Fergie's BEBE sent on a season long loan to Besiktas

B3B3 is off to Turkey for a year

Sky Sports  yesterday confirmed that Man United attacker Bebe (whose full name is Tiago Manuel Dias Correia) has been loaned out to the Turkish team Besiktas for the whole 2011-12 season. In fact his Wikipedia article suggests that he is already a member of the Besitas squad. Bebe, who was bought from VItoria de Guimaraes at a record transfer fee of £7.4 million on a 5 year contract, has failed to live up to hopes and expectations of every United fan. Sir Alex Ferguson admitted that he had signed the deal without having seen him play himself. 

Besiktas, who finished 6th in the Turkish  League the last season, are a decent team and Bebe must be lucky to land there after Manchester. Besiktas fans are world renowned to be loud and crazy for their team. They go to the stadium and literally scream for their team. Undoubtedly make one of the best football crowds in the World. United have faced Besiktas in the 2009-10 Champions League season and defeated us 1-0 at Old Trafford after we won 1-0 at their stadium in the first leg. 

The question is how did Besiktas track Bebe? Some people jokingly say it was the Turkish Airlines advert in which Bebe makes a Cameo appearance with the rest of the MUFC squad who are on the plane. But the genuine reason is that Portugese scored his only UEFA Champions League goal in a  3-0 victory at Bursaspor in Turkey (November, 2010). Perhaps the Besiktas scouting team then got interested in Bebe and finally secured him on a 1 year loan.

Mind you, Bebe's little trick and the elegant pass to Rafael (or was it Fabio?) is pretty impressive!
Have a look at the Turkish Airlines advert below: 

This loan news will be perceived in a good as well a bad way by most of the United fans across the globe.

The Good: Hopefully he'll get more games at Besiktas, something he didn't achieve at Manchester United (only 7 caps in the Premier League + FA cup + Carling Cup in which he managed to score once). He's going to Besiktas, where the fans are too loud and give a huge support to their team; perhaps this will raise Bebe's confidence levels? 

The Bad: It is a strong possibility that the Portugese attacker may stay at Besiktas as he clearly struggled during his time in England. In my opinion he would be very stupid to chose Besiktas ahead of United. If the loan transforms into a permanent deal, it would lead to a massive loss. However, he needs to work very hard in Turkey and prove Sir Alex Ferguson's trust.

On a positive note, I think Bebe has a lot to prove during his loan at Besiktas. He didn't have a good start to his new life in Manchester; not even a decent one. However, he did show that he has "some" skills of a good winger by being pacy in the few appearances he was given by SAF. However, his shooting and crossing skills were disastrous and I'm sure it must have raised every one's eye brows. 

I predict Bebe's gonna be the next big thing that United has produced. All he needs to do now is to capitalise the opportunity at Besiktas and make everyone associated with Manchester United proud! Hope to see him winning trophies when he's back at Old Trafford in the 2012-13 season!

Bebe with the Premier League trophy in his first season at MAN UNITED, hope there are more to come!

GGMU

Besiktas win at Old Trafford, ending United's 23 match winning (or drawing) streak in UCL at home.

MANCHESTER UNITED 0-1 BESIKTAS

That's the summary of the game. Besiktas kept on holding United for the whole of 90 minutes. United dominated but couldn't convert into goals.

Micahel Owen reacting after missing a strike on goal

Vidic reacting after losing shockingly to Besiktas!

Besiktas have done it! The loudest fans in the world must be roaring and raving.

It was a bad night for United. Bad decisions, bad times, goal-keeper wasting time, bad that Besiktas got it all right! I must credit their goalie for 1) being intelligent and wasting time... He got a yellow card for it but I think he would rather prefer getting yellow than not playing in the knockout stages at all! 2) because he made 2 excellent saves (first one from Macheda - a header and a second one came from Wes Brown). Both were brilliant and on-target headers and Goalie did no mistakes there!

Besiktas ended United's 23 match streak at Old Trafford by denying them two wonderful headers (and wasting some time in the extra minutes of the game). United have lost a game after EIGHT LONG years since their last defeat in 2001 in UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE.

The Final Score was United 0-1 Besiktas which could have easily been 2-1 or 3-1 as we had predicted earlier. Besiktas have come back with a strong reply having the same final score as United had in Turkey. Paul Scholes was the one to score at that time.

Can You believe it? United had the possesion for the 66% of the game and yet they were unable to score...

Match Review (followed by Player Review)

United started off brilliantly. They were passing the ball around rather magnificently and in full-force attack mode. Thanks to some lovely display from Park Ji Sung who moved the ball efficiently in the midfield. United fully dominated the game until Tello scored a lovely 30 meter goal which was deflected off Rafael. It fell to the right of Foster who was rather unlucky to concede such an avoidable goal. United carried on their vigorous attack on Besiktas and had some solid plans to demolish the side. Park did a good job by shooting the ball on target many times but it was frustrating to see him and Obertan not finding the net. Obertan was very sharp and athletic in the field tonight. His dribbling skills were remarkable and commendable.

All United lacked in the first half was accuracy. They were fully trampling the Besiktas defence but unable to convert the amazing runs and tackles into a goal. This is something the youngsters must be living up too. There was a great display from Darren Gibson, who took the midfield very responsibly.

United half repeated the same old story for United. They had some good chances but failed to convert into a goal unfortunately. Park, who ran like a bullet and passed like a charm today, was replaced by Michael Owen. No. 7 replaced No. 13, so everyone thought Owen must have brought some luck in his 4th UCL appearance but sadly, he hardly got the ball.. Hold on a minute, I can remember once he passed to Neville and Obertan and that is really about it!

Neville gave some amazing passes today. Amongst the list included the one to Gabriel Obertan which was perfect in pace and location but unfortunately the Frenchman failed to convert it.

Blunt Gibson was replaced my Carrick who tried his luck with a few long range shots as well as medium-ish shots but they were right in the gloves of the excellent goalie.

There was an injury in the 65th minute when Obertan unpurposefully hit his elbow on Toraman's eye region. He was bleeding badly and had to be substituted.

There were two more substitutions from Evra replaced Rafael.

In the dying minutes of the game, Bobo was replaced by Batahum who (according to me) created a new world record by getting booked within 14 SECONDS of his arrival at the pitch by purposefully shooting the ball at Foster after he was judged off-side by the linesman.

The real talking point of the match would be Evra being denied the penalty. It was a clear-cut penalty! The defender was no where around the ball and clearly had his arm in front of Evra to stop him in his tracks. The referee couldn't have been more annoying that that.

It was a good game though. United should have got 2 if not 3 goals and proved us right here at theredevilspot.blogspot.com

However, the kids certainly rocked... GLORY GLORY till the Pompey's game.

Keep rocking!

Player reviews

1) Foster- 5.5

2) Rafael/ Evra - 5/6

3) Brown- 7

4) Vidic - 7

5) Neville - 6.5

6) Park/ Owen- 7/5.5

7) Anderson - 7

8) Gibson/ Carrick- 6/6

9) Obertan - 7

10) Welbeck- 7

11) Macheda- 7

PREVIEW: United vs Besiktas at Old Trafford Tonight, 7.45 PM GMT Kick off

Kids wanna rock today against Besiktas!

Sir Alex Ferguson is targeting the top spot in Group B of Champions League by challenging his young players to prove they are worthy of wearing the Manchester United shirt.

"In the situation we're in, we could have a non-event of a game against Besiktas if we wanted. But that's not the way we want it to be. We want an exciting game and we'll do our best to challenge the youngsters who play."

"I'll be making changes. Not a lot, but enough to freshen things up. It's a problem keeping players happy, but everyone has that when you have a big squad. We used the League Cup for that and, if we can qualify early enough from the Champions League group stage, in Europe."

"Darron Gibson will definitely play and young Rafa as well. We can use the likes of Welbeck. He will will definitely play and Macheda probably. They are the ones who need to challenge."

"We're also thinking of starting Gabriel Obertan to see how he does. And we're looking at Park Ji-Sung's fitness because he's back and has trained very well. We've put him on a programme that has brought him to his best level. He played for South Korea last week so he's ready for a game."

"Darron has not had the amount of football that he'd wish for. I wish I'd been able to give him more games, but he has a lot of competition from Carrick, Anderson, Scholes, Fletcher, and Giggs if I choose to play him there."

"But, credit to Darron, he's never let it unsettle him. His training performances have been excellent. Every session he comes in knowing that it's worthwhile. He has a purpose about his training. For quite a few weeks we've been saying, you can't hold a young one back. They tell you that themselves. And I think Darron is approaching that. He has

become a very good, powerful midfield player."

"The youngsters have reached a point and it happens in football, when a footballer has the ability to be a top player and you recognise that. You have to give them the challenge. If you don't, they lose the scent. But this club has been good at recognising that over the years."

"Sometimes it happens and you get good runs free of injury, and other times you don't. That's the value of having a good squad. It'll probably be the same back four as Saturday against Everton.

"When Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes came through, we thought they were certainties. We had to give them a chance, and we did. That's the nature of football. A young player turns the corner and then ends up taking someone's job."

So to conclude, Federico Macheda and Danny Welbeck have really gotta attack from the word GO! and have a good partnership between them. I am excited to see Obertan and Park (if he plays) working together in the mid-field. I wouldn't mind if Michael Owen warms the bench till the half time and maybe he can have a shot at a goal or two. United although need to be careful, they must be fully aware of what happened against Tottenham Hotspurs in the FA Cup semi-final against Everton when they lost and eventually lost the precious trophy!

I hope the youngsters dont let the Seniors down... GLORY GLORY MAN UNITED!!!

United Probable 11s: Foster; Evra, Vidic, Brown, Rafael; Park, Anderson, Gibson, Obertan; Berbatov/Macheda, Welbeck.

Besiktas Probable 11s: Rustu; Uzulmez, Koybasi, Ferrari, Toraman; Ozkan, Ernst, Fink, Ekrem; Yusuf; Bobo.

theRedDevilSpot prediction: United win 3-1