Christopher Nkunku

FortunaUtd said:
I don't mind buying a Yoro as he likely will be awesome, but routinely spending 70-80 millions on teenagers seems much more like a luxury thing to do if you're struggling in mid table and the remaining budget only suffices for a Weghorst loan type deal.
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No one is saying that we should buy every kid on 70m a pop. Quite frankly kids usually don't cost that much. Yet football had become a very intensive and very physical game. These traits are usually fount on under 26 year olds with a good injury record. Top clubs are usually well run. There's a reason therefore why they want to get rid of certain players.

Our current squad has a CL final GK, the butcher, Ajax captain at age 5, 5 CL winner Casemiro in midfield, Bruno, Southgate's version of Baresi and England's darling Rashy. How did that experience translated into results exactly?
 
FortunaUtd said:
To replace Rashford who will need replacing, don't you think?
Not in place of a proper striker which we also need - Osimhen, Gyokeres, or Schick.
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Depends when Radford goes I reckon. If he leaves in January and we can get him on loan for the season then not terrible.

If we end up using the majority/all of the Rashford fee on him that would be awful business.

If Rashford goes, we will probably look at a more versatile winger to fill Rashford's place in Amorim's system. Someone like Robinson at Fulham perhaps.
 
groovyalbert said:
Depends when Radford goes I reckon. If he leaves in January and we can get him on loan for the season then not terrible.

If we end up using the majority/all of the Rashford fee on him that would be awful business.

If Rashford goes, we will probably look at a more versatile winger to fill Rashford's place in Amorim's system. Someone like Robinson at Fulham perhaps.
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Robinson would be one for the left wingback position, no? Not as the left supporting attacker or am I confusing someone.
 
Trex said:
We shouldn't be signing players that can't get a game at Chelsea.
We should be signings players Chelsea wish they could get but can't.
SAF was a great manager, part of what made him so was recruiting players who are great or with a very high ceiling the host of players who played under him were exceptional not goodish.
I'll pass!
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Chelsea are going to be challenging for the title, almost guaranteed Top 4.

We'll be lucky to get top half.

The players we'd be looking at respectively won't be on the same level.
 
Nkunku's biggest problems at Chelsea has been fitness and fit. He's been fit this entire season, but that could very well be because of his reduced role. He missed most of last season, and Jackson properly cemented himself in the starting line-up in his absence. In an alternate timeline, Nkunku doesn't get injured in preseason and Jackson doesn't get the opportunities to play and develop into what he is now.

Maresca has flat out said Nkunku is not a striker, and doesn't see him as one. He's more a 10/second striker and there isn't really a space for that kind of profile in our line up.
 
WeePat said:
Nkunku's biggest problems at Chelsea has been fitness and fit. He's been fit this entire season, but that could very well be because of his reduced role. He missed most of last season, and Jackson properly cemented himself in the starting line-up in his absence. In an alternate timeline, Nkunku doesn't get injured in preseason and Jackson doesn't get the opportunities to play and develop into what he is now.

Maresca has flat out said Nkunku is not a striker, and doesn't see him as one. He's more a 10/second striker and there isn't really a space for that kind of profile in our line up.
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There's zero guarantee that his body can sustain regular football. There's also no clue how he would act if he had to play regular first team football. Will he give his all or would he be careful not to get injured again?
 
devilish said:
There's zero guarantee that his body can sustain regular football. There's also no clue how he would act if he had to play regular first team football. Will he give his all or would he be careful not to get injured again?
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You're right, there isn't. When I watch him in the conference league, he does look like he's just coasting through games sometimes but the opposition is so inferior it's impossible to judge him on those games. He's not made any meaningful impact to any of our league games this season, apart from when he scored vs Bournemouth.
 
Squeaky_Bum_Time said:
Loan. Option to buy, but not obligation.

I think Chelsea would do it
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Only if Nkunku kicks up a fuss and pushes for it, and even then I think Chelsea would rather hang on to him than do that. I don't see how a loan to United with no obligation at the end of it benefits us.
 
Oranges038 said:
Nkunku, Chilwell....

What do people be smoking when they suggest these players?
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We are aiming to collect as many injury prone players as possible. Soon enough we might call Jones, Hargreaves and Saha out of retirement
 
WeePat said:
Only if Nkunku kicks up a fuss and pushes for it, and even then I think Chelsea would rather hang on to him than do that. I don't see how a loan to United with no obligation at the end of it benefits us.
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Not paying his wages. You have loads of options for attack and most of them are doing quite well, would you prefer Felix or Neto to go out on loan and use Nkunku instead?
 
Ekeke said:
Not paying his wages. You have loads of options for attack and most of them are doing quite well, would you prefer Felix or Neto to go out on loan and use Nkunku instead?
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For the rest of this season, we're talking about? I prefer to keep them all and push for as many trophies as we can.

In the summer, I'm not opposed to losing Nkunku, as I don't see a way for him to earn a starting spot in our team, but I'm sure we can find better terms of arrangement than a loan to domestic rival.
 
WeePat said:
For the rest of this season, we're talking about? I prefer to keep them all and push for as many trophies as we can.

In the summer, I'm not opposed to losing Nkunku, as I don't see a way for him to earn a starting spot in our team, but I'm sure we can find better terms of arrangement than a loan to domestic rival.
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How do you expect to keep 8 attacking players happy with 4 spots, and Jackson the only real striker so its more like 3+Jackson for 7 players?

Lets be honest we arent your rivals right now and the rest of the season. So if the loan was till the end of the season its probably not going to effect you.

Next season? Maybe. But it doesnt look like we'll be your rival then either. Maybe you'll have another poor season and we'll be rivals for 5th and 6th, who knows. Realistically you'll probably need to get rid of 2 or more of those 7 players and whoever you deem expendable probably isn't going to do you a lot of damage if they go to another premier league club.
 
Ekeke said:
How do you expect to keep 8 attacking players happy with 4 spots, and Jackson the only real striker so its more like 3+Jackson for 7 players?

Lets be honest we arent your rivals right now and the rest of the season. So if the loan was till the end of the season its probably not going to effect you.

Next season? Maybe. But it doesnt look like we'll be your rival then either. Maybe you'll have another poor season and we'll be rivals for 5th and 6th, who knows. Realistically you'll probably need to get rid of 2 or more of those 7 players and whoever you deem expendable probably isn't going to do you a lot of damage if they go to another premier league club.
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Some will end up having to leave, may very well be Nkunku and Felix as they are the highest profile players among the attackers, who are essentially reduced to back up roles. I'm sure they'd rather be important players at another club than warm the bench for Jackson and Palmer at Chelsea.

Maresca has done a decent job of rotating the attackers tbh. Madueke, Neto and Sancho all feel like regular starters this season. Palmer never gets rotated and we know Mudryk is banished for the time being. That just leaves Nkunku and Felix with a ? over their situations.

I'm sure City thought we weren't their rivals too when they agreed to let us have Palmer. Things change very quickly in football.
 
No thanks. Gyokeres is the player we should be targeting. This team needs a no. 9 that could actually score.
 
Giggsy13 said:
No thanks. Gyokeres is the player we should be targeting. This team needs a no. 9 that could actually score.
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Nkunku isn’t a 9, he’s an inside attacker and creator that plays behind the striker. He thrives in playing positions almost exactly like the one needed for your two inside CAMs under Amorim.

Under Maresca, in attack, those two positions in our “square” are occupied by Cole Palmer and one of CM, RB, or LB depending on who comes forward for the overflow.

Chris competes with Joao Felix for extra minutes. When he does come on, if it is for Jackson, Palmer becomes the farthest forward attacker and Nkunku takes the spaces he left.

Since we rotate into a back 3 instead of playing one outright, Palmers role isn’t great for Nkunku anyway.

You guys probably won’t buy him, but he would be perfect for one of your spots, behind Hojlund, primarily in the left channel.

Much better finisher than Jackson, but he can’t do the “striker” work off the ball Jackson does, including set piece defense.

Hes a better player than the other people not starting regularly for us, and he needs to be playing.
 
FortunaUtd said:
It's actually smart to buy the players that become available because other big clubs stack up too much.
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In theory this is absolutely true.

But it relies on your recruitment team to be able to identify players who are undervalued at their current club for reasons that won't apply to yours, as opposed to players who just aren't quite good enough.

Not surprising that posters here don't have abundant confidence in us to do that.

It might be true that Nkunku just doesn't fit Chelsea as well as he'd fit Amorim's United and would flourish here. But it's certainly true that he's a player who has made a grand total of 4 league starts since arriving from the Bundesliga, having suffered several significant injuries.
 
WeePat said:
Some will end up having to leave, may very well be Nkunku and Felix as they are the highest profile players among the attackers, who are essentially reduced to back up roles. I'm sure they'd rather be important players at another club than warm the bench for Jackson and Palmer at Chelsea.

Maresca has done a decent job of rotating the attackers tbh. Madueke, Neto and Sancho all feel like regular starters this season. Palmer never gets rotated and we know Mudryk is banished for the time being. That just leaves Nkunku and Felix with a ? over their situations.

I'm sure City thought we weren't their rivals too when they agreed to let us have Palmer. Things change very quickly in football.
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Do you think Nkunku or Felix are capable of the same impact Palmer has had at Chelsea?

Thats why I cant see it as the same thing. Even if Nkunku got back to bundasliga form he's 27 now. It'd be maybe 4 or 5 years at a good level.

Palmer has been great and could do it for 10 years
 
Ekeke said:
Do you think Nkunku or Felix are capable of the same impact Palmer has had at Chelsea?

Thats why I cant see it as the same thing. Even if Nkunku got back to bundasliga form he's 27 now. It'd be maybe 4 or 5 years at a good level.

Palmer has been great and could do it for 10 years
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No definitely not, but if Chelsea were sat 2nd in the league and Palmer had stayed in the same periphery role at City he was before we signed him and we tried to sign him I'm not so sure City would have been so eager to take the money.

I'm not saying United definitely will btw. There's a lot that's currently uncertain about United but Amorim is a good coach.
 
FortunaUtd said:
We're not getting Palmer though and there are no equivalents. Neither are we getting Wirtz.
And that's the beauty of it, Chelsea have Palmer and are obliged to buy Sancho which means Nkunku is surplus to requirement, while being top quality himself. Someone will be laughing, why not us.
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Who says we can't get Wirtz, if we don't try for players like this then we should make statements about aiming to win big trophies, because you can't achieve that without elite talents, we're not in a good place at the moment, but we're a big club and have what it takes to fund the transfer.
croadyman said:
Who is that then
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Wirtz or the Georgian Napoli forward. Players of that ilk.
 
Bluelion7 said:
Nkunku isn’t a 9, he’s an inside attacker and creator that plays behind the striker. He thrives in playing positions almost exactly like the one needed for your two inside CAMs under Amorim.

Under Maresca, in attack, those two positions in our “square” are occupied by Cole Palmer and one of CM, RB, or LB depending on who comes forward for the overflow.

Chris competes with Joao Felix for extra minutes. When he does come on, if it is for Jackson, Palmer becomes the farthest forward attacker and Nkunku takes the spaces he left.

Since we rotate into a back 3 instead of playing one outright, Palmers role isn’t great for Nkunku anyway.

You guys probably won’t buy him, but he would be perfect for one of your spots, behind Hojlund, primarily in the left channel.

Much better finisher than Jackson, but he can’t do the “striker” work off the ball Jackson does, including set piece defense.

Hes a better player than the other people not starting regularly for us, and he needs to be playing.
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You’re right — Nkunku is one of those positionally ambiguous players but Amorim’s system is one that actually suits him.

The issue is mostly fitness and price. We can’t have Chelsea pull our pants down twice in a row
 
At his best in bundesliga, I actually thought he was better than Sancho was. He was quality player who has skills, flair, can take set pieces, coached to press in RB Leipzig, good in heading, and has goals/assists in him. He would be perfectly fit for Amorim’s no 10. May be we should offer the same deal like what chelsea did with Sancho. Loan plus obligation to buy if he can play certain amount of games.
 
ErikElevenHag said:
They owe us a loan after Sancho.

Id take him on a loan only to see if he can find his Leipzig form again
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You didn’t let us take Sancho on loan to let see if he could find his old Dortmund form though. You slipped an obligation to buy in there.
 
WeePat said:
You didn’t let us take Sancho on loan to let see if he could find his old Dortmund form though. You slipped an obligation to buy in there.
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£25m obligation to buy, isn’t it better? Because if he could find his old Dortmund form without obligation to buy, we would ask for £80m.

Sad that chelsea never do us favour the same way how we do them.
 
FrankDrebin said:
Dibling looks like a talent.
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He does.

I watched Southampton vs Spurs and his technical level and creativity stood out above for example Bergvall on the other side, who just kept it simple and accurate with passing. Obviously a young English talent doing quite well means a big price, hopefully the fact he has 1 goal and 0 assists - plenty of times you see him do something good but it doesnt quite end in a goal or assist, will make that fee more reasonable.
 
WeePat said:
You didn’t let us take Sancho on loan to let see if he could find his old Dortmund form though. You slipped an obligation to buy in there.
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A very cheap one. Felix cost you £43 million for example, £20 million + performance related add ons if you finish above 15th was bargain basement.

Once you sign him you could probably sell him immediately this summer for £40 million or more just because he's doing quite well. If he gets back to Dortmund form on top you can add another £20 million.
 
DWelbz19 said:
You’re right — Nkunku is one of those positionally ambiguous players but Amorim’s system is one that actually suits him.

The issue is mostly fitness and price. We can’t have Chelsea pull our pants down twice in a row
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No, o totally get it. They almost have to avoid this deal just to make sure he doesn’t injure himself three weeks after joining from Chelsea. It would be a PR disaster.

Think looking for overflow players is the key though. Brahim Diaz at Madrid would be outstanding in one of those positions if he’s not getting minutes. There are going to be talented players leaving that squad.

Ironically though…. Of the two CAMs one is generally a finisher/creator / link up, while the other is link up/creator / finisher and Mount would have been pretty good as the second type. A Nkunku + Mount partnership with injuries off the table might have been great.

Brahim Diaz, Kudus, Dibling, Cunha, Gibbs-White… even Nkunku. Lot of good options, and some of these team may need to sell.
 
groovyalbert said:
Depends when Radford goes I reckon. If he leaves in January and we can get him on loan for the season then not terrible.

If we end up using the majority/all of the Rashford fee on him that would be awful business.

If Rashford goes, we will probably look at a more versatile winger to fill Rashford's place in Amorim's system. Someone like Robinson at Fulham perhaps.
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Totally different position to Rashford.
 
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