Anthony Martial

[Ubik]

We also signed a central midfielder from Bayern Munich that summer, who turned out a good player but a crock.

And won the Champions League.

 

[Brwned]

Exactly. Everyone would be laughing their asses off. That's exactly what is happening in every European football forum right now by the way.

Aww. You think United fans care about what other fans think about their signings. That's cute.

 

[Nights]

If this is true it is shocking.. 36 mil on an unknown

Fergie was willing to pay 30 million on Moura, who had only played in the Brazilian league at the time.

 

[ArmchairCritic]

Re the price, I never bother too much about it. If we are paying 36mil, its because it couldn't be done for 35 and we rate him enough to pay up. Seeing as we are one of the richest clubs in the world, I don't see why we shouldn't.

Wish it was an attitude we adapted a heck of a lot earlier, might have had Hazard in a United shirt if we did. For all his questionable decisions tactically I do think Van Gaal on a whole has done a good job completely divorcing us from the SAF era and modernising us as a team and squad, there's still a lot to do and we could be a lot more progressive on the pitch but I think people need to appreciate what we saw under SAF will never happen ever again. People seem to reference the way we operated under SAF as the be all and end all but that's a pretty dangerous precedent to set.

 

[RoadTrip]

If we are signing this guy for 36m, can someone please explain to me why we didn't go for Pedro?

 

[DWelbz19]

Fergie was willing to pay 30 million on Moura, who had only played in the Brazilian league at the time.

SAF was just a tad bit better than what LvG has been for us, though.

 

[RedStarUnited]

obviously money is not an issue for the us else they would not spend £36 on a 19 year old unproven player, so why the hell not just buy Griezman who is proven and a little bit more mature, and more importantly will help solve our biggest problem in that we need goals. Yes he is more expensive but we've hardly spent anything and the wage bill has been slashed.

I genuinely thought that our transfer strategy was sound when we signed Depay and the like, but it just seems like we're all over the place. Maybe its time to consider a technical director because I just don't rate LVG's ability to target the right players for us.

LVG might not like Grieman as much as we do. Also what makes you think A.Madrid wont request a near 80m transfer fee for him too, buy out clauses are only valid in Spain.

 

[JustFootballFan]

Could be a cfcf...aka the evolution of a bebe.

 

[roykeane19]

Am utterly bemused....
An unproven 19 year old that is hardly setting the world alight (hence the 'who is he' 'why have I never heard of him'), no PL experience, does he even start for Monaco regularly? And £36m at that (when he was bought by Monaco for about £3.5 only 24 months ago), what a joke!

We really are turning into a joke club, none of the other big teams are after him, only us most likely, and the price gets so inflated, even worse is the absolute joke of how much we sell our players for, no resale value at all, when we sell to otherclubs

 

[Irrational.]

So is this Martian fella an actual striker or winger? Or one of those multifunctional players like LVG seems to prefer?

 

[Revan]

Jesus Christ, this might be the worst piece of article I have ever read.

First it says that he is costing 36m pounds, but can reach 58m. Very clearly, it is using the both quoted figures (36m and 60m + 20m in bonuses), but the second figure even without bonuses is higher than 36m. The proceds to say that Shaw cost 33m (when it was reported last summer that he cost 27m + 3m in bonuses) and finally says that Rooney back then cost 30m pounds.

Somehow they forgot to mention that Depay cost 31m pounds, which next year most likely means that he'll cost 43m pounds (considering that currently 31m pounds are 43m euro).

 

[Roman Bellic]

If we are signing this guy for 36m, can someone please explain to me why we didn't go for Pedro?

LVG didn't fancy him.

 

[The Man Himself]

Stuart Mathieson saying LvG has scouted Martial for a year. The 'this is panic signing from clueless duo of LvG-Woody' brigade will ignore it I guess.

 

[FreakyJim]

Not in the sense of being an utterly insufferable prick, I hope.

I'm sorry but he's the whole package. Henry 2.0

 

[Green_Red]

Fergie was willing to pay 30 million on Moura, who had only played in the Brazilian league at the time.

proof? or speculation?

 

[Drifter]

If we are signing this guy for 36m, can someone please explain to me why we didn't go for Pedro?

Because we were either not really serious about him or he preferred Jose.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

He has the potential to be a great player.

Cheers. That's good enough for me, for now. Hopefully lvg doesn't get this one terribly like he did with di maria.

 

[mu4c_20le]

No offense intended, but one is a proven international who performed well at Sociedad and emerged as the third highest scorer in La Liga, and would benefit the team immediately at a time when we're crying for goals. The other is a 19 year old who has played 50 games for Monaco, has scored a total of 11 goals in 2 league seasons, and could go either way.

I agree that Griez is the more established player at the moment, and would immediately improve us. Never said that wasn't the case,s o no offense taken. However, he has 4 years on Martial, so it seems like we are gambling on a massive improvement in that 4 years' time, which for a 20 year old is the most crucial development time.

 

[Mali_Zeus]

We really are turning into a joke club, none of the other big teams are after him, only us most likely, and the price gets so inflated, even worse is the absolute joke of how much we sell our players for, no resale value at all, when we sell to otherclubs

Don't forget to mention we're a joke of a club.
Btw Barcelona was interested but don't let that bother you.

 

[RoadTrip]

So is this Martian fella an actual striker or winger? Or one of those multifunctional players like LVG seems to prefer?

He will probably end up playing centre back.

 

[Ødegaard]

Don't care about the price, and everyone and their dog knows we'll need another forward, especially now with Chicharito moving on.
A talented player who can come on and do a job when Rooney is out, or play on the wing, so he's still going to get game-time?
Thats good enough for now, just hope he becomes a great, rather than a good/ok player for us in a few seasons.

 

[Rooney in Paris]

He got subbed on in the second half of one game and subbed off 30 minutes later for "tactical reasons"...doesn't sound too good!

I think it was even shorter than 30 minutes, and how is that indicative of attitude problems? If anything, from what I know, he accepted the decision (which was rather humiliating) and didn't make a fuss at all which show a good attitude. All reports are that he is a dedicated professional and I'm not aware of any attitude issues there may have been.

 

[Varun]

If we are signing this guy for 36m, can someone please explain to me why we didn't go for Pedro?

Quite a few reasons but money wasn't one of them. That's more important.

 

[Siorac]

Stuart Mathieson saying LvG has scouted Martial for a year. The 'this is panic signing from clueless duo of LvG-Woody' brigade will ignore it I guess.

The two aren't mutually exclusive: we've been scouting him for a year now but didn't want to sign him just yet. But we got panicked after a shite start so decided to pounce.

See, it's beautiful.

 

[roykeane19]

With all due respect, that's a load of poo. No offense intended, but one is a proven international who performed well at Sociedad and emerged as the third highest scorer in La Liga, and would benefit the team immediately at a time when we're crying for goals. The other is a 19 year old who has played 50 games for Monaco, has scored a total of 11 goals in 2 league seasons, and could go either way. All this talk of bundles of unknown potential and whatnot, and the signing could very well backfire spectacularly. You could easily make the arguments being made for Martial for Sanogo to cite one example, another Ligue 1 youngster than showcased some ability, a fair few even stereo-typically compared him to Henry for some reason, and he failed to take off at Arsenal. A fee of €50 million+ is virtually unheard of for a player so raw, that's the territory of time proven world class players, or atleast those exhibiting the ability to approach that status in the near future - the likes of Hazard, Isco, Gotze in recent seasons; or Ronaldo and Robben in the past when adjusting for inflation.

We really dont spend good at all, 250mill spent, and honestly the players brought in, Id expect them to be much higher quality than what we have, these days we are paying OTT fees for good- to average players. Our scouting and transfer department need to get a kick up their asses. The smaller clubs in the league, find some decent talents, and dont pay the stupid amounts we do

 

[AKDevil]

Spurs were quite different 20m euros, surely not?

He hadn't signed his new contract at that stages

 

[Drifter]

Stuart Mathieson saying LvG has scouted Martial for a year. The 'this is panic signing from clueless duo of LvG-Woody' brigade will ignore it I guess.

Bet they scouted lots of players.Does not mean that this was the first choice. If we had won against Swansea by 2 or 3 goals we may not be hearing about Martial.

 

[Renegade81]

Ok but why have you added things which haven't happened?

You mean De Gea? Even if we do hold on to him that has no bearing what so ever on our attacking options same as buying a 19yo unproven potential striker who at the price would be expected to make an instant impact.

 

[clarkydaz]

If we are signing this guy for 36m, can someone please explain to me why we didn't go for Pedro?

he might have wanted this guy instead?

 

[RedStarUnited]

I get the feeling LVG has always preferred young players he can mold rather than older players.

 

[Stan Jefferson]

Exactly. Everyone would be laughing their asses off. That's exactly what is happening in every European football forum right now by the way.

I personally care so little about other fans opinions that it didn't even occur to me there were any european football forums in the first place.

 

[Varun]

Wish it was an attitude we adapted a heck of a lot earlier, might have had Hazard in a United shirt if we did. For all his questionable decisions tactically I do think Van Gaal on a whole has done a good job completely divorcing us from the SAF era and modernising us as a team and squad, there's still a lot to do and we could be a lot more progressive on the pitch but I think people need to appreciate what we saw under SAF will never happen ever again. People seem to reference the way we operated under SAF as the be all and end all but that's a pretty dangerous precedent to set.

Absolutely. There was a lot of hue and cry about sir Alex not paying up and being disconnected with the present market. We are doing the reverse now and people still complain.

I just want the lad to join so he can show us what he's got. If we can get another top young player, I hope we blow the competition out of the water for him too.

 

[Smores]

On the one hand this transfer seems crazy. On the other hand how sure must our scouting team be to insist on paying such a fee and taking such a gamble on a 19 year old lad? They must see him as a sure thing to be a world beater. Now that is an exciting thought.

Or the club have realised we need someone in and are willing to overpay.

I'm sure we have a long list of United quality targets and we work on them constantly so this won't be a last second find. However that doesn't mean this isn't a panic buy as it's delusional to think we've waited until the last day to get a striker

 

[Varun]

Exactly. Everyone would be laughing their asses off. That's exactly what is happening in every European football forum right now by the way.

Shit. Really?

Cancel the fecking deal Woody, we don't want to be laughed at on other club fan forums.

 

[Enigma_87]

Stuart Mathieson saying LvG has scouted Martial for a year. The 'this is panic signing from clueless duo of LvG-Woody' brigade will ignore it I guess.

It's because it's left so late that makes a bit of a panic buy. We will definitely overpay since it's visible we're struggling in attack and there is no time left before the window closes, not the player itself. We did the same stint with Fellaini.

 

[RoadTrip]

Quite a few reasons but money wasn't one of them. That's more important.

Don't get this attitude towards money. Nonsense to say 36m is fine because it couldn't be done for less. Yes we should go big for the players we want but at some point you have to also be reasonable. Comparing this to the Hazard one for example is nonsense really.

Also despite what everyone seems to want to think, our pool of funds is not infinite. At some point extra money you spend will hamper what else you can spend on.

 

[pacifictheme]

Griezmann thread was spawned out of pure desperation as soon as Chelsea swooped in for Pedro. Based on a fecking tweet. That was beyond rawkish, but you Griezmann muppets don't care, so don't even talk about delusional. Greizmann is the more established player at the moment but just because you haven't heard of Martial, doesn't mean the United staff have not, so maybe stop being a muppet for just a minute or two and watch what the club is planning. Have you talked about Griezmann prior to Pedro deal? smh

Woah. I'm not a Griezmann muppet. My point is convincing yourself this is a better deal is strange. I've been hoping we'd sign Griezmann all summer to be honest, but have seen nothing to suggest we would.

My point has literally nothing to do with the Griezmann thread, which you seem to be missing. The point is to suggest this is a better deal than getting such a class player is borderline madness.

Sorry to have upset you, which k clearly have as you seem to be getting aggressive.

My biggest concern with this deal is that hes basically another Memphis. Someone with a lot of potential, but still young, very raw and inconsistent. To rely on young players like this to be our main creative outlets is a mistake. Whilst i am delighted with the Memphis signing I think we need someone more experienced and consistent to take the pressure off Memphis, rather than another young player.

From all angles this deal seems a little desperate to me. I hope i'm wrong though.

 

[RoadTrip]

he might have wanted this guy instead?

Thanks for stating the obvious, genius. The question is why.

 

[fcbforever]

Shit. Really?

Cancel the fecking deal Woody, we don't want to be laughed at on other club fan forums.

That's not what I am saying, I just seconded the poster who lined out the reaction this forum would show if this would've been an Arsenal or Liverpool deal. And he's right. So there's a bit of hypocrisy involved here.

 

[devilish]

So we replaced RVP with Bellion?