Smalling signs new contract

acnumber9 said:
Neither were Michael Carrick, Andy Cole or Steve Bruce apparently.
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While Jones is. I know who I would prefer we keep..

I don't get why people are so opposed to this renewal? He's our best defender. Let's move on the crap ones before letting our best go for free.

I also like the continuity of actually still having someone at the club who has won the league. DDG aside, I would hope the others are all pushed out end of the season.
 
Reiver said:
I've been on moaning about this but I'm not saying we shouldn't have extended his contract. He had been our most consistent defender over the past 3 years.
That being said, by the time this new contract has ended, I would like to see the club progress to the point where he isn't even our third or fourth choice CB.
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That's fair from anyone who doesn't rate him, and even his biggest fans don't care if he is replaced by better players, but only after we have finished replacing options that are worse than him. We cannot sell him befire selling players who are far worse than him, and he is our most reliable CB for years now, it's ridiculous.
 
Smalling has been our most consistent defender in the last 5 years, so deserves to remain with us. He is our best defender, contrary to what some people say about Bailly (who barely ever plays and played well for 3 months, when he first joined us).

Phil Jones is the one I want to ditch; if he gets a new contract, then we are well and truly rewarding mediocrity.
 
RedPed said:
If I was making safe passes to my goalie or to another defender within 5 metres from me throughout the whole game, of course I would have 98% pass accuracy. Feck's sake.
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You would have something like 72.7% or 74.2% pass accuracy if you keep passing the ball to the opponent.
 
All 3 United said:
1) his contract expires end of 2019 season plus a one year extension I.e end of 2020 season by that point I would hope we would have centre backs that can play football.
2) by paying him £120k per week you make his value zero, as no other club would pay that even on a free
3) on £120k per week, the club sees him as a first team player in terms of budget. Are you happy with those aspirations?
4) he’s a donkey.
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1) He can play football and has won trophies. Where are yours?
2) Why are you worried about the value of a CB who we've had since he was a youngster and is now 29 and is still our best CB? The club are rightfully more concerned with keeping our best CB at the club, not how much you can sell him for on Football Manager. Clearly the club arent selling him.
3) Absolutely. We'd be mad to let one of our best players go for free.
4) Racist
 
Probably our most consistent defender. Fine as backup, but we should be looking to sign a top class centre back, and hopefully moving Jones and Rojo on.
 
Amar__ said:
That's fair from anyone who doesn't rate him, and even his biggest fans don't care if he is replaced by better players, but only after we have finished replacing options that are worse than him. We cannot sell him befire selling players who are far worse than him, and he is our most reliable CB for years now, it's ridiculous.
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I agree. I might not rate him but right now he is the last CB we should be showing the door to.
 
This is like when people wanted to get rid of the likes of Nani, Rafael, etc. before finding replacement, and then we replaced them with the likes of Memphis Depay and Darmian. Great times, just shows how fickle our fans(and our board) are. 5 years later, we still have worse options on the wing and fullback than Rafael and Nani. But as long as we got rid of them, eh? :lol:
 
Amar__ said:
This is like when people wanted to get rid of the likes of Nani, Rafael, etc. before finding replacement, and then we replaced them with the likes of Memphis Depay and Darmian. Great times, just shows how fickle our fans(and our board) are. 5 years later, we still have worse options on the wing and fullback than Rafael and Nani. But as long as we got rid of them, eh? :lol:
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Yep same old stuff
 
All 3 United said:
Nonsense. Anyone can spot the difference between the former players mentioned and smalling, I don’t think any sane person will be looking back at England and thinking if only smalling had played more games !!
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Jones made it to the world cup should he get a new contract then? You dont think the fact that southgate prefers younger players might have something to do with it?
 
Ekeke said:
No. It says more about Arsenal's inability to find each other on the day. Torreira and Guendouzi had to carry the ball a lot, the CBs werent playing good passes into attacking players

And no Arsenal wouldnt choose Smalling out of every CB in the world, just like we wouldnt. Neither of us have that choice
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But do you at least think Emery would aspire to have a centre back like Smalling? Otherwise what point were you making that they would pay £120k/week to have him on their books?

What was your answer to the Leno/Cech question? Or rather the answer is that Leno plays the ball out from the back. Like Emery tries to get his centre backs to do. Like Smalling can't.
 
Give a 2 year contract max if you are keeping a mediocre defender. Google reckon hes 29 as well. WTF is happening at this club?
 
endless_wheelies said:
But do you at least think Emery would aspire to have a centre back like Smalling? Otherwise what point were you making that they would pay £120k/week to have him on their books?

What was your answer to the Leno/Cech question? Or rather the answer is that Leno plays the ball out from the back. Like Emery tries to get his centre backs to do. Like Smalling can't.
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That he's a better CB than any they have. So obviously he'd want to improve his defense. Its pretty simple

Smalling does something Arsenal's defenders cant also. Defend well
 
Ekeke said:
That he's a better CB than any they have. So obviously he'd want to improve his defense. Its pretty simple

Smalling does something Arsenal's defenders cant also. Defend well
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Ok well here's hoping you're right and they come in for him when we eventually try to shift him.
 
Skills said:
Erm because he's out on a free this summer?
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Erm get rid of the manager asap, sort the club out and then we would be able to make a decision either way come the summer? surely more logical... what if the next manager doesn't want him ala Southgate, or has his eyes set on bringing in a couple of CBs. This management debacle is causing unnecessary hassle in terms of not having a guiding authority who is best placed to make these calls with the long term in mind.
 
Meh. Don't particularly rate him but there are too many worse defenders in the squad for him to be sold now.
 
Our best CB right now. I hope I’m not still saying that next year/2 years
 
Raees said:
Erm get rid of the manager asap, sort the club out and then we would be able to make a decision either way come the summer? surely more logical... what if the next manager doesn't want him ala Southgate, or has his eyes set on bringing in a couple of CBs. This management debacle is causing unnecessary hassle in terms of not having a guiding authority who is best placed to make these calls with the long term in mind.
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If the next manager doesnt want him at all then thats a bad sign that we havent improved on our current manager.
 
Mediocre at best, he'd be the best defender and a good player maybe even a legend at a club like West Ham.

However, he is a threat offensively when he uses his brain and good in the air and physical. Hes a solid back up.
 
Hopefully we sign a top CB and also bring Axel Tuanzebe back into the mix. I would rather see Axel ahead of Rojo or Jones right now.
 
The best out of a average to bad bunch.
Hopefully we'll finally see the back of Rojo and Jones though.
Be laughable if Jones got a Testimonial.
 
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JB7 said:
Easily our best defender so highly logical that we’d sign him to a new contract.

I don’t really understand what people are expecting, that we just let him, Jones, Rojo, Young, Valencia, Darmian leave on frees and replace them all with £50m players? Pull the other one.
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well pep let sanga, zableta, clincy, kolarov go on free in one summer and bought walker, mendy, danilo, and laporte the winter after. Last time I checked, it worked out pretty well.
 
He is bang average but our level now is also bang average,Jones will be next to sign a new deal and its all geared to prevent the glazers shelling out on transfer fees for as long as absolutely possible!
 
Samid said:
This. Took Southgate a few weeks to figure out that the guy is a dud. Yet there will be lots of posters on here hailing this decision.
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He's a pretty good defender in the purity of the role, he's just not good enough or confident enough on the ball. That doesn't mean he's not a good enough defender, and in the right system he can be very, very good. IMO Southgate made the wrong call in leaving him out of the World Cup squad, he's always useful for defending leads and his height can be important when defending late on in games. At least he has strengths, unlike Cahill and Jones.
 
redpatron said:
well pep let sanga, zableta, clincy, kolarov go on free in one summer and bought walker, mendy, danilo, and laporte the winter after. Last time I checked, it worked out pretty well.
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If you're new to how things work in this side of Manchester, we cannot do that.
 
The only one that's worth keeping as a squad player. Four years is a bit much though.
 
Being best( and i don't think that he is even that) among average doesn't mean that you are good. He is not quality for club which want to win trophies. Really stupid decision to give him new contract.
 
He certainly isnt first team material but i do understand the club stance on renewing him. Average wages, good experience, good squad player, always on good terms with everyone and doesnt mind being benched. So why not keep him.

But certainly sell Jones.
 
sunama said:
Smalling has been our most consistent defender in the last 5 years, so deserves to remain with us. He is our best defender, contrary to what some people say about Bailly (who barely ever plays and played well for 3 months, when he first joined us).

Phil Jones is the one I want to ditch; if he gets a new contract, then we are well and truly rewarding mediocrity.
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We've been shit for 5 years.
 
I think we are in danger ( if not already there ) of being in the same situation as city were, whereby we have a large number of players on our books on high wages who will be difficult to move out of the club should a new manager be appointed.
 
This is fine - he's our best centre back and most importantly, our only reliable one. Haven't looked at reported wages but I'm sure they're above what's expected knowing our recent history.

Jones, Rojo and potentially Bailly all could go by next summer - no point shipping the whole lot out. Smalling is perfectly fine as a future squad player (assuming we improve the back line).
 
He’s probably our most consistent centre back but he’s prone to brain farts from time to time. I used to think he’d really improved under LVG until I realised that LVGs super defensive approach benefited him greatly and distorted his true quality.

The length of the contract is a bit excessive for me. Surely it would mean at least one of Jones or Rojo leaves this summer.
 
redpatron said:
well pep let sanga, zableta, clincy, kolarov go on free in one summer and bought walker, mendy, danilo, and laporte the winter after. Last time I checked, it worked out pretty well.
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Yes and his annual budget is a blank chequebook. Things don’t work that way at United....
 
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