You make a decent point there Rashid in that when the mancs sold RVN and bought Carrick for £18 million i was not on my own in thinking Fergie had dropped a bollock but here we go couple of Premier League and one Champions League later it goes to show who had the last laugh on that one.
Selling Nistellroy and using the money to buy Carrick won them the league - lets hope buying Barry does the same for us. You just never know.
Massive infighting and severe injuries to Terry and Cech were also a huge contributing factor to Man Utds recent return to success. They're a lucky shower of cunts the way Chelsea totally imploded, Arsenal lost their way, and the takeover of us to allow us sign the players we needed to compete turned out to be a total con.
United won the league due to Ronaldo playing out of his skin, Tevez adding to their firepower, Scholes and Giggs finding a bit of form in the twilight of their careers and the signing of Hargreaves.
As far as I could tell, Carrick had fuck all to do with it.
Yeah, I didn't mean to question the success of those purchases, only the amount they paid for them. Ginsoak is probably having a chuckle; first his overpayments seemingly pay off for him, now they drive up the price of an arch-rival's primary summer target.
RVN hated the LadyBoy so 1 of them had to go; they had absolutely no central midfield in '05-06 (Fletcher,Giggs, Richardson & Smith was their midfield when we beat them in the cup) so Carrick was an upgrade
Another way of looking at it though.....
They signed an eastern European hardman in the prior Xmas transfer window at centre back (check)
They got an amazingly important, underrated player back from long term injury who had missed almost all the prior season (check)
They bought an English CM for way too high a price off a 'Uefa cup places' team (almost...)
Could be written in the stars.... Now's where the Coronation St. scriptwriter cos i'd like Rome as well!
Getting back to Barry - let's please stop talking about Ferguson: it's becoming obsessive - what I would do if I were his adviser would be to contact a/ a top London legal firm and b/ UEFA/FIFA. He'd have a great case for restraint of trade under EU law - i.e. being prevented from turning up at his place of employment - as wel as breach of contract (ie O'Neill telling the press about his disciplinary punishment rather than him in person, which is patently illegal). Not that this will resolve the situation, but as a statement of intent and escalation, it would be a pretty big step because I'm absolutely certain that an employment tribunal or any court of law would find in his favour, meaning his contract is invalid - at the very worst he'd have to pay it up (c.£4m) and leave. And Villa wouldn't get anything else from us. Show some cojones Gareth
Getting back to Barry - let's please stop talking about Ferguson: it's becoming obsessive - what I would do if I were his adviser would be to contact a/ a top London legal firm and b/ UEFA/FIFA. He'd have a great case for restraint of trade under EU law - i.e. being prevented from turning up at his place of employment - as wel as breach of contract (ie O'Neill telling the press about his disciplinary punishment rather than him in person, which is patently illegal). Not that this will resolve the situation, but as a statement of intent and escalation, it would be a pretty big step because I'm absolutely certain that an employment tribunal or any court of law would find in his favour, meaning his contract is invalid - at the very worst he'd have to pay it up (c.£4m) and leave. And Villa wouldn't get anything else from us. Show some cojones Gareth
I think he should go nuts with a machine gun.
__________________
Everything should taste of bacon™
"I wanted this to be professional, efficient, adult, cooperative. Not a lot to ask. Alas, Gareth Barry did not see it that way. So he won't be joining Liverpool for... the rest of his life."
It's just a little bit of panto being played out for the benefit of O'Neill's public image and Lerner's relationship with the Villa fans. They'll take the money soon enough, because O'Neill's going to want to start spending it.
