Buying British?

Devil may care

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A topic bristling on the Caf right now is the lack of British players coming into United, all of our transfers bar Shaw in the last 4 summers have been foreign players. Carrick and Rooney are on their last legs so that will be two more gone soon and the 2 best prospects on the cusp right now are Dutch and Brazilian.

Fergie always bought British players to mix in, but it's fair to say it's not so easy now with all the money in the PL and the lack of British talent coming through, however is there any British players you'd like to see United buy?

Usually I'd start a thread like this at least one suggestion I really rate but I am stumped, maybe Dier as a midfield squad option? Or that young winger Gray, from Leicester?
 
How many threads is there going to be on this topic. It's simple, English talent is average, overrated and overpriced. Not to add all the decent options are mostly already at big clubs.
 
How many English players do we have in the reserves that look the real deal?

There's a serious problem in terms of player development in English football, has been for years.

I can't think of a single English player I'd be excited to see us linked with, and that's before you add the 'he's English' tax.
 
We do have Rashford and Lingard as well as Shaw. But yeah, we don't seem to be buying British. Still, who is out there that isn't incredibly overpriced?
 
As fans we have a tendency to crave young and British players, this was fine when we were the dominant team in the league as we could carry them until they got to a sufficient level. We aren't there anymore, our expectations haven't caught up.
 
They really isn't any obvious name for us to go after right now. The best English players this season not at top 6 clubs so far have been two players who were already at the club (Wilfried Zaha, Michael Keane).
 
I would prefer we produced our own local talent instead of buying it, but our scouts have not been really good at spotting the local young talent as much as the foreign one.

Buying a more developed local player have worked for us so i think we gonna keep doing that every now and then. And i totally agree with that, i would like for local players to always be part of the 1st eleven.
 
Carrick will probably leave over the summer but I can see Rooney staying another year if he accepts that he's a squad player and doesn't want to leave. I don't know if Young will stay because barely anyone remembers if he exists, he was at least a squad player with a decent amount of appearances before this season. There's still Smalling, Jones, Shaw, Rashford, and Lingard so I think we have a good core.

In a couple of years hopefully three or four of our U18 talents can be fully promoted to the first team or get a promising loan.
 
Delle Alli is pretty much the only England talent I'd be excited to be linked to, but he'd probably cost as much as Pogba considering its Spurs.
 
George Owen said:
I would prefer we produced our own local talent instead of buying it, but our scouts have not been really good at spotting the local young talent as much as the foreign one.

Buying a more developed local player have worked for us so i think we gonna keep doing that every now and then. And i totally agree with that, i would like for local players to always be part of the 1st eleven.
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Its not that they arent spotting local talent and spotting foreign talent, its more a case of local talent simply isnt as good as the foreign talent. thats the root of the problem, the development of you British football players.
 
Gareth Bale is the only British player I would want us to buy
 
To be honest. The vast majority are a bit shit or wont get us anywhere close to the next level. The only british players who are good enough potentially or with current ability are already at big enough clubs where they wont transfer to us. Would only want bale anyway.

From what we have, only really see Shaw making it as a key player long term. Rashford I dont personally think will quite reach that level or be a key player (martial I think will be our key striker long term) but will be a solid squad player like lingard is. Jones, smalling - squad players at best ever. It is a concern of course, but hopefully some players come through or we find them out of nowhere like Spurs did with dele alli (who is also quite overrated because hes british but obviously has good potential).
 
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Wouldn't get him right now and it'd be a hard deal considering he's notlong gone there but Lewis Cook at Bournemouth is one I hope the club keep an eye on. My hope is not so much that we necessarily buy British but that we promote those of sufficient quality from our own ranks, of which there's been plenty over the years, whether they were given the opportunity or not.

Besides that, I think there'll be a glut of British talent coming through over the coming years looking at a lot of the players coming through across Britain. That is very much dependent on them making the final big step up to first team level too and the coming generations not being yet another false dawn (although it looks to be different this time around).
 
No point in buying British, 99 pecent are not what we need talent wise. Some people need to wake up and stop dreaming, most are shit. Even someone like Barkley, who is one of the better ones and available, is not our standard
 
Are there any right now out there? Based on 433 formation, who are those English footballers that you think good enough to start for us?

GK - are there any?
Central defenders - ?
Full back - Kyle Walker?
DCM - Eric Dier?
Attacking mid - Sterling?
Striker - Kane?
 
Walker and rose at fullback, though theyre about the same as Valencia and shaw so wouldnt go out and buy them.

Obviously carrick in midfield. Probably Henderson but not as a key player.

Dier just a squad player at most imo. Sterling on the wing but Martial is more talented and has way more potential, just needs to find his form (and then Mkhitaryan on the other wing is a level above). Ibra is a level or 2 above Kane so no thanks.

Basically..... no. Our strongest 11 on form would only have Carrick, Shaw and probably Jones in it who are english, but even then, carrick and Jones/smalling will be replaced by new signings soon so long term it could well be just Shaw (if he develops of course).
 
Off the top of my head: Carrick, Shaw, and Smalling.

For reference, I pulled up the Euro 16 England squad via UEFA's website:
(I bolded players that I think are good enough)

KEEPERS
Fraser Forster
Joe Hart
Tom Heaton

DEFENDERS
Ryan Bertrand
Gary Cahill
Nathaniel Clyne
Danny Rose
Chris Smalling
John Stones
Kyle Walker

MIDFIELDERS
Dele Alli
Ross Barkley
Eric Dier
Jordan Henderson
Adam Lallana
James Milner
Jack Wilshere

FORWARDS
Harry Kane
Marcus Rashford
Wayne Rooney
Raheem Sterling
Daniel Sturridge
Jamie Vardy

And none of who I selected would be nailed on for the best XI either. But I do think they would start a good amount of games for us, considering other factors of the preferred XI like injuries, suspensions, or not being in form.
 
I would have Dier, Alli and Walker at United. That's about it.

And if you can look past him playing for the Scousers, Joe Allen might be a good Carrick replacement, plus he is a boyhood United fan.
 
The only one likely to retire is Carrick though? Rooney will stay at least until summer 2018, and (assuming the rule is still 4+4) there's: Lingard, Rashford, Pogba + 1 of Fosu-Mensah, Borthwick-Jackson, Perreira, and Jones, Smalling, Young (leaving?) and Shaw.

So if there's no immediate need Mourinho should be allowed to buy whom he thinks will improve the squad the best without the hindrance of that person having to have a certain nationality. Quality wise the team isn't at a point where players should be bought for anything other than performing on the pitch.
 
izec said:
No point in buying British, 99 pecent are not what we need talent wise. Some people need to wake up and stop dreaming, most are shit. Even someone like Barkley, who is one of the better ones and available, is not our standard
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Exactly
 
Jaybomb said:
I would have Dier, Alli and Walker at United. That's about it.

And if you can look past him playing for the Scousers, Joe Allen might be a good Carrick replacement, plus he is a boyhood United fan.
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I always liked Joe Allen, if owen can play for us I'm sure he could as well.
 
I can't help but laugh when the lack of British talent is blamed on money in EPL.
 
Eyepopper said:
How many English players do we have in the reserves that look the real deal?

There's a serious problem in terms of player development in English football, has been for years.

I can't think of a single English player I'd be excited to see us linked with, and that's before you add the 'he's English' tax.
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Not in the u23s but there's real quality in the age categories below, hopefully that generation will continue developing at the rate they are right now.
 
I think Demarei Gray is the player that I'd go for. Every time i see him he looks like he's got a lot of talent and he's still young, plus he's a winger. My only reservation is the fact that Leicester don't start him much which makes me wonder if I'm just seeing him on good days.
 
pocco said:
I think Demarei Gray is the player that I'd go for. Every time i see him he looks like he's got a lot of talent and he's still young, plus he's a winger. My only reservation is the fact that Leicester don't start him much which makes me wonder if I'm just seeing him on good days.
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I'd rather we just bought Zaha back to be honest. Always liked watching him.
 
Most aren't better than what we currently have, I'd take most of Tottenhams young english players though.
 
Delle Alli or Dier maybe but that's it. There's no point in United signing British players for the sake of it. If they're not good enough, don't sign them. John Stones was what £50m? He'd be worth half that at best if he wasn't English. In 2011, Kenny Dalgleish signed a number of English players for Liverpool and if I recall correctly only Jordan Henderson is still at Liverpool from the group of English players Dalgleish signed in 2011.
 
English talent is rare and overrated. If you ask me we should try and get anyone with talent before he ends up at a relatively big club. Delle Alli prior Spurs is an example.

The only one I can think of bringing in is Drinkwater. He's quite a decent player himself, he knows United and Pogba well and he'll provide us with a decent cover for Herrera. If one day Mou loses hope on Jones then Keane could be in the mix too.
 
I think this generation of English players have been deemed as overrated and rightly so. Only Dele Alli, Kane, Sterling, Deir have really progressed into solid first team players. Ward-Prowse and Demari Gray are good too but are most likely at their level in terms of their quality. The next generation of English players in the U19s and U17s are the ones too look at if United are considering to buy British talent, the only problem is they cost too much.
 
Rose, Ali and Kane are all good enough to improve us long term but the money they would command just wouldn't make it worth it.
 
Pickford is going to be some player. If big Dave moves on, I'd like to see us go for him.
 
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