The Ones Who Got Away …
Losing Paul Gascoigne to Spurs represents Sir Alex’s biggest regret in his 20 years as United’s manager.
In an interview with the Manchester United Disabled Supporters Association magazine, Ferguson said: “The biggest regret would be missing out on Paul Gascoigne. With all the Geordies here at the time and Newcastle being only two-and-a-half hours up the road, he knows it was a mistake going to London.
“I’ll always remember during my first full season going up to St James’ Park after we’d got these reports in advance on this dumpy local boy we needed to keep an eye on! He had real talent, the boy. He annihilated the three I put out against him that day - Bryan Robson, Remi Moses and Norman Whiteside. He beat us 2-1 single-handed. No question he and Wayne Rooney are the most talented players this country has produced in 20 years.”
The manager thought he’d signed the best English player of his generation in 1988 but lost out to Terry Venables and the influence of fellow Geordie Chris Waddle. Gazza agrees that his career might have had more highs and fewer lows if he had followed Sir Alex’s lead.
Sir Alex, unlike most of his colleagues, has little reason to spend long nights crying into his beer about the players who got away. United flourished following his root and branch restructuring of the club. Ferguson’s emphasis on youth allowed a golden generation to blossom and tens of millions in transfer fees to be saved.
Yet, in hindsight, Sir Alex may well reflect that there are three more players who would have claimed an honourable place in the red revolution of Govan’s finest, if their transfers had been possible.
AbsolutelyUNITED completes the list of Fergie’s lost players:
THIERRY HENRY
Incredibly, a less than complimentary scouting report prevented United from bidding for the services of Theirry Henry. The French striker had come to the attention of European coaches as a pacy forward with Monaco but endured an unhappy spell at Juventus until he was rescued by Arsene Wenger for a modest £10.5 million fee. Henry has since repaid that sum with interest, becoming the Gunner’s record goal-getter, a 21st century Anglo-French icon second only to Cantona and the forward who redefined the position. A United team featuring ice cool Henry would have been an awesome prospect.
RONALDHINO
Clueless Peter Kenyon had a deal cut and dried with Paris Saint Germain for Ronaldhino in 2003 but then watched helplessly as the player wriggled free from his and United’s grasp. Rumours continue to circulate that the player was always destined for Barcelona and United were mere pawns in an auction. Nevertheless, credit must go to the Catalan club for nurturing a raw but thrilling talent to world greatness.
Ronaldhino scores goals like few others on the planet and plays with the evident joy of a supremely gifted Brazilian. Rule changes outlawing the thuggery of defenders such as the inaptly named Claudio Gentile and Andoni Goicoechea, the ‘Butcher of Bilbao’ and notorious assassin of Maradona, have transformed the playing landscape for mercurial talents such as Ronaldinho. The inability of Premiership players to keep the ball and their legendary feckless defending, would have made Old Trafford a paradise for the Brazilian who would have been its king. What a loss!
JOHN BARNES
The great John Barnes is now perhaps better known for getting the sack as Celtic manager following his team’s loss to Inverness Caledonian, a defeat which inspired the immortal newspaper headline ‘Super Cali Go Balistic, Celtic Are Atrocious.” But 20 years ago Barnes was tormentor-in-chief of English defences and another wonderful player who slipped out of United’s reach.
Barnes first came to prominence in the early 1980’s with Watford and distinguished himself as a football aesthete in Graham Taylor’s muscular side which was not noted as an advert of pleasing football.
His career reached its zenith with an incredible goal at Rio Di Janeairo’s Estádio do Maracanã in 1984.The young left winger was just 21, when a mazy dribble took him beyond several bamboozled Brazilian defenders, before he scored with aplomb. It was Barnes’ first goal for England and as a breathless television commentator remarked: “What a place to get it!” Fans rejoiced and applauded the genius on show, rubbing their hands at the arrival of a major world talent.
Alas, Barnes was never able to recapture that form during 79 appearances at international level, although the 1986 World Cup did add to his reputation as another gifted performer at odds with the English coaching system. Barnes was unused during the tournament until, in desperation, he was introduced as a substitute by Bobby Robson into the infamous quarter- final between England and Argentina. One sublime and one ridiculous goal from Maradona settled the game’s outcome but at least, England were able to make a contest of the occasion once a moment of Barnes magic allowed Gary Lineker to score.
If the world seldom saw Barnes at his best, domestic audiences were treated to his brilliance for a decade. Barnes, the black, English Ronaldo of his day, was a natural United player, possessed of dazzling ball skills, excellent control, pinpoint crossing delivery, a to-die-for left foot and an instinct for goal to match the best predators of his era. An acute football intelligence was allied to an impressive athleticism which made him a terror of the nation’s fullbacks.
Barnes was as adept a performer in the recording studio too, as his rap in New Order’s 1990 World Cup anthem ‘World in Motion’ proved. His temperament – always important in United stars – was also ideally suited to the pressures of Old Trafford. This was signalled by the manner in which he withstood a torrent of abuse from racists on board the flight home from Brazil, who refused to recognise his right as a black man to wear the three lions of England.
Ferguson should have moved heaven and earth to sign the player before he joined Liverpool in 1987 for £900,000, a pittance. However, Old Trafford in the mid 1980’s was not the seductive lure it is today. United’s loss was Liverpool’s immense gain. Under the tutelage of Kenny Daglish, Barnes combined with United reject Peter Beardsley, to bring a new dimension to the club’s attacking play and was a pivotal influence on the Merseysiders last great team, scoring 84 goals in 314 games.
The decline of Barnes heralded the end of Liverpool’s dominant position in English football. He was that good.
Sir Alex might console himself that the loss of Barnes made room for the emergence of another exceptional talent at Old Trafford, who is still going strong some 16 years later – Ryan Giggs! AU
© Copyright: Absolutely United 2007
