United eye super six

Stuart Mathieson

November 11, 2009

WANTED David Silva

UNITED may not have bagged Premier League points at Stamford Bridge last Sunday but they pocketed brownie points with Sir Alex Ferguson, fans and critics alike.

Their controversial defeat to Chelsea was bitter-sweet.

They restored belief after their last big-game shambles against Liverpool at Anfield with a creditable display that deserved some reward.

But there are many who believe the champions still need some fine-tuning and there is unfinished work from the summer transfer window.

Then, only £16m Antonio Valencia, free agent Michael Owen and unknown £3m Gabriel Obertan arrived to replace the departed Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez.

With an early Champions League qualification and only a five-points gap to league leaders Chelsea, the Reds are no worse off than last term, but they need to target re-inforcements.

The Glazers continue to insist they are backing the funding of Fergie's squad with as much money as is needed but Old Trafford fans have questioned the lack of top bracket imports.

With the January transfer window only 50 days away, managers and supporters are drawing up their New Year wish-lists.

United's focus looks set to be mainly on the goalkeeping situation and more senior firepower to add to the Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov and Owen strikeforce that has not fully convinced it has the output to sustain the Reds in another exhausting season.

In goal, Edwin van der Sar has won back his place easily but was 39 at the end of last month. Ben Foster and Tomasz Kuszczak have not done enough to support their claims as his successor.

Though Owen Hargreaves is on his way back, until he has fully proven himself, another top class addition in midfield wouldn't go amiss.

Here MEN Sport takes a look at potential January buys for Fergie:

MANUEL NEUER

CLUB: Schalke

AGE: 23

POSITION: Goalkeeper

STRENGTHS: At 6ft 4ins The German Under 21 keeper is an impressive figure and dominates his area. Despite his size he is agile and has good distribution qualities

AVAILABILITY: Bayern Munich will be United's main rivals for the signature of Germany's top prospect. Schalke need the cash but Neuer said recently, "I am going to stay, this issue was a public issue already last summer. Then I also stayed on at Schalke 04. I am a Schalke player and I like being a Schalke player. I am not going to end up part of speculation!" Chances of deal 80%

IGOR AKINFEEV

CLUB: CSKA Moscow

AGE: 23

POSITION: Goalkeeper

STRENGTHS: The Russian No1 and CSKA captain is a terrific shot-stopper as he proved first-hand against the Reds both in Moscow and Old Trafford in the Champions League. He also possesses a kick like a mule.

AVAILABILITY: His height has meant United have actually been pretty low-key checking him out as a contender. Fergie praised him after United's matches against CSKA saying, "I thought the goalkeeper was outstanding. He was very impressive." Going public on a potential target is not the United manager's style which might suggest he is not high on the radar. Chances of deal 70%

MAROUANE CHAMAK

CLUB: Bordeaux

AGE: 25

POSITION: Striker

STRENGTHS: The Moroccan international was one of the front men who helped spearhead Bordeaux's surprise French League title win last season. Tall and good in the air and can play as a lone striker.

AVAILABILITY: A host of Premier League clubs were alerted to his potential after last season's success with Arsene Wenger admitting Arsenal were keen and close to signing the Ronaldo lookalike but were put off by a £15m valuation. United have an in with Chamakh's former team-mate Gabriel Obertan at Old Trafford already. Chances of deal 80%

FRANK RIBERY

CLUB: Bayern Munich

AGE: 26

POSITION: Midfield

STRENGTHS: Plays on the left side of midfield and has pace an ability to go past defenders. The French international also boasts a good goalscoring record. Louis Van Gaal has employed him playing behind two attackers but that caused a rift earlier in the season.

AVAILABILITY: Bayern Munich are struggling in the Bundesliga and face a possible Champions League group exit and Ribery is alleged to be unhappy at the Allianz Arena. Next summer is his likely departure date but the Germans may be tempted in January. Now Chelsea have had their buying ban lifted they are said to be keen. City could also rekindle their interest. Chances of deal 70%

DAVID VILLA

CLUB: Valencia

AGE: 27

POSITION: Striker

STRENGTHS: Spain's all-time top scorer behind Real Madrid's Raul and a natural hit-man. A worker up-front who can also create chances for colleagues hence his great international working relationship with Liverpool's Fernando Torres

AVAILABILITY: Valencia are in financial difficulty and he is the club's biggest saleable asset. They resisted Real Madrid during the summer but time could be ripe for the Spaniards to cash in. Chances of deal 80%

DAVID SILVA

CLUB: Valencia

AGE: 23

POSITION: Midfield/winger

STRENGTHS: Slight of frame but is versatile along the midfield able to play on either wing or just behind the front men.

AVAILABILITY: Like David Villa he is one of Valencia's assets during their financial crisis. Chances of deal 70%

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Steve in Brussels (11/11/2009 at 09:23)

On ability Silva and Villa would be great. i think the main problem this season is a lack of guile and creativity in midfield. had we had say a 25 year old scholes or beckham in there spotting the runs and pinging the passes then the strikers would have more supply. In that Silva can be impressive in linking midfield and attack. But he is small and there is no guarantee he would settle. Same goes for Villa. You would hope it would give us more goals but spaniards settling in england the chance is 50:50 so at 27 it would be a gamble for a big money buy. The other alternative is to play welbeck or macheda more. They have the ability but they need the playing time and the licence to make mistakes in order to progress. Can we afford that being 5 points behind chelsea?

You can look at arsenal where they will give the young players games and persist as they are playing excellent free flowing football now but to get there they were well off the pace for a couple of years. With United fans if we play the kids and don't win the league it is all the glazer's fault with the usual blah blah about debt they don't understand and if you sign big and it doesn't work then it is bad management when we had macheda all along and now he is unsettled and wants to go. As United manager you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. Fortunately we have Fergie who will never listen to us fans who have no idea about being a football manager. I certainately see us buying in january if we can get the ones we want for acceptable prices. It's a shame chelsea can use the window as well as otherwise we would have little competition with city and real doing their ludicrous buying in the summer

seasider, blackpool (11/11/2009 at 09:34)

United won't sign any of these players.

Uwe the Goat, Brighton (11/11/2009 at 09:59)

Villa has repeatedly stated that he doesn't want to play outside of Spain. Twisting his arm to move to England would be a bad move.

Massimo Taibi, Eric Djemba-Djemba and William Prunier could be useful names to add to this list.

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

If they buy one it will be a goal keeper !

chris, oxford (11/11/2009 at 10:23)

I'm not sure I agree with you there Steve - as we can see by the mainly positive feedback from the Chelsea game as long as the fans see progress and team giving it their all then its pretty well received. The flack comes from when you see the team stumbling around, unable to find each other with a pass and looking generally uninterested win or lose.

Maybe it is time to blood some of our 'kids', they cant do any worse than some of the senior players who really have been a let down for one reason or another.

Brora boy, Highlands (11/11/2009 at 10:31)

We have a huge squad. Where would they fit unless players leave. We have so many talented kids who need a chance. I would not be surprised to lose Gibson.

Monkey tennis?, yes please (11/11/2009 at 10:36)

Spot on seasider!

choices_made, wokingham (11/11/2009 at 10:53)

70% chance of signing ribery??? bayern want 60 million and he says he would prefer a move to spain. i would say thats a 10% chance then.
we should be doing all we can to sign villa and silva, they should be the only priorities for Jan.
If other clubs sniff around neur or akinfeev then go for one, but only if that happens. otherwise it can wait till the summer to address the goal keeping.
ild say - jan - silva, villa
summer - akineev, kajer and possible right back

World-wide-United, Not-in-wasteland (11/11/2009 at 10:58)

united should sign villa, silva, and ribery if they want 2 titles this season

bobbydazzler (11/11/2009 at 11:11)

I for one was encouraged by the overall team performance at the ruskis we were the better team created the better chances. BUT AND ITS A BIG BUT. once agin we displayed our achilees heel our lack of goalscorers. season after season sir fergie has been telling us about the multitude of chances we are making HE IS CORRECT. when are our coaches going to put it right with the sheer volume of chances our lot make we should be netting 100 league goals a season.

Red-Brit-in-It (11/11/2009 at 11:21)

I thought last time out Macheda looked the real deal. OK he didn't score, but those turns and snapshots were true class. He also hit the post with a header. Surely he's good enough to be given a run. We don't want to lose him and buy a Spanish striker who probably won't settle in Manchester.

edinburgh red, edinburgh (11/11/2009 at 11:30)

The net spending from the glazers is about 6million in there time,we have over paid on too mant targets for my liking, valencia 16million and berbatov 31million recently sticks in the throat.
We desperately need a creative goal scoring central midfielder,a new keeper as foster has blown his chance and another forward as berbatov has been pretty poor for us,a bit of nice control a mile from the oppositions box instead of banging in goals isn't good enough, and I suppose with wes and rio's injury problems continuing we will be short in central defence.

Duncan, London (11/11/2009 at 11:52)

Steve much of Arsenal's success is playing with a largely unchanged midfield so an understanding of each other's game has developed - I would like to see the midfield we played with against Chelsea persisted with over the next three to four matches to see if the same free flowing football emerges.

neal 07, south stand lower (11/11/2009 at 12:07)

As I posted on the 'Obertan topic' yday, we have an abundance of highly talented kids...the time has come to start trusting them and play them, play them, play them

Dont dis hearten them by going and spending needless millions on these 'world class players'

Is Gibson not worth a run over Carrick?

Is Tosic not worth a run over Park/Giggs?

Is Kiko not worth a run over Berbatov?

Is ljajic going to go straight into the first team scene in January?

Is it worth bringing back Cleverly from his loan at Watford?

Is Ron Robert Zieller not as good as Neuer/Akinfeev/Lopez?

Pogba, Petrucci, King, Eikrem, Morrison, Brady, C Evans, Possebon, Norwwod, Drinkwater, Cathcart, Reece Brown, The Keane Brothers, De Laet, Gill, Hewson, Lingard, Wotton, Mame Diouf, Amos, Chester to name but a few...what do we tell this lads when all they see is the arrival of even more threats to their first team hopes???

Is spending millions always the answer???

Keep taking the pills 'Rags', Tick tock, not long now. (11/11/2009 at 12:08)

Forget all the players you have mentioned, you just do not have the money to buy any of them.

tooth&claw, manchester (11/11/2009 at 12:16)

Chances of all 6 deals - 0%. Chance of Mathieson being committed for writing such madness - 90%.

I'd be shocked if any of these deals, or the ones appearing in the paper on a daily basis, materialises. There's no way we'd be interested in Ribery, Chamakh isn't of sufficient quality, Villa doesn't want to leave Spain and Silva would join the long list of wingers at OT. The keepers would be a slightly higher chance but still very low, unless TK has indicated that he wants to leave.

Besides which, we need defenders!!!

fed up with it, sale (11/11/2009 at 12:32)

WILL THE TRAINER AT CARRINGTON PLEASEEEE TELL THE FORWARDS TO FACE THE GOALS WHEN ATTACKING THE OTHER TEAM, YOU CANNOT TAKE A SHOT AT GOAL WHEN YOUR BACK IS TO GOAL,
STOP PLAYING SLOW BUILD UP TO ATTACK, YOY HAVE A LOT MORE SUCCESS WHEN ATTACKING AT SPEED,

Scholesy passed me the ball..., England (11/11/2009 at 12:32)

United never do anything in January. 2010 will be no different.

ted knott, droylsden (11/11/2009 at 12:33)

ha ha ha ha snatching victory from the jaws of the Stamford Bridge defeat,how amusing....

Matthew Savage (11/11/2009 at 12:53)

There is little chance of United signing David Villa until SAF has given Michael Owen more of a run in the team, particularly with to the world cup next summer.

Akinfeev is a no-no. Rene Adler is more likely.

ChunkB4U (11/11/2009 at 13:56)

Scholesy passed me the ball.... Evra, Stam and Vidic were all January signings (100% except from Vidic)

tooth&claw, manchester (11/11/2009 at 13:59)

Neal, your questions:

Is Gibson not worth a run over Carrick? No.

Is Tosic not worth a run over Park/Giggs? No.

Is Kiko not worth a run over Berbatov? No.

Is ljajic going to go straight into the first team scene in January? No.

Is it worth bringing back Cleverly from his loan at Watford? No.

Is Ron Robert Zieller not as good as Neuer/Akinfeev/Lopez? No.

Sean , NYXMC (11/11/2009 at 14:35)

We need a reality check, methinks. United are not going to win the league every year. No team has won the league four times on the bounce - ever! So the odds are stacked against us winning it this year. If it isn't us, I'd liek to see Arsenal win it over Chelsea (anyone except Liverpool!). I see this as being a transition season / period, as we get used to the absence of Ronaldo and (to a much, much, much lesser degree) Tevez, and prepare for the absence of Neville, Scholes and, a little later, perhaps, Giggs. We have some terrific young players coming through in Welbeck, Cathcart, Gibson, De Laet, the twins, Macheda and especially (IMO) King. Oberton looks promising, Ljajic is coming in January, Berbatov is starting to settle and show his class, Rooney is due another goal-scoring run, and we'll have Hargreaves back by the new year. I don't see the need to buy anyone - we just need to start easing in some of our young talent - and there's no one better at doing that than SAF. Hmmm - maybe a fourth title is possible after all...

There's Only One Keano, Baltimore, USA (11/11/2009 at 14:47)

Someone needs a lesson in probability and odds-making. It borders on insanity to suggest that it is more likely than not, based upon the percentages given, that ALL of these players will end up at United. Absolute lunacy. Is Slow Danny moonlighting as a MEN writer?

eddy01 (11/11/2009 at 14:47)

ChunkB4U

Stam was not a January signing, it was done in May 1998.

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