Is this a deal that going against player's wish?
He would have been more happy to stay in england with his friend.
He would have been more happy to stay in england with his friend.
Thomas Vermaelen
- Thread starter Santos J
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Barcelona can have him for 15m. We shouldn't buy this injury prone for that much.
Evans seems limited there especially in terms of his distribution and tackling when pulled out wide though he can do a job. Blackett is not ready to be a starter or play a regular role.
Plus in 3 at the back it's always better to have a left footer out left for balance and LVG loves his left fotted defenders from previous experiences.
Yep, LVG likes his left footed defenders a lot for balance.
People still doubt Smalling? Watch him this season, when he consistently plays at CB.
It was only because of his injuries that he was not a starter for England. In basically all of the warm up games he was partering Cahill until I think the last 1 which he picked up an injury. It's very hard to get consistency in a team where you are being swapped about to right back, then being benched for an old Ferdinand. This year he will be a mainstay in the team and he will shine for that I am sure.
He might not reach Rio heights, but Physically they are very similar. He has everything you defensively, but not quite as good at distributing.
People have been put off by Smalling because of his RB stints which are totally unfair. Imagine playing Rio or Vidic there? they would all look rubbish.
One of Evans strong points!
I'm doubting him because he seems to get injured regularly. Apart from his first season, when has he gone a good period of time without picking up something ruling him out?
If we are playing with 3 at the back, we need more than Jones/Smalling/Evans who could all be labelled as "injury prone" with two reserves as back up.
You could be right in future for sure but Smalling also played tournaments for the under 21s as a CB partnership with Jones and unless he needs to be scouted 100 times 'Moyes style' I'm sure he has played enough games for us at CB and has also trained with enough England squads for the manager to decide whether he plays.
So far I'm suggesting he has failed. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying he is terrible just not that great. Maybe he will prove me wrong over the coming season with commanding displays at the back. I guess we will both find out....
Yeah, and it's limited playing left side of the defence as he has to serviceable passing off his left or cut back off his right taking time which invites more pressure.
See the game vs Liverpool for example.
It doesn't reflect at all on LvG. It's not his job to get players in. What it does show is how poor Ed is at identifying and moving on from dead end transfers. We knew about our interest in this before the world cup, but yet again we hang around for feck all instead of spending that wasted time on another target.
He'll be injured again soon enough and that's why I didn't want him in the first place.
Arsenal were mad if they think that we would entertain exchange of players. He would have been a good addition to back line but now looks we will get blind anyway.
Gone to Barca for £15 million.
You can't pick a player for England on the back of his performances for the u21's (some time ago). Cahill always plays as CB and is effectively first choice for Chelsea, Jagielka first choice CB for Everton and has experience of playing alongside Cahill for England.
Smalling needs a run for United to establish himself over those options. Saying 'he's failed' is harsh - it's hard to break through to become a first choice United CB (especially when Rio and Vida are still at the club and still capable of being class)... He'll get there eventually.
Would have been an underwhelming signing anyway.
If we swapped Smalling for Vermaelen we could well have been handing Arsenal their next league title. Just as a cherry on top to other good players, but as an out and out defender there are few better CBs in the league.
Finally sense prevails
Finally sense prevails
Cant believe there are people crying about this. Vermaelen when he first came PL yes, but Vermaelen who is barely playing cause of the injuries and has become worse as player, no, thank you.
And LVG wanted him? Who knows if he wanted him. I wouldnt be surprised if all this was just media bollocks and speculation.
Even if it's all true Arsenal didn't want to sell to us, what should have we done?
And LVG wanted him? Who knows if he wanted him. I wouldnt be surprised if all this was just media bollocks and speculation.
Even if it's all true Arsenal didn't want to sell to us, what should have we done?
Very happy this didn't go through. Would have been a very poor price of business at the quoted prices, hopefully LvG has some better ideas.
Gabriel Milito
Chygryinsky
Cacaeres
Mathieu
Vermaelan
Weren't they also linked with Agger and David Luiz?
Chygryinsky
Cacaeres
Mathieu
Vermaelan
Weren't they also linked with Agger and David Luiz?
Well it was confirmed that Arsenal received two bids one from Barca obviously and one from an English club that Wenger didn't want to sell to. So my money would be on van Gaal wanting him.
Not overly disappointed. 10m would have been decent business i think but 15m or anything involving Smalling is very top heavy in Arsenal's favour.
I would much rather have kept Smalling, much younger and still hasn't hit his full potential. Vermaelen hasn't made 30 premier league games in 4 years, when he was supposed to have been their captain? If he didn't have any future injury concerns or Arsenal did not want the swap, then this may have been a good deal.
It's a tricky one - 15m a lot of money but I trust Van Gaal. If he thought there's more to get out of Vermaelen and that he'd have added presence and leadership to the back line of our team I'd have been happy to see it happen...
Comparing Smalling to Rio is a joke.
Rio was one of the finest central defenders of the past 20 years, imperious at his peak.
Smalling at his best can aspire to be on the level of Wes Brown, a good versatile player with a great career, but never quite top level
Rio was one of the finest central defenders of the past 20 years, imperious at his peak.
Smalling at his best can aspire to be on the level of Wes Brown, a good versatile player with a great career, but never quite top level
I do agree he will now get the chance to show this week in week out. Good luck to him as if he is playing well for us that is all I care about.
I'm just saying he has over 90 first team starts for United, not all were at RB. He has 12 caps for England. He will be 25 in November so no longer a young unproven player and irrelevant or not was the CB for England under 21 for 4 years. To make out he has not had a chance is to prove himself is not exactly true although his right back spells have not helped of course but him being utter shite in that role has definitely not helped either.
Vermaelen would have been decent and added depth, but its not the end of the world, I'm sure LvG knows what he's doing as has a plan.
I wonder if Woodward feels a little upset after the comment about stopping players going to barca and madrid.
Pleased. Rather we stick with what we've got if the best we're going to bring in is Vermaelen.
Yes, but obviously not for £15m. Which seems sensible, he's not worth more than £10m at the moment what with his injury record.
Vermaelen ticked a lot of boxes for us.
Experienced
Used to PL football
Left footed
Strong
Weakens a rival
Cheap
Only problem is his injury problems. Not sure who else we can get who could tick these boxes
Experienced
Used to PL football
Left footed
Strong
Weakens a rival
Cheap
Only problem is his injury problems. Not sure who else we can get who could tick these boxes
But defenders hardly peak at those time in their careers. You look at the likes of Terry, Rio, Carvalho, Vidic etc..,, they all had their best form in their late twenties.
Arsenal getting maximum value for him due to the interest from both United/Barca. Still think he's fairly underrated here.
Or he could of kept his mouth shut and not said pointless crap like that instead.
I'm not disagreeing with this, my original comments started from someone suggesting he was 100x better than Vermaelen, I just replied suggesting if he was that good he would be starter for England.
He is overrated right now. We can always revisit this after the season ends as surely then at 25 and playing regularly at CB for us should give us a better indication of whether he is actually that good or only that good now because he is a current United player.
I hope he fulfills all this potential that so many see in him. I just personally think he is ok, nothing special, poor on the ball, cant pass at all. His pace and height can be his savior though.
What a massive relief.
His passing off his left foot is almost as good as off his right. See the ball out for the Nani goal against Chelsea a couple of years back for example. He had a bad game against Liverpool, that's all. He's pretty much two-footed.
Poor Barca
15 mil £? What's wrong with Barcelona? They were never too impressive in the transfer market, but it seems they are getting even worse!
I'm delighted that this hasn't gone through, if losing Smalling was the only way to do it.
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