Jarrad Branthwaite

Think we need to learn to walk away. Everton would love us to cough up that £70m - they’re desperate for that cash to help even their books.

If they reject £50m, I say we stop chasing him and move on. He’ll stay, likely be disgruntled, perhaps not have a great season and if we’re still keen next year we can potentially get him for cheaper.

I don’t want to see us sucked into paying overinflated prices for largely unproven players - which he is.

If we were 'desperate' we would hardly be so firm in our approach.
 
If we were 'desperate' we would hardly be so firm in our approach.
Disagree. I think they’re taking this approach because United have been known to be a pathetic soft touch when it comes to paying over the odds.

Perhaps desperate wasn’t the right word but it would certainly go a long way to plug a fairly large financial hole what with the stadium etc. I imagine the board are very keen to see that hole plugged with United money.
 
Disagree. I think they’re taking this approach because United have been known to be a pathetic soft touch when it comes to paying over the odds.

Perhaps desperate wasn’t the right word but it would certainly go a long way to plug a fairly large financial hole what with the stadium etc. I imagine the board are very keen to see that hole plugged with United money.
Not really. We are about to be taken over so financially we will be fine. We will probably sell Onana, perhaps DCL too so the value we have set on Branthwaite is our we don't want to sell but if he has to leave it will be for at least this price. We will be happy to keep him.
 
He's not worth more than £50m. He's done nothing of note to warrant that price. He's not won anything, he's not in the England team and he's not even playing for a top 12 side let alone top 6.

I don't care if blinkered Everton fans disagree either.
 
Hope the club don't go past 50 mill on him. He's a good player, potential to be very good but at this stage that's all it is, potential. I've watched him a few times albeit it in a poor everton team. He's looked good, nothing out of the ordinary. Looks like Everton have their minds set on 70 mill. Not a chance we should be paying that. The old regime would have, let's hope this new one shows some balls and don't cave in.
 
I agree with your point to a degree there but Cole was the reigning Golden Boot holder when we signed him. Ferdinand had arguably been Leeds' best player in a run to the CL semi final the previous season. Branthwaite cant even get into the England squad right now who are having to play Luke Shaw in central defence due to a lack of other options.

I am not questioning that Cole and Ferdinand were excellent players - but your logic is not waterproof. You are using Cole as example and then stating that Branthwaite can't even get into the England squad. And granted - Cole was up against harder competition but he had yet to make his debut for England by the time he signed for us. And by 1999 (4 years after joining us) - Cole had 2 caps for England.

But Cole cost us £7 million (£6 million + Gillespie valued at £1 million) - he had been the topscorer in the P.L - but his goalratio although still good, was not near that level in his second season. He was not playing for England - and during the summer of 1994 - the 2 most expensive signings as I recall - were Phil Babb who Liverpool paid £3.5 or £3.6 million for, and Chris Sutton who in many ways was quite similar to Cole. He had scored 25 goals for Norwich, he was not an England international and many felt Blackburn paid over the odds when they signed him for £5 million. 6 months later - we signed Cole for 40% more than what Blackburn signed Sutton for. And as much as Cole was a success - to destroy the transfer record to sign him for £7 million was over the odds - by quite a bit.

Ferdinand as previously mentioned was different - he was established for England - was named in the FIFA team of the 2002 world cup......BUT.....we paid almost £30 million for Ferdinand. The year before we signed Veron for almost the same amount - but he was a midfielder, and at the time maybe one of the best in the world - so you could expect the fee to be slightly higher. After Ferdinand - Shevchenko in 2006 and Robinho in 2008 set new transfer records - but only marginally (Robinho was £32 million I think). So - as brilliant as Ferdinand was - clearly we overpaid for him.

And if you look at the transfers made around the time we signed Ferdinand - Lampard cost £14-15 milion, Duff cost £17 million, Crespo and Makelele £16 million - no other player than Veron was even close to the same amount as Ferdinand for many years. So yes - he was certainly over the odds.
 
Hope the club don't go past 50 mill on him. He's a good player, potential to be very good but at this stage that's all it is, potential. I've watched him a few times albeit it in a poor everton team. He's looked good, nothing out of the ordinary. Looks like Everton have their minds set on 70 mill. Not a chance we should be paying that. The old regime would have, let's hope this new one shows some balls and don't cave in.


Every time I watched him, he was doing last ditch tacklings which gives the vibes of poor reading of the game and positioning.
 
Think we need to learn to walk away. Everton would love us to cough up that £70m - they’re desperate for that cash to help even their books.

If they reject £50m, I say we stop chasing him and move on. He’ll stay, likely be disgruntled, perhaps not have a great season and if we’re still keen next year we can potentially get him for cheaper.

I don’t want to see us sucked into paying overinflated prices for largely unproven players - which he is (£50m is still ridiculous in my opinion)

problem with that is we’re still going to need to bring in an additional CB this year beyond de Ligt. It looks as if the club is serious about parting ways with Maguire and/or Lindelof. So if we bring in another CB why would we then go for Branthwaite next year?

All of this could be avoided if we stopped targeting so many players from other Premier League teams. They’re going to try and fleece us every time. They’re not as desperate for cash as teams on the continent so they can afford to hold out for bigger sums and even retain the player if their valuation isn’t met. How much would a Branthwaite cost if he played in Portugal or Italy or South America?
 
Because he's ambifootrus he can cover for LCB, RCB and LB. He also has height. He's not worth 70 mill but he has a lot of attributes we are missing in our team. I think he will be useful
 
I see the City fans on Bluemoon are now claiming Pep is interested in him and they hope he signs him just to cause some kind of meltdown amongst Man Utd fans.

Who in their right mind would even consider joining City this summer with what is coming in November?
 
So if you get this dude and De Ligt, what does that mean for all Martinez? A move to midfield or LB? Or a back 3?

Interesting times indeed.
It'll be the 3 of them (or more likely, somebody else in place of Branthwaite) competing for the 2 CB spots. I think the injury crisis of last season has scared the United hierarchy into actually addressing one of the positions in the squad correctly.
 
I see the City fans on Bluemoon are now claiming Pep is interested in him and they hope he signs him just to cause some kind of meltdown amongst Man Utd fans.

Who in their right mind would even consider joining City this summer with what is coming in November?

What's coming in November?
 
Because he's ambifootrus he can cover for LCB, RCB and LB. He also has height. He's not worth 70 mill but he has a lot of attributes we are missing in our team. I think he will be useful
I think the word you were looking for is ‘ambipedal’. Although I have to admit I much prefer ambifootrus Brilliant!
 
I see the City fans on Bluemoon are now claiming Pep is interested in him and they hope he signs him just to cause some kind of meltdown amongst Man Utd fans.

Who in their right mind would even consider joining City this summer with what is coming in November?

Who in their right mind would have a meltdown because Jarrad Braintheaite joined another club.
 
It'll be the 3 of them (or more likely, somebody else in place of Branthwaite) competing for the 2 CB spots. I think the injury crisis of last season has scared the United hierarchy into actually addressing one of the positions in the squad correctly.

The proclivity these days is to have at least one of the full backs be an ancillary center back, while you potentially let the other push up really high. I wouldn’t be surprised to see us line up with all three at some points. Both Martinez and Branthwaite can play LCB and LB, and both are left footed. I could easily see Dalot, De Ligt, Barthwaite, Martinez, with Ugarte and Mainoo in front, being our primary defensive unit for next season. Shaw would operate as rotation for those LB, LCB roles. It similar to how City line up with Gvardiol, and Arsenal with White.
 
The proclivity these days is to have at least one of the full backs be an ancillary center back, while you potentially let the other push up really high. I wouldn’t be surprised to see us line up with all three at some points. Both Martinez and Branthwaite can play LCB and LB, and both are left footed. I could easily see Dalot, De Ligt, Barthwaite, Martinez, with Ugarte and Mainoo in front, being our primary defensive unit for next season. Shaw would operate as rotation for those LB, LCB roles. It similar to how City line up with Gvardiol, and Arsenal with White.
I don’t hate this at all.
 
For me the finances of this are looking unappealing in that we're not really seeing much budge from Everton. I have doubts about De Ligt but you look at it on paper and you're getting a relatively young international footballer with top flight club experience, versus a bloke that's done well for a relegation candidate. Essentially a promising player at this stage.

Everton have their valuation and fair enough, they can set whatever they want but I think we're right to have some irons in the fire rather than being wedded to this one which the previous regimes constantly made a mistake of doing.
 
I feel like this is where our negotiation falls down if we’re going back in for him.
 
I absolutely hate dealing with PL clubs. They’ve lost all understanding of the food chain.
 
Madness if we pay £70m for this lad. He's a good player but can you name a single CB worth £70m even in this modern day market?

Saliba easily, if he was available. Probably a few others as well, but yeah, it would be a small number.
 


Good, but this should be our last offer and I'm expecting that to be the case as well, to be honest. Branthwaite's value is a bit higher IMO than the 45+5m we offered, but at the same time I hope we don't go above 55/60.
 
I expect United will need to sell a few more players before returning with a 3rd bid.