Manchester United Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 11/12

Vertigo100 wrote: »

If he could sort out his build up play i think he would get the nod over Welbeck.

kryogen wrote: »

I'd love Llorente, but Van Wolfswinkle would not be up there on my list of targets, Falcao I'm not so sure of.

Llorente is not "gettable" though imo and if he was to leave my money would be on Barcelona snapping him up, he seems like he would be a good fit for them, he has turned into a great centre forward the last couple of years and is just hitting peak now.

I'd take Falcao as long the money wasn't ridiculous on second thoughts

Ashbourne hoop wrote: »

Jones looks like an expensive version of John O'Shea, decent in a few positions but not particularly great in any of them.

bucketybuck wrote: »

Hardly the Glazers fault is it. The £50 million+ provided last summer could have been used for a half-decent central midfielder if Fergie had seen fit. That was his decision, not the Glazers.

United's training ground set-piece moves are pictured from above.

MYSTERY last night surrounded the whereabouts of aerial footage taken of Manchester United stars in top-secret training sessions.

It remained unclear who authorised the filming in a specially converted Cessna light aircraft and whether the material is destined for this country or abroad. The covert clips of players such as Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo working on tactics, formation, free kicks and penalties during the astonishing spying mission could be invaluable to rival clubs.

Videos and stills of the training were driven from a Derbyshire airfield to Heston Services on the M4 - a mile from Heathrow airport - and handed to a mystery client in a Chrysler Grand Voyager with blacked-out windows.

He shook hands with the delivery man - one of two on board the Cessna 172 Skyhawk commissioned by a photographic agency - then left after a 30-second encounter.

Earlier, the Mirror watched as the plane - registration G-CBME - passed over United's high-security training complex at Carrington while manager Sir Alex Ferguson would have been putting his team through their paces. The sky blue-striped Cessna, owned by a company called Skytrax Aviation, swooped down to about 1,500ft to get the best shots.

It is believed three other spying mission have been carried out. The one we saw was last Wednesday morning. Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Paul Scholes were among the first-team squad training as the four-seater, single-engine plane - adapted to carry camera equipment - twice buzzed over them at 1,500ft between 11.45am and 11.50am.

A huge circular lens was clearly visible from the ground. A panel had been unscrewed from the belly of the plane providing a gap for both video and stills cameras to operate. The plane skirted around the edge of the heavily guarded training ground before heading off into the distance.


MISSION: Plane swoops over the training ground

An aviation source said last night: "G-CBME may look like a little old Cessna with a single propeller but it is anything but. "It has a £100,000 engine which operates on jet fuel.

"This is very unusual and means that the plane is able to fly much more quietly which obviously does not alert people on the ground so much to its presence. It also has £50,000 worth of specialist equipment on board. It has been deliberately modified so it looks like a little sight-seeing pleasure plane but it is equipped for some of the best surveillance operations in Britain."

The plane had taken off in fierce cross winds from tiny Egginton airfield 60 miles away in Derbyshire 40 minutes earlier. It arrived back at the grass airstrip 2.05pm with its potentially damaging cargo. One of the men then jumped into an estate car and sped south and on to the M40.

When he reached the M25 he joined the M4 and drove towards London, arriving at Heston Services near Heathrow airport where he was flagged down by the client in the Chrysler. An A4 sized silver coloured metal case was handed over. The contact smiled, patted the delivery man on the shoulder and then left.

United lead the Premiership and are still in the FA Cup and European Champions League competitions that could lead to the club's second Treble. If it is proved another Premiership club has or ordered the footage there could be serious repercussions under Football Association rules on conduct.

The Mirror was alerted to the secret mission after a series of flight plans over Carrington were logged with Manchester air traffic control. Several non-standard flight numbers were given to controllers. An ATC source said: "We received a request for this NSF during the week beginning January 8.

"The pilot specifically asked for permission to film a small site to the edge of Carrington village and it immediately rang bells again because there have been three other very similar NSF requests in recent months

"It was activated at 10.30am on Wednesday January 17. The plane was given permission to proceed." The firm that carried out the surveillance is a respected aerial photographic agency called British Geographical.

An aviation source said: "I don't know much about them but I know they are highly regarded within the field of aviation photography." Skytrax leased the Cessna out for £119 per hour to British Geographical specifically for this assignment - although they would not have known what was going to be filmed.

BG owner David Goddard said: "We never discuss who our clients are. We always fly under strict Civil Aviation Authority guidelines and always comply fully with local air traffic

kryogen wrote: »

Plus as I said, I think an advanced midfielder/support striker will be targeted this summer so Rooney will be guy at the top of the formation and for that position Chico is great cover and Welbeck will do a job there too. One player in the mould of Hazard (not him necessarily, but in that mould) and the forward options would be unreal, and very fluid and inter changeable.

tvercetti wrote: »

I think Modric is more suited to the CM role rather than AMC as we have seen when Spurs were flying earlier in the season, I would see Modric been a direct replacement for Scholes. The worry is though in a game where your not dominating, will Modric get overpowered in CM.

kryogen wrote: »

Fergie has to take plenty of blame for the CL exit, he actually said so himself by not taking it seriously enough, Athletico are a good team, they were technically far superior and hungrier when we played them, for a lot of them it was also the biggest game of their careers, for United players it wasn't. They wanted it more and they deserved it. Fergie does have a big impact on how the team finds a way to win, but he has been at fault plenty of times this season and is certainly not absolved of any blame for the shortcomings

Again I ask you, have you anything to back up your opinion on Nani though? The general consensus among United fans has been that Nani has been a standout performer for the last couple of seasons, he has improved greatly in his decision making and his consistency, you think differently, I just want to know why is all?

If you have nothing thats ok like, your entitled to your opinion either way.

One more thing though, you said Young was better then Nani, I would put it to you that it is actually Young who is the sunshine footballer of the two, the one who is most likely to go missing if the team is playing poorly but will can be sublime when the whole team plays well.