Fantastic - a perfect subject worthy of continuing our little "From Russia With Love" dialogue! Manchester United completed the signing of young Spanish goalkeeper David De Gea this morning to take their summer spending to around £50 million. There is also talk of them pinching Samir Nasri off Arsenal before the start of pre-season training, which will set them back at least another £20 million (incidentally, Arsenal are screwed next season - will patience with Arsene Wenger finally run out?). Fergie's intentions are clear - having been totally outclassed by Barcelona in the Champions League final last month, he needs to build the next golden era, cementing their place at the top of the English game and creating a team able to compete with Messi et al (and Real Madrid for that matter).With De Gea, Phil Jones and Ashley Young, you undoubtedly have talented footballers worthy of wearing the red at Old Trafford. But are they actually an improvement to the current United side, which, whilst comfortably champions this year, are nowhere near the best that Ferguson has had at his disposal over the years? With De Gea, his hand has been forced. Edwin van der Saar, the best since Schmeichel, has finally retired having seemingly been playing football my entire life. He simply refused to go away and generally continued being excellent all that time. Thomas Kusczak and Anders Lindegaard could never dream of matching up to his standards, let alone those of the Great Dane. De Gea is a young pretender, with a big frame and superb reflexes making him an excellent stopper in one-on-one situations. Having just won the European U21 Championships with Spain, he is essentially the new Iker Casillas. But at half van der Saar's age, will he command both the penalty box and the language essential for boring through Rio Ferdinand's thick skull in the same way? Time will tell of course, but Fergie has put a lot of faith and cash into the long-term investment. My gut instinct tells me that there will be the odd clanger, but De Gea will be No.1 at Old Trafford for the next 10 years. By which time Fergie will be dead. Put money on it now - new signing still to be at United when manager dies. Good odds guaranteed.
Jones and Young are the ones that confuse me a touch. I just cannot see where the upgrade is despite the fact that they are most certainly amongst the best of the young English talent at the moment (which in itself says a lot). It is clear that Blackburn's struggles last season were primarily caused by their lack of attacking flair, so sought after was Jones, along with his defensive partner Chris Samba, who is currently being courted by Arsenal. Again, he has all the physical attributes to be a success, but is the centre of defense really somewhere that needed strengthening? Are Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic not the best all-round centre-backs that United have ever had? Would it not have been wiser to have invested in some full-backs who don't perpetually get caught out of position by any winger with a bit of pace and nous? Certainly, Ferdinand's body is on it's way to packing in altogether, so I suspect Jones will get some game time next season, but is mainly one who will come into his own in the future - another who could be at Old Trafford for a fair while. But his arrival will not be the difference between Champions League runners-up and winners.
Which brings us finally to Ashley Young, signed for that tantalisingly frustrating fee of "undisclosed". Just tell us OK, it makes life a lot easier when calculating team's net gain/loss in transfer fees during the close season (it gives me a break from calculating bowling averages etc). Who has he been signed to replace? Certainly not Paul Scholes, who liked to sit deep and distribute - Young is much more pacey and reliant on trickery in his creativity. Much has been made of the number of assists he created for Aston Villa's frontmen (known for the most part as the Darren Bent Show in 2011), so perhaps Fergie views him as a man to keep the chances coming for Rooney and Hernandez. But what about the investments made recently in Antonio Valencia, who looked resurgent on his return from injury, and Nani, who despite falling out of favour towards the end of the campaign was the Fans' Player of the Season? Perhaps he will play off the front two - but then what was the point in extending Ryan Giggs' contract for another year? To keep him out of trouble (Graeme will represent me in court)?
What I'm getting at is that I don't believe that Young is any better than any of those players. At Villa, he was the big fish in an ever shrinking pond. They no longer had ambitions for trying to break the top four and were more content with life in the top half. It's a move that will suit the player's ambitions more than it will suit United. In all likelihood, Nani, in my opinion the best of the current attacking midfielders, will be moved on to accommodate Young in the starting XI, with no further use for Park Ji-Sung's industry either. And I see no net gain from this for United and so I question why it was necessary to splashed out so many undisclosed millions on a man who will not be capable of singlehandedly lifting them above Barcelona in the European pecking order.
United have stated their intentions by splashing the cash so far this summer. However, the personnel they have brought in will not immediately give them their wishes. Now if they could get Nasri on the other hand...
RM
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