Platitudes And Excuses As the Winter Window Shuts …
With grim predictability, when fans expected new blood, United delivered old excuses.
The transfer window has shut with United boasting nothing more than a winter Swede. “We’d like to have had one in, but it was not to be,” Sir Alex said. “There’s nothing happening in January, so we’ll carry on with the players we’ve got. We are happy with the squad we have. We have a terrific bunch of lads. There is a good spirit among them, so we will just get on with it.”
The club’s top brass, delighted no doubt by their rivals’ inactivity, have whined about intransigent Germans, capricious teenagers and the dangers of seasonal shopping. But yet again fans are left to wonder if all the club’s wealth has simply been Hoovered up in debt repayments.
Some will look at United, sitting pretty at the top of the league and wonder why anyone thought it necessary to purchase new players. After all, with a side containing five members of the fringe, United swept past poor Watford with something to spare. Others will remember the furore that attended last summer’s presumed failure to recruit and point to Sir Alex’s remarkable motivational powers which have transformed his team into the Premiership’s front runners. Why spend if there is no need or the right players aren’t available?
These are legitimate assertions, which lose much of their force when it is remembered that it was United’s own management hierarchy, not the fans, which stoked the clamour for new faces. Sir Alex was happy to tease press men about the possibility of new signings. David Gill went on radio to tell fans that money would be made available should Sir Alex need it. Sir Bobby Charlton, a key member of the United inner circle, was the most forthright, saying he was “absolutely” certain United would be active. His reasoning was sound. “We think we have good enough players but we just maybe have to be a bit careful. We don’t have cover for them. We have to have cover for our better players. If some of the really influential players got injured then that makes it a bit of a problem.”
Quite. Sir Bobby, Sir Alex and Gill fuelled supporters’ expectations and then ran for cover when nothing materialised, sheltering under tired excuses dredged from a roster of clichés denoting failure. Such behaviour is as unworthy as it is symptomatic of a creeping tendency at Old Trafford to chase headlines at all costs. Ferguson and Gill could have reined in Sir Bobby and said simply that they were happy with a table-topping squad before retreating to Old Trafford to spring a surprise or two. Had United forsaken cheap headlines for a subtle, low key approach, any incoming transfers would have taken on the look of master-strokes and would have garnered the approving headlines the club’s spin meisters crave. For proof of the benefits of this strategy, look no further than the signing of one H. Larsson from Helsingborg.
Instead, United behaved like a contender and not a champion, snatching negative press from the jaws of potentially good reviews.
At the beginning of January for example, fans were told that Giuseppe Rossi, was coming home to add his firepower to United’s title charge after a disastrous loan spell at Newcastle. Home meant Parma. Then another set of headlines screamed that the manager intended to call in his higher-profile loan stars to bolster the squad. Yes, they were called home but promptly sent away again.
This provoked minor grumbles compared to the fiasco of the on-off Owen Hargreaves transfer. United have spent six months chasing a player of some class to no avail. Was nothing learned from the summer when a note-for-note approach delivered a similar result? Chief executive David Gill, is responsible for transfer negotiations and alas, has bad form. United waited until the last few days of the transfer window before faxing their bid. When it was refused, there was what looked like a collective shrug of the shoulders from the United hierarchy, which now hints that more of the same may be in store next summer when the hunt for Hargreaves resumes. C’mon, enough already!
A club which believes justifiably in the leverage afforded by a mighty tradition, a global fan base and a hypnotic media appeal, taps-up the midfielder, only to be held to ransom by the club to whom he is registered. Other big clubs, like Real Madrid, show greater surefootedness when performing the same manouevre. Ominously for United, they usually get their man.
Sir Alex must be an ardent believer in Hargreaves’ ability because United have failed to identify a single rival candidate for their midfield. Why? It is odd that Sir Alex may have to pay more than £20 million for a player who curiously has attracted little interest from other top teams. This is glaring evidence of the so called ‘United tax’ at work. Moreover, if Hargreaves is so good, it speaks volumes for the club’s scouting network that United didn’t move for him earlier, when he was more reasonably priced.
That said, few will remember such gripes should United lift a major honour in three months time. The run-in for the Premiership title and Cup honours at home and abroad starts with United as strong in defence, as light in midfield and until mid-March at least, somewhat better in attack. Luck with injuries and form permitting, Sir Alex can make a claim to having reasonable cover across his squad except in the case of two players. As Sir Bobby Charlton warned, fans should pray nothing befalls Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Scholes. AU
© Copyright: Absolutely United 2007
