jihday:
Tottenham regularly finished in the top 7. A player bought for 18mill in 2006? Stop capping Bro

chrisooblog:
English players have always been bought for huge amounts what else is new? I insist Carrick pre-Man U days wasn't rated by many. Can you prove Carrick was the reason Tottenham regularly finished 7th?

jihday:
You can only claim to watch and argue. It's on Google too.

kendrick93:
Essien during his peak years of 04-09 was amongst the best midfielders in the game, probably he was the best DM/box-box hybrid player.
At no time did Mikel ever reached that level.
Mikel was good between 07-12, so looking at it logically i really don't think using the 'last Long' argument cuts it considering both of them had 5/6 yrs at a top level.
The difference between both is Essien at his peak was levels above any African midfielder..
I will commend Mikel though for making good use of his talent to play at a top level that long considering the competition he had at Chelsea.

BascoVanVeli:


He is wrong because the court still determined that Shittu was the rightful agent. This is Europe we are talking about here so we know there was no mago mago. The facts were presented and Shittu won the case meaning Anderson was the fraudulent agent. The rest is just hearsay

TheGoodJoe:


During Ronaldinho's peak time, he was by far one of the very best football has ever seen. Iniesta never got close to that level.

So peak time is not the point because Iniesta surpassed him.

TheGoodJoe:


Ferguson would have not. He flew to Norway three times to convince Mikel to turn down Chelsea. I watched two of them on MUTV.

He wanted and had a plan for Mikel. He would not have sold him.

I am telling you how desperate Ferguson wanted Mikel and his belief in him. You are just guessing and writing people are delusional without a reason to back it up.

He even nicknamed Mikel- Obi Wan.

chrisooblog:
English players have always been bought for huge amounts what else is new? I insist Carrick pre-Man U days wasn't rated by many. Can you prove Carrick was the reason Tottenham regularly finished 7th?

jihday:
In 15years time someone like you will say Bruno Fernandes was an ordinary player before joining United but in reality you may have never seen him play. Carrick was a top player before he joined United

chrisooblog:
verifiable facts prove Bruno was already a top player before joining Man U. show me the stats that prove carrick was already a top player before joining united and I will shut up about it.

charlesemeka85:


i am a die had man untd fan, fergie did all he could to get mikel to untd but shittu and chelsea spoilt everything. you are right by saying that fergie himself flew to norway and had series of discussion with young mikel then and is agent anderson who was once a united player as well. deal was done before chelsea came to the picture.

fergie spotted mikel during 2003 u17 camping and in the tournament proper even though the team crashed out in the group stage mikel,obasi and ezekiel bala were the shining light of that set.

after the tournament mikel had trials with united and impressed but the deal didnt go through because he was a minor then. the plan was to get him to norway where his progress will be monitored before the united move will happen. also he had stop at ajax capetown in south africa before leaving for norway

it was the compensation fee united got from mikel's deal that was used in signing michael carrick. fergie truly had plans for the guy then

Samueltemi337:
Nice line up

charlesemeka85:
carrick was decent at spurs but had the ability to improve which happened after joining united

TheGoodJoe:


He was decent but I never counted his signing exciting.

Later he was exceptional and that was kudos to Ferguson.

charlesemeka85:


carrick wasn't rated by many but was good and among the best in spurs team in his last season before he left for united

TheGoodJoe:


Thank you.

There are things you just don't Google.

I was even thinking about the Bala case.

These are things that were discussed a lot.

Following the news of even the cases and counter cases. The negotiations and dropping the case.

Either way, it was just a very sad episode then.

As a news anchor once said it was a battle between Money (Chelsea) and Football (Man Utd). Money won.

chrisooblog:
carrick was ok but the English midfielders I remember getting hype during that period were scholes, lampard, gerrard, joe cole, hargreaves (then at bayern). It was when Carrick joined Man U and started performing optimally that I started hearing his name more often.

ChrisKels:
Are we all gonna pretend like Komekn never boasted that he knew better than NFF, and that Eze was waiting to sign for a premier league club before declaring for us?

Lol, someone please tell him that Eze is in Boothroyd's bench as England take on Slovenia in the ongoing Euro U21 tournament.

charlesemeka85:
yes you are right united fans never rated him when he joined

DrKlever:
Imagine. Baba dey chop bench for U21. He made a very wrong decision to snub super eagles.

chrisooblog:
you see it my guy why wouldn't a top performing english talent excite the old trafford faithful if he was so outstanding?

chrisooblog:
You make good points however Shittu was the one who orchestrated Mikel's trials with Chelsea. Ferguson knew he had no chance getting Mikel through Shittu. Hence the reason why he used Anderson to try and get Mikel. He also probably thought Mikel would probably want to be his own man having just turned 18 but unfortunately for Sir Alex he didn't reckon that Chelsea had other leverage on the young man.

If you know Sir Alex's notorious disdain for agents then his actions won't have surprised you.

jihday:
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson considered travelling to Oslo to visit Mikel, but decided against this after Mikel was reported to have left the country. (taken from Google)

AndSunGorilla:


True that, the same way he turned Eric Djemba Djemba to world class!!!! By the way I haven't seen an African ( full blown) thrive at Man Utd, Quinton fortune and Bailly are the best from africa to feature for them and that says a lot.

TheGoodJoe:


I even vexed. I said who does Mikel feel he is not to listen to Ferguson after he traveled to see him.

Before the news of the back forces came up.

elunico:


Funny of you to relate their failures to their race. Forlan, Rossi, Bellion, Pique and a whole lot of other players didn't measure up under Fergie, are we gonna conclude is because of where they from?

TheGoodJoe:


It is about longevity.

Ronaldinho has more technique in one toe than the whole body of Iniesta but Iniesta is rated miles ahead of Ronaldinho because of his longevity.

Odunayaw:
waaaat

Is he describing an own goal