By now all Manchester United fans would have known that we've agreed to sell Mame Biram Diouf to Hannover 96. The question, I'm pondering over is Why?
Diouf was signed from Molde FK in July 2009, and after a 30-month stay in English football, he's moving to Germany. I find his transfer really weird!
During all this time, he has played lot of football, he has gained valuable experience and made nine senior appearances for Manchester United, scoring one goal. He has good pace, good composure, plus he's young. So why was he sold?
Diouf becomes the third player to be sold by Manchester United during this January transfer window following the departures of Darron Gibson to Everton and Danny Drinkwater to Leicester City.
I wonder the intentions of Sir Alex Ferguson in the transfer business. In the last 2-3 years, we've bought lot of young players like Diouf, Chicharito, Bebe, Obertan and now 3 of these 4 are gone!
I wonder whether Sir Alex is losing his eye for talent or are our scouts crazy to suggest young players who look promising but fail to make it to the first team! What's wrong?
With Mame Diouf joining German side Hannover 96, I can only hope Chicharito is not going to be the next player to be sold in summer. It looks very unlikely, but with Welbeck and Rooney forming a formidable pair up-front and Chicharito not hitting the form like last year, he may well be shown the exit door at Old Trafford.
Players on both teams involved in this weekend’s Barclays Premier League clash between Manchester United and Arsenal have committed to Nike’s “Make It Count” campaign, pledging to make 2012 the year in which they give everything in pursuit of perfection.
Rio Ferdinand, Wojciech Szczesny and Theo Walcott will be amongst the players sporting boots embroidered with “#makeitcount” and the active tweeters amongst them will also have their Twitter handle stitched into their footwear.
Launched via Twitter on New Year’s Eve, a wide range of athletes including Rio Ferdinand, Mark Cavendish and Mo Farah united behind the #makeitcount hashtag, stating their intentions for 2012 and challenging their followers to do likewise.
Arsenal’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain declared that “The year ahead is all about turning potential into performance - every single day”, whilst Rio Ferdinand simply stated “‘More to Learn. Plenty to teach”.
This weekend gives both players and their team mates a great chance to prove that 2012 will be the year they Make It Count.
In this video, Rio Ferdinand who has played more than 250 games for United shows how he's going to #makeitcount in 2012.
On Saturday, January 28, Anfield will witness a thrilling encounter between Liverpool and Manchester United during their FA Cup fourth round match.
These two teams have locked horns 16 times in the FA Cup in previous seasons. While United have nine of those meetings, Liverpool have managed to win in only three.
The match kicks off at 12:45 GMT on Jan 28, 2012. With United already out of the Champions League, Sir Alex would definitely want to win the FA Cup this time around.
And given they have reached till here, he won't let it go easily. Hopefully, some of our injured players will be better to face our arch rivals and knock them out of the competition!
I was surprised when I read in the morning about Scholes coming out of his retirement and rejoining United as a player. That made me wonder whether Scholes is the new Henrik Larsson that Sir Alex is trying to create to see-off an injury crisis at Old Trafford.
If you remember, Sir Alex signed Henrik Larsson on loan from January - March in 2007. That time too, we had injury problems and our strikers were not scoring too many goals.
Its interesting that Larsson made his United debut against Aston Villa in the FA Cup Third Round on 7 January 2007 while Scholes made his debut (after coming out of retirement) against Man City in the FA Cup Third Round as well.
Larsson played only 13 games for United and that was enough to win the manager who was full of praise for the striker back then. Today, he sees Scholes in similar light and says,
It’s fantastic that Paul has made this decision. It’s always sad to see great players end their careers, but especially so when they do it early. But he has kept himself in great shape and I always felt that he had another season in him. It’s terrific to have him back.
The mere presence of Paul Scholes in United's midfield is going to give other teams a shiver. I just hope he stays fit and doesn't join rest of the boys on the casualty table.
Welcome back Paul.
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