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The Search For The Key Midfielder

After 17 glorious years as Manchester United’s chief central midfielder (though limited in recent seasons) Paul Scholes as all United fans should know by now finally called it a day at the end of the season.

It didn’t come as a surprise to many fans as they were concerned about the level Scholes game was at compared to recent seasons. There was a major concern over Scholes in the 05/06 season when blurred vision ruled him out for a lengthy period but he surprisingly perhaps re-captured his form and remained a key player for us.

But at the age of 36, every fan could tell Scholes’ legs were running on empty. At the end of the 2010/11 Sir Alex Ferguson tried to convince Scholes to play on for one more year. It was to no avail though as Scholes himself knew it was time to pack up his boots and call it a day which in many aspects is a brave and honest thing to do.

Obviously prior to Scholes’ announcement Sir Alex it appears had put targets in mind to come into our midfield for the coming season who would change the quality of the midfield and not just slot in. Luka Modric was the first name talked about in the media.

Ferguson last year acknowledged that he would have voted Modric as his Premier League player of the season last year. Judging by how well the Croatian played last year, in some respects you can understand why he would have done so.

Known for his superb technique, pin point passes and tenacious in the tackle at times he seems the all round midfielder. Spurs or more so their chairman Daniel Levy seem stubborn to sell him as they rightly want to hold onto their best asset.

A move to Chelsea for Modric still looks likely despite Levy’s claims and with the Londoner’s hot on the heels for the playmaker, it seems like our chance of signing him is at a lost cause, but there are as we know other options out there.

The name that has continued to crop up seemingly every day this summer (as well as for the past couple of seasons) linked with a move to Old Trafford is of course Wesley Sneijder. The classy midfielder recently turned 27 years old, is in the prime of his career at the moment and in his spells in Holland, Spain and Italy has won more or less every championship that he could have possibly won.

Many questions have been asked about Sneijder’s capability to function in a two man midfield but a player of his calibre is more than capable of fulfilling this task. If the rumours about him wanting a fresh challenge are true, then there’s no doubt that he would be given the platform at United to win more trophies and with his experience and talent would surely succeed in England.

Samir Nasri of course is the third name that has been spoken about with a move to United. The rumour came about after Nasri continued to stall on extending his contract with Arsenal which as many of us will know by now expries at the end of the coming season.

Nasri has been labelled as ‘The Next Zidane’ ever since he broke into the first team at Marsielle and his form for Arsenal has been impressive as he’s transformed from a flashy winger to a clever playmaker in the middle of the park.

He has though yet to complete a consistent season at the Emirates as injury has hampered his spells at curical times in the season and when he has come back he hasn’t quite been the same as a result. In a playmaker role for United it’s believed that he really could aspire to his full potential and make a real statement across Europe as a result.

Nasri is a proven goalscorer from midfield and is very tricky on the ball with fine dribbling ability (which often gets forgotten by the media) that Zidane himself had as well as a fantastic vision to see a pass through a crowd of defenders and find the player as a result.

Strangely in the eyes of many, Arsene Wenger seems prepared to take a risk on Nasri and let him see out the final year of his contract allowing him potentially to leave for nothing next summer. You can guarantee that his name will be linked with us again throughout next season should he indeed see out that contract and not renew it.

In conclusion, both Modric and Nasri seem highly unlikely of joining us with both staying at their clubs for now (perhaps against their own will) but that’s football. If you believe those likely scenarios we are left intriqinuley with one option and that being Sneijder, even if Sir Alex has come out and said that it remains

You may be crying out ‘But Darren, there’s more than one world class central midfielder out for us to get’ but as we know by now there are only a handful of midfielders out there who would come in and improve us to the standard that United currently desire. There are very few  players available right now out there on the market for us to choose from.

Bayern Munich’s Basiten Schweinsteiger is a player who I hugely admire and whilst he is a different kind of player to the three names that I’ve mentioned in this article, he will not be leaving Bayern any time soon.

It looks as though Sneijder is likely to cost no less than £35million and that he is likely to command weekly wage demands of around £170,000. That may well seem like an awful amount of money to bring in any kind of player and of course it is a huge amount of money. However in today’s market, what can you expect to fork out for world-class players?

After all that’s what the majority of the world’s top players are currently on so there’s no doubt in terms of quality you have to pay a lot for a player who has achieved it all at club level and who has dragged Holland to a World Cup Final last year.  

Is it a risk? Of course it’s  a risk but as David Gill has stated there is no use in bringing in players for the sake of it and only players who can come in and improve the overall quality of the team will be signed, which again leads us back to Sneijder as he can do this.

Risky? Yes but as David Gill himself has stated there is no use bringing in players for the sake of it and that only a player will be bought who can improve the overall quality of the team again i’m brought back to that name Wesley Sneijder he can do this.

Whilst of course Paul Scholes can never be truly replaced by any midfielder coming through our ranks or from another club, Sneijder (whatever you think of him) is the overwhelming favourite choice amongst United fans to fill his void and start a new chapter in United’s history.

Personally I think Sneijder has all the qualities to do this. His range of passing is impeccably consistent, he is superb at linking up the play and his dead ball skills are sublime.

We all know that he is able to score spectacular long range goals which is something we have lacked in our midfield for a number of seasons.  Let’s just wait and see what happens until the transfer window closes as anything can happen in football. 

By Darren Hickey @DHick92

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