Today sees another stumbling block in Ferguson’s pursuit to sign Owen Hargreaves from Bayern Munich this January. Surprisingly this time Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has given German tax laws as a reason for refusing to let the England star move to the reds, ”Even if we got 30m euros we can only get the tax back on contracts, so we will not sell Hargreaves."
See the BBC For more on this story.
Does this mean Ferguson will have to look elsewhere to find a Keane replacement? I’m not so sure myself. It seems that the longer United persist the more Bayern Munich soften. There is only so long a club can rebuff the advances of a club if the player clearly wants to move. In my opinion the tax implications is yet another obstacle thrown into the mix into the mix in an attempt to raise Hargreaves value if and when an eventual transfer occurs.
In other news, I was reading an article on United Rant yesterday that discusses the disintegration of the youth setup at Manchester United. The article makes for devastating reading but I wouldn’t expect anything less from the editorial team over there. They love to tell it like it is, adding a unique “rant” style to every piece that they produce.
The piece suggests that the infrastructure is being disintegrated in a cost cutting exercise. Exercises like axing the second reserve team and instead opting for a loan format was one of the aspects the article talked about. The other was the reduction in youth coaching staff, it all makes for pretty grim reading.
I suppose the brighter news (well not really) is that there have been a number of rules imposed by the FA that make it more difficult for Academies such as United’s to recruit hot prospects. If you are interested please check out the article.
If indeed there is a cost cutting exercise going on at United, I think it represents a very short sighted financial point of view. In an age where bright footballing talent costs anywhere between £10 and £40 million, surely it pays to invest in the stars of tomorrow, today. If we don’t then Glazer will find himself having to dig deep for many more Wayne Rooney’s if he is to bring success to the club.
We have always been a club that has developed youth talent. It was apolicy introduced by the late Sir Matt Busby. To change this mentality now, would be to the detriment of our illustrious history. Glazer please invest in our future!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
i think common sense is right that we won't see another group come through like in the 90s.
my only hope for developing young english talent is uefa's proposal to limit the number of foreigners on a team. clubs will be forced to go back to local players....let's just hope that the 90 minute rule is abandoned by the FA....or adjusted for 'older' young players at least.
Post a Comment