Zidane Iqbal | Utrecht watch
- Thread starter top1whoisman
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Good luck to him, I'm sure he can have a solid career.
It is great that we have a manager who is decisive with cuts to the squad though
It is great that we have a manager who is decisive with cuts to the squad though
How did Utrecht do last season?. We assume that he will get lots of playing time, but it's not guaranteed. We should set realistic expectations on the lad to follow his career. I hope he can establish himself next season to be a regular first team player in Holland.
Sad to see him leave. Was hoping that he can develop here into a first team player. Has been around the squad all of last season, but I guess Ten Hag has seen enough to decide that it was time for him to go.
Garner last year, Zidane this year - both are showing that our academy is not really making great work out of the talent they have. Most of the ones coming into the first team (except Rashford) seem to be either not at the right level, or bought from other clubs in their late teens. (Amad, Pellistri, Fernandez - in the bracket of bought) (Scott McTomminay, Elanga, Laird, Brandon Williams, Axel Tuanzebe - in the bracket of not good enough). Surprising after the youth team won the cup a season ago!
Garner last year, Zidane this year - both are showing that our academy is not really making great work out of the talent they have. Most of the ones coming into the first team (except Rashford) seem to be either not at the right level, or bought from other clubs in their late teens. (Amad, Pellistri, Fernandez - in the bracket of bought) (Scott McTomminay, Elanga, Laird, Brandon Williams, Axel Tuanzebe - in the bracket of not good enough). Surprising after the youth team won the cup a season ago!
They came 7th and then lost out in the Conference League playoffs. About par for them I suppose.
I don't know the stylistic fit, but generally speaking, if Iqbal can't make it into Utrecht's first team, he's either really far below United's level or unlucky to have really good competition in his exact position - which is unlikely as Utrecht would never spend 1M (euros or pounds) on back-up in any position.
You forgot the star of that win though.
None of the players mentioned figured in that win though. Garnacho did and is already breaking through and Mainoo also to a lesser extent who is younger than Zidane and already clearly ahead of him. I also think Hansen-Aaroen has a shot to make it here but ultimately it is really tough to make the leap from Academy football to the first team and when that team is United the gap is even greater. We do pretty nicely at growing our own compared to a lot of big clubs and we have some serious talent coming through in the group behind Garnacho.
Garnacho.
I’m surprised we’ve sold him permanently, and that he’s only gone for a million. Then again I was surprised that we sold Jimmy Garner and that has bern proven correct so what do I know?!! 
I’m surprised we’ve sold him permanently, and that he’s only gone for a million. Then again I was surprised that we sold Jimmy Garner and that has bern proven correct so what do I know?!!
He started to do really well towards the end of the season for Everton, I wouldn't be surprised if he has a bigger role this coming season. I'm not saying we should have kept him but there is still time to make £12mil look like a bit of a steal.
Good luck to him.
Keeping McTomini and lettinf Zidane go. I am outraged.
but my point was that Garnacho isn’t a true academy product - as he was bought in from Spain.
isn’t it always the case that there is some serious talent coming through, which mostly doesn’t make it.
maybe the club needs to refocus on the pipeline training so they don’t win trophies as a group but are better players individually. A number of the top youngsters aren’t winning much at the youth level.
Man, I'm really bummed by this one for some reason. I truly thought he has a future here, be it as a sub. All the best to him.
Why dont we just loan him out? Sold for 1 mil it seems. Its a peanut for a talent of his calibre. Still only 20
It remains to be seen what happens next for him of course, but selling him for 1M to Utrecht at age 20 suggests that he's really not at United's required quality - in which case there's not much point in doing loans.
Is it physicality that he lacked? As technically he looked quite gifted in preseason.
He’ll thrive in the Dutch league. They always play good football and there’s lots of space in there games.
It's hard to believe he costs less than let's say someone like VdB when he was still at the age of development (hard to imagine him getting worse, it's either stagnant or better). I feel like if a big club wants to sign players like him from other smaller clubs, they'd cost at least 5-10 mil. I'm afraid he'll become good and only then we realize the mistake of letting him go permanently. Eredivisie is a very good for players development. Out all players we can sell, Zidane is among the best and the decision shouldn't be taken lightly. We still have other academy players we can sell. If he is not good enough then I think the rest of them aren't as well. We stuck by Pereira for god knows how long, he was loaned all over the place, became a squad player over and over when it's clear he was not good enough. Zidane has looked good whenever he plays although only in friendlies so far, I'd keep him for another 1-2 seasons to be honest while loaning him out. He can be another Amad.
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Fine to get rid of him but why was he denied playing for Iraq for no game time at club level.
It’s not much to go on but there was a clip where Ten Hag called his passing fecking rubbish in training. That’s the only commentary we have about him all this time.
Tbf, we have a lot of talent in midfield. We have Hannibal and then Mainoo who already got the call ahead of him, both have already made their debuts and there are more in the academy who are younger.
If he got a good offer like this to start his pro career, makes sense to let him go. Being decisive like this is better than just putting him on a loan, or worse wasting his time by rotting on the bench and having no game time.
The only thing that made no sense was blocking his loan last year, and not letting him go play for his NT if there was no plan to use him.
Or the club finally realised they shouldn’t dick about with young players careers by keeping them with the club for so long when they’re unlikely able to hit the level required to play for us.
Just let them leave for first team football and stick a buyback clause or get first dibs for them if they want to return. Young players need games to develop, and there’s only so many we can afford to give.
So all that time coaching and developing the player means less to you in some way, because of some arbitrary cut-off you made?
Everything I read in the past on the forums has always suggested that United don't focus on scorelines and focus far more on making sure that the player has a good football education, which can help them become professional footballers. So I'm not sure where you got this idea that the academy now focuses on trophies.
Didn't Amad have plenty of first team football? even for a non PL team he is now a better player because of it. Our loans have been terrible mainly because it's hard to find teams that will provide loaned players with regular football but I wouldn't be against loaning to utrecht than selling for 1 mil. But oh well it won't change a thing. I wish him good luck. He's the player I've been looking forward to from our academy, more than any other.
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Yeah well that's good then, all bases covered there.
Completely missed this but great move by Utrecht. If he develops there he could easily be picked up by Feyenoord or PSV after one or two seasons.
Yeah, makes a lot of sense this way.
Ok, this is much better than what was reported previously. Kudos to the club. Hopefully, this, our willingness to sell Maguire and co. and our stance on Mount signals a new and smarter approach to recruitment and squad management.
I wish him all the best and respect his desire to go out on the continent and prove himself. I feel like this is the right decision. Not every kid from the academy is going to be good enough to play for United. The academy has done an excellent job if they can churn out a player who can play Premier League football and not look out of their depth, let alone play for United.
There’s a sell on and a buy back clause so I’m fine with that
So we're all good now about United selling a young player, looking out for their development, while having financial equity in the player if he performs and develops.
Made his debut tonight from the bench.
How was he?