Thomas Vermaelen

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Its quite funny watching people try and convince themselves that this would be a good signing. You've got Arsenal fans saying he's not good enough to be anything then a backup, you've got Belgium fans saying he's crap. But oh no, United fans know best.

If we do sign him, then that really is conformation of where we now stand as a club, and how far we've fallen.
 
Sam said:
Its quite funny watching people try and convince themselves that this would be a good signing. You've got Arsenal fans saying he's not good enough to be anything then a backup, you've got Belgium fans saying he's crap. But oh no, United fans know best.

If we do sign him, then that really is conformation of where we now stand as a club, and how far we've fallen.
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Because we bought a back up centre half who can cover left back ?

Drama queens.
 
Stobzilla said:
Because we bought a back up centre half who can cover left back ?

Drama queens.
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If we sign him its obviously not going to be as backup, otherwise they'd be literally no reason to leave Arsenal. He's not going to swap one bench for another is he?
 
Infra-red said:
I think we might see a couple come in yes, Vermaelen and Indi would be my guess.
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I cant see Martins Indi being brought in. Looks quite clumsy on the ball to me.

Ive thought Hummels was buyable all summer and ill stick to that - we can get him if we pay the money.
 
RedorDead21 said:
No thats only if it was Moyes. for LvG we have diff rules..........
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Well some managers are capable of improving players and making them look better than others. Rodgers and Martinez have improved players this season and Wenger has done it all through his career so you'd give them more benefit of the doubt. Nobody improved here under Moyes except for the keeper.
 
Sam said:
If we sign him its obviously not going to be as backup, otherwise they'd be literally no reason to leave Arsenal. He's not going to swap one bench for another is he?
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Well yes for more money or same money on longer contract?
 
RedorDead21 said:
Well yes for more money or same money on longer contract?
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Well if we're offering more then his current wage (I think its been reported as about £70K) for a backup, then thats every bit as ridiculous.
 
Steven Seagull said:
Well some managers are capable of improving players and making them look better than others. Rodgers and Martinez have improved players this season and Wenger has done it all through his career so you'd give them more benefit of the doubt. Nobody improved here under Moyes except for the keeper.
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Rooney was better than last season. Adnan came on massively......But I get and agree with your point. Although most are not good enough, incapable of improving unless Fergie to was incapable of improving players..clevs, young, valencia, buttner......
 
Sam said:
Well if we're offering more then his current wage (I think its been reported as about £70K) for a backup, then thats every bit as ridiculous.
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The papers I all read reported 100k offer from us....
 
Sam said:
Good God.
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I refuse to believe it. LvG will know the importance of a good start in the transfer market. I dont think this is a risk he would entertain. You buy a first team starter and relegate the old starter. So much safer and more logical when rebuilding a team in need to improvement. This would be a good move for Liverpool trying to bulk up a squad!
 
No player ever signs for a club assuming he'll be a "squad player" or stuck on the bench.

If Vermaelen signs for United it's because he thinks he's good enough for a place in our first XI. He's not getting the chances he thinks he deserves at his current club, so will be looking for a clean slate under a new manager.

If he plays well enough to hold down a place in our first XI then it's win win, for both parties. If other central defenders out-perform him then he'll find himself stuck on the United bench too. In that latter scenario, he will be a decent squad player to have in case of injuries and it will mean our other defenders are having to be on their toes to keep him out of the team. Don't see how this isn't a good thing from United's perspective?
 
Pogue Mahone said:
No player ever signs for a club assuming he'll be a "squad player" or stuck on the bench.

If Vermaelen signs for United it's because he thinks he's good enough for a place in our first XI. He's not getting the chances he thinks he deserves at his current club, so will be looking for a clean slate under a new manager.

If he plays well enough to hold down a place in our first XI then it's win win, for both parties. If other central defenders out-perform him then he'll find himself stuck on the United bench too. In that latter scenario, he will be a decent squad player to have in case of injuries and it will mean our other defenders are having to be on their toes to keep him out of the team. Don't see how this isn't a good thing from United's perspective?
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I can think of a dozen defenders who are better, would keep our current garbage CBs on their toes better and have not suffered an injury over 2 years ago from which he has never recovered......
 
RedorDead21 said:
I refuse to believe it. LvG will know the importance of a good start in the transfer market. I dont think this is a risk he would entertain. You buy a first team starter and relegate the old starter. So much safer and more logical when rebuilding a team in need to improvement. This would be a good move for Liverpool trying to bulk up a squad!
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Dunno man, Van Gaal and defenders is a strange story. I´m still baffled that at Bayern, after winning the double and making a CL final with the likes of Demichelis and Van Buyten, he did not buy a decent defender in the summer after that. He also let Lucio go to Inter when he just arrived, who later on trashed them in the final.

Obviously LVG wanted to give Badstuber and Breno a chance in his second year and maybe there weren´t any good defenders available for Bayern to buy. But with injuries after half a season they ended up with Tymoschuk and Breno playing as their CB´s and then Van Gaal got fired.

Vermaelen looks like he is coming to United. He´s not playing for Belgium tonight, no idea why. But he is available for us for a good price, and LVG wants a left footed CB who´s good on the ball and Vermaelen might be one of the few options who suit that criteria. Some goes for Martins Indi, but compare him to Vermaelen and I can see why we would go for Vermaelen.

This feels just like when Moyes was appointed as the next United manager. Logically, you could see why they made that decision, but your gut says it is just not right.
 
This is a very bizarre transfer if true. But in LVG we must trust. It's his balls on the chopping block if things go tits up.
 
RedorDead21 said:
I can think of a dozen defenders who are better, would keep our current garbage CBs on their toes better and have not suffered an injury over 2 years ago from which he has never recovered......
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Is this guy another account of that Redtilldead123456789 guy? Totally matches him in talking nonsense.
 
The Man Himself said:
:rolleyes:

I give up.
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Giving up on me, why? I actually liked Moyes and still think he's an excellent coach. Same goes for Vermaelen, I've seen him make his debut for Ajax and saw him play a lot back then, thought Arsenal made a great signing when they bought him. But just like with Moyes it just feels wrong to see him being on the verge to join United, don't see what's so weird about that.
 
Henrik Larsson said:
Giving up on me, why? I actually liked Moyes and still think he's an excellent coach. Same goes for Vermaelen, I've seen him make his debut for Ajax and saw him play a lot back then, thought Arsenal made a great signing when they bought him. But just like with Moyes it just feels wrong to see him being on the verge to join United, don't see what's so weird about that.
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Ahhh, so you were comparing Vermaelen signing with Moyes? I read it as having LvG being similar to when Moyes signed. This because, in your post, you talked more about LvG and how he doesn't have a great track record on CBs etc.
 
We have Smalling and Jones to develop, so Vermaelen for 10m is a good back up. Don't understand the hysteria
 
Mangala said he would prefer United and probably would be a bit better choice despite not being proven in Premier League plus the French lad is still younger than Arsenal's captain.

As people say Verm is indeed quite risky... I hope Louie will get him flying like the whole Dutch team if news are true.

Weird things happening so far. I hope it's just media trying to squeeze more stories during the big tournament.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
No player ever signs for a club assuming he'll be a "squad player" or stuck on the bench.

If Vermaelen signs for United it's because he thinks he's good enough for a place in our first XI. He's not getting the chances he thinks he deserves at his current club, so will be looking for a clean slate under a new manager.

If he plays well enough to hold down a place in our first XI then it's win win, for both parties. If other central defenders out-perform him then he'll find himself stuck on the United bench too. In that latter scenario, he will be a decent squad player to have in case of injuries and it will mean our other defenders are having to be on their toes to keep him out of the team. Don't see how this isn't a good thing from United's perspective?
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Ricky Lambert.
 
Henrik Larsson said:
Dunno man, Van Gaal and defenders is a strange story. I´m still baffled that at Bayern, after winning the double and making a CL final with the likes of Demichelis and Van Buyten, he did not buy a decent defender in the summer after that. He also let Lucio go to Inter when he just arrived, who later on trashed them in the final.

Obviously LVG wanted to give Badstuber and Breno a chance in his second year and maybe there weren´t any good defenders available for Bayern to buy. But with injuries after half a season they ended up with Tymoschuk and Breno playing as their CB´s and then Van Gaal got fired.

Vermaelen looks like he is coming to United. He´s not playing for Belgium tonight, no idea why. But he is available for us for a good price, and LVG wants a left footed CB who´s good on the ball and Vermaelen might be one of the few options who suit that criteria. Some goes for Martins Indi, but compare him to Vermaelen and I can see why we would go for Vermaelen.
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Yeah for all his success Van Gaal has never really built a great defense.
 
Stobzilla said:
Because we bought a back up centre half who can cover left back ?

Drama queens.
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who spends half his time injured and is very error prone... i don't think it a sign of how far we had fallen, it would just be pure stupidity!
 
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Garethw said:
This is a very bizarre transfer if true. But in LVG we must trust. It's his balls on the chopping block if things go tits up.
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well no.... its uniteds cos we would be stuck with another player who it would be near impossible to shift!
 
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RedorDead21 said:
Pre injury Vermaelen had goals in him ala Koeman and was a defensive stalwart to match. Since then however...he's been more like smalling or jones....
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Lescott also had plenty of goals scoring 8 for Everton in 07/08, more than Vermaelen ever got. Also a better CB than Vermaelen ever was.
 
If this is the CB buy we make then so be it. Wouldn't be my choice but I sort of see how it works. Big gamble (and one I wouldn't I wouldn't want to make) but maybe....

That said, lets not kid ourselves that he's only coming here as a squad player or to also provide cover for LB. If he comes here it's to be a first choice CB. We have to deal with the idea on that basis, not by pretending it doesn't really matter as he's only coming to provide cover for Smalling and Evans (two players I'm sure he feels he's superior to).

There's also no point in dismissing the Belgian and Arsenal fans who say he isn't good enough for that role as we already know he isn't good enough for that role (going by his form in the last several seasons). We'd be signing him in the hope of returning him to player he was a few seasons ago, if that doesn't happen then we have definitely signed a very average player.
 
The Man Himself said:
Ahhh, so you were comparing Vermaelen signing with Moyes? I read it as having LvG being similar to when Moyes signed. This because, in your post, you talked more about LvG and how he doesn't have a great track record on CBs etc.
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Yep. I can see why you got confused, but it's the Thomas Vermaelen thread and I was referring to signing him.

Still, as pessimistic as I was about signing him it's nowhere near the end of the world. He's allright and Van Gaal will give him a lot of confidence. He might do pretty well for us actually, especially next season when we can just focus on the league.
 
I thought he was very good at Arsenal for his first few years, if he regains that form i would be happy. He's one of the better defenders in the world with the ball at his feet, is quick, can get us a few goals along the way. Think the majority of his issues is that he's had a hard time with injury and he goes like to wander off a bit. Sort that out and for £8 mil it would not be a bad buy.
 
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