Left and right Ihear that we haven’t improved our squad since both CR7 and Cryboy left but the truth is that SAF is working at something much more interesting and exciting: he’s reshaping the squad and slowly preparing a new squad, a squad ready to replace the still active legends Red Neville, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs. Not only does the young Portuguese follow in an lacklustre line of bad hair-dos or is another prodigy coming from Portugal, more so he is another young talent we recruited in the last two years. Although for now we will place a question mark after the transfer until both clubs confirm this, especially because Bébé doesn’t have any stats on his Vitória de Guimarães player profile.

What really matters though is that Alex Ferguson will probably continue to stay at OT for several more years, helping the new squad taking shape and once more enjoying the good ol’ adagio you don’t win anything with kids. I bet Wenger’s fuming inside to see what happens at OT and to realise once more the Scot while outwit him and do what the Gunners haven’t done for years now: win silverware, more so win silverware with youngsters.

Our line up of most used youngsters now reads like this: The Twins, De Laet, Cleverley, Gibson, Kiko, Obertan, Possebon, Diouf, Hernandez and we could arguably add Nani, Johnny Evans and Anderson to this list, just as well as Welbeck.

I have never seen this before, but the madness over last weeks has reached new levels and with both the Bernabeu and the Council House continuing to be of very little importance when it comes to the real game, the top of the table and domination of Europe, the transfer rumour mill this year seems to have taken never before seen proportions.

Apparently, being linked with more players than ever before, now we are interested in signing a talent we already offered a job at Old Trafford years ago but now suddenly has decided that his career is in an impasse and he should be able to sign a typical ‘Rent Boys End of Career – I only have 5 years anymore, I must think of my family’ deal.

Ladies and Gents, I present you… *drum roll, please* former England International and Rentboy, Mr. JOE COLE!

That is right it now seems that amidst rumours of the Glazers having no money and the Red Knights wanting to salvage our club, and finances, Mr. Cole’s agent has decided to bring ManUtd in the game to negotiate a better deal for his long injured and under performing client. As is typical with the Rentboys, when your body and mind reach the age you start becoming slower, have more off-minutes in a game than you had off-games in a season, when a player closes in on 30 years, instead of showing loyalty for having earned millions every year already, enjoyed fat weekly checks sitting at home, recovering legs up, you hold out for a new long-term contract with possibly even more money. Lots more.
Precedents are numerous and well-known: Mr. Fat Frank, Mr. John ‘Slippery’ Terry, Mr. Michael ‘I Can’t Tackle for Sh*t And My Gob’s Bigger Than Red Nev’s’ Ballack and now both Anelka and Joe Cole seem to be the next ones on this elusive list.

So let’s have a look, albeit a very brief one, at what could we expect from the talented player we would have signed for £10 million at the age of 16. Thirteen years ago.

Is There Place In Our Squad for Joe Cole?

Or should I say Is there place on our bench for Mr. Cole?
There is no doubt that he is very talented and could, when fit, almost step in the shoes of our legend, the humble Ryan Giggs, not just a Legend but together with Red Nev the ultimate definition of loyalty. Yes, I just did say that Joe Cole could fill the role of Ryan Giggs. When fit. Get over it but he is fast, a great dribbler and has delivered many a great assist not to mention scored several awesome goals in his career.

The real question though is Do we need Cole with our squad?

I guess the answer to this question is as simple as short: NO. Yes, two letters only and both are capitalised. N + O. No.
Let’s be fair, not only at 29 is Joe Cole too old for our long standing policy of bringing young prodigies to the Theatre of Dreams but with Giggs who signed for one more year, Nani and Obertan in our squad there is little place for Joe Cole and it is highly doubtful that a regular bench seat would be guaranteed. Let alone would we be ready to offer a 3-5 years contract or wages around/above the £90,000/week level.

What If Cole Publicly Declares He Wants To Join ManUtd?

I’m going on another tangent. If he wants to join us, he is welcome. On a contract similar to Michael Owen’s. Maximum £50,000/week and with appearance, assist and goal bonuses. Two years with option for yearly extension when played 25 games/season.

What Do You Think?

What do you think, guys? Cole, nay or no? Please note that in two to three weeks I will probably have the same post about Nicolas ‘Nomad’ Anelka, when he holds out for a pay raise at the Bridge. ;)

After a bomb attack on the hotel Manchester United was supposed to stay in for the game against an Indonesian All Star team, ManUtd cancelled both the trip to Indonesia and game. At least eight people died in the attacks and 50 people or more were injured.
The Australian Football Assosociation had offered to organize a game against Melbourne Victory or Sydney FC but ManUtd refused to take on the offer because it would mean an additional 20 hrs of travel time. Instead the Red Devils agreed to play a rematch against Malaysia XI in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

Malaysia XI 2-3 Manchester United

Manchester United won their first friendly of the pre-season against a Malaysia All Star team with Rooney, Nani and Michael Owen netting the goals. In a professional manner the Red Devils took a 2-0 lead in front of almost 100.000 fans in Kuala Lumpur. Wayne Rooney slotted the first goal of the game home before Nani the second goal scored. ManUtd seemed to lead the game comfortably until Mohammed Amri Yahyah fired home a stunning long-range effort from outside the box just before the break.

The Malaysians drew level after an error from Ben Foster who was replaced VDS in the second half. Michael Owen, who also came of the bench, scored his first goal for our team five minutes before the final whistle.

Line up:van der Sar (Foster 46); O’Shea, Ferdinand (Brown 61), Evans, Evra (Fabio 61); Gibson, Scholes (Tosic 61), Anderson (Giggs 76), Nani, Rooney (Owen 61), Berbatov (Macheda 76).
Goals: Rooney 8, Nani 28, Owen 85

Manucho signs for Valladolid

Senegalese striker who we signed after a three week trial in December 2007, will sign a 5 year deal with Spanish side Real Valladolid. Manucho only managed to make one appearance in the first squad, last season against Stoke City. During the first 6 months of his ManUtd contract he was loaned out to Pananthinaikos in Greece. After failing to make an impact with the reserves he was loaned out to Hull City for the latter part of last season.

Mame Biram Diouf signed at OT

Senegalese talent Mame Biram Diouf has been signed from Norwegian club Molde FK, the same club we signed Legend Ole Gunnar Solskjær from. The Senegalese striker will stay at Molde until the end of the year, trying to help Molde win the title. There are doubts about Diouf being able to obtain a working permit as he hasn’t featured in the Senegalese national squad so far, only on youth level. Sir Alex Ferguson insisted ManUtd had to sign the talented youngster because other European clubs had made bids already. The ManUtd scouting staff has observed Mame Diouf since two years already. Since arriving in Denmark he has scored 38 goals in 73 appearances for Molde FK.

The opposition’s corner

The skyblues continues their spending spree and now also signed Adebayor for a fee around £5m. This means that the Abu Dhabi team has spend more than £100m at strikers only in less than 12 months. Considered their tales from last year this is very promising for when they play away from home, considered their run last season.

Forever ManUtd fan Becks has backed Chelsea to win the League title this season. Apparently the glamour boy reckons that Carlos Ancelotti more talented is than SAF.

After Ferguson’s announcement some days ago, David Gill has said that it is possible that ManUtd will continue to be active on the transfer market, even during the pre-season Asia trip.
Once SAF had declared that he would not sign anymore players the rumour mill has died up, but actual prices of certain players don’t seem to be as high as thought. Real Madrid has accepted a £15.5m offer from Stuttgart for Huntelaar which seems really good value. It is rumoured that the Dutch striker is holding out and hopes a Premier League club will make an offer. Spurs are said to be negotiating with Madrid, who would have to pay Ajax €6m if Huntelaar joins another club. I think Gill and SAF are already on the case, but we will not move for Ibrahimović because he is massively overvalued. So are Aguero and Villa.

21-Year old Irish international Darron Gibson has agreed a 3 year extension and aim to be involved more with the first squad next term.

Last season I enjoyed every opportunity and when I got my chance I wanted to prove what I could do. I hope to continue that this season.

Gibson made 14 appearances last season, scoring three times, one of them a hurler in the last game of the 2008-2009 season, against Hull. He also participated to the complete and winning Carling Cup final. Chances to see Gibson receive even more time on the pitch will probably increase every season as he is highly talented and has a very good position game.

Eckersley opts for Burnley and leaves OT

20-Year old Richard Eckersley has agreed a deal with Burnley. Although he came through the ManUtd ranks the Salford bloke opted to turn Old Trafford the back. Burnley will have to pay ManUtd a compensation fee as the player is younger than 24.

In a press conference at OT Sir Alex Ferguson presented the new signings and announced that ManUtd will not be spending any more money this summer.

Contrary to what most people have announced, we do not need any more new signings because MAnUtd is already a stronger squad than last season, even after CR7 and Tevez left Old Trafford.
With the arrival of the talented Gabriel Obertan, Michael Owen, who signed on a free and Antonio Valencia‘s arrival times certainly look great for the Red Devils.

There is no doubt that we will see a different United, still as fast and dangerous on the breakout but our attack will be different. There where Ronaldo loved to keep the ball and try to score as often as possible, his assist rate was rather one-sided and he would only pass when on the break out. Only seldom did he pass to Rooney or Berbatov when we had pushed the opponent in their 16 and were trying to find an opening.

With Valencia, and the presence of Berbatov and Owen times will be different as both are strong in the air and have an excellent position game, know where the ball might land. Valencia will definitely score less than Ronaldo did, but he is a great dribbler, tends to lose the ball less often than Ronaldo did, because he will provide our strikers more often.

I even think we will see more goals this season than we saw in the last two seasons, because our strikers will be allowed to play in their preferred position and Rooney will not be obliged to play out wide but often be paired together with Owen, a partnership which has already proven its efficiency in the England Squad. Still I do expect another signing this summer. I guess SAF has masterminded another Strategical move here.

After initial negotiations for the Brazilian U20 international Douglas Costa were reported to have failed, a move seems to come closer every day now. ManUtd was said to offer the Brazilian a 3 weeks trial before wanting to finalize a move, but Gremio considered the player, who’s hailed as the new Robinho too good for a trial. Initial reports hinted at a £12m offer for the international but Gremio is holding out for around £20, close to the buy-out clause in the youngster’s contract. Negotiations are on going but we know the line, SAF gets who he wants.

Costa certainly would easily fit in the team, especially with the presence of Brazilian Anderson, the twins and Nani who all speak Portuguese. So far Costa had made 19 appearances with the first squad of Gremio and scored only once but the videos show that he is very talented and with the help of our backroom staff the Brazilian will certainly become more and more lethal in the striking dept.

More and more SAF seems to focus on buying youngster even before they are 22-23 working at a long term strategy for teh squad. One can only wonder if that means that the Scot will continue several more years and not the expected one or two more seasons. It is obvious that he’ll continue until we have more English League titles than the Dippers but might he also want to win several more European titles and bring his CL tally to 4 or 5 even before he retires?

Best Douglas Costa moments

Well first with Benzema, it was kind of impossible to take him away from Real.Zidane been one of the factor and also his no interest with our team. Huntelaar was also kind of same. It was pretty much sure that both these products were out of our reach compared to how we were approaching them.
I remember how Fergie used to handle new signings and making pretty sure that they don’t land else where but United.The brand name itself was the factor.For now all the big guns are in our rumor pages.
For now, according to latest news there’s one more to add on United’s misery. A.Madrid has disclosed that no attempt or any kind of offers have been made from United. And as such they are not interested in dealing their best players out of them. Also considering that , Augero doesn’t seem to be enticed with English clubs with his conference and has not shown any kind of gestures to our friendly hand. Rumours had that United were about to trade Augero with Nani plus 30 million in addition. But thats rumour and nothing new for united.
That keeps United up for search of a new strike partner .For now Augero looks too distant from OT.
So its yet another big name story  with United but nothing really looking on  deal. This has been the tale with United past season and it kind of looks scary.

PS:-Thank you,Franky from taking where i left.I hope to have good time with u.

Real Madrid have accepted a £19m bid from VFB Stuttgart for Klaas Jan Huntelaar, the deal depending on the Dutch striker to decide on his future and where he wants to go. After yesterdays rumours around the massively expensive Argentinean international Aguero the question now is ‘Huntelaar or Aguero, with or without Berbatov’?

Huntelaar is several years older than Aguero and has only experienced the Dutch League before his 6 rather successful months at Real Madrid (40% strike rate over 20 appearances). Sergio Aguero is 5 years younger but almost 3 times as expensive. Where’s the difference and who would we prefer at Old Trafford? Can we do without Berbatov’s assists?

I think only SAF will be able to decide this one but as far as I’m concerned my preferences go to the Argentinean international. He’s fast on the counter and although very often he will penetrate too deep he still seems to have the eye for the incoming striker. Huntelaar from his part has a much more powerful shot from the second line, something we have missed ever since the glory days of Paul Scholes. Something Benzema could have brought us, but also something we can expect from Michael Carrick when he finally discovers his distance shot again.

If the same rumours who broke the news about Aguero can be believed chances to land the young international seem to be rather high, especially considered that SAF is said to first have made a £34m PLUS Nani offer but this one was refused by Atletico. Obviously Atletico will not accept Berbatov at the same value as we signed him last season at but the first offer made could be decisive and point at a higher cash offer plus the Bulgarian striker. There seems no doubt about that Aguero could become the most expensive player in the history of English professional football. Or should we still focus on Huntelaar, who has been allowed to speak with VFB Stuttgart for the nowadays rather meager sum of £19m?
It just baffles me that an international talent would want to play for VFB Stuttgart if several other Champions League options are available… especially teams with a potential to reach the finals such as our Theatre of Dreams squad.

The internet reports that Manchester United has accepted a £5m bid from Sunderland for U21 international Frazier Campbell. Campbell has not spend much of time at ManUtd during his professional career, mainly being out on loan, but struggled last season to get time on the pitch at the Spurs, both under Harry Redknapp and Juande Ramos. The boy clearly is talented and might become a fixture in the Premier League but sadly he doesn’t seem to have the finishing touch we need as a European Top Squad.

Campbell also had generated interested from Hull FC and now seems on his way out. Sunderland manager Steve Bruce expects the deal to be finalized before the end of the weekend. Considered how much Campbell has struggled to get time on the pitch this is an awesome financial deal for ManUtd. If he leaves we wish Campbell all the best and much success in the rest of his career. He will link up with Richardson at Sunderland who left OT in 2007 for £5.5m. We have to love Sunderland for their great business spirit!