I disagree, he'd just won the CL with Bayern and was at the absolute peak of his powers. Having Kroos would of enhanced LVG's heavy possession based style with some actual creativity from midfield, something we sorely lacked hence why we were painfully boring to watch.
Kroos "the deal was all but done"
- Thread starter FujiVice
- Start date
Old news.
He's too Kroos, not horny enough.
Schweini n Schneider are better.
He's too Kroos, not horny enough.
Schweini n Schneider are better.
Yeah and where the feck was Colin Hendry when Fergie managed us? We ended up with Choccy and Fletcher.
LVG's transfers were poor, there's no doubt about it. What we could have done with Kroos in that midfield.
You're right. Football is a result oriented business and these decisions has to happen over the pay grade of manager. Wish we move to a European model of dof. It's blatant to see what we are missing and still not getting addressed.
Yep,his first two transfer windows were an absolute waste.
So much money spent.
100%
He’d have done well here, for sure.
LVG sold Kroos from Bayern, so it's not crazy he didn't want to buy him.
What is crazy though is that he was the perfect player for his possession based tactics. The fact we didn't go ahead with the deal really does haunt us even to this day.
Imagine a midfield of Kroos, Pogba and Fernandes right now?
What is crazy though is that he was the perfect player for his possession based tactics. The fact we didn't go ahead with the deal really does haunt us even to this day.
Imagine a midfield of Kroos, Pogba and Fernandes right now?
How many matey players did Pep buy? With whatever structure you have, with or without DOF, if you manager whom you just hired and obviously trusted, want 1 key player as last piece of his puzzle, would you not support him? If that player cost 200m you can decline base on commercial reason, but not a 40m player. If your manager want yet another DMF beside your current 3 DMF (like Conte did) then your DOF should do his job. If your manager want yet another left winger like Sanchez while you already have 2 key players playing on the left, your DOF should say something.
Out of all the deadwood that we recruited, I would say a good DOF can only filter half of them.
YES - Fellaini, Schneiderlin (if he has done enough research), Sanchez, Rojo (too short), Dalot, Darmian (too slow)
NO - Blind (versatile enough, can you say no?), Bastian, Matic, Bailly, Lukaku, Depay,
fast forward 5 years and sancho says allegri torpedoed the deal so he could sign a more defensive and experienced winger in juan cuadrado
we still have to imagine a midfield of fernandes pogba and anybody else haha
I've yet to meet a club whose board is devoid of anyone with football experience as ours is. This leads to abuse where the manager simply ask and the board blindly decide whether it gives its go ahead or not
That poses 2 problems
A- modern managers are head coaches. They are used of having sporting directors/DOFs/head of recruitment doing transfers on their behalf and lack the experience and time to do that job as opposed to specialists whose doing that full time
B- managers has their own agendas which might not concede with that of the club. For example a manager who is losing the dressing room would want his men in irrespective whether they are the most suited players at the club or not. Hence you see LvG bringing in the Dutch army + the likes of valdes & Bastian in instead of players like kroos
Having specialists at board level means that everyone is accountable for what it does and can focus on what it does best. It's within these people's interests to work alongside managers as there's no point bringing in players only for the manager not to play them. However having someone who can challenge the manager when he asks for the ridiculous is beneficial both for the club and the manager himself
Yet our fans will stay the problem at this club is Woodward playing DOF rather than our managers having way too much influence on the clubs transfer strategy.
The idea that you turn down rare WC class because it doesn't fit a certain manager is so unbelievably stupid. Players are far more valuable and if turns out the the manager and players aren't a good fit, it's the manager that needs to feck off.
The idea that you turn down rare WC class because it doesn't fit a certain manager is so unbelievably stupid. Players are far more valuable and if turns out the the manager and players aren't a good fit, it's the manager that needs to feck off.
Which is why both allegri and Pochs (who play narrow football) are inappropriate at this point. I am firmly ole out but for God's sake let bring appropriate football people at board level first. We need to build on the work done by the previous management rather then start from scratch
Di Maria. Pogba. Alexis Sanchez..
Changing the manager isn't the problem. As you've mentioned not hiring a proper DoF is.
Lucky us, dodged a bullet here. Otherwise we wouldn't have signed such superstars as Schweinsteiger or Schneiderlin.
All players we were only heavily linked with when each manager was signed.
Pogba himself was all Mourinho's doing despite Mourinho's best efforts at hoodwinking the disadvantaged sect of our fanbase. The club he was heavily linked with before Mourinho's arrival at Old Trafford, was in fact Chelsea when Mourinho was there.
This is why we need a DOF who can shape the style of the team. Our method of leaving transfer strategy to the manager has been disastrous. At least Ole seems to be doing the right thing and that’s one positive about him. He knows a player when he sees one.
I wouldn't want that midfield at all to be honest. Who's the defensive one there? 2 out of the 3 and a class DM and then you're talking.
That's only up until we actually do get a new manager, hand him all the reigns and he decides he can't do with a RB as limited as AWB, a CB as slow as Maguire and a midfielder as Portuguese as Bruno. Or something, and then there'll be a new cult formed around him to justify all of this shit.
Biggest loss with losing Kroos is we wouldn't have needed to sign Pogba who lets face it doesn't really suit us and the money could have been better spent on forward attacking player. 89m plus wages was surely too much for a midfielder when you look what city paid for the silva's.
Kroos and LvG weren't best buddies, so if you let your manager decide transfers, this happens and he brings in Schweinsteiger.
Buying Kroos and then hiring Jose is also the complete opposite of what one should do. Our transfer policy highlights our lack of direction in management and managers
Buying Kroos and then hiring Jose is also the complete opposite of what one should do. Our transfer policy highlights our lack of direction in management and managers
Hate to say it, but lucky him. Maybe this could have been a game changer but who knows. Either way three champions league titles, yep.
Forget kroos, they paid half of that for de bruyne only a year earlier. We could've bought him to replace di maria, guy was class even when he was at Chelsea out on loan, but Mourinho didn't rate him. Would've fit LVG's system as well.
And yet people on this forum still don't get why sacking a manager is hitting reset on any progress made, especially seeing as we don't have a DOF.
This was no reason to keep Moyes any longer. He was never going to be successful. Just look at what he's done at Real Sociedad, Sunderland and West Ham since.
And the depressing part of all this is that this problem still exists, after all these years of failure, Woodward still holds the role of DoF.
This is why I say, while Woodward is at the club, we won't win another league title.
Some people thought he was laying the foundations
Some crackers....keep 'em coming.
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The issue was not getting rid of Moyes, but hiring him in the first place. Kroos should have been a club target, and not manager. That just shows you how badly run we are. There was no progress to be made with Moyes
fully agreed. no noises of this happening though (if we are honest ole won't last another year so movement should really be in place now). no real signs from the fan base that they think this is a priority either, they prefer sacking ole as some kind of punishment because of results that are 'unacceptable' rather than making the best plan for the club
LvG's transfers were probably the worst in the history of any United manager.
Not disagreeing. These discussions has to take place at higher level though. Need a dof
I've said it a million times; Van Gaal was the worst of all our post-Fergie managers. Yes I'm including Moyes. He was a complete feck-wit.
Impressive how you managed to bring Pogba into this and also managed to imply that Pogba has been a bad transfer.
Has to be one of the biggest feck ups we have made. Kross would have been a class addition. At that time he was one of the best midfielders around.
So why didn't LvG agree to Kroos coming in if apparently a verbal agreement was in place?
Wonder what would have happened had Moyes pulled off signing Bale, Kroos and/or Fabregas?
The quality of those players alone would have probably stopped us from spiraling downwards like we have!
Wonder what would have happened had Moyes pulled off signing Bale, Kroos and/or Fabregas?
The quality of those players alone would have probably stopped us from spiraling downwards like we have!
What is also quite strange is that Kroos has fantastic technique and even better passing.. he would have been great for LvG his type of football. The whole idea of LvG his football was to keep the ball and have some moments to make that defensive splitting pass to score. Kroos would have been perfect for that. LvG still tried playing that kind of football but never had anyone to make that pass so it turned into no risk and sideway passing.