Angel Di Maria | £59.7M fee agreed I Maybe tomorrow...or the day after...

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From the start of the window it was clear in my eyes that we needed a LB, one or two CBs, a couple of midfielders and a quality wide player. It was one of our main issues last season, the only guys who provided proper width were Valencia and Young. Neither of whom are anywhere near good enough.
 
Spark said:
But we are well-stocked with utter shite. It's not a case of Di Maria coming in and adding to the problem LvG keeps banging on about, re: unbalanced squad, six NO.10s etc... surely it's swap Ashley Young for Di Maria, 4-3-3 and all that jazz?
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In the current system, he'd probably be considered as an attacker - so it's an area with the like of RVP, Rooney, Kags, Mata, Januzzaj, etc. He'd have to displace one of Mata, Rooney and RVP. Either that, or he'd be in midfield as an upgrade on an already very good player in Herrera, or played at wingback. While his versatility is great, it's not often that you spend £60m on a player and not know where you ought to put him. I guess the big difference in our favour is that we actually know that Di Maria is versatile, whereas Ozil looked out of sorts in a lot of the games he had to be played away from #10.

It's weird how people think that the reason we aren't playing 433 is because we lack wingers. The reason we're playing 343, is so we can get our best 3 players on the pitch. It'd be silly if we went to all that trouble building a system that serves to get the best out of Mata, Rooney and RVP and then end up having to drop one of them. It'd be senseless to have spent an entire pre-season working on a system to then throw it away.

Just an aside on the six NO,10s point; signing Di Maria doesn't give us less number 10s - it arguably gives us one more. He definitely improves our quality, but you can't really think that this signing makes us a more balanced side?
 
PedroMendez said:
he is a panic buy. He is available for weeks, so why buy him that late, if you were after him all along? If thats not a reaction to the lost match, LvG and Ed are dumb as feck. This transfer wouldnt have happened if the team would have won the first match convincingly. Furthermore €70m is pretty damn steep.
Still I prefer overpaying for a player that is actually desperately needed than settling with some medium budget makeshift. He is quality and other than Mata or Felaini he fits into almost any tactics.
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It's only been about 3 weeks since LvG has been looking for players if we take the 'I'm evaluating the squad' quotes as true so it's not that long to structure a deal of this size, he mentioned Di Maria by name last week and one report suggested we have been working on it for a while, that's hardly a panic buy.

Feck me people have moaned and moaned about Young and Valencia in the past 2 years, we get a genuine world class player for that position and people still moan.
 
united_99 said:
Well that's a no-brainer as you already have Hazard. Willian is also much better than what we have (Young/Valencia). It's like us saying we wouldn't have liked Diego Costa because we don't need him, but you guys do. Same way we need Di Maria. Even if we get Vidal we will hardly score more goals due to a lack of pace and a tricky player who can beat a man.
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Why do so many people forget we have a young player who can beat a man & has pace? All our threads seem infested with pessimistic moaning Minnie's!
 
RDCR07 said:
But the thing is the only real competitors might be Bayern and City. Chelsea might be but they seem to have a wealth of options in attacking mid already.
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bosnian_red said:
I think its 35m and the Bayern owner was just saying it to piss them off. But anyways, don't think we'll get him anymore. Januzaj and Di Maria on the wings, Rooney up top, Mata in behind seems like what we'll do for the next few years until Rooney is past it. Unless Van Gaal plans on moving Januzaj centrally as a false 9 type player eventually so we can buy Reus on the other side of Di Maria but I can't see it.

It's definitely what I'll be doing on Football Manager and Fifa though :drool:
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Why not Real or United? The way Perez operates, I won't be surprised if he ditches Ronaldo in favour for a shiny new toy. As for United, we could move Di Maria in field, we could ditch one of Rooney/Van Persie...
 
One of the things I'm anticipating most from the potential transfer is the versatility that Di Maria would bring along with him. He can play on either wing and central midfield. So many potential line ups he could fit in.
 
For all our midfield troubles you could as well say that since Ronaldo left and finally a bit later when Nani and Valencia lost all their form, we as a team have become worse in terms of results, but especially in terms of performances. Great United teams have always had great wingers, whereas the wingers we have today are of the lowest quality in our recent history (bar Januzaj who is still very young).

So how anyone who has watched United over the years can label a quality winger like Di Maria a panic buy I will never understand!

And even if the price is too high for some ppl, just remember the Chevrolet, Adidas and all the other minor deals Woody is proud to negotiate. It's about time then that we benefit from them on the pitch, otherwise what's the point?

I am perfectly happy to overspend for a real quality player (if you can call it overspending at all in today's market anyway) than pay a similar amount on 2 or 3 average players (which we have been doing for the last few years and as a result have suffered big time).
 
PedroMendez said:
he is a panic buy. He is available for weeks, so why buy him that late, if you were after him all along? If thats not a reaction to the lost match, LvG and Ed are dumb as feck. This transfer wouldnt have happened if the team would have won the first match convincingly. Furthermore €70m is pretty damn steep.
Still I prefer overpaying for a player that is actually desperately needed than settling with some medium budget makeshift. He is quality and other than Mata or Felaini he fits into almost any tactics.
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Contrary to popular belief, most transfers aren't completed in a week, especially not a transfer of this size. Negotiations would have been going on for weeks. Plus LVG name-dropped him weeks ago too. So no, not a panic buy.
 
Twigg said:
Depends. Sky Sports News are reporting that we're in for him and that he's expected to hold talks with us next week, but I don't know if you'd count that as there being anything in it.
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Shite. I have a breaking news notification at the top of the page, I was hoping it was about to happen.
 
I understand what people are saying about the CM being higher priority, but the fa
ItsEssexRob said:
I've dabbled in this thread a bit but after seeing a few slightly odd oppo posts I guess its time to throw my full weight behind a post about this potential signing and what I think about it.

First off he's a world class player, we all should know that, however there seems to be a small divide between the fans here from what I can see.

There's those who have become disillusioned with the way the club has gone in the past few years (despite winning a title) and to whom signing a world class player has become something of an oracle, the idea of signing this player who was one of the best in a Real Madrid side that won the CL is a dream for those, despite the fact he is a world class player he has instantly become in the top 5 in the world to those and money is no object throw whatever they want at them, just sign that world class name.

Then there are those who are a bit more level headed and are concerned about what implications this has for the future.

United have been struggling lately in the transfer market, and almost every signing made has been vastly overpriced. They also have not been selling that well either so not a lot has been coming in, in the future clubs will know they can sell United average or decent players at a premium whilst top players can go for astronomical fees.

Had United bought Vidal and Benatia for say 80 or 90 million, I would have said it was very very good business and actually tip United as comfortable favourites for the top four at least as in the past 3 or more seasons these two areas have been the weakness for United.
I feel personally Di Maria is more of a statement than actually a player United are craving, a way of showing power over building the team in the correct order, this almost always leads to problems.

He will improve the side no doubt, but now it seems the thought is that with this world class player we can plug the other gaps with mediocrity such as De Jong and Blind and that's job done, I'm not so sure.

Its easy to dismiss any rival fan looking negatively upon this transfer as jealousy, which to some it may be, but not to all, there is clearly an element of truth to what some oppos say, in the same way there would be if we were to sign him. Yes he would improve our team too, but when you have the array of attacking mid-fielders we do, by how much?

Plus theres no guarantee he will make the transition quickly or easily and then will people get on his back because of his huge price tag and wage bill?

In short it's a bit of a risk, you pay a lot of money for a luxury player in the hope that the whole team will click better and that he will continue last seasons form seamlessly. Of course it may happen that way, theres no saying it wont, but it might be worth some being a bit more humble and not losing themselves too much, hes a great player but remember its team first then names on paper.
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I understand what people are saying about the CM being higher priority, but the fact is we need him alot more than him being a simple luxury signing.

part of the high transfer fee is woody's fault. The moment you start talking shit about unlimited funds, you're just asking for trouble.
However alot of fans are forgetting that our winger's have been bad for the past 2 years running now.

It was identified early on we needed 1 lb 1 cb 2 cm's and at least 1 winger.

The part iv highlighted i found a bit odd, we could have signed Vidal and kept and we are actually in an arguably worse position.

Di Maria + Blind + De Jong

i feel is better than

Vidal + Depay/Nani + Blind

Opposition fans criticism might have an element of truth to it, but i feel that its simply convenient for us to criticised atm.


This signing would do more good than harm. :)
 
Castia said:
It's only been about 3 weeks since LvG has been looking for players if we take the 'I'm evaluating the squad' quotes as true so it's not that long to structure a deal of this size, he mentioned Di Maria by name last week and one report suggested we have been working on it for a while, that's hardly a panic buy.

Feck me people have moaned and moaned about Young and Valencia in the past 2 years, we get a genuine world class player for that position and people still moan.
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i am not moaning at all. I´d be delighted if this is happening. Its a good transfer, that is desperately needed. Still a panic buy or Ed/LvG are idiots.
 


Sky sports reporting the same. Although I want us to pay whatever it takes, I don't think our board will sanction £75m on a single player. :(
 
CassiusClaymore said:
I'll never understand Real Madrid.

They ship this guy out under the guise of appeasing the fans with a new 'Galactico' signing when it's evident that the fans don't want him to go.

Mental. :wenger:
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Don't question it, many clubs benefit from the annual Madrid fire sale!
 
Castia said:
It's only been about 3 weeks since LvG has been looking for players if we take the 'I'm evaluating the squad' quotes as true so it's not that long to structure a deal of this size, he mentioned Di Maria by name last week and one report suggested we have been working on it for a while, that's hardly a panic buy.

Feck me people have moaned and moaned about Young and Valencia in the past 2 years, we get a genuine world class player for that position and people still moan.
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And I thought the newbs was bad.
It's been a frustrating transfer window and I admit I've vented my opinions on here on more than one occasion. But every one of our 4 signings is going to be an improvement on what will had before. I am happy. I hope we get another defender with experience in and definitely need another CM but can't see us spending another massive fee. We need our injured players back!
 
The feckers, we sold them Ronaldo, van Nistelrooy and Beckham for peanuts. We should feck them right off the next time they come knocking and approach Barcelona.
 
If they actively want rid, they aren't in any position to demand £75 million.
 
freshibal said:
I understand what people are saying about the CM being higher priority, but the fact is we need him alot more than him being a simple luxury signing.

part of the high transfer fee is woody's fault. The moment you start talking shit about unlimited funds, you're just asking for trouble.
However alot of fans are forgetting that our winger's have been bad for the past 2 years running now.
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Last season a lot of fans wanted a new central defender, left back, midfielder and a winger. We're getting last year's shopping now and unfortunately doing it without CL football in the offer.

If we sign Di Maria, we've just got this year's shopping left to do.
 
Obvious PR propaganda exercise is obvious.

"We're Real Madrid and we have to look like we're in the driving seat and getting the best end of the deal, let's leak it to the press that we're asking for £75m".

No different to Liverpool leaking figures of £80m for Suarez while Barcelona claimed it was only £60m.
 
Over £50m?
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We'll live without this bum til January when Madrid will accept £35m first day.
 
Kill 'em all said:


Sky sports reporting the same. Although I want us to pay whatever it takes, I don't think our board will sanction £75m on a single player. :(
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They'd be right not to, as then he'd be the third most expensive player of all time, maybe I'm old fashioned in thinking that should be reserved for balon d'or winners or those with a realistic chance of winning one.
 
PedroMendez said:
he is a panic buy. He is available for weeks, so why buy him that late, if you were after him all along? If thats not a reaction to the lost match, LvG and Ed are dumb as feck. This transfer wouldnt have happened if the team would have won the first match convincingly. Furthermore €70m is pretty damn steep.
Still I prefer overpaying for a player that is actually desperately needed than settling with some medium budget makeshift. He is quality and other than Mata or Felaini he fits into almost any tactics.
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Oh, so now a panic buy is buying someone a couple of weeks later than originally possible? You really think van Gaal would sign a player because we lost one match and not for the bigger picture? Ridiculous.

Zen said:
We'll live without this bum til January when Madrid will accept £35m first day.
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Just....no.
 
hobbers said:
Obvious PR exercise is obvious.

"We're Real Madrid and we have to look like we're in the driving seat and getting the best end of the deal, let's leak it to the press that we're asking for £75m".

No different to Liverpool leaking figures of £80m for Suarez while Barcelona claimed it was only £60m.
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Difference is Real in recent years have got top dollar for their rejects.
 
£75m is too much, whatever happens we have money to spend therefore this £50m - £60m could be put towards a player like Vidal or we could spend it on other players that will improve the selection.

The fact the board are willing to back Louis van Gaal is key. And also that this war chest actually exists.
 
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