Bebe

It was shady as hell alastair. Guimarães signs Bebé on a free, a few weeks later Jorge Mendes becomes his agent, sticks a €9m release clause on him, keeps 30% of his pass, and then Portuguese newspapers speak of Bebé being followed by Real Madrid - obviously rumours planted by Mendes, our sports newspapers are filled with agendas.

Either United bit the bait, amateurishly, or there is indeed something shady about it.

A club like Guimarães would salivate at something like 3m yet seemingly no negotiations took place and United just threw the clause value. Were they afraid of losing a future star to Real Madrid?
 
Arruda said:
It was shady as hell alastair. Guimarães signs Bebé on a free, a few weeks later Jorge Mendes becomes his agent, sticks a €9m release clause on him, keeps 30% of his pass, and then Portuguese newspapers speak of Bebé being followed by Real Madrid - obviously rumours planted by Mendes, our sports newspapers are filled with agendas.

Either United bit the bait, amateurishly, or there is indeed something shady about it.

A club like Guimarães would salivate at something like 3m yet seemingly no negotiations took place and United just threw the clause value. Were they afraid of losing a future star to Real Madrid?
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Hmmm. It does seem fishy when you tell me that. It's just that there was no precedent for it and it's never happened again. Why was Bebe the only one? Why did Ferguson defend him so vigorously and give him such a chance if he'd been duped into signing him?
 
Well the common train of thought was that it was a bung to ensure the safe transfer of de Gea once Mendes became his agent. If this is true or not, we'll probably never know.

The 'amateurish' explanation involves Sir Alex trusting our scout for the Portuguese area and the recommendation of Carlos Quieroz to the point of negligence.. which I guess could be possible
 
He's not exactly the most well-educated of players, even by footballers' standards, too... I hope he doesn't ruin himself financially. Sure, he's probably a millionaire, but that will have to last him for the rest of his life.

That said, I'm a bit surprised, since Jorge Mendes is surely supposed to ensure Bébé doesn't run into financial trouble, with his company providing the likes of financial planning to his clients? He's supposedly pretty good at this.
 
SAF's lowest moment (that I've witnessed.) Granted there weren't many of them, but what the hell was he thinking?
 
x42bn6 said:
He's not exactly the most well-educated of players, even by footballers' standards, too... I hope he doesn't ruin himself financially. Sure, he's probably a millionaire, but that will have to last him for the rest of his life.

That said, I'm a bit surprised, since Jorge Mendes is surely supposed to ensure Bébé doesn't run into financial trouble, with his company providing the likes of financial planning to his clients? He's supposedly pretty good at this.
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Bebé won't go into poverty unless he's irresponsible. I've seen a few games of him at Rio Ave and he's decent enough for the top half of the Portuguese league. He seems tremendously out of place at a CL level club, but he's still a professional footballer.
 
jem said:
SAF's lowest moment (that I've witnessed.) Granted there weren't many of them, but what the hell was he thinking?
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there has been worse errors of judgement, Massimo Taibi comes to mind!


Arruda said:
Bebé won't go into poverty unless he's irresponsible. I've seen a few games of him at Rio Ave and he's decent enough for the top half of the Portuguese league. He seems tremendously out of place at a CL level club, but he's still a professional footballer.
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Im glad you have said that as there is still a myth going round that he cant even kick a ball!
the transfer was a weird one but he is clearly a half decent player - just seems too 'rough' to be able to mould him to United quality.

I assume a transfer back to Portugal is the most likely outcome as he is clearly not in Moyes' plans.
 
Bebe is more Ali Dia than Taibi. Somehow conned his way into the Premier League but always looked out of his depth in the first team.

Taibi had 200-300 professional games under his belt before coming to United, that was just bad judgement rather than a con.
 
nothing like Ali Dia and ridiculous to compare the two (it is that type of idiotic comment that I was refering to above)

ye it was a dodgy punt on an unknown but Bebe can actually play, whereas Dia was never even close to being a pro footballer
 
Playing 26 games in the Portuguese second division and being part of a con which pocketed an agent a 7 figure sum.

Obertan is a punt, Diouf is a punt, Bebe is a con and certainly one of the strangest pieces of business Sir Alex and the club ever sanctioned.

The fee has always been fishy to me. Had it not been similar to the amount we spent on Hernandez, I don't think many would care but its a fairly significant fee for a guy with 26 games in a shit league.
 
well I agree that it was a strange deal and the fee was a rip off but comparing him to Ali Dia is idiotic

after all we are talking about a guy who made up the fact that he played international footy for Senegal and was subbed off after coming on a sub in his only ever game and then went straight to nonleague footy.
 
Rood said:
well I agree that it was a strange deal and the fee was a rip off but comparing him to Ali Dia is idiotic

after all we are talking about a guy who made up the fact that he played international footy for Senegal and was subbed off after coming on a sub in his only ever game
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I said "more Ali Dia than Taibi"...purely because I'm convinced this had some money making intent and the fact Taibi was a professional to the tune of about 250 games.
 
Arruda said:
It was shady as hell alastair. Guimarães signs Bebé on a free, a few weeks later Jorge Mendes becomes his agent, sticks a €9m release clause on him, keeps 30% of his pass, and then Portuguese newspapers speak of Bebé being followed by Real Madrid - obviously rumours planted by Mendes, our sports newspapers are filled with agendas.

Either United bit the bait, amateurishly, or there is indeed something shady about it.

A club like Guimarães would salivate at something like 3m yet seemingly no negotiations took place and United just threw the clause value. Were they afraid of losing a future star to Real Madrid?
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I doubt that. But still, it was a bit more complicated, if memory serves. It was Queiroz who recommended him to Fergie, and he is capped at U21 level - so someone must have thought he had something. Unless both the selection and CQ's recommendation were part of an elaborate scheme.

The money seems fishy, no doubt. Could be a combination of a bung and a punt, I suppose. Keeping on Mendes' good side and getting in someone who was an unlikely talent, but who nevertheless was considered as something of a diamond in the rough (that, I believe, is what CQ told Fergie, or something to that effect).

Strange case, at any rate. He has entered United history, one might say: I bet our fans will keep track of his movements till he retires, wherever and whenever that may be.
 
Taibi was a great keeper who couldn't handle the pressure of playing for a top side. Milan got their fingers burnt like we did when they bought him from Piacenza after a magnificent spell there. He was more like the Italian version of Howard then Bebe.

The Bebe deal is just hilarious. We spent 7m on a player who lack all the necessary talent to survive at EPL level. I agree with Issy guy that he's more of an Ali Dia then a Taibi.
 
Arruda said:
Bebé won't go into poverty unless he's irresponsible. I've seen a few games of him at Rio Ave and he's decent enough for the top half of the Portuguese league. He seems tremendously out of place at a CL level club, but he's still a professional footballer.
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The thing is, most footballers are irresponsible and thick.

Ability doesn't guarantee anything, either. Eric Djemba-Djemba played for multiple top-flight sides but went bankrupt. Celestine Babayaro, who played for multiple top-flight sides and got a nice MLS payoff, also went bankrupt.

Bébé's upbringing would be similar to many Africans arriving in Europe - several struggle financially as they are less likely to know the value of money and how to save it.

I'd hope Mendes takes care of him as he is one of the better agents (from a player's perspective, obviously).
 
coolredwine said:
Any chance of him being anywhere near our team this season? Or is he again going out on loan?!
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looks like he is not in Moyes' plans as he has not gone on tour - he is in the same boat as Macheda, Wooton and Tunnicliffe - this time last year all were with the first team squad and went on loan but now they play preseason with the reserves.

I expect all 4 are available for sale or loan
 
Rood said:
looks like he is not in Moyes' plans as he has not gone on tour - he is in the same boat as Macheda, Wooton and Tunnicliffe - this time last year all were with the first team squad and went on loan but now they play preseason with the reserves.

I expect all 4 are available for sale or loan
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Wasn't Tunnicliffe supposed to be the next Roy Keane or something?
 
Man, every time this thread gets bumped you know it has nothing to do with his footballing ability but more mockery of him as a whole. :lol:
 
He's improved his crossing massively. They stayed in play for one
 
Yeah, he wasn't really challenged for the ball by the defenders though, and he didn't bother to aim anything, just lofted them in. Which to be fair was our best attacking weapon in the second half.
 
I said that people need to stop judging him based on his 2 nightmare games for us and look at his more recent form..

Not good enough for us, but he doesn't deserve to be treated like a joke.
 
Drainy said:
I said that people need to stop judging him based on his 2 nightmare games for us and look at his more recent form..

Not good enough for us, but he doesn't deserve to be treated like a joke.
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To be fair it is much much funnier to do so. His name also sounds like Baby.
 
His left foot crossing appears to be better than his right. Moyes is probably being fair and giving everyone a chance, but let's be honest this guy is never making it in a million years here. Makes Obertan look like a footballing genius.
 
Drainy said:
I said that people need to stop judging him based on his 2 nightmare games for us and look at his more recent form..

Not good enough for us, but he doesn't deserve to be treated like a joke.
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So true.

The fact that two of his great crosses has been dismissed as that he didn't aimed anything and lofted it is such bullshit.
 
marjen said:
Yeah, he wasn't really challenged for the ball by the defenders though, and he didn't bother to aim anything, just lofted them in. Which to be fair was our best attacking weapon in the second half.
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To be fair, he did aim that cross to RVP where he missed that 'sitter' by his standards
 
KM said:
So true.

The fact that two of his great crosses has been dismissed as that he didn't aimed anything and lofted it is such bullshit.
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The cross for the RvP chance at the end was clearly just a punt, while the one that ended up in that almighty goalmouth scramble was saved by a great piece of awareness by Henriquez, the cross fell behind him. He never looked up before the RvP cross!
 
LARulz said:
To be fair, he did aim that cross to RVP where he missed that 'sitter' by his standards
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He never looked up!

Watch the replay. Dinked it into the area, and to be fair it was a very good cross, but honestly he never looked up from when he received the ball.
 
marjen said:
He never looked up!

Watch the replay. Dinked it into the area, and to be fair it was a very good cross, but honestly he never looked up from when he received the ball.
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He doesn't have to have a look tbh, if he can put the ball in dangerous areas where 9 times out of 10 there'll be a teammate, it's all good.
 
marjen said:
He never looked up!

Watch the replay. Dinked it into the area, and to be fair it was a very good cross, but honestly he never looked up from when he received the ball.
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Have to see again but I can't imagine he would have done that type of cross without looking up once. They need a Bebe highlight reel

But as said above, a wingers job is to put the ball in a dangerous area. Its the strikers jobs to be there.
 
kouroux said:
He doesn't have to have a look tbh, if he can put the ball in dangerous areas where 9 times out of 10 there'll be a teammate, it's all good.
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True, it landed excactly where you want it to go.

Hope he'll go on to have a good career. It's not going to be here, though.
 
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