Matteo Darmian | LVG confirms he's on his way here for a medical

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Sounds like it's a done deal. What's the fee meant to be? Seen £12.8m somewhere, which is a decent price if he's as good as he's made out to be. Can't say I've seen him play much, if ever.
 
Tarrou said:
It looks like they are just copying Italian journos tbh
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I doubt it. When Der Western & Sky were reporting Gundogan as a done deal, a lot of these guys were quiet and could have easily 'jumped on the back of it'. To me anyway, they've been briefed by the club. Also, they would have cited 'Italian' sources in their articles.
 
Bwuk said:
Sounds like it's a done deal. What's the fee meant to be? Seen £12.8m somewhere, which is a decent price if he's as good as he's made out to be. Can't say I've seen him play much, if ever.
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Sky Italia quoting 18m Euros plus 2 million in add-ons.
 
charleysurf said:
It's not very pretty. But it's not too far to the alps if you want to ski.
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Turin's alright. Not the prettiest city in the world but there are far worse places to live and it seemed very calm and relaxing when I went there. Beautiful scenery too.
 
Strangely exciting. We haven't signed this type of full-back for bloody ages.
 
Nickosaur said:
Why? Because of our injury problems? No other club would class a left winger they had to draft to left back as an option in that position.
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Bloody hell did you your eyes skip over the could even bit?
 
Also the English media are picking it up too now. Just like the Herrera deal.
 
Mainoldo said:
Bloody hell did you your eyes skip over the could even bit?
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You've never known a club to have such a long list of left backs. Let's include players that aren't left backs, that'll make it longer.
 
sullydnl said:
Don't know why but I didn't think we'd actually go after Darmian, even though he was a very obvious choice. Maybe because of our lack of history with Italian players or something.

Anyway, this deal would make a lot of sense. Better player than Clyne, better value than Coleman, has performed well for a big international team, good age, good skill set. All good really.
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Or our lack of history of going for the right players, tout court
 
evra said:
I'd ship out Valencia and have Rafael and Darmain as the two rb's.
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Would make a lot of sense. I imagine a raft of mid table clubs would be after Valencia because even during his miserable spell as a winger most pundits were saying he was Mr Consistency and that he was one of our best performers (I remember a couple of occasions Gary Neville giving him man of the match in games where he was slaughtered on here). He seems to be immune to any sort of criticism in terms of the press (which I've heard translate to certain managers who've spoken about him very positively). I can certainly see West Ham, Villa, West Brom, Stoke etc all bidding up to £10-15m for him.

Not only that he's going to be 30 by the time the season starts; which for a player that relies so heavily on his strength, pace and stamina is quite worrying. He's also on a higher salary than Rafael and judging by Darmian's stats he seems to be pretty damn reliable. Plus there's always the faint hope that Rafael shakes his injury troubles and reaches his potential, in that case we'd have a top class full back for 5 years.
 
Santiago_KinderBueno said:
Rekon if we get him; he might play as a DM. He could then provide cover to the left/right and centre. Heard somewhere he has experience in playing in most defensive positions.
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He can play across the back line but he hasn't played in midfield since his primavera days. We might use him in the center or on the left occasionally but he's joining us primarily as our right back.
 
finneh said:
Would make a lot of sense. I imagine a raft of mid table clubs would be after Valencia because even during his miserable spell as a winger most pundits were saying he was Mr Consistency and that he was one of our best performers (I remember a couple of occasions Gary Neville giving him man of the match in games where he was slaughtered on here). He seems to be immune to any sort of criticism in terms of the press (which I've heard translate to certain managers who've spoken about him very positively). I can certainly see West Ham, Villa, West Brom, Stoke etc all bidding up to £10-15m for him.

Not only that he's going to be 30 by the time the season starts; which for a player that relies so heavily on his strength, pace and stamina is quite worrying. He's also on a higher salary than Rafael and judging by Darmian's stats he seems to be pretty damn reliable. Plus there's always the faint hope that Rafael shakes his injury troubles and reaches his potential, in that case we'd have a top class full back for 5 years.
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My thoughts exactly, Rafael's ceiling is significantly higher and if he's a back-up to Darmain we don't need to rely on him being fit all year. The sight of Rafael marauding forward and linking up beautifully with his winger is one I want to see for Utd again. I'd quite happily never see Valencia cut inside and smash a cross into the opposing LB's shin ever again.
 
evra said:
I'd ship out Valencia and have Rafael and Darmain as the two rb's.
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Rafael can't stay fit, and a backup should be consistent and fit at all time.
 
finneh said:
Would make a lot of sense. I imagine a raft of mid table clubs would be after Valencia because even during his miserable spell as a winger most pundits were saying he was Mr Consistency and that he was one of our best performers (I remember a couple of occasions Gary Neville giving him man of the match in games where he was slaughtered on here). He seems to be immune to any sort of criticism in terms of the press (which I've heard translate to certain managers who've spoken about him very positively). I can certainly see West Ham, Villa, West Brom, Stoke etc all bidding up to £10-15m for him.

Not only that he's going to be 30 by the time the season starts; which for a player that relies so heavily on his strength, pace and stamina is quite worrying. He's also on a higher salary than Rafael and judging by Darmian's stats he seems to be pretty damn reliable. Plus there's always the faint hope that Rafael shakes his injury troubles and reaches his potential, in that case we'd have a top class full back for 5 years.
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I would love it if this happens; however, the chances of it happening are very slim. Valencia is your never injured, typical system player who can follow instructions to the tee, whereas Rafael is an injury prone defender with more natural flair.
 
van der star said:
He can play across the back line but he hasn't played in midfield since his primavera days. We might use him in the center or on the left occasionally but he's joining us primarily as our right back.
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Thanks for the info dude. I havent watched much of him but his biggest strength to me seems his ability to manoeuvre across both widths off the pitch. I mwan from the little I have seen from him, he seems to have literally equak ability to play on both sides even though he prefers the right. Why not put him in a place/position wgere he can potentially play both. As a DM he can split the opposition allowing our defenders to adjust.

Considering our defence plays pretty narrow; him playing in the middle would help the narrowness of our team to manoeuvre towards the side of the opposition attack (starting with darmian).

You never really know what van gaals plans for players are but he does add quakity and quantity to a vast degree of areas of importance.
 
Sir A1ex said:
Still don't understand this opinion. I'm not his biggest fan as a person, but as a player there's very few better up front still.

We do need a top striker - Rooney is getting on and will need replacing, plus we need options / cover etc right now. But when played up front, he 's still top class. Unless you're getting somebody at the level of Aguero or the big La Liga strikers, you're nbot going to improve on him much.
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I like Rooney as a player very much and think he is exceptional quality I'am just not 100% convinced he is at his best when played 100% as a striker nor when he is played 100% as a midfielder. Imo his most natural position is still behind the striker as nr 10 or just as a secondary forward who can swtich between attack and midfield play.

Apart from Agüero I think there are many players better suited than Rooney for the pure striker role. Benzema, Suarez, Lewandowski, Müller, Costa, Cavani Sturridge etc (not long ago I would have included Falcao, RVP and Ibrahimovic but they are past it). For the future I'am thinking about players like Kane, Morrata, Lacazette as more natural strikers. The thing is Rooney can play that position very well and he deserves to be mentioned in that list but he is not one of the best of that list even when in top form. The reason I feel is his lack of goalscoring ability. He can score wonderull goals but not consistenly enough, he only had 1 real top season where they were flying in left right and center and that was in 2009.

The thing is Rooney is a valuable player because he has so many qualities but he doesn't excel at anything particular but he is good at most things and there are few players that are so allround as him. The problem as a striker is the focus is on goals and you lose alot of his other qualities if you restrict him to that forward role. That is why a link up role like secondary striker or as an attacking midfielder makes more sense for a player like him.

Reality will always be that he gets switched between both roles I think. That is also why you need competition and laternatives for those positions. For attacking mid we have plenty with Di Maria and Mata and in the future Januzaj (also Herrera/Fellaini can play there) but for the striker position not. And if we don't bring in a striker we'll be short for alternatives to play there.
 
JPRouve said:
Rafael can't stay fit, and a backup should be consistent and fit at all time.
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I would usually agree, but the fact that Darmian seems not to be injury prone (touches wood) and the fact that we have other players that can do a job at RB for the majority of games, means I'd prefer Rafael. It also makes sense from a longevity point of view, with Rafael 5 years younger than Valencia.

Insanity said:
I would love it if this happens; however, the chances of it happening are very slim. Valencia is your never injured, typical system player who can follow instructions to the tee, whereas Rafael is an injury prone defender with more natural flair.
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Agreed that the chances are slim; which is a real shame as even if there's still only a 5% chance of Rafael getting over his injury troubles and becoming the player we saw during Fergie's last season, then it's worth the risk keeping him (even if he's second choice until he conclusively proved his fitness).
 
Got this one through under the covers and quite quick to ''fee agreed''. Like the sound of him, IF rafael has to go then glad we are trying to replace him.

Would hope we get a decent amount of cash for him (10 mil), but chances are we'll let him go for a lion bar and a new suit for Ed.
 
finneh said:
Agreed that the chances are slim; which is a real shame as even if there's still only a 5% chance of Rafael getting over his injury troubles and becoming the player we saw during Fergie's last season, then it's worth the risk keeping him (even if he's second choice until he conclusively proved his fitness).
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I would too. Like you said, we have Jones or McNair as a cover if need be, it would make sense to keep the younger guy who has displayed his tremendous talent in the past.
 
Depay, Darmian, Schneiderlin and ramos and ill take back everything i said about our transfer policy.
 
Nickosaur said:
You've never known a club to have such a long list of left backs. Let's include players that aren't left backs, that'll make it longer.
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I included one not 10 could be's. Take him out its still a big list. Your acting like I included Denis Irwin to make up the numbers.
 
finneh said:
I would usually agree, but the fact that Darmian seems not to be injury prone (touches wood) and the fact that we have other players that can do a job at RB for the majority of games, means I'd prefer Rafael. It also makes sense from a longevity point of view, with Rafael 5 years younger than Valencia.
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It doesn't matter how non injury prone the starter is, you can't have an injury prone backup that makes no sense, the chance that the backup is injured when you need him is too big.
Rafael can only be see as a starter, you need to play him when you can or just sell him.
 
I think people need to accept that Rafael ship has sailed. He is good going forward but is error prone at the back. He can always have the odd hot headed moment which is hardly what we want at the back. Coupled with his injury issues and the fact that Valencia has not been bad in his absence, I think it's sensible that Valencia remain as backup
 
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