Obertan has secured a four-year contract at Old Trafford, after leaving Bordeaux for a reported £3million.
He ended last season on loan to Lorient, where he scored one goal in 15 appearances and made only six starts.
However, he was named the most valuable player at the Toulon youth tournament last month.
That prompted United manager Sir Alex Ferguson to move in and increase his attacking options following the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid.
Obertan told French radio station RMC: “I knew they had been following me for a few years but I did not think it was going to happen this season.
“We had no longer been in too much contact until the England Under-21s game where I played well for France and scored a goal.
“That helped things along. We spoke again, and I ended up signing.
“He (Ferguson) has put me at ease.
“He said to me that he knows my pros and cons. It’s my potential that interests him. He has confidence in me. It is flattering and surprising.
“But I know I still have a lot of work to do to get to that (Ronaldo’s) level.
Lorient coach Christian Gourcuff is not convinced Obertan will be a success at United.
“He certainly has some talent, but also some gaps (in his game),” Gourcuff, whose son Yoann is the playmaker for France and Bordeaux, told Europe 1.
“I hope he will succeed, but he will have to make the step up mentally.”
Obertan will sit out United’s tour of Asia, because he is suffering from a minor injury.
The club head off next week and play their opening match on July 18 against a Malaysia XI.
Three other matches have been scheduled in Indonesia, Korea and China.
Rio Ferdinand believes it will be ideal preparation for the coming campaign.
“The important thing about pre-season is getting some good training done, ” the England defender told MUTV.
“One of the main reasons we have been successful in the last few years is because we’ve had a good base from pre-season.
“It takes a bit of time to get used to the humid conditions in Asia. But it is a good exercise to play against teams that pose different threats.”
What do you think? Have your say.
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edinburgh red, edinburgh (09/07/2009 at 12:55)
Red-Brit-in-It (09/07/2009 at 13:17)
Duncan, London (09/07/2009 at 13:23)
tooth&claw, manchester (09/07/2009 at 14:25)
bobbydazzler (09/07/2009 at 14:27)
ronaldo insisted on going and his attitude last season clearly showed his intentions.
if owen gets fit he will score far more goals than tevez. owen will not need 5/6 chances to score like tevez.
dennis d, Moston..... (09/07/2009 at 14:44)
joey (09/07/2009 at 15:12)
As for Diego, Veloso, Moutinho, Hamsik et. al, I really don't see any of them offering significantly more than Darren Fletcher or Anderson can.
Mushhhty (09/07/2009 at 15:40)
FERGIE OUT!
Red-Brit-in-It (09/07/2009 at 15:56)
stuart ripley (09/07/2009 at 15:58)
Lower Broughton Soul, "In 76, oh yes it's true......" (09/07/2009 at 16:33)
From the signings he has made so far, I do believe both Owen and Valencia will so well for us. Obertan has obviously been bought with next season (10/11) in mind.
I just hope that Hargreaves shakes off this injury that has plagued him for the last few years. If so, for me, he will potentially be United's most imfluntial player.
As the saying goes...In Fergie we trust.
Gilly, Belgium (09/07/2009 at 16:34)
tooth&claw, manchester (09/07/2009 at 16:47)
Flair lacking? We are widely acknowledge to be the flair team of Europe, along with Barca. Losing Ronaldo is a blow of course but he didn't provide all of the flair you know.
What's the point of spending money just because we've got it? The prices are too high just now and there's no-one available who would improve us. In fact, there's probably only half a dozen established players who would improve us anyway. We've shown that we are pretty much at the pinnacle of the game. So assuming Messi isn't signing, what's the point of buying benchwarmers for £40m? I hope SAF will just kill speculation now by saying the recruitment is over.
Red J (09/07/2009 at 16:52)
Everyone is going on about how we need to replace the Ronaldo / Tevez goals. Well, of course we do, but whilst I am not suggesting that it will be easy, it may not be as hard as some on here suggest. From memory, Ronaldo scored 26 goals last season, some of which were penalties and free kicks (not sure how many?). Take those away and then replace all of the wasted attempts on goal with quality crosses for our strikers, then I don't think we'll be too far away. Not suggesting that it will be easy, but lets get away from the fact that we need a single player to come in and score 42 goals a season for us to do anything.
For all of his goals and freeing up space for others, he was often overly selfish and wasteful.
Red Dawn (09/07/2009 at 16:56)
Why would Douglas Costa have been a better buy?
Before he was linked with to us in the newspapers, nobody knew anything about him and a very small percentage of us would have seen him play. I'm not counting YouTube as a source of seeing him play by the way, as you can't take anything from those videos.
I really don't understand why so many people are on about signing him as he is completely unproven and what would the chances be of him even getting a work permit?
We'd probably end up having to loan him to Sporting if we did sign him as I doubt the Home Office would grant him a permit, although with all the hype surrounding him you'd never know, as he could be granted one on the grounds of being an exceptional talent, hence seriously enhancing the Premier League, but I'd still have my doubts.
bobbydazzler (09/07/2009 at 16:59)
a recent example could be the very very expensive purchase of 3 midfield players for very big money.
andersen
nani
hargreaves
i would put these 3 in the very very iffy category would'nt you?
Red Rob (West Lower) (09/07/2009 at 17:19)
manu expert (09/07/2009 at 18:51)
Seamus, Vanisle,ex-Stretford (09/07/2009 at 18:56)
So his coach has reservations about this young man. Perhaps our club and Fergie will be able to get the best out of him, a la Ronaldo, we'll just have to wait and see. 3 million in today’s market is peanuts so there’s not a whole lot of downside to this I suppose.
Do agree though that our midfield (central) needs strengthening. However It could well be that Fergie sees it as being OK as it is now, Valencia plays through the middle for his country, as does Park, (and we have lots of wide players now) Fletcher and Carrick are hardly poor players, neither is Anderson and certainly if Hargo comes back fully fit (a big ask, I know, and he won't be available until January probably) then we're not in bad shape. Gibson can put in a decent shift too. Giggs & Scholes will put in fewer appearances this year methinks, but will be there to guide the younger players along. I also think Rooney will be used more in the way Scholes was in his heyday further adding to the midfield. Hopefully Fergie doesn't play him out wide left, although I don't see that happening now with the other players we have. Up front doesn't look too bad either with Berba, Owen (in a limited capacity) Wellbeck, Macheda, Obertan perhaps, (if he's not loaned out). We'll just have to wait and see if Fergie brings in another CM player, wouldn't surprise me if he does.
D.S, Stockport (10/07/2009 at 03:08)
Gerry, Glastonbury (10/07/2009 at 09:19)
He won't replace Tevez & Ron so we're still a bit short there and I'd like at least Hargreaves back chomping at the bit, otherwise there's a big reliance on Anderson becoming the player we all wished for.
Agree with those who say don't buy for the sake of it.
Lord Ruud (10/07/2009 at 09:49)
Red-Brit-in-It (10/07/2009 at 10:24)
Duncan, London (10/07/2009 at 19:07)
tooth&claw, manchester (11/07/2009 at 01:55)
The Rome final wasn't a defeat for THE midfield. Fletcher, our most effective midfielder, was suspended. Carrick, our playmaker, had a broken foot. Anderson had a muscular issue which seemingly required surgery a couple of days after the final. He's also an attacking midfielder playing in a holding midfielder role. So, you castigate our midfield based on one game where our midfield was lacking it's key players against probably the second best team on the planet at that time.
I loved everyone's performance for 9 minutes and was convinced that we'd win. Barcelona were all over the place. Park didn't score, then we gifted Eto'o a goal. After that only John O'Shea played well. The team failed, not one section of it, the whole team. But it was one game. We came second in the best club tournament in the world. Where's the disgrace in that?