If we sign Baines, I'd imagine we would look for a replacement in 3/4 years. I suppose £4.5m a season isn't that bad for a first choice player.
Leighton Baines
- Thread starter ::sonny::
- Start date
Why? Do they have a wealthy sugar dady?
Who are the top right/left backs who are 33/34 at the moment?
If I recall correctly right before we signed RVP the club said that was only a very short term policy.
Baines could be an ok signing. Give Evra a few games off throughout the season and allow Baines to get some European experience. No harm in having two quality players in a position as long as you manage their expectations correctly.
I agree that in 3 years we would look for a replacement. Considering that Evra can play this year, that will mean that Baines would be a good signing for only 2 years. With all the wages and price tag (and that he's value in 3 years would likely be nil) he isn't worth it IMO.
He's 32. Also, he's a fecking machine.
32/33. It's splitting hairs. Ashley Cole's around the 33 mark as well.
Both are still excellent players.
They just spent £15m on a striker. I don't think the family that owns them is super rich but they are an extremely well run club by Cortese. It will take funny money (for a left back) to sign Shaw.
Also I suspect Chelsea have agreed a deal to take him on in a year or two. He's a massive Chelsea fan and it was surprising when he signed that 5 year deal in June.
Well Baines would start over Evra for me and I don't even want Baines so I wouldn't rule out this year. Also I don't think Evra can play in every game this year in the league and champions league. So 3 good years would make Baines a decent signing if Moyes is desperate to want him.
So what about Evra then?
Sure, of course he can.
But I was referring to the fact he may leave at the end of this season. Weren't there a lot of rumours regarding him going back to France this summer?
Signing Baines would be in anticipation of Evra leaving next year. It'd be a smart move by us, it's just not a signing that would satisfy the muppet's appetite.
Says who?
Anyway, since no one else seems to be in for Baines, why not wait until next year then & get him for peanuts. By then Evra will be getting on a bit, I suppose, & Baines would be a decent stop gap for 3 years.
Edit: Just seen your post above, even more reason to wait until next year.
Shaw is a good prospect, but how many of those have we seen who have not lived up to their original billing? You pick on a couple of underperforming established signings as justification for not signing anyone else over 25. Have you considered the list of young prospects we have had who haven't produced either? We can then use them as a justification for not signing any more youngsters!
Baines is in his prime and producing the goods week in week out, and has been for at least 2 seasons. You cannot reasonably compare the logic of spending money on Shaw, to spending it on Baines. Baines is established and the finished article, and the argument - whether you agree or not - is that he would improve us right now. Would Shaw? No is the answer, and while he may be great in a few years, that still remains to be seen. Spending money on him now may be a good investment for the future, but he could just as easily be another Wayne Bridge. Proven quality should never be written off in favour of potential.
Everyone whines at our lack of quality service to the strikers, and yet here we have Baines who is as reliable and consistent a first time crosser of the ball as there is in the PL. Yet many don't seem to want to increase our productivity on the left, in favour of keeping Evra who is now 32 and can't cross a ball first time- or even after a touch- if his life depended on it. 4 or 5 great opportunities against Chelsea to put in an early ball while the space was there, and every time he took a touch and then delivered a poor ball. He gets space like that all the time, and we have to do more with it. In big games that kind of space has to be capitalized on far more, better quality from those opportunities could easily have proved the difference in winning and drawing.
I don't really care whether we sign Baines or not, but I don't doubt he would improve our quality in the final third, and I personally don't give a feck how much the Glazers have to pay to get any player, that's just not a consideration for me, and I don't know why so many posters get so pissed off when they think we are overpaying. If they produce the goods, they are well worth the money. If they are shite, they are a waste of money whatever we spend on them. Look at Bebe, biggest waste of money you can imagine. Contributed feck all since his time here, yet apparently it seems worth taking similar punts on potential, rather than buying someone who is already proven they have the quality. Bizarre logic in my view.
Too much sense in this post for my liking. The bolded part in particular is spot on.
With Felliani and RVP upfront, good crossers will be of great use for us.
If, Colin. If.
It makes sense if that what Evra plans to do. As I said, there was some talk of him leaving to go back to France this summer, so it's a possiblity he may go through with it next year.
Why not have Baines come in this year, though? He'll get plenty of football & would be quality cover. You wait a year and another team might take him.
Are you sure about that?
Didn't Evra put a beauty of a cross for RVPs goal in the Charity Shield? Didn't he do it a week later against Swansea?
Indeed. It's not like Evra has created 2 goals with his crossing already this season...
I'm not going to claim that Evra's crossing is brilliant or anything (because it isn't - though he did put at least one decent cross in against Chelsea too) but, what he does do is win us a shit load of corners with his wing play/crosses - and we generally do alright from corners these days.
People are "whining" about the delivery from our wingers, not our full-backs. It was largely acknowledged last year that Rafael and Evra were doing fine with crosses, the issue was that our wingers were shit.
Everton fans thinks David Moyes should f*ck off.
http://www.grandoldteam.com/news/fans-view/2013/aug/29/moyes-f***-off?
http://www.grandoldteam.com/news/fans-view/2013/aug/29/moyes-f***-off?
Funnily enough, a certain tiny French fullback has a few goals off corners last season...
Baines on the wing?
I've always seen Evra as a middle-third fullback, in the sense that he's at his best when he's helping United build attacks with his passing and dribbling in the middle third of the pitch. He's not particularly good in the final third at playing the final ball or getting on the end of chances. As such, he works well with wingers who offer decent width.
Baines, by contrast, is very much a final-third fullback. His presence in the team would be a little detrimental to our build up play down the left, but once we get into attacking positions he'd be the much more productive option. If Moyes decides to play Kagawa on the left this season, it'll be important to have that threat from the left. It could also help to free up Kagawa as a roaming player who doesn't need to constantly look over his shoulder. I'd be in favour of the purchase from a tactical point of view, even though the gap in overall quality is fairly negligible.
Baines, by contrast, is very much a final-third fullback. His presence in the team would be a little detrimental to our build up play down the left, but once we get into attacking positions he'd be the much more productive option. If Moyes decides to play Kagawa on the left this season, it'll be important to have that threat from the left. It could also help to free up Kagawa as a roaming player who doesn't need to constantly look over his shoulder. I'd be in favour of the purchase from a tactical point of view, even though the gap in overall quality is fairly negligible.
We had Evra and Baines in 2006-07.
One had 29 starts and the other 32. I am not sure why we are so worried if we want to have both?
Heinze left the next season, I think it will be ok if Paddy wants to leave next year.
Evra has been better in the last year or so than what he was for almost two years before that. But that does not mean that he has been exemplary recently. He has been better than bad but that does not mean that he has bee good enough.
Defensively, his aerial games has been good no doubt, but his positioning and adeptness at one-on-one situations has been quite poor.
No.
Evra on the wing?
Stop.
We needed a CM and a LB during the start of the last season. Nothing has changed now, except for the fact that Evra has stepped up slightly(still below par IMO).
If you believe that we are going for a LB then you also have to agree to the fact that we are going for a CM, right? So, what's your point?
Bollocks to that, Evra was certainly good enough last year... and has hit the ground running this season as well.
Evra's crossing compared to Baines is like Valencia compared to Beckham. So name as many good crosses from Evra as you like.. There not as dangerous as Baines.
Very true, nothing has ... oh well we bought Buttner but apart from ... oh actually Fabio is back from loan too, but apart from that, NOTHING!
That's clearly not the point he was trying to make. It was a valid point to bring up to a daft original statement.
Baines will be a great buy, evra is past his best (still better than many), but Baines is better and younger at this moment in time. If we don't get him this year, chelsea will next year.
I think I'm just a little underwhelmed, because if we were to sign a left-back, I'd hope we could sign someone who could be as good as Evra was between 2008-2010... but instead, we'll just be signing someone who is (maybe) slightly better then Evra is now - mainly due to his incredibly impressive delivery.
The point is irrelevant. The fact is one player has redicilously consistent crossing accuracy the other doesn't. Its like telling me a striker with poor finishing scored a goal last week.
I really don't think it's a bad idea. Ideally you'd want a 100% Nani there, but if we've got injuries...
gewse stahp
No it's not, it's like you saying "This striker can't score a goal to save his life" and me saying "Actually, he scored two in his last two games " ... which would be a valid point - because he is clearly able to score goals.
Anyway... for anyone to think that Evra "can't cross a ball to save his life" is daft. He's not brilliant at it, but he's competant enough to offer some threat - and as I said before - his crosses/wing play often results in us winning corners, and we are generally very good from corners.
Chelsea hasn't shown interest on him. He'll also be almost 30 in the beginning of next season. It's complete speculation saying that Chelsea will go after him.
This.
I reckon Moyes is pretty much the only manager around who'd sign Baines here. It seems so unnecessary to me.
Fabio on the wing.