Matthijs de Ligt / signs for Juventus, lowering their average age to 56

[Ekeke]

I didnt think he was that good honestly. Daley Blind did the vast majority of the defending on the floor and in the air. De Ligt made 0 tackles, 0 interceptions, 5 clearances to Blind's 9 and 4 headers to Blind's 8. The small amount he did do he did fine and obviously he's very young, 9 years younger than Blind.

But for me it was an average performance, next to someone putting in a great performance - Blind

 

[Adam-Utd]

He is not better than Lindelof on the ball?

He's pretty comfortable on the ball. Much more comfortable than Smalling / Jones anyway.

 

[passing-wind]

I feel like we have missed this opportunity he should have been signed after the final, I don't buy this he wouldn't have been sold theory Ajax are a selling club.

It just goes to show how incompetent the board are, the only good viable prospect signings made in almost a decade with Woodward at the helm has been Martial. Everyone else has not improved our starting 11, or shown the capabilities to become world class.

 

[Jim Reaper]

I feel like we have missed this opportunity he should have been signed after the final, I don't buy this he wouldn't have been sold theory Ajax are a selling club.

It just goes to show how incompetent the board are, the only good viable prospect signings made in almost a decade with Woodward at the helm has been Martial. Everyone else has not improved our starting 11, or shown the capabilities to become world class.

herrera, pogba, lindelof, shaw...have all improved the team and atleast 3 of those can be classed as prospects. Dalot is also a good prospect and imo is an improvement on Young and Valencia.

 

[Heista]

I feel like we have missed this opportunity he should have been signed after the final, I don't buy this he wouldn't have been sold theory Ajax are a selling club.

It just goes to show how incompetent the board are, the only good viable prospect signings made in almost a decade with Woodward at the helm has been Martial. Everyone else has not improved our starting 11, or shown the capabilities to become world class.

Maybe you could have bought them after the final. But if Ajax is unwilling, than most likely they would have asked a sum that United at that time would not be willing to pay.

We do not need the money. We need quality on the field. We can refuse any offer, but outrageous offers might be hard to refuse.

 

[deadrevelz]

I dont get this obsession with having that of a young team. Like its a purpose in itself.
Its fine and completely great to have young players in the squad but to challenge for the PL and the CL one needs a balanced squad age-wise. We already have one of the youngest squads in the top-6. In many ways our rebuilding has already been done, with players like Martial, Lindelof, Lingard, Shaw and Rashford. Pogba and Lukaku are relatively young as well.
I would certainly not object to get Koulibaly in instead of De Ligt for example. Or even Bale instead of Sancho.
There are other transfer windows coming up and new great prospects will appear next season already. To just buy every hot prospect available this moment in time is stupid IMO. There needs to be squad management.

I'm not obsessed with youth. De Ligt is currently playing as well as Koulibaly, so why would you spend the same amount on a much older player? That's absurd. Sancho is playing really well and we don't have a right winger, again, just common sense. The fact that they are young is just a bonus. Signing Bale instead of Sancho is laughable. He is past it, always injured, has no motivation and turned us down previously. What a terrible signing that would be.

We already have De Gea, Smalling, Herrera, Matic, Young and Pogba, all of whom have plenty of experience. Rashford, Martial and Shaw have played a lot of football for young players.

 

[deadrevelz]

I'm more interested in how sick it would be. You should only build for the future in football, as an aspiring top European side, whilst also planning to succeed right now. No team stays together long enough for a five year plan to be enough in and of itself. It's great that they're young, but I prefer to ignore the age thing and just look at this:

Martial Rashford Sancho
Pogba
Matic Herrera
Shaw De Ligt Lindelof Dalot
De Gea
​

And consider that on paper that team is in with a shot of winning any trophy going, including the CL. The fact that they might still be around to do it again six years later (minor tweaks allowing) is just a bonus.

Pleeeaaaaase Woody...

I agree that team looks great on paper regardless of age. I also think Woodward is more likely to sanction a transfer for a young player who will keep his value, so although it's unlikely we get De Ligt and Sancho, for the most part we will be sticking to this model.

 

[Johan07]

I'm not obsessed with youth. De Ligt is currently playing as well as Koulibaly, so why would you spend the same amount on a much older player? That's absurd. Sancho is playing really well and we don't have a right winger, again, just common sense. The fact that they are young is just a bonus. Signing Bale instead of Sancho is laughable. He is past it, always injured, has no motivation and turned us down previously. What a terrible signing that would be.

We already have De Gea, Smalling, Herrera, Matic, Young and Pogba, all of whom have plenty of experience. Rashford, Martial and Shaw have played a lot of football for young players.

Paying a transfer fee is not spending, its investing. Paying wages is spending. Koulibaly is still young enough as a CB that his asset value wont decrease that much over four or five years.
I would prefer Koulibaly for three reasons:
- Even if De Ligt is a great talent; IMO Koulibaly is the superior player of the two today. And he would bring experience.
- Koulibaly would fit the age structure in the squad better. We have two young centerbacks in Lindelof and Bailly already. Tuanzebe should be brought back in the team next season. We cant go into next season with 4 CBs under 25 years of age. If for no other reason that they need to play.
If Bailly wants to leave, fine. Another story.
- Koulibaly plays LCB. Currently all of our CBs preferred position is RCB, except Rojo who will probably leave in the summer. Victor can play LCB but he is much better to the right. It would bring more balance to the squad. De Ligt is RCB.

That said I would not complain if we did end up with De Ligt. Great prospect, dont get me wrong. For the reasons above I would prefer Koulibaly though.

 

[Macern]

Paying a transfer fee is not spending, its investing. Paying wages is spending. Koulibaly is still young enough as a CB that his asset value wont decrease that much over four or five years.
I would prefer Koulibaly for three reasons:
- Even if De Ligt is a great talent; IMO Koulibaly is the superior player of the two today. And he would bring experience.
- Koulibaly would fit the age structure in the squad better. We have two young centerbacks in Lindelof and Bailly already. Tuanzebe should be brought back in the team next season. We cant go into next season with 4 CBs under 25 years of age. If for no other reason that they need to play.
If Bailly wants to leave, fine. Another story.
- Koulibaly plays LCB. Currently all of our CBs preferred position is RCB, except Rojo who will probably leave in the summer. Victor can play LCB but he is much better to the right. It would bring more balance to the squad. De Ligt is RCB.

That said I would not complain if we did end up with De Ligt. Great prospect, dont get me wrong. For the reasons above I would prefer Koulibaly though.

Koulibaly turns 28 in the summer, how is his value not going to decrease much in 4-5 years?
I also don’t understand how Koulibaly’s age is an advantage to him compared to De Ligt’s age. Because he would fit the ‘age structure’, that’s ridiculous imo. De Ligt is a proper leader, already captain for Ajax and he speaks English which I don’t think Koulibaly does. He’s only 19, already playing at a top level and will be even more valuable in say 8 years. Koulibaly will be 35 by then.

It’s about time we start signing players the Fergie way which means looking for young players and thinking long term. If they’re good enough they’re old enough.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Koulibaly turns 28 in the summer, how is his value not going to decrease much in 4-5 years?
I also don’t understand how Koulibaly’s age is an advantage to him compared to De Ligt’s age. Because he would fit the ‘age structure’, that’s ridiculous imo. De Ligt is a proper leader, already captain for Ajax and he speaks English which I don’t think Koulibaly does. He’s only 19, already playing at a top level and will be even more valuable in say 8 years. Koulibaly will be 35 by then.

It’s about time we start signing players the Fergie way which means looking for young players and thinking long term. If they’re good enough they’re old enough.

Kids like: RVN, RVP,Owen Hargreaves,Yorke,Sheringham,Cantona,Blanc,Barthez,VDS...

For every young player he signed there's a few experienced players in there

 

[deadrevelz]

Paying a transfer fee is not spending, its investing. Paying wages is spending. Koulibaly is still young enough as a CB that his asset value wont decrease that much over four or five years.
I would prefer Koulibaly for three reasons:
- Even if De Ligt is a great talent; IMO Koulibaly is the superior player of the two today. And he would bring experience.
- Koulibaly would fit the age structure in the squad better. We have two young centerbacks in Lindelof and Bailly already. Tuanzebe should be brought back in the team next season. We cant go into next season with 4 CBs under 25 years of age. If for no other reason that they need to play.
If Bailly wants to leave, fine. Another story.
- Koulibaly plays LCB. Currently all of our CBs preferred position is RCB, except Rojo who will probably leave in the summer. Victor can play LCB but he is much better to the right. It would bring more balance to the squad. De Ligt is RCB.

That said I would not complain if we did end up with De Ligt. Great prospect, dont get me wrong. For the reasons above I would prefer Koulibaly though.

Fair enough, I too wouldn't be upset if we got Koulibaly, he looks a great player. De Ligt is a very mature player though for his age, already captain of his team. I don't think he is the kind of player who would need an arm around him.

I disagree that transfer fee isn't spending, especially when it comes to older players. Not sure what you mean by that - it's clear that De Ligt would increase in value while Koulibaly would decrease in 5 years. Financially the club care about value, so by extension so do the fans, because we know the owners are more likely to invest in a player who can serve us for many years or be sold at a profit.

 

[Beagle]

I think at this point the question is not whether this guy (or any other young world class talent) is good enough for United but the other way around.

Is United good enough for these players? Finishing top 4 in the league, without a league title for 6 years, without a CL for over a decade; a young player who is not a local will hardly ever choose United if the real top dogs of Europe are sniffing around. It's just how things are when you look past the biggest club in the world smokescreen. Until the team starts challenging for the domestic league, it'd be very hard to compete with other clubs over transfers.

 

[sam147]

I'm more interested in how sick it would be. You should only build for the future in football, as an aspiring top European side, whilst also planning to succeed right now. No team stays together long enough for a five year plan to be enough in and of itself. It's great that they're young, but I prefer to ignore the age thing and just look at this:

Martial Rashford Sancho
Pogba
Matic Herrera
Shaw De Ligt Lindelof Dalot
De Gea
​

And consider that on paper that team is in with a shot of winning any trophy going, including the CL. The fact that they might still be around to do it again six years later (minor tweaks allowing) is just a bonus.

Pleeeaaaaase Woody...

That team is no where near winning the champions league. Ronaldo scored 40+ goals, Bale 20+, Benzema and Asensio 10+ and others in midfield scoring 5+. To put that into perspective our top scorer last season had 27 and he isnt even in the lineup you put out. The 'You cant win anything with kids' narrative has been flipped on its head by fans, who now think a team that inexperienced can challenge. The CO92 had ready made experienced players to help them. That front trio has nowhere near enough output, Rashford is on 9 goals. The key factor is consistency and out of that trio only Sancho has shown it in his league. Rashford is hit and miss on the days he wants to be clinical, Martial goes missing in games far too often when things dont go well. De Ligt will still need to develop, he is better than Jones and co. However, he is not going to have a Van Dijk effect instantly. Shaw hasn't proved he can stay fit for a full season and even if he does we still need another LB as we only have one left footer. That team might be able to win trophies in 3-4 years or so but on paper thats a worse team then Man City and Liverpool. Pogba is currently carrying our team in terms of creativity, our players are already young and need to develop. We should be thinking about winning the league before challenging for the CL.

 

[Bwuk]

I think at this point the question is not whether this guy (or any other young world class talent) is good enough for United but the other way around.

Is United good enough for these players? Finishing top 4 in the league, without a league title for 6 years, without a CL for over a decade; a young player who is not a local will hardly ever choose United if the real top dogs of Europe are sniffing around. It's just how things are when you look past the biggest club in the world smokescreen. Until the team starts challenging for the domestic league, it'd be very hard to compete with other clubs over transfers.

Depends what he wants. If he wants game time, he'd start every week for us.

Not sure that's a guarantee at every other club.

 

[westmeath]

I'm more interested in how sick it would be. You should only build for the future in football, as an aspiring top European side, whilst also planning to succeed right now. No team stays together long enough for a five year plan to be enough in and of itself. It's great that they're young, but I prefer to ignore the age thing and just look at this:

Martial Rashford Sancho
Pogba
Matic Herrera
Shaw De Ligt Lindelof Dalot
De Gea
​

And consider that on paper that team is in with a shot of winning any trophy going, including the CL. The fact that they might still be around to do it again six years later (minor tweaks allowing) is just a bonus.

Pleeeaaaaase Woody...

It’s a bit off topic but that midfield won’t win sh*t, no chance.

 

[Macern]

Kids like: RVN, RVP,Owen Hargreaves,Yorke,Sheringham,Cantona,Blanc,Barthez,VDS...

For every young player he signed there's a few experienced players in there

Of course he didn’t just sign young players. I think he had a rule of not paying above a certain fee for players aged >28 or whatever, which he only broke when signing RVP. Of course, when he could get a very good player in a very good deal who wasn’t young he’d go for it. But I think the United way of handling transfers is to primarily be looking at signing young players and to always think long term.

 

[Adam-Utd]

It’s a bit off topic but that midfield won’t win sh*t, no chance.

I think Matic will be phased out next for a more energetic/quicker player but Herrera and Pogba are fine. We really need to look for another De Jong.

 

[Nick.]

Barca are a threat for his signature but reports have indicated that real Madrid will sign Eder Militao so they might not be competition. Either way, I don't think were getting Mathijs de Ligt unfortunately.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Barca are a threat for his signature but reports have indicated that real Madrid will sign Eder Militao so they might not be competition. Either way, I don't think were getting Mathijs de Ligt unfortunately.

On a converse view,no one said we're after him apart from some newspaper chit chat

 

[davidmichael]

I didnt think he was that good honestly. Daley Blind did the vast majority of the defending on the floor and in the air. De Ligt made 0 tackles, 0 interceptions, 5 clearances to Blind's 9 and 4 headers to Blind's 8. The small amount he did do he did fine and obviously he's very young, 9 years younger than Blind.

But for me it was an average performance, next to someone putting in a great performance - Blind

Last night made me hate the fact we sold Blind, can you imagine him in this current team ? Left footed, left sided, ball playing centre back with a range of passing good enough to play in midfield but yet another thing Jose went wrong with as Blind even made Smalling look like Vidic when they were playing together.

 

[yo@Kirk]

It's been reported that Ajax want Timothy Fosu-Mensah to replace Matthijs de Ligt. Seems like a TFM plus a lot of cash for de Ligt deal could be worked out. I doubt de Ligt would turn down a move to Manchester United now that a leader of men like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is in charge. Recruiting a player with de Ligt's immense talent and leadership qualities would be the ideal first signing for Ole's Man Utd tenure.

 

[United_We_Stand]

“We have to talk about it from March (signing De Ligt), which is when we take the decisions, but his name is on the table, of course,” said Bartomeu to SER Catalunya radio.

 

[izec]

If Barca get him, jeez. Their biggest weakness would be their manager, squad wise, they are miles ahead piling up top players and talents.

 

[marktan]

That team is no where near winning the champions league. Ronaldo scored 40+ goals, Bale 20+, Benzema and Asensio 10+ and others in midfield scoring 5+. To put that into perspective our top scorer last season had 27 and he isnt even in the lineup you put out. The 'You cant win anything with kids' narrative has been flipped on its head by fans, who now think a team that inexperienced can challenge. The CO92 had ready made experienced players to help them. That front trio has nowhere near enough output, Rashford is on 9 goals. The key factor is consistency and out of that trio only Sancho has shown it in his league. Rashford is hit and miss on the days he wants to be clinical, Martial goes missing in games far too often when things dont go well. De Ligt will still need to develop, he is better than Jones and co. However, he is not going to have a Van Dijk effect instantly. Shaw hasn't proved he can stay fit for a full season and even if he does we still need another LB as we only have one left footer. That team might be able to win trophies in 3-4 years or so but on paper thats a worse team then Man City and Liverpool. Pogba is currently carrying our team in terms of creativity, our players are already young and need to develop. We should be thinking about winning the league before challenging for the CL.

And Ronaldo at 18 was nowhere near where he was at 22. At that time people wanted Fergie out. The point is you need to give young players, especially ones like Sancho, time to develop.
I agree on Martial but Sancho and Rashford will only grow. Rashford's scored a load of goals since he's been actually played as a striker under Ole. Pogba's on his way to 20 goals. Sancho's on his way to 10+ goals at 18. If Rashford and Sancho don't become regular 20+ goal players I'd be very surprised.

 

[onemanarmy]

I think he'll go to Barcelona, it's where every young Dutch player dreams off it seems. If they can afford him of course.

 

[AltiUn]

If Barca get him, jeez. Their biggest weakness would be their manager, squad wise, they are miles ahead piling up top players and talents.

Think they're stockpiling for when Messi inevitably decides it's time to hang up his boots and probably are looking at trying to get a CL or two in before he leaves, also this way they won't feel the Messi-sized hole in the team as much as Madrid do with Ronaldo. Although, while it looks good on paper they'll still be noticeably a worse team once he goes.

 

[sam147]

And Ronaldo at 18 was nowhere near where he was at 22. At that time people wanted Fergie out. The point is you need to give young players, especially ones like Sancho, time to develop.
I agree on Martial but Sancho and Rashford will only grow. Rashford's scored a load of goals since he's been actually played as a striker under Ole. Pogba's on his way to 20 goals. Sancho's on his way to 10+ goals at 18. If Rashford and Sancho don't become regular 20+ goal players I'd be very surprised.

I agree, I said in the long term it would work. But in the short term it is not a team that will challenge for the CL. I would be ecstatic if we sign De Ligt because like Mbappe he is a youngster who is mature beyond his age. Rashford needs to improve in my opinion, he has scored 9 goals, 8 of those with his right foot. He has really poor heading for a striker. He loses his head a lot when we go a goal down, he needs to learn to play simple rather then trying to dribble past 5 players each time. Luckily for him we have Ole as manager who will do wonders for his development, a lot needs to be done before he is a title winning striker.

 

[Beagle]

Depends what he wants. If he wants game time, he'd start every week for us.

Not sure that's a guarantee at every other club.

It will also help a lot if we finish top 4.

Also I think he can easily get around 15-20 games for the other top teams compared to 35-40 at United barring injuries. He won't be a benchwarmer wherever he goes.

 

[Bwuk]

It will also help a lot if we finish top 4.

Also I think he can easily get around 15-20 games for the other top teams compared to 35-40 at United barring injuries. He won't be a benchwarmer wherever he goes.

A player of his ability shouldn’t be playing 15 - 20 games. He should be starting every week.

 

[Canagel]

Paying a transfer fee is not spending, its investing. Paying wages is spending. Koulibaly is still young enough as a CB that his asset value wont decrease that much over four or five years.
I would prefer Koulibaly for three reasons:
- Even if De Ligt is a great talent; IMO Koulibaly is the superior player of the two today. And he would bring experience.
- Koulibaly would fit the age structure in the squad better. We have two young centerbacks in Lindelof and Bailly already. Tuanzebe should be brought back in the team next season. We cant go into next season with 4 CBs under 25 years of age. If for no other reason that they need to play.
If Bailly wants to leave, fine. Another story.
- Koulibaly plays LCB. Currently all of our CBs preferred position is RCB, except Rojo who will probably leave in the summer. Victor can play LCB but he is much better to the right. It would bring more balance to the squad. De Ligt is RCB.

That said I would not complain if we did end up with De Ligt. Great prospect, dont get me wrong. For the reasons above I would prefer Koulibaly though.

I'm of this opinion too. experience at the back is vital. look at what the likes of T silva, Godin , even VVD are doing for their teams. I don't agree on Bale at all however. hes washed up and well past his best .theres more risks buying old attackers like we just did with Sanchez than older defenders.

 

[Bobcat]

Seem to remember loads of people here were really impressed with him when we played Ajax in the Europa League final. Shame we didn't snap him up sooner. If we get him now hes going to be a lot more expensive now than he was two years ago

 

[Keeps It tidy]

Paying a transfer fee is not spending, its investing. Paying wages is spending. Koulibaly is still young enough as a CB that his asset value wont decrease that much over four or five years.
I would prefer Koulibaly for three reasons:
- Even if De Ligt is a great talent; IMO Koulibaly is the superior player of the two today. And he would bring experience.
- Koulibaly would fit the age structure in the squad better. We have two young centerbacks in Lindelof and Bailly already. Tuanzebe should be brought back in the team next season. We cant go into next season with 4 CBs under 25 years of age. If for no other reason that they need to play.
If Bailly wants to leave, fine. Another story.
- Koulibaly plays LCB. Currently all of our CBs preferred position is RCB, except Rojo who will probably leave in the summer. Victor can play LCB but he is much better to the right. It would bring more balance to the squad. De Ligt is RCB.

That said I would not complain if we did end up with De Ligt. Great prospect, dont get me wrong. For the reasons above I would prefer Koulibaly though.

Do you consider John Stones and Aymeric Laporte young defenders? Because they are the same age as Bailly and Lindelof.

 

[Pass and Move]

I'm of this opinion too. experience at the back is vital. look at what the likes of T silva, Godin , even VVD are doing for their teams. I don't agree on Bale at all however. hes washed up and well past his best .theres more risks buying old attackers like we just did with Sanchez than older defenders.

Well you’ve just named three CBs who have not won the CL.

 

[Keeps It tidy]

Well you’ve just named three CBs who have not won the CL.

Well only Varane and Ramos have won CL titles recently.

 

[Johan07]

Do you consider John Stones and Aymeric Laporte young defenders? Because they are the same age as Bailly and Lindelof.

Absolutely they are young. If there is any position where experience is crucial its at CB. City has a good age structure on their CBs with Kompany and Otamendi and Mangala being 28 and over, which is pretty much when a CB comes in to their prime and Laporte and Stones being the young prospects. We have lacked an experienced CB for years and our CBs are still quite young. We only have Smalling and could well do with a player like Koulibaly or even Aldeweireld.

 

[Keeps It tidy]

Absolutely they are young. If there is any position where experience is crucial its at CB. City has a good age structure on their CBs with Kompany and Otamendi and Mangala being 28 and over, which is pretty much when a CB comes in to their prime and Laporte and Stones being the young prospects. We have lacked an experienced CB for years and our CBs are still quite young. We only have Smalling and could well do with a player like Koulibaly or even Aldeweireld.

Not always the case though. Mats Hummels and Jerome Boateng are both around 30 and Bayern are ready to put them out to pasture.

 

[beingshe7don]

I hope Ole gets De Ligt... the only issue would be the asking price... at best, United would try to pay 50m for him.

 

[Brightonian]

It’s a bit off topic but that midfield won’t win sh*t, no chance.

That midfield has produced league-winning form nonstop since Solskjaer started. If our position at that point had been halfway decent, we would be in first place right now.

Yes, Matic will need replacing, but between him, McTominay and possibly Herrera (with Fred taking the box to box role), we'd have plenty in there for a season if it meant getting Sancho and De Ligt.

 

[OGSaviour]

I think he'll go to Barcelona, it's where every young Dutch player dreams off it seems. If they can afford him of course.

pretty much agree with you on this but can't see where Barca can get the money, they over spent on Coutinho and Dembele and won't get half their cash back if they were to sell, and neither look like displacing Messi or Suarez who are slowly getting on and will need replacing in 2 or so years, so unless they win the oil lottery like city or psg they can't keep snapping every great young player up.

 

[Just shoot me]

I hope Ole gets De Ligt... the only issue would be the asking price... at best, United would try to pay 50m for him.

Only 50? I hope United would be willing to go further for a player who's considered to be the next best thing. This is the kind of player that makes other clubs hate you for being able to get him on your side.