Man Utd Thread:

[BennyCake]

Anyone who thinks vidic would not have been of benefit points wise over the whole season clearly know very little about the game. He is a class act.

[/b]

That's a matter of opinion, EC.

[The Worker]

If van der Saar hadn't retired and vidic wasn't injured utd would have had an extra 20 points at this stage.

[laoislad]

Just going to ignore that Ross? Wigan fully deserved it after outplayng them at the time but now it's all because Vidic was out?

Vidic done his bit over the years to earn Liverpool as many points as he could!
I bet Torres wishes he could play against him every week.

[gallsman]

Anyone who thinks vidic would not have been of benefit points wise over the whole season clearly know very little about the game. He is a class act.

Of course he'd have been of benefit. To suggest that his injury is the reason United are unlikely to win the league is bollocks. It's Fergie's fault for not having sufficient cover.

[gallsman]

If van der Saar hadn't retired and vidic wasn't injured utd would have had an extra 20 points at this stage.

If United had signed Sneijder they'd have won the league by now.

If Ronaldo hadn't left they'd have won the league by now.

[EC Unique]

Anyone who thinks vidic would not have been of benefit points wise over the whole season clearly know very little about the game. He is a class act.

[/b]

That's a matter of opinion, EC.

It is benny but I bet if you asked other premiership players they would agree with it. He is training again and will be fully fit for the start of the season.

[The Worker]

Anyone who thinks vidic would not have been of benefit points wise over the whole season clearly know very little about the game. He is a class act.

[/b]

That's a matter of opinion, EC.

It is benny but I bet if you asked other premiership players they would agree with it. He is training again and will be fully fit for the start of the season.

He's the only utd player that would start for city (granted city could strengthen that area of the team during the summer).

[laoislad]

If van der Saar hadn't retired and vidic wasn't injured utd would have had an extra 20 points at this stage.

If United had signed Sneijder they'd have won the league by now.

If Ronaldo hadn't left they'd have won the league by now.

If Fergie had wanted United to win the league then they would have won it by now.

[norabeag]

Just going to ignore that Ross? Wigan fully deserved it after outplayng them at the time but now it's all because Vidic was out?

Vidic done his bit over the years to earn Liverpool as many points as he could!
I bet Torres wishes he could play against him every week.

And I bet every Liverpool Player+ supporter  wishes he could have finished higher in the league than Uniited every year over the last two decades but you cant always get what you want.

[EC Unique]

Anyone who thinks vidic would not have been of benefit points wise over the whole season clearly know very little about the game. He is a class act.

[/b]

That's a matter of opinion, EC.

It is benny but I bet if you asked other premiership players they would agree with it. He is training again and will be fully fit for the start of the season.

He's the only utd player that would start for city (granted city could strengthen that area of the team during the summer).

Valencia?

[The Worker]

Anyone who thinks vidic would not have been of benefit points wise over the whole season clearly know very little about the game. He is a class act.

[/b]

That's a matter of opinion, EC.

It is benny but I bet if you asked other premiership players they would agree with it. He is training again and will be fully fit for the start of the season.

He's the only utd player that would start for city (granted city could strengthen that area of the team during the summer).

Valencia?

Instead of silva or nasri? No thanks. Fergie didn't even trust him enough to start v citee.

[Captain Obvious]

Anyone who thinks vidic would not have been of benefit points wise over the whole season clearly know very little about the game. He is a class act.

Of course he'd have been of benefit. To suggest that his injury is the reason United are unlikely to win the league is bollocks. It's Fergie's fault for not having sufficient cover.

Has to be suggested Manchester United are going to lose it on goals scored. When Vincent Kompany was out for a couple of games their cover of Stefan Savić wasn't up to much.

[EC Unique]

Anyone who thinks vidic would not have been of benefit points wise over the whole season clearly know very little about the game. He is a class act.

[/b]

That's a matter of opinion, EC.

It is benny but I bet if you asked other premiership players they would agree with it. He is training again and will be fully fit for the start of the season.

He's the only utd player that would start for city (granted city could strengthen that area of the team during the summer).

Valencia?

Instead of silva or nasri? No thanks. Fergie didn't even trust him enough to start v citee.

Would have him instead of nasri every time. Not starting him against city was a massive mistake IMO.

[Jonah]

Ross4life - Uniteds record since the Vidic injury is

W 17
D 2
L 4

Three of the losses were 3-0 Newcastle, 2-0 Wigan, 1-0 City. How many goals would Vidic have scored in those games to turn defeats into wins/draws?

When you consider the injuries the 17 wins from 23 games show the strength of the panel. United only needed one result turnaround to win the league most will look to the Everton game when 4 goals was let in. Wigan got their first ever result v United this season & last to not least the result that IMO will cost United the most was Blackburn at home a fit Vidic could have made all the difference.

But yet United have 6 more points now than what they won the league with last year and still have a game to go as well.
And this is without Vidic playing.....
I suppose you think they would have won all 38 games if he had been playing

[AQMP]

Bébé, Manchester United and the deal interesting the Portuguese police

Sir Alex Ferguson signed Bébé for £7.2m in 2010 but he started just two matches. Now the Portuguese police are investigating the transfer   

Sir Alex Ferguson's transfer policy at Manchester United is attracting increased scrutiny from fans for its glaring contrast with huge-spending rivals Manchester City, and the signing of Bébé, for €9m (£7.2m) in August 2010 becomes no less curious with the passage of time. Now the deal, in which Bébé's just-appointed agent, Jorge Mendes, was paid €3.6m (£2.89m) from the €9m fee, is subject to a criminal investigation in Portugal by the judicial police's national unit for combating corruption.

The Lisbon-based anti-corruption unit wrote last month to Bébé's former agent, Gonçalo Reis, who has now formally complained to Fifa that Mendes improperly poached Bébé from him just before Mendes concluded the lucrative deal with United. The police asked Reis to recount as a witness his relationship with Bébé and all that happened just before Bébé terminated his contract with him and signed up with Mendes. The police letter to Reis, from the inspector, José Cunha Ribeiro, leading the investigation, informed Reis that a processo-crime – criminal proceedings – "relate to the transfer of the professional football player Tiago Manuel Dias Correia (known as 'Bébé') from Vit. Guimarães to Manchester United (England)".

Reis told the Guardian that when he presented himself at the anti-corruption unit's headquarters on 23 April, he was interviewed for around three hours about every aspect of his dealings with Bébé and how his contract with the player was terminated.

Reis said Inspector Ribeiro told him the police are planning to question United about their version of the deal.

A spokesman for United said: "Clearly if the police ask us for information, we will co-operate with them. Nobody is suggesting that we have done anything wrong."

The police unit declined to officially confirm to the Guardian the scope of their inquiries or what precise aspects of the transfer they are investigating.

The season before the Bébé signing, 2009-10, United had lost out, by one point, to Chelsea for the Premier League title, and were eliminated by Bayern Munich in the European Champions League quarter-finals. To then strengthen his squad, Ferguson signed just three young players that summer: the promising Mexican centre-forward, Javier Hernández, elegant defender Chris Smalling – and Bébé. Also a forward, Bébé's only competitive football had been the single 2009-10 season in the Portuguese third division. When United paid that fee for him, he had signed for Vitória, a Portuguese first division club, for whom he had played six pre-season friendlies.

Ferguson had for some time complained that the transfer market was over-priced and there were no United-quality players available at the right value. He and United's chief executive, David Gill, have always denied United's modesty in the transfer market, despite the club's massive income, £286m in 2009-10, was due to the debts loaded on to the club by the Glazer family's 2005 takeover, which have since cost United £500m in interest, fees and finance charges.

That same summer, 2010, City, backed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, bought Yaya Touré, who in City's crucial 1-0 derby victory on 30 April this season, dominated the 37-year-old returnee from retirement, Paul Scholes, in midfield. City also spent lavishly on recruiting David Silva, James Milner, Mario Balotelli and Jérôme Boateng, who left after a season for Bayern Munich (at a profit to City). The combined outlay on those five players was £110m.

United have always said they moved rapidly to conclude the deal to sign Bébé, and that he was the only player Ferguson has signed in his epic managerial career whom he had not watched at all before. United said the manager signed Bébé following a recommendation by Carlos Queiroz, Ferguson's former assistant, then the coach of Portugal's national team. Queiroz's agent, too, was Mendes. Bébé had moved to Mendes's company, Gestifute, only days before Mendes concluded the lucrative move to United.

Reis represented Bébé when he played for Estrela da Amadora in the semi-professional Portuguese third division, while Bébé was still living in a care home. In June 2010, Reis brokered the deal for Bébé to move to Vitória. He had played only pre-season friendlies when Marca, the Spanish football newspaper, splashed with the news that Real Madrid, where another Mendes client, José Mourinho, had become manager, were keen on Bébé. United signed the player for €9m on 11 August, two days after Reis received a letter dated 5 August from Bébé, sacking Reis as his agent. It was later reported at Vitória's general meeting that Mendes had been paid 10% agent's commission, and had also bought, presumably very shortly before, 30% of the player's "economic rights" for an undisclosed amount, which earned him a further €2.7m when United signed Bébé.

Reis's complaint, sent to Fifa this week, asks that Mendes be sanctioned for representing Bébé in the move to United, while the player had an existing contract for Reis to represent him. Reis refers to Fifa's code governing the conduct of licensed football agents, which prohibits agents from contacting players who have existing agreements with other agents, and from "any action that could entice clients away from other parties".

Reis argues in his complaint that a €9m transfer "is not likely to be negotiated and finalised overnight" and that "evidence shows that transfers of this nature and financial significance are the result of intense negotiations ... sometimes taking several weeks to be successfully concluded. Consequently one can conclude on the balance of probabilities that the transfer took at least several days to be prepared before it was finally announced."

Reis asked Fifa to rule in the case because Bébé's move was an international transfer between a Portuguese club, Vitória, and United, and he calls for Mendes's agent's licence to be withdrawn, "or other appropriate sanction".

United said at the time, and maintain, that the decision to sign Bébé was made, and the deal concluded, very quickly, and that it did not take weeks to agree. Mendes's agency, Gestifute, based in Porto, did not respond to detailed questions from the Guardian about the police investigation or Reis's complaint. The agency has previously denied poaching Bébé from Reis or breaching Fifa's agents' regulations.

Mendes himself had a meteoric rise in the football agency business to the point where he represented Mourinho and most of the best Portuguese players who attracted profitable moves abroad. He previously sealed the deals for United to sign the prodigy Cristiano Ronaldo from Sporting Lisbon in August 2003 for £12m, then in July 2007, in the early years of the Glazers' ownership, Nani, for £25.5m, also from Sporting Lisbon, and Brazil's Anderson, from Porto, for £27m.

Ferguson noticeably restrained his spending since the £71m spent in that summer of 2007, and continued to complain about inflation in the transfer market, despite United making a £68m profit when they sold Ronaldo to Real Madrid for £80m in July 2009. Nevertheless, Ferguson found €9m to sign Bébé in a deal with the same agent, for a player with barely any professional experience. Bébé then started just three cup matches for United last season, before being loaned to the Turkish side Besiktas last summer, where he has been out injured.

As dusk beckons for Ferguson's great tenure, Bébé is a signing which continues to stand out like a beacon.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/may/10/bebe-manchester-united-portuguese-police