Monaco players laughing at the ridiclous price paid by Manchester United for Anthony Martial
Whatever Ed Woodward and Louis Van Gaal are doing it's not working, the fact is Woodward is not a football man and is a former accountant who is not very good at negotiating and is looking out for a "stinge".
The Pedro deal went so long that fans and football followers were getting bored with it and in the end Pedro was stolen under the eyes of United by Chelsea. United needed three more players one more in midfield, defence and yes a striker. However they sold midfielder Di Maria and instead of getting players like Gaitan they got a striker from Monaco by the name of Anthony Martial.
Martial's offer was trebled in just one week which just shows that United were desperate, the figure they paid was 36 million pounds and this after add ons could go to 57 million pounds. Clearly Martial is not worth that and with that price United could have got a more capable striker like Jackson Martinez or a great cut price bargain in midfield like Douglas Costa which Bayern Munich did.
Van Gaal also has a problem with fantasy or creative players which is embedded into United's culture with players like George Best, Ryan Giggs, Eric Cantona and Cristiano Ronaldo. Van Gaal had this problem with Rivaldo at Barcelona a decade or so ago, asking him to switch position and stay fixed in a role and he did this with Di Maria too.
If you look at Di Maria and how he plays for Argentina and what he did for Real Madrid he cuts in and makes that run and decides when to cross or when to dribble and pass, this was not encouraged by Van Gaal and Di Maria stated " My relationship with Van Gaal was difficult".
What is more United actually have released more players than they bought including loans Janusaj, Blackett, Van Persie, Chicarito Hernandez, Evans, Rafael, Ben Amos, Tom Cleverly, Angelo Henriquez, Reece James, Saidy Janko, Will Keane, Nani, Anderson and Anders Lindegaard.
The dealing with Chicarito was a disgrace and it seems that van Gaal based this decision on his penalty when he missed it against Club Brugge for god sake he slipped!
It might seem that David Moyes had set the club backward after just one season, but the real truth is Sir Alex and former CEO David Gill left the club at the same time, on hindsight David Gill should have stayed-it only goes to show how good Gill was, as we only notice the role of a CEO when something goes wrong and in Woodward's case it is, the transition was just too much to handle.
Rooney meanwhile despite the hattrick against Club Brugge needs to buck up, but he is riding on reputation and has been slacking now for at least two seasons and his smoking seems to have caught up with him. United were boring in the defeat against Swansea and you rarely associate the word boring with the Red Devils, the swashbuckling and cavalier United were missing . Add the David de Gea transfer mishap and you can see something is a miss at United and maybe if they were not listed on New York Stock Exchange, Woodward the current CEO would be out by now.
Van Gaal brings stability, but not creativity to the club, after the Moyes debacle, but three years should just be enough for him and maybe either Guardiola or Giggs might be up to it, but whoever it is must welcome fantasy players and not be so anal about tactics and avoid putting players like Di Maria in a straight jacket.
Comments