Hargreaves was England's best player by far in the 2006 world cup (and playing a fair bit of right back). 17 mil is a bit steep, but the good thing is that he seems as though he geniunely wants to play for us (And not get stolen by Chelsea). I'm expecting Giggs to play a much lesser role next year and I have my doubts on whether Scholes will return next year (no evidence, just a feeling I have), he's the type to try to go out in his terms rather than being pushed out when his boy can't cope anymore.
Another point is that for Munich, he've actually line-up on the left wing a few times and looked very capable out there (thought he game I saw was when he was against Becks, so...), I really don't think he'll be that much worse than Gerrald playing on the right wing if he is deployed there (Gerrald is a super player - that's wasted on the right and wasted for England because of Fat Lampard). If fat Lampard is valued at 20 mil +, then 17 mil is decent enough.
As Tuffty had mentioned, it'll be interesting to see what kind of formation we put out next season. The 4-2-3-1 formation worked wonders for us in the premiership, especially when Rooney is played as one of the attacking midfielders/supporting strikers rather than as the out-and-out striker (I thought he's much more effective when Saha or Smith is the starting line-up). We used more of a 4-5-1 against Milan and in the FA cup final partly because we didn't trust Brown or O'Shea and need a runner in Fletcher to help them out - but to me, our players stuggled in the 4-5-1. I guess it would depend on who we get as our new forward (we better get one!) And I hope we get a more traditional no.9 type like Huntaleer rather than a Tevez type for balance. That way, it would free Rooney and allowing him to do his work deeper and receive the ball on the flanks and get behind the defender.
An interesting transfer gossip target is Viduka, while he's 31 and lumbering, he's very good with his back to goal and is great in releasing the runners from midfield. In the world cup, Australia played 3-4-2-1 or a 4-2-3-1 and while he didn't score, he created a lot of opportunities for his attacking midfielders, so he might be very handy against the Europeans teams that plays a much slower tempo. And he's on a free transfer so he'll be good insurance on the bench and he did chip in with 19 goals in all comps last year. I would be really happy if we get Darren Bent or Huntalaar and have him as insurance (presuming someone will take Saha off our books).
Right now, I'm not too optimistic about getting Etoo or Torres, if we do, it would be at an ridiculous price anyway. Even if we sell Heinze, I think we're fine with our backs, I really look forward to see whether Evans or Simpson can break into our first team. I'm very high on Evans, I think he's a much better player than O'Shea and Brown right now. And we still have to figure out what to do with Pique, who's doing really well in Spain (and I suspect he would want to stay there).
I'll also like to see Foster taking over from Van Der Sar, Foster is clearly a talented keeper, if Van Der Sar is willing to take a more backseat role and help develop him, than he might be pushing for Robinson's spot in a few years. Rossi is another loanee who has done really well at Parma, if we keep him, maybe we can develop him into a scholes-like player as I see a lot of similarities between them - smiliar statue/built, great technically, good vision and passing, and remember Scholes starting out as a forward before becoming a star midfielder.
Giggs and Scholes have clearly struggled in the last 3-4 weeks of the campaign, so I hope they play a far smaller role next year. I definitely think it would be a much tighter contest next year in the premiership and I think we actually have a lot of talent youngsters on our payroll and hopefully we'll see them develop and erasing the likes of Richardson from our first team sheet all together - (Robson has a job! Maybe he'll bid for Richardson because he likes him so much - we can always hope.)
Topic: Official FOOTBALL Thread (Read 301294 times)