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

twam2008

Belfast Telegraph:

And last night a club insider said: “Rojo is only the start. There’s more big deals on the way. Van’s angry.”

Kirby

Larry Wildman wrote: »

Harsh on Forlan alright.

On balance, Taibi would be my shout. Back in '99, £4.5m was a lot for a goalkeeper. The guy played four games...four games! "The Blind Venetian" was an appropriate nickname...

The embarrassment to Ferguson would clinch that one. He had talked him up so much that for Taibi to be that bad really must have rankled.

RobbingBandit

Schwiiing wrote: »

Karel Poborsky didnt exactly light up the PL when he signed either.

The man was like an express train running up and down the wing.

twam2008

Kirby wrote: »

The embarrassment to Ferguson would clinch that one. He had talked him up so much that for Taibi to be that bad really must have rankled.

I was at his debut match against Liverpool, he got man of the match. Thought we had struck gold, but didn't last long

keane2097

"Independent in terrible article shocker"

Adamocovic

Kirby wrote: »

That Powell one baffles me. Clearly he is rubbish if he can't get a game ahead of the likes of Cleverley according to three different managers. But then, if he's a poor player why was he bought?

It's baffling.

Last year he was very good with Wigan, there are probably doubts to whether he is ready for the Premiership though.

I remember the goal he scored on his debut.

Was sure he would be a regular at least on the bench at this stage. Still though he is only 20. VG will probably loan him out again this year. Pity, would love to see how he would play if he was given he chance this year.

Backstreet Moyes

Vinz Mesrine wrote: »

A lot of United fans I know criticise Nani but when questioned further on it they can't give a valid reason for it. Maybe it's because some people saw him as the successor to Ronaldo and he couldn't reach that level.

On his day, he's a devastating, if very unlikeable, player.

Maybe it's just something with United fans. Fans of other clubs i know really rate Nani while United fans seem to hate him. United have turned in the last few years into grinding out performances and playing poor football. It's strange people defend Valencia because he works hard but hate Nani because he attacks and try's to make things happen.

Adamocovic

twam2008 wrote: »

Belfast Telegraph:

And last night a club insider said: “Rojo is only the start. There’s more big deals on the way. Van’s angry.”

I read that at first as a "night club insider" and I was thinking, "Jaysus the papers are getting even worse for sources!" :pac:

sky88

twam2008 wrote: »

Belfast Telegraph:

And last night a club insider said: “Rojo is only the start. There’s more big deals on the way. Van’s angry.”

I like to think hell hulk smash woodword when hes anger

kryogen

I don't think injury to Fellaini will make Van Gaal "panic buy" if he does not intend to get another midfielder in anyway. Unless its season ending or something like that. Or worse, if reports were accurate that he was available for loan anyway then maybe he see's it as no loss at all?! Incredible as that might sound

I dunno, train of thought completely went there a minute ago

I think a midfielder is wanted, but I think, a lot like Fergie, if the player Van Gaal wants can't be got he will not buy someone just for the sake of it, he would rather wait until he gets the "right" player in.

Anyone ever watch The Siege? Don't think I did, but its come on now and I'm tempted

Backstreet Moyes

Kirby wrote: »

That Powell one baffles me. Clearly he is rubbish if he can't get a game ahead of the likes of Cleverley according to three different managers. But then, if he's a poor player why was he bought?

It's baffling.

How exactly is it baffling.

He was signed at 17 as a player for the future. In his first season he has an injury and set's him back a season. Then last season he played 32 games on loan and done very well. He has been injured since the summer and has only turned 20. A loan in the premiership this season is the next step.

Your statement of 3 managers not rating him is the baffling thing. He was injured when Fergie signed him, Moyes sent him on loan for experience and Van Gaal hasn't seen him kick a ball.

kstand

Larry Wildman wrote: »

Interesting list in the Indo...United's worst ever signings:

Nani
Liam Miller
Anderson
Gabriel Obertan
Juan Sebastian Veron
Marouane Fellaini
Massimo Taibi
Bebe
William Prunier
Pat McGibbon
Laurent Blanc
Jordi Cruyff
Eric Djemba-Djemba
Ralph Milne
Kleberson
David Bellion
Diego Forlan
Dong Fangzhuo

Quinton Fortune and Mikael Silvestre should top that list with Barthez in there as well somewhere.

Vinz Mesrine

Nuts102 wrote: »

Maybe it's just something with United fans. Fans of other clubs i know really rate Nani while United fans seem to hate him. United have turned in the last few years into grinding out performances and playing poor football. It's strange people defend Valencia because he works hard but hate Nani because he attacks and try's to make things happen.

I can see how he would be very irritating to watch because he tries different things and sometimes they don't come off which results in losing possession. I'd have him as similar to Luis Garcia at Liverpool(Nani is a better player), so frustrating to watch but when things go right, he looks a world beater.

Headshot

kstand wrote: »

Quinton Fortune and Mikael Silvestre should top that list with Barthez in there as well somewhere.

get out of it.

Both very good players for utd. Especially Quinton

kstand

Headshot wrote: »

get out of it.

Both very good players for utd. Especially Quinton

I've heard it all now.

homerjay2005

financial results for the last 12 months are due out in 3 weeks time - just took a look at the results from September 2013 and what it meant for this year.

Our commitment is to hit £420-£430m revenue and £133m in "profit" - something we may not have a problem in doing thought the drop in PL prize money could challenge that, as well as a poor Fa Cup - we should be fine though even including the Mata deal as perhaps money was there from last year (only signed Fellaini and Zaha in calender year).

projected deals such as shirt sponsorship would be included in that, with us projected to hit £460 for next year (I think this was the figure quoted on BBC but its not in the press release)-

Here is where the "problem" lies, we wont hit that now without CL revenue (though of course they could revise that figure but it wont look good). HOWEVER, the financial year ended on June 30th and we signed Shaw and Herrera on June 26th/27th, 3 days before the financial year closed.

so, did we get those deals done "quickly" for the simple reason that we can include them in last years figures which look better, to avoid them being impacting next years which wont hit projections (remember addidas wont come in until 2015/2016)? or did we do this, to allow spending more in 2015?

until yesterday however, no spending was done yet £23million worth of wages changes took place on July 1st.

summary - United could have financial pressures that are not necessarily publically evident and while we have money, its not as clear cut as the board is projecting. i just think it is a bit too coincidental that the deals were closed 3 days before the end of the financial year and then no spending for almost 2 months, followed by a big chunk of wage cuts kicking in 4 days later.

im sure people will dismiss this as bulls*t (and i am ok with this), but i wonder was Van Gaal told "if we dont spent money before June 30th, it may not be there for you and we have Shaw and herrera available to sign, so sign them now or risk losing that money".

and, is our financial commitments now that we are floated on NYSE, meaning that we have to structure deals around this (availablilty to pay upfront, installements and spread out throught contracts)...this limiting our ability to close deals?

if its a thing that we got the shaw and herrera deals done to allow more spending this financial year, then of course thats a plus, but it could also mean that LVG didnt have full input into signing shaw and herrera.

Adamocovic

Headshot wrote: »

get out of it.

Both very good players for utd. Especially Quinton

I remember I had an old video of the 1999 season review with Fortune on it, they're was a clip of him playing in goals for training matches, he was actually quite the decent keeper!

Kirby

Nuts102 wrote: »

How exactly is it baffling.
He was signed at 17 as a player for the future.

I think you've answered your own question there champ. A team with no quality central midfielders, and a team that hasn't had one in years, should not be wasting their time buying players "for the future" when they have guys like Cleverley, Fellaini and Anderson as their midfield options :P Herrera and more of his ilk is what's needed.

Nuts102 wrote: »

Van Gaal hasn't seen him kick a ball.

If he didn't even warrant a place in a pre-season friendly, what does that tell you about his chances under the new man?

Maximus Alexander

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

We are paying a player who does not play for us for a total of 4.8million

When you think about it for a moment it stinks of desperation, poor negotiation and down right stupid money management

Not really, it's just part of the fee for Rojo. It's a pretty good way to get around the 'problem' of them getting feck all of the transfer fee due to third party ownership.

KombuchaMshroom

Re the Indo including Nani in their list;

Was our player of the season the year we won a league title and made a champions league final, as well as having a major contribution in successful 07/08 season, scored a CL final penalty and numerous other things to go with.

Articles like that are amongst the laziest form of journalism

Copper_pipe

Angel Di Maria will agree to join Manchester United if they offer the same amount of money as PSG. [Cadena COPE] #MUFC


Get it done Ed!

Adamocovic

Kirby wrote: »

If he didn't even warrant a place in a pre-season friendly, what does that tell you about his chances under the new man?

I could be wrong here but didn't VG initially have Powell on the tour squad but then he was taken out of it due to injury? I vaguely remember an interview where he said he was unfortunate not to have some players available for the tour and he named Powell as one.

Powell is supposedly fit now but by the sounds of things will be going out on loan to the Championship again. They probably don't want to throw him out their to partner a player who is new to the club.

Powell will get his chance at some stage, I truly believe that. It might be the case they are waiting until Herrera has more experience to be a good mentor for him so Powell can slot in as a replacement for Carrick and Fletcher who are getting closer to the ends of their careers.

Manutd_4life

Copper_pipe wrote: »

Angel Di Maria will agree to join Manchester United if they offer the same amount of money as PSG. [Cadena COPE] #MUFC


Get it done Ed!

C'MON WOODWARD!!!!!!! DO IT

Hococop

Copper_pipe wrote: »

Angel Di Maria will agree to join Manchester United if they offer the same amount of money as PSG. [Cadena COPE] #MUFC


Get it done Ed!

If this is true what are PSG offering in wages?

RichFTW

KombuchaMshroom wrote: »

Re the Indo including Nani in their list;

Was our player of the season the year we won a league title and made a champions league final, as well as having a major contribution in successful 07/08 season, scored a CL final penalty and numerous other things to go with.

Articles like that are amongst the laziest form of journalism

It's pretty crazy alright. As much as I dislike Nani, there is no way I would put him on a worst ever signings list.

Headshot

Copper_pipe wrote: »

Angel Di Maria will agree to join Manchester United if they offer the same amount of money as PSG. [Cadena COPE] #MUFC


Get it done Ed!

I have no idea about that source?

kstand

Copper_pipe wrote: »

Angel Di Maria will agree to join Manchester United if they offer the same amount of money as PSG. [Cadena COPE] #MUFC


Get it done Ed!

There's huge money being talked about. I have niggling doubts at the back of my mind about his physicality and how he'd adapt to the league, esp with the money being talked about.

hogandrew

kstand wrote: »

Quinton Fortune and Mikael Silvestre should top that list with Barthez in there as well somewhere.

Silvestre cost 4 million, played over 200 games and won probably around 10 trophies. He then moved to arsenal! Hardly in the same list as taibi and bebe etc

NTMK

Headshot wrote: »

I have no idea about that source?

cadena were the ones that broke the herrera deal iirc

LostBoy101

Personally I think we be mad to get down our knees and give Di Maria the type of money he is asking for. I don't like contract mercenaries and dealing with one is enough on our plate.

Kirby

RichFTW wrote: »

It's pretty crazy alright. As much as I dislike Nani, there is no way I would put him on a worst ever signings list.

Yeah. Silly list tbh. Nani put in some great performances for United.

Besides, I still love Nani for this moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOdYpz3fQyQ

Anybody that can make Ronaldo that upset has my backing.

Will I Amnt

Kirby wrote: »

I think you've answered your own question there champ. A team with no quality central midfielders, and a team that hasn't had one in years, should not be wasting their time buying players "for the future" when they have guys like Cleverley, Fellaini and Anderson as their midfield options :P Herrera and more of his ilk is what's needed.



If he didn't even warrant a place in a pre-season friendly, what does that tell you about his chances under the new man?

What utter nonsense.

Copper_pipe

8 or 9 million are year I think I saw

homerjay2005

LostBoy101 wrote: »

Personally I think we be mad to get down our knees and give Di Maria the type of money he is asking for. I don't like contract mercenaries and dealing with one is enough on our plate.

3 weeks ago i would have agreed with you, but now we are so desperate we have no choice.

if di maria is willing to play for us, we should give him what he wants. we have a £30million gap in our projected wage bill apparently so giving him 130k-150k a week wouldnt be an issue especially if the intention is to get 1 or 2 more big earners (ando and fellaini (unlikley due to injury now) off that bill.

a di maria type signing is the only thing that can lift the mood to be honest, two of them would turn us into title challengers maybe or at least cut the decline that people are talking about.

twam2008

LostBoy101 wrote: »

Personally I think we be mad to get down our knees and give Di Maria the type of money he is asking for. I don't like contract mercenaries and dealing with one is enough on our plate.

I agree. Too much money. Too much work needed on the squad elsewhere.

RobbingBandit

Copper_pipe wrote: »

Angel Di Maria will agree to join Manchester United if they offer the same amount of money as PSG. [Cadena COPE] #MUFC


Get it done Ed!

PSG + Fair Play = Deluded Di Maria, he is out of his mind if he thinks throwing what PSG are offering is good negotiations, they can't pay him that after paying 50m for Luiz, can they?

Hococop

Copper_pipe wrote: »

8 or 9 million are year I think I saw

I'll assume 9 million
If its 9 million pounds its 175k a week
Its its 9 million euro its 140k a week when converted to pounds

What do ye think? Too much to pay?

homerjay2005

Copper_pipe wrote: »

8 or 9 million are year I think I saw

for Di maria?

sure thats still way less than Rooney or Van Persie, Rio was on £5.9m a year ffs.

NTMK

im so 50/50 on di maria at 56mill. I like di maria but theres bound to be a CM we can get for that money

twam2008

Copper_pipe wrote: »

8 or 9 million are year I think I saw

Yeah, that's the figure I had heard, crazy money.

UnitedIrishman

LostBoy101 wrote: »

Personally I think we be mad to get down our knees and give Di Maria the type of money he is asking for. I don't like contract mercenaries and dealing with one is enough on our plate.

I'd go balls out to sign him. Don't think he's a mercenary as it's Real that's basically forcing him out to fund the buys of Rodriguez and Kroos.

If the chance to sign Vidal is definitely gone - sign him, then sign Strootman in January. He was immense last year towards the tail end playing from midfield.

homerjay2005

Will I Amnt wrote: »

What utter nonsense.

i normally like your posting, but i think you are being unfair here. i understand and accept what he is saying, so i think you are not picking him up right.

Paul Scholes said pretty much exactly the same a few hours ago.

Rayne Wooney

Mata is reportedly on 150 thousand a week, Di Maria should get 130-140 IMO

He's on 88k a week at Madrid apparently

LostBoy101

UnitedIrishman wrote: »

I'd go balls out to sign him. Don't think he's a mercenary as it's Real that's basically forcing him out to fund the buys of Rodriguez and Kroos.

If the chance to sign Vidal is definitely gone - sign him, then sign Strootman in January. He was immense last year towards the tail end playing from midfield.

I agree that he is a cracking player but I don't feel that 8-9 million year justifies his worth. However if he is the only option available then it's better than signing nobody.

TheTownie

NTMK wrote: »

cadena were the ones that broke the herrera deal iirc

Cadena SER broke the Herrera deal.

Copper Pipe said the source was Cadena COPE.

Will I Amnt

homerjay2005 wrote: »

i normally like your posting, but i think you are being unfair here. i understand and accept what he is saying, so i think you are not picking him up right.

Paul Scholes said pretty much exactly the same a few hours ago.

Do you think United pissed around all Summer trying to sign a kid from Crewe Alexander, a kid that went straight into the reserves? Leaving no time to get first team players in?

Signing kids like that is not "wasting their time"

Adamocovic

DiMaria is a good player, I'm not a huge fan of him so maybe my opinion on whether we should sign him is a bit biased.

Personally I would rather see us bring in a CM and cover for CB/RWB. As good as Di Maria is , where will he fit in with the current United set up? VG seems to be putting most of his time and focus into the 3-4-1-2 formation with the wing backs. He even has the youths trying it out from what I hear. Strange to see where DiMaria would slot in that.

For the money being mentioned I would rather see us bring in a solid CM and CB/RWB.

Vinz Mesrine

The people who wouldn't want Di Maria, have you seen him play over the last year? He is a very very capable CM player and would do very well in a United midfield.

Adamocovic

Vinz Mesrine wrote: »

The people who wouldn't want Di Maria, have you seen him play over the last year? He is a very very capable CM player and would do very well in a United midfield.

He'd hardly be the best option for the holding two CMs in front of the CBs. He can play centre mid alright, but I would argue he is suited more for an attacking centre mid role. I can't picture him being able to perform the defensive requirements.

But with Mata, Rooney and RVP, who would we drop to put DiMaria in. I can't imagine Rooney after he was named captain, RvP with his relationship with VG, and Mata is a quality player. I don't see DiMaria as something we really need at the moment.

I know it's all opinions but if we had:

---

Herrera---DiMaria

---

---

Mata

---

---

RVP

---

Rooney

---

I wouldn't be confident in DiMaria playing there. Again is is just my opinion though.

kryogen

Vinz Mesrine wrote: »

The people who wouldn't want Di Maria, have you seen him play over the last year? He is a very very capable CM player and would do very well in a United midfield.

See my friend, that is what you call an "opinion"

Here is another one, with the current midfield options Di Maria could not work in a central midfield position at United, what is needed is a dominant destroyer type to free up the more creative attack minded players. Not add another creative attack minded player while ignoring the glaring problem.

There is a huge difference in how he played for Madrid, when he played centrally, last year and what the club needs right now.

Furthermore, he is not a very very capable midfield player, he is effective as an attack minded CM with a player or two behind him to do the grunt work/make sure the back four is protected.