Yeah the inability for either Eric or Axel to stay fit really worries me in terms of squad depth,however right now everything seems to point towards Smalling leaving though.
Thiago Alcantara | Pool bound
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Yeah the inability for either Eric or Axel to stay fit really worries me in terms of squad depth,however right now everything seems to point towards Smalling leaving though.
Exactly. He would improve the midfield, but not by the improvement we would get from a right sided player.
He's off to Liverpool I'm afraid, no way we're buying another midfielder after vdB. Even if he's only 30m euros, he'd still be on big wages and Sancho is our priority it seems.
I would love for us to get him for sure. Pogba, Bruno, Beek, and Tiago give us a superb engine room and add to that Matic, Fred and McT. We can get rid of Jesse, Andreas and potentially Mata too.
Best thing I have read here for a long time. Can`t agree more. To become a top tier team again, you need as much quality as possible. It is never too much.
I have the feeling that many are just afraid that their fan favourite Pogba gets benched. Even if its the case , so what ? It is actually a good thing when he gets benched. Giving him a free starting spot in the team won´t make him a better player.
Just look whats on other top team´s bench.
Surely we can have more than 2 summer signings? We're Manchester United. Chelsea have just signed 6 players, and are still targeting 2 more. If Chelsea can have 8 why can't we have 4 or 5?
Van de Beek, Sancho, Thiago, Upamecano, Reguilon.
It's not going to happen, because we're not an ambitious club, but if we were that would be a realistic window and would make us title challengers.
What's more likely is just VDB and Sancho on deadline day. Which will put us in a battle for 3rd/4th with Chelsea.
I just think Utd see it as an potential opportunity which has unexpectedly popped up and if the door was left open would be too good to turn down.
Then we need another Centre Back this window. Leopards don't change their spots, Bailly will get injured, Jones will get injured, and sadly, Tuanzebe will get injured. One of my closest friends is a Villa fan, he told me a year ago don't get carried away with Axel, and said he's a good player but missed about half of their games. Unfortunately he just looks like another talented defender who is going to struggle with injuries, like Bailly & Jones (for younger readers, yes at one point Jones was very talented)
The problem is Utd are willing to wait it out for Dayot,if we really wanted him this summer should have made a move before he signed contract.
In regards to Thiago he seemingly has been set on joining the scousers since deciding to leave Bayern,listen nothing would make me happier than getting one over on them but won't be this time.
Some very good posts in this thread. Personally I think Thiago would only be signed if Pogba moved on (can foresee difficulties with him signing a new contract, as he, and his 'advisor' would be looking for an increase in his current salary, and I'm not sure the club will agree to this), and then we may not be his choice of club. He has had injury problems I believe, and his wage demands would be pretty high, so all in all I cannot see him arriving at OT, but stranger things have happened in the past.
Completely agree with you so who should we go for in this window with Upamecano off the table
I wouldn’t say he was explosive...at Arsenal...he played pretty quick triangles and found space within the goal area.That’s like Micah Richards exploding onto the scene statement.
Exactly. It's one thing about the "FIFA/FM generation" of fans that I don't understand. Maybe because bench players get unhappy in those games? I dunno. I see it all the time though, "we can't get x because we have y" yet I didn't see any City fans saying "well we can't go for Messi, we already have Silva and Mahrez" if a world class player is available at a good price, you take the deal. Quite frankly, I don't care if Fred or McTominay get less game time because of it, I want to see United at the top again, and to get to the top you have to be ruthless.
If you asked me this 10 years ago I'd be able to name pretty much every centre back in europe no problem, however when you get older you stop playing the video games and following continental football as closely, so my knowledge on the top centre backs outside the PL isn't so strong anymore. One defender who impresses me every time I watch him is Milan Skriniar (I missed the EL final haha) although who knows how much he'd cost. Perhaps Ruben Dias from Benfica would be a better choice though? He's faster. Probably not as good as Skriniar, but would compliment Maguire better, and would surely be cheaper also.
It would help if we had a DOF!
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Relax, Scholes is an all time best, but in the current market, Thiago is the best
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Just joking but people sometimes seems to underrate our legends.
I agrée, Scholes was one of the best and it was a pleasure to watch him pass the ball. My favorite United player, he was at the heart of everything for us and for our most successful Spell ever.
And just a lovely guy as well who didn't have an agent and was only focused on United and football.
Yeah we are right to prioritise Sancho because has been a gaping hole in this team for too many years.I would like a CB too but get the impression we are going to risk waiting it out for the right player next summer.
Ole does not want to buy a lot of players on one window. So we will have 3 at best iMO. I don't think it is a bad thing by the way, 8 players is a lot to integrate in a squad.
We should focus on the progress of our young players I think. That is the principale idea with a young squad as ours. Even if we need few additions for the first eleven as well as for the squad.
But I am excited to see if our actual front three will progress next year and if Bruno and Pogba will get more understanding for our attacking play.
As we saw under Fergie, sometimes progress is coming from within and from the growth of young players. We became champions again just by adding Carrick, if you think about it it is crazy.
We don't have Ronaldo and our situation is not comparable but I think Ole believes on our front 3 and that we will see progress from them next year. But they need to stay injury free...
Believe me Ole is still all in for Sancho to join that front three,whether it happens or not well that remains to be seen
I agree. A RW is our most urgent priority followed by a LW (I like Shaw but he is injurie prone too much) a CB and a Deep lying playmaker.
Thiago is good sure but we need someone younger if we are thinking long term and his salary will be too high. I just don't want us to buy ageing players with a big wage who are after their las lucrative contract. The risk is too high...we are clearing the desk actually, don't want us to make the same mistake...
Take it you meant LB and not LW. Maybe it's a case that Utd see a very slim opening to get a DLP in Thiago and want to at least explore the opportunity. I am also certain that CB is a higher priority than both but get the impression Ole doesn't feel the right player is available now.
Everything about this points to us being used to speed up negotiations and raise the fee.
Also, doesn't anyone else have PTSD from buying ageing midfielders from bayern that are injury prone? That club definitely has a knack for letting players go once they are in decline.
Also, doesn't anyone else have PTSD from buying ageing midfielders from bayern that are injury prone? That club definitely has a knack for letting players go once they are in decline.
They aren't letting Thiago go he has asked to leave for a new challenge,can assure you this is nothing like when Bastian left in 2015. I do agree we are the pawn in this game between Liverpool & Bayern though.
I'm not doing any projections going forward but Thiago is right now squarely in his prime as a football player. Schweinsteiger was not when you guys signed him, he had been declining for a couple of years already. We still don't know why you paid 25M € for Owen Hargreaves but we gladly took the fee to the bank to sign Franck Ribéry with the money.
To be fair we got a season out of Owen where he helped us win the Champions League but yeah early the following season his injury curse really struck
I do hate that we do this as a team.
Buy players from teams only for them to buy an even better player or a player with a crazy high ceiling. Always makes me wonder why we can't just pull the trigger on talent and loan them out.
What I mean is, who will dortmund target next when and if sancho comes?
We need to be trying to find out who they're after because they have a knack for signing players that become so good.
Real Madrid are doing this with their players. Hakimi and Reguilon if he comes to us. They put first refusal or buy backs in the contracts and that is perfect because the players get to get on with their careers but if they become real good they can return without a fight.
Its like morata. They bought him back from juve for nothing and then sold him to Chelsea
Hope this window is open until 2025. With our speedy resolve having to sell 5 players and buying 4 could take a while.
Could only see a maximum of three
Yeah I did, I also saw Kimmich and Goretzka run the show for Bayern. Thiago was actually rated by many publications as the forth best on the Munich team that night, behind Lewandowski and the two players I mentioned.
Comparing Thiago to two of the greatest passers the game has ever seen is churlish and quite frankly strange, Thiagos game is nothing like either of the two aforementioned legends.
Both signings make sense in terms of having a great midfield, but the squad have larger needs than Thiago would fill in midfield.
Our secondary 11 consists of:
Henderson
TFM - Jones - Bailly - Williams
Fred
McTominay - VdB
Lingard - Ighalo - James
TFM - Jones - Bailly - Williams
Fred
McTominay - VdB
Lingard - Ighalo - James
Without the odd argument for Dalot/Laird for TFM, Tuanzebe for Jones/Bailly or Mata over Lingard taking unnecessary debates, we've got serious issues in the quality of our second string attackers. VdB made sure we have a midfielder not in the starting 11 who can actually create something. Now we need a proper attacker so we've got Greenwood to throw on when we need to change stuff up or are struck with injuries or fatigue rather than Lingard, Ighalo or James.
Sancho can be that proper attacker
Chelsea are owner by a oligarch as their plaything while we're owned as a business to make money for our owners.
They've had tons of money coming in from the sales of Hazard & Morata, with a few more millions coming from sales of their loan-army. They have also lost players on high wages in Willian & Pedro. On top of that they barely spent anything the season before due to their transfer ban.
Their squad was held together by the quality coming through their youth ranks and desperately needed the additions to be in a good position for years to come. There are also arguments to be made for Chelsea being run a lot better when it comes to player sales than our club.
I think United can spend a lot this summer compared to other clubs, but that doesn't mean our business-oriented owners will see it as worth it. We certainly can't spend at the levels Chelsea are doing this summer.
The alternatives mentioned would come on fee's we're unable to pay for in the current climate, going by memory:
Reguilon: 27 million
Upamecano: >50 million (they would want more than next years release clause)
Thiago: 30 million
Sancho: 120 million
VdB: 40 million
That's 267 000 000 euros, and that is being kind on Upamecano going for the coming release clause. That is before we're talking about wages for each of them. I doubt we would be doing that even in a non-covid world.
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I might be the only one but I thought he was a good player for just for his first season. Strangely, I'm fond of him and he left an impression on me even though he was non-existent in his next two seasons. Considering the fee we paid for him at that time, he was probably a flop to many Utd fans but not for me. Oh and I miss the good old days where we could pay 25 million euro for a world-class player. Sigh.
Ok open till 2024 then.
Dont like the comparison with chelsea as they've had a transfer ban and so are catching up, admittedly quite good. Let's not forget they have an owner who's more richer than ours and has more of a personal affection to the club than ours. He will plough more in IF he wants. Chelsea also sell very well.
I personally believe our first 11 or 12 players if were to get sancho are as good as anyones bar the back four which I think liverpool have the advantage. We wont be signing more than 3 players. And I doubt we will sell more than 3. Highly fustrating.
Fred, McT and Matic are not fine for depth. Our biggest issue last season was that we had no player who could fill in for Pogba, and later also Bruno, without significantly weakening our ability to break down teams that sit deep. With what you're suggesting, that'll still be a major issue.
I don't think we'll go with all of VDB, Pogba and Bruno on the pitch at the same time, but if we do, we'll need to add midfielders.
Our defense wasn't even an issue last season, so I don't get how you can think replacing a CB is a more pressing issue than adding attacking ability and creativity to our midfield, particularly if your preferred midfield constellation consists of all our midfielders capable of delivering that.
It's really just a two year contract extension anyway as we were gonna enact his option this summer.
I mentioned CB along with someone who can play on the right. Both are far bigger priorities.
I could understand, not agree with your opinion about CB, but I’m sure 99% of Utd supporters would be able to see a right sided player, ala Sancho is far more of a priority.
Thiago may be staying after all?
"I never said to anyone I wanted to leave Bayern. Every year they write me to another club. For me, my future is tomorrow's match [Spain - Ukraine], nothing else."
May also just be a ploy to get a transfer going.
I assume if he says he wants to leave, he ll be asked to present a transfer request.
My gut feeling is that if Utd honestly felt he was willing to join the club then think we would meet his demands
how is it Barcelona arent in for him?
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