Man U and Lakers - woo hoo!!

This last couple of weeks have been pretty eventful for me, as a Lakers and Manchester United fan.

Firstly, the Lakers. Against all odds, the GM Kupchak managed to snare Steve Nash away from the Phoenix Suns (in exchange for the Odom trade exception, ie nothing), and then followed this up by trading Andrew Bynum for Dwight Howard (and keeping Pau Gasol).

This makes for a starting line-up of (potentially), Kobe, Nash, MWP, Gasol and Howard. The Lakers immediately became contenders again.

Secondly, Manchester United. The summer came and went without much news, and although Kagawa and Powell were signed, the only news which created any excitement was the possibility that Robin van Persie might be signed from Arsenal. This is like totally incredible, since there was conceivably no way, that Arsenal would sell their captain and top scorer to their hated rivals, even for lots of money.

Somehow, as luck would have it, van Persie decided to cut off all ties with his mentor/manager and his club, openly saying he won’t sign a new contract. Then, both Juventus and Man City refused or were unable to pay either Arsenal’s asking price, or RvP’s expected wages. On top of this, Barcelona (the one team EVERYONE would like to join) didn’t even seem interested.

All this came together to open up a huge channel for SAF to step in and nick RvP away from Wenger’s grasp. Granted, 24 million pounds for an injury-prone 29 year old might seem a little expensive, but if this turns out even half as good as RvP can be, then United would be set for the next two to three years on the strike-force front.

The obvious caveats are age/injury issues for all the above characters. However, no one can say that either United (and their maligned owners) or the Lakers (esp Jimmy Buss) didn’t have the wherewithal or balls to go for victory, over saving money.

All the above trades/purchases have got me very excited for both United and the Lakers and I frankly can’t wait for the new EPL and NBA seasons to start.

:)ac