Man Utd Thread:

[ballinaman]

Welbeck to Sunderland for the season

That just leaves the other 47 strikers at the club...

[ross4life]

Let's look at the striking options for the Season

Rooney, before last season he struggled to get 20 goals in a season, now expectations will be high that he can repeat his 34 tally from last season, have a feeling injury & suspension will prevent him from doing so, 25 goals would be a good return

Berbatov, has never reached his full potential at united will be 30 in January a real make or break season for him needs to score at least 20 goals

Owen, will be used as a bit part player again hopefully he can stay injury free & score 10+ goals

Hernández, this guy looks made for the PL pace & great eye for a goal reminds me of a young Owen & 15+ goals would be a good first season return for him

Macheda, If the four strikers above stay injury free Federico is unlikely to get much game time at 18 he's one for the future a return of 5 goals would be ok

Bebe, now that he's signed up he might be loaned out? if not he may play in the Carling cup & score a goal or two

All other strikers are out on loan......

[magpie seanie]

I heard Bebe can play as an attacking midfielder too, something that we are in dire need of.

He's going to ruin one of your songs now

You root in the dustbin for something to eat
You find a dead rat and you think it's a treat

Why? Did he recently solve the social problems of Murkydive? 

[EC Unique]

Let's look at the striking options for the Season


Hernández, this guy looks made for the PL pace & great eye for a goal reminds me of a young Owen & 15+ goals would be a good first season return for him

Scoles recons he is a similar player to Ole!! Lets hope so....

[mountainboii]

Now that it's confirmed that it's not a joke, I still can't get my head around this Bebe deal. He moves to Guimarães for next to nothing then five weeks later United are paying £7.5m for him. Is it either:

United were tracking him all along, but the place is being run by clowns, who fucked up the opportunity to get him on the cheap and have unnecessarily cost the club about £7m.

or

United have decided to lay out £7.5m on a complete unknown, who's barely played at a level high than semi-professional, on the back of a handful of pre-season friendlies.

Neither explanation makes much sense. Definitely the most bizarre United signing in a long time.

[David McKeown]

Now that it's confirmed that it's not a joke, I still can't get my head around this Bebe deal. He moves to Guimarães for next to nothing then five weeks later United are paying £7.5m for him. Is it either:

United were tracking him all along, but the place is being run by clowns, who fucked up the opportunity to get him on the cheap and have unnecessarily cost the club about £7m.

or

United have decided to lay out £7.5m on a complete unknown, who's barely played at a level high than semi-professional, on the back of a handful of pre-season friendlies.

Neither explanation makes much sense. Definitely the most bizarre United signing in a long time.

Although he only moved about 5 weeks ago there's been a lot of talk on message boards and in papers that that transfer had been agreed at least behind closed doors if not publicly for quite sometime. So had Utd decided to buy him 6 weeks ago they would have had to spend the same money

[mc_grens]

No. He was a free agent 5 weeks ago. His previous club were in trouble and unable to pay his wages so he became a free agent at the start of the summer. He remained that until signing for free for the club united bought him from 5 weeks ago. The rest of the premiership is currently sniggering at you behind their hands

UNLESS, there is a provision in the Bosman legislation disqualifying young players moving over Borders with no fee involved. Wasn't that part of the Obi- Mikel debacle?

[mc_grens]

No. He was a free agent 5 weeks ago. His previous club were in trouble and unable to pay his wages so he became a free agent at the start of the summer. He remained that until signing for free for the club united bought him from 5 weeks ago. The rest of the premiership is currently sniggering at you behind their hands

UNLESS, there is a provision in the Bosman legislation disqualifying young players moving over Borders with no fee involved. Wasn't that part of the Obi- Mikel debacle?

I'm glad you have sorted that one out for us, the hardened journalists who work for the daily newspapers are still trying to get to the bottom of it but you having spent one day looking at internet speculation have it all figured out.

That said it is the strangest transfer I can recall and I can't see logic anywhere in the deal at present although I have to say I'll eat my hat if it emerges that United have paid £7.5 upfront for this guy

It's OK. I won't claim the credit. That all came from Gabriel Marcotti of the London Times.

[mc_grens]

Funny, thats where I got it from, maybe you should've posted all of that chain of continued tweets from Marcotti instead of trying to make me look like i was lying...

Still shocked by Bebe transfer... lots of questions... became free agent in spring after Estrela Amadora failed to pay wages... (cont) about 9 hours ago via web

# (cont) supposedly Queiroz recommended him... did they not realize Bebe was any good back in May, when he was on a free?     about 9 hours ago  via web

...(cont) so he signs on a FREE for Vitoria in early July who then "flip" him, by selling him to Utd 5 wks later at a profit of 7.4m? (cont) about 9 hours ago via web

THEN he goes on to say what you quoted as part of the same string of tweets.

[mc_grens]

Funny, thats where I got it from, maybe you should've posted all of that chain of continued tweets from Marcotti instead of trying to make me look like i was lying...

Still shocked by Bebe transfer... lots of questions... became free agent in spring after Estrela Amadora failed to pay wages... (cont) about 9 hours ago via web

# (cont) supposedly Queiroz recommended him... did they not realize Bebe was any good back in May, when he was on a free?     about 9 hours ago  via web

...(cont) so he signs on a FREE for Vitoria in early July who then "flip" him, by selling him to Utd 5 wks later at a profit of 7.4m? (cont) about 9 hours ago via web

THEN he goes on to say what you quoted as part of the same string of tweets.

He also posted this...

Not questioning Bebe as a player (haven't seen him). Just why you would pay so much for a guy who was free five weeks earlier.     about 9 hours ago  via web

...right in the middle of the tweets you quoted, you must have just missed it 

Just in case the link is...

http://twitter.com/Marcotti

Well worth a follow, he writes for the Times, BBC, Corriere dello Sport, Wall Street Journal, Sunday Herald, La Stampa, and Sports Illustrated.

[mc_grens]

Sorry bout that. Very grumpy today.

I took the ?'s to be him expressing his incredulity at the series of events.

It is probably the strangest transfer I can remember.

[magpie seanie]

Makes a complete mockery of Fergies supposed "looking for value" transfer market policy.

[scud]

"He's a player we've been following but he really came on the scene in the last week or so," David Gill, United's chief executive, said.

WTF? 

[NAG1]

Obv the pressure of other clubs scouting him has forced their hand on this one, massive gamble but then again if he turns out to be the business we will all be saying what a cracking deal!

[mountainboii]

Obv the pressure of other clubs scouting him has forced their hand on this one, massive gamble but then again if he turns out to be the business we will all be saying what a cracking deal!

No matter how good he ends up, it'll still be a shite deal if it turns out the club had to fork out unnecessary millions because they didn't get the finger out 5 weeks ago.