Joao Neves | signed for PSG

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Watching Toulouse- Benfica right now, not a lot to do at work…
Just watched the first half and Neves looks good, tenacious, quick feet, decent passing range, a talent for sure.
But was honestly more impressed by Antonio Silva. Looks so calm, composed, good feet, good awareness and positional sense, specially if you consider his age and position, but that is for a different thread
 
Watched him for the first time in the Europa League against Toulouse last week (also had an eye on our loanee Fernandez).
Benfica were pushed back for most of the second half so never got to see the full range of his abiliies but defensively I liked the look of him..
Patrolled the area in front of the defence very well, a terrier in midfield was aggressive and sharp in the tackle without giving many fouls away.
 
aeh1991 said:
I wasn't well aware of Varela's development at Porto. Great to hear he is doing well and he could really be an interesting option for the DM position!
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Varela played well again in a 5-0 victory over Benfica and if he can stay injury free for the rest of the season, he's someone we should seriously consider signing.
 
Go for Dani Olmo instead :

Out of this 3 really creative cm player.

Neves, De Jong and Dani Olmo. I would pick Dani Olmo. The full packet. Gravity, the physical and top acceleration.





Dani Olmo skill on the ball is just crazy. And his combination football too. Watch the video closely. Olmo easily pass opponent players in central midfield area. A Iniesta light version.
 
LuckyScout78 said:
Go for Dani Olmo instead :

Out of this 3 really creative cm player.

Neves, De Jong and Dani Olmo. I would pick Dani Olmo. The full packet. Gravity, the physical and top acceleration.




Dani Olmo skill on the ball is just crazy. And his combination football too. Watch the video closely. Olmo easily pass opponent players in central midfield area. A Iniesta light version.
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They are not similar players at all. Olmo plays mostly on the wings and half spaces, whereas Joao Neves is an all action deeper midfielder who wins so many tackles and interceptions and distributes well.
 
Watching him against Rangers and he's just a technical wizard. His touch, awareness, weight of pass, the way he shapes his body to receive and play the ball, decision making. Just undeniable technical excellence.
 
Martial'sEmergingSmile said:
Watching him against Rangers and he's just a technical wizard. His touch, awareness, weight of pass, the way he shapes his body to receive and play the ball, decision making. Just undeniable technical excellence.
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People say Mainoo looks great for his age, Neves looks like a generational talent by comparison, his technique and maturity is ridiculous.
 
Adnan said:
Varela played well again in a 5-0 victory over Benfica and if he can stay injury free for the rest of the season, he's someone we should seriously consider signing.
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This guy looks mustard! He could become a world class player and probably wouldn’t cost near as much as neves. Supposedly has a £60 million release clause, sorry if you’ve mentioned this already. Potentially a bargain if he can transfer his form to the PL.
 
Ali Dia said:
This guy looks mustard! He could become a world class player and probably wouldn’t cost near as much as neves. Supposedly has a £60 million release clause, sorry if you’ve mentioned this already. Potentially a bargain if he can transfer his form to the PL.
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I've been saying that we should sign him since he was at Boca. I don't know why someone other than Porto didn't take a chance on him for the reported €20m release clause. He's a first phase player in midfield with the technical and defensive skills that should develop even more over time.
 
Adnan said:
I've been saying that we should sign him since he was at Boca. I don't know why someone other than Porto didn't take a chance on him for the reported €20m release clause. He's a first phase player in midfield with the technical and defensive skills that should develop even more over time.
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I remember him being a supposed fm wonderkid a few years ago and signing him and he was great for me. It’s cool to see he’s taken the next steps in Portugal. I really hope we go more direct to the South American market for talent from now on. If you want to actually make money in recruitment you have to buy potentially top players as soon as they start emerging. Real are really good at this. It’s not rocket science but we are so poor at it. We have both been saying the same thing for a long time. I really hope INEOS can finally get a handle on it!
 
Ali Dia said:
I remember him being a supposed fm wonderkid a few years ago and signing him and he was great for me. It’s cool to see he’s taken the next steps in Portugal. I really hope we go more direct to the South American market for talent from now on. If you want to actually make money in recruitment you have to buy potentially top players as soon as they start emerging. Real are really good at this. It’s not rocket science but we are so poor at it. We have both been saying the same thing for a long time. I really hope INEOS can finally get a handle on it!
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I agree I do think things will start changing now. If they don't I'd be very surprised because the Glazers are no longer in charge of the football side of the club which can only mean good things for us and it should bring out the potential in alot of people who are very good at their jobs but weren't listened to in previous years. Players like Caicedo and Enzo are just two recent examples of young South American talent that we identified early due to our scouting network in that region of the world but Woodward and Judge for whatever reason couldn't close the deals or because we had to wait for the Glazers to give the giant ahead from the US which would cost us time.

I'm not even joking, if me and you were given control of the recruitment department in the last 10 years and we selected 5 people from the caf to help us construct/ develop a team then we'd do a better job.
 
Adnan said:
I agree I do think things will start changing now. If they don't I'd be very surprised because the Glazers are no longer in charge of the football side of the club which can only mean good things for us and it should bring out the potential in alot of people who are very good at their jobs but weren't listened to in previous years. Players like Caicedo and Enzo are just two recent examples of young South American talent that we identified early due to our scouting network in that region of the world but Woodward and Judge for whatever reason couldn't close the deals or because we had to wait for the Glazers to give the giant ahead from the US which would cost us time.

I'm not even joking, if me and you were given control of the recruitment department in the last 10 years and we selected 5 people from the caf to help us construct/ develop a team then we'd do a better job.
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It’s just common sense and a bit of luck. The glazers have actually been very unlucky with signings like Antony and Sancho. It was the right idea but also it’s totally their fault United isn’t nearly as good of a place to work or reach your potential anymore. We’ve killed more careers than any other big team with Chelsea steadily catching up.
 
Ali Dia said:
It’s just common sense and a bit of luck. The glazers have actually been very unlucky with signings like Antony and Sancho. It was the right idea but also it’s totally their fault United isn’t nearly as good of a place to work or reach your potential anymore. We’ve killed more careers than any other big team with Chelsea steadily catching up.
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The Antony signing was sanctioned by the Glazers after the football people at the club had walked away from a deal at £40m. This was reported by Sao Paulo based journo Jorge Nicola in June 2022, where he said that United had walked away from a deal only for the Glazers to panic and pay up after defeats to Brighton and then Brentford. I shared the links to the story from the Brazilian journo who is close to players of Sao Paolo past and present. So to take the heat off themselves, they (Glazers) created a problem for the football personnel at the club. At Man City we now know that Omar Berrarda was involved in negotiations directly and it wasn't their football director Txiki Begiristain who was the one involved like many assumed. What that shows you is that there was numerous people at City who were doing their bit within the football structure and everything wasn't left to their DoF. There was Berrarda, Txiki, Soriano and Marwood who were all working under Kaldoon Al Mubarak and he provided them with the tools to succeed via Sheikh Mansour. One DoF can only do so much when you don't have the support structure in place that is supporting you. And the Glazers definitely didn't provide any support for the football side to succeed in comparison to City who didn't rely on any one man or Woman. The Glazers have been really bad for the club and the true extent of their poor ownership will only be revealed once they have fecked off in their entirety.

I wouldn't buy any player that costs over £70m. I don't care how good a player is or how much I rate that player, I would prefer we look for better value players without compromising on profiles for each position for a proactive attacking style of play. The South American market is one we definitely need to tap into.
 
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Adnan said:
The Antony signing was sanctioned by the Glazers after the football people at the club had walked away from a deal at £40m. This was reported by Sao Paulo based journo Jorge Nicola in June 2022, where he said that United had walked away from a deal only for the Glazers to panic and pay up after defeats to Brighton and then Brentford. I shared the links to the story from the Brazilian journo who is close to players of Sao Paolo past and present. So to take the heat off themselves, they (Glazers) created a problem for the football personnel at the club. At Man City we now know that Omar Berrarda was involved in negotiations directly and it wasn't their football director Txiki Begiristain who was the one involved like many assumed. What that shows you is that there was numerous people at City who were doing their bit within the football structure and everything wasn't left to their DoF. There was Berrarda, Txiki, Soriano and Marwood who were all working under Kaldoon Al Mubarak and he provided them with the tools to succeed via Sheikh Mansour. One DoF can only do so much when you don't have the support structure in place that is supporting you. And the Glazers definitely didn't provide any support for the football side to succeed in comparison to City who didn't rely on any one man or Woman. The Glazers have been really bad for the club and the true extent of their poor ownership will only be revealed once they have fecked off in their entirety.

I wouldn't buy any player that costs over £70m. I don't care how good a player is or how much I rate that player, I would prefer we look for better value players without compromising on profiles for each position for a proactive attacking style of play. The South American market is one we definitely need to tap into.
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I totally agree with everything except for this part. If the likes of Bellingham Camavinga or Musiala ever become available you break the bank but yes as a general rule there is always better value out there. You are hopefully signing the best player a selling club has produced in years, maybe ever, who is going into your team for their absolute peak years. It shouldn't be so hard. The annoying thing is we probably could have signed any of these lads at 16 if we were run well and hadn’t become a talent graveyard.
 
Ali Dia said:
I totally agree with everything except for this part. If the likes of Bellingham Camavinga or Musiala ever become available you break the bank but yes as a general rule there is always better value out there. You are hopefully signing the best player a selling club has produced in years, maybe ever, who is going into your team for their absolute peak years. It shouldn't be so hard. The annoying thing is we probably could have signed any of these lads at 16 if we were run well and hadn’t become a talent graveyard.
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I respect your opinion but for me you have to either get the player before he leaves Chelsea, Birmingham and Lille. Or you have to walk away from a potential deal due to the cost of buying the players from Dortmund or Real Madrid. I can understand if we're in a position where we're one or two players away from mounting a genuine title charge like Arsenal were when they signed Declan Rice. But in our case if Bellingham was available then for one I don't think he'd choose to join us right now, and as Ratcliffe said recently ' we should walk to solutions and not run towards them', I couldn't agree more with that saying.


And if we walk to solutions instead of running to them, then I do believe it's a matter of time before we're back challenging for the league imo. Pogba was a great young talent when we signed him but it seems people ignored his short comings out of possession and only focused on his ability in possession which then created disappointment among fans and Mourinho who for some strange reason thought we were buying a Scholes and Robson rolled into one. I think the biggest mistake you can make in the EPL as a proactive attacking coach is to underestimate how brutal the transitions are, hence creating a team with the ability to control large spaces and small spaces is crucial.

I think we can challenge for the league in two years time as long as we don't neglect signing players who will help us control large spaces in defensive transition. A lot of fans are naturally more concerned with players who entertain them on the ball but the football personnel and decision makers should be able to make a more holistic evaluation on how they will develop the team. Arsenal and Liverpool are good examples of what i'm talking about.
 
That’s what we did with Mejbri and Amad…

doesn’t always work out
 
Adnan said:
The Antony signing was sanctioned by the Glazers after the football people at the club had walked away from a deal at £40m. This was reported by Sao Paulo-based journo Jorge Nicola in June 2022, where he said that United had walked away from a deal only for the Glazers to panic and pay up after defeats to Brighton and then Brentford. I shared the links to the story from the Brazilian journo who is close to players of Sao Paolo past and present. So to take the heat off themselves, they (Glazers) created a problem for the football personnel at the club. At Man City, we now know that Omar Berrarda was involved in negotiations directly and it wasn't their football director Txiki Begiristain who was the one involved like many assumed. What that shows you is that there were numerous people at City who were doing their bit within the football structure and everything wasn't left to their DoF. There was Berrarda, Txiki, Soriano, and Marwood who were all working under Kaldoon Al Mubarak and he provided them with the tools to succeed via Sheikh Mansour. One DoF can only do so much when you don't have the support structure in place that is supporting you. And the Glazers definitely didn't provide any support for the football side to succeed in comparison to City who didn't rely on any one man or Woman. The Glazers have been really bad for the club and the true extent of their poor ownership will only be revealed once they have fecked off in their entirety.

I wouldn't buy any player that costs over £70m. I don't care how good a player is or how much I rate that player, I would prefer we look for better value players without compromising on profiles for each position for a proactive attacking style of play. The South American market is one we definitely need to tap into.
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We could do that after we build the core players of this team and then add luxury players to add extra quality but that is a conversation for the future

 
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Adnan said:
The Antony signing was sanctioned by the Glazers after the football people at the club had walked away from a deal at £40m. This was reported by Sao Paulo based journo Jorge Nicola in June 2022, where he said that United had walked away from a deal only for the Glazers to panic and pay up after defeats to Brighton and then Brentford. I shared the links to the story from the Brazilian journo who is close to players of Sao Paolo past and present. So to take the heat off themselves, they (Glazers) created a problem for the football personnel at the club. At Man City we now know that Omar Berrarda was involved in negotiations directly and it wasn't their football director Txiki Begiristain who was the one involved like many assumed. What that shows you is that there was numerous people at City who were doing their bit within the football structure and everything wasn't left to their DoF. There was Berrarda, Txiki, Soriano and Marwood who were all working under Kaldoon Al Mubarak and he provided them with the tools to succeed via Sheikh Mansour. One DoF can only do so much when you don't have the support structure in place that is supporting you. And the Glazers definitely didn't provide any support for the football side to succeed in comparison to City who didn't rely on any one man or Woman. The Glazers have been really bad for the club and the true extent of their poor ownership will only be revealed once they have fecked off in their entirety.

I wouldn't buy any player that costs over £70m. I don't care how good a player is or how much I rate that player, I would prefer we look for better value players without compromising on profiles for each position for a proactive attacking style of play. The South American market is one we definitely need to tap into.
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Agree with you there Adnan. For Utd Currently the higher the price tag the greater the risk of failure with recent signings. I would give Hojlund the benefit of the doubt however.
 
r3idy said:
Agree with you there Adnan. For Utd Currently the higher the price tag the greater the risk of failure with recent signings. I would give Hojlund the benefit of the doubt however.
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I also agree, there are plenty of talent available, we should be looking at players on the way up not on already established players.
 
r3idy said:
Agree with you there Adnan. For Utd Currently the higher the price tag the greater the risk of failure with recent signings. I would give Hojlund the benefit of the doubt however.
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Yeah I am also of the view that we should impose some sort of cap on our (individual) signings for a few years. We aren’t immediately winning major trophies, its time to build a cohesive team for the future that fits a specific playstyle and splurging 70/80m on players who aren’t even top drawer (as we usually pay for what they might become) just weights heavy on the club.
 
Adnan said:
The Antony signing was sanctioned by the Glazers after the football people at the club had walked away from a deal at £40m. This was reported by Sao Paulo based journo Jorge Nicola in June 2022, where he said that United had walked away from a deal only for the Glazers to panic and pay up after defeats to Brighton and then Brentford. I shared the links to the story from the Brazilian journo who is close to players of Sao Paolo past and present. So to take the heat off themselves, they (Glazers) created a problem for the football personnel at the club. At Man City we now know that Omar Berrarda was involved in negotiations directly and it wasn't their football director Txiki Begiristain who was the one involved like many assumed. What that shows you is that there was numerous people at City who were doing their bit within the football structure and everything wasn't left to their DoF. There was Berrarda, Txiki, Soriano and Marwood who were all working under Kaldoon Al Mubarak and he provided them with the tools to succeed via Sheikh Mansour. One DoF can only do so much when you don't have the support structure in place that is supporting you. And the Glazers definitely didn't provide any support for the football side to succeed in comparison to City who didn't rely on any one man or Woman. The Glazers have been really bad for the club and the true extent of their poor ownership will only be revealed once they have fecked off in their entirety.

I wouldn't buy any player that costs over £70m. I don't care how good a player is or how much I rate that player, I would prefer we look for better value players without compromising on profiles for each position for a proactive attacking style of play. The South American market is one we definitely need to tap into.
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This is all rumours though.
 
Adnan said:
I respect your opinion but for me you have to either get the player before he leaves Chelsea, Birmingham and Lille. Or you have to walk away from a potential deal due to the cost of buying the players from Dortmund or Real Madrid. I can understand if we're in a position where we're one or two players away from mounting a genuine title charge like Arsenal were when they signed Declan Rice. But in our case if Bellingham was available then for one I don't think he'd choose to join us right now, and as Ratcliffe said recently ' we should walk to solutions and not run towards them', I couldn't agree more with that saying.


And if we walk to solutions instead of running to them, then I do believe it's a matter of time before we're back challenging for the league imo. Pogba was a great young talent when we signed him but it seems people ignored his short comings out of possession and only focused on his ability in possession which then created disappointment among fans and Mourinho who for some strange reason thought we were buying a Scholes and Robson rolled into one. I think the biggest mistake you can make in the EPL as a proactive attacking coach is to underestimate how brutal the transitions are, hence creating a team with the ability to control large spaces and small spaces is crucial.

I think we can challenge for the league in two years time as long as we don't neglect signing players who will help us control large spaces in defensive transition. A lot of fans are naturally more concerned with players who entertain them on the ball but the football personnel and decision makers should be able to make a more holistic evaluation on how they will develop the team. Arsenal and Liverpool are good examples of what i'm talking about.
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This bolded point I agree with so much more than I did about 3 years ago.

You can even see Pep who would quite happily 10-15 years ago playing small purely technical players to dominate through possession is in need of the physical profiles now. De Brunye, Rodri, Haaland (all his CB and FB options) have physical abilities. Klopp’s midfields (Thiago aside) haven’t always been elite technicians but they’ve between them been able to cover transitions.
 
r3idy said:
Agree with you there Adnan. For Utd Currently the higher the price tag the greater the risk of failure with recent signings. I would give Hojlund the benefit of the doubt however.
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The media sensationalize the Hojlund fee by presenting the total package which includes hard to achieve add ons. But what we paid was £60m fixed with £4m in add ons. And if you compare that to what Luis Campos and PSG paid for Kolo-Muani and Goncalo Ramos, then I think our deal for Hojlund looks potentially better.

As far as Neves is concerned I think he's a very good young player but as good as he is, I hope we don't give Benfica the €100m they want because that's not sensible imo. There will be other good young players who we can potentially target imo who won't cost as much. I'd love to see us sign Neves but the Benfica tax is something that I don't believe we should entertain.
 
I’m a Porto fan but have to admit Neves is pretty good, he is probably already their best player and he is just a kid.

His close control of the ball and energy kinda reminds me a bit of Scholes actually. Technically is nowhere near but he is no slouch either and has time to improve a lot.

You never know how players will adapt, but his attitude and combativeness is great. Exactly what United needs.
 
Hammondo said:
Good sources?
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Tier 1 Brazillian source, and even The Athletic mentioned that the Glazers got involved near the end of the 2022 window after defeats to Brighton and Brentford and the decision to sanction the Antony deal came from the higher ups with Cliff Baty and Partick Stewart mentioned by name as being involved.
 
BenitoSTARR said:
This bolded point I agree with so much more than I did about 3 years ago.

You can even see Pep who would quite happily 10-15 years ago playing small purely technical players to dominate through possession is in need of the physical profiles now. De Brunye, Rodri, Haaland (all his CB and FB options) have physical abilities. Klopp’s midfields (Thiago aside) haven’t always been elite technicians but they’ve between them been able to cover transitions.
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I would love to see us throttle every single opponent in possession we come up against. But I think the EPL poses a challenge not only in possession but out of possession. And that challenge out of possession is one I'm not sure people understand. It’s easy to say that we want to play the game in the opponent's half but do we have the players who can manage the game out of possession when we lose the ball higher up the pitch with a high number of players out of the game or can we manage the game out of possession if our first lines of the high press are breached and the spaces become bigger? We don't have those players imo and hence playing a more proactive brand of football is a big problem for us.

You're absolutely correct about City and Liverpool. Players like Akanji, Walker and even Ake are strong players in managing large spaces in defensive transition along with Rodri. I created the below thread about Akanji after he was linked to us, and the reasons I state in my post(s) in the thread below, are the reasons City signed him and they went on to win the treble imo. Apparently he wasn't better than what we already had and for the small sum he cost, he's turned into a bargain buy for City. Just read some of the posts in the thread, it's actually really funny to read.

https://www.redcafe.net/threads/manuel-akanji.469058/



I want to see attacking football with great technical players at my club. But I'm hoping we see us develop a team that doesn't neglect the out of possession concepts which the top teams haven’t neglected but we have neglected it seems for whatever reason.
 
A 19 years old with this talent and maturity. He is gritty and hard style blended with very good balance and technical ability. I'd pay anything to have him in the United midfield. He doesn’t need no developing, give Benfica the money they ask for. Hes worth every penny. Unfortunately, I don’t see United signing him. He’ll probably end up at Madrid, I see a perfect replacement for Modric.
 
Adnan said:
Tier 1 Brazillian source, and even The Athletic mentioned that the Glazers got involved near the end of the 2022 window after defeats to Brighton and Brentford and the decision to sanction the Antony deal came from the higher ups with Cliff Baty and Partick Stewart mentioned by name as being involved.
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I don't know about your Brazilian source, but the Athletic is such a poor publication.
 
Hammondo said:
I don't know about your Brazilian source, but the Athletic is such a poor publication.
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The Brazilian source is someone who is said to be close to Sao Paolo players past and present and has a millions of subscribers on YouTube. He's a journo local to the club and hence his reports pertaining Anthony carried some weight.
 
Hammondo said:
I don't know about your Brazilian source, but the Athletic is such a poor publication.
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Ornstein is probably one of the most reputable journo in the UK and he breaks a lot of their big news. Laurie Whitwell has a lot of contacts in the club. They don’t really deal in baseless rumours so I don’t know how you’ve arrived at them being a poor publication.
 
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