£150m

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The well documented sum of money we spent in the summer, which is an astonishing amount of cash.

Yes, there's supposed to be a bedding in period - Van Gaal himself talked about three months - but my worry is that, performance wise, we seem to be regressing.

Not one of our signings can be marked down as an unqualified success. I'm at a loss as to how we've spent such a fortune but gone no closer to resolving the long term problems.

Do you trust Van Gaal to go on another spending spree?
 
As I gather, half of the time he just sits there and says 'Yep, go ahead, buy the player.' It's difficult to fully blame him for any of the transfers bar Blind and Rojo, though I still don't think Rojo will amount to anything title-winning worthy.
 
I trust Van Gaal and I hope he'll spend more than that so we can stop playing Fellaini and Jones on a wing to the point when we won't have to play them anywhere at all.

We lack world class wingers, defenders, midfielders and maybe even one fast striker.
 
ADJUDICATOR said:
As I gather, half of the time he just sits there and says 'Yep, go ahead, buy the player.' It's difficult to fully blame him for any of the transfers bar Blind and Rojo, though I still don't think Rojo will amount to anything title-winning worthy.
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Funnily enough, Rojo looked one of our most accomplished players tonight.

For such a supposed authoritarian, I find the notion of LvG having players he doesn't really fancy bestowed upon him strange.
 
Blind and Rojo have been our best signings really and they're more "LVG signings" than anyone else.

Di Maria and Falcao have been the worst and they were the ones we were most excited about..
 
Van Piorsing said:
I trust Van Gaal and I hope he'll spend more than that so we can stop playing Fellaini and Jones on a wing to the point when we won't have to play them anywhere at all.

We lack world class wingers, defenders, midfielders and maybe even one fast striker.
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:lol:

So basically we lack an entire fecking team.
 
Jev said:
No.
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I do, the players we're being linked with are the right type of players to go for. The problem for me is that the service from our wide players to our forwards is simply not good enough. That include fullbacks. We were always going to have problems because we didn't address the right wing issue in the Summer.
 
Twigginater said:
Blind and Rojo have been our best signings really and they're more "LVG signings" than anyone else.

Di Maria and Falcao have been the worst and they were the ones we were most excited about..
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Falcao has been a huge let down.

I don't think the shonky use of Di Maria has helped his form.
 
Feed Me said:
Do you trust Van Gaal to go on another spending spree?
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Nope. I remember a Bayern poster here (Balu?) saying that he's crap at transfer market. And so it seems. I also remember that he was heavily criticized at Barca for basically signing any Dutch player over the age of fifteen who existed back then.

We need a sporting director ASAP. Or a manager who is decent in all things, including transfer market. Seriously, with 150m a top manager should be able to create a top team from the scratch.
 
Feed Me said:
Funnily enough, Rojo looked one of our most accomplished players tonight.

For such a supposed authoritarian, I find the notion of LvG having players he doesn't really fancy bestowed upon him strange.
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It's not so much 'players he doesn't fancy' but players he wouldn't have picked given the choice.
You aren't going to say 'no' if the club asks you to 'okay' Di Maria, but what's the point if you don't actually know what you want to do with him?

And right now it looks as if he hasn't got a clue how to use him.
I liken signing Di Maria to signing Mata. A convenient signing. Not hand picked by the manager for a specific purpose.
 
I don't think it's an issue.

150m spent but for that money we got Shaw, Rojo, Blind, Herrera who are either way to young(Shaw) or will need at least a season to bed in with a plenty of time to come good. AdM is proven player and was pretty good for the start of the season, had an injury which took a toll, but will come good as well IMO. Falcao is on loan so it's not like we have to buy him if he's shit.
 
Feed Me said:
:lol:

So basically we lack an entire fecking team.
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Adding Blind, Di Maria and Herrera helped a lot but we clearly need further injections of quality.

:lol: Five or six proper new players should do the trick. However they need to play on their positions anyway.
 
I'd like to think that all of Di Maria, Blind, Shaw, Herrera and Rojo will actually be really good signings if they stop getting injured and aren't used completely out of position all the time, or in Herrera's case, not used at all (quite baffling, that one)

Falcao was a pointless signing for me, as great as he (once was), we're basically keeping other players out of the team to try get him back to his best despite the fact that he probably won't be worth buying outright in the summer.
 
Cina said:
I'd like to think that all of Di Maria, Blind, Shaw, Herrera and Rojo will actually be really good signings if they stop getting injured and aren't used completely out of position all the time, or in Herrera's case, not used at all (quite baffling, that one)

Falcao was a pointless signing for me, as great as he (once was), we're basically keeping other players out of the team to try get him back to his best despite the fact that he probably won't be worth buying outright in the summer.
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No worries there. We can cut this deal in a second if his legs will not comply on the pitch after injury.
 
Blind is great.
Shaw has been fine when he's played, but doesn't help that he's rarely playing as a full back. Injuries don't help either.
Happy with Rojo too, though injuries have hampered his progress, but I'm a big fan of him.
I think Herrera has done fine, but he's getting scraps as LvG seems to prefer Fellaini and Rooney in there.

Di Maria and Falcao are the biggest disappointments, but I'll sympathise with Falcao a little because our chance creation is godawful. Di Maria also isn't being used to his strengths, but I still expect more from him. When he was being used to his strengths, playing from left central midfield, he was a menace, scoring goals and setting up goals.

Maybe if we play our best players in their best positions, we'll play better? It sounds wild, and probably goes against the philosophy or something, but it's worth a stab, right?
 
Twigginater said:
Blind and Rojo have been our best signings really and they're more "LVG signings" than anyone else.

Di Maria and Falcao have been the worst and they were the ones we were most excited about..
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I would have felt shaw and Falcao were the two worst myself. I know shaw wasn't LVGs signing really but.....

Di Maria I feel has been done a disservice recently being played way out of position.
 
I remember people saying Falcao would be better than Costa before the season started. He looks a shadow of the player who was considered the best pure #9 in the world just a couple of seasons ago.
 
I don't buy into the 150 million thing. We had no Champions League to attract the top players and Van Gaal had 2 weeks to asses what signings needed to be made and who needed to go. We were extremely lucky to get names like Di Maria and Falcao. If anything the 80 million spent by Moyes was far more recklessly spent than the 150 Million from Van Gaal. We still are a winger, central midfielder and central defender short from being a good team and Van Gaal won't get those players till the summer. I think there's going to be some serious knocking of Van Gaal until the summer when he can finally address what he feels will need to be addressed in the team. If people are gonna blame anyone for the mess were in then Mr Moyes is the guy
 
Happy with Blind. Rojo has been ok, Shaw will be good, Herrera I fear might leave if LvG keep him out of the team all the time. ADM and Falcao has been horrible, worst waste of money I can remember.
 
Revan said:
Nope. I remember a Bayern poster here (Balu?) saying that he's crap at transfer market. And so it seems. I also remember that he was heavily criticized at Barca for basically signing any Dutch player over the age of fifteen who existed back then.

We need a sporting director ASAP. Or a manager who is decent in all things, including transfer market. Seriously, with 150m a top manager should be able to create a top team from the scratch.
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Can't you just stop spouting nonsense?
 
Spend £150m on 5 or 6 players, essentially half the starting line up, and they're not playing like a cohesive, world beating team straight away!!! Bedding in period? What
 
Di Maria has been alright, Falcao poor, blind average, Herrera has hardly played and Rojo has done quite well. Without doubt a disappointment, and I wouldn't really trust him spending another wedge when he sanctions a 30 million deal for a player he clearly doesn't rate.
 
Once we have a defence all will good, people underestimate the impact of losing Vidic, Ferdinand, and Evra all at once, not to mention Giggs as well.

If we can't trust Louis with our money we can't trust anyone.
 
We have all heartily taken the piss out of Liverpool and Brentan, but our spending spree - in terms of pissing good money away - hasn't been a million miles from theirs.
 
septic said:
Spend £150m on 5 or 6 players, essentially half the starting line up, and they're not playing like a cohesive, world beating team straight away!!! Bedding in period? What
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Did Sanchez, Fabregas, or Costa need a bedding in period? The 3 best players in the league and they're in new teams.
 
For me:
  • Blind and Rojo look good.
  • Herrera and Shaw were long term club signings, both haven't played much (make of that what you will)
  • AdM has been shunted about out of position and had injuries. We know his quality, it will come.
  • Falcao I think we all expected to take time to get up to speed, I guess the loan arrangement looks justified because he just isn't getting there.
 
He has to get the best out of the current group of players before another spending spree. Football isn't plug and play. Real Madrid tried that for years and failed. Signing 5 or 6 players hasn't shown any cohesive, or much impact in 6 months. Another 3 or 4 regardless of how good will complicate matters even more.
 
I said we spent the money poorly at the time and it has proven to be true.

Don't think that was all down to LVG though. Some of those signings were surely led by Woodward.

Edit: Though I do still have faith in most of the individual players we bought. They just didn't address our needs as a collective. Plus of course we should never have allowed ourselves to get into that weak state in the first place.
 
Orc said:
Did Sanchez, Fabregas, or Costa need a bedding in period? The 3 best players in the league and they're in new teams.
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Because there is continuity around them, same manager etc. None of them entered a team under wholesale turnover from the top down.
 
Revan said:
Nope. I remember a Bayern poster here (Balu?) saying that he's crap at transfer market. And so it seems. I also remember that he was heavily criticized at Barca for basically signing any Dutch player over the age of fifteen who existed back then.

We need a sporting director ASAP. Or a manager who is decent in all things, including transfer market. Seriously, with 150m a top manager should be able to create a top team from the scratch.
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Agreed. The business just wasn't done with a proper purpose. I got attacked by someone the other day for suggesting the club was the driving forced behind Di Maria, Herrera and Falcao much more than van Gaal. Yet it would explain a hell of a lot.

Not 'signed against his will', but not how he would have spent the money.
 
I would say they all do need time. Let them bed in, and if we're still looking no better in 12 months, then questions might be asked.

But you can't just say 'I understand players need time to adapt to new clubs and new leagues, but i'll ignore that anyway and call them all wastes of money after 6 months', because it simply is too early to judge.
 
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