Di Maria replacement if he decides to leave

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Adnan said:
Mata is twice the player maybe centrally but not out wide.

Muller isn't a RW and Bale doesn't seem possible at this moment in time.
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It's pretty obvious we could have a more natural player on the rw than mata; i just think we are clearly are waiting for a big boy in that position; especially considering memphis will be allowed an almost free run at theLW position.

Buying someone like felipe anderson is paying for an improvement that has yet to bother us. However, i do see the RW as our biggest transfer next year.
 
Pedro is being linked with Chelsea for a fee as low as £20m. He'd be a concrete starter for probably any side in the world outside of Barca and Real.

The only winger we're linked with is fecking Gaitan. I'd have Pedro over Gaitan every day of the week. If Di Maria is hellbent on leaving, I'd swap Pedro for Di Maria right now. As much as I like Di Maria, I don't think he's right for LvG. Pedro's much more suited to possession football than Di Maria, and has a lot of goals to his game.
 
Dante said:
Di Maria's current book value is £48m. We'd accept any bid in that region.
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Not that simple, I would hope anyway. Chelsea bought Hazard for around 30 million 3 years ago, would they accept anything in the region of 10m then?

Market value is the real key, not book.
 
Raoul said:
De Bruyne for me. Next big thing in football.
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I know he's not really a winger first and foremost, although he has played there for Belgium at times when I've seen him, but he does seem like an LvG type of player.
 
Devil may care said:
I know he's not really a winger first and foremost, although he has played there for Belgium at times when I've seen him, but he does seem like an LvG type of player.
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Yep, that's the impression i get as well. He's got that LvG player vibe about him. We would have a lot of options since he could play centrally or wide right and would be interchangeable with Mata. They could both be assist machines.
 
I don't think we need one. Unless we get offered daft money or he's involved in a swap deal for a position we need e.g. Muller, I wouldn't really entertain the idea of him leaving.
 
Raoul said:
Yep, that's the impression i get as well. He's got that LvG player vibe about him. We would have a lot of options since he could play centrally or wide right and would be interchangeable with Mata. They could both be assist machines.
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Definitely, looks after the ball, is very effective without being flashy and as you say he's multifunctional. I'd say we would need to move fast as City seem to be on him but I think this summer has shown we could have anything lined up and the media wouldn't have a clue.
 
If we and Chelsea launch a bid and offer a contract to Pedro at the same time, I have a strong feeling that the Spaniard would pick Chelsea over us..
 
RedStarUnited said:
Not that simple, I would hope anyway. Chelsea bought Hazard for around 30 million 3 years ago, would they accept anything in the region of 10m then?

Market value is the real key, not book.
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We did it with Veron. £14m to Chelsea halfway through his contract. Getting book value was, and would be, a face saving exercise.

In any case, Di Maria was shit last season. His stock has dropped since we bought him. Those expecting to earn back every penny are deluded.
 
Dante said:
In any case, Di Maria was shit last season. His stock has dropped since we bought him. Those expecting to earn back every penny are deluded.
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The state of this I see time and time again. Not getting at Dante in particular here, tend to agree with a lot of what he writes, but the general attitude to Di Maria reeks of ignorance from a lot of fans.

Statistically Di Maria performed exactly as he has done all of his career - assist machine and a few, but not many, goals. People see the price tag and expect miracles from a man whose career has never shown he can do it. Nobody appreciates what he has done and what he does do. Most clear cut chances created and 2nd most assists. In a team that struggled for goals all year round.

Now, I completely concede that not starting and losing form toward the end of the season isn't ideal but he also came off the back of his longest ever season, followed by a World Cup and facing a Copa America coming up too. It's entirely understandable in a new league to dip form at some point in the season, never mind the intense pace and physicality in the English game. Or the change in tactical nature heavily imposed by Louis.

Oh and fwiw, man of the match in the Champions League final, widely regarded as Argentina's player of the World Cup and this Copa America.

Far from "shit" and far from his stock dropping. We're not talking a one season wonder here. This is a player of world class pedigree. Simple.

Now to answer the OP, I think Mata stays there to offer a counter balance to Memphis on the left. As he develops we will be inclined to relieve his defensive duties to maximise his offensive threat. Parallels in attacking systems tend to struggle when you've got a Memphis style offensive focused player. In 07-09 we had Tevez and Rooney to offset Ronaldo for example.

Could see Pedro working as his attitude, work rate and eye for goal are all very good. His passing is often very safe however. His best work is off the ball movement to get into positions.
 
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OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
Pedro is being linked with Chelsea for a fee as low as £20m. He'd be a concrete starter for probably any side in the world outside of Barca and Real.

The only winger we're linked with is fecking Gaitan. I'd have Pedro over Gaitan every day of the week. If Di Maria is hellbent on leaving, I'd swap Pedro for Di Maria right now. As much as I like Di Maria, I don't think he's right for LvG. Pedro's much more suited to possession football than Di Maria, and has a lot of goals to his game.
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Pedro is nothing special and definitely not what we want from our wingers. He's more of a scorer from the right than someone who will create chances or beat his man and open up a game.
Raoul said:
De Bruyne for me. Next big thing in football.
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Can't see him moving, seems to have turned down City too. Even if he was available, from what I gather, he's a risk taker and very direct. Won't say he isn't suited to LVG's profile of a winger but I don't see us going for him.
 
FC Ronaldo said:
The state of this I see time and time again. Not getting at Dante in particular here, tend to agree with a lot of what he writes, but the general attitude to Di Maria reeks of ignorance from a lot of fans.
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He had good 4 or 5 games to start off with. If you were to sum up the rest of the season for him "shit" is quite appropriate.
 
Dante said:
We did it with Veron. £14m to Chelsea halfway through his contract. Getting book value was, and would be, a face saving exercise.

In any case, Di Maria was shit last season. His stock has dropped since we bought him. Those expecting to earn back every penny are deluded.
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If we are not going to get our money back then we really shouldnt sell him. PSG will be signing a player they wanted last year for 20 million less than they would have paid last year, and you might even say a slightly more rounded player having now played a year in the premier league.

We gain nothing from this deal.
 
Reus or Griezmann. Reus will be perfect, I think if he moves to a top club he will be one of the best players in the world, maybe top 5. Don't know what he was thinking when he signed the extension, maybe he is not really the ambitious type? Surely there must have been a lot of top clubs after him...
 
RedStarUnited said:
If we are not going to get our money back then we really shouldnt sell him. PSG will be signing a player they wanted last year for 20 million less than they would have paid last year, and you might even say a slightly more rounded player having now played a year in the premier league.

We gain nothing from this deal.
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There's no suggestion that we are actively looking to sell. All the hints are that it's Di Maria himself who wants to leave. There's no point in keeping an unhappy player who was crap for us when someone's offering 40m+ for him.
 
If we don't want to play him in his best role as a central midfielder we should sell him to PSG for Moura. He's perfectly suited to play on the other wing of Depay and he's a dribbling wizard as well.

I have no doubts that ADM would do well as a winger here too, but he's 27 and was last year kept on the bench by Young. I would be disappointed in LVG if we keep Di Maria around just to bench him for another year as a 28 yo who has been a bench option for two years won't go for anywhere near the price of the 26 year old who was the best attacking central midfielder in the world for Madrid.

Young was number one last year in his position, now we brought in Depay too but hopefully Mata or Di Maria plays centrally so we don't have to bench them.
 
akash02 said:
There's no suggestion that we are actively looking to sell. All the hints are that it's Di Maria himself who wants to leave. There's no point in keeping an unhappy player who was crap for us when someone's offering 40m+ for him.
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I understand the point, but it is the selling club's prerogative to get paid what we value him at. Just because PSG want him and he is again wanting to go there, should not mean that they will short change us over the price. If they want a top quality player, they have to pay accordingly, else they can buggar off and Di Maria can knuckle down.
 
NK86 said:
I understand the point, but it is the selling club's prerogative to get paid what we value him at. Just because PSG want him and he is again wanting to go there, should not mean that they will short change us over the price. If they want a top quality player, they have to pay accordingly, else they can buggar off and Di Maria can knuckle down.
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That's not how it works. Since we paid an exorbitant price for him, he's gone through a season where he's been shit and not even first choice anymore. We cannot expect to recoup what we paid for him. We should be glad PSG are fools enough to pay 40m+ for him and run with it. We overpaid by a good 20-25m when we signed him to start with. And if you then consider that Di Maria himself may want to leave then the mooted price is very good.
 
akash02 said:
That's not how it works. Since we paid an exorbitant price for him, he's gone through a season where he's been shit and not even first choice anymore. We cannot expect to recoup what we paid for him. We should be glad PSG are fools enough to pay 40m+ for him and run with it. We overpaid by a good 20-25m when we signed him to start with. And if you then consider that Di Maria himself may want to leave then the mooted price is very good.
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PSG are not fools. They are desperate to land Di Maria, just like last year. Only difference this time is they don't have FFP being shoved up their arse. They are super-rich and they can afford to pay what we want. Players have far too much power as it is and from how we are actually conducting our business this season, I am sure Woody will ask PSG to do one if they try to get Di Maria for 40 million.

If Di Maria was unwanted by the club and if we were actively looking to sell him, I could see the logic in taking a hit on a top top player. But we don't want to sell him and don't have any need to either. If he wants to leave and if PSG are desperate for him, then they can pay up for the player. We will look like absolute mugs if we take a hit of close to 20 million on a world class player after just one year.
 
I hope he goes purely so we don't have another Falcao situation on our hands. LvG persisted with Falcao all season in the hope that he'd rediscover the form that made his reputation. I just don't think that Di Maria can come good at United and I fear the same thing could happen. If he has another season like the last, we'd be lucky to get £25m next summer.
 
I don`t know why some people continue to compare the situation to the Falcao one.
Falcao had serious injury issues which might have meant the end to his career. He fought his way back but it turned out that he did not get back to his very best. LvG hoped that this will turn around but it did not work out.
AdM on the other hand has been purchased in his peak and I do not see the reason why he should not show what he is worth for us.

Only in case his family is totally unhappy I would accept his departure.
 
not sure how people are putting KDB in the same league as rues/muller/di maria.

really not sure.
 
3rdCarter said:
not sure how people are putting KDB in the same league as rues/muller/di maria.

really not sure.
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Going off his stats last year, he's right up with them.. He needs another season like that though in my eyes to be worth the money Wolfsburg want.
 
Dante said:
We did it with Veron. £14m to Chelsea halfway through his contract. Getting book value was, and would be, a face saving exercise.

In any case, Di Maria was shit last season. His stock has dropped since we bought him. Those expecting to earn back every penny are deluded.
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Looks like some of us are deluded with Ed Woodward. I think its silly of PSG thinking we would sell him for less.

The Premier League club are said to be holding out for a €75m fee for Di Maria, and this has led L'Equipe to say they're being 'very greedy'. Manchester United want all the money back which they paid Real Madrid last summer and have told PSG those are the terms and also that other teams are interested. Edward Woodward strikes again.
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RedStarUnited said:


Looks like some of us are deluded with Ed Woodward. I think its silly of PSG thinking we would sell him for less.
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Expecting to get that much clearly is deluded, since nobody nobody else considers it to be market value. And if you can't get an offer that big, that tells you all you need to know. PSG, the french papers and the footballing world agree.

If I put my house on the market for £10m doesn't mean that's what it's worth. It would be a delusion for me to expect to get it, since it's only worth about £150,000. Di Maria's only worth about £40m. Nobody's paying £60m for him, not even money bags PSG.
 
Dante said:
Expecting to get that much clearly is deluded, since nobody nobody else considers it to be market value. And if you can't get an offer that big, that tells you all you need to know. PSG, the french papers and the footballing world agree.

If I put my house on the market for £10m doesn't mean that's what it's worth. It would be a delusion for me to expect to get it, since it's only worth about £150,000. Di Maria's only worth about £40m. Nobody's paying £60m for him, not even money bags PSG.
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Then we're not going to sell him, he's only one year into his contract.
 
Dante said:
Expecting to get that much clearly is deluded, since nobody nobody else considers it to be market value. And if you can't get an offer that big, that tells you all you need to know. PSG, the french papers and the footballing world agree.

If I put my house on the market for £10m doesn't mean that's what it's worth. It would be a delusion for me to expect to get it, since it's only worth about £150,000. Di Maria's only worth about £40m. Nobody's paying £60m for him, not even money bags PSG.
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What you, PSG, L'Equipe and a great deal of others seem to be missing is that we have no motive to sell.

This isn't a valuation exercise. It's a 'piss off if you think we're letting him leave' exercise.

LVG wants Di Maria to stay. Di Maria has spoken of looking forward to next season. The only people pushing this are PSG and their local media.

Woodward has basically just told them to go feck themselves.
 
Rado_N said:
What you, PSG, L'Equipe and a great deal of others seem to be missing is that we have no motive to sell.

This isn't a valuation exercise. It's a 'piss off if you think we're letting him leave' exercise.

LVG wants Di Maria to stay. Di Maria has spoken of looking forward to next season. The only people pushing this are PSG and their local media.

Woodward has basically just told them to go feck themselves.
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I fully agree. That post was in relation to a point I was making earlier in the thread, that it would be a delusion to expect anyone to pay £60m. Slapping such a big fee on him is massive 'feck off' to PSG, precisely because it's so unrealistic.
Dante said:
We did it with Veron. £14m to Chelsea halfway through his contract. Getting book value was, and would be, a face saving exercise.

In any case, Di Maria was shit last season. His stock has dropped since we bought him. Those expecting to earn back every penny are deluded.
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Dante said:
Expecting to get that much clearly is deluded, since nobody nobody else considers it to be market value. And if you can't get an offer that big, that tells you all you need to know. PSG, the french papers and the footballing world agree.

If I put my house on the market for £10m doesn't mean that's what it's worth. It would be a delusion for me to expect to get it, since it's only worth about £150,000. Di Maria's only worth about £40m. Nobody's paying £60m for him, not even money bags PSG.
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This is a simple question of supply and demand. We bought a product for what was it 60 million pounds? PSG want to buy that product from us badly. We have no need to sell at all. Even if Di Maria was adamant to leave, for which there is no indication at all, there is no way we would sell him for less than we bought him for after only one dissapointing season! The real value of him has not much to do with what he should be sold for. As long as we don't want to sell PSG would have to offer money for him that we couldn't refuse. 20 million pounds less than what we paid for him was never going to do the trick.

Anyway I don't think he'll leave. PSG cannot offer what we are demanding I don't think. They have to break even.
 
Dante said:
Expecting to get that much clearly is deluded, since nobody nobody else considers it to be market value. And if you can't get an offer that big, that tells you all you need to know. PSG, the french papers and the footballing world agree.

If I put my house on the market for £10m doesn't mean that's what it's worth. It would be a delusion for me to expect to get it, since it's only worth about £150,000. Di Maria's only worth about £40m. Nobody's paying £60m for him, not even money bags PSG.
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City paid 50m for Sterling. Kane is being valued at 50-60m. Madrid paid 100m for Bale.

Those who say Di Maria is not even valued at 60m (what we paid for him) that too after he's had a spectacular Copa America) are deluded imo. Easily, Di Maria is one of the best players in the world.

His much talked about "shit form" came after he was injured (due to the physical nature of the epl) and was not being started by a cautious manager who's first and foremost priority last season was getting a top 4 place. There is nothing to suggest that he has regressed as a player.
 
Dante said:
Expecting to get that much clearly is deluded, since nobody nobody else considers it to be market value. And if you can't get an offer that big, that tells you all you need to know. PSG, the french papers and the footballing world agree.

If I put my house on the market for £10m doesn't mean that's what it's worth. It would be a delusion for me to expect to get it, since it's only worth about £150,000. Di Maria's only worth about £40m. Nobody's paying £60m for him, not even money bags PSG.
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But we have not put Di Maria on the market now, have we? It's them who are trying to get us to sell so proper valuations go up in the air.
 
I'm not arguing that we shouldn't put a huge price tag on him. I'm merely saying that nobody will pay it if we do. As such, the £60m we originally gave to Real was an unrealistic valuation. We overpaid back then and nobody else is going to do it now. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me, you can't get fooled again.
 
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