Manchester United must envy Arsène Wenger and his midfield 'clones'

 

It can feel a little trite after the events of the past few days but there was a time when Paul Pogba's team-mates at Manchester United used to call him Mandela. "A young man of 19 who says no to [Sir Alex] Ferguson goes into history," Pogba explained to France Football in June. "I earned the nickname Mandela for this."
Pogba had been offered a relatively smallish salary to stay at Old Trafford and that was always going to be a risk when his agent, Mino Raiola, is the same guy who represents Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Mario Balotelli, and is probably more difficult than the two of them combined.
It ended badly and it is noticeable that Ferguson does not mention Pogba in his latest autobiography, almost as if he would rather airbrush him out of the picture. Ferguson never did like to dwell on the players who brought him only regret – Ravel Morrison does not warrant a sentence either – and Pogba certainly fits into that category. The Juventus midfielder has just been named as the best under-21 player in Europe, winning Tuttosport's Golden Boy award. Gazzetta dello Sport has described him as "the NBA player with Brazilian feet" and how United could do with someone like that when their midfield looks so flimsy.
The front cover of the latest Red Issue, which has never gone in for superficial niceties, delivers its own verdict, showing all the various luminaries on the red carpet at the premiere of Class of 92. Paul Scholes's speech bubble has him telling his mates he will not be doing a sequel. Nicky Butt's says that is fine, because Tom Cleverley can play the part of Scholes. David Beckham's adds: "He's made a career out of impersonating a footballer." Cleverley is not the only midfielder to cop it, either. On the back cover, Marouane Fellaini's famous hair is superimposed on to a toilet brush, with the caption: "Flush a fortune down the pan." What a damning indictment after United's first home defeat to Everton since 1992 that Fellaini did not even make the bench for the latest ordeal and Newcastle's first win at Old Trafford since 1972.

Link to video: Manchester United 0-1 Newcastle: David Moyes discusses defeat and Robin van Persie The irony is that Ferguson, in writing his updated memoirs, thought nothing of exploring the perceived shortcomings in Arsenal's midfield and how, specifically, he considered Arsène Wenger had failed them with his transfer business. "Arsène's softer centre in my later years reflected the players he brought to the club. Samir Nasri becomes available, so Arsène takes him. Rosicky becomes available, so he takes him, because he's his type of player. Arshavin becomes available, so in he comes. When you acquire a lot of these players, they are almost clones."

Perhaps there was once something in that, too, but Ferguson seems to have made the same misjudgment as a lot of people and decided to dance on Wenger's coffin without thoroughly checking it was properly nailed down.
Certainly, his needling – for that is what it is – can look awfully misplaced when Arsenal are stubbornly enjoying the view from the top of the Premier League and the champions are fast becoming a speck in the distance. If Wenger has been guilty of cloning, at least he has set the prototype to creativity, movement, control and flair. He has all that in Mesut Özil, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Rosicky, Santi Cazorla and Mikel Arteta.
Arsenal also have a centre-forward in Olivier Giroud who has the intelligence and expertise, with his back to goal, to bring midfield runners into the game. Mathieu Flamini's return to the club has added a greater sense of control while the sharp, upward trajectory in Ramsey's career gives him authentic credentials to be regarded alongside Luis Suárez as the outstanding performer in the league this season. Ramsey has made the club's player-of-the-month award his personal possession, winning five in a row. He has managed 13 goals during the run of elite performances that has meant even a player of Wilshere's refinement being shifted into other areas of the team, and to put that into context just consider how many the midfielders from Old Trafford have accrued. David Moyes has used seven different players in the central roles. Phil Jones, a centre‑half by trade, scored in a 4-0 victory against Norwich in the Capital One Cup. Michael Carrick, Ryan Giggs, Anderson, Shinji Kagawa, Fellaini and Cleverley have not managed a goal between them.
If there is an obvious worry for Arsenal, it must be that they are asking an awful lot of Giroud to last a full season as the club's principal forward when already there have been fleeting signs of weariness. Nicklas Bendtner did at least remind us in midweek that there is more to him than being famous for being infamous. However, it feels like a long time ago now since Bendtner sat opposite me in an upstairs room at Arsenal's training ground and, making absolutely certain to maintain eye contact, declared his intention to be recognised as the most accomplished striker in Europe within a year. Bendtner has talent, undoubtedly. Unfortunately for him, in this business there is no point having the mind of a superstar without the feet of a superstar.
Arsenal may yet regret Liverpool's impenetrable refusal to do business with Suárez and an alternative striker would plainly be useful when the transfer window reopens in three weeks. Just don't bank on it, though. There are not many clubs who want to move on strikers of high skill midway through the season, and if there is one thing we know about Wenger he will not spend purely for the sake of spending.
Lukas Podolski is returning from injury. Theo Walcott is fit again and can also play in attack, and though Bendtner's situation is not ideal he has his own incentives when there are prospective buyers to attract. Too much is made of the January window sometimes and, if nothing significant happens, Arsenal's supporters should not automatically consider it a failure of the worst kind.
Plenty will because the transfer window would not be the transfer window without a meltdown or two. But there must be far greater pressure on United. The last window ended badly and there has been nothing since to dispel the suspicion that Fellaini, at £27m, was vastly overpriced, even if there is something to be said for the argument that football these days is too impatient a business. Fellaini was the first central midfielder to sign since 2007 and it is strange that a club of United's ambitions and usual foresight could have been guilty of that kind of neglect.
The best way to judge it: which of their midfielders would get into the first-choice teams at Arsenal, Chelsea or Manchester City? By my reckoning, Carrick would be the only one with a reasonable shout. That was a nice line from Ferguson about the "clones" but it does not really work when we can be certain Moyes would love a couple of them at his own club.