Red Rants |
- Manchester United eager to win race for Portuguese prodigy
- The Wayne Rooney conundrum
- The best players in the world will always arrive at United
| Manchester United eager to win race for Portuguese prodigy Posted: 19 Feb 2014 04:45 AM PST Manchester United are said to be targeting Sporting Lisbon winger Carlos Mané, with the 19-year-old attracting strong interest from across the globe following a number of impressive performances this season. Mané, who has burst onto the scene this season following his promotion to the Sporting first team, is regarded as one of the most promising talents in Portuguese football, and if the latest reports are true, he could soon be popping his first car on a free ads site, as it wouldn’t take him long to afford a Lamborghini following a move to one of Europe’s top sides. According to Sky Sports, a range of clubs are ready to fight for the youngster’s signature this summer, with Manchester United reportedly impressed after seeing the winger last weekend. The young star netted the winner against relegation threatened Olhanense in the Primeira Liga on Saturday, and despite a long-running interest in teammate William Carvalho, United are said to be very interested in the attacker. The 19-year-old has an eye for the spectacular, as you can see by his goal against Maritimo in January, But they will face stiff competition from the Premier League clubs, with Liverpool, Chelsea Manchester City and Tottenham also thought to hold an interest in the attacker. The player’s agents admit that there is a growing interest in his client, and that Mané could well make a move to the Premier League in the near future, with his family already settled in the UK, “Carlos is concentrating on maintaining a place in the Sporting first team,” Dan Chapman of Full Contact told Sky Sports, “2014 has started really well for him, and he has scored three goals so far, but we should not forget he has yet to make more than ten first-team appearances. “He also enjoys a long-term contract at Sporting, they value him highly and so it is premature to be talking of a move. “That said, I am aware of a number of clubs with real interest and who are keeping tabs on him, and it has to be said that whilst a move to the Premier League is the ultimate goal for Carlos at some point in the future – just one reason being that he has family in the UK already – some Bundesliga and Serie A clubs might appear to be more advanced in their interest at this stage.” What do you think? Would Carlos Mane make a good addition to the United attack? Let me know in the comments below… |
| Posted: 19 Feb 2014 12:45 AM PST
So, on Friday we crossed the Irish Sea and, considering the predicament United have inflicted upon us this season, I must admit I was quite looking forward to spend a weekend without having to worry about David Moyes’ tactics or Antonio Valencia’s refusal to get past his man.
On Saturday, however, I walked past a newsstand and saw a familiar face plastered across the back pages, to which I reacted like most Brits do when they see a picture of the Royal Family while they’re away on holiday: a brief stare towards the headline, before a nonchalantly shrug of the shoulders that tends to signify “they remind me of home, I have to deal with these sort of news 355 days a year, let me forget about it for the moment”. Except that the face staring at passers by from the newsstand wasn’t the Queen’s or Prince Charle’s, but Wayne Rooney’s and, ironically, when it comes to Rooney my feelings have come to mirror those I harbour towards the Royal Family, which is to say that I’m aware of their existence but I’m neither a fan nor do I go out of my way to antagonise them. I’m, in other words, indifferent. Rooney’s behaviour was nothing short of disgusting when he wanted out in 2010, nor am I too sure he covered himself in glory last season, but as far as I’m concerned last summer had no bearings whatsoever in the way fans should judge him, given that the damage had been done a long time ago. On the other hand, even Rooney’s most fervent detractors – a group to which, as far as his persona is concerned, I was affiliated to – can’t deny that since David Moyes replaced Sir Alex Ferguson in July, Rooney has looked like a new player and United’s already dismal season would have almost surely been infinitely worse had it not been for him and for all Moyes’ faults surely the United manager deserves some credit for the way he’s brought the England man back into the fold. Similarly, I think that the outrage over Rooney’s new deal smacks of naivety. United have shot themselves in the foot by letting his contract enter its final year and, to use a terrible cliche’, beggars can’t be choosers, which means Moyes and Ed Woodward simply could not contemplate the idea of losing Rooney, not after they had pushed out the boat so far in the summer. Furthermore, and that applies to every footballer not just Rooney, if anybody is daft enough to pay one of their employees £300,000 to kick a ball, then it says more about them than it does about the individual pocketing that amount and those who claim that they would turn down such a pay-check on moral grounds are deluded beyond belief. It’s been tragically obvious for years that the only people the Glazers don’t give an almighty toss about are their main financial contributors week in, week out, therefore let’s leave naivety and ready-to-use indignation to one side regarding Rooney’s wages and channel it towards his proposed new role: that of captain of Manchester United Football Club. Some consider the importance given to the captaincy in British football largely exaggerated and misplaced, particularly in this day and age when teams are rotate with the same frequency with which former footballers wash up in a TV studio and naming more than five-six club captains is virtually impossible. Captaincy, however, is something a club like United should not dismiss easily one feels, particularly because barren times could be looming larger than anybody expected in July last year and whoever will replace Nemanja Vidic will have a sizeable job on his hands, whether David Moyes remains at the club or not. United’s assessment of potential captains on their official website has Rooney down as ”a player of great strength and courage”, but Rooney should not follow in the path of previous United captains, for he does not possess the same courage of the likes of Bryan Robson, Steve Bruce, Nemanja Vidic and Roy Keane, nor is the embodiment of the club as Gary Neville was. Perhaps one can’t expect Rooney to “get” United as much as Neville did, given that, after all, Rooney is a Liverpudlian who grew up supporting Everton and his financially-driven antics have already demonstrated that he’s the prototype of the modern footballer, whose heart is always ruled by the bank account. However talented he might be, Rooney clearly isn’t Eric Cantona either, a player whose talent on the pitch was matched by his magnitude in the dressing room, as his former teammates have abundantly testified and with all due respect, Rooney does not possess an inch of the charisma that Eric had, particularly as he still seems occasionally prone to snap in frustration when things do not go his way. And what of Roy Keane? One of United’s greatest captains in the last 30 years, Keano was unceremoniously shipped out of the club once he, according to Fergie, “had thought he was bigger than the club”, a sin Rooney has already committed – twice, arguably – and one United have been happy for him to indulge into, even before he was given unprecedented access to the club’s off-pitch plans. Loathe him or love him, Wayne Rooney is one of United’s most important players of the last decade, one who has split opinions more than any of his predecessors and one who might still prove pivotal for the club’s future and one it could be argued that those who still despise him might be better off to accept that he’ll remain at Old Trafford for the foreseeable future, Rooney has done too much to be appointed captain. An outstanding player, undoubtedly, one who has arguably worked hard to win the supporters back, but never a Manchester United captain. |
| The best players in the world will always arrive at United Posted: 18 Feb 2014 08:51 AM PST
The United manager signed Marouane Fellaini on deadline day last summer, only for the Belgian to prove a large disappointment so far, having looked off the pace and sluggish in the few games he played before being sidelined by a series of different injuries that have limited his opportunities.
Mata arrived from Chelsea during the January transfer window, but after the initial excitement generated by a new club-record signing arriving at Old Trafford, it has quickly become apparent that Moyes seems unsure as where the Spaniard is at his most effective and so far the United fans have only caught brief glimpses of the former Chelsea man’s talent. With United set to miss out on Champions League football for the first time in 19 years and with a spot in the Europa League looking increasingly likely to slip through their fingers, next summer’s transfer window is likely to go a long way in shaping United’s future and despite Moyes’ defiance, doubts have been growing over whether the United manager will be able to secure world class players. Mata, however, remains confident that the club will welcome quality arrivals in the summer. “I don’t know what will happen in the summer but the manager said the other day at a press conference that he’s going to be signing players,” he said in an interview with Canal Plus. “I think this club is at a stage of change, but I can tell you that the best players in the world will always arrive.” United currently sit in seventh place, 11 points adrift of fourth-placed Liverpool but Mata believes United can still qualify for the Champions League. “The objective is to get to the Champions League spots,” said the Spaniard. “It’s difficult because Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham and Everton are playing well and fighting for the top four, but I think we have a team who can do it. “This is Manchester United. When this club wins two, three or four matches in a row, it has a very important mental strength, a winner’s mentality. We are coming and I think we can do it, but we have to win a lot of games first. “This is a club that should always be fighting for the Premier League. I think, in the last 20 or 21 years, they’ve won 13 times. “The mentality of this club is to win and fight for all the trophies. Unfortunately this year, things haven’t gone so well in the league, but I believe there is still time this season.” |
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