surprised at the lack of ambition. Players like Evans and Smalling moved on and had good careers. Phil just wants his big contract
4
- Status
So we've got Martinez, Varane, Maguire and Lindelof + Jones as 5th choice CB. Jonesy will probably play in Carabao Cup/Fa Cup in those early stages of the competition before leaving for free next summer. Will be sad losing one of the last PL medal winners in our squad.
He was only going to be a sub there as well. Maybe a bit higher than 5th or 6th choice, but still only a sub. Would you move yourself and your family (or leave your family behind) for 4-5 months of sitting on the bench? From all accounts he was up for the move if he could find a club where he'd be a starter.
Does such club exist? Based on his injury record which top level club would immediately have him as a starter. If he shows zero ambition in the first place he won't get anywhere. This is what an entitled and overpaid salary does to players.
So his contract runs out next summer with United having the option for another year.
Surely he will be leaving at the end of the season, but seeing how he miraculously was handed a new contract last time you almost wonder if it would be extended again for at least one year.
Surely he will be leaving at the end of the season, but seeing how he miraculously was handed a new contract last time you almost wonder if it would be extended again for at least one year.
any chance we will see him this season?
Why does he still have a squad number? Why is he still in the squad?
Its only him and DDG, right?
+ Ronaldo, though he obviously wasn't in that last winning squad of 12/13.
Nothing against Jones but I am shocked that he hasnt been moved on this summer.
Even if the club was to pay his contract off and release him - he is just taking up space another player should have
Even if the club was to pay his contract off and release him - he is just taking up space another player should have
One word - Ed.
He extended his contract couple of years ago. And considering that Phil is mostly injured and not very good there is no chance to get any money for him. So we will keep waisting about 75K/week till his contract is up. Players and contracts like this is a big problem for our club.
I get why we can't sell him.
I don't get why he's still in the squad. Take away his first-team status, his shirt number, and have him train with the u-23s. Do the same with all the deadwood. We have to be more ruthless, as any other club would be.
I agree with you 100%. If we move all deadwood (a lot) to U23 we will need to create another U23 team. Something like U23-A and U23-B (deadwood). Unfortunately as everybody knows this club is a huge corporation and huge corporations come with a lot of bureaucracy. That's why properly run clubs can sell their assets for good money and we almost always run down contracts (Lukaku was exception).
Well, we can't just unilaterally cancel his contract and we don't want to just to pay off the balance owed to him pursuant to his contract.
Survives another transfer window. Another year where he will train with Man Utd and watch games from best seats on stadium. All that for 5 mil euros per year.
What a life he has
What a life he has
That’s right. Demote, take away a number 4 shirt and don’t register him for any competitions that require registering of players. Would be good to also publicly state that his services are no longer needed
Don’t mind him staying at all if it means we can shop Maguire. He’s no worse anyway. If we sold Harold now, our senior options are Varane, Martinez and Lindelöf. I don’t want us to be in a situation where we have to keep Maguire due to lack of bodies. Have Jones as 4th choice if need be, seeing as we stupidly gave Bailly away. But Maguire has to go.
I agree from United’s perspective . Although it doesn’t say much for his desire to play football. You‘d think at his age that he might want a move to try to salvage something from his career in a less scrutinised environment.
In an emergency MacT or Shaw can play at the back
If no team is prepared to take on Jones 75k wage on a free transfer who do you think is taking on Harry's 200k wage after paying a multimillion fee to buy him
Like it or not, Maguires going nowhere anytime soon.
Not better than an actual centre half they can’t. Fitness aside, I would have no concerns about Jones having to step into the defence, which I can’t say for the others. Shaw has certainly impressed in a 3 here, while Scott has only played at PL level in a 3, and unimpressively so. Would rather not resort to that at the business end of a season. And Axel is useless too.
‘Performances’ 
If no team is prepared to take on Jones 75k wage on a free transfer who do you think is taking on Harry's 200k wage after paying a multimillion fee to buy him
Like it or not, Maguires going nowhere anytime soon.
Well the market for both players are obviously very different, I’m not sure what the connection between the two is. Jones has played 10 games in 3 years. Maguire is the Manchester United captain. I’m not sure how a lack of interest in Jones equates to a lack of interest in Maguire.
There's a market for neither, because both are currently paid far more than they're worth.
There could well be a personal reason why we do not do that.
Doing the above provides no tangible benefit to us in the sense that we are still paying his wages and it makes him no more desirable to other clubs plus there is a fine line you can cross there where being tough can be seen by the PFA and others as actually bullying.
More seriously though there has been a fair bit of talk about how the collapse of his career due to his chronic injury problems has severely affected his mental health over the last couple of years. We might not know everything that the club is party to but if he is dealing with mental health issues and the club is choosing to support him rather than try to cut ties or force him out then they are doing the right thing.
None of that makes any sense on the basis that Jones is almost never available to play. That renders him almost useless. Maguire is far more valuable than him for that reason alone
Remember when he was being touted as the next Duncan Edwards.
Is that how you imagine it to be or in reality? You seem to be wilfully ignoring reports of interest from two big clubs in Maguire this summer on the basis that you do not rate him and it makes little sense to you.
The main "reports" are about Chelsea, who are clearly trying to get Leicester to shit themselves into agreeing to let Fofana go.
I mean, sure they're keen on Maguire, that's why they submitted a £70m bid for Fofana today, right?
The common sense theory would be that they have alternatives in the event that they are unable to get Fofana. Fofana himself is an alternative target after they were unsuccessful in signing Kounde. There is nothing ‘clear’ about it, it’s only clear to you because you personally cannot see that it makes sense that Chelsea are interested in Maguire. Or that Barcelona were interested too, as I did mention there were two clubs.
Why would Chelsea be trying to scare Leicester onto selling their star man who they don’t want to sell anyway? What do you think Leicester’s reaction would be if Chelsea moved on from troubling Fofana and signed Maguire instead? Disappointment?
I find it amazing that some people still think he should be considered as "squad option". How can you consider squad option someone who is never available?
We use the phrase 'stealing a living' too loosely on the caf, but this guy is as close as it gets
Eth says that he is unavailable. So injured again?
Guy is injured a lot but he is always injured during transfer window.
Guy is injured a lot but he is always injured during transfer window.
Greatest scam in the history of football.
I still think back to when he was handed a new contract and there were some people saying it was a good decision. If we had released him he'd either be retired or in the injury room of some league two club by now
Giving him that new contract was ridiculous. Did we (Ed) do it thinking he could make money?
Which is ridiculous given the wages he's getting (even if it was 5k a week , still a lot considering history)
Jones literally is. He's done nothing for the club in years. He sits on treatment table (very occasionally the bench) happily earning his millions a year. It's unreal that this is his 12th season at the club.
There is another word for that; a leecher.
I wouldn't blame Jones
The fault lies higher than him
The fault lies higher than him
Useless club
- Status