U*d sign Nani and Anderson

Would certainly mean the end of Rossi IMO - unless you maybe send him on loan for a whole season again, then re-assess.

Maybe SAF just plans to rotate a hell of a lot more next season - he probaly saw how burnt out the utd players were by the end of this season and has decided to invest in some alterantive players to put in and give players rests.

Option 1:

Ronaldo-----Hargreaves----Carrick------Giggs

-------------Rooney--------Saha-----------

Option 2:

-----------Hargreaves----Carrick-------------

Ronaldo-----------Scholes-------------Nani

---------------Rooney/Saha---------------

Option 3:

-----------Hargeaves-----Scholes-------------

Ronaldo-----------Anderson------------Giggs

--------------------Saha-------------------

Option 4:

------------Hargreaves---Carrick-----------

Ronaldo-----------Anderson-----------Nani

-------------------Rooney---------------

Option 5:

----------------Carrick------------------

ronaldo---------Scholes-----------Giggs

------------Saha------Rooney----------

etc...etc....etc...

May different permutations, all of which have threats coming from all angles.

The only worry is the maturity of Nani and Anderson and the consistency, which could lead to problems in the league.

Manchester United last night sent out a resounding statement of intent about their defence of the Barclays Premiership title by committing up to £35 million to sign two of the most promising young attacking talents in world football, Anderson and Nani, from FC Porto and Sporting Lisbon respectively.

David Gill, the United chief executive, and Carlos Queiroz, the assistant manager, met delegations from both clubs in Portugal, culminating in agreements that were announced on the club’s website last night. Anderson, a 19-year-old Brazilian playmaker in the Ronaldinho mould, will join for a fee that could rise to £17.5 million and a similar deal has been agreed for Nani, 20, a winger who has drawn comparisons to Cristiano Ronaldo since United’s interest was first revealed in The Times in September.

Personal terms have been agreed with Jorge Mendes, the players’ agent, who also represents José Mourinho, the Chelsea manager. Mourinho is understood to rate both players highly, while Tottenham Hotspur had held talks with Sporting about Nani. But even Chelsea have had no answer to the speed with which United have gone about concluding the deals, which could be completed next week subject to medical examinations.

Anderson, who has yet to make his full debut for Brazil, will require a work permit, but he is expected to be given special dispensation given that he is in his country’s plans for the forthcoming Copa America.

With an agreement already in place to sign Owen Hargreaves from Bayern Munich for around £17 million, as soon as the England midfield player returns from holiday next week, United have already committed to spending more than £50 million on strengthening the squad that wrestled the title back from Chelsea.

The initial outlay on Anderson and Nani is understood to be considerably less than the projected £17.5 million fee, which will be dependent on the players’ success at Old Trafford, but it remains a remarkable investment after the relative parsimony of the first two years under the Glazer regime.
Tottenham held discussions with Sporting about Nani, who has won five caps for Portugal, but he had already stated his desire to follow Ronaldo, his idol, to Manchester. “I will only leave Sporting to play for a club like United,” Nani said recently. “To be the next Cristiano would be a dream.”
It leaves United with much of their transfer activity needing only to be finalised, to the delight of Sir Alex Ferguson, who is on holiday - although the manager would love to add the signature of Samuel Eto’o, the Barcelona forward.

Gabriel Heinze, the Argentina defender, is expected to leave Old Trafford for Spain, while other fringe players will also depart and Ben Foster, the goalkeeper, may require surgery on a knee injury that troubled him during his long spell on loan to Watford and could miss the start of the season. But Ferguson is clearly focusing on strengthening his squad - and this time it appears that the much-criticised Glazers are buying into that vision.

============================================

Views from the public:

52 million already, 35 mill for these two and 17 for Hargreaves, bet no one will will accuse Man Utd of reverting to type and trying to buy the league again next season. !! Although most utd supporters will soon forget where they came from and claim the pair are home grown through the acadamy.
Just because Utd bought them why would you you assume that chelsea would want them and be upset they did'nt ??

phil barnes, chichester , england

So Chelsea have bought the title eh? Utd have been doing it for years, and are about to try again. I hope similar amounts of disrespect fall on them as on the Blues over the last few years.

James , london, uk

Great coup, recognising that Giggs and Scholes can't go on forever. A very exciting midfield is brewing at Old Trafford and the addition of a top notch striker would be perfect, even if a couple have to depart.
Glanz, defense is not the problem, they were fantastic all season until the Milan games when all the first choice back four were either injured or unfit, and who cares what Mourinho thinks? It is pleasing to see activity early on, removing the usual protracted transfer sagas that normally occupy a united fans summer.

Rez wrote:Next we will see a thread saying are Nani and Anderson over priced and overrated?



@110%



Rooney is younger than Ronaldo and turned up in all the big games. Last season Ronaldo turned up in all the big games and Rooney didnt. This suggests that Rooney and Ronaldo play better when all the oppositions attention is on the other one. So next season the opposition will be occupied with Rooney and Ronaldo (they usually have two players marking them) so Nani/Anderson will have the freedom to do their stuff.



They are in the perfect climate to start at a big club. There is no pressure on them to deliver instantly and they are part of a winning team, surrounded by talented players. Look how well Messi has done, because Ronaldinho takes the pressure and attention of him.



So if they arent playing well, Rooney, Ronaldo, Scholes can step up and deliver.



Oh United will be playing with Carrick and Hargreaves in midfield and Vidic and Ferdinand in defence. So defensively we should be stronger than this season.

Rooney's a different kind of player to cronaldo and grew up in England, he's big, strong, direct, doesn't mind getting kicked and kicking others. Cornaldo goes missing when there's a fight on. The 2 new guys are like cronaldo so are not used to the physical side of the EPL.

Apart from 1 game against Roma (where giggs was the best player), neither rooney nor cronaldo have done a great deal against top quality opposition like they meet in the CL or against chelsea, arsenal or liverpool when both teams have been on top of their form (special for spanky who's predictably going to bring up the win against liverpool when liverpool were very poor).

For me manu have bought 2 more players like cronaldo, and I don't see the 3 of them working in the same team against top quality opposition, even though they might blow away the likes of fulham or sunderland.

I think 1 of the 2 new players will probably be a success the other one will end up sitting on the subs bench and eventually get annoyed and leave.

what's going to happen to players like park now?

110% wrote:what's going to happen to players like park now?

More time to play yahtzee on the bench?!

We've signed two flops.

To be fair, Anderso is phyically quite strong - Nani is a bit of a girl though.

He's young though and will bulk out.

the EPL is becoming more technical and less about hoof it football so I don't see their phsical prowess being as much of a problem as it was a few years ago and Barca has proved that you can win a Euro cup with a bunch of girls

Not just girls, but Smurfettes no less.

DD wrote:Not just girls, but Smurfettes no less.

Smurfettes that like to smurf male smurf's smurfs

Rez wrote:@Tweeds



It will be:



Carrick---Hargreaves

ronaldo------Anderson------Nani

--------------Rooney------------



It will work, although I was surprised by the Anderson signing. Maybe fergie is sick of getting knocked out of the CL by the best Brazilian players and still regrets missing out on Ronaldinho.

Sounds about right to me. It's a gamble, but the others (Ronaldinho etc.) would've been as well...

110% wrote:

Rez wrote:Next we will see a thread saying are Nani and Anderson over priced and overrated?



@110%



Rooney is younger than Ronaldo and turned up in all the big games. Last season Ronaldo turned up in all the big games and Rooney didnt. This suggests that Rooney and Ronaldo play better when all the oppositions attention is on the other one. So next season the opposition will be occupied with Rooney and Ronaldo (they usually have two players marking them) so Nani/Anderson will have the freedom to do their stuff.



They are in the perfect climate to start at a big club. There is no pressure on them to deliver instantly and they are part of a winning team, surrounded by talented players. Look how well Messi has done, because Ronaldinho takes the pressure and attention of him.



So if they arent playing well, Rooney, Ronaldo, Scholes can step up and deliver.



Oh United will be playing with Carrick and Hargreaves in midfield and Vidic and Ferdinand in defence. So defensively we should be stronger than this season.

Rooney's a different kind of player to cronaldo and grew up in England, he's big, strong, direct, doesn't mind getting kicked and kicking others. Cornaldo goes missing when there's a fight on. The 2 new guys are like cronaldo so are not used to the physical side of the EPL.

Apart from 1 game against Roma (where giggs was the best player), neither rooney nor cronaldo have done a great deal against top quality opposition like they meet in the CL or against chelsea, arsenal or liverpool when both teams have been on top of their form (special for spanky who's predictably going to bring up the win against liverpool when liverpool were very poor).

For me manu have bought 2 more players like cronaldo, and I don't see the 3 of them working in the same team against top quality opposition, even though they might blow away the likes of fulham or sunderland.

I think 1 of the 2 new players will probably be a success the other one will end up sitting on the subs bench and eventually get annoyed and leave.

So Rooney getting an assist against Chelsea, scoring against Arsenal, scoring the equaliser in Rome with 10 men, scoring 2 goals to win a CL semi final, being the best attacker on the pitch in the Fa cup final, is doing nothing against big teams. No other 21 year old has such a record in big games.

Ronaldo is a winger and no one expects him to score in every big game. Against the top sides, they no that Giggs isnt the threat that he used to be, so he has 2 or 3 players on him. He has performed in more big games - 2 goals in domestic cup finals, MOTM in two International tournament semi finals, goals and assists against Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool - than any other player around did at the age of 22 (apart from Brazil Ronaldo and Del Piero)

Ronaldo this season has played consistently better than any other player in the world. So I am very happy to have two more players who are like Ronaldo.

Have you actually watched any of them play?

Oh when you say both teams have been on form, you can discount the Liverpool game were we werent on form, the Milan game were we had half the first team missing and the Fa cup final were the whole team was tired. In the other games he has played well, its hard to play well as a winger, when the rest of the team isnt performing.

He's not worth it Rez.

He's getting worse than CotR.

Parks lives wrote:He's not worth it Rez.

He's getting worse than CotR.

damn... ill have to up my game then

He's the clear winner at the moment.

You don't pretend you are neutral and don't support Liverpool.

'Who are Anderson and Nani'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/6707383.stm

A good read on the two new signings it has opinion from the experts who know them well, like Dunga. Hopefully it will give a little more insight into what both are like.

COTR wrote:

Parks lives wrote:He's not worth it Rez.

He's getting worse than CotR.

damn... ill have to up my game then

Beaten by the Italians at the last CotR - isn't it always the way

Parks lives wrote:He's the clear winner at the moment.

You don't pretend you are neutral and don't support Liverpool.

he is clearly neutral but I think your influence has maybe tipped the balance against united spank


now that he has set a new standard though it's up to myself and roger to better it

Nani was born in Amadora, not Cabo Verde...
The fee's been stated by Sporting as 25.5M Euros.

I don't understand why this argument has escalated. Parks, and Rez, 110%'s first post was completely neutral and just stated what most people feel as a disclaimer about these two signings.

That would almost be fair if it was a one off.

You don't find his post is basically looking for all the negatives?

You'd be surprised how much both Anderson and Nani track back actually. Just seems a lot is being said by people who have either never seen them play or seen a highlight flash or a damn youtube clip.

We do use tactics in PT as well and if you don't follow them you don't get into the team. Nani tracked back at Sporting, cause if he didn't he'd find himself on the bench...as he did at the beginning of the season. Paulo Bento has built a unit, and everyone in it had a role to play; Nani inlcuded.

Tweedle wrote:To be fair, Anderso is phyically quite strong - Nani is a bit of a girl though.

He's young though and will bulk out.

the EPL is becoming more technical and less about hoof it football so I don't see their phsical prowess being as much of a problem as it was a few years ago and Barca has proved that you can win a Euro cup with a bunch of girls

not really. they had to change their system a bit and used motta and edmilson. and man utd might have to do the same with these players since the physical part is needed to win the cl.

Tweedle wrote:Barca has proved that you can win a Euro cup with a bunch of girls

Lol, didn't notice this till now...still hurts eh, Tweedle?
Remind me who was the girl who wouldn't stop moaning after the final whistle?

Hint: it's the girl who chose not to join the other girls at Barcelona last summer

[quote="kas"]

Tweedle wrote:Hint: it's the girl who chose not to join the other girls at Barcelona last summer

BUT it's also the girl that will join the other girls at Barcelona this summer.

A lot of people here seem to think Anderson is SS or winger. He is neither. He is a true No. 10, and I think he is a replacement for Scholes. He's not very tall, but has a bit about him and looks quite tough (at least his physique would suggest this) He's pacey and has all the tricks as a usual Brazilian. I think he can be compared to Ronnie, but is more direct, but not quite as polished technically. Don't know much about his finishing.

IMO he would only system that won't suit him is a 4-2-2, so Fergie will have to change his system.

Men are famous moaners kas - hence we WE moaned - if your players were true men they'd have forfeited the trophy and spent the entire pos-match complaining about the first half goal disallowed because of the sending off

Calidad wrote: IMO he would only system that won't suit him is a 4-2-2, so Fergie will have to change his system.

United have tended to play a 4-3-3, with Ronaldo-Saha-Rooney as the front 3, this season.

You should send your players to Arsenal Ladies FC they would fit in better there.

I thought Man U's formation this season was;

Ronaldo--Carrick--Scholes--Giggs
-------Rooney--Saha/Smith------

?

Anyway if Man U play a 4-3-3 with Anderson, I think he'd have to play in the hole with Carrick & Hargreaves behind him, so technically a 4-2-1-3.

I sound like a right twat.

@ Calidad

This season we have often played 4-2-3-1, against Roma when we beat them 7-1 the midfield and attack was:

------ Fletcher -- Carrick ------

Ronaldo --- Giggs --- Rooney

-------------- Smith -------------


This is how the new signings would fit in, IMO:

---- Hargreaves -- Scholes -----

Park ------ Anderson ------ Nani

--------------- Saha --------------