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Mid-Day Ticker: United ties up Chicharito, Balotelli linked to Milan and more

Hernandez - reuters

By CALEB SONNELAND

It seems there is a little bit of silver lining for Manchester United fans following their club's 1-6 defeat to local rivals Manchester City — Javier Hernandez is at Old Trafford to stay.

Just a day after getting thrashed by the Blues, Mexican striker Chicharito put pen to paper on a five-year United contract which runs until 2016.

Since arriving at United, Chicharito became an instant fan favorite, netting on his debut against the 2010 MLS All Stars and finishing the Premier League season with 13 goals and 20 in all competitions.

Real Madrid was thought to be keeping tabs on the talented forward, so United responded by tying the player down for the foreseeable future.

Here are some other stories to get your week jump started:

BALOTELLI "MY PASSION" – MILAN CHIEF EXECUTIVE

No stranger to media headlines, Manchester City's Mario Balotelli is in them once again — this time over transfer speculation.

Despite enjoying a successful first year in Manchester, Balotelli's stint has been a tumultuous one to say the least.

Regardless of his controversial nature, the young Italian has attracted the interest of Serie A giant AC Milan, more specifically, its chief executive, Adriano Galliani.

Galliani claims that Balotelli is his "passion" and went on to say that he would even gel well with current Milan hitman Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Balotelli made the jump to City from Milan's local rivals Inter in the summer of 2010 for about €22.5 million.  The move saw the striker reunite with old Inter boss Roberto Mancini, and Balotelli has since scored 15 goals in all competitions since the move.

INTER WANTED TO SELL ME – SNEIJDER

One of the most publicized summer transfer sagas was that of Inter Milan's Wesley Sneijder, and the player revealed today that the club was prepared to sell him due to financial constraints.

Manchester United was said to be heavily interested in the Dutch play-maker, but the two clubs never reached an agreement.  Eventually, Samuel Eto'o was sold to big-spending Russian outfit Anzhi Makhachkala to ease the money concerns.

Sneijder claims he never wanted the move to United, but while he was away during the summer, got a phone call from his agent saying that he needed to speak to the club about a potential transfer.

Inter is currently cellar-dwelling in Serie A, resting in 17th place with just four points from six matches.

RIVER WON'T SELL OCAMPOS … YET

River Plate's Lucas Ocampos has long been the subject of transfer speculation following his explosive style of play and comparisons to Cristiano Ronaldo.  But the historic club insists that it doesn't have to sell Ocampos and will only entertain the idea once it regains promotion to the Argentine top flight.

After selling Erik Lamela to Roma and Roberto Pereyra to Udinese this summer, River claims that it doesn't need the cash from the sale of Ocampos and that any potential suitors will have to wait.

Ocampos has turned the heads of some of the world's biggest clubs, with Chelsea, Manchester City and Bayern Munich all said to be interested in luring the 17-year-old to Europe.

But it seems, for now at least, Ocampos is staying put.

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How important was it for United to tie up Hernandez?  Think Balotelli deserves the praise being heaped on him?  How different would United's season be if Sneijder had signed?

Share your thoughts below

Comments

  1. Clearly ManUre need to sign North Korean striker Chong Tese from Bochum in the Bundesliga.

    Then they could trot out a Cheech and Chong forward combination.

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  2. That’s so Goofy Rooney’s only 25 now and he’s been one ofnthe top players in the World for years. 10–15 goals in the Prem is superstar status.

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  3. Don’t forget that he is BARELY 21 years old.

    He also gets linked with Milan every other week…he’s a Milan fan and has stated that he wants to play there. Ironically, Italian PM and AC owner Berlusconi stated that he didn’t think he had sufficient character to play at Milan. As if HE knows anything about character/morals.

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  4. Is that why Inter is sitting in 17th place?

    David Silva is arguably the best player in EPL, and possibly Europe (excepting Messi, of course). If anything he is currently playing like Iniesta or a younger Sneijder; outstanding awareness, composure, and ball movement. Bitch please.

    And since when do players have to play with both feet to be elite? Maradona and Messi look like they have managed nicely.

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  5. What? David Silva is the best player in the EPL so fear this season and certainly right now more in form and better and than Sneijder, Cambiasso or Maicon.

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  6. Glad Man U signed Chespirito for 5 years. He’ll continue to get hacked and injured then unavailable for nat games against US

    Had he gone to Real he would have gotten better and hacked much less.

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  7. True. It’s just it annoys me when some of these guys have scored like 6 goals in 20 matches and already declared “world-class”. Maybe it’s just early over-HYPING. Remember Wayne Rooney. He was being hailed as some star striker when he was 18 but it wasn’t til he was 24/25 that he was actually putting up world-class stats and goals. 09-10 he had like 25 league goals. Every other season he had like 10-15. Just annoying that they are over-priced and over-rated.

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  8. Balotelli also played with much better players at Inter, and he would at Milan also. David Silva can only use one foot and his service pales in comparison to Sneijder, Cambiasso, Maicon, and bunch of others at Inter.

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  9. Balotelli had a great goal rate at Inter. Last season, he had a couple of injuries which was really rare for him while at Inter. Balotelli has a really, really good goals to games ratio. Just look at his stats from Inter, from this year, and from the games he played in for Man City last season. Balotelli is 6’4″, a two-footed master, a dead ball specialist, and he’s been clocked at 22.37 mph at that was just a random measurement taken (he might even be faster).

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  10. This guy is going to wind up being the Terrell Owens of Soccer isn’t he?

    I think that Balotelli has found the perfect rubber room where he is allowed to be the nutter he is and still manages to play well on the field (the safety of his neighbors are of course another matter) he seems to have developed a good understanding with his teammates (at least on the pitch) and his manager seems to have come to some sort of understanding with him as well. My point is that now that he’s settled it would be a bit foolish to leave.

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  11. It’s all about potential. Balotelli, Carrol, Rossi, Neymar, etc are just barely scratching the surface of thier max potential. American strikers don’t have the same ceiling right now.

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  12. I agree with you. But I think from the standpoint of Euro teams its a track record thing: how many young American strikers have turned into Euro stars? McBride was purchased when he was a mature complete player. Dempsey was 23 when Fulham bought him.

    I think as more American youngsters succeed the price tag for them will go up the way transfer fees for talented young Argentines and Brazilians have skyrocketed. That will take a good bit of time though.

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  13. I’m not sure any organization is ready for a Balotelli and Ibra partnership at any time and for any purpose.

    They’d kill Superman, is what I’m saying.

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  14. Balotelli is all the RAGE but how many goals did he score last season and so far this? He’s a lot of potential inside him and yeah only 21, but he needs to be consistent. Seems every European striker under the age of 23 is overrated. They score at a rate of 1 in 3 and yet get price tags of like 30 million euros whereas young American strikers who have the same scoring rate cost like the likes of 2million euros or so. Not saying it’s all about price tag. perhaps it’s lack of PR but annoying

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