MANCHESTER United have agreed a deal to sign Angolan striker Manucho Goncalves.
The 24-year-old has been on trial for the last three weeks at the club, and Sir Alex Ferguson has now handed him a three year deal, which will come into effect on January 3.
Ferguson told his club's website: "We have had Manucho here for a 3-week trial and have been impressed enough to offer him a 3-year contract.
"He is a tall, agile, quick forward and through contacts that Carlos [Queiroz] has was brought to our attention around six months ago”
Ferguson has, however, ruled out another move for Henrik Larsson.
The veteran Swede was a spectacular success after joining United on a short-term loan 12 months ago, scoring three goals in 13 appearances at a time when Ferguson was struggling for numbers.
To the surprise of most observers, Larsson rejected Ferguson’s attempts to keep him at Old Trafford and headed back to home-town club Helsingborgs long before the Premiership campaign reached its conclusion.
However, with Tottenham’s Dimitar Berbatov not for sale and doubts still surrounding the long-term fitness of Louis Saha, speculation about a renewed bid for Larsson had started to surface.
But Ferguson, who indicated he would resist the temptation to bring in any new faces during a recent interview with the official United magazine, will not be making a move for the 36-year-old Celtic great.
Promised
“Henrik promised his family back then he would go home,” said Ferguson.
“He honoured it, and we honoured it. It would be an interesting one, obviously - but I don’t think so.
“At this time of year, it is always difficult to get the players you would like to get.
“You look at the criteria of playing in European football. That is not easy. It eliminates a lot of players, so I am still of the same opinion as I was before.”
In fact, the Scot has effectively ruled out any squad strengthening when the transfer window opens next month - other than to try and complete a deal for Angolan striker Manucho Goncalves.
At 24, Goncalves cannot be bracketed with young midfielders Nani and Anderson, who have settled well following their summer arrivals from Sporting Lisbon and FC Porto respectively.
Indeed, unless he performs outstandingly well for his country at next month’s African Nations Cup, United may not even get a work permit for the player - who has been spotted by Ferguson’s assistant Carlos Queiroz and would almost certainly be loaned to a club in Portugal to overcome immediate administration issues.
“We hope he does well in the African Nations Cup because, as it is at the moment, he has to play enough games to qualify for a work permit,” added the United manager.
“We have had him in for three weeks, and he has done exceptionally well.
“He has done very well training with the first team and playing in a couple of practice matches.
“It is always difficult to assess it completely. But there is good potential there. He has good assets. He is 6ft 2in; he is quick, aggressive and very agile - so there is something to work on.
“If we can get the work permit we can map out a future for him, but I wouldn’t see him as a first-team player this season.”
What do you think? Have your say.
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Showing comments 1 to 23 and replies | View All
A Mancunian, Manchester (21/12/2007 at 15:07)
joey (21/12/2007 at 16:20)
Carlos seems to have so much more influence than the average first team coach... He was involved in bringing Cristiano, Nani, Anderson,Manucho... he's been talking about signing Veloso... He's almost building his own future team you know. Any thoughts?
Hugh Jarse, Australia (21/12/2007 at 16:27)
dustbrother72, Blackpool (21/12/2007 at 16:28)
United have had a few minor blips on the transfer front in past years so, hopefully they've learnt their lesson. MAN Ucho...it's got a certain ring to it tho?!!
Scottie-Blackpool Red 25 yrs and counting.....
Steve M (21/12/2007 at 16:41)
warlock, Toronto (21/12/2007 at 16:42)
Pepe (21/12/2007 at 17:32)
Nebson Dube (21/12/2007 at 18:32)
charbel (21/12/2007 at 18:58)
Red Lou, Malta (21/12/2007 at 19:13)
dr_hadi, kuwait (21/12/2007 at 20:30)
luis saha is no longer fit to complete the road
they should give tottenham saha and substitute him with birbatove with extra millions given to them.
Macca, Cornwall (21/12/2007 at 20:54)
yorkiecpm (21/12/2007 at 21:46)
Alias Smith, over the moon (22/12/2007 at 00:28)
Funny enough, none of them ever had a clue about the move for Larsson last year and equally they've provided no info at all aboout this guy Goncalves. Just goes to show how little you can believe of what you read on the internet.
Tommo, Folkestone (22/12/2007 at 12:18)
Henrik's spell was clearly above expectation - why do you think we tried to extend the loan?
AS, Ipswich (22/12/2007 at 17:06)
However it is very early to make comparison with Ole as it is to put too much pressure on the lad. I just hope he works hard when given a chance like Tevez shown to Anderson and the rest is starting to be history.Now i cannot wait for the African Nations Cup as i did not have a lots of hope with my country of birth Cameroon doing well.
Jrogger, The ether (22/12/2007 at 18:41)
Rossi wanted to move on--Fergie's on record as having wanted him to stay and tried to convince him that he'd get games.
Red Lou, good call on Larrson, he started brightly but by the end the only reason I was sorry to see him go was that Saha was injured. He was okay, but certainly I wasn't too excited at the rumours that he'd be coming back again.
adam chance, lowestoft, suffolk (22/12/2007 at 20:19)
cjh, Portland (22/12/2007 at 23:37)
Ferguson has said he won't figure in the first team this year, and it seems a stretch to think he might any time soon. But if it turns out he's good enough to be, say, a Championship quality striker, we might sell him on for a couple hundred thousand, and make a small profit. Although I'm not sure why we'd bother with such a small investment in that case.
I'm only speculating here, but maybe there are other commercial/development plans in play - perhaps trying to establish a relationship with his Angolan club to take promising young players from their academy in the future? But who knows, maybe he'll play in the first team some day. What a bargain that would prove to be.
And hey, our last four Portuguese-speaking signings have turned out pretty well.
zimmer501, malaysia (23/12/2007 at 06:39)
Now as agree as most of fans, time to loan Dong to other clubs.
Look like end of the road of LS in the summer?
Wunderkid (in Toten, Norway, at present) (24/12/2007 at 11:53)
As for Rossi, I've heard that he's in Fergie's sights for a possible return, as he should be, I mean, he only left in the first place because at the time it didn't look like he'd start regularly.
But then again, I've also heard that Forlan could be in line for a return.
By the way, could we please give Dong Fangzhou a bit more of a chance before we all start criticising him?
He's supposed to be one of the best young players in Asian and he did well on loan at Royal Antwerp for past two seasons and has only ever played reserves for us so far.
I've seen videos of Dong playing for the Chinese U-20 team where he looks like a young Zidane, tearing teams apart, no kidding!
Could we please have a bit more patience!
As for Manucho, he's a virtual unknown and would cost nowt, unlike Berba, Eto'o, Fred etc but he is the exact type of striker we want.
Wunderkid (in Toten, Norway, at present) (24/12/2007 at 12:00)
Talent scout yes because he obviously has a good eye for talent as others have said but as assistant he seems to have us playing a slower-paced style of game, especially away in Europe, which has meant that we've ground out a lot of results almost in the same mould as Chavski.
I think he should possibly be busted down to talent scout.
Keano and Cantona have both signalled their respective intentions to be coach "post-Fergie" and I would prefer them to CQ, whom as coach was rubbish at Real Madrid.
And then there's possibly "Sparky" Hughes and Brucey as well, so there are plenty of worthy others bar Queiroz in the frame.
cjh, Portland (24/12/2007 at 21:45)
But how can you mention Keane, Cantona, Bruce and Hughes as possible successors the Ferguson? In all four cases, the only qualification they have is that they used to play for the club. Cantona's only management experience is in beach football. Bruce has never had a team that wasn't facing relegation every season. Hughes' Blackburn are still just a mid-table club, who qualified for Europe by finishing 10th last season, then got booted out of the UEFA Cup by Larissa (they're from Greece. I had to look that up, because like most, I had never heard of them). Keane might make a decent manager some day, but have you seen who he signed this past summer, and how much he paid? Shockingly bad.