Any proper word of this happening? Him and Blind would be a very nice end to the window, and would give us good depth and a better starting XI.
Nigel De Jong
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) are here to discuss Amad saving our blushes in a win against Southampton as well as our now annual loss at home to Brighton. They discuss Amorim's post-match comments, revisit how mid-table we may or may not be, and discuss some transfer news.
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If we cannot get Vidal, then De Jong. Perfect. After yesterday, i wouldnt be agianst having him in our midfield. We need him.
I think Carvalho and Strootman are pretty similar in that sense. Strootman I'm pretty sure noone heard of him up until his final season in PSV and neither has watched him when the rumours began to emerge.
Then he went to Roma for an year, played 20 matches and is suddenly the solution for our midfield problems.
I'm no expert on Carvalho but from what I've seen I think that he can bode in pretty well in our midfield, is better option than De Jong, and is bound to get better with time.
All of carrick fletcher cleverley anderson and young's contracts finish in 2015 if I am not mistaken, so next year all these guys could be gone by then, carrick is worth keeping, but the rest I hope see the OT exit door, how valencia got a new contract I have no idea.
From what we saw of Herrera against Swansea, I think it's fair to say he needs an enforcer like De Jong in there to look after him.
Carvalho is a good talent agreed but don't forget he has had only good season in the top flight right now and the price Sporting is asking for him simply doesn't make him worth that amount. Besides I think we scouted him a LOT last season, I think a deal would've been sorted by now if we liked him as a player.
The point about De Jong, is that he's a cog in the machine. He may be limited and only do one thing but if that's the job we need him to do and it makes the rest of the team function better, then it's a no-brainer. Not every purchase has to be for the long term. If he can do a job for us for a season, then get him in.
A breath of fresh air.
Don't be so happy. Young's contract expires in 2016.
I do think Carvalho needs atleast one more year at sporting, de jong would be perfect for this season, reasonable and a good price
Happily take De Jong after seeing us make Lee Cattermole look like peak Edgar Davids.
There's a player in him though.
I don't know why we extended Valencia's contract. Makes me think we'll do the same with Cleverley for some reason.
Valencia contract was expiring this summer. Might be a way to prevent his value.
Never mind the injury, what makes so some of us so sure we'll sign him ?
I think the bolded is the key. I don't think Carvalho is worth north of 30m pounds which is the price quoted. This should be the reason we didn't opt for him this Summer I think. The prices are hugely inflated. When defenders like Rojo and Shaw, why are not proven cost 20-30m pounds it's hard to get a good deal out of an youngster these days.
Besides I still think we'll get Vidal this week and put an end to that. Maybe we can do with another defender but with Rojo, who apparently will play big part this year we can wait for January or next year.
Squad depth?
Oh I guess it's just the importance Van Gaal gave him in the Dutch squad really, nothing else.
I don't know mate maybe the fact that he'll immediately strengthen our weakest area or maybe that he's very close to our manager or maybe he's so highly rated by our manager that he changed his whole system because Strootman was injured or maybe the fact that Roma aren't as rich as other clubs and will probably sell their players if the price is right.
This should also be about quality. Better having 20 players who can play football than 30 with 20 of them being Championship level.
I hope you're right!
A lot of maybes for the certainty I've seen.
You also can't have a squad of 20 full with quality players. That just pisses them off and is impractical.
There's a middle ground between having 20 potential first teamers and having 10 top quality players with 10 solid players. Bayern for instance have a large but not huge squad and there's hardly a poor player in it.
Look at Bayern, Real and Barca's squads. All of them have about 18-20 genuinely high quality players, none of them have a tenth of the dross we do.
Most of our squad players wouldn't get a single minute at any of them even if they were hit with a bad epidemy of flu and they had no players available.
I see what you mean, but for us wages are also a problem. Most of the squad players at those clubs are on 'low' wages. We have players like Young on 120k and what not. For us, we have to flog all that deadwood off as well which is therefore just double the struggle. But I see your point.
I like the system however I feel that Mata lack the necessary pace to cover the Left wing/midfield role. Stating that I have a feeling that he would do great as the most advanced attacking midfielder in 3 men CM. That role would take the best out of his fantastic passing skills and vision.
Even though I don't approve of signing a former City player, I'm willing to make an exception after watching the Swansea and Sunderland matches. Our midfield got so overran it's no even funny. We need a 'destroyer', someone who gets the ball back for us in midfield, and De Jong fits the bill temporarily, until maybe we can get a better, younger midfielder such as Strootman. I would get him for 5-10 mil maybe? What's the fee for De Jong then?
What makes you believe that? Genuine question, I haven't had the strength to follow up on the Vidal transfer and everytime I got an update, it seemed like there was nothing concrete. Are there new elements?
Isn't that pretty much where he plays now?
I feel that he plays in a more advanced role to be honest.
Are we actually linked to him? Every thread bump on every central midfielder or defensive midfielder thread so far has been caf muppet hypothesis, I'm disappointed 
There is the sticking point. It aint going to be easy now with clubs knowing we will be spending big to get our man. One they are title contenders this year and he isn't going to back playing Oct/Nov, which rules out a January move. We need to assess him and they wont be willing to part with one of the their best players during the middle of the season. Secondly they spent around £15-17m, which means they will want to double their profits, which pushes the fee to around £40m.
Well for me ticks all boxes. LvG mentioned him in jest even like yesterday and to add to that in the last presser when he was presenting Rojo he described what players he wanted to bring in and a lot of those qualities were about Vidal.
Add to that Juve going to sell him at the right price and in the first two matches we were complete crap in the middle of the park and that LvG likes him. Not to mention that seems like money is not an issue if we want a player (Herrera, Di Maria) so I believe he's the last piece of the puzzle, he's training now and playing and we still have like a week to complete the transfer.
Every time van Gaal has talked about transfers he's talked about only buying for the long term, at nearly 30 De Jong is not the long term and I think his lack of pace and mobility would be an issue as a DM in the PL these days. I'm not a big fan of Blind but if we have to lower our sights for a DM then at 24 with room to develop and a game based more on positioning than physicality, I think he makes more sense, both would be pointless unless we aren't expecting Carrick back.
Age watching the first 2 games of the season is clear that any number of central midfielders would be a massive improvement over cleverly and even fletcher is looking poor at the moment even though I usually like him. Need at least one energetic midfielder who can play a bit of football or we will struggle.
How much is he likely to cost ?
He is quite crucial to Milan actually.
He is quite crucial to Milan actually.
It's Milan, probably €5m.
We need a hard dirty bastard in our midfield right now, to stop teams thinking they can just play through out midfield with ease. This mofo ticks all the boxes.
He'd be inexpensive, under £10 million I'd say.
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