Rumour United looking at transfer of Adriano. do we need him? Can we afford him?

There is news today that Fergie is still on the hunt for a striker. The same targets keep rearing their heads in Tevez and Torres, although no formal approach has been made for either. Hower the Times reports today that Man Utd have expressed an interest in none other that Adriano. Read it here. The real question is do we really need to splash the cash up front? Should we wait and see until Christmas, or will it be too late by then with Chelsea having a lead of 15 points again?

Don’t get me wrong Adriano is a fantastic player; he was one of the few Brazilians along with Kaka who emerged with some credit from the world cup. In Adriano you get that real samba style. You can picture the guy playing in bare foot on the beach, no set position, just playing the game in its rawest form.

Adriano has the power, strength and skill to perform in any league in the world; he is one of those players who just “has it”. However I am shuddering at the thought of how much he would cost. He is a massive player and I couldn’t see him moving for less than £30 million. This in theory shouldn’t be a problem as we were promised £25 million per season to spend, and we have actually made a profit this season on transfer activity. However with the likelihood of Senna’s arrival as well as Kuszczak, this would take our net spending to about £6 million it may be a stretching the budget a little too much.

There is the other question that has been on my mind for a while now and that is, do we really have £25 million to spend a season? Whatever your thoughts are on the Glazers, they are with us now and we need to concentrate on supporting our club and our manager. The restructuring of the debt has brought interest payments down, but I think it will be a couple of seasons until the bank balance returns to somewhere where we can spend big again. Our early exit from the champion’s league has probably cost us £10 million and that will have to come from somewhere. Couple this with the massive amount of interest we had to pay last season before the debt restructuring and things don’t look quite so rosy. But things will get better and this provides us with the opportunity to bring on the youngsters, something we are famed for. We have saved a fortune in the past and it may be the way we go for the next 2 seasons. Should we do well this term I am sure there will be more to spend next season.

So back to Adriano do we really need him? We would all like him yes, but if we can manage without him I say let’s try to do so. I am reluctant to spend huge in an attempt to chase glory. I prefer the integration of youth and experience and in Rooney, Rossi, Saha and Solskjaer we have just that.

The question I want to put to you all is if you could sign one of the strikers that we are reportedly after, which one would it be and why? Torrez, Tevez or Adriano? The fourth option is no-one, stick with our current squad…. Over to you!