This thread has exposed a few things:
1. A player negotiates for a pay rise from his 20k a week. A player with enormous potential, who I think we can all agree deserves a new, much better contract.
2. Element of the negotiations become public, but are impossible to verify, especially including the specific wage demands of the player. Yet people take these rumours as gospel and very quickly turn on the player.
3. Because the player has the temerity to negotiate for what he thinks he’s worth, and float the possibility of leaving to get it, he is automatically pulled to pieces as not being good enough, likely by the same people who deemed him the second coming around this time last season.
The fact is, none of us know what is going on behind closed doors, what he is actually asking, nor what the club is actually offering.
I agree with the general principles that all contracts for players should be heavily incentive based to avoid the repetition of past mistakes. This approach should be so set in stone at this point, as to not even be a point for debate. It’s just best practice, period. I also believe that any wages for a player under 23, should probably include incremental increases year on year as they accumulate more experience and quality, with there being a minimum threshold of appearances to trigger each yearly increase. I also agree that the club should never be held to ransom over wages by any player, no matter how good. I also want to acknowledge that there is no indication whatsoever, at least none verifiable, that this is what Mainoo is doing.
The people suddenly slating him, especially his ability, are depressingly ignorant in their analysis of player development. The kid is 19 years old, and has already performed to a very high level. Yes he has area to improve, but you know….again….hes 19 years old. I’ve drawn comparisons in the past to where other players were in their career at 19, players who went on to become all time greats, yet it seems to fall on deaf ears as Mainoo is expected to be the finished article already. If we listened to the “wisdom” of these fans, we probably would have only brought through about 4 academy products in the last century.
Selling Mainoo would only be necessary if he (a) really wanted to leave - not hugely hard to understand given what a clusterfeck the club has been, or (b) his wage demands were wholly unreasonable and inflexible. There is no verifiable evidence to support either of these conclusions at this early stage. And in fact there are conflicting reports saying he really wants to stay at his boyhood club.
If we sell him because the board take the same viewpoint of a vocal section of the online fanbase in thinking he’s a treacherous, greedy sod for negotiating for the best possible terms; or simply that at 19, and after being our best player last season, he’s actually rubbish after all and has feet of clay - then we may as well give up any hope of ever being a great club again. Just like you don’t produce players of the talent and appetite of Marcus Rashford, and then ruin them by over rewarding them too early and indulging their worst instincts; you also don’t produce players of the talent and potential of Mainoo and Garnacho, and then jettison them because you need FFP wiggle room, or they negotiated hard for their new contract. Not if you want to live up to your billing as the biggest club in the country. If that’s what people want us to be, we may as well change our name to Chelsea FC and be done with it.
Probably the last time I bother commenting in threads like this, because so many of the posts are utter knee jerk drivel. So I’ll close by saying that as a club our one identifiable philosophy above all others is the development and promotion of youth. Manchester United makes stars, it doesn’t buy them. Inherent to this is understanding that player development takes time and in non-linear. It’s full of ups and downs. 18, 19, 20, or even 21, are not ages at which you can accurately judge how good a player will be, except in extreme cases. Player development requires the dirtiest words in the online fan handbook…..patience, perspective and support. At a club level, especially in the modern environment of extreme wealth, it requires incredible care in moulding a players reward and value systems to ensure they not only don’t lose motivation - either actively or subconsciously - but also develop the right discipline and collaborative skills to match the institutions standards, and govern their whole career. Fergie was a master at this, but after he left it became “Disneyland”, as Woodward put it. A culture which derailed a generation of young players. Assuming under Ineos, Berrada, Wilcox, and Amorim, the culture is put right, then the absolute priority should be to keep players like Mainoo, and do everything we can to carefully develop them into world class operators. They won’t always make it, but that has always been the case.
Some of the comments in here are palpably stupid.
