Remember how we could have had de jong on the cheap?

[mancity89]

Remember the paper banging on about how city where terrible with money and we could of had de jong on the cheap if we waited a couple of months?

I wonder what they make of this?

Manchester United could have signed Bebe for as little as £125,000, according to the Portuguese striker's former coach.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson snapped up the youngster in a shock £7.4million deal three weeks ago, despite having never even seen the 20-year-old play.

Bebe, who arrived at Old Trafford from Portuguese Premier League club Guimaraes, has not played competitive football at a level higher than his native third division.

And Jorge Paxaio, coach of the forward's former team Estrela da Amadora, claims the club offered him around Europe for just €150,000 as they urgently hunted cash to avoid a winding-up order last term.

Desperate
"Last season we had no money at all," Paxaio told the Daily Mail. "We were trying to transfer Bebe to other clubs.

"We had to raise money desperately. We told everyone in England and in Europe: 'For 150,000 Euros you can have him'.

"We couldn't get anybody interested. Nobody trusted him. None of the clubs were interested because he had never played at a high level."

Bebe, who terminated his contract with Estrela and moved to Guimaraes on a free transfer in the summer, earned £12,000 a year with the third division club, the same sum he now takes at United in a week.

And Paxaio admits he would never have predicted the striker's move to Old Trafford.

"I was surprised with the sudden way it happened with United," he added. "I was hoping he would move to a bigger club in Portugal or a medium-sized club in Europe.

"I didn't expect Manchester United. Having said this, Manchester United have signed an extraordinary player."

United were only alerted to Bebe after he impressed during this year's pre-season with Guimaraes, scoring five goals in six games.

The player's former agent Goncalo Rels has reiterated that Ferguson could have picked up the forward at a much lower price if he had moved to sign him earlier.


Cheap
"Bebe would have been very cheap during last season and then we tore up the contract because he wasn't being paid by Estrela and so then he was free," said Rels.

"A scout from United could have contacted me or the club last season. There was no secret.

"But I understand that the United scout just saw certain games in Portugal and only realised Bebe was a great player when he saw some pre-season games involving Guimaraes.

"If they had looked wider they would have seen him earlier and paid very little. But everyone was the same."

 

[Stillsy]

and also barca, madrid, inter, ac chelsea and the scum were sniffing around de jong when he had 6 months on his contract which would have made it virtually impossible for us to sign him.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

if we'd have waited till the summer for De Jong he'd have gone to Real Madrid, so we had to sign him them to get him.

 

[johnmc]

How do people know that De Jong would have gone Madrid if he didnt sign for us when he did?

Just guess work if you ask me

But thatnks for yet another Bebe thread

 

[AntonDonJuan]

He's worth what we paid anyway. He's one of the best in the World in his position.

The rags got Carrick for the same price

 

[lancs blue]

How do people know that De Jong would have gone Madrid if he didnt sign for us when he did?

Just guess work if you ask me

The point is that any number of clubs could have bid the £2.5m asking price for NDJ in the summer which would have made it less likely that he ended up joining City. We wanted him so were prepared to take the hit by paying more in the January window.

 

[mancity89]

But thatnks for yet another Bebe thread

I was highlighting how much media attention we got about 'overpaying' for players. But you didn't see that all you say was Bebe and thought it was solely about that

 

[johnmc]

How do people know that De Jong would have gone Madrid if he didnt sign for us when he did?

Just guess work if you ask me

The point is that any number of clubs could have bid the £2.5m asking price for NDJ in the summer which would have made it less likely that he ended up joining City. We wanted him so were prepared to take the hit by paying more in the January window.

Oh i thought the point was that he was wanted by bigger clubs which is just a guess

 

[Enjoying being a Blue]

We also were desperate to sign DeJong to help give us some tackling presence in our midfield or we would have been in danger of a relegation battle.

A top quality signing and glad we signed him when we did.

 

[Stillsy]

We also were desperate to sign DeJong to help give us some tackling presence in our midfield or we would have been in danger of a relegation battle.

A top quality signing and glad we signed him when we did.

remember his debut i think it was against Villa at home.

he absolutely hammered someone in a tackle on the halfway line and won the ball cleanly.

i think it was stilian petrov.

i knew that we had a monster with us after that one tackle!