Omg. The caf has a great admin. I agree 1000% with this statement and its sentiment.The notion we can just go out and buy any player we desire for fees we can’t afford under FFP and due to current ownership is the biggest problem with our uneducated fan base.
Sofyan Amrabat | signs for United on loan
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Mahrez, Kante, Vardy, Drogba, Luca Toni, Klose, Raphinha, Van Dijk, Luis Diaz, Falcao, Wijnaldum, Senna, Ian Wright, Quagliarella, Milito, Julio Cesar, Fernandinho, Henrikh, Willian, Deco, Carvalho, Thiago Silva, Vidic, Ji Sung, RVN, even Bruno (go look at his transfer thread and you will see how many people were saying the same thing you are saying now) just off the top of my head. I am sure there are plenty more that did well going from Dutch or Portuguese league to a top team.
I mean, for the love of God, there is a reason every club in the world has a scouting department. Top teams are not built by just the top 5 clubs of top 5 leagues buying from each other. Furthermore, we are not even signing Amrabat to be the undisputed starter, he is a rotation player.
He absolutely will not come here if he thinks he is deputy to anyone. That’s madness. He’ll compete to get into the midfield, sometimes at 6 and sometimes as a 6-8 hybrid. Sometimes he won’t be selected. He’ll give EtH options. This idea of “first choice” and “deputy” is outdated.
Exactly this. The best teams usually have different players that can do different things so that they are tactically flexible.
Just look at City. Did they ever have a «fixed» 11?
So, aged 27 coming from a "lower", non CL playing club, we have about 3 or 4.
The chances are low.
No one claimed he's world class, but he can be a great option. Just take a look at how Palhinha improved Fulham, and he was 27. It really isn't that hard to grasp that he can be a good option for us.
No but they certainly had preferred options. And it's pretty clear Amrabat wouldn't be that. He'd get plenty of games but on paper he starts on the bench more than any of Casemiro, Bruno or Mount do.
Because he is miles off from Casemiro as a 6 and, we are not going to pay 100mil for a squad player. We are moving away from the double pivot and in to a double 8 where both players are expected to be very good at chance creating. Caceido is not good in the final 3ed.
EDIT: it's the same story with Rice and why we were not interested
Improving Fulham and improving United are two very different challenges with all due respect to Fulham. Like I said, I have seen him play, i don't think he's good enough for United, the chances are that aged 27 coming from a smaller club he will not be much better than what we have. If he signs I'd love to be proven wrong.
Barca have been heavily linked with him for months. It's been reported by the likes of Melissa Reddy that he's on Klopp and Liverpool's list too. There are other reports that he's turned Liverpool down because he knows United are in for him.
What? Caicedo is more an 8 than a 6. Not good in chance creating no, but neither is Amrabat. I'm sure we would have gone for Caicedo if he were cheaper
We werent interested in Rice because A) couldnt afford and B) have Casemiro
he wouldn't be coming here to replace Scott, he'd be coming here to replace Fred. He's an upgrade in talent from Fred, Donny or Scott which in that sense makes this a very good signing for us.
Thought it was reported by the Italian press couple of days ago that it’s literally done. Now it’s all quiet and the United journos haven’t reported anything yet
I presume he'd be replacing both Scott and Fred to some extent. While he may not be a perfect Casemiro replacement, I would hope he'd do the job better than Scott does. And at other times he'd play next to Casemiro, replacing Fred for when we need a bit more defensive steel.
yeah that sounds about right however if we sell both fred and scott, we can't bring in just Amrabat unless EtH think Mainoo is a sure fire first team player otherwise you'd need to bring in Kudus as well.
i'd swap Amrabat and Kudus for Scott and Fred anyday
If we sell both Fred and Scott while bringing in Mount and Amrabat (with Eriksen dropping down the pecking order and Mainoo likely getting some game-time as well), we're not actually losing numbers in midfield. Even if we sell VDB as well it's not like he was really a number last season anyway.
Casemiro, Mount, Bruno, Amrabat, Eriksen, Mainoo
Certainly a big turn-over in midfield compared to what we had just over 12 months ago, with Bruno being the last man left. Personally I rate Fred a fair bit higher than most on here but if he wants to leave while we can replace him with someone a bit more consistent on the ball then it will hopefully be a win for all parties involved.
Well I think this is subtly incorrect. They didn’t have “preferred” options. What we saw was that some of their players won their places more often than not. Or let’s say they were preferred more often but this was achieved by the players performing well enough to get picked. And in most cases they were kept honest by very good players fighting to take their places.
Amrabat is, I believe, good enough to get selected for us pretty often. He will have to fight for his place and if Case is fit and in form, he will usually be picked, I would think. But Case is prone to the odd dip in form, the odd suspension. Amrabat is good enough to make Case have to fight to get his place back.
I do agree that Amrabat is probably going to be on the bench more than any one of Mount Bruno and Case but he can rack up a lot of games if he stays keen and delivers his best level in training and whenever selected. He is a good player. Good enough to back himself.
i've not had an issue with Fred...he has some good matches and he struggles in some but i'd consider him a solid signing. I think Eriksen's legs are shot and if we sell Fred and Scott, we really should go in for Kudus.
Casemiro, Mount, Bruno, Amrabat,Kudus....your 5 main CM's then mix in Eriksen and Mainoo for some matches so we would be well stocked in the midfield wiht quality
My view is that even if he's a bit of a sideways move, it could still have some value because I think he's a completely different player to what we have. Fred and McTominay are very poor in deeper areas of the midfield. It's just not their game. So if we can swap in a player that's better at that stuff without any financial risk I think it's a net gain for us and for ETH's options.
In an ideal world we'd be going out buying future superstars like Caicedo but that's not an option apparently.
Is he actually better than those players though? He’s 27 and before the World Cup nobody had heard of him. I’ve seen him a few times after the WC and he really didn’t look like anything special at all.
It’s got squad player written all over this deal and I believe you should always be signing players to improve your starting 11. Casemiro should have competition not a fecking stand in.
Yeah this is another thread full of critics
I wouldn’t say nobody had heard of him and he was touted as “one to watch” at the World Cup.
He is a good player. Not spectacular. He doesn’t make the news. He’s not an exciting signing.
I agree we should sign players who we expect to be able to get into the team more often than not and therefore strengthen the first XI. And Amrabat probably isn’t quite at that level. However in the context of our budget and being as our midfield is (widely) regarded as lacking depth he would be a smart signing at the price.
In any case, he is not McFred, he would be a very capable player in various formations and if he comes here I am sure (!) he would get used a lot and is good enough to push Casemiro to keep his level high.
why....he records 48.3 accurate passes per game and his figure of 62.5 touches per game shows that he likes to get on the ball. I'd say both of those stats would be clearly higher than Scott or Fred and he has a lot of experience along with a little bit of a nasty streak to him. Don't see what he doesn't bring to the table other than pace and goals which neither need to be top priority
Here is what you said in case you forgot, and you did not specify that they must be 27 yo or above so I put examples starting from 25 :
Mahrez - Never played in top 5 clubs before he joined City and have been successful. No matter what you wanna say about Leicester, they are not a top 5 club
Kante - Same as above
Vardy - Same as above
Drogba - Joined Chelsea when he was 26 and Marseille when he was 25.
Luca Toni - You don't think so? What? Do you even know who he is? He spent the bulk of his early career playing for Serie B teams before joining Fiorentina when he was 28, and Fiorentina is not a top 5 club in Italy. He only joined Bayern when he was 30, and was the golden boot winner while winning the title.
Klose - Not sure what I mean or do you not even know who Klose is? He played for Kaiserslautern until he was 26 before he joined Bremen. Kaiserslautern is not a top 5 club in Germany. He joined Bayern when he was 28.
Raphinha - Leeds is not a top 5 club...
Van Dijk
Luis Diaz - Porto is not a top 5 club in Spain, Italy, France or Germany.
Falcao - Falcao only joined Atletico when he was 25.
Wijnaldum
Senna - Who? I guess you don't know too much about anything outside PL. Euro 2008 winner and captain of Villarreal for a decade when they were CL regulars.
Ian Wright
Quagliarella - Joined Juventus when he was 27 and won 3 league titles. Never played for any big clubs in Italy prior to that and was nicknamed Mr. Dreamgoal.
Milito
Julio Cesar - Hardly a big success? 5 league titles including a treble with a total of 14 cups won with Inter, and was nominated for Ballon D'Or. Who cares if he ended his career in QPR?
Fernandinho
Henrikh
Willian - 25
Deco - Porto is not a top 5 club in Spain, Italy, France or Germany.
Carvalho - Porto is not a top 5 club in Spain, Italy, France or Germany.
Thiago Silva - Joined Milan when he was 25.
Vidic - 25
Ji Sung
RVN - 25
Bruno
Like others have said, Amrabat is not here to be the undisputed starter. He is here to provide cover for Casemiro and for us to play a more defensive double pivot if needed. Playing Bruno for 60 games a season is not sustainable, so there might be times where he will be rested and Amrabat can slot into one of the midfield positions and push Mount forward. The referees have also shown us last season that they will red card Casemiro if they get a chance, so signing Amrabat means we will not have a drastic fall in our midfield quality when Casemiro is suspended. We do not have a single midfielder that can play in Casemiro's position at the moment, as we should all know by now that McTominay is simply not that person. He is not world class and never will be, but he covers for our midfield nicely as we are sorely lacking someone who can sit deep as soon as Casemiro is out of the team. Our double pivot of Casemiro + McTominay/Eriksen/Fred last season simply gets overrun whenever we play other top 6 teams or even Brighton/Brentford, mainly due to Eriksen being gassed out after first half while McTominay and Fred is too poor with the ball under pressure. Amrabat has very good passing stats under pressure as well as progressive carries from midfield, so he can relieve a lot of pressure and be a passing outlet.
For the quoted price of 25m, he is a decent signing that provides good cover for our current midfield options. He doesn't need to be world class, he just needs to fill in the gaping hole in our midfield whenever one of our current starters need a rest or is suspended. With the amount of games that we are playing every season, he will easily play around 30 games while allowing us to rotate when required.
Hopefully we can sell McFred soon and then buy Amrabat of that money.
I've done my best to look into him and I'm just not convinced he's good enough. I'm very wary of WC players. Is there really no one else? Fine in that case, but an odd signing to me, nonetheless. Hope he is good though.
What have you looked at? From everything I've seen from Amrabat he's the ideal modern day midfielder and it's not like he hasn't performed well outside the WC. He's been great for Fiorentina. You can't go wrong buying a player like that for 25-30M in my eyes. He gives us more depth and much less of a drop off in quality.
Romano’s tweet sounds like we’ll move when Fred and van de Beek go. I assumed we’d have to get rid of McTominay first too.
What makes you think that? Genuine question. I have a look at fbref and even if, as somebody pointed out earlier, his clubs style influences the visible skillset he can show, he is not comparable with Casemiro in defensive aspects. Casemiro is as good for us as he is, because he can break up play. We have been through a lot watching McFred tries to imitate somebody with a basic ballwinner skillset and both looked lost. Amrabat is a more combatative version of the Eriksen, we have seen last year. Probably minus the last 4% in great passes.
No doubt, I'd consider him as an option for us, but we have gotten Mount already. If we add another midfield, it should be one who can cover for Casemiro defensively - if the player provides more, great, even better, but currently, we are one redcard or injury away from playing without a ballwinner. Something that we were crying out for until LAST year...
I'd say he would be a good alternative for Fred, McTom, Eriksen and DVB but not for Casemiro. And before we are adding him, we should try to bring in actual cover (skillset wise) for Casemiro.
Just some YouTube stuff and stats. Seems good at movie the ball around and some breaking of play, but not really outstanding defensively. Or at anything, really. I suppose he should be good enough for backup. Certainly better than McFred, though that doesn't really mean much. Not opposed to the signing, it's just a bit out of nowhere.
I saw him play football and formed an opinion.
it would be quite fitting if we sold them on the same day
More fitting if both moves collapse on same day...
out of interest: how many games?
£50m 
Let’s call it £55m.
Let’s call it £55m.
Of course! Classic British press.
Can’t be true, surely?That's more than double what every single Italian source has said
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