It’s been a good week for Tom Cleverley.
After an impressive performance off the bench in last Sunday’s Charity Shield comeback against City, a surprise England call-up on Monday, there is the chance that Cleverley could make his first start for United in the Premiership opener against West Brom on Sunday.
After an impressive performance against City, Cleverley has certainly earned himself many fans, including Fabio Capello, who named the 21 year old in his squad for the friendly against Holland this week, before it was postponed. While it was only a friendly and we shouldn’t get that carried away, it at least shows the midfielder is on Capello’s radar and with a few more good performances, Cleverley could soon be following in the footsteps of close friend Jack Wilshere and appear for the national team.
After a string of excellent performances in pre-season and on Sunday, Cleverley certainly has impressed several United players, with Patrice Evra saying:
“You saw [at Wembley] that he is not afraid. He has a lot of energy and Manchester United need a player like this.
“He’s a quiet lad – he’s a bit like Scholesy in that way. He never talks much, he just does his job on the pitch. Players like him are the future and, to win the league, the boss is not going to be afraid to give young players a chance. He knows they can help us to win more titles. That’s the United way. It’s always been that way.”
What does this season hold for Cleverley then? The youngster can certainly make an impact for United this season, and offers a more attacking option in central midfield compared to the likes of Anderson, Carrick and Fletcher. With Sir Alex always keen to give young players a chance, Cleverley should get his chance to shine this season, even if it is mostly off the bench.
The comparisons with Scholes are a bit early at the moment – we need to see how Cleverley performs on a regular basis against top competition before we even attempt to make those comparisons – but even if Cleverley can partially fill Scholes’ boots, then it’s a good thing.
And with the likes of De Gea, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Cleverley and Wellbeck to replace retired legends like Van Der Sar and Scholes this season, there is an emphasis on youth this season, with Sir Alex keen to get the youngsters playing together regularly to create a new legacy at United when the great man retires.
The only thing that could affect Cleverley’s progress this season would be whether Wesley Sneidjer completes his on-off move to Old Trafford before the end of the month. With the club apparently ready to pull the plug on a move for Sneijder this would see Cleverley’s playing time increase and give the youngster a chance to try and fill the Scholes void at Old Trafford and earn his place in the United side.
What do you think – how much of an impact can Cleverley have at United this season?
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Sadly, this TC hype is slightly overblown. To even suggest his “form” in friendlies scuppered WS’ anticipated move to Utd is preposterous and plain naive. One is a world-class player proven on the biggest stages, the other is merely a potential. The fact probably is Utd can’t afford WS. TC presented a convenient excuse at best. Too bad for us the global hordes of Ytd fans, we have to be satisfied with Fletcher, Park, Carrick, Anderson and oh, Cleverley, of course…Champions’ League remains a distant dream…
Personally, I took more pleasure in watching Nani, Anderson, Young, Cleverly, Welceck and Rooney dismantle the most expensive line-up of players in the premier league, than I could ever enjoy watching 1 player. Sneidjer may be proven in every competition he has played in, but he’s not proven in the premier league. I have no doubt he would be a hit but to try and equal his wages in Italy is difficult. Man Utd were beaten convincingly by Barca in the CL final but for the opening 20 mins United dominated, the gap is not as large as it seems, and the purchase of 1 player will not solve it, the team ethic is how barca are so good, which is why i’d prefer Cleverly (a United lad) to Sneidjer. I’d also like so see Pogba and Morrison make some appearances this season.
Exactly we completely took the game to them and they were against the run of play scoring from a break which is why i feel we should gago, diarra, de rossi on e of those to help our midfield defensively. Even if we could get Parker on loan then get De Rossi on a free next year.
GGMU!!
Agreed with your comments, although as ive said before WS was never going to come to OT, so we have to give the youthfull midfield their chance, after all we won’t win the champions league for maybe a couple of years until our midfield has matured or improved so the premiership will do me instead, as our rivals dont stand a chance,it’s only Barca that have risen above us at the moment, but not for too much longer!
I’ve noticed you’re ALWAYS negative why don’t you go support another team rather than always talking down ours? Prick
how come i hav came on here and said fuck john tring so many times? are u actually a united fan ? DICKHEAD
Sir Alex, should not depend on fletcher and other mentioned midfielders. He(Alex) should try and get an experienced midfielder like paul scholes, even if is not the expensive sneijder.
Paul scholes was not experienced when he first began performing magic in the centre of Old Trafford, give youth a chance.
Agree 100%! Fans should stop questioning the Manager… compared to him we know shit about football!
Cleverly is good player but for future potetial. The one and only problem we have that wil make us to win d champions league from our river is have exprience player like sneijder in front of attack. Let stop given excuse about d price d young ones wil gain from him.
First: I guess you mean “behind” the attack since there’s really no point in putting a midfielder between your own strikers and the opposition goalkeeper.
Second: We have that player already in Rooney. Put Hernandez on top and let Rooney drop deep, not al the way back to midfield but like an offensive mid/deep laying striker. I’m afraid that Sneider won’t cope with the prem cause I think he needs to much time on the ball then he’ll probably get.
Let’s give youth a chance and have faith in what we’ve got. With Young as a new addition on the attacking force we’re all set!
Man united shld call A spAde A spade,Wesley is needed @ old trAfford!No doubt Tom is a great player,but whAt will he do AgAinst an Iniesta or XAvi?Chelsea is lurkin around d corner for a a potentiAl grAb!
Played against Iniesta in America, pre season or not he didn’t do too bad at all
Chudi, are you the first Nigerian who isn’t showing a desperation for Sneijder?
In any case, anyone saying Cleverley is one for “future potential” must realize he will become “unfulfilled potential” if not given a chance. Sneijder didn’t just watch from the bench until he was 23 and then became a world class player simply by virtue of age. He was given a starting role for a prestigious club in Ajax for a couple seasons in those formative years before he moved onto Madrid and then Inter.
I hope people don’t want to throw away the future of our club simply for the chance of having Sneijder in a one-off game against Barca – which isn’t even guaranteed to happen in the first place.
If Whitney Houston were to comment on Cleverley and our other youth, she’d say:
“I believe the youth are our are future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier”
Let’s heed Whitney’s advice and give Cleverley “The Greatest Gift of All”…some playing time.
sorry: “Greatest *Love of All” 😉
Jonathan I don’t think you understand how annoying the desperation is! Him signing isn’t the be all and end and people need to realise this!
MAFCELONA watch out CLEVERLEY is on his way 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
Utd NEED Sneijder, or certainly some world class midfielder to come in if Utd want to challenge for the Champions League… Cleverly seems a great talent, granted, and is in great FORM, granted, and Utd DO have a great chance of winning the league with the squad they have; HOWEVER – UTD can’t forget, in the space of a few months, how badly dominated they were by Barca. An attacking midfielder/playmaker was their #1 target, and they still don’t have one!
It’s all well and good saying give the youth a chance but that’s been the problem over the last few seasons, and they haven’t performed. They need a balance. They need someone in the middle to lead by example and help mature the abundance of excellent youth they have throughout the squad and even the starting XI.
Get his wage down and sign him up!
If you doubt a team a team like Man United you don’t deserve to be called a fan of them. I say yes Sneijder would be a brilliant signing but what does he have that Cleverly can’t gain??? for those who saw how Anderson’s game improved and believe that our youngsters will do much more then what Arsenal could do over the last 6 years a high 5 to you guys. I got a good feeling about our team this season and that feeling proved true when YaYa held his ears in Despair in last weeks game as Cleverly, Anderson, Young, Nani and Rooney made them miserable
While I don’t deny Scholes is a fantastic player, let’s keep some perspective here. In the 2010/2011 season he only made 22 appearances in the PL. 6 of those as a substitute, he got 9 yellow cards and scored one goal. Man Utd can clearly do without Scholes, because they did for almost half of last season’s PL matches. Be honest, if you had to choose who you wanted in your pub team, would it be Scholes or Cleverley? Easy decision for me!
Seriously don’t understand why we’re raising so much dust on this Sneijder issue. ???????????? many good seasons can Sneijder give us at best. He’s already 27 and slightly injury proned. He may JÛ§t end up being another ‘Hargreaves’ ??? disrespect with an exorbitant salary that we can ill-afford. Truth is we don’t need him, he doesn’t help out that much in defence. What we should be looking at is a midfield enforcer in a Roy Keane-ish mode. Something we have lacked greatly in a very long time. A Yann M’villa or someone who can win †?? ball and break up opponents’ attack. Someone, who if we had one, would have prevented †?? second goal we conceded against barca in that final. Rooney can play as well as Sneijder and weigh in with †?? goals. Cleverly can grow into †?? team, Scholes did. Sneijder for me would be a big waste of resources and ? sincerely hope we don’t get to sign him.
i would prefer Bastian Schweinsteiger over Sneijder ne time…dont know why united is not even trying to get him though it will be very tough to get him to leave germany….but i think Bayern Munich will let him go for 30-35 mil..plus his wages will be lower then Sneijder…