I see this guy as another box to box too. I think in games where we have a lot of the ball himself and Mainoo could take turns recycling the ball and evading the first wave of the press. We probably still need an athletic DM for more even contests to sit and shore up the middle and watch out for those cutbacks that always catch us out. I couldn’t be more on board with a signing. The last player I wanted this much was Camavinga. Even he was probably gettable if we moved early and decisively.
Joao Neves | signed for PSG
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Oh of course, forgot about that. Well there's one less problem to deal with.
Thats why signing Guido from Betis on a free makes so much sense as he’s a pure defensive midfielder and actually has the legs to get about that Casemiro doesn’t have. Bringing in Neves and Guido then moving on Casemiro, Eriksen, VDB and Hannibal to offset some of the cost is clearly the move to make.
I see Chelsea example being used the issue Chelsea did was basically changes everything and every player trying to compress work of multiple years in a single year. That rarely works.
But making 5-6 singing with high potential should be ok for next 2 years. Because the way I see the current squad need a complete rebuild except Hojuland/Garnacho/Mainoo.
So although I can understand the appeal in getting Neves, I would not go that route.
Ideally, sure. We're too big of a club to be able to sign players like Odegaard for cheap though.
That’s not a bad shout. I would rather us use the free transfer market for squad players. If it doesn’t work out we can still get a fee for them affer the first or second season. It makes a lot more sense than the endless stupid loans anyway.
They would want insane money.
We will get him for a bit more than we paid for Casemiro. We can have this guy in his prime for 5-10 years and still have some sell on value if it doesn’t work vs one really good year and back to the drawing board. It’s up to the scouts to decide if these guys are worth the money and have the right work etiquette to improve once they’ve got the bigger wages coming in
He actually reminds me of a young Roy Keane. Very crisp passing, can make a difference going forward and is good in the tackle. His dribbling is great. It should make him press resistant. I feel like he’s going to become a leader at national team level too. What a prospect he is
I feel like he’s one of the best gettable young players in the world. I think a signing like this also reiterates our commitment to developing the best young players in the world. This is the stuff!
That's sort of who he reminds me of too. He's a little shorter and I think Carl Anka actually made a good point on the last pod in that we'll need to up the height of our team. But I'd rather see Neves as a player next to Mainoo with a #6 behind them (no Bruno). I think a midfield of Mainoo, Neves and Bruno is not physical enough, to put it mildly.
Neves does seem quite robust, he's got a good range of passing and he's dynamic, something we desperately need.
A destroyer behind them two would need to be tall, strong, and a lot quicker than both Neves and Mainoo, both of whom have average pace.
He probably wouldn't make sense with the current set of players here, as we'll need more creativity from wide areas if we play a #6 and two #8s, both from the wide forwards and the full backs.
Definitely a very interesting player. If I imagine him being bought by Arsenal or City I get panicky. He is very promising now but he could become amazing. Huge outlay though.
But there will be a number of changes even if he did join, and over the next few windows if nothing else. What you said is something I agree with, and how I think we should set up. I want a proper DM, with Mainoo and Neves in a double 8 ahead of them. I think the pursuit of Olise is a good profile as what he does is basically share the 10 duties with Mainoo. You would want a more direct threat on the other side, something I imagine we hope Garnacho to offer longer term. Then there is the reported pursuit of Frimpong. A player like Frimpong at RB compensates and balances a player like Olise at RW. Frimpong would offer a direct and lateral threat down the right, while Olise comes inside.
We would need a strong physical DM and a similar description at RCB. But if we could make those changes, I think we could have a wonderfully balanced team. Proper midfield control with a DM, Neves and Mainoo, a proper midfield threat from Mainoo and Olise, a direct threat on the right from Frimpong, and a direct threat on the left from Garnacho.
An example of what I’d love to see would be:
———————Onana———————
-Frimpong—Araujo-Martinez—Shaw-
————————DM——————————
———Neves—————Mainoo———
-Olise——————————————Garnacho-
———————Hojlund——————————
5 new first XI players. We will also need players for cover. How feasible that will be remains to be seen, and likely won’t all be done at once, but I think it’s feasible and would give us the right blend of defensive stability, control and attacking quality, while also improving the athleticism within the team.
Frimpong should be only used as a RWB or RM. And Olise is too injury prone. I also doubt Araujo would even consider a move for a second.
He's actually really good in the air despite his size, which is something to bare in mind.
Yeah, that lineup looks lovely but there are four major question marks there. 1) Dalot is starting to finally come good, not world class, but significantly improved. So I cannot imagine we'd buy a right back ahead of him now. We'll likely shift AWB and then we can buy someone to either compete with Dalot or a younger player who might become better over the next 2-3 seasons. In any case, given all we need to do, it's not a huge priority. What might make this more realistic is Frimpong's rumoured 35m release clause. 2) Olise at 60m (rumoured) is just way way too expensive given his two long injury absences and those hamstring injuries so early in a career aren't a great sign. Top player, but a huge risk and we already are stacked with injury prone players. 3 and 4) Martinez and Shaw are question marks. Both obviously top players, but Shaw has missed 50% of matches in his United career so cannot be relied upon and with Malacia out the whole season something needs to be done there. Martinez being an absolutely crucial player for ETH but picking up two major injuries in quick succession is a major worry. People talk about needing an RCB but I think we need both, we cannot expect Martinez to come back to where he was and stay fit for the whole season.
Araujo might be the best centre back potentially on the market. Would absolutely love him here. Would he join?
But on midfield we agree. So much work to be done this summer.
I can jive with this but there’s a massive danger we become Chelsea 2.0. I think 2/3 starters a year is enough. Even for a rebuild. Also Dalot is class.
Tbh in reality there isn’t really such thing as buying a ‘starter’ as such at top clubs with the exception of a handful of players. Mason Mount will start games over Neves or Mainoo, and could easily end up starting more than them next season. Antony will start over Olise. Signing 5 quality players pushes the overall squad quality up. The fact is, players are going to leave us, more than 2/3, so the ones we bring in may as well be good ones.
Yes but in the portuguese league where many CMs are under 1.80 I reckon and don't have the physique of EPL midfielders.
Fair point. I wouldn't expect him to be dominant exactly but think he'd hold his own in that department.
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£5 million + McTominay should do it.
Edit.
Actually make that £3 million + McTominay. Let's not go too mad.
Edit.
Actually make that £3 million + McTominay. Let's not go too mad.
We should sign this player plus Ruben Neves. Just for the shits n giggles. Neves to Neves, passes to Neves.
This is going to cost big bucks, I’m guessing €100m ?
He looks like a tidy player but very inexperienced and not sure we should be spending £100m or so on a single player when we need to reshape our team so significantly.
Totally agree, a lot of fans are forgetting some obvious deficiencies this season, the club is Elite only in name and history, look at our bench against Palace, I would suggest this summer is similar to LVG first where he signed 6 players and personally I think 12 to 13 will/need to go or are being released and that’s a minimum number
The club needs to sign 7 or 8, yes 7 or 8 players this summer and free transfers like Tosin Aderbiyou, Ross Barkley, Adrien Rabiot and others should and must be considered.
I agree with the 5 signings btw, absolutely perfect window which is why it won’t happen, however we will be losing the following players; R Varane, B Williams, A Martial, A Fernandez, M Greenwood, DVB,
J Sancho, J Evans, S Amrabat(9) definitely and probably the following too; V Lindelof, AWB, Casemiro, C Eriksen, Antony,
F Pellistri, Hanibal Mejbri(7) and then possibles based on incoming bids;
S Mctominay, H Maguire, A Onana, Bruno, M Rashford, T Malacia, A Bayinder(7).
Now I don’t for one second think the club will sell, release, loan 23 players out, however 15/16 Man united players will be leaving this summer would not surprise me in the slightest and I can definitely see 8 from the first 9 list leaving.
Rumours of a €40m bid from Saudi for Casemiro are coming in, It’s about time United had some of that upfront cash, good luck if Al Nassar will pay him £600k per week. Hopefully Eriksen wants to join him and we get another £15m for him but realistically this is the absolute maximum United can receive for transfers;
Transfers Wages
A Fernandez(£5m). 15k
V Lindelof (£10m). 120k
B Williams Free. 60k
R Varane Free. 340k
AWB. (£15m). 100k
A Bayinder (£5m). 40k
J Evans. Free. 60k
Casemiro. (£30m). 350k
C Eriksen (£5m). 180k
Hanibal. (£10m). 25k
DVB. (£2.5m). 120k
F Pellistri. (£12.5m). 40k
S Amrabat. Free. 80k
M Greenwood (£25m). 80k
J Sancho. (£35m). 250k
A Martial. Free. 250k
That’s 16 players, potentially £150-160m in actual transfer fees, but we only get lucky if 2 or 3 are Saudi bound as the Saudi teams pay up front in one instalment, meaning the club would have more than the current £150m available on the company credit card to go and act like ‘Billy Big Bollocks’ again, More importantly the wages would be reduced by £2.1m per week or £100m per year, this effectively allows the club to press the hard RED RESET button and easily bring 7, 8 even 9 players in this summer and probably still save money on the anual players wage budget!
You do realise that at least 11 or 12 players are leaving in the summer, the rule is simple always buy half the number of players that you are going to lose, we need to be all over the free transfer and loan market.
Feels like more Portuguese media bullshit to me. I don't see us spending that much money on a single player this summer, let alone someone of this profile.
I’ve only watched him a couple of times but he’s quality. Speaks volumes that anyone who follows Liga Nos (even from Sporting or other fans) say he’s special.
He reminds me so much of Barella with his combination of work rate and skill, who is a player I’d say we should be going after if he was 2-3 years younger.
With the amount of work the squad needs I’d be surprised albeit very excited if we did go for him this summer.
He reminds me so much of Barella with his combination of work rate and skill, who is a player I’d say we should be going after if he was 2-3 years younger.
With the amount of work the squad needs I’d be surprised albeit very excited if we did go for him this summer.
Haven’t seen him play, only the rave reviews. The combination of his haircut and shirt tucked into his shorts make him look like a footballer who’s time travelled from the 80’s/90’s into the present.
On that basis, it’s a yes from me.
On that basis, it’s a yes from me.
We need to sign him. We’ve had an awful season but we can be title challenging in two years with some good moves. Him and Mainoo with one other would be great. I’d take Florentino Luis with him tbh.
We need some smart/cheap deals - but they can’t all be cheap deals. And it makes sense if the big money deals happen at low (relatively) wages. I hear everyone saying ‘ahh, 100m’, but how often do you get to bring in a 100m player on 100k p/w? The deal is still relatively reasonable, because we would normally sign a player for 100m on 350k, which is what those sort of players usually command.
We need some smart/cheap deals - but they can’t all be cheap deals. And it makes sense if the big money deals happen at low (relatively) wages. I hear everyone saying ‘ahh, 100m’, but how often do you get to bring in a 100m player on 100k p/w? The deal is still relatively reasonable, because we would normally sign a player for 100m on 350k, which is what those sort of players usually command.
I want him and I agree wage value it makes sense but still 105mil is a massive investment. Talk that we would try to negotiate it down but there are so many things we need that it feels like a bit of a luxury when we could probably get 2 much needed players elsewhere for that money.
I know he is one of those extremely promising players that doesn’t come around that often but it just seems very unlikely to me that there is any legs to this story of interest.
We’d stand a good chance of being strong again if united cam transform the midfield. It’s too weak atm.
It has been a problem since basically Scholes came out of retirement under Fergie. It was briefly fixed and in balance when we had Matic, Herrera, Pogba playing but that lasted for half a season. Matic got injured, Herrera left, Pogba couldn't give a shit. And we went back to nonsense like McFred. If I was in-charge, I'd spend all my energy first figuring out how best to make a midfield 3 of Bruno, Mainoo + one midfielder work and do everything I can to sign that midfielder.
I think a Rodri type player is what we need and not a box to box but happy to be proven wrong if Mainoo evolves to be that deep lying playmaker.
What’s midfield?
it would be good to recognize that midfield is the heartbeat of a good team and is not just a demilitarised zone for teams to advance through unchecked
but we need a coach that recognises that fact
Though he’s definitely a big talent, he doesn’t have the build or the strength now to be able to bring his A game in PL. We already have one small and not peak Mainoo, I would personally go for the Pogba build midfielder(with work rate). Our team is so lacking physically and adding another midfielder of this type is not the best choice.
Would love to have him, just hope we build a base first with defence and midfield
Would love to have him, just hope we build a base first with defence and midfield
No summer without SportWitness and Portuguese papers.
Not seen him play but he looks like a budget Pablo Aimar and that's good enough for me. 100m is worth it.
Not seen him play but he looks like a budget Pablo Aimar and that's good enough for me. 100m is worth it.
Links to him are nonsense, there is no way we are spending much more than 60m an any individual players this summer.
There’s no way it would be 100m anyway. It’s just a silly number that Portuguese publications stick on every half decent talent.
Fantastic talent. I hope we have money to get him, but highly doubt we do
Honestly torn on his signing, would definitely cost a lot but you'd be paying for the future. The ideal line-up would have him, Mainoo and Bruno starting together for games where we are expected to keep a lot of the ball and 2 of them 3 with a pure ball winner for more tougher games (Although that's all games these days).
Watching Benfica every week, I can definitely say this guy is going to go to the very top (Touchwood, barring any major injuries). Has the perfect combination of talent and attitude.
Someone also recommended getting Florentino along with him. Tbh he suits Benfica well but is quite limited for this United side imo.
Watching Benfica every week, I can definitely say this guy is going to go to the very top (Touchwood, barring any major injuries). Has the perfect combination of talent and attitude.
Someone also recommended getting Florentino along with him. Tbh he suits Benfica well but is quite limited for this United side imo.
£130m for him and Doue to play alongside Mainoo and you potentially have the best midfield in Europe for the next 15years....do it ffs
Mainoo is not ‘small’.
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