and a third consecutive Champions League final, the club’s squad depth is underlined by quality youngsters all vying for regular football.
The debt is a monster that United fans didn’t want but now that it’s here, there’s little point in throwing a fit about it. Yes, it’s there, and yes, we’d like it gone tomorrow morning, but short of a) a multi-billion buyout or b) Glazers selling everything, we’re going to have a club with massive debt next year as well.
Ferguson knows that, and while we’d all like to see him bring in world-class talent, it’s difficult to do so when your targets either have outrageous wage demands (Ribery is on 150k Euros / week at Bayern) or outrageous transfer fees (60m+ for Ribery) or, worst of all, they want to play at Real Madrid (Benzema / Ribery).
The club will spend money when it’s directly benefiting the performances on the pitch, and as fans you can’t ask for more from the money-men.
With Arsenal and Liverpool flopping again this season, Spurs and City a few years away from challenging for the title (if ever) and Chelsea showing that they’re nowhere near invincible, Manchester United are in with a very good chance this year to win more titles.
And with Gibson, Evans, Rafael, Fabio, Macheda, Obertan and Valencia all performing well when called upon, there’s a lot to be optimistic about if you’re a United fan.
Are United screwed? Given the current situation on and off the pitch, I’d rather be a United fan than anything else.
Bring on #19!
Topics: English Premier League, Manchester United
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All true, financially we’ll get a good idea where we are in January. Two windows with no spending and there might be a little concern among the supporters.
I guess more worrying still is how United conducts its business. Why now, is Ljajic worse today than 12 months ago? In terms of progression the lad has moved from the Serbian u-17/ u-19 squad into the u-21s and played 8 times in the past year. Plus more appearances for Partizan and some rave reviews about his performances in the UEFA cup.
We’ll see. Let’s hope Ljacic doesnt pitch up at Real Madrid or worse still… City!
December 3rd, 2009 @ 16:11“Given the current situation on and off the pitch, I’d rather be a United fan than anything else. ” + 1.
December 3rd, 2009 @ 16:15I have a lot of faith in our youth set up right now, we have fantastic talent coming in and I don’t think we need to buy. We have a large enough squad to get us through this transitional phase. We’ll be better placed to see what we need in the summer than now. And I would rather give up the one title this season (and we are still in for the lot), if it assures a lot more in the years to come. Ljajic at that price may have backfired like Nani has. We have the likes of Cleverly, Tosic to add to the talents of Valencia and Obertan and the experience of Giggs and Park in the wings. Not to mention the likes of Ravel M for the future!
Chelsea look pretty invincible to me this year.
December 3rd, 2009 @ 19:26Sam- Getting outplayed by man utd, and getting beat by Villa,Wigan and Blackburn is hardly invincible now is it…
December 3rd, 2009 @ 19:54Clearly the Glazers are hoping to ride this storm out. Talk over here is that they’ll sell their Tampa Bay Buccaneers rather than lose the cash cow that is United. NFL franchises were, before the market crash, worth approximately $1.2 Billion, but, right now, all bets are off. If push comes to shove, I’m sure some narcissistic captain of industry from Hong Kong or Mumbai will step in and pay off their debts.
December 3rd, 2009 @ 20:11not many people realise that after all the young players you see in the carling cup they have players in the youth team also, Will Keane(16) looks like he could become better than paul scholes, morrison(16) looks terrifingly like brazilian ronaldo the way he plays, paul pogba IS going to be a class act (roy keane type player) then ya have the likes of of cory evans and reece brown, the future looks bright , the future looks red!
December 3rd, 2009 @ 21:32markf – The future might look red to you, but right minded people know the future WILL be BLUE !!
December 4th, 2009 @ 02:39Chelsea may have lost to those three paddy but united have lost to more a Chelsea lead by five
that’s pretty invinciible to me mate
CHELSEACDC FOREVER
y v
December 4th, 2009 @ 06:13blue in chinese believe means death in the family !
red means all is rosy, big bucks keep rolling me more trophies the cabinet !
so rickyg expect the morgue to be calling soon !
December 4th, 2009 @ 06:24rickyg – Perhaps so but it’ll prolly last like 3 matches and then ya know whats the future like.
December 4th, 2009 @ 06:42well maybe the display of the youths have made SAF to change his mind about Ljajic and Nani display has been horrifying given his price tag so no need to gamble on untested 18 yr old lad.obertan looks bright on the left side.
December 4th, 2009 @ 08:15may be not in january but in the
December 4th, 2009 @ 13:25summer,that the timing,and replace nani
Everybody have faith, King Fergie knows what he is at. He has seen enough world class players in his time to know when something is a sure thing. If Ljajic is really that good then there is no chance fergie would allow a deal to be cancelled. Fergie has seen him first hand in trials, we havn’t. It’s nothing to do with money, if united were in the “financial crisis” everybody is talking about without a back-up plan then fergie would have walked long ago, because he wouldn’t want to have any part in running this club into the ground
December 4th, 2009 @ 14:46CHElSEA were out played only in one game this year against Wigan, while United were lucky in several of their wins, on the financial issue the only way they will rid themselves of the near 1 billion debt is to sell again, there is no other way.
December 4th, 2009 @ 14:58This is the last year of domination by Chelsea and United, the new rich boys City and one other club will be the top teams going forward.
December 4th, 2009 @ 15:01ROMAN ABRAMOVIC IS BUYING MAN UTD FOR I BILLION AND REMEMBER ITS HERE WHERE U GUYS HEARD THIS NEWS FIRST ,DONT BE SURPRISED BY APRIL THIS WILL BE A REALITY
December 5th, 2009 @ 11:00shaQ the point is getting beat obviously shows chelsea are far from invincible. Utd are in a better position this year than last,being the same points off the top,scoring more goals and those goals being shared out among the whole squad,ad with chelsea loosing players in Janurary dont write off united just yet….champions 3 years in a row for a reason.
December 5th, 2009 @ 17:02