There are plenty of players under contract that get sold if the price is right, there are big clubs and then there are clubs like United, Real and Barca that do have a special history and aura to them. Also financially ours is the most popular league in the world so for a player coming to play in the PL for Man Utd the chances to substantially upgrade their own profile and get bigger endorsement deals are high.
These players your are mentioning are way off being proven good enough, and other than the guy from Southampton the others would merely be reserves next season. As for the guy from Southampton, he's a solid player but nothing more, he wont improve us he'll just add depth to a PL squad, if the CL is the goal we need a player that is more than solid.
As for us being linked more with wingers, strikers and defenders, we all know most of these stories are bullshit but it wouldn't surprise me if the papers simply see them as more plausible bullshit than us going for a CM due to SAF's recent blind spot hen it comes to that position, however more often than not Fergie pulls surprises on the media and this may well be the summer of the CM.
Sure, he does pull off surprise signings from time to time. But a blind spot that lasts 6/7 years? Really?
I honestly believe he thinks the first team options are good enough and will either buy for the future, or will bring in experienced cover, such as Lampard, while he waits for the right player or for a player to come through from the academy.
Me, I would love to see us go all out to buy the worlds best, but I don't think the other top clubs are selling. When was the last time we bullied Barca, or Real, or Juve into selling one of their players? Doesn't happen. They nick our senoir players, but we don't do it to them (although you could make a case for Hargreaves). And I will repeat myself again... Fergie definitely prefers premiership proven, and preferably English for squad limit purposes if he is spending big money, and unless Arsenal decide to sell Wilshere (and we'd not have a lot of hope in that auction) I cannot see a great centre mid player that fits that brief.
I think there are good players in the league that would be better, in a better team. The lad at West Ham, Diame, could be a cracking player. Schneiderlin really shouldn't be under-rated and plays in a midfield two. We've done it before in taking players and making them better. Why shouldn't we do it again?
And whats wrong with getting the very exciting prospects that are out there, such as Will Hughes? Say we bought him and took Lampard for experienced cover as Scholes retires. With Hughes and Powell getting minutes from time to time, and Lampard playing the Scholes role for a couple of years, would it be such a bad thing? We all know Fergie takes a long view, so why not try to solve an immediate need with an experienced player, and then build for the future.
All this call for Modric, or Vidal, or Strootman is un-realistic in my view as we have either missed or passed up on that boat, or the player is unproven and could potentially be a flop in a vital position. There is a reason why we let players go for cheap fees and then pay exhorbitant ones a year or two later. They are proven in the league then. So we didn't pay £3.5m for Carrick when Tottenham got him, we paid £18m. We didn't pay £6m or whatever it was for Berbatov, we paid £32m. This is why we are unlikely to go for Wanyama or Strootman until another club has bought them first. We're not afraid of spending the money... we are afraid of spending the money on the wrong players... the ones that can't handle it.
Anyway, I could well be proven wrong, and I'd love to have someone bring this diatribe up in a couple of months time and say "Look, we've bought Fellaini" or whoever, and "you were so wrong". I think we need centre midfield players as well, but I don't see us buying from either a top club, cos we don't do that, or a muppet name. I think it'll be a young player and maybe a Lampard.
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