In the modern day of cut throat competition. Every firm has to spend its resources with utmost care, Investment at the wrong places could spell doom for many such business firms.
The scenario is somewhat same in a Football club as well, especially a club of the stature of Manchester United.
With players demanding extra ordinary wages nowadays, it is very important to make sure that every player you sign, is a player you need, is a player from whom you will benefit. Every player should be well scouted so that the club does not incur any loss. And ofcourse, Medical tests should be a bit more rigorous. 
This is where Manchester United have failed miserably. 3 Players signed, at an accumulated amount of £65 Million + Weekly wages, and not one has made his mark on the club.
The 3 players I am talking about iw, Owen Hargreaves, Luis Nani & Dimitar Berbatov.
Lets assess each players contribution to the English and European champions one by one. Starting with Owen Hargreaves.
Signed for an amount of £17 Million after a year long transfer saga, Hargreaves was believed to be the influential man in the middle that United lacked after the departure of Roy Keane.
Even at that time, Fans from other corners and Pundits shouted aloud that “United have been ripped off, no way Hargreaves is worth £17 Million”. But the club and especially the fans were fast to voice their opinion. On how Hargreaves along with Carrick will be the best midfield partnership England has seen for a long time.
Well where are those fans now eh? .. Worth £17 Million to you still ? I Seriously doubt it.
Since coming to Old Trafford, Hargreaves has made only 25 appearances. Most of his Man Utd career has been at the Doctors Clinic with his recurring Knee injury. And only yesterday did the news break that the so called Star player is sidelined for the rest of the season.Yet Again
Luis Nani
Bought from Sporting at an amount of £17 Million again, Nani was termed to be the next Ronaldo. Sir Alex Ferguson had surely believed he has pulled off another one by signing Nani ahead of other competitors(Aren’t they having a laugh now?). Ferguson surely thought Nani had the same abilities as Ronaldo. Yeah Right! .. Someone tell the Scott that lightning strikes only once.
The funny part is Nani actually cost more than Ronaldo Did !!.. Really!!
Nani in his 2 years at Manchester United has hardly shown any class or consistent ability. He does show glimpse of genius once in a while. But unless his form his consistent its of no use. Of what i have seen, Nani at times finds it hard to even deliver simple crosses!
Also it has become evident that Ferguson realizes that he got a Raw deal here, the Scott himself seems to trust the Portuguese wingers less nowadays. Using him Sparingly, and Subbing him at the first opportunity.
Dimitar Berbatov
Well it is still early days to take out a final verdict on the Huge Bulgarian striker. But at a transfer fee of £30.75, the club as well as fans must have surely expected more.
Berbatov hardly looks the player he was at Tottenham, missing simple chances, playing too deep. Surely it is not the Goalscorer Man Utd were looking for.
Apart from a few Tap In goals, one or two nice looking passes, and a twist and a turn here the player has hardly done anything to justify his price tag. Surely more money gone down the drain.
These 3 players, rather under performing players have cost Manchester United £65 Million. So what do you think? .. Can they be written down in the Balance Sheet as “Losses Incurred” ??
Ani D
John Ludden
22 Comments, Comment or Ping
RedDevil
wow you really know nothing.
-Hargreaves has been unfortunate with injuries
-Nani has not been given time to shine on the pitch and without consistent playing time, no consistent performances can exist.
-Berbatov is finding his feet, playing with lightning fast players around him for once and not being the centre of attention is a big shock but he will come to terms of being a piece of the puzzle and not the mantle piece.
please before writing an article place some more thought into what you say.
Nov 12th, 2008
Fred the Red
Is this guy’s ‘opinion’ (and that’s all it is) really worthly of a news ‘article’?
To quote: “Someone tell the Scott that lightning strikes only once.”
Well, will someone please tell the author of this ‘article’ that United won both the Premier League and the Champions League last season, with both Nani and Hargreaves playing their parts with crucial goals/assists on the way?
And give Berbatov a chance, will you - he’s only just settling in. As the author says “Well it is still early days to take out a final verdict on the Huge Bulgarian striker” - but he then does just that anyway!
A nonsense ‘article’ from someone who clearly knows very little about football.
Nov 12th, 2008
Jeff
“How to Embarrass Yourself” by Ani D
Nov 12th, 2008
Sverkan
Hargo has not been the luckyest guy with injuries but he will come back stronger then ever
Nani played well last season, and his still growing as a player.
Berba has just arrived, give him some time. Ronaldo did not come the best player in the world over one night.
Ani d, think before you write next time.
Nov 12th, 2008
saad
I think this is the biggest load of bollocks ive ever come across. You dont even seem to remotely know anything about the players your talking about. Dont waste your time writing bullshit and crawl back down the gutter you came from.
Nov 12th, 2008
chuck
Well never thought Hargraves or Carrick were worth their transfer fees, though not bad players and was impressed by Hargraves playing for England.
However dont think a lot of Nani.
I would think the one available player to fill the Keane role is at present playing for Pompey, should be available for around 10 or 12m.
I am refering of course to Diarra.
Nov 12th, 2008
Chris
Nani’s been at united for a year by the way - not two - shows how much you know…
Nov 13th, 2008
pdm
do u remember the team we had when ronaldo was allowed to develop as a player? give him the ball and he’d lose it every time and chelsea would win the league.
25 games is the average that hargreeves had played per season for the last 7 years yet look at his medal haul. I specifically remember him steping up to score an important free kick in the league last year and he was one of the better players in the league.
ironically nani whome i dont rate that highly is the secon best crosser in the squad after raphel.
otherwise…. good headline
Nov 13th, 2008
roger
this guy must be really dumb to have come up with such an article.these players when bought was for a far more bigger project.it was for long term succes and not overnight succes.this players posses more value than that 65million spent on them.
Nov 13th, 2008
Wiuru
Cant see how you draw these conclusions. Seems based on what you would like us to believe ! Are you Alan Green by any chance ?
Nov 13th, 2008
patrick
i for one think nani is overrated with c ronaldo still in utd there is no way nani becoming a star. Owen Hargreaves a player i think have giving all to bayern though not a very good friend with injurys.Dimitar Berbatov not a number 9 he is kind of rooney and tevez type of player even though i rate tevez to him.
Nov 13th, 2008
Matt
Hargreaves is a good player
Nani still has a lot to prove and should be playing better
Berbatov has been playing very well
How could that actually equate to a loss anyway? With Nani and Hargreaves, what did we win last season?
Football journalism is dead
Nov 13th, 2008
salford red
are you serious? this is the biggest load of tripe I have read on the internet in a long time. Hargreaves is unlucky, sometimes thats just football. Tell it to Newcastle with Michael Owen, or any of the other huge number of clubs who have bought players for them to be injured, Eduardo ring a bell? Also remember Nani had a better first season in English football than Ronaldo did, who if he matures into atleast a fraction of that form it will prove money well spent. Berbatov, well he’s on about 100 grand a week a large portion of which is covered by the fact that Arsenal have picked up Silvestre’s waste of a wage, freeing up the cash for us. Yes its alot for a player but if Robbie Keane goes for around 20 million we never never going to get him for anything less. Why dont you write your next article - Manchester United make to100 Million profit - the story of a young portugese kid being bought for 12 and could be sold for ten times that. Or all the other 10mill plus offers we turn down, ie fletcher, evans, campbell, etc
stop writing rubbish.
Nov 13th, 2008
JOHN!THEMON
Owen Hargreeves was brought to united because hes english, the glaziers wanted to score points with the fans after a rough takeover buying in english players was there way to rectify fan support, makes you wonder would he be there if the glaziers didnt buy up? but 17 million is alot for him common sence tells us this! just think beyern didnt exactly want him to go to united! this price was put forward to try and throw united of, but obviously united are now in the ever growing buisnes of buying trophies so . . .
Nani is dump, hes not a regular but for 17 million you expect some consistency in what games he dose get, he was always a risk signing anyway it ither works or it dosent oh and the comment about united beating other teems to him wot a load of bul! when united signed him other clubs came out stating they had tabs on him for a while but never followed up as he didnt progres like he should have, and the price tag was hefty.
Berbatov! wel this signing was probably one of the most illigal singings of the decade!!!!! fergie must have broken about 7 different laws to push this through ! ! cof ! ! ! HUSH MONEY !! cof !! not to metion going about things as if the spurs bored accepted the bid when they hadent! and ppl will say!!!)))but he wanted to go!! when a player is signed its between the appropriate managers, directors of football at both clubs and certain bored members with several middle men!, all the player dose is agree a contract. So for fergie to personaly go to london and pick him up before a bid was accepted is terrible! if madrid did this with ronaldo there would be lawyers legal battles! we wouldent hear the end of it! ! ! the word HYPOCRIT springs to mind! but as far as his performances go hes just arrived give him a break! he came at the very last minute of the window so he missed pre-season his performances should pick up towards the end of november december time! btw im actualy a united fan! im just not totaly in denile about the state of our club things are not as good as they seem, im very aware that what goes up must come down!
Nov 13th, 2008
Ayo
Probably the worst article of all time. I will not even give this geezer the time of the day by telling him what is wrong in his article. Its just simply pathetic
Nov 13th, 2008
DA
Even as a Liverpool fan I can say this article is stupid
It is over dramatic and ignore the fact this is football and not a production
line for ducks or something similar
Nov 14th, 2008
Man Utd Fan
Well I do agree that Hargreaves and Carrick are not worth there transfer fees - Maybe £8 to £10 million at most but thats because when ever another team realises that Man Utd or Chelsea knockin on the door for a player they seem to double the asking price…
I think Nani does need a little more time, maybe a year or two but he will never be the player Ronaldo is… But then again there are only a hand full of players around the world who possess the impact and ability a player has on a team like Ronaldo does for Man Utd… Nani is worth about £8 million. He might get better in a few years but just cant see it happening, seems more like hope then a possibilaty. But Man Utd took a gamble on him like they did with Ronaldo in the past. Look how good Ronaldo turned out… But in Ronaldos first few seasons you could sort of tell that this guy has the ability to become one of the best as we saw glimpses of brilliance but with Nani we just have a player who looks average… Some times the gamble works out for yah and some times it dont…
Now Berbotov aint worth £30 mil… Not evan what he was doin at tottenham would I put a value of £30 mil for him… I think Spurs were loving it when they sold keane for £20 to Liverpool and Berbotov to Man Utd for the £30 mil… I personaly think the only reason the two BIG clubs decided to dash the money to Spurs was due to them illegaly attempting to capture spurs top two men… It was a bit obvious when spurs were close to putin in a complaint but decided not two when united and liverpool decided to pay an extra £5 mil to £10 mill on top of the players actual value… cummon Keans worth about £12 mil and Berbotov is worth about £18 mil so its obvious spurs had the last laugh…
Nov 14th, 2008
Ed Barker
Why are you wasting the world’s limited energy resources by writing this? Just some of the worst United related copy I’ve been unfortunate enough to read.
Nov 14th, 2008
Lee
Hargreaves: goal against arsenal to secure two points that would have lost the league title without. played fantastic in the champions league final and took his penalty well.
I would say he is money well spent even if he only played one season.
Nani: super young and was bought for the future. has plenty of time to prove himself as a regular. he did thrash arsenal last year in the 4-1 victory.
Money spent for the future on Nani seems ok to me.
Berbatov: hasn’t produced yet but hes only played what, a dozen or so games for a brand new club? He wasn’t worth 30 and I wanted Etoo instead but at least give him a full season and an offseason of training with the club to prove himself.
Nov 14th, 2008
Chef Runningwater
Strange.
Nov 14th, 2008
Arthur Ochs Sulzberger,
Dearest Ani D,
I have just this riveting, factual, well-collaborated piece which has changed my life and want to offer you a job.
I don’t know if we can complete with someone of the likes of soccerglobe for wages but we would be willing to offer you other perks such as chauffeured limos and $4000 an hour high class prostitutes.
Please drop me a line at the e-mail address above and I will organise a private jet to pick you up to bring you and your team of reseachers (which you must of used for writing such an article) to Manhattan for the weekend so we can negotiate.
I hope I’m not too late as I hear Time magazine and Reader’s Digest are also knocking on your door.
Take care Ani D.
You’re in journalism.
Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr.
Publisher.
New York Times.
Nov 14th, 2008
Soccer Pie
It is pretty easy to calculate expanses. In the season when Hargo and Nani signed, United won the Premier League title and Champions League and ended the season with profit. If they did not win the league, it is big question if there would be a profit. Maybe winning the league have something with that Hargo goal against Arsenal or with the fact that Nani had the most assists in the process. Maybe, just maybe
Nov 15th, 2008
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