Kalidou Koulibaly

[flappyjay]

They did though. They signed Van Dijk, while they also had Alisson, fabinho and Keita to sign (keita was agreed but didnt join). Not like they spent a small amount on any of them. Their team had holes and at some point you just need to spend to fix it. Our right back, center back and midfield positions are positions that "just need spending". Proper spending. Not bringing in someone for massive money who is only a minor improvement like Maguire, but a proper top CB like Koulibaly.

Keita was long bought around October the year before. That Liverpool team anyone could tell that once they spent and the holes in their defence they would challenge. We have holes in cb, rb, we need 2 cm's and a winger/attacker. How do we fill those holes after splashing whatever money Napoli is asking for. If we had a 350-400m budget for the summer I would see the sense in it. Anything over 60m would be too much.

 

[Sandikan]

Not seen him at all, but I'm a bit nervous at people saying he's not dominant in the air.
That's the one thing that keeps Smalling essential.

I can only presume the rest of his game is top notch?

 

[Sandikan]

Heading is not just about height though - strength, jumping ability, courage and timing are all other important aspects. Nesta was 187, Maldini was 186 and Cannavaro was 177! If height was everying, our team of giants under Jose would have scored from most corners that we had.

You're right, but a player who is tall, AND is excellent at timing, will always beat a smaller player like Cannavaro.

Jones would be a beast of a centre back if he was taller, but often gets outleapt by a sheer height disadvantage.

 

[Frank Grimes]

Give me Harry Maguire for 55m with Alderweireld over Koulibaly for 80m plus any day of the week. I have watched Koulibaly and he is no Van Dijk, good defender but not elite imo.

 

[bosnian_red]

Keita was long bought around October the year before. That Liverpool team anyone could tell that once they spent and the holes in their defence they would challenge. We have holes in cb, rb, we need 2 cm's and a winger/attacker. How do we fill those holes after splashing whatever money Napoli is asking for. If we had a 350-400m budget for the summer I would see the sense in it. Anything over 60m would be too much.

We have ~200m budget you can assume. That's plenty, considering we'll sell a few, release a few and open up a lot more space. A few positions we can get for relatively cheap but be very good value, while we also wont get all 5 positions sorted this summer. Anyway, heres a realistic but big group of targets anyway:

• Right back - £20m or £45m (Meunier or Cancelo)
• Center back - £80m (Koulibaly)
• Center mid - £45m (Tielemans)
• Winger - £15m (Daniel James)
• 2nd midfielder - £50m (anyone)
• Right winger - £100m (Sancho)

Total around £300m. Take out Sancho because that's not happening this year and that's around 200m. Not counting sales (Pogba probably being over 100m, Lukaku over 50m, etc).

 

[Holocene]

Not seen him at all, but I'm a bit nervous at people saying he's not dominant in the air.
That's the one thing that keeps Smalling essential.

I can only presume the rest of his game is top notch?

Especially when we have a keeper that doesn't enjoy collecting high balls.

The rest of his game is top notch, though. He's one of the best CB's around at the moment.

 

[Sandikan]

Especially when we have a keeper that doesn't enjoy collecting high balls.

The rest of his game is top notch, though. He's one of the best CB's around at the moment.

It'll be interesting to see if we get him.
I hope for "Good in the air", over "dominant" then! Unless we lined him up with Maguire! But hey, let's see if we get ONE in first!

 

[Cathy Ferguson]

We have ~200m budget you can assume. That's plenty, considering we'll sell a few, release a few and open up a lot more space. A few positions we can get for relatively cheap but be very good value, while we also wont get all 5 positions sorted this summer. Anyway, heres a realistic but big group of targets anyway:

• Right back - £20m or £45m (Meunier or Cancelo)
• Center back - £80m (Koulibaly)
• Center mid - £45m (Tielemans)
• Winger - £15m (Daniel James)
• 2nd midfielder - £50m (anyone)
• Right winger - £100m (Sancho)

Total around £300m. Take out Sancho because that's not happening this year and that's around 200m. Not counting sales (Pogba probably being over 100m, Lukaku over 50m, etc).

To that list we need at least one more CM maybe even two if we sell Pogba, and one attacker since Sancho will not join. Rice, Fernandez and Richarlison?

 

[flappyjay]

I can only presume the rest of his game is top notch?[/QUOTE]

We have ~200m budget you can assume. That's plenty, considering we'll sell a few, release a few and open up a lot more space. A few positions we can get for relatively cheap but be very good value, while we also wont get all 5 positions sorted this summer. Anyway, heres a realistic but big group of targets anyway:

• Right back - £20m or £45m (Meunier or Cancelo)
• Center back - £80m (Koulibaly)
• Center mid - £45m (Tielemans)
• Winger - £15m (Daniel James)
• 2nd midfielder - £50m (anyone)
• Right winger - £100m (Sancho)

Total around £300m. Take out Sancho because that's not happening this year and that's around 200m. Not counting sales (Pogba probably being over 100m, Lukaku over 50m, etc).

Do we ever add the money of players into our budget though. Even in the summers where we made some money selling players our layout has always been around 160m or less. At most I expect us to spend around 200m this summer. That's the most realistic amount we will spend this year. Also that 80m for a guy who won't even be the best cb in the league behind the best cb who was bought for less money a year ago looks like bad business no matter how you look at it. For not those Tielemans type deals in the 40-60m range should be our target. Up and comers who are better than what we have and still have room to grow.

 

[golden_blunder]

Give me Harry Maguire for 55m with Alderweireld over Koulibaly for 80m plus any day of the week. I have watched Koulibaly and he is no Van Dijk, good defender but not elite imo.

I’d agree with that. Koulibaly is no €100m player

 

[poleglass red]

Would be an utterly terrible signing for us this summer, spending what would be way over half our transfer budget on a player who by the time we are ready to compete, or even near competing would be in decline.

He's the sort of signing you make when your, just falling short and need that experienced bit of quality to take you over the line to win trophies. Not the sort of signing you make, when your squads a mess and needs a massive change of personal and attitude.

Not to mention if he would agree to come us this summer, when we don't have champions league, in what is likely to be his last big contract, he is going to want an insane wage, and we already have Sanchez's wage been an issue we don't want to add to that problem.

"He's the sort of signing you make when your, just falling short and need that experienced bit of quality to take you over the line to win trophies. Not the sort of signing you make, when your squads a mess and needs a massive change of personal and attitude." I actually thought that description perfectly describes Pogba and his time with us. Great player but not what we needed.

 

[flappyjay]

"He's the sort of signing you make when your, just falling short and need that experienced bit of quality to take you over the line to win trophies. Not the sort of signing you make, when your squads a mess and needs a massive change of personal and attitude." I actually thought that description perfectly describes Pogba and his time with us. Great player but not what we needed.

Great post that. It's a reoccurring problem for us, signing these big name players with hope they will drag our average ones to success. We should be building a team of good players and then adding some star dust later on to elevate us to the next level. But everyone seems to have some serious thirst for these big name singings.

 

[Rozay]

We need leaders and if this lad is capable then get him in. My only reservation is that he hasn't won anything but then neither had VVD before moving to Liverpool.

Still hasn’t.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Would be an utterly terrible signing for us this summer, spending what would be way over half our transfer budget on a player who by the time we are ready to compete, or even near competing would be in decline.

He's the sort of signing you make when your, just falling short and need that experienced bit of quality to take you over the line to win trophies. Not the sort of signing you make, when your squads a mess and needs a massive change of personal and attitude.

Not to mention if he would agree to come us this summer, when we don't have champions league, in what is likely to be his last big contract, he is going to want an insane wage, and we already have Sanchez's wage been an issue we don't want to add to that problem.

Sorry but I don’t agree at all. Players like him will propel us forward not backwards.

He’s the type who is comfortable playing a high line that suits pressing - exactly what Solskjær wants from us in the future. That’s planning.

He won’t want insane wages either, Napoli will pay him way less than Smalling gets for example. Even if we put him on 80-100k he would be very happy for a centre back.

There’s genuinely no downsides to signing him apart from him not settling, but you have that risk with every player.

We need to fill the team with quality, not journeymen who will just do a job.

 

[flappyjay]

Sorry but I don’t agree at all. Players like him will propel us forward not backwards.

He’s the type who is comfortable playing a high line that suits pressing - exactly what Solskjær wants from us in the future. That’s planning.

He won’t want insane wages either, Napoli will pay him way less than Smalling gets for example. Even if we put him on 80-100k he would be very happy for a centre back.

There’s genuinely no downsides to signing him apart from him not settling, but you have that risk with every player.

We need to fill the team with quality, not journeymen who will just do a job.

80m or whatever it is they want doesn't mean quality or value for money. We can still get quality with players in the 40-60m range. If pool and city can do it we can do it too. We got a 75m striker, a 90m midfielder, now let's add a CB in that market range. Don't you think is time we moved away from those signings and tried a different approach.

 

[Jericholyte2]

80m or whatever it is they want doesn't mean quality or value for money. We can still get quality with players in the 40-60m range. If pool and city can do it we can do it too. We got a 75m striker, a 90m midfielder, now let's add a CB in that market range. Don't you think is time we moved away from those signings and tried a different approach.

Yes but Liverpool were 20 odd points behind City last season, then bought a 75m CB in Jan and a 75m GK with no Prem experience. With these two they then went and got 97 points. In key positions sometimes you have to accept spending a massive amount on the right player(s).

 

[lolok]

54 goals conceded last year. 54. Adding a top 5 CB to United would make a huge difference. As always, the price matters. If it's something absurd like 130mm, then pass. If it's 85-90mm, ok.

 

[Adam-Utd]

80m or whatever it is they want doesn't mean quality or value for money. We can still get quality with players in the 40-60m range. If pool and city can do it we can do it too. We got a 75m striker, a 90m midfielder, now let's add a CB in that market range. Don't you think is time we moved away from those signings and tried a different approach.

Not really when he’s a genuine quality player.

We’ve gone wrong in the past by buying players for the wrong system. Di Maria was/is fantastic but he never wanted to be here and Van Gaal hated him.

Sanchez was a punt purely on his old reputation but he looked poor the last 6 months of arsenal, we should have seen it coming.

we need to sign the right player for the formation and style of play, not just a big name and hope they stick.

 

[flappyjay]

Yes but Liverpool were 20 odd points behind City last season, then bought a 75m CB in Jan and a 75m GK with no Prem experience. With these two they then went and got 97 points. In key positions sometimes you have to accept spending a massive amount on the right player(s).

You didn't just compare those two situations now did you. If we were in the same situation as Liverpool last season or our team was as good as a spurs then splurging on a couple of star names to take to the top would be justified. Since we are not in that position maybe we should get players who are better than what we have and have room to get better then when the time come we will then go for the koulibaly's of this world.

 

[The Nani]

I’d agree with that. Koulibaly is no €100m player

Just seems like since we’re so desperate for a top class CB that many are overrating Koulibaly as the answer. And he’s just not.

The thought of spending £75-80m on him makes me cringe.

 

[bosnian_red]

I can only presume the rest of his game is top notch?

Do we ever add the money of players into our budget though. Even in the summers where we made some money selling players our layout has always been around 160m or less. At most I expect us to spend around 200m this summer. That's the most realistic amount we will spend this year. Also that 80m for a guy who won't even be the best cb in the league behind the best cb who was bought for less money a year ago looks like bad business no matter how you look at it. For not those Tielemans type deals in the 40-60m range should be our target. Up and comers who are better than what we have and still have room to grow.[/QUOTE]
We never got much money for any player post Fergie once we started spending. 40m for Di Maria is the closest we got to anything significant, and that summer we signed Martial, schneiderlin, Memphis, Darmian, Schweinsteiger and Sergio Romero. Romero was a back up but the others were all bought to be starters, and I'm not sure if we really were planning on spending anything more.

Pogba and Lukaku arent planned outgoings. We need 5 players regardless of them leaving, probably won't get all 5 players if they don't leave though. If they both do, that's almost £200m in terms of incomings. I'd be shocked if we didnt add half of that on to our standard transfer budget of ~£200m.

 

[Jericholyte2]

You didn't just compare those two situations now did you. If we were in the same situation as Liverpool last season or our team was as good as a spurs then splurging on a couple of star names to take to the top would be justified. Since we are not in that position maybe we should get players who are better than what we have and have room to get better then when the time come we will then go for the koulibaly's of this world.

I believe what I was comparing was teams who knew they needed significant, impact players. Liverpool got two of them and it added 20 odd points to their tally.

If we can do the same over then next few seasons then we can be back in wit a shout of challenging.

 

[Nytram Shakes]

"He's the sort of signing you make when your, just falling short and need that experienced bit of quality to take you over the line to win trophies. Not the sort of signing you make, when your squads a mess and needs a massive change of personal and attitude." I actually thought that description perfectly describes Pogba and his time with us. Great player but not what we needed.

Maybe, Pogba is shown very much to be a sort of icing on the cake player but It’s hard to know how we should of handled that Mourinho/LVG transition.LVG leaves us with a young squad used to playing possession based football and Mourinho likes an experienced squad and likes to play reactive football, massive change not an easy thing to go about. Was Pogba the right move? I’d say it was a better move then going from LVG to Mourinho.

 

[bosnian_red]

Not really when he’s a genuine quality player.

We’ve gone wrong in the past by buying players for the wrong system. Di Maria was/is fantastic but he never wanted to be here and Van Gaal hated him.

Sanchez was a punt purely on his old reputation but he looked poor the last 6 months of arsenal, we should have seen it coming.

we need to sign the right player for the formation and style of play, not just a big name and hope they stick.

Yep. It's also not a matter of strictly going young, promising players or whatever. In defence, we have nobody at right back, a lot of mediocrity at CB with the only potential long term options being young and relatively inexperienced, and our left back is young. Our defence is the area in our squad where we need a top quality player in their prime more than any IMO. Signing another Lindelof/Bailly profile CB doesnt make sense at the back, because we have plenty of those who have potential but nobody there to be the main guy who is already at the top level.

You would never look at Liverpool and think Joe Gomez could lead their defence and be the main guy before Van Dijk. He had potential, but he wasnt ready for that role. Van Dijk comes in and Gomez can develop alongside him and in a few years might reach a top class level in his own right. That's how I see each and every one of our CBs. They're all supporting cast CBs. Koulibaly is the main guy type.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Yep. It's also not a matter of strictly going young, promising players or whatever. In defence, we have nobody at right back, a lot of mediocrity at CB with the only potential long term options being young and relatively inexperienced, and our left back is young. Our defence is the area in our squad where we need a top quality player in their prime more than any IMO. Signing another Lindelof/Bailly profile CB doesnt make sense at the back, because we have plenty of those who have potential but nobody there to be the main guy who is already at the top level.

You would never look at Liverpool and think Joe Gomez could lead their defence and be the main guy before Van Dijk. He had potential, but he wasnt ready for that role. Van Dijk comes in and Gomez can develop alongside him and in a few years might reach a top class level in his own right. That's how I see each and every one of our CBs. They're all supporting cast CBs. Koulibaly is the main guy type.

Agreed.

If we got Koulibaly, AWB/Cancelo, Sancho/Pepe and another CM like Fernandes/Aouar/Ndombele etc.. we’d look so much stronger.

I honestly think a few good signings, a top pre season and a few wins for some confidence and we will be flying again.

 

[Nytram Shakes]

Sorry but I don’t agree at all. Players like him will propel us forward not backwards.

He’s the type who is comfortable playing a high line that suits pressing - exactly what Solskjær wants from us in the future. That’s planning.

He won’t want insane wages either, Napoli will pay him way less than Smalling gets for example. Even if we put him on 80-100k he would be very happy for a centre back.

There’s genuinely no downsides to signing him apart from him not settling, but you have that risk with every player.

We need to fill the team with quality, not journeymen who will just do a job.

So your thought is bringing him in is it will set an example for young players so the players who are part of the team in a few years are used to playing that way?

Personally I’d say that’s not a reason to probably spend 70+ million, that’s something our coaches should be able to do if they are any good. If they arn’t we should be getting new coaches!

Also like I said investment in him would mean that’s probably half our transfer budget for the summer gone, for me that not a good use of funds for a player who will be past his peak when we have chance of competing again.

I also think your wrong on wages. You get bought for such a massive fee and go to a club where you will likly not win things in your last big contract your gonna want to among the top played players at the club.

I 100% agree with you last point though, we don’t want journey men, we want players we can build a team round, for next 5-10 years not 3-4 at most. We want to be looking for the next Kouilbally.

Fans and management have to get over their obsession with signing big names, we need to start get in players who are going to be big names and providing them an environment to reach that potential not spending all our money on big names who see us as a cash cow.

 

[Zlatattack]

We really need top quality at the back. This guy offers us exactly that. I hope the rumours are true.

 

[Adam-Utd]

So your thought is bringing him in is it will set an example for young players so the players who are part of the team in a few years are used to playing that way?

Personally I’d say that’s not a reason to probably spend 70+ million, that’s something our coaches should be able to do if they are any good. If they arn’t we should be getting new coaches!

Also like I said investment in him would mean that’s probably half our transfer budget for the summer gone, for me that not a good use of funds for a player who will be past his peak when we have chance of competing again.

I also think your wrong on wages. You get bought for such a massive fee and go to a club where you will likly not win things in your last big contract your gonna want to among the top played players at the club.

I 100% agree with you last point though, we don’t want journey men, we want players we can build a team round, for next 5-10 years not 3-4 at most. We want to be looking for the next Kouilbally.

Fans and management have to get over their obsession with signing big names, we need to start get in players who are going to be big names and providing them an environment to reach that potential not spending all our money on big names who see us as a cash cow.

No, I mean future as in next season. Solskjaer wants the players to be fitter so we can play a high pressing game. Having defenders used to that is paramount (Napoli play it).

We genuinely don’t know what our budget is but I’d imagine if the right target is available we could blow 2 windows worth now. Why wait? We need investment now and the longer we fail the harder it’ll get.

We could happily go for a less experienced option again and hope for the best, of buy alderweireld who lets be honest would only be moving for the money also.

Anyway it’s all speculation but I’m certain he would be a big player for us for 4/5 years no problem.

 

[Nytram Shakes]

No, I mean future as in next season. Solskjaer wants the players to be fitter so we can play a high pressing game. Having defenders used to that is paramount (Napoli play it).

We genuinely don’t know what our budget is but I’d imagine if the right target is available we could blow 2 windows worth now. Why wait? We need investment now and the longer we fail the harder it’ll get.

We could happily go for a less experienced option again and hope for the best, of buy alderweireld who lets be honest would only be moving for the money also.

Anyway it’s all speculation but I’m certain he would be a big player for us for 4/5 years no problem.

Well thats the problem, we arn't, or at least shouldn't be building for next season, we should be building for about 3 years from now, that realistically where this team is.

As for budget, well we don't know, but we can have a guess, we made around 44.1 mil operating profit last season after spending around 80 mil in transfer fees, so we arn't gonna spend 200 mill as we would make a loss, so the most we can expect to spend is 140-150 mil if we sell a few. Koulibaly would likly cost more then half of that. for me spending that amount on a 28 year old when we need such a big rebuild is not a good use of funds.

As for signing a young player and "hoping for the best" its only become like that becuase our scouting and coaching has been so poor for the arguably a decade, players have just stopped coming here and progressing. If we ever want to be successful again that has to start to change, probably before we make any signings.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

The ITK really seems to be pushing for the Koulibaly deal.

 

[bond19821982]

How is he in air ?

 

[The Nani]

How is he in air ?

Not great. Which is a big concern considering he’ll be paired with Lindelof.

 

[Adnan]

This ITK will be fun in the silly season..

 

[bond19821982]

Not great. Which is a big concern considering he’ll be paired with Lindelof.

For his built, i thought he would be great. It's not worth it then.

Off to Maguire thread.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

This ITK will be fun in the silly season..

He's really put his cards out for KK, if KK renews a contract or dismisses it, fun will end very quickly.

 

[Ramshock]

The ITK really seems to be pushing for the Koulibaly deal.

is this the same dude that fooled the reddit page with the Kohler/Bale nonsense?

 

[deafepl]

Koulibaly is great in the air. Ignore his stats in an aerial battle, you need to consider how highly successful is his aerial battle and the fact he is playing in possession based. Like Lindelof, he has a similar aerial battle to Koulibaly but has best aerial battle ratio after Van Dijk in PL. Van Dijk didn't make many tackles or something like this but he knows how to defend properly and he makes it look so easy.

 

[Adnan]

He's really put his cards out for KK, if KK renews a contract or dismisses it, fun will end very quickly.

If we sign Koulibaly on the other hand...

 

[Holocene]

is this the same dude that fooled the reddit page with the Kohler/Bale nonsense?

He claimed Kohler and Griezmann were done. He got Kohler right and said Griezmann was very close until he changed his mind.

 

[pocco]

He claimed Kohler and Griezmann were done. He got Kohler right and said Griezmann was very close until he changed his mind.

I read today that he only mentioned Kohler. Somebody else mentioned Kohler + Griezmann? Either way, think this guy has some connections as both rumours looked true if i remember right, only Griezmann changed his mind.