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As I briefly mentioned the other day (although, you're probably aware of it already), both Sir Alex Ferguson and Gerard Houllier have been guilty of wasting large-amounts of money on young talent that has simply failed to deliver after all expectations, and I'm not only on about who United and Liverpool signed this time a year ago. It's been going on for several years now. When the big become too big at a price that costs far too much, they are left to go for the 'cheaper', younger options (like the Cheyrou's, Diao's and Djemba-Djemba's 'of tommorow').
After seeing the results, it's a lie to say that either manager would not have been happier with a proven international for each of their given 'failures'. Yet, as stubborn as today's top-flight gaffers are [that should read "were", for Houllier!], they don't like to admit it when even they know they've done something wrong (just ask Arséne Wenger, over-and-over-again!). And now, it seems they all have the same excuse for paying twice-the-price on something worth barely half of that amount in money-off vouchers at your local Tesco... You see, they're not buying them for now - oh, no; we gotten it all wrong....
They're buying them "for the future"!
That's what they tell us, anyway. Every time Cristiano Ronaldo is becomes the laughing stock for putting one-foot-wrong attempting his latest dance-move-cum-football-skill; each time El-Hadji Diouf fails to explain how he played like he did in that 2002 World Cup; or when Kleberson, once targeted by just about every known name in European Football, plays like a Spanish outcast rather than the "Samba-Star" his nationality says he should be -- it's all because they're 'not ready yet'; they're "still learning". That's what they tell us, each and every time.
I find this very hard to believe however. I mean, if they really aren't ready for the Thierry Henry's, Zinedine Zidane's and Francesco Totti's of Europe's very-best today, exactly why do they feature so-heavily in your first-team squads? Why didn't you buy someone a good 4-years-older? Why not go for someone with more of this needed 'experience' this lot doesn't have?
Why then, are they not 'learning their trade' in the Reserves first, like that £2m Daniel Nardiello has been for too long now?
Just like every time Arséne Wenger didn't see it - no matter how many games his team can go without being beaten in the league - it's a load of old codswallop coughed-up to try and hide the fact that something's gone-wrong and it's gonna affect his reputation (just a little...).
When are manager gonna actually stand-up and accept that they do make mistakes?
If Gerard Houllier (quite like Wenger) lied his way throughout the whole of last season, just look at where it's gotten him now with that "one-last-season" he was once certain to get!
Lying doesn't make things go away - like a cheap face-wash, it doesn't make those nasty things go-away, it can make them grow and spread, even worse (especialy if you don't leave them alone).
Honesty seems very-hard-to-find in the world today, and you could only hope that some degrees of decency would remain in our once-beautiful game. Once again, it's not good for the idolising youth of tommorow...
Referees are doing it all over the place - and if they cannot even accept their own most-blatant mistakes, how can they be expected to learn and to get things right?
It applies to us all. I'd feel a lot more comfortable about the whole thing if only Wenger and his side would admit they acted like a bunch or rampaging pre-historic thugs out to get Ruud van Nistelrooy after last season's 'Battle of Old Trafford'!
But, no. They just think they can try and 'disguise' it all.
And, by over-exposing youngsters at a pre-matture age (especialy in this media-ridden country), the only thing you're doing for the future is shattering theirs!
After seeing the results, it's a lie to say that either manager would not have been happier with a proven international for each of their given 'failures'. Yet, as stubborn as today's top-flight gaffers are [that should read "were", for Houllier!], they don't like to admit it when even they know they've done something wrong (just ask Arséne Wenger, over-and-over-again!). And now, it seems they all have the same excuse for paying twice-the-price on something worth barely half of that amount in money-off vouchers at your local Tesco... You see, they're not buying them for now - oh, no; we gotten it all wrong....
They're buying them "for the future"!
That's what they tell us, anyway. Every time Cristiano Ronaldo is becomes the laughing stock for putting one-foot-wrong attempting his latest dance-move-cum-football-skill; each time El-Hadji Diouf fails to explain how he played like he did in that 2002 World Cup; or when Kleberson, once targeted by just about every known name in European Football, plays like a Spanish outcast rather than the "Samba-Star" his nationality says he should be -- it's all because they're 'not ready yet'; they're "still learning". That's what they tell us, each and every time.
I find this very hard to believe however. I mean, if they really aren't ready for the Thierry Henry's, Zinedine Zidane's and Francesco Totti's of Europe's very-best today, exactly why do they feature so-heavily in your first-team squads? Why didn't you buy someone a good 4-years-older? Why not go for someone with more of this needed 'experience' this lot doesn't have?
Why then, are they not 'learning their trade' in the Reserves first, like that £2m Daniel Nardiello has been for too long now?
Just like every time Arséne Wenger didn't see it - no matter how many games his team can go without being beaten in the league - it's a load of old codswallop coughed-up to try and hide the fact that something's gone-wrong and it's gonna affect his reputation (just a little...).
When are manager gonna actually stand-up and accept that they do make mistakes?
If Gerard Houllier (quite like Wenger) lied his way throughout the whole of last season, just look at where it's gotten him now with that "one-last-season" he was once certain to get!
Lying doesn't make things go away - like a cheap face-wash, it doesn't make those nasty things go-away, it can make them grow and spread, even worse (especialy if you don't leave them alone).
Honesty seems very-hard-to-find in the world today, and you could only hope that some degrees of decency would remain in our once-beautiful game. Once again, it's not good for the idolising youth of tommorow...
Referees are doing it all over the place - and if they cannot even accept their own most-blatant mistakes, how can they be expected to learn and to get things right?
It applies to us all. I'd feel a lot more comfortable about the whole thing if only Wenger and his side would admit they acted like a bunch or rampaging pre-historic thugs out to get Ruud van Nistelrooy after last season's 'Battle of Old Trafford'!
But, no. They just think they can try and 'disguise' it all.
And, by over-exposing youngsters at a pre-matture age (especialy in this media-ridden country), the only thing you're doing for the future is shattering theirs!
I'll defend every one of Fergie's signings every summer - but some of them need to do more next season.
Ronaldo has been stunning at times, and as the season went on started ot know when to get the ball in to the box early, and when to have a bit of fun, and wait for a few more players to get in there. Though I don't think anyone is really going to say that Ronaldo was a bad signing - it's the others.
Djemba-Djemba has been extremely unfortunate with some horrific personal circumstances, meaning he's been on compasionate leave on and off during the season - his mother was in a coma for a large part of the season - not easy to deal with, then he was off to the African Cup of Nations too, which didn't help. Every time he has played though, I've seen that he can make it at Old Trafford. Just look at the first half of the second leg against Porto. He owned that midfield, and OI reckon had it not been for his injury we would have gone on to win the game.
Kleberson has been out too long with injury. Dislocating his shouldrer early in the season made things tough, and he's had other slight problems too, injury wise. I've seen a couple of games where he's done well winning the ball high up the field, and been rather creative too. However, given he's a world cup winner, he does need to do more. I'd like to see what he can do after a proper pre-season, and involvement in the team early on. I'd definitely give him another season.
Bellion has played in the reserves for most of the seaosn, pretty much developing in some basic yet crucial areas. He's young, and if can learn to time his runs a little better and develop his first touch, he could be a real talent. He's so fast, that if he gets these right he'll be a real threat. I think it could do him good to go out on loan for a season, get a few games iunder his belt, more experience, to see what he can do.
Tim Howard is the best keeper we've had since Schmeichel. He's big, yet agile in the same way too. Given that he went straight from an American league season into a full season with United, I'm not surprised he was struggling towards the end of the season - next he'll be back better than ever.
I'm not saying Fergie hasn't made mistakes, but last season I think he's taken a selection of players that could be crucial to the team over the coming seasons, and, apart from Ronaldo, he didn't spend much to do it.
How you can compare him to Houllier is simply laughable, that guy has extremely poor judgement, and too often relied on buys that looked like good ideas at the time, like the two lads from Senegal he bought. Then again, I think the tactics that Liverpool played never suited some of the players he bought - they could go on to prove themselves elsewhere. But still, there has been too many not performing as they should.
But the thing is, when you go out and spend a fortune on a more experienced player, it doesn't always work either, does it? Look at Veron, he never fitted into the United midfield, and look at half of the purchases Chelsea made last season. Crespo and Mutu were hardly the strikeforce their record in Italy suggested they should be, and come the end of the seaon it was Gudjohnson and Hasselbaink thta were relied upon.
Then again, you can't really judge a player on one season. It took Jaap Stam some time to settle in at Old Trafford, as it did Rio Ferdinand, and come the start of their second seasons they's improved no end. Now is not the time to judge, Christmas will be.
Ronaldo has been stunning at times, and as the season went on started ot know when to get the ball in to the box early, and when to have a bit of fun, and wait for a few more players to get in there. Though I don't think anyone is really going to say that Ronaldo was a bad signing - it's the others.
Djemba-Djemba has been extremely unfortunate with some horrific personal circumstances, meaning he's been on compasionate leave on and off during the season - his mother was in a coma for a large part of the season - not easy to deal with, then he was off to the African Cup of Nations too, which didn't help. Every time he has played though, I've seen that he can make it at Old Trafford. Just look at the first half of the second leg against Porto. He owned that midfield, and OI reckon had it not been for his injury we would have gone on to win the game.
Kleberson has been out too long with injury. Dislocating his shouldrer early in the season made things tough, and he's had other slight problems too, injury wise. I've seen a couple of games where he's done well winning the ball high up the field, and been rather creative too. However, given he's a world cup winner, he does need to do more. I'd like to see what he can do after a proper pre-season, and involvement in the team early on. I'd definitely give him another season.
Bellion has played in the reserves for most of the seaosn, pretty much developing in some basic yet crucial areas. He's young, and if can learn to time his runs a little better and develop his first touch, he could be a real talent. He's so fast, that if he gets these right he'll be a real threat. I think it could do him good to go out on loan for a season, get a few games iunder his belt, more experience, to see what he can do.
Tim Howard is the best keeper we've had since Schmeichel. He's big, yet agile in the same way too. Given that he went straight from an American league season into a full season with United, I'm not surprised he was struggling towards the end of the season - next he'll be back better than ever.
I'm not saying Fergie hasn't made mistakes, but last season I think he's taken a selection of players that could be crucial to the team over the coming seasons, and, apart from Ronaldo, he didn't spend much to do it.
How you can compare him to Houllier is simply laughable, that guy has extremely poor judgement, and too often relied on buys that looked like good ideas at the time, like the two lads from Senegal he bought. Then again, I think the tactics that Liverpool played never suited some of the players he bought - they could go on to prove themselves elsewhere. But still, there has been too many not performing as they should.
But the thing is, when you go out and spend a fortune on a more experienced player, it doesn't always work either, does it? Look at Veron, he never fitted into the United midfield, and look at half of the purchases Chelsea made last season. Crespo and Mutu were hardly the strikeforce their record in Italy suggested they should be, and come the end of the seaon it was Gudjohnson and Hasselbaink thta were relied upon.
Then again, you can't really judge a player on one season. It took Jaap Stam some time to settle in at Old Trafford, as it did Rio Ferdinand, and come the start of their second seasons they's improved no end. Now is not the time to judge, Christmas will be.
As I briefly mentioned the other day (although, you're probably aware of it already), both Sir Alex Ferguson and Gerard Houllier have been guilty of wasting large-amounts of money on young talent that has simply failed to deliver after all expectations, and I'm not only on about who United and Liverpool signed this time a year ago. It's been going on for several years now. When the big become too big at a price that costs far too much, they are left to go for the 'cheaper', younger options (like the Cheyrou's, Diao's and Djemba-Djemba's 'of tommorow').
After seeing the results, it's a lie to say that either manager would not have been happier with a proven international for each of their given 'failures'. Yet, as stubborn as today's top-flight gaffers are [that should read "were", for Houllier!], they don't like to admit it when even they know they've done something wrong (just ask Arséne Wenger, over-and-over-again!). And now, it seems they all have the same excuse for paying twice-the-price on something worth barely half of that amount in money-off vouchers at your local Tesco... You see, they're not buying them for now - oh, no; we gotten it all wrong....
They're buying them "for the future"!
That's what they tell us, anyway. Every time Cristiano Ronaldo is becomes the laughing stock for putting one-foot-wrong attempting his latest dance-move-cum-football-skill; each time El-Hadji Diouf fails to explain how he played like he did in that 2002 World Cup; or when Kleberson, once targeted by just about every known name in European Football, plays like a Spanish outcast rather than the "Samba-Star" his nationality says he should be -- it's all because they're 'not ready yet'; they're "still learning". That's what they tell us, each and every time.
I find this very hard to believe however. I mean, if they really aren't ready for the Thierry Henry's, Zinedine Zidane's and Francesco Totti's of Europe's very-best today, exactly why do they feature so-heavily in your first-team squads? Why didn't you buy someone a good 4-years-older? Why not go for someone with more of this needed 'experience' this lot doesn't have?
Why then, are they not 'learning their trade' in the Reserves first, like that £2m Daniel Nardiello has been for too long now?
Just like every time Arséne Wenger didn't see it - no matter how many games his team can go without being beaten in the league - it's a load of old codswallop coughed-up to try and hide the fact that something's gone-wrong and it's gonna affect his reputation (just a little...).
When are manager gonna actually stand-up and accept that they do make mistakes?
If Gerard Houllier (quite like Wenger) lied his way throughout the whole of last season, just look at where it's gotten him now with that "one-last-season" he was once certain to get!
Lying doesn't make things go away - like a cheap face-wash, it doesn't make those nasty things go-away, it can make them grow and spread, even worse (especialy if you don't leave them alone).
Honesty seems very-hard-to-find in the world today, and you could only hope that some degrees of decency would remain in our once-beautiful game. Once again, it's not good for the idolising youth of tommorow...
Referees are doing it all over the place - and if they cannot even accept their own most-blatant mistakes, how can they be expected to learn and to get things right?
It applies to us all. I'd feel a lot more comfortable about the whole thing if only Wenger and his side would admit they acted like a bunch or rampaging pre-historic thugs out to get Ruud van Nistelrooy after last season's 'Battle of Old Trafford'!
But, no. They just think they can try and 'disguise' it all.
And, by over-exposing youngsters at a pre-matture age (especialy in this media-ridden country), the only thing you're doing for the future is shattering theirs!
After seeing the results, it's a lie to say that either manager would not have been happier with a proven international for each of their given 'failures'. Yet, as stubborn as today's top-flight gaffers are [that should read "were", for Houllier!], they don't like to admit it when even they know they've done something wrong (just ask Arséne Wenger, over-and-over-again!). And now, it seems they all have the same excuse for paying twice-the-price on something worth barely half of that amount in money-off vouchers at your local Tesco... You see, they're not buying them for now - oh, no; we gotten it all wrong....
They're buying them "for the future"!
That's what they tell us, anyway. Every time Cristiano Ronaldo is becomes the laughing stock for putting one-foot-wrong attempting his latest dance-move-cum-football-skill; each time El-Hadji Diouf fails to explain how he played like he did in that 2002 World Cup; or when Kleberson, once targeted by just about every known name in European Football, plays like a Spanish outcast rather than the "Samba-Star" his nationality says he should be -- it's all because they're 'not ready yet'; they're "still learning". That's what they tell us, each and every time.
I find this very hard to believe however. I mean, if they really aren't ready for the Thierry Henry's, Zinedine Zidane's and Francesco Totti's of Europe's very-best today, exactly why do they feature so-heavily in your first-team squads? Why didn't you buy someone a good 4-years-older? Why not go for someone with more of this needed 'experience' this lot doesn't have?
Why then, are they not 'learning their trade' in the Reserves first, like that £2m Daniel Nardiello has been for too long now?
Just like every time Arséne Wenger didn't see it - no matter how many games his team can go without being beaten in the league - it's a load of old codswallop coughed-up to try and hide the fact that something's gone-wrong and it's gonna affect his reputation (just a little...).
When are manager gonna actually stand-up and accept that they do make mistakes?
If Gerard Houllier (quite like Wenger) lied his way throughout the whole of last season, just look at where it's gotten him now with that "one-last-season" he was once certain to get!
Lying doesn't make things go away - like a cheap face-wash, it doesn't make those nasty things go-away, it can make them grow and spread, even worse (especialy if you don't leave them alone).
Honesty seems very-hard-to-find in the world today, and you could only hope that some degrees of decency would remain in our once-beautiful game. Once again, it's not good for the idolising youth of tommorow...
Referees are doing it all over the place - and if they cannot even accept their own most-blatant mistakes, how can they be expected to learn and to get things right?
It applies to us all. I'd feel a lot more comfortable about the whole thing if only Wenger and his side would admit they acted like a bunch or rampaging pre-historic thugs out to get Ruud van Nistelrooy after last season's 'Battle of Old Trafford'!
But, no. They just think they can try and 'disguise' it all.
And, by over-exposing youngsters at a pre-matture age (especialy in this media-ridden country), the only thing you're doing for the future is shattering theirs!