He would quickly realise he's wrong.
I would take Kroos in a heartbeat.
Yeah, I'm just gonna go ahead and say, what in the name of good feck is that supposed to mean?
Barcelona have repeated a couple of times throughout the Thiago saga that they had not had direct contact from Manchester United. The Old Trafford club seemed to be prepared to wait until every detail was 100% with Thiago until making a move on Barcelona, but they were leaving things late with the player due to return to training on Monday. It appeared Thiago wanted to get as much out of his summer break in terms of time and therefore leave it until the end of this week and the coming weekend.
Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo say that reports of a deal being done with Bayern Munich are not true, but it could be soon, perhaps over the next couple of days. The German side have contacted Barcelona but not attempted to activate a buy-out clause just as yet, and that won't be as straightforward as it sounds. Right now they are clearly in the box seat as the only club to have publicly said they want the player and the only club to have actually contacted Barcelona.
When the Bundesliga champions did contact their Spanish counterparts they were met with an unhappy Sandro Rosell, who was angry after an attack from Pep Guardiola in his earlier press conference. Guardiola made a surprise attack on those in charge at Barcelona who he said hadn't kept a promise to leave him alone whilst he was in New York. Mundo reckon that Bayern Munich tried to smooth over this trouble and told Rosell they weren't happy with the situation either.
Mundo explain that they don't think Bayern Munich will pay Thiago's buy-out fee but rather negotiate a separate amount, to avoid the player being landed with a tax bill and to make the deal more amicable. If Manchester United still have hope then that's where it lies. If Rosell is seriously cheesed off with Guardiola and Bayern Munich, then he's less likely to be a happy negotiator.
However, if Manchester United never even made contact with Barcelona then it makes you wonder how they ever expected to get a deal sorted out quickly and amicably. The problems relating to his buy-out clause could have been settled before Bayern Munich swooped in late. By all accounts in Spain and Germany, Guardiola has been interested for some time but it's only over the last few days that it became a serious effort rather than simply an idea.
Thiago at Bayern Munich would provide a selection headache for Guardiola, but a nice problem to have for a coach unless it leads to outright mutiny. Mundo say he'd implement a 3-4-3 system with Martinez pushed back to be the only central defender. That would push Brazilian international Dante and German international Badstuber out of the team, the latter could prove to be more problematic. Last season Badstuber struggled with injuries but he's played over 30 games for Germany at the age of just 24, he's from Bavaria and come through the Bayern Munich youth system.
A 4-1-4-1 system, which Robben says they've been moulded into during training, would give more room to accommodate Badstuber or Dante, but less room in midfield.
Oh dear.
Perhaps? It's inconclusive at the moment but it's well-known the Glazers are stingy over money.
