Hypothetical - Would you sell Kobbie Mainoo for £100m?

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No he's Utd through and through we need more like him, he gets it add to that he's a special player and hopefully is gonna be a mainstay for decade, we should be building teams around the likes of Mainoo.
 
In a heartbeat. He's an alright footballer none of you had even heard of 12 months ago. He might become good, but I'll tell you who will be good; a proper 100 million pound midfielder who already knows what it takes.

He's shown glimpses so far, much like many failures of our past. Unless it's a 16 year old Rooney, you take the money and buy the finished product with it. What big club says "nah, we don't want to win immediately, we want to let the talent develop"??!? Bonkers.
Like who?
 
Yeah because he's worth half that. Talented player but not at the level we need right now.
 
I mean, I think a good comparison is Rashford now as a sort've worst case scenario. Despite how it seems to have turned out now I still wouldn't go back in time and sell Rashford for 100m or whatever after his breakthrough. Seeing academy players make it to the first team and excel is one of the few joys of watching United of late, and is obviously a huge part of our history. Watching Mainoo last season was genuinely just about the only thing keeping me from just not bothering all together.
 
Mainoo and Amad are the two players I wouldn't even think about selling. They are the two players who I'm confident are good enough long term if we do reach the top of the pyramid again, while being young enough that 'long term' in their case could potentially be 10-15 years, and they both (particularly Mainoo) came through our youth teams.

They are the profile that supporting Man Utd is all about. Obviously we don't know what will happen and perhaps one or both of them won't end up making it, but it'd make me sick to the stomach for us to be selling young players of that level.
 
In a heartbeat. He's an alright footballer none of you had even heard of 12 months ago.

Anyone who follows United would’ve known about him a year ago.

As to the original question, absolutely not. We have plenty of other players like Rashford, Antony, Sancho, Casemiro, Maguire, Erikson, and Lindelof who can be sold. In fact at 19, Mainoo is literally the last player any serious club dedicated to building a league and CL contender for the next decade would consider selling.
 
The state of this fecking forum :lol:

All of you saying yes are either trying too hard to have some distinct opinion on this or just incapable of guessing a players ceiling (the ones comparing him to Januzaj and Garnacho, two clearly inferior talents)

No, I wouldn't sell him for 100m and I don't think any well-run club would even contemplate the idea.

I'm not saying Mainoo has a ceiling as high as them (because I think his peak potential is just a level below most of the examples I'm gonna list, although not all of them, and he's still an absolutely elite level talent), but ask yourself if their clubs would sell the likes of Camavinga, Pedri, Gavi, Caicedo, Saliba, Gvardiol, Olise, J. Neves, Zaire-Emery etc. for 100 million.

The absolute best U23 talents in the world are the most expensive players to attain and even if you beat out other clubs for their signatures, which is very difficult even for the biggest clubs in the world, you still take on the responsibility of their development for those 3-5 years before they enter their peak years. So many things can go wrong even if you have the money.

We have one of these guys in our team already, with a seemingly excellent mental profile and character, a very unique profile that most clubs could do with but they're hard to find: Arsenal and City for example don't have an LCM like Mainoo despite both having spent the majority of the last 24 months in the top 5 club sides in the world, and both clubs have been looking for a player of a similar profile to him.

And I haven't even mentioned that he's from our own academy. Only classless clubs like Chelsea, Villa, Newcastle or City abuse the selling of their homegrown talents for PSR reasons.

I said the exact same thing almost 1 year ago when the same question was asked, but if I recall correctly the hypothetical figure was 80m.

Mainoo's level and talent was clear before he even made his debut against Everton, and a whole year later people are still entertaining this idea of well he could fall off like xyz in the past before...yes, but that will mean the club failed the player, not vice versa. We need to get better at making sure our best talents fulfill their potentials, not sell them for PSR reasons and because we're afraid we might ruin them.
 
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No. I still believe he has enormous potential and will come good again if we have a little patience.
 
Absolutely not and it'd be crazy to consider selling him.

£100m doesn't buy several top quality players. If you consider wed have to pay Mainoo a loyalty bonus, then have to pay agent fees on the new signings, we would only have a real transfer kitty of I guess 85-90m or so. Which might buy one quality player, or two lesser value players. For the best potential signings, United are going to be down the pecking order compared to other potential buyers, so we'd likely end up signing riskier or less talented players. And then with any transfer there's a risk it won't work out, and our recent transfers don't give me any optimism that we would manage to come out of it with the best of the deals.

And that's before even considering the emotional element. Selling a local lad, to a rival or big European team, and then the potential pain of seeing him perform at the top level for a decade or more and winning trophies in another team's kit. It makes me nauseous even thinking about it.

I somewhat understand the Garnacho (or maybe Rashford or several other prospects like Januzaj etc) comparison of early promose not being fulfilled. However, Mainoo is different imo. Garnacho and Rashford are both somewhat one-dimensional, they're dangerous, cut in or in behind goal scorers, which can be deadly in the right set up and when on form. But Mainoo is just an all round baller. Technically he's top quality. He's playing well above his age in a position that requires maturity, and he has a style of play that is hard to find/produce, especially in England. Replacing him would be considerably harder than replacing Rashford/Garnacho.
 
In a heartbeat. He's an alright footballer none of you had even heard of 12 months ago. He might become good, but I'll tell you who will be good; a proper 100 million pound midfielder who already knows what it takes.

He's shown glimpses so far, much like many failures of our past. Unless it's a 16 year old Rooney, you take the money and buy the finished product with it. What big club says "nah, we don't want to win immediately, we want to let the talent develop"??!? Bonkers.

This is the same type of answer I was given 12 months ago when I claimed he's one of the best midfielders in the league and could start for both City and Arsenal as both clubs are badly missing the type of player he is.

"You could go to most top 6 clubs and most of the midfielders would be better than him" :lol:

FIFA logic. People are not willing to say what their eyes see because it's supposedly too early or something. Or social media told them otherwise in the case of de Ligt vs Maguire for example.
 
Unfortunately for the romantics the only answer is yes
 
Every thread like this needs to have the secondary question - would we spend it wisely added in.

If we bring 100m in and spend like we did on Maguire, Van Beek, Mount, Antony etc, then it'd be no use at all.
 
Unfortunately for the romantics the only answer is yes

It really isn't. Maybe for a club like Benfica, Dortmund, or Ajax, but we don't need to sell someone, something that's hard to find and we have it already, just because the money is good.

Can you even suggest suitable replacements? I'm talking about some of the best U23 midfielders in the world attainable in the 80-100m region, that are not already playing for final destination level clubs like United, Madrid, Barca, Bayern, etc, but someone who's actually for sale.

The only valid answer I can think of is Adam Wharton, but his example completely proves my point:

-will cost at least 80m
-we will be responsible for his development and whether he can reach the potential we'd be paying for
-every single top club in England will be after him that can afford him, when the time comes for Palace to sell him
 
Obviously not, but I would take 25m for Rashford and bite their arm off before they change their mind.
 
I wouldn't, but I expect Ratcliffe would likely accept it given how things have progressed so far under his ownership.

The idea we've had in the past of "United don't sell their best players" is only as strong as the owner allows, and now that it's Sir Jim's call then I expect that everybody has a price.
 
Yes, I would, and I'd sell Garna for £40m at least. But there are others that we should be looking at selling first.
 
It's an interesting question and it's worth remembering that Chelsea once turned down £50m for Hudson-Odoi. But I think what it really shines a light on is how much £100m is really worth in this insane market.

It's about the amount Ipswich or Southampton spent in the summer, it's just about enough to buy two promising young strikers from Serie A with plenty to prove, and it's not quite enough to buy a Rice or a Caicedo.

Does signing the players of the profile Ipswich or Southampton have signed improve us? No. Would another two promising strikers with a lot to prove improve us? No. Would a Rice or Caicedo improve us? Sure, but we still can't afford them anyway.

Now, it's also theoretically enough to sign about 7-and-a-half Mazraouis, which definitely seems worth it. But how often do those deals come along right now? Because I can tell you for sure they won't be coming when everyone knows we've got a fresh £100m to burn.

So you could stall on the Mainoo offer while you see if you can get some fantastic value deals secured before you get the money, but the chances are you'll just end up weakening the squad. And that's without even mentioning a possible Antony/Sancho situation that leaves the squad much weaker and the long-term planning absolutely fecked.

Mainoo isn't "worth" what Bellingham went for, even to a rival. But he's plenty good (and young) enough that you really need a plan for investment off the back of it, or you're probably left with regret. Ultimately as a fan I don't care about what the club gets or spends apart from how the team tangibly improves. I don't think swapping Mainoo for £100m will improve the team and would need convincing otherwise. It would be quite normal for half of what we got for him to be squandered, even at an historically well-run club.
 
I'm not sure but leaning towards yes. Back in 2014 there was (reportedly) PSG offer for Januzaj worth 40m (big money back then obviously), we rejected it and we'd all accept it now. Same for Rashford to PSG. So should be listening to offers for every player.
 
I would sell him. The overall market is not doing well, most clubs are tightening their belts with less big money transfer move. Mainoo is not a 100 million player so if someone makes that offer, I have no hesitation. Even City is buying players at a lower cost. Only Chelsea continuing their irresponsible spending with 7 years contract to balance the book.
 
I would sell anyone for £100m.

No one who's been sold for over that has proved their worth, have they.
 
What would it do for our ability to attract young talent if we sold one of our best talents without giving him an extended run in the first team. ETH overused him and I think Amorin is handling him nicely. He is just back from an injury. He also needs time to adjust to the new system. Will he be one of the number 10's or more alongside Ugarte? Would love to see him and Amad as our 2 number 1-0's
 
Probably not. £100m these days gets your an Antony and a Zirkzee.

Vitinha and Neves cost PSG 100m combined.

whether we could do equally good deal with that money is another matter.
 
Anyone who has seen how we've spent our money in the transfer market this last decade should confidently say "No" to this question.
 
Soon we won't have any English players left in this club if we keep sell them.
 
The state of this fecking forum :lol:

All of you saying yes are either trying too hard to have some distinct opinion on this or just incapable of guessing a players ceiling (the ones comparing him to Januzaj and Garnacho, two clearly inferior talents)

No, I wouldn't sell him for 100m and I don't think any well-run club would even contemplate the idea.

I'm not saying Mainoo has a ceiling as high as them (because I think his peak potential is just a level below most of the examples I'm gonna list, although not all of them, and he's still an absolutely elite level talent), but ask yourself if their clubs would sell the likes of Camavinga, Pedri, Gavi, Caicedo, Saliba, Gvardiol, Olise, J. Neves, Zaire-Emery etc. for 100 million.

The absolute best U23 talents in the world are the most expensive players to attain and even if you beat out other clubs for their signatures, which is very difficult even for the biggest clubs in the world, you still take on the responsibility of their development for those 3-5 years before they enter their peak years. So many things can go wrong even if you have the money.

We have one of these guys in our team already, with a seemingly excellent mental profile and character, a very unique profile that most clubs could do with but they're hard to find: Arsenal and City for example don't have an LCM like Mainoo despite both having spent the majority of the last 24 months in the top 5 club sides in the world, and both clubs have been looking for a player of a similar profile to him.

And I haven't even mentioned that he's from our own academy. Only classless clubs like Chelsea, Villa, Newcastle or City abuse the selling of their homegrown talents for PSR reasons.

I said the exact same thing almost 1 year ago when the same question was asked, but if I recall correctly the hypothetical figure was 80m.

Mainoo's level and talent was clear before he even made his debut against Everton, and a whole year later people are still entertaining this idea of well he could fall off like xyz in the past before...yes, but that will mean the club failed the player, not vice versa. We need to get better at making sure our best talents fulfill their potentials, not sell them for PSR reasons and because we're afraid we might ruin them.
'The state of this fecking forum' then proceeds to explain how any 'well run club' would turn down £100m pure profit.

I get the sentimental attachment and I would not like to see him sold, but if someone comes in and offers way above a player's value, a 'well run' club would ironically bite the offering party's hand off to ship him out. Re your examples, I'm not sure you appreciate how much money £100m is...football transfers have calmed down as of late, every club is watching FFP closely. All of those players would have their bags packed and be personally driven to their new clubs by their CEO's. Maybe if Barca weren't such a financial train wreck Gavi/Pedri would be off this list but all the others are replaceable with the scale of spending it would unlock.
 
This is the same type of answer I was given 12 months ago when I claimed he's one of the best midfielders in the league and could start for both City and Arsenal as both clubs are badly missing the type of player he is.

"You could go to most top 6 clubs and most of the midfielders would be better than him" :lol:

FIFA logic. People are not willing to say what their eyes see because it's supposedly too early or something. Or social media told them otherwise in the case of de Ligt vs Maguire for example.
Well our youth certainly has been something to hang your hat on for the last twenty years....
 
The state of this fecking forum :lol:

All of you saying yes are either trying too hard to have some distinct opinion on this or just incapable of guessing a players ceiling (the ones comparing him to Januzaj and Garnacho, two clearly inferior talents)

No, I wouldn't sell him for 100m and I don't think any well-run club would even contemplate the idea.

I'm not saying Mainoo has a ceiling as high as them (because I think his peak potential is just a level below most of the examples I'm gonna list, although not all of them, and he's still an absolutely elite level talent), but ask yourself if their clubs would sell the likes of Camavinga, Pedri, Gavi, Caicedo, Saliba, Gvardiol, Olise, J. Neves, Zaire-Emery etc. for 100 million.

The absolute best U23 talents in the world are the most expensive players to attain and even if you beat out other clubs for their signatures, which is very difficult even for the biggest clubs in the world, you still take on the responsibility of their development for those 3-5 years before they enter their peak years. So many things can go wrong even if you have the money.

We have one of these guys in our team already, with a seemingly excellent mental profile and character, a very unique profile that most clubs could do with but they're hard to find: Arsenal and City for example don't have an LCM like Mainoo despite both having spent the majority of the last 24 months in the top 5 club sides in the world, and both clubs have been looking for a player of a similar profile to him.

And I haven't even mentioned that he's from our own academy. Only classless clubs like Chelsea, Villa, Newcastle or City abuse the selling of their homegrown talents for PSR reasons.

I said the exact same thing almost 1 year ago when the same question was asked, but if I recall correctly the hypothetical figure was 80m.

Mainoo's level and talent was clear before he even made his debut against Everton, and a whole year later people are still entertaining this idea of well he could fall off like xyz in the past before...yes, but that will mean the club failed the player, not vice versa. We need to get better at making sure our best talents fulfill their potentials, not sell them for PSR reasons and because we're afraid we might ruin them.

Couldn’t have said it better. He’s the best thing out of the academy since Greenwood. We need to help him hit the heights. If he doesn’t then that is on us. The talent is clearly there
 
His corners alone are worth £100m heh?
City spend about £9.7m per point a year or two ago and since Rice has assisted from 8 corners, if we assume that the subsequent goals led to points, his corners are probably worth a decent chunk of his fee.

Declan bloody Rice is a corner specialist. We have Eriksen, Bruno, occasionally Shaw - all of whom had shown great delivery long before Rice did - and we couldn't score heroin at Pete Doherty's deathbed den. Sometimes I wonder if I've slipped into another dimension.
 
To replace him it would cost that sort of money. If he’s perfect for Amorim then absolutely not.
 
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