After blowing the opportunity to sign Aaron Ramsey a couple of years ago by sending Gary Neville to meet the youngster, opposed to Arsene Wenger’s tactic of getting a private jet to fly out the player and family to meet him, Sir Alex Ferguson made sure he did things properly when it came to the highly rated defender, Chris Smalling.
Both United and Arsenal had bids accepted for the player Wenger had been chasing for some time, but in the end the Gunners had to settle for Sol Campbell.
Smalling has today revealed that Ferguson helped him realise that United was the best place for him.
“For him to come down the day before a big game was a huge compliment,” said Smalling. “That made it feel incredible. I went up the next day to the Manchester derby and got to meet some of the players afterwards. I went to see the training ground, did the medical, and everyone was very welcoming. When Sir Alex came and met me and I went to go up and visit, I had the gut feeling this was the place for me to continue my football education.”
Man Utd News 24/7
Time for him to show he’s the right player for us now. His form since signing for us has been atrocious.
This guy is a raw talent with a lot of potential… Once he’s integrated in club and has the staff and coaches working with him along with quality team mates I reckon he will show his true colours! It’s unfair to judge him now (admittedly from wat iv seen it hasn’t been great) but saying that he is young and same been sed for certain darren fletcher etc! Look at Fletch now… SAF always had faith even wen a lot of fans didn’t see it (Inc me). I trust in SAF’s judgement!
Im not worried about Smalling form until he arrives at united. ps play up pompey
Marnick Vermijl plays the next three seasons for Manchester … Manchester United also pay 220000 euros compensation to his former training clubs. …. He’s a Belgian full back coming from the Standard Liege’s youth academy. ..
http://www.redcafe.net/f9/marnick-vermijl-287901/
I’m a little bit worried that since signing for us he’s started phoning it in for his current club and that’s a little unprofessional. However it’s impossible to know the circumstances.
I wish we’d have been able to delay this transfer until the summer.
I honestly believe that the pressure to perform has gotten to him since the announcement. Of course, you’d have to point out that he’ll always be under pressure to perform when he eventually arrives at the club. However, he isn’t yet under Fergie’s guidance. I’m sure that once he arrives, gets settled in, and Fergie works closely with him, that we’ll start to see his true value.
We shouldnt worry about Smalling until he gets to Utd. Right at this moment he hasnt worked with any of our staff or with any of our players so we should reserve judgement. Once SAF and the coaches get hold of him he will look a different player. Ive read alot about him being likened to Rio, well I can tell you now when Rio came through he was well known for making mistakes (and he made a couple this season in the derby match!!). In fact Alan Hansen had a field day with Rio every week on match of the day, but for all his mistakes he still had the ability to be great and now he is!! Smalling will come good, he just needs a chance.
I remember Stam making quite a few mistakes in the 98 World Cup. My brother felt he was a laughing stock.
Once Smalling starts working under Sir Alex, I am hopeful that we will get the best out of him. Still not crazy about that price tag though…
hardly seen anything of him sometimes you just have to trust
costa dont forget when we were playing in the carling cup final 1 sub already made everyone wanted ruud on the pitch and then 2 flops that united signed in january are standing on the touchline
a huge groan went around a manchester united pub i was in in new york
weres ruud and who is Vidic and dont get me started on this guy evra
with my mind unable to get off his debut against city
They are muck a waste of money and united are nothing with out rudd scoring
i feel like its christmas when my head sings this song
on the 3rd day of christmas my true love gave to me
3 premier leagues
2 carling cups
and the champions of europe once again
He just might be one-for-the-future BUT I would have been happier to have seen SAF sign Brede Hangeland so that UTD are not held to ransom by Nemanja Vidic’s wife.
Guessing Sir. Alex has spotted something within Smallings play that he can blow up to extraordinary dimensions and make him quality. He is still way to young to not do mistakes in games, so im excited to see what he’ll become.
On another note; Ben Amos has gone on loan to Molde, Mambe Biram Diouf’s ex-club. If he does well there, will he take another leap in front of either Tomasz or Benjamin? He’s done very well the times i’ve seen him.
SAF is the best at turning raw talent in to playing the Manchester United way. There are countess examples of SAF doing this. I hope missing out on Aaron Ramsey doesn’t come back to haunt us too. Smalling has made a few mistakes since signing for us. However we all thought the same about Stam, Vidic, Evra, etc. In SAF we Trust!
Fabregas picked up a knock and Burnley are holding on at 1-1!
Bah, 2-1 Walcott.
Rooney not in the squad. Not really surprised. Will be interesting to see how we get on without him
Costas, the Stam analogy occurred to me too. Jaap had a shocker in that World Cup and made a mistake in just about every game I seem to recall, a bit like Mickey Silvestre in Euro 2004. He also got torn to shreds on his debut by Anelka as Arsenal ran out 3-0 winners in the Charity Shield. Fortunately we had the last laugh, as I’m sure we will this time.
He’s definitely had a big dip in form but who wouldn’t after signing for United. I mean he must be so excited he’s let his eye off the ball at Fulham, hopefully he’ll get a full pre-season with us and will continue his development.
Could even be used in a different position than we are thinking.
He might even be used in a different position than we are thinking.