Manchester United Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread - 2013/14 mod warning post#7259

homerjay2005

master-t wrote: »

But we have been led down the garden path this year by journos and media sources about players we are in for / not in for etc.

other seasons yes, but not this summer. you obviously have all the rubbish that comes in the Sun, Mirror, goal.com etc, but in all fairness, we were only properly and consistently linked with about 8-10 players and i think that the majority of what was written had an element of truth in it.

lets be fair, these are the only players we were linked to -

Thiago - confirmed by his father.
Garay - not confirmed, so could be true/false.
Fabregas - confirmed all around, bids rejected.
Baines - confirmed all around, bids rejected.
Fellani - signed.

this then brings us to the last 2 or 3 days.

Herrara - confirmed all around, bids rejected.
De Rossi - i think you and a few others are happy this happened, so are we ok to assume this was confirmed?
Kheidra - confirmed/denied yet?
Ozil - we were offered him apparently, but not 100% sure.

lets be honest, compared to other summers, the journos got it pretty much spot on this year. its just a shame that Woodie didnt deliver on 1 or 2 more of those deals.

Mitch Connor

WIZE wrote: »

United will need to be speaking to clubs starting TODAY about signing players at Christmas if you want to see signings

this bit I seriously agree with.

This summer mess was caused by inaction when we needed to be moving.

If there actually is an intention to bring players in during the January window, I do think we should be starting work on those deals immediately. Sound out the players, their agents and their clubs for all the transfer and contract information required and attainable. Identify targets and find out, ASAP, if they are actually viable targets - and for the deals we can and want to do - get in place to be trigged January 1st.

None of this 'The window has only just opened' a week in to it.

jonnyfingers

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Also, as an aside, shocked Nani and Rooney remained at the club - especially Rooney.

I'm really not. It seems the Ferguson was the common denominator for why they both might have been unhappy at the club. With him gone the slate is somewhat wiped clean. Nani gets his chance in front of the new manager, hopefully he steps up and takes it as we could really do with his creativity when he's on form. As for Rooney, I think it was somewhat telling that only seemingly Chelsea showed any interest in him. He has a good thing going at United, and we need him badly in my opinion, so I'm glad he saw sense and has not pushed for a move.

gracehopper

jonnyfingers wrote: »

This makes me sad.

Kagawa to fight for his place

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11661/8904153/

It is sad, look at the players he is picking ahead of Kagawa. Absolutely nuts that he is not starting games. Unless there is some fitness concerns he should be nailed on every week.

Arsenal have signed Ozil and fair play to them, we have a ready made Ozil and he is sitting on the bench.

FutureGuy

Woodward swanning off to Australia set the tone for the entire summer imho.

master-t

homerjay2005 wrote: »

other seasons yes, but not this summer. you obviously have all the rubbish that comes in the Sun, Mirror, goal.com etc, but in all fairness, we were only properly and consistently linked with about 8-10 players and i think that the majority of what was written had an element of truth in it.

lets be fair, these are the only players we were linked to -

Thiago - confirmed by his father.
Garay - not confirmed, so could be true/false.
Fabregas - confirmed all around, bids rejected.
Baines - confirmed all around, bids rejected.
Fellani - signed.

this then brings us to the last 2 or 3 days.

Herrara - confirmed all around, bids rejected.
De Rossi - i think you and a few others are happy this happened, so are we ok to assume this was confirmed?
Kheidra - confirmed/denied yet?
Ozil - we were offered him apparently, but not 100% sure.

lets be honest, compared to other summers, the journos got it pretty much spot on this year. its just a shame that Woodie didnt deliver on 1 or 2 more of those deals.

Yeah its my understanding too that a De Rossi bid was made alright.


I mean more on the 'why they are not going through' , 'got rejected side' of the transfers as opposed to targets. We are also going to be linked with every player under the sun. I think its far to say we will be linked with a heap of players, but rarely get a few.


It's horrible to think the summer looked so promising. I can only imagine a midfield with Fellaini - Cesc - Ozil....


Well......let's fooking hope Fellaini doesn't get injured with the Belgian team!!!

master-t

gracehopper wrote: »

It is sad, look at the players he is picking ahead of Kagawa. Absolutely nuts that he is not starting games. Unless there is some fitness concerns he should be nailed on every week.

Arsenal have signed Ozil and fair play to them, we have a ready made Ozil and he is sitting on the bench.

Sometimes, not even on the bench


This saddens me

homerjay2005

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Rooney remained at the club - especially Rooney.

nothing shocking about it at all, always believed he would stay, as it made no sense to sell him at all.

Headshot

If a club outside England came in, Rooney would of gone I reckon.

DM_7

I thought United were trying to avoid tax by bidding the clause amount and paying bilbao directly, not getting Herrera to activate the clause but couldn't get agreement (I know they left it too late).

jonnyfingers

gracehopper wrote: »

It is sad, look at the players he is picking ahead of Kagawa. Absolutely nuts that he is not starting games. Unless there is some fitness concerns he should be nailed on every week.

Arsenal have signed Ozil and fair play to them, we have a ready made Ozil and he is sitting on the bench.

I hope Fellaini's arrival gives Moyes confidence in central midfield and allow a more fluid attacking four to be selected. I could understand a reluctance to play Kagawa if Cleverly and Carrick remained as the holding two in midfield.

Let's say the preferred front four are Nani, Kagawa, Rooney and RVP, I think most people would agree on that. Out of those four I could only see Rooney being reliable to consistently track back and help out in defense. Kagawa will natrually drift infield and would immediately put pressure on the holding midfielders and the full backs. Cleverly and Carrick wouldn't be able to handle that I fear.

However I think Fellaini and Carrick can, with Evra and Rafael pushing up to make a line of four. That should give Kagawa and Nani some more freedom so I can definitely see Moyes picking them.

However if he persists with Young/Giggs and Valencia when Nani and Kagawa are fit I'll be really disappointed.

Al Capwned

Purposely steered clear of the thread since the weekend because of the guaranteed frustration that would have been caused by reading the thing.

Happy to see Fellaini signing, but it should have been done a lot earlier. I wouldn't necessarily blame the club for the Herrera imposters thing, or the Coentrao deal (apparently) falling through, as it seems both those situations were beyond their control.

I posted in the old thread about the perception of what United are doing as being hugely important. That perception of United not really knowing what they were doing in the transfer market was exacerbated over the past few days, and I now have to agree with those posters that say the summer really was an embarrassment for United, specifically the decision makers. I really want to give the manager the benefit of the doubt, and lay all the blame at the feet of Ed Woodward, but I'm worried that Moyes may have had more of an influence than is being let on.(I've no basis for saying this, just a worry I have that he may be being protected publicly) I will however, give him all my support, and will continue to do so.

I'm really trying to be positive about the whole thing, and am genuinely happy to see Fellaini signing for us, as well as both Nani and Rooney staying at OT. But the whole summer just feels like a big let-down. So much hope in July, capped off with so much frustration and anger come September.

Not good enough.

master-t

Just watched the interview with Fellaini on United's website.....he's a nice bloke in fairness to him.

Lord TSC

My take...

I had said 2 months ago if Fellaini was our lot, I'd be happy. Our squad is now far stronger than it was last season. I'll stress, I'd have been happier if that added strength had come a while back, but it's here now, so that's a positive.

I get this feeling that the only ones using words like "embarrassment" and "disgrace" are a selection of United fans and a selection of ABUs trying to get a rise; for the most part, people seem to see it was a bad window but not disastrous.

I'll stress again, cause I know some people love misrepresenting my thoughts...it was a badly run window. The results, to me, are grand if not brilliant. The end result of the window was we got the one player we needed, if not the players we wanted. And it's the results which keep me on the "frustrated" area of the spectrum as opposed to heading all the way over to the "Disgraceful" area.

But the ends don't justify the means, and I'll concede that Moyes and Woodward didn't do a whole lot for the club's public image. There's several problems I feel; people will blame Woodward for not getting deals done, but so too must blame go on Moyes and the scouts who didn't identify more obtainable targets to add to the list. Likewise, Moyes really shouldn't have so publicly declared our interest for Fab without it being 100% tied up.

master-t wrote: »

But we have been led down the garden path this year by journos and media sources about players we are in for / not in for etc.

I'd agree here to a large extent. I think the media are the ones who refused to let some stories die, and made United look bad as a result. For instance, I believe the Fab deal died after the second bid, but the media liked the story so kept running it. I think the whole "Imposter" thing lies entirely at the feet of the media, who were so desperate to have a United story all day, they kept running it even when it supposedly died. I don't get why some people believe journalists some times and not others, especially when they are admitted to getting fooled by "imposters".

In that way then, for me, the Herrera deal becomes pretty much identical to others. We wanted a player and offered a price, the club came back with their valuation and we said it didn't match so we'd move on. I don't see the need to get hung up on it as being any more embarrassing than any other stories yesterday. And I'd like to think such deals were falling through on Fergie as well but not being reported; that for all our complaints that he never realised how weak our CM options were, it was that he too was facing the same roadblocks but didn't have to do it in such a public manner.

But again, I'll stress again, where the problem lies for me is the fact Moyes, Woodward et. al. did not identify obtainable targets. It's a great list of players who turned us down, but there should have been a few lower down the list who wouldn't (and I believe Fellaini is one of those who were lower down the list, hence the delay). And if there was, we should have reached the lower ends of that list far, far quicker.

So yes, I'd like to hear why the club were so slow. But calling for resignations is beyond crazy to me. It was a bad start to some people's jobs, but it was always going to be a rough ride. There needs to be accountability and blame, and there's plenty to go round imo.

jameshayes

Al Capwned wrote: »

Not good enough.

Bingo.

The_Kew_Tour

At least Moyes identified our weaknesses and tried to solve them.

He fell short in a creative player, but if we play right formation Fellaini alone will be enough to see us progress and do well this season.

edit: but we wont win PL and Cl with this team. 1 at best. thats the disappointment for me.

Mitch Connor

My hope for United now - first 11 of:

---

De Gea
Rafael--Vidic--Ferdinand-Evra

---

Fellaini--Carrick
Nani----Rooney---Kagawa

---

RVP.

We need Kagawa to become a key player for us. We need to give him the chance, and he needs to take it.

Without having signed a creative ball hungry CM, Kagawa has to be given the chance in the team. We need his eye for a pass brought in to the team.

valencia and young should not be getting priority over nani or kagawa imo.

Nailz

I'm just looking forward to the Crystal Palace match now. Hopefully at that stage we'd have forgotten about Ed Woodward's existence as well as how much of a total farce this summer has been.

The_Kew_Tour

Mitch Connor wrote: »

My hope for United now - first 11 of:

---

De Gea
Rafael--Vidic--Ferdinand-Evra

---

Fellaini--Carrick
Nani----Rooney---Kagawa

---

RVP.

that team is capable of beating Bayen(best team in Europe)

My concern would be injury to Rooney, Carrick or RVP. Then things change.

master-t

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

At least Moyes identified our weaknesses and tried to solve them.

He fell short in a creative player, but if we play right formation Fellaini alone will be enough to see us progress and do well this season.

edit: but we wont win PL and Cl with this team. 1 at best. thats the disappointment for me.

Spot on, for me, Moyes came in and said we NEED to strengthen central midfield, and we have done this.


The scramble / shamble mess that did or did not happen aside, we got a quality CM that will add new dimension to our game in the middle of the park.


I also think it's spot on that Fellaini's defensive attributes may allow Kagawa to play more regularly.

KH25

I wonder whether there will be any repercussions from that farce of a transfer window. Clearly something has to be changed.

intellectual dosser

Nailz wrote: »

I'm just looking forward to the Crystal Palace match now. Hopefully at that stage we'd have forgotten about Ed Woodward's existence as well as how much of a total farce this summer has been.

This crossed my mind this morning, how long before everyone forgets this shambles. Will Ed Woodward be blamed if United don't win the title? I hope he is remembered when responsibility is being doled out but people have short memories when it comes to football.

master-t

Mitch Connor wrote: »

My hope for United now - first 11 of:

---

De Gea
Rafael--Vidic--Ferdinand-Evra

---

Fellaini--Carrick
Nani----Rooney---Kagawa

---

RVP.

We need Kagawa to become a key player for us. We need to give him the chance, and he needs to take it.

Without having signed a creative ball hungry CM, Kagawa has to be given the chance in the team. We need his eye for a pass brought in to the team.

valencia and young should not be getting priority over nani or kagawa imo.

I think everyone agrees this should be out starting 11 now no doubt. Kagawa simply must play. We lost out on Ozil, yet we have Kagawa on the bench........we didn't need him if we play Kags.


Expecting to see this team regularly now from Moyes.

Mitch Connor

Re. Kagawa - the liverpool squad has shattered my confidence in Moyes to utilize Kagawa.

The_Kew_Tour

Al Capwned wrote: »

I'm really trying to be positive about the whole thing, and am genuinely happy to see Fellaini signing for us, as well as both Nani and Rooney staying at OT. But the whole summer just feels like a big let-down. So much hope in July, capped off with so much frustration and anger come September.

Not good enough.

I hear ya.

I am little more optimistic this morning then I thought.

I do however understand where you and other United fans fall into(I was even like this up to last night to some degree).

It just falls on Moyes shoulders now how we setup.

If we setup like Mitch formation above than we really will have strong team and still decent players to come back too

homerjay2005

Teamshadowclan wrote: »

My take...

I had said 2 months ago if Fellaini was our lot, I'd be happy. Our squad is now far stronger than it was last season. I'll stress, I'd have been happier if that added strength had come a while back, but it's here now, so that's a positive.

I get this feeling that the only ones using words like "embarrassment" and "disgrace" are a selection of United fans and a selection of ABUs trying to get a rise; for the most part, people seem to see it was a bad window but not disastrous.

So yes, I'd like to hear why the club were so slow. But calling for resignations is beyond crazy to me. It was a bad start to some people's jobs, but it was always going to be a rough ride. There needs to be accountability and blame, and there's plenty to go round imo.

first thing that came to my mind to be honest...



the piece in bold is especially funny, i would suggest the vast majority of United fans are sickened to the core this morning and not just a select few. the clubs image is a laughing stock this morning.

master-t

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Re. Kagawa - the liverpool squad has shattered my confidence in Moyes to utilize Kagawa.

I would be worried too......but now with Fellaini, there can be no excuses not to play him. The perfect balance behind Kagawa of Carrick and Fellaini to allow a trio of Rooney / Nani and Kags play.

Nalz

KH25 wrote: »

I wonder whether there will be any repercussions from that farce of a transfer window. Clearly something has to be changed.

Very true. Slightly laughable at this point.

But in another sense something very very positive was changed.
We signed a CM. One that can play DM, attack threat, starter for an exciting and up and coming international team,is known by the manager very well and is more than proven in the premier league. He destroyed us last season in OT.


4m more over the release cause fee? Would this be because we tried to sign Cesc, possibly Thiago during that period and could not. Not as straight forward as that but still it raises the question. Fergie and Gill spent 7m on a guy they hadn't watched, but that's just a joke to some.

Contrao deal 100% dead now? I presume it is.

The_Kew_Tour

I tell you one things lads.

Rafael has been major loss for us the past 3 games. Especially against Liverpool.

Him missing is starting to show his worth to the team at RB

bullvine

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

I tell you one things lads.

Rafael has been major loss for us the past 3 games. Especially against Liverpool.

Him missing is starting to show his worth to the team at RB

Totally agree.

NTMK

Trilla wrote: »

Contrao deal 100% dead now? I presume it is.

Yep Real didnt ratify the deal with FIFA so it didnt happen

Danger781

What squad number is Fellaini taking?

homerjay2005

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

I tell you one things lads.

Rafael has been major loss for us the past 3 games. Especially against Liverpool.

Him missing is starting to show his worth to the team at RB

the notion of playing Phil jones there needs to be put to bed once and for all. if Rafael is injured, Valencia has to play there. jones distribution is just shocking and was part of the reason why we created feck all against Chelsea and for the length of time he was on the pitch v liverpool.

The_Kew_Tour

homerjay2005 wrote: »

the notion of playing Phil jones there needs to be put to bed once and for all. if Rafael is injured, Valencia has to play there. jones distribution is just shocking and was part of the reason why we created feck all against Chelsea and for the length of time he was on the pitch v liverpool.

if Rafa played we would have at least created couple more chances.

Scoring might have been another thing but attacking wise we lacked pace. So much pace.

RikkFlair

Danger781 wrote: »

What squad number is Fellaini taking?

7 according to Wikipedia

master-t

January Deadline Day 2014............already looking forward to it

bullvine

The modern fullback has to be a proper footballer, Jones hasn't got the ball skills for it. Hes just shocking at RB. I'd rather have Ashley Young there than him and that's saying something defensively. if Fletcher ever came back he might be an option there. Maybe even Cleverley.

Kerrydude1981

Meant to ask this yesterday but with all the going ons of deadline day I forgot

Did Moyes give any reason why Kagawa wasn't even on the bench against Pool?

Mitch Connor

Kerrydude1981 wrote: »

Meant to ask this yesterday but with all the going ons of deadline day I forgot

Did Moyes give any reason why Kagawa wasn't even on the bench against Pool?

He, for some reason, restricted himself to Nani or Kagawa on the bench, and went with Nani.

Julez

homerjay2005 wrote: »

the notion of playing Phil jones there needs to be put to bed once and for all. if Rafael is injured, ValenciaFabio has to play there.

Then Valencia after him, IMO. But Agreed on Jones, and Smalling for that matter.

master-t

I'd just like to have a dig at Roberto Martinez actually and Kenwright.


They publicly slammed United and Moyes for making low bids for their players, disrespect, the club never acted like that in the past.......yet they went and did the exact same thing to Wigan. Absolute bellend.

Mitch Connor

master-t wrote: »

I'd just like to have a dig at Roberto Martinez actually and Kenwright.


They publicly slammed United and Moyes for making low bids for their players, disrespect, the club never acted like that in the past.......yet they went and did the exact same thing to Wigan. Absolute bellend.

He has always been a whiner.

Sure it was Everton that went public with our bids to give out about us bidding publicly.

Giggsy11

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

At least Moyes identified our weaknesses and tried to solve them.

He fell short in a creative player, but if we play right formation Fellaini alone will be enough to see us progress and do well this season.

edit: but we wont win PL and Cl with this team. 1 at best. thats the disappointment for me.

Yeah would have been great to see creative player signed but then we would have benched either Carrick or Fellaini or Kagawa. With the way we set up teams, creative midfielder is not really that important. I mean we have Rooney dropping deep and occupying that position, Kagawa drifting all over the place to pick up passes.

Without Rooney it would have been MUST, but with Rooney I'm happy with what we have got. Fellaini and Carrick forms a solid defensive foundation and we can build our attacking game on it.

Till last game we played Cleverley - Carrick combination which was defensively not solid and opponents just went through our midfield easily, now with Fellaini at least he offers defensive stability. Also Fellaini's skills on the ball is very underrated. He is very good, he can open up defenses, not from the deep but at least from the edge of the box with his clever flicks and passing.

Saying that one more CM would have given us better options as injury to Fellaini then we are back to square one.

wadacrack

bullvine wrote: »

The modern fullback has to be a proper footballer, Jones hasn't got the ball skills for it. Hes just shocking at RB. I'd rather have Ashley Young there than him and that's saying something defensively. if Fletcher ever came back he might be an option there. Maybe even Cleverley.

I have been very disappointed with Jones. He looked promising the first season but hasnt kicked on.Valencia looked better at RB than Jones.The sooner Rafael is back the better

FutureGuy

Actually cannot wait to see Fellaini and Carrick together vs Palace. In the coming weeks, once fitness problems get completely resolved, if we can get RVP, Nani, Kagawa and Rooney working together up front, we will be frightening.

master-t

wadacrack wrote: »

I have been very disappointed with Jones. He looked promising the first season but hasnt kicked on.Valencia looked better at RB than Jones.The sooner Rafael is back the better

Yes, but Jones is a CB and has had limited successive game in a row in his preferred position. He has been shifted to RB, DM or CM.

Jones is a class CB and will prove to be so once Rio steps down at the end of the season (If he does).

Headshot

Its really unfair on Jones and destroying his career moving him all over the place. He's a CB fullstop. Stop ****ing messing him about

The_Kew_Tour

Headshot wrote: »

Its really unfair on Jones and destroying his career moving him all over the place. He's a CB fullstop. Stop ****ing messing him about

tbf you're right

Your Airbag

Woke up today to see some people on here are still calling UTD as a club embarrassing, pathetic and a joke.

You people need to look up those words in the dictionary and you will see how embarrassing your tantrums have been. To call the entire club a joke is a disgusting display of childishness and impatience.

Yes we are a total joke club now because we didn't get more than one CM. We are left with the pathetic andembarrassing squad that won the title last year plus a beast of a CM.

The dust hasn't even settled on yesterdays window you have already made up your minds.

Your all convinced the Herrera imposter incident was a shambles and an embarrassment to the club. How you can equate a bunch of con-men not affiliated with UTD trying to scam another club and player out of money as a UTD balls up is baffalling. Actually its not, its bitter negativity.

Your also jumping on the fact that we paid over Fellainis buy out clause when not one of you actually know what it was.

The Coentrao dal fell through because UTD didn't get the paperwork in on time. Many outlets are reporting it was Madrid who stalled but that doesn't fit your agenda so you run with the anti UTD press.

None of you can possibly know what is true or not in the mix of press information but what is clear is your intention to pick out an anti UTD sentiment and run with it as an axe to swing at our club.

So quickly have you all forgotten Fergies final words about what a great club UTD is and to support your manager.

I don't recall one of you actually constructing an argument in a level headed or mature fashion. It was negativity and bile from start to finish from you guys. Even last night you were willing to jump on any anti UTD media propaganda spouted by any website, rag or fellow poster with a total disinterest of the facts. You were only to happy to slate the club along with the ABU's.

If you think for one minute that your petulant, immature and petty behaviour is in any way justified you are wrong. If you think you are right in any way for how you acted or expecting to hear some of us say so you are wrong.

Being disloyal and abusive to the club and its staff is never right and some of you showed your true colors.

The worst thing about this window for me was to see this behavior from some of the clubs very own so called fans.

Lord TSC

homerjay2005 wrote: »

first thing that came to my mind to be honest...

the piece in bold is especially funny, i would suggest the vast majority of United fans are sickened to the core this morning and not just a select few. the clubs image is a laughing stock this morning.

Well, I'm so glad I could entertain you. Meanwhile, I'd suggest most are just "disappointed and frustrated" than "sick to the core", that we could have signed Ronaldo and Messi and still been a "laughing stock" amount ABUs who will take any chance they can get, and that the rhetoric you're using would be far more potent if you weren't at this level for the last two months.