Summer has gone by without a word of blogging. Lets just say it was satisfactory. Spain won the Euros, Korea won the Olympic Bronze. It was hard to swallow the fact that Mexico took home the Gold, considering we dominated them in the group stages, but they beat Brazil and we didn’t. Our medal was fair. After all, third best in the world under 23 years of age is nothing to cry about.
United’s summer haul was satisfactory. Robin Van Persie will be a great buy as long as he stays healthy, but if history is any indicator, I have good cause for concern. Given the potential of homegrown Welbeck and not-so-howegrown Chicharito, I would still trade the 23 million pounds spent for a midfield warrior like Cheick Tiote, but I don’t have a knighthood and 19 titles. We also renewed Scholes and got Buttner and Kagawa for under 30 million total. That’s not bad considering I’d gladly spend 30 million for a 37 year old Scholes alone.
Park and Berbatov left, and both will be missed. I hate how Sir Alex ruins strikers from time to time, and at great expense to the club, and I pray Berbatov will have been the last. On that basis, is it so criminal that I felt sour about buying Robin Van Persie for 25 mil? After Tevez, after Berbatov…the talent leaves fuming while United’s debt grows. Good strikers, loyal ones that would have stayed and played their heart out. Its just a bloody waste and I’m tired of it. Robin Van Persie better not fall into that pile.
My post-mortem on Ji Sung Park…the full truth: I always felt sorry for him when he was in the red shirt. Before he came to us, he was PSV’s finest. He was known as a skilled, creative, technical attacker, and quite rightly so. Being recognized by UEFA as one of the top five forwards in Europe doesn’t come by being a stamina man. He was just that good. He’d eventually lose to Ronaldinho for that award. But he changed when he comes to us. Before he even made the move, it was dubbed a marketing move on our part. United buying an Asian? Has to be marketing. I was frustrated at that accusation, but asian football was not was it is now. And so he did the Asian thing. He worked his ass off. Flew into tackles. Chased every ball. Park absolutely does not have more stamina than white, black, or latino players. But he had to prove something that their nationality proves for them. So then the world started to “type-cast” him in a way. He became “the hard-working guy.” Sounds like a compliment but its a tag that implies that you have effort but no touch. Kuyt was the same. As was Nedved back in the day. To me, it was an insult because I had seen his technical qualities. He just never showed them for United because the shot he would have taken for PSV, he instead passed at United. The dribble he would have attempted at PSV, he backpassed at United. All for fear of being dubbed a market move, a farce. So he became “three-lungs park.” Even if he scored and played more creatively and technically than anyone else at United, all media outlets called it a hard-working performance. It just became their lazy, easy way to praise him and I always hated it. My Korean side wishes he had stayed and never come to us. If he had, he would have developed his technical potential and become known as a great technician rather than a workhorse. Considering he once shoved Robben to the bench at PSV, his ability might have been as lauded as much, if not more than Robben’s. But my United side is stronger, and I am thankful for his long service. Despite the handicap of his nationality, he left a hero of Old Trafford, and with so many amazing memories to justify it. I am peaceful with his departure for 2 reasons: 1) It was his choice, and Sir Alex tried for months using financial means to get him to stay. 2) He is now QPR’s Captain, and more importantly one of the EPL’s most creative players in the season thus far. For United, its a good move to move on a highly paid veteran and bring in Carrington’s young blood. For Park, its good that he can break out of a shell that’s confined him for the better part of his career.
Northwest Derby…Oddly enough, what prompted my return to writing. United is in trouble. Gameplay is garbage. Midfield is shit. Why do we invest in forwards like Robin van Persie when we don’t have a single holding midfielder? Why does no one realize the obvious tactical imbalance in the midfield? It’s so infuriating. It makes me want to punch something. We need a large, angry, hungry man in the midfield to win the ball back as though his life depends on it. And yet no one realizes this at Old Trafford. Liverpool didn’t make any decent scoring chances, thanks to a wonderful Rio Ferdinand, but we were outplayed most of the game. Utterly embarrassing, considering they played most of it with a man down. Days like this make victories seem like a defeat. Instead of being happy at winning the Northwest Derby, I felt like crap. Something has to be done about this bite-less midfield, and I just cannot understand why nobody else sees that there is an obvious fix.
The Beautiful Game 