Manchester United / Chelsea: Lampard and Ronaldo to Barcelona?
Instead of indulging in pointless Football Manager-style fantasizing about who Barcelona will buy this summer, let’s look at the real reasons behind these rumours.
Football agents have a bad name, a really bad name, and it is times like these when they earn their ‘pond scum’ epithets.
Let’s take Cristiano Ronaldo’s case. He’s contracted to Manchester United till 2010, but he has been pimped by his agent to Real Madrid and Barcelona for the last year or so. His agent has gone on record to say that he ‘offered’ Ronaldo to Barcelona before the World Cup.
Ronny has more sense than to jump ship at the drop of a hat (or a foot, as it is), but he’s still 21 and at that age it’s quite easy to emotionally manipulate players. Manchester United is lucky to have people like Ferguson and Queiroz managing Ronaldo - they’ve kept him in line and ensured that he focuses on football, not on transfer rumours.
Frank Lampard’s case is a bit different, because it’s been going on for longer and has more of a media role in it than his agent only. Still, when agents come out and publicly say that they ‘don’t know what will happen next season’ when the player is clearly contracted for 2 more years, you smell a rat. Lamps has not signed his contract extension, and don’t for a second think that the agent is worried about the club’s future or whether Mourinho stays - Lamps was being pimped through the media long before the current tensions at Chelsea.
Terry and Lamps are loyal to Mourinho, but they are footballers first and foremost and they will play - at Chelsea, if Mourinho leaves. Mourinho’s milked the loyalty card quite a bit, but the reality is that when agents have the ear of their players, it becomes very difficult to talk sense to them.
Lampard’s place is at Stamford Bridge, just as Ronny’s a core part of OT.
Lampard and Ronaldo to Barcelona? Don’t the agents wish it…
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Ronaldos agent is the cause of the rumours about a move to Madrid - true…but he is also negotiating a new contract for Ronnie at United. Isn’t this a conflict of interests? He can hold out for silly money from United and force the issue so that United have to consider selling. I’m sure his agent would much rather have 10% (or whatever) of 45M than a fee for negotiating an improved wage deal. The other side of this is that the agent is employed by Ronaldo..if Ronnie wants to stay, then surely he can tell the agent to stop pimping him and to sign the deal on the table …if I remember rightly, didn’t Jaap Stam do this some while ago…mind you, look where it got him..
Ahmed,
what do you think is the part played by Lampard’s Spanish wife in this issue? None? Or small part? No doubt it is not a factor like it was in Sheva’s transfer, but it is hard not take it into consideration…
In Ronaldo’s case, I cannot see him playing 10 years for United.. If he stays five more years - wonderful. If only few more, it is very disappointing and just shows why the English players have the extra in their prices. Just think about Rooney, Rio, and Carrick - I can easily see them playing in United for the rest of their careers.
I can’t imagin Lampard leaving Chelsea but anything is possible.
Ronaldo to Barcelona or Real Madrid is very possible as the player himself has admited several times that he wishes to play for one of these club.
Remember in the summer when he said that he would move to Real Madrid if Villar-Mir would have won the Real Madrid presidential election.IF Ronaldo keeps performing like this then he will most likely leave.
It is actually pretty sad that Real Madrid or Barcelona can just come along and snap up a player Manchester utd really want to keep. Man U IS a big club after all.
no
Redondo,
how many players have Barcelona and / or Real Madrid just “snapped up” from United in the past? Not a single player. Beckham was sold, as was Ruud van. It will be seen if they will just snap up Ronaldo - or pay ridiculous amount of money. Just think about Zidane - 50million bought Juventus Thuram, Cannavaro, and Buffon; arguably the best defence in the world. And after that they still had around 20 million to spend extra. Everybody have their price.
Except Rooney!
i want ronaldo and lampard to go to barcelona and ronaldinho is better than them sothat our mid field will be strong and our striking will be good eto is going and henry is comming
i want ronaldo and l
ampard to go to barcelona eto is going and henry is comming
manchester united are the best team in the world and nobody can beat us
i want to see lampard and ronaldo playing for jeuventus because it is an classic club and offers good facilities rather than barcelona. Barcelona has too many quality players and they do not need any more quality.
how many quality players can barcelona play in one match.it’s enough signing of players
i love the way ronaldo plays his football and soo he is not going any where i love u ronaldo keep doing more fantastic styles.