Fantasy Premier League Blog

Ferguson says Rooney wants to leave United - - SI.com

Wayne Rooney's desire to walk out on Manchester United has left the Premier League club facing the loss of a third world-class attacker in two years and its bewildered manager Alex Ferguson in a state of shock.

Ferguson said he was "dumbfounded'' at Rooney's decision not to enter into negotiations about extending his contract beyond the summer of 2012.

"We just don't know what's changed the boy's mind... I was shocked,'' said Ferguson. "I had a meeting with the boy and he reiterated what his agent had said. He wanted to go.'"

There's so much to this story that is being parsed elsewhere, so I'll try to take a fantasy manager's approach to this first.

C'mon Fergie... don't beat around the bush. Give us a name!

"I do have a decision to make over the goalkeeper for Sunday," reflected Ferguson. "Both Ben and Tomasz have outstanding qualities. Tomasz made two great saves last night, as he did against Boca Juniors, so we will see."

Football mourns loss of Sir Bobby Robson - Barclays Premier League - ESPN Soccernet

There are people out there who experienced much more of Sir Bobby Robson's career up close and personal than I did so I'm not going to attempt to compete with them in describing his legacy in football or repeat someone else's first hand account of an encounter with the man and how that revealed something deeper about him and why his passing is such a significant event. If you, our readers, have such stories, please share them.

The thing that sticks out for me after reading all of the stories about Sir Bobby this morning is this: he managed Barcalona. Why does this stick out in my mind? Because it got me wondering about the state of football in England that there doesn't really seem to be anyone from the UK who might ever change jobs who would be considered for this role (or one with any of the other major continental powers).

Assuming Sir Alex will never coach another club who do you have? Moyes? Nice manager who does a great job with limited resources but he hasn't even been discussed for higher profile jobs in England let alone Spain or Italy. Certainly, we can all observe that the Premier League is a net importer of players. Based on the money available, this makes sense. That said, is the state of managers in England SO BAD that 3 of the "Big Four" are managed by men from the continent and England's only significant managerial export is Steve McLaren who has charge of a just-better-than-average Dutch side. Not exactly Barca or even Ajax. For the UK to produce no one better than Moyes over the course of a generation is just amazing. Is it testament to England being more open to the idea of bringing in foreign managers based on merit (or reputation)? Or is the managerial talent just not there?

Thoughts?

Update: I'd like to just add this to Neal's post. Robson loved his team, and I loved his teams. As regular readers of the blog know, I'm a former Newcastle fan. I say former in that my allegiances shifted to my fantasy team rather than following or supporting any one team. I've blogged about this at the end of last season when Newcastle were going down in what I called my Magpies Lament. I think that Sir/Uncle Bobby put together a young, exciting team at Newcastle. One that hit some real highs, but as befits a young team had some real lows. He was sacked after a poor start to a season, and the club never recovered.

Farewell, Sir Bobby. I'll treasure the memories and I'll treasure this:

Before you get carried away with Michael Owen's fast start against Asia's select, here's SAF to throw some cold water on your plans.

Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that he plans to use Michael Owen as little as every 10 days as he confirmed he was looking to employ the striker as an impact player at Manchester United.

Owen has begun his United career as well as he could have expected, scoring twice in two games during the champions' tour of Asia, the second coming in today's 2–0 win here over a Malaysia XI. But Ferguson indicated he saw him as support to the existing strike pairing of Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov. "We can carry Michael Owen. I won't ask him to play every four days, I might ask him to play every 10 days," the manager said. "We can do it because I always rotate my squad."

Good and bad here for fantasy managers. First we've confirmed the obvious that Rooney/Berbatov is United's starting front-line. However, we've also confirmed that SAF will be rotating his strikers. I would guess we'll see a lot of Macheda and Owen coming on for Berbatov late in matches, and getting the occassional start depending on the schedule. I still think Rooney is a safe play, and likely Berbatov as well, but I do think that there will be weeks of intense frustration where they don't make the starting eleven or come off early in matches.

Caveat fantasy emptor.

LYON, France (AFP) - Lyon announced on Wednesday the transfer of Karim Benzema to Real Madrid for 35 million euros in a deal which dashes Manchester United's attempts to capture the France striker.

In a statement the French club announced that the fee could rise to as much as 41 million euros depending on various bonuses attached to the deal.

Lyon, in a statement on their website, said they had accepted Benzema's decision after he had made it clear he wanted the deal to be "concluded quicker than initially envisaged".

"The club wishes Karim the greatest success with Real Madrid," the statement added.

I've said it before (too often, perhaps), but "Wow"! Real Madrid have done it again.

This is the fourth signing by Real under the new presidency of "Galacticos" president Florentino Perez, after Brazilian midfielder Kaka, Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo and Spanish defender Raul Albiol.

Do they even have a manager?  This is fantasy football of the highest order.  Huntelaar, Higuain, Raul, van Niselrooy... and now Benzema?  In front of Cristiano Ronaldo, Guti, Sneijder, van der Vaart and Kaka.  Mahamadou and Lassana Diarra and Gago are holding players that have full international credentials.  As do Ramos, Albiol, Pepe, Heinze, Metzelder and of course Casillas in defence.

Of course, this ONLY interests the blog as far as it impacts the Premier League.  First and foremost, Benzema is taken off Sir Alex Ferguson's shopping list.  Secondly, of the above named players, who will be available?  I assume that Madrid won't be likely to sell to any team that could challenge it in the Champions League unless there is Abramovich-level monies involved.  But perhaps the likes of Manchester City or Aston Villa, who haven't been shy about spending money in recent transfer windows, could snap up a world-class player that won't be making Madrid's first XI?

A very interesting article today on Soccernet looking back at Juan Sebastian Veron's time at Manchester United and what was and what was not the reason for his lack of success with the Red Devils.

Verón became a scapegoat, rightly or wrongly, for United's failings when his manager was truly the man to blame.

Sir Alex unsettled his team's shape, their style, and more importantly his best players in a narrow pursuit of European glory. The signing of La Brujita really was the cat that pulled the string that unraveled one golden United era, for the many reasons that the article goes into. But to Sir Alex's credit, he has rebuilt his team with the lessons learned from that time.

The highlight for me of the Veron era was his pre-match ritual of exchanging 60-yard passes with Beckham. Such incredible skill displayed so effortlessly.