[Dirtycheat]

****SPOILERS IN ARTICLE****

Manchester United's old guard makes way

Part of what makes Sir Alex Ferguson great is his utter lack of sentimentality, his instinctive knowledge of when it is time for a player to leave Manchester United.

A decade ago, he said: "This club is like a moving bus and we are not waiting at the stop for anyone who is late. I have always made that point to the players. We have to make sure the bus goes on. We cannot stop."



The next generation: Anderson, Owen hargreaves and Michael Carrick will be stars for the coming decade


As a player, Ferguson's worst memory was of rejection - being told half-an-hour before kick-off that he would not be playing for Dunfermline in the 1965 Scottish Cup final - and he has always spoken of dislike of making wholesale changes. Yet, he has been supremely good at it.

He looked at Nicky Butt and Phil Neville, men whose loyalty to Manchester United was beyond question, and decided it was time for them to leave Old Trafford. His decision to sell Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andrei Kanchelskis after the trophy-less 1994-95 season still seems like a wanton piece of risk-taking, even though a new generation was to win the Double the following year.

If, as seems very likely following United's exhausting victory over Arsenal, they will retain their title, it will be a ringing confirmation of the changes he has wrought in the past two years. It will also underline the value of his assistant, Carlos Queiroz. If he is to quit Old Trafford for Benfica in the summer, then Cristiano Ronaldo, Anderson and Nani are no mean gifts to leave behind.

Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves were known quantities; their signings, for a combined fee of £35 million, were essentially risk-free, although Hargreaves' adaptability in moving from a holding to an attacking role against Roma and Arsenal was an unpleasant surprise for the men detailed to stop him.

However, nobody, least of all Ferguson, expected Anderson, who celebrated his 20th birthday on the morning of the Arsenal match, to have made such an immediate impact, principally because he had arrived from Porto still recovering from a broken leg.

There was no doubt about his potential: Phil Scolari, who as manager of first Brazil and then Portugal, was long aware of the boy from Ronaldinho's home city of Porto Alegre, thought he might in two years become one of the key midfielders in Europe, the kind of box-to-box player United have not had since Roy Keane was in his pomp. But few, including Anderson, who on his arrival in Manchester talked of learning from Paul Scholes, expected so much so soon.

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Fading powers of a golden trio

His performance in the 3-0 victory over Liverpool was a stark statement of intent and, although you can prove most things with statistics, the fact that he wins 87 per cent of his tackles is a figure even Keane would have taken pride in.

Midway through the second half of United's Champions League encounter in Lyon, there seemed a symbolic moment when Scholes and Ryan Giggs, who between them had won so many matches for Ferguson, were brought off for Nani and Carlos Tevez. When both substitutes combined to score what proved a precious equaliser at the Stade Gerland, it seemed we were witnessing another changing of the guard.
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Football is not that straightforward. Ferguson may have promised Scholes that if United reach the European Cup final, which he missed through suspension in 1999, he will start. However, Scholes, who knows his boss' inherent ruthlessness, raised a sardonic eyebrow when reminded of this in Rome last month. If he was not playing well, Scholes replied, there was no way he would be starting in Moscow.
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And yet, if they had no use to Manchester United, neither man would be at Old Trafford. Giggs, whose experience of what it takes to win a title in the cruel months of March and April is something Arsene Wenger would give a lot for, has talked about his role in calming down young players, instilling the essential discipline Arsenal too often lack when it matters.

The statistics tell you that Scholes completes 90 per cent of his passes, but they do not reveal how imaginative those balls are. The end of their journey may be in sight but they have a few stops to go on Ferguson's ever-moving bus.

Manchester United's old guard makes way - Football News - Telegraph


I have to confess, i wasnt a fan of the tevez signing initially and i though Hargreaves would become unnecessary. Fergie's reasoning though now seems very sound.

[ZEUS]

Good point there, it is a period of transition. All 4 signings that we made last summer proved to be very good ones, excellent I'd say. They were a breath of fresh air.

Also they have brought something new to the team: it became more dynamic thanks to Anderson, Nani and Tevez and also very solid in midfield thanks to Hargo.

Some may not consider them that good, but they will understand how important were this signings in the next few seasons.

[simpsom]

i think ferguson always got a good reason for him to buy a player,
anderson nani tevez and hargreaves
remember hargreaves was still injured and i think anderson too when ferguson bought them
just wondering when will the old one go