I'm not saying we should only sign old players. More so that having a few old experienced players in the team doesn't stop a smooth rebuild. Kane, Varane, Bruno, Casemiro would be the old guard in the within 5 years that are predicted to need replacing. I don't think that should be a problem
Victor Osimhen | out of options | goes to Gala on loan
- Thread starter L1nk
- Start date
Good point. But even though I'd prefer Kane to Osimhen, I wouldn't want us to spend 100m on him. And Osimhen for 125m would easily be the better deal
United, Chelsea (unlikely for obvious reasons but I'm sure they'd toss their hat in the ring), Madrid, PSG (if Messi and potentially Neymar are on the way out), Bayern would all be interested. Casemiro went for 70m at the same age and strikers come at a higher premium. 90m might be enough to be fair, although it is fecking Levy.
Why wouldn’t those clubs want Osimhen more making him an easy 200 million player of the starting bid is at 150 mil?
If Kane is going to have such competition then so isOsimhen IMO.
They might? I doubt clubs have a shortlist consisting of only one player. Kane is by far and away the most proven option, though. I can see Bayern/Madrid offering 95m odd for Kane and Spurs accepting. I can't see either of them going for Osimhen if the starting bids are 130-150m odd.
Casmeiro had just a year to go? I wasn’t aware.
Although I'd like us to sign Osimhen, I feel that's the price a player like peak Falcao or Agüero should go for. He hasn't shown a lot to be worth that money, and he wouldn't cost that much if there were a lot of great strikers around. Too bad there's a severe lack of strikers these days. He's the best we could hope for (or Kane but never know when he's going to decline)
For me not a single club is going to spend anything near 100 mil from abroad on a last year contract player who is 30.
The only clubs that would do something even close is premier league clubs purely because Spurs are a direct rival to United & Chelsea.
you'd be crazy to spend 170m or even anything close to that for him when you could get Ramos for half that and bring in another two guys that would solidify the squad.
I’m guessing it’s not a serious question. But for clarity sake, Casemiro had three years left on his deal.
Ok, you can be a smart arse. It's not exactly a wild opinion that Kane might go for 90-100m.
Barca spent 50m on Lewandowski who was 33 at the time. It's not exactly unheard of. But yeh, Kane's contract only having a year left will influence things but I still reckon he'll go for an absolute shit load.
The thing is, no promising striker is going to go for less than 70m. Ramos at Benfica will be 90m odd, Muani will be something similar. There's Evan Ferguson - what would Brighton ask for? At least 70m odd again I reckon (even that feels fanciful). Then obviously Osimhen is 130m+. The idea that there's a ready-made younger strike option that makes financial sense is baloney. We're going to have to compromise one way or another, be it age or overpaying.
Wouldn't be surprised if it accurate, though. Napoli spent a lot of money on Osimhen, so they are going to rinse the next club dry.
It was going to be a ridiculous fee with just Manutd and Chelsea being in for a striker, but now Newcastle are showing their interest. I wouldn't be surprised if the price gets pushed up closer to €200m at this point.
Might go to whom? If we’re stupid enough as people here seem to be then sure. But which other sensible club is paying 100m for a player available for free a year later? I think the only precedent is Real with Hazard (maybe?) and that was as daft a decision as they come.
Newcastle just spent 59M pounds on Isak and want to spend another 100M pounds on another CF? Newcastle probably also cannot compete with the wages to match the transfer fee.
Lewandowski went to Barca at 33 for 50m. I can feasibly see Madrid, PSG, Bayern, ourselves and Chelsea all being interested. With that many interested parties, there's no way he goes for less than 85m in my opinion and I reckon it'll be closer to 100m. I personally wouldn't want us to spend that much on him, but I wouldn't be remotely surprised if a move of that magnitude happens.
You know Newcastle are owned by the Saudis. They are the wealthiest club in the world.
It looks good!
They don't have the revenue to wages ratio to offer him competitive wages regardless of ownership.
I don't think it will personally unless that clown Bohley decides to clown about as he usually does. I don't think Europes big boys see Kane as worth the same as the English media does, and I believe Kane will not want to leave England anyway. So it's really between Chelsea, United and staying put for another year. I'd hope that if ETH really wants the player then we're willing to wait it out a year (if Spurs want a silly fee) and be confident of getting him ahead of Chelsea.
May have to shop in cheaper supermarkets than him or Kane with all the farce around takeover
Nice little video about why Osimhen doesn’t suit us and why we should stay away even if he is world class.
Last point is Antony & this is why I think about ***enwood returning next season which means our most deadly finishers are out wide rather than through the middle with Garanacho, Rashford, ***enwood & Antony.
We do not have any wide creators that provide crosses & a poachers potential passes the way Napoli have Kvartskhelia and other players. The closest are Sancho and arguably Amad.
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Why are we ignoring the Nigeria vs Guinea Bissau performance. These are the sort of games Drogba used to beast or even useless Abubakar.
Yes that's a decent video and a conclusion I agree with. Kane is a better all round player and will improve us in a number of ways, including creativity and intelligent decision making, something we conspicuously lack.
That said, I'm sure if we did get Osimhen we could adapt our game to suit his strengths. But I worry that both he and Rashford is too much of a good thing. Unstoppable in certain situations, limited in others.
Came here to say exactly this then saw this post. How are we going to get the best of Oshimen in our set up? People say oh well Haaland's doing ok. Yes but City have De Bryne, Mahrez, Foden, Grealish, Silva etc just feeding the Haaland beast. Is that what we are going to do? Rashford and Antony have like 3 assists between them in the Prem this season. I just don't see it happening. Oshimen is also not the standard Ten Haag striker. Ten Haag likes his strikers to drop deeper and help with link up play. Oshimen is not this player.
Saying this I think if Oshihem goes to a team thats set up for him then he will bang in goals for fun and everyone will say - told you so. But he just wont work in our team unless we make drastic changes
Agree. We're not a team that creates lots of opportunities for a striker and that isn't going to change while playing Rashford and Antony. From the little I've seen of Muani a player like that makes more sense, more of a dribbler and creator.
Someone upload that video to Zilliacus' app right now.
Not sure about that video. Some interesting points, but quite obviously one of the reasons why the likes of Antony, Rashford, and increasingly Sancho take these pot shots is because we don't have an elite forward we can trust to score chances. In part, that's also because we don't have a right back that can properly overlap and contribute to the attack. Put a player like Hakimi/Walker-Peters in the team and undoubtedly we'll see more crosses and dangerous balls into the box, either from the full back or from the right winger who has more space to find the number 9. I'm not saying Osimhen is the answer, but he'd be one part of a solution involving a few new players (including a new CM who can find passes and retain possession under pressure high up the pitch) that will hopefully improve our attacking play and make us more unpredictable.
Bit of clarification needed here.
Do we also need to buy new players in those positions as well to get the best out of Osimhen?
That video is based on a whole load of assumptions. Saying Ten Hag's ideal striker is meant to drop deep is false, he's shown he's very flexible, Ronaldo played as a proper No.9 earlier in the season as did Haller last season at Ajax. ETH will always play to the strengths of his players rather than having an ideal skill set, especially for his strikers.
There's no reason why Osimhen's back to goal play can't improve. He's still pretty young and he's already strong as an ox in how he holds off defenders and that's half the job. The coaches can do the rest with link up play.
Basing striker signings on our current wingers is foolish. Other than Rashford the jury is out on all of our wide players. Even if we signed Kane or whoever that wouldn't magically make Sancho or Antony any better.
Lastly even though our wingers aren't the best crossers, Shaw, Bruno, Eriksen and Casemiro can all put in great crosses. Osimhen has also shown the cross doesn't even have to be that great. We had Cavani bang in headers for us with pretty much the same set of players.
There's no reason why Osimhen's back to goal play can't improve. He's still pretty young and he's already strong as an ox in how he holds off defenders and that's half the job. The coaches can do the rest with link up play.
Basing striker signings on our current wingers is foolish. Other than Rashford the jury is out on all of our wide players. Even if we signed Kane or whoever that wouldn't magically make Sancho or Antony any better.
Lastly even though our wingers aren't the best crossers, Shaw, Bruno, Eriksen and Casemiro can all put in great crosses. Osimhen has also shown the cross doesn't even have to be that great. We had Cavani bang in headers for us with pretty much the same set of players.
The team as it stands right now is one that has been set up to accomodate the lack of a central goal threat.
That means a lot of reliance placed on Rashford, which is a bad thing as he is does not carry enough threat to be our primary goalscorer (much-appreciated finishing hot streaks aside).
But more importantly, it means we've been set up tactically not to try supplying a vacant space in the box where a goalscorer should be.
This season we've averaged fewer crosses per game than we have in any of the previous six seasons, beyond which fbref doesn't have stats for crosses. We've made just 60% of the crosses Ajax averaged per game in ETH's last season there. And on an individual level Bruno has put in the lowest rate of crosses in his recorded career thus far, ditto Rashford, ditto Antony, Dalot the fewest since he joined United and Shaw half the crosses that he did in previous two seasons.
The point being it isn't something the players have suddenly become incapable of doing, it's something the team currently isn't trying to do. If you add a genuine, direct threat like Osimhen (or Kane, for that matter) to the team then we will adjust tactically, with the direct supply into those areas increasing. In fact allowing us to adjust tactically is one of the main reasons we need a CF. We've lacked box threat all season.
Also, if the comparison is Kane then he's not without his stylistic issues either. The main benefit Weghorst has brought to the team is what he provides in terms of pressing, something ETH values highly. And also something Kane lacks the physicality to supply to the same degree as Osimhen.
Presumably that's part of why at least some reports on our interest in both Osimhen and Kane early in the year noted "Old Trafford sources" indicating that Osimhen was the better fit for the required profile, as a more mobile striker who offers pace, strength and pressing along with goals.
That means a lot of reliance placed on Rashford, which is a bad thing as he is does not carry enough threat to be our primary goalscorer (much-appreciated finishing hot streaks aside).
But more importantly, it means we've been set up tactically not to try supplying a vacant space in the box where a goalscorer should be.
This season we've averaged fewer crosses per game than we have in any of the previous six seasons, beyond which fbref doesn't have stats for crosses. We've made just 60% of the crosses Ajax averaged per game in ETH's last season there. And on an individual level Bruno has put in the lowest rate of crosses in his recorded career thus far, ditto Rashford, ditto Antony, Dalot the fewest since he joined United and Shaw half the crosses that he did in previous two seasons.
The point being it isn't something the players have suddenly become incapable of doing, it's something the team currently isn't trying to do. If you add a genuine, direct threat like Osimhen (or Kane, for that matter) to the team then we will adjust tactically, with the direct supply into those areas increasing. In fact allowing us to adjust tactically is one of the main reasons we need a CF. We've lacked box threat all season.
Also, if the comparison is Kane then he's not without his stylistic issues either. The main benefit Weghorst has brought to the team is what he provides in terms of pressing, something ETH values highly. And also something Kane lacks the physicality to supply to the same degree as Osimhen.
Presumably that's part of why at least some reports on our interest in both Osimhen and Kane early in the year noted "Old Trafford sources" indicating that Osimhen was the better fit for the required profile, as a more mobile striker who offers pace, strength and pressing along with goals.
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Shaw is the only player in our whole squad that provides crosses to head and a good majority of Osimhen’s goals (I’d argue a third, though I can’t be bothered to count) are from headers.
The only other player that provides crosses is Bruno Fernándes who has to play out wide to do so.
So to accommodate Osimhen we have to play Bruno Fernándes out wide, play a different CAM because Osimhen does not drop deep and needs to be played in on goal too whilst also dropping two of our potential inverted forwards from the right whilst also not playing to Rashford’s strengths because he is not going to score as many goals trying to head in or volley crosses from LW that arrive from the right channel compared to when he gets played in behind on goal to make runs and shoot/slot home.
To accommodate Osimhen we need to buy different wide players. This goes to RB, LW, RW or a CAM depending on where Bruno Fernándes plays to create forOsimhen.
A team that doesn’t get heading or poachers ability out of Osimhen is only getting a 150 mill pressing machine.
Some are just too big fans to see this or dislike the alternative options to want Osimhen higher than the potential ability he brings a very low creative side from out wide.
The only other player that provides crosses is Bruno Fernándes who has to play out wide to do so.
So to accommodate Osimhen we have to play Bruno Fernándes out wide, play a different CAM because Osimhen does not drop deep and needs to be played in on goal too whilst also dropping two of our potential inverted forwards from the right whilst also not playing to Rashford’s strengths because he is not going to score as many goals trying to head in or volley crosses from LW that arrive from the right channel compared to when he gets played in behind on goal to make runs and shoot/slot home.
To accommodate Osimhen we need to buy different wide players. This goes to RB, LW, RW or a CAM depending on where Bruno Fernándes plays to create forOsimhen.
A team that doesn’t get heading or poachers ability out of Osimhen is only getting a 150 mill pressing machine.
Some are just too big fans to see this or dislike the alternative options to want Osimhen higher than the potential ability he brings a very low creative side from out wide.
Hazard went for 130m at the age of 28. So it is not impossible
Lewandowski is comfortably better than Kane imo. No chance I’d pay double for Kane than Barca did for Lewandowski…especially with his ability to walk for free the next summer. Buy another striker this year and then work to sign Kane on a free the next. Squad depth up front without breaking the bank on a 30+ year old. Plus, Levy gets zilch. Win, win, win all around.
Agree with this. Muani has great length and athleticism along with great vision and technical ability. Is he going to bang in 30+ goals a year? Can’t say. But I do think he would bring great link up play and creativity, which could unlock Rashford and Antony/others who shall not be named. At 24, depending on the price, could be worth a shot. Then we wait to sign Kane on a free next season. Poof. Squad depth at CF!
This guy or holjlund and Evan Ferguson?