Paul Pogba | Undergoing Medical | Helping out the Laundry Ladies

Do you want Pogba for £100 million?

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Lebowski said:
So wait a second... Now United fans are supposed to be grateful that the unwanted owners who acquired the club for no other reason than to line their own pockets have finally, after years of frugality, sanctioned the spending of money the club generated itself!?

You'd think we were surviving on free transfers as a poor little plc and not breaking transfer records...
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Who said anything about being grateful for their takeover? I'm just saying there is no need to fabricate nonexistent facts about how they are planning on looting all the money and leave the first team down to bones when recent history suggests they are doing it differently.
For purely selfish reasons their interests align with perfectly with those of the fans because a seriously successful Manchester United is a magnet for sponsors which grows revenues and ultimately the valud of the club. If the value of the club is high they can then sell off a small part of their stake for a considerable sum, equal or bigger than the initial money they used to acquire the club. If their model wasn't linked to success on the pitch Woodward wouldn't have been allowed to spend what he spent on Martial, for example, pursue players like Pogba and one of Moyes or Van Gaal would still be in a job. In comparison to Abramovich or Perez's antics I'm grateful we have them because, as clubs like Villa and Liverpool found out, it can be worse.
Finally rather than blaming the Glazers we should be laying blame where it belongs - the football administrators who slept on the ball re-football regulations and have allowed a legislative environment where clubs can be bought by the likes of the Glazers whilst the fans are rendered voiceless during the process. What happened to United would have happened eventus because the club was a sitting duck ripe for takeover from the day it was listed. We shouldn't derail the thread any further.
 
Cassidy said:
I am thankful that they have helped us become a global commercial super power which allows us to spend so much.
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It's probably not the right place to discuss this, so apologies for labouring this point so much, but that seems like an odd attitude to me.

Firstly, the Glazers aren't responsible for us having the capability to spend big sums on players.

What made United the commercial juggernaut of today was success on the field. Success which happened to coincide with the transformation of football and the explosion of football as a business. It's not even like the Glazers have any direct input in our revenue generation, or at least no more so than the plc did. I suppose you can credit them for their strategy of bleeding fans dry through increased ticket prices to maximise revenue at all costs regardless of the effect on the fans or the club, but that was very much underway in the years prior to the Glazers.

Secondly, we spent masses on players compared to any other side in England and probably any other side in the world before the Glazers. Far more comparatively than we saw under the Glazers until Moyes was sacked after finishing seventh and Woodward went on his spending spree, presumably because the possibility of fading into obscurity without considerable investment was then staring them in the face.

United has since the mid '90s been a club with both tremendous spending power and tremendous financials. We were an anomaly when the Glazers took over in that we were already a moneymaking machine, unlike most other clubs at the time, which were happy to break even on a good year and were mostly run at a loss.
 
Just watched that video. How on earth have we done this to ourselves??? It is only right that we break the British transfer record.
 
kenny19 said:
Just watched that video. How on earth have we done this to ourselves??? It is only right that we break the British transfer record.
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I bet Jose would be delighted to rectify the biggest mistake of his inspirational predecessor.
 
Oddboy said:
What on Earth were we doing to let this guy go... You would struggle to put together a compilation as good as that that for all of our players combined this season.
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kenny19 said:
Just watched that video. How on earth have we done this to ourselves??? It is only right that we break the British transfer record.
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Just to rub it in: We decided to play rafael and park in central midfield instead of him when we were ravaged with injuries in that area.
 
Bastian said:
I bet Jose would be delighted to rectify the biggest mistake of his inspirational predecessor.
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He'd definitely see it as an opportunity to make a stamp on the club immediately. Bring back the prodigal son, and turn him into a Balon D'Or candidate whilst returning United to the top.

The past be damned, I would break the bank for Pogba if he's at all interested in coming back (Raiola won't be hard to convince - just throw cash at him). Even if he were to leave for Spain eventually after we signed him, we'd get at least 3-4 years of his prime and he would have massive resale value as well.
 
Lebowski said:
It's probably not the right place to discuss this, so apologies for labouring this point so much, but that seems like an odd attitude to me.

Firstly, the Glazers aren't responsible for us having the capability to spend big sums on players.

What made United the commercial juggernaut of today was success on the field. Success which happened to coincide with the transformation of football and the explosion of football as a business. It's not even like the Glazers have any direct input in our revenue generation, or at least no more so than the plc did. I suppose you can credit them for their strategy of bleeding fans dry through increased ticket prices to maximise revenue at all costs regardless of the effect on the fans or the club, but that was very much underway in the years prior to the Glazers.

Secondly, we spent masses on players compared to any other side in England and probably any other side in the world before the Glazers. Far more comparatively than we saw under the Glazers until Moyes was sacked after finishing seventh and Woodward went on his spending spree, presumably because the possibility of fading into obscurity without considerable investment was then staring them in the face.

United has since the mid '90s been a club with both tremendous spending power and tremendous financials. We were an anomaly when the Glazers took over in that we were already a moneymaking machine, unlike most other clubs at the time, which were happy to break even on a good year and were mostly run at a loss.
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As a PLC the club was paying about £40-60mill a year in dividends. What the glazers did was simply tap into THAT source to fund the loan repayments. It also brought stability and made doing business far easier. so basically the club's become more efficient than it was in the past. Just as profitable...but not as successful as they used to be...but that's not their fault.
You also shouldn't be comparing us now to what we were 15 years ago because of Chelsea, City and now also PSG. There are now more clubs to compete with in the transfer market and that's also affected our level of success.
 
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To think, a lot of posters on here didn't want to give him a chance, instead hoping that we'd sign Wesley Sneijder. He wasn't ready, they claimed, as he'd Only featured in the youth teams.

He then went straight into the Juve first team and the rest is history. Where's Sneijder these days?
 
pocco said:
To think, a lot of posters on here didn't want to give him a chance, instead hoping that we'd sign Wesley Sneijder. He wasn't ready, they claimed, as he'd Only featured in the youth teams.

He then went straight into the Juve first team and the rest is history. Where's Sneijder these days?
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He is 31. Despite everyone knowing Pogba was extremely talented, Sneijder was immense in the past.
 
If we sign him I promise not to complain about Rooney all season
 
He doesn't seem to be in any hurry to move. Even if he did want to, he'd probably want to move to Spain.
Move on, the ship has sailed on this one.
 
An unnecessary waste of money. We have tons of players who can play the no. 8 or 10 roles in midfield: Herrera, Rooney, Schneiderlin, Fellaini, Schweinsteiger. While Pogba would be an upgrade over any of those, we should focus instead on getting someone decent to play on our right wing instead of Mata or Lingard. I'd break the bank for Griezmann instead of Pogba as he can play the no. 10 and also cut in from the right.
 
He'd be worth whatever ridiculous fee it would cost to get him. Even if it's £100m. We'd recoup most if not all of it in a few years time or he'd be a world class midfielder for us for a decade. Either way it's good business in the long run.
 
LennonNL said:
And we fecking had him!
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Probably the most spoken comment or reply about him and I'm right there with you. However, let's play the what if game. If we kept him, I'm pretty certain one of Moyes or LVG would have fecked him up so much that we'd all be crying because he was going to Madrid or some other glamour club.

Would love it if we could get him back but I think we have a better chance of signing Messi.
 
Kevin said:
Just to rub it in: We decided to play rafael and park in central midfield instead of him when we were ravaged with injuries in that area.
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I remember that game like it was yesterday. I was in Nigeria for christmas. It's just amazing how good a player can become. Pogba is like an upgraded yaya toure. The complete box to box midfielder. I just hope he isn't bothered about not playing in champions league.
 
Eddy_JukeZ said:


That's a pretty long season compilation. Some great clips in there.
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Holy fecking wow. Jesus Christ what a player he has turned out to be. This was Fergie's biggest mistake - not Becks, not RVN, not Stam and not Keane but Pogba.
 
He is disgustingly good. Such ability. If things went ideally we could've had a Morrison-Pogba midfield.
 
Lebowski said:
Firstly, the Glazers aren't responsible for us having the capability to spend big sums on players.

What made United the commercial juggernaut of today was success on the field. Success which happened to coincide with the transformation of football and the explosion of football as a business. It's not even like the Glazers have any direct input in our revenue generation, or at least no more so than the plc did.
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I feel like I've said this about million times already but I might as well say it again: can we stop pretending pre-Glazer United was some utopian Football Manager-cheat-mode-esque era where our manager was free to spend what he wanted, when he wanted, on who he wanted? It was shambolic. Our marketing arm consisted of one bloke in a dusty office and our board routinely "lined their pockets" with what was left of our wasted potential via hefty dividends but that's another conversation for another day.

In regards to our transfer policy at the time, here's a little sample of the bullshit SAF was dealing with in 2003:
Sir Alex Ferguson will not be allowed to expand his squad this summer, even though he believes it is too weak to compete in Europe.

Last month, the Manchester United manager complained that he had only 18 outfield players to choose from, leaving him at a disadvantage compared to the likes of Real Madrid and Juventus. However, despite the club yesterday announcing a 32 per cent increase in profits before player disposals in the six months to 31 January, the chief executive, Peter Kenyon, said he will not sanction any transfers unless the squad size is kept at current levels.

"It is fair to say that if Sir Alex wants to buy someone, he will have to sell someone else," Kenyon said. "You can only field 11 players at one time and we have 24 in our squad, which, when it is supplemented with some of our younger players, we feel is the right number to get through 70-plus games a year."
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Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...on-told-to-sell-before-he-can-buy-113315.html

Imagine the pandemonium that would break out here if Ed Woodward publicly stepped out against our manager and declared he should be happy with the squad he's got. On the back of Kenyon's statement we finished 3rd two seasons in a row. Now compare that to 2007 where we spunked millions on Nani, Tevez, Anderson and Hargreaves on the back of a succesful league campaign and went on to one of our most successful periods in history.

Lebowski said:
I suppose you can credit them for their strategy of bleeding fans dry through increased ticket prices to maximise revenue at all costs regardless of the effect on the fans or the club, but that was very much underway in the years prior to the Glazers.
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As someone with two season tickets in the middle of the North Stand, my seats went up by a total of 64% after the new quadrants opened and I was royally pissed off at the Glazers at the time until I found out the prices were going to go up under the plc anyway and they've been frozen ever since.

Secondly, we spent masses on players compared to any other side in England and probably any other side in the world before the Glazers.
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Pure fantasy.
 
Moonred said:
Sudden realization that Pogba is absolutely brilliant?
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You need to look back at the posts when he left where I was saying he was one of the biggest prospects in world football and how we would regret it every single day letting him go.I was told that "Fergie knows best" and "no player should be holding the club to ransom"

All he wanted to do was play football and develop, and we let him slip through our fingers through shortsighted bloody minded management.
And here we are today where people are thinking that paying £60 million and what ever wages he wants to bring him back is an acceptable outcome.

It's completely absurd.
 
Ducklegs said:
You need to look back at the posts when he left where I was saying he was one of the biggest prospects in world football and how we would regret it every single day letting him go.I was told that "Fergie knows best" and "no player should be holding the club to ransom"

All he wanted to do was play football and develop, and we let him slip through our fingers through shortsighted bloody minded management.
And here we are today where people are thinking that paying £60 million and what ever wages he wants to bring him back is an acceptable outcome.

It's completely absurd.
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It undoubtedly was a mistake. However, hindsight is always 20-20 and we did give him a contract and it didn't work out. What makes me laugh is some people actually think he isn't all that. Especially seen after a one off match against a Bayern or a Barca where he might have not done as well. He truly is as complete as you can be. I still think he can improve when it comes to consistency, but boy what a fecking player.
 
Moonred said:
hindsight is always 20-20 and we did give him a contract and it didn't work out.
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Back then a lot of supporters wanted him in the first team. I remember him getting just one substitute appearance in the Champions league where he was clearly our best midfield player and then he left. Never given a chance here. Fergie favoured make-shift midfield players over him. I guess it was because he'd stopped trying so hard for the reserves in his third season here; that level was just too easy for him.
 
Sort of like a midfield version of Gullit.

Competent, excellent 1st touch, makes it look easy, not a particularly fast runner, doesnt have fast feet, man against boys, hammer shot, very effective.
 
wwwwww said:
Sort of like a midfield version of Gullit.

Competent, excellent 1st touch, makes it look easy, not a particularly fast runner, doesnt have fast feet, man against boys, hammer shot, very effective.
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Gullit was the one I thought of too. But I think Pogba is a different kind of beast. Both outrageously good players though.
 
wwwwww said:
Sort of like a midfield version of Gullit.

Competent, excellent 1st touch, makes it look easy, not a particularly fast runner, doesnt have fast feet, man against boys, hammer shot, very effective.
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He is. Doesn't have the burst of acceleration of a winger, but when he knocks the ball on and runs, he wins an awful lot of foot races. He has a very good top speed when put in situations where he can reach it.
 
My #1 muppet signing, still makes my blood boil that we had him on our books :lol:
 
He has become a very good player, not doubt, yet a tad overrated. It was a mistake not playing him more but I think there are 2 sides to the story. Fergie mentioned that there were difficulties with his attitude and with his agent. I guess he wanted to teach them a lesson and in this case, it backfired.

I just don't think he'd like to come back, he'd rather join Real or Barca imo
 
Morgan, Rooney and Pogba midfield wins us the title. Said midfield with a class RW and we are back up there with the big boys.
 
OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
He is. Doesn't have the burst of acceleration of a winger, but when he knocks the ball on and runs, he wins an awful lot of foot races. He has a very good top speed when put in situations where he can reach it.
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he doesn't leave players in his wake. he manages to hold them off because he knows how to use his physical advantages.
watch the above video.
 
wwwwww said:
Sort of like a midfield version of Gullit.

Competent, excellent 1st touch, makes it look easy, not a particularly fast runner, doesnt have fast feet, man against boys, hammer shot, very effective.
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I recall Gullit being quite fast / pacey.
 
I actually find this believable that Juventus might want to cash in on him this Summer, especially if he has a solid Euro and his value goes up. He is probably not worth £70m to them but might be to another club at which point it makes sense to sell.
 
wwwwww said:
he doesn't leave players in his wake. he manages to hold them off because he knows how to use his physical advantages.
watch the above video.
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I suggest you watch the above video as well. Numerous times in the highlight reel he knocks the ball beyond the defender and beats them to it despite them having a head start. His top speed is beyond most central midfielders.

I also suggest watching him play, because he does it a lot, he's very effective on the counter. He'd be fantastic under Mourinho.
 
Our competitors seem to be distancing themselves from him, somewhat.

Real - Perez has said that they already have 6 world class midfielders and that they believe in Casemiro.

Barca - Seem to have moved focus to Pjanic.

City - Supposedly pulled out of the race for some reason.

There's obviously the likes of Bayern and Chelsea, but neither have been linked. Of course, it could be a play by all teams to lower Juve's expectation because they know they're going to charge the earth for them.
 
Would love to have Pogba in the team, even if it costs us an arm and a leg.
He's exactly what our midfield needs right now.
 
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