Kobbie Mainoo (out)

MUEricTheKing said:
We have to sell everyone with value if they want any chance of rebuilding something new after all the failed investments made in the squad.


No club comes close to United when it comes to transfer flops.
  • Antony £95M
  • Maguire £87M
  • Sancho £85M
  • Højlund £73M
  • Casemiro £70M
  • Fernandez £65M
  • Mount £64M
  • Martinez £57M
  • Ugarte £50M
  • Onana £50M
  • De Ligt £45M
  • Zirkzee £42M

This group alone has cost £783M – just for this bunch of useless players (except Fernandez).


It’s unbelievable how poor United’s transfer business has been!


Fernandez is probably the only one who comes close to being worth the money. It’s just insane that people this bad at their job can completely ruin a club.
No wonder we have no money...
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Calling Martinez "useless" is definitely harsh. He was a solid signing but unfortunately he has a lot of problems with injuries. Ugarte and De Ligt have been decent so far as well. I agree with your overall point. It's not just the transfer money that we've spent but also the kind of ridiculous wages that we gave to our players.

No player should be above 150k a week and we need to buy good players for a decent fee and to have a better recruitment strategy. As I've said previously here on RC, I believe that our transfer policy has been bad since 2008 and the Fergie days. We sold Ronaldo and Tevez, and we got washed Owen and Valencia as their "replacements". We also bought the huge flops like Obertan and Bebe. It's just that Fergie got away with that
because he was a genius who could turn average players into the world class ones.
 
I very much doubt that he is asking for the money that is being quoted.

I don't think he's all that to be honest and not sure there's a place for such a sluggish (if technically gifted) player in the modern EPL, so, if I were you guys, I wouldn't be too heartbroken were he to leave. Your youth teams appear pretty decent at the moment, so there's a good chance that you may unearth someone of similar quality, whether one of the Fletchers or someone else.
 
FortunaUtd said:
You're right, you didn't pull the figure out of your arse, you pulled it straight out of The Sun. Because that is where the 200k are coming from. So what I would like to see is actually naming one's source.
"The Sun says he wants 200k", that would be the honest way of putting it, and it would sound much less ominous.

The gutter press has been pitting United fans against United players for years, because as this exchange proves, it is so incredibly easy to do. Just write, "[insert (I want to write: black, but let's not go there) youngster] wants [insert high figure]", and thousands of fans are up in arms instantaneously calling the player greedy and overrated.
You're being played like a fiddle for clicks, and what's suffering is the support and rapport of our fans to our team.
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Don’t talk wet. You make it sound like I’ve got some weird agenda against him. Literally all I said in response to this story was ‘I’d tell him we’re not going above 100k’. Making out I’ve read something in a red top and gotten angry at him is pretty disingenuous.
 
2 man midfield said:
Don’t talk wet. You make it sound like I’ve got some weird agenda against him. Literally all I said in response to this story was ‘I’d tell him we’re not going above 100k’. Making out I’ve read something in a red top and gotten angry at him is pretty disingenuous.
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Fair enough. Apologies if I took out all what's frustrated me on you when I was referring to many posters.
 
He is nowhere near a 180k per week player yet, he might even be a 300k per week superstar, but not yet. So he should get paid for his current value, not hypothetical future. You can raise his wages every year if you want to in the future.
 
If United give him what he wants you can add that to another record. The slowest player meter/pound. Absolutely mental.
 
If he's asking too much sell him on and Garna too for that measure, get a player that will actually fit the system.
 
aeh1991 said:
considering what Amad earns, 100K plus bonuses would be a compromise, no?
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That's what's happening though, it's all a negotiating P/R game.

Ask for a crazy number so that when he accepts a more reasonable figure, the club looks good (for not accepting the first request) and the player looks loyal for lowering his "demands" in order to stay.
 
Plant0x84 said:
Teamtalk, the Sun, the mirror and some no mark writing for the Guardian. What auspicious sources! :lol:

Also the headlines scream ‘Kobbies going to reject a contract offer and move abroad!’ And when you read the article it says’if he chooses to leave’ - it’s a bunch of utter bollocks.
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It's really quite distasteful how some media like to stir-up sh*t, with apparently no consequence to them.
And it's just disappointing so many people let it rile them up.
 
Plant0x84 said:
No of course he isn’t worth that much, I haven’t said he should be paid that sum but like Geebs said he isn’t going to jump from £20k to nearly 10x that, and I don’t for a minute believe he is asking that much. This is all just agent posturing to get the best contract he can for Kobbie , which is fair enough.
I am really sick of all the hyperbole around our squad, “ he a mercenary Cnut! Feck him off! He shit anyway! Always injured, stealing a living! “ it’s nauseatingly ridiculous.
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I agree it's going to be very likely paper talk, I just think the sentiment that he can be sold if he's demanding 180k a week is a fair one.

That being said I'd be surprised if any club did this. So it's likely paper talk or just bad negotiations on Mainoos part. At least ask for something you know you can fetch in the market, I don't know which club will throw £180k a week at a 19 year old with 9 months of football experience and already one very lengthy injury layoff in his career. This is why I reckon / hope it's posturing or fake news.
 
For once United are in a fairly strong position here. I don’t feel he justifies a good contract, let alone a big one. Should he get parity with Amad, maybe but maybe not. His performances have been pretty poor this season. Make him wait and see how next season starts. If he’s still struggling in this system then sell him.
If the club have chosen this way of playing then he needs to show he can slot in. I don’t think he does personally. The #10 role isn’t his best nor is the CM role due to his limited physicality. He needs to improve, not the club offer him a big contract.
 
You guys have been poor sellers too often in the past (Lingard, Rashford, etc), so if there is an impasse, this could be a good time to cash in. I'm not convinced that his value will go up at all. Could be second-season syndrome and the lack of a pre-season (for two years now), but even some of the 70m quotes appear fanciful on what he has shown this term.

His lack of physicality is very noticeable and the opposition are just going to mercilessly target this. In a three-man midfield it can be mitigated, but in Amorim's system it means you're effectively playing with one in midfield, especially if one of the centre-halves doesn't move up or a full-back doesn't invert.

I'm starting to wonder if he couldn't be converted into a '6'. He has skills to be a '10' but not an elite one, to my mind (an elite player in one of Amorim's 10s would be a huge help, along with a striker and an all-action midfielder who can pass). An '8' is an issue in Amorim's system, but could be worth at least giving him a spin in a defensive-midfield role before the season is out?
 
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FortunaUtd said:
It's not competitive because other clubs will pay him more. Not necessarily 180k, but more than 100k. If his agent demands 180k, we offer 100k, an agreement is found at 140k which keeps our most promising midfield talent around until 2030, that would be fine wouldn't it, with no need fo vitriol and hysterics.
The fear I have rather is that Ratcliffe and his goons are on a mission to asset strip our club and will be trying to sell Mainoo.
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140k!?

We need to get away from overpaying our young players before they have earned it.

For now a fair base is 80k pw. That’s a 60k increase from what he’s currently on

I certainly understand no circumstances would go above 100k. He’s only been in the team a little over half a season
 
MUEricTheKing said:
We have to sell everyone with value if they want any chance of rebuilding something new after all the failed investments made in the squad.


No club comes close to United when it comes to transfer flops.
  • Antony £95M
  • Maguire £87M
  • Sancho £85M
  • Højlund £73M
  • Casemiro £70M
  • Fernandez £65M
  • Mount £64M
  • Martinez £57M
  • Ugarte £50M
  • Onana £50M
  • De Ligt £45M
  • Zirkzee £42M

This group alone has cost £783M – just for this bunch of useless players (except Fernandez).


It’s unbelievable how poor United’s transfer business has been!


Fernandez is probably the only one who comes close to being worth the money. It’s just insane that people this bad at their job can completely ruin a club.
No wonder we have no money...
Click to expand...
Personally I think that Ugarte and DeLigt are good value at their prices
 
Perfidious Albion said:
You guys have been poor sellers too often in the past (Lingard, Rashford, etc), so if there is an impasse, this could be a good time to cash in. I'm not convinced that his value will go up at all. Could be second-season syndrome and the lack of a pre-season (for two years now), but even some of the 70m quotes appear fanciful on what he has shown this term.

His lack of physicality is very noticeable and the opposition are just going to mercilessly target this. In a three-man midfield it can be mitigated, but in Amorim's system it means you're effectively playing with one in midfield, especially if one of the centre-halves doesn't move up or a full-back doesn't invert.

I'm starting to wonder if he couldn't be converted into a '6'. He has skills to be a '10' but not an elite one, to my mind (an elite player in one of Amorim's 10s would be a huge help, along with a striker and an all-action midfielder who can pass). An '8' is an issue in Amorim's system, but could be worth at least giving him a spin in a defensive-midfield role before the season is out?
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Mainoo’s strengths and weaknesses are very apparent from both the stats and the eye test.

Stick him in a possession based system where his main remit is to circulate the ball across the middle three, carry into open spaces and evade the press and you’ve got yourself a 19 y/o who does those things to an elite level. I look at Enrique’s set up at Paris St Germain for instance and see him meshing perfectly there.

In this current manager’s very particular and very specialised formation — Mainoo is positionless. Outside of his major weakness of getting up and down the field like you mention from the two man no.8 position, his passing is not the most insightful or progressive so he lacks the expansiveness needed there. He’s also not good enough off the ball or explosive in half spaces to be the “inside no.10”.

I think our other top youth talent in Garnacho suffers a similar fate with this system.

Personally, if the choice was to back this manager or retain Mainoo, I’d be leaning toward the latter — especially given the fact he’s an English homegrown player who has put some MOTM performances in against our biggest domestic rivals and done well at the World Cup at such a young age.

… That being said — the club are struggling with PSR/financial stuff so if the right offer comes in I would begrudgingly accept letting him go to fix the greater parts of the squad.
 
DWelbz19 said:
Mainoo’s strengths and weaknesses are very apparent from both the stats and the eye test.

Stick him in a possession based system where his main remit is to circulate the ball across the middle three, carry into open spaces and evade the press and you’ve got yourself a 19 y/o who does those things to an elite level. I look at Enrique’s set up at Paris St Germain for instance and see him meshing perfectly there.

In this current manager’s very particular and very specialised formation — Mainoo is positionless. Outside of his major weakness of getting up and down the field like you mention from the two man no.8 position, his passing is not the most insightful or progressive so he lacks the expansiveness needed there. He’s also not good enough off the ball or explosive in half spaces to be the “inside no.10”.

I think our other top youth talent in Garnacho suffers a similar fate with this system.

Personally, if the choice was to back this manager or retain Mainoo, I’d be leaning toward the latter — especially given the fact he’s an English homegrown player who has put some MOTM performances in against our biggest domestic rivals and done well at the World Cup at such a young age.

… That being said — the club are struggling with PSR/financial stuff so if the right offer comes in I would begrudgingly accept letting him go to fix the greater parts of the squad.
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Even in a team that suits him, his lack of athleticism and very average passing ability limits him. He wouldn't really add much to that team compared to other players.
 
Hammondo said:
Even in a team that suits him, his lack of athleticism and very average passing ability limits him. He wouldn't really add much to that team compared to other players.
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Definitely agree with that to an extent — but I also think Mainoo is young enough and talented enough to have the right manager mould him a bit better in that regard. So far he has spent his formative years in professional football under a manager who basically played an empty chasm in midfield and (limited game time) under one who prefers wingback progression.
 
DWelbz19 said:
Definitely agree with that to an extent — but I also think Mainoo is young enough and talented enough to have the right manager mould him a bit better in that regard. So far he has spent his formative years in professional football under a manager who basically played an empty chasm in midfield and (limited game time) under one who prefers wingback progression.
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True, but then it's very reasonable for us to sell him then.
 
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