I think he'd be good for the 25 league games he'll be available for. Would still need a good backup for the other 13 or more
United reportedly approached Nuno Mendes and have made a bid
- Thread starter Bastian
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I’d hate this purely because of what it could signal. The thought of a manager going back for his old players after went we went through with ETH would be silly.
Pep managed an allstar team at Barcelona and Bayern and not one of those players followed him to City. So let’s cut it out and actual sign new players that can make their stories here rather than trying to recreate other team’s successes.
Pep managed an allstar team at Barcelona and Bayern and not one of those players followed him to City. So let’s cut it out and actual sign new players that can make their stories here rather than trying to recreate other team’s successes.
This is true, however we still have seen multiple PL transfers in recent years where the value was quite good and we would have got better going for same players. I think the high cost angle would be valid if it wasn't for the fact that we've been signing even more expensive players from abroad very frequently.
In this case though it might genuinely be true that Mendes is the best player available for that specific role we need to fill. Arguably you could get similar kind of output from Robinson, Ait Nouri and Kerkez within the league but they'd cost more, in case of Kerkez likely significantly more.
I keep seeing this post but it's pure ptsd from ETH. There are no doubts about Mendes' ability in a position we need to strengthen.
Buying lads you previously worked with doesn't bother me. Generally you are aware of their mentality. If Mendes isn't costing an arm and a leg I am absolutely having him
For those mentioning the fact Nuno played for Amorim at Sporting, this isn't just a manager going for a player just because he used to play for him. He's going for the best possible fit for what we need. Nuno is one of the top players in his position in the world, the fact that Ruben gave him his start is just a happy circumstance. We should be looking at this deal regardless of who our manager is.
On the other hand, when Mourinho came to Chelsea all those years ago and brought with him Deco, Carvalho, Ferreira they massively upgraded the team. It would also have helped him get the new players onboard and implement his new tactics quicker
Exactly. It’s night and day in comparison to the Antony or Martinez transfers. Neither were players we had scouted / tried to buy previously and neither were in the top 5 in their position from players under 25.
Deco never played under Mourinho at Chelsea. Good point about Carvalho and Ferreira though.
Never really seen him but was he the left back when Sancho had his one good game during the Dortmund loan?
He was not
Would agree with this, and it's why it doesn't make sense why Ten Hag bought Anthony
I get what you're saying, but if you look at the left wing-back market currently, Nuno Mendes will inevitably be within probably the first 5 names people can come up with, provided we're looking for a more established option rather than some unknown 19 year old from a smaller club. It's a small market IMO and the players realistically obtainable is going to be even smaller, especially in January, and especially if we only look for players who have played in a back 5 before. The arguably number 1 option in Davies is someone who's going to be incredibly difficult for us to obtain, too.
I think the difference is Pep had leaders and world class players already at City to base a team round, players he could immediately trust. Both managers have struggled with the same players being unprofessional, lazy, not good enough - it makes perfect sense to bring in one or two familiar players that you trust to start building a team around.
Excellent news.
The idea of a possible new defender being done by Sancho would be too much for me.
He’s about a 7/10 in both attack and defence and is therefore a really solid LB. He’s fast, reads the game relatively well and glides past players easily. He was very good at the recent Euros too for Portugal. I think there’s still room for improvement and he is quite injury prone which would be a concern, but I’d struggle to name a clearly better LB at the moment. You could argue Milan and Bayern have equally good options in the same position, but I think he’d be first choice at pretty much any other top European club.
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My guess is he will end up at Bayern to replace Davies.
it's the only thing we're elite at nowadays
Is he better than what we have right now? Yes, so buy him if possible.
Sancho gave Davies the run around too, apparently another one of our targets.
Pep went from Barcelona to progressively smaller teams, that's why the players didn't follow him. This isn't comparable, it's just the best player available for the position we most need to reinforce. Different if we were actively trying to buy Gyokeres etc.
Yes it seems an odd thing to worry about. Especially when for years now United seem to have a load of problem characters.
Just because all of Ten Hag's old mates didn't particularly play well doesn't mean it'll be the same for the new manager.
Absolutely no manager should be given free reign over signings anymore without recruitment teams input. We restructured the DoF for this very reason.
One of his first signings at Bayern was alcantara, so even pep isn't above it.
Are we sure adding another injury prone LB to the team is a good idea? Maybe if it's cheap enough.
We can only sign players that are available also. The issue with Ten Hag’s signings is they came from Holland, which isn’t a physical league. France and Portugal, if nothing else, are physical leagues, that’s why French and Portuguese lads have always done well here.
If he’s not good enough we can get rid of him, as long as the wages and price are right. These are much better signings that lads from Holland, Italy and Spain.
What’s his track record?
We should do a Madrid and bid £20m.
Problem is he’s still got 18 months left on his deal.
Missed all of last season and has hardly played this year. If we go for him I'm hoping it's not on crazy wages as I can see it ending up another Mount situation when we try and play him week in week out.
Ah. Ignore everything I said
Tbf, most of those injuries seem fairly minor/irrelevant. Bruises, minor knocks, the coronavirus, etc.
That hamstring injury that had him out for 287 days seems a lot though.
This doesn't seem accurate looking at his minutes played this season for club and country... 30 available games for club and country, he's started 22 of them and plays the full game most of the time too. Rotated a bit in the league to keep fresh for Europe it seems.
Yeah it seems like October 2022 until Feb 2024 was a shit period for his hamstring. Nothing since so he's been clear for about a year now? That's a good sign. But also someone that if we sign I'm sure we just have to rotate him and keep him fresh which isn't a huge deal. He's only 22 anyway.
https://www.transfermarkt.com/nuno-mendes/leistungsdaten/spieler/616341
Transfermarkt has him at 9 league games, 17 appearances in total. I'd suggest he's being limited to 1 game a week
17 out of 24, but also 6/6 for Portugal and almost all of the minutes. It's a fair concern but also he seems to have been injury free since the big hamstring one. Manage the minutes like with anyone, but he's 22 so long way left for him. He's absolutely class when fit anyway and absolutely worth going for.
I think this is different, not had chance to compare side by side with TransferMarket.
https://www.flashscore.com/player/mendes-nuno/ne2xCTJj/injury-history/