If you could rewind the clock and stop your club from signing specific players or if you could call your gaffer and ask him to sign someone, who would it be? Hopefully we could keep this as realistic as possible and not go into the fantasy realms.

I'll start it off...


Call Sir Alex Ferguson to sign:
- van der Sar in 1999
- Wesley Sneijder in 2008 [could have been our Scholes]
- Fernando Torres [Ferguson thought he wouldn't make it consistently]
- Laurent Blanc [if we could have signed him earlier, I would have!]
- Pavel Nedved [one of the classiest players ever to play, heard we had money to sign him but opted not to , if Fergie wanted a new European tactic, would have been perfect]

Call Sir Alex Ferguson to stop from signing:
- Barthez - that gift to Henry. Utter shit of a player. If there is a player I hate, it's him.
- Berbatov - not going to be 30 million well spent regardless of what happens. ZERO resale value and a Veron-esque failure.

You got Alex furguson phone number?

how did you make a call?

Man Utd here,and for me it was Ronaldinho. I was so certain he would join us,cant remember what happened in the end that made the move collapse...

Barthez was a class, class goalkeeper in his 1st season.

Arda Turan
Andrei Arshavin

Somehow got linked with both of them
Both were relatively unknown prior to Euro 2008
But look at them now

Arsene Wenger to sign:

Lionel Messi
Fernando Torres
Cristiano ronaldo
Sergio ramos
Dani Alves
D.Drogba
Wayne Rooney
John Terry
Paolo Maldini
Marquez
Iker Casillas

KTHXBAI

agree...i love him, and yes i do hate berba


btw...ronaldinho shud be in TS list imho

City shouldn't have signed Adebayor, Toure and Gareth Barry... Should have signed Balotelli, Glen Johnson (had City attempted to bring him earlier) and Huddlestone... lol!

I'm a united fan. Ronaldinho may be a good talent, but he might struggle in england. Just look at his early days in milan.

Berbatov still yet to prove he's worth the 30 million pounds.

I'd always like to have

Arjen Robben(Chelsea signed him ahead of us)
Fernando Torres(Of course!)

This post has been edited by nshady: Apr 8 2010, 07:43 PM

Juventus..to keep the list short, well id love to highlight the stupidity of our so-called transfer guru since our promotion season of 2006-07

- Boumsong (flop)
- Andrade (injury prone..average signing)
- Tiago (flop)
- Almiron (flop)
- Molinaro (swapping a better LB for a mediocre LB)
- Poulsen (could have signed Alonso back then..but they opt for poulsen instead)
- Amauri (biggest flop among them all... overpriced,overhyped,overrated, lazy,no skill, no technique, no speed, only header type striker i've ever known since watching football. 25m down to drain)

liverpool flop list..

lucas

Turned out to be a blessing in disguise, becoz we got Ronaldo instead.

For me, the biggest regret atm probably would be Berbatov, but thats becoz of the hefty price tag he carries. Must admit though that I was highly optimistic of him performing for us when we signed him. I still vividly remember how giddy the United fans were on transfer deadline day.

Yea, Torres is a big miss, but if rumors are true of him only having eyes for Liverpool, then we never really stood a chance.

as Barca fan i just hate one transfer

Barca sell Fabregas to Arsenal

Kobe,
If I were you, I'd add one Gabriel Batistiuta to the list. I remember him being linked to you lot but you never made a bid because the board did agree to paying so much for a player who was 30. Would have been great to see him in the Premiership I reckon.

Anyway back to my team then.

Regrets for me?

1) When Greame Souness sold the likes of Peter Beardsley, Ray Houghton and John Barnes prematurely.
2) When Greame Souness signed crap like Paul Stewart, Mark Walters, Nicky Tanner, Istvan Kozma and Torben Piechnik.
3) When Greame Souness sold Dean Saunders.
4) Selling Xabi Alonso is fast climbing my list of transfer regrets.
5) El Hadji Diouf, nuff said.
6) I miss Igor Biscan, my favourite cult player.

oh btw, kobe shud add in bosnic and taibi....oh the great taibi

It's more like they snapped him and he was willing to leave.

1) Berbatov - didnt really live up to his reputation. Been always backing him but now, I have doubts.
2)Peter Kenyon screwing up deals which most players signed for Chelsea. And he went there. WTF?

Buying or selling Diouf? Because I always liked him. Not one you'd want against you but still.....

and your thoughts on Cisse?

I don't think Batistuta was well suited for the Premier League. Fat Ronaldo on the other hand.....*drool*

yeah, the shot from le tissier. dammit. tame shot, very tame i should say. yet still concede.

Really? He's one of the most complete strikers I've ever seen. Could have suited easily into any EPL team.

There are tons of players that flopped at United. Djemba, Kleberson and everyone but they weren't as significant as the ones I mentioned, I feel.

Reason why I didn't mention Veron is because I felt it was a real eye-opener. I wasn't accustomed to watching Italian football and I really liked him. I remember his role in the 2-0 against Arsenal (IIRC), immense performance. And there was one game in Europe, can't remember which team but he was spraying passes left, right and center. A majestic performance from him - just felt that Fergie was caught in two minds at that time on how to integrate Veron. Right player, wrong time. A lot like Blanc.

---

Added on April 8, 2010, 8:41 pmLike I said,I don't watch a lot of Italian football but he never impressed me in the matches I saw. Just the same way Totti has never impressed me.

This post has been edited by kobe8byrant: Apr 8 2010, 08:41 PM

Buying. Didn't like what I saw in the World Cup. He was cheating even back then.

Good question. I actually liked him and wish he got more playing time as a striker, not a winger. Poor old Flo Po was constantly used as a winger as well with Rafa's preference to play 1 out and out striker. The other player I thought we should never have sold was Peter Crouch.

+1 on Xabi. Shouldn't have touched that crucial Jenga block piece.

arsenal fan here.
i wish wenger was willing to add up that 1-2mil pounds for CR.yes,i know he's an actor on the field but his talent is

biggest regret:
flamini and anelka.

biggest flop:
diarra.can't stop moaning for first team but if he's willing to stay in the team,he would have gone to Euro.

francis jeffers.what did he do again in red and white?

jose reyes.a little bit of spark here and there.but complaints about the English weather.where is him now?

Had a cool nickname though eh? Fox in the box. Sorry but all I remember of him was his dive resulting in a penalty against us

he was called one trick pony prior to 06/07 season. LOL.

Flamini, IMO, was the best partner Fabregas could ever have. Didn't Anelka had discipline issues back then?

Owen Hargeaves. Hope other United fans wont bash me for this. LOL.

Paid a hefty sum for him. Went thru all the shits with Bayern in getting him. Hardly fit these days. Although he was crucial on our double winners season.

Buy:
1) Diouf (top of my list), i still cant believe we miss anelka because of him
2) salif diao, just a bull, nothing more

Sell:
1) hypia, he shouldnt leave..we were force to get the kryiakos after he left
2) owen, used to be one my favourite player, now inside my most hated player list
3) sinama, i like him a lot.

Not a Liverpool fan but I thought Liverpool were daft releasing Neil Mellor from the club. Still remember his goal against Arsenal!

Seems to be a good move. Look where he is now. At the mighty Preston North End.

Should not have signed:
1) Gravesen (lol)
2) Faubert (even bigger lol)
3) Emerson
4) Beckham (50-50 on this)
5) Pablo Garcia
6) Huntelaar
7) Fat Ronaldo (this will split opinions I'm sure)

Should have signed:
1) Iniesta (before he joined Barca's youth team; he was an Albacete and Madrid fan...sigh)
2) Silva (we didn't sign him to our youth ranks because we deemed him too lightweight)
3) RVN (wished we signed him when he was younger; what a player)
4) Vieira (as replacement for Makelele)

Shouldn't have sold:
1) Cambiasso
2) Eto'o (should have given him more chances in the 1st team)
3) Hierro (released from his contract too early)
4) Robben

What happened to Faubert? Not sure why Beckham was a bad move for the club as a whole. I mean, wasn't he the reason why Madrid are where they are now commercially? (not intended as a dig)

And I too hoped we had signed him earlier especially how Ferguson Jr recommended him earlier!

and for United,

SIGNING MICHAEL OWEN.

I feel sorry for the lad. Not achieved enough with United to be a legend, not going to be loved by Newcastle after walking away and not going to be received by Liverpool supporters. He's a homeless prick, isn't he?

When he becomes a commentator

MICHAEL OWEN - EX ENGLAND INTERNATIONAL as opposed to EX LIVERPOOL & ENGLAND or something.

This post has been edited by kobe8byrant: Apr 8 2010, 09:31 PM

what about michael owen?

We actually took Faubert on loan only. He has since returned to West Ham thank god

Beckham was an unnecessary sporting purchase. And the fact that it coincided with Makelele's departure and no other CM/DM was signed to replace him. But you have point that Madrid became the commercial giants they are now because of Becks.
That's why I said he was 50-50. Can't fault him for his workrate though.

---

Added on April 8, 2010, 9:35 pmMichael Owen was a good sub

This post has been edited by verx: Apr 8 2010, 09:35 PM

My only regret - not signing Zidane!!!

I wished we signed him earlier as well.

zidane is going to be at madrid. perez was building the galacticos at that time. when want to sign nedved, juve already target him as zidane's replacements

come geordies, let's make our endless list

i give berba 1 more year. im that optimistic ...

u start first

Regret not extending contract of :

- pires
- flamini (earlier)


Regret not forcing Bergkamp to reconsider retirement

Back when Cantona was still in MU, he recommended Zizou to SAF. They even scouted him live in a game if I'm not wrong. I don't know whether he already signed for Juve or not but it went back that far.

Gunners here too.

Agreed on flamini, but anelka? i thought it was one good decision by wenger. bought him around 500k i think, n sold for 22M, ain't that 1 hell of a business (for that time)? haha

my regret: selling off Thierry.

not so sure about berba, though. i don't think he's suited for manutd gameplay.

i dont know bout u guys, but i like sheva. its just that, he was at the wrong club(chelsea), that's all, hahaha

This post has been edited by myfists: Apr 8 2010, 10:15 PM

1. emerson to milan
- just add the number in the oldies club list... haish..

2. sheva to chelsea
-from arguably most dangerous striker, to 2nd rated player..

takmau.

I'll shed into tears

i tot mu should be "veron"

arsenal:
should not: reyes
should: pires, henry, flamini, cech, c.ronaldo(but wonder will he bcome a world class under wenger because he prolly wont get enough freedom to do his own style)

real madrid
diarra (from lyon)
woodgate

liverpool
rafa

Selling Anelka was one of the best things that could have happened. It brought us the best striker that ever graced Highbury, it gave us extra money where we used to establish a state of the art academy and training facility.

Transfer flops for Arsenal, but good thing was that none of them costed us huge money:
1. Reyes - never the same again after the 'black shit' saga and later the radio hoax. Career went down the drain after leaving Arsenal.
2. Baptista - Whoaaaa....luckily it was only a loan deal. Still a flop considering the hype.
3. Jeffers - Eh? Spent more time in the hospital than on the pitch. Another player whose career went down the drain.
4. Inamoto - another loan deal so not much lost here, but only managed 1 first team appearance in CL.
5. Amaury Bischoff - basically here for rehabilitation, once he got fit he chose to leave. Half decent player to be honest, too bad he had zero patience.

Against Maccabi Haifa in 2002 i reckon.

Back then I was making a compilation video of van Nistelrooy's goals in 2002-2003. Alot of his early season goals went like this, "Veron, to van Nistelrooy, GOAL!". This repeated extraordinarily amount of times especially in Europe.

As ManUtd supporter i would say selling Forlan. He was a fan favourite although wasn't as prolific as Saha went he came in, but when he was on, he is REALLLY on.

Transfer which happened i wished never, Bosnich ... Barthez was good when he first came in but soon became.

Transfer which never happened i wished, in 1996 we were actually linked to Shevchenko. 3 whole years before he burst into the scene as UCL top scorer in 1999.

LOL that guy is a joke together with Bramble
Absolute defense nightmare

Biggest mistake:
Signing Rafa benitez on a five year deal.

Why would it be Rafa? We did progress under him.We did have a stronger and better squad compared to the one GH built.

If there's anyone I think we shouldn't sign it's Parry!


Bad SigningS/sales:

Harry Kewell- total waste of money.Spent most of his time dating nurses.

-Sold warnock and in return, get a flop in the name of Dossena
-Sold Guthria and get Lucas... (both are probably playing at the same level)

Lose 2 HG players that their price now might be double or triple of what we get....

-Then, Morientes

-A certain spitting king called Diouf

-Itandje

Then we have Josemi... Kromkamp.....


Good signingS/sales:

Hyypia- from an unknown to a legend

Hamann-influential midfield engine

Steve Finnan- underrated yet reliable wingback

Luis Garcia- Ppl dun call him King Garcia for fun!

Alonso- One of the best passer around.

Fernando Torres- need me to say more?

Reina- His records prove it...Not even reaching his peak yet.

Aurelio on free- quite a bargain if you ask me except that he is quite injury prone.

Mascherano- one of the best dm in the world..

Benayoun was a steal for his price.


That's so much I can think for now...

This post has been edited by solstice818: Apr 8 2010, 11:07 PM

yes,his transfer brought us a hefty amount of money.but what if he stays?i thought back then arsene used to imagine anelka combine with henry?how's that for a combo?look at anelka now.he maybe off form in some games but he still has some neat touches that brought chelsea where they are now.and he play week in and week out for chelsea.rarely got injured.don't you think he can be great with us?

boumsong.lol.i tell u,i can defend better than him!:P i wonder what juve sees in him.

saha consider a candidate for MU?
sheva -> chelsea?

I think Bergkamp on his down days is much better then Anelka at his best.

Jaap Stam, David Beckham, and Van Nistelrooy

But then, we got ronaldo to replace beckham

people said biggest transfer regret, not your club best signing ...

Sorry to say, had anelka not left.

King Henry won't come....

No United fan would consider Saha as a signing we regret. Great signing, shit luck for him.

Ditto Kobe. Saha is a great signing for Man Utd, just that he is injury prone but when he is fit, he is on the same par as any other top striker in the league during his time at Old Trafford.

Essien

Ditto on Alan Smith. Injured himself heroically then lost his place to Carrick and the rise of Ronaldo

As a chelsea fan, i would say Sheva.
Chelsea paid 30 million for him to warm the bench.
I still thinks that he should stay AC Milan
What a waste of money.

Anelka was one of the players that made me an Arsenal fan back in those days, but he chose to leave not that Arsene wanted to sell him. I wanted him back when he became available but Chelsea's money and the board (probably Arsene too) made that impossible.

It was never a transfer regret, as we got better by selling Anelka.

Beckham scored alot beautiful goals for you and Ronaldo helped Real out alot in 1st 2 seasons.

ngok for 1mil??

Not Arsenal fans but so disappointing when Torres said he flattered to be link with Arsenal but Wenger said " With that price (20M), we can created 3 or 4 Torres".

Benitez want Barry and asked Villa to lowered their 18M asking price. Liverpool only willing to pay 16M. But suddenly got 20M to sign Robbie Keane.

All big fours should regret when Adam Johnson with the price tag 6M going to City. Decent young talent with good future ahead.

And for sure, if I got power, I will terminated B.Sathianathan, Akmal Rizal, and Hairuddin Omar contracts before Super League started. Poor signing in Kelantan history

This post has been edited by gry: Apr 9 2010, 03:11 AM

hahaha..i also dunno what the heck that macha is doing with akmal rizal.he's been proven as a flop in selangor.then goes to kelantan pulak.

look at it this way, with the money from his sale, arsene basically built up a strong arsenal side

spurs

player we should not have sold
carrick ... took us so long to find a replacement for him

player i'd sell over and over again
berbatoss ...

damn you spuds!

G.Rossi. Would turn out to be a great player for us.

And Pique

holy crap i juz realize that Riise hav the same number of goals wif Amauri

i really wish we could hav get Toni much earlier when he's leaving Viola... or Diego Milito. WTF he was being OFFERED to us by Zaragoza back then, i still wondering who's the genius that turn it down.

For me personally..

I regrets Chelsea sign them, but i'm happy they become the Blues..

Sheva

I'm happy they was a blues, not so happy the were sold or leaved...

Lass
C.Cole
Duff
Robben
Gallas

I appreciate their contributions during their time at Madrid but they were just unnecessary purchases. Becks didn't really score alot of goals let alone beautiful ones. The purchase of Ronaldo meant that we didn't have places for Morientes or Eto'o. We didn't have problems scoring goals at that time.

Beckham was a good buy for Real Madrid. Some may say he never reproduced his MU form, but his contributions on the pitch for Madrid was decent while his commercial value was even way better.

Ronaldo on the other hand was never appreciated at the Bernabeu. He did what he was bought to do - score goals, but people was expecting him to emulate his younger Barca/PSV form which was pretty impossible due to age, fitness/physique, and injuries.

Speaking of Barry, that was somewhat related to Arsenal's interest in Alonso. I'm very happy with how Song turned out, but there's always the question that "what if we got Alonso"?

That's exactly what I said, isn't it?

As for Carrick, we were linked with him when the news of Paddy may possibly leave surfaced. When Paddy confirmed his stay, Carrick went to Spurs instead. I was a fan of Carrick (and Joe Cole, Defoe from their West Ham days), but during that time securing Vieira was more important to us than spending on Carrick.

This post has been edited by StarGhazzer: Apr 9 2010, 12:49 PM

This is not true. The Bernabeu didn't expect him to emulate his younger days. But they did expect him to run alot more than he did. If there's one thing the Bernabeu appreciates it's workrate. It's why Becks was always respected despite being technically inferior. And it's also the reason why RVN won over the fans so quickly whereas Ron never really had the fans behind him.

sorry but, isnt roman abramovich is the one who really wanted sheva? blame him

almost every recent transfer by ac milan is disappointing (especially after sheva's departure), except for thiago silva, ronaldinho and pato

Apologies for my misinformation. I'd trust you, a hardcore Madrid fan on this. The reason why I posted that was because of the regular remarks that Ronaldo was 'fat and lazy' on various football forums; but they are probably from non-Madrid fans I suppose. All fans would appreciate workrate, no doubts about that, but Ronaldo's goal scoring feats were still better than Raul and yet he never achieved the cult status like Raul or Zidane did.

Liverpool:

We nearly signed Alves from Sevilla two season's after that he became one of the world's best rightbacks at Barca, heck he was even a prodigy at Sevilla at that time i think he did even mention that he wanted to join Liverpool and

Villa for 8M before he moved to Valencia sadly the boffins wouldnt cough up enough money to get both

oh not forgetting

Not signing Heinze would have been a blessing in disguise.

for Arsenal

definitely we miss out on C.Ronaldo

the other person i really feel sad we did not signed is
Harry Kewell, i really like that guy, personally felt he would do good for us
just to bad i guess.

I'd like to quote Kobe on this...not signing Kewell was a blessing in disguise for Arsenal , he spent more time at the sidelines than on the pitch

ah just remembered Ronaldo the thin one was linked to Liverpool as well...and not sure if you lots remember enough but sure i do Daniel Carvalho from CSKA Moscow.

Mikael Silvestre for Arsenal

Man United should've sign Tevez earlier than West Ham.

This post has been edited by sprix: Apr 9 2010, 03:31 PM

United should have tried harder to sign Shearer when he was available back then. Classic centre forward, equally great with feet & head.

Well we got Solskjaer instead who is much much better =D

That's utter rubbish. It's just a case of Wenger having sour grapes. I can't believe there are nut heads believing that Wenger was first to discover Cristiano's talent. If he really did, then why didn't he mention it when he signed for Man Utd, and complaining about it years later.

Man Utd fan here.

1. Failed to cough up a few more bucks to sign Robben, and he ended up warming the bench and sold off.
2. Failed to sign Torres before the Pool stole him right out of our hands. Should have signed him right away when he declared that he will be honoured to play for a club like Man Utd.
3. Why on earth Kleberson, and Djemba-Djemba?

I would also like to list down Chelsea's flops.

1. Arjen Robben
2. Mateja Kezman
3. Asier Del Horno
4. Shaun Wright-Phillips
5. Andriy Shevchenko
6. Scott Parker
7. Glen Johnson
8. Khalid Boulahrouz
9. Paulo Ferreira
10. Hernan Crespo
11. Jiri Jarosik
12. Adrian Mutu
13. Juan Sebastian Veron
14. Geremi
15. Damien Duff

'nuff said.

wow wow, calm down fire!
first of all ive never mentioned anything about who who discover c.ronaldo talent first,
i dont know which sentence my mine butthurt-ed you..
secondly, wenger once did made an attempt to sign ronaldo but failed.
and lastly, i think and think again i still dont know why u are so angry.....lol

if what you want to hear is
"hail SAF for discovering ronaldo"
okay okay i give u that. lol

This post has been edited by Quick`: Apr 9 2010, 04:54 PM

No offence to you dude. I was really pissed when Wenger said that he spotted Cristiano's talent at Sporting much earlier before Fergie. Again, no hard feelings.

Did he? Well, I m not so sure since he was the one ending the speculation himself when he was linked to ManU by declaring that he is staying in Spain for another season.

SOS?
manutd.com

Anyway,I thought Duff and Robben were great...At least decent...not to the extent of flopping....

Well he did, so what's wrong with saying that. Arsene merely mentioned that C.Ronaldo was previously invited to Arsenal's training ground before he joined MU, he never said he was the one that 'discovered' Ronaldo in Portugal. Whether who discovered Ronaldo isn't important, he eventually joined MU so why get angry? Chill, mate.