Adrien Rabiot | signed for Marseille

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Fernandez and Kambwala so far. Mctominay also being touted.
Where is "talent" there? We are replacing players who are simply not good enough with those who are better than them. Every year dozen home grown players leave club. You would described them all as "talented"?
 
No doubting his ability, he’s a baller

I have an issue around the money grabs that his mum tends to aim for. If we can calm her down then go for it.

I also want a ball winner in though.
 
Fernandez and Kambwala so far. Mctominay also being touted.
He's a 27 year old squad player. Kambwala turned down a contract extension and wanted to leave because he wants more first team football which is fair enough. He was never getting ahead of our other centre backs.
 
Still only 29 so he should have a couple more good years in him at least. A definite upgrade on McTominay.
 
Why are Juve fans glad to see the back of him? His mother and her demands?
 
Wouldn't mind him but wouldn't want him on massive wages either. There has to be a reason why he's a free agent though?

I haven't kept up with Juve and Rabiot to know what went on there?
 
He's a good player and probably good rotation with Mainoo. That'll solve at least one big gap in the squad for cheap so I don't really mind it. Just the drama that he brings I'm a bit wary of.

If we pull off 3 signings now - Rabiot, Ugarte and one of De Ligt / Branthwaite we're basically close to complete in terms of squad building in just one summer. The only remaining positions are LB and RB (if AwB leaves). Open heart surgery complete.

State of the squad:

GK: Onana / Vitek
RB: Dalot / AWB
RCB: De Ligt / Yoro
LCB: Martinez / Maguire
LB: Shaw / Malacia?
DM: Ugarte / Casemiro
CM: Mainoo / Rabiot
#10: Bruno / Mount
LW: Rashford / Garnacho / Sancho
RW: Garnacho / Amad / Antony / Sancho
CF: Hojlund / Zirkzee

Players in red a bit problematic but we can easily survive with that.
If we get Rabiot, I would prefer Zubimendi because a midfield base of Ugarte/Amrabat/Casemiro and Mainoo/Rabiot, lacks a deep lying playmaker profile. They are all mostly safe passers.
 
Where is "talent" there? We are replacing players who are simply not good enough with those who are better than them. Every year dozen home grown players leave club. You would described them all as "talented"?
There are players on the team who are far from good enough but we can’t sell them because the cost of their contract is still on the books. Hence I said prioritising the likes of Kambwala, Fernandez and McT over expensive flops like Sancho Antony and Maguire .
 
Still only 29 so he should have a couple more good years in him at least. A definite upgrade on McTominay.
We said the same with Casemeiro and Eriksen. INEOS won't sign him, pretty confident of that.
Casmeiro stats were mid table when we signed him the previous season in La Liga. His signing is everything that's wrong with the club the last 10 years.
 
He's a 27 year old squad player. Kambwala turned down a contract extension and wanted to leave because he wants more first team football which is fair enough. He was never getting ahead of our other centre backs.
I said prioritise. These are who we are moving on first ahead of actual expensive flops because it doesn’t make PSR sense to sell Antony for 20 mil.
 
Amrabat is back with Fiorentina and there haven’t been any noises about us making the move permanent from what I’ve seen. Did I miss something?

In terms of squad make up, I believe who we sign in midfield will largely determine how we play. If we bring in Rabiot and Ugarte, I believe we are looking at a double pivot. With Rabiot, Ugarte, Mainoo and one other, likely either Casemiro or McT making up the rotation. Zubimendi gives us more possibility to play with a single pivot in rotation with Casemiro, with Rabiot and Mainoo rotating the 8 role. Ugarte is not suited to playing as a sole pivot, neither is Rabiot or Mainoo. The only two players listed who are, are Casemiro and Zubimendi. Albeit in different ways.

I would be very supportive of signing Zubimendi. I think he would give us more tactical flexibility.

I can say, that regardless of which way we go, we are being linked with a host of names who can all significantly improve us. It’s hard to read which direction we are going in in terms of midfield, but I very much get the impression that we are operating from a well defined blueprint; which hasn’t been the case for quite some time.
 
Not a fan of his and his mums antics off the pitch, turned us down a year ago because we wouldnt throw a tonne of cash at him.

Interested to know how highly Juve fans would rate him though. I havnt seen him play much.

For anyone who has, would he go straight into the starting 11 or his he just a good squad player to have?
 
Fernandez and Kambwala so far. Mctominay also being touted.
Greenwood as well as Kambwala and Fernandez, £44 million so far which could be £80 million if McTominay also goes so with all four being homegrown it would be massive for us PSR/FFP wise.
 
I can't be arsed dealing with this guy's mother, unless she can score 20+ a season.
 
Why are Juve fans glad to see the back of him? His mother and her demands?

Probably not
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I can't be arsed dealing with this guy's mother, unless she can score 20+ a season.
PSG's media machinations really worked! It's been 5 years and people still say she is problematic despite the fact that the only crime she seemed to have committed was refusing to now to Nassar El-Khaleifi. 5 years at Juve and she hasn't said a word to the media. Our Darling Rashford's camp has been literally more mouthy.
 
Not a fan of his and his mums antics off the pitch, turned us down a year ago because we wouldnt throw a tonne of cash at him.

Interested to know how highly Juve fans would rate him though. I havnt seen him play much.

For anyone who has, would he go straight into the starting 11 or his he just a good squad player to have?
Basically this. He had his chance to join United and he turned us down.
 
If we get Rabiot, I would prefer Zubimendi because a midfield base of Ugarte/Amrabat/Casemiro and Mainoo/Rabiot, lacks a deep lying playmaker profile. They are all mostly safe passers.

No real links to Zubimendi so far but who knows? It seems like our plan was destroyer + ball carrier combination always. No links to any playmakers so far. It'll be a gap in the squad to solve for in future windows.
 
Semi decent player, a bit of a sunshine boy.

Happy to pass on signing him, be a good lad for West Ham maybe.
 
No doubting his ability, he’s a baller

I have an issue around the money grabs that his mum tends to aim for. If we can calm her down then go for it.

I also want a ball winner in though.

Performance related bonuses versus flat salary?
 
No doubting his ability, he’s a baller

I have an issue around the money grabs that his mum tends to aim for. If we can calm her down then go for it.

I also want a ball winner in though.

The two players we have brought in so far are clients of Kia Joorabchian and Jorge Mendes. These are agents famous for money grabs.

Rabiot has never been especially highly paid. At PSG he was underpaid, at Juventus he was getting a nice wage because no transfer fee, but he was not in their top 5 and he was still earning way less than e.g. United stars. There has been zero noise in the media while at Juventus, from Rabiot or his agent.
 
I'd love to see a list of the things that his mum has done to make so many folk say she's difficult with such confidence.
 
For me this just feels like a wrong, backwards step.

If he was to come a year or two ago when he would have been younger, when there weren't great options out there then maybe he could have filled a role.

Now it just feels like there are better options and he should have come when the chances were there in the past. Feels like one that would go horribly wrong and he'd underwhelm at this back end of his career for the extortionate money he'd cost - free isn't free, ever in football.
 
For me this just feels like a wrong, backwards step.

If he was to come a year or two ago when he would have been younger, when there weren't great options out there then maybe he could have filled a role.

Now it just feels like there are better options and he should have come when the chances were there in the past. Feels like one that would go horribly wrong and he'd underwhelm at this back end of his career for the extortionate money he'd cost - free isn't free, ever in football.
It's certainly an issue with buying these types of players as they approach / pass their 30's. They're generally arriving being paid the kind of wages that they've received (and merited) for their prime years, but they very quickly aren't producing their prime level of performances - certainly not as consistently. So you end up hugely overpaying in wages for the level of player you've actually got at that stage of their career.

Not so much an issue if you only get them on a year or two deal. But that's more when they're later 30's. Someone around 30 likely to want longer than a year or two, but then you're stuck in the Casemiro and Eriksen situation.
 
Good player with all around skill set, height and physicality. Would be a massive improvement on McTominay if we can swap like-for-like i.e would still need another midfielder.

If we can get him on affordable wages then a 2 or 3 year plus 1 option would be very good. A straight 4+1 would be alright too I guess as he's a versatile player.

He could have a Matic-like effect for us with his size, composure and experience. Hopefully though, we will manage his legs with a better team and tactics. Same could be said of Casemiro too but his transfer value to us now (for funds) is at its highest now.
 
It's certainly an issue with buying these types of players as they approach / pass their 30's. They're generally arriving being paid the kind of wages that they've received (and merited) for their prime years, but they very quickly aren't producing their prime level of performances - certainly not as consistently. So you end up hugely overpaying in wages for the level of player you've actually got at that stage of their career.

Not so much an issue if you only get them on a year or two deal. But that's more when they're later 30's. Someone around 30 likely to want longer than a year or two, but then you're stuck in the Casemiro and Eriksen situation.
Exactly and its not as if we haven't very recently been stung doing this exact thing, so maybe that should be a reminder to the management. Even Varane never fully convinced so we're about 2.5/3 for failures using this late career strategy lately, I'm giving Eriksen a bit of a pass as he probably wasn't the same level of expense as far as agent fees, salary as these guys and Rabiot would be so his squad role can be viewed a bit differently.

For me Ugarte, Zubimendi would be better if the money is there, it's more up front but some money will be saved over their contract in fees and salary and if they renew a contract there is long term value.
 
Do not want, INEOS don't get involve let his mom take their problems elsewhere.
 
fine player who starts for France but he and Kobbie would be a bit too similar....we still wouldn't have a true ball winner which we BADLY need
 
Probably Mctominay. But Rabiot is hardly a journeyman. PSG and Juventus. Thats it for clubs in his professional career.
Journeyman refers to a players ability, or rather lack of it, not the number of clubs he's played for.
 
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