2010: A new Era for Man United?
Manchester United is considered as one of the biggest clubs in the football world. They are a club which is called the wealthiest and one of the most widely supported football teams in the world. They have won 18 League titles (record shared with Liverpool), record 18 community shields, 4 League cups, 3 European titles and a record 11 FA cups making them the most successful club in the history of English football. The owner of the club is American businessman Malcolm Glazer. The longest serving manager is Sir Matt Busby between 1945-1969 and 1970-1971. The most successful manager is the current manager Sir Alex Ferguson whom is managing from 1986.
Manchester United is a club which is quite different from all other clubs with so many controversies. This year, 2010 started as an unlucky year for the club. At first the player to whom whole club was depending, Wayne Rooney started to take knocks in short terms as the year started. The absence of goal machine of the club showed in every match which he didn’t play. The biggest signing for the club in recent years was Berbatov who failed to show his quality in whole season. Portuguese International Nani’s brilliance was too late for a change of luck. Man United lost the league in the last match; from Champions League they were knocked out after a win in semi final yet they managed to lift the league cup with youth players. After the unlucky season 2009/2010, this season 2010/2011 started good for the club as they won Community shield. But following that, the club’s performance went down with lots of leaked points and controversies regarding fitness of players, performance of them and some private issues of them. I will try to highlight the current situation of the club.
Ø ON PITCH
- After the start of season Man United’s performance on the pitch was questioned by several experts plus media. Till now they have played 12 matches and found good results in just 5 games, 2 of them were match of League cup and community shield. Even though they are unbeaten in the league they have conceded unaccepted numerous goals. Those goals lead them to draw in 5 times so far. With an experienced goalkeeper like Edwin and one of the best Defenses in world with Ferdinand and Vidic, this looks quite shocking.
Ø INDIVIDUAL PLAYER ISSUES
WAYNE ROONEY: Certainly the best player of Manchester United in previous season. Rooney was seen injured frequently in short terms after the start of 2010 following his best goal scoring record in history. This injury got worse after the match against Bayern Munich where he took an ankle injury. After that he wasn’t totally fit and showed a poor form in WC010. There are news now ongoing that Rooney hid his injury to Ferguson and both are having an uncomfortable relation.
PATRICE EVRA: Arguably the best full-back for Man United in recent years. Evra was involved in all the winning moments for them in recent years while he played in all the matches last season. Evra also had a poor WC010 while he faced punishments after the World cup cause of the acts by him and his team mates under his captaincy for France.
RIO FERDINAND: Ferdinand and Vidic’s partnership in defense is known to be the best defensive partnership in years and it is called as the secret behind the success of them in recent years. This faded in the start of 2010 after some continues injuries for Rio from which he also missed the WC010. He was wearing the captain band for them in most of the games but in this season Vidic is elected as the captain on-pitch for Man United.
Ø FINANCIAL SITUATION
- After the club takeover by Malcolm Glazer in May 2005 club announced its value approximately £800 million making the club one of the wealthiest clubs in world. But in July 2006 club announced a £660 million debt refinancing package which resulted an annual £62 million interest. In January 2010, with debts of £716.5 million club further refinanced through a bond issue worth £504 million. Despite restructuring, the club's debt prompted protests from fans on 23 January 2010, at Old Trafford and the club's Trafford Training Centre. Supporter groups encouraged match-going fans to wear green and gold, the colours of Newton Heath (name which club was founded).
- On 30 January, reports emerged that the Manchester United Supporters' Trust had held meetings with a group of wealthy fans, dubbed the "Red Knights", with plans to buying out the Glazers' controlling interest. The Red Knights later admitted that they would not make a bid for the club before the end of the season, but it is believed that their preferred bid option would involve retaining the £500 million bond issued by the Glazers. Two-thirds of a further £700 million would be provided by 30–40 wealthy Manchester United fans, with the remainder provided by fund-raising from ordinary fans. Once the club is secured, shares would then be offered to fans, allowing them to take ownership of the club.
Ø MEDIA RUMOURS
- There were different news and views from every branch of media regarding the issues of Manchester United. The media attraction was first on the debt of the club in recent years too. One rumour that splashed was Sir Alex Ferguson was ready to invest his own money to Red Knights for the takeover of the club. It is also rumoured that Cristiano Ronaldo was also sold for the money they were getting and half of the amount they got was used to cover their 1 year interest which was later confirmed by the club. Then it was about Ferguson’s retirement which was rumoured to be done by the end of 2009/010 campaign which faded away after reports from players and staff that Ferguson will carry on till his health gives way to manage the club. The retirement of veterans Edwin, Giggs, Neville was also aired but only Edwin’s rumour is still ongoing after his disappointment infront of goal with bunch of conceded goals.
- The long term injury of Anderson and Hargreaves was also rumoured that club want to release those due to knee injury. This rumour was also faded after Anderson started playing regularly for the club and Hargreaves back in training and Ferguson showed his surprises with his comeback positively. Even though in recent years Berbatov’s signing was called as a Flop signing after his poor form, but those were silenced and converted that Berbatov is taking the position of Rooney after his best form in Man United’s shirt. Rooney continued his short term injuries plus media released his private issues too, as Rooney had an affair with another girl while he was a father and a husband. It was told that relation between Rooney and his wife was broken after those rumours. After all those, media started to rumour that Rooney wants an exit from Man United after an argument between manager Ferguson and him. The whole football world was shocked when Ferguson announced that Rooney was desperate to leave the club and he told he wanted to make the situation clear for the fans after fans champed for Rooney against West Brom which reduced the concentration of other players according to Sir Alex Ferguson.
Ø SIR ALEX FERGUSON
- Now I will try to highlight the way of reacting by Alex Ferguson on these matters. At this time when some players are linked to an exit from Manchester United, what should we aspect from manager? Sir Alex Ferguson used to have a strict way towards the players when these situations faces. He is famous for the quote “no player is bigger than club” and the approach for players as “my way or the highway” which resulted departures for different players in different times. Gordon Strachan, Paul McGrath, Paul Ince, Jaap Stam, Dwight Yorke, David Beckham, Roy Keane, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Gabriel Heinze were left after conflicts with Ferguson. But Ferguson only said that his biggest disappointment so far in transferring players was the departure of Jaap Stam and Ferguson himself accepted the mistake to leave Stam.
- Atpresent regarding Rooney’s saga Ferguson talked Rooney and revealed to media what he told “Just remember one thing: respect this club. I don’t want any nonsense from you, respect your club”, but he dismissed any argument between him and Rooney. He added that Rooney did hide his injury and Ferguson left the reason to viewers without commencing much on that. Ferguson is known for publicly criticizing match officials from which he received lots of punishments too. But so far this season he is quite ok with officials. Eventhough media allege that Ferguson has a link to Red Knights he used to support the current ownership of club publicly. Ferguson is always criticized for not buying top players and rumoured that it is because of the debt of club. Yet he refused defending owners by saying developing youth is better than spending on transfer market. Ferguson captured many youth players of aged between 15-17 years from different areas where the club faced many court cases, but the club successfully managed them all.
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Now I will try to give you what I feel on the future of the club. Manchester United is a club which could never depend on 1 player, but the club always had a good leader on pitch while attacking on successful days for the club. Maybe today club is lacking in that area. One thing we have to accept is that nowadays players are really over rated in terms of value. So it is better for the club to build players rather than buying players from different clubs. I personally don’t think they are lacking money to buy players. Second thing is will Man United be in the same situation as Liverpool is atpresent. I don’t think so, because of the huge community behind the club who are ready to invest more than billion to the club. Some also questioned if Mick Phelan did the job right after Carlos Queiroz left the Assitant manager role. I will say yes, cause even after Carlos Man United did play its traditional way of counterattacking football and players were well connected. Especially under Sir Alex Ferguson I will trust the whole coaching staff at the club.
Sir Alex Ferguson now confirmed that Rooney wants to quit the club and I personally feel a player who doesn’t love the club cannot exist under Ferguson. Now questions are flowing that who will replace Rooney. If I ask who replaced Ronaldo after his transfer, most will say Nani who was present in the squad. So to replace Rooney also I don’t think Man United will need to sign a new player. An attacking force which consists of experienced Berbatov and Micheal Owen with young players like Hernandez and Macheda won’t be weak. Many are questioning about the veterans in the club who will retire soon. To replace Edwin I don’t think they’ll need a GK while Kuszczak is there, but they may need a new GK to compete a place for that role which improves the work rate of them. Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes also may retire soon. Replacement for them also lies within the youth team. Da Silva twins – Rafael and Fabio are hot prospects for full-back position. Anderson and Gibson are good in central role while Hargreaves comeback would be like a new signing for the club. Cleverly and Ajose are training hard and learning lots from veteran Giggs and they should be ready when Giggs announces his retirement. Apart from those too, Man United youth team has a bunch of talented players. Paul Pogba is compared with Zidane for his interesting playmaking role. Scott Wootton was the 3rd player for Liverpool to be included in U19 side when he was 14 years old, when he was in Liverpool - only Gerrard and Owen did that before him. Corry Evans hasn’t played any first team matches but he is already playing for his National side with his brother Jonny Evans. There are more and more youth players who are going to be masters in their role if they work hard in this club without a doubt.
After all these controversies, I really hope there is going to be a real turnover within the club after this season (2010). The ongoing issues can really make a good impact within the club if it is handled with wisdom by keeping aside the tensions given by media and rivals. My best wishes to Sir Alex Ferguson and his club – Manchester United.
20/10/2010