Forget the rivalry for places, there will be competition
for pegs in Manchester United's Old Trafford home dressing room now
with its bloated team.
Presuming Carlos Tevez joins Nani, Anderson and Owen Hargreaves
among United's summer signings, there will be 45 footballers
jostling for manager Sir Alex Ferguson's attention, writes
Soccernet.
The size of the Manchester United squad suggests the Scot is intent
on emulating his friend Barry Fry, who accumulated a half-century
of players at Birmingham. That was a squad in a permanent state of
rotation. United, with a high-calibre collective of automatic
choices, is another matter.
Unlike Fry's scattergun selections, many of Ferguson's fringe
players can barely glimpse the first team, let alone aspire to
joining it. Yet they remain at Old Trafford.
If the Glazer family and David Gill have surpassed most
expectations in funding Ferguson's spending, heightened optimism is
only one consequence. Another is an increase in the deadwood and
the marginalized among the mediocrity at Old Trafford.
In part, it is a result of the youth policy Ferguson implemented
two decades ago.
It has often produced quality - and in Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and
Gary Neville, there are three remnants of its greatest generation -
but always delivered quantity.
Graduates of United's youth policy are scattered across the lower
leagues. Now David Gray, Darren Gibson, Ryan Shawcross, Craig
Cathcart and Michael Barnes challenge the assumption that
Manchester United players are instantly recognisable.
In addition, the club's ranks are bolstered by returning
loanees.
Ferguson's popularity among his fellow managers is probably not
unrelated to his ability to lend them 18 players last season. Some,
such as Danny Simpson, Phil Bardsley and Lee Martin, have displayed
enough to suggest they have a future in the higher divisions, if
not at Manchester United.
Their role model, rather than Giggs or Scholes, could be David
Jones who, recognising the improbability of establishing a regular
place for himself in the United midfield, opted to join Derby and
was promptly promoted to the Premier League.
Giuseppe Rossi, who has only featured occasionally in England but
was prolific for Parma in Serie A, would be well advised to
encourage the attentions of his Italian suitors.
Others have been assured of a United future.
But for injury, Ben Foster would have been expected to challenge
Edwin van der Sar for the goalkeeping jersey. Jonny Evans and
Gerard Pique, while at Sunderland and Real Zaragoza respectively,
prospered to such an extent that they have been informed they are
in contention for the first team this season.
The problem is that the defensive ranks are already
overpopulated.
The arrival of three midfielders means John O'Shea can be redefined
from a utility player to merely a versatile defender.
But to accommodate Evans and Pique, departures are required and
only Gabriel Heinze, attracting the attention of Liverpool, seems
likely to leave. The aggressive Argentine would be mourned at Old
Trafford after acquiring cult status.
Seeing him at Anfield would prove particularly painful for the
Stretford End regulars.
But then there is Wes Brown, alternately impressive, inadequate or
injured, who seemingly settled for the role of a stand-in long ago;
he and O'Shea mean Bardsley and Simpson are respectively fourth-
and fifth-choice right-backs. And below Brown in the hierarchy is
Mikael Silvestre.
The Frenchman, bizarrely awarded a new contract 12 months ago, is
entering his ninth year at Old Trafford, even if only a third of
them, at most, were seasons to savour.
He previously declined a move to Lyon that would have included a
pay cut yet, especially if displaced by the younger generation of
Evans and Pique, represents an unnecessary drain on the wage bill
for one who does not rank among United's 22 best players.
The same applied to Kieran Richardson, whose posturing, coupled
with his continued mediocrity, led to his unpopularity with the
club's supporters.
The willingness of other Premier League managers to inquire about
him is an indication of the rarity value of young, quick,
left-footed England internationals, rather than the standard of his
performance at United, and it was a surprise when he became the
first meaningful departure this summer.
Perhaps former United captain Roy Keane, previously assumed to be
one of Richardson's critics, saw something in training to justify
the excessive fee Sunderland paid.
Alan Smith is another to occupy the thoughts of Ferguson's
counterparts elsewhere.
United's reluctance to offer a new contract to a striker with a
solitary goal since his recovery from long-term injury, along with
the imminent arrival of Tevez, has highlighted his precarious
position in the pecking order.
If admiration for his combative qualities abounds, a return of 12
goals in 93 games, albeit distorted by appearances in midfield and
off the bench, indicate why he could be available.
With Ole Gunnar Solskjaer invaluable as a substitute and Louis
Saha's sporadic excellence, Smith appears the forward Ferguson can
dispense with, assuming the sceptics' interpretation of Dong Fang
Zhou's presence at Old Trafford is correct.
But leaving Old Trafford involves a drop in salary and
status.
It has long been suggested that few prosper after leaving United -
though Ruud van Nistelrooy may have joined Paul McGrath on the list
of notable exceptions - but who benefits from an extended spell in
the second team?
If it is unlikely that Heinze and Smith would settle for the
lucrative inactivity some squad players enjoy, plenty of others do.
It is a reason why Manchester United has 45 players and, while
Ferguson's lending policy will surely continue, why their squad has
a bloated look.
Playing for Manchester United may
amount to a dream realised but, some of their underused and
unwanted players may reflect, is it worth playing for the
reserves?