Rooney, Ronaldo, Tevez

Utd7 said:
Thinking back on it, was malpractice that we allowed Ronaldo AND Tevez to leave the same summer. We knew Ronaldo was going to leave a year in advance. We should’ve done everything possible to secure Tevez for the long term.
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All the club had to do was pay the agreed amount to secure him so it was hardly a difficult move to seal. But early into his second season Ferguson had obviously decided because of his behaviour on and/or off the pitch that he didn't want him.
 
Chicharo said:
Whenever someone mentions those days I always remember the comeback against Spurs when Wazza, Ronaldo, Tevez and Berbatov were all on the pitch at the same time. Scary-looking and unstoppable...
SAF should've shown a bit more bravery in Rome, I still believe we could've beaten Barca, unlike in London when we stood no chance
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We did show bravery in Rome. What was needed was for us to do the complete opposite. we should have sat off the ball and let Barca press and countered .

We tried to match Barca for the pressing game and that sucked.

Also the underrating of Tevez here is pretty crazy. I will say the three didnt link up all together as often but it was more having that firepower.

Rooney and Ronaldo however did link up in ana incredible way.
 
I remember seeing him doing an inhouse interview and he knew Rooney was number one and I think that was a big problem for him. Berbatov was an interesting talent but I remember being annoyed as signing Tevez meant Rossi would leave and I rated Rossi but it's a shame we couldn't make it work. People say lots of things about Tevez, but let's not forget he couldn't speak English and maybe we could/should have done more.

Some of his early interviews, he was very positive and taking about signing a contract. We really should have got it over the line and pushed him.
 
In hindsight had we kept Tevez and allowed city to sign Berbatov I think we would have won the 2 titles we missed out on by narrowest of margins to Chelsea and man city.

I think Berbatov was too much of a luxury player to truly galvanize man city to any title win.
 
Lee565 said:
In hindsight had we kept Tevez and allowed city to sign Berbatov I think we would have won the 2 titles we missed out on by narrowest of margins to Chelsea and man city.

I think Berbatov was too much of a luxury player to truly galvanize man city to any title win.
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We signed Barbatov in 2008, even when Tevez was there. Tevez left a year later. At the time I don't think either City or Utd knew that Tevez was gonna join City. We wanted to sign Barbatov to complement our strike force, just as City wanted him for their's. It wasn't an either/or situation in 2008.
 
It's weird but all the talk of united 99 vs current city side but I think this 2008 side on paper was probably stronger than both sides
 
Magnificent trio. Think we’d destroy city with our 08 team.
 
Lee565 said:
It's weird but all the talk of united 99 vs current city side but I think this 2008 side on paper was probably stronger than both sides
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3 finals in 4 years. That tells how how damn good that’s period was. It’s so unlucky that it had to be around the time where the greatest team like Barcleona had to exist.
 
The travesty is that we only really got to see that team play together for 1 season. Had we kept the first XI that started in the 2007/08 final we could've dominated football like Real did in the mid 2010s. Unfortunately injuries and bad transfer decisions saw that team dissapear very quickly.
 
Not making ronadlo the highest paid footballer in the world and keeping him for another few years if at all possible was a huge mistake. We could won more and sold him for way more if he’d kept it up. It would have been a huge statement. Glazers got lucky as hell with Fergie.
 
Wonder would pep take this front 3 over his current one of bernardo, haaland and grealish, could possibly see him preferring bernardo over tevez?
 
Most annoying thing is this could have been a goat trio. As good as they were that season none of the three were at their peak.

We know what Cristiano became at Madrid, Tevez at City was far better than the United version and of course we saw the best of Rooney after both left.

If they stayed together and grew without disrupting their chemistry by adding Berbatov, I feel we definitely have another CL.

But the 07/08 season was special from them. Tevez wasn't as good but he was the Firmino of the trio, he did so much work and had quality too.
 
DJ_21 said:
But we won it. City only scraped past us in the Fa cup final with a much superior team.
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I'd favor our 2008 team over them as well but the notion that they'd be destroyed by them is a bit of a stretch.
 
Red the Bear said:
I'd favor our 2008 team over them as well but the notion that they'd be destroyed by them is a bit of a stretch.
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Ye maybe I went OTT. Think we’d beat them though. Don’t think they’d handle our devastating counters.
 
Lee565 said:
Wonder would pep take this front 3 over his current one of bernardo, haaland and grealish, could possibly see him preferring bernardo over tevez?
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He’d take all 3 of them I reckon with maybe the exception of tevez, put Rooney in that team and he’d score for fun and link up the play too.
 
Ali Dia said:
Not making ronadlo the highest paid footballer in the world and keeping him for another few years if at all possible was a huge mistake. We could won more and sold him for way more if he’d kept it up. It would have been a huge statement. Glazers got lucky as hell with Fergie.
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It's been done to death that Fergie actually performed wonders to keep him for that last extra season and that Ronaldo always wanted Madrid.
 
Red the Bear said:
We barely scraped by Chelsea in the final.
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You are acting as if Chelsea were Spurs. That team was more experienced in Europe at that time than ours‘ (they had reached their 4th CL semi in 5 years whereas we had reached 2). That season they even beat Benitez‘ Liverpool in the previous round, something they couldn’t do previously under Mourinho. In the league I believe Grant still has the best win rate of any Chelsea manager. Then next season they dealt with Pep’s Barcelona better than we did and if the referee had not been corrupt they would have been in the final.
 
El Jefe said:
Most annoying thing is this could have been a goat trio. As good as they were that season none of the three were at their peak.

We know what Cristiano became at Madrid, Tevez at City was far better than the United version and of course we saw the best of Rooney after both left.

If they stayed together and grew without disrupting their chemistry by adding Berbatov, I feel we definitely have another CL.

But the 07/08 season was special from them. Tevez wasn't as good but he was the Firmino of the trio, he did so much work and had quality too.
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Tevez' ego wouldn't allow him to just be the Firmino of the trio, and Ronaldo had made his mind up in summer '08 that Madrid was his destiny, so there wasn't anything we could do to keep them together long term.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
Tevez had 14 goals, 6 assists in the Premier League in 2007/08, Antony had 4 goals and 2 assists this season. Different level entirely.
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To be fair I think he had a bit more experience than Antony and was more or less established by then, but my point was that stylistically they are both hard workers but a few levels below the likes of Rooney and Ronaldo.
 
Tevez was inconsistent but had a great top level and really brought the best out of that team when they were all on it that I was annoyed at losing him. Berba was a luxury signing who we didn't need IMO, and he didn't fit the team. Said it a bunch at the time, we all love him but on the whole he wasn't a good signing for me. Just looked a square peg in a round hole, didnt show up in big moments (that miss vs Blackburn i think?), and was the start of the reason that our best front 3 got broken up.
 
mu4c_20le said:
To be fair I think he had a bit more experience than Antony and was more or less established by then, but my point was that stylistically they are both hard workers but a few levels below the likes of Rooney and Ronaldo.
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Nah, Tevez was top-class, Rooney and Ronaldo were world-class yes, but he wasn't a few levels below, he was one of the best strikers in the league at the time, which he showed a few seasons later when he won the Golden Boot with City. Just because he wasn't as good as the other two doesn't mean he wasn't a good player.
 
With Tevez there was just too much talk about his lack of workrate in training, and then he started talking so much about how he didnt get starts.

Never really liked the guy, but of course he was a good player. Saha was a better fit imo as a player to team up with Ronaldo and Rooney. Tevez was still good, but didnt completely fit the two others I felt.
 
ROFLUTION said:
With Tevez there was just too much talk about his lack of workrate in training, and then he started talking so much about how he didnt get starts.

Never really liked the guy, but of course he was a good player. Saha was a better fit imo as a player to team up with Ronaldo and Rooney. Tevez was still good, but didnt completely fit the two others I felt.
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Yea I read he didn't put the effort in training but on the pitch he always gave everything.

Our big mistake was bringing in Berbatov. Even though it felt like a great signing at the time in hindsight the workrate of Rooney and Tevez really helped to unleash Ronaldo.
 
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