New deal for Mata

Ok I love this for all the reasons. In my company I spend a considerable amount of energy on recruiting not just people with skillsets, but people who mesh with and lift everyone around them. There's more to workplace, or team performance than just output. A football squad composition entails a lot of the same principles. The gaffer has spoken several times to this point: It's not about just recruiting good players, but players with the right personality.

1) 'El Mago' is by far the most well liked and respected human being in the Manchester United squad. Including the future Sir. Remember that the squad is full of players at the start of their careers. They need more than big egos in the team, they need leaders and rolemodels that lead by example, both on the pitch, but just as importantly during training and in their personal lives. These men and boys spend more time together most of the season than they do with their own family. The people they interact wth have a huge impact on the type of personality the kids will end up immitating. Juan Mata is a perfect professional and rolemodel to a up and coming footballer.

2) He's still a good player. He was voted Manchester United's player of the month during last season. He spent a considerable amount of time away from the squad due to his mothers illness and eventual passing. His free kick and penalty kick technique is better than anyone on the team. Bruno spends a lot of time with Mata during practice practicing free kicks.

3) His squad role will be limited to cup games and the occasional PL match entry during the occasional stalemate, injury crisis or match is over scenario. Not unlike: Every other team in the Premier League. We are likely to go deep in every contest this season, we need a broad squad that doesn't only rely on the U23's who have little to no experience with first team football yet. In this regard Mata is not a hindrance, he's there to help those who do play, along with every other first team squad player.

4) He's only 33. People are talking as if he's 39 and on crutches. He's not too old to even have a considerable resurgence.

5) The new contract was rumored to include a significant paycut in the region of 50% when these talks begun. The club chose not to utilize the option of a 1 year extension, so they have negotiated a smaller contract, and Mata still signed.

If Mata retires following this season he's rumoured to be included in a future staff role at the club, which would be an incredible scoop. Mata already has a great deal of professional exprience with the Common Goal Project - And can use his network, to promote Manchester United and get the club involved in meaningful charitable work as a sports director. Among other things more naturally fitting under a Sports Director role such as day to day operation.

https://juanmata8.com/en/common-goal/

Excellent post! Good to see some common sense among the usual nonsense about us being a retirement home, wasting money and hindering our youth from progressing.
 
Plenty of ex-players have spoken about the importance of having those sorts of players in the squad. Even some one as hard headed and disciplined as Roy Keane has talked about the importance of older players in the squad.
I think Roy Keane would probably also suggest that they need to be good enough as well, I struggle to believe he would advocate signing people on mainly because they're older or a good egg.

The importance of experience and good heads is not to be underestimated but we are talking about a football team here. There are plenty of players in there with experience, plenty of staff that can mentor younger players, it's not exactly necessary to make such artificial decisions in the name of experience or mentorship.

But maybe he's on a reduced contract, who knows, then it's not so bad. I would hope so because he was on good money at one time and for all the arguments regarding it not being our money or won't impact budgets - on what planet? The ownership won't dream up budgets, they'll be based on cold, hard facts, the most obvious being current outgoings. It's correct to be somewhat concerned as a fan with how we're dishing contracts out.
 
Why??? Unless he's acting as our mascot next season, it's the closest thing to money down the drain.

And before anyone goes on about influence in the dressing room, we don't need a psychiatrist that costs us millions a year.

This just proves that anyone deluding themselves we've turned a corner needs to think twice before giving the Glazers a smidgen of credit.
 
Except he never plays. You dont think we have enough experience in the squad with De Gea, Maguire, Pogba, Cavani
I do. except I think the ones you mentioned there are arguably first team players. I feel this is a move to let him help with our younger players and fully expect him to move into a coaching role after next season . Listen I could be wrong but I like Mata and think he should be playing the bruno role in the early rounds of cups .
 
Do you guys not like reading before posting anymore?

I read the United article, what did I miss? He is a footballer who seems to enjoy the game yet he doesn’t play much football at his current club and I wonder why he would want to stay another season. He could be back in Spain, try America, Italy or France playing football but he would rather be in Manchester playing league cup games and rare cameos. Doesn’t make much sense to me, so I wonder if he’s not so bothered about playing football anymore and is staying here because he is comfortable and it says absolutely nothing about that in the article that I did read before posting.
 
I hoped I'd get in before the negative comments but no such luck

Good stuff, he's one of the few over 30's players in the squad, by all accounts holds his peers to high standards behind the scenes and has been rumoured to be taking on a different role at the club once his playing time is over

There's literally no downside to this


My thoughts exactly. So effectivley he was a free agent for 24 hours or so before resigning with us? Id imagine thats just so his new contract is on vastly different terms.

Anyway hes always been one of my favourites and glad to see it looks like he is moving to an decent active role behind the scenes.
 
Giving out contract extension based on "being a nice guy".
 
What is the Mata (sorry!) with us!
He should have been politely moved on about 3 years ago now :wenger:
 
Brilliant move by club and player.

Deserved contract and got it. He is going to be great mentor for our young players.
 
Why? Its ridiculous, for Mata as much as United. I actually think he's class and wasted here because we don't need him and when we have we played him out f position 90 percent of the time. If he went to Italy for example he could have a good couple of years before he retires. Might even win the league. If he wants to be a coach then do it after he retires. If we want a coach then we have millions of them and if we want another we can find hundreds that are more qualified. So what is he? A mascot?

Whats the point exactly?
Seems Mata's answer to all those questions is there is a point and that's what matters.
 
A joke decision but sadly unsurprising. In terms of mentoring, he’s hardly a serial winner like a Keane or Ferdinand, is he? What does he pass on - how to survive 8 years at an underachieving club despite rarely looking like he deserved to be here?
 
Ok I love this for all the reasons. In my company I spend a considerable amount of energy on recruiting not just people with skillsets, but people who mesh with and lift everyone around them. There's more to workplace, or team performance than just output. A football squad composition entails a lot of the same principles. The gaffer has spoken several times to this point: It's not about just recruiting good players, but players with the right personality.

1) 'El Mago' is by far the most well liked and respected human being in the Manchester United squad. Including the future Sir. Remember that the squad is full of players at the start of their careers. They need more than big egos in the team, they need leaders and rolemodels that lead by example, both on the pitch, but just as importantly during training and in their personal lives. These men and boys spend more time together most of the season than they do with their own family. The people they interact wth have a huge impact on the type of personality the kids will end up immitating. Juan Mata is a perfect professional and rolemodel to a up and coming footballer.

2) He's still a good player. He was voted Manchester United's player of the month during last season. He spent a considerable amount of time away from the squad due to his mothers illness and eventual passing. His free kick and penalty kick technique is better than anyone on the team. Bruno spends a lot of time with Mata during practice practicing free kicks.

3) His squad role will be limited to cup games and the occasional PL match entry during the occasional stalemate, injury crisis or match is over scenario. Not unlike: Every other team in the Premier League. We are likely to go deep in every contest this season, we need a broad squad that doesn't only rely on the U23's who have little to no experience with first team football yet. In this regard Mata is not a hindrance, he's there to help those who do play, along with every other first team squad player.

4) He's only 33. People are talking as if he's 39 and on crutches. He's not too old to even have a considerable resurgence.

5) The new contract was rumored to include a significant paycut in the region of 50% when these talks begun. The club chose not to utilize the option of a 1 year extension, so they have negotiated a smaller contract, and Mata still signed.

If Mata retires following this season he's rumoured to be included in a future staff role at the club, which would be an incredible scoop. Mata already has a great deal of professional exprience with the Common Goal Project - And can use his network, to promote Manchester United and get the club involved in meaningful charitable work as a sports director. Among other things more naturally fitting under a Sports Director role such as day to day operation.

https://juanmata8.com/en/common-goal/
I admit I was extremely mad seeing Mata being subbed in when we needed impact on the pitch and I still think it cost us few games, but that's a great post and perhaps I undervalued the issue of chemistry. Nonetheless, if he stays I expect him to be used much less than this season - for all his kindness and charisma, don't forget about those 15 min appalling cameos he made where we could've used a different player.
 
A joke decision but sadly unsurprising. In terms of mentoring, he’s hardly a serial winner like a Keane or Ferdinand, is he? What does he pass on - how to survive 8 years at an underachieving club despite rarely looking like he deserved to be here?

Yeh. Good 'role model' for youngster my ass. No young ambitious player should look up to him.
 
He is shit and should have left years ago. The stuff about experience, professionalism and "boosting team morale" is pure bollocks, as if our other players are not professional and there is not already a good team spirit with experienced players...:rolleyes:
 
I read the United article, what did I miss? He is a footballer who seems to enjoy the game yet he doesn’t play much football at his current club and I wonder why he would want to stay another season. He could be back in Spain, try America, Italy or France playing football but he would rather be in Manchester playing league cup games and rare cameos. Doesn’t make much sense to me, so I wonder if he’s not so bothered about playing football anymore and is staying here because he is comfortable and it says absolutely nothing about that in the article that I did read before posting.
You could start by reading the thread that you're in, or at least the 1st page of posts. Seems like nobody does that anymore. I (and others) made a few posts with additional info...
 
Yeh. Good 'role model' for youngster my ass. No young ambitious player should look up to him.

No young player should look up to a man that has won countless trophies at club and international level, is respected by pretty much everyone in football, and has helped found a huge charity?

Exactly that's my thought. Why are we giving friends jobs? Shouldn't we be hiring the best coaches in the world?

The talk is it'll be a position behind the scenes, not a coach... and how do we know Mata isn't qualified for whatever role we're grooming him for?
 
You keep pointing the season before that in which half of it we didn't have Bruno, Pogba was injured most of it and we didn't have Sancho yet.

Mata isn't playing ahead of Sancho, Rashford or Greenwood on the right, and he won't play ahead of Pogba or Bruno in number 10.

He's now effectively a fourth option at best.

True but we also had Lingard making 40 appearances and Pereira making 40 appearances.
 
No young player should look up to a man that has won countless trophies at club and international level, is respected by pretty much everyone in football, and has helped found a huge charity?



The talk is it'll be a position behind the scenes, not a coach... and how do we know Mata isn't qualified for whatever role we're grooming him for?

As I said we should be hiring World class in every we do. Not securing friend deals. We don't know if mata has basic qualifications but we know there will be thousands out there with more experience and high qualifications.
 
As I said we should be hiring World class in every we do. Not securing friend deals. We don't know if mata has basic qualifications but we know there will be thousands out there with more experience and high qualifications.

You wouldn't have a clue how good a coach was even if we did go out and hire someone.
 
That's why I'm not hired at United as the person who hires coaches. But if I had played for united it looks like I probably would of given that job.

Considering the majority of top coaches and managers were top professional players it's not too surprising that a top club might have a few good coaches come through.
 
This is beyond stupid and next in line is probably Matic ? We need to stop being a retirement home for "past it" players and start being more ruthless. If he is good in the dressing room then just offer him a spot in the staff.

I remember the days when you got (not often, but occasionally) a player manager or player coach.

Doesn't seem to happen these days, is there a reason for that? Perhaps to do with the badges/qualifications a person needs to have? Or the Bosman ruling that gives players and their agents so much power these days?

Otherwise, it would have been better for Manchester Utd. to give Mata a coaching role now, but register him as a player for emergencies e.g. a Carabou Cup match where lots of injuries mean he is needed. Otherwise this makes no sense, because as others have said there are young midfielders needing time to develop and the money saved could be spent elsewhere and not necessarily on the team, but on Old Trafford or other facilities....
 
Considering the majority of top coaches and managers were top professional players it's not too surprising that a top club might have a few good coaches come through.

Yeah after doing extended periods full time coaching and taking qualifications. Often having to start in lower divisions or early youth teams. Not jumping into a world class club and the first team.

In fact very few coaches move into a top setup 99% start Low. Carrick is a far exception in football.
 
True but we also had Lingard making 40 appearances and Pereira making 40 appearances.

Yeah which means that this season wasn't a great example ? Because we were playing anyone available due to injuries and lack of good players. What happened to Lingard after Bruno and Pogba became available ?

Mata at the moment will have a lot of players ahead of him in his position he'll lucky to play any meaningful game outside the early games in the cups.
 
Genuine question- where is this 175k number coming from?

He was at 125-135k before this. His wages before that were between 140-160 (depending on report). I doubt he ever was on 175k, and I'm quite certain we didn't give him a raise in this contract
 
He obviously had no other serious offers. Guy's got no ambition, happy sitting on the bench, stealing a living.
 
Bitching and moaning because people are able to express an opinion different to your own? Stick to the point.

Some quick examples from the first page.

We've officially become a charity.

WHY?

Lovely. Who's next up, Matic?

Bitching and moaning.

All the points you made have nothing to do with playing football, which was my original point that you have only served to highlight.
He trains well, well..everybody should train well, it's part of the job description and the manager's job to ensure it happens.

He's set up a charity. Neither here nor there. Of absolutely no relevance whatsoever but it is a credit to him.

He's the perfect role model. I guess this has to be the inference to be drawn from the decision because nothing else makes any sense at all. But in my opinion, you have to be able to justify a place as a player too and I'm not sure he does.

He's in line to be a staff member. Maybe? That's the point isn't it, he's playing like a staff member and not a member of the first team such is his age and unsuitability to current PL football. If he's in line to be a staff member we should be bringing him back to do that when he's ready, or offering him a role now, not making charitable decisions.

How is being wanted to stay by the manager got nothing to do with playing football? We'll use him when we need to rotate, cup games with youngsters, and in case of injuries.

"Oh, everybody should train well, oh he's set up a charity, role model", blimey. A manager also depends on having players that sets a certain standard, in the dressing room and during training, it's nothing new, not understanding the importance of it is a mistake on your end, not mine. Heck,just read interviews with Ole about his first day at United after joining as a player, the standards set by players, the expectations not only from the manager but your teammates. We're talking about players these days that are multi-millionaires at a very early age, it's very easy to get comfortable. It's hardly news that not everyone trains well, or that a lot of them take to social media to display their wealth and general stupidity (Jesse). So no, his professionalism and behavior on and off the pitch is not neither here nor there, it's important to have players like that to set the standard within the club and help guide.

The club, and manager, wants him to stay because he is a positive contribution, both as a player and as a person. It's a no-brainer of a decision with no negative consequences.
 
Yeah after doing extended periods full time coaching and taking qualifications. Often having to start in lower divisions or early youth teams. Not jumping into a world class club and the first team.

In fact very few coaches move into a top setup 99% start Low. Carrick is a far exception in football.

Whilst I don't agree with that necessarily I don't get what your point is as far as Mata is concerned?
 
Whilst I don't agree with that necessarily I don't get what your point is as far as Mata is concerned?

Theres nothing to agree with. I'm stating a fact. 99% of coaches in top clubs are not players who just retired and put in. They have had to do badges over several years and gone through some sort of ladder. Not put into the first team coaching staff straight away.

People are going speculate that mata is here to be a coach it again shows united doing friend deals withour getting the best people for the job which 9/10 times won't be a player who has just retired
 
Not really bothered but given he barely played last season despite it being Covid season and most competitions allowing 5 subs, makes me wonder whether Ole intends on using him or knows how to use him.
 
Theres nothing to agree with. I'm stating a fact. 99% of coaches in top clubs are not players who just retired and put in. They have had to do badges over several years and gone through some sort of ladder. Not put into the first team coaching staff straight away.

People are going speculate that mata is here to be a coach it again shows united doing friend deals withour getting the best people for the job which 9/10 times won't be a player who has just retired

And yet loads of ex-players these days go straight into management at high level...