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Fergie: No more player movement at Old Trafford


suley
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Sir Alex Ferguson handed Michael Owen Ronaldo's old shirt at Manchester United and then declared Old Trafford closed for transfer business.

 

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Owen will wear the No.7 shirt.

 

After recieving £80m from the sale of the Portuguese winger to Real Madrid, it was thought Ferguson would add to the signings of Owen, Antonio Valencia and Gabriel Obertan.

 

But, faced with a market over-inflated by Real Madrid and Manchester City, Ferguson has decided his current squad is good enough to challenge for an unprecedented fourth consecutive league title, even though Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez have left.

 

He said: "It is the end of our business, so all these stories about who were are supposed to be getting - forget it.''

 

It means Owen will take over Ronaldo's shirt and his place in an attacking line-up containing Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov, plus youngsters Danny Welbeck and Federico Macheda, who will both be given a chance to prove they are worthy of the accolades that have been bestowed on them.

 

"They are both young players - but young players with ability always get a chance here.''

 

Owen maintained he was in good shape despite his injury-prone tag. "It does irritate me that so many people have doubts,'' he said. "But if there is one thing I am angered by, the injury thing would be it. There is no doubt I have had injuries in my career. But there is a long list of players that have had a broken metatarsal.

 

"I was foolish trying to rush back for the World Cup and my leg had just come out of plaster. "But I played 33 and 32 games in the last two years in a team that was not in Europe and did not go on a decent cup run. Still I was continually labelled injury-prone, which gets up my nose.

 

"I am 29 and have played over 500 games for club and country. That says it all.''

 

What Owen does accept the need to prove is the retention of ability that has made him only the fourth striker in England history to score 40 goals for his country.

 

"In certain parts, people do have a justification to have a go at me,'' he said. "I didn't set the world alight in the last year at Newcastle. That is no-one's fault but mine. We were not playing well as a team and I wasn't doing my bit either.''

 

Ferguson confirmed he made a bid for Karim Benzema, only to be rebuffed by the Lyon man, who instead became part of Real Madrid's extraordinary spending spree.

 

''There are some amazing numbers being talked about, not all of them realistic,'' he said. ''It is very difficult to get value now. ''In a way we benefited through the sale of Cristiano, although that figure was non-negotiable.

 

"But I feel we have a good squad, which meant there was no need for knee-jerk reactions. 'We asked about Benzema and we had a value for him. Lyon have done well because they got 42m Euros but I think we took a sensible view.''

 

"Michael gives us experience in the penalty box, which is vital,'' said Ferguson. "He has always had that little knack of losing defenders in the last third. "I know he will score a lot of goals for us. He has been great at that for years.''

 

Sir Alex Ferguson says Man United won't be buying any more players - England - ESPN Soccernet

 

Surely his gotta be kidding?... this could only be good news for us then

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I am certain that I have heard Fergie say that before shortly before they signed someone so I would take it with a pinch of salt, but I do not think that they ever had any intention of spending the whole £80m, I am just surprised that they are not looking to spend some of the rest of it!

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2006: They hadn't won the league for 3 years, sold their top-scorer and pretty much only goal threat, Nistelrooy, brought in an overpriced midfielder, Carrick. And, that's it.

 

I was also laughing back then, except that they went on to win three back to back league titles, and reaching two Cl finals.

 

If we've learned something from the past decade or so, never write the scum off. I don't really fancy them to go very far in the CL this time around but they will still know how to get the maximum points from the PL dross, more so than any other team, make no mistake about that.

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2006: They hadn't won the league for 3 years, sold their top-scorer and pretty much only goal threat, Nistelrooy, brought in an overpriced midfielder, Carrick. And, that's it.

 

I was also laughing back then, except that they went on to win three back to back league titles, and reaching two Cl finals.

 

If we've learned something from the past decade or so, never write the scum off. I don't really fancy them to go very far in the CL this time around but they will still know how to get the maximum points from the PL dross, more so than any other team, make no mistake about that.

 

Ain't that the truth.

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There was a story in the Guardian a couple of weeks back that United were not going to buy any players over the age of 25 or 26 from what I remember.

Not long after that, Owen was having a medical.

Load of shite.

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There was a story in the Guardian a couple of weeks back that United were not going to buy any players over the age of 25 or 26 from what I remember.

Not long after that, Owen was having a medical.

Load of shite.

 

They didn't buy him, he was free. I think the article related to players that were bought for substantial amounts.

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I am certain that I have heard Fergie say that before shortly before they signed someone so I would take it with a pinch of salt, but I do not think that they ever had any intention of spending the whole £80m, I am just surprised that they are not looking to spend some of the rest of it!

 

I'm sure you are trying to say: Baconface, Old Ginsoak, Whiskeynose, Ferguscum, Slur, etc.

 

Negged for not saying one of those or a new, appropriate, name.

 

Also negged: That thread title is a damned DISGRACE!

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I don't believe that for a second. Ferguson is a liar. A liar and a twat. He is also a bit simple and will think that he is been really clever if he tells the press that he isn’t signing anyone and then signs someone, as if the price of a player depends on what the press know? He is still in the market.

 

A poster above refers to the signing of Carrick, but it was more so the ego of Abramovitch in getting rid of Mourinho. If that hadn’t of happened then Utd would not be on 18 titles. Fergusons history is littered with their contenders collapsing. Us, Leeds, Arsenal of early 90s, Blackburn, recent Arsenal, and Cheslea. It is up to us to show our potential and take the final step, and then stay there.

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I don't think he is lying. I have thought for some time that the Glaziers will snaffle the majority of the Ronaldo money for themselves. The Owen signing was a clever ruse which distracted the talking heads in the media from the subject of his budget surplus and wound us up a bit.

 

This is our biggest chance in years, Ronaldo was that team.

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I'd love United not to sign anyone else; replacing Ronaldo and Tevez with Valencia and Owen is a dramatic drop in quality so they'd be much weaker than they have been for the past 2 seasons.

 

I expect Ferguson's comments intend to drive the price down of any player they may be interested in. I'd be massively surprised if they don't sign anyone else, I can see them going for Aguero to be honest - they probably don't want to pay his £45m release clause though.

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