Remember earlier this summer when rumors for a Nemanja Vidic for Gianluigi Buffon swap were floating around? Depending on how you heard the rumor, £20 million or €20 million was going one direction or another in a deal, yet another reason you know the swap was pure paper talk, but it was still fun to imagine. Nemanja Vidic to the left of Giorgio Chiellini would have been scary, and Gioanluigi Buffon would have been an “of course” goalkeeping acquisition for Manchester United.

Despite their troubles last season, players don’t leave Juventus easily. You look at the tenures of players Alessandro del Piero, Mauro Camoranesi, and David Trezeguet – what they’ve had to go through in recent years to stay with the club – and you realize it will take a lot to tear somebody out of Turin. If a forced relegation won’t do it, what will?

So Buffon never seemed like much of an option, leaving Manchester United still searching for the next Edwin van der Sar, the next Peter Schmeichel, as one article put it. Specifically, it was the Manchester Evening News who, while reporting United interest in Anders Lindegaard, framed United’s interest in terms of Schmeichel.

Perhaps it’s been too long since I saw Schmeichel play, but this American’s memories of that pre-ubiquitous Premier League are of a White Incredible Hulk in goal. I literally imagine a player with a disproportionately huge upper-body, muscles grotesquely protruding through his kit, the Dane yelling as he annihilates opposing strikers who are contesting crosses. Schmeichel was legendary for his wingspan, but my mental exaggerations have his arms spread 11 feet wide.

I mean, look at the picture.  He’s lifting a huge trophy and a full grown man while Alex Ferguson’s trying to pull the trophy down.  Another man is trying to tackle him.  The guy’s incredible!

In short: I have no reasonable memory of Schmeichel.

But, at least I have some memory of him. I have no idea who Anders Lindegaard is. But that’s what the interwebs are for.

According to the aforelinked post, the best thing about Lindegaard is that he’s a cheap date. He’s in the last year of his contract and he won’t cost much. In addition, my friends say he has a great personality.

From other sources, he’s 26-years-old, plays in Norway but is Danish, and based on his international record, he’s no Thomas Sorensen.

I suppose the relevant question is whether he’s Tomasz Kuszczak.

Source: Manchester Evening News

BTW, if anybody has any legitimate memories of Peter Schmeichel, could you share them? As much as I like the caricature I’ve carved in my mind, I’d like to be reminded of the actual player.

Right after today’s Chelsea-Manchester United match, I was the guest of Kartik Krishnaiyer on the EPL Talk podcast. We spent about 12 minutes talking about a relatively uneventful match, which doesn’t mean there was a lack of talking points. Within the discussion, I was asked about

• the controversial nature of the first goal,
• the distance (or lack of distance) between the two teams,
• the emerging goal scoring threat of Antonio Valencia,
• the roles and lack of progress with Anderson and Nani,
• the importance of José Bosingwa to Chelsea’s attack,
• how Deco is being utilized by Carlo Ancelotti,
• the return of Joe Cole and Ancelotti’s vision for him,
• what United missed without Nemanja Vidic’s presence in defense,
• Manchester United’s ability to create shots through the middle of Chelsea’s formation,
• reasons Chelsea should be concerned, and
• reasons Manchester United should be encouraged.

Enjoy, and remember to support EPL Talk, especially when they have me on .

[podcast]http://media.libsyn.com/media/epltalk/post_united_chelsea.mp3[/podcast]