Winter Transfer Window - Day 16: Are United Caught in a Lie?
Hopes that United will make new signings during the transfer window have been dashed.
“We are certainly not in the position of needing to panic buy,” Sir Alex advised. “We are working on one or two things but don’t hold your breath.
“Overall the question of signing new players in mid-season is not as straightforward as it might appear. We have had mixed fortunes taking new people on board halfway through the season. I much prefer a newcomer to have the benefit of pre-season training.
“It’s difficult. Someone [at Bayern] will say something, then someone else will say something different. We’re working away but it’s never easy.”
The admission follows repeat difficulties in bringing Bayern Munich to the negotiating table over Owen Hargreaves’ wish to move to Old Trafford and Southampton’s stout resistance to defender Gareth Bale leaving St Mary’s for anything less than £7 million.
Last month, a confident United were far more upbeat. “We’re not sitting on our backsides,” Ferguson confirmed. “I don’t want to comment on the Hargreaves situation. I don’t want to upset those poor Germans. They’re very fragile.”
Chief executive David Gill also warmed to the same theme. He said : “If we determine that there is somebody who can come in and strengthen the club, then there is certainly money there.”
When press spoilers in The Times and elsewhere suggested a lack of available talent meant United would not recruit, Sir Alex went on the counter attack. “You never know, I may sign someone else,” the manager said. “No-one expected Henrik Larsson and I might surprise everyone again.”
With Chelsea riven by internal wrangling and Liverpool and Arsenal off the Premiership pace, this would be an ideal moment to turn the screw and underline United’s intention to finish first this year. The impact of Sir Alex, seizing with both hands the opportunity to recruit players of genuine class, would be enormous. It would affirm an iron law of football - strengthen whilst strong. Sir Bobby Charlton was right on the money when he said last month: “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.”
Henrik Larsson has joined United on loan for three months and is as welcome as sunshine after a storm. Larsson might prove to be the signing of this, or any other winter transfer window, if his goals and assists help United to domestic and European glory. But fans had expected more. Much more. Sir Bobby Charlton believed the same and the manager and chief executive David Gill were happy to unleash United’s media machine and give the nods and winks needed to encourage expectation.
Now December’s ‘commitment’ could come to nothing. Despite claiming to have been at work on the transfer since last summer, Sir Alex revealed that negotiations remain difficult with Bayern. The Bavarians seem to go light-headed at the size of United’s promised cheque, as fast as their hearts go hard whenever serious thought is given to selling Hargreaves. The long, drawn-out chase for the England midfielder and the nagging fear that this transfer is doomed to failure, make fans ready to believe the hard luck stories peddled by United’s top brass in the national press.
So what should be made of the Bavarian admission, buried in an article in the Manchester Evening News, that no-one from United has been in touch to discuss the Hargreaves deal?
“We have no offer or communication with Manchester United,” a Bayern spokesman confessed. “There is no chance of Owen leaving in the winter break. Zero chance. The situation may be different at the end of the season if we are buying other players and we get someone we want. That may change things. But at the moment the situation remains the same. Owen is not leaving.”
The spokesman may have been ill-informed or have set out mischievously to cause confusion. United may be using intermediaries to negotiate with Bayern, although fans had been told previously by Sir Alex that David Gill was in charge of the negotiations. Perhaps, the Germans are embarassed to admit they are actively looking to cash in on a player whom they hope United will buy for a staggering £20 million, having been adamant for so long that he would never be sold.
But if the Bayern spokesman gave an accurate account of what is not going on behind the scenes, then United are caught in a lie, casting lasting doubt on the real purpose of December’s media offensive.
Perhaps, it is naive to believe football clubs are beyond sleight of hand, smoke and mirror public relations games. It may well be true that fans will accept economies in straight forwardness as being part and parcel of the club’s overall communication strategy, so long as the team keeps winning.
United spin meisters may believe that by playing fast and lose with the truth, they serve higher goals. But reputations of men as revered as Sir Bobby Charlton are on the line. David Gill seemed happy to report last month that United’s on-field achievements had spiked the guns of the vocal anti-Glazer minority. The chief executive might well be right, unless United’s owners are found to be using the team’s current success as cover for another under-spend in the transfer budget. AU
© Copyright: Absolutely United 2007
