So, now twice within four days, Fergie has admitted that he is seeking to seal the signing of a transfer target. United's pursuit and bid for Robin van Persie was revealed publicly by Arsenal, probably partially because they hate us and knew that it'd paint him into a corner so to speak. So Fergie was in a position where he more or less had to admit that he was after the Dutchman. Now just a few days later he has came out and said that we are actively seeking to seal the signature of Lucas Moura. I think most of us were expecting a summer of "no value in the market" and "we're working on a few things" with no end result, following the captures of both Kagawa and Powell. I mean, it's uncharacteristic of Fergie to admit which players he's after, for all the conjecture regarding our alleged pursuit of Wesley Sneijder last summer neither Fergie nor the club gave the faintest inkling that we were actually after him. Same goes for a number of players that we've supposedly been after over the past couple of years and there has been 100 page transfer rumour threads on this forum: Alexis Sanchez being one name that instantly springs to mind. Maybe we have bids rejected more often. Who knows? The nature of transfer rumours these days is that it is basically impossible to tell when we are genuinely interested in a player unless we either sign them or admit that we've tried to sign them. But it's strange that Fergie has made such uncharacteristic admissions in public as he has in the past few days. . . In effect, he has put more pressure on hismelf and the club to pull off the signing of at least one of the pair. If he doesn't, what will the excuse be? He is often able to downplay the failure to sign a number of players over the last few years because he's been able to pretend that we were never serious anyway, but now we KNOW that he is definitely serious about Moura and the van Persie situation is a really quite strange one since bids have been rejected and there hasn't seemed to be any new developments. How will Fergie deal with the fallout if we sign neither van Persie or Moura? How will it reflect on Manchester United and our ability to pull of a signing these days, after all - historically once we go public that we want a player we usually pull out all the stops to make it happen. Saha, Rooney,.van Nistlerooy, Carrick and Ferdinand all being clear examples. So, how do you all realistically expect this to play out? This isn't about the actual transfer rumours themselves, but Fergie and the clubs admission of which players we're after and whether it was a good move in saying that we're ready to haggle.
Fergie was unhappy at Arsenal's leaking of the Van Persie bid, which, as you say, was a tactical ploy from Wenger that may or may not work. I'm unsure of how the Moura offer come into the public domain, but it must be so difficult to keep things under wraps for a club like United, what with so many news outlets and internet sites, and then there's the agents leaking news and the selling club doing the same in order to create bidding wars. It is different from what we've become used to, and it does crank up the pressure to succeed. If we're serious about being able to still attract the very best, these are the type of signings that need to come off. It would be a slap in the face to the club and an embarrassment to Fergie if we were to miss out on both. On the other hand, signing them would send out a clear message of intent to our rivals, and the Van Persie transfer would be a big blow to Arsenal's prestige. Personally I'm glad Fergie has taken the gloves off and declared his intention to fight for these players. Play it straight, make the players the best offer the club can and then leave them to decide. If we lose out, no doubt he will say something along the the lines of the pressure at United being too much for them. They're bottlers
Manifestations of the urgency/anxiety to recover after last season's misadventure and a more conscious need to show our ambition and resolve to send the right message.
Quoting from his press conference yesterday "We're not lying on our backsides doing nothing. We're trying hard to bring other players to the club." says it all .... he surely is making statements to counter City on all fronts ..... maybe mind games even before the season began ...
Imo he´s also saying that to calm down the fans a bit.... we´re trying everything to get new players. That doesnt mean we will get them in the end. (and when we don´t buy them it will be because of value etc....)
I have a sinking feeling...... The more the RVP and Lucas Moura transfer sagas drag out the more I worry that it’s all just a big fat smoke screen. Sir Alex came out last week and vehemently supported the Glazer family. Which is fine, they pay his wage and all that. But I’m still not convinced that there is the money to spend he says there is. I mean the IPO is designed to generate capital, the number 100m has been floated but it could be more. If United signed Lucas and RVP, it’d cost close to 100m in transfer fees and wages (over 5 years). I can’t see United floating on the stock exchange just to spend the cash on two players. I have a sinking feeling United made two bids for high profile players but low balled both knowing they'd be rejected. Then SAF spoke about both, to make sure everyone knew bids have been made and to show the fans that there is money to spend on world class talent. That enables Sir Alex to say when all falls through and no more signings are made that the club tried. He can show the fans that two bids were made for “stars” and that the transfer market holds “no value”. But in reality, they were never in danger of spending any money as they made bids too low to be accepted. Is it all just a big charade? I really hope not.
More like so when the window closes he'll give it the "we looked at several options but the players we wanted were not available at the prices we considered reasonable"
I don't discount the possibility at all (especially if nothing noteworthy materialises) but the Glazers also only know too well the financial repercussions of our failures on the pitch which is more acute in our 'unique' case than the norm. Losing the title to the noisy neighbours in the final 3 minutes of last season and the shocking early exit from CL would have given them a pretty good idea. Perhaps the only one good thing to come out of this is they will be pressured to invest to win so just to keep their money-making machine going better, even if for lack of any footballing passion. The contemplated IPO launch may also be attributed to the openness of our transfer efforts this time round. I don't think they are willing or able to afford two marquee signings but making one such signing may just be something necessary for them to at least feel more secured about our/their prospects this season or just to send the right message to whom it may concern, including fund managers and would-be shareholders. Then again, Kagawa may have been construed by them as the (cheaper) marquee signing for us already but I remain hopeful otherwise.
I want to hear this from that we are going after players but i would much rather that he said that we are going to buy a central midfielder.
Yeah it seems like he's doing this to calm fans down. You get the feeling he knows that fans are frustrated that we aren't making moves for some of the top talents around so he's trying to illustrate that it's not that we aren't trying, we just aint getting the value we'd like for the signings hence we aren't making them.
In this financial situation it would be good if we sell a few more players. I don´t understand why Fergie isn´t doing that to have some more money for new signings. Not Park, Berba only. Also higher priced players that are on high wages. Like Ando.
I like Anderson, he has been unlucky with injuries which has stopped his progression but I still believe he can be a great player for United. The only needs I can currently see in the squad is Left back and Defensive central midfield. Left back would be solved by Baines but I don't want to spend more than £10m on that. Defensive center midfield is probably going to be solved by moving Carrick back as he tends to play there more and more. He also has the ability to play center back if need be. We can't count on Fletcher any time soon it at all (reminds me of Hargreaves unfortunately). I see an opening at striker if Berbatov is moved but that has been off and on all summer so not sure. RVP could be the move here but we would have to pay over the odds. It would certainly be an upgrade. Moura is one for the future. With Giggs and Scholes soon to hang their boots up, Moura would be given a season to settle into the team and United life and then get major game time next season. I think it is a good move but I don't like the price tag! I would be OK with £20m but he is just potential, he is not a finished article and he has no idea about defensive responsibilities so he would have alot to learn. I don't think we are going to spalsh another £80M on players so there are some tough choices to be made.
Yes! SAF has pulled the "no value in the market" card for some years now to hide our inability to sign top class, world class, wanted, marquee signings. But now this year, there will be no excuses.
