The transfer window is but a distant memory, the interlull yet to truly get properly going. We\u2019re all stuck in limbo.<\/p>\n
But the need for content is constant, and into that news vacuum some content must flow. Which leaves us with Rio Ferdinand pretending Manchester United\u2019s big mistake came two years ago in not making two \u00a3100m signings they had little chance of actually making, and more headlines pretending that Liverpool have made some kind of damning decision on Hugo Ekitike\u2019s role.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s just a load of absolute guff basically. And Mediawatch lives for guff.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The little things they make me so happy<\/p>\n
The thing with elite, top-level sport is that tiny little things can make a huge difference. Marginal gains, and all that.<\/p>\n
The whole caper is a series of tiny sliding-doors moments that could have changed everything.<\/p>\n
Manchester United, for instance, are a clown-car basket case of a football club, whose penance for years and years of childhood-ruining dominance in the 90s and 00s now appears to be to spend the rest of their time existing merely as a punchline for everyone else\u2019s jokes.<\/p>\n
But it could have been so different. The Sun<\/strong> has more\u2026<\/p>\n More than a decade has passed since\u00a0Manchester United\u00a0last won the\u00a0Premier League, but one member of that squad things (sic) just two signings could have made things very different.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n That\u2019s all. Just two signings. Two titchy little signings. And which two signings are those, Rio? (Because of course this is Rio Ferdinand.)<\/p>\n Rio Ferdinand\u00a0won his sixth and final league title in 2012-13, as part of a strong English core under\u00a0Sir Alex Ferguson, and believes compatriots\u00a0Declan Rice\u00a0and\u00a0Harry Kane\u00a0could have set United right in the years since.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Yes, if United had simply signed the best English midfielder of this generation and the best English striker possibly ever<\/strong><\/a>, things could all have been so different. Fine margins.<\/p>\n Of course, you do have to ignore the fact that by the time either of those players represented any kind of solution to United\u2019s problems the Red Devils had already been quite sh*t for quite a long time and those two elite players therefore had far better offers. Which is a big part of why they are not now Man Utd players.<\/p>\n \u2018I honestly think, I\u2019ll say this and I\u2019m convinced, if United had gone and got Declan Rice and Harry Kane in that [summer 2023] window, Man United are in a different place now.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Well\u2026 yeah. Probably. If a conspicuously sh*t football team had simply bought what were at the time England\u2019s two best players, they might now be less conspicuously sh*t. But you could say that about a lot of other mid-table clubs too, Rio.<\/p>\n Really is baffling where this idea of ludicrously entitled Manchester United arrogance comes from, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n MORE MAN UTD COVERAGE ON F365\u2026 \u00a0<\/p>\n Breaking news<\/p>\n A classic Modern Football Journalism wheeze is to \u2018innocently\u2019 publish a story of deeply questionable relevance and value talking about some bit of ancient history or other while by sheer serendipitous happenstance framing it in such a way that by total unplanned accident it alas tricks people into thinking it\u2019s quite a significant story about current events.<\/p>\n\n
\n
\n
\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Man Utd\u2019s second-choice keepers, Liverpool\u2019s Guehi-shaped hole and other post-window squad gaps<\/a>
\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Man Utd learn why Leeds, Sunderland rejected Lammens as PL duo saw Belgian as \u2018risk\u2019<\/a>
\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Man Utd decide what would \u2018prove fatal\u2019 for Amorim this season as sack ruling is made<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n