James Ward-Prowse

MadMike said:
I don’t know if he’s good enough for United but I know that he’s too damn good for the Championship. Someone should snap him up when the saints go down.

His overall play is more than decent too. Obviously not to the level of his free kicks which are not just world class but absolutely GOATed. But there’s still a pretty decent squad player there, for a big club. I mean if players like McTominay, Gallagher, Loftus-Cheek, Naby Keita, Oxlade-Chamberlain etc. are having careers at top clubs as squad players, it’s hard to argue that Ward-Prowse can’t.
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In my opinion, his potential dont stand back to someone like Henderson at all. Both technically and physically I like Ward-Prowse better. Hard to say tactically, but would be interesting to see him in a good team.
 
I would say he would have been a good signing for us, but we would have found a way to ruin his setpiece ability.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I wonder if the Schneiderlin deal was a factor? Made us nervous about signing another Southampton CM? Obviously completely illogical but nothing we do these days is logical.
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Scouts probably read the Caf, apparantly he was a one trick pony, useless etc!
Used to know his brother a bit when I lived in Southampton back in the day when James was coming through. Really nice grounded lad and family, imagine JWPs attitude and drive is impeccable just based on that
 
Th
tomaldinho1 said:
This one will always be a mystery to me. Unbelievable all round player on the cheap, could have sold McT and bought him for net £0.
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That one of the main gripes I have with the club but also a big part of the fanbase. While JWP probably would have been called an intelligent buy, people would probably have been disappointed because of the missing star factor. It is such a shame, that we seemingly waste money on some players who have star potential while players who would really fit are overlooked because they aren't shiny or Top club'y enough...
 
Will this forum's obsession with mediocre midfielders ever end?

He's started brightly and is a good fit for West Ham, but there's a reason he wasn't picked up until the season was already underway, and West Ham were basically his only suitors.

£30 million on him this summer, presumably in place of Mount, and we'd be sat here reading post after post about why we skimped on the guy that captained his club to relegation instead of a CL winner and regular starter for England.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I wonder if the Schneiderlin deal was a factor? Made us nervous about signing another Southampton CM? Obviously completely illogical but nothing we do these days is logical.
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I feel like we just don’t have any real planning going on outside of the manager and ETH likely wouldn’t have see a huge amount of lower league PL players. We were desperate for CMs and this summer Mac Allister, JWP, Kovacic, lavia, Tielemans and Madison have all moved for modest fees.

As the most recent post above this shows, there’s a real lack of interest from the club when it’s not a big name, ironically you’d think they’d have learned by now given how many big names fail at United that you have to build a team but I guess a decade of this hasn’t been enough yet.
 
NZT-One said:
Th

That one of the main gripes I have with the club but also a big part of the fanbase. While JWP probably would have been called an intelligent buy, people would probably have been disappointed because of the missing star factor. It is such a shame, that we seemingly waste money on some players who have star potential while players who would really fit are overlooked because they aren't shiny or Top club'y enough...
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Words out of my mouth
 
tomaldinho1 said:
I feel like we just don’t have any real planning going on outside of the manager and ETH likely wouldn’t have see a huge amount of lower league PL players. We were desperate for CMs and this summer Mac Allister, JWP, Kovacic, lavia, Tielemans and Madison have all moved for modest fees.

As the most recent post above this shows, there’s a real lack of interest from the club when it’s not a big name, ironically you’d think they’d have learned by now given how many big names fail at United that you have to build a team but I guess a decade of this hasn’t been enough yet.
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Additionally, depending on the level of confidence we have in Mejbri, Gore and Mainoo, it might not have been that much of issue to bring in a slightly older player. We actually did it anyway with Amrabat. And who knows, maybe playing for United would have been a little more enticing to him than the Hammers (maybe, don't really know) so a deal could have been struck around the 25 million mark. More than decent for somebody who is tested in the league and delivered good midfield stats for a few seasons in a row.
 
What happened here? I thought he was shite and trash reading by some posts last season.

Just his deadball skills were enough for us to get our GD near the 0 mark. He is 10x better CM than Eriksen, McTominay or Bruno. Just because he isn't flashy or a superstar and captained a team to relegation as if he was responsible for 10 other players, he's rendered shite.

This is probably the only time we need players who can do some basics right and he could have done it.
 
Outside of the issue with offloading McTominay, Maguire and some others, I don't see the issue with not buying someone like JWP. I meant out side off direct free kick straight at goal, we're hardly benefit from his corner kick because we simply lack aerial threat.

We're not the only teams that look to improve the midfield, yet only West Ham went for JWP. Perhaps all other team scout suck too. Or simply Moyes teams and his West Ham are built to around aerial prowess. Something that adding JWP would greatly complement his team. Moyes wanted both McTominay and Maguire perhaps may also have to do with their physicality as well as aerial ability.
 
JWP bears little to no resemblance to McTominay in terms of his skill set or role. McTominay at West Ham would always have been for Soucek.

A Man Utd midfield three of Casemiro, Fernandes, Eriksen is mirrored at WHU by Alvarez, Paqueta and JWP.
 
He's a good solid player and obviously his dead ball ability is world class but I don't think he's good enough for a team competing in the CL. A lot of posters were underwhelmed with the signing of Mount but are now in this forum banging on about how we missed out on JWP because he's had a good start to the season.

It was the same with the Bowen thread when he was going through a similar sort of run. 'Why can't our scouts identify these clubs from the Championship' etc. Yes, our scouts are terrible but doesn't mean they mess up on every signing they potentially they don't recommend.

Very good player for West Ham though, and a decent price they paid for him.
 
ayushreddevil9 said:
What happened here? I thought he was shite and trash reading by some posts last season.

Just his deadball skills were enough for us to get our GD near the 0 mark. He is 10x better CM than Eriksen, McTominay or Bruno. Just because he isn't flashy or a superstar and captained a team to relegation as if he was responsible for 10 other players, he's rendered shite.

This is probably the only time we need players who can do some basics right and he could have done it.
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No he isn't.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
I feel like we just don’t have any real planning going on outside of the manager and ETH likely wouldn’t have see a huge amount of lower league PL players. We were desperate for CMs and this summer Mac Allister, JWP, Kovacic, lavia, Tielemans and Madison have all moved for modest fees.

As the most recent post above this shows, there’s a real lack of interest from the club when it’s not a big name, ironically you’d think they’d have learned by now given how many big names fail at United that you have to build a team but I guess a decade of this hasn’t been enough yet.
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It's not about big names; it's about players that are good enough for a club with our ambitions. James Ward-Prowse isn't one of those players.

Your other examples are a mixed bag. For one, Tielemens is shite. I'm also glad we didn't chuck £53 million at Southampton fpr Lavia after one season of senior football.

Maddison would be up against Bruno, arguably Mac Allister too, so they'd have likely been non-starters even if we were interested. Kovacic is basically the only one, and he'd have always been choosing City over us (this forum would have also likely had a fit about us signing a 29-year-old Chelsea reject).
 
Alex99 said:
It's not about big names; it's about players that are good enough for a club with our ambitions. James Ward-Prowse isn't one of those players.

Your other examples are a mixed bag. For one, Tielemens is shite. I'm also glad we didn't chuck £53 million at Southampton fpr Lavia after one season of senior football.

Maddison would be up against Bruno, arguably Mac Allister too, so they'd have likely been non-starters even if we were interested. Kovacic is basically the only one, and he'd have always been choosing City over us (this forum would have also likely had a fit about us signing a 29-year-old Chelsea reject).
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People above have spelled it out and you’ve missed the point. I’d argue all of those players would push Eriksen to start (bar Madison who doesn’t play that role) and inarguably they are all better than McT. JWP is comfortably better than Eriksen, Kova is better than any midfielder we have, Tielemans has weaknesses but he’s better than current Eriksen, Mac Allister can play that role too. Regardless of my opinion though they would all improve our squad.
 
Always been a JWP fan, think he offers a lot more then just set-plays (which are incredible) - Probably say West Ham is about his level, but he could probably do a good job at a "bigger" club too.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
People above have spelled it out and you’ve missed the point. I’d argue all of those players would push Eriksen to start (bar Madison who doesn’t play that role) and inarguably they are all better than McT. JWP is comfortably better than Eriksen, Kova is better than any midfielder we have, Tielemans has weaknesses but he’s better than current Eriksen, Mac Allister can play that role too. Regardless of my opinion though they would all improve our squad.
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You've missed my point.

Mac Allister looks like he had his eyes were firmly set on Liverpool. I still think we'd be complaining about him being too similar to Bruno.

Maddison was a non-starter because he's definitely too similar to Bruno.

As I said, Kovacic wasn't choosing us over City.

Lavia at £53 million is just not the one.

I don't think any of these were realistic targets, either because of the player's interest in joining, the fee involved, their place in our squad/system, or a combination of the three. That's not to say they wouldn't have been good signings had we managed to get them, but given our obvious budget restrictions, we weren't getting any of them. You may as well add Rice and Caicedo to the list for how realistic the above were as targets.

Tielemens is crap. People complain about a lack of application from our current players then clamour over a guy who's barely broken a sweat in two seasons.

I think Ward-Prowse is a decent enough footballer, but we shouldn't be targeting players on the basis that they're a small improvement on Eriksen and McTominay.

This is "James McCarthy could be a good Anderson replacement" all over again. West Ham is Ward-Prowse's level, just as Everton and Wigan was for McCarthy. Again, there's a reason he wasn't picked up earlier in the window, and a reason West Ham basically had a free run at him.

If we're talking about apparent missed opportunities, Tonali is the one that stands out most to me from this summer.
 
Alex99 said:
You've missed my point.

Mac Allister looks like he had his eyes were firmly set on Liverpool. I still think we'd be complaining about him being too similar to Bruno.

Maddison was a non-starter because he's definitely too similar to Bruno.

As I said, Kovacic wasn't choosing us over City.

Lavia at £53 million is just not the one.

I don't think any of these were realistic targets, either because of the player's interest in joining, the fee involved, their place in our squad/system, or a combination of the three. That's not to say they wouldn't have been good signings had we managed to get them, but given our obvious budget restrictions, we weren't getting any of them. You may as well add Rice and Caicedo to the list for how realistic the above were as targets.

Tielemens is crap. People complain about a lack of application from our current players then clamour over a guy who's barely broken a sweat in two seasons.

I think Ward-Prowse is a decent enough footballer, but we shouldn't be targeting players on the basis that they're a small improvement on Eriksen and McTominay.

This is "James McCarthy could be a good Anderson replacement" all over again. West Ham is Ward-Prowse's level, just as Everton and Wigan was for McCarthy. Again, there's a reason he wasn't picked up earlier in the window, and a reason West Ham basically had a free run at him.

If we're talking about apparent missed opportunities, Tonali is the one that stands out most to me from this summer.
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Tonali was more expensive though. Your points don’t really work because whilst I agree on Kovacic - there’s no reason the others wouldn’t have come here. In Mac Allister’s case do you not think we could have offered more than £35m? That would have been the way there, you force Pool to pay more or drop out. There are other CMs who have moved, the point is you don’t have to and spend £70m plus to upgrade our midfield considerably.
Disagree re James McCarthy - he was a big United fan and we have a large Irish presence on the caf so he was very well known. Did anyone really think he was that good?
 
Alex99 said:
You've missed my point.

Mac Allister looks like he had his eyes were firmly set on Liverpool. I still think we'd be complaining about him being too similar to Bruno.

Maddison was a non-starter because he's definitely too similar to Bruno.

As I said, Kovacic wasn't choosing us over City.

Lavia at £53 million is just not the one.

I don't think any of these were realistic targets, either because of the player's interest in joining, the fee involved, their place in our squad/system, or a combination of the three. That's not to say they wouldn't have been good signings had we managed to get them, but given our obvious budget restrictions, we weren't getting any of them. You may as well add Rice and Caicedo to the list for how realistic the above were as targets.

Tielemens is crap. People complain about a lack of application from our current players then clamour over a guy who's barely broken a sweat in two seasons.

I think Ward-Prowse is a decent enough footballer, but we shouldn't be targeting players on the basis that they're a small improvement on Eriksen and McTominay.

This is "James McCarthy could be a good Anderson replacement" all over again. West Ham is Ward-Prowse's level, just as Everton and Wigan was for McCarthy. Again, there's a reason he wasn't picked up earlier in the window, and a reason West Ham basically had a free run at him.

If we're talking about apparent missed opportunities, Tonali is the one that stands out most to me from this summer.
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This.

Reminds me of the time people were clamouring for Rodgers as manager, and even when posters were saying what a terrible appointment it would be, it was shut down with 'But he'd be better than Ole'.
 
Alex99 said:
You've missed my point.

Mac Allister looks like he had his eyes were firmly set on Liverpool. I still think we'd be complaining about him being too similar to Bruno.

Maddison was a non-starter because he's definitely too similar to Bruno.

As I said, Kovacic wasn't choosing us over City.

Lavia at £53 million is just not the one.

I don't think any of these were realistic targets, either because of the player's interest in joining, the fee involved, their place in our squad/system, or a combination of the three. That's not to say they wouldn't have been good signings had we managed to get them, but given our obvious budget restrictions, we weren't getting any of them. You may as well add Rice and Caicedo to the list for how realistic the above were as targets.

Tielemens is crap. People complain about a lack of application from our current players then clamour over a guy who's barely broken a sweat in two seasons.

I think Ward-Prowse is a decent enough footballer, but we shouldn't be targeting players on the basis that they're a small improvement on Eriksen and McTominay.

This is "James McCarthy could be a good Anderson replacement" all over again. West Ham is Ward-Prowse's level, just as Everton and Wigan was for McCarthy. Again, there's a reason he wasn't picked up earlier in the window, and a reason West Ham basically had a free run at him.

If we're talking about apparent missed opportunities, Tonali is the one that stands out most to me from this summer.
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couldn't that be said of Amrabat though this season.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
Tonali was more expensive though. Your points don’t really work because whilst I agree on Kovacic - there’s no reason the others wouldn’t have come here. In Mac Allister’s case do you not think we could have offered more than £35m? That would have been the way there, you force Pool to pay more or drop out. There are other CMs who have moved, the point is you don’t have to and spend £70m plus to upgrade our midfield considerably.
Disagree re James McCarthy - he was a big United fan and we have a large Irish presence on the caf so he was very well known. Did anyone really think he was that good?
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Tonali was €70 million, which is about £60 million, and not too far off what we paid for Mount. All of these signings would have to be in lieu of Mount, as that's all our budget and transfer strategy would have allowed for.

Mac Allister went for £35 million because he had a release clause. There was no bidding war to be had, and it was evident very early in the transfer window that he wanted to go to Liverpool. Again, there are definite role similarities to Bruno too.

You clearly missed the McCarthy hype then. When he first broke through and when he moved to Everton there were Scholes, Keane and Gerrard comparisons aplenty. He was the saviour our midfield desperately needed. Turned out he was okay for a club of Everton's level and nothing more.

Now, we can debate whether Mount was money well spent, but Ward-Prowse isn't the answer either.
 
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