AUDERE EST FACERE: Maybe Michael Carrick Is Staying After All
July 10th, 2006 by Alan HylandsI truly had expected an announcement on the transfer of Michael Carrick to Manchester United after England’s World Cup campaign ended but with no word at all now and the papers teling us that Sir Alex Ferguson has grown tired of Spurs (quite rightly) playing hard ball over the price, it seems that Carrick isn’t going anywhere.
Ferguson can now look admiringly at Bayern Munich’s latest England hero Owen Hargreaves and AC Milan’s World Cup winning pair Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso as he tries to get some reinforcements in for the new season and finally replace Roy Keane but Spurs fans needn’t get too comfortable with the idea of Carrick staying just yet.
The fact that his admirer in the Real Madrid presidential elections didn’t win doesn’t mean that other foreign clubs won’t have spotted the solid job he does keeping the Spurs midfield ticking over and with nasty whispers emanating out of N5 we can only hope that Mr levy and the board wouldn’t ever get pound coins in their eyes and sell our top players to that lot down the road. There will never be a ceasefire with that lot after the Campbell move and even though he’s found the pressure too much now it doesn’t mean that we’ve forgotten the treachery.
Some reports say we’re looking very closely at Zlatan Ibrahaimovic from Juventus to make up the numbers in attack. With Berbatov, Keane and Defoe already fighting it out for the two striking berths I think Martin Jol would need to go to a 4-2-4 formation next season to accomodate the attacking quality we have. The next few weeks should be interesting as far as transfers go and with the Italian court verdict coming qthere should be plenty of quality available to be fought over.
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July 10th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
I think Carrick realises that he still needs to develop as an established Premiership player before he can consider moving elsewhere. He’s only had - in theory - half a Premiership season and a handful of England games to show the world his skills. But, he has to know that Spurs RESCUED his career while he was at the then-Championship West Ham. Jol was right when he said Carrick owes the Club, so to leave would be treachery in his, the board’s and the fans’ eyes. He is a good player and I think he will maintain this quality for next season.
Regarding the Ibrahimovic link, this would be a good buy if it was to materialise. Of course we need another striker, Alan! I’m not sure if you’ve heard of these things called INJURIES that players get. We need cover for these positions, so one more tall pacy goal-scoring striker would be welcomed at Spurs Lodge and WHL.
Spurs still need that elusive left winger and a solid right-back, then i think we’ll have a good enough squad to start the season. If it proves that we need to strengthen elsewhere, then thank UEFA for the January transfer window. You never know, we may be sitting pretty by the time that coms around!
July 11th, 2006 at 1:47 am
I think if he stays, it’s fantastic news for Spurs regardless. We’ve avoided selling off one of our best players, avoided getting muscled by a bully like SAF, and avoided starting a pattern of losing key players.
We have no need to lose Carrick, and it’s in his best interest to realize that all the talk was flattering but (HOPEFULLY) just a sign of things to come for him and the club… i.e. bigger and better.