Manchester United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread - Mod Note in OP, 13/8

Kalel

I think everyone here agrees that LVG is the right manager for us at this moment in time. If this is true then surely we have to let the man do what he does best and that's sculpt a title winning team. There will be players leaving before the end of the transfer window and LVG will be bringing in players that he thinks Will do the job.
I think it's time to let the man do what he does best and let him bring who he wants in. There's absolutely no point in second guessing every god forsaken rumour and then debating the possible outcomes.
I firmly believe we have the right man for the job and therefore I am happy to let him do what he has to do. He will take no crap from the board and will only do what he thinks Will win titles. If he doesn't want Vidal who am I to argue, same for Reus, and whoever else we have been linked with.
Yes the midfield is rank and yes the defence needs work but as we have been having a lovefest about the man since he was announced why are we so quick to think that he doesn't know what the hell he is doing.
This Is not last year this is LV fecking G.
I humbly await the oncoming kick in the nuts but for now I'm all Zen baby .

DrPhilG

I don't think anyone doubts that LVG knows his stuff. It's the ability of Woodward to deliver the shopping list that worries me.

Kalel

DrPhilG wrote: »

I don't think anyone doubts that LVG knows his stuff. It's the ability of Woodward to deliver the shopping list that worries me.

No one outside of the select few within the club actually know who is on that list. No one knows what's been done already and what is currently happening. I may be slightly drunk right now but I think the Lord of the Tulips will get who he wants and that may well be someone none of us would even consider. And if the great accountant doesn't deliver who LVG wants I think he will let us know.
for now I'm content in my pool of red wine.

GSPfan

Nuts102 wrote: »

How much more do we spend thought without addressing the problems. It has been what roughly 100 million since January and we have signed one midfielder. Cuadrado is 20-25 million more and we still need a top class cm and cb. I think it is a waste of money.

Well we did sign Fellaini last Summer so thats 2 centre mids out of 4 transfers. Yeah i know he hasn't worked out but money was spent.

I reckon the Cuadrado stuff is untrue anyway but if he signs him then i'm glad as Rafael cannot be relied on to stay fit. It might restrict Valencia's pitch time too. It's a wait and see type of transfer. Could be all rubbish.

dor843088

Pro. F wrote: »

At Juve plenty of times Pogba stays forward when the team are defending and so plays more like a 10 than a CM. Vidal has often had plenty of defensive covering to do in that Juve midfield even when beside Pirlo. He has always been excellent at it.

I've also seen him playing as CM with full defensive responsibilities for Chile.

If you watch any amount of Vidal you can't have any doubts that he is excellent defensively. The only possible doubt about him defensively for us (other than his knee) would be that he has always been so good and worked so incredibly hard, that maybe he's been juicing and we won't get the same work rate from him.

If you think there are many proffessional athletes that dont use drugs especially when there are such huge sums of money involved in soccer for both clubs and players and also considering the testing in soccer is a horrendous joke I feel you are quite naive. They are all on the juice.

irishfeen

dor843088 wrote: »

If you think there are many proffessional athletes that dont use drugs especially when there are such huge sums of money involved in soccer for both clubs and players and also considering the testing in soccer is a horrendous joke I feel you are quite naive. They are all on the juice.

It's the Lance Armstrong affect isn't it - any sportsperson/team who now achieves anything major in their particular sport has a question mark over their head ... I find I can't really enjoy watching athletics and cycling in particular because of it.

When Armstrong, the kingpin of an entire generation was exposed it changed everything in every sport. It certainly does happen in Football but to what extent is wide open as know body really knows.

duffman13

dor843088 wrote: »

If you think there are many proffessional athletes that dont use drugs especially when there are such huge sums of money involved in soccer for both clubs and players and also considering the testing in soccer is a horrendous joke I feel you are quite naive. They are all on the juice.

This is a ridiculous statement. Too say that the majority of professional athletes are doping is nuts. Where's your proof? Your last line sums up your argument perfectly. Idiotic

FutureGuy

Drugs in sport. Someone please PM me when we get back to talking about Manchester United.

irishfeen

OK FutureGuy who we not signing today?

MagicIRL

Nuts102 wrote: »

Cuadrado if signed as a rwb is just a waste of money imo. Rafael is very good going forward he will relish this new system. It would make more sense bringing in a back up for Rafael. Cuadrado may be an upgrade but not so much of an upgrade to spend 20+ million on and continue to ignore cm and cb.

Rafael is made of glass. If Cuadrado is available, buy him.

Oregano_State

irishfeen wrote: »

It's the Lance Armstrong affect isn't it - any sportsperson/team who now achieves anything major in their particular sport has a question mark over their head ... I find I can't really enjoy watching athletics and cycling in particular because of it.

When Armstrong, the kingpin of an entire generation was exposed it changed everything in every sport. It certainly does happen in Football but to what extent is wide open as know body really knows.

Apologies to drag the thread a bit off topic.

Athletics and cycling are suffering mainly because of their attempts to clamp down on dopers. Doping is all over the place in pro sport, the rewards even in the most harshly punished sports are well worth the risk.

There was a study published only a couple of weeks ago which showed that rugby had a higher percentage of failed drug tests than athletics or cycling (both 1.2% IIRC) despite doing a lot less testing. Even in sports like athletics there's big variations between countries, Jamaica for example has a pretty badly run drug testing program and doesn't do many out of competition tests, while Ireland pumps money into drugs testing and we're up there with the world leaders, despite our actual athletes getting barely anything.

I find it very difficult to believe that football isn't at least as bad as other pro sports, considering the money involved I would imagine it's worse. There have been plenty of documented cases of footballers and even whole teams caught, but there has rarely if ever been a big scandal over it. FIFA doesn't want to know about it.

Recently Arsene Wenger has said that a number of players he's bought from Europe have had unusually high red blood cell counts when they've arrived, pointing to blood doping. Even in our own club, when we got Shinji in, reports came out about his ridiculous score in the beep test, which would point to the same thing. The fact that Dortmund were a pressing, all-action team (and possibly over-achieving at that time compared to how they've done since) would go along with that view, as well as the fact that Kagawa hasn't been near as effective for us since he joined.

I'm just hypothesising there about Kags, I don't have any proof, and there are other factors involved so I'm not going to try and conclusively say anything, but I think you have enough there to ask questions. The fact is that the drug testing scenario in football at the moment is a joke. As far a I know the vast majority of tests in football are urine only. With modern designer steroids and EPO being below the urine detecting limit about 24hrs after ingestion, there is far too much room there for people to abuse the system.

irishfeen

MagicIRL wrote: »

Rafael is made of glass. If Cuadrado is available, buy him.

There is something you have to love about the guy though, along with DeGea and Mata he is up at top of the list with man love.

MagicIRL

irishfeen wrote: »

There is something you have to love about the guy though, along with DeGea and Mata he is up at top of the list with man love.

Oh, if given the chance I would kidnap him, but for the sake of winning the league, we maaaaaay need someone who can play 90mins!

MagicIRL

We're signing Guarin again... or still signing him... or never. Whatever way you want to look at it.

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/393031/Inter-Milan-give-Manchester-United-the-green-light-to-sign-Fredy-Guarin

Manchester United are ready to move for Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen and they are prepared to pay £15million to beat off competition from Barcelona.

according to the Daily Mail.

Louis van Gaal looks set to miss out on Thomas Vermaelen though, as Arsenal would prefer to sell the Belgian to a foreign club.

according to the Daily Star.


They haven't a clue.

Maximus Alexander

irishfeen wrote: »

It's the Lance Armstrong affect isn't it - any sportsperson/team who now achieves anything major in their particular sport has a question mark over their head ... I find I can't really enjoy watching athletics and cycling in particular because of it.

The thing is though, the fact that he was doping doesn't really take much away from Lance's achievements if you look at it objectively. It's not like you or I could just pop some drugs and then go out and win a TdF. He was still an incredible athlete, and when you consider that his opponents were quite likely doping too, the playing field probably remained level.

They should just legalize doping in sport, job done.

Copper_pipe

On this day 21 years ago, Roy Keane made his Manchester United debut vs Arsenal in the Charity shield.


I wasnt even born

Lord TSC

Was looking at Sky Sports News, and they were talking CL Qualifer results. One set flashed up, and I thought "Ugh, a Turkish team, really hope we don't have to go there this year....".


And then my brain turned back on, and I realized....

Maximus Alexander

I do enjoy that GIF.

kstand

Nigel de Jong back in the news again I see.

RayCun

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

The thing is though, the fact that he was doping doesn't really take much away from Lance's achievements if you look at it objectively. It's not like you or I could just pop some drugs and then go out and win a TdF. He was still an incredible athlete, and when you consider that his opponents were quite likely doping too, the playing field probably remained level.

They should just legalize doping in sport, job done.

Then the only way to succeed is to take drugs that will take 30 years off your life. Bad idea.
Armstrong trained hard, but he was a cheating ****er, and he pushed other people to cheat too. His 'achievements' don't count for ****.

Coat22

Copper_pipe wrote: »

On this day 21 years ago, Roy Keane made his Manchester United debut vs Arsenal in the Charity shield.


I wasnt even born

Clucking Bell - get back to your lego

I read about united signing Keane in the Bild Am Sontag while nursing a hangover in Frankfurt and trying to think of a way to ditch the Irish girl I'd somehow spent the night with.

Ah happy days

ericzeking

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

The thing is though, the fact that he was doping doesn't really take much away from Lance's achievements if you look at it objectively. It's not like you or I could just pop some drugs and then go out and win a TdF. He was still an incredible athlete, and when you consider that his opponents were quite likely doping too, the playing field probably remained level.

They should just legalize doping in sport, job done.

What if you don't want to dope then though? There are health implications and then where do you stop?

You will always find a guy who is willing to go even further. There is a cyclist who was banned for life a couple of years back for his umpteenth doping offence, this time though he was doing his own blood transfusions and nearly killled himself.

By the by, cycling is probaly one of, if not the cleanest sport out there. That is also the opinion of Paul Kimmage, the foremost cynic on doping in cycling.


Aside from all that, are we signing anyone today?

Lord TSC

Lads, as fascinating as discussing doping is, it's not been in the context of United at all, so is off-topic. Can we move on please?

DARK-KNIGHT

Coat22 wrote: »

Clucking Bell - get back to your lego

I read about united signing Keane in the Bild Am Sontag while nursing a hangover in Frankfurt and trying to think of a way to ditch the Irish girl I'd somehow spent the night with.

Ah happy days

So copper could be your child???

Macca07

ericzeking wrote: »

Aside from all that, are we signing anyone today?

Vermaelen
Alex Song
Nigel de Jong
Mat Hummels
Marco Reus
Vidal
Cuardrado
Mehdi Benatia
Guarin

Have I missed anyone?

DARK-KNIGHT

ORANGE REVOLUTION....

paulbok

Lord TSC wrote: »

Was looking at Sky Sports News, and they were talking CL Qualifer results. One set flashed up, and I thought "Ugh, a Turkish team, really hope we don't have to go there this year....".


And then my brain turned back on, and I realized....

Always darkest before the dawn TSC

Coat22

DARK-KNIGHT wrote: »

So copper could be your child???

He could be but the state I was in that night I doubt it

paulbok

Coat22 wrote: »

He could be but the state I was in that night I doubt it

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RayCun

Macca07 wrote: »

Vermaelen
Alex Song
Nigel de Jong
Mat Hummels
Marco Reus
Vidal
Cuardrado
Mehdi Benatia
Guarin

Have I missed anyone?

Blind and Di Maria!

MagicIRL

RayCun wrote: »

Blind and Di Maria!

Don't forget Cavani!

Coat22

Macca07 wrote: »

Vermaelen
Alex Song
Nigel de Jong
Mat Hummels
Marco Reus
Vidal
Cuardrado
Mehdi Benatia
Guarin

Have I missed anyone?

Cavani
Blind (the player not the conidtion)
Vlaar
Rip van Winkel
The lad who stuck his finger in the dyke (the water restraining type)
Ralph Milne
and that customs officer who robbed my duty free in Schipol Airport in '06 - she could stop Yaya Yaya in ful flight anyday

homerjay2005

Its likely now that any signings we make wont be fit to play for 2 or 3 weeks now. Logic would suggest that at this late stage no big signings are coming and we will get two players who LVG is used to.

Still holding out a chance for Vidal but really is a disappointing and underwhelming Summer as it stands, our work should be finished now with our tour over and first game a matter of days away.

kstand

No one should be surprised if we end up with a few Dutch players in the coming weeks.
Though I'd be happy enough with Daley Blind and De Jong (to an extent).
Of all the names above, I would be utterly disgusted if we ended up with Alex Song.

homerjay2005

kstand wrote: »

No one should be surprised if we end up with a few Dutch players in the coming weeks.
Though I'd be happy enough with Daley Blind and De Jong (to an extent).
Of all the names above, I would be utterly disgusted if we ended up with Alex Song.

We are not interested in Song, its not happening. We really would only be doing it in desperation if we went for him now.

Coat22

Coat22 wrote: »

Cavani
Blind (the player not the conidtion)
Vlaar
Rip van Winkel
The lad who stuck his finger in the dyke (the water restraining type)
Ralph Milne
and that customs officer who robbed my duty free in Schipol Airport in '06 - she could stop Yaya Yaya in ful flight anyday

Forgot this lad - Yevhen Konoplyanka - think we only wanted him because Liverpool did but he seems to have disappeared in eastern ukraine somewhere

Pro. F

dor843088 wrote: »

If you think there are many proffessional athletes that dont use drugs especially when there are such huge sums of money involved in soccer for both clubs and players and also considering the testing in soccer is a horrendous joke I feel you are quite naive. They are all on the juice.

I'm anything but naive about doping. But the assumption that every club and player is doping and that they are all doing it to the same extent is extremely unlikely to be true.

There are some clubs and managers who you should be particularly wary of when buying players from. Juve is definitely one of those clubs for obvious reasons. And since Vidal's stamina is so incredible it would be reasonable to be cautious about a big money transfer. Although by all accounts he was amazing in Germany too and I saw him being a beast for Chile in the summer before he played for Juve, so I wouldn't be particularly worried that his physical ability is tied to anything his current club have been doing with him. I really just mentioned it for the sake of completeness.

I'd be a lot more concerned about how he will recover from his knee troubles.

GavRedKing

Lord TSC wrote: »

Lads, as fascinating as discussing doping is, it's not been in the context of United at all, so is off-topic. Can we move on please?

Quick reminder of Lord TSC warning.

Also, theres a specific thread for doping in football if anyone wants to discuss it in there.

Heres the link : http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=83059475

MagicIRL

The ban hammer is looming...

IF we don't sign anyone else, or if they're not Vidal/Hummels and everything in between, do we go back to hating Woodie?

Maximus Alexander

MagicIRL wrote: »

WHEN we don't sign anyone else, not Vidal/Hummels or anything in between, do we go back to hating Woodie?

FYP. :P

I think it's pretty clear that the money is there and if nobody is signed then that was LVG's decision, so it would be stupid to hold it against Woodie, who seemed really eager to snap up expensive players when the big chair was vacant.

Spazdarn

MagicIRL wrote: »

The ban hammer is looming...

IF we don't sign anyone else, or if they're not Vidal/Hummels and everything in between, do we go back to hating Woodie?

Suitable replacements in the event we dont' get those players should be earmarked.

De Jong and Vlaar would be adequate though we really should be looking at higher quality players in the near future, we're just really badly stuck now, and they'd plug holes in the team and make us whole.

dahat

@IdMjones: Not sure how true it is. But a usual reliable source has told me that Woodward has gone on holiday. Doom. #mufc #whereswoodward

Chew on that folks....

MagicIRL

dahat wrote: »

@IdMjones: Not sure how true it is. But a usual reliable source has told me that Woodward has gone on holiday. Doom. #mufc #whereswoodward

Chew on that folks....

Send in the Spanish lawyers! We don't need Ed!

Pro. F

GavRedKing wrote: »

Quick reminder of Lord TSC warning.

Also, theres a specific thread for doping in football if anyone wants to discuss it in there.

Heres the link : http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=83059475

Can we assume the off topic warning doesn't apply to people talking about Vidal, the widely speculated United transfer target?

ericzeking

I personally don't care if we sign Vidal, Hummels or some unknown 19 year old Dutch centre back for a million quid so long as they are the pick of the manager and they are the ones he wants to fit his system and we play well as a result.

Too many fans are too fixated on big names, big reputations and big pricetags.

Coat22

dahat wrote: »

@IdMjones: Not sure how true it is. But a usual reliable source has told me that Woodward has gone on holiday. Doom. #mufc #whereswoodward

Chew on that folks....

Thats fine once its in Northern Italy - I hear Turin and Milan and lovely this time of the year and the train from Rome to Milan stops off in Florence if he's not busy.....

MagicIRL

Pro. F wrote: »

Can we assume the off topic warning doesn't apply to people talking about Vidal, the widely speculated United transfer target?

Have you forgotten where you are?

Manchester United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

I don't think doping falls in to that, unless Vidal is doping? :O

weisses

Macca07 wrote: »

Vermaelen
Alex Song
Nigel de Jong
Mat Hummels
Marco Reus
Vidal
Cuardrado
Mehdi Benatia
Guarin

Have I missed anyone?

Memphis Depay

MagicIRL

Arda Turan as well! Jesus, we've really been linked with Europe!

GavRedKing

Pro. F wrote: »

Can we assume the off topic warning doesn't apply to people talking about Vidal, the widely speculated United transfer target?

MagicIRL wrote: »

Have you forgotten where you are?

Manchester United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

I don't think doping falls in to that, unless Vidal is doping? :O

My follow up on Lord TSC warning was regarding the doping talk, there's a seperate thread setup for doping talk, regardless if Vidal is a Utd target the doping chat dragged in talk of other sports in sportsmen so its not really relevant so I just want to stop it right there.

Talk about Vidal all ye like but try and leave any talks of doping out of it.