If true, it's been several years since we signed any player (who's not ending his career) for 10m. It's a remarkable shift in approach to fill backups with players who want to prove themselves.
Luckhurst: United prepared to move for a holding midfielder in January
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If true, it's been several years since we signed any player (who's not ending his career) for 10m. It's a remarkable shift in approach to fill backups with players who want to prove themselves.
10m seems steep for a player out of contract in the summer, no?
Probably read the media news bulletin from the United app this morning. 442 claim £10m deal in course
Be very surprised if 442 somehow snagged an exclusive on United.
There was talk of 20m this summer, if I remember correctly. With no takers. So that could make sense.
I remember when we were discussing midfield options this spring, I did a stats package on a number of players, including him. It didn't look bad, but his contributions did come across as somewhat limited in scope. Really little to no input in offensive categories. Passing accuracy same as McTominay. His strongest area was in progressive passing, where his stats were really good. Good on pressing too. Tackles and interceptions, ball involvement (ie, Touches) and progressive carries, middle of the road (among the players I looked at). All in all, measured against the other players I looked at (Camavinga, Kessie, Locatelli, Rice, Neves, Llorente, Bissouma, Bentancur, Tchouameni, Merino, Phillips, Brozovic), he seemed like one of the least attractive options. But I suppose it depends what you're looking for. And at that price, maybe there's a case he'd be a useful piece. But the counterquestion would be, does he have enough overall quality.
Huge caveat; not really seen him play anywhere enough to form an opinion based on eye test.
Pellistri was signed for around £10m.
Yeah, but Pellistri was a prospect, signed out of South America. This is an established player who would be signed out of a relatively large club in one of the European big leagues.
Eh, they don't have a backup DM and both Fabinho and Henderson have gotten hurt. He makes a ton of sense for them, I wouldn't be surprised if he picks them.
This isn't how we do business. Wait until 31st January and pay twice the price, that's the United way.
Four four two look reliable...they have an article that Ralf wants to ditch big Dave and Deano for the Leeds GK 
He does fit the profile of a Rangnick signing, in that he probably believes he can improve all those areas in his system. Eye test for me he is very similar to Rice. He's not as good as carrying the ball forward, but I would say his passing is more expansive. When you look at his numbers compared to Rice, ok he's not as good, but he's also costing about a 7th of the price and has a lot of scope for improvement. If the focus is on the team and the sum of the parts in a Rangnick system, it's a no brainer for me.
But we already have that midfielder in Fred, the kingpin in the press with boundless energy barring the consistency issues he has displayed thus far. What we need is someone who can sit, protect the defense and initiate play. Kamara seems to be a cheaper version we could get in January and then assess his impact before deciding on a more expensive option in the summer, that is if we can get him for a fee under £15m.I only just learned about them through the caf - I have no knowledge from watching them. I’ve seen couple of tactical videos and I’d say that Haidara would suits Rangnick’s style of play. That other player Kamara seems to have good potential.
I mean, I’m sure @Adnan could tell you everything there is to know about them, if he wants, eh Adnan?
I would as well.
As I said, it's just the "media talk" bulletin from the app.. I'm guessing that's where his/her post came from given timing and quoting same figure.
Don't know much about the overseas players linked with, think I'd rather have Kalvin-Phillips.
The flaw with this thought process is that you overlook the importance of a player's attributes and place more import on his level of talent. More like Berbatov was more talented that Chicharito but even a flawed Chicharito was more useful to our side because he had more pace which suited the team.
Kamara is a natural holding midfielder, he can come in and balance out our midfield and that could could good enough to raise the level of the team as teams won't be easily walking through us. Say we spend £10m on him in January but he hopefully settles and that allows us to drop £80m on Bellingham, would you still demand a higher rated player?
I think people look at things and sometimes forget the overall picture - my belief would be, say we get him for a cut price deal of around 15m and he comes in and compliments Fred and Bruno thereby giving us a balanced midfield that means that next summer we don't have to spend big on a DM so we can focus our attention on say Bellingham or another player that absolutely raises the level of the whole team won't that be a net positive for us?
United will always pay a premium on transfers but it doesn’t have to be £100m if you find these players with the qualities you need before they arrive in the PL or at a club that’s competing for major honours.
Totally agree, I am firmly in the camp you don't need to be spending record fees for a DM, because the skill set needed is not very unique in a well organised team. Flair, Creativity and goals on the other hand are very hard to come by, so it's worth spending more on those players and finding a player who's willing to be disciplined, with a core set of skills and scope for development for our DM role.
Yes, and the Op said that it had been several years since we signed any player who's not ending his career.
Thanks Adnan, and you’re being modest, if you need a scouting report — you’re the guy to go to. Always very knowledgeable and detailed. Really helpful since I’ve quit the whole transfer malarkey a while back and now I’m only relying on what others are saying — well I was doing that anyway but even more so.
I will say this, though. Looking at Rangnicks past signings, I have full confidence in any signings he makes. So if it’s either, neither or both of these guys — I’ll be right behind him. Looks like he knows a player when he sees one, more often than not.
Ditto, DMs impact a game when you have a really poor one but if you can get away with having an above average one plus Fred giving platform to a top class attacking unit and protecting a world class defense then you won't really have issues. If we have an opportunity to get a reliable DM for under £20m we should take it.
Just saw a rumor on Twitter that Ragnick will only be allowed to bring in players on loan but no permanent deals. Is there any truth to this?
True or not, it got me thinking about how we approach transfer overall. Logically speaking, if a manager is able to move on 2-3 players, they should be sure to be able to use at least a portion of the money they bring in and save on wages on new transfers. Imagine though that we just don't work that way, and the club says "you can get rid of all the players you want, but there's no guarantees about incomings." The incentive there would basically be for managers to just hold to players way too long. It's speculative I know, but I can't help but wonder if something like this (i.e. control on outgoings but no control on incomings for managers) isn't part of the reason why we have such a bloated squad with so many players now also at risk of leaving for free.
True or not, it got me thinking about how we approach transfer overall. Logically speaking, if a manager is able to move on 2-3 players, they should be sure to be able to use at least a portion of the money they bring in and save on wages on new transfers. Imagine though that we just don't work that way, and the club says "you can get rid of all the players you want, but there's no guarantees about incomings." The incentive there would basically be for managers to just hold to players way too long. It's speculative I know, but I can't help but wonder if something like this (i.e. control on outgoings but no control on incomings for managers) isn't part of the reason why we have such a bloated squad with so many players now also at risk of leaving for free.
It's probably spot on if it's a rumour on twitter.
I'm asking if people have seen corroborating reports from credible sources. No need for snide comments.
Sure, you can make a case for that line of thinking. But you probably do need players of a certain general quality if they're going to be starting regularly for United. It might be that Kamara is of that quality, of course.
He's probably not even being planned to start right now anyway.
Give him 6 months to settle in and adapt. Matic and Pogba will be gone next year, who knows what will happen with DVB either.
We can't just keep Fred and Mctominay alone all season. Players usually adapt from France fairly quickly also.
Apologies. No I don't think there's any truth to it.
Getting a holding midfielder only solves half the problem. McT cannot pass and Fred can only pass half the time and that's being generous.
Both need to be phased out of the starting 11 but Mctominay's exit is needed imminently.
Both need to be phased out of the starting 11 but Mctominay's exit is needed imminently.
Only poor sources trying to become relevant. If Rangnick works wonders and gets Pogba+Mata+Matic+Lingard sold in January there's no way in hell he'll be denied a potential world beater like Kamara for a pittance.
The algorythm on youtube led me to a report about julian weigl.
Who here watches the Portuguese league regularly? I was a fan of him when he played for Dortmund and I thought he was good against Bayern in the CL this season, very good passing and good defensive movement.
Who here watches the Portuguese league regularly? I was a fan of him when he played for Dortmund and I thought he was good against Bayern in the CL this season, very good passing and good defensive movement.