English Football: Ferguson Gets Troubled Finding a Striker

Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, has only until the end of the month to find a new striker. The club has been in contact with a number of strikers during the past weeks, including Dimitar Berbatov of Tottenham. But Ferguson is quite unhappy, with only eleven days left before the deadline. Berbatov expressed his wish to transfer and play with Manchester United, but was not picked.

The Premier League and European champions have also been negotiating with David Silva, Thierry Henry, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, and Roque Santa Cruz. Though Fraizer Campbell and Danny Wellbeck are with the team, they are said to lack experience. On the other hand, Louis Saha has been suffering injuries and Cristiano Ronaldo had ankle surgery.

This leaves Ferguson with the choice of either Wayne Rooney or Carlos Tevez. Rooney has often been berated for his all-action displays and has been advised to play a more selfish game. Ferguson says Rooney just loves to play football. What Rooney needs to learn is to play the game in a very competitive manner. Despite his failure to find a new striker, Ferguson will not ask Ronaldo to get back into the game right away. United could have won their 1–1 draw with Newcastle had Ronaldo been able to play. Ferguson emphasized the solution is not to hastily call a player back into the game. He prefers to give the player a couple of more weeks to make sure they don’t let down the club on their comeback.