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MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – APRIL 30: Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini look on before the Barclays Premier League match between Manchester City and Manchester United at Etihad Stadium on April 30, 2012 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
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With the transfer window closing on the night of 31st August the time has come for the fans to analyse the performance of their teams in the transfer market, and look back on what could have happened if the rumours would have turned into real transfers. For me it is somewhat the same feeling, but for Manchester United and Manchester City fans the transfer market is like a mini competition. With the rebuilding of the team important for the upcoming season and City splashing the cash over the past few seasons it has become a necessity for United to spend to catch up with their neighbours.
1. Manchester United: Manager – Sir Alex Ferguson
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – AUGUST 25: Robin van Persie of Manchester United looks on during the Barclays Premier League match between Manchester United and Fulham at Old Trafford on August 25, 2012 in Manchester, England.
Manchester United headed into the transfer market on the back of an extremely disappointing season having failed to secure a single major trophy(pretty bad due to their high standards) and there were too many loopholes to be plugged. United were consistently outplayed in midfield and without Vidic the balls kept finding the back of United’s net. The lack of a quality playmaker was clearly visible and the central midfield looked depleted even after Paul Scholes came out of retirement, not to mention an out of sorts Patrice Evra who was terrorised by the meekest of attacks. So the fans expected to see a flurry of transfer activity but it was not to be.
United didn’t seem to have any actual plan going into the transfer market, but the priorities were known: a center midfielder, a playmaker and a left back. The first player linked with United was the exceptional Hazard but after flirting with United and City he chose Chelsea. And this failure to land the creative midfielder/winger had a very poor effect on United with SAF trying very hard to splash his transfer purse on Lucas Moura, who went to PSG instead. Meanwhile, Shinji Kagawa and Nick Powell arrived but a left back and a central midfielder were still required. United were linked with Joao Moutinho, Mouissa Dembele, Leighton Baines, Nuri Sahin, Kaka amongst many others but United ended up buying Robin Van Persie, a very debatable signing considering the amount United have spent on him, they recovered their senses though to sign Alexander Buttner, a left back but certainly not the ones fans wanted and also Angelo Henrique ( a striker, I don’t know what SAF is planning to do start with only strikers and wingers??). The transfer deadline was spiced up with rumours that Rooney was going from United which thankfully didn’t happen.
The list of transfers indulged into by United is given below:
| Players Purchased | Fee | Players Sold | Fee | Net Total | Points | Poition | ||
| Season 12/13 | ||||||||
| Nick Powell | £6,000,000 | Matthew James | £1,000,000 | |||||
| Shinji Kagawa | £12,000,000 | Ritchie De Laet | £1,000,000 | |||||
| Sean Goss | £100,000 | Oliver Norwood | £400,000 | |||||
| Robin Van Persie | £24,000,000 | Tomasz Kuszczak | Free | |||||
| Angelo Henrique | £4,000,000 | Park Ji-Sung | £2,500,000 | |||||
| Alexander Büttner | £3,900,000 | Paul Pogba | Free | |||||
| Dimitar Berbatov | £4,000,000 | |||||||
| Total | £50,000,000 | £8,900,000 | £41,100,000 |
Courtsey: transferleague.co.uk
United then finally ended up spending 50 million pounds and recouping only 9 million pounds making it a grand total of 41 million pounds spent, the amount is not too much but still quite large. The signing of Shinji Kagawa was by far their best business as he will make an impact with his creativity, but with Rooney out injured RVP’s signing suddenly is starting to look good (imagine United going into Champions League campaign and against Newcastle, Spurs, Stoke, Liverpool, and Man City with Welbeck and Hernandez leading the line), his presence will surely sooth the United nerves. United lost out on a quality central midfielder and a renowned left back and it might come back to haunt them. Buttner is more of a cover than a replacement for Evra and thus United transfer activity can be rated as good but could have been better.
Verdict: 3/5, one major loophole plugged but still squad lacks the depth to compete with European superpowers.
2. Manchester City : Manager- Roberto Mancini
JAVI GARCIA who moved to city on the transfer day deadline in action for SL Benefica.
Manchester City was linked with nearly every player in the transfer market but surprisingly enough it was only on the last day of the transfer window that they sprang to life having just signed Jack Rodwell before August 31. City has a squad competent enough with which they can field two squads in the Premier League and both will be able to dominate opponents, but despite this Roberto Mancini believes that it is important for a team to keep bringing in players.
City though winners of the Premier league failed to capitalise on their brilliant start last season and nearly lost the title, until they were rescued by a last minute equaliser by Sergio Auguero. So work was needed to be done and Mancini cut a frustrated figure as City kept failing in the pursuit of their summer targets. Hazard, De Rossi, Javi Martinez, David Villa among others were those linked with them but City failed to acquire their services settling for Jack Rodwell, Javi Garcia, Scott Sinclair, Maicon and Nastasic instead. City’s latest buys surely add more depth and quality to their squad and effectively plugs their loopholes. The departures of Nigel de Jong and Adam Johnson will not have an effect on them due to the new signings and clearly now it is hard to pinpoint a single area where their squad might face a problem. they have got enough quality in the strike force without Sergio Aguero too and defensively also they are looking real good. One can only say that at this moment they are looking real good to retain their title.
City’s summer signings are listed below:
| Players Purchased | Fee | Player Sold | Fee | Net Total | Points | Position | |||
| Season 12/13 | |||||||||
| Jack Rodwell | £15,000,000 | Greg Cunningham | Undisclosed | ||||||
| Scott Sinclair | £8,000,000 | Ahmed Benali | Free | ||||||
| Matija Nastasic | £12,000,000 | Vladimir Weiss | £1,500,000 | ||||||
| Maicon | £3,000,000 | Emmanuel Adebayor | £5,000,000 | ||||||
| Javi Garcia | £16,000,000 | Adam Johnson | £10,000,000 | ||||||
| Stefan Savic | £3,000,000 | ||||||||
| Nigel De Jong | £3,500,000 | ||||||||
| Totals | £54,000,000 | £23,000,000 | £31,000,000 | ||||||
Courtsey: transferleague.co.uk
Verdict: 3.5/5, good signings by City and their squad now looks close to perfect though they would have loved to have De Rossi and Hazard they really look strong on paper and Maicon’s arrival adds real depth to their defense.
So City having spent a lesser gross amount and having secured some good exciting youngsters look to be moving ahead with the same vision as United and they will surely be the team to watch out for this season again. Man United themselves have brought real quality youngsters and with proper grooming United have a great future but presently I don’t think they have a squad good enough to challenge City.
