The thought of us lining up against Chelsea with Carrick and Cleverley in the 2 of a 4231 is the kind of thing that makes me wake up in a cold sweat. I am worried now because we are going after unrealistic targets when Fellaini would be a 7/10 signing and we could have him ready and integrated into the team by the time we play Chelsea. If Chelsea get an early 6+ point lead on us it's going to be so difficult to turn it around.
Fellaini
- Thread starter Bilbo
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The thought of us lining up against Chelsea with Carrick and Cleverley in the 2 of a 4231 is the kind of thing that makes me wake up in a cold sweat. I am worried now because we are going after unrealistic targets when Fellaini would be a 7/10 signing and we could have him ready and integrated into the team by the time we play Chelsea. If Chelsea get an early 6+ point lead on us it's going to be so difficult to turn it around.
Why would it be arrogant to suggest that with a modest addition to the squad that we could claim the league trophy again? Yes, I would love to see Fabregas, Bale AND Ronaldo added to the squad but life just doesn't go that way. At least not for United.
We would do well to sort out Rooney's head, add Fellaini and let our youngster take their shot. Zaha could be insane. Januzaj is young but looks like a very special talent. I even like what Powell brings but I haven't heard squat about him recently. When you go through the squad, starting with De Gea, we're actually pretty strong as is.
We shouldn't resign ourselves to shitting in our pants if we don't land one of the five top midfielders on the planet. Let's not make the perfect the enemy of the good.
Quite right. We have plenty of X factors that could - realistically - go our way: Kagawa was nowhere near as instrumental as I believe he can be last season. He could be a sensation for us. Chicharito could take further steps, Welbeck too - and Cleverley. Things aren't bleak at all, even without a "marquee" signing. Moyes will have to add a couple of midfielders, that still stands. But they don't have to be Redondo MkII for us to improve our options in that department.
I do think Fellaini would be a good signing for us and would be a good addition to our squad. But therein lies the reason why I'm not jumping for joy at the prospect of signing him. I don't see him as being the man for us in central midfield the way Fabregas for example would. I see him more as a squad player who'd rotate with Cleverley and with Moyes talking about signing midfielders and the Fabregas stories, Fellaini just feels like a let down. Like being promised a Ferrari and getting a Pontiac Sunfire let down.
Because you didn't say that we COULD claim the league trophy but that we would shred the competition. Quite the difference there.
A club like United shouldn't go for mediocre stop-gap signings for 20m. That's a lot of money without actually improving the team or signing future potential. We can and should do better than Fellaini. If we can't get anyone who's got either real proven quality or great potential then at least let's not waste 20m. Look for someone who's big and strong and can kick and elbow people and pay half of that for him, at most, if we are desperate to at least add a body there (and we should).
Might as well bring him in.
Doubt Moyes would do that, don't worry. We haven't done too badly against Chelsea either and the personnel has not changed much bar, errrm, the managers.
And more than that, Everton are never going to accept less than the clause right after it expires. Imagine the fan reaction to that.
If we could somehow end up with him for around £16 million then fair enough, thats how good he is in midfield and he'd obviously be an improvement to our options there. The reality is you'd have to pay far more than that.
I think a lot of people are forgetting that Carrick is 32. We will be needing a new dm in the near future, and its risky to assume Carrick will be fit for every game the way he was last year.
Forget partners for Carrick, imagine if he were unavailable for any length of time. Cleverley and Ando, that's all we would have. And while knows what we do when ando goes off after an hour.
Fellaini solves a number of needs at a very reasonable price. Even if we sign fabregas I'd still want the afro man.
Forget partners for Carrick, imagine if he were unavailable for any length of time. Cleverley and Ando, that's all we would have. And while knows what we do when ando goes off after an hour.
Fellaini solves a number of needs at a very reasonable price. Even if we sign fabregas I'd still want the afro man.
Its true that in the next couple of years we'll need someone to lighten the load for Carrick. But Giggs and Scholes carried on as important first choices well beyond 32 and theres no reason Carrick wont also. He's arguably better suited for it due to his playing style.
No, obviously dont forget about partners for Carrick. Its obviously our number 1 priority.
No, obviously dont forget about partners for Carrick. Its obviously our number 1 priority.
I think the implication was that Fellaini could be the Carrick stop gap when not available better than Ando or Cleverley, which I agree with.
Right now this looks like an expensive stop gap (plus other things he can do) to me at 22M but that seems to be the going rate for that sort of player when the club he is at values him.
I reckon Moyes would have a clear idea of how much Everton would let him go for and how much of a fuss Fellaini could kick. He was managing him only a couple of months ago.
Right now this looks like an expensive stop gap (plus other things he can do) to me at 22M but that seems to be the going rate for that sort of player when the club he is at values him.
I reckon Moyes would have a clear idea of how much Everton would let him go for and how much of a fuss Fellaini could kick. He was managing him only a couple of months ago.
£22 million is about twice the price of a stop-gap for Carrick. We can obviously sign someone with a much lower profile who's skillset actually suits playing the deep central midfield role
At this point people are just saying whatever fits in with the idea of us signing Fellaini
As long as he's not too close to being our 6th most expensive player ever, its not the worst idea to take him. But I'm sure Everton have no interest in that
At this point people are just saying whatever fits in with the idea of us signing Fellaini
As long as he's not too close to being our 6th most expensive player ever, its not the worst idea to take him. But I'm sure Everton have no interest in that
He wouldn't just be a stop gap for Carrick though. 15-18M is a fair price for him and how much more is a function of whether Martínez wants to keep him and how desperate we are. 22M would smack of disappointing failure, but I would rather that than keep faffing around assuming he is a fallback ala Dempsey and Liverpool. He certainly has a place in our squad, that I have no doubt about and we have a lot of squad players who cost us in the 15-20M range.
Is he the second coming of Paul Scholes? No, clearly.
He's not like Carrick at all? I'd play him next to Carrick myself.
Those £15-20 million "squad" players have failed to live up to their price tag (or in Nani's case, more than lived up to it for 18 months but fell off again after an inujury) It doesn't mean we should throw money around, Fellaini has nothing to do with us spending loads of money on the likes of Anderson. We don't even know if Fellaini is a fallback option yet, Moyes may not try to sign him at all
Yes, also everybody is just assuming that he will have another terrific season like last year. He wasn't that good the years before, he might have a bad season just like Valencia did last year following some great football the year before. I think Carrick is being a tad over hyped for this season.
Any player could have a poorer season. Fellaini being one of them
That's where you would start him, sure. The point others were making was he could also make up for Carrick's absence more than Ando/Cleverley. Not ideal, but better than current. Of course that's not what you would pay that sort of money for.
The one place I don't want to see him is supporting the striker in a 4-1-1, I think that's what many fear his signing could mean and that's why they are so averse to it.
Fellaini would start ahead of Anderson and last 90 minutes regularly, and that's the point. There's room for Fellaini in our squad, no reason to be so negative about him.
Is he everyone's dream? No. Is he a step forward from where we are? Yes.
I would bet my left bollock half of your preferred targets would be more likely to have a poor season. He would put in a good performance at any PL team, that's not questionable IMO.
My preferred targets? The only target I was really excited about was Thiago.
Yeah pretty much the same for me. I don't know why but Fabregas wouldn't excite me half as much as Thiago, but well that didn't happen.
And then we go and find out we were never interested in him which makes it even worse!
The way you've been moaning about you would think that wasn't the case. Are you just making this up to get dibs on my left bollock?
What are you on about? I have been moaning about anything.
Of course there's room in the squad. Theres room in the squad for players half his price too
It's not as though anyone is suggesting we bring in Michael Bradley to solve our midfield hole. Fellaini is a proven midfielder in the English prem, even if he is no Fabregas. Sometimes the dream buy just isn't there. We're just not in the position as Real or Bayern to pick who we want. Last season we thought we had Hazard. Didn't happen. We thought we had Thiago. Didn't happen. We'll see about Fabregas but I'd recommend against betting your life savings that will happen.
Fellaini would be an acceptable signing if we aren't able to bring in someone who would radically improve our CM. And that looks very difficult - it would seem to be Pizza Boy or bust at this point. I can't see us getting anyone else near that quality - and in that light Fellaini starts to look somewhat different: He is not as shite as some like to think, and he is a proven PL player, would add steel, as people say and so forth - against a top side a pairing of Fellaini and Carrick is definitely better than any option we have at the moment.
He should also be able to cover for Carrick against lighter opposition, i.e. we could team him up with Cleverley, for instance.
I'll say this, though: If we do get him, we should take a punt on someone else as well: I think we can allow ourselves that. Buy someone like McCarthy and see how he turns out. Twenty mill for Fellaini, ten for McCarthy? We have a hundred to burn, ain't that right? Well, let's throw the remaining seventy at Levy just for kicks. Or at Perez.
He should also be able to cover for Carrick against lighter opposition, i.e. we could team him up with Cleverley, for instance.
I'll say this, though: If we do get him, we should take a punt on someone else as well: I think we can allow ourselves that. Buy someone like McCarthy and see how he turns out. Twenty mill for Fellaini, ten for McCarthy? We have a hundred to burn, ain't that right? Well, let's throw the remaining seventy at Levy just for kicks. Or at Perez.
Taking the muppet specs off for a moment - Fellaini would be a very good signing and would improve our midfield and set piece options considerably.
Not right now, overall. Aren't you the one going on about Moyes being out of his depth and complaining we should have got Mourinho?
McCarthy? I want him too. They are not mutually exclusive.
I bet Fellaini wants to go somewhere where he can play forward and score goals. He was very effective doing this last year. At United, we have enough forwards that can score.
Devastating player though.
Devastating player though.
May as well sign this feck seeing as we can't land anyone else.
Sums up my views
I know Fábregas won't happen but that doesn't mean I can get behind the thinking that it's either a world class midfielder or Fellaini. There are other options between the two extremes.
And I don't think Fellaini is a better CM than Bradley. He's a far better support striker/target man, yes. We don't need that though.
Considering that Everton bought him for 15m or something I think that's about as low as you could hope for. International, one of the more impressive players outside the top 4 for a couple years and just entering his prime...In today's market I really don't see it as a bad price. Or at least not one you could reasonably expect to be lower.
But not in the position we need him. In deep midfield he's never a 20m player. Barely a 10m one.
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