WI: Roman Abramovich bought Manchester United in 2003?

It clearly depends on how Abramovich would get along with Sir Alex. Abramovich seems to be extremely jumpy when it comes to his favourite kind of football: Villas-Boas' style was glamourous, but not guaranteed to win a major trophy, so he sacked him for di Matteo. The latter won the Champions League, but apparently Abramobich wasn't happy with his style of football, so sacked him also. I think such an attitute would clash with Fergie. Back in 2004, Mourinho became head coach/manager of Chelsea, which led to a Euro shopping spree that included the likes of Cech, Robben, Carvalho, Ferreira, Mutu and Drogba. With a similar thing happening at Old Trafford at around the same time, the natural progression of the United squad wouldn't have happened in the same way. So maybe there would have been a short-term success in 2005/06, but with dangers of a bad team morale. Rooney and CR7 might be sidelined in those years and then sold on - the same goes for the likes of Fletcher, Carrick, Ferdinand and maybe even Giggs and Scholes, if they have more competition from foreign players. Without an oligarch-backed Chelsea, the top duel would still be Arsenal v United. But I guess around 2008 or 2009, Liverpool might finally have a go at an EPL title as well.
 
Who do you think Fergie would want in his squad to be able to win the Treble on a more frequent basis or at least improve their European Record.


That would depend on if Fergie agrees to it though, but if so it would mean that it could butterfly their purchase of Cristiano Ronaldo in the 2003-2004 season, although Fergie might be still interested in him (it was his players who wanted him to sign him after playing against his then club).



Rooney did make a transfer request though and he had issues with Moyes, so if he is to stay then you need to find a way of getting him to do such a thing even if Manchester United do not make a bid for him.

Newcastle were the other club bidding for Rooney at the time but there are 2 chances of him going there - fat chance and no chance
 
It clearly depends on how Abramovich would get along with Sir Alex. Abramovich seems to be extremely jumpy when it comes to his favourite kind of football: Villas-Boas' style was glamourous, but not guaranteed to win a major trophy, so he sacked him for di Matteo. The latter won the Champions League, but apparently Abramobich wasn't happy with his style of football, so sacked him also. I think such an attitute would clash with Fergie.

The ultimate question is though, would Roman be stupid enough to sack Fergie considering his history with Manchester United, I would imagine it would make Ashley's sacking of Kevin Keegan seem like a popular decision

Back in 2004, Mourinho became head coach/manager of Chelsea, which led to a Euro shopping spree that included the likes of Cech, Robben, Carvalho, Ferreira, Mutu and Drogba. With a similar thing happening at Old Trafford at around the same time, the natural progression of the United squad wouldn't have happened in the same way. So maybe there would have been a short-term success in 2005/06, but with dangers of a bad team morale. Rooney and CR7 might be sidelined in those years and then sold on - the same goes for the likes of Fletcher, Carrick, Ferdinand and maybe even Giggs and Scholes, if they have more competition from foreign players.

In its first 3-4 seasons (2003-2004, 2004-2005, 2005-2006 and 2006-2007) under Romans ownership Chelsea spent £330.7 million on 34 players. Manchester United on the other hand during this time spent £100.3 million on 18 players.

During this time here is how it turned out in terms of results:

Chelsea

2003-2004: EPL: 2nd - CL: Semi-Finals - FAC: Fifth Round - LC: Quarter-Finals

2004-2005: EPL: Winners - CL: Semi-Finals - FAC: Fifth Round - LC: Winners

2005-2006: EPL: Winners - CL: Knockout Round - FAC: Semi-Finals - LC: Third Round

2006-2007: EPL: 2nd - CL: Semi-Finals - FAC: Winners - LC: Winners

Manchester United

2003-2004: EPL: 3rd - CL: Knockout Round - FAC: Winners - LC: Fourth Round

2004-2005: EPL: 3rd - CL: Knockout Round - FAC: Runners Up - LC: Semi-Finals

2005-2006: EPL: 2nd - CL: Group Stage - FAC: Fifth Round - LC: Winners

2006-2007: EPL: 1st - CL: Semi-Finals - FAC: Runners Up - LC: Fourth Round

Looking at those results I would say that Manchester United could win the EPL or at least come second in 2003-2004 and all but win it in 2004-2005 and 2005-2006. They would perhaps reach the final of the Champions League (or even win it) and win the FA Cup as well.

Beyond that though there lies the question, which players end up in the team ITTL. Some have suggested that Rooney and Ronaldo might not end up playing for the Red Devils at all as might Carrick. Likewise was there ever a time that there have been suggestions that Giggs and Scholes might go and lastly which defender at this time could leave Ferdinand on the benches?

Without an oligarch-backed Chelsea, the top duel would still be Arsenal v United. But I guess around 2008 or 2009, Liverpool might finally have a go at an EPL title as well.

Especially if the Hicks-Gillette takeover is butterflied...
 
Newcastle were the other club bidding for Rooney at the time but there are 2 chances of him going there - fat chance and no chance

Rooney to Newcastle being remotely plausible would require Newcastle to get to the CL in 2004.
 
Rooney to Newcastle being remotely plausible would require Newcastle to get to the CL in 2004.
I don't think that would be enough, to be honest. Rooney (or his advisers) knew bigger fish than Newcastle were looking. I think the Newcastle 'bid' was simply self aggrandisement on the part of Freddy Shepherd.

Presuming Roman goes somewhere that's not Old Trafford, wherever he does go is prime candidate to replace Arsenal in the fight with Man U, assuming the new stadium - with a dash of Wenger's stubbornness too - limits Arsenal's investments in the squad.
 
Presuming Roman goes somewhere that's not Old Trafford, wherever he does go is prime candidate to replace Arsenal in the fight with Man U, assuming the new stadium - with a dash of Wenger's stubbornness too - limits Arsenal's investments in the squad.

The only way you can afford to both invest in the squad and a new stadium is if someone like Roman buys the Arsenal around the time the takeover of Chelsea happened...
 
The only way you can afford to both invest in the squad and a new stadium is if someone like Roman buys the Arsenal around the time the takeover of Chelsea happened...
There was money available a season or so before Wenger opened his chequebook again. While I don't deny that the big problem was building the stadium, Wenger's never been one to admit he got something wrong, and do what his critics are recommending...
 
... Rooney (or his advisers) knew bigger fish than Newcastle were looking. I think the Newcastle 'bid' was simply self aggrandisement on the part of Freddy Shepherd.,,

I have a memory of a story about Everton/NUFC collusion on this.

Rooney's new agent, the delightful Paul Stretford, had his client turn down Everton's contract offer and submit a transfer request, at an extremely inconvenient time for Everton.

Rooney wanted Man Utd: Everton used Newcastle as a phantom rival for Rooney to push the price up to c£25m, rather than the £20m Utd had initially offered.

Don't know what was in this for Hall & Shepherd.
 
Don't know what was in this for Hall & Shepherd.
It wouldn't surprise me. For Shepherd, he appears - to fans with absolutely no critical thinking skills or sense of perspective - to be attempting to go after the biggest names. If it had come off,* then it would eclipse the £15 million needed to bring Shearer home. Looks ambitious, that. Playing with the big boys. Right up Freddy's street that, great big media story, but nothing actually happening. Smoke and mirrors.

Sir John Hall was gone by this stage. Wee Dougie was getting paid, but as far as I'm aware, doing absolutely nothing. Sir Bobby's autobiography says he had an office at St. James', but he was as informed as I am about what the fool did in there. If I was unkind, I'd suggest he was powdering his nose, possibly from the buttocks of a lady of negotiable virtue. I'm pretty certain he was doing nowt for the club, though.


*It obviously couldn't, but Freddy Shepherd fooled a lot of people, a lot of the time. There were only two of us in my class of fifteen year olds who realised the whole endeavour was doomed to failure.
 

TinyTartar

Banned
I have a memory of a story about Everton/NUFC collusion on this.

Rooney's new agent, the delightful Paul Stretford, had his client turn down Everton's contract offer and submit a transfer request, at an extremely inconvenient time for Everton.

Rooney wanted Man Utd: Everton used Newcastle as a phantom rival for Rooney to push the price up to c£25m, rather than the £20m Utd had initially offered.

Don't know what was in this for Hall & Shepherd.

I do wonder what might have happened had Rooney simply picked a different agent. 50K per week, for a player of his ability, especially on the heels of his world cup performance, was just not going to cut it, sure, but Rooney I don't think made a single decision regarding the whole thing on his own and really seemed to just let his agent figure things out. Of course, at his age, it was unlikely that he would have been able to rationally think any of it through; still, he probably should have found a better agent.

Everton of course had other priorities besides Rooney, but they might have been hoping that he would be a bust when they ended up sending him off, thinking his impressive goals while there were more flukes and products of Moyes's coaching than any actual ability of his, which was obviously proven wrong, seeing as Rooney has never scored less than 10 league goals since his transfer.
 
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