How many of our best players during SAF's tenure would have joined if we weren't competing for the league every year? Pretty sure I've heard many ex players say they because of the guarantee of trophies. Lets be honest, Chelsea are creating their own history. Some will be surprised by how they match up beside other English clubs since Abramovic joined or even the last 10 years.
Raphael Varane | Signed for United!
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Go ahead with comparing their best games/performances to our worst.
Why not roll that train of thought out across the league and in fact when they tried to throw away 4th place on the last day against Villa? Or losing to Arsenal and Leicester in the two games prior?
Kante turned up in the big games, he’s a game changer for them when he’s on it.
I’m not actually trying to take anything away from Tuchel, what is annoying is the knee jerk here to disrespect our own club and label Chelsea the most attractive team in Europe whilst we are apparently nowhere near as appealing to them... boll@x.
It’s the self loathing I hate amongst our fanbase, it’s a pathetic and weak trait and doesn’t suit our club. That’s not aimed at you, just generally.
Of course we all followed the saga for Sancho closer and more personal, but at the end of the day, they got it over the line, while we did not, went into the season without a needed reinforcement, and in general had a poor window, leaving the same gaps we still have in the team. No it was not the right call, we finished another season trophyless, we still need a RW, CDM and a CB urgently, and we won't get them because we wasted a summer without closing those problematic positions. The other guy is wearing his United tinted glasses, dismissing a CL win just because it is a tournament and how it is not that big of a deal Chelsea getting their second trophy, while for all our history gloating we have only 3 of those. And if we are a bit more realistic, it really isn't about Chelsea as much as it is about our own season finish and general sentiment. We bottled results in the league and getting second is nothing to gloat about, while getting embarrassed by Liverpool at our own ground. Some of you need a reality check or you will get disappointed come the finish of next season, unless you feel we can win the title with a CB, Trippier and Sancho, while we still get to play Fred in cdm.
Getting Varane I feel would transform our backline along with Sancho our right side. However we also need a starting CDM, or we win feck all again.
Another reason for Chelsea is that everyone can see they are a extremly well-run club with one of the best financial backing in Europe at the moment.
Players will see that they will do absolutely everything to be competative .
Even though we still have the possibilty of competing with them financially , everything else has been a major mess the last couple of years until Ole came in.
So in general the only upside with us is the historical allure and global fan base / reputation, which still do hold sway over at least players growing up when we were dominant.
The only caveat with Chelsea that I can see except that, is the constant changing of managers and players.
Things can change in an instant , and players will more easily fall out of grace if the new manager prefer a certain type of system/players.
But that wont be a problem for the elite players I'd guess.
This is true, Chelsea have remained competitive since 2005, winning a trophy every year more or less, despite changing their manager many many times. Yet at United we are expected to believe that the reason we arent winning is that we arent giving managers long enough....
But if you sign for United, we will be extending your contract forever, regardless of form.
In what regard considering just 3 lines down you talk of manager/player turnover.
Besides Mbappe(Neymar hasnt been successful to me) name one player that cost over £100m that's been a success. Price tags have a more detrimental effect on players than you think due to the massive pressure it comes with. As good as Sancho is £108m would have been a financially irresponsible investment during a pandemic coming from the Bundesliga there's a good chance he'd have been Werner 2.0 with that fee instead of a major success works both ways it's not set in stone he'd have helped us win the PL or anything else. What he'll cost now reflects his value much more.
Utd's CL titles were EARNED through grit, hard work and heritage not selling our souls. Even though the number isn't satisfying enough in your eyes I'd rather ours than Chelsea's who are where they are only because a Russian Oligarch decided to play Football Manager with their team.
Well, that has both a positive and negative effect I guess - but my point is that they always sack a manager when it doesnt work and bring in a highly regarded or successful new one (and usually have success with that)
Love how people say this with such absolute certainty, like there aren't many other factors (pay; club profile etc) that players would take into consideration.
Our first eleven is similar to Chelsea’s but their bench and overall squad is much better I think. They have a better manager, a richer owner, better negotiators and they’re in London. Recognising that right now they probably offer a better proposition to a lot of players, doesn’t mean we don’t love our own club any less. It’s just rational thinking. And saying we’re better because we finished higher in the league this year means very little when the season was as it was and they had afrank Lampard for most of it. Tuchel did more more in 3 months than Ole has done on 3 years in terms of success on the pitch.
Id like to think Ole would have done quite much better if he had the same squad quality as Chelsea did when Tuchel took over.
I mean , if you look at some of the starting line-ups we've had earlier, and the fact that some of our players are run into the ground because we have a lack of options, I'd say he did fairly well with what he's got (most of the time).
Every time I pop into this thread all I see is a few United fans trying their best to convince everyone that United aren’t shit.
Hopefully Varane disagrees.
Hopefully Varane disagrees.
Yup, it's bizarre. If you believe some, we're now a totally undesirable prospect because...because...because...Chelsea won the CL or something. That's ignoring all the evidence pointing to us being just about to sign one of the most talented youngsters in world football.
I'm sure he would have. But that's my point and other people's point, we don't have as good a squad as Chelsea. There's no shame in admitting that's true. It's proven by Ole running players into the ground because he didn't trust the others. The converse is also true of course. It's quite possible that Tuchel given our squad would have done better than Ole. Not better in the table of course, but in terms of stability and play. I like Ole, I think he's a good man-manager. But he needs better coaches if he's going to take us any further. Fergie was a master at that. Also, that cup final was a showcase of his shortcomings. He may as have been watching the game with us. I pray he learned from that.
A great squad doesnt finish 4th in the league twice in a row. Their shit league form and reaching 3 finals in 2 seasons points to them being a cup team rayher than having any sort of depth in excellence.
Agree in principle but not in reality. They brought in a shed load of quality players that they had to integrate. Frank wasn't up to the job. Tuchel most definitely is. Anything pre-Tuchel is pretty much moot in my opinion. It's like two eras, pre and post-Tuchel. And post-Tuchel is a different beast. He worked miracles honestly. He solidified their defence and could easily have done the double. Gonna be tough. He hasn't even brought in any of his own players yet. Hopefully, that will be his downfall but I doubt it.
But post Frank had Tuchel win rate drop like a stone after the new manager bounce. That was a piss poor run in from them. Plus we cant pretend this forum didnt praise Frank etc at the start of last season as well. Its almost as if posters wants them to be better than what we have.
Ive gone full circle on Tuchel. I think last season was a fantastic acheivement with a team that isnt all that imo but that is being taken away by pretending Chelsea are suddenly this super squad. With all their money spent the front 3 are still inconsistent and need improving upon.
Yeah, I thought Frank was doing ok and didn't deserve to be fired. But I've thought the same about a fair few manager sackings. Leicester and Southampton for example. Regardless of their drop in form, I believe they still won more points than us since Tuchel took over. Both of us had big finals to play for at the end of the season. City, their opponents were able to totally take their foot off the gas. Villareal, our opponents were playing for their Euro future against Real Madrid. Yet we were the ones who played crap at the end of the day. Our manager shat the bed, Tuchel didn't. Chelsea has a better manager and they have a better squad. Not team but squad. And they also have better owners. Just my opinion of course.
That's right, they wouldn't be sad to see him leave. However, they aren't trying to push him out. They want him to stay, but if Varane's not committed, they won't push hard to convince him to stay. They'll open the door and let him walk out as long expecting a decent sum of money in return.
They're basically doing what United did to some of their big-name players like Ruud and Beckham i.e. "you're not bigger than the club".
A strong squad doesn't scrape 4th. I just can't get my head around that. Scraping fourth means they are struggling to consistently implement their style on the first 11 never mind on players behind that.
Pulisic has had a poor season, rumoured to leave. Giroud faded away, Abraham is as good as gone. The Ajax player is a flop and CHO is used as WB as much as wideman.
I mean they have names but where are the performances? Its Werner, Havertz and Mount that influences their play (for better or worse) and little else. For all of the squad talk the actual performance pool is shallow.
Does anyone here actually think Varane is going to sign for us?
Not for 60m
Thought something concrete happened when i saw this thread bumped up by 3 pages 
Didn’t Woodward say Varane was the only player he’d break the bank for or something a few year’s ago?
It’s hard to say because I don’t know Varane’s mentality, maybe he would relish the prospect of an United challenge or maybe he’s fine being the Roll Royce in a multimillion pound assembled team, but one thing for sure is we could be doing with him.
I’d be very suprised. Its hard to say since we’re the go to club for clickbait and Real Madrid contract renewal bumps.
But seeing Torres has a RC that could be done quite quickly, it does absolutely seem like the club is at least waiting to see.
Agreed!! But anything is an upgrade on Lindelof.
Varane would most likely be an upgrade. The other CBs mentioned, I’m not so sure.
Neymar hasn't been successful hahahahahah alright mate
Not sure how Mbappe has been a success but Neymar hasn't been. He's an utterly dislikeable prick, but Neymar's been the better of the two players for PSG in the entire time they've been together.
Not for 200m he hasn't.
No. It's hard to see. He's very very accomplished so I imagine he would want a team that is known for winning and ambitious. If Juve PSG or Chelsea come calling I think we would be below the pecking order only if he's just weighing the possibilities of adding to his accomplishments
Some nobody ITK on twitter called James Stuarts is convinced he will accept their new offer and reject us & PSG, mind you he is also convinced that Romano will report the Sancho agreement in a few days as well
Two fairly obvious predictions could be made by anyone on the planet and have a 99% chance of being true.
No, we've all decided he's too intimidated by Victor Lindelof and knows he couldn't possibly replace such a master of the defensive arts.
The thing that worries me is if any other CB is signed and I would include Kounde/Torres is that Ole still plays Lindelof
Apparently Varane has told Real Madrid he would like to leave in the summer to join PSG. I will cry if this happens. According to El Confidential. Not really confidential then is it.
that would suck if he chose Madrid as he's honestly my first choice to partner Maguire plus it may hinder us from potentially selling Pogba to PSG which needs to happen.
I'm not sold on Torres for the premier league or Jules Kounde. It'll put us right back to the starting point trying to find a CB who's got the goods to handle playing at Old Trafford.
I agree. It has to be him or Ramos.
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