Good decision. We can easily get 20m from a small EPL team. Otherwise keep him as a backup cb for next season. Would like to see ole giving him one more chance over lindelof. Lindelof is a better ball player but nothing special whereas smalling is a much better defender.
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Juve are apparently interested
Not sure why we plan to sell him, better than what we got outside of starting two. If we didn't already have him already, I'm 100% sure we would be linked with him as back up.....
You think he wants to play back up? The entire reason for the loan is that he didn’t want to go from first choice to third choice and now after a successful season in Italy he’ll be fine with it?
He doesn't want to be back up, and since he'll turn 31 in a few months that's fair enough. As a club we've generally always looked after long serving players who want to leave so they can be first choice somewhere else.
I doubt he wants to be backup. The last 15-20 games it finally looks like Ole is getting the football he has aimed for. I don’t think he wants to change style to accommodate Smalling, which means Smalling would have difficulties getting in as a starter no matter how good he plays.
Also if we keep Bailly (fairly young) and Tuanzebe, they need minutes.
Maybe it’s just a game and Roma - United will agree later. Sounds like the best option for everybody however it could be his age and the injuries this season make Roma hesitate.
He's under contract like other players so equally if we wanted him to stay he'd have no choice. No different than if Pogs wanted to go to Madrid or equally whether any other player at any other club is happy to be on the bench. I think Ole didn't want him and rated others here more. I don't know whether Ole thinks differently but I'd argue he should as Smalling and Harry might be worth a try.....
Like said, who does? 31 isn't that old anyway and arguably your prime as a CB. I'm saying that the situation maybe different and there is probably more chance of playing first time for one of the biggest clubs in the world playing CL than Roma. If Ole offered me the choice to compete for 1st team football with Pogs, Bruno, Martial and hopefully Sancho, then that's a viable option.
And that offer is ridiculously low considering Lovren left Liverpool for £10m.
Id be happy with Smalling as third choice for United. In a game like vs Saints, I reckon he would have been useful to bring on.
But I dont blame Smalling for not wanting that role. I do think in 2020, its crazy a club dont want to buy him for 20m. Hes 30, turning 31 later this year. For a Serie A club, thats a really good age / prime. Id be surprised if more clubs from there dont try and get him.
But I dont blame Smalling for not wanting that role. I do think in 2020, its crazy a club dont want to buy him for 20m. Hes 30, turning 31 later this year. For a Serie A club, thats a really good age / prime. Id be surprised if more clubs from there dont try and get him.
I would take 15m and run. We wont get more than that for him currently and neither in the future
Good. We’re not going to find a better defender for £20 million. Welcome home Mike.
He went out on loan, did really well, and now it’s time to come back. It’s Phil Jones that needs to be purged.
He went out on loan, did really well, and now it’s time to come back. It’s Phil Jones that needs to be purged.
He is worth at least 25 mill. So feck these cheap Roma cnuts and take him back. Good enough as a back up.
He was one of the best CB for Roma, if he never played for us before, there would be people calling for us to sign him for competition at the price that we’re looking for him and rightly so. It’s a no brainier.
If Roma dont want to pay £20 million they dont want him, simple as that. He is 30 and they do have an over reliance on Dzeko and Kolarov who are both 34. So I can see not wanting to spend much on older players
If he didn't play for us I'm in know doubt we'd be saying there's this bloke called Smalling one of the best defenders in Italy that we could get for only 15m that could push for a starting position with Harry. Yet we want to continue to spend 40 or 50m on the lottery of players to add to the graveyard that people are arguing Lindelof should be dumped to. Smalling knows the club, most of the players, the manager, the league etc. It's a no brainer......
People thinking he's going to walk back into the team. If there's one thing we've seen about Solskjaer it's that once a player does not feature in his plans he doesn't get a look in. Smalling would never have gone out on loan in the first place if Solskjaer rated him at all.
Bournemouth should go in for him to help them get straight back to the Prem.
If there's one thing we've seen about Solskjaer it's that once a player does not feature in his plans he doesn't get a look in. Smalling would never have gone out on loan in the first place if Solskjaer rated him at all.Bournemouth should go in for him to help them get straight back to the Prem.
Talk about underrating a player...People thinking he's going to walk back into the team.
Bournemouth should go in for him to help them get straight back to the Prem.
People thinking he's going to walk back into the team.
Bournemouth should go in for him to help them get straight back to the Prem.
Clear he never rated Fred but situations change your thinking. Still may not rate him but currently we have very little cover. Not walk back in but I recon he'd have played a lot of games last season.
I know, how do you go from one of the best players in Italy, to sign for a club that's just gone down....
Smalling would be being favourably compared with Koulibaly and highly sought after. We had to pay £30m for the Bailly and Lindelof when they had zero PL experience, and yet many seem willing to sell off Smalling for £15m. It's insane.
I'm still really pissed at Southgate, and think Smalling should have sued him for his public comments about his perceived poor passing ability. Why would Southgate publicly humiliate someone like that?
This comments have stuck, and I think make many people nervous, no matter how true or false they were. Personally, I'm a big fan of Smalling and think he would be great as part of a CB 4some rotating group at United. Else he'd do very well at a top 10 type club.
Agree, it was like Hoddles comments on Cole that became a truism. If you look, there is a question mark above 99% of CB's in the league. There's VD, Harry and Laporte. Everyone else is a debate. Why couldn't Smalling be part of that debate and we already have him? Makes no sense. The other thing is he scores some big goals....
With all respect, but Smalling has not been one of the best players in Italy. I have watched many games, and it’s been a mix of great, good, ok and poor. I think he has played well in many matches but then he has made costly poor decisions, poor moments or mistakes.
we will alway get a better deal from Premier league. 13m - feck it Roma.
Exactly, it's his last few years of being in his prime. Maybe in another position that gets rotated more it might be fine, but in defence (especially the central defence) you don't really rotate your starting pair. Ole also puts a big priority on ball-playing ability so he won't even be 3rd choice if whoever else remains is fit (Tuanzebe, Bailly, Jones?). I don't necessarily agree with Ole, but that's his decision.
Obviously we can make him stay if we want, but once a player gets to that age it's somewhat nasty to force them to stay as a backup that rarely plays if they want to go elsewhere for games. Especially if it's somebody who has been at the club for ages. Nicky Butt, Phil Neville and John O'Shea are examples. I'm sure we would have liked them to stay to provide squad depth, but they all wanted to move on as they got into their later 20's and we did the right thing by them.
I mean, if Ole has changed his mind and tells Smalling that he's going to be in a straight 50/50 battle with Lindelof for that spot then maybe things would be different, but that's not going to happen.
I think the idea that he was one of the best defenders isn't solely my view but a general consensus. I think a mix of great, good, ok and poor doesn't detract from that especially playing for Roma. I think you'll find even CR7 made poor decisions, had poor moments or mistakes. This isn't the argument for me, it's whether he's good enough to compete here and I think he does. If we had money to spend 70m for another CB, fine but why give him away for 15m when after Harry we don't have a definite other with Rojo, Jones, Bailly et al surplus to requirements
You are probably right about Ole, and I suspect Smalling went cause Ole said he was 5th choice rather than competing with the 2nd. If it was for 2nd, I think he'd still be here.....
I've watched many too and he's been the 2nd best CB in the league after Godin. He's made a couple of mistakes, like Lindelof has and every other CB in Serie A has
Some people here are so funny.
100% agree that people would be saying 'sign him up!' had he not been our player.
He's not the best in the world but head and shoulders above the likes of Jones, Bailly etc.
I'd rather we bring him back and have him compete with Maguire and Lindelof until we find the right CB that'll take us to the next level.
Squads need depth and that's what he'll give us.
100% agree that people would be saying 'sign him up!' had he not been our player.
He's not the best in the world but head and shoulders above the likes of Jones, Bailly etc.
I'd rather we bring him back and have him compete with Maguire and Lindelof until we find the right CB that'll take us to the next level.
Squads need depth and that's what he'll give us.
We should easily be able to get £20m from any PL team looking for a CB upgrade. Purely defensively he's still one of the best in the league.
Here is a thought may be Smalling isn't highly rated outside of this forum.
Id welcome him back if we dont get a decent offer and we're not signing two centrebacks.
I think its understated how much depth we need next season.
I think its understated how much depth we need next season.
Of course everybody makes mistakes and has poor performances. I just don’t agree he is one of the best players in Serie A. I think he was very good at the start. He seemed to bring something Roma missed and brought the defence together. But the second half, I just don’t think he has been good apart from some of his last matches. He makes strange decisions, like pushing forward so they can pass in behind him, is not in line with the offside line (which seem to be a problem for the whole Roma defence so he is not to blame alone), been at the wrong place when he is needed in front of the goal, ball watching, giving away several penalties, etc. Overall he has been good but those performances wouldn’t be good enough in PL. These are all my opinions. I am not an expert, just someone who has watched maybe 2/3 of his matches this season so maybe professional coach or something would judge him differently.
When it comes to competing for a place at United’s starting xi, I don’t see that happen. Ole has finally got the team to function in a very good and competitive way. If he wants to replace Maguire or Lindelof it must be with someone who can do the same job at possession, and he can’t. I just don’t think Ole is willing to throw away his idea to play Smalling. Maybe I’m wrong, we’ll see.
I think he has had many more poor moments than he used to have in the PL. Not only talking about pure mistakes, I think he is in the wrong place quite often.
Yeah that's exactly why a perennial team in Europa League/Champions League wanted to sign him on loan.
And same Roma aren't willing to pay more than €12 m for him , let's see how his transfer pans out hopefully for United's sake we get decent money for him but I am not confident we will get £20m for him even in England.
The comment was true though.
He is demonstrably awful on the ball despite keeping his error count low. However it is a real handicap for a team trying to play posession football.
Good defender though. And if a team is looking mostly for top defensive skills then they will get a very good player.
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And he started the majority of their games. So clearly it's not about how good he is/was for them.
Agree. Be surprised if a mid-lower table side couldnt benefit from taking Smalling.
Yeah this isnt true at all either.
He had no problems whatsoever fitting back into Roma's 3 man defense in the middle, he kept it simple passing the ball to Kolarov to his left and Mancini to his right. Roma had most of the ball and won 5 of the 7 matches he played since returning to the team, with 1 draw and 1 loss.
Edit - Which by the way is the 3rd best run of results in Serie A. In that same run till the end of the season only Milan and Inter won more points with 5 wins and 2 draws.
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