Utd supporters saying they won't miss Ronaldo are delusional. He is irreplaceable for them. In many ways, he has papered over cracks not fixed since RVN left for Madrid. He scored a lot of vital goals for Utd. Rooney cannot shoulder the load on his own and with Tevez out the door, Berbatov sure as hell can't score 30 goals a season.
I don't really rate Ribery as a viable replacement. Decent player but not worth anything more than what Wenger paid for Arshavin imo. Utd will no doubt pay over for Ribery as Bayern will play hardball and Fergie's wad of cash will burn a hole in his pocket.
Imo Fergie should be after Villa and Silva in a Valenica firesale. If Benitez gets to these two players first then I think that is enough to give Liverpool the title. Torres and Villa up front and a midfield of Gerrard-Alonso-Mascherano-Silva is the equal of Utd's, indeed, probably superior. Liverpool drove Utd to within four points with Torres missing half the season and Ronaldo scoring a lot of crucial goals for Utd.
In saying all this, like Mourinho, Ronaldo may be a bit of a twat but his absence is a loss for the league.
Cracks not fixed since RVN left for Madrid? I don't know what you're talking about but we never missed Ruud. If you remember correctly since he's left we've won 3 leagues in a row, with a European Cup in between. If you're saying that Ronaldo is the reason why Ruud wasn't missed then that's not quite right either, because Rooney and Saha and Ronaldo were all instrumental in our title charge in 06/07.
You don't rate Ribery? He was the only one good enough playing for Bayern this season, and the only one good enough for France in last year's Euro. If you've watched him play frequently you'll see that Ribery is devastating. Perez was going to buy him if they had not been successful with Ronaldo. Fergie would not be stupid enough to sell off Ronaldo without already having a replacement lined up. This can be Valencia or Ribery.
I don't think we'll end up getting Villa and Silva. It'd be great if we can get one of them though. And Liverpool won't get them either, unless they sell off Alonso for big money to Real Madrid.
Let's have a look at Real Madrid's line up.
Raul, Van Nistelrooy, Higuain, Huntelaar, Kaka, Ronaldo, Sneijder, Van der Vart, Robben. And that's just the attacking players! Like Barcelona's financial officer, I'm amazed at Madrid's spending power. Where on earth did they get all that money from? In this economic climate too? What kind of financial institution would lend a football club such money? Either some super rich aristocrat who bankrolled Perez to his presidency is backing such moves or Perez is taking a major gamble.
