what about gigg's?..wes brown , solskjaer and i think silvestre has been here for years. john O'shea, fletcher ( i think made his debut in 2002)... i think ferdinand aswell ( was either 2002 he joined or 2003, but we got a few players who have been here for over 5 years

Edited at 22:01 Sun 17/06/07 (BST)

Ferdinand was bought from Leeds for a stupid amount of money!

yea was something like 30 million i think john, and what a waste of money that was, i dont rate him 1 bit

Not true, He was highly rated at the time, and was and still is a quality player. 30m is alot but he has proved he's worth it. I can't remember alot about the transfer, but he is now a world class defender and loyal to the club, big players that cost that much money hardly ever prove themselves. Ferdinand did.

sorry josh, just think he was over rated like many did, he did have a good world cup for england after that, but that was about it for me im affraid

Dude i can name you any of the players from the premiership including which country they are from and probably which city they are from as well without looking at internet or help from anyone so sorry but you asked that question to the wrong person dude.

youd pay 30m for a goal scorer why not pay 30m for sum1 to prevent goals going in

conceding is just as important as scoring

trying to compete with each other.... they both cant stand losing



c'mon liverpool

You had never heard of Van Nistelrooy or Veron?

Im trying very hard not to write quite an insulting comment, but dude! These were world class players long before they went to Man U.

Scaley, I wasn't the only one that didn't know much about them before they went to Man U, so why do you single my comment out? Maybe because of the word above my post count?

Edited at 17:09 Sun 24/06/07 (BST)

van Nistelrooy certainly wasn't a 'Big' name, not in Britain anyway. I can remember people questioning spending so much money on an 'unknown player', rather than on Patrick Kluivert (who United were also linked with at the time). Veron, on the other hand, was gathering quite a reputation after the World Cup and was linked with other clubs before signing for United.

However, if you had to pick 2 players based on their performances for the English clubs: Ballack and Shevchenko or Ruud and Veron, you'd probably pick the latter. Why? Because of the return they gave. Ruud quickly became United's leading goalscorer in all competitions and a fans' favourite. Even Veron came good in his 2nd season, and he even ended up at...Chelsea! Fergie knows how to spend. Unless Ballack and Sheva drastically improve their performances in this coming season, I can see them leaving as fast as they arrived.

There are other transfers that you could include as well, but I picked these 4 as an example

Can we just agree it's a game of two halves at least?

Yes...Please!

Then again...So is rugby

a lot of people seem to forget that players from abroad do struggle in there 1st year in english football, take henry for arsenal he was crap in his 1st year then look at what happened

They have a season to change my mind. Maybe less - Milan apparently want Sheva back

Well sort of, unless it goes to extra-time!

yea have heard that dan, im not sure if they should keep him or send him back. he needs the games no good if he keeps getting taken off

He's too old for the premiership!

And yes toontomh, no need for specifics is there!

Ballack will be better next year, he just needed to settle in, unlike Berbatov!

I'm just amazed people think Veron was unknown before he joined United. He was the star of the Lazio midfield in the 2 seasons before that (a midfield which also had Pavel Nedved, Diego Simeone and Dejan Stankovic), and was regarded as a superstar in pretty much every country that knows what a football is since France 98 when he joined Parma. Even back in his Sampdoria days before that World Cup he was a big name in Italy.

Actually, he was a bigger name than Ballack is now.

Anyway, back on topic. Every team that has ever won the Premiership has bought the title (although Arsenal did it by spending smart to a certain degree, and United had great youth players come good in the mid 90s). United have done it, Chelsea have done it, Blackburn did it, Arsenal did it to an extent, and Newcastle and Leeds have both tried to do it.

Football is all about money. Whoever has the biggest bank balance attracts the best players and wins the trophies because of it.

Edited at 04:49 Mon 25/06/07 (BST)

very true, and also very sad. bolton pushed it as far as a relitivly poor club can go by finishing 6th and they had to do it by playing negative ugly football
its just a bad system which ultimatly effects the national team