We need a CB. If we buy him now or in 2 months does not matter. He seems to be the best one on the market, buy asap, as long as he is available instead of donking around for weeks and months with Chelsea for Mount.
Kim Min-jae | signed for Bayern
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Its not a priority over the other positions, they just need to move fast because of his release clause. Some people are acting like the scouting department and ETH are completely neglecting the striker position because we get two other positions in, but these are two additions that we simply face more competition for thus have to act fast on. Also is adding Kim and Mount not adding depth?
His mentality seems top notch. That's a very important factor SAF used to look for. I'm surprised Chelsea aren't all over this, as he seems to be exactly whta they were looking for in Koulibaly.
I remember reading somewhere that he has some kind of recurring knee issue that needs to be constantly monitored, so it doesn't explode and suddenly put him out for months rather than weeks. I can't remember if it's his knee or his feet, so I might be totally wrong in all honesty.
He also picks up a worrying amount of little niggles, normally to his calf or ankle. They might just be unlucky impact injuries that can't be avoided, but he might also not be able to strengthen his legs as much as possible if he does indeed have another condition that he needs to be careful with.
Agreed. Don’t get why people are moaning about going after this signing before a striker. Maybe because a ST will take a lot of negotiating so In the meantime we can sign this quality defender to add some much needed depth. We will NOT abandon a ST this window.
Why buy now when there's no release clause when we can buy him at the end of June when his release clause kicks in?
People don't want to hear it but we need to build from the back better anyway. We need better CB's and a better GK, then the midfield and then a forward.
He can play LCB or RCB? If that's the case I'd expect ten hag to rotate between the three with Varane especially having his minutes managed.
Lindelof and Maguire need to go if Kim comes in. Lindelof is fine but is a waste as a 4th CB
Lindelof and Maguire need to go if Kim comes in. Lindelof is fine but is a waste as a 4th CB
Yes a title winning team starts with a solid defence. To be fair to ETH he as made us a lot more solid at the back and it helps having Casemiro in front of the defence but this guy will allow us to be more dominant in the air for defending and attacking set pieces.
They spent a fortune on Fofana and bought a few other defenders as well, last season, think they're much more pressed about sales and upgrading their midfield and attack right now
Do not follow any Twitter threads or football news in general other than redcafe. Anyone confirm if we are really in for him? Would be great if we have 4 decent quality defenders in him, varane, Martinez and Lindelof.
This place seems to have an obsession with never having any sort of depth. People consider it blasphemy if you suggest signings for a position where we already have one good player.
Kim is a brilliant piece of business and the ideal 3rd CB to rotate in. Without that release clause he’d cost 80m minimum. It’s a no brainer
Why wait, though? I like this proactive approach from us. And if KMJ agrees, Napoli has nothing to lose selling now or later anyway. It's actually better for Napoli to have the fund earlier and start buying replacement. It's all come down to KMJ decision.
For us, it's nice to have earlier certainty on player and how much fund left for transfer.
That's assuming we pay similar to his release clause.
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Yeah. He has warrior mentality, great concentration and composure.
Not sure if Lindelof will stick around if he's 4th choice. A few months ago there were a fair few rumours saying that he was unhappy with his playing time while he was having to share his minutes with Maguire and was looking to leave. If he's clearly third choice (like he finished the season) then I expect he's happy to stay, especially as Varane gets rested/injured a lot, but being behind Kim as well will see his playtime drop significantly.
I guess we might get one year with all four, but if things go as I'd expect Lindelof would definitely push to leave the following season.
I don't see how having good depth at CB is a waste. If KMJ does come gives ETH a lot of flexibility to rotate
Could play Varane-Lindelof against Luton on Saturday and Licha-KMJ in the CL on Tuesday.
We can agree everything with him now. Then deposit the money at Napoli and pay the clause.
Agreed. Don't know how anyone could say having 4 CB's is a waste when we found ourselves in a predicament just this season where we played Luke Shaw at CB for the first time in his career in a number of big games. We all rave about the quality of City's bench, and now we're finally building some at one of the most important positions on the pitch.
If Lindelof is happy to stay on as 3rd or 4th choice all year, I'm happy to have the depth. Maguire is the one who definitely needs selling.
100%. With us having CL games next season it may be useful to experiment a 3 at the back formation in training for when we come up against decent teams with top strikers. Varane, martinez and Kim will be solid for any striker.
Don't mind that to be honest. Lindelof has been unlucky. Played with a shite midfield which provided no cover. Played with Maguire when he was completely out of form and making mistakes and played with De Gea who does not inspire any confidence, does not collect crosses, does not pass. Would be great of he sticks around for a year and if we maybe go deep in all competitions we will absolutely see him playing a lot of games.
Because Napoli don’t sell players, that’s their whole thing. They put stupid amounts on players to stop them from leaving and as far as they’re concerned their stance will be, we don’t care if you want him, pay top dollar now or wait for his clause to kick in and fight it out with the other 10 clubs that want him.
Which by all accounts we have already done
Come on man……does anyone pay any attention whatsoever to what’s already been posted? It was 2 posts up. You’d have to have scrolled past it to post this.
I think it makes a lot of sense but we're just not used to it because the club tends to be reactive rather than proactive. Varane has his injury troubles already and isn't getting any younger, Martinez will be returning from injury heading into pre-season and Maguire looks like he might be off. Maybe it isn't our top priority but it is a position that will need attention. If there's a good player available with a clause then that works out nicely for us.
It’s called a contingency plan. It would be poor planning to replace players only when they need replacing. Do it early and you have time for new players to bed in without the excessive pressure. Would make very much sense.
ETH has made it clear that the LCB should be left footed, that's why Shaw was preferred, if Varane was out you can guarantee that Maguire would play there ahead of Shaw though not Lindelof
Maguire is leaving, we're not going to leave ourselves with just 3 centre backs and 7 first team defenders.
It's just a question of how much you spend on Maguire's replacement.
Weirdly sensitive post this
So if his buy out clause kicks off in July, I’m guessing we won’t hear anything about this news until start of July at least.
Does it not annoy you when there’s multiples of the same information within posts of one another? Like does no one read? It’s the same in the Bellingham thread. 3 different posts of the same tweet on the same page!
Ye it’s all reports at the min. Think at the end of June, beginning of July this will move rapid and we’ll activate it.
Which page? I didn’t see one tweet there that was posted twice, let alone three times.
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Sounds like either way, we're definitely in the market for another CB if we're going to be clearing out the likes of Tuanzebe and Maguire.
As we should really but to the detriment of a few posters I'm sure
As we should really but to the detriment of a few posters I'm sure
Son’s 30 right now, there’s no way he won anything at the Olympic when he was 15 years old
Both Son and Kim got their exception from Korea winning gold in 2018 in the Asian games.
I get all that but it's more the exact profile. Varane is recently turned 30 and still a world class CB. It makes sense to sign somebody <24 years old who would be a profile of starter in a couple years, not somebody who is also world class who would demand to be a starter both in wages and profile. Not like you rotate CB's much if they aren't injury prone. Contingency plan is great. It just doesn't make sense to spend significant money and wages on a 26 year old in his prime world class CB when we have one who is already a world class CB where both would demand to start when fit. Especially not when we have 3 clear issues in our starting 11 and at least 1 other position in much bigger need for depth.
IF we sign someone like Kim, then to me that says that Varane would probably be moved on. There's no space for both. Someone like him won't take being a bench player and someone like Kim wouldn't come to be a bench player. It just doesn't work.
This Disasi guy is another matter. He'd be of the profile of being a squad player with an eventual view of taking over Varane. I still wouldn't spend significant money on the position until we sort out the other 4 important positions that need sorting, but at least it would make sense in some ways.
He plays well with both feet, which can't be said for all targets.
3 very good defenders can get us far in knockout phases of Champions League. Could either line up in a 3-2-4-1 like Pep or a wing back system with Shaw and Dalot getting more forward.
3 very good defenders can get us far in knockout phases of Champions League. Could either line up in a 3-2-4-1 like Pep or a wing back system with Shaw and Dalot getting more forward.
And if Varane's fitness issues persist and he's available even less next season, wouldn't it be great to have his successor ready to step in? Instead of some younger player who might take a couple of years to get to used to the league, level etc. Varane probably knows himself better than anyone that he can't play as much as he'd want to anymore so I don't think it'd be an issue for him or Kim next season. If we end up signing Kim I'm sure he'll be told what his role is and how the club sees it developing over the coming years. It's not like he's going to ask for a move if he doesn't start 50+ games in his first season in the PL.
Varane is semi injury prone, though. He's had trouble playing multiple games in a week at times this season and Ten Hag has also been keen to rotate him to keep him fit for key games.
Maguire was our least used central defender this season and even he featured for us over 30 times in all competitions so it's not a signing without merit. There's plenty of game time to go around, and if we're fortunate with injuries it'll be Lindelof who misses out rather than Varane.
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