Path of Destruction

One good thing about the fact that we've said we're not that bothered about signing anyone else is that I save so much time not having to link to a load of silly transfer rumours everyday. On which note, the main story today is a bit of continuation of yesterday's main story - some further comments on the money situation, this time from David Gill:

“We have our own models and targets and we are operating within those. We are not at the whim of someone pulling out and being disinterested. That is the issue, clearly, but you’d have to speak to those clubs about their plans.

“You read about how Mr Abramovich is feeling when he is up there or down there. Throughout last season, I haven’t spoken to him about it, but they [Chelsea] say that they have to bring in money before they do transfers.

“It is highly unlikely that we would want to go to those levels of spending. We don’t think it’s necessary because we are looking to the medium and long term.

“I just feel that United has been around since 1878 and our job is to make sure it is still around for many more years in a sensible fashion. That is by generating our own income, whether it be through players or generating capital income to take it forward. It is sustainable. Everyone is comfortable with that.”

That from The Times. Here's how The Independent open their telling of the same quote:

Manchester United have admitted that they are no longer able to match the wages paid by Manchester City or Real Madrid in the wake of this summer's boom in the transfer market.

Is saying, "we won't match," the same as saying, "we can't match?" No, I didn't think it was.
He also has a few words on players coming in:

“As you can imagine when Cristiano left, I was inundated with agents offering us this player and that player.

“But are they motivated at 28 or 29 to come to the Premier League. Are they United players? We don’t want to have a knee jerk reaction. We are not in the market for 27, 28 or 29-year-olds for loads of money.

“It doesn’t make sense. We are not interested. Last year we did it for Dimitar Berbatov but that was an exception because that was the one slot that Alex felt had to be filled.

“But generally that is not a road we are interested in going down. It’s the economics of it. You ask yourself if it makes sense.

“You put £25 to £30m in to these players and then you add on the cost per year of the contracts.

“So you have to ask yourself what you will be left with at the end of it.”

And on Tevez:

Gill said they had paid Tevez and his agent, Kia Joorabchian, whose company owned the player's registration, generously while the player was on loan but balked at the final transfer fee. "We paid £9m, £4.5m each season, for two sets of loan fees," he said. "We would have been uncomfortable extending that arrangement in terms of another loan. It was time to regularise that relationship. But I am not sure whether they would have signed. Even around Christmas, Carlos was making noises – not directly to me but through Joorabchian – about his concerns at not being picked for the big games or being a member of the first-choice XI. And we genuinely felt, even before those big deals started at the end of the season, that £25m was a bit rich."

The Manchester Evening News has a further quote on Tevez from Gill:

"There were clearly issues with Carlos. Whether he couldn't grasp what being a member of a squad was I don't know. But he has clearly gone for more money than we were paying him and economically his advisers possibly felt it was better for him to move on.

"Was there a genuine desire on their part to conclude a deal with us? You would have to ask them."

The only other story around is on Park and his new contract, with more quotes from Gill:

Park’s current £30,000-a-week deal runs out next summer and United’s delay in offering him a new deal sparked suggestions he could be facing the exit door at Old Trafford.

But United will clear up the uncertainty by offering the South Korea midfielder – signed from PSV Eindhoven four years ago – a new £60,000-a-week deal.

Chief executive David Gill said: “We have had talks with him and are going to do it so we have left it like that for the moment.

“It won’t be done before the start of the season but pretty soon afterwards.”