Manchester United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread - Mod Note in OP, 25/08

onemorechance

...
And while Ancelotti has hinted Di Maria could feature in the Spanish Super Cup first leg against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday, the Italian has admitted he is not certain the winger will remain at the Bernabeu beyond the end of the month.

"Di Maria is available [for the game against Atletico Madrid] like all the rest," Ancelotti said. "He could start the game and have his chance, but just like the other players. Tomorrow one team will play and it'll be a different one on Friday.

"I'm not discussing it [his future], because I'll lose my focus. I don't know what Di Maria has decided. He's ready to play and he can play for the team. Up to 31 August, that's our line. Whether he stays or goes everything will return to normal."
...

IBTimes.co.uk

That must indicate that at the very least, Di Maria is considering his future at Madrid.

A good summation of United's situation:

As Manchester United owners cash in, need to buy stars grows

...
Just two weeks remain for Van Gaal and executive vice chairman Ed Woodward to convince players to join a team in transition, out of the Champions League and facing a fight to return there.
...

ibnlive.in.com

TheTownie

Schwiiing wrote: »

Are these twitter links not working for anyone else?

Working for me on laptop with Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and smartphone with Chrome.

beno619

Robson99 wrote: »

Ah come on Ribery is a class act and has been for quiet a while

I've never seen him leave his mark on a big occasion there's no doubt he has ability but he hasn't shown it when it matters.
He did nothing it two Champions League finals by my recollection.

beno619

Your Airbag wrote: »

You clearly said there are F*ck all question marks over him, thats not the case. Bizarre thing to say



1. This is the second point I'm making this simple point to you, hopefully it sticks this time. I agreed the video showed hard work and proved anyone saying Nani did NOTHING wrong as Pro F said "lol at at saying Nani did nothing"

2. Yes I ended with that, which doesn't contradict anything I said. He worked hard but lacked quality in the final 3rd. We need someone who can do both. What exactly can't you understand about that?

1 Fair enough.

2 You continue to ignore that Nani has demonstrated hard work and quality in the final 3rd on multiple occasions.

Pro. F

Montroseee wrote: »

You can't pick the best 12 months of a player's career and use that to compare them players that have consistently performed at the highest level ie. Sanchez and Di Maria both since they were 21. Outside of that period where Nani admittedly looked world class, he has not been anywhere near these top players. Don't forget that players like Valencia, Krasic etc. have gone through stellar periods where they have looked like top class.

I'm not picking the best 12 months of his career. I'm picking the only two and a half seasons where I've seen Nani playing regularly. It's that simple.

The rest of his time at United he has been forced out through injury and continually fúcked around by Fergie. It would be silly to judge him on those periods.

Montroseee wrote: »

Fergie took a disliking too him and judging him on the field, you'd have to wonder what his work ethic/attitude in training is like.

Fergie also took a disliking to Rooney, Stam and Beckham. It's quite possible that Nani is a dickhead off the pitch and not worth the bother of having in your squad, but I don't have much evidence either way.

If I was a manager looking to sign him I would want to get some inside information on what his off the field attitude is like, for sure. As a fan I have no way of doing that. I'd also only sign him for cheap or on a loan because of his poor injury record over the last few years.

None of these considerations change how highly I rate him as a player, only what I'd be willing to pay for him.

TheTownie

https://twitter.com/CLMerlo/status/501398852474114048

Translation: Marcos Rojo played at Manchester United: 20M euros plus the loan Nanni. Travels tomorrow to sign 4 years with one more option.

redbaron_99

homerjay2005 wrote: »

these Van Gaal and Woodward problems

What's all this??

Pro. F

Robson99 wrote: »

Well analyze it further so. His performances for the last 2 or 3 seasons have probably been 4 or 5/10 at best. He has nothing to offer this utd team going forward imo. There comes a time when you just have to say enough is enough.

Last season (13/14), no player should be judged on. The team were a mess under Moyes and Nani hardly featured anyway.

In the 12/13 season he hardly played at all.

In the 11/12 season he played a fair bit and he was class.

beno619

Your Airbag wrote: »

Even in the period when he was scoring and asssisting the reasoning is to have a player who maintains a better level of preformance week in week out where the team as a whole benefits from the upshots such as maintaining more possesion and UTD plays better because of it, not the individual. There are no stats for this possibility.

When Nani was on form he was sensational and I definitely wasn't tearing my hair out.

This is another example of history being rewritten to suit arguments.

Adamocovic

TheTownie wrote: »

https://twitter.com/CLMerlo/status/501398852474114048

Translation: Marcos Rojo played at Manchester United: 20M euros plus the loan Nanni. Travels tomorrow to sign 4 years with one more option.

Eh, who is he? Is he reliable? Just looks like another one of those reporters tweeting speculation.

I could be proven wrong, but I'm not going to read too much into these sort of tweets.

MagicIRL

Just watched the Manchester kid talking about Nani. Brilliant. Keep Nani just for more videos like that.

Pro. F

Your Airbag wrote: »

Both of you have points here. Yes of course goals are important. Your one of Nanis biggest supporters on here and weve all seen the list of goals and assists many times.

Yet people still question Nani. Why?

Its not because they are idiots its because Nani can be mcuk for 89 mins then score a goal.

I've seen him, misplace simple passes, shoot when he should pass, scuff crosses and be very poor on many occasions. Then he will grab a goal or assist and in lots of matches the goal or assist doesn't come.

Its great when he gets a goal or assits but it doesn't all of a sudden turn 80+ mins of being piss poor into a good display and make a very good consistant player.

That list of goals and assits would have many matches on it where you'd be tearing your hair out watching him being rubbish until he finally does something.

I've never agreed with this argument that Nani is muck for 89 minutes and then scores/assists a goal. Like Beno says, I certainly haven't been pulling my hair out watching him any time he has been on form. Those times being every time he has been played regularly.

As I've always said, the goal/assist records are handy for dispelling some of the myths about Nani - that he is average, that he does nothing, that he only scores when we're winning, that he doesn't produce consistently, etc - but not all of them. I was using it in this case to counter the argument that Nani has only been an average footballer. An average footballer obviously won't score and assist at that rate.

TheTownie

Adamocovic wrote: »

Eh, who is he? Is he reliable? Just looks like another one of those reporters tweeting speculation.

I could be proven wrong, but I'm not going to read too much into these sort of tweets.

News producer for Tyc Sports in Argentina. Don't know how reliable. Not gonna translate all his tweets to find out. Could well be nonsense but hey at least its not 'Agent Football'

Backstreet Moyes

Why exactly should assists and goals not be taken into account when discussing a winger. A winger's job is to score and create goals. Should we not take into account a striker's goals when discussing strikers.

Whatsisname

MEN saying Madrid are bracing themselves for a bid from United. Little do they know Woody has lost the fax machine and is in talks with PC World to sign a new one but isn't willing to meet their asking price.

DM_7

These embedded tweets are annoying already.

KombuchaMshroom

MagicIRL wrote: »

Just watched the Manchester kid talking about Nani. Brilliant. Keep Nani just for more videos like that.

This video of that kid pretty much epitomises how people's opinions of certain players is based on what they hear and read on social media types, and has absolutely nothing to do with actually watching players play and judging their input.

On saturday Nani and Januzaj were the only 2 players that caused Swansea any sort of problem all game. However, one father in the stadium clearly just doesn't like Nani so without any fair assessment of Nani's play makes a comment to his son, his son gets picked up repeating the comment and because its such a great soundbite it gets picked up and goes semi viral, and from there thousands conclude Nani was sh!t at the weekend without actually watching him play.

Its amazing how many people behave like sheep and just adopt an easy to go with opinion because its funnier or popular, and not based on any sort of critical thinking on their behalf.
(Not necessarily directed at you magic, you just mentioned the video so made sense to quote you)

Lucas Hood

The video is from months back.

homerjay2005

DM-ICE wrote: »

These embedded tweets are annoying already.

why dont people just copy and paste the tweet as is normal?

talkSPORT ‏@talkSPORT 4m
Exclusive - Rene Meulensteen hit backs back at David Moyes over claims about his departure from Man United http://tlks.pt/bWQv3d #mufc

Backstreet Moyes

KombuchaMshroom wrote: »

This video of that kid pretty much epitomises how people's opinions of certain players is based on what they hear and read on social media types, and has absolutely nothing to do with actually watching players play and judging their input.

On saturday Nani and Januzaj were the only 2 players that caused Swansea any sort of problem all game. However, one father in the stadium clearly just doesn't like Nani so without any fair assessment of Nani's play makes a comment to his son, his son gets picked up repeating the comment and because its such a great soundbite it gets picked up and goes semi viral, and from there thousands conclude Nani was sh!t at the weekend without actually watching him play.

Its amazing how many people behave like sheep and just adopt an easy to go with opinion because its funnier or popular, and not based on any sort of critical thinking on their behalf.
(Not necessarily directed at you magic, you just mentioned the video so made sense to quote you)

It really is easy to not judge a player fairly on a game because of your opinion on them in general. I was critical of Cleverley in a pre season game and vented about it here. Somebody pointed out he actually done a few good things. I watched the highlights and i had to agree i was wrong he had a decent game.

People when they don't like a player seem to pick up on the bad things and blank out the good things. Nani was one of the better players Saturday while not exceptional done better than most. Yet people come on here and vent about Nani despite several players being much worse.

Lucas Hood

homerjay2005 wrote: »

why dont people just copy and paste the tweet as is normal?

How can we be certain that real? Can be sure when it is embedded.

TheDoc

If people are going to get ansy about tweets being embedded...a lovely addition to the boards platform in general ...they can **** off back to reading papers and having a united discussion with a pen pal.

homerjay2005

Lucas Hood wrote: »

How can we be certain that real? Can be sure when it is embedded.

why would people lie? its not that hard to check ffs, it takes 2 seconds.

Whatsisname

Argentian reporters claim Rojo to United is done. €20m with Nani going on loan for a year and a 4 year contract with an option for an additional year.

kryogen

He sure did.

homerjay2005

Daniel Taylor reporting that United pulled out of Mangala as they though he was too expensive and that

he was 'cross between Boumsong and Yobo'

he has also said that United are telling everybody that Benatia is not a target.

DM_7

TheDoc wrote: »

If people are going to get ansy about tweets being embedded...a lovely addition to the boards platform in general ...they can **** off back to reading papers and having a united discussion with a pen pal.

Or you can **** off and spend your time on twitter :pac:

Its a good addition all right but that doesn't mean what gets embedded can't be annoying. The quality of some of the tweets posted with no further explanation is annoying (to me anyway), who is CLMerlo for example and why should I care what he says? Or the one about Sport 1 apologising about Benatia quickly followed by another tweet saying they didn't say it.

Larry Wildman

homerjay2005 wrote: »

Daniel Taylor reporting that United pulled out of Mangala as they though he was too expensive and that



he has also said that United are telling everybody that Benatia is not a target.

"Too expensive"

"No value in the market"

We're f..ked with that squad. I agree with Steve McManaman - It's the worst Manchester United side in 22 years.

Montroseee

Larry Wildman wrote: »

"Too expensive"

"No value in the market"

We're f..ked with that squad. I agree with Steve McManaman - It's the worst Manchester United side in 22 years.

If it is I actually have no problem with it, City paid a fcking stupid amount of Money for him.

bucketybuck

TheDoc wrote: »

If people are going to get ansy about tweets being embedded...a lovely addition to the boards platform in general ...they can **** off back to reading papers and having a united discussion with a pen pal.

Yeah, sure why give your opinion when you can just link to somebody elses.

JaMarcusHustle

Louis Van Gaal targets Schweinsteiger to shore up United midfield

Louis Van Gaal is weighing up a sensational move for Bastian Schweinsteiger after watching his side open their Premier League campaign with a 2-1 home defeat to Swansea.

The Dutchman - who has previously managed Schweinsteiger during his spell at Bayern Munich - had previously stated his desire to bring in new faces before the end of the transfer window, but only after he had the chance to study his current squad.

The ex-Ajax, Barcelona and Netherlands manager has now given United executive Vice-Chairman Ed Woodward the green light to pursue the midfielder with the aim of sealing the transfer before the August 31st deadline.

Sources close to Old Trafford have revealed that Van Gaal was furious with his team's inability to turn possession into chances on Saturday, and with question marks over Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher's long term fitness - along with rumours of an unceremonious end to Brazilian Anderson's laboured spell at the club - the manager has identified the German as the solution to his side's problems.

With United unwilling to meet Juventus' £44 million valuation for Arturo Vidal given concerns about the Chilean's knee injuries, Woodward believes that United can land Schweinsteiger for no more than £28 million.

"Louis has given (Woodward) the green light to go after Schweinsteiger", a source has confirmed. "The aim is to have Schweinsteiger in by the close of the transfer window. They are confident an agreement can be reached."

Schweinsteiger is set to join Marcos Rojo and Angel Di Maria in a new look United team as the Reds aim to secure Champions League qualification this year.

Just made all that up, mind you. But goes to show that any numpty with a keyboard like myself can make up transfer stories.

Schwiiing

JaMarcusHustle wrote: »

Just made all that up, mind you. But goes to show that any numpty with a keyboard like myself can make up transfer stories.

You bastard. :eek::mad::o:pac:

Hococop

JaMarcusHustle wrote: »

Just made all that up, mind you. But goes to show that any numpty with a keyboard like myself can make up transfer stories.

Nicely done

Adamocovic

JaMarcusHustle wrote: »

Just made all that up, mind you. But goes to show that any numpty with a keyboard like myself can make up transfer stories.

Wait and you'll see it on the Mirror tomorrow, linked to an anonymous source :pac:

Hococop

Adamocovic wrote: »

Wait and you'll see it on the Mirror tomorrow, linked to an anonymous source :pac:

That would be glorious

ScummyMan

That Chelsea team tonight just highlights even more how far we've fallen. Frightening.

Your Airbag

Pro. F wrote: »

We could have stopped the discussion ages ago when it became obvious that we judge crosses in a fundamentally different way.



Obviously you're biased against the player on such high level, a proper discussion won't happen.

No. I've already credited his work rate and said I'd give him one more chance, before I said I want him kept.

Your just counter accusing me of being bias to deflect. You marked the crossing preformace 7/10. That speaks volumes. I won't even ask for a breakdown of that scoring, i couldnt handle the cringe.

beno619 wrote: »

1 Fair enough.

2 You continue to ignore that Nani has demonstrated hard work and quality in the final 3rd on multiple occasions.

Again, I have credited his work rate multiple times, your either incapable of understanding this simple fact or ignoring it on purpose

Pro. F wrote: »

I've never agreed with this argument that Nani is muck for 89 minutes and then scores/assists a goal. Like Beno says, I certainly haven't been pulling my hair out watching him any time he has been on form. Those times being every time he has been played regularly.

I've watched him long enough and been frustrated by him enough, seen him frustrate others on many an occasion, even in games he registers.

He has been questioned and slated on here for years. Thats years we are talking about and there is a perfectly valid reason for it. Nani can be a terrible player on any given day.

xtal191

https://twitter.com/Sport_Witness/status/501435010118057986

KH25

I can't wait for the window to be shut just so I don't have to come home everyday to my family saying 'we're supposedly after X player now' (Mexes today).

Christ I hate the transfer muppetry.

GSPfan

That Chelsea team is sickening me a little. Such a talented first 11. They could be in contention for everything this year with that team playing well.

As much as I love the idea of bringing through young talent I just think you still need a massive first 11 players and we just dont have that. Its sad.

Montroseee

Man.UnitedLad wrote: »

That Chelsea team tonight just highlights even more how far we've fallen. Frightening.

It shows what can be done when you spend money wisely and not piss away money on the likes of Zaha, Bebe, Fellaini etc. etc. Matic only cost a few mill more than Zaha and look at the impact each has had.

KH25

GSPfan wrote: »

That Chelsea team is sickening me a little. Such a talented first 11. They could be in contention for everything this year with that team playing well.

As much as I love the idea of bringing through young talent I just think you still need a massive first 11 players and we just dont have that. Its sad.

Here's their problem: Jose's tactics. For me, Jose can be much too defensive considering the attacking options he has at his disposal. Madrid was a good example.

GSPfan

Neville and Carragher are brilliant on MNF. They are a better version of the RTE panel. They actually make sense and still talk honestly and openly.

billyhead

True. The Chelsea team or any of the top teams would murder us on the pitch. Its just aswell we don't play City or Chelsea or even Liverpool and Arsenal for a while. Signing Rojo although not a spectacular signing is a start. Hes supposed to be best mates with Di Maria so you never know he could be next. TBH I think the Glazers will sell up in a year or 2 and some Oil tycoon, Sheik etc will take over.

Pro. F

Your Airbag wrote: »

No. I've already credited his work rate and said I'd give him one more chance, before I said I want him kept.

Your just counter accusing me of being bias to deflect. You marked the crossing preformace 7/10. That speaks volumes. I won't even ask for a breakdown of that scoring, i couldnt handle the cringe.

I exactly mirrored what you said because that argument can work the exact same both ways.

Your Airbag wrote: »

I've watched him long enough and been frustrated by him enough, seen him frustrate others on many an occasion, even in games he registers.

He has been questioned and slated on here for years. Thats years we are talking about and there is a perfectly valid reason for it. Nani can be a terrible player on any given day.

You pay too much attention to the fact that an argument or criticism might be expressed. The fact that lots of fans might say something bears pretty much zero correlation to whether it is true or not.

RayCun

Montroseee wrote: »

It shows what can be done when you spend money wisely and not piss away money on the likes of Zaha, Bebe, Fellaini etc. etc. Matic only cost a few mill more than Zaha and look at the impact each has had.

Oh come on, Chelsea have pissed plenty of money away since Abramovic bought them
Scott Parker 10m
Crespo 16.8
Mutu 15.8
Veron 15
Glen johnson 6
Tiago and Kezman 8and 5m
Mikel 16m
Shevchenko 30m
Wright-Philips 21m
Malouda 13.5
Bosingwa 16
Torres 50m
Luiz 26m (just because PSG are bigger fools doesn't mean he was a good buy)
Meireles 12m
Moses and Demba ba 9 and 7.5
...

Chelsea have spent a lot of money on a lot of players, and a lot of them have been awful. (while Unitedhave had years of underinvestment)

J. Marston

GSPfan wrote: »

Neville and Carragher are brilliant on MNF. They are a better version of the RTE panel. They actually make sense and still talk honestly and openly.

Neville annoys me greatly. He talks more shíte than sense these days.

GSPfan

KH25 wrote: »

Here's their problem: Jose's tactics. For me, Jose can be much too defensive considering the attacking options he has at his disposal. Madrid was a good example.

You took the thoughts out of my head. I was gonna say it but just didnt want a Mourinho debate breaking out in the United thread. I'm sure someone is already composing a detailed analysis of Mourinho's tactics right now and why he should have been United manager.

Your Airbag

KombuchaMshroom wrote: »

This video of that kid pretty much epitomises how people's opinions of certain players is based on what they hear and read on social media types, and has absolutely nothing to do with actually watching players play and judging their input.

On saturday Nani and Januzaj were the only 2 players that caused Swansea any sort of problem all game. However, one father in the stadium clearly just doesn't like Nani so without any fair assessment of Nani's play makes a comment to his son, his son gets picked up repeating the comment and because its such a great soundbite it gets picked up and goes semi viral, and from there thousands conclude Nani was sh!t at the weekend without actually watching him play.

Its amazing how many people behave like sheep and just adopt an easy to go with opinion because its funnier or popular, and not based on any sort of critical thinking on their behalf.
(Not necessarily directed at you magic, you just mentioned the video so made sense to quote you)

The irony is strong with this and its embarrsingly off the mark

I haven't even seen the video your talking about but I'm pretty sure Nani was being called sh!t well before this video

I'm sure Nani was being called **** because of his poor preformances well before this video.

I'm pretty previously sure people called Nani sh1t based on what they saw with their own eyes.

I'm pretty sure Nani was called sh1t for playing sh1t on previous occasions.

Your post went on the worst logic I have heard about people behaving like sheep and judging a player on some popular viral soundbite when Nani has had this for a longtime based on his preformance, thus rendering your logic completely useless.

Not only that but whilst trying to suggest that people base an opinion on a popular viral clip and ignoring the fact that this forum is packed with match threads doing the very thing you said they didn't, basing an opinion of of his preformanes as many people watching TV and in OT would have done.

So whilst ignoring a wealth of evidence that suggest otherwise you mind read peoples forming of opinion on terrible logic, called them sheep whilst making a laughable post about people using poor judgement to form a easy/popular opinion.

Then your post with terrible logic, that was all about others using terrible logic to judge a player, was thanked by quite a few.

You kind of just demonstrated what you were laughing at and some sheep lapped it up

Montroseee

RayCun wrote: »

Oh come on, Chelsea have pissed plenty of money away since Abramovic bought them
Scott Parker 10m
Crespo 16.8
Mutu 15.8
Veron 15
Glen johnson 6
Tiago and Kezman 8and 5m
Mikel 16m
Shevchenko 30m
Wright-Philips 21m
Malouda 13.5
Bosingwa 16
Torres 50m
Luiz 26m (just because PSG are bigger fools doesn't mean he was a good buy)
Meireles 12m
Moses and Demba ba 9 and 7.5
...

Chelsea have spent a lot of money on a lot of players, and a lot of them have been awful. (while Unitedhave had years of underinvestment)

In recent seasons Chelsea have spent very well and their are some very dodgy inclusions on your list there. How on earth can you call Luiz a bad buy? He was actually very good for Chelsea during the CL and EL wins and netted them a huge profit aswell. Despite being shown up this Summer he spell at Chelsea cannot be considered anythign but a success,