Pique to Barcelona – another promising youngster flies from the Manchester United nest
Gerard Pique has officially completed his return to Barcelona. The young defender begun his career with the Catalan club before being poached by Manchester United. Now, with very limited first team opportunities at Old Trafford, Pique decided it is time to return to the club of his youth.
Barcelona already have a defensive partnership of Milito and Puyol, but the Catalan club was never shy to rotate all the players during Rijkaard’s tenure and Pique will hope that Guardiola will continue to do just that.
According to the daily Telegraph, Barcelona’s official website made a statement saying that the Spanish defender will join on a 4 year deal which involves a buy-out clause of £50 million.
Pique had been thought to be able to make a spot in the Manchester United defence his own as his potential excited many club fans. His failure to break in the team, which followed Rossi’s exit just on year earlier will raise many questions. Many United fans will start to wonder about a young player’s ability to break through the ranks anymore in similar manner to how Ryan Giggs and David Beckham did nearly two decades ago and, more recently, Brown.
[Source: The Daily Telegraph]
Topics: Barcelona, English Premier League, Football Transfers, La Liga, Manchester United
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The Gaffer, as an Old School boss, expects young players like Anderson and Pique to patiently wait their turn. It’s a shame because both Pique and Rossi are class players who will be stars. Rossi would never have gained Ferguson’s full confidence because of his tiny stature, whereas Pique was blocked by the awesome pairing of Ferdinand and Vidic. He will be slightly better off at Barca because Milito and Puyol are older and suffer a lot more niggling injuries. Anderson’s patience will pay off, however, because the likes of Scholes, Carrick and Hargreaves are no threat to his style. The kid can slot in comfortably as a post-to-post midfielder, link man, or, in the slot directly behind Tevez and Rooney. So far, his only weakness seems to be that he can’t shoot like the Ginger Prince. I do have a question to ask the Gaffer, though. Why was Pique never given a shot at the right full back position? A good ball handler and definitely more intelligent than Wes Brown, keeping Pique might have been a cheaper alternative to the huge dosh it will take to get Danà Alves or Micah the Bling.
May 27th, 2008 @ 23:50The simple fact is, Rio and Vidic are better than Pique. So Barcelona rotate their defence? they won nothing doing that this year, and United won the EPL and CL playing the same pairing when possible. United’s problem isn’t bringing young players through, it’s keeping young ambitious players on our bench, who are not as good as what we have on the field.
May 28th, 2008 @ 11:28Is it true that we all took in 6 mil for Pique’s transfer? Why is it United pay a minimum of twice that for every player but only able to cash in measly sums? It seems that way for teams in the Prem. The scousers want to buy Udinese’s right back for 6 mil quid. So why should United except a cut rate price from one of Europe’s top ten richest clubs for an extremely talented prospect? Not a good bit of business in my mind.
May 28th, 2008 @ 15:30Bought him for 1m, sell him for 6m, and you’re complaining?
May 28th, 2008 @ 17:53