Luis Nani: Remembering The Good Times

Chris Wright

6th, July 2015

3 Comments

By Chris Wright

Much-derided and oft-mocked for being soft as warm Dairylea, Luis Nani is now on the cusp of leaving Manchester United after eight years on the payroll.

The 28-year-old Portuguese winger, who spent last season on loan at Sporting Lisbon, has been subjected to the customary ‘terrifying Turkish airport greeting’ this morning ahead of completing a £3.5million move to Fenerbahce, medical pending.

It’s easy to scoff when it comes to Nani: the diving; the myriad flouncy tricks that lead nowhere; the endless torrent of over/under-hit crosses and shots; the physical feebleness, etc, etc, but it’s worth remembering that there were some good times too…roughly one a season, if you were lucky.

Cast your mind back and you may just recall that he wasn’t all bad, at least not all of the time.

How about his Portuguese Liga goal of the season for Sporting against Gil Vicente last year for starters?

Whoomp. So good it actually made him cry.

Then there’s this belter against Middlesbrough in 2009…

How about this little beauty against Chelsea in 2011?

In fact, 2011 was good year…

A couple of brilliant goals against Man City. That’s got to count for something right?

That time he pared Arsenal in twain with devastating ease?

And best of all, that time he made Cristiano Ronaldo throw a strop after ruining all of his hard work…

Eternal thanks are due for that one.

Y’know, at least he was always willing to try something, even if it didn’t come off. Nani had the propensity to be entirely unstoppable on his day – it’s just a shame ‘his days’ tended to occur less frequently than blood moons.

So long Nani lad, you probably won’t be missed.

Posted in Man Utd, Newsnow, Transfers & Rumours

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3 Comments

  1. Mr Sensible says:

    Incredibly talented player but also frustrating to watch.

    In the 2010/11 season he was arguably our player of the season then was left out of the CL final. For whatever reason Ferguson never seemed to fully trust Nani and because he was able to use his left foot (unlike Valencia) was often moved around and played on both wings when his best performances came when he was left on the right side.

    If you get him injury free and allow him a run of games on the right he can be devastating, sadly we rarely did that but when we did he was great. A problem we seem to create with far too many of our players. Having Valencia didn’t help (who I’ll admit was good for us for a season), and Valencia also seems to be the reason why we will also probably lose Rafael, another great player who doesn’t seem to be trusted.

    Oh well, for Nani’s penalty alone in the ’08 CL final he’ll be remembered at United fondly.

  2. What4 says:

    Could have been great if he gave a shit. Time to go fuck up the Turkish league and see how their fans like it.

  3. blackstock_gooner says:

    As the chant goes;

    “Shit Michael Jackson… he’s just a shit Michael Jaaaaaackson”

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