With the money that's been spent over the last 20 years, that stat is insane.
The perennial struggle to sell
- Thread starter RedStarUnited
- Start date
Chelsea had big offers on the table for Havertz and Abraham. It's not because they are geniuses and somehow hypnotised the market in a way we can't, it's because that outside interest existed at a level that would prompt a sale. Which really comes down to the specifics of the assets in question as every transaction is really about a product and a buyer, not genius strategy at the point of sale - the genius has to come when you buy players to begin with and how you handle them.
Abraham was a young English striker that had scored goals at every level, evidently a valuable commodity. To draw a more accurate analogy than a random player of ours, if we wanted to sell Mason Greenwood in his better days would we have got a large fee? Of course we could have done, without a shadow of a doubt. Havertz fee surprised me but if a big club takes a liking to a player that is possible. I think that was a bit of luck for Chelsea that one club existed that would pay such a sum as I don't neccessarily think Chelsea priced that one in for this summer, if anything they probably had him going abroad but then they're able to say to Arsenal we'll sell domestically at a price. But let's draw a comparison to a player we also bought from Germany for big money in Jadon Sancho. Which one has held more value? Undoubutedly Havertz because he hasn't been plagued with the same issues that have taken him off the pitch, he's probably played slightly better and at least had some level of on pitch consistency - he's hung onto enough value to convince one club there is more to unlock whereas Jadon Sancho has obliterated his value.
We don't really know if 20 million is on the table for Fred, or if we even want to sell at that level. But one thing is clear which is that he's not the same commodity as those players. He's an aging player, what you see is what you get, he's performed to a level but never quite been consistently great at PL level so there is a cap on his value. If we do want to sell him I think it's possible but like you say, it's going to be 20 million or so not a figure that will change anyone's view on our sales acumen. That's not going to change until we make bigger sales, but bigger sales require better assets. Young players, potential, recent performance, reasonable wages, these are the things that will hold some kind of attraction to buyers. We would need to buy those things more often and make the decisions to sell earlier, not trying to sell when it's all gone pear shaped.
Buy high, sell low.
It's the United Way.
It's the United Way.
He is 20y and already playing for his NT and is product of Man Utd academy. I am not saying that we should have got 10 mil or so but 1 mil does seem too low.
It’ll all come to light in the sell on fees/clauses, if any.
I think Utd are part of the problem. For a good 10 years or more we have been buying talented players and most of the time not improving them. It's then difficult to seek lots of money for assets that we have made worse through poor coaching.
With respect he’s playing for Iraq
Personally I think that a lot of fans overrate these young uns. There is a huge difference between youth/reserve levels and playing premier league football. Many of these teams will end up playing in the lower leagues
We are too complacent as a club, what other big club is holding onto average players like mctominay, dalot and elanga.
Chelsea would have got rid of fred by the end of his first season in yhe prem to recoup a majority of the fee but we just persevere with them for one too many seasons, mctominay has to be one of the jammiest players going to be at united for this long, we should have flogged elanga last summer when his stock was at its highest from getting good playing time under ragnick.
the rare times we have got rid of average players quickly (by our standards ) we have done well to recoup good money back like Dan james and Schneiderlin.
Chelsea would have got rid of fred by the end of his first season in yhe prem to recoup a majority of the fee but we just persevere with them for one too many seasons, mctominay has to be one of the jammiest players going to be at united for this long, we should have flogged elanga last summer when his stock was at its highest from getting good playing time under ragnick.
the rare times we have got rid of average players quickly (by our standards ) we have done well to recoup good money back like Dan james and Schneiderlin.
That’s my main gripe, keeping average players too long
Could make an XI of them
Henderson
B.Willams Bailly Maguire Telles Jones
Fred McTominay De Beek Elanga
Martial
Where do you think that team would finish in the league if played all season? How many goals do you think it’d score?
Forget biggest bluffer Lindelof. We should be flogging him at his peak
Look at it like this, if the market was there they would be lining up to sign him because the value of the signing, they were not why because there was no market for him, at 1 mill that should be enough of a tempter for championship clubs but it wasn't
Relegation battlers and not many goals.
Nah he changed my opinion a bit last season, think playing alongside Maguire may have held him back. I don’t mind him as a 3rd or preferably 4th choice CB
He’s literally been “ok” in his 6th year. We could get a good bit back on him now and reinvest
Yeah, I’m shocked by the lack of goals there for a United second string. When you take out injured martial as well it’s basically fecked
Typically, when a player moves to United it's supposed to be the peak of their career so they should be getting peak wages. Unfortunately, more often than not, the players we get end up flopping for a multitude of reasons and nobody is willing to take the risk on flops with massive wages, no matter how big the discount is.
In the rare instances where the players are successes, we don't want to let them go so the only valuable/sought after players we have are kept (usually on huge wages until they are past their best - see DDG).
In the rare instances where the players are successes, we don't want to let them go so the only valuable/sought after players we have are kept (usually on huge wages until they are past their best - see DDG).
I don't disagree that that's a crazy wage and we could have gotten him for cheaper (though not less than 200k). I just think that for Sancho in particular it looks worse in hindsight. At the time we signed him he basically looked like a sure thing, one of the best young players in the world, and a high wage made a little more sense.
Can we all stop overvaluing Fred please? I like the guy but he's a 30 year old, high energy player in the last year of his 120kpw contract. 15m would be fantastic business.
My mate told me, & I quote, ‘Fred was brilliant in 80% of the games he played last season.’. It was at that moment I further realised we deserve the crap we’re being served up. I can’t believe anyone is still attempting to justify this guy as even ‘a squad player’.
Yeah, I mean look at Bayern, real madrid and man City when it comes to letting players go when they are still doing for various reason like they are ageing or they upgrade for an even better high calibre player.
Casimero is a good example, real madrid recouped 60 million for a player in his twilight years and they were able to put that money to getting Bellingham who will likely be in their midfield for the next 9-10 years.
Man city have got rid of players like zinchenko, Jesus and cancelo, could you imagine united letting these players go based on their performance leading up to their sales who all but maybe zinchenko (because of shaw) would easily walk into our first 11 and we wouldn't likely drop them if their form dipped let alone sell them
You say this like Man Utd are the only big club that can't get rid of players.
What are we smoking?
Add on Phil Jones, Tuanzebe and DDG and that is 16 players potentially leaving in one summer window. I think it is right to be ruthless and free up cash and wages for new players. Would rather give the kids a chance in the league Cup than play most of this lot. Sancho is the only one I would be sad to see leave, as I think he has got great potential...
It would seem Ten Hag has made up his mind as to who he can trust. The disastrous Rangnick aside, the season before last should not be forgotten.
Somethimg you find in cakes in Amsterdam,one of these days we might value our players realistically
Good shout!Clear logic, lower price for those on huge salaries and a higher price for McT who’s on a lower salary.
And Sancho?
He's going to be Deli Ali in a season or so, so just get what we can right now.
£45m is a low price for him.
Which club do you think will pay £45 million for a player on £350k a week wages?
It's ironic that, throughout the thread, we are talking about being ruthless and getting rid of average players, yet some are rating Lindelof based solely on the last few months of the season. Whereas he has been shit for the last 6 years!
I look at the price for Bailly and think, wow thats seems too cheap but then I look at stats and see this is a guy who has never played 26 or more league games in his whole career. In fact, He has played 32 games in the last 4 seasons for us, How and why have we not sold him?
Brandon Williams is 22, English and can play both flanks. He should be a player we can flog for a lot more than 5 million. Put it this way, i doubt theres a single full back in the league that we can get for 5m. City sold a player last summer for 10m, this player had 0 minutes in the the premier League.
It also felt extremely low at the time too.