Will Heinze Hold Fergie To Ransom To Avoid The Shock Of The Summer
Is Sir Alex to be held to ransom by Gabriel Heinze if he wants to keep the defender out of Liverpool’s clutches?
Heinze believes he is worthy of the United first team and hinted that a regular place in Fergie’s starting eleven could be his price for not moving to Anfield.
“I don’t consider myself inferior to anyone,” Heinze said in today’s News of the World. “This is a delicate subject, especially for the fans. I believe that to leave United for Liverpool would not be understood by them. I will only leave if Alex Ferguson says to my face I do not enter in his plans.”
It could be that Ferguson offers the reassurance that Heinze seeks. However at 29, Heinze needs first team football and might fancy seeing off Liverpool’s John Arne Riise, in the fight to be Rafa Benitez’s first choice fullback.
With a meddlesome agent and the threat of court action held in reserve, the cards may be stacked slightly in his favour but Heinze must know that he risked a blast of the hairdryer if he insisted on guarantees from Sir Alex. The manager has promised to rotate his players over the course of the season, so the defender can expect to be in and out of the first team. Moreover, Patrice Evra played well enough to claim the left back spot last term and would be outraged to find that regional politics and tradition rather than ability could give the Argentine defender an advantage.
United traditionalists will be on tenterhooks until Heinze’s future is settled following crucial talks back at Old Trafford early next month. Liverpool, with the cash and the selection promise to satisfy, may now feel justified in believing that they can pull of the shock signing of the summer.
