I haven't had any fun.
Harry Maguire | Signed
- Thread starter davidmichael
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I think Jones is actually pretty decent when he's fit for any length of time. Probably our best CB along with Lindelof. Problem is, he never seems to stay fit for long.
Just be glad you aren't Tottenham.
The last time they won anything, Europe didn't even exist!
Maguire isn't much better than what we have so to spend 80 million on someone who isn't worth anywhere near that would be totally stupid .
Instead of wasting money on a player you will then be stuck with for years to come you wait and spend it on a player who is actually worth it and who will improve us massively.
Would you buy Maguire now for 80 million or say Varane next summer for the same price?
If you say Maguire thank God it's not you making that decision
Of course Maguire now. Without improvement at CB, it will be another wasted season, and I am a little bit tired of wasted seasons lately. This should stop.
Then, if Varane is available for same price next season, we can buy him as well - I see no problems at all here. That's how big clubs operate - every year they sell someone and buy other players to further improve. I think Real Madrid have already sold about 130m of junk this transfer window, and they have only just started
P.S. If both Maguire and Varane were available at the same time and I could only buy one - I would choose Varane.
We don’t know if Varane will be available next summer for the same price.
This season is the key, we need to make top 4. Maguire is the best that seems possibly achievable this window. Lots on here were aghast that we spent 45-50 million on AWB, but so for he’s turned out to be an absolute gem. Spending an extra £30m on an England International player is not too far fetched in context. Personally I think we will go big on Maguire and Longstaff once the boys are back in town after the tour.
Of course Maguire now. Without improvement at CB, it will be another wasted season, and I am a little bit tired of wasted seasons lately. This should stop.
Then, if Varane is available for same price next season, we can buy him as well - I see no problems at all here. That's how big clubs operate - every year they sell someone and buy other players to further improve. I think Real Madrid have already sold about 130m of junk this transfer window, and they have only just started
P.S. If both Maguire and Varane were available at the same time and I could only buy one - I would choose Varane.
See that's the problem with your mindset and so many others . The want to buy everyone . It's just not feasible and ignores the fact we have some very promising players coming through the ranks that we would then lose like Axel and co
Fact is we need to sell Rojo, Darmian and Jones. If we factor in getting someone better than all 3 them its probably worth paying £70m.
£80m is pushing it though. For a world record fee you want one of the best defenders in the world..
£80m is pushing it though. For a world record fee you want one of the best defenders in the world..
I think Darmian will leave on a free when his contract expires next season.
Thinking this isn’t gonna happen. Starting to wonder if Uniteds valuation dip is starting to affect transfers in a negative way.
On topic: Maguire is probably the best english CB. He is the right age for immediate impact and would complement CBs such as Alderwareld, Varane and Koulibaly very well. His allround game is very solid and in a better team than Leicester he would probably see the same boost in performances as VVD did for Liverpool. Relatively speaking. I have no illusions he will be as good as VVD.
On topic: Maguire is probably the best english CB. He is the right age for immediate impact and would complement CBs such as Alderwareld, Varane and Koulibaly very well. His allround game is very solid and in a better team than Leicester he would probably see the same boost in performances as VVD did for Liverpool. Relatively speaking. I have no illusions he will be as good as VVD.
We had a shitload of "promising youngsters" for many a year already. Where are the titles??? No titles, no results as we rely upon average youngsters like Jones and Lingard every year and get so accustommed to it, that continue to rely upon them even 5-6 years after they actually stopped being youngsters. Club shall be more ruthless with the junk.
Clearly, we don't yet know if Tuanzebe in particular will be good or not, but we need results NOW. Is Tuanzebe better than Maguire now? I don't think. He is likely not even better than Smalling, that is the problem. Yes, perhaps he will grow and become better in a few seasons, but we need results during these few seasons too, not just the development of Tuanzebe. Results are not possible to achieve without strong central defenders - not in EPL/CL at least.
In this regard it is a safer bet to use youngsters in attack - inevitable mistakes don't cost you conceded goals. As such, guys like Greenwood and perhaps Gomes may be relied upon with less risk.
How do we know how much they will accept for Varane when his buy-out clause is €500m and they said a few months ago they want the full price?
Exactly mate.
We don't need that yet as we're not going to win the league until City and Liverpool calm down. We need to plan the world record splurge for when we have a good chance of winning the league. It'd be stupid to get a record CB to attain top 4.
If we now buy a top level CB, a top level midfielder and a top level attacker (just three top players) while keeping Pogba, we may challenge. But it shouldn’t be Longstaff level signings, rather Eriksen level ones.
But it would require Woody to do some work of course and spend some funds, as well as sell at least 100m of deadwood
Harry Maguire isn't going to turn us into champions . Nor would Maguire Bruno and Longstaff make us champions
That's what we tried to do with Mourinho but it doesn't always work out, especially with such strong opponents as City. Liverpool went for it last season with Fabinho, VVD, Alisson, etc and they still missed out after a very good campaign.
I think in one or two seasons it will be possible, hopefully after Pep buggers off elsewhere; but for now it'd be a really tough ask, and like you said, would require tons of work as well as luck to get it all right.
Yeah, we aren’t going to be competing to win the EPL next season, that’s pretty obvious. But Maguire, Longstaff and maybe Bruno could set us on the road to recovery. It’s going to take time to get back with the very best. AWB looks a great signing, Maguire and Longstaff could be the same.
Almost certainly, for some odd reason the club thought it was wise to activate the 1 year option in his contract instead of just letting him leave for free this year. When it was obvious no club seems willing to actually pay any money for him.
Very interesting, and spot on imo, article on Football365:
https://www.football365.com/news/maguire-could-face-irreversible-damage-at-man-utd
https://www.football365.com/news/maguire-could-face-irreversible-damage-at-man-utd
Hilarious article, so much BS that it's actually unreal.
Its F365, they can't resist. Its been shit site for years now.
Yeah it's hard to argue. We're a better side overall but you feel like a team in the up, whilst we have a mountain of issues simmering away. His stock could take a serious hit here, whilst it probably won't at Leicester, for reasons stated in the article.
I really hope we can push this over the line. We'd have a solid back 5 if we could lock-in Maguire.
He'd have to literally be the only defender currently available in world football that can improve us to justify us standing at Leicester's door this long
Its even more stupid not to improve an obvious weak are in our team and NOT get top 4
I mean seriously, do people really want ANOTHER SEASON of jones, smalling, rojo and whoever the feck AGAIN?!
Its even more stupid not to improve an obvious weak are in our team and NOT get top 4
I mean seriously, do people really want ANOTHER SEASON of jones, smalling, rojo and whoever the feck AGAIN?!
Totally agree, mate. People talking like we're not in dire need of reinforcement at CB. Smalling and Jones are probably the worst centerback partnership I can remember in my 30 odd years as a supporter. Guess what, selling clubs know that too - hence the inflated prices. I'd rather we pay the money for Maguire, even if it's overpaying so we can make some progress this season. People scoffed at the VVD fee, Liverpool were considered to be overpaying at the time, not so now.
Now that his price tag has been set at 90 millions. It's really simple.
Is he an upgrade on what we have? If we compare him with Lindelof and Smalling on whoscored.com there is really no significant statistical difference apart from long passes per match. For 90 millions I expect a significant difference, a match changing performance. He isn't faster than either of them, he offers more leadership potential maybe, but I don't rate that for 90 millions.
If there is no more suitable option in CB I'll switch my funds for a DM, I don't understand how we let a player like Idrisa Guye leave to PSG for a reported fee of 28 millions, he would have been a great addition and brought huge value to our defensive structure. Our defense really isn't that bad, they just lack support from midfield most of the games, we have seen this time and time again, once our opponent pass Pogba in midfield, it's a clear 30 yards path to Smalling with huge spaces, Matic is always caught in no man's land.
Yes we need a CB, I'll not pay 90 millions for Maguire, pay it for Koulibaly, maybe for Varane. I hope they have backup plans for CB. We also need a DM more urgently than a CB in my opinion. We lost Herrera who was our best destroyer, Matic is done, and we lost whatever Fellaini was contributing. So 3 midfielders!!!
Is he an upgrade on what we have? If we compare him with Lindelof and Smalling on whoscored.com there is really no significant statistical difference apart from long passes per match. For 90 millions I expect a significant difference, a match changing performance. He isn't faster than either of them, he offers more leadership potential maybe, but I don't rate that for 90 millions.
If there is no more suitable option in CB I'll switch my funds for a DM, I don't understand how we let a player like Idrisa Guye leave to PSG for a reported fee of 28 millions, he would have been a great addition and brought huge value to our defensive structure. Our defense really isn't that bad, they just lack support from midfield most of the games, we have seen this time and time again, once our opponent pass Pogba in midfield, it's a clear 30 yards path to Smalling with huge spaces, Matic is always caught in no man's land.
Yes we need a CB, I'll not pay 90 millions for Maguire, pay it for Koulibaly, maybe for Varane. I hope they have backup plans for CB. We also need a DM more urgently than a CB in my opinion. We lost Herrera who was our best destroyer, Matic is done, and we lost whatever Fellaini was contributing. So 3 midfielders!!!
Neither of whom are available for 90 million.
Its even more stupid not to improve an obvious weak are in our team and NOT get top 4
I mean seriously, do people really want ANOTHER SEASON of jones, smalling, rojo and whoever the feck AGAIN?!
I definitely think we should improve at the back, but I think we should have tried to target a smart and cost-effective signing. Or else when the time comes to really splurge we might end up with a repeat of last summer where the funds weren't enough to kick on.
Besides, as seen by the Pogba situation, a massive amount of pressure comes with being a record signing. Maguire will need to be the catalyst in us winning trophies to live down that pressure, top 4 won't cut it. I remember people worrying about Pogba not being worth the price at the time of his signing and, lo and behold, their worries came true. And that's with Paul Pogba, one of the best midfielders in the game. I don't want the same to happen to Maguire.
I understand that, what I meant was you don't pay that amount of money for tier 2 defenders, unless you're desperate. We need to think about future transfers too. You can't enter the Mercato saying (we'll not be milked by other clubs) then do exactly that.
The market is full of CBs who are younger, better on the ball with better defensive attributes, I refuse to believe that all this army of scouts couldn't draft a list of CBs apart from De Ligt and Maguire!!
There is no chance on you picking up Varane next summer for 80 million, he would go for more than that now and next year you just add more crazy market inflation.
So operating in the real world where the club has to work rather than in fans imaginations ... I'd get Maguire asap
Maybe my word didn't explain what I meant.
What I mean is 90 millions is a lot of money for a player like Maguire, you might think we have loads of cash, but we are the leading club in the EPL in debt and in players wages as a percent of our gross assets. Forbes just announced the news list of the top clubs in market value and we have lost a lot.
We are not what Ed Woodward is painting in the media, we are deteriorating rapidly while other clubs are picking up fast. We need to be smart in spending. 90 millions for Harry Maguire is frankly speaking, stupid. Let's look some place else, we only have 2 weeks for the end of the transfer period, and we have 3 players that we need to replace in the midfield. One last offer, 60 millions plus 15 add ons. Take it or leave it, and move on to the next target.
We've already had 70m rejected. We can't go back to 60m and then add ons.
But who knows. We'll take it to the brink for sure
Maguire has done very well. Everywhere he goes, he is the best player for the club.
Maybe signing for us is the final destination for him to finally develop into a world class CB.
We used to have the best english defender in our team like Ferdinand. Maguire is that player now, we should get him.
Interesting article, thank you.
Feels a bit one sided (Utd bashing - but you are better placed to comment on its validity than I), but I can see the argument that in this case, stability may serve his development better. Is a touch harsh though, as I actually think you are moving a good direction for recovery, its just a question if there is patience among owner, board and fans I guess.
As the article states, thanfully long gone are the days of needing to be a top 6 player to be selected for England! Not buying Maguire would the correct decision fiscally, and it sure has gone quiet, but who knows!
Good luck for the approaching season ahead, except the obvious
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True. Crazy market these days. It's funny how everyone was moaning about the price for van Dijk and now it seems that it's actually going to be a standard price for top CB these days.
not what i said.. you should be a politician the way you twist people's words
We're haggling with Leicester on a few million - pay the damn fee Ed.
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