An air of panic seems to be setting in over Old Trafford now that the World Cup has ended and the mad season of transfers is upon us. Losing Ruud Van Nistelrooy is an expected blow after the fallouts he had last season with Cristiano Ronaldo and the management and Bayern Munich now look like being the most likely destination for the free scoring Dutchman.

To add a little spice to that mix, Cristiano Ronaldo has now made it clear that he is unwilling to return to Old Trafford after his antics in Germany helped get Wayne Rooney sent off and put England out of the World Cup. We can only wonder what kind of reception the poor little fella has had visions of in his nightmares as he thinks about coming back to play in England next year. Spain looks to be the most likely next stop for Ronaldo with Capello’s new regime at Real Madrid the favourites for his signature.

Even more worrying still for Alex Ferguson and the Glazers is the news today that Gabriel Heinze is one of the seven names on a transfer target list held by Ramon Calderon, the new Real Madrid president and with Fabio Capello a big admirer of the tough, uncompromising Argentinian, it would be no surprise again to see one of Ferguson’s defensive mainstays jump ship to the new Galactico regime at the Bernabeu.

Where that all leaves Manchester United’s transfer plans is quite obvious. Up sh*t creek without the proverbial paddle being closest description. Michael Carrick’s move from Tottenham seems to have stalled, Didier Zokora chose Spurs over United and Chelsea and suddenly the available options for United get smaller by the day.

We’ve heard of rumours from Milan about Gattuso and Pirlo coming to Manchester United if AC Milan are forced into Serie B but with the open chequebook of Real Madrid can Ferguson honestly think he’ll be able to snap these players up without a fight? And what about replacing the players above who look certain to leave? A top striker, a creative winger and a no-nonsense defender don’t exactly grow on trees and certainly they don’t come cheap.

I wouldn’t fancy being in Alex Ferguson’s shoes over the next month or so, he’s got a hell of a job on his hands one way or the other in persuading Ronaldo and Heinze to stay or in replacing them and the Glazers will have to dig deep into that fortune of theirs if they don’t want next season to become an unmitigated disaster.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 11th, 2006 at 10:42 am and is filed under Manchester United. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.