Scholes Blurred Vision Gives Ferguson Headache

Filed in archive Oddballs on January 25, 2006

Source: myandmargoal.com

Sir Alex Ferguson may have to put his hand in Malcolm Glazer's pocket one more time before January is out. An already weak central midfield (this means you Darren Fletcher) received a massive blow as Paul Scholes was ruled out for the rest of the season. The blurred vision in Scholes right eye (sustained in the 2-2 draw against Birmingham on December 28th) has not subsided, so he's been told to rest for five months. And that's the glass is half full version...

The glass is half empty version is that if extensive medical tests don't yield any results Scholes may never play top-flight football again. So unless Man Utd get relegated, and fast, he may have played his last game for the Reds.

Which leads us back to Glazer's pockets. Fergie has already waste... sorry spent £12 million of the man's money on defenders Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra this January but will now be desperate for a new central midfielder. His current options are John "shouldn't you be playing left-back?" O'Shea, Alan "shouldn't you be up front?" Smith and Darren "shouldn't you be in the reserves?" Fletcher. O'Shea and Smith are injured for tonight's League Cup semi-final against Blackburn, meaning Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand or someone else equally unfamiliar will have to fill in.

Fergie had been mulling over moves for Michael Ballack, Thomas Gravesen and Mahamadou Diarra, but was going to wait until the summer. This emergency situation should force Fergie to act sooner, and there are rumours he could make a £10 million move for Ballack this week. Ballack though, may prefer to stay at Bayern for another tilt at the Champions League, rather than join United's battle for second place.

I can't help thinking that Fergie's dug his own grave here. Scholes' injury was unfortunate, but even with him the midfield looked slender, which is a polite way of saying rubbish. Fergie let reliable squad players like Nicky Butt and Phil Neville go on the cheap recently, as well as losing control of Roy Keane. Replacements like Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Liam Miller have come and gone without making an impact (Miller's only on loan at Leeds but it doesn't seem worth bringing him back). Fergie will need to rediscover his magic touch in the transfer market before the transfer window slams shut in a weeks time.