Other fans' views on our ex-players

Originally Posted by Tiberian

Did not help, but given the nature of their side, Bergkamp, Vieria, Petit, Overmars, Anelka, Ljunberg, it was still a surprise. Plenty of international and European experience.

The Kiev side they played that year is one of my favourite teams from that era, golden age of the CL

Reb and Shev

Originally Posted by Crumps

Reb and Shev

Still sort of like the thought of them getting to the 1999 final instead of Bayern. But would you swap what actually happened that night for anything?

Originally Posted by red in cumbria

Still sort of like the thought of them getting to the 1999 final instead of Bayern. But would you swap what actually happened that night for anything?

Nope, everything about that week and a half was perfect. The summer I turned 17 too.

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

you were arguing against me saying that the idea we needed an immediate clear-out was ridiculous ...

for some reason (autocorrect) my post says fletcher had proven instead of has proven - as in has since proven - so i'll let you off for attacking me on that one tbf

tbf to me s and d are next to each other

Not as such, I was more saying that all those squad players leaving I don't think is what has hurt us. Many of them either weren't up to it or were stagnating. For me it was/is more that we lost so many big players and big personalities. And the age of those guys meant an overhaul was imminent. It also meant little in the way of transfer income.

The one good thing about the money we have wasted in recent years is, because of the age and profile of the players we bought, the re-sale value has been pretty high. So when Mourinho has wanted to sell, he's been able to recoup much better fees.

Originally Posted by red in cumbria

Wembley curse affected them, no?

They were also just bottlers in Europe. It continued for years, even with their invincible side. Even affected Henry, Pires etc quite often.

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

Not as such, I was more saying that all those squad players leaving I don't think is what has hurt us. Many of them either weren't up to it or were stagnating. For me it was/is more that we lost so many big players and big personalities. And the age of those guys meant an overhaul was imminent. It also meant little in the way of transfer income.

The one good thing about the money we have wasted in recent years is, because of the age and profile of the players we bought, the re-sale value has been pretty high. So when Mourinho has wanted to sell, he's been able to recoup much better fees.
.

partly that and partly united have stopped rolling over

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

partly that and partly united have stopped rolling over

True. Seemed like we played hardball in January over Schneiderlin and Memphis. As we should; talented players at good ages.

Hopefully we've wised up over contracts too. Big issue with getting Nani of the books was handing him a lucrative 5-year deal under Moyes, who seemed to quickly decide he didn't like him, and the player was having injury issues. Meant we had to accept peanuts to move him. Embarrassingly enough, it does feel like Mourinho has had to walk Woodward through a few things.

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

True. Seemed like we played hardball in January over Schneiderlin and Memphis. As we should; talented players at good ages.

Hopefully we've wised up over contracts too. Big issue with getting Nani of the books was handing him a lucrative 5-year deal under Moyes, who seemed to quickly decide he didn't like him, and the player was having injury issues. Meant we had to accept peanuts to move him. Embarrassingly enough, it does feel like Mourinho has had to walk Woodward through a few things.

basically the less you need to sell the more control you have over agents and transfer fees ...

the other shift is more nuanced imo; under fergie it was usually the case (short term signings aside) that he bought specific players to fit into his way of working, and so those players either stayed for the full period of their usefulness, or they quickly fell onto the sidelines are were wanted rid of - neither of these positions is a strong basis to negotiate to the club's advantage. these days neither of those scenarios are true - under van gaal we had a scattergun revolving door almost farcical transfer policy and under moyes we had a novice chief exec with no clue on contracts ... to sort it out we've hired an agent and he's brought mourinho with him