If Mata does leave Chelsea imo it wont be until the summer and even then it might not be to us. Lot of people are going to be disappointed unfortunately
Mata | Mourinho says it's just a Mata of time
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Jamie (@Vault Dweller) are here to talk about United's dreadful home defeat at the hands of Big Ange's Tottenham Hotspur. Should this have been the end of Ten Hag? How long does he actually have left? And does Nik finally want ETH out?!
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Getting Mata would make a lot of sense if Moyes plans to move Shinji - a player he doesn't seem to think to highly of. I'd love for Kagawa to make it here but, man if we could get Mata in and then get Gungodan (or another top quality CM) with Shinji moving the other way - I'd take it in a heartbeat.
Make it happen.
Mata - Rooney - Januzaj
Van Persie
Mata - Rooney - Januzaj
Van Persie
I think there's more chance of devilish becoming a Caf admin than there is of Chelsea selling Mata to us.
What 'United philosophy' is Neville harping on about? Knocking the ball to Valencia and Young out wide? Because that's given us some tantalising results.
I'm sure Mourinho wouldnt want to, but its illegal to refuse (Freedom of movement etc) if the Player pushes for it
Mata - Perfect fit for us - simples
If it helps..... I'll drive down to London myself and bring him back (I'll even throw in petrol money and a packed lunch) !!!
I can't believe there are people who would actually begrudge the club paying £37m for this guy, the cost of not buying him could be so much greater.
Make it happen.
Mata - Kagawa - Januzaj
-------Van Persie
Fixed.
I don't think he'll come to Utd but I can't see him being too happy warming the bench for the rest of the year with the WC coming up.
Still don't get why Mata arriving would be the end for Kagawa. Seems to me he's struggled partly because he doesn't really fit our system. If we had Mata we'd be moving towards a type of football Kagawa would be more comfortable with. I'd say bringing Mata would help us get the most out of Kagawa.
I think Mata is a superb player, but he plays in a position that we don't need a fix in, at least not urgently. Maybe if he came in that'd spell the end for Kagawa, and that's where the room would be, but we've seen how Kagawa struggles when shoved out to the left wing, would the same happen to Mata?
I would suggest that a change in style may be needed to accommodate Mata. Rather than our current formation that uses wingers (usually Young on the left, Valencia on the right), a change to a combination of Mata/Kagawa/Januzaj/Rooney (not necessarily all of them at once) more focused on passing the ball through the middle may be best. In that regard, Mata would certainly be an upgrade on Valencia and Young. Although as Valencia has the second highest number of appearances for an outfield player with 19 (only Evra has more with 21), it would seem that Moyes sees him as a valuable member of the first team squad.
If it were up to me, I'd rather see improvements made in central midfield, leftback, and central defense before signing an attacking midfielder.
I would suggest that a change in style may be needed to accommodate Mata. Rather than our current formation that uses wingers (usually Young on the left, Valencia on the right), a change to a combination of Mata/Kagawa/Januzaj/Rooney (not necessarily all of them at once) more focused on passing the ball through the middle may be best. In that regard, Mata would certainly be an upgrade on Valencia and Young. Although as Valencia has the second highest number of appearances for an outfield player with 19 (only Evra has more with 21), it would seem that Moyes sees him as a valuable member of the first team squad.
If it were up to me, I'd rather see improvements made in central midfield, leftback, and central defense before signing an attacking midfielder.
From the BBC report:
If "more than £35m" means the £37m being bandied about, then really? If he's gettable for that amount then we shouldn't have to think twice.
If "more than £35m" means the £37m being bandied about, then really? If he's gettable for that amount then we shouldn't have to think twice.
I wouldn't begrudge it, but I can see why people would be apprehensive. We've no idea how he's actually fit into our formation and he wouldn't fix any of our biggest problem areas (central midfield, left back, right wing).
By all accounts £37m for a player who isn't actually really a 'solution' to anything is a shitload of cash.
Ballbag reckons this is on like Donkey Kong.
OK, onwards to the next target then.
OK, onwards to the next target then.
£35,000,001
He could be a solution to our shitty wingplay though. Or rather, part of a solution, if getting him means we would move to a more fluid system with 3 attacking midfielders (like Mata - Rooney/Kagawa - Januzaj) with the full backs providing width. If that's the case, he's certainly worth that sort of money. If we'd just stick him out wide in a 4-4-2, we shouldn't even contemplate it.
Arsenal needed a striker and a defender more than they needed Ozil, not saying the same should apply to us, but if a player as good as Mata is available we really should just go for him.
We shouldn't think twice about spending £35m on a player who isn't guaranteed to solve all of our problems? I think you're being rather flippant towards how much money we're talking about.
Balague very rarely has any inside info on Spanish football he just takes bits and pieces from other news outlets. He wont have anything on this one other than opinion.
Thank you lads, I'm happy to have made a positive contribution to your lives.
JUST DO IT WOODWARD
We probably value Mata at £20 million, and no I'm not joking. Our valuations of players are woefully outdated.
I don't think his signing will necessarily be seen as the solution to our problems, but a signing that would inject immediate quality into our first eleven and galvanise the rest of the team by instilling confidence and belief among his teammates - like Ozil did for Arsenal.
By signing Mata, I don't think we would honestly see a drastic improvement in our quality of football, as like you've said, that's a central midfield issue more than anything. It would however easily improve our off the ball movement and creativity and chance creation.
I'm all for the signing, even at that price, he really could be the difference between top four or not and I don't think the importance of a top four place for us this season should be underestimated.
Of course he'd be the solution to most of our non defensive problems because it would indicate a clear change in tactics and a move to something of a 4231 system. If that's the case then I think I'd be pretty comfortable with the personnel we have including Mata for the front 6 and if we could add a LB we'd be laughing. Honestly with the amount of creativity from a 4231 Carrick and either Jones, Fletch or Fellaini would be perfectly acceptable this season for the 2 holding players.
Doesn't mata where he plays, what matas that the team badly needs a lift.
And they still badly need a striker and probably won't win the title if they don't get one!
I love the idea of signing a player as good as Mata, I do, but I don't think it's fair to say we shouldn't think about it or we should just throw the £37m at him and not think of the consequences of doing so. It's a hell of a lot of money for a player that in reality, will only make one of our strongest parts of the squad better rather than helping to fix some of our weakest ones.
Ideally I'd only want the club buying Mata for that price if there was no way of keeping Rooney here, which seems likely to be the case anyway.
Indeed, prior Mourinho's return there this summer.. the thought of Chelsea selling at all would be assumed preposterous, and at 37 or so million... for one of the league's very best performers.. at his age... if that type of fee is putting us off then you have to wonder what the future holds for us.
He's a gentleman off the field to boot, I hope we have a real go at this.
You're basing this on what?
If you base it on the last actual transfer we made than you're clearly wrong. If you're basing it on unconfirmed media reports of what we bod for players in the summer then you're only guessing.
Of course it's legal. He's under contract there and is paid accordingly, it's not like he's a slave. They can just say thay we've not met his valuation and he'd have to wait until the end of his deal to be able to do anything.
Well we have quite a few problems, and no single player is the silver bullet. Rooney, in my view, isn't likely to sign a new contract and we've had creativity problems all year. No-one would've thought twice about calling Mata world class prior to Mourinho's arrival, and he's versatile, proven at every level as well as in the premiership, with great set-piece delivery. Such players aren't available often, and £37m is about the price you'd expect to pay. We need top players first and foremost, and he most certainly is one.
£20m is a lot of money. That'd be a great bid actually. We'd meet in the middle or something silly like that.
Story of our Summer.
Totally agree. We can sort out the midfield in the summer unless we can nab someone like Cabaye for £10 mil (not happening) or bid £60 million for Vidal (not happening). Valencia and Young are destroying us with their attacking play and Mata would be a gigantic improvement on them.
I was annoyed we turned Ozil down, I'd be livid if we said no to Mata if he was available too.
2 holding players feeding quick ball into 4 much more creative forwards makes perfect sense to me. It's a wonderful system and one which would suit our resources much better than anything we currently use.
What about the 'confirmed' media reports of what we bid for players? like £26.5m for Sex fecking Fabregas.
You're sort of assuming that Moyes would actually do all of these lovely new things if we got him though. Can we really be so sure? By all accounts, Moyes strategy so far has been "copy & paste SAF", in almost every way.
I just don't think we're in a particularly strong position to be negotiating. We're in desperate need of quality and everyone knows it. I'd much rather overpay on Mata by £15 mil then spend £15 mil on another squaddie / young player.
He doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.
Giggs is #11 and Rooney is #10, you can't just go taking people's shirt numbers like that, idiot.
He's a much more flexible player than Kagawa so I don't think he should be compared. I've seen him be the outstanding player from the middle, left or right hand side. It won't sort out all our issues but if we were able to get him he would improve us a lot IMO.
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