United Agree Evra Deal

Lemlin

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=354282&cc=5739

Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed Manchester United have 'done a deal' to sign Monaco full-back Patrice Evra.

Red Devils chief executive David Gill was in France last night to conclude negotiations and the 24-year-old France international is due in Manchester on Monday for a medical.


United have beaten off competition from Inter Milan to sign the player for an undisclosed sum although the fee is believed to be around £5million mark.

'The deal is done, he will come in Monday,' said Ferguson. 'We have been looking at him for some time since Gabriel Heinze was injured in September.'

Evra could make his United debut in Wednesday's Carling Cup semi-final first leg against Blackburn at Ewood Park.

Ferguson also confirmed that his other transfer window signing Nemanja Vidic was doing endurance training at the moment and would not be considered for Sunday's FA Cup third round tie at Burton.

There was a press conference on earlier. Ferguson was asked something along the lines of if his spending for January was now offer. He replied, "it is, for today anyway".

So he either has more plans or was throwing the media some false bait.

Big Nelly

Wonder where this leaves O'Shea if he is signed? I would think it is a done deal seeing as he didnt want to go to Inter and went on strike to go ot Utd.

O'Shea will be played in middle of park? if not then he should leave because he won't get into the team because Fergie seems to prefer Brown/Silvestre/Vidic at centre back. Neville/Bardsley at right back and now Evra/Heinze at left.

Not a bad back line now but right back abit weak but maybe O'Shea will be backup instead of Bardsley.

Now all he has to do is remember the middle of the pitch. Last few seasons he has bought either up front or at back/goalie but has never really spent in middle except Ronaldo. Rest of player bought where not top quality

county

i know very little about him,someone please enlighten me

Big Nelly

county wrote:

i know very little about him,someone please enlighten me

Watch the Chelsea v Monaco game a few season ago. He was class in both games and throughout Monaco run to the CL final. Thats really the last I have seen of him but everyone in France seems to think he is great

Chong

Big Nelly wrote:

Wonder where this leaves O'Shea if he is signed? I would think it is a done deal seeing as he didnt want to go to Inter and went on strike to go ot Utd.

O'Shea will be played in middle of park? if not then he should leave because he won't get into the team because Fergie seems to prefer Brown/Silvestre/Vidic at centre back. Neville/Bardsley at right back and now Evra/Heinze at left.

Not a bad back line now but right back abit weak but maybe O'Shea will be backup instead of Bardsley.

Now all he has to do is remember the middle of the pitch. Last few seasons he has bought either up front or at back/goalie but has never really spent in middle except Ronaldo. Rest of player bought where not top quality

Wonder where it will John O'Shea ya , well I for one would love to see him sit in the reserves for what he brings to first team. He is the worst player we have and does not deserve a place ever in a Man United team.

Glad to see we are getting a talent like Evra , that is if goes through.

Lemlin

WDK wrote:

Wonder where it will John O'Shea ya , well I for one would love to see him sit in the reserves for what he brings to first team. He is the worst player we have and does not deserve a place ever in a Man United team.

I'd be glad to have him at Blackburn. He'd be a great replacement for Matteo or Ball. I think he could get back to the form of his first season if given a chance too.

How are United going to cope with having two 'first-choice' left backs, that expect to play, when Heinze gets back though? Can Evra play anywhere else?

Necronomicon

Good to see some competition at left-back. Heinze has struggled at times with injury, and we have no real adequete replacement. Silvestre, O' Shea, Richardson...none of them are anywhere near as good as Heinze unfortunately.

chiller

good to see a bit of compitition in defence now. hopefully fergie will buy a defensive midfielder now and we can maybe push chelsea right to the line make them work for our title!

chiller

good to see a bit of compitition in defence now. hopefully fergie will buy a defensive midfielder now and we can maybe push chelsea right to the line make them work for our title!

astrofool

u reckon ferguson is trying to do a chelsea and get two top players for each position now?

Not all superstars, which is similar to chelsea, they have alot of 5-12m players.

If thats the case, then they only need to buy 6-7 midfielders

Big Nelly

WDK wrote:

Wonder where it will John O'Shea ya , well I for one would love to see him sit in the reserves for what he brings to first team. He is the worst player we have and does not deserve a place ever in a Man United team.

haha, have you watched Utd this season? or just jumping on the bandwagon? Im not going into this again because there has been 4-5 threads about this and it is usually comments like this you hear from people that only follow footie if someone is winning and don't know that they are talking about. Again I say usually

O'Shea has been one of Utd best players so far this season. He has been there best defender in a number of games. Dont believe me? watch the West Ham game and he was covering the whole back line more or less himself. Had to come in numerous times to block balls that Silvestre had let thru. Also scored a great goal that game

Then watch the West Brom game when he was playing in middle of park. Again a great game and a goal. Can't remember the other games but all of them he has been back to the old O'Shea and on top of his game and been one of the most consistant this season once he got a good run in team and got his confidence back

Don't believe me still? watch the Arsenal game.

WDK wrote:

Glad to see we are getting a talent like Evra , that is if goes through.

Also why make a comment. Then quote your own comment? you have dual accounts and forgot to log out or you just trying to re-assue yourself your right?

Chong

That was a mistake I made in regards to my second post apologies , I use wang.boards.ie and it froze up on me so sorry.

Getting back on topic John O'Shea is rubbish IMO , no matter what I game I watch . The only players I can say that have improved in my books are Smithy and Fletch.

Big Nelly

WDK wrote:

That was a mistake I made in regards to my second post apologies , I use wang.boards.ie and it froze up on me so sorry.

No probs just seemed strange to me

WDK wrote:

Getting back on topic John O'Shea is rubbish IMO , no matter what I game I watch . The only players I can say that have improved in my books are Smithy and Fletch.

Should watch Utd more often then. Fletcher has been average to say the least. Played his best against Arsenal this week but was nothing spectacular and O'Shea was just as good but Fletch only got mentioned on Sky and MoM because it was his best game ever. So what does that tell you that Fletch has to play his best game ever to get close to O'Shea?

Anyway not an O'Shea thread. I never asked if he was sh*t or watever you want to call him. I asked if he was going to be transfered out. If he is wait till you see the queue of clubs waiting to buy this "rubbish" player?

Chong

Fair is Fair then everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Getting back on topic I hope that this doesn't actually fall through, and he does not sign for a French club or sumthin.

Big Nelly

WDK wrote:

Fair is Fair then everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Getting back on topic I hope that this doesn't actually fall through, and he does not sign for a French club or sumthin.

As mentioned above Inter had agreed a fee and he wouldnt talk to them and went on strike because he wanted to go to Utd and at that stage there was only a rumour of Utd bidding for him. Maybe fergie had a word somewhere?(who said that). Evra and some other striker who wants to leave as well have been training with kids last few weeks and Chairman said a week or so ago if they wanted to go then go but if they didnt would stay with the youth team.

LegacyUser

"The whole objective of the last couple of years has been about producing another team," said Ferguson.

"We are looking at two areas - January and the summer.

"We will probably just add a couple of players to bulk up the numbers in January, the one we really want to sign will only be available in the summer.

"He's cup-tied in the Champions League and his club wouldn't sell him before then in any case."

Lad's do you not remember this bit? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/4475112.stm

Said it all there just before December.

gracehopper

So who do you reckon this summer signing will be then???

BaZmO*

I really don't understand the stick that JOSH gets all the time. At the moment he is being used as a utility player hardly ever playing in the same position for more than 2 weeks in a row and yet people still expect him to put in a world class performance in every game.

There aren't that many players out there that can be utilised in so many different positions and still put in decent performances each week with the odd top notch performance thrown in. He needs to play in the same position more regularly to be truely judged, until then he has to be judged on the basis of a utility player and a bloody good one at that IMO.

B.

Vokes

gracehopper wrote:

So who do you reckon this summer signing will be then???

Becks is going to return in the summer to play in his self-styled quarterback role, deep in centre-midfield.

LegacyUser

gracehopper wrote:

So who do you reckon this summer signing will be then???

No idea...my heart is wishing for Gattuso but there is no chance. I am praying it is Javier Mascherano. Prob some bloke from the French League or German League.

gracehopper

SofaKing wrote:

Becks is going to return in the summer to play in his self-styled quarterback role, deep in centre-midfield.

LOL
Over Fergusons dead body........ (i think i might have planted an idea in the head of some lunatic merchandiser)

Gegerty

chiller wrote:

good to see a bit of compitition in defence now. hopefully fergie will buy a defensive midfielder now and we can maybe push chelsea right to the line make them work for our title!

He's competing with Heinze though, not exactly something united need. It does strengthen the squad though. Chelsea don't need to worry about injuries or poor runs of form cause they can just replace their players with equally good players. Is the other guy Vidic a central defender? I'd love to just slap Alex Ferguson and tell him to get that muppet Ferdinand off the pitch.

gracehopper

cheesedude wrote:

No idea...my heart is wishing for Gattuso but there is no chance. I am praying it is Javier Mascherano. Prob some bloke from the French League or German League.

yeah mascherano is savage i've only seen him play a few times but what i have seen i defo liked, He plays with an old head for such a young player

LegacyUser

Gegerty wrote:

He's competing with Heinze though, not exactly something united need. It does strengthen the squad though. Chelsea don't need to worry about injuries or poor runs of form cause they can just replace their players with equally good players. Is the other guy Vidic a central defender? I'd love to just slap Alex Ferguson and tell him to get that muppet Ferdinand off the pitch.

Well hopefully with added defenders, when Ferdinand or any of the back four are not pulling their weight, they can be dropped and bring in someone else.

johnor

Maybe he might move heinze central should evra be as good as heinze was....

need to offload some players still, likes on fortune and silvestre aint gonna cut it... if he gets an expierenced mid in now ie Gravesen we could afford to loose thier expierence... and myabe we could use the money etc.

Vokes

cheesedude wrote:

Prob some bloke from the French League or German League.

'If' money ends up being tight for ManU, there's some fantastic options in the Budesliga.

Both Christian Poulsen (Schalke) and Fabian Ernst (Bremen) are tough tackling midfielders, with Champions League experience this season. I think Poulsen has after winning some Best Danish Player award for 2005.
If ManU don't manage to sign a world class CM, Ernst/Poulsen wouldn't be a bad fallback option.

Seaneh

In my opinion man utd's best option for playing Evra and Hienze in the same team is to play Hienze at centre back.

Necronomicon

johnor wrote:

Maybe he might move heinze central should evra be as good as heinze was....

That's what I would have said had he not bought Vidic. For the rest of the season, I guess it'll be:

Neville

---

Rio

---

Vidic

---

Evra

I hope Brown still gets a look in, I think he's been our best defender this season.

PHB

I would imagine Slyvestre is on his way out tbh. Over the years he has been our best defender for many seasons, but recently his preformances have dropped quite a bit, and I'd say he is on his way out.
This would leave us looking like this

Position : Top players - Cover
Right Back : Neville - Bardesly
Center Backs : Rio/Brown/Vidic/Heinze - Pique/Spector/McShane
Left Backs : Evra/Heinze - Spector

With O'Shea covering it all, he will become the new phil neville.

I'm happy with these two signings.
Where we have failed this year has been defensivly, Boro, Benfica, Everton could all have been won with more defensive guile and cover.

Obviously now we need to fix midfield, I'm hoping for a Graveson buy, and a young up and coming buy(hopefully Obi Mikel), with a huge buy/get in the summer(hopefully Ballack) and a decent buy/get in the summer(hopefully De Jong).

----

p.s. in relation to O'Shea.

Should watch Utd more often then. Fletcher has been average to say the least. Played his best against Arsenal this week but was nothing spectacular and O'Shea was just as good but Fletch only got mentioned on Sky and MoM because it was his best game ever. So what does that tell you that Fletch has to play his best game ever to get close to O'Shea?

That is complete bs. O'Shea was quietly effective kinda. He offered nothing goign forward, and did very little defensive work. He got in the way of the ball to slow down the Arsenal attack a little, but was just an extra man.
Fletcher played a fantastic game because of O'Shea, as he had to do the work of two players, covering for O'Shea. He was fantastic, and got MOM because of it.
He has also played great over the last 5 or 6 games.

O'Shea has had some ok games this season, and I've been somewhat pleased with his progress going forward, but defensivly he has been terrible.

WBA comes to mind first, then West Ham, where he scored a goal, but was woeful defensivly.
He doesn't stop crosses coming in(see the first Benfica goal against us) And he doesn't bloody track runners(see any goal from the left). The majority of our goals this season have come from attacks down the left, and this is in no small part due to the failure of both O'Shea and Richardson.

Now heres the funny thing, I watch every single United game, normally twice, and I'm one of O'Shea's biggest fans, (see Big Ears signature), but to suggest he has been playing well this year is simply untrue. He has had 4 or 5 ok games, but nothing more. However he is still young, so i'm ok, and I think he has regained some confidence, so I'm happy, but don't be silly

wheres me jumpa

PHB wrote:

I would imagine Slyvestre is on his way out tbh. Over the years he has been our best defender for many seasons, but recently his preformances have dropped quite a bit, and I'd say he is on his way out.
This would leave us looking like this

Position : Top players - Cover
Right Back : Neville - Bardesly
Center Backs : Rio/Brown/Vidic/Heinze - Pique/Spector/McShane
Left Backs : Evra/Heinze - Spector

With O'Shea covering it all, he will become the new phil neville.

I'm happy with these two signings.
Where we have failed this year has been defensivly, Boro, Benfica, Everton could all have been won with more defensive guile and cover.

Obviously now we need to fix midfield, I'm hoping for a Graveson buy, and a young up and coming buy(hopefully Obi Mikel), with a huge buy/get in the summer(hopefully Ballack) and a decent buy/get in the summer(hopefully De Jong).

----

p.s. in relation to O'Shea.



That is complete bs. O'Shea was quietly effective kinda. He offered nothing goign forward, and did very little defensive work. He got in the way of the ball to slow down the Arsenal attack a little, but was just an extra man.
Fletcher played a fantastic game because of O'Shea, as he had to do the work of two players, covering for O'Shea. He was fantastic, and got MOM because of it.
He has also played great over the last 5 or 6 games.

O'Shea has had some ok games this season, and I've been somewhat pleased with his progress going forward, but defensivly he has been terrible.

WBA comes to mind first, then West Ham, where he scored a goal, but was woeful defensivly.
He doesn't stop crosses coming in(see the first Benfica goal against us) And he doesn't bloody track runners(see any goal from the left). The majority of our goals this season have come from attacks down the left, and this is in no small part due to the failure of both O'Shea and Richardson.

Now heres the funny thing, I watch every single United game, normally twice, and I'm one of O'Shea's biggest fans, (see Big Ears signature), but to suggest he has been playing well this year is simply untrue. He has had 4 or 5 ok games, but nothing more. However he is still young, so i'm ok, and I think he has regained some confidence, so I'm happy, but don't be silly

apparently ferguson got angry when somebody asked today if it was the end of silvestres united career. insisting "did i say that?". i thought john o shea was excellent against arsenal. fletcher is the attacking midfielder. oshea is a versaile player who has played three different positions over the xmas period. its his versatility that has kept him at OT and i expect it to keep him there a lot longer too.

come next season when all our players are back and hopefully theres another midfielder in the frame i see oshea as being employed as a midfielder. by no means first choice though.

scuba steve

i read somewhere that heinze will be tried in centre (just liked they did with silvestre) when he and Evra (hopefully) are both fully fit and eligable to play. Will try to fnd source. Great few days already with getting vidic and now evra, and only being 6days into the transfer window. As for JOS, he'll be brought into the middle of the park, will try get source for this too

scuba steve

From: http://home.skysports.com/list.asp?hlid=351016&CPID=8&clid=&lid=&title=Fergie+coy+on+midfield+arrival

The Manchester United manager was typically evasive during his latest press conference, although he did confirm Patrice Evra is following Nemanja Vidic through the entrance at Old Trafford.

With three more midfielders leaving the club on loan on Friday - Chris Eagles, Mads Timm and Liam Miller - it must be a strong bet that Ferguson will strengthen this area, even though his biggest spending will be done in the summer.

Yet the Scot hinted that he feels Alan Smith, John O'Shea and Darren Fletcher could be up to the task of helping out Paul Scholes in the middle of the park.

"Am I trying to bring players in?" he said to Sky Sports News. "We do like a squad for all eventualities and, with Roy Keane leaving, we're one short in midfield.

"Alan Smith has done a good job. Darren Fletcher has started to come back to his game again and John O'Shea has done quite well.

"I'm happy with the squad numbers right now. Yes, I'm finished [spending]. For today. There's no point discussing that [a new midfielder] as I think it's old hat really.

"I'm not going to discuss that - it's old hat."

Cant find where i read about Henize being tried in centre when hes back tho

The Muppet

I dont think Henize is going to be back too soon if at all so that position needed to be covered. I would think sylvestre will be move on in the summer. Josh has just signed a new contract so I doubt he will be going anywhere. I don't see why he gets the stick he does , he is certainly an addition to the squad.

homerjay2005

Evra can also play as a left winger i believe but id say he is, for the rest of the season anyway, going to play as a left back until heinze comes back. im not sure about heinze being played in the center, i dont think its his best position, he has had a few dodgy games there for Argentina, though a differnet ball game there i suppose, they play 3 center backs. Maybe waht somebody said on here earlier is true, that ferdinand will play as a defensive midfielder? i think o shea will be fine, there is no fear of him, he will stay and is a big part of fergies uniteds plans. i would be worried if i was silvestre,richardson, fortune, i think if any good offers were to come in, they would be sold. what about this team as our best 11 for the remainder of the season provoiding we dont buy a DM,which i still think we will?

Van der sar
Neville_Vidic_Browne_Evra
Ferdinand
Ronaldo_Scholes_Giggs
Van Nistelrooy_Rooney

Not bad, with Browne being the one to loose out in the back 4 if we bought a DM.
Howard,O Shea,Smith,Fletcher, Ole Gunnar,Saha, Rossi,Silvestre,Park,Heinze(when back)Bardsley being an alternative 11.

PHB

Ferdinand does not have the range of passing to play DMC, and Fergie knows it, and has stated it before, and Ferdinand has stated it before. It really won't happen unless a huge injury crisis occurs.
Ferdinand is the perfect CB for United imo. He has started to add the attacking element to his game, which is the best thing that could happen to United. Most teams that we have trouble winning against play a 4-5-1, and thus there is no need for two CB's.
We need one of them to make darting runs forward and create the space for goals. Rio is starting to do that, and he will contribute greatly.
Tip to anyone with a FF team, Rio is going to get a couple of assists this season, and maybe another goal or two, just from open play.

Nimrod's Son

I reckon Evra will prove to be a handy signing. When Heinze comes back, it could prove to be a sticky situation for Fergie in terms of selection. I agree with one of the previous posters who say his best position isn't at centre-half. I'm still worried by the lack of a signing to play the defensive midfield role. Come on, Gattuso....
/ Crosses fingers furiously

PHB

Gattuso ain't coming, he already stated about 2 weeks ago he is staying at Milan

Nimrod's Son

PHB wrote:

Gattuso ain't coming, he already stated about 2 weeks ago he is staying at Milan

Oh he'll come. That's what this here magic wand is for....
I don't care who they sign. Whoever they get in has to be better than Smith. I'd even take Duscher at this point, even though I don't really rate him.