Fergie's New Formula: Buy Portuguese?

Even as a Liverpool fan, I have to admit—grudgingly enough—that Sir Alex has a phenomenal record in the transfer market. When raising Lord Ferg's dealings gone wrong us doubters routinely grumble something not very convincing about Kleberson, Forlan and Djemba-Djemba. Generally he buys well and sells even better. And recently, he seems to have hit upon a winning formula indeed.

One can see his former assistant Carlos Quieroz' hand behind this. Go Portuguese is the message. And as far as the eyes see, the record has been 100% successful.

Ronaldo came in with fanfare and applause and seemed to be going on the wrong path till Sir Alex took some time away from chewing his game and dried his hair with one of his trademark rages.

Nani too seemed to go awry for a bit till he got a kicking in his backside and the turnaround has seen him become one of the lesser heralded stars of his team.

But the signs are clear. His Portuguese investments have paid rich dividends if one considers this small sample space of two. And presumably on the advice of Quieroz again, Lord Ferg has dipped his hands into the hat yet again and conjured another Portuguese starlet.

Lesser known and lesser heralded than the aforementioned two perhaps. But we can trust Fergie on this one. He knows a good player from that side of Iberia when he sees one.

So while the one previous was a bit of a nanny, this one more of a bebeh! Tiago Manuel Dias Ferreira is a striker, an area which Fergie has singled out as a bit of weakness in his side and has got another starlet in Javier Hernandez (who might I add also comes with a fancy nickname) should Wayne Rooney run out of steam.

Young Bebe was more or less unheard of till as less as five weeks ago where Vitoria Guimaraes snapped him up from the third tier of Portuguese football. They saw more business sense selling him to Manchester United at apparently three times the price. Bebe is a versatile enough player and can play on both wings and as a striker—well in keeping with Fergie's other two conquests over Portuguese clubs.

With Bebe and Chicharito signing the dotted line on the financially poorer side of Manchester—along with the existence of Owen, Macheda and The Berba—Rooney will be looking up to the new season with relish. So how will the new season pan out for the devils then?