The Hits Just Keep On Coming

By: Taylor Rockwell | August 10th, 2009

The BBC are reporting that Manchester United winger Nani will miss the start of the season after dislocating his shoulder in the Red Devil’s Community Shield loss to Chelsea yesterday. Nani looked quite promising, with a classy finish and some darting runs. However, in the 60th minute, a fairly hard challenge from John Terry sent the Portuguese winger tumbling to the ground, where he remained for several minutes.

Nani was subbed out (whilst carrying his arm inside his sleeve) in favor of Antonio Valencia, and was immediately shipped to a local hospital for testing and screening. And the news wasn’t good. “He’s out for a while, the worry is that we couldn’t put it back in place,” said United boss Sir Alex Ferguson. Thus, it would be safe to say that Nani won’t be figuring in United’s opener against Birmingham.

I am actually surprisingly conflicted about this news. I haven’t exactly made a secret of my feelings regarding Nani. I think he has too much of the showboat in him, and not enough technical player. In short, he’s the first player sold every time I’m handling the sticks in FIFA. However, with Slave gone I was willing to give him a fair shake, and (a few ill-fated runs notwithstanding) he looked to be United’s most exciting player yesterday.

While I’m sure we’ll soon be hearing new reports linking us with every semi-available player in Europe, my guess would be that Fergie continues to stand pat. I would definitely feel just a touch more settled if we were to bring in one more established name, but at this point it would have to be someone 1) cheapish that 2) Fergie rates who 3) could be brought in quickly without much negotiating and would 4) easily blend with the other personalities/overall team chemistry. Can anyone think of a player like that? I’m sure there’s one out there, but I’m willing to wager that we see Giggs and Valencia on the wings this weekend; even if Ribery would look rather nice in the United kit.