Álvaro Carreras | Benfica

TheReligion said:
You could argue he’s had his say by agreeing to the move and package.

You don’t see lots of these clauses active for this very reason though. I suspect they are difficult to thrash out.

It would seem odd to me though that the selling club would insert a clause and let a player go though if the departing player had no interest and agreement.

Anyway, I’m pretty certain Alvaro would happily return to get a shot at the PL. He was at United from a young age and the club invested in him and his development. I doubt there’s any animosity and with EtH gone he’d be coming back with guaranteed game time.
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Agreed, he likely agreed to move on because he was told of lack of playing time because of Shaw and Malacia. There is an obvious pathway now, as they can't stay fit.
 
elmo said:
Yup, although I’m inclined to think he’s more open to coming back now that ETH is gone and there’s a clearer pathway for him to come in and be a starter from day 1.
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That could be, all depends on Amorim I guess. But as far as I know any player can refuse any transfer if they want.
 
We really could do with someone left-footed who can look after the ball. I always thought he had it in him to help out in midfield as well. Is the link with Amorim wanting him from someone credible, and is the low buy-back clause real? I'd be surprised as Benfica know what they're doing with money.
 
would be in the long line of absurds at United if we buy back a player for double what we sold him for after just 6 months. Still, he could be all we can afford.
 
red_de_pologne said:
would be in the long line of absurds at United if we buy back a player for double what we sold him for after just 6 months. Still, he could be all we can afford.
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It isn't as absurd as you seem to think it is. Buy backs clauses happen all the time.
 
red_de_pologne said:
would be in the long line of absurds at United if we buy back a player for double what we sold him for after just 6 months. Still, he could be all we can afford.
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He wasn't getting any chances under ETH and has developed into a CL starting LB. Not that absurd if he rejoins.
 
Happy to have him back but even my dog knew we should keep a promising left back when we had to loan players for cover, he would most likely be playing for us the last 6 moths if we didn't sell him.
 
saik said:
It isn't as absurd as you seem to think it is. Buy backs clauses happen all the time.
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The clauses get set all the time, you are right. But it’s not that common that a club actually triggers them and the player re-joins the old club. Especially after only 1,5 years.
 
top1whoisman said:
The clauses get set all the time, you are right. But it’s not that common that a club actually triggers them and the player re-joins the old club. Especially after only 1,5 years.
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I mean just this summer we saw Aston Villa buy back Archer and Philogene. I don't remember when they were actually sold. Same with Xavi Simons and PSG. There's 3 examples of the top of my head just from recent years.
 
Didn’t ETH himself even say we were monitoring his progress?

I think another loan would have been a better option but we clearly needed that easy FFP money regardless of how little it was.

Don’t think ETH would have had the balls to play him even as a 3rd choice so can’t fault the decision In hindsight
 
saik said:
I mean just this summer we saw Aston Villa buy back Archer and Philogene. I don't remember when they were actually sold. Same with Xavi Simons and PSG. There's 3 examples of the top of my head just from recent years.
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Which is probably a really low percentage of the amount of buyback clauses that have been set.
 
top1whoisman said:
Which is probably a really low percentage of the amount of buyback clauses that have been set.
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And probably not as absurd as some posters seem to think it is. He wasn’t really getting game time on loan at Granada, so if loaning him out with an option to buy was the best way to ensure regular minutes at the required level (a Championship loan again wouldn’t offer much development value at this point), I don’t see the problem.

Plus, we could bring him back at a lower price than other clubs might have to pay if both he and the club show interest in a return.
 
Gandalf said:
Ashworth and INEOS were not in the picture when all this was going down.

Heading into last season ETH decided that he would rather loan Reguillon from Spurs than give game time to Alvaro and so he was sent on loan to Granada where he had an indifferent first half of a season. In the January window we terminated the Reguillon loan but allegedly ETH was assured he would have Shaw and Malacia available and so we recalled Alvaro from Granada and loaned him to Benfica instead with the 6M option to buy included. Obviously we should have kept him but ETH was supposedly stitched up by the medical department. The inclusion of the buy option had a lot to do with our perilous position regarding Profit and Sustainability during that January window and the quick fix that transfer income from academy plyers represents. Classic bit of self harm for the sake of short term expediency.
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saik said:
Just quoting my reply from another thread. For Alvaro to progress we couldn't guarantee gametime and loaning him at that time with a buy back option was the correct decision. I don't think anyone could have predicted both Shaw and Malacia would be out indefinitely since Feb.
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Thanks for this. But then I imagine this happened under the watch of Murtough. Dont get me wrong, you both seem up to date on this and both seem to agree it was the right choice at the time but him and Gomez are two players this team would have hugely benefited from. It just feels terrible knowing that you had them to then let them go.
 
Ace of Spades said:
It does not matter, we just wasted a bunch of money. The little money we got for selling Alvaro was spent on that pointless Reguillon loan for half a season. This is not a good way to manage the squad at all.

Your hypotheticals are pointless, as the reality is that our LB position is a mess, and we sold a good talent that we had in the academy for that position for peanuts.
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My hypotheticals are certainly pointless now, as it didn’t happen. The same goes for your hypothesis that Alvaro back then could have filled the void of Shaw and Malacia nearly as well as Reguilon, Amrabat, Wan-Bissaka and Dalot could. And your other implicit hypothesis, that he would have had a sinilar development at United as he has at Benfica. Neither happened, and are now pointless.

Yor point about wasting money is also a hypothetical. We have in fact earnt money on buying and selling Alvaro. Saying we could have earnt more, is after all hypothetical too.

It seems to me you want to criticize decisions made by the club, which is all fair, but it makes little sense to criticize a decision based on what happened afterwards. You can only make a decision based on what is knowable at the time, right? I’m not sure you at the time could know Alvaro would be one out of the several kids we had then to step up and increase his value, nor that both Malacia and Shaw would have setbacks, nor that even Reguilon, Lindelöf and Wan Bussaka would have spells on the injury list. Therefore it seems based on hindsight, which would make it a bit pointless.
 
I watched the game last night with the sole intention of watching Alvaro and whilst i think he’s solid enough as a LB and we were hasty to get rid given our injury issues at LB, I’m not convinced bringing him back fits in to an Amorim 3-4-3.

It’s the price that makes him appealing but I don’t think he’s the right player.
 
G-manc said:
I watched the game last night with the sole intention of watching Alvaro and whilst i think he’s solid enough as a LB and we were hasty to get rid given our injury issues at LB, I’m not convinced bringing him back fits in to an Amorim 3-4-3.

It’s the price that makes him appealing but I don’t think he’s the right player.
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Do you think the price is good for him as a backup/squad player? I reckon we will likely need to buy 2 left backs depending on what we do with Malacia and Shaw.
 
flameinthesun said:
Do you think the price is good for him as a backup/squad player? I reckon we will likely need to buy 2 left backs depending on what we do with Malacia and Shaw.
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I’ve mentioned in another thread that from what I’ve seen and read, I would expect Amorim would prefer converted wingers in the wing back roles so I’m not sure there’s much point as I would have certainly have doubts over Rashford and Antony being good or disciplined enough to play those roles, so he may need to spend on the right wide players rather than a traditional full back.

I might be way off the mark with what he wants to do though as I’ve also read he’s likely to give everyone a chance.

I personally think Fernandez is too slow.
 
G-manc said:
I’ve mentioned in another thread that from what I’ve seen and read, I would expect Amorim would prefer converted wingers in the wing back roles so I’m not sure there’s much point as I would have certainly have doubts over Rashford and Antony being good or disciplined enough to play those roles, so he may need to spend on the right wide players rather than a traditional full back.

I might be way off the mark with what he wants to do though as I’ve also read he’s likely to give everyone a chance.

I personally think Fernandez is too slow.
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I’ve considered the same. Although, do you think he could develop into a LCB à la Inácio going forward?
Noticed they’re the same height and Alvaro is very good on the ball but not agile or fast like a winger.

For the money he’ll cost I think he could be a good option for us as a utility player able to fill in at both LCB and on the wings occasionally.
 
JohnnyLaw said:
I’ve considered the same. Although, do you think he could develop into a LCB à la Inácio going forward?
Noticed they’re the same height and Alvaro is very good on the ball but not agile or fast like a winger.

For the money he’ll cost I think he could be a good option for us as a utility player able to fill in at both LCB and on the wings occasionally.
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Maybe, as he’s quite tall. I would expect Amorim to be buying at least one ready made CB too though and we know money to spend is likely to be tight.
 
JohnnyLaw said:
I’ve considered the same. Although, do you think he could develop into a LCB à la Inácio going forward?
Noticed they’re the same height and Alvaro is very good on the ball but not agile or fast like a winger.

For the money he’ll cost I think he could be a good option for us as a utility player able to fill in at both LCB and on the wings occasionally.
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Take this for what it is, a review of when he was still here before he developed as I havent seen more than highlights of matches hes had since he left, and looked at stats

The reason I didnt think he'd make it here is he would play opposition players onside making him defensively weak. I obviously hope that if we do resign him he's rapidly improved his positioning, even if he plays as a left wingback. But I wont be surprised if he's still weak in this area. As an LCB I would have severe doubts as it would be even more important to get positioning right.
 
Buy this guy back please. Annoys me that Benfica has found the Grimaldo replacement already.

Just scored against Porto.
 
Sly said:
Buy this guy back please. Annoys me that Benfica has found the Grimaldo replacement already.

Just scored against Porto.
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We prefer doing business with Sporting. Benfica has mostly just been one miss after another.
 
Samid said:
We prefer doing business with Sporting. Benfica has mostly just been one miss after another.
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We have a full back called Esgaio that could help you guys.
 
Di Maria is playing RWB in this match. This means any of our wingers can play RWB or LWB. Apart from Rashford. No?
 


There's noise around us buying this guy back and considering we are in dire need of LWB's that's no surprise considering his performances and how cheaply we can get him. Would people want this though? The reality is it looks like we're signing this young Leon guy, I can't see us signing him, Alvaro AND another LWB on top of that, I imagine if we signed Alvaro back that's all we'll get for LWB for the time being.

Would people prefer a different option that Alvaro?
 
L1nk said:


There's noise around us buying this guy back and considering we are in dire need of LWB's that's no surprise considering his performances and how cheaply we can get him. Would people want this though? The reality is it looks like we're signing this young Leon guy, I can't see us signing him, Alvaro AND another LWB on top of that, I imagine if we signed Alvaro back that's all we'll get for LWB for the time being.

Would people prefer a different option that Alvaro?
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I'm honestly not sure he has the physicality to play LB in the EPL, let alone LWB in Amorim's system.
 
We've been linked with several first team LWBs so I'm guessing we're making inquiries and seeing who's available and for what price. Obviously in Alvaro's case negotiating a price is straightforward since it's already done with a buyback clause.
 
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