Nicky Butt, and Juan Veron....
It's the Gorton/Buenos Aires combo...
https://www.facebook.com/notes/manch...56720431505063
Great interview. Very distinctly remember him signing - definitely the most exciting signing ever, beyond Cantona/Rooney for me....
Astonished it never worked out. Thought he was made for United. Bit like Berba 
Quote:
United Review - Old Trafford's official matchday programme - recently caught up with Juan Sebastian Veron in his homeland of Argentina, where he recalled a Reds career that was brief but held fans spellbound...
Blending the craft of Eric Cantona and the engine of Roy Keane, Juan Sebastian Veron was one of the most exciting signings in Manchester United’s history.
The Reds’ yearning for a marquee signing, allied to the Argentinian’s off-field problems in Italy, teed up a 2001 transfer from Lazio which captured the imagination of a fanbase which had seen Sir Alex Ferguson’s side storm to three successive Premier League titles.
Meeting with United Review in La Plata, where he’s now president of his beloved Estudiantes, Veron recalls how the move came about. Italian police had investigated the validity of his passport, which would lead to his agent being jailed. While the player was acquitted of all charges, it was a stressful time.
“I had well-documented issues with my passport and I needed a change of air,” he says ahead of a top-flight game against Argentinos Juniors in the 53,000 capacity La Plata stadium, Argentina’s most modern. “I knew United was a great club, my dad had told me about Best, Law and Charlton from when he played against them in the ’68 [Intercontinental Cup] final. I’d also played against United for Lazio in the 1999 Super Cup in Monaco. Lazio won, but United were the Treble winners. I knew they were a team who never wanted to lose, but Lazio were at a more advanced stage of the season and that helped us.”
Veron still had doubts about moving. “I wasn’t convinced that England was the right place for me and thought there could be more passport problems.” His family thought otherwise. His uncle, Alejandra Sabella, who managed Argentina at the 2014 World Cup, had played for the Uniteds of Sheffield and Leeds. Veron’s wife, Florencia, and children were open to a move, too.
“They liked the idea,” explains Veron as a man loiters nearby, with a tattoo of the former midfielder’s distinctive torso on his shoulder. “They liked the culture, my wife speaks English. So we made the decision as a family to go to Manchester.”
The former Estudiantes, Boca Juniors, Sampdoria, Parma and Lazio playmaker made the move in July 2001, becoming United’s record £28.1 million signing. But the transfer brought excitement and such was the expectation, shirts with Veron’s name became an immediate best seller.
“I bought many myself,” he laughs. “I went to the Megastore and bought them for everybody I knew in Argentina! It wasn’t like today, you couldn’t find the Manchester shirt in Argentina.” He also visited the club museum. “I saw the Estudiantes crest with my dad’s face as a cartoon,” he says. “That was emotional. I felt like I was walking in the footsteps of my father.”
The move to Manchester was largely positive. “It was a big change of culture for us,” he said. “We’d been happy living in Italy, but the people in Manchester helped us adjust. The best thing was the people, in the club, in the street. We lived in Hale. It was tranquil, there was a small forest nearby, and we liked it. Roy Keane – the captain and a top player in a group where standards were high - lived near me. We adjusted to the weather, but not the food, that was more difficult. I couldn’t believe the meat people had for breakfast and eating your evening meal at 5pm was strange, but we found some nice restaurants.”
Veron started English classes. “I wasn’t the best student but I wanted to learn," he recalled. "There were people in the dressing room who spoke Italian and Spanish. Mikael Silvestre spoke Italian, Laurent Blanc too. Quinton Fortune spoke Spanish, while Diego Forlan would arrive and he spoke Spanish. And El Mister (Sir Alex) tried to speak Spanish! People at Carrington always had a word for me in Spanish.”
Veron started well and fellow midfielder Nicky Butt was watching more closely than most as the man expected to make way for the Argentine.
“I was suspended for a game against Everton and sat in the stands,” recalled Butt. “Seba was unbelievable, so good that I never thought that I’d play for United again. He was world-class and obviously competition, but Sir Alex reassured me that I’d get games.”
The man known as ‘The Little Witch’ smiles when he hears that. “Good player, Butt,” he says as Estudiantes players walk past him to the changing rooms. It’s clear they’re as reverential as the fans. “I feel I started well in the league games. The pre-season preparation was very different to Italy, where we’d do all the running pre-season. In England, there was running every day. I liked the atmosphere in training and the lads were great, people like Ryan Giggs was kind to me. He was also a good dancer. In training, there were no excuses. They trained like they played, hard and with the group in mind. But I found the football hard to adjust to and there were so many games throughout the year.”
There were other differences. “Games were intense for 90 minutes,” he says. “In Italy, it was more tactical and about closing down the games. In England, the games were more open, the ball came back and forward. It was more physical too. The difference between, say United and Aston Villa and Lazio and a smaller team, was smaller.”
Veron was still enraptured by many aspects of his new home. “He was always at team meetings and on team nights out and full of enthusiasm,” recalled Andy Cole. “And, on one night out, he started teaching us songs that the ultras sang in Argentina. Seba was really popular with the players.”
“I admired the football culture,” adds Veron. “England had the history and yet all the stadiums were so modern. But I loved the old stadiums too, like Arsenal, Everton, Anfield and Aston Villa.”
The fans took to him, with a beautiful melodic song. “I didn’t know I had a song!” smiles the man who donated his wages so that Estudiantes could redevelop their youth system. “I saw Argentina flags and heard Argentina chants [at Old Trafford]. Football can be beautiful like that.”
United fans remember moments from Veron, like his role in the 5-3 victory at Tottenham in September 2001 after the champions had been 3-0 down at half-time.
“I’ve never been involved in anything like it,” he states. “El Mister, Ferguson, was not happy at half time. He said we had no respect for the people. We scored five in the second half.”
Veron has other positive memories from games against north London teams. “There was a game against Arsenal when I scored, the year we won the league. That stands out.” His goal helped United beat champions Arsenal 2-0 in December 2002.
Some of Veron’s finest moments, his sublime passes forward, were in Champions League matches. “I don’t know how to explain that,” he says. “If I had one frustration it was that I had highs and lows every season. I was never at a high level throughout the whole season.”
Butt thinks he knows why. “After a good start, it didn’t go great for Seba. It was a shame because he was a lovely fella. In European games, he was brilliant, but I don’t think he got to grips with the tempo of the league.”
Veron was also part of a changing side, with United shifting from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1 and that provided problems for Ferguson. “Veron was a superb footballer with immense stamina,” said Ferguson, who stated he found him easier to work with than other Argentinians. “His intelligence in the game and his engine were first-rate. The problem? We couldn’t find a position in which to play him.”
“Sometimes I played with Scholes and Keane,” explains Veron, “sometimes in a 4-4-2 with Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole. The system varied, but I should have stayed at United and not left.”
After 82 games and 11 goals over three seasons, the proud son of La Plata, just south of Buenos Aires, left for Chelsea - newly purchased by Roman Abramovich and managed by Claudio Ranieri - in a £15 million transfer in 2004. Chelsea wasn’t a success and he moved back to where he’d flourished in Italy, winning the cup and league with Inter Milan. In 2006, he spurned offers from Boca and River, Argentina’s two biggest clubs, to return home to Estudiantes.
“It was my home and still is,” he says. “My father had played there, winning the Libertadores and beating United in 1968. I’d played there and I continue this intense relationship with Estudiantes. My son now plays here.”
Veron had been a league winner in Italy and England. At one point, his total transfer fees were higher than any player on the planet, but the greatest triumph was with Estudiantes. “We won the league for the first time in 23 years,” he explains of the 2006 Apertura success. In 2009, Estudiantes reached the final of the Copa Libertadores for the first times since 1971, where they beat Brazilian side Cruzeiro.
“Incredible,” he says. “Just incredible.” This is why people in Marcos Rojo’s home city have Veron tattoos. He was named the best player in the tournament. He retired in 2014, aged 39, and became Estudiantes president.
“I’m proud,” he says. “It’s my city, my people. Estudiantes is different to United – we have divisions for many sports, not just football. And I’m Estudiantes, I can’t just move to another club. It can never compare to playing, but I’m enjoying it. And I enjoyed it in Manchester.”
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18-04-2016, 10:26 PM
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