Carlos Tips Off Fergie For United’s African Signing - Republik Of Mancunia: A Manchester United Blog

Mateus Alberto Contreiras Concalves It has been announced today that United have signed Angolan striker, Mateus Alberto Contreiras Goncalves, after completing a three week trial with the club.

Sir Alex Ferguson has usually kept away from African players, likely because of the inconvenience of the African Cup of Nations, which takes place every other year during the crucial January period of the season. However, Fergie has dipped in to the African market, signing the striker known as “Manucho” on a three year deal, joining us once the ACON has ended.

We hope he does well in the African Nations Cup because, as it is at the moment, he has to play enough games to qualify for a work permit,” added the United manager.

“We have had Manucho here for a 3-week trial and have been impressed enough to offer him a 3-year contract,” said Ferguson today. “He has done very well training with the first team and playing in a couple of practice matches. It is always difficult to assess it completely. But there is good potential there. He has good assets. He is a tall, agile, quick forward and through contacts that Carlos [Queiroz] has was brought to our attention around six months ago. If we can get the work permit we can map out a future for him, but I wouldn’t see him as a first-team player this season.”

A 24 year old Angolan striker who has yet to play in Europe? Forgive me for not being filled with confidence. We’ve been linked to Anelka and Berbatov time and again, but now we’re settling for this guy? He has come from Angolan side Petro Athletico, proving himself as the league’s top scorer in the past two seasons, with sixteen and fifteen goals respectively. Hardly proves he can cut it over here though.

At least now maybe it’ll be time to show waste of space Dong the door…

How do you feel about this signing?

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8 Comments

Gopher Brown December 21, 2007

Ole was 23 when he joined us from Molde.

Sometimes an endless focus on 'youth' - youth being under 19 these days - isn't always the way to go.

I am a bit dubious, but it's a risk we can easily afford to take.

craig mc December 21, 2007

Mmmm, who knows?. Quiroz had good judgement over Anderson and Nani, so I'll give him benefit of doubt for now!. Yet Anderson and Nani learned their trade and technical skills in Portugal, so I'll be amazed if Manucho could get same level in Africa. We may get more insight from seeing him perform in African Nations cup. But Fergie could have had Anelka for 8 million last summer - he would have given us the quality we need for sure.

wr December 21, 2007

it depends. perhaps he can be the next drogba. or maybe its just to tap into the african market so we can raise more funds for next season. lets see what happens

Taehr December 21, 2007

Yup, its a risk but one which would be good if it paid off.the good thing is hes had a three week trial at united,so hes trained with the first team and fergies had a chance to look at him and judge what type of a player he is,so its not like were buying another dong because im sure three weeks is enough to identify if a player cant pass or even kick a ball ala dong,from what ive read he has scored in a few training matches.To add on playing in an african league and scoring 16 goals is not at all as easy as some might think.its a place where pitches are terrible and players get kicked as much as the ball and the refs dont give nothing.players hardly score more than 10 goals a season.hope this is goodbye to dong.time will tell whether he does well.

I't 's being touted now that there is discrepancy about the age of Manucho. If the rumours on some websites are true, the Nigerian's wanted him for their International team, but said he must LIE about his age to play for any European team, which he has told friends is 31 and not 24 as United believe. But how can Fergie have fallen for that, I don't think so, because Utd are usually thorough in investigating players.

Im sure united(being the biggest club in the world)would check for his age and facialy he does look 24 and certainly not 31.

UnitedRay December 22, 2007

some website is saying Ivory Coast wanted Drogba to play for the men's team but he is actually a female.

Tom F December 22, 2007

I don not believe Dong was purchased to ever break into the first team on a regular basis. He has never looked upto it, I always wanted him to be given a run and for him to 'make it' but I don't think any forward in the world would be put in the starting line up before Rooney and Tevez on a regular basis.

We do need a forward who has different attributes to those 2, Saha needs somebody to fight with for that 3rd place, it would do the world of good.

Dong has been doing well in reserves recently, he scored once this season and that must have given him the boost he needed because he's scored a few more.

Maybe I'm not as focussed on teams other tha United as some people are but I didn't know anything about Vidic or even Evra before United signed them.. So just because we aren't in the know about this guy doesn't mean a thing.

I have always trusted what Alex Ferguson has decided to do, not always agreed with it and there have been a good few signings that never worked out..

Forlan, for example. I never thought Torres would settle into Top flight English football.. but he doesn't seem to be doing to badly.

It's not the name, it's the way they play the game and if he seems like a good lad then we'll be ok.

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Carlos Tips Off Fergie For United's African Signing

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