Manchester United Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread - 2013/14 Mod Warning: Post #7871

irishfeen

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Hahaha I almost woke the house laughing ...

irishfeen

kryogen wrote: »

Sorry lads

I was wondering how they hell they didn't get it, I then thought you might be serious and it was me being stupid...

TheDoc

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Sprinter Sacre out of Cheltenham:eek::eek::eek:

Seriously though when will papers ever give up on this story

I can't understand the stalling tactics from Munich, I can see the confidence on their end as to why someone would want to leave them, but something is not right

Kroos again on the bench with Thiago in front of him beside Lahm, with Muller, Gotze and Schweinsteiger playing as the trio in front. He came on when the game was effectively over.

It's somwhat odd in that Bayern are romping home to the title so maybe there is some merit in playing Thiago more to settle him in , but its still leaving one of your best players on the bench for what's now the 4th game from 5.

irishfeen

TheDoc wrote: »

I can't understand the stalling tactics from Munich, I can see the confidence on their end as to why someone would want to leave them, but something is not right

Kroos again on the bench with Thiago in front of him beside Lahm, with Muller, Gotze and Schweinsteiger playing as the trio in front. He came on when the game was effectively over.

It's somwhat odd in that Bayern are romping home to the title so maybe there is some merit in playing Thiago more to settle him in , but its still leaving one of your best players on the bench for what's now the 4th game from 5.

It really does seem odd but when you look at the ridiculous quality they have, someone of them has to be benched at a given time - maybe this is just his time and he will be more used at the latter stages of the BL and CL.

The_Kew_Tour

No

kryogen

Converting Lahm to a midfielder seems a strange one to me, maybe more unnecessary is what I mean. I didnt watch much of Bayern at the start of the season, was it done out of necessity because of injuries or something? One thing they are not short of is midfielders like!

He is the best full back in world football for me, has been for a good few years. Just seems a weird gamble is all, obviously must be paying off,but its taking game time away from a specialist midfielder who surely cant be happy

Just on Kroos, I am sure he will be back in the team more when he signs and shows his commitment to the club. Its not uncommon really. I dont think he has any great desire to leave Munich, I highly doubt Pep doesnt fancy him as a footballer but maybe there is a bit of a clash going on there and Pep is stamping his authority, just a guess of course, no substance to it. Kroos started the CL game, that says enough about how he is viewed by the management imo, as has been said, they are romping to the title and playing Thiago to help him bed in makes plenty of sense, Muller doesnt play every game but his standing at the club is not in question.

Would be great to think this is anything more then contract wrangling on both sides, and that we have a chance at signing him, but its not very likely imo

keeponhurling

No

J. Marston wrote: »

You could free up more wages by getting rid of Young and Valencia.

If there was 10-15 million on the table for either if those,as there seems to be for Kagawa, I'd happily take it.

In fact I'd even let Young go for free

Giggsy11

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

2 things in our favour if you're glass half full type

1. If we have crucial CL match we can now rest players weekend before. I dont think we will get beyond QF if we even get that far, but its a bonus compared to when going for the league and playing out strongest team on a Saturday and then midweek.

2. We can play without pressure now. League is long gone, but so too now is CL. We should go into games more comfortable and maybe express ourselves more now.

We can rest all we want but if we are up against Bayern then game over. They are almost 20 points ahead in their league so they can rest for 2 weeks and prepare for the game (not that it is needed to play against).

Likely teams for the QFs.
Barca, PSG, Bayern, Atletico Madrid, Dortmund, ManUtd, Chelsea and Madrid.

I'm not sure we can win against any of the 7 teams when the weakest teams are Atletico Madrid and Dortmund.

As of now we are the worst team in the QFs and any team would tear us apart.


Re second point, I said this few days back. We have nothing to play for and we should be playing more expressive game and trying out new tactics (looks like we did against Crystal Palace).

n32

Our remaining league games should be used to get our confidence back and to develop a settled team and style of play . It could be a big help to us at the start of next season to have a settled lineup instead of this season where every game saw a raft of changes

Lucas Hood

No

Was just thinking to myself over the weekend if Rvp does move on in the summer, Borussia Dortmund could be a good fit for him with Lewandowski leaving for Bayern.

Its All Wright

Lucas Hood wrote: »

Was just thinking to myself over the weekend if Rvp does move on in the summer, Borussia Dortmund could be a good fit for him with Lewandowski leaving for Bayern.

Van Persie will be going no where..talk of it is pointless

United to beat Olympiakos at 23/20..lumping big on this for tomorrow night

EuropeanSon

No

Giggsy11 wrote: »

We can rest all we want but if we are up against Bayern then game over. They are almost 20 points ahead in their league so they can rest for 2 weeks and prepare for the game (not that it is needed to play against).

Likely teams for the QFs.
Barca, PSG, Bayern, Atletico Madrid, Dortmund, ManUtd, Chelsea and Madrid.

I'm not sure we can win against any of the 7 teams when the weakest teams are Atletico Madrid and Dortmund.

As of now we are the worst team in the QFs and any team would tear us apart.


Re second point, I said this few days back. We have nothing to play for and we should be playing more expressive game and trying out new tactics (looks like we did against Crystal Palace).

Chelsea are certainly weaker than Athletico, and not much better than Dortmund. Athletico are fantastic.

Giggsy11

EuropeanSon wrote: »

Chelsea are certainly weaker than Athletico, and not much better than Dortmund. Athletico are fantastic.

Debatable.

That's not even the point I was trying to make.

Leftist

No

Lucas Hood wrote: »

Was just thinking to myself over the weekend if Rvp does move on in the summer, Borussia Dortmund could be a good fit for him with Lewandowski leaving for Bayern.

great move if he fancies taking a step down and taking a massive wage cut.

DARK-KNIGHT

No

keeponhurling wrote: »

If there was 10-15 million on the table for either if those,as there seems to be for Kagawa, I'd happily take it.

In fact I'd even let Young go for free

10-15 million for young and valencia?? Are you watching the matches this year? No sane club would pay 15 mill for either of them if we got 5-10 each take it and free up their inflated wages

Giggsy11

DARK-KNIGHT wrote: »

10-15 million for young and valencia?? Are you watching the matches this year? No sane club would pay 15 mill for either of them if we got 5-10 each take it and free up their inflated wages

When you see players like Anichebe, Jelavic fetching around 6 Million, I have small hope of getting around 7-10 Million for Valencia and Young.

Paulegend

Leftist wrote: »

great move if he fancies taking a step down and taking a massive wage cut.

would dortmund be a step down though? chapions league football and challenging for a league. cant see them paying the wages though

bangkok

keeponhurling wrote: »

If there was 10-15 million on the table for either if those,as there seems to be for Kagawa, I'd happily take it.

In fact I'd even let Young go for free

you would let an asset worth 8-12m worth walk out for free?? thank god you are not running the club

TheDoc

Nice to see Fellaini put in a good performance yesterday. Hopefully over the injuries that has plagued him this year, plus I think it's good that focus has shifted from him, onto essentially Mata.

I think Fellaini displayed yesterday what he was brought in to do. He had a few positional lapses but not suprised if he was a little of the pace, but you could see plenty of instances of breaking up the play and positional stopping things before they even happened. The bonus to Fellaini is his willingness to move forward. But that is all a bonus, his first and foremost role is to operate as a DM which he did well yesterday and hopefully he can start gaining some confidence with a few starts and strong games.

I'm still hanging onto the hope of 4th to be honest, and I know it's ludacrious. But Liverpools problem have always been dropping points to teams they in theory shouldn't. Appreciate we could have a few slipups, but if we keep winning and grinding results it puts the pressure on. They failed to address their DM and defensive problems over the winter and that has come back to snap over the weekend against Swansea and also against Fulham where you could see real frailty. I wouldn't write us off totally.

There is definitely imo 6-9 points for Liverpool to drop by the end of the season. And if we can get to the game against them in March with a fully firing squad, with Fellaini back and working towards form, Mata, RVP and Rooney with more gametime to mesh, I'd be VERY confident we can beat Liverpool.

I'm keeping the faith, and I've no issues with those writing of our chances, it's understandable to see why, but I'm a horrible optimist and refuse to accept us not being in the Champions League. Saturdays result will count for nothing if we don't kick on from it, with more building performances and grabbing results.

Al Capwned

I'm very much a glass-half-full person, but there is no chance of us either getting fourth place OR winning the CL this year. There has been absolutely nothing so far this season to suggest that we can go on the type of run needed against the calibre of teams that are coming up.

I am genuinely worried about Olympiacos, and I think there is a chance that we could struggle to get over them. Still going to be 100% behind the team and the manager for now though!
Also, our first pre-season game is at 7.30 tomorrow night. Excited about that but raging gonna miss the United game. Still, I missed saturday's game, and haven't seen highlights. Maybe it was my fault all along...

Paulegend

TheDoc wrote: »

Nice to see Fellaini put in a good performance yesterday. Hopefully over the injuries that has plagued him this year, plus I think it's good that focus has shifted from him, onto essentially Mata.

I think Fellaini displayed yesterday what he was brought in to do. He had a few positional lapses but not suprised if he was a little of the pace, but you could see plenty of instances of breaking up the play and positional stopping things before they even happened. The bonus to Fellaini is his willingness to move forward. But that is all a bonus, his first and foremost role is to operate as a DM which he did well yesterday and hopefully he can start gaining some confidence with a few starts and strong games.

I'm still hanging onto the hope of 4th to be honest, and I know it's ludacrious. But Liverpools problem have always been dropping points to teams they in theory shouldn't. Appreciate we could have a few slipups, but if we keep winning and grinding results it puts the pressure on. They failed to address their DM and defensive problems over the winter and that has come back to snap over the weekend against Swansea and also against Fulham where you could see real frailty. I wouldn't write us off totally.

There is definitely imo 6-9 points for Liverpool to drop by the end of the season. And if we can get to the game against them in March with a fully firing squad, with Fellaini back and working towards form, Mata, RVP and Rooney with more gametime to mesh, I'd be VERY confident we can beat Liverpool.

I'm keeping the faith, and I've no issues with those writing of our chances, it's understandable to see why, but I'm a horrible optimist and refuse to accept us not being in the Champions League. Saturdays result will count for nothing if we don't kick on from it, with more building performances and grabbing results.

you mean the two wins against fulham and swansea

ye would need liverpool to drop 9 points and ye to beat liverpool. not draw but beat liverpool. with a goal differnce swing of 23 over 11 games ye will probably need to beat liverpool to 4th on points. but also ye need to catch spurs and potentially everton. no point in catching liverpool if spurs and everton stay ahead of ye

irishfeen

Paulegend wrote: »

you mean the two wins against fulham and swansea

ye would need liverpool to drop 9 points and ye to beat liverpool. not draw but beat liverpool. with a goal differnce swing of 23 over 11 games ye will probably need to beat liverpool to 4th on points. but also ye need to catch spurs and potentially everton. no point in catching liverpool if spurs and everton stay ahead of ye

easy!

Paulegend

Al Capwned wrote: »

I'm very much a glass-half-full person, but there is no chance of us either getting fourth place OR winning the CL this year. There has been absolutely nothing so far this season to suggest that we can go on the type of run needed against the calibre of teams that are coming up.

I am genuinely worried about Olympiacos, and I think there is a chance that we could struggle to get over them. Still going to be 100% behind the team and the manager for now though!
Also, our first pre-season game is at 7.30 tomorrow night. Excited about that but raging gonna miss the United game. Still, I missed saturday's game, and haven't seen highlights. Maybe it was my fault all along...

to be fair ye should trash olympiacos. i think united will walk this round.

bullvine

No

I thought it was a very good performance at the weekend. It was a difficult game and it was great to see patience and not reverting back to the cross fest.

I agree about Fellaini, I thought he was good and he'll get better, did I hear Redknapp criticize him at half time? Yet the likes of Carrick or Smalling get away with bad performances in other games.

Give him a feckin break ffs.

KH25

No

bullvine wrote: »

I thought it was a very good performance at the weekend. It was a difficult game and it was great to see patience and not reverting back to the cross fest.

I agree about Fellaini, I thought he was good and he'll get better, did I hear Redknapp criticize him at half time? Yet the likes of Carrick or Smalling get away with bad performances in other games.

Give him a feckin break ffs.

1. They're English.

2. Redknapp's opinion is worth nothing. He is the worst pundit Sky have.

Paulegend

Fellaini is a great player. fergie wanted him before he retired so i dont see why people are blaming moyes for also liking him considering he had him at everton. ye really need a solid center mid partner for him though. as a football fan i would have liked to see cabaye and fellaini together but as a pool fan im gald ye didnt. bring back scholes sure

irishfeen

KH25 wrote: »

1. They're English.

2. Redknapp's opinion is worth nothing. He is the worst pundit Sky have

I think as a group we don't often agree on much all together but the boards Manchester United Talk/Gossip/Rumours can surely agree on this as one group.

Leftist

No

Paulegend wrote: »

would dortmund be a step down though? chapions league football and challenging for a league. cant see them paying the wages though

challenging for what league? they finished something like 25 pts behind bayern last season and they're already 15pts or so behind this season.
their day in the sun is gone. I don't blame klopp so much, losing kagawa, and lewandowski and goetze to their closest rivals is just obscene.

RVP can still be a top class addition for someone. Madrid would do well to take him for a year or two.

Macca07

Regarding Europa League football next season, and the joys of Thursday night football, I think the main reason why the likes of Liverpool, Newcastle, Swansea have struggled after the Thursday games is because they don't have the squad size.

United could play their second string team for the group stages of the competition and still easily win the group. Once you get to the knockout of the competition, take it a bit more seriously, but FFS, this is United, one of the strongest squads in the league, who have been playing midweek football for the last 20 years, playing on a Thursday shouldn't, and won't make any difference to them.

Nalz

No

Chagan wrote: »

You had me until here. Mata's cup-tied. Now I'm beginning to think you're making it up.

Can we put "(Mata is CL cup-tied)" at the end of this threads title

Macca07

Paulegend wrote: »

would dortmund be a step down though? chapions league football and challenging for a league. cant see them paying the wages though

They wouldn't be able to offer anywhere near the wages he's currently on!

Also, he's one of the best strikers in the world, if he does decide to leave, he'll have his choice of clubs to pick from.

Cantona's Collars

Spanish press linking us with Song again,he's hardly had a look in at Barca but when he was with Arsenal he linked up superbly with RVP coming from midfield and playing some sublime passes.If we got him for about £10 million I'd take him.

http://www.sport.es/es/noticias/barca/united-espera-que-barca-ponga-precio-salida-song-3122489#

Macca07

zerks wrote: »

Spanish press linking us with Song again,he's hardly had a look in at Barca but when he was with Arsenal he linked up superbly with RVP coming from midfield and playing some sublime passes.If we got him for about £10 million I'd take him.

http://www.sport.es/es/noticias/barca/united-espera-que-barca-ponga-precio-salida-song-3122489#

After his first season with Barca, I was crying out for United to bid for him. Great DM, who links up brilliantly with the front players, especially RvP.

This summer could be a big summer for Moyes and United.

Macca07

Out of curiousity, if Evra leaves (which looks 99% guaranteed at this stage), what LB should we be going for?

Shaw? young, talented, British, but will probably move to Chelsea.

Baines? too old for me now when he'll cost about 20mil.

Coentrao? Great attacking fullback but always looks dodgy defensively.

bren2001

Macca07 wrote: »

Regarding Europa League football next season, and the joys of Thursday night football, I think the main reason why the likes of Liverpool, Newcastle, Swansea have struggled after the Thursday games is because they don't have the squad size.

United could play their second string team for the group stages of the competition and still easily win the group. Once you get to the knockout of the competition, take it a bit more seriously, but FFS, this is United, one of the strongest squads in the league, who have been playing midweek football for the last 20 years, playing on a Thursday shouldn't, and won't make any difference to them.

Squad size is obviously a big issue for those clubs. But there is more to it than that.

I travelled with the Ireland team to Estonia for Euro 2012 play offs and I was absolutely wrecked. The Europa league has a lot of eastern european teams with huge travelling times involved. That is the killer of it. Regardless of who we play, most of the squad will still have to travel and it takes it out of anybody.

Fishyfreak

zerks wrote: »

If we got him for about £10 million I'd take him.

I love when people make comments like this. The club has spunked (£300,000 * 52 * 4 years) £62.4m on Rooney's wages. Money spent on a transfer is irrelevent to the average fan.

It's either the player is good enough for the club or not. As if spending an £25m on Song matters at all to any of us.

Sorry for the rant, but it bugs me.

Nalz

No

Fishyfreak wrote: »

Sorry for the rant, but it bugs me.

Get what your saying. I find a lot of people forget or magically separate wages to transfer fees, as if they don't come from the same place

Macca07

bren2001 wrote: »

Squad size is obviously a big issue for those clubs. But there is more to it than that.

I travelled with the Ireland team to Estonia for Euro 2012 play offs and I was absolutely wrecked. The Europa league has a lot of eastern european teams with huge travelling times involved. That is the killer of it. Regardless of who we play, most of the squad will still have to travel and it takes it out of anybody.

Yes travelling to the far side of Europe will take it's toll, but we could send a second string team to those games if we get them in the group. Concentrate on winning the home games, chances are we'll only get one Eastern European team in the group. Can afford to lose one game in the group.

Problem with the EL is the knockout stages, where you would have to take the competition seriously, and an Eastern European game at this stage of the season could cause problems in the league.

Lord TSC

No

Oh bugger. Just realized I'll miss the match tomorrow. Have tickets to The Panel Reunion show in Vicar street.

Think it's the first match I've missed all season

bullvine

No

RVP is on a massive salary, I can't see any club wanting to take him on that wages. I think hes happy at United, knows hes 30 and be glad to finish his career there. That's just my gut feeling.

Mocha Joe

bullvine wrote: »

RVP is on a massive salary, I can't see any club wanting to take him on that wages. I think hes happy at United, knows hes 30 and be glad to finish his career there. That's just my gut feeling.

Didn't RVP take a wage cut to join United?

v3ttel

bullvine wrote: »

I agree about Fellaini, I thought he was good and he'll get better, did I hear Redknapp criticize him at half time?

I muted it in the middle of that. I couldn't listen to such utter bollocks. How could you possibly criticise him for that performance? He played quite well IMHO. Absolutely septic stuff from Redknapp, and you'd be amazed the amount of people who would be influenced by the rubbish said at half time.

Absolutely typical of someone with a mindless preconceived idea of a player, rather than actually forming an opinion of how he is playing......... based on how the f*ck he is actually playing. If he scored that chance in the first half, you can be sure it would go from "what is his role, what is he good at?" to "He's really starting to play well and add a goal scoring presence from midfield".

I really do believe that Fellaini will be a very good player for United & I'm delighted to have him at the club, transfer fee aside.

TheDoc

Mocha Joe wrote: »

Didn't RVP take a wage cut to join United?

No, he took less money then City offered alright.

At Arsenal they were still operating under their cap afaik, hence why they lost so many top players.

My gut tells me that RVP will stay, but can somewhat understand his frustrations. He came thinking he'd be working with Fergie and winning championships and potentially European success.

With a massive shift like this, stands to reason it could be a few years before another title is won. And I'd hate to see him not win another.

Although the links of going back to Arsenal are madness. At his age, money shouldn't be a problem. He will earn big wherever he goes. Should be about winning titles and trophies. So I can see why he might, at 30, be somewhat edgy about being part of a rebuilding process.

K-9

No

TheDoc wrote: »

There is definitely imo 6-9 points for Liverpool to drop by the end of the season. And if we can get to the game against them in March with a fully firing squad, with Fellaini back and working towards form, Mata, RVP and Rooney with more gametime to mesh, I'd be VERY confident we can beat Liverpool.

I'm keeping the faith, and I've no issues with those writing of our chances, it's understandable to see why, but I'm a horrible optimist and refuse to accept us not being in the Champions League. Saturdays result will count for nothing if we don't kick on from it, with more building performances and grabbing results.

There's faith and then there's mathematical impossibilities! United cannot catch Liverpool if they drop 6-9 points.

The maximum United can get is 78 points, with Liverpools goal differnce you need Liverpool to drop 12 points out of 33 and United to win all their remaining games.

TheDoc

K-9 wrote: »

There's faith and then there's mathematical impossibilities! United cannot catch Liverpool if they drop 6-9 points.

The maximum United can get is 78 points, with Liverpools goal differnce you need Liverpool to drop 12 points out of 33 and United to win all their remaining games.

Liverpool to play Chelsea, City, us, Newcastle and West Ham.

Every possibility for them to drop 12 points.

They have a top 4 attack coupled with a bottom 4 defence. They really are shocking defensively. A lot of pressure on their front 4 who if they have a rough day, points will be lost.

It's possible that by the time Liverpool face us they will have dropped 6 points, if I'm reading the fixtures correctly. Win that game and all of a sudden we are only three points behind. Massive pressure on them.

We just need to keep winning first and foremost.

It's unlikely, but can still happen. definitely some upsets on the way for Liverpool, there always is.

Cantona's Collars

Fishyfreak wrote: »

I love when people make comments like this. The club has spunked (£300,000 * 52 * 4 years) £62.4m on Rooney's wages. Money spent on a transfer is irrelevent to the average fan.

It's either the player is good enough for the club or not. As if spending an £25m on Song matters at all to any of us.

Sorry for the rant, but it bugs me.

Considering that he's not getting games at Barca & is only a couple of years older than Clev & 100 times better.£10 million or so is a fair price for a guy who's surplus at Barca and the type of guy we could do with at the club.On the Rooney thing,if we didn't tie him down to a new contract,how much would it cost in a transfer fee & wages to find a replacement?

We don't need to spend a fortune if it's not needed,I think Woodward has learned that lesson with the Fellaini transfer.Certain players will command a sizeable fee but if others are available for a fraction of that & would add quality to the team then don't discount them.We've seen the likes of Strootman etc. move for relatively small fees in the scheme of things and are now worth a heck of a lot more.

bucketybuck

No

Macca07 wrote: »

Yes travelling to the far side of Europe will take it's toll, but we could send a second string team to those games if we get them in the group. Concentrate on winning the home games, chances are we'll only get one Eastern European team in the group. Can afford to lose one game in the group.

This whole second string thing is a bit of a myth really, just having a big squad doesn't mean we can send a 2nd string team to play in Europe. For example, we didn't have any defenders on the bench Saturday, so what 2nd string would have been playing last Thursday night? It was Vidic, Ferdinand and Evra on Saturday, they would have had to play two games in four days, that would have been a disaster.

I'm not saying I don't want to be in the Europe league, but we shouldn't minimise the disruptive influence it most definitely would have.

Schwiiing

Macca07 wrote: »

Out of curiousity, if Evra leaves (which looks 99% guaranteed at this stage), what LB should we be going for?

Shaw? young, talented, British, but will probably move to Chelsea.

Baines? too old for me now when he'll cost about 20mil.

Coentrao? Great attacking fullback but always looks dodgy defensively.

Ben Davies from Swansea? 20, Good young player, possibly for less than £10M. Daley Blind from Ajax? 23, regular Dutch international.

Kerrydude1981

No

So does Evra have the option of another year? Martin Tyler said on Saturday that he had triggered a clause in his contract due to the amount of games he has played this season.

Macca07

bucketybuck wrote: »

This whole second string thing is a bit of a myth really, just having a big squad doesn't mean we can send a 2nd string team to play in Europe. For example, we didn't have any defenders on the bench Saturday, so what 2nd string would have been playing last Thursday night? It was Vidic, Ferdinand and Evra on Saturday, they would have had to play two games in four days, that would have been a disaster.

I'm not saying I don't want to be in the Europe league, but we shouldn't minimise the disruptive influence it most definitely would have.

If you had quoted the rest of my post you would have seen my point about the knockout stages of the competition. During the group stages, United could easily afford to lose an away game or two to sides that are based on the far side of Europe.

Do you have to register a 25-man squad for the EL as well?