The Sun, The Independent and the Guardian are all harping about Manchester United signing Carrick from Tottenham next week.
Let me clear things out for you – the only thing these people know is that now that Ruud is definitely going to Real Madrid, Manchester United will be using the money to sign a midfielder. The player closest to a deal for United is currently Carrick, so everyone is on their case talking about how Carrick will be signed next week.
To give them some credit – they could be right, and what everyone is trying to do is to get their foot in the door first. The only thing that made me suspicious was how all three newspapers citing baseless rumours of this summer in the same breath as discussing Ruud’s departure and Carrick’s possible arrival.
The Guardian talks about Torres (a player Manchester United never contacted), The Sun talks about a John O’Shea plus 10 mil offer for Carrick (United does not sell their best players, and O’Shea for all his faults was one of the few players to come out of last season with his reputation enhanced) while The Independent raises the Diarra and Mascherano rumours again, not bothering to mention that the Diarra lead is cold and Mascherano was a pipe dream brought on by desperate rumour-mongers.
I’ve been saying ever since Manchester United bid 10 mil for Carrick that a) he wasn’t ‘exactly’ what United need and b) he was too expensive. And as I said in this article, Carrick is an excellent player with serious limitations. If he can work on his tackling and man-marking, he could easily be an integral part of England’s midfield in Euro 2008. If he cannot, then the 14.5 to 18 mil that we’re supposed to be paying for him will have been wasted.
Spare a thought for Tottenham fans – you guys must be gutted to lose Carrick. Oh well…you’re sad, we’re not so happy, is it that we don’t know Carrick’s value or that you rate him too highly?
Bonus: Ecuador make Michael Carrick look good.
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