Pretty happy that we seem to be going all out to get him. I seriously think this guy can be one of the best of his era and it would be a huge signing.
Matthijs de Ligt / signs for Juventus, lowering their average age to 56
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I really don't care how much we throw at him as long as we get him, de ligt and AWB = defence sorted for the next few seasons. Obviously we'll lowball for the pair of them and feck it all up.
'Real intent'. That's gone well so far
I'm more interested in how he would fit into a strategy or style of play...assuming we intend on having one. The scattergun marquee approach has failed - regardless of intent.
Apparently the story of being the poster boy of United's resurgence is something De Ligt likes the sound of. Most Dutch media still put their money on him going to Barcelona, but United are not out of the discussion yet. I would fecking love it, if he went to United. Would be great to see if he can make it in a challenging environment instead of at a club that beats most opposition with 93% possession.
Is you first sentence being reported in the Netherlands?
Why not?
https://www.voetbalprimeur.nl/nieuw...ondanks-mislopen-cl-in-race-voor-de-ligt.html
'Beeld van 'poster boy' bevalt De Ligt: United mag blijven hopen op verdediger' is the headline which means (loosely): Image of being United poster boy entices De Ligt: United can still hope to sign the defender.
Doesn't necessarily mean it's true, but that it's no done deal yet.
edit: ok their source is the daily Telegraph. That's not good is it?
Legends.
I'm just happy that we are making a concerted effort to sign him. Just...don't let him go to Liverpool.
The tone is starting to change in both Spain and Holland. Hmmmmm.
Barca also have signed a huge CB prospect in Todibo ahead of alot clubs.
Even if he chose UNITED I dont see him staying there for a decade. His agent is Raiola and sooner or later he will push for a transfer just to get a bonus. If we get 5 or 6 years I will be happy, but lets sign first.
Someone photoshop de Ligt next to Stam, Vidic, and Rio. Make it go viral on social media to get de Ligt's attention.
'Real intent'. That's gone well so far
I'm more interested in how he would fit into a strategy or style of play...assuming we intend on having one. The scattergun marquee approach has failed - regardless of intent.
We have one of the worlds best goalkeepers and one of the worlds best midfielders. If there is a chance to have one of the worlds best defenders, we should take it with both hands. Style of play/strategy etc is not that difficult, it's football not chess. The problem we've had is that we've selected managers with very different styles and just expected the squads to work.
Even if he chose UNITED I dont see him staying there for a decade. His agent is Raiola and sooner or later he will push for a transfer just to get a bonus. If we get 5 or 6 years I will be happy, but lets sign first.
Raiola is only brokering this deal, he is not his agent usually as far as I have understood it
but yeah, no guarantees he will stay for a decade but getting good 4-6 years out of him would be a great way to start this rebuild and show some intent, might even help lure other players like Sancho
I'd definitely short those barca odds tbh
Oh OK thank you, any other pearls of wisdom you have?
It's your opinion, none of us are privy to whether it's true or false. The fact we are being mentioned regularly is a good sign we are interested at least.
His agent is Barry Hulshoff not Raiola. Raiola has been brought in to get De Ligt the best possible deal i'm assuming, and Hulshoff doesn't have the experience to deal with such elite powerhouses.Even if he chose UNITED I dont see him staying there for a decade. His agent is Raiola and sooner or later he will push for a transfer just to get a bonus. If we get 5 or 6 years I will be happy, but lets sign first.
Starting to think about our centre back position more.
We clearly need players that want to play for United, and are not just coming for the money. De Ligt would just be coming here for the money if we're honest with ourselves. Plus if he's on 250k to start with at 19, then that will ruin the wage structure more than Sanchez! Soon we'll start having Greenwood and Gomes demanding 200k after a few starts in the first team.
However, we need a centre back, and if not De Ligt, then it's probably going to be Maguire. I'm not totally convinced about his quality, but I believe that he'd want to play for United and wouldn't completely break our wage structure.
It's a tough one.
We clearly need players that want to play for United, and are not just coming for the money. De Ligt would just be coming here for the money if we're honest with ourselves. Plus if he's on 250k to start with at 19, then that will ruin the wage structure more than Sanchez! Soon we'll start having Greenwood and Gomes demanding 200k after a few starts in the first team.
However, we need a centre back, and if not De Ligt, then it's probably going to be Maguire. I'm not totally convinced about his quality, but I believe that he'd want to play for United and wouldn't completely break our wage structure.
It's a tough one.
Oops, my bad. I was thinking all the time Raiola is his agent. Thanks for correction.
Looks about right.
Here a few reasons @dove
A) He’ll be joining one of the World’s big 3 clubs.
B) He’ll be earning a shit load
C) He’s needed here more than anywhere else, bedding in time will absolutely be granted.
D) He’s a baby and if United are still shit, in 3 years he can join another top side before he even turns 22.
I could think of a tonne more excellent reasons, but whether or not they’ll be enough I don’t know. We’re certainly not favourites but hell, City weren’t the club anyone expected David Silva or Aguero to join back in the day.
Pretty much what I said. Join us because we offer shit loads of money, leave after 4 years for a club that actually tries to win something.
Why 3-4? If we decide to give him that much (which would be heavily incentive-based, I imagine), we'd definitely aim to sign him onto a long 5< year contract. Aside from that, wages aren't always linear. If he's already one of the top earners, he wouldn't really have much negotiation room when it comes to getting more. Especially when there wouldn't be many teams with the money to outdo us wage-wise.
If we sign him and we're not challenging for major trophies in 4 years time, he'd be absolutely right to move on, as he would have been sold a lie.
This would he fine if De Gea and Pogba were happy to stay and we were not a team stacked with average players. I think he comes here only for big cash and assurances other big players will sign this summer also, otherwise why bother even if you are still very young?
No one wants to fight to stay in the top 6 which is what we will be doing without some top class additions besides De Ligt. Don't get me wrong this is what the club may have done and are currently doing but I highly doubt it.
Offer him what he wants to sign, offer him the captaincy and tell him he’ll be our leader so he’ll have all the money and responsibility he wants.
In a couple of years time De Ligt will be the best centre back in world football and could realistically be our leader for 10-15 years but in a worst case scenario we’d make money on selling him on at much later date if he did want to leave, this a non brainer.
As I said in the Meunier thread we keep thinking so short term with things in keep signing 28-29 year old players that mean we need to look at replacements within a year or persevering with them way past their best so our standards slip, we need to think in the long term again.
Signings like De Ligt, Wan-Bissaka, Rice, Sancho, Felix and the young Brazilian kid Pedro are exactly the type of signings we should be making as they’re the best young talent around and they also are hungry. I don’t want to see us used as a pension fund for players that couldn’t give a feck anymore or past their best, I want to see players with passion and drive to be the best that push the club forward.
If we only signed De Ligt, Wan-Bissaka, Rice and Sancho this summer whilst letting Valencia, Fosu-Mensah, Darmian, Bailly, Rojo, Herrera, Mata, Sanchez and Wilson all go then I’d be very happy with that summer transfer business.
In a couple of years time De Ligt will be the best centre back in world football and could realistically be our leader for 10-15 years but in a worst case scenario we’d make money on selling him on at much later date if he did want to leave, this a non brainer.
As I said in the Meunier thread we keep thinking so short term with things in keep signing 28-29 year old players that mean we need to look at replacements within a year or persevering with them way past their best so our standards slip, we need to think in the long term again.
Signings like De Ligt, Wan-Bissaka, Rice, Sancho, Felix and the young Brazilian kid Pedro are exactly the type of signings we should be making as they’re the best young talent around and they also are hungry. I don’t want to see us used as a pension fund for players that couldn’t give a feck anymore or past their best, I want to see players with passion and drive to be the best that push the club forward.
If we only signed De Ligt, Wan-Bissaka, Rice and Sancho this summer whilst letting Valencia, Fosu-Mensah, Darmian, Bailly, Rojo, Herrera, Mata, Sanchez and Wilson all go then I’d be very happy with that summer transfer business.
Nobody underrates the size and scope of Man Utd better than this forum does.
You'd think we were trying to convince him to join Palace with the amount of why come here? Posts in this thread.
You'd think we were trying to convince him to join Palace with the amount of why come here? Posts in this thread.
It seems we are hoping to get him for merc money using Raiola, but in this case it wouldn't worry me as I don't see him wanting the most money possible altering the mentality with which he approaches his football, he's that good.
Zlatan and Lindelöf were terrific signings. Lukaku has been alright, dropped off a bit. Pogba is our best player despite all the frustrations.
The rest I'm quite meh about, Martial needs to do some adulting.
All I've been hearing is we shouldn't be going for players who are only interested in the money.
What's the fecking difference here then?
What's the fecking difference here then?
We should go all in with a high salary offer to him. He won’t come, but at least we will make Barcelona or City spend a substantial portion of their transfer budget on this one player, and not be able to compete with us for James, Longstaff or Sessegnon.
No white text?
Unfortunately no. The state of our club.
If he is on very high wages there is no guarantee he gets more.
It would be great to get him through the door. Who knows we may get back to our winning ways sooner rather than later and he mightn’t even want to leave. Getting him through the door is the important bit.
Oh yes! Can I come too?
I'd like to make an addition to this comment, because the words "seem to have a leadership mentality" is perhaps the understatement of the century.
Matthijs de Ligt is the Captain of Ajax. He's aged 19, that makes him the 4th youngest player in the entire offical roster, but the youngest player in the regular Ajax team and he has been named team Captain. In fact he was named team captain in March 2018. When he was 18 years old. De Ligt turns 20 in August 2019. He is the youngest player in the clubs history to be named captain. He is commanding the respect in the dressing room from players like Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Dailey Blind and Hakim Ziyech to name some recognisable names. Hell, if Klaas started early he could be Matthijs de Ligt's dad. It takes real skill and presence to put yourself into a situation where you are the man everyone looks to. And again, youngest man on the team.
Ajax as you know has had an absolutely outstanding season, culminating in a insane CL campaign that saw them beat out Real Madrid among others, only to suffer a heartbreaking CL semi final defeat. Ajax 2018/2019 is one of the biggest cinderella stories in modern football, and De Ligt is the spearhead.
He played 33 games this season in the dutch series and suffered 1 (!) Yellow card the entire season. He's not a great scoring threat like Van Dijk with only 3g3a on the season. But make no mistake, he is a generational talent on par with Carles Puyol or even Paolo Maldini. And he is doing all of this in a game that is technically lightyears beyond the game 20 years ago, and much more fast paces than its ever been.
This is not a player that will take a big paycheck and sit on his ass. The drive it takes to succeed at the level he has at that age takes both genetical giftbaskets from above, and an incredible amout of dedication and pure leadership that cant be taught. I am sure that money is a motivating factor for where he plays, but more than that I have no doubt the player can be persuaded that a challenge with gigantic upside is a good idea. If he takes the chance with Man United and we do rise to the top again, he'll forever be a club legend with his number in the rafters. If we don't win, we'll, he'll be young enough to move on.
The profile of Manchester United fits the player perfectly, deep pockets, going for the build, lofty ambitions. If he's willing to play Europa League a season, he'll move to Manchester. At least I really hope so because De Ligt is the piece we need to make the other candidates fall in line (Looking at you, Sancho)
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