Berbatov, Robin van persie signing and a couple of kids

What a strange situation it is for Berbatov, as a professional I must admit he seems to be consumate, after all let’s face it what striker as good as him would ever accept the treatment he has had to deal with (dropped for important matches such as the CL Final, considered second best to even Michael Owen-who could barely stay fit for a week-whilst still being Manchester United‘s top scorer throughout most of last season, of the bench mostly).

That’s not to say I think Ferguson is doing the wrong thing in trying to offload him (yes I realise that he hasn’t left yet), but its pretty clear Fergie has no plans for him now with a strike roster of:

RVP, Rooney, Hernandez,Welbeck, Macheda, (although i believe he will leave before the window closes , on loan probably) and Henriquez, (who as it seems Fergie is NOT going to loan him back to La U’s this season) and the man in question Berbatov, that’s 7 strikers not including the injured Will Keane.

One final comment on Berbatov is that I was not initially a massive fan of him , believing that he didn’t fit into United’s counter-attacking style, however I never underestimated the quality of him as a player. His technique alone puts him in probably the top 10 players in the league and that goes without mentioning the rest of his abilities. Or for that matter the man’s attitude towards the game and club/team.

What other sports-team would sit their record buy/trade/transfer on the bench and not only expect him to stay but not get any complaints about it publically at all from the individual. I couldn’t see Lebron James, Luis Suarez, Sergio Aguerro, Tiger Woods, Lewis Hamilton or Roger Federer being willing to do that could you, yet Berba does, without one iota of anger (at least publically if not privately). Such is the measure of the man.

If Berbatov is to leave I personally feel that the best place for him would be Italy or Spain as I feel that his game suits the style of football in those countries perfectly, which is interesting considering his agent is supposed to be in talks with AC Milan (Twitter Rumours).

Robin van Persie

Ok, so onto Mr. Van Persie, I have to admit in fact that when the rumours started to fly around about RVP signing for us I was not happy. As I have mentioned before my reasoning for not being happy was not so much because of the quality of the player , as in my opinion, his 154 goals in 355 games (total goals/apps all comps) proves he is a striker of the highest quality (when fit),

My reasoning for those thoughts were that I really didn’t believe that he is what we needed. In the list of strikers I provided earlier in this article it includes what I consider to be 2 prospects, Macheda and Henriquez (although I believe the latter to be far more talented, 2 1^stchoice strikers (RVP and Wayne Rooney) with a third (Welbeck) very close to being first choice. Following that although his debut season was pretty fantastic in our current squad I would still use/have Hernandez as an impact sub off the bench to inject energy or to used when we rest one of the others.

Having thought about it for a long while, I’ve since come to the conclusion that RVP will in fact be an incredible signing for the following reasons:

Ability: Don’t think I need to elaborate here, let’s just say top scorer in the top league in the UK and arguably one of the hardest leagues to score in , in the world last year. Oh not to mention the player of the year winner.

Price: For me (and I assume Fergie too) , if the price being reported is correct: 15million up front and 9m as performance related bonuses of both the individual and the team this season then even the most hardened financial analyst would have to conclude that is incredible business for a footballer of his quality, in a market where A. Caroll is being purchased for 35 million pounds and Lucas, a relatively unproven yet highly talented kid is going for 45 million euros.

Attitude: We are clearly getting in Van Persie a professional of the highest magnitude who not only has experienced playing under pressure in the premiership (already proven) but has bags of european experience too, the only thing he doesn’t have yet is many trophies , although I’m hoping we will help him with that.

Finally the last thing I wanted to write about was as some of you may have realised by now , the thing I am most passionate about in football and particularly at our club Manchester United is, youth development, but more precisely a few kids who I am really excited to see do well.

I was eagerly anticipating the official squad number list for this season today due to it being delayed because of RVP’s signing, but probably for a much different reason to most people. My reasoning for being excited wasnt to see if RVP would get Berba’s no. 9 shirt or if Rafa would get no. 2 (although I’m glad to see that Rafa did), it was put simply to see what “kids” would be given squad numbers and thus are likely to get playing time this year (although I’m aware it does not mean they will play lots).

I was ecstatic to see that one of my personal favourites, Davide Petrucci has been given the no. 45 as were W. Keane no. 48 (although due to injury is unlikely to play for a long time) Tunnicliffe no. 46 ,Lingard no. 35 L. Cole and finally J. Lingaard no. 35.