As well as the big name signings that we make, we should strive to unearth some rough diamonds - we haven't done that since the days of solksjaer and johnsen, players costing 5 million pounds and below. In fact, it may become absolutely necessary as our wages are rising rapidly and the youth conveyor belt isn't churning out too many quality players.
Go for rough diamonds
- Thread starter lchk
- Start date
I think we nearly found one in Jesper. I know not everyone was, but I was a big fan of Bloomy's, and I think he'd have been worth a lot more than what we'd paid for him if he hadn't been so unlucky with injuries. I think he'd have had a fantastic year after the treble season when he'd just started to show what he was capable of.
Maybe in the mold of pires or such? Who knows.
I agree though, i'd like for us to find some undiscovered talent that wouldn't cost us a fortune.
Maybe in the mold of pires or such? Who knows.
I agree though, i'd like for us to find some undiscovered talent that wouldn't cost us a fortune.
Originally posted by lchk:
<strong>As well as the big name signings that we make, we should strive to unearth some rough diamonds - we haven't done that since the days of solksjaer and johnsen, players costing 5 million pounds and below. In fact, it may become absolutely necessary as our wages are rising rapidly and the youth conveyor belt isn't churning out too many quality players.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I agree. Would like our Scandinavian scouts to start earning their keeps.
So far, Ole and Johnsen appear to have been some of the best examples of raw diamonds coming good at United.
Good bargains are hard to find though. The jury is still out on Forlan and Carrol.
the lchk shopping list just goes on and on,
on top of the established expensive international stars, coaches and groundsmen we should sign we should also pick up 3 or 4 players for peanuts that are going to be stars.
If Fergie could get his hands on one of those Championship Manager cheat programs we'd be elected
on top of the established expensive international stars, coaches and groundsmen we should sign we should also pick up 3 or 4 players for peanuts that are going to be stars.
If Fergie could get his hands on one of those Championship Manager cheat programs we'd be elected
Originally posted by Murt:
<strong>the lchk shopping list just goes on and on,
on top of the established expensive international stars, coaches and groundsmen we should sign we should also pick up 3 or 4 players for peanuts that are going to be stars.
If Fergie could get his hands on one of those Championship Manager cheat programs we'd be elected
C'mon let's bury the hatchet okay?
Don't you think we should put more effort into digging up some of these future stars instead of just focusing on big name signings only? Building a squad should be an eclectic undertaking, not a lopsided all-stars buying policy or building only from the youth team ala crewe.
Originally posted by lchk:
<strong>As well as the big name signings that we make, we should strive to unearth some rough diamonds - we haven't done that since the days of solksjaer and johnsen, players costing 5 million pounds and below. In fact, it may become absolutely necessary as our wages are rising rapidly and the youth conveyor belt isn't churning out too many quality players.</strong><hr></blockquote>
lhck ... you said EXACTLY my sentiment my man ..
It has really been a long long time now we haven't really unearth any gem ... may be our success has restricted that ... the team can't aford to have too much "try and error" things ... so very difficult to give up-coming players the chances they need ... But with this season looks quite unimpressive till now ( to my standard ) .. .especailly the defence ... Fergie should really look into this ...
They are under our noses and we don't even get them, what about Jenas. Barcodes just walk in and pick him up without competition.
We're too busy playing pissing games with 'boro over Forlan and trying to get Yorke out the door.
We're too busy playing pissing games with 'boro over Forlan and trying to get Yorke out the door.
The best talent in terms of youth are so expensive, now, i think the idea of buying two million pound players and turning them into stars, is rapidly detriorating, e.g. Ajax. midfielder Rafael Van Der Vaart, who is only 18 , but a definate star of the future in my opinion is already being valued @ £20million. Just about sums it up.
The problem with bargain hunting for United these days is that everyone knows the size of our wedge and the prices are marked up accordingly. The sort of rough diamonds we are looking for are instantly upgraded to be the Koh-i-nor diamond or the Star of Africa the moment United's name is mentioned in the transactions.
You cannot forget the failure rate with this type of speculative purchase and whilst we have succeeded with the likes of Silvestre, Johnsen, Van der Gouw, Solskjaer, Schmeichel and Kanchelskis at a cost of 4.9 million we have also failed with many more including Nevland (1.5M), Poborsky (1.5M), Greening (0.7M) and Cruyff (1.4M) whilst Timm, Nardiello, Djordic, Richardson, Fox and others have still to prove their worth.
We have the scouts out looking for these prospective stars and I do not doubt that some will come through in time we generally pick up a selection of young starlets every year but they all need time to bed in and few make it. For the next level up (internationally recognised young stars, eg Mexes, Cisse, Pongolle, Baros etc) the problem is in the overpricing as their failure rate is not much better than the youngsters. We may stand a better chance of profitting via the network of feeder clubs Fergie has set up which should enable us to buy at market value rather than the "Ooh it's United over valuations" however the fanfare from each club we sign up with probably alerts others to the true destination of any star sales.
Prospecting in this way will always be easier in theory than reality though, and I don't think United need many lessons in getting it right we're just waiting for the right opportunities to appear.
You cannot forget the failure rate with this type of speculative purchase and whilst we have succeeded with the likes of Silvestre, Johnsen, Van der Gouw, Solskjaer, Schmeichel and Kanchelskis at a cost of 4.9 million we have also failed with many more including Nevland (1.5M), Poborsky (1.5M), Greening (0.7M) and Cruyff (1.4M) whilst Timm, Nardiello, Djordic, Richardson, Fox and others have still to prove their worth.
We have the scouts out looking for these prospective stars and I do not doubt that some will come through in time we generally pick up a selection of young starlets every year but they all need time to bed in and few make it. For the next level up (internationally recognised young stars, eg Mexes, Cisse, Pongolle, Baros etc) the problem is in the overpricing as their failure rate is not much better than the youngsters. We may stand a better chance of profitting via the network of feeder clubs Fergie has set up which should enable us to buy at market value rather than the "Ooh it's United over valuations" however the fanfare from each club we sign up with probably alerts others to the true destination of any star sales.
Prospecting in this way will always be easier in theory than reality though, and I don't think United need many lessons in getting it right we're just waiting for the right opportunities to appear.
Originally posted by lchk:
<strong>
We have a vast network of scouts eg Roy being one of them.
Rough diamonds should not be too difficult to unearth.</strong><hr></blockquote>
roy is leverkusen's scout not Uniteds(i think)
you've been playing CM for too long.. its so easy to say'lets find rough diamonds'..in practice its much more difficult. Pool have bought a few young talented players but there's no guarentee that they'll make the grade. A good young player doesn't always go on to become a star...
how many young platinis or maradonas have we heard off??? (they don't even come cheap!! how much did Aimar or Saviola cost?)
Wasn't Mourad Meghni touted as the new Zidane?? wasn't he number ONE on Roy's list?? apparently he's not come on as scouts thought he would..
its difficult!! ask roy
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" />
How did this thread evade me.
How did this thread evade me.
Originally posted by Raoul:
<strong> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" />
How did this thread evade me.</strong><hr></blockquote>
lets find some young maradonas
Yes I am a biased American... but what about Landon Donovan as a diamond in the rough. I think he might have what it takes to cut it in the EPL if he gets a couple years of reserve games under his belt. He is a natural athlete with an eye for moving foward... maybe you'll laugh me out of the forum, but I bet he could get picked up for half a million pounds. Not very high risk...
Whats the EPL ?
I've watched him play a few times and I think he could do OK in England too but, his physique, atm, is a little too frail imo. He has good close skills and is speedy enough but he does get knocked off the ball easily.
English premier league i think.
Originally posted by giggzy:
<strong>
roy is leverkusen's scout not Uniteds(i think)
you've been playing CM for too long.. its so easy to say'lets find rough diamonds'..in practice its much more difficult. Pool have bought a few young talented players but there's no guarentee that they'll make the grade. A good young player doesn't always go on to become a star...
how many young platinis or maradonas have we heard off??? (they don't even come cheap!! how much did Aimar or Saviola cost?)
Wasn't Mourad Meghni touted as the new Zidane?? wasn't he number ONE on Roy's list?? apparently he's not come on as scouts thought he would..
its difficult!! ask roy
Such players may not even be that young in the first place eg ole, ian wright, johnsen - they can also be bargains who would fit well into our system of play.
And no, I don't think it is as difficult as you make it out to be - our rivals such as Arsenal hae consistently picked up players who have come good for them at around the 5 million mark and hate to say this but pool have done a great job in that area too with the signings of hyppia and riise. Granted there will be cock-ups along the way but it's not too expensive too do so for us.
Such "bargains", no matter how inflated the price is when the teams know we are interested will never reach the astronomical levels of established stars.
After all, we did buy Mickey for 4.5 million pounds.
Our transfer budget is still limited by the generosity of the PLC so we can't just buy only big-name players nor solely rely on our youth policy. It has to be a combination of all three of these development areas.
Originally posted by lchk:
[QB]
We have a vast network of scouts eg Roy being one of them.
[QB]<hr></blockquote>
They've cut me off the pay-roll it seems then
'kin cheap bastards
Originally posted by Roy:
<strong>
They've cut me off the pay-roll it seems then
'kin cheap bastards
I thought you were on some sort of freelance role for them.
Damn those PLC cheapskates!