Tired as I am of all these pointless rumours, the current crop, and especially that of Senna, worth mentioning in light of what I said earlier today on Manchester United buying further reinforcements for the midfield and attack.
We know that we still need to replace Keano with a holding midfielder, and we now also have to replace Ruud. Will Tevez and Senna provide the right answers?
And more importantly, will they even come?
Carlos Tevez
With Carlos Tevez, the case is straight forward. This is the Argentinian version of Wayne Rooney, and the prospect of having him and Rooney lead Manchester United’s attack is good enough to drive fans to day-long happy hours. Give me Tevez and Rooney, and I could win you the Premiership. Seriously, he is that good – or were you not watching the World Cup?
But Tevez has Chelsea written all over him. Some reports say that he will be brought in when Crespo leaves for Milan – giving Mourinho a full complement of 4 quality strikers (Sheva, Drogba, Kalou and Tevez). Roman’s links with MSI (who own the Corinthians) and Mourinho’s trip to ‘watch’ the team in action a couple of months ago further increased rumours of a transfer. Tevez himself has said that he would like to stay in Brazil only for one more year (at least that’s how I’m interpreting it) – was Tevez being prepped to arrive at Chelsea next year?
In all this, a move to United seems very unlikely. Rumour-mongers are clutching at straws – a close friendship between Heinze and Tevez, problems with a supporters’ group and the odd instance that he wore a United shirt to a press conference last season. You can read TeamTalk’s take on it here, but for my money it is pure BS (just like the Ruud-for-Carrick and O’Shea-for-Carrick rumours were).
Marcos Senna
This one is definitely more interesting. The Spanish media is reporting that Marcos Senna has agreed personal terms with Manchester United and that he would be moving from Villareal to Old Trafford for 10 mil Euros. You would think that with Sky Sports and CNN reporting this as well (though they’ve been careful to say that it’s the Spanish media who is saying this), the story has any credibility.
To understand why Senna is not the right fit, you have to compare him with Vieira. Senna is 30 (same age as Vieira), more expensive (Vieira would cost 6 to 8 mil Euros) and definitely not as good as the Frenchman.
Why would we sign one 30-year old player for 2-3 years for 10 mil when we can sign a better player for a lesser price? Vieira has the Premiership experience as well, so unless he’s said no, we shouldn’t even be looking at Senna.
For my money the Senna story is crock, and if it is true this has to be really bad business. With players like Hargreaves and Vieira both willing to come to United, why can’t we stump up the nerve (Vieira) or cash (Hargreaves) for them?
If we had to chose 1 player, we’d take a midfielder over a striker. And in any list of midfielders that United might be after, Senna doesn’t even make the top 5.
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