United gear up for Maicon battle

James Robson

October 15, 2009

HIGHLY RATED: Maicon

UNITED and City are heading for another transfer market clash with both lining up moves for Brazil star Maicon.

Sir Alex Ferguson and Mark Hughes are monitoring the Inter Milan right back, who is also interesting Barcelona.

The fierce rivals have already locked horns over Dimitar Berbatov and Carlos Tevez in the last two seasons, while the rivalry between the two clubs has heightened further this season with the Blues' cheeky poster welcoming the Argentina striker to Manchester and United's last-gasp derby victory.

And now they are set to go head-to-head again in the January transfer window.

Maicon would cost around £20m, which would be no problem for either of the Manchester clubs.

Fergie still has the bulk of the £80m Real Madrid paid for Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer, while Hughes has unlimited funds thanks to City's mega-rich Abu Dhabi owners.

Although Hughes does not intend to repeat his spending of the last two transfer windows, he is keen to strengthen the right back area with Micah Richards struggling to nail down the spot which is currently occupied by Pablo Zabaleta.

Injuries to Wes Brown and Gary Neville have seen John O'Shea at right back for the Reds this year. And although 19-year-old Rafael da Silva is seen as the long-term answer, Ferguson is tempted to bring in a more experienced option.

Would you like to see Maicon at United? Have your say.

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Balders!, W3106, Tier2 (15/10/2009 at 09:14)

my guess is, he signs for neither ! Nice article though !!

I see the Stretford End Arising (15/10/2009 at 09:26)

No He's very dodgy.

choices_made, wokingham (15/10/2009 at 09:30)

would be a great signing. i know we have a number of players who can play at right back, but neville and brown and constantly injured and o`shea is a good backup but shouldnt be first choice. Of course rafael looks a real prospect, but you need two players for every position so that would eb fine. Maicon is 28 so in the next three seasons rafael could take over. so by the time maicon hits 31, rafael will be 22 and ready to go. same thing with evra and fabio. brown can be back up cb, o`shea covers many a position anyway and neville wont be here much past next season.
Maicon is currently the best right back in the world and would really bring something to the team. if we can follow up with the signing of silva and neur we would be laughing

Lord Ruud (15/10/2009 at 09:45)

I'd be amazed if this was true. A decent full back but no more than that and £20m would be daylight robbery. Would be happier to just have a fully fit Wes Brown filling in until Rafael is ready to be honest.

danny, WILMSLOW (15/10/2009 at 09:54)

We do not need a right back we have Raphael De Laet Simpson,there are other priorities.
However the purse is closed so its just paper talk.

Matthew Savage (15/10/2009 at 09:55)

"Ferguson is tempted to bring in a more experienced option."

Rafael is top quality; is there a source for this ?

Steve Elliott (15/10/2009 at 09:58)

Not worth £20 Million , we have bags of players coming thru at full back , Rafeal, Da Laat Sheasy will be first choice this season he is a quality player

edinburgh red, edinburgh (15/10/2009 at 10:02)

20 million is a bit much would prefer someone like lahm as he can play right and left and would be cheaper, if it came down to the three teams, city could offer more money and barca would probably appeal more than the rigours of the prem.
Read the new 442 magazine today and this year we have 7 players in the top 100, berba,rooney,vds,evra,rio,vidic and giggs, bit of a worry that giggs continues to be our only midfield entry, incidently chelsea and real had there entire first 11 in the top 100, arguements about there strength in deptha nd on the other side of the coin that you cant win everything buy buying the best available.

The Kitten Juggler, Fleet, Hants (15/10/2009 at 10:08)

Let's just remember that you never win anything with kids, alright?

Gilly, Belgium (15/10/2009 at 10:11)

He is a top player , but we have other options !

stuart ripley (15/10/2009 at 10:24)

No way in the world will our club buy a 28 year old right back for £20 million what a joke of a story.

Giggsy's chest rug! (15/10/2009 at 10:32)

good player would improve the right full back position, but wouldnt the 20 mill be better spent trying to find a replacement for giggs or scholes?

Shaz Leicester (15/10/2009 at 10:43)

Looked very strong in last seasons CL QF tie against Inter but he's 28. If Hargo returns fit and well and Obertan adds some speed and flair it just needs Valencia to up his game to inject some thrust into our midfield. With Mame and Lladjic coming in January and Kiko, the Da Silvas and De Laet (not mentioning Pogba and Pettruci) all ready to add a bit then I think our squad has suddenly more solidity and depth. I can see (with the exception of Benzema) why SAF closed his cheque book. He must be very confident in Hargo's fitness. Obertan, Ando, Lladjic,Valencia, Kiko, Wellbeck could be the future frontline with Da Silva, Evans and De Laet supporting them from the back. All we need is a decent stopper

Fredrik, Sweden (15/10/2009 at 10:52)

The best RB in the world, but can we afford to spend 20m on a 28 year old?

If we have any serious money to spend, which is doubtful, it would be better spent on a creative left sided midfielder, like Silva or maybe Gourcuff.

choices_made, wokingham (15/10/2009 at 11:29)

we need to keep some level of experience in the team. with giggs, scholes, van der saar, neville all coming to the end of there careers. we only have rio, evra and hargreaves with any leadership type qualities as well as experience. maicon could add to this.
we have a bunch of potentially world class youngsters coming through - rafael, fabio, dodo, obertan, ljajic, pogba, cleverly, diouf, macheda, wellbeck, zieler, petrucci, eirkrem, king.
in my time supporting the club i cant remember a time where there have been that number of prospects (although its a shame only wellbeck and cleverly are english).
is neville going to play many more games at RB, NO.
is brown going to stay injury fee, probably not
is o`shea a top rb, NO he is good back up
is rafael ready to play every game as 1st choice, No but will be in a season or two.
brown can cover cb, neville you cant pretty much ignore and o`shea covers a number of positions.
there fore you would really have two right backs both of which are top draw - maicon and rafael
left back - evra and fabio
both sides would have the same sort of age gap and both rafael and fabio would get planety of game time as well as the knowlege of if they keep it up they will be first choice.

I see the Stretford End Arising (15/10/2009 at 11:32)

Shaz, Valencia wouldn't be the future for Bury. He's catastrophic. How he has got this far in football without using his left leg for anything other than standing I don't know. We have the young lad Lladjic who is ready and I wonder why we waited until January as we could have used him. The old saying, if your good enough, your old enough.

Uwe the Goat, Brighton (15/10/2009 at 11:38)

edinburgh red, edinburgh

I don't know why you think Lahm would be cheaper than Maicon. I reckon he would cost a lot more - 28 mill plus. (don't forget the weak pound either).

I predict City will try to buy Lahm sooner or later (if they haven't done so already) but as we have seen recently Bayern Munich won't be presurised by anybody into selling anyone.

Maicon has been mooted for City before so it could happen, but Utd have a weakness at Right Back so he might fancy his chances of getting first team football more with the reds.

ted knott, droylsden (15/10/2009 at 11:43)

£750m in debt how can united afford him?

United 18, Huddersfield Town 3, City 2 (League Titles), Wilmslow (15/10/2009 at 11:54)

Richie De Laet and Rafeal look like great prospects. We dont need Maicon

I'm just like Stewie Griffin, Fictional Quahog, Rhode Island (15/10/2009 at 12:04)

ted knott, droylsden
15/10/2009 at 11:4

Don't need him and are not daft enough to spend silly money on a 28 year old.

I know who is though!!!!!

bobbydazzler (15/10/2009 at 12:11)

how many right full backs do we want ? at the last count we had

wes brown
john oshea
garry neville
de laet
da silva
da silva
simpson

thats seven i make and we do not have one other player at the club who can actually pass the ball with his left foot to back up evra

bobbydazzler (15/10/2009 at 12:13)

uwe would suggest that united have seven right back on the books all of them are better than meekah

Cathy turn the telly up it's very noisy next door., Manchester (15/10/2009 at 12:16)

I think United should look at players that come into their price range, 20 Million certainly does not come into it.

Marc Young (15/10/2009 at 12:32)

hahaha ted knott singing the same tune every time without any substance. Exactly the type of fan the club deserved. No class fan for no classs club.

mark jones (15/10/2009 at 12:35)

to -I SEE THE STRETFORD END ARISING-NOT AS DODGY AS YOUR BANK ACCOUNT

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