Its finally over, Sir Alex Ferguson in his press conference has categorically stated that Ronaldo is staying at Old Trafford. This ends months of baseless speculation which eventually lead to United issuing a complaint against Real Madrid. My only problem with this is Ronaldo. The whole situation has left a bad taste in the mouth. After saying ”I’ll stay” Ronaldo changed to ”god knows” and then starts dodging any questions based around his future, only to agree to Blater’s slavery comments. Compare this to some of our past players; before it went sour Ruud always denied any move to Madrid, Roy Keane was honest – he wanted to be paid what he was worth, and even though Ferdinand made the mistake of meeting with Kenyon he always said that he wanted to sign on. Sure perhaps Ronaldo wanted to move on, then why did he sign the contract last season – and more importantly why did he assure the fans that he was staying ?
You would think that Ronaldo would have known what he was getting himself into when he joined United, there is no way that Fergie would have made United look like a stepping stone, not after all the hard work he had done. It’s a kick in the teeth and a shame United nurtured Ronaldo the way that Real or most other clubs wouldn’t, they stood beside him after the world cup and handed him a new improved contract just last year. For Ronaldo to say that he will win the fans over with ”a few nice goals” is shallow and stupid. Look in the case of Ferdinand, he didn’t win the fans over with a few nice goals, he won them over by putting his head down, working hard and ensuring that he was giving it his all week in and week out for the sake of the club.
In other news, not related to Ronaldo for once, Wayne Rooney is going to miss the start of the premier league. The amount of groans said at one time by all the United fans would have set a world record. Apparently, he and Carrick picked up a virus while in Nigeria. The latter is now back in full training but Rooney is suffering from a ”nasty one”. Now this leaves us in big trouble, Rooney has looked sharp and is very crucial to the system we deeply, the fact we only lost two games with him in the team last season demonstrate this perfectly. Tevez has been brilliant in pre-season, but it must be said he works best with a partner upfront. Rooney has missed the start of the past two seasons and now his match fitness will have taken a huge hit by this. With Berbatov looking unlikely, and United short on wingers it looks like a possibility that one of Possebon or Campbell could start in the charity shield with Fletcher getting moved to the wing. But knowing Sir Alex, it would probably mean a chance to start John O’shea in midfield.
Van Der Saar is targeting another double, and I don’t see why not. The squad other than upfront has brilliant depth, and the youngsters are brilliant. Speaking off it would be harsh to post this without talking about Rafael and Fabio. Think of faster version of Evra on the right hand side and you have young Rafael, his brother was actually his captain for the under 17 world cup.
In the same tourney Fabio got five goals, including one over head kick, Rafael got two. Two nights ago they were unleashed with Rafael in particular being called a ”sensation” by Fergie. Iam looking forward to the carling cup this year; I think we are fully capable of going doing what Arsenal did two seasons back and making it all the way to the final ( or one step better!) with our youngsters; Evans, Rafael, Fabio, Gibson, Foster, Cathcart, Gibson and Campbell all will be looking to prove themselves, it should be very tasty indeed!
Tonight though the agenda is different, we face Juve at Old Trafford for our final pre-season game, Gary Neville will be back in skippering the side and I simply cannot wait! More tomorrow. MUFC!
