De Ligt | €45+5m agreement reached pending medical | Signed!

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Shiva87 said:
Is that sarcastic? We’ve just got in one of the best CBs in the last 5-7 years for a bargain price and not crazy salaries. He starts for Bayern when fit and it was a concern over his long term fitness that made Bayern look at other targets in that position. His stock is at his lowest that it could be in his career and we capitalised on that and got him for a great price (cheaper than AWB, Lindelof and Maguire).

Maguire has shown enough times that he feels uncomfortable when playing high up the pitch. So it’s sensible that we are not relying on him learning something overnight (which he couldn’t do for 3 seasons in a row). Ole tried to do it even before ETH, and the moment we switched to a high press with Harry in the team - Ole lost his job.

The spaces in midfield last season was also a sign of his inability to step up and fill the gap that our midfield vacated when going for the press.

If anything, De Ligt just enables the club to do something different and see if it works. Instead you rather have us doing the same thing with Maguire and failing again?

Also, on Branthwaite - he was clearly first choice for us. But if you see how Ineos are doing their deals - the actual cash flow that we have paid is nothing for these 2 deals. 60 m for 2 plays payable over 3 years - I.e 20m a year. This money is coming from the sale of AWB (and we will have to find it again next year).

For Branthwaite, Everton wanted 70m upfront + add-ons. If we did that, we would have no cash to spend this year and wouldn’t have been able to do any other real deals.

Would you rather have 1 CB, than have 5-6 players come in this season for slightly better quality in CB (and that also arguably better at best)?
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I disagree on Maguire. He can play in a high line and he has shown at already at United. We played one of the highest defensive lines in the league both in the 19/20 and 20/21 seasons, and Maguire was one of the best CBs in the league in that time. It's not just about pace and recovery pace. Timing, anticipation, on-ball abilities, passing, outmuscling forwards, not letting them run the channels, these things are all important. Maguire just needs a pacey centre back next to him or to be deployed as a CCB in a back 3. We are also seeing a different setup to last season's suicidal approach IMO.

I agree with the rest of your post, although I haven't seen reports of Everton wanting the money up front anywhere.

I just hope we go back for Branthwaite next summer even at £65m, although it would be great if we could shave off around 10 million off that.
 
Great signing. Excellent CB with a proper attitude. Gonna bring a lot of leadership qualities into our team and i wouldnt be surprised if he's our captain within a few years.
 
mu4c_20le said:
Why the feck is Orny quoting both fees in different currencies
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We will be paying Bayern in euros, so that's the accurate fee, the fee in sterling will actually vary according to the exchange rate at the time we make each installment.

The bissaka fee will obviously be paid in sterling.
 
Rojofiam said:
Good luck to him, and I hope he will become a great player for us. Was a dream target for many, including me back in 2019 after his breakout season at Ajax.

However, I think the need for Branthwaite was bigger, and signing de Ligt only makes sense if we're offloading Maguire.

Both of them are organizer type CCBs with not a lot of pace and cannot really be deployed as wide, channel defenders IMO, like your van de Vens, Konatés, etc. Both of them are high value, great players for me but I think they'd make an awful pairing, as well as switching to a back 3 in possession with one of them forced to be a wide defender would likely often end in tears. Having two very similar CBs of this level, who cannot really be paired with each other doesn't make a lot of sense IMO, hence my preference for Branthwaite (and I think he's overall better with a higher ceiling anyway).

We only really have Yoro to do what I described in the current squad, but getting Branthwaite next year should give us serious quality and depth at CB, as well as tactical flexibility. Two arguably generational pacey and physical defenders as well in Jarrad and Leny, with de Ligt and Martínez would give us 4 genuine quality CBs.

De Ligt could prove to be a great addition but it's a smaller step forward than Branthwaite or another similar CB could've been. But like I said, it could easily be a good signing in the long term, especially for £42m. A 25 year old Maguire or Dias (another similar type) would easily be worth that, so de Ligt should turn out to be a bargain. But ten Hag not salvaging Maguire and making him a key player is one of his biggest mistakes IMO. Signing de Ligt basically confirms he never really intended to do that anyways. Or maybe the club and ETH both feel like Maguire's started to decline physically. We'll know more in 12 months.
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De Ligh was three countries league winner at age 24 and entering his peak at CB age. This is a good price to get him when Branthwaite is costed near double of him.
Maguire is not the type that can play at the back when our team got high line pressing. He cannot break the line with low pass and he always choose to play high ball when the same situation is happened
 
Did any recent tweets confirm when he's likely to fly in for the medical? Guess same for Mazraoui who will be at the same time.
 
VP89 said:
Did any recent tweets confirm when he's likely to fly in for the medical? Guess same for Mazraoui who will be at the same time.
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They're both currently at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Will probably end up having their medicals tomorrow or Monday and just won't fly back with Bayern.

So far Bayern have used seven subs and neither of them have come on so think it's safe to say it is done.
 
VP89 said:
Did any recent tweets confirm when he's likely to fly in for the medical? Guess same for Mazraoui who will be at the same time.
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Well they likely don't have to fly anywhere as they're already in London for a Bayern friendly against Spurs
 
Acrobat7 said:
Amortised obviously but proper clubs simply pay the fee. (White text again!!)
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Cry about it. United are obviously having to operate this way temporarily to account for past mistakes. We got what we wanted out of Bayern, and obviously Bayern got what they wanted from United to make the deal work. If you don’t like what your club accepted, go and whine on your own board.
 
Redbandito said:
Cry about it. United are obviously having to operate this way temporarily to account for past mistakes. We got what we wanted out of Bayern, and obviously Bayern got what they wanted from United to make the deal work. If you don’t like what your club accepted, go and whine on your own board.
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I think… just maybe… he was joking.
 
Damien said:
They're both currently at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Will probably end up having their medicals tomorrow or Monday and just won't fly back with Bayern.

So far Bayern have used seven subs and neither of them have come on so think it's safe to say it is done.
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Thanks, worked out nicely
 
Cloud7 said:
Are they both fit enough to start the first game of the season?
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Mazraoui played in Bayern's previous friendlies so should definitely be fine. I'm guessing de Ligt is in a similar situation to Zirkzee and while not having played a match, will have been training for over a week. If everything gets sorted for Monday he might get some minutes in a behind closed doors friendly before we play Fulham. Tough to say as our match is on Friday but we do tend to have behind closed doors matches at the end of pre-season for those who didn't get enough minutes for whatever reason.

We just saw Martinez play 90 minutes so I think even without a behind closed doors friendly, de Ligt should be fine for Friday.
 
Neither played in the friendly, Bayern made changes to every poistion in it except RB which Mazraoui was the only RB on the bench
 
From a talent point of view it's a great signing. Hopefully this isn't another Schweinsteiger or Casemiro situation where the player is on the downward trend when we get them. He's only young but it can happen. Would love to see the best version of him here!
 
Great value signing, he's one of the most talented CBs out there with a lot of experience, leadership quality and the right age. Here's hoping he stays healthy, I think he'll be great for us if he can stay healthy.
 
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