Smalling is about 100x better than Vermaelen Wenger you cheeky bastard.
Worth a try I suppose but I would only swap him for Anderson/Nani
Worth a try I suppose but I would only swap him for Anderson/Nani
Thomas Vermaelen
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Time for Ed to use his jedi mind tricks
Arsene...... You don't want Smalling..... You want Fellaini
In fact even Fellaini is more valuable but I just want him offski
Arsene...... You don't want Smalling..... You want Fellaini
In fact even Fellaini is more valuable but I just want him offski
I wouldn't be comfortable with giving him a five year deal. What we offered there is about right.
I wouldn't have been happy with a swap deal but this is a ridiculous statement. If it weren't for Vermaelen injury problems he'd be a top defender in this league and is also a goal scoring threat as well.
Whether you wanted him or not, Louis Van Gaal did and now he is off to Barcelona. Another target missed out on, getting bit concerned now.
£15m? Jesus!
Your opinion, but Smalling for me is absolute class. Yes Vermaelen is better with the ball but in defence that means little to me. Smalling will show this year he is top class and top 5 CB's in the league IMO.
I love how overrated Smalling is. At right back he is terrible but that's not his position. At centre back he is decent and prone to a lot of mistakes.
If he was as good as a lot of fans make out I'm sure he would be starting CB for a piss average England and not behind the mighty Cahill and Jagielka.
Obviously Wenger is having a laugh as the reason we want another CB is we are light on them so swapping one for another is bullshit and he knows it. He is just fecking with us so he goes to Barca instead.
Vermaelen - Pique would be a world-class partnership.
Well, for the first 45 minutes until V gets injured.
Well, for the first 45 minutes until V gets injured.
The player opted for Barcelona. United basically lost out on the transfer. I don't think it was anything to do with swapsies.
Chris Smalling is a good defender, whether he is "top class" is debatable. He also has a terrible recent history with injuries, as do our other only first team center halves. I rate Chris but I don't think he'll reach the level we had hoped when he arrived ala "he is the next Rio" blah blah.
His camp seemed to have briefed everyone that he wanted to stay in England though for a while as first preference.
I think Carrick would be a very good option in a back three.
I think you've gone mad.
I wouldn't read too much into these stories.
I disagree. Don't get me wrong I don't think he's had a gun held to his head to join Barcelona, but swap deal or not it was perfectly clear that Arsenal did not want to sell to us. Which is fair enough, that's their decision.
He might have been a good player for us if he would stay fit, but I am not to arsed for missing him. Arsenal done well to get 15M for him, imo.
Crazy money for an injury prone defender who has 1 year left on his contract.
£30m for Mathieu & Vermaelen, Barca are bonkers.
Great passing range, but in terms of defending he's not nearly good enough. Maybe against weaker teams.
And if Wee Jimmy Krankie was 4 foot taller, Britain would have another potential NBA star.
clever from Arsenal. They told Barca to match our offer of 15m, which they did. Then they told us if we wanted him only for Smalling. They never wanted to sell him to us for a realistic fee. They rate Smalling higher than 15m and we too. Hope he stays injury free.
Arsenal chose the wrong player to play hardball over with us. Who cares about Vermaelen when we have RvP
They chose nothing, Utd the first interested party
Done dealio?
In a defence with 3 centre-backs passing and reading of the game is more important. There's not many better out there better than Carrick.
He can only play the central role of the 3 anyway.
We need someone to play the left one. Carrick can't do that.
35M actually.
15m for an injury prone player in his last year of contract is far too steep.
Blackett, Evans.
£15m for the crock Vermaelen in the last year of his contract... the world has gone mad FFS! Absolutely delighted we 'miss out' on him, rather see Keane and Blackett take the time on the pitch than the Belgian 
I think one of the main reasons behind our interest was him being left footed.
Ferguson played Rio and Vidic a lot in his last season as he needed their experience to make sure he left on a high with a PL win. Moyes played them as he needed their experience to get his troubled reign off the ground.
No England manager therefore has really had the chance to establish Smalling in central defence for his country because no United manager has so far given him the chance.
Remember also that Smalling's United career (and therefore England career) has been affected by Rafael's poor injury record - the fact he's constantly out injured increases the number of games Smalling has to play at RB.
Watch what happens now - as he's finally given a chance to establish himself at United under a new regime (one that's finally parted, rightly or wrongly, with Rio and Vida) I'll bet Jones and Smalling now get the chance to either partner Cahill for England, or dislodge him and form a partnership together.
31M.35M actually.
Blackett will be fine in most games.
Arsenal have made the right decision for them.
They know we're going to play with three centre halves and only have three. Why would they sell us another to solve a problem for us?
If they only had one striker, I wouldn't want us to sell Hernandez to them if we had the option to sell him abroad.
Wenger has avoided doing exactly what he has been criticised for in recent years, frustrating as that has proved to be for us.
They know we're going to play with three centre halves and only have three. Why would they sell us another to solve a problem for us?
If they only had one striker, I wouldn't want us to sell Hernandez to them if we had the option to sell him abroad.
Wenger has avoided doing exactly what he has been criticised for in recent years, frustrating as that has proved to be for us.
I am not gonna say I was TOTALLY against this but missing out doesn't reflect badly on LVG at all in this case. Arsenal wanted to sell abroad, the price was slightly inflated for a crock and there's no shame in losing a player when either Barca or RM come in for them. They are the two biggest clubs in the world I guess.
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