Let's just hope Pep doesn't decide to offload Silva and swap him for De Jong. 
Frenkie de Jong | The last muppeting lap
- Thread starter davidmichael
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…Let's just hope Pep doesn't decide to offload Silva and swap him for De Jong.
I get that FDJ is probably our No1 priority but we should really be wrapping up the 3-4 other signings we need as well as him.
FDJ won't work any miracles with this squad.
Also one thing I hope is that he can really spread the play because without Pogba we don't have a single Midfielder who can. And that's a terrible position to be in.
FDJ when I've watched him doesn't seem to do so either but maybe that's more a style of the teams he has played for. All teams need some players who can impeccably switch the play
FDJ won't work any miracles with this squad.
Also one thing I hope is that he can really spread the play because without Pogba we don't have a single Midfielder who can. And that's a terrible position to be in.
FDJ when I've watched him doesn't seem to do so either but maybe that's more a style of the teams he has played for. All teams need some players who can impeccably switch the play
How do we really know what our budget is, I think 72 million pounds is rather fair but I don't mind if we manage to beat it down though, I've said previously UNITED know there's still time to get it done, the player is still on holiday, it will be done when its time to get back to football.
Frankie is not a holding midfielder
THAT summer being a delayed window, after a 2 month break in the season and in the thick of an as of yet unresolved pandemic? Stadiums with no fans, clubs furloughing staff and record losses in the game. Are we just going to throw our toys and say ‘well clearly they had no plan, they haven’t strengthened well enough’ with no context at all?
No based off what we spent and who we spent it on. We obviously were not prepared for not signing Sancho. We spent alot of money THAT window on non starters. VDB, Amad and Pellestri whilst needing starting 11 players. If you want context read the whole conversation
Watch City swoop in and get the deal done in two days
Reminds me of the Morata saga where Real won't budge on their price for us but sell at a lower price to someone else while we move onto another player
Don't see how he fits at City at all. He isn't a swap for Silva, and I can't really see how he fits their plans. Lets be clear though we are in no way going to compete with the amount of money City spend.
I read the whole conversation. And the post I quoted isolated criticism to that particular summer, speaking of our poor planning at a time where any plans were clearly virtually impossible to execute, and instead had to be revised for most clubs.
Also, why did we need an alternative for Sancho THAT summer? We bought the player we wanted in the end, and clearly preferred to do that than write him off and get another player. The fact that the player eventually joined us shows that the issue clearly wasn’t the will of the player, and the fact that we got a better price shows that we were fine to exercise our right to wait for a price drop. We didn’t ‘chase Sancho all summer’. We had a value, and they had a value. Perhaps we would have signed him eventually that summer had Dortmund dropped their price to match ours. But they didn’t, but they did the following year and we signed him.
Like we did after they danced around ‘just paying up’ for Alexis Sanchez across two transfer windows.
Could easily play as an 8 ahead of Rodri.
As we've seen with Grealish and Haaland, it doesn't seem like they care what fits if they can take good talents.
We should offer 60m plus 10m if we win the CL
So, 60 million.
We did actually chase Sancho all summer briefing up till the day before deadline day that we were confiedent of doing a deal. When it was clear a deal would not happen.
We signed 2 other RWs as gambles one already ready to join his new club on loan instead we should have been prepared to fill a gap in the team had we not been able to sign Sancho like a DM whilst Matics legs were falling off. I assumed being a prepared club that we would have had a list of targets scouted for years given the age of Matic… yet 2 years later here we are, pandemic to blame there too?
Any evidence of plans that you hoped to see that particular summer are irrelevant given the context of that particular summer I think.
And we would have signed Sancho that summer. Or the previous summer. If Dortmund set a price we agreed to. He was a long term target, and he wanted to come here to. It was always going to happen, just not for 120m. We could have asked right up until deadline for them to drop the price, but if they didn’t, then we would come back when they did - not buy a different player for the role we want Sancho for.
And I think the club has scouted a long term replacement for Matic, and have done so years ago. I think it’s also pretty clear who that is. If the price was reasonable last summer, we’d have done it last summer. If it was reasonable this summer, we’d do it this summer, and if it’s only reasonable next summer, I suspect we’d do it then. If the player has communicated to us that he isn’t interested, then I would presume we will, at that point, move on to another target. But we want to get the players we want to get.
And you can say we signed 2 others as gambles, or you can say we signed two others as prospects to develop. It’s not a negative. You seem to think it is because we didn’t sign an alternative for the players we actually want, but to me, it’s clear that we were not signing an ‘alternative’ to Sancho or Rice anyway. And because our targets were long term targets, clearly, we got a shorter term option when it became clear we would not get Sancho. Presumably, we planned to do similar last summer, but then we became so shit that Haaland was no longer a feasible option come this one.
So now that the price is fixed, can we walk away already?? He is not the only midfielder capable of improving us signigicantly.
He'd just be going into the same issue as he is with Barcelona though, at least we would literally build the midfield to accommodate him. City would need to buy more players to balance the midfield.
No he would fit well with Rodri. Berdando comes deep to pick up the ball a lot. De Jong wants the ball off the defence not that he needs to he the player screening the defence. Double pivot with Rodri with licence to roam would work really well.
They don't play a double pivot though, they have KDB and Gundogan/Silva that play. You either play Rodri or De Jong, they occupy similar spaces on the pitch, so you push one of them out of their natural position.
Would he care? gets paid the same if not more, plays CL football and winning titles.
I think Pep would like him as a player.
Lets hope it doesn't happen but it wouldn't surprise me, City would love to amazing person I admire us.
True, I don't know his character and what he values more. I'm hoping it's playing in a system that is built for him, playing regularly and maybe a challenge of getting us back to being successful (not sure that last one is a particularly big pull mind). I wouldn't blame him at all if he did go to City.
Yeah, he probably would, but I also think he would want more players to get the best out of him.
We can all agree on your last point
.Let's just hope Pep doesn't decide to offload Silva and swap him for De Jong.
I would expect to see those links quite soon from the agents or Barca.
We need a credible alternative to move onto and put the pressure back on Barca. There’s absolutely no way he should be commanding a similar fee to what Barca paid given their situation and his limited success there.
That said, as fan, we just need to get it done. It will be far more transformative than any other signing we’ve made recently.
Yeah if I was Barca i'd be leaking City in talks, we'd get the checkbook out faster than lightning.
The weather today is calling Frenkie to Manchester
It's where that's the question, wouldn't surprise me to see the City links hot up given their interest in Bernardo Silva
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I understand that’s the issue at barca though,maybe wrong though, in that busquets plays where rodeo plays, and de jong has struggled to fit in to that role
Its not about where he plays and more about how. Rodri is no Busquets everything does not go through Rodri
Sigh well I either hope he is wrong or hope we sign De Jong
Why do the negative Nellies on here keep talking about him going to City, when there’s not a single reliable city source saying they’re interested.. and with them being such an amazingly ran club (so I’m informed), they will have all their targets confirmed and almost wrapped up, right?! So why would they suddenly switch to get him from under our noses?!
Apart from the most reputable journo who covers us literally just posted the other deals we're working on are for a CM and a winger.
Briefings have started. This better be done
Reminds me of Sancho two years ago when United were confident BVB would eventually dropped the price as the summer went on but they didn’t and we had to wait another year to get him. But then BVB aren’t in financial trouble like Barca are now. Maybe we’ll get it right this time
Sack Murtough sign Nihal.
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