Man Utd interested in Witsel? | Fergie rumoured to have watched him v Chelsea

I scouted the lad out and below is a summary of my findings:

Name: Axel Foley

Attributes

Aggression 17
Agility 14
Creativity 19
Crossing 16
Dribbling 18
Heading 20
Leadership 18
Movement 18
Pace 5
Passing 18
Positioning 17
Shooting 19
Stamina 4
Strength 16
Tackling 20
Teamwork 20
Technique 19


I have done my calculations and I think Witsel might just be the new Socrates
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Why is it that this thread seems to have attracted a disproportionate amount of shit jokes?

Is it cause he has a funny name?
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As one of those who is guiltier than most, I'd say the piss taking is because we are being linked with a 19 year old midfielder, from a poor league, who hasn't exactly stood out in the games most of us have seen, and whose price has been disproportionately inflated by Everton's spasticity.

The idea that we might pay a similar fee to what it would cost to buy Tevez, a seasoned Argentine international, is a strange one. He may be a fantastic footballer, but at that price, he'd need to be.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Why is it that this thread seems to have attracted a disproportionate amount of shit jokes?

Is it cause he has a funny name?
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Because we are linked to an anonymous Belgian youngster, and are apparently prepared to pay about £18m for him.

It can hardly be a serious thread.
 
Sarni said:
Because we are linked to an anonymous Belgian youngster, and are apparently prepared to pay about £18m for him.

It can hardly be a serious thread.
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He's not exactly anonymous though, is he? He's been linked with pretty much every big club in the Premier League and is a bit a talent, by all accounts.

Not sure I see the hilarity in all this but maybe that's just me.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
He's not exactly anonymous though, is he? He's been linked with pretty much every big club in the Premier League and is a bit a talent, by all accounts.

Not sure I see the hilarity in all this but maybe that's just me.
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The 'hilarity' comes from the idea of us paying that sort of money for a relatively untested kid, from a relatively poor league. It's not any reflection on or piss-take about the player himself(or at least not on my part). It's just one muppet sized step too far, IMHO.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
He's not exactly anonymous though, is he? He's been linked with pretty much every big club in the Premier League and is a bit a talent, by all accounts.

Not sure I see the hilarity in all this but maybe that's just me.
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He's 19, has played about 5 games for his national side out of which none were really of a big importance, and the highlight of his career so far is a decent performance against Liverpool in a game that Standard lost anyway without scoring a single goal in 210 minutes. He's also playing in a league where it's difficult to prove yourself as there are 3 or 4 clubs that actually play football there. And we are talking about £18m.
 
brophs said:
Anderson was playing in a stronger league, had a much bigger reputation, and his deal is highly dependent on success-related add-ons.
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And the (alleged) 24 million yo yos quoted in this article will be paid up front?

Transfer fees quoted in rumours like this are always a load of bollox, anyways. This figure was probably calculated as "Fellaini + a few extra mill" and is essentially meaningless.

The kid is a talent though. I certainly don't find it half as hee-laar-eee-us as some to find us being linked with him (and no, you're not the main culprit, not by a long stretch)
 
Sarni said:
We paid less and Anderson was regarded as one of the top talents around. He had the reputation, as brophs has already said.
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Just because there aren't a few youtube vids of him in action, it doesn't mean he isn't highly rated in the football world.

Also its my understanding that the deal for Anderson could eventually reach just over £20m.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
And the (alleged) 24 million yo yos quoted in this article will be paid up front?

Transfer fees quoted in rumours like this are always a load of bollox, anyways. This figure was probably calculated as "Fellaini + a few extra mill" and is essentially meaningless.

The kid is a talent though. I certainly don't find it half as hee-laar-eee-us as some to find us being linked with him (and no, you're not the main culprit, not by a long stretch)
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Indeed. In each of my posts, I did mention that at the fee mentioned, it was too much. If it was a lower fee, then that's another issue, I'm only commenting on what was in the original story/post, without speculating as to the potential structure of any deal. Whether it will be paid up front or not, I guess we would only find out if/when he signed(although, you're right, it's unlikely).

WeWonItTwoTimes said:
All of 20 appearances wasn't it? He only had a slightly bigger reputation I'd say.

Any potential deal for Witsel would also be highly dependent on success-related add-ons.
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That's slightly misrepresentative, given that he broke his leg and was out for(from memory) the guts of a season with Porto. And he did have a much bigger reputation, anyone who followed Portugese/South American football will tell you that.
 
A player coming through as a youngster and being highly regarded in his home country of Brazil, is something completely different to the same thing happening in a country like Belgium.

Chances are a young wonderkid from Brazil will go far, like the many have done before him. Its a bigger leap of faith for a young belgian kid, to expect him to achieve quite as much. Especially given there are 3 young players that were at Liege - Fellaini, Defour and Witsel. Are we to expect all 3 of them to reach the top level and have great careers? Its possible of course, but not too likely.

Fellaini has been capped 12 times for Belgium, Defour 16 and Witsel 5 making him the least experienced of the trio who broke through into Liege's midfield. He's also the youngest, which is certainly one of the reasons for that. But obviously the other two right now are considered to be better players by the national manager.

If we're going for him its most likely because of his versatility given that our best and most verstatile midfielder looks like he's going to be injured for sections of each season.
 
I heard his right hand is equally as good as his right ear. If thats not just a rumour - i think we're onto a winner with this one lads...... hoooooooray hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooray hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooray :lol::lol:
 
Pogue Mahone said:
You're saying this kids isn't highly rated?

Do you know something that the scouts at United, Chelsea and City don't?
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He's not as highly rated as Anderson.

Scouts at United, Chelsea and City knew about Anderson. They know about Witsel. They probably know that Robert Lewandowski exists.
 
Sarni said:
He's not as highly rated as Anderson.

Scouts at United, Chelsea and City knew about Anderson. They know about Witsel. They probably know that Robert Lewandowski exists.
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Obviously.

It's quite possible for a youngster to be highly rated, without being as highly rated as Anderson. More to the point, does every kid we sign - from now on - have to be as highly rated as Anderson, in order for you not to take the piss out of him? :confused:
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Obviously.

Does every kid we sign - from now on - have to be as highly rated as Anderson, in order for you not to take the piss out of him? :confused:
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Not the point here.

He's not as highly rated as Anderson thus paying £15m for Anderson does not justify paying £18m for him.

A bid like that was also not made.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Obviously.

It's quite possible for a youngster to be highly rated, without being as highly rated as Anderson. More to the point, does every kid we sign - from now on - have to be as highly rated as Anderson, in order for you not to take the piss out of him? :confused:
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Still missing the point.

But yes, I'd like most of purchased players to be as talented as Anderson. No point in signing them if they aren't.
 
Sarni said:
Not the point here.
He's not as highly rated as Anderson thus paying £15m for Anderson does not justify paying £18m for him.

A bid like that was also not made.
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We're not paying £18m for him. We haven't paid a fecking penny for him. Do you really believe every online transfer rumour you read? The fee is meaningless, until such time as a new player signs on the dotted line and the club confirms a fee,

The fact remains that this kid is highly rated. If you seriously expect every future youngster we sign to be as highly rated as Anderson was, you're in for a lot of disappointments.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
We're not paying £18m for him. We haven't paid a fecking penny for him. Do you really believe every online transfer rumour you read? The fee is meaningless, until such time as a new player signs on the dotted line and the club confirms a fee,

The fact remains that this kid is highly rated. If you seriously expect every future youngster we sign to be as highly rated as Anderson was, you're in for a lot of disappointments.
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We can only refer to the rumors we are given in this thread, and in a reference to a rumor saying that we've made a bid worth about £18m having a bit of laugh is justified. In fact, having a bit of laugh is rarely wrong.

I do expect United to buy quality players. I am disappointed each time we end up signing a player whose quality does not quite go in pair with the quality of the rest of team.
 
Sarni said:
It does though.
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No, no it really doesn't.

By ''football world'' I meant those people who are actively involved in scouting for new talent, not what caftards have discovered on the latest version of champ man. For all you know he might be extremely highly rated by football people, more so than Anderson ever was, and the fact that major clubs are at the very least keeping tabs on him suggests this might be the case.

He doesn't have cool hair though (thanks for that one Pogue) so he can't possibly have ever been rated as high as Ando.
 
WeWonItTwoTimes said:
No, no it really doesn't.

By ''football world'' I meant those people who are actively involved in scouting for new talent, not what caftards have discovered on the latest version of champ man. For all you know he might be extremely highly rated by football people, more so than Anderson ever was, and the fact that major clubs are at the very least keeping tabs on him suggests this might be the case.

He doesn't have cool hair though (thanks for that one Pogue) so he can't possibly have ever been rated as high as Ando.
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There aren't many players who play on a regular basis for their clubs and remain relatively unnoticed to a wider audience and then become superstars after they move on. Especially when you have the access to the Internet in almost every country and people upload videos of every other player all the time.

You can hardly keep a player a secret if you play him week in week out. Unless you order him to go out there and not play to the full extent of his abilities which would be a stupid thing to do in fairness.

His hair has obviously nothing to do with how highly he's rated, just the same way player's name has nothing to do with how highly he's rated unlike some of people would have us believe.
 
Sarni said:
There aren't many players who play on a regular basis for their clubs and remain relatively unnoticed to a wider audience and then become superstars after they move on. Especially when you have the access to the Internet in almost every country and people upload videos of every other player all the time.

You can hardly keep a player a secret if you play him week in week out. Unless you order him to go out there and not play to the full extent of his abilities which would be a stupid thing to do in fairness.

His hair has obviously nothing to do with how highly he's rated, just the same way player's name has nothing to do with how highly he's rated unlike some of people would have us believe.
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:lol:

You're not seriously implying that youtube videos really are a useful way of spotting the best up and coming footballers? :confused:
 
Pogue Mahone said:
:lol:

You're not seriously implying that youtube videos really are a useful way of spotting the best up and coming footballers? :confused:
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Of course not. That's Football Manager.

Youtube is just for confirming your suspicions.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
:lol:

You're not seriously implying that youtube videos really are a useful way of spotting the best up and coming footballers? :confused:
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They aren't reliable but they give you an idea of an upcoming footballer who may become a star. It seems that every single talented player out there has one nowadays, it obviously does not mean they are all great and they cannot be judged on the basis of a youtube video at all.

I have no idea if Witsel has one or not. If he doesn't, like it's been implied, then there must be something wrong because every other talent we've been linked to recently had a youtube clip.

If nobody makes a youtube of you, you are a miserable footballer.
 
He does, so he's quite clearly awesome from watching this brilliant youtube vid!!1!

 
Brwned said:
He does, so he's quite clearly awesome from watching this brilliant youtube vid!!1!

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He's not totally anonymous then.

And there are fancy clips of him on youtube, so there goes the argument that he's not as highly rated as Anderson because of the lack of clips.
 
Sarni said:
There aren't many players who play on a regular basis for their clubs and remain relatively unnoticed to a wider audience and then become superstars after they move on. Especially when you have the access to the Internet in almost every country and people upload videos of every other player all the time.

You can hardly keep a player a secret if you play him week in week out. Unless you order him to go out there and not play to the full extent of his abilities which would be a stupid thing to do in fairness.

His hair has obviously nothing to do with how highly he's rated, just the same way player's name has nothing to do with how highly he's rated unlike some of people would have us believe.
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I highly doubt many of the 'tards on here including your good self watch Belgian football on a regular basis so a player such as Witsel could easily escape the attention of those aforementioned 'tards.

Would you have rated him higher if tribal had previously linked him to other clubs?
 
WeWonItTwoTimes said:
Would you have rated him higher if tribal had previously linked him to other clubs?
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In fact they did link him to other clubs, as did many different sources. That does not change the fact that I have not yet heard a valid opinion from anyone who watches Belgian football that would suggest he's worth £18m or could in fact be valued at £18m by his current employers.
 
WeWonItTwoTimes said:
He may well be though, just not by gimps like yourself.
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Feel free to throw some more insults if it makes you feel more comfortable in discussion.

All right, then I'm a gimp and a 'tard but you are the one who makes up things in this thread. First you claimed he'd be rated higher if he had a youtube clip, which he has. Now you claimed he'd be rated higher if he was linked to numerous clubs, which he was.

He's not rated as highly as Anderson.
 
Sarni said:
Feel free to throw some more insults if it makes you feel more comfortable in discussion.

All right, then I'm a gimp and a 'tard but you are the one who makes up things in this thread. First you claimed he'd be rated higher if he had a youtube clip, which he has. Now you claimed he'd be rated higher if he was linked to numerous clubs, which he was.

He's not rated as highly as Anderson.
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Clearly on a very limited amount of evidence you've come to that conclusion. Now of course you may well be right that others also don't rate him as highly as Anderson but equally so you could be wrong.

I pointed out the possible lack of youtube clips and tribal articles to ridicule the idea that those two factors have any bearing whatsoever on how highly rated a player is by real ''football people''*, justifiably so I would say.

* You aren't one of them btw, you're just a gimp from the internet. ;)
 
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