UTD sign Dong Fangzhuo

smemon · 03-12-2003 8:35pm #1

http://skysports.planetfootball.com/article.asp?id=175413&cpid=8

18 year old chinese superstar on his way to old trafford. another youngster in this fresh utd side.

jesus_thats_gre · 03-12-2003 8:38pm

Does anyone know if he is a decent player or not?

I would be more inclined to believe they bought him as a way to break into the Chinese market and a way dramatically increase shirt sales. In a similar way to the way Beckham was signed by Real and the way alot of people are surprised he is actually getting his place consistently. Doubt this fella is going to do much though.

johnor · 04-12-2003 10:50am

Watched beckham last night, not for the first time. He is playing very well.. I think anyone would play well witht eh players he has around him but he appears to be doing the business all the same. Real won 2-0 incidently, Cant see past real for the champions league...There defence might not be as strong as others but they make up for it with attack. Great to watch, Raul and ronaldo could have been 8-0 the chances they had...

anyway back to the point, I think Dong would have played against west brom....says there that they've brokered a deal to interchange players with that club too, spose its good for business good for football too...oh yeah dont think that beckham was bought only to break the asian market altho i do believe there was a strong element of that in the deal

john

Dustaz · 04-12-2003 11:33am

Sorry, but i just have to regress to childhood for a minute......

Dong!

lol

(beats Nwanku any day

)

eirebhoy · 04-12-2003 11:34am

Apparantly there is a clause in Fangzhuo's contract that he has to play every game otherwise Vodafone will pull out of their sponsorship deal.

Delboy79 · 04-12-2003 2:23pm

Looks like he has been purchased purely for commercial reasons.
He isnt even a regular in the Dalian Shide First Team

smiaras · 04-12-2003 2:52pm

This post has been deleted.

cournioni · 04-12-2003 2:57pm

I'd doubt if he'll even make the bench yet. Jonathan Greening was bought for £1 million and the same happened to him. Give him two years.

smemon · 04-12-2003 5:13pm

i know nothing about him only that fegie was impressed by his trial. unless some of you are chinese i doubt anyone knows anything about him!

fergie isnt stupid, he wont buy a player if he's not gonna be part of the squad and just a marketing ploy. a few clubs were after him seemingly, must have some sort of ability.

Dustaz · 04-12-2003 8:05pm

Originally posted by smemon
i

fergie isnt stupid, he wont buy a player if he's not gonna be part of the squad and just a marketing ploy.

Um, i would have thought that would be the clever thing to do (a la Inamoto)

smemon · 05-12-2003 12:33am

yeah you could look at it that way but believe me, fergie himself wouldnt sign and praise a player he thinks isnt manu standard.

fergie doesnt care about the marketing or images, all he wants is a good squad capable of winning things. also, if he turns out to be a flop, there is that plus of having millions of chinese on your side.

Nike_Dude · 05-12-2003 8:43am

Apparantly there is a clause in Fangzhuo's contract that he has to play every game otherwise Vodafone will pull out of their sponsorship deal

a la dream team;)

I'd say he has some potential and fergie will try to make a good player out of him and even if he turns out to he rubbish they can play him on their far east tours and sell an extra few hundread thousand shirts with his name on them