This Premier League season has been one of the strangest in memory. There have been incredible scorelines right from the beginning of the campaign along with other bizarre developments and stories.
Last week saw the incredible return of Paul Scholes to the United match day squad, seemingly out of nowhere, for the FA Cup encounter with City. This poses as many questions as it answers for me with the connotions already obvious with Darron Gobson off to Everton.
Firstly, this is the first real admission from Fergie that we are weak in the middle. It has been glaringly obvious to all those who have watched United regularly in the last couple of seasons but Fergie, of course, would never admit to such a thing. There has been little in the way of guile or a creative spark and although United have been linked with a plethora of players, nothing has ever materialized.
Is this the clearest indication yet that Fergie has been restrained financially in the transfer market by the Glazers? If he is happy to bring Scholes out of retirement, then surely he would have loved a Sneijder, Modric or Götze? I don’t think anyone believes this is a long term solution; how could they, but is it the right call?
When I scan over the midfield options at United at the moment, I am happy to have Scholesy back. Yes, he made one mistake against City but still looks a class act with his range of passing and ability to control tempo. If there is a big match tomorrow, I am playing Scholes over Anderson; end of story. On that note, it is hard to argue with Joey Barton’s tweet below:
How do you now feel if you are Ando? While we may be light given injuries the loss of Fletcher, this still portrays a lack of faith in the Brazilian. In truth, that lack of faith is completely warranted given his performaces this term and the majority of last.
Darron Gibson wasn’t hanging around any longer and finally left United in a deal worth around £2m. Is Gibson as bad as people made him out to be? No. Was he good enough for United? No. It was time for him to move on and he could go well for Everton if given regular football. There is some talent there.
The return of Scholes also has implications for the youth at United. There are obvious ongoing troubles with Ravael Morrison who looks set to leave the club but what about Paul Pogba? Fergie obviously doesn’t feel he is ready and you have to accept his judgement on that.
The return of Paul Scholes merely papers over the cracks but there are cracks there nonethless. In some ways, it is relieving that Fergie recognises how poor we are there; the lack of activity in transfer market in this area suggested that the boss was happy with his lot, especially after Tom Cleverley enjoyed a very positive start to the season. At least now we know he sees it too.
It is, however, very sad in another in that United clearly have no short term plans to delve into the transfer market and buy a midfield player of real quality. Bringing a player back who has been retired for six months is clearly not the solution but I am happy to have him nonetheless.
