*Official* English Football Season 2005-06

sledger said:

how very nice for you, the reality however is that it has been a global game for much longer than you or i were even born. The game is indeed growing in popularity today..but thats irrelevant once more.

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No it's not. It becoming more popular makes more people want to play. Who's to know if someone like Landon Donovan would have played football if it wasn't popular. The US is hardly heaven for football. The sport has however become more popular attracting more players.

sledger said:

so wengers recent and past signings have been poor ? hardly. The matter of fact is that wengers best buys have all come from his own knowledge prior to any scouting, although undoubtably scouting occured, wenger knew about these players before hand, trial and error ? if you will, but its more sucess rather than error, cannot be said for sir alex, past or present.

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I'd assume also that Ferguson had no idea about Ronaldo before signing him.

On a completely different note, great to see that Heinze is in with a good chance of playing this Friday.

Not a bad team to make a comeback against too.

from that comment its obvious you have never been to the US, secondly, i fail to see what that has to do with people wanting to play now has to do with the time frame you are talking about, the fact is that regardless of its popularity now, the sport has been popular for a great deal of time. It may well be more popular now than it was a decade or so ago, but then thats no different from saying you are older than you were a decade ago, the point still stands, but its just common sense, not a startling discovery.

I'd assume also that Ferguson had no idea about Ronaldo before signing him

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its well known tat ferguson did indeed know about ronaldo, whether or not he is going to be a huge sucess remains to be seen. Your point relied on the fact that wenger was totally reliant on scouting, this is clearly not the case.

sledger said:

from that comment its obvious you have never been to the US, secondly, i fail to see what that has to do with people wanting to play now has to do with the time frame you are talking about, the fact is that regardless of its popularity now, the sport has been popular for a great deal of time. It may well be more popular now than it was a decade or so ago, but then thats no different from saying you are older than you were a decade ago, the point still stands, but its just common sense, not a startling discovery.

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The fact is it's more popular now which means more people want to play. Also, the world's population has risen quiet a bit since then. And of course football isn't popular in the US. It is completely overshadowed by baseball and basketball.

roseboy64 said:

I'd assume also that Ferguson had no idea about Ronaldo before signing him.

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So he'd spen £12m on someone he knows nothing about?

roseboy64 said:

The manager's. Veron was brilliant before Engalnd. Same too for Cisse, Morientes and Crespo. He's doing better in Italy now isn't he?

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Yep and when he isn't having an arguement with a certain Brazilian striker...

marc71178 said:

The manager is now at fault then?

I thought it was all scouts nowadays?!

As for Veron doing better in Italy, if you call being nowhere near his national squad any more doing better then fair enough.

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But isn't that down to the manager though? If a manager (for whatever reason) doesn't want to pick a player then he doesn't have to, and especially so if he doesn't want to pick him. Just because somebody is a manager and has been in the game for a long time doesn't mean everything they say or do is correct and taken as the gospel. You would agree (if you don't have Sky) if you heard Ian Botham's comment's about Ashley Giles a couple of years ago re: bowling over the wicket to the right hander.

Case in point - Alberto Gilardino just scored 23 goals for Parma in the 03/04 season yet he wasn't taken to Portugal, does that mean he hasn't anything good? Of course not.

roseboy64 said:

The manager's. Veron was brilliant before Engalnd. Same too for Cisse, Morientes and Crespo. He's doing better in Italy now isn't he?

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Veron was quite obviously a player that was not suited too the English game and therfore that make it a poor buy.

I think it is fair to say that Wenger has been more shrewd in thr transfer market than Ferguson with the notable exceptions of Frances Jeffers, Richard Wright and in my opinion Reyes.

I dont think this makes Wenger a better manager than Furgeson. Furgeson is a brilliant manger, he is a brilliant man manager, if you look at they way he brought through so many young players and is brilliant at getting the most out of his players. I think the same can be said for Mourinho. He hasnt pretty poorly in the transfer market considering the money he has had to spend but he is brilliant at fostering team spirit and he is brilliant tacticaly

roseboy64 said:

Wenger is a good manager but Fergie's better. Even now he's still better. Arsenal haven't beaten Man Utd in at least three seasons if I'm not mistaken. The period Ferguson has been "in decline".

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Did you sleep through the FA Cup Final?

Neil Pickup said:

Did you sleep through the FA Cup Final?

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To be fair, the better team on the day lost during that game - but that's football, and a loss is a loss.

Loony BoB said:

To be fair, the better team on the day lost during that game - but that's football, and a loss is a loss.

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And a truly hilarious one it was, too.

What happened? I honestly can't remember. I just know it went to penalties.

Loony BoB said:

What happened? I honestly can't remember. I just know it went to penalties.

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Yea, it went down to the glorified coin tossing competition - one of those reminders of how lame football is, like Liverpool's CL 'victory'.

Manure dominated the game but it ended up 0-0 even after extra time.

Craig said:

But isn't that down to the manager though?

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My point was the inconsistency being displayed here.

In Wenger's case he isn't given creidt for signings because its his scouts doing it, yet people keep saying Fergusin deserves credit for the same thing.

marc71178 said:

My point was the inconsistency being displayed here.

In Wenger's case he isn't given creidt for signings because its his scouts doing it, yet people keep saying Fergusin deserves credit for the same thing.

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Can't say I've noticed much praising of Fergie over his signings in this thread.

marc71178 said:

My point was the inconsistency being displayed here.

In Wenger's case he isn't given creidt for signings because its his scouts doing it, yet people keep saying Fergusin deserves credit for the same thing.

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For the record, Ferguson signed Cantona (Wilkinson asked about Irwin, Edwards said no, but Fergie told him to ask about Cantona).

Most of our great team was based on our youth team, which Ferguson set up and oversaw.

sledger said:

but by your logic of differences in league places jewell has taken wigan up far further than ferguson has taken united, and even then, the fact that the championship is so close would prove more rather than take away from an achievment surely.

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No, because if you're not far behind the top team it takes less improvement to get to the top.

I'm not trying to take away anything from Jewell, but until he improves further in the Premiership (and proves this season isn't a one-off) he's not on Fergie's level.