News broke last week that Manchester United’s deal with Partizan Belgrade for up-and-coming star Adem Ljajic had collapsed.
The press quickly latched on to it and claim it was down to lack of funds at our club, thanks to the massive debt given to us by the Glazers.
However, Ljajic today claims the reason he won’t be joining United in January is because he couldn’t get a work permit.
“Stories about stagnation in my football development are nonsense,” he said. “If Manchester United were really not satisfied with how much I’ve progressed in this year, I would not have been with Ferguson two months ago at the end of my last cycle of mandatory training at the club before moving to England. The reason for the transfer not happening is that I couldn’t get a business licence. Who knows what I will do next? I have heard already that clubs are interested and that Partizan want to sell me. We’ll see.”
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feel sad for him.why cant we apply for work permit later in the summer?.he is just 18 anyways.hope we have not missed out on a really good talent.
this happened with essien and look who he ended up with
i didn’t have a good feel on ljajic anyway
@MACHEDA IS GOD: That’s the first thing that came in my mind. So the kid is good, couldn’t we wait to use him in the summer? Let him stay at Partizan a little more and then make transfer.
This is bulls*it, we got a permit for Tosic, we could have got one for him.
Why didnt we say that he is a special talent and try for the work permit.We said that for Ando and although he is only 21 i have hardly seen anything ‘SPECIAL’ in him or from him. Ljajic is just 18 so we could have been patient with regards to getting a work permit
@Boony
But tosic was 21 when we bought him wasn’t he…
aig alex is god
Your one of those fans who dont notice the beautiful pass before the goal…..
Oh please you’ve got to kidding me did you see his passing yesterday?
Tosic was a full international at the time of the transfer. We were able to bring him in straight away because he already qualified for a work permit.
Ljajic did not and still don’t, though I would argue that he should fall under the exceptional talent category and hence he should be able to get a work permit. Alas it was not to be.
Also since he do not qualify for a work permit now, he would probably still fail to get one in the summer. We would probably need to wait several years before we would be able to get him a work permit.
If he doesn’t come to our league, but goes to any other league like the italian or dutch and turns out to be injury free and sensational…. SAF will chase his signing then… ( i mean in 1 or 2 years)
@Macheda IS GOD
i personally love ando and i could be wrong,he could go on to become one of the greatest midfielders and i am not saying he is a bad player .he is a good player but not special yet.he has to work very hard.Just 21 though so we have to be patient. Even then 1 goal in 90 odd games isnt good enough. Has to score more consistently.i am not slating him.His form is good this season compared to last year and his game is gradually improving
I really have mixed feelings with ando…i loved him because we were (and still are) mad on him
I look at his game and say hes an average sometimes but still he is good when hes good
hell have to do better in january since hargo’s coming back!
we have failed to sign the brightest talent in europe right now, its a shame havin lost torres, essien robben, cech and many others. what are the glazers doing and the whole man u management. the boy deserve united as united also really needed him, we splashed on nani aflop to this day but we cant give the opportunity to this super kid.
hopefully he comes good despite this shame from united management, it is a shame of all shames
@Macheda IS GOD
exactly mate.You cant call him special yet although there is no denying that age is on his side and he is talented.Just needs to give good performances consistently and score more goals(Doubt that with his shooting!LOL).I want him to suceed as much as any of the United fans and it is good to see that his performances are improving especially compared to last season
CHEERS!!!
As others have said even if we waited till the summer he wouldn’t get his work permit. I would guess next summer 2011 would be the earliest it would be viable and Partizan want the money in Jan and not June 2011. You aren’t going to pay that much for a player who you won’t be able to use for 18months if not more, especially when his HG status gets screwed up under those circumstances, his development as a premiership talent will be hindered staying at Partizan. And even then he may not have made enough appearances in the National first team to get the work permit so it could be 2012 before he gets it. It starts to get to the Huntelaar stage where he stays in a weak league too long that by the time he moves to a top league he has stunted his development and will never reach his full potential
Typical UK gov decision though, you have a footballer who adds something to the country and brings money into it without really taking anything and they won’t let him in the country but they let all these foreigners in to sit drawing on our benefit system while refusing to work a
Yeah, pretty much what the club said last week. What United still hasn’t clarified is why they tried to trash the lad in the press first rather than just coming out and saying… sorry we can’t get a visa. It was a PR disaster and pretty disgraceful way to act with an 18 year old.
You see the ABU as always like to blow things out of proportion. i’m sad for the lad but maybe we can get a work permit in the summer. i’m sure as long as he performs the way he’s been doing by catching fergie’s eye he definately will be here in the summer. the lad is a fantastic talent and would like to see him here. in saying that he has to keep up his great performances and i’m sure fergie will convince the guys at the work permit office to grant ljajic with a work permit in the summer.
can’t wait to also see cleverly back hopefully for the shitty and leeds scum game. the lad has been brilliant at watford. can’t also wait to see biram diouf in a united shirt.:-)
obertan in a few years will be a world beater i tell ya! his skill to set up mickey owen’s second goal was absolutely world class.
@unitedrant
same feeling here. Imagine his anger finding that Utd announced such kind of a PR.
Get over it. He hasn’t joined yet, end of. You only have to look at our last three games and the talent coming through not to mention Cleverley. If United really want him he will join in the summer.
aig – Morning mate. Ando looks a real talent. He is really developing into the midfielder we expected. Some of his balls through are top drawer. Still only 21, he could well be a huge player for United over the next seasons.
@King Eric
hi mate.Good morning
agree completely.i am not saying he is not a talent.just saying there are many aspects he can improve on but the improvement he has shown this season am sure he will make it big. As i said in my easrlier comment he is just 21.
whatever the reason may be, we are gonna regret this decision. He will develop to become a great footballer.Its funny because we sign two players from a club but in the end we got to keep the avarage one and leave the real gem
@unitedrant
Personally I think its just a quote that was probably taken out of context. I suspect when they say he hadn’t developed as well as expected they meant that he hadn’t made the progress as far as the Work Permit qualification goes. I would suspect that when we signed him we thought he would be at a level where he would fail the initial application but would have enough games behind him to get it on the appeal. They probably thought he would have got a full international cap or two which would have helped on appeal and certainly helped with the “Exceptional” argument
And we do have a number of potentially great young players at the club who are either around the same age or younger than him who we can ensure get used to the English way of play, the physical nature and also go through a high level of learning. The 18 to 24 months that realistically we would have to wait could have been very damaging to his progress compared to the young players at the club already. Just look at Tosic who by all accounts is struggling with the physical nature of the English game rather than any technical issues
I just hope ths doesn’t come back to bite us on the backside.
Willierednut – Essien signed for the RentBoyz and they won one title with him; UTD have won the EPL three times and the CL once since then. If that’s what you call “bite us on the backside” then all I can say is BRING IT ON.
Macheda IS GOD
The thing with Ando is that from his Porto days he was primarily a support striker with exceptional qualities. He was an electric dribbler with precise short passing movements. He was an explosive player. Then, Fergie buys him, puts him into Defensive midfield and then we all expect him to live upto the hype. Fergie is the one at fault with Ando’s development or is making him defensively stable so that once he gets the attacking role(or IF he gets it) then he will also track back and be able to tackle – unlike Scholes. I’m just praying to god that Fergie hasnt converted him to DM like he did to Alan Smith and make him a mediocre player. All he does now is chase around the pitch and play long balls. A total opposite of what he actually did early in his career.
Fair point denton davey, about essien, i think he’s a poor man’s roy keane.
“about essien, i think he’s a poor man’s roy keane.”
maybe as a player – BUT NOT AS A LEADER AND CAPTAIN.
eh, if he was good enough, we’d have stayed with it until he eventually got a permit.
We’ve seriously fucked up here as a club. I’m not saying he’s the new messiah or anything but I have a bad feeling we are going to regret whats happened here. Denton davey fair comment about Essien but one player doesn’t win your club the title the team does which is why the rentboyz despite all their cash are not only not on our level, but not even on the level below us. I’d take him in our team in a heartbeat.
From all the differnt media etc I think the situation was as follows –
We had the option to sign him, but this option was to sign him in Jan.
We could not have aquired a WP by the time of the option expiring (whichever date in Jan this was) although this is not to say whether we would or would not have got a WP later on appeals etc.
So we would have had to fork out £10m in Jan, and not find out until after the transfer the result of any WP appeals etc, meaning we could have been stuck with a player who was not allowed to work in this country, meaning his career would have been entirely in limbo for 6 months (i dont know if he’d be allowed to even train etc with the academy/reserves without a WP?)
And no-one at the club has ruled out returning for him at a future date, so you never know.
I’ve heard some people say, well why didnt we start the WP application process last Jan when we knew he was meant to be coming? I guess cos back then he’d of had even less chance of getting accepted and he was less experienced etc, where as now he had europa league experience etc. I think we were maybe hoping he’d have made his debut for the full national team by now which would have helped any WP application appeals etc.
Id say keano is better in every department.