Thomas Vermaelen

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red_7 said:
We lost 2 defenders and the rest is injury prone. If we'd sign him AND Garay nobody would probably complain
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Isn't Garay Bayern bound?

Plus, Vermaelen is injury prone as well. It's just a bad signing really, no way of getting around that in my opinion. It's fine to prefer having a left-footed defender but if there are non available at the required level, it shouldn't be the main priority.
 
If United are signing Vermaelen, it means he's on LVG's list. That's good enough for me.
 
So we've gone from Hummels to Vermaelen, God help us. He's so good that even Arsene Wenger [who loves a ball playing CB] doesn't start him. I don't get it.
 
coolredwine said:
Yes, I have. As good as he is, or can be, he still has an odd mistake in him every match. And that can easily result in something for the opposition.
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He still has the odd occasion where he can be a little reckless but I it's really not surprising or even an insult to Vermalaen that he's kept him out the team as he would keep many better players then him out. For me centre back is the hardest position to sign in world football at the minute- there just simply isn't many around.
 
If we got him for less than £5m, along with someone else (Garay? Some of that stature?) then this would be a tidy bit of business.
 
I have read that Bayern rumour too, but then I went on holiday, maybe he's gone now but we had the chance to sign him several occasions and didn't.
 
RedorDead21 said:
If he was on any othe manager's list you'd be quite rightly saying what a strange move!
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No, if SAF had signed him there wouldn't be nearly this much backlash on this forum. Although it is amusing to imagine this signing under Moyes.

The only reservation I have with this signing is his injury record, but if we do get him for the reported £10m, it wouldn't be that much of an outlay anyway.
 
Great. We will now have 4 centre backs who can't be relied upon to stay fit.
 
I can see that many people here are frustrated with the potential signing of Vermaelen.

How can people forget that before last season he was an absolutely brilliant defender for Arsenal. The Gooners gave him terrifying sounding nicknames, he was made captain and was an all-round excellent player. An injury ravaged season later, he's suddenly bad news??

If anything he's a fantastic squad signing. At his best, he can be a regular starter for us and his versatility will really come in handy. He's a ball-playing centre back, something LVG wants. He's got ample premier league and champions league experience.

I think he needs some trust put in him again and LVG buying him will probably do good for him.
 
SAF thought Ashley Young would be a good signing. Good managers can make some bad or strange signings. This would have to down as one of them. If Moyes was in charge everyone would be fuming. I'm not one of those in the camp, "well if LVG is happy then I'm happy". Unless I know nothing or very little about a player I don't think I will ever be saying that, regardless of the manager.
 
RVP was injury prone before he joined us.

Moyesitis and wrapping in cotton wool for World Cup don't count as injuries.
 
I think Vermaelen is a very skilled footballer, but has had lapses of buffoonery as a defender. If he can stay fit and LvG can get the best out of him tactically, then he could be a decent bargain.

Was he actually injured last season, or was it just a case of Wenger preferring Koscielny and Mertesacker?
 
Would be a bit underwhelming considering the names we've been linked with but if Van Gaal wants him and thinks Vermaelen can do a good job for us then that's good enough for me. I worry about his injury record slightly as we already have three injury prone CB's but he'd still bring good leadership qualities to the squad and we need that in the heart of our defence at the minute, given we've lost Ferdinand and Vidic.
 
If Vermaelen is the only CB we bring in this summer, it raises the question of whether Van Gaal has been made fully aware of just how injury-prone the rest of our players in that position are. We need another defender with fitness issues like we need a kick in the nuts but if it's in addition to someone like Martins Indi or De Vrij, which I'm thinking it has to be, I guess it makes sense. A bit of leadership, a bit of experience.
 
I can see Vermaelen being a good signing. Vermaelen definitely was not one of the names I was thinking about as a replacement for Vidic and Rio, but we know what we are getting with him. Maybe Vermaelen lost his way a bit at Arsenal, injuries also contributed to that. However, if Van Gaal can get him back to where he was when he first came to England he will be a good buy. Especially if you see Vermaelen as a senior figure to allow our younger players time to develop. If you see Vermaelen as insurance in case Evans, Jones and Smalling don't progress at the speed we hope they will under Van Gaal, instead of a star centre-back then the deal makes sense. He do what Rio did at the end of his United career, playing alongside younger players as they develop and adding some experience in the big games instead of making 50 odd appearances a year.
 
I would take any signing right now seriously, even a relative of Bebe!

Nah if true I think Vermaelen at a reasonable price will be a good signing if his injuries are in the past. At the end of the day he is a very good defender on form and I know Arsenal don't play him but that's because the other two have established a good partnership in his absence. Surely us United fans know the importance of a stable CB partnership.

With Rio and Vida gone I don't have much faith in Smalling, Jones and Evans just yet so a more experienced player is required.

Hummels is not going to leave Dortmund and Mangala is very young and will cost a fortune. I see a signing like him more of a risk than Vermaelen.
 
Vermaelen in his prime was a really good defender but that was only 1 season if I'm right.

We shouldn't believe LvG works miracles on every player but if someone can bring Vermaelen back on track, LvG should be one...
 
For that Mangala is seen as the perfect fit by many I wonder why Sakho is in the France team ahead of him
 
Signings are a complete lottery. We've seen that on so many occasions here. We could pay 50m for a defender with lots of experience but there's something about this league and playing at OT in that red shirt that finds people out. You never know which way the signing is going to go. I suggest we wait and see the bigger picture because from what I can see already about LVG, its not just about signings, its systems and round pegs in round holes.....
 
Very decent signing IMO. Him and a left back (Shaw?) would mean that our defense would be the best we've had in 2 seasons. Would fit in perfectly into LvG's system as well.

We were never going to sign Hummels and most of the other options would simply eat into our budget considering we're already likely to spend 30m on Shaw.
 
Underwhelming news tbh (if true). I can see the rationale - an experienced leader to use alongside Jones, Smalling and/or Evans. Still, hardly sets pulses racing.
 
I'm sorry but I don't want a player who can't play at Arsenal and being worse than Mertesacker.

I just don't forget that we want to be back in the top four, we want to be back where we belong, and I'm not really sure that Vermaelen is the kind of player we really need to strengths our team. Well, he's not that awful, but I assume we were going to have a real top player at the back with Rio and Vida leaving, the gap is huge in term of leadership, commanding in the area.

Vermalean is maybe level with Evans, and I can't see us competing with Aguero, Costa, Suarez with Vermaelen...

But maybe it shows what's is under our possibility. The fact that we don't attract to player anymore (without CL) and Woody is a bad bad bad chief ex
 
I suspect we looked at other options but may have been kicked back and/or or players being unavailable we had to lower our standards.

I worry this may impact our other transfer targets.
 
mata10 said:
I meant carrick playing central defense. We may sign a good DM you never know? Song was a very good defensive midfielder. I think you are underating him by calling him just a fouling machine.
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We have seen how Carrick playing in the defense pans out. Remember that match against Fulham couple of seasons back?
 
People keep harping on about experience and leadership just because he's 28, I'll argue that Evans is as experienced/or even more because he's played as much or more/and has won more. Experience isn't just age, the amount of games played and at what level is also a big factor and Evans has form for this over him. We haven't signed him and I don't know if we'll sign him but this will be very very underwhelming if it happens, I mean, there's far better players out there we should be going for, and I'm not even talking about big names either. Bizzare.
 
legball said:
People keep harping on about experience and leadership just because he's 28, I'll argue that Evans is as experienced/or even more because he's played as much or more/and has won more. Experience isn't just age, the amount of games played and at what level is also a big factor and Evans has form for this over him. We haven't signed him and I don't know if we'll sign him but this will be very very underwhelming if it happens, I mean, there's far better players out there we should be going for, and I'm not even talking about big names either. Bizzare.
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I think Evans has significantly more experience tbh, plus he's played alongside two of the world's best centre halves for a long time. Vermaelen is a completely bizarre signing, if true.

I could see him being decent in a back five as with Netherlands ATM, but I'm not sure that's a long term option for us at all.
 
Chaky_Best said:
I'm sorry but I don't want a player who can't play at Arsenal and being worse than Mertesacker.

I just don't forget that we want to be back in the top four, we want to be back where we belong, and I'm not really sure that Vermaelen is the kind of player we really need to strengths our team. Well, he's not that awful, but I assume we were going to have a real top player at the back with Rio and Vida leaving, the gap is huge in term of leadership, commanding in the area.

Vermalean is maybe level with Evans, and I can't see us competing with Aguero, Costa, Suarez with Vermaelen...

But maybe it shows what's is under our possibility. The fact that we don't attract to player anymore (without CL) and Woody is a bad bad bad chief ex
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Unfortunately this may be true but I feel to compete against the big teams our midfield is more important. If we sign two midfielder better than the ones we have (surely that cant be too difficult) then our defense will be under a lot less pressure.

The likes of Suarez and Aguero at least will trouble the best defenders. We could buy Hummels and Varane for instance and still concede a lot due to the inability of our current midfield to not stop being shit.
 
Sort of the right type of signing... I really believe in Jones and Evans so I was hoping we'd sign a more experienced head who wouldn't be here for that long and would be OK with not starting every week. I'm not a fan of Vermaelen at all, that might be because my most enduring memories of him are from the game when we won 3-1 at the Emirates with Nani and Rooney running riot. We'll see, gotta give him a fair chance, of course.
 
He's not a bad defender, but I don't like the idea of adding another injury prone CB to the ranks. We're kind of well stocked in that area.
 
Let's be honest, we were never going to spend 50-60m on 2 defenders. Better off saving some money for midfield.

I've again gotta say that this is a sensible signing which also allows us to continue playing Smalling, Jones and Evans as they will get better.
 
mufcwarm92 said:
I think Evans has significantly more experience tbh, plus he's played alongside two of the world's best centre halves for a long time. Vermaelen is a completely bizarre signing, if true.

I could see him being decent in a back five as with Netherlands ATM, but I'm not sure that's a long term option for us at all.
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Exactly, on top of that, he's always injured, not good enough to start for Arsene Wenger who by the way loves a ball playing center back, I'll be rightly pissed off if this one happens.
 
Is it also possible that he could be used as a backup signing should our preferred options fail to reach an agreement.
 
I'd be happy with this. He's excellent on the ball, not slow, decent enough defender and most importantly a leader. If we do move to LVG's usual more possession based game where the ball is won more by pressuring opponents than putting in big tackles, he'd certainly help with that. Plus he's got experience of playing left back if required, and if we ever did play 3 at the back he would be ideal to be the left sided defender. And he'd cost less than £10m, bargain signing.
 
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