Big Boots to Fill

Whilst the official departure of World and European player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo happened 3 weeks ago the big question that has surrounded Manchester United has not fully been answered yet.

Since Ronaldo left United for the all white strip of Madrid non stop speculation has been following United every where they go. Who can fill this void left by one of the greatest players of his generation? Even though he left a huge gap incoming the other way was a very nice sum of 80 million pounds. Surely a replacement and one of the world’ finest players would soon be arriving?

It didn’t take long for United to be linked with some of Europe’s finest talents. Sergio Aguero, Karim Benzema and Sameul Eto’o were the main players in the spotlight to be brought in and to help United

recover from such a big loss.

However it wasn’t a striker who was announced as United’s first summer signing. It was Antonio Valencia from Wigan, a player who has been brought in to strengthen the midfield as a direct replacement for Ronaldo. As we all know Ronaldo was great because he could do numerous things, one of which was his incredible scoring record. This is something Valencia lacks as in his 83 games at Wigan he scored a very small 7 goals, nowhere near enough to even contemplate him being half a success as Ronaldo was.

The big question was still in the air, were Man United going to sign a striker?

Reports from France came out that they were close to getting Benzema but Madrid came in and nicked it off United, Eto’o was next on the cards after not going for near rivals Man City after money issues. Once again it was a No, as Inter Milan are agreeing a swap deal involving Ibrahimovich.

Michael Owen’s name was put about in a few papers here and there but surely not? Surely an ex-Liverpool legend could not join Man United? Not until he had passed his medical did anyone actually realize what had been going on. Owen signed for United on a contract suited to him because of injuries in his career. Whilst many of United’s fans loved to taunt Liverpool fans over their new summer signing another question still loomed round, is Owen capable of getting 20+ goals in the forthcoming season? Or for that matter are either Rooney or Berbatov also capable of it?

Which out of the 3 would really make an impact on the Premier League and possibly bring the title back to old Trafford? Goals is the most important factor as without goals you cannot win games, whether you have a great defence like United do, if you don’t score you don’t win.

Are the young guns such as Macheda and Welbeck ready to make the big step up and become the main man upfront?

In the past few weeks Sir Alex Ferguson revealed in a Press Conference that all the summer spending was over, was it a smart or bad move? Could United really cope without Ronaldo and Owen as a good enough replacement?

These are questions that are going to be asked over and over again in the next few months and Rooney, Owen and Berbatov will have to be the people to answer these questions with their performances on the pitch.

All in all it looks like being a very close Title Race next season, a great one for any neutral.