Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed that Raúl González could have
been on Manchester United's side in this
week's semi-final, having held talks with the player's agent last
summer. The all-time leading goalscorer in the Champions League finally opted to sign
for Schalke when his illustrious Real
Madrid career ended a year ago but Ferguson considered bringing him
in despite his club's preference for signing younger players with a
longer shelf-life.
"We do prefer to sign young players as a rule but when you get
an opportunity to sign experience like that you've got to have a
look at it," Ferguson said. Raúl is 33 and has managed 18 goals in
his first season in Germany, five of them in Europe, before
yesterday's game against Kaiserslautern.
"You can make exceptions for certain players, because experience
is so valuable," Ferguson said. "We thought the same when we signed
Michael Owen, who has been a terrific professional for us, and
bringing in Raúl would have been similar to when we managed to get
Henrik Larsson for a short time a few years ago. It was obvious his
time at Real Madrid had come to an end, and he certainly wasn't too
old to be effective, as he has been showing in Germany. We spoke to
his agent about a possible move but we already had Javier Hernández
by then and, with Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Owen
available, we thought we could afford to let the chance pass. If we
hadn't had Michael at the club at the time I might well have signed
him."
Raúl said yesterday there were "a couple of possibilities [from
England] and United was one". "I love the footballing culture
there, the respect for the game, the atmosphere, the intensity," he
said. "I've been at Old Trafford, Arsenal, at Liverpool watching
Fernando Morientes and it's special."
A three-times Champions League winner with Real Madrid, Raúl
boasts 71 goals in 142 Champions League appearances. "He's got
loads of goals all over the place and I'm sure there's more in
him," Ferguson said. "He deserves the Champions League record
because he's out on his own. I just hope it still stands at 71
goals after the next two games."