[Eaglesfan27]

Finally, Striker:

Alan Smith - This 31 year old had a great season last year as he was one of 4 players to score over 20 goals, however, he shows signs of starting to decline in the offseason. It will be interesting to see if he rounds into shape as the pre-season commences. He still has excellent physical abilities, superb mental abilities, but his technical abilities have declined during this offseason. He is signed for 2 more years, and would appear to be among our top 4 strikers.


James McFadden - This 29 year old Scottish player is still in his prime. He also had over 20 goals last year. He is looking very good in practice, and appears to be a top notch striker still. Clearly my third best striker.


Wayne Rooney - This 26 year old is in the prime of his career. I'm very happy to have signed him to a new 4 year deal. He does everything well except tackling the opposition. He has excellent speed that is the best of my strikers. He is a superb dribbler. He has excellent first touch and shooting ability. Not great at heading, but doesn't have many weaknesses. Clearly my #1 striker. Led the team with 31 goals last year.


Adriano - This 20 year old Brazilian striker is my best acquisition at Manchester United so far. He has skyrocketed in value to over 50 million dollars now. He is signed to a new deal for 3 more years. He has superb physical abilities, excellent mental attributes (except for low creativity and flair), and excellent first touch. He is a great finisher around the net. Not a good penalty shooter, but that is ok. He is clearly either my #2 or #3 striker and should get better in the next few years.


Craig King - This 22 year old wonder kid didn't get to play much last year and I'm afraid it slowed down his development. One of my top goals this year is to get King more PT. He has great finishing ability, and he has the potential to be a star or superstar. I need to get him more PT. He is only signed through this year, and I need to make sure he is happy. I plan on offering him an extension now. I contact his agent, and his agent informs me that Craig wants to stay with the club but he wants to be reassured of more playing time this year. He also wants a raise to 70,000/week as well as a 1.2 million dollar signing bonus. I offer him all of those things.


Louis Saha - This 33 year old striker has lost most of his abilities. He is mostly around for sentimental reasons at this point. However, I will let him go when his contract runs out after this year. His footspeed was his last great attribute, and that has seriously declined now.

Ruud van Nistelrooy - This 36 year old striker has lost all of his speed. He didn't have a ton of speed to start with. He has a great shooting touch still, and is still a top notch penalty shooter. I don't anticipate using him much, and mostly signed him for sentimental reasons. He is a player/coach this year and I'm hoping he will agree to work for us as a physio after he retires.

Ernesto Marino - This 26 year old striker is good, even very good, but he isn't top notch. On most teams, he would be a #2 or #3 guy, but here he gets knocked out of the rotation by 5 guys who are better than him. I really want to move him, and will attempt to be very active in doing so very soon.