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Wednesday, August 23, 2006

The Hargreaves Transfer theory and tonights game against Charlton

There are 2 things I want to talk about this morning and they are, not surprisingly, the Hargreaves saga and our away game tonight against Charlton. There is enough to talk about with these two issues alone that I could be writing this article all day. But fear not I will try to condense it as much as possible.

I will start with the potential Hargreaves transfer. A few people commented yesterday on the saga and together I think we have discovered what is actually going on. At this point I’d just like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who posted yesterday, your thoughts are invaluable to this blog and have helped me no-end in coming up with this theory. So this is what a few of us think has happened (sorry if this sounds like a conspiracy theory).

During the summer Fergie was interested in signing 2 midfielders. He landed Carrick, but still wanted of a utility player to complete the midfield jigsaw. Fergie himself has said on record that he wanted to sign Hargreaves before the world cup began. At this point Ruud Van Nistelrooy was unsettled and was desperate to leave old Trafford. Guess what? Baayern Munich were interested in him, see where I’m going with this? What I believe happened is an attempted swap deal was being engineered behind closed doors. Bayern Munich offered a contract to Ruud Van Nistelrooy and we offered a contract to Hargreaves, hence the reason for Hargreaves saying “the offer from Manchester United is fantastic” when we are supposedly not allowed to talk to the player.

When Ruud decided to move to Real Madrid, the deal broke down. Bayern Munich were fuming that Manchester United had allowed Ruud to move to spain and not Germany and all negotiations broke down. On discovering this, Owen Hargreaves who desperately wants to move to Manchester United, wanted to keep the deal alive and so said the things he did to the press. On hearing this, Fergie was delighted and dispatched Gill to negotiate a deal. Bayern Munich who are obviously not happy with missing out on Ruud, do not want to sell to Manchester United on principle as they did not encourage Ruud to move to Germany. It would seem as though Manchester United have it all their own way.

This scenario would explain a few things. The first is the fact that Fergie said that he had hoped Ruud had gone to Germany as it would have helped them sign Owen. Secondly it would eplain why Hargreaves had been offered a contract by Man Utd and furthermore why Bayern Munich hasn’t reported it. Thirdly it would explain the tough stance Munich are now taking with the player. It all makes sense to me, does it to you? Am I just getting paranoid?

OK let’s move on to tonight’s game against Charlton. Ronaldo faces his first away game and he is guaranteed to get a fair few boo’s. Thing is he seems to thrive on the booing, as though he has a point to prove. He played outstandingly in the world cup under fierce scrutiny. The player has received similar treatment here for Man Utd in the past. Fans call him a show pony and hate to see him humiliate their defenders week in week out. He has his team mates around him now; with several of them coming out to the press saying they will support him (he knows that already).

What do you think the starting line-up will be? And perhaps more importantly what do you think the score will be? I’m going to go with 2-1 to United, nine points from the first 3 games is imperative if we are to challenge this season. Over to you…

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Utd's team tonight (I hope!!)

Van der sa - GK
Evra - CB
Ferdinand - CB
Brown - CB
Neville - RB
O'Shea - CM
Giggs - CM
Park - LM
Ronaldo - RM
Saha - CF
Rossi - CF

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, Owen is likely to stay with Bayern. But let's focus on our first away game in the season, I don't want to see the surprising score as many goals as last match. I think we would beat Charlton with 2-0.

Anonymous said...

utd team v charlton tonight.

van der sar

neville
ferdinand
browm
evra

ronaldo
oshea
giggs
park

saha
solskjaer

Anonymous said...

utd team v charlton tonight.

van der sar

neville
ferdinand
browm
evra

ronaldo
oshea
giggs
park

saha
solskjaer

Anonymous said...

i cant belive a club such as bayern are letting personal pride of their hierachy get in the way of a player who clearly wants to move to old trafford. uli hoeness and karl heinz ruminegee are determined to keep a player against his will which is WRONG. They are doing this to prove a point to europe's biggest clubs, making out bayern are bigger than utd. uli hoeness's comments are suprising(if he does not keep his mouth shut it will not be very good for him?) considering he holds a position of geneeral manager. hopefully they see sense, but im not too confident of getting hargreaves.....oh well we'll have to get on with it.

jb

Anonymous said...

The link to the rumoured Hargreaves press conference:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/5277126.stm

Diarra was able to push his transfer through similarly. Discuss...

Anonymous said...

Tonights team

Van der Sar
Neville
Ferdinand
Silvestre
Evra
Ronaldo
O'Shea
Giggs
Park
Saha
Solskjaer

subs: Rossi,Fletcher,Richardson, Brown Kuszczak

If Giggsy hasn't recovered from that disgusting stamp on Sunday I would guess Fletcher will replace him in central midfield. Rossi to replace Solskjaer after 60 mins.

We need to by aware of Jimmy Flloyd if he's playing tonight, he usually does the business against us.

mr mediocre said...

if Hargreaves really really wants to go then stamping their feet and shouting a lot wont keep him at Bayern. However they could be dicks about it and keep him to xmas maybe. Have they got the financial muscle to do that just to prove a point?

Anonymous said...

This is the team I'd like to see this evening but I think Solskjaer might start as the support striker ahead of Richardson.

Van der Sar - GK
Neville - RB
Evra - LB
Ferdinand - CB
Brown - CB
O'Shea - CM
Ronaldo - RW
Fletcher - CM
Saha - CF
Richardson - SS
Giggs - LW

Anonymous said...

if hargreaves has really planned a press conference publicly claiming a move to old trafford, i think bayern will have co-operate or risk having a repution of keeping players against their wishes which could meean players would think twice about joing bayern in the future..

jb

Anonymous said...

Bayern have said that they wont let Hargreaves leave, and they are getting critism from Utd fan. But isnt this what we done with Ronaldo when he said he wanted to move to Real Madrid (regardless of whether Madrid wanted him or not). However, if Hargreaves continues to say he wants to leave, and is supposedly holding a press conference regarding this today, then bayern will let him go. A club of this size won't tolerate this kind of behaviour, and I suspect they are just holding out for as high a fee as possible. Anyway, I would prefer Mascherano to Hargreaves, but he has stated he wants to stay with Corinthians at least until the end of their season.

mr mediocre said...

look, fuck bayern .

Van der sa - GK
Evra - LB
Ferdinand - CB
Brown - CB
Neville - RB
O'Shea - CM
Giggs - CM
Park - LM
Ronaldo - RM
Saha - CF
Rossi - CF

Anonymous said...

VDS - GK
Neville - RB
Ferdy - CB
Brown - CB
Evra - LB
Richardson - LM
O'Shea - CM
Fletcher - CM
Giggs - CM
Ronaldo - RM
Saha - CF

I've gone for an extra midfielder to keep things tight. I would prefer OGS to be brought back in gradually to the starting line-up, so maybe next game, with a view to spurs. Could be too tough on rossi to start away from home right now.

Richardson was awesome against charlton last game of the season (hit bar with screamer and scored great goal) so he deserves a chance. Fletch has had a decent pre-season and he could do a decent job with O'shea. Giggs, Ron and Richradson will support Louis.

If its not going well we can easily move to 442, perhaps with ron or giggs moving up top, or taking o'shea or flethcher off.

I think we'll edge the match with a clean sheet.

Anonymous said...

van der sar

nevill ferdinand brown evra

ronaldo o'shea giggs park

saha solskjaer

Anonymous said...

just wanted to say that your 'theory' makes sense. i'm a united fan (of course) ... but is anyone else apart from me also worried for OH?? i mean.. i'm seriously concerned for him.. he's found himself in a point of no-return.. nothing he can do will endear him with the bayern fans. Which gets me to my next point.. I have this feeling that SAF has personally assured OH that he will not leave him out to dry.. remember how he had got Ruud? Even if we don't sign OH before the end of August, I feel SAF will wait till the next transfer window and persist till he signs him. And to be fair i think OH deserves that commitment from Man Utd :)

Anonymous said...

I like your thinking on the Hargreaves saga. It all makes sense. How else, after all, would he know about Manchester United's offer? Great piece. I really hope this still works out. But Bayern's making it awfully tough.

Tonight, I think the defense remains the same. Let's hope Evra continues to make progress. I really think he could be a player. Mid-season transfers are always tough. Up front, I wonder if Sir will give Ronaldo a run in Rooney's spot. Ronaldo has said in the past that's ideally where he'd like to play. Might be worth looking at. No?

Good blog. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Lets' wait until the weekend, Manu and Bayern have a good longstanding relationship and something will be sorted out. If Hargreaves comes great, if he doesn't it's tough. I mentioned in a previous thread that Fergie should have tried to sign both Hargreaves and Senna but he's gone for Hargreaves and I'm sure both Senna and Villareal are so pissed off that it would take a stupid amount of money to push a transfer through should Hargreaves not come.

It's ironic that we sold Phil Neville to help balance the books when the Glaziers took over and now we are crying out for someone to fill the role he played best in and in all liklihood we'll end up paying through the nose.

Actually as you mentioned Agent we might as well stick in a late bid for Mashcerano, we need someone because over the length of the season I don't believe our squad is as stong man for man as Chelsea. We are still lacking quality depth in midfield.

Having said all that I still feel we have a better chance than ever to regain the premiership this season.

Anonymous said...

i think we're all losing a little bit of perspective here - yes, we would love hargreaves. however, just because we are united and a player wants to come to us doesnt mean we have a divine right to that player. we of all fans should realise this having suffered the most as a result of chelsea's new found financial might. if chelsea decided they wanted ferdinand (they did) and ferdinand wanted to go there (did he?), would we be supposed to just roll over? i cannot see anything wrong in what bayern are trying to do.

Agent said...

I cant seem to approve your posts, I think the control apnel is down. I will keep trying, but please bear with me. Your thoughts are important. Thanks

Agent said...

I think everyone makes very valid points. At this point I'd like to say I'm glad I'm not a munich fan. If Real were doing the same to Ronaldo then it would be a different story, although I dont think we would have let it get this far (well we didn't did we) The problem Bayern now have is that they have allowed this story and speculation snowball so now it is quite literally unmanageable. I agree with anonymous that we have to offer all the support we can to Hargreaves because he is up a certain creek without a paddle now and he is getting ever closer to a very large waterfall. Tevez has gone off on one, which means we could get him for a bargain price, but I think we should sort one mess out before starting another. Not long till kickoff now... By the way todays comments have reached a record high, 22 so far. Many thanks to all you posters!

Anonymous said...

WOW!!!!!!!

COME ON UNITED.

You are my Solskjaer, my only Solskjaer, you make me happy when skies are grey...

Fantastic performance by united, some great goals and the icing on the cake, OLE banging it in.

...and Chelsea lose.

Oh yes!