Nothing wrong with depth, sell Pogba, Lingaard and Pereira and buy Grealish and a top defensive mid Like Zakaria
Jack Grealish / signs new 5 year contract
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Agreed, people are just so desperate for us to sign him that they are shoehorning him in, the fact is the positions he's thrives in, in the PL are where Bruno and Rashford play.
No need for him
If Pogba stays I agree. If he goes though..
I'd still get him. i think I'd get Sancho and Grealish and Ighalo if it were me. Yes the cost, but with sales and I'd even eat into the season afters budget because the depth supported by the kids that have come through and who could come through. I think strike while the irons hot and he's at that age where he would improve the top teams. We see how a playe can change the mentality of a group. People tend to be lazy and say it's just a small part of the game but it isn't. You need to challenge people/excite people and I think Sancho and Grealish with (hopefully) Pogba staying, could be very strong. We might need a defensive midfielder the season after but the shape/options/goals ...we'd be very strong.
I say strong a lot because I think it. Over the last few years, we've been disorganized and all over the place but we are seeing a continuity and a form taking shape and if you had some of these names on the bench? Suddenly we have options and good ones at that. I just feel his age and performance, make him a non brainer for us. He WILL do well at a top team I feel. We don't compete? We can be bullish and if we want to not just be in but aim for a good run in the champions league, we need more
I say strong a lot because I think it. Over the last few years, we've been disorganized and all over the place but we are seeing a continuity and a form taking shape and if you had some of these names on the bench? Suddenly we have options and good ones at that. I just feel his age and performance, make him a non brainer for us. He WILL do well at a top team I feel. We don't compete? We can be bullish and if we want to not just be in but aim for a good run in the champions league, we need more
My gut feeling is that the Grealish stuff will go very quiet now unless Pogba has yet another change of heart and decides he wants to leave again. Personally I can only see a max of three players coming in this summer but that could change again with the current situation.
It will be interesting to see where he'll fit if Pogba stays. I also don't think paying 60m for a squad player would be really smart from a financial perspective.
However, not against the signing at all, and I imagine we should still go for it.
We want to be a top side again, winning trophies. We'll, the very best sides have tremendous quality in depth that we just don't have.
City have Sterling, Mahrez and Bernardo Silva who all feature on the RW. Silva will obviously move into the centre once David Silva leaves but then you'd still have incredible quality in depth with Sterling(who played RW the entire time Sane was fit and gnoring the fact that he's leaving, still a City player) and Mahrez.
If Rashford goes out again, who plays on the LW?
Face facts that Dan James has been a decent addition but will never be a player to come in and change a game.
If we keep Pogba, if one of him or Bruno gets injured, who plays there? Fred or McTominay would be the obvious choice, but we should be looking to them when we need something different. Neither player is very creative and so we lose some creativity again. Maybe we'll have other additions that allow us to be more creative(Sancho), but we still lose some of the added spark.
Signing Grealish really doesn't hurt us as a football club.
Unless there's a cheaper alternative, I don't see the problem
However, not against the signing at all, and I imagine we should still go for it.
We want to be a top side again, winning trophies. We'll, the very best sides have tremendous quality in depth that we just don't have.
City have Sterling, Mahrez and Bernardo Silva who all feature on the RW. Silva will obviously move into the centre once David Silva leaves but then you'd still have incredible quality in depth with Sterling(who played RW the entire time Sane was fit and gnoring the fact that he's leaving, still a City player) and Mahrez.
If Rashford goes out again, who plays on the LW?
Face facts that Dan James has been a decent addition but will never be a player to come in and change a game.
If we keep Pogba, if one of him or Bruno gets injured, who plays there? Fred or McTominay would be the obvious choice, but we should be looking to them when we need something different. Neither player is very creative and so we lose some creativity again. Maybe we'll have other additions that allow us to be more creative(Sancho), but we still lose some of the added spark.
Signing Grealish really doesn't hurt us as a football club.
Unless there's a cheaper alternative, I don't see the problem
I wonder who are these 60-80m covers for Salah, Firminho, and Mane?
James looks better at LW too.
I'd sign Grealish if Pogba goes, we need a backup 10 that badly we can't be utterly hopeless when Bruno is out.
But If I was Grealish's agent, here's how I'd rank it:
Good
1. Arsenal - They don't have a post-Ozil #10 and have rightfooted strikers and a RW in Pepe. They're a big club. Arteta should be open to a 4-3-3 and playing 2 #10 types which gives him 2 spots centrally to compete for. Far and away the best option.
2. Leicester - They don't have much quality out wide and also Maddison probably gets bought by a massive club at some point and he can be their #10. Can Barnes play RW? If they are confident in that then I would go for it if I were them, but they may have a proper RW option in mind.
Fine but would also look for offers abroad or consider a great fit like Wolves or Everton and getting a release clause for 2 years from now.
3. United - We need a RW and have Bruno (and maybe Pogba) as offensive central mids and Rashford on the left. Would we move Bruno right and play 4-2-3-1 with Grealish as the 10? Or play 4-3-3 with him and Bruno? Seems risky for him under Ole to bet on that.
4. Liverpool - Just went out of the CL because they don't have a creative #10, but they do have Keita and even Oxlade Chamberlain could still be yet to peak. Risks not playing for a year much then being current Lallana. Upside is he could easily be starting on a treble winning side (ugh) which the better options can't offer. But that shouldn't be his concern honestly.
BAD
5. City - Foden doesn't play, Sane may not even leave. Madness to go here even with David Silva leaving.
6. Spurs - They're kind of a mess and have Dele Alli and Bergwijn, Lucas and Son out wide and none of them have done well enough as a 9. Mourinho also yikes.
7. Chelsea - Compete with Mount and Loftus-Cheek (tons of potential still) as a 10 and with Ziyech on the right, competing with Pulisic and Hudson-Odoi for a LW job. All the risk of being a supersub like for City with none of the upside.
Is his position for a Villa side battling relegation in the Premier League really more relevant than his position for a Villa side fighting for promotion in the Championship? Which one of those two do you think is closer to the situation he would find himself in playing for United?
I havent watched much of Villa this season so dont really know if the hype thats come from Grealish is based on his performances in the big games or if he's maintained a consistent level of form throughout the season? He's certainly got leadership skills but at the same time i've seen him go missing in games to the point of being barely visible. Is he really the real deal?
Strange. Grealish has more chance to play as no. 10 at Chelsea (takeover Mount and Loftus Cheek?) than at United (Bruno).
On LW, not in a million years he can take Rashford's at United. While Pulisic has been good, he's not the face of Chelsea.
So, why is United a better option than Chelsea? Not to mention comparing their cities.
Hes not getting in the team ahead of Rashford or Fernandes and i dont see how we could play the 3 and have a balanced team. He is a good player but doesn't compliment our other midfielders, and I'm not certain he'd be happy with a rotational role after being the main man at Villa for so long.
Grealish makes sense
However I do believe that,
It depends on Pogba's future for me. He may get into the team ahead of either Rashford or more likely Fernandes, or he may prove to not be at their level.
However I do believe that,
- He gives us something they don't have. Which is that ability to be seem impossible to be knocked off the ball due to his close control and ability in tight spaces. In that sense I believe he compliments them. I still think we lack that Silva type midfielder who gets on the ball and everyone knows he's got the ball and can maintain possesion in most situations.
- Top teams having two midfielders with genuinely good qualities going forward is not far too much. Sometimes he and Fernandes would play together. Other times they'd rotate or he'd fill in for Rashford.
Cliche i know but if he was playing in italy or spain and his name was Guillermo... i doubt people will be trying to create space for him to fit in the starting 11
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And hence their drop in quality while fielding teams in rest of the cups bar PL/CL . Liverpool have been extremely lucky that majority of Mane, Salah, Firmino, VVD , TAA have been available most of the season. They would be stupid to trust this will be the same case next year and not buy a forward. IMO they will get Werner who can come in when one of the front 3 is injured and rightly so. If we want to dominate both Domestic and Europe then we need the backups to be good/excellent. We used to have 4 strikers at our disposal for a reason.
Really looking forward to fernandes getting injured and us turning to shite with the brains Trust on the caf moaning about us not being creative enough. Will be really good times.
If we keep Pogba, and get Sancho, he simply won’t be needed. Of course a PL-chasing, CL-chasing, top European side could possibly accommodate that many ‘star’ players but we’re kidding ourselves if we expect to be there next season. We’ll be a PL-chasing side still with work to do, and there will certainly be much weaker positions in the squad than the one which Bruno and Pogba both prefer to play. In that case, we’d be better off spending the money at DM or CB.
If we don’t keep Pogba, Grealish is a perfect target.
If we don’t keep Pogba, Grealish is a perfect target.
Irrespective of what we used to do with square peg in round holes, with the ways we do with the transfers under ole and the improvement (albeit not sure yet a false dawn like before) could we just buy him?
Caf members already mention his quality, age bracket, leadership, hungry character, want to play here, all these are good quality for a player to fit right with most of what we have now. Also, being English is always a good thing because with the other nationalities i always find it hard to see them not flirting with thr big two from spain when they shine here or vice versa.
If we want to improve and compete then we should atleast have 14-15 quality players in the squad.
Caf members already mention his quality, age bracket, leadership, hungry character, want to play here, all these are good quality for a player to fit right with most of what we have now. Also, being English is always a good thing because with the other nationalities i always find it hard to see them not flirting with thr big two from spain when they shine here or vice versa.
If we want to improve and compete then we should atleast have 14-15 quality players in the squad.
This is my concern in a nutshell.
If we keep Pogba and sign Sancho where does Grealish expect to play?
He’s a great little player though, would like us to sign him regardless, I Just don’t see the club forking our big money for him unless Pogba is on his way.
I agree, and I'm surprised most fail to see the point in the added depth. It was the same when we were in for Haaland.
Look at the depth we had in the 07-09 period:
CM: Scholes, Carrick, Fletcher, Anderson, Hargreaves, Giggs was starting to transition into a more central player during this era
Wings: Ronaldo, Giggs, Nani, Ji-sung Park, Hargreaves
Forwards: Rooney, Tevez, Saha/Berbatov, Ronaldo sometimes played up top
We need to get back to that standard. Look at the amount of games Lingard, Mata and Pereira have played this year. Grealish will get plenty of games, and we'll be a lot better as a team for it.
Let's hope pogba is on his way. Completely unconvinced of his interest in playing for united. And his agent talks to much. Would prefer grealish to thr pogba we currently have.
We just lack quality in a way they don’t. Think we’d have Rashford, Martial, Grealish, Bruno and Fred as our core 5 starters and the 6th spot would filled by James, McTominay, Greenwood or ideally a right winger we sign. Where that’s 5 at the back or a diamond or just a winger and Grealish and Bruno in front of a lone holder like Pep does, at least against weaker sides and at home. That’s 5/6 spots for 9 guys and then Matic as the 10th guy. That still looks like a full season of starts to me if he’s healthy.
Lampard loves Mount and Ziyech seems a nailed on starter at RW to me, so just deeper spots and lw against pulisic and Hudson odour and they just seem like they have more quality guys in midfield who have now played for Lampard.
It’s true that if Grealish were left footed he’d make more sense for us, but I still think it would go well here whereas he could not get time to be in at Chelsea and adjust from being the man to being on a proper team.
I like Arsenal and Arteta the most for him they’re desperate for that type and he could play LW or as a 10, they’ll sell a striker.
No you don’t.
Sorry if I am misreading you, but are you suggesting we play him as one of the deeper midfielders?
With Pogba looking more and more likely to remain at United, I can't see Grealish being brought in. Grealish may end up at City as a backup for De Bruyne (who he idolises) or possibly Chelsea as they look to replace Hazard. His mentality and leadership could do us a world of good. We need to get rid of Lingard and Pereira for this guy.
I get the feeling we will sign him fully depending on Villa asking price as opposed to what happens with Pogba.
I hope we will still sign him, regardless of Pogba's future.
As much as i wanted a DM i would actually wait for another year and use Matic and McTominay there and sign Grealish this summer.
I just got a feeling that Grealish is just too good for us not to sign him and I certainly dont want to see him signs for Chelsea or Liverpool.
In a perfect situation we would sign a FW like Werner, a RW in Sancho, Grealish and a DM but i will take a summer with Sancho, Grealish and Ighalo on another year loan deal (although Shanghai will definitely want a permanent transfer) due to the current situation.
As much as i wanted a DM i would actually wait for another year and use Matic and McTominay there and sign Grealish this summer.
I just got a feeling that Grealish is just too good for us not to sign him and I certainly dont want to see him signs for Chelsea or Liverpool.
In a perfect situation we would sign a FW like Werner, a RW in Sancho, Grealish and a DM but i will take a summer with Sancho, Grealish and Ighalo on another year loan deal (although Shanghai will definitely want a permanent transfer) due to the current situation.
We must buy Grealish because
1 he stands out as the right character to be not just a Manchester United player but to be a star player
2 he can play in several different positions and anyway I don’t think positions should matter when you have players of great natural ability - if the opposition mark Bruno then they are in trouble if we have Grealish and Rashford.
3 we cannot rely on pogba - let’s see him as a bonus if he stays. I personally would love to see him play in a centre mid position and all he has to do is run - he can tackle he can do everything- he should be our Vieira if he stays
4 you can’t have too many play makers - look at city
5 with Grealish added to our current cast I can see is outplaying the likes of city and liverpool
6 it’s a no brainer
7 he’s made for Man Utd
1 he stands out as the right character to be not just a Manchester United player but to be a star player
2 he can play in several different positions and anyway I don’t think positions should matter when you have players of great natural ability - if the opposition mark Bruno then they are in trouble if we have Grealish and Rashford.
3 we cannot rely on pogba - let’s see him as a bonus if he stays. I personally would love to see him play in a centre mid position and all he has to do is run - he can tackle he can do everything- he should be our Vieira if he stays
4 you can’t have too many play makers - look at city
5 with Grealish added to our current cast I can see is outplaying the likes of city and liverpool
6 it’s a no brainer
7 he’s made for Man Utd
To me its a non brainer. I think if we do it right, we dont need as much following summer and always possible a young player comes through. We could do well in cl if we get there. I believe Sir Alex would sign him
Dont see how he helps the midfield, we would still be unbalanced without a real holding mid (Matic is finished), and his best positions belong to superior players ( Rashford and Fernandes) so unless he is happy being a rotational player I don't think he should be a priority.
We'll be adding more creativity anyway with Sancho and hopefully a LB who actually contributes to the attack.
We'll be adding more creativity anyway with Sancho and hopefully a LB who actually contributes to the attack.
It depends on Pogba. If he's staying there is simply not room for three high quality attack minded midfielders.
You need a strong squad if you're going to challenge for top honours. Two attack minded midfielders in Pogba/Grealish and Fernandes isn't overkill IMO. I think you could make an argument for more complete or passing number 8 being the right fit alongside Fernandes, for sure. But it's not far fetched for a great squad to have two options in those poisitions.
Yeah I am absolutely convinced that Grealish coming in all hinges on Pogba leaving. I know they don't play the same position but like you just don't see three attack minded mids.
Sure but filling holes in the starting 11 should be a higher priority than signing depth. Depth should be created by new signings pushing the existing starters out of the team and then they become the depth. We have at least 4 or 5 players who play regurlarly that probably would make fine rotational players but cant be relied on for a full full season IMO so thd priority should be upgrading them.
If Grealish is happy for a role like that then fine, but we have more pressing needs to fill.
I'd sell Pogba and buy Grealish, because you're not just getting one player for another, but likely an extra 70m or so in price difference, which can go towards funding another key player for the team.
I want Grealish irregardless of if Pogba goes but I'll be realistic.
We are much better off ensuring we sign Sancho a DM and a striker if Pogba is staying.
That'll cost near 180 mil with max of 40 mil in for other outgoings. Realistic enough considering our past windows.
If he goes add Grealish to that.
That'll cost maybe 240 but with atleast 100 in for Pogba so again very realistic and should be expected from our fans.
We are much better off ensuring we sign Sancho a DM and a striker if Pogba is staying.
That'll cost near 180 mil with max of 40 mil in for other outgoings. Realistic enough considering our past windows.
If he goes add Grealish to that.
That'll cost maybe 240 but with atleast 100 in for Pogba so again very realistic and should be expected from our fans.
Lingard and Periera have played nearly 50 games or would have played that many if the season finished. Get rid of them and there is 50 games for someone else. Plus James played too much this year. Lots of game time for quality players. When Rashford, Fernandes or Pogba (if he stays) gets injured who are the replacements - James, Mata and ummmmmm back to Lingard, Periera. The amount of games when he will be benched because we have all our top players fit is probably about 4 games a season. Even with Pogba, Fernandes and Rashford (players in his position) all fit we should and will rotate. So whats the problem. IF quality is available at a reasonable cost then just get them. The players that will loose out are the Lingards and Perieras of this world
If Pogba and Bruno were both here and fit, those wasters obviously wouldn’t have played 50 games. If Pogba is here next season, those 50 games are not available for Grealish.
Maybe less but how often are our players injured or need to be rested. The number of games where Pogba, Fernandes and Rashford are all fit will be more rare than you think. Plus the games where they need a rest.
There is no chance they will play 50 games or there about in a season.
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