Manchester United are NOT trading Pique for Gudjohnsen
Welcome to the rumour busters edition of our transfer news and rumours column
Football hacks must be getting bored with Manchester United - Hargreaves, Nani and Anderson (links are to ManUtd.com features, so go have a look) coming in, SAF splashing the cash and United winning the title.
So someone came up with this hair-brained idea - apparently Manchester United are the sort of idiots who are going to sell the best defender to come out of Spain for a long time for a striker who is clearly not the best in England or Spain, is NOT a sprightly 20 and is NOT the type of striker Manchester United need.
Hence the proposed Pique-Gudjohnsen swap, a story fabricated in the Spanish press and pushed to the English media by such football news bastions as goal.com (who publish some of the worst fiction ever) and tribalfootball (no points for guessing what I think of them).
Here’s a dose of reality for you:
Manchester United are not going to sell Pique to Barcelona. He is one for the future, a player that has been earmarked to play at Old Trafford next season. Along with Evans and Rossi, Pique is one of those returning loan players who will be given a fair shot at playing for Manchester United next season.
Barcelona don’t need to sell a striker - and especially not a player they just brought in last season.
As far as I’m concerned - and yes, I’m going out on a limb here - Pique isn’t being sold, and Gudjohnsen isn’t coming to Manchester United. If United want a striker, they’ll go for someone who is more of a target man, a RVN-Saha mix. Alternatively, they can just throw Rossi into the starting XI and rotate him with Saha to see what happens.
Of course, if Pique is eventually sold I’ll have to eat my hat, but a) the news source and b) the statements coming out of the club and made by the player towards the end of the season that confirmed that Pique was going to play a role at United next season make me dismiss such trash out of hand.
- Should Pique start for Manchester United against Roma at Old Trafford?
- Could Gudjohnsen be a first-teamer for West Ham, Newcastle United or Manchester City?
- Should Manchester United pick up Quagliarella?
- 2 key players for Manchester United to consider
- Manchester United’s left-back position is Ferguson’s oversight
Discussion - 28 Responses
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I read this a few hours ago on few rag sites, obvious rubbish, one would never trade a youngster with all the potential in the world for an old heavyweight that can at most get half a dozen goals a season.
Besides what does it say about Wnited if we’re signing Chelsea rejects? We obviously have better options of a striker.
For instance, there’s a story about Fabio Quagliarella on a bunch of very reliable sites, i think it even made its way to the “What the papers are saying” section at ManUtd.com. On World Soccer News which is run by the AFP, there is a fresh article that basically says the following:
“The agent of rising Italian star Fabio Quagliarella said on Thursday the player could be heading to Manchester United if the Premiership champions confirm a bid he says they made for the 23-year-old striker a month ago.”
“One month ago Manchester United put in an offer of 10 million pounds (14.8 million euros) for Fabio,” Quagliarella’s agent Silvio Pagliari told Rete Sport.
“We feel Fabio is worth between 15 and 20 million euros, so if the English club’s offer still stands, it is highly probable he will go abroad.”
Link: http://www.wldcup.com/news/2007/06/20070614_42859_soccer_news.html
Latest news on Fabio Quagliarella:
A report suggested that Unted were willing to offer £10m for Fabio Quagliarella after the doubts over Luis Saha’s situation.
Those suggestions have now been confirmed by the Quagliarella’s agent, Silvio Pagliari.
“One month ago, Manchester United made an offer of 10 million pounds (around 15m euros),” he said.
“We think that Fabio is worth between 15 and 20 million Euros.
“Therefore, if the English offer remains, he will probably go across the [English] Channel.”
HOPE THIS IS TRUE BECAUSE ACCORDING TO ME Fabio Quagliarella IS A MUST BUY!!!
Dude, Xs, we should check for a psychic or telekinetic connection between us or something, lol, did we press submit at the same moment?
Yeah he is quality like, scores screamers all the time. Would LOVE to have him, for anyone who doesn’t know who he is, watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh2m2Gu0cQA
But if Fabio comes then we gotta sell Smith - I mean, come on, we’ve probably ruined his career, might be time to let him move on.
Sunderland anyone?
Yepp sunderland sounds good, but c’mon we didnt ruin his career that badly, we put him on the euro map with ‘That’ goal against Roma, and if we’re selling him for 7m he’s still the same price as he was when we bought him, but he definitely deserves first team football, and he’ll help Sunderland into the top half of the table=]=]
Sell Saha,not Smith. He is an important squad player and he might be one of our surprise stars next season( If he stays). Come on United fans, he maybe was/is not that consistent that is needed for United, but remember that he just came back from a horrible injury, that has ruined other plaers careers. Buy Quagliarella though, cause he is definetly united-material at the moment, and he is only 23
Anybody knows anything about this Quagliarella besides from what’s on Youtube??
What kind of player is he?
Eddie - you seem to know something…please enlighten the rest of us, if you are not just a Youtubian…:-)
This Quagliarella guy seems kind of Rossi-esque (on youtube anyway) and I would prefer to see Rossi get his chance because I just watched the U-21 match and when he came on Italy controlled the game and Rossi came close to scoring.
I wouldn’t call Pique the best defender to come out of Spain when he really has not shown that much with Zaragoza to be considered that, I’ve watched 12 Zaragoza matches throughout the season and it seemed clear to me that he has been decent all around.
Maybe he has been having a bad season, i don’t know, this is the first season I’ve seen so much of him but i certainly would not rate him higher then Sergio Ramos or Antonio Puerta for the best young Spanish defenders.
[…] Manchester United. I have to run both spellings just in case; we don’t want to miss anything big, like this stroke of genius from the rumor mill?!!However amongst the usual babble about Tevez, Torres and the above-mentioned story about our […]
Yep thanks for this article, needed some reassurance after reading the rags. There’s no way we’d be that daft *hopes* i’m really excited for Pique’s return and would be gutted if we swapped him for Gudjohnsen. If we’re gonna buy a striker, it needs to be someone who can lift the squad up a level otherwise there’s just no point. The only upside is that he wouldn’t cost us anything. Still not worth it for Pique though.
Quagliarella-not the type of player i thought we were looking for(from what little i’ve seen), but still HELL YES!DYNAMITE!
Huntelaar, Alves, Saviola, Tevez or Klose=Yes Please.
Zlatan, Gudjohnsen, Owen=No thanks.
Tell me, Ahmed, why do you dislike Smith so much? If he’s good enough for England, surely he’s good enough for Man Utd?
He was ditched quickly by McClaren, and Smith won’t be winning a starting berth if Rooney and Saha are fit. If Smith’s behind Saha and Saha is at best a 3rd choice striker, AND we have Rossi to blood, where does that leave Smith?
I’d pick Smith over Ole though.
i agree utd will not sell pique.
but did anyone see him play against real madrid when ruud got 2 goals. he played in a holding midfield role and i have to say i was very UNimpressed.
he has bulked up quite a bit and has a good height and frame, but looks to have average pace at best, the way he was slowly moving around the pitch reminded me of viduka.
he also does not seem to have the aggression of a Vidic/Terry. i really don’t think he is anywhere near good enough to play as centre back for united, i know wes brown has his dodgy moments, but i know who i would choose right now.
i know people think he would be a good longterm replacement for rio, but rio has more pace and has at least 4 of his best years to come.
if pique is to develop further, i really think he needs to play week in week out for at least another year, before he can realisticaly challenge rio/vidic, after all this his first full season as first team player. i do not think that palying 15-20 games when rio/vidic are rested/injured will help his develpoment.
i have higher hopes for johnny evans who i really think can make it at utd, but again i think he would benefit more form another loan season at hopefully sunderland.
let me know what u think ahmed
Eddie - completeley agree - Sell Saha not Smith.
With Neville, etc getting on and all these young foreigners coming in we need an old fashioned English big mouth out there just so they know what it means to pull on a United shirt. We can’t get too carried away with skill at the expense of passion - LOOK AT ARSENAL.
Reference Quagliarella - I don’t think United are going to get carried away on the money side of things - I believe if United have offered £10million and they don’t accept then that is that. We’ll keep Rossi, Smith, Ole, Saha, Rooney (as I write, that’s not a bad five to pick two from) and see how it goes. Oh and don’t forget if things aren’t going that great then Torres, Berbatov, Quagliarella and (depending where he goes) Tevez are available in January and won’t be cup-tied.
I think there’s a good chance that we’ll wait with any transfer regarding this Quagliarella until Smith is sold. I’m not saying that it will happen, only that if it does, that will be the order in which the deals go down. SAF doesn’t want to get stuck with Smith, ig Quagliarella is brought in.
Or SAF might just be happy about the strikers, but indications are that he’s not.
yeah, id be inclined to sell Saha not Smith too Eddie.
Dead right about the passion Simonthered, “trains like a beast” Fergie said and that can only be good for the young lads around, he understands what it is to play for United. And, he can still do a job for us.
As for Pique, from what i’ve heard and read he has played really well at Zaragoza, he got injured and lost a bit of form afterwards but overall i believe he went down a storm. I saw the game when he played DM against Madrid and he did ok against a resurgent Madrid. Id like to see the experience he has gained this year put to good effect with us next season, he’s pretty versatile so that alone makes him valuable to us.
Frankly speaking I can’t understand this urge from so many Man Utd fans to see Rossi in a Man Utd shirt for the forthcoming season. IMO he is just a decent young prospect and nothing else. True it is that he scored loads of goals for Man Utd’s reserve team but that was for the reserve team (i remember David Healy doing the same some years back but where is he now???!). Also true it is that he has been quite prolific for Parma last season but that was in the Italian league. According to me the crucial question that needs to be asked is what has been his record in the English Premier League?! I remember making it a must to watch Newcastle United play during the secong part of last season in order to see Rossi play and to be frank I was left totally disappointed. I remember asking myself whether Rossi wasn’t too small and whether he didn’t lack the necessary physical power to play in the Premier League! Moreover he was supposed to set the UEFA Under 21 championship alight but then what has happened? He hasn’t even been able to earn a starting place in Italy’s under 21 starting eleven! Up to now he has only played as back up to Palladino of Juventus (whom I rate as a better player than Rossi)! So IMO Rossi is a decent young player but to mention him in the same breath as Rooney or Ronaldo is total madness.
On another note it is obvious that sooner or later Man Utd needs to find a replacement for our trusted old war horse G.Neville. IMO a possible replacement that we need to have a look at is Sagna who plays for Auxerre who is knocking at the door of France’s starting eleven and on whom Arsenal has shown a strong interest lately. Richards from Citeh would be my first choice to replace G.Neville but believe me Sagna is also a name we need to keep in mind for the right back position.
Fabio Quagliarella is a must buy. I been saying this time and time again and i really hope Man Utd gets the player before the italian giants like Ac Milan or Inter Milan wake up and start taking notice. It may even be too late now that he celebrated his first start with italy yesterday with two wonderful goals! He is currently playing at Sampdoria and is a 6ft striker with an eye for spectacular goals. IMO he is a typical Man Utd player with his ‘never say die’ and committed attitude. What is more he has explosive pace and is still only 24 years old. He is also a powerful player who would adapt very well with the physical nature of the premiership. Mark my words Quagliarella and Palladino (and hopefully also Rossi) are the future stars of italian football and according to me the former is more suited to the english game as compared to the latter. I read a report some time back that Man Utd was supervising the player so let’s hope something good comes out of it or else next thing we’ll see would be Quagliarella smiling at us with an Ac Milan shirt on!!! If you want more information about this explosive and spectacular stiker just check him out on youtube.com.
If we can get this guy for £10mill then that would be ok but from what i have seen on republikofmancunia.org some people reckon that rossi is a better prospect…so that is some food for thought. I would keep Saha and sell smith… saha is the reason we were playing such amazing footy at the start of the seaon…how soon do people forget…
Both Saha and Smith are different kind of strikers. Having both on the team only helps the team (flexible).
Sometimes, with all this rumors about Quagliarella…it’ll only hike up his price. And for me, 10 million pound is the most we should be paying for him. Nothing more.
I’ve never heard of this guy before. He might be good just for 1 season…and disappear the following seasons…just like how some Italian strikers do.
Also, he is playing in Serie A. Crespo and Sheva both did very very well in Serie A but became a flop in EPL.
Well…I expect SAF to sign another striker…but someone we won’t be expecting him to sign (and hopefully not Mr Eidur!!).
i think from a business perspective we should sell smith and not saha. smith would be a good squad player but if man utd going to get £7m pound for him then why not. if the glazers wernt in charge and united wernt in a massive debt im sure he would have got his contract
back to the main topic. pique is a young talent. surely if barcelona want a young talent then there must be something about him. i saw him against real and he wasn’t all that but perhaps like mascherano he will play better with better players around him. if gudjohnson is surplus to requirements at camp nou wouldnt be a bad idea to consider acquiring him on loan
This question is more directed towards ahmad whose opinions, i highly value as he doesnt right BS.
As a life long Man U fan who at least tries to be realistic, we definately need another striker in high calibre that can either pair up with rooney or be his first back up. Now with smith leaving to newcastle for 7million, i was wondering realisticly what are our chances in signing either Tevez or Klose cause out of all the names mentioned i only see these two fit enough, skilled, and committed enough for a red devil shirt. ( i always fancied Raul jooining us but now is too late) what are our chances can we get either!!!?
and also do you think nelson is good replacement for nevile
or Kaabi the Iranian 20year old prodigy( maybe after he is test drived by wigan who are signing him next week)???
Thanks,RED DEVILs all the way
- Klose has his heart set on Bayern.
- Tevez is my pick, but I don’t know what Fergie will do here. If Tevez does come United fans will be delirious, because that kid is crazily good.
Where do you guys get 7mil for Smith? According to Manutd.com, the last bid from Newcastle is for 3.5mil. For that money, I think Smith should definitely stay.
actually apparently boro’s bid for smith just got accepted for 6 million pounds according to mirror!
Goal claims we are gonna cash in on rossi as well to get torres… I hope thats not the case!
I have seen Rossi play and trust me you want this guy in manU shirt! and Personally i think Torres is overrated, he misses way more than he makes in
If we want to spend a figure close to 35 million, I would def go for TEVEZ… I mean come on how can people not see it!!!
Torres would be a major hit in Man United, but so would Tevez. About Torres: if you place him in a team with other equally dangerous players, he’d be lethal with his pace and touch.
For the good of the team, I think Smith should go (as long as it means someone better comes in of course). Obviously you won’t ever get the same heart as Smitty’s but our team is more than heart…it’s a flair, speed and skill team, and Smith has neither, unfortunately. He’d be excellent in many other teams, but the rest of our players are simply faster and more skillful, which makes the game around him too difficult for him to compeed in. The addition of Nani and Anderson certainly won’t help his cause.
Tevez would fit perfectly, because he can certainly play with pace and control like not many others.