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

glued

Delboy5 wrote: »

New piece from Andy Mitten

http://www.espnfc.com/club/manchester-united/360/blog/post/1980875/results-will-dictate-the-louis-van-gaal-effect

Good piece. Over the past few weeks I've found a lot of his articles to be well written. Himself and Ducker write some nice material on United.

Donerkebab

Am I the only one who doesn't give a flying fck about Fernando/Mangala?

brinty

MagicIRL wrote: »

You know if Vidal does sign, then Future Guy has done it again, right?

In FutureGuy we trust
and we love The_Kew_Tour

bangkok

TheTownie wrote: »

So a sports channel had the inside scoop, that no one else had, and the sports channel thought it wasn't worthy of an online article.

Cool story bro.

so porto sell a player that has a buyout clause of 25m and only signed a new contract in feb for 12m even though he has 3rd party ownership meaning porto wouldn't even get 12m?! yes I would like to see the genius in porto who sanctioned that deal!!!

Rayne Wooney

I remember we were talking before about how the club would leave it as late as possible to sign Vidal so that they could assess his knee after he has trained quite a bit, but Juve will want to spend the money on players too so surely if it's going to happen if would be this week or early next week at the latest

Coat22

Donerkebab wrote: »

Am I the only one who doesn't give a flying fck about Fernando/Mangala?

Nope

TheDoc

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Why do I get the feeling you were talking about something specific?

Still feel strongly about it, Liverpool's title challenge didn't eat a dick with that result, as Sky sports would have you believe, it was the ropey draw against Fulham, and wasn't there a Palace draw or something just around that game.

Obviously it was noticable with us last season, as everyone had a right go at us, but look at Chelsea. They did fine against the big teams who played into their counter attacking style, but couldn't break down the weaker teams who sat back. They could grind the result. They had slipups.

Obviously there will ALWAYS be upsets where an expected result happens, one of the beauties of football, but if you want to win a title, its knowing how to mitigate these unexpected results, and more importantly spotting when they are about to happen(during the course of a game).

I didn't figure this out myself, Uncle of mine mentioned it to me a few years ago, and it just REALLY hit home last season as the title race heated up. He was pretty good at commenting how as the trio of managers kept downplaying their title chances, it was increasing the likelyhood of a bannana skin. Fergie was great at playing UP the teams chances, and keeping the squad firing and grinding results, no matter the circumstances or standings.

I thought that was very evident as well last year. How it looked like no one from Rodger, Pellegrino and Mourinho wanted to openly vaunt their credentials. Trying to pass the pressure as favourites onto someone, hoping to force that bananna skin.

The point of all this really, is that we have a favourable start to the season. Regardless of people settling in, team settling with a new system, the squad needs to re-gain that confidence and belief of beating teams on paper we should beat. Becoming feared again, and grinding out results.

Avoid any embarrassing defeats or results, and when it comes to facing the first stern test, there is hopefully plenty of points on the board, and confidence is booming.

some people were deriding a guy earlier who mentioned by Christmas we could be in with a good shout. That's not horribly off the mark in fairness. Obviously we cant tell how this team is going to react after last season, but signs are decent. It's not beyond the realms of possibility.

As that article form F365 pointed out, while I was blind at the issues with Moyes when he was appointed, I'm probably equally blind now to the actual strength of our squad, and because we have a little shortage in CM and CB, doesn't mean we are going to be sweating it out for 7th again.

Billy86

Coat22 wrote: »

I understand they are going to unveil Rory McIlroy as their new number 10 on Saturday.
His role will be to stalk around behind the front 2 and frighten the bejaysus out of them until they eventually make mistakes and then he’ll clean up for himself

He's got some long ranger on him, too.

bullvine

glued wrote: »

Good piece. Over the past few weeks I've found a lot of his articles to be well written. Himself and Ducker write some nice material on United.

Did you watch the video from ESPN attached to the link? 5 or 6 will be a good season for United.... WTF!

TheDoc

Donerkebab wrote: »

Am I the only one who doesn't give a flying fck about Fernando/Mangala?

i'm with you on this, but it's because of my own ignorance. I've no idea who these two players are and what they are capable off. So my not giving a **** is more down to me now realising what they have signed.

To be fair, I've the same "not giving a ****" attitude with Vidal. (raises shield to deflect incoming barrage). I don't like to be a bandwagon jumper, and that goes for a lot of things with me. I'm probably in reality a pretty synical person.

"If Vidal is so good, where was he before 18 months ago" sort of thing. I first heard his name halfway through last season, and then the hype train has gone full steam ahead. I have my reservations about Shaw. I've got some niggling doubts over Herrera.

I just tend not to freak my **** about certain players or signings, and that is most of the time down to having a lack of first hand exposure.

I think also a big part of my lack of Vidal fascination, is that he is not Toni Kroos.....

TheTownie

bangkok wrote: »

so porto sell a player that has a buyout clause of 25m and only signed a new contract in feb for 12m even though he has 3rd party ownership meaning porto wouldn't even get 12m?! yes I would like to see the genius in porto who sanctioned that deal!!!

Like others here I don't particularly care about the two deals but I was intrigued as to where you were getting your version of events from. I thought maybe I had missed an article somewhere.

If you said from the start that you were just speculating based on the sequence of events then I wouldn't have bat an eyelid.

Instead you have spent a number of posts deflecting and coming up with poor attempts at 'proof' of your version of events.

Thats what happened in your opinion so lets leave it at that.

RayCun

TheDoc wrote: »

I think what is worth remembering is that titles are not won by beating title rivals, but avoiding slipups. I always say this, I could be ENTIRELY wrong, but I always feel like the league is won by the team with the least slipups, or who can secure a win after a rival makes a slipup. Last season seemed to REALLY put that thought process into perspective. The main battles between City, Chelsea and Liverpool really didn't mean much imo, when you saw the slipups they had to teams lower.

Yeah, remember 08/09
United lost home and away to Liverpool, lost away to Arsenal and drew at home, beat Chelsea at home but lost away - that's 4 points against the top 4. Liverpool got 14 points from the top 4, Arsenal got 9, Chelsea got 4.
But who won the league?

TheDoc

RayCun wrote: »

Yeah, remember 08/09
United lost home and away to Liverpool, lost away to Arsenal and drew at home, beat Chelsea at home but lost away - that's 4 points against the top 4. Liverpool got 14 points from the top 4, Arsenal got 9, Chelsea got 4.
But who won the league?

It's definitely a thought process I believe. I used to despair when we lost to a title rival. Now I don't get overly worked up about it, and find more emotionally tied when I'm channel hopping, or madly refreshing livescore, seeing a title rival losing or drawing.

I think City vs QPR on the final day, that earned them the title, is the perfect example of what I'm talking about albeit somewhat exagerated, where a title could have been lost with an unexpected result, but was won grinding a result avoiding a calamity.

I could be wrong, but I'd say our results against the top 4 havn't always been great season on season. I'd love to see our percentage win rate against the teams that finished in the top 4 that season. I'd be SHOCKED if it was higher then 50%(going of memory)

DM_7

Don't talk too much about that season Doc, one draw against City and United win that league. But they lost both games......

bangkok

TheDoc wrote: »

i'm with you on this, but it's because of my own ignorance. I've no idea who these two players are and what they are capable off. So my not giving a **** is more down to me now realising what they have signed.

To be fair, I've the same "not giving a ****" attitude with Vidal. (raises shield to deflect incoming barrage). I don't like to be a bandwagon jumper, and that goes for a lot of things with me. I'm probably in reality a pretty synical person.

"If Vidal is so good, where was he before 18 months ago" sort of thing. I first heard his name halfway through last season, and then the hype train has gone full steam ahead. I have my reservations about Shaw. I've got some niggling doubts over Herrera.

I just tend not to freak my **** about certain players or signings, and that is most of the time down to having a lack of first hand exposure.

I think also a big part of my lack of Vidal fascination, is that he is not Toni Kroos.....

I would be in the same boat as you, I think kroos is the best midfield player in the world right now, but with Herrera I have seen him plenty and he is a great player with bags of potential to improve, I hope he goes on to be one of the best midfield players around and where better to do it than at Man Utd

TheTownie

TheDoc wrote: »

It's definitely a thought process I believe. I used to despair when we lost to a title rival. Now I don't get overly worked up about it, and find more emotionally tied when I'm channel hopping, or madly refreshing livescore, seeing a title rival losing or drawing.

I think City vs QPR on the final day, that earned them the title, is the perfect example of what I'm talking about albeit somewhat exagerated, where a title could have been lost with an unexpected result, but was won grinding a result avoiding a calamity.

I could be wrong, but I'd say our results against the top 4 havn't always been great season on season. I'd love to see our percentage win rate against the teams that finished in the top 4 that season. I'd be SHOCKED if it was higher then 50%(going of memory)

Top 4 that season was City, Utd, Arsenal, Spurs. 4 wins, 2 losses (Both losses were to Man City).

If you extend it to include Chelsea and Liverpool. 6 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses.

paulbok

MagicIRL wrote: »

You know if Vidal does sign, then Future Guy has done it again, right?

We are not praising FutureGuy

Whatsisname

.

GNK Dinamo ‏@gnkdinamo 28m
Angelo Henriquez stigao u #Dinamo! Former Manchester United striker Henriquez our new no.9 #zagreb #croatia #football

dahat

@gnkdinamo: Angelo Henriquez stigao u #Dinamo! Former Manchester United striker Henriquez our new no.9 #zagreb #croatia #football http://twitter.com/gnkdinamo/status/498854885761515522/photo/1

Another one gone, good for James Wilson really

homerjay2005

Leroy42 wrote: »

Why are ipads etc banned from OT, whats the reasoning there?

because anybody who brings a big f*ck off tablet into a game and whips it out during said game, looks like a complete and utter f*cking tool.

v3ttel

glued wrote: »

BBC North West reporter Richard Askam has said that Cuadrado's representatives are apparently in Manchester to discuss his move to MUFC.

Is this guy a credible source? Usually BBC sources are solid. It was a BBC Portsmouth guy who first broke the Shaw to MUFC story (at least that it was happening imminently).

Catching up on the last couple of pages of the thread. I see Jackson said United have no interest.

zarquon

dahat wrote: »

@gnkdinamo: Angelo Henriquez stigao u #Dinamo! Former Manchester United striker Henriquez our new no.9 #zagreb #croatia #football http://twitter.com/gnkdinamo/status/498854885761515522/photo/1

Another one gone, good for James Wilson really

Also explains why Vidal's agent was reportedly meeting United as he has the same agent as Henriquez. The meeting was nothing to do with Vidal although one would hope that the topic did come up at some point.

Maximus Alexander

dahat wrote: »

@gnkdinamo: Angelo Henriquez stigao u #Dinamo! Former Manchester United striker Henriquez our new no.9 #zagreb #croatia #football http://twitter.com/gnkdinamo/status/498854885761515522/photo/1

Another one gone, good for James Wilson really

Does anyone know if this is a loan or a transfer?

Trigger

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Does anyone know if this is a loan or a transfer?

Loan with option to buy according to club site

statto25

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Does anyone know if this is a loan or a transfer?

Its a 1yr loan with the option to buy.

Backstreet Moyes

That surely has to be a loan he still looks a prospect.

Spazdarn

I hope it's just a loan, with a sizeable fee attached to buying him.. Want to see him get a chance?

Crimson King

He cost $4m if memory serves me right. He looks a great prospect, wonder what the details of the deal are

lordgoat

Nuts102 wrote: »

That surely has to be a loan he still looks a prospect.

I have to disagree. He looked average on loan last season and if we got any kind of an offer he would be sold. Decent player, good worker, but ultimately not good enough. Best of luck to him.

Rubber_Soul

Rayne Wooney wrote: »

I remember we were talking before about how the club would leave it as late as possible to sign Vidal so that they could assess his knee after he has trained quite a bit, but Juve will want to spend the money on players too so surely if it's going to happen if would be this week or early next week at the latest

It'll happen after the World Cup.
It'll happen after he has his holiday.
It'll happen when he flies back to Italy.
It'll happen when he arrives back to training.
It'll happen before he flies off for pre-season with Juve.
It'll happen after he plays a few games for Juve in pre-season as Utd want to assess his knee in a match rather than give him a medical.

Nalz

ToiletFusion wrote: »

I hope it's just a loan, with a sizeable fee attached to buying him.. Want to see him get a chance?

Pretty sure its a loan deal, the "former" Manchester United striker headline is misleading

homerjay2005 wrote: »

because anybody who brings a big f*ck off tablet into a game and whips it out during said game, looks like a complete and utter f*cking tool.

That maybe true but we all know this and I'm sure this isn't the reason Man Utd want it f*cking banned for the f*ckidy f*cking future.

beakerjoe

StarshipPooper wrote: »

It'll happen after the World Cup.
It'll happen after he has his holiday.
It'll happen when he flies back to Italy.
It'll happen when he arrives back to training.
It'll happen before he flies off for pre-season with Juve.
It'll happen after he plays a few games for Juve in pre-season as Utd want to assess his knee in a match rather than give him a medical

It wont happen!.

FYP :pac:

xtal191

It's on

Mitch Connor

Remember when Woodward told fans to 'watch this space'. Was he just talking about our partners page?

Mitch Connor

homerjay2005 wrote: »

because anybody who brings a big f*ck off tablet into a game and whips it out during said game, looks like a complete and utter f*cking tool.

Indeed, but still harsh on pele who would use them as an entertainment device when on the bus, plane or train to the game. Plenty of good reasons to have one in your bag on match day.

homerjay2005

i dunno lads, henriquez has shown very little to be classed as a good prospect for United.

he may do a job at championship level, but i think from what he has shown so far, he is well off United standard. if anything, he seems to have gone back a bit in the last 2 years and was a better player before we signed him. injury didnt help last year of course, but in terms of reserve strikers Keane and Wilson would be ahead of him by a distance.

thats 9 players gone off the wage bill now for next season compared to 11 months ago.

beakerjoe

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Indeed, but still harsh on pele who would use them as an entertainment device when on the bus, plane or train to the game. Plenty of good reasons to have one in your bag on match day.

Is he known for his Ipad ???;)

Backstreet Moyes

lordgoat wrote: »

I have to disagree. He looked average on loan last season and if we got any kind of an offer he would be sold. Decent player, good worker, but ultimately not good enough. Best of luck to him.

He scored 11 in 17 at 17 in a tough league. He scored 21 goals in 17 games at under 20 level and 2 goals in 3 appearances for the senior team at 17.

He didn't get a chance on loan at Wigan and last year he never got a consistent run of games to prove himself. Also factor in moving from South America and having an injury to overcome.

He is only 20 yrs old i don't know how you can write him off. What would we get 2 or 3 million for him it would make no sense to sell him. Hopefully a good season on loan and he comes back next season as a squad player.

Lord TSC

Robin van Persie’s popularity remains undiminished as the Manchester United striker was the most popular name to appear on the back of Barclays Premier League replica shirts for the second consecutive campaign, despite a disappointing season for the Old Trafford side in 2013/14.

http://m.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/article.van-persie-remains-top-selling-shirt-in-barclays-premier-league.html

Top Sellers 2013/14
Van Persie
Gerrard
Suarez
Hazard
Ozil
Rooney
Kun Aguero
Mata
Kagawa
Lampard

In comparison, for 2012/13, it was....
Van Persie
Rooney
Kagawa
Kun Aguero
Torres
Hazard
Suarez
Wilshere
Chamberlain
Cazorla

homerjay2005

i wonder how much of our delayed transfer activity this summer is actually down to wanting players off the wage bill first before we bring anymore in?

weve got rid of 9 with possibly 3 more to go and only signed 2..perhaps if one more from Anderson, Fellaini and nani goes (another £12m worth of wages there), then we will act or now, are in a position to act.

our wage bill was projected to rise to around £200million going off what Woodward said 3 months ago in the Q3 financials, but at the moment its around £33.9m off that with impending sale of Ando to bring that to £37m. now, if Woodward is being true to his word, thats means a serious amount of top players are due to come in over the next 3 weeks, as that would be equivelent to 3 players on 150k plus a week being signed and we still have more budget left (allowing for wage increases and Moyes pay off).

when you see the wages that the likes of Ando are on, it would even make sense to sell him for free as opposed to him sitting in the reserves for the year.

kryogen

The impending sale? Who is buying Ando?

Have you anything other then your own repetition to support your hypothesis by the way?

Larry Wildman

homerjay2005 wrote: »

when you see the wages that the likes of Ando are on, it would even make sense to sell him for free as opposed to him sitting in the reserves for the year.

And if you factor the catering bill into the mix, it would make sense for us to pay someone to take him off our hands...

TheTownie

Daily Express quoting Roma DoF, Walter Sabatini, on Benatia;

Sabatini said: "I believe that Mehdi has been influenced by his agent. He speaks of €30m (£24.4m), so we need at least €60 maybe even €61.

"Anyone who wants Benatia will have to pay €61 (£49.6m)."

homerjay2005

how long do people thing LVG will be our manager? i expect he will be gone in 2 or 3 years, trouble will brew between him and the board quickly once things settle in.

cant see him and Woodward getting on well, LVG already has been vocal about certain things night being right and that eventually wont go down well, unless the results match.

Lucas Hood

Benatia going off to the African cup of nations in mid season wouldn't be very helpful if we signed him.

RobertKK

Watched the Pat Crerand show on MUTV, Tony from Bury called in and said he watched all the preseason matches, in his opinion United should sell all the team bar 4 players though it became 5...
De Gea, Shaw, Herrera, Mata and Rooney and we would get £130 million for the players sold.
It gave me a laugh.

lordgoat

Nuts102 wrote: »

He scored 11 in 17 at 17 in a tough league. He scored 21 goals in 17 games at under 20 level and 2 goals in 3 appearances for the senior team at 17.

He didn't get a chance on loan at Wigan and last year he never got a consistent run of games to prove himself. Also factor in moving from South America and having an injury to overcome.

He is only 20 yrs old i don't know how you can write him off. What would we get 2 or 3 million for him it would make no sense to sell him. Hopefully a good season on loan and he comes back next season as a squad player.

That's all very well and good.

You keep saying he scored loads in a tough league? Ya when I think of tough leagues Mexico is in the top... 50?

He was average at u21's for us. Can't remember him scoring at all for us. He couldn't get game time at Wigan or in Spain. He got 1 for Wigan and a handful in Spain. He's now in Crotia. As I said he's a hard worker but imo nowhere near good enough for united. Maybe a low end prem league club if he develops. Maybe even higher but from watching him he has a long long way to go. He's not particularly quick, doesn't have an amazing first touch, he's aggressive and good in the air. Not overly clinical. bearing in mind I've only watched him since moving to united, so have no knowledge of how amazing he was in Mexico.

So while you might be disappointed. I will not miss him at all. We have better under age strikers and better strikers ahead of him. I'd have got more game time this season at united.

Basically we took a punt, it didn't work out. Maybe he'll be a Biram Diouf and if so, fair play to him.

Irish94

Henriquez joins Dinamo Zagreb on loan;

''I am happy with my arrival at Dinamo, with whom I want to do good things'', Henriquez told the Croatian club's website.

''I have a lot of motivation and I want to prove myself and I believe Dinamo is a great club for it.''

Full article: http://www1.skysports.com/transfer/news/12691/9417693/transfer-news-manchester-uniteds-angelo-henriquez-joins-dinamo-zagreb-on-loan

lordgoat

TheTownie wrote: »

Daily Express quoting Roma DoF, Walter Sabatini, on Benatia;

Ah the David Luiz transfer is now working out well for PSG. We over pay for average defender to make other teams go bankrupt by having to pay even more for good players. Pretty sneaky PSG. Pretty damn sneaky.

Unearthly

homerjay2005 wrote: »

i wonder how much of our delayed transfer activity this summer is actually down to wanting players off the wage bill first before we bring anymore in?

weve got rid of 9 with possibly 3 more to go and only signed 2..perhaps if one more from Anderson, Fellaini and nani goes (another £12m worth of wages there), then we will act or now, are in a position to act.

our wage bill was projected to rise to around £200million going off what Woodward said 3 months ago in the Q3 financials, but at the moment its around £33.9m off that with impending sale of Ando to bring that to £37m. now, if Woodward is being true to his word, thats means a serious amount of top players are due to come in over the next 3 weeks, as that would be equivelent to 3 players on 150k plus a week being signed and we still have more budget left (allowing for wage increases and Moyes pay off).

when you see the wages that the likes of Ando are on, it would even make sense to sell him for free as opposed to him sitting in the reserves for the year.

You would have to feel now that the projected salary bill won't be reached.

Something has gone wrong this summer. Whether its Woodward not expecting LVG to veto targets they had worked on all year, or failing to sign players targeted. There was so many briefings to press that this would be a big Summer and the objective was to have 2 signings done before world cup let alone halfway through August.

Still time to rescue the window though