Eduardo Camavinga / signs for Real Madrid

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Who would have thought this thread will be so active this summer

I had a tiny hunch back in April when I did the 4 month bump below. :P
But I did not think we would look to be one of the few clubs in the race for him. And definitely didn't think it would come on top of Sancho and possibly Varane as well.

https://www.teamtalk.com/news/eduardo-camavinga-snub-rennes-contract-man-utd-transfer-interest
Brilliant young France midfielder Eduardo Camavinga will not be signing a new contract with his Ligue 1 club Stade Rennes, according to a reliable source.

The 18-year-old, who has been tracked by Manchester United and Real Madrid, has opted against extending his time with the Ligue 1 side. According to The Athletic the midfielder will reject the offer of an extension, partly because of the French side’s plan to insert an expensive release clause into his new deal.

Camavinga, who has been capped three times by France, is out of contract in June 2022. So Rennes will most likely look to cash in on the player this summer or in January 2022.
 
I don't have to really, not to be ignorant of the conversation, just any argument that involves getting rid of Pogba is tiresome. We should be trying absolutely everything we can to retain our best players and I believe that's exactly what Ole and and the board are trying to do, keep him. Why?

Well because he's one of the very best midfielders in the world. In his absence we will have an ancient Matic and McFred - which should frankly frighten you. But many here seemingly can't wait for us to be so one dimensional and limited in midfield.

Replacing Pogba we will not do. He is a unique player, in style, strength and ability, supremely talented, those players in midfield don't really exist in the market right now and if they do they cost more than what we paid for him.

Get a player 'that fit's us better as a team' - what does that even mean? All it means is that we DON'T HAVE A DM. It's a problem we will still have after we pack Pogba's luggage and let him go.

What any manager/DOF would want to do in our situation is build on what we have, get a player who actually plays in the DM role (we only have Matic) partner Pogba with them or indeed switch to a midfield three.

Any variation of our midfield without Pogba is more limited. Anybody here who thinks Pogba is totally incapable of being placed in a starting 11 because he loses the ball now and again is a mentalist in my book.

Let's make a list of all the times he's lost the ball that directly led to a goal against us, then compare that to all the assists and key passes forward he plays. I reckon it would make mugs of many here. No doubt he will go somewhere else and prove what he can do on the pitch just like he's done at Juve and for France, in teams willing to build a side that functions and covers for players weaknesses. Apparently that's beneath United.

have you ever seen pogba play for Utd?
Because he doesn’t play anything like he does for France apart from 3 or 4 games a season.
 
have you ever seen pogba play for Utd?
Because he doesn’t play anything like he does for France apart from 3 or 4 games a season.

The way he plays for France he does for us as well more often than not, but for a long period of his time here we've been missing other quality players that could do something with his passes. I have hope that with Sancho now we'll see more value for his plays, as well as more usage of strikers that aren't Martial.
 
Do you guys OK to sign Carmavinga (30M) and Marcelo Brozovic(25M) for DM postions so that will give some time for Carmavings to settle in or we can play both in double pivot

It wont cost too much either to get both of these DMs

If Pogba leaves we can try one of Saul, Llorente, Gortezka, Grealish, Aaour
 
have you ever seen pogba play for Utd?
Because he doesn’t play anything like he does for France apart from 3 or 4 games a season.
Have you seen the players he’s plays with for France?

They cater for his relative weakness at defending, they partner him with a solid DM alongside him and he plays in front of a decent defence.

Is this concept so alien to you? The question should be why we are happy to let him go and NOT question why we haven’t bothered to buy a single decent DM other than an over the hill Matic.
 
We already have one of Europes most 18-year old midfielder talent - Hannibal Mejbri.

Is Camavinga really that much better than him?
 
Have you seen the players he’s plays with for France?

They cater for his relative weakness at defending, they partner him with a solid DM alongside him and he plays in front of a decent defence.

Is this concept so alien to you? The question should be why we are happy to let him go and NOT question why we haven’t bothered to buy a single decent DM other than an over the hill Matic.

Are we gonna ignore the extra midfielder to cater for his weaknesses too. It's not just Kante out there it's also Tolisso/Rabiot like Matuidi before them. 1 man is not good enough to cover for him.
 
Are we gonna ignore the extra midfielder to cater for his weaknesses too. It's not just Kante out there it's also Tolisso/Rabiot like Matuidi before them. 1 man is not good enough to cover for him.
Just pointing the obvious that he plays with an excellent DM and is invariably one of France’s most important players, perhaps the most talented national side in world football.

We have seen Pogba play well alongside Matic before he legs completely went, why is it impossible to believe that we would quite obviously see an improvement in Paul if we had a young Matic next to him, I’m positive we would, especially with an improved partner for Maguire behind him.

Edit: Not to mention Paul hasn’t been exactly been gifting chances every game to opposition. In fact the opposite and as others have pointed out he’s had positive feedback in most games whilst being shifted here, there and everywhere.

To me it’s obvious, others disagree, that’s fine.
 
If we buy Camavinga, we are not playing Camavinga-Pogba in midfield, so one of Mctominay or Fred would still play. That is why i said that Camavinga would be a Backup/replacement for Pogba, because he would play in the Pogba role( When Pogba plays in the midfield 2) and not as the more deeper/defensive midfielder. Did not think it was so hard to understand, British people are so literal at times.
 
We already have one of Europes most 18-year old midfielder talent - Hannibal Mejbri.

Is Camavinga really that much better than him?
Completely different types of players for one. Also, Camavinga has loads more experience at a higher level.
 
We already have one of Europes most 18-year old midfielder talent - Hannibal Mejbri.

Is Camavinga really that much better than him?

He hasn't done anything at senior level yet, completely different profile of player as well. This is the issue when we overrate our own when they haven't done anything.
 
So you are seriously going to assert he plays as well for Utd as he does for France?
The problem with your post is that you are implying Pogba almost always plays well for France, which is not the case. It makes you sound like you're only basing this on the recent Euro's (where he's obviously been magnificent) but he's had plenty of games for France where he's dropped a level, just as he has with United.

I would caveat that by saying that the few games he's played at the Euro's is probably the best I've ever seen him play.

Anyway back on topic; if 30mil is genuinely the price Rennes have set for Camavinga, I would bite their hand off.
 
We already have one of Europes most 18-year old midfielder talent - Hannibal Mejbri.

Is Camavinga really that much better than him?
Mejbri has the potential to play every role in midfield and at #10 due to his passing range, aswell as his ability to dribble, which means he also has the potential to be deployed as a Mezzala. But he hasn't had the exposure at first team level yet, but I can foresee a future midfield of Mejbri, Camavinga and Garner if their development curve carries on at a upward trajectory. Mejbri should also allow the coach to go from a 4-3-3 to a 4-2-3-1, due to his ability to play both as a CM and as a #10.
 
Pogba started the season being shoehorned into CM. Then after a few poor performances he had to be moved into LM. Finally, after all was said and done, it was clear that McFred were going to end the season as clear first choices in midfield.

What this shows is two things. First is that Ole likes to have elements of both defensive workrate (as exhibited by McFred) and long range passing (as shown by Pogba) in the middle of the pitch. Second is that if he can only have one of them, he's going to prioritise defensive workrate.

The great thing about Camavinga is that he gives you both. He's not only one of the most consistent long range passers in Europe, he's also one of the best tacklers as well. It's almost uncanny how well he fits Ole's perfect model of a CM.

What's just as good is that we have another young gun in James Garner who also fits that model.

Even if this transfer could somehow happen, I wouldn't expect to see a Garvinga double pivot any time soon because it's just too inexperienced. Though if everything falls perfectly into place, it could be a sight to behold in a few years' time. In the meantime, I think buying somebody as young as Camavinga would necessitate Fred and McTominay playing a lot of minutes for the foreseeable future.
 
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Would people not be a bit concerned that a midfield of Camavinga, Mejbri and Garner would be very lacking in the air. We are already very poor at set pieces and this midfield trio would prob make us worse. Lot more to a game of football that being good in the air but I feel it’s an area we need to address.
None of our CB targets are outstanding in the air and I’m hoping that we land a midfielder that would help in this area at both ends of the ground.
 
We already have one of Europes most 18-year old midfielder talent - Hannibal Mejbri.

Is Camavinga really that much better than him?
He hasn’t played for the 1st team . Also just because we “might” have a future star doesn’t mean we stop looking for more . Look at City’s squad last season. They’ve 2 players for each position and it doesn’t weaken them that much. We can’t say that about our squad (yet)
 
And Judas said to the rabble, if the young one comes here to me, for my thirty pieces of silver, I will climb that mountain and hang from it's highest ledge, and with this flaccid thing of mine will I urinate into mine own eyes and rejoice for there is rapture.
:lol:
 
We already have one of Europes most 18-year old midfielder talent - Hannibal Mejbri.

Is Camavinga really that much better than him?
We could loan Hannibal to Rennes as part of the deal and find out.
 
Have you seen the players he’s plays with for France?

They cater for his relative weakness at defending, they partner him with a solid DM alongside him and he plays in front of a decent defence.

Is this concept so alien to you? The question should be why we are happy to let him go and NOT question why we haven’t bothered to buy a single decent DM other than an over the hill Matic.

Yes, and he does look brilliant on the ball as an attacking CM with two midfield players in there with him. When I watched him in a two man midfield for France he was found wanting defensively against Switzerland and that is with Kante as the other midfielder.

Having watched him also play in a two in the EL final alongside Mct who played better than him in that match and alongside Fred and Matic in league games over many years since his return to Utd. I think its a fair question to ask, is there a center midfield player we could pair him with in a two and not be disappointed in him over a season as we try to win a title or the Champions league?

Couple that doubt with the agent and general grumbling when ever he is out of the team, the huge ask he will undoubtedly make in wages to renew and I now don't care if he leaves.

His fate was probably sealed when Bruno showed up and showed him up. In the same way Cavani has with Martial. The problem with the price of genius argument is some geniuses come cheaper.

I guess the answer to the second question then is Pogba's performances for Utd. He hasn't been terrible but he hasn't looked consistently that bothered about being a bit of a problem either.
 
Here's the thing people are overlooking: even if it's true that Pogba intends to leave, what if United get Camavinga and possibly Varane as well as Sancho, and Pogba's role shifts further forward, left side, which he prefers? Now imagine United clicking and being successful next season. What few people are factoring in is that Pogba might well change his mind if he's an integral part of a club whose fortunes are on the rise, which is very possible if we acquire these new players to add to what is already a formidable squad.
The thing is, will you risk losing Pogba for free next summer? He has left us for free once, which cost us 89m to buy him back. Would be major disaster if we loss him for free again.
 
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I’m hoping that we have a France-based Caf member who has watched Camavinga play in 20-30 matches so we can get an understanding of how good this kid could be.

I don’t watch hardly any Ligue 1. But the YouTube highlight videos show a player who has a similar body type to Pogba, but is much quicker and has a better, faster change of pace. Also, looks pretty tenacious defensively, I must say.

I‘’ve not had any doubts about Sancho as I’ve seen him in about 50-60matches, but cannot say the same for Camavinga. Just his highlight reel shows…
 
He is a DM isn't he? Played most of his career as DM. He played DM in 19/20 but CM in 20/21. Is that the main reason why his performance dropped because he started to play as CM?

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He is a DM isn't he? Played most of his career as DM. He played DM in 19/20 but CM in 20/21. Is that the main reason why his performance dropped because he started to play as CM?

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Id take that kind of thing with a grain of salt. Player role on stat sites can be a little arbitrary.
 
Id take that kind of thing with a grain of salt. Player role on stat sites can be a little arbitrary.

I checked Pogba's stats in 19/20 since he played in double pivot, the position he played wasn't classified as DM but actually as CM. Camavinga played as DM in 19/20 may be legit.
 
We already have one of Europes most 18-year old midfielder talent - Hannibal Mejbri.

Is Camavinga really that much better than him?
Camavinga is far more established than Mejbri at the moment. Maybe it’s like comparing Sancho with Diallo.
 
The problem with your post is that you are implying Pogba almost always plays well for France, which is not the case. It makes you sound like you're only basing this on the recent Euro's (where he's obviously been magnificent) but he's had plenty of games for France where he's dropped a level, just as he has with United.

I would caveat that by saying that the few games he's played at the Euro's is probably the best I've ever seen him play.

Anyway back on topic; if 30mil is genuinely the price Rennes have set for Camavinga, I would bite their hand off.

I agree 30m for Camavinga is a great deal and we should go for it.
I just disagree pogba is a good enough player to build a midfield around. Can’t play in a 2 so we need another DM. Sorry but I’d rather have a better functioning midfield without him in it.
 
Bidding war? That's a myth.

It’s a myth that it’s a myth.

I work in the industry and have spoken to Sporting Directors who tell me that it genuinely does happen, albeit not that frequently.
 
Only reason he was even starting for Rennes this past season is that they didn't want his value to drop.

He was absolutely dreadful. If he comes into next season with the same form he's gonna be sent to the u23s really quickly
 
He looks really good going by the YouTube footage and if we do manage to bring him in with Varane we will have a decent French contingent in the squad.
I don't think anyone can question the club's ambition with who we are rumoured to be chasing at the moment and I would think we would have to be contenders next season
 
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