Leighton Baines

gooDevil said:
If Evra can't last till 32 then I don't see Baines doing it, so I'd say that's 3 years maximum you can expect the same level of him, by that logic. Evra is much more athletic than Baines, so you'd think Evra would have more longevity in that regard.

But I don't think Evra showed lots of signs he can't handle so many games. He lead our team in starts and appeared in more games than any other player, which I believe he's done a few times for us. I agree he's made some strange mistakes, but it does seem that SAF is asking him to spend most of his time in the other team's half, I can't believe he's just forgotten what defending is.
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I'm not saying Evra can't last til he's 32, in fact I'm sure he can last longer than that, but at 31 he shouldn't be playing pretty much every game for us, especially seeing as that man runs (or used to run) more than anyone else on the pitch, and he's so reliant on his pace. I think he can still give us 2 or 3 more years, but only if we have someone else here too to ease the burden on him, and decrease his game time by 15 - 20 games a season perhaps.

Lately a lot of his defensive problems have been because he's been slow to get back after bombing forward, looking a bit knackered. I don't remember that from the Evra of old.
 
Cina said:
I'm one of the biggest moaners on here when it comes to our midfield and how lacking it is, and frustrating it is to not sign anyone there, but I don't see how getting Baines would be a 'luxury' buy on our part, because we do need to sort out left-back too, regardless of what happens in the midfield.

Fact is that Fabio is off on loan, is probably still a while away from being ready to take over the mantle (is he even a bloody left back at this stage?), Evra is 31, which is quite old for a player so reliant on their pace, and has looked poor defensively in the last few seasons and shown lots of signs that he can't handle that many games anymore. Baines is turning 28, that gives him around 4 more years at this level (whatever people think that level is), which is perfect while we wait for a youngster like Fabio to break through.

I mean, we effectively only have one 31 year old left back for next season, and people are saying we shouldn't sign another one, probably the most competent one we could (realistically) get? Right...
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Indeed, we do need a left back probably even more than we need a midfielder because of the lack of numbers. I think, though, that Evra's poor form was mostly due to the excessive amount of games he has had to play. With a good back up who could cover for him once in a while and reduce his number of games to 35-40 a year he could get back to his best.

Spendind £15m+ on a 28 year old left back just doesn't seem like a good idea to me when we'll probably have to replace him in 3 or 4 seasons. We should try to have a look abroad and bring someone less expensive and younger but that's just my opinion.
 
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Decent left back in the airtricity league.
 
If we could make a mix of Baines and Evra, that would be sweet. Since that's not possible I rather have only Evra than signing BORING BORING BAINES. I'm not watching Unitet this season is he's coming.
 
Successful said:
If we could make a mix of Baines and Evra, that would be sweet. Since that's not possible I rather have only Evra than signing BORING BORING BAINES. I'm not watching Unitet this season is he's coming.
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bit harsh, if we sign him, I'll support him 100%. that's a bad attitude to have.
 
Successful said:
If we could make a mix of Baines and Evra, that would be sweet. Since that's not possible I rather have only Evra than signing BORING BORING BAINES. I'm not watching Unitet this season is he's coming.
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This is RAWK-ish logic. We laughed at them when they said that they will not want new manager to do good if he's not Benitez. And really, I hope that you're not serious, but if you are that is one of the most ridiculous sentences I have ever read here. Saying that you will stop supporting a team if they sign a certain player is absulutelly mental and in a way it's a definition of glory hunting.
 
Successful said:
If we could make a mix of Baines and Evra, that would be sweet. Since that's not possible I rather have only Evra than signing BORING BORING BAINES. I'm not watching Unitet this season is he's coming.
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Goodbye and good riddance. We won't miss you. Not watching the team because of one player is ridiculous... Unless the player is John Terry.
 
Successful said:
If we could make a mix of Baines and Evra, that would be sweet. Since that's not possible I rather have only Evra than signing BORING BORING BAINES. I'm not watching Unitet this season is he's coming.
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I dont even understand this. First you seem to acknowledge that Baines has some positive attributes, by suggesting we could create a hybrid of him and Evra, which by implication would be better than Evra himself.

But then you seem to go strongly the other way, and suggest you hate him so much you would stop watching United because of him.

Is he boring? He scores and creates goals and is criticised by some on here for not being that great defensively. Doesnt sound that boring.
 
Simon Adebesi said:
I dont even understand this. First you seem to acknowledge that Baines has some positive attributes, by suggesting we could create a hybrid of him and Evra, which by implication would be better than Evra himself.

But then you seem to go strongly the other way, and suggest you hate him so much you would stop watching United because of him.

Is he boring? He scores and creates goals and is criticised by some on here for not being that great defensively. Doesnt sound that boring.
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I think he's only good on set pieces and such things - the exact same thing Evra is not good at.

OK - I will go on watching United if we sign Baines, but only if he comes with a price tag of < €6m (+ that we sign an exciting player).

I think this kind of transfer talking is the same old story whenever we tend to run dry in the market. People start grabbing on to whatever shirt they can just to put a new name on the paper. You people are like women - cannot go through a shoppingcenter without buying something whether you need it or not only because you need to fecking shop :wenger:
 
Successful said:
If we could make a mix of Baines and Evra, that would be sweet. Since that's not possible I rather have only Evra than signing BORING BORING BAINES. I'm not watching Unitet this season is he's coming.
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Try City. They might be what you need.
 
A couple of guys on here were your age some years ago - and if they had any influence on transfers we could have ended up with some of these guys:

Didier Zokora
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Richardo Vaz Te
228058_1.jpg

Jeremy Menez
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Tom Huddlestone
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Nigel Reo-Coker
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and a whole lot more
 
Wait, you're saying if United sign Baines you'll stop following the club?

Oh well feck it then, I'm now 100% behind this signing.
 
he wouldnt be a bad stop-gap signing. The rumoured figure is what is putting alot of people off. If he can take corners, he would be worth 20mill to us actually.....
 
Cina said:
I'm not saying Evra can't last til he's 32, in fact I'm sure he can last longer than that, but at 31 he shouldn't be playing pretty much every game for us, especially seeing as that man runs (or used to run) more than anyone else on the pitch, and he's so reliant on his pace. I think he can still give us 2 or 3 more years, but only if we have someone else here too to ease the burden on him, and decrease his game time by 15 - 20 games a season perhaps.

Lately a lot of his defensive problems have been because he's been slow to get back after bombing forward, looking a bit knackered. I don't remember that from the Evra of old.
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I'll agree that a huge chunk of the goals we conceded came down our left side, and for many of those Evra was not in position to defend. It seemed to me the bigger problem was that Evra would drift inside when we didn't have the ball, being overly aggressive in trying to win the ball back.

He doesn't have the same ability to track back that he used to, but most of the time he didn't even seem to try, it almost felt to me like he was playing as an auxiliary midfielder instead of a fullback, like Dani Alves.

With Evra down the left being our plan A most of the time, I thought maybe the idea was for Rio to shift over to cover the left side of defense when needed and the center back we usually played at right back could shift over as an extra center back.

But that's just a guess.
 
James Ducker and Rory Smith reporting in the Times that we're about to make a £10m offer. So amidst all the speculation it seems we haven't even made a bid yet and it's not at the price everyone was whinging over. Those two are good journalists, so I wouldn't be surprised if they're right.
 
To be fair, there could be a difference between unofficial talks to a formal offer. We may offer 10m knowing Everton are demanding more.
 
At the same time we wouldn't want to piss them off by making a derisory offer after talks indiciating the price is considerably higher. Maybe a 10 million offer with leeway to bump it up to 12? As a newbie, Donie007, has just pointed out to me, Ducker called Lindegaard and De Gea, so he's the man to listen to. I think we'll finally see how this plays out over the next couple of weeks.
 
Successful said:
A couple of guys on here were your age some years ago - and if they had any influence on transfers we could have ended up with some of these guys:

Didier Zokora
24453_news.jpg

Richardo Vaz Te
228058_1.jpg

Jeremy Menez
art_large_481911.jpg

Tom Huddlestone
250px-Huddlestone.jpg

Nigel Reo-Coker
Reo-Coker%2C_Nigel.jpg


and a whole lot more
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Why the feck are you posting pictures of these players?
 
Maajid said:

Why the feck are you posting pictures of these players?
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To tell us not to comment on which players we should/should not buy as SAF knows best am guessing. I dont understand why though as thats what forums are for.
 
There arent going to be a lot of clubs interested in him.
Wenger has his Gibbs project and has Santos.
Chelsea have Cole and Bertrand.
City have Clicky, Kolarov and Zabaeta
Doesnt look like Spurs are in the market for a LB either.

If Everton have to sell someone, and if we are interested, there is no way we'll agree to pay top money straight away.
 
prateik said:
There arent going to be a lot of clubs interested in him.
Wenger has his Gibbs project and has Santos.
Chelsea have Cole and Bertrand.
City have Clicky, Kolarov and Zabaeta
Doesnt look like Spurs are in the market for a LB either.

If Everton have to sell someone, and if we are interested, there is no way we'll agree to pay top money straight away.
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Baines is English, we only have 1 LB at the club, and that LB is 31 years of age.

There's no way that we'll be able to lowball Everton, and would have to pay top money if SAF really wants to buy him, straight away.

(Note, I don't agree with splashing top money for Baines, nor with his quoted value. But it's good that SAF can get a player he really wants, even if the price is steep, in terms of the Glazers backing him without trying to meddle like Abramovich does at Chelsea).
 
Varun_Utd said:
To tell us not to comment on which players we should/should not buy as SAF knows best am guessing. I dont understand why though as thats what forums are for.
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Transfers are a big gamble no matter who suggest them. SAF was top notch in numerous occasions. However let us not forget that players like Bellion, Veron, Kleberson, Milner and Bebe were signed during the great man's reign.

Ultimately there's nothing wrong in giving our opinion about the transfer market and sometimes I feel that fans who live in certain areas tend to know more then pro scouts. I mean having watched the Serie A for years, I would have never suggested the likes of Aquilani (injury prone), Taibi (average keeper who failed at top level) and Maccarone.
 
I reckon the deal may involve Macheda, either on loan or a permanent deal.
 
It's a ridiculous comment though. He's been one of the better left backs in the league and is currently far better than Fabio who needs to remain fit and get more match experience which we can't afford when Evra is clearly on the decline. Maybe if you backed up your "point" rather than spiel off an inane comment you wouldn't fecking hate this place so much.
 
He was the best LB in the league last season, how is he mediocre? He lacks flair and his name isn't sexy, that's about it.
 
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