If we only sign Valencia...

I predict if only Valencia signs, a) the team will not do as well next season, b) spastics will be melting down every time they lose a game.

Obviously, losing two world class talents is not a good thing. Ronaldo, when he wants to be, is the perfect football player. I guarantee that next season at Real, he will score 30 goals easily. I also bet Tevez will become a City legend, if he goes there.

Replacing all that talent with just Valencia is stupid. Frankly, Valencia doesn't even look better than Park on a good day.

I think Rooney will step up his game, but who knows about Berba or the young players. Macheda looks special, but we haven't seen that much from Welbeck. Manucho is a bust at this point.

I will never count this team out as long as Fergie is there, but the talent level cannot degrade that much without reprecussions. Developing youth is good, but at a certain point, there has to be a superstar veteran to carry them, or else the most you can achieve is Arsenal's 4th place. Will Rooney, Berba, and the defence be enough?

Totally agree. It's all a bit premature as we are only in June but Ronaldo not only bagged loads of goals but often they would be game winners or the one that sparked a fightback. That extra something special will be missed, even if others step up and cover the goal totals. As a result, as you say, I can see a lot of matchday meltdowns......
 
Thats a big call to make.

The club remains profitable - even in the current climate, and as such is a viable business - as long as it remains succesful.

It's certainly a balancing act, investing required sums while not going over board. One thing is for certain, losing ground on Chelsea or Liverpool if they spend big won't be good for the clubs balance sheet, it's image or keep the fans happy.

The Ronaldo money, by all accounts seems like unexpected and the club probably weren't relying on it. It's a great opportunity to bring in some new talent to try and ensure the club dominates and generates even more cash.
that issue alone wouldn't be as much of a concern, but when you add up that Chelsea were missing Essien for a decent chunk of their season they'll be even stronger coming into this season with Ancelotti and a fully fit squad, Liverpool were dominate and closer to the title that they have been in a VERY LONG time and I would expect Torres to regain the form that we saw in his first season in addition to whatever the fat Spanish waiter adds to his squad, and we don't know how much time we'll have left with SAF. Not to mention who knows what Wenger and L'Arse are capable of. It is a bit worrisome, but we have the whole summer and then some to see how things turn out for United in terms of adding players.
 
just to be pinicity, it was 4. ;)

You are being bit harsh on Tevez there. :D

This season wasn't great by a long stretch, but he did fairly decent in his first year. IMO.

am i being harsh though? he doesn't have a great touch and he didnt score a lot of goals
 
I never really understood all the criticism about his touch, always thought it was more to do with his style rather than his ability. He had a good first touch when he wasn't running around like a maniac, it's considerably more difficult when you are running about full pelt, and that's the case for everyone.
 
I never really understood all the criticism about his touch, always thought it was more to do with his style rather than his ability. He had a good first touch when he wasn't running around like a maniac, it's considerably more difficult when you are running about full pelt, and that's the case for everyone.

I agree, I mean his first touch wasn't anything special but the ball didn't exactly bounce off him either as some would suggest.
 
If it was just the case of Tevez, I would agree with you. But Ronaldo's departure means we need to get a whole lot more from our forward line, and in this situation I think having Welbeck as third choice striker is just too much. It's only one injury away from having him as a regular starter, at 18. And it's just two injuries away from having him and Macheda as our first choice foward line. Talented as they are, they are only 18, and even the mid-ninties generation had good combination of younger and older player in all parts of the pitch. Having two kids as your only cover is not just not enough, even if you're Hull City.

Only seven months ago Fergie refused to send Welbeck on loan, saying "He is too young. He is still that gangly lad who has not fully matured. We can work on his physique knowing we are not playing him all the time. He trains with the first-team squad all the time now but he can also go and enjoy himself playing for the youth team or the reserves."

I know what Fergie recently said about the World Cup and I also know I said he doesn't mean everything he says, but I think that's just a little too much to ask of Welbeck at this stage. You're not telling him 'you've got a chance to make a name for yourself', you're making him into a possibly make or break player for us. And I'm not at all sure that will be good for him. He shouldn't do this at 18.

Some great points Amir.

I don't think you can ever get the same experience and confidence playing for the reserves. I reckon his potential will be speeded up if he gets to play for the first team at least a minimum of 15/20 games.
 
I agree, I mean his first touch wasn't anything special but the ball didn't exactly bounce off him either as some would suggest.

It's such a widespread opinion though, which makes it that much harder to understand.

It's not just a few people who don't think Tevez is any good, it's said by loads of people.

I dunno, I think his first touch is good and he'll show everyone he's a very good player next year.
 
It will be next to impossible to sign a top class striker that will be willing to sit on the bench. It is obvious that Sir Alex will start Rooney and Berbatov. This formula chased Tevez out of town.
Ya I know there are 60 odd games at United but players' feelings get hurt when they are nailed to the bench after scoring some goals or on the bench for a huge game.

We will sign either a young starlet who will be happy to play third striker, or a veteran who will be happy to play for United in any capacity. I really thought this player would be Michael Owen but it sounds like he may go to Hull. Signing Owen on a pay as you play deal would be fantastic. Imagine Owen coming on in the 65 minute when we are a goal down. He always seems to have a goal in him and is a better finisher than Rooney and Berbatov. His record speaks for itself but unfortunately so does his injury record. He would be a risk but the price could be right.

And to answer the question if we only sign Valencia I wouldnt be disapointed at all because I love this team even without Ronaldo and Tevez.
 
I agree, I mean his first touch wasn't anything special but the ball didn't exactly bounce off him either as some would suggest.

I distinctly remember his first touch being pretty bad in his first half dozen games for United. I just put it down to nerves or trying too hard to impress.
 
It's such a widespread opinion though, which makes it that much harder to understand.

It's not just a few people who don't think Tevez is any good, it's said by loads of people.

I dunno, I think his first touch is good and he'll show everyone he's a very good player next year.

I agree. But I think he might thrive at a smaller club like City. We will see. Tbh opinions spread, and if you are looking at him and every touch he makes I'm sure he does lose the ball every now and then, but his first touch IMO isn't shocking at all.
 
I never really understood all the criticism about his touch, always thought it was more to do with his style rather than his ability. He had a good first touch when he wasn't running around like a maniac, it's considerably more difficult when you are running about full pelt, and that's the case for everyone.
Correct. His touch is no where near as bad as some on here claim.
 
I distinctly remember his first touch being pretty bad in his first half dozen games for United. I just put it down to nerves or trying too hard to impress.

There were a fair few times when his touch appeared to let him down. He looked clumsy, and that's not exactly because he was running like coyote.
 
I don't think you can ever get the same experience and confidence playing for the reserves. I reckon his potential will be speeded up if he gets to play for the first team at least a minimum of 15/20 games.

You are right. The level at the reserves is so low it can't get a player very far, and he will have to play at a higher level to test and improve himself. But at 18 you'd like to give him chances rather then put pressure on him as someone our success may depend on.

There's no way of telling how things will go next season - Another good League Cup run, another good FA Cup run, and so on - but chances are that even if we get a third striker, we'll still be able to give Welbeck a good amount of games. Just like we decided Foster and PIG get the cup matches, Welbeck can be the same.

He was only elevated to the first team after the season started, I think, and next season he'll start it there, so that's already progress. If we can give him that, and a decent amount of matches, that should do well for his progress, and we'll see where we stand in a years time.
 
It's such a widespread opinion though, which makes it that much harder to understand.

It's not just a few people who don't think Tevez is any good, it's said by loads of people.

I dunno, I think his first touch is good and he'll show everyone he's a very good player next year.

Agree with this. I can't understand how so many people have re-written history as far as Tevez is concerned. The season before last he was excellent, and even last year he provided some great moments. I was at the Wigan game in May, and the difference he made when he came on as a substitute was huge. The whole side noticeably came to life at that point as Tevez generated so much energy, and he put the icing on the cake with that outrageous flick to equalise.
 
Sir Alex wouldn't spend £25m on a very ordinary player.
 
I never really understood all the criticism about his touch, always thought it was more to do with his style rather than his ability. He had a good first touch when he wasn't running around like a maniac, it's considerably more difficult when you are running about full pelt, and that's the case for everyone.

My abiding memory of his first-touch is the ball coming into him with his back to goal and bouncing up around waist height, where he would waste another two or three touches getting the ball back under control, while he wrestled with his marker. Reminded me a lot of Alan Smith in this regard.

Sometimes his touch was just fine but for a top class striker you expect the first touch to be more or less perfect every time.
 
We had the makings of a fantastic squad. Now minus Ronaldo and Tevez, we have a squad that needs more attention. We are two players down, and two very good players at that. Of course only Valencia would not be enough. We are certainly weekening the squad. No doubt about it.

Yes, Valencia is not a replacement for Ronaldo, but when it comes to basic squad size and quality, we would be two players down. You need a strong squad to compete in both Europe and at home. Clubs llike Liverpool have found this out on a regular basis. We would have weakened our squad, the squad that has had a phenominal two seasons at home and in Europe, yet not strengthened properly at all.

Some said the final last season showed us we needed a new midfielder, as our 4 didnt touch the likes of Xavi and Iniesta. Whilst I didnt agree with that entirely, I did feel we needed an new addition this summer. Well now we have also lost Ronaldo and Tevez. Scholes and Giggs will play fewer and fewer games.

We are not in the shit, but believe me we need more than just bloody Valencia.
 
Didn't roo hit 20? I'm fairly sure he did. Yes he did. And I'm not being snide on the guy, but in the 5 years he has been here has never scored more than 25 goals a season. So I don't think you can really expect him to get 30 goals next season, although he probably is capable of it.

I would hope Berba could hit 10 more in, but he has to start shooting a lot more and getting into better positions.

At the end of the day that shortfall has to be covered. We didn't exactly score amples of goals this season either. In 32 competitive games this season we only scored one or zero goals. Thats not really great. Shows we do have to improve attack. Even though we were very successful this season.

Yeah. You're talking 20 if you're counting Club World Cup goals.

He is capable of hitting 25. Really that should be what he is aiming at.

Berbatov hit 23 two seasons in succession at Spurs. He hit 14 for us last season. I'd say he should be aiming for at least 10 more.
 
My abiding memory of his first-touch is the ball coming into him with his back to goal and bouncing up around waist height, where he would waste another two or three touches getting the ball back under control, while he wrestled with his marker. Reminded me a lot of Alan Smith in this regard.

Sometimes his touch was just fine but for a top class striker you expect the first touch to be more or less perfect every time.

Nah I'm not sure I agree with that.

Drogba and Adebayor are two examples of players that people call top class but don't have particularly good first touches. Sometimes they bring it out of the air beautifully but sometimes it just bounces off them. Eto'o's first touch is no better than Tevez's either, I think.
 
I would be since it looks like we are losing 2 strikers and not replacing them

Tevez looks to be gone and Ronaldo was pretty much a striker. We would then just have Rooney and Berbatov really - Wellbeck is v good but not world class (yet)

If Hargreaves is going to have injury problems we need a central midfielder too
 
It's pretty clear that Valencia is a more team-orientated player than Ronaldo's ever been, and he'll not try to dominate the play as much. If Valencia settles then it might get us back to a similar level of free flowing football that we had back in 06/07, when we replaced a quite selfish(in a good way, largely) player in Van Nistelrooy for a more team orientated player in Saha.

Yet Ronaldo was key to the 06/07 because he dominated teams.

Brwned said:
Eto'o's first touch is no better than Tevez's either, I think.

It's better.

Anyway, obviously people are going to be disappointed if we sign Valencia. We've lost one of the best players in the world and we replaced that quality with Valencia? Even if we sign someone like Benzema, yeah he's quality even though he's not as good as Ronaldo but in terms of talent, Benzema will help us way more with that extra bit of quality than say Valencia. Losing a player of the calibre of Ronaldo, we have to replace that quality as well as we can. Signing Valencia won't do that.

You can say "He'll improve us" but is it that hard with the current state of our wingers? We should aim higher and try to have near as much quality as we had last season rather than just trying to improve this United not even by that much, so signing a player with the ability of Aguero/Benzema and maybe another player on top is something I'd expect most people to want, rather than Valencia.
 
I dont think that we should waste 50 millions on 27 - 28 year olds. Stating that, I cant see the wisdom behind replacing the best player in the world (+ a quality striker) with a Ji Sung Park upgrade.
 
Will people be disappointed?

If so, why?

Regardless of how good you think he is, he'll obviously improve our team, give us a bit of added pace and directness and it'll make us a more complete team.

It's pretty clear that Valencia is a more team-orientated player than Ronaldo's ever been, and he'll not try to dominate the play as much. If Valencia settles then it might get us back to a similar level of free flowing football that we had back in 06/07, when we replaced a quite selfish(in a good way, largely) player in Van Nistelrooy for a more team orientated player in Saha.

I don't think anyone could really argue that Saha was a better player than Van Nistelrooy, but he helped the team more. When Ronaldo/Van Nistelrooy got on the ball the first thing on their mind was often just to go for goal, Valencia and Saha can be that direct when they want to but often choose to find a team mate instead.

You can look at that as a strength or a weakness, I'll choose to look at it as a strength.

I see plenty of similarities to the 06/07 season and if next season goes as well as that season I'll be absolutely over the moon.

No, I'll be distraught. Valencia is nothing more than a squad player.
 
Nah I'm not sure I agree with that.

Drogba and Adebayor are two examples of players that people call top class but don't have particularly good first touches. Sometimes they bring it out of the air beautifully but sometimes it just bounces off them. Eto'o's first touch is no better than Tevez's either, I think.

:lol:
 
He's obviously going to be more than a squad player, Jcurr.
 
Scary proposition that. Quality wise he's little more than depth and improves us none.
 
I hope he makes you look silly.

I think he will too.
 
I think we were buying him anyway for depth, but the media have latched onto the 'he's replacing Ronaldo' angle
 
I'd prefer if Fergie bought a couple of quality kids or youngish players, I dont need any big names tbh like Ribery. Even if it would mean that Welbeck and Macheda are our 3rd and 4th strikers.

To lose Ronaldo is a huge blow, however, I'm so confident that we will cope and adapt, as we have always done
 
I hope he makes you look silly.

I think he will too.

Brwned, you yourself have said that Valencia isn't United quality, so other people suggesting the same shouldn't really surprise you.

You're obviously beginning to warm to the thought of him signing as it looks very likely - the same thing has happened to me. But that's mainly because there isn't really a whole lot other available wingers out there.
Someone mentioned this being a transition period, then I'd almost rather stick with Park and our youngsters Welbeck, Nani, Tosic and Ljajic when he comes, than go out and buy someone, who seemingly isn't that huge an improvement on them.