Sir Alex would rather let one person rot on the bench than sell him.

by ka888g68u on 2009-12-03 13:32:42

Sir Alex would rather let one person rot on the bench than sell him; Manchester United's £20 million investment has gone to waste. December 2, 2009, 10:57

The starting midfield for the home game against Beşiktaş that ended in a 0-1 defeat was identical to this match, with Sir Alex once again deploying Park Ji-sung and Obertan on the left and right wings respectively. However, in the match against Beşiktaş, Sir Alex could still keep Nani on the substitutes' bench, but in the League Cup quarter-final against Tottenham Hotspur, he even excluded the physically fit Nani from the 18-man squad.

Since the early November Champions League home game that ended in a 3-3 draw against CSKA Moscow, Nani hasn't played a single second for Manchester United in nearly a month. To date, Nani has not appeared in five consecutive games for Manchester United, which is clearly abnormal.

In this match, Sir Alex included Tosic, who recently scored twice in the reserve league match, sealing the victory in stoppage time, in the substitutes' list, and gave the Serbian an opportunity to play just before the end of the game.

At the 82nd minute, Sir Alex substituted Anderson, who performed excellently in this game, with Tosic. At the 87th minute, Tosic immediately passed the ball to the center after receiving it on the wing, handing it over to his teammate in the middle. At the 88th minute, Tosic made a through pass, allowing Welbeck to break into the penalty area, but his cross was blocked by the opposing defender and went out for a corner. At the 89th minute, Tosic even got the chance to take a corner kick, but his delivery was headed clear by the opposition.

Valencia, Giggs, Park Ji-sung, Obertan, Nani, and Tosic are the available flying wing options within Manchester United. Prior to this game, Nani, the £17 million man, ranked only fifth in terms of playing order among the flying wings of Manchester United, and in this match, his playing order slipped further to sixth. Nani's current contract with Manchester United expires in June 2012. Last month, *The People* reported that the Red Devils had prepared a new four-year contract worth a total of £10 million for Nani. Nani's current weekly wage is £26,000, and if successfully renewed, the Portuguese player’s weekly wage will reach £50,000. Even so, such a weekly wage at Manchester United can only be considered low-income.

But now it seems almost impossible for Nani to fulfill his current contract with Manchester United, and it's unlikely that Manchester United will offer him a £10 million big contract. Due to his failure to seize limited opportunities to prove himself and publicly criticizing Ferguson in the media, Sir Alex is almost certain to clean up Nani, but the timing is likely not January, but next summer.

Earlier, both Fiorentina and AC Milan were interested in Nani, but Sir Alex insisted that Nani was non-transferable. "Some big clubs have been mentioned by the media as wanting to buy Nani, like AC Milan and Benfica, but there has been no contact so far. We won't sell him, and if someone comes to buy him in January, we will answer that Nani is not going anywhere."

Perhaps in Ferguson's view, winter is not the best time to clean up Nani because it would be difficult to get a good price. It appears that Nani has not only been forgotten by Sir Alex but also effectively rendered useless by him, with no opportunities given to the Portuguese player in either the league or the Champions League. Even in the chicken rib-like League Cup, Nani is not given any chance to play. Rather than trusting the young players from the reserve team, Sir Alex would prefer to exclude Nani from the 18-man match list. Sir Alex has completely lost patience with Nani. £17 million transfer fee + two years and five months of combined £3.3 million salary = £20.3 million! The more than £20 million that Manchester United spent on Nani has been wasted entirely, without making a sound.

Nani's fate at Manchester United may likely boil down to one outcome: being benched for the entire second half of the season, and then being sold by Sir Alex next summer to recoup some losses due to the failed signing (of course, the premise is that he performs well in the World Cup). After all, even if Nani is sold after the World Cup, it is almost certain that the 23-year-old Nani will still be a hot commodity in the transfer market.