Just Bad memories from Di Maria. He never wanted us we chased it and bought him. He left us a season later.
No reason to see why this wouldn't be any different.
Frenkie de Jong | The last muppeting lap
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Just Bad memories from Di Maria. He never wanted us we chased it and bought him. He left us a season later.
No reason to see why this wouldn't be any different.
People keep mentioning Di Maria but no one is mentioning that not only did he not want to come, LVG didn’t want him either he was a Woodward signing. ETH clearly wants FDJ so its not really the same situation.
Maybe United and Ten Hag have done all they could to convince Frenkie to come and the player needs a few days away to think about it, and meanwhile we are probably negotiating the fee with Barca in the case it Frenkie agrees to leave them
We’re desperate for a midfielder, but not necessarily this one. The only reason this became news was because Barca offered him up for sale, I doubt we were pursuing him otherwise. If Ten Hag really really wants him then I understand us going to extra mile, but as far as I can tell this is all coming from their end.
LVG repeatedly said prior to us signing Di Maria he wanted a winger like Di Maria (he even name checked him)
Why do people keep referencing to Di Maria? I think he was actually happy being here and had an amazing start to his United career. Remember his debut against QPR and he was man of the match in that game? We all knew he was quality and playing well here. The unhappiness was more due to van Gaal mismanagement of him few months down the road and the player eventually didn’t like being at the club. The robbery at his house didn’t help either
Yes but shortly after managing him, decided he didn't like Di Marias style of playing at all and just stopped using him (or forced him to change his game). It's a very different situation to De Jongs in a lot of ways.
Don't disagree with that, just disagreed that LVG didn't want Di Maria to begin with
If he does not want to come and we have tried our best to convince him then it's best we forget this one and move on to more attainable transfers. We have lots that need to be done in this window (both selling and buying).
He's coming. Don't worry lads.
Doubt it's that much of a fuss these journalists are trying to make it out to be. The reality probably is closer to Barca wants to sell him since they need the money, FDJ wasn't pushing for a move but here's a good offer from a big club and now he's talking to Utd as would most players do when there's a good offer usually ending with the player moving. Most football transfers go through a similar process and rarely you get dramatic Berbatov changes or DDG fax machine fiascos. But hey, anything to sell news right?
Well I doubt we’re going to leak who we’re interested in or negotiating for, so of course it’s all coming from the side of the selling club, it’s fairly normal. He’s the kind of player that you only become interested in when it’s obvious he’s up for sale. Similar to Varane.
We are going to find this with all players we go this summer unfortunately.
Will he work alongside Neves? I think a midfield of FJD, Neves and Bruno is pretty solid and definitely top 4 material. In fact if we sign Timber as a RB, sign another CB preferably Demiral/Ndicka/Bastoni. These four signings alone would make our defense and midfield improve immensely.
It would leave us with attack only where we would still be lacking but atleast we would be controlling football matches and stop leaking goals.
It would leave us with attack only where we would still be lacking but atleast we would be controlling football matches and stop leaking goals.
I'm sure we'll do this the old Woodward way of just throwing vast and vast amounts at De Jong.
Don't worry, brother. Frenkie > Pedri
This also means more Busquets for Barca. Going from what I hear from Barca fans in recent years, that's as damaging as anything.
Not sure if you realise but our aim next season is simply top four. Liverpool built a foundation of guys like Mane, Wijnaldum, Robertson etc who then got coached to elite level over time.
The article that says that at the moment FDJ is closer to staying also has the below quite interesting lines
"Manchester United's new coach, Erik Ten Hag, has tried several times to convince the Barça midfielder to join the English side. At first, De Jong was not willing to listen to offers, because he did not want to go to a team that does not play the Champions League. During the negotiations the former Ajax coach explained the project to De Jong, and little by little the Dutchman is looking at the operation with better eyes."
https://www.ccma.cat/esport3/lopera...r-united-en-mans-del-jugador/noticia/3166814/
"Manchester United's new coach, Erik Ten Hag, has tried several times to convince the Barça midfielder to join the English side. At first, De Jong was not willing to listen to offers, because he did not want to go to a team that does not play the Champions League. During the negotiations the former Ajax coach explained the project to De Jong, and little by little the Dutchman is looking at the operation with better eyes."
https://www.ccma.cat/esport3/lopera...r-united-en-mans-del-jugador/noticia/3166814/
Yeah exactly like is the operative word, it doesn’t mean he wanted him specifically. He wanted a player with similar attributes.
Barcelona if FDJ stays will not be able to make any of the signings they want. There is another factor such as the agreement with CVC, BLM, BarcaStudios and another one for a percentage of the television rights.
There are many variables yet to be resolved.
If I had to make a bet and Barcelona sells to FDJ, it would be about €80M, variables included.
His youtube highlights are brilliant. Those turns and body feints to get away from his opponent 
Agreed. So long as he isn't played in 6 different positions, burgled and benched for an Ashley Young level player, he's not gonna turn into "another Di Maria."
Now I don't know the ins and outs of what we can do about burglaries, but I imagine Ten Hag has one position in mind for De Jong and I'm confident that he'll bring press-resistance and progressive play that the likes of McTominay and Fred won't be able to match well enough to bench him.
Hopefully we get him, and hopefully we have alternatives if we can't.
A winger? He played Di Maria in midfielder 3 in his 352 formation if I remember correctly.
lvg played him everywhere including wing back
Why would he be specifically name-checking a player and saying the team needed someone like him, but not want that actual player? Of course LVG wanted Di Maria, it just ended up going badly after a couple of months.
The key thing for me is that Di Maria not only didn't want to leave Real, but if he had to leave he wanted to go to PSG who also wanted him but simply couldn't make it happen because of FFP. Combine that with LVG struggling to use him properly and the break-in, and it was a recipe for it to go to shit.
De Jong preferring to stay at Barca is fine. Plenty of players have been pushed out of Barca and Real and went on to be hugely successful for their new clubs. But if there is another team who want to sign him that he would prefer to go to that is when we need to forget it and move on.
My worry is that in the past FDJ's father has commented on the climate and weather playing a part in where Frenkie would want to play. His father saying it is different than what FDJ himself thinks, but it might be an issue.
I mean all the initial stuff we heard came from Spanish journalists. Everything came from their end, and we were invited to the negotiating table. We should get up and leave if they keep asking for 80m into June, seems clear the guy doesn’t want to join us and we’ve got a lot to do.
Exactly, they need to get a move on - but we could decide to go and talk to wolves about Ruben Neves, we’d probably see that 80 become 70 pretty quick. I’d let them sweat on it while we get our other business done.
Not sure if he said winger, I always thought he wanted a 'special' player like Di Maria to unlock defenses, because his philosophy was cautious possession football and we badly needed creativity. AdM had just finished his last season in central midfield at Madrid, so the idea was always that he'd either play CM or 10 when he came here. He ended up being played all over the place because he couldn't handle the PL.
Buying players this summer isn’t just for next season. It’s for the next 4-5+. Don’t be buying average for the sake of buying.
What sort of daft clutching at straws is this? If he name checked Di Maria by name and even said he wanted a player of his ilk, how can you begin to debate this notion that LVG didn't want Di Maria?
LVG wanted Di Maria it's barely debateable. And Di Maria was perfectly happy to join United, if rumours are correct his wife wanted to go to Paris. Now if you believe Di Maria his issue at United was with LVG, according to Di Maria he would constantly criticized and point the finger at Di Maria's weaknesses and one day Di Maria asked him why he never had anything positive to tell him and that he was tired of it which led to a clash.
From his interview with the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...nterview-buy-players-rooney-tactics-solskjaer
"You brought in players. You tried to refresh.
Yes, but I didn’t always get the players that I want. That’s the problem. There is Woodward and his right hand is [head of corporate development] Matt Judge. Judge I met once in a while but not too much. And there was the head of scouting. That was the structure but you are always dependent on Woodward and Judge.
Ángel Di María, was he your choice?
Di María was my choice at AZ, seven years before.
He didn’t sign then. Did you want him for United? Were you happy that he came?
I was satisfied, because he was a creative player, but I had other players on the list. Di María had a problem with the English football culture and the climate. You cannot buy players and know, for sure, that they can deliver. You cannot know because football is a team sport."
You just quoted him saying hes satisfied.
Exactly
Yes and he goes onto to say but i had other players on my list, that suggests to me Di Maria wasnt his first choice.
His first choices were Muller and Robben...
So he wanted a winger like Di Maria but not Di Maria himself. Okay
You're getting things mixed-up. Di Maria flourished at Real Madrid in that left slot of a midfield trio formation. In Di Maria's early days at United, he was being played in that same left slot a midfield three and thrived there too.
Things started to go downhill when he was pulled to the left wing and later even played as a second striker (which took away his strongest attributes: his passes). Van Gaal seemed to have intended to turn him into another Robben, which didn't work.
Also Di Maria never warmed up and adapted to the physicality of the Premier League properly. This showed clearly in that farce of a match when we lost to Leicester 3-5. Later on he got substituted in the Hull City match because of an injury and Herrera came on in place of him. This officially ended Di Maria's "honeymoon period" with United.
I don’t see LVG being the type of manager to accept a player he didn’t want, he says himself he’d wanted him for years. It’s possible Woodward lined him up and told LVG we could get him, and he accepted, but if he didn’t want him he’d have said so - the fact the Toni Kroos thing went down in basically the same way, albeit with Van Gaal turning him down, suggests this.
Nothing happening here, as it seems. Guys, if you want me, I’ll be over in the Di Maria thread.
to replace AWB?
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