Luke Shaw is arguably the best young fullback in the world. He's taken time to settle this year (as you'd expect with a lad who's still a teenager) but has looked excellent at the back end of the season. If you can't see the quality in him then I'm not sure what you've been watching.
As for Clyne, he's been one of the best young players in the league this year and if this deal comes off then clearly Van Gaal rates him. As a manager who's brought on a few young lads in his timethat's fair enough for me. You don't need superstars in every position, its about building a solid, regular side and I think he's more than capable from what I've seen.
The PL is tough, and expereince is useful. Montoya doesn't look any better than the kid Liverpool have on loan from Athletico and Alves is hitting the age where he's going to go into decline while wanting (if you believe the press) a 3 year deal on mega money. I see no sense in that either. he's got the potential to get old quickly in a much quicker and more physical league.
People seem to want fullbacks who look great going forward but are iffy at the back. That might be fine abroad for big teams who often have the most of the ball most of the tiem and who are putting 5 or 6 past half the teams in the division.
Not by a long shot !
First of all it seems like he is made out of glass as he has been more injured than not this season.
Second he has been left out of the team by the coach on a number of occasion for questions mark about his general fitness (I remember in the summer he arrived with more than a few pounds overweight)
Third the few times that he has played he has been average at best. He seems to be a passenger with no impact or personality at all on the pitch.
It is not for nothing that he has been often replaced in the team by Blind and Rojo and if the latter would have been fit or Blind would not have been required to cover for Carrick it is likely he wouldn't have even played those last few games of the season.
Now I know he is young and he needs time to settle in and he has been more than unfortunate with all these injuries. But this is a player we paid £30m for !
There are many fullbacks in the game that have cost far less than £30m and have been far better than Shaw.
This is not a dig towards Shaw as he has nothing to do with how much we paid for him. It is a dig at the people doing our transfer business. I expect much much more from a £30m signing than what I have seen this year. And if we first need to invest 2 or 3 seasons in him before we start to get any sort of performances that could warrant such a big fee than my criticism is justified because you don't spend £30m on fullback talent (maybay you do on a midfielder or an attacker but not on a fullback !) you spend it on an established player. Part of the argumentation last year was that Shaw would be worth it because despite his young age and massive growth potential there was already a very solid player there that could be regarded as the best leftback in the PL that he would have little problems adjusting to the level of a top club. On top of that people said he looked physically solid, never injured, good fitness, very reliable. The idea was we'd get a very good reliable leftback that would stand there immediately to take over from Evra with the potential to become one of the absolutle best leftbacks in the game. And we'd have him for many years to come and he was English. All of that justified the insane price tag. I saw nothing of that all in his entire first season here with us.
We have let Soton take us to the cleaners over Shaw. And if we going to pay £18m for Clyne we will be letting them doing it again.
Sometimes I wonder if certain people realize how much money £30m is...I do than I look at Shaw and the only thing that goes through my mind is that he is simply not worth it and probably never will be worth it.
Looks like you have not seen much, if any, of Carvajal.