Isn’t he a bit rubbish on the ball?
De Ligt | €45+5m agreement reached pending medical | Signed!
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That would be an incredible deal for a player that was in the team of the year in the Bundesliga last season and is still only 25. While de Ligt had a bit of an issue this season with an injury, I am not quite sure it is comparable to Sancho or Greenwood. Maybe more like Rashford (if we were trying to get rid of him)?
I'd take him on a season loan (£7-8M fee), full wages covered by us, with an option (not obligation) to buy - with the option price set prior to the loan.
Then we can have our medical dept. take a closer look at him and see if there are any potential longstanding issues.
Then we can have our medical dept. take a closer look at him and see if there are any potential longstanding issues.
Loan only - any permanent transfer will be a damning indictment of the new INEOS team.
This potential transfer stinks of Woodward / Arnold
This potential transfer stinks of Woodward / Arnold
Which would be fine if I had any faith that our medical team would spot it. They’d probably see nothing wrong with the black knight from Holy Grail.
Yep he can double as a test subject for the new medical setup every 2nd week
Rashford had 1 bad season which was preceded by a splendid one. De ligt hasn't been great since he left a league whose so poor that even McLaren and de boer can win
Sancho and greenwood had their issues but they did perform in top leagues
Bayern would rightly never agree to that.
If there is any defender that should be drawing Maguire comparisons among the ones we have been linked to, it is him.
https://www.transfermarkt.com/matthijs-de-ligt/verletzungen/spieler/326031
I’d take him on loan IF we were also purchasing another CB but would not be splashing 40m+ on him until he can prove he’s over all the injuries
We might never know, but I do think it's a fair deal.
De Ligt is on €16M (£13.5M) per year. With a £7M loan fee, they would stand to gain/save £20M over the season based on those terms.
Team of the year (both according to Kicker and the players player award) in Bundesliga at the age of 23 in his first season. Very highly rated by a majority of the Bayern fans I know and it seems to be the same online.
I guess great is relative. But by that standard I’m not sure I think Rashford fit that bill either. And I also think CBs peak later than attackers.
But there would be an uncertainty for months from both clubs...will there be a guy with 300k/week on our wage bill next season, or not? It would cause difficulties in Bayern's transfer plans for summer 2025, wouldn't it?
To be honest, these injuries don't look terrible. He'd be available for 75% of the games based on last season, > 95% of the game the two previous seasons before that.
The only major injuries there are a shoulder injury ( which isn't recurring) and the knee ligament tear. Now I agree the last one is something of concern, but he's been available for most of Bayern's matches since Christmas. Only missed a couple of games through injury in 2024 that I can see.
By the way I do agree with you that he needs to be our 2nd CB signing this summer. With Varane gone and hopefully Lindelof leaving, we need 2 CBs.
Lindelof will never leave.
At the right price I’d be happy. He’s not developed into the elite CB that perhaps many thought he would be when he broke through at Ajax. But he’s a good defender with plenty of experience under his belt already despite only being 24. Anything much above £50m is a definite no go, but at £40m including add-ons, it’d be a good buy. We need more than one CB (indeed Maguire, Lindelof and Evans will all be gone in a season or two) so going for a single expensive player is not an option.
Have you seen Bayern of late? Do they seem like a club making good decisions?
Not rubbish, but yeah not a strong point either. Then again, same goes for De Ligt. And Bremer is an exceptional defender
I still think he can be easily one of the top 5 defenders globally. If you ignore the best 3-4 defenders not much there anymore. And lets be honest, most clubs wont get 2 or even 1 of the top 3 defenders.
Therefor I think hes a great catch. Not cheap, but still reasonable compared to how much worse players are paid. With him at least you know you dont get a flop. He has the qulaity and he shows it, yres he didnt fullfill the hope becoming the absolut best yet, but hes also still very young.
Therefor I think hes a great catch. Not cheap, but still reasonable compared to how much worse players are paid. With him at least you know you dont get a flop. He has the qulaity and he shows it, yres he didnt fullfill the hope becoming the absolut best yet, but hes also still very young.
Getting their money back for Gravenbum was an amazing piece of business.
I hope we aren't stupid enough to give them their money back for De Ligt.
Oh he will. He will. He must. Won’t he!? Tell me he’s going
Why do people act like Bayern got relegated? They had one off season and still almost got to CL final.
They are watching De Light every day on the training and there is possibility that they know something about his legs. He is suposed entering his prime, Upe is trash and Kim didn't have good first seasonand they are selling him. Its fishy and we got burned 2 times already by Bayern.
Please no. I rather have Chalobah as a right sided CB option who can also play RB.
We really need to move away from players ETH has previously coached.
Move away if there's a fair reason to not consider them outright sure. But just ignoring them because they may have worked with him is a bit dim, particularly if he's not even running the show on transfers anymore.
Have we not learned anything from buying previous players from big clubs that want to sell?
FFS! How many times do you need to say it, if Madrid, Barca, PSG or Bayern are prepared to let a so called "world class" player go, then it's telling you something about that player! These teams don't let "world class" players go in their prime.
If Bayern are truly saying he's for sale, it's because he's probably f*cked in some capacity or not up to that level anymore.
United have done this time and time again and they never bloody learn.
Avoid this guy like the plague. If he's not good enough for Bayern, he shouldn't be good enough for us. End of story.
FFS! How many times do you need to say it, if Madrid, Barca, PSG or Bayern are prepared to let a so called "world class" player go, then it's telling you something about that player! These teams don't let "world class" players go in their prime.
If Bayern are truly saying he's for sale, it's because he's probably f*cked in some capacity or not up to that level anymore.
United have done this time and time again and they never bloody learn.
Avoid this guy like the plague. If he's not good enough for Bayern, he shouldn't be good enough for us. End of story.
A bit dim? You do realise with the exception of Martinez all his signings for United who ETH has previously coached are looking utter shite ? I have no problem with him staying but he should not be in charge of transfers, he doesn’t have a clue in that department. If Bayern are happy to sell this guy there should be alarm bells. His injury record alone should be a red flag.
You do realise firstly that it's a ridiculously small sample size, consisting only of Antony and if you want to stretch mental gymnastics to Eriksen (who is well past his own prime?).
And secondly, he's not in charge of transfers. So if the club go for him I don't understand the bitching that he's worked with ten hag before. Ten hag isn't calling the shots. If de Ligt were to be pursued it's by decision of a objective decision maker in Wilcox & his assistant.
If we were to buy Kudus it would be seen as a very good deal given his opening season at West ham. But by your logic we should leave it out because Ten Hag and him used to work together. Just bizzarre reasoning.
You are right. It is very dim to exclude a player just because ETH coached them before. Getting players just because ETH coached them before is just as dim.
As people have pointed out, Bayern are willing to sell (not wanting to get rid) because of financial reasons. And even if it is almost drowned in a sea of clueless comments in here, Bayern fans say he is their best defender.
If de Ligt is an option to come on a decent fee, wont demand huge wages, passes a thorough medical and a good scouting/recruiting team all are convinced he will be a good player then Manchester United should get him.
The whole 'dont get ETH players anymore because Antony is bad' seems like such a childish -cut of the nose to spite the face- action.
If all off a sudden the best English defender off all time comes through the Leicester academy, should we ignore that player because they made us pay a world record for former worldwide meme and (slightly) above average Premier League defender Harry Maguire? Ofcourse not, every signing has the chance to fail or be a huge succes. Just like every former ETH coahed player can fail (Antony) or be a succes (Martinez)
Let's start on what unite the three. All of them are of similar age (22-24), they were considered as generational talent and are not wanted by their respective clubs.
De Ligt was immense at Ajax. He failed at Juventus (to the point that they started calling him goalkeeper because of him handballing the ball in 4 consecutive games) and is now surplus to requirement at Bayern. He's got a 250k a week salary and there are question marks about his fitness as well as his ability to play at a top club level.
Sancho was consistently good in a league that is way more tougher then the Eredivisie. His stats with Dortmund (first stint) were near Messi esque. He tanked in the EPL and he wasn't as good during his second stint in Germany. However he still did enough to be wanted by Dortmund (though not enough for them to pay 40m + his salary). Unlike De Ligt whose issue seem to be around whether he's good enough at top level + injuries, Sancho's issues are mostly about attitude. Whether one is worse then the other is open to some serious debate. Some say that availability is the best attribute while others say availability is key.
Greenwood's issue is well known. I don't want to debate it at all. All I would say is that he shouldn't stay at United and that a big chunk of foreign based clubs don't give a feck about it. On the pitch Greenwood has a way better track record then both of them (he succeeded wherever he played), he's the youngest of the lot and unlike Sancho/De Ligt he's on a reasonable salary (75k) which makes him quite attractive transfer wise.
I can add other players who were in similar situation including Maguire (older but on a huge salary and was considered not good enough for United) and Sanchez (older, on a huge salary but was considered not good enough for United)
Players in such scenario are often sold on the cheap (usually with a chunk of their salary still paid by the seller), given on free or sent on loan usually with some of their salary subsidized.
United as a whole has a tendency to underrate their own guys while overrating players from other clubs. Case in point were Nicky Butt, John Oshea, Jonny Evans and Phil Nev (all sold for peanuts) as opposed to the likes of Sanchez (good track record but already showing signs of decline), Bastian (a relic) and Casemiro (still good enough but was transitioning to a squad player status a Real). That needs to change. There aren't many (if any) clubs who are willing to bid good money for a highly paid player whose struggling at another club. It's time we leave that exclusive group of morons
He didnt fail at Juventus at all. He had a bad start where he made some very strange but unlucky handballs. Actually he started his career in our national team off with that too. Hand balls and red cards if i remember correctly.
When he left Juventus they financially couldnt keep going with their project to win the CL (also why they first signed and later sold Ronaldo) and went for cheaper players like Brenner. De Ligt left when he had two years left on his Juventus deal so they had to sell him. When he was leaving he was a very good player for Juventus.
He is the best defender at Bayern but it seems like they rather have two cheaper CBs instead of one de Ligt. That doesnt make him a surplus to requirement. He is still going to start for Bayern next year if they arent able to sell him.
Fair enough. His wages and maybe injury record are an issue. His ability isnt. He was touted to be the best defender in the world at Ajax. On an individual level he did well at Juventus and Bayern and is still only 24 years young.
The whole failed outside of Ajax narrative is just plain wrong. The fans of the clubs he actually played for disagree with that statement but somehow this forum seems to know better?
Only for loan move because spending money on this guy is a lot of risk especially with his big wages. But I wouldn’t mind if they want to take Lindelof + £10m for de Ligt.
I don't follow Bayern as much as I would like to but I definitely follow the Serie A. I assure you that most Juve supporters weren't too concerned about letting the Dutch Buffon go. Fast forward time and Bayern (ie not a selling club) doesn't mind to see him gone as well. If they don't agree to our terms then they can either sell him to someone else (good luck finding a buyer on those terms) or they can enjoy their 'star' defender. Its always hard to find buyers for unwanted players on silly salaries especially considering that there's many decent CBs around who have no issues with injuries and they tend to stop the ball with their feet.
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After second thought, De Ligt isn’t a bad option to sign. He’s still 24, already been coached playing in high line and in possession based team, tall, physically strong and aggressive, good in the air, good in tackle, proactive, and he was the Ajax captain at one point so there is probably some leadership in him. And also the fact he has played in so many different countries will also provide benefit of him to come to England as he probably has learnt something about the needs to adapt in different country and different league because some players tend to underestimate and un-prepare when they move to different country and different league.
It all depends on his wages and the transfer fees, even though he has the potential to be top class but his injury record isn’t ideal.
It all depends on his wages and the transfer fees, even though he has the potential to be top class but his injury record isn’t ideal.
Should've learned by now, don't ever buy a player Bayern are happy to sell.
I don't want to buy any cast offs from big clubs who are on big money. We have trouble shifting players we no longer want but keep sniffing around and helping out these clubs.
Buy young players on first or 2nd pro contracts on sensible money. If they don't work out you can normally more or less cover your costs.
I don't want to sign anyone this summer on more than 120k a week.
Buy young players on first or 2nd pro contracts on sensible money. If they don't work out you can normally more or less cover your costs.
I don't want to sign anyone this summer on more than 120k a week.
It doesn't matter if it's de light or Branthwaite or yoro or tobido. What matters most is they compliment Martinez and each other make up for the weaknesses in the others game.
It's been a very long time since we had a solid stable centre back pairing (Varane injury issues aside).
Will add a consession, I'd go with whoever has the strongest leadership, determination and will to win on the pitch. The more big mentally strong personalities we get into the club the better.
It's been a very long time since we had a solid stable centre back pairing (Varane injury issues aside).
Will add a consession, I'd go with whoever has the strongest leadership, determination and will to win on the pitch. The more big mentally strong personalities we get into the club the better.
I'm always weary of players that either of Madrid or Bayern are willing to sell. There's always a stipulation regarding their fitness or the matter of them being past it. Yes there are exceptions (notably Ozil to Arsenal), but it feels like whenever we sign a players from those clubs it never works out well.
Real actually quite often sell very good players to make space for the next shiny signing. Robben to Bayern is another prime example. It's not the case for all their transfers obviously, but you really can buy quality from them. It's not so often the case with Bayern, if they sell you usually should look at that very carefully.
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