Well there you have it, in a way we all knew it was inevitable. The destination wasn't inevitable however and I can completely understand all the bitterness that followed and all the hatred. That's just football...
Where to begin? OK those who know me personally and follow me on twitter
(https://twitter.com/fisher_mr) will know that last night, far from being hurt and disappointed I was actually in a rather cheery mood. I'll explain. £24m for a 29 year old, injury prone player with one year left on his contract, to me is brilliant business. As always we've made an enormous profit and I think United have taken a huge gamble for a number of reasons.
Firstly, with a injury sheet longer than the Olympics bill, there is always that question mark over RVP and his fitness. With his many injuries over the years every time he goes down there is always that fear that he might stay down. At 29, one more big injury could spell real trouble for him. I don't want to wish injury or anything like that upon him, even when a player moves to sp*rs you still don't think like that. But I do have a niggling feeling he may be seeing a lot of the United physio.
Secondly I have real reservations about how he will work with Rooney. I can't see them working together, he won't score 20+ goals I will put money on that. Can he feed Rooney as a Shadow Striker? Is that worth £24m? I don't think so. I'm sure Ferguson will play them side-by-side upfront, but considering they have problems in centre midfield will they get the support they need?
So it's a big risk. In terms of my personal feelings, I don't feel betrayed or angry. Just a little disappointed that he could have been up there with Henry, Wright, Bergkamp and now he'll just be that dutch bloke that scored some good goals for us. He won't be remembered as a legend and I'm sure that one day he'll look back and regret it. But he engineered this move himself and now he has to deal with whatever it brings.
We need to continue our build up to the new season now and re-invest the money that we will get from the deal. A striker should be right at the top of the list, I worry about Giroud coming from Ligue 1, yes he looks promising and he certainly knows how to find the net but it's a big step for him. Podolski I'm less worried about but I don't really think Wenger wants to play his as another striker as such more as a versatile attacker. I'd like to see us buy Llorente but I can't see it, Wenger now surely knows that we need to bring in some players and it's just a case of waiting and seeing what happens.
As I'm jetting off to the USA tomorrow posts will be limited, but I will do my pre-match posts as the new season FINALLY kicks off! In the words of Thomas Vermaelen "Life go's on".
