Maybe Valencia would take him on for a season or 2. Wish him luck wherever he goes.
8
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 12
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 0
- Status
Thought he was saying on to be an ambassador or something, was that just balls then?
Still can't believe how we wasted a player like him. At City or Chelsea, he'd have a career like Silva or Lampard.
Last I heard he was joining the coaching staff which was the reason given when he extended his contract. Love Juan to death but I just can't see him as an ambassador for us.
Naw neither can I doesn’t scream Man Utd, maybe he’s got a very good personality though.
That makes no sense at all considering we signed him from Chelsea
This
Chelsea won Champions League and Europa League with him in the team that's true but they were much worse in the league, were great cup team but finished 6th and 4th in PL. So think even then playing Mata had it's disadvantages.
I wish we had that kind of disadvantages.
Our POTY and by some margin.
Well they were really lucky to win CL in 2012 (though that's fine, think they were unlucky in some seasons before that) and mostly defended with 10 men most of the time. Again, I'm not underestimating their CL success, but when you look at United team that won it in 2008, while also winning Premier League, it's much harder to go all the way in both competitions. Chelsea were shite in PL in 2012.
Damn he is just 32 ?? By the looks of how he moves on the pitch and how everybody shouted that he has washed out I thought he was 35 at least. Modric and Kross are still bossing it at his age.
How come? No harm in getting in a younger face, as the ones I'm aware of (there might be more) are Yorke, Cole, Irwin, Robson, Schmeichel and Park, plus the much older ones like Law, Charlton etc. Though didn't the club cut ties with Yorke after that interview he did where he didn't speak kindly about Mourinho?
Unless he has his sights set on more playing, coaching or managing, Mata would be a safe bet. He's generally very well liked outside of United circles, probably more so than anyone else who has played for us in the last decade. He's not likely to say anything against the club publicly, like Yorke supposedly did.
He is 33, and will turn 34 in about a month.
My own personal thoughts are an ambassador should epitomise everything good about the club at the time of his tenure. Someone who really made a difference. Winning an EL and a community shield without really staking a place in the team doesn't really do it for me.
For me a stand out candidate would be someone like Cantona. The final piece of SAFs puzzle. I know he was being talked about as a possible candidate a few years back but I'm not sure if it went ahead. I wouldn't have a problem with Mata as an ambassador but I think the role should entail more than just being a nice guy.
Yeh I’ll be honest, as much as I love Mata, I don’t think he should be a club ambassador. I think it’s important the ambassadors are world famous for what they achieved on the football pitch rather than for other PR reasons. Mata contributed a-lot more to Chelsea than us.
JHFQ what is it with Redcafe and the Hyperbole sometimes. He was never a prime world class player but to suggest he was 'Awful' is fantasy
No doubt a nice fellow, but even when he first joined us under Moyes i just dont think his Old Trafford career has ever took off in the way we would have liked.., yes the occasional class moment, ill never forget the goals at Anfield, the winner against Palace, some great free kicks and undoubted technique but he has never hit the heights for me. Sadly he has been hanging around like a bad smell the past 3 seasons, maybe more, he should have moved on ......hope he makes the right move going forward... good luck to him
True on CL. That half season under Spanish waiter, though. Mata was excellent. That's why when we got Mata, i thought he was the 2nd coming.
Juan Mata doesn't play football for us, it's a collective hallucination.
Fair dos, those are solid reasons actually.
I agree on Cantona, though maybe he'd be a tad too outspoken for the club's liking. But he certainly has the necessary reputation.
I can't believe we have hardly played him these last few years. He absolutely should have played more than he has imo.
We signed a #10 from Chelsea and immediately put him in RW. It didn't work and so we put him there some more. And we occasionally put him in #10 and he looked a different player. So we selected him in in next games and again put him in RW. And again it didn't work.
Well he has got two degrees. One in Sport Science and another in marketing.
Yes I agree the has been wrongly used and we could have made better use of him. He never was a right winger but in midfield he was getting out muscled too easily in dangerous positions.
Yes I agree the has been wrongly used and we could have made better use of him. He never was a right winger but in midfield he was getting out muscled too easily in dangerous positions.
He's the perfect example of what has gone wrong with the club.
A really good player, who was borderline WC when we signed him, used in a position where he wasn't that good at, and we persisted using him there under the next 2 (arguably 3) managers. Whenever he did play at #10, even up till last season, he did a pretty decent job despite his physicality and him not being the fastest.
Even this season, there were games where ideally we should have brought him on instead of Lingard or even Rashford at times, as the game was perfect for him, but we didnt utilize him.
A really good player, who was borderline WC when we signed him, used in a position where he wasn't that good at, and we persisted using him there under the next 2 (arguably 3) managers. Whenever he did play at #10, even up till last season, he did a pretty decent job despite his physicality and him not being the fastest.
Even this season, there were games where ideally we should have brought him on instead of Lingard or even Rashford at times, as the game was perfect for him, but we didnt utilize him.
He wasn't athletic enough to be a 10 in the premier league, which is why multiple different managers didn't want to use him there. He never should have been signed in the first place, it was a panic signing in january to try to rescue a spiralling season.
Moyes (sacked) brought in Mata and had no idea what to do with him. Louis (sacked) and Jose (sacked) were also shambolic as managers and had no idea what to do with Mata either. Although Ole (sacked) started brightly, as we all know, but his shambolism overwhelmed his enthusiasm and he had no idea what to do with Mata either.
If my math is close to being right, Mata will have been with United for 9 seasons when this season ends. In the history of the sport of football has a footballer of Mata's quality ever been as badly managed for 9 seasons as has Juan Mata?
If my math is close to being right, Mata will have been with United for 9 seasons when this season ends. In the history of the sport of football has a footballer of Mata's quality ever been as badly managed for 9 seasons as has Juan Mata?
LVG's and Jose's first seasons were actually pretty decent ones for Mata I think, although his career just seemed to go nowhere after that. All that really stands out later on is a free kick winner vs Juve.
It seems odd to me that he hasn't left the club earlier. Who can forget Juanfield though
It seems odd to me that he hasn't left the club earlier. Who can forget Juanfield though
Extension due soon surely?
Protect the value and that.
Protect the value and that.
He was not making the starting team at Chelsea and that is why Jose took the money for him.
LVG's and Jose's first seasons were actually pretty decent ones for Mata I think, although his career just seemed to go nowhere after that. All that really stands out later on is a free kick winner vs Juve.
It seems odd to me that he hasn't left the club earlier. Who can forget Juanfield though
I wouldn't go so far as to say decent. Mata had a couple of solid performance -- we will always have Anfield -- but he was virtually a nonfactor for his entire 9 year run as a United player. Not even out with lengthy injuries either. Just passed over, again and again. He might have gotten a solid run under Moyes, but by the time Mata arrived after the January transfer window, the turd well into swirl around the bowl.
Was such a great clever player. Got wasted at us, played him mostly right wing when he should of been our cam. Then we never played him at all even when we had the likes of Perriera who he should of been miles ahead of. He’s such a nice person aswell, I met him at carrington and he’s proper down to earth guy. Always smiling.
he played for Chelsea. we signed him from them
I think he played well at times for LVG, particularly in the big games. If i remember right he scored in the 3-0 win against Liverpool and the 4-2 against city. He seemed to be one of the few players that did well in that possession based system when it really clicked. Also, there was a lot of talk about how he and Jose wouldn't get on but his first season under him but he featured a fair bit.
I'm not saying he ever hit his Chelsea levels or was world class but I don't think his first few seasons here were at a bad level. I just don't remember hardly anything other than that free kick against Juve from his later years here. Genuinely struggling to think of anything of not that he's done since.
If he was athletic enough to play on right he was physicaly capable of playing as a 10.
Mata's biggest problem was LvG and his obsession with a finished Rooney. That's when Mata should have been starting as a 10 and securing his place with the club.
He was a club record signing, choppered in to sign. He’s a wonderful fella but he’s got to be the most disappointing record signing ever. He’s just been nothing (Juanfield aside) can’t even remember the last time he was a regular in the team.
Love him but he outstayed his welcome really. Hasn’t done much for a few years and Just kind of... been here. Got to go in the summer. Top guy though.
Brought for £37m back at a time that was big bucks, never understood the love for him on here, he was really a massive disappointment.
The lads like having him about the place
- Status