If you have a contribution to make, drop us a line at theeditor@football365.com....
Making A Mailbox Move
On a different note, is that Sara bird in this morning's mailbox fit? Think my girlfriend is going to ditch me due to some drunken antics in a reasonably expensive restaurant last night (this almost never happens, she's so up-tight) and you've got to love a girl who talks sense about football and uses the word "castigate". To use an Americanism: awesome.
Harry
No Arguing With Ferguson
Dear MC,
I thought I would wade in with my £0.02 worth on the lack of transfer activity at Man Utd. First and foremost I am a United fan and have been all my life and I trust Sir Alex Ferguson, the man has forgotten more about football than I will ever know and I know that he will have a plan. Maybe his plan is to sign Valencia to replace Cronaldo and that is all, if he sees enough quality in Macheda, Manucho, Tosic, Wellbeck etc etc then so be it. The man trains these players every week, he knows more about their ability than any of us and he also knows better than any man out there what it takes to win the Premiership.
What makes me laugh is the papers saying that 'United's No.1 target has gone to real Madrid', bearing in mind that Lyon said they had one bid and it was the papers that said United were after Benzema in the first place. No-one except Sir Alex knows who his No.1 target is.
I would love to see some big name players come in but there is a flip-side to the loss of Ronaldo that everyone seems to forget, I watched the Champion's League final and I saw something that made Cronaldo going much easier to understand and even desire, the man had started to get what I call 'Collymore syndrome', he had started to believe his own hype and was starting to try to be the hero in the team. To be fair he has been, certainly through 07/08 but I counted three ridiculously optimistic shots off target when each time Rooney was in a better position. This has been the story for much of the season and I reckon with two more conventional wingers at OT, Rooney and Berbatov will thrive on the supply, instead of watching Cronaldo fire over/wide again.
Football is a team sport and, if Sir Alex believes that he has the means already at his disposal to win the Premiership, then who the hell am I to argue? I have to say though, I really want United to win this year and be the first team to win 4 league titles in a row. That would be nice and overtaking Liverpool into the bargain would be, as David Batty would put it, 'a bonus'.
Paul Milton, Man Utd
...Why is everybody losing their mind about Man United not having signed any massive names yet? Why does everyone think that you simply have to have one or two of the three best players in the world to win anything?
Why does everyone assume that Real Madrid will instantly gel and be the greatest side in the history of the world? This is football, anything can happen. Moreover, it's a team game, and you can't buy team spirit and collective brilliance.
In the mid-1990s Fergie created his greatest team out of three of his best players leaving, and by introducing a batch of top-quality young players blooded in the club's footballing tradition... it seems to me that the same could easily happen this year, with Welbeck, Macheda, Gibson, Possebon and the Da Silvas coming fully into the first team.
Plus, there's no reason why Valencia couldn't be almost as good as Ronaldo, just without the hype (or the ball-hogging, or the annoying affect on morale). This would bring the average age down to about 23 and see the start of possibly his fourth great side. All with a £50m net profit for the summer.
As it is, even if Fergie signs no-one else for the rest of the summer,
the following could be his first eleven:
Foster, Da Silva, Evra, Vidic, Ferdinand, Carrick, Hargreaves, Fletcher,
Anderson, Rooney, Berbatov.
That looks pretty tidy to me.
All we'll then need, is Real's midfield to get overrun as Ronaldo, Kaka
et al stand around believing their own hype and playing with their hair,
lose a few games 17-16, and then the in-fighting begins......
Matt Bishop, Sheffield
The Best Line You'll Read Today
Now I'm no ManYoo fan, but Pedro (smug) Fernandez, Madrid is clearly suffering a case of the Spurs Summer Flu when he tells us :"but you (ManYoo) will be (too) far away to fight in Europe with teams like Real Madrid or Barcelona."
Pedro, don't count your chickens and all that. Given that your team hasn't reached the quarters of the CL in half a decade, you might want to lower them expectations if you believe you'll brush past the EPL big four that easily. After all, the whole Galaxticos (sic) policy worked so well the last time, right?
...And that's forgetting Serie A...
Geoff "welcome to tier 3, NCFC fan since '75" Johnston, The Big Smoke
...RE: Pedro, 02/07/09 - Do one mate.
How can you say that Real, having hardly done anything in the Champions League in the last 3 years, are now not on the level of Manchester United, who in the past 3 years have got to the semi-final's at least? You're comments stink of the same attitude that made the original Galaticios fail...thinking that you just have to turn up to win. Plus, as Fabio Capello has proved, it's the team that has to function rather than individuals..and Perez is obviously calling the shots and the new manager will be told who he has to play - how is that going to work?? It will be like it was before unless they learn the lessons of yesteryear.
Barcelona will still be the team to beat in Europe and Man Utd will not be that far behind them, as like all Ferguson team's, they will evolve once more. I'd imagine SAF will go to playing 4-4-2 again, with Valencia on one side and Nani (yes I think he'll get a prolonged run in the team, like Ronaldo did when he signed) and adapt to Europe once again. (I'd also bank on Man Utd's transfer business being done for this summer too as said this morning)
How any Madrid fan can come on here lauding it up on the basis of signing some (albeit exceptional) players without a ball being kicked I don't know. I would do my celebrating at the end of the season if I were you...
Spez (Heir to the Throne to the King of Pop)
Ladies And Gents, We Have A Biter
I've got to hand it to the Football365 Mailbox editors, many a times I've read through the letters and, despite all the shockingly rubbish opinions, seductively tantalizing alternative realities purposed and hilariously amusing after-thoughts thrown around, I have never once taken the bait and written in. My committed (but admittedly wavering) resistance however, took its fatal blow after reading Pedro's letter and, alas, I could be silent no more.
I found it insulting how he boldly implied that Man Utd only have the capacity to lure, cheap, undesired players like Valencia from second-rate teams like Wigan. I took offense at how he declared the premier league inferior to La Liga, attempting desperately to "coup" it from its throne of football dominance and how he casually wrote off Man Utd as "rivals" to Real or Barcelona before exclaiming that this now seemingly impotent team would still win its league composed of other, even more impotent teams.
I wonder if Pedro has ever stuck his head out of his probably perfumed ass and stopped to consider the possible financial backlash the La Liga could face should these investments not work out in the future? That Serie A began its downfall despite having the finest crop of world footballers at the time? Let me be the first to remind him that during their last star-studded era they only managed to win 2 league titles and 1 champions league over that 4 year period and that since then they've been miserable, failing f**ks on the international stage.
What Pedro doesn't get is that if money alone was enough to rule the world of football then some shitty league like the Saudi one would be the absolute pinnacle, and i honestly can't sit back and stay quiet to that sort of stupidity.
Sami (now strangely satisfied) Abbas
Welcome To The Real World
You've got to love the blinkered arrogance of United fans. "Surely our answer is Joe Cole", "why not stick in a cheeky 10Mil for Joe Cole" before "converting him into the new Paul Scholes". Simple and of course as we all know he's the "forgotten man at the Bridge" and "seems to have gone a bit stale at Chelski" so naturaly will "fancy a new challenge".
Now while it makes me chuckle that they think Fergie can put his Harry Potter cloak on and Magiclly transform Joe into Paul Scholes (wasn't Fergie also going to do this to Rooney?) you do have to ask, what planet do these people live on?
Cole's only the forgotten man at Chelsea because he was out injured for the majority of last season, he made 33 league appearances the season before. While I'm sure Abramovich will usually wet his knickers with excitement when a £10M bid comes from one of their main rivals, if Chelski did agree to sell united Joe Cole it would mean only one thing, that his knee that kept him out last season is basically f**ked. So basically you'd end up with the new Hargreaves rather than the new Scholes.
Besides have you ever heard Joe Cole, he'd get altitude sickness moving
that far north.
Jon M, Durham
...Would Man Yoo fans kindly stop deluding themselves into thinking Chelsea would ever consider selling Joe Cole.
Contrary to popular opinion he has not "gone stale" at Chelsea and he is not "the forgotten man of the bridge", he's just been injured!
Chelsea will not sell him (and most certainly not for a paltry ?10M) because...
1) He is one of our best and most creative players
2) At 27 he is coming into his peak
3) He's English and we need as many those as we can get (hence the purchases of Sturridge / Turnbull and the offer for Johnson).
4) The fans love him and Carlo would not be making the most auspicious of starts if he let a fan favourite go.
Now then, can I interest you in a certain Mr Deco???...
Tony S (JC is also a lifelong Chelsea fan) London
On Second Thoughts
To Steve in Germany,
I'm not sure where you got that team from but I guarantee you Marcelo won't play right back, Van Der Vaart will probably be sold( madness as he is brilliant) Heinze will be sold (not so mad) Metzelder is a donkey and they have just spent 15 million on Spain's best centre back Raul Albiol.
They will have to find cover for Pepe for the first few games after he went a tad mental last season and I shouldn't imagine however many stars they sign that Pellegrini will be stupid enough to leave Raul on the bench.
Adam (herts gooner laughing at ManYoo)
...That team will definitely finish runners up, what with a left-winger (Marcelo) at right back and a right back (Ramos) at centre half. And no place in the team for new signing Albiol and Pepe on the bench? Lucky if they get in the CL placings.
The Butcher, Dublin
...Good shout Steve from Germany, but surely this is more likely the New Madrid
Casillas
S Ramos - Pepe (I know he's banned for a while) - Albiol - Marcelo
L Diarra - M Diarra
Kaka - Sniejder - C Ronaldo
Benzema
I think that looks a lot better and will push Barca a hell of a lot more than this year
Craig Mansell
A Taxing Thought
Dearest F365 mailbox contributors,
All this furore over transfers is purely and simply economics.
If Ribery comes to England he pays 50% tax on every weeks earnings after
the first weeks.
If Ribery goes to Spain he pays 20%.
On 5 million a year, that is a lot of cash to lose.
Phil Smith, enjoying the Spanish style weather, but not the sweaty munters
We Were Saying Just The Same Thing
The fact is, the majority of top class players from the likes of Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Spain and France will choose Real, Barca or AC Milan over Man U any day of the week. Of course there are exceptions - but look at the best players to come out of Brazil in the past decade - Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Rivaldo...sure Man U didn't bid for them, but would that have made any difference?
Time to face the hard truth - British & Irish players, Far East players and maybe the odd Northern European player view the Premier league as the best place to ply their trade, but the rest of the world knows that when Madrid comes calling for a player you want or have, you haven't got a prayer in competing against them.
So Fergie wouldn't sell Real a virus eh? I reckon if Real's president Perez wanted Fergies still beating heart sold to him he could get the deal done. Probably for a lot less than £80m as well.
John, Edinburgh
The Prem Needs Climate Change
Maybe climate change isn't such a bad thing after all? It would raise the temperature here a couple of degrees and that would surely be a good thing in the Premier League's ongoing battle with La Liga to attract the best players.
Of course, this might still have failed to keep Ronaldo on these shores as he likes to tan his skin to a specific deep shade of terracotta and that requires some extreme heat; but would give us a fighting chance with the rest.
Anyway, I'm off to turn some lights on, spray a couple of cans of aerosol, wash my clothes at 90 degrees and drive an SUV round for a couple of hours. Who's with me?
Dane (If this plan backfires and induces mass floods, then I'm off to watch the Arsenal at the Hawthorns sitting pretty at 552ft above sea level) Vallejo
Football's Sickness
Football, across Europe, is ill. The Premiership is awash with funds borrowed against TV revenues, only Madrid and Barcelona can properly compete financially, the Italian League is a shambles, the Germans have vanished, and the smaller leagues are losing their best far too early.
Players you'll never hear of will never have to work because of brief promise they've not attempted to fulfill, and the fear that they might have fulfilled it at another team. (Is there a conceivable way Newcastle could be worse off if they'd capped player salaries at £25k a week five years ago, by the way?)
Part of the solution might be to cap first team squad sizes, right across Europe, place severe restrictions on squad changes mid-season, and let the whole thing settle back down. Restricted squad places might reduce the scope for players to hold clubs to ransom, result in less eagerness to move to "important clubs" with bloated player numbers, induce reluctance on the part of clubs to pay massive salaries to players they don't need-but-someday-might-gosh-we'd-better-sign-something-quick-dammit, and opportunities for teams in smaller leagues to hold onto decent players for a few seasons until they prove themselves.
Maybe.
Andrew, Ireland
Complaining Consistently
I hope all of those Anglophiles complaining about Monsieur Platini's supposed silence on Real's transfer activity have read the article entitled "Platini concerned over transfer fees". Quotes include; "I'm embarrassed", "I think there is something wrong there", "excessive". "I don't like that", "we will do something". He may still turn out to be a ****, but at least he's a consistent ****.
Adam, Australia
Answering Back
Sam M, thank you! That was a great email, short, not whining about anything and a dead interesting question!!
I should be on my way to a client meeting so best get a move on with this...
Cards on table, I'm a 'Pool fan, have already bought my panther black away kit with Alonso 14 on the back (am REALLY worried he's gonna go) so allow for that!
If 'Pool had to get rid of either Masc or Alonso, I'd want to keep Xabi - I think it's possible to replace the qualities that Masc brings but not so easy to do that with Xabi...
I'm always worried that Masc is going to 'do an Argie', ie, kick off about something during a game, he needed a slap about the head from a team-mate in the Utd game - so I don't trust his temperament that much either...
I think Essien and Alonso would be better than Masc and Alonso. And Javier, God bless him, cannot shoot to save his life. So Masc is the easiest to rule out...
Cesc is younger than Xabi by a good bit so that helps his case. So going to drop Xabi for that reason mostly....
So Essien or Cesc? Hmm, I think like the Masc/Xabi point of who you can replace more easily, someone creative or someone destructive (simplifying their attributes I know), means that I'll go for Cesc...
2 Liverpool players amongst the 4 and I go for the Gooner, I feel dirty
But Cesc in a 'Pool jersey giving us that added ability to break down defences alongside Torres and Stevie G, that I would love to see.....
Mark, Navan
...Well it has to be Alonso, it really does. Fabregas is a great player but a petulant little s**t. He's never captain material in my book.
Essien, powerhouse of a player and will do a job anywhere but hasn't got Alonso's technique.
Similarly Mascherano - a great destroyer (in common Mailbox language) but not the best creatively and whilst I would be sad to see him go...
How could you replace Alonso. What defensive midfielder with his passing range could you honestly buy to replace him. Pirlo, he's 30. Toure, passing range. Fernando from Porto - too much like Mascherano.
No...has to be Alonso.
Dessie, Belfast
...In answer to Sam M's question:
Essien
Fabregas
Alonso
Mascherano
in that order....and yes I am a Chelsea supporter but anyone else who chooses a different order is just plain wrong.
Tony S (it's no coincedence that Chelsea became a force again once ME returned) - London
...Nice question Sam M....... will definitely pick Essien cos the boy can score, tackle, defend and I'm very sure can even keep if allowed and he can also pass so that adds all the qualities of Alonso(can pass), Mascherano (can defend) and Fabregas(can score!) there's only one winner Essien and I don't even like Chelski.
Olaolu 'still waiting for a new 7 for United' Hassan(Nigeria)
Essien every time. Chelsea's best player and arguably the most under-rated player in world football.
Sparkatron, Villa fan
And Finally...
Dear Sir,
I do not want to appear pedantic but George Gabriel stated that Kiko Macheda will be nervous about 11 billion Man U fans watching him next season. Well as there is only 6.7 billion people on the planet I guess he gets his supporter calculations at the same place Sir Alex gets his injury time figures.
Ian Hewison
