Chris Smalling

-
Chris Smaling
Little more than 18 months after arriving at Fulham from non-league Maidstone, defender Chris Smalling agreed to terms that would make him a Manchester United player from 1 July 2010.
A quick, clever central defender, Smalling played cameo roles for Roy Hodgson’s Fulham in both domestic and European competitions during 2009/10. Those fleeting performances were enough to earn him call-ups at England Under-21 level, and catch the eye of United scouts who identified him as a talent too good to miss out on.

The Reds agreed terms with Fulham for Smalling’s signature in January 2010, although the Greenwich-born defender remained at Craven Cottage for the remainder of the season.

At the time, Sir Alex described Smalling as “an extremely talented young defender who we’ve been monitoring for some months”.

“He’s very quick and reads the game well. He will be a great asset to the club, playing alongside some of the best defenders around and we’re delighted to have secured his signature.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sir Alex Salutes his side "Back four"

-
Image
With Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand outstanding in the centre of defence, aided and abetted by full-backs Rafael and Patrice Evra, plus defensive midfielder Michael Carrick, Edwin van der Sar scarcely had a shot to save. Sir Alex Ferguson was highly satisfied to depart White Hart Lane with a valuable point, and quickly heaped praise on the manner with which his side kept Tottenham at arm’s length throughout. “It was a tough game,” Sir Alex told Sky Sports. “ Tottenham are in great form but they really didn’t make many chances against us. We take credit for that. I thought our defenders were particularly good. Defensively we kept our nerve. “They never really troubled us. Considering the goals they’ve scored, at home particularly, and the performances they’ve shown at home, I think we can take real credit for that. “I thought we were a bit careless with our use of the ball, particularly in the period just before half-time and in periods of the second half, but it’s a
Read more

Neville: Why I retired

-
Gary Neville sat down for an exclusive interview with MUTV to talk about his decision to retire, and to look back on some of his best moments in his career. In the first of a three-part serialisation of that interview, Gary explains how he came to make his decision... You caught a lot of people by surprise, can you take us through the chain of events that led to your announcement? It wasn’t just on the day; something like that doesn’t come as immediately as that. It’s been a combination of events over the last few months and I’ve known for the last few weeks having spoken to the manager. You don’t go and do something like that so quickly. I went away for a week and still came to the same conclusion: it just felt like the right thing to do and that my time was up. When your time’s up, your time’s up. You could have played until the end of the season. Why stop mid-season? Sometimes you just go off gut instinct, it’s the type of person I am. I felt it was right.
Read more

Dimitar Berbatov

-
Image
Dimitar Berbatov B erbatov was born in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria . His father was a professional footballer with local outfit Pirin Blagoevgrad, and his mother Margarita was a professional handball player. Dimitar Berbatov is a classy and complete centre-forward, pairing the ability to ruthlessly and regularly find the net inside the box with the aptitude to create moments of sheer magic outside it. Sir Alex likes players with plenty of charisma in the way they play, and the Bulgarian’s languid style is instantly recognisable on the field. It’s also an approach that has drawn comparisons with former United talisman Eric Cantona. Like the captivating Frenchman, Berbatov loves to entertain with the ball at his feet, and he also shares Cantona's happy knack for scoring important (often late) goals. Berbatov started out at Bulgarian side CSKA Sofia. He joined The Armymen aged 17, following in the footsteps of his father, Ivan, who also played for the club.He was
Read more