Team for next season?

Fergie's record when it came to buying central midfielders was atrocious. I think only Ince, Keane and Carrick could be called a success.

^ Agreed, Veron was our only big big money midfield purchase and we all know how that worked out.

Red Russian (U4715)

What you have said makes sense. However, there is no real indication we are in a midfielder at all. I'm not confident.

Veron was a superb player. Him coming to United didn't change that in my mind. He just wasn't what we needed at the time.

Fergie's record when it came to buying central midfielders was atrocious. I think only Ince, Keane and Carrick could be called a success.

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There's some truth in that but it should be qualified by the fact that for much of his time at the club there wasn't much call to buy CMs. He inherited Robson. Brought in Ince to become the guvnor as Robbo faded (great success). Brought in Keane for the long term (phenomenal success). Had Scholes and Butt ready for the first XI when Ince was shipped out. That brings us up to about 2004-5 with a superb first choice midfield. Replacing Keane was his first jitter. The potential successors brought in before he was sold weren't up to it, but there were only 6 months between his actual departure and the arrival of Carrick - another pretty unqualified success. The Hargreaves was added a year later and for one season we had one of our best midfield rosters ever.

...so I'd only really see 2009 onwards as a bit of a cockup. Even here there are slightly mitigating factors: money tied up in Hargreaves (and not knowing right away his legs were a lost cause), Anderson's injuries, Fletcher's illness. I do think he should have cut his losses on at least a couple of those players much earlier - especially with the Ronaldo money swishing around in the kitty - but it does help explain the blind spot.

there is no real indication we are in a midfielder at all

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What kind of 'indication' are you looking for?

Media rumours? - If so, we have been linked with plenty of midfielders.

Public declarations by the club? - Moyes has avoided going into any details. He has confirmed is that we are working on deals but clearly doesn't want to say for whom or in what position.

Fergie, despite being the greatest manager ever, hasn't half wasted some money it has to be said.

He spunked £30m on berba when we didn't need him. £26m on veron when we didn't need him. £16m on Young when we shouldn't have even considered it, £24m on a crocked Hargreaves when he was a known injury high risk player and £20m on a useless fat Brazilian.

And there's other deals too; Forlan, Bebe etc.

Just goes to show you how tricky it can be when managers as good as him can get it so categorically wrong.

Se85

To be fair I think we did need Veron to progress in Europe.

For all of Keanos talent he wasn't that great in Europe. Apart from 1999 he barely did anything of note.

He was as talented in his own way as the likes of Zidane and Davids etc but I think his skill set was better off in the less patient and more high paced Premier league.

We got Veron to progress in Europe and but for a few crazy misses from Forlan in Germany we would have made the 2002 final where Veron was excellent for us in Europe that season.

Stretford_Ender85

RE: Veron, that was around the time he was experimenting with a more 'European' formation. I don't think it was a folly, buying a player that we didn't need. Rather, it was a flawless masterplan in which Keane and Veron would be the CMs, and Scholes would be given the platform to be the world's greatest trequartista. On paper - particularly from today's vantage point - that looks an amazing unit. Unfortunately, Veron didn't gel with Keane (or English football) and Scholes resented being shunted out of position. It's a shame. That could have been a better team than 1999: Ruud an upgrade on Cole / York. More creativity through the middle. Scholes less shackled by defensive responsibilities. Beckham and Giggs still in their prime. A young Ferdinand in defence. Neville in his prime. OK, we didn't have a great keeper and we had Silvestre in the team. Other than that, what a great side it was. On paper.

I remember the furore from the fans back then when playing with only one striker.