Paul Tomkins - Meeting With Rafa

[MrMichael]

I was thinking more along the lines of Simao, Barry, Vidic ... any others?

Dani Alves, and perhaps Evra are the most obvious 2.

Silva and/or Villa?

[andrewces38]

What a brilliant read , Just goes to show what goes on behind the scenes, I posted it to my facebook so my other Reds fans can get cheered up a bit too, I would love he did a bit of name dropping too. As for the youngster Tom Ince I reckon

[-V-]

Good read that.

Thanks for posting it zimbo

[el matador]

excellent article.

Rafa has tried to do this job with one had tied behind his back in terms of finances but he admits to transfer mistakes (but who doesnt make them). He is stubborn but at least he has conviction in his beliefs.

we need to get behind the manager and the players for Sunday and the rest of the season. The league is gone but it was always a very long shot because of the lack of depth in our squad. Things just havent gone for us with injuries and players out of form but hopefully we can get back into the CL positions for the end of the season.

I guess the mystery info about the missed signings, great young players etc will have to wait until we read his autobiography.

[Tee]

Fantastic read. So many 'what ifs' .. story of the last 20 years.

[Guest]

excellent article.

Rafa has tried to do this job with one had tied behind his back in terms of finances but he admits to transfer mistakes (but who doesnt make them). He is stubborn but at least he has conviction in his beliefs.

we need to get behind the manager and the players for Sunday and the rest of the season. The league is gone but it was always a very long shot because of the lack of depth in our squad. Things just havent gone for us with injuries and players out of form but hopefully we can get back into the CL positions for the end of the season.

I guess the mystery info about the missed signings, great young players etc will have to wait until we read his autobiography.

The league isn't gone and it isn't a long shot at all. If we win, we'll be 4 point behind them and it's still October!!! That's the reality.

[Icon]

Stellar article...

[el matador]

The league isn't gone and it isn't a long shot at all. If we win, we'll be 4 point behind them and it's still October!!! That's the reality.

dont delude yourself.

our league hopes hinge on torres and gerrard always being fit and that wont happen. It is and always was a long shot.

[johnly]

Wasn't the rumour that we missed out on Ronaldo due to Parry's reluctance to pay him or his agent an extra million quid?

[el matador]

Wasn't the rumour that we missed out on Ronaldo due to Parry's reluctance to pay him or his agent an extra million quid?

what i heard was that he wanted £1m wages and that at the time he would have been a reserve team player. We werent willing to do that as it would have caused major issues for other reserve and senior players.

Im also sure this happened under houllier and not benitez but again i could be wrong.

[johnly]

what i heard was that he wanted £1m wages and that at the time he would have been a reserve team player. We werent willing to do that as it would have caused major issues for other reserve and senior players.

Im also sure this happened under houllier and not benitez but again i could be wrong.

Yeah it was under Houllier mate, I spotted his name mentioned before so thought I'd drag that up

I dread to think of the list of players Rafa has been priced out of. The Simao deal was weird as was Barry's.

[Johnny H]

what i heard was that he wanted £1m wages and that at the time he would have been a reserve team player. We werent willing to do that as it would have caused major issues for other reserve and senior players.

Im also sure this happened under houllier and not benitez but again i could be wrong.

The actuality of that deal was we had everything agreed with the club and the player, only for the scum to come steaming in with a massively inflated offer.
We had agreed something like 7m with Sporting, the player had agreed terms. United then offered Sporting 12m thus blowing us out of the water. We weren't going to compete with that so pulled out completely.

It's not the first time that has happened either. Darren Fletcher was in the room waiting to sign for Liverpool when Ferguson rang him directly and told him to speak to him first.

Jaap Stam too. Liverpool had agreed a deal with PSV, united came steaming in with an offer twice the amount.

These are all good players who would have made a difference. Ferguson, scumbag though he is, found out about the deals and effectively wrecked our seasons by taking away our top targets.

[The Birdman]

The actuality of that deal was we had everything agreed with the club and the player, only for the scum to come steaming in with a massively inflated offer.
We had agreed something like 7m with Sporting, the player had agreed terms. United then offered Sporting 12m thus blowing us out of the water. We weren't going to compete with that so pulled out completely.

It's not the first time that has happened either. Darren Fletcher was in the room waiting to sign for Liverpool when Ferguson rang him directly and told him to speak to him first.

Jaap Stam too. Liverpool had agreed a deal with PSV, united came steaming in with an offer twice the amount.

These are all good players who would have made a difference. Ferguson, scumbag though he is, found out about the deals and effectively wrecked our seasons by taking away our top targets.

Not that I doubt any of your post mate but I hadn't heard those details before, where did you get that from?

[-V-]

To be fair Johnny H is one of the few who doesn't need to explain his sources. Interesting info too

[JohnDoe]

That article really cheered me up.