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

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I fecking hope we're preparing a bid for this guy.

How do you actually 'prepare a bid'? Setting up a committee for deciding on what stationery should be used for the fax? Hiring people to design a custom font? Woodward spending sleepless night with cognac and rolled up sleeves pouring over the wording of it, looking over the shoulder of a translator under the focused warm light of a solitary desk lamp? Van Gaal pops his head in to ask "how goes it with Di Maria? You send a fax yet?" and Woodward goes "it's being prepared, Louie. Being prepared..."?
 
How do you actually 'prepare a bid'? Setting up a committee for deciding on what stationery should be used for the fax? Hiring people to design a custom font? Woodward spending sleepless night with cognac and rolled up sleeves pouring over the wording of it, looking over the shoulder of a translator under the focused warm light of a solitary desk lamp? Van Gaal pops his head in to ask "how goes it with Di Maria? You send a fax yet?" and Woodward goes "it's being prepared, Louie. Being prepared..."?
Pre-negotiation with the player's agent/s, the other club, commercial partners and sponsors. With South American players, usually other ownership interests. Legal teams on both sides thrashing out details. Etc etc.
 
How do you actually 'prepare a bid'? Setting up a committee for deciding on what stationery should be used for the fax? Hiring people to design a custom font? Woodward spending sleepless night with cognac and rolled up sleeves pouring over the wording of it, looking over the shoulder of a translator under the focused warm light of a solitary desk lamp? Van Gaal pops his head in to ask "how goes it with Di Maria? You send a fax yet?" and Woodward goes "it's being prepared, Louie. Being prepared..."?

Are you actually serious in the idea that a bid doesn't take extensive preparation?
 
Pre-negotiation with the player's agent/s, the other club, commercial partners and sponsors. With South American players, usually other ownership interests. Legal teams on both sides thrashing out details. Etc etc.
gtfo
 
AS: PSG will pay €75m with an extra €5m in bonuses for Angel Di Maria. Deal will be financed by sales of Ezequiel Lavezzi & Edinson Cavani.
 
I honestly think we're a Di Maria signing away from being a solid 4-3-3 side. Madness not to go for him.
 
I went to Wikipedia to check when he joined Madrid and was pleasantly surprised to see this:

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AS: PSG will pay €75m with an extra €5m in bonuses for Angel Di Maria. Deal will be financed by sales of Ezequiel Lavezzi & Edinson Cavani.
Who the hell will buy Cavani? All the teams that can afford him have quality strikers. I'm glad we didn't waste money on Di Maria. As brilliant as he is our squad has bigger concerns than a flying winger who can also play attacking midfield.
 
Obviously he's a good player - a bona-fide match-winner at his best, with nice statistics behind him. He does blow hold and cold though and he can be absolutely infuriating to watch. Personally I think as a winger he has been a little overrated - he's the sort who tries things so often that eventually something has to come off, and he's benefited hugely from having unbelievable finishers to pass to. Really developed his game while playing in the midfield 3 last season though.

I don't think he's anything like the kind of player we need.
 
Obviously he's a good player - a bona-fide match-winner at his best, with nice statistics behind him. He does blow hold and cold though and he can be absolutely infuriating to watch. Personally I think as a winger he has been a little overrated - he's the sort who tries things so often that eventually something has to come off, and he's benefited hugely from having unbelievable finishers to pass to. Really developed his game while playing in the midfield 3 last season though.

I don't think he's anything like the kind of player we need.

Unlike say...Reus you mean.
 
Not really no, now I think about it... defensive players are more the kind we need right now. Not that anyone would turn down Reus - he's Reus :p

Well you outlined how our attacking 3 and midfield are strong in Van Gaal's lineup as is. Liverpool nearly won the league with a non existent back line and in comparison ours is very strong as is. I'm thinking positive thanks to you!
 
The other big clubs make bids and sign players. We prepare bids. We only prepare them, god knows what we do with them.


After we prepare them, we think about them, then wait for the following summer to make the bid. If we are lucky, we get our man, if not, we say there is no value in the market. It seems though, nowadays, the way to keep us from being impatient is to tell us that it will take three more months of playing like last season before we improve.

All in all, it confuses the sheet out of me, why with this supposed bottomless pit of cash, we are not mopping up the best talent around.


I am sure, because, I believe... that I will be proved wrong and Woody won't end up looking lick a male chicken for the second year running.
 
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I think he would be waste of money. With a front three of RVP, Rooney with Mata behind them, he just isn't needed. Certainly not for €75m
 
I think he would be waste of money. With a front three of RVP, Rooney with Mata behind them, he just isn't needed. Certainly not for €75m
Three speed demons we have there in attack.
 
Well you outlined how our attacking 3 and midfield are strong in Van Gaal's lineup as is. Liverpool nearly won the league with a non existent back line and in comparison ours is very strong as is. I'm thinking positive thanks to you!

Happy to hear that! Too much unnecessary doom and gloom around
 
All those will play if fit unless we are going to sell one of them.

And Rooney isn't slow.
http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014/04/06/worlds-fastest-footballer-revealed-not-baleronaldowalcott/
I don't need stats to tell me things, I watch football and Rooney is not very mobile, nor good enough of a dribbler to manipulate the ball at fast speeds. He may be fast running in a straight line, so is Usain Bolt.

Last season this lack of pace was one of the main things why we could barely trouble opposition defenders, we couldn't stretch them.
Di Maria is no waste of momey and van Gaal has said he wanted a winger if he is to play 4-3-3. He also literally said he is playing 5-3-2 or 3-5-2 because he is forced to by this squad and went on to confirm he favors 4-3-3...
sooner or later he will assemble the squad that is needed for that. If he buys di Maria it would mean 4-3-3: Mata, Rooney, di Matia and RvP could all be fielded in that formatiom.
 
I do find it strange that Van Gaal comes out saying how we need a specialised winger to play the 4-3-3, and Di Maria is clearly available. Yet we're, seemingly, not interested.

I really don't understand our transfer policy.
 
I don't need stats to tell me things, I watch football and Rooney is not very mobile, nor good enough of a dribbler to manipulate the ball at fast speeds. He may be fast running in a straight line, so is Usain Bolt.

Last season this lack of pace was one of the main things why we could barely trouble opposition defenders, we couldn't stretch them.
Di Maria is no waste of momey and van Gaal has said he wanted a winger if he is to play 4-3-3. He also literally said he is playing 5-3-2 or 3-5-2 because he is forced to by this squad and went on to confirm he favors 4-3-3...
sooner or later he will assemble the squad that is needed for that. If he buys di Maria it would mean 4-3-3: Mata, Rooney, di Matia and RvP could all be fielded in that formatiom.

How would you see it working exactly?
 
I don't need stats to tell me things, I watch football and Rooney is not very mobile, nor good enough of a dribbler to manipulate the ball at fast speeds. He may be fast running in a straight line, so is Usain Bolt.

Last season this lack of pace was one of the main things why we could barely trouble opposition defenders, we couldn't stretch them.
Di Maria is no waste of momey and van Gaal has said he wanted a winger if he is to play 4-3-3. He also literally said he is playing 5-3-2 or 3-5-2 because he is forced to by this squad and went on to confirm he favors 4-3-3...
sooner or later he will assemble the squad that is needed for that. If he buys di Maria it would mean 4-3-3: Mata, Rooney, di Matia and RvP could all be fielded in that formatiom.
But he also said he favours the system due to the strikers we have, notably two top class ones in Van Persie and Rooney, with very solid backup in Welbeck and (for now) Chicharito. There's not much doubt that 4-3-3 is his long term goal and will shape the squad in future for it, but whilst Van Persie and Rooney remain at their peaks and at the club, 4-3-3 isn't a particularly good system for them.
 
It shouldn't be what's best for the players, but what's best for Manchester United as a team.
 
I don't need stats to tell me things, I watch football and Rooney is not very mobile, nor good enough of a dribbler to manipulate the ball at fast speeds. He may be fast running in a straight line, so is Usain Bolt.

Last season this lack of pace was one of the main things why we could barely trouble opposition defenders, we couldn't stretch them.
Di Maria is no waste of momey and van Gaal has said he wanted a winger if he is to play 4-3-3. He also literally said he is playing 5-3-2 or 3-5-2 because he is forced to by this squad and went on to confirm he favors 4-3-3...
sooner or later he will assemble the squad that is needed for that. If he buys di Maria it would mean 4-3-3: Mata, Rooney, di Matia and RvP could all be fielded in that formatiom.

Total bollox, it was nothing to do with lack of pace, it was Moyes shite dinosaur tactics and the players total and utter non belief in those tactics
 
It shouldn't be what's best for the players, but what's best for Manchester United as a team.
The two are somewhat linked. Getting Rooney, Van Persie and Mata in their best positions playing well is very good for Manchester United. 4-3-3 doesn't easily (or arguably at all) allow that, 3-5-2 may well do.
 
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