MARCOS ROJO: MAN UTD'S NECESSARY PANIC BUY

Manchester United are about to seal a deal for Sporting Lisbon's Argentine left-back, Marcos Rojo, in a forced late window signing due to their shortcomings in defence. At €20m, this represents a gamble but it is an understandable one.

D. Ray Morton, 19th August 2014.

 

Argentina's Marcos Rojo is set to join Manchester United for a fee of €20m from Sporting Lisbon in the coming days

The English Premier League kicked off this weekend and it turned out that most of the top teams started their campaigns with wins. North London duo Arsenal and Tottenham both picked up victories against Crystal Palace and West Ham respectively though Everton were held by newly-promoted Leicester on Saturday. Sunday saw Liverpool and Manchester City get past Southampton and Newcastle whilst Chelsea beat Burnley on the road last night. Prior to all of these results, however, Manchester United started off the season with a miserable 1-2 humbling in their own backyard at the hands of Swansea City. The performance was poor from start to finish apart from a brief spell in which they had equalised yet Gylfi Siggurðson put them to the sword with a finely worked winner. United's performance still had that Moyesian feeling about it. Weak in front of their home fans, a lack of fight demonstrated.

They lined up in a 3-5-2 formation as expected based on their pre-season. The back three drew red flags before a ball was even kicked. Tyler Blackett, a débutante, started alongside Chris Smalling and Phil Jones. The three had the task of marking Swansea's lone striker, Wilfried Bony, meaning that there was an unnecessary amount of cover in an area the Swans did not intend to dominate. Instead, United's midfield had a man less and the visitors were able to pick them apart through efficiency of central possession. They broke in unison and found it relatively easy to pick off Louis van Gaal's men. In desperation, they changed to something along the lines of a 4-4-2 in the second half but this meant that Ashley Young would have to play at left-back, an experiment which should never be repeated. The fecal matter unleashed by the overflying bird into his mouth, as captured by the Vines of social media enthusiasts, was nearly fitting.

Manchester United's new manager was left stumped by their poor performance against Swansea City and may get more annoyed if the club do not secure some vital transfer targets before the window slams shut on August 31st

Van Gaal must be pretty frustrated at the lack of transfer activity coming from the club. Ed Woodward appears to be in charge of such matters and, like last summer, he is proving to be out of his depth. This is a man who is good at negotiating corporate sponsorship deals, not signing top level talent from around Europe and the rest of the world. Only Ander Herrera, who failed to impress on Saturday, and the injured Luke Shaw have arrived. This is set to change with only eleven more days of transfer window time left. Argentina's World Cup silver medallist Marcos Rojo is being lined up, a desperate reinforcement for a rickety back-line. With key targets like Borussia Dortmund's Mats Hummels and Ajax's Daley Blind missed, it is imperative that they get players of any reasonable standard in quickly.

Rojo is of a fine standard it should be pointed out. Whether that standard meets the touted €20m transfer fee is another question. Though he was seen as a potential weak link in Argentina's starting XI in Brazil, he had a very good tournament scoring a goal in the process. He is also coming off the back of his best ever domestic season with Sporting Lisbon where he made twenty-five appearances and scored four goals in the Portuguese top flight. He was deployed as a left-back in Alejandro Sabella's side but United fans should be aware that the 1.86cm defender can also play as a centre-half giving some much-needed versatility.

This move is a gamble but a necessary one and there may be a few more within the next week and a half of this transfer window. United have got the money and are ready and willing to pay a bit over the odds for numbers in their squad. Selling clubs know that they are desperate and this is far from an ideal start of the Louis van Gaal era. There are other areas where they need strengthening, central midfield being the obvious one still, and it should be fascinating to see if the Old Trafford club spend a fortune on getting a legitimate world star in before Sky Sports News' Jim White calls an end to transfer proceedings come midnight on August 31st.

HAVE BARCELONA SIGNED A COD IN JÉRÉMY MATHIEU?

Last week, Barcelona confirmed the signature of Valencia's 30 year-old left-back Jérémy Mathieu for the whopping fee of €20m. Now the Frenchman admits he smokes cigarettes when he wants to. What on earth have the Blaugrana got themselves in for?

D. Ray Morton, 2nd August 2014.

You could be forgiven for thinking that this is just another British tourist checking out Camp Nou on their summer break. Alas, he is Barcelona's latest signing: Jérémy Mathieu

Whatever it is about Barcelona, they just do not seem to buy decent defenders. One has to think a good few years back to find one, Daniel Alves perhaps? But he was practically a right-wing back slotted into the right-back position. Éric Abidal would be the next guess and Barça's latest signing has been dubbed as his natural heir in some circles. Whose circles they are does not seem to matter to the majority of Blaugrana fans because the general consensus is that they have just spent €20m on a crock past his sell-by date. Let me introduce you to Jérémy Mathieu.

"I do not smoke much but I do smoke when I want" said the Frenchman who has spent the last five seasons at Valencia. Not the time to be getting existential when the knives are already out without having kicked a single football. Barcelona's "fitness freak" manager and triathlon competitor, Luis Enrique cannot be too impressed with these kinds of statements which raises the question of who actually sanctioned this deal. A massive price-tag for a player entering the final phase of his career. Not exactly a world beater either. He has been France's third or fourth-choice left-back for years now.

The entire deal is sketchy. Mathieu has been signed as a centre-back to give competition to Javier Mascherano and Gerard Piqué with the Alex Song midfielder-to-defender conversion project having been abandoned. Jordi Alba should not have to worry about losing his place at left-back. It needs to be pointed out that Mathieu is not a natural centre-back, however, and has actually only filled in in that role in the last season due to his height. Éric Abidal actually preferred to play in the centre but was so comfortable on the left that he made the position his own.

The World Cup should have proven to Barcelona that they really needed to sign a real centre-back, either an old-fashioned stopper or ball-playing defender who could complement their attacks. Mascherano, in the World Cup, proved that he is a superior defensive midfielder to Sergio Busquets and should play that role again at club level. That is where signing a centre-back would come in but Barça may have blown it by opting for Mathieu. Does anyone remember Dmytro Chygrynskiy? They wasted €25m on him in 2009, barely played him and promptly offloaded him due to his frightening lack of pace. Well, Mathieu does not exactly gobble up the yards either and could stand out like a real sore thumb.

It would be a pleasant surprise to be proven wrong but, right now, this looks like a sure-fire candidate for being one of the worst signings of the summer. The Luis Suárez deal already had a peculiar taste to it considering it meant ditching Alexis Sánchez and having to pay a fortune but this latest signing could be the equivalent of throwing fresh banknotes into the paper shredder.

POCHETTINO'S START AT TOTTENHAM GOES UNDER THE RADAR

Mauricio Pochettino's reign as Tottenham's new manager has been very low key so far. With the club needing to sell in order to buy new talent, much work is needed in the month ahead for them to be a top four-challenging team.

 

D. Ray Morton, 20th July 2014.

Mauricio Pochettino has kept a low profile as Tottenham manager but will need to make strides in the transfer market if they are to challenge for those lucrative Champions League places

When Tim Sherwood's tenure as Tottenham boss ran down towards the end of last season, three candidates emerged to be the club's next permanent manager: Frank de Boer, Louis van Gaal and Mauricio Pochettino. All three were interested in the job at different stages but Daniel Levy and the Tottenham board opted for the latter based on his stellar work at Southampton. De Boer remains at Ajax Amsterdam and Louis van Gaal was handed the Manchester United reins boosted by having a fine World Cup guiding the Dutch national team to bronze medals. Some United fans are even talking about challenging for the Premier League title. One wonders whether such optimism would be at White Hart Lane had van Gaal gone there, keep in mind that Spurs did finish five points ahead of the Red Devils last season.

It is fair to say that Pochettino has operated under the radar so far. His goal is to finish in the top four but he must rebuild a flawed squad and also has a lengthy Europa League campaign ahead of him, something which Manchester United do not need to worry themselves with. To assemble this squad, he needs to sell to buy. Levy will not allow the free spending which backfired for the club last summer after the sale of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid. Ben Davies, Swansea's capable left-back, will likely be their first signing of the summer for a fee of around €12.75m funded by the sale of Jake Livermore to Hull City for €10m.

Ben Davies (foreground) could be Tottenham's first signing of the summer

The real conundrum is, who to sell and who to keep. Jan Vertonghen, Hugo Lloris and Érik Lamela are their three most in-demand players but the club really need to keep the first two as they are key members of the first-team squad. Lamela is young, Argentine like Pochettino and has potential but had an awful first season at White Hart Lane troubled by injuries and homesickness. The option is there to offload him or try and rekindle the abilities he demonstrated in Italy with Roma. Then there is a list of squad members who can easily be disposed with should Spurs be able to attract buyers: Paulinho, Roberto Soldado, Emmanuel Adebayor, Lewis Holtby, Kyle Naughton, Andros Townsend, Michael Dawson, Gylfi Sigurðsson and Sandro can all leave if suitable offers come in. Getting rid of a good few of those should raise a decent enough kitty to reinvest in the squad.

Some movement in the market is now crucial as desperation can rear its ugly head if business is left too late. No doubt technical director, Franco Baldini, is busy behind the scenes trying to close deals and the sooner they get done, the better. With North London rivals Arsenal having already signed one of the stars of the World Cup in Alexis Sánchez, Tottenham will have make a few moves in order to build a bit of much-needed belief around the club.

MAN UTD DREAMING BIG BUT WILL THEY GET THEIR GUYS?

Manchester United have already secured two new signings this transfer window and intend to sign more. Will they do better than last summer's mess?

 

Real Madrid's Argetine winger Ángel di Maria is one of Manchester United's main transfer targets but they will have to compete against the megabucks of Paris St. Germain and the draw of Champions League football

D. Ray Morton, 15th July 2014.

Last summer's transfer window was nothing but an unmitigated disaster for Manchester United. David Moyes made many mistakes in his reign as the boss at Old Trafford but Ed Woodward's fumbling in the transfer market did not exactly give him the best platform for a good start. This summer, with new manager Louis van Gaal in place, United cannot afford to screw things up again and spend another season without Champions League football. Their targets are lofty and they will need to be shrewd in order to get the right players at the right prices.

Several names are being bandied around at the moment. These include Real Madrid's Ángel di Maria, Juventus' Arturo Vidal and Borussia Dortmund duo Marco Reus and Mats Hummels. They have already signed Luke Shaw from Southampton and Ander Herrera from Athletic Bilbao. Two good, albeit expensive, acquisitions. Vidal and di Maria are only outside possibilities right now. The Juve midfielder is in no rush to leave Turin though he accepts that he will probably leave there at some point unless the club make a serious challenge at winning the Champions League. Di Maria is unsettled at Real Madrid but Paris St. Germain are sniffing around which could leave United incapable of matching the wages on offer in the French capital. Hummels had a great World Cup for Germany but Barcelona are rumoured to be hot on his trail.

The Red Devils will be disappointed to have missed out on another German, Toni Kroos, who is on his way to Real Madrid. The lure of the Champions League holders is currently too great for the United to compete with. Arjen Robben, one of van Gaal's World Cup stars, also dismissed the possibility of a return to the Premier League. Executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward appears to be operating much like he did last year. Targets are being identified publicly and this may not be the best way to conduct business. It did not work with Moyes but at least van Gaal has international appeal and a world class managerial C.V.

United cannot afford another summer of embarrassment and they already have a lot to do in terms of sales. Van Gaal will evaluate his new squad and will surely cut out some of the dead wood. The likes of Marouane Fellaini, Nani and Ashley Young, amongst others, are in line to get the axe. The next six weeks are going to be hectic and clubs will be aware of United's "war chest" of a transfer kitty and their desperation to sign. This will result in paying considerably more for their targets. It should be an interesting window from here on in.

SUÁREZ TO BARCELONA REPRESENTS A STRANGE PIECE OF BUSINESS

D. Ray Morton, 11th July 2014.

Will this be club football's dream strike force next season?

Next Wednesday, Barcelona will confirm the signing of Liverpool's controversial Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez. The fee is expected to be near the figure of €94m making Suárez one of the most expensive players of all-time. Cristiano Ronaldo's move to Real Madrid hit similar numbers though Gareth Bale's move to the same club is thought be somewhere between €91-100m.

Meanwhile, Barcelona have offloaded Chilean attacker Alexis Sánchez to Arsenal for only €38m meaning that there is a €56m gap in value between he and Suárez. With Suárez two years older than the Chilean, canny followers of the transfer market may raise an eyebrow or two in surprise. Is the tempermental Suárez really that much better? Though the Uruguayan has demonstrated great scoring prowess over the past few seasons at Liverpool, at twenty-seven, Suárez is at his peak whilst Sánchez can only get better. Sánchez also comes out of the World Cup with an improved reputation having put in some great performances for Chile. Though Suárez starred against England, his bite at Giorgio Chiellini ended his tournament in disgrace.

Arsenal jumped at the opportunity to sign Alexis Sánchez with Barcelona eager to sell to free up funds for the Suárez deal
 

Liverpool will obviously need a replacement. Recent reports have linked them with Real Madrid's Karim Benzema, a move which may or may not happen depending on whether the Madrid club want to go after Monaco's Colombian pair, Radamel Falcao and James Rodríguez. Alternate options are the precocious talent that is Belgian teenager Divock Origi or Benfica's Serbian attacker Lazar Markovic.

Looking at the Suárez deal, it represents a considerable risk for Barcelona. He will have to serve his ban which stretches well into the beginning of the season without even the opportunity to train with his new team-mates. With Neymar out injured with a significant back injury, Barça will have to start the season with only one of their first-choice attackers, Lionel Messi, who will be coming off the back of an entire World Cup's worth of matches. Should the Catalan club start the season sluggishly, there will be higher expectations of Suárez once he becomes available.

The potential front three of Neymar-Messi-Suárez looks great on paper and represents something of a South American dream attack force. Will they click? Messi will want to remain in his central false 9 role and Neymar prefers to play on the left but is the right side of a front three the best position for Suárez to occupy? At Liverpool, he would often play centrally or on the left but it was Raheem Sterling who usually played on the right when the Merseysiders played with a front three. It seems strange to spend so much on a player if he is to be played slightly out of position. Suárez is highly adaptable and will not kick up a fuss but it represents something of a conundrum for new manager Luis Enrique. The outgoing Sánchez's preferred role was that right winger slot that Suárez will be fitted in to.

With this enormous outlay, Barcelona have gone back to challenging Real Madrid directly with their wallet. Expectations are massive and finishing the season without a major title, either La Liga or the Champions League, will represent a failure considering the investment they have made. Suárez is on a five-year deal and the Catalans should expect to win many trophies in that time provided he lives up to the hype. A fascinating season ahead but whether Suárez is the upgrade to make Barcelona the greatest again is up for question.

ANOTHER CESC SAGA ALBEIT DIFFERENT

D. Ray Morton, 6th June 2014.

Though not a horror signing, it has not been all smiles and sunshine for Fàbregas at Barcelona

Cesc Fàbregas has been the subject of a number of transfer sagas over the past few seasons. In the summer of 2011, Barcelona finally pried him away from Arsenal for £35m plus add-ons amounting to amother £5m. Last summer, speculation mounted that Manchester United were hot on his trail as he only managed to register two steady seasons with Barça, failing to take Camp Nou by storm. After another decent but unspectacular campaign, speculation is mounting about his future again.

The dynamic is slightly different this time, however. Fàbregas has been seen as something of a flop. His addition to Barcelona's squad unsettled the Busquets-Xavi-Iniesta midfield axis and his presence hastened Thiago Alcântara's departure from the club, moving to Bayern Munich in search of more first-team opportunities. Fielding Cesc became more of a problem than a solution. Do you fit him in instead of Xavi or Andrés Iniesta or do you play him in Lionel Messi's false 9 role? Whichever position he was put in, it never seemed as natural as it did at Arsenal.

Spending £40m on an ex-youth player also created an awkward dynamic. It was a vast fortune to spend on a player that the club did away with in the past only to take him back like a prodigal son. Such lavish spending happens at Barça but not for their La Masia contingent. Blending expensive signings with in-house talent has been the club's way, not spending a king's ransom on once homegrown fledglings. One could point to Chelsea's expensive re-signing of Nemanja Matic as a good example of this kind of deal but Roman Abramovich's team are known for their vast consumption and do not have a philosophy or a fanbase that they have to answer to like that of the Catalan clubs'.

New manager Luis Enrique deems Fàbregas surplus to requirements and wants to generate money through sales in order to secure his own transfer targets. I wrote on the interest in Sevilla's Ivan Rakitic lately and recent reports do suggest he is very close to signing for Barcelona, snubbing both Atlético and Real Madrid in the process. They will want to add a defender, another midfielder and an attacker to that therefore Cesc has become a target for Manchester clubs City and United, Chelsea and maybe even old club Arsenal. There seems to be an odd reluctance amongst these clubs to make a move materialise, however, and only Chelsea's José Mourinho has publicly stated he is monitoring the situation despite Fàbregas' possible reluctance to work with a former Real Madrid manager who managed to rub quite a few Catalans the wrong way during his time at the club.

Wherever he ends up, Fàbregas is still a player with plenty left to offer. He must be used in his best role, however, and that is in an advanced midfield role with protective players behind him and a recognised striker ahead of him, not as a deeper lying metronome or as false 9. He does not have the pace to lead the line and does not have the positional discipline to play too deep but he is a fine attacking playmaker. He needs a good World Cup to give his career another kick-start and some fine performances in Brazil could ignite some more aggressive bids for his services.

IVAN RAKITIC IS RED HOT PROPERTY

D. Ray Morton, 2nd June 2014.

Ivan Rakitic was the star of Sevilla's Europa League triumph and was named player of the competition

Sevilla's Ivan Rakitic may be one of European football's hottest properties right now. Having guided his side to Europa League glory, the Croatian international is on the radar of several major clubs in need of a creative midfield presence. Rakitic offers the characteristics of a classic Balkan playmaker in spades. His playing style has been compared to legendary schemers like Zvonimir Boban and Dragan Stojkovic. According to his father, Luka, the top three Spanish clubs of Atlético Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid are hot on his trail and hinted that Barça may be his preferred choice should an offer materialise.

His buyout clause comes to about €40m though it is believed that his contract features a reduction of that price were an offer made by a "big club" which could mean reducing his cost to about €25m. With Cesc Fabregas being put up for sale and Xavi now 34 years old, Barcelona will be looking for quality to add to their midfield options. Atlético's Koke may be their number one choice but the Croat would be a fine alternative. Rakitic has a good head on his shoulders, genuinely loves the game and would fit into Barça's possession-based, communal philosophy. This is a guy who owns a minor Swiss club, NK Pajde (Croatian for "Buddies"), as a hobby such is his passion for football.

Many eyes will be on his exploits at this month's World Cup. His Croatian midfield link-up with Luka Modric should keep Brazil on their toes in the tournament's opening game on June 12th. He brings a lot to the table tactically. He can play anywhere across the midfield, in the hole or even as a second striker. He is deadly from long range, retains the ball very well and is highly technical. Last season, in 41 starts, he scored 13 goals and made 12 assists at club level between league and European appearances. At 26 years of age, he is just coming into his prime and, given the right push, can be one of the Europe's best playmakers in the years to come.

Premier League clubs will cast glances at him but there does not seem to be a realistic deal to be made there. Chelsea are already stacked full of attacking midfielders and a manager that distrusts players without defensive priorities as mentioned here in yesterday's article in regards to Eden Hazard. Though Rakitic is versatile and adaptable, he is not exactly a player that excels in the nitty-gritty side of things. Very much an artist as opposed to a destroyer. Manchester City can offer riches but this alone would not interest Rakitic one would think. The allure of a Barcelona or a Real Madrid cannot be matched by Sheik Mansour's wheelbarrows full of cash.