3 months ago, we needed a partner for Casemiro, a proven striker and a Casemiro deputy. 21st of August we bough Mount(who is not a bad player), Hojlund (who I think will come good long term) and Onana who looks class. I am glad we improved on DDG but, was it worth it? I don't think so.
David de Gea has left Manchester United
- Thread starter Tom Van Persie
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Can't believe that he still hasn't been signed. He's not as bad as his haters are stating in here, so it has to be an issue with his wage demands?
Onana was moving this summer, whether it was here or somewhere else. It's good that we dumped De Gea instead of extending his bloated contract and took the opportunity to sign a world class keeper when it presented itself.
DDG was never resigning here on the same contract and not sure where would have Onana moved if not here
Give over, people like myself have been pretty clear with our standing regarding DDG, him not being the GK he was 5 years ago was and is very much recognized among 99% of United fans. Then there is this part of United fans who actually claim he was never any good or last year he was an absolute handicap because he was so bad, despite him keeping the most clean sheets and generally okey considering the rest of our team. And pretty sure a sensible United fan would acknowledge that the club pretty much fecked him over this summer and affected his club planning, but him being without the club really only tells the story for people who have already made up their mind about him.
From what we know he either wants only a top club like Bayern or Real, or is chasing a final career pay check. I am sure he could just as easily end up at Roma or a similar club if he wanted to.
Nobodies saying United treated him brilliantly, or even that he wasn't "fecked over" as you put it. But the reality is that those clubs had six full months to approach him before it was announced that he was leaving United. All the noises were that United intended to offer him a substantially reduced contract, so it was hardly secretive that if a club were willing to pay him a larger salary he would be willing to talk, even if just to strengthen his hand in talks with us, that's basic work for an agent of a player of his standing. The fact that he wasn't approached in those six months, and he is still without serious links to clubs despite being a very public free agent for 7 weeks now, while clubs like Chelsea are paying £30m for Brighton's third choice goalkeeper, Real Madrid are signing a goalkeeper on loan from Chelsea to cover a serious injury and Inter Milan are paying £7m for a 36 year old Yann Sommer, would suggest that bigger clubs don't think he is "generally ok" anymore.
Also it's a limited market compared to outfield players but I'm sure wages and the destination play a big part. He's earned an incredible wage for a keeper to sit out 6-12 months while he and his wife look after the baby IIRC and think it all over. To stay in Europe I'd guess 3-4 times less wage.
We are generally known for overpaying, and it was pretty much a known thing that he would extend, so why would anyone waste their time is my thinking, and it's not like any of the other rich clubs had worse GK. Bayern or Real were only mentioned because of injuries, DDG was not of the level of Courtois or Neuer. I can understand why he was not approached, or maybe he was and we didn't know. What other clubs are doing and what they are not considering DDG is also none of my point, I've seen enough of the like of Kepa or Sommer to know that they are not any better regardless of what stats will tell you. Onana is no doubt a better GK and in that regard I think you and me both discussed this 3 months ago, where I stated that I would very much prefer Onana to someone like Raya. My point is, I don't think Onana is the improvement we needed at 55m pounds when we had and still have much bigger issues. This is something I reiterated months ago and I think I am clear now as I was then.
I haven't been following. Has any club picked him up yet?
Many of us said it at the time, but we botched it massively by ignoring our greatest needs -- a striker and DM -- and went in for an attacking midfielder we didn't need and a keeper who, even one thinks is an upgrade on De Gea, wasn't a position that needed an upgrade.
Perhaps club management were of the belief that Martial would come good and that supporters would welcome Greenwood back, so why spend 80-100m on a position we've already covered? A matter of opinion only, but I don't see Anthony Martial as having any kind of future with United; and it was fairly easily predicted that Greenwood would not be welcomed back by club supporters. The latter became clear only a few weeks ago and went in for Hojlund. But what I didn't know until this weekend is that Hojlund came to us with a broken back.
And we spent massive sum on Mount when we needed a proper DM to partner with Casemiro. Perhaps Mainoo is the long term answer but as I understand it he's still only 18, which is way too young to expect him to make a significant difference against clubs like West Ham and Crystal Palace, let alone top six clubs.
Kepa is a better keeper than 2023 De Gea. He constantly gets in the national team over him.
Sommer is also a better keeper, too.
You downplay how much we needed a De Gea replacement. He is still without a club for a reason. It was absolutely worth buying Onana. The biggest issue this transfer window is buying Mount. We didn't get the right profile of midfielder and we may pay harshly for that. Can't say much about Hojlund until I see him play, but I definitely would have preferred to see Kane or Osimhen playing for us.
Im sure a vast majority would have had goalkeeper down as a weakness and a position needing upgrading.
Bizarre isn't it? GK was definitely a priority in my mind.
It really is. It was clear as day.
Onana is a good deal. It's the stupid money spent on a useless player like Mount that fecked us and our market up completely.
I can't believe we actually spent 60m on a bang average Chelsea reject. This club is beyond redemption.
I can't believe we actually spent 60m on a bang average Chelsea reject. This club is beyond redemption.
Agreed. But the keeper wasn't our most glaring weakness. Not even close.
A day in Beijing.
It was. On a level with a proper striker.
This. I don’t see the point in Mount, and haven’t ever considered him a top player, just as you say average.
With his fee and the Højlund fee together, we would have gotten Harry Kane. And still got Onana on top of that!
So he rejected Chelsea and he’s not bang average, let’s get that straight. If your logic had been correct, then Chelsea just spent over 100 million on a Brighton reject who’s a poor player. Fans expecting a player to hit the ground running and writing him off after 2 games is just absurd.
Stats and the scouting departments of multi-million pound organisations apparently, who I daresay should know a whole lot more about goalkeeping at the very top level than you or I, and they have convinced their clubs to spend money on a goalkeeper rather than sign a readily available free agent - heck in Real's case pay money for a goalkeeper they won't even own in a years time.
I don't agree that it wasn't a high priority to change the goalkeeper and that will become more and more apparent as the season goes on. I agree a striker was a bigger priority but goalkeeper was a very, very close second to that. I don't think we could have foreseen that we would make a signing in Mount, a player that I wasn't keen on signing but after seeing him through pre-season and the first couple of games I'm not completely against, that would completely unbalance the midfield in the opening part of the season though and that is on the club and manager. That being said, I can see what the plan is and Onana fits it like a glove, we simply would not have been able to make such a change with De Gea in goal, however we are a long way off the plan while the players are working their way up to fitness and getting used to such a shift in terms of which areas of the pitch we aim to play in. It'll clearly take time but changing the goalkeeper was vital before we could begin any proper stylistic shifts really simply due to how deep we had to play to cover the goalkeeper in years gone by.
He's a bang average player. Just because he switched shirts the opinion on him won't change. We have seen him playing for Chelsea for few years and we know his level it's not like he's a new player to the league. Worse than that is we clearly have no clue where to shoehorn him in the first teal as well.
You’re such a knee jerk, negative poster, I do wonder why you bother watching football. Mount is a good addition to the squad. He’ll be fine once the coaches adapt our play, as current form isn’t down to one player, there’s issues with our current set up. Mount had a good first half v Spuds, obviously you won’t see that as you just want negativity to prevail.
He turned down a new contract with Chelsea, so just accept you’re very wrong on them rejecting him…. Much like most of the stuff you post
Kepa and spain deserve each other, absolute dog shit. Sommer was “better” before playing for a big club exposed his level.
Christ man, a multi billion organizations like United, paid 100m euros for a dud like Antony just 12 month ago, and that is after the manager had previously seen him in training and games for 2 years, at a time Willian was available on a free. What does that say of a said multi billion organization? Clubs often make mistakes, and it means feck all. Kepa might as well do fine for Real but to use it as some kind of slight on DDG is premature and not tells the whole story.
As the season goes on and on, if we fail to fix the other problematic areas of the first team, ETH will probably get the sack, and that would be the ultimate disappointment of this summer and why I think Onana being a good DDG replacement will be for nothing. And even if that is not the case, and we manage to scrap 3rd or 4th just like last year I think it would still be bad handling of priorities this summer.
Aye, CF, CM & GK were all positions needing investment. Just because you disagree on who we signed for the other 1 or 2 positions, doesn't negate the fact that we needed to upgrade our GK.
Exactly. And the GK needed to be upgraded not just for ball playing skills, but the basics. Shot stopping which had regressed the with ddg, and other aspects such as communication, ball handling, commanding which ddg was below average on.
Which goes to the point
Eth got mount to partner casemiro
He obviously liked mainoo and his injury was a set back because he was probably seen as Both a partner and a replacement for casemiro.
We also got a striker and it seems by all accounts Eth was counting on MG being back in the fold.
The other planning may have been questionable (and should be) but Onana for Ddg was 100% the right call. Not doing it (eg keeping ddg) wouldn't have affected us getting mount (who we got first anyway)
Not being able to sell vdb, mctominay, Maguire to this point has clearly affected us in not getting a cb and another midfielder. Looks like we were banking on that too.
Spot on, Sylar. If anything, the inability to shift more deadwood (for various reasons) has hampered us more than signing Onana. And signing Onana was a definite need. Just because there are other issues EtH needs to solve doesn't change that.
You’re such a knee jerk, negative poster, I do wonder why you bother watching football. Mount is a good addition to the squad. He’ll be fine once the coaches adapt our play, as current form isn’t down to one player, there’s issues with our current set up. Mount had a good first half v Spuds, obviously you won’t see that as you just want negativity to prevail.
He turned down a new contract with Chelsea, so just accept you’re very wrong on them rejecting him…. Much like most of the stuff you post
Keep telling yourself that.
Who am I to deny the truth?
Faulty logic. We operate within a budget. Budget constraints precluded us from signing a proven striker on account of signing a proven keeper and a proven attacking midfielder, positions which weren’t nearly as high a priority as striker.
As a reminder, we relied heavily on Wout Weghorst last season at striker. Only time will tell whether he’ll fly off the blocks, but we’ve brought in an unproven striker — with lots of potential, but there’s a huge difference between potential and proven, with a fractured back.
We’ve already seen what not having a striker does to our attack…one goal in two games, that one goal being scored by a CB. I like Onana and agree he’s an upgrade on De Gea, but even as great as Onana is he neither kept a clean sheet v Spurs nor has had the “transformational” impact on our attack that dozens of posters here hilariously assured the rest of us he would have.
Have Wrexham put in a cheeky bid?
It’s not faulty logic though, it’s called a trade off.
Would have almost definitely been Bayern. We've upgraded to one of the best players in the world in his position.
Hundred percent brother. I think that money should have been used on an actual 8 and we would have been fine.
Sure, a tradeoff, but a moronic tradeoff.
That we literally already had a keeper is beyond all dispute. An upgradeable keeper, of course, but a keeper. We literally had no striker last season after Ronaldo left. And no, I don't want to hear about Martial or that Wout would have been good enough if given another season to prove himself. Going into the summer transfer window, someone upstairs made the decision to make our highest priority -- a striker -- a low priority. In the end we brought in a unproven striker with a fractured back that came to us so late, even if his back wasn't fractured, that he had no pre-season training under his new manager and with his new squad.
If we were to go back in time, knowing what we know, we would be fecking morons to do exactly the same thing that we have done, which was to bring in players for two positions that were not our top two priorities and to ignore, as of August 22, the two actual priorities -- CDM and ST. One could argue that Hojlund is proof that we didn't ignore the striker position, but it remains an undisputed fact that he has no experience in the PL and that his back is fractured.
If all goes as well as could possibly be hoped, Hojlund will be firing on all cylinders by December, by which time we'll be out of the running for the PL title and at best in a fight for top four. Perhaps that's the best we could have expected anyway this season and that Hojlund must be thought of as a long term answer. Great, let's all wait for the long term.
We didn't have a keeper though. DDG's contract was up.
A moronic trade off?
We signed one of the best CDM’s in the world just last season, so why was this CDM priority so high on your list? Makes no sense. Sure, a backup (possibly Mainoo?) but we’ve been heavily linked with Amrabat so it’s clearly on the list & no, I’d say CF, CM & GK were all higher priorities than a backup CDM.
There were basically 2 CF’s of world class quality on the market this summer: Kane & Osimhen. Osimhen’s price seems prohibitive (hence not even PSG went in for him) & there’s still no evidence that Kane was gettable - not at the price Levy sold to Bayern anyway.
Anyhow, I’m not sure 1 CF addition and still neglecting the GK and CM position (relying on an ageing Eriksen/McFred) was going to propel us to a title or title charge. I’m glad we’ve upgraded GK & we’ve signed an exciting young forward, in a market that seems devoid of many genuine quality options. You call it moronic all you want, so let’s agree to disagree.
A question for those who considered GK a major priority if not the priority.
Would there have been any difference in results if De Gea was in goal?
Just to be clear, this isn't an attack on Onana. He's done well.
Would there have been any difference in results if De Gea was in goal?
Just to be clear, this isn't an attack on Onana. He's done well.
I mean how much more obvious can it be to De Gea fan boys that they vastly overrate him. He literally cannot find a club, and that’s in a window where plenty of teams have needed a keeper.
Maybe everyone’s wrong and they’re still right!
Maybe everyone’s wrong and they’re still right!
On ebay?
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