Manchester United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2017

jayo26

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/manchester-united-transfer-news-neymar-contacted-phone-calls-barcelona-move-a7598951.html

So most news outlets today saying jose been in contact with Neymar to persuade him to sign for us in the summer. I couldn't possibly see this happening too much money been talked about and couldn't see him wanting to leave them this year.

0gac3yjefb5sv7

IamtheWalrus wrote: »

I agree in one sense but in another, some people don't like their club to be taken advantage of my other clubs just because we're rich. But in the main, I say spend that lolly.

Another thing is if we spend a record amount on player X, we then have limited funds for other positions. So of course it makes sense to try and get as much value as possible so the team can improve in all areas.

RobertKK

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/how-jose-mourinho-has-torn-up-manchester-uniteds-transfer-strategy-and-started-again-114154967.html

Very good article by Duncan Castles.
It is how Mourinho has taken control of United to put it back on the right track.
He says Jose believes United need 4 to 5 new signings to challenge to win the CL.
That Jose doesn't like expensive signings but last summer, Pogba became a signing that both Woodward and Jose wanted, Jose doesn't like the pressure of being the most expensive places on a player, but he believes in time that Pogba will be seen as being very cheap in value terms as he will only improve, and other transfer fees will rise.

Good story about the swimming pool at Carrington...

RobertKK

jayo26 wrote: »

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/manchester-united-transfer-news-neymar-contacted-phone-calls-barcelona-move-a7598951.html

So most news outlets today saying jose been in contact with Neymar to persuade him to sign for us in the summer. I couldn't possibly see this happening too much money been talked about and couldn't see him wanting to leave them this year.

There has been murmurings that his new contract was not a commitment by Neymar to Barcelona, but instead it was a sticking plaster.

GSPfan

Im gonna be very greedy and hope the rumours of Griezmann and Neymar are true. Good god imagine that team. I can see Neymar being at United at some stage but maybe not yet. Not unless Zlatan goes this Summer.

Rashford
Martial
Mkhitaryan
Griezmann
Neymar

Even taking Neymar out and putting Zlatan in there for next season is still brilliant. If we can just find someone to compliment Pogba in a midfield two then we are laughing.

Lord TSC

Neymar's having awful trouble with the Spanish tax crowds, isn't he?

Anyway, refusing to even entertain that one; the press will want a new big name signing since there's no tension in Griezmann and with his buyout clause, if it's happening, it will happen quick, so its not the best of stories for them.

Liam McPoyle

Neymar me hole tbh.

Jose has already said he won't spend time pursuing the unpursuable and Neymar would be one of the most unpursuable players in the game today.

RobertKK

It is Sport in Spain who started this Neymar story as an exclusive.

https://twitter.com/sport_en/status/835430136405233666

Cantona's Collars

Just for lols,Neymar and Griezmann as part of our attack...........

Mitch Connor

its an odd story and I can only imagine an absolutely nothing story in reality.

He had a 'reasonable' buy out clause at 120million or something like that - he signed a new contract this season and that has now gone north of 200million. Obviously a buyout clause does not have to be met in order to sign a player, but with Neymar/Barcelona it can be used as a good indication. No way are we going to pay anywhere near his buyout clause, and I also don't see any real reason for Neymar to want to leave Barcelona. I could see Messi moving on before Neymar - with Neymar becoming the new centre piece of Barcelona as they look to rebuild.

How I see this story...the possibilities

1. The story is utter rubbish, just made up to sell some papers this weekend.
2. Neymar wants a new contract, again.
3. United are floating it to try scare Greizman a little as there are rumors of a little impasse in negotiations.

Cantona's Collars

Speaking of odd stories,"De Gea phones Real to check on their situation regarding reports of them signing Courtois."

http://www.calciomercato.com/en/news/from-spain-de-gea-calls-real-madrid-chiefs-to-find-out-the-situa-79909

Lord TSC

Mitch Connor wrote: »

I could see Messi moving on before Neymar - with Neymar becoming the new centre piece of Barcelona as they look to rebuild.

I agree with the rest of your post, but disagree with this.

Messi has an unbelievable amount of control at Barca. It looks sometimes like if he doesn't like a player or a manager, they go. I know you're only talking hypothetical and the realistic future is neither leave any time soon...but even in hypothetical, I believe Messi will retire at Barca and then probably move straight onto the coaching team there...

Cantona's Collars

Interesting stuff from Duncan Castles,

"In Jose Mourinho’s first weeks at Manchester United he was informed that one of his key summer signings Henrikh Mkhitaryan could not undergo out-of-hours rehabilitation in the club’s own swimming pool because there was no lifeguard on duty to oversee the session. It was not the only bureaucratic brick wall United’s newly installed manager ran into.

With his family living in London Mourinho was working long days at the Carrington training ground and sometimes sought to use the training ground’s well-appointed gym after hours. Another no-go without proper supervision.
When Mourinho wanted to change the desk in the manager’s office or present a signed United shirt to a visitor he had to battle to have the expenditure cleared. At a club en route to announcing a record annual revenue of over £500million such inefficiency frustrated the Portuguese.

Penny wise, pound foolish? Just examine the squad Mourinho inherited following three summer windows of work from predecessors Louis van Gaal and David Moyes in tandem with executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward.


That group contained Wayne Rooney, the most richly remunerated English footballer in the history of the game (and an individual Sir Alex Ferguson was ready to offload long before his last contract renewal), plus Bastian Schweinsteiger, recipient of another hugely lucrative pay package whose various fitness issues had limited him to a grand total of 95 League starts over the preceding five campaigns.

There was Luke Shaw, still the most expensive full back ever in terms of transfer fee; Memphis Depay, the most expensive transfer out of Dutch football ever; and Morgan Schneiderlin, a midfielder who’d started less than two thirds of the League games under the manager who’d sanctioned his £25m purchase.
Two-thirds of a season later, United have played 2250 minutes of Premier League football under Mourinho. Rooney has been on the pitch for 926 of them, appearing in just eight fixtures from kick-off. Shaw has six starts and 527 minutes; the last of them in October. Depay, Schneiderlin (both sold in January) and Schweinsteiger have 31 minutes of League playing time for United between them.

This extraordinary misallocation of transfer fee and salary resource has been at the core of Manchester United’s decline since Ferguson retired from management retired from management in 2013. With the Scot’s trusted and experienced chief executive David Gill stepping down with him, the Glazer family handed control of recruitment negotiations to Woodward, who’d excelled in his previous role, greatly expanding the club’s commercial income.

More or less overnight, United changed from a club known for acting early on key purchases, maximising income from sales, and controlling salary, to one whose chief executive extolled the virtues of the super-expensive ‘Galactico’ buy. United began selling extremely poorly – losing players of the quality of Patrice Evra, Javier Hernandez and Nani for minimal fees or on subsidised loans – while simultaneously developing a reputation for taking an age to conclude the paperwork on deals.
As Mourinho matured as a manager, he became an increasingly astute operator in the transfer market. Throughout his career he has deployed his powers of persuasion to convince individuals such as Didier Drogba, Wesley Sneijder, Diego Costa and Zlatan Ibrahimovic to join his squads and take pivotal roles. And from his Internazionale treble-winning side, through Real Madrid, Chelsea and now United his hit rate on transfers both in an out has been remarkably high.

A factor is his success is a reluctance to waste money. Mourinho bridles at the popular accusation that he is a high spending manager; and does so with justification. The six key acquisitions of Inter’s unprecedented treble winning season – Samuel Eto’o, Lucio, Gabriel Milito, Goran Pandev, Sneijder and Thiago Motta – were almost entirely funded by Ibrahimovic’s €69.5m sale to Barcelona.

At Real Madrid friends urged him to use the club’s huge resources more aggressively, yet his most expensive buy in three season there was Luka Modric at roughly a third of the club’s record fee. In two stints at Chelsea the club never paid more than the €38m to sign a player at Mourinho’s request (Diego Costa), and won the Premier League title with a net negative spend on transfer fees.

Although Mourinho’s desire to bring Paul Pogba back to Old Trafford ultimately meshed with Woodward’s eagerness to exploit the commercial opportunities of a global record fee, the former’s discomfort with the scale of transaction can be seen in his public comments on the deal.
The scrutiny on him is hard, is difficult,” said Mourinho last week. “But that’s the price of being who he is and is also the price of his price. I am pretty sure that next summer some players with only half his quality will cost the same money or more, so I am waiting for that moment to release him from the scrutiny.

“I think in a couple of years you will realise he was cheap, but I have to admit that not many clubs have this vision of anticipation of what can happen in the near future. A few years ago £25m was a phenomenal player. Today, £25m is not even a player, it is a prospect of a player. Now, if you want to buy a good prospect, a good 20-year-old player who can be fantastic, you are paying as if the player is already a big player. I think next summer can bring a few surprises at this level and probably Paul will lose this status as the world’s most expensive player, which will be a good thing.”

Mourinho’s early annoyance with United’s internal organisation was not limited to training ground bureaucracy. A hesitance to commit to deals saw the club lose opportunities to sign Renato Sanches and John Stones. Mismanagement of a David de Gea contract renewal under Van Gaal left the goalkeeper with an option to join Madrid that expired on June 15, and which Mourinho had to prevent from being exercised.

The Portuguese expressed his opposition to a plan to hire the club’s first sporting director, preferring to utilise his own network of contacts to take on the biggest rebuild of his managerial career.
Most prominent amongst those is Rooney, whose status as an automatic starter has been lost to fitness and lifestyle issues. The idea is to relieve the club of their salary commitments to the England captain, while taking in some kind of transfer income, although this plan has been shelved until the summer after the striker snubbed a move to China this week.

As was the case last year when Mourinho attempted to move the German midfielder to Sporting, Schweinsteiger will be permitted to join any club whose personal terms he is prepared to accept. Though well thought of by his coach for his attitude to training and matches, Ashley Young will be replaced if the 31-year-old finds the right employers to exit too.

Lesser-used individuals with the potential to raise significant fees include Shaw and Matteo Darmian. The basic principles with Mourinho is simple. Team before individual. Results are paramount. If you’re not carrying your weight then shape up or prepare to be shipped out."

Quandary

^

That makes for an encouraging read. It will be very interesting to see where we are this time next season under Jose.

Why Jose wasn't offered the job after Fergie left is very annoying. He would have cleared out the dead wood a hell of a lot faster than his two predecessors and the squad would most likely be a well oiled machine around now.

Anyway, this season could finish very nicely for us. Fingers crossed a cup to add to the cabinet tomorrow and who knows after that.

RobertKK

The post at 12:14pm...

Trigger

Even Robert is slagging Zerks now

jayo26

That a boy zerks always on the ball with the latest news

DM_7

Quandary wrote: »

^

That makes for an encouraging read. It will be very interesting to see where we are this time next season under Jose.

Why Jose wasn't offered the job after Fergie left is very annoying. He would have cleared out the dead wood a hell of a lot faster than his two predecessors and the squad would most likely be a well oiled machine around now.

Anyway, this season could finish very nicely for us. Fingers crossed a cup to add to the cabinet tomorrow and who knows after that.

Jose said he knew SAF was retiring well before the announcement.

SAF says Jose was going to Chelsea, Jose said he wanted to go Chelsea. So yeah, Chelsea.

Rayne Wooney

How easy has it been for Chelsea, could win the league at Old Trafford in the middle of April

Headshot

never change zerks lol

jayo26

Rayne Wooney wrote: »

How easy has it been for Chelsea, could win the league at Old Trafford in the middle of April

Hopefully they have it won before then, they going to need to pull the finger out against Swansea tho.

Mitch Connor

lol at the comment that United had a rep for maximising transfer income - Ruud van Nistlerooy and David Beckham jump immediately to mind.

Minderbinder

Wouldn't be surprised if Neymar wanted out of Barca. He's playing third fiddle to Messi and Suarez and I don't see that changing any time soon. I don't think going to Barca has been successful for him on the pitch. His career could do with a change. There would be no bigger possible platform for him than Old Trafford. He would immediately be the star forward. It would be a great move for his image also. 
However, I'm not all that convinced by him but Jose isn't often wrong.

Mitch Connor

If I could wish us to sign one player, it would be Neymar. He is the next attacking superstar to take over from Messi/Ronaldo.

Oh the snapchat fun we would see with him and Pogba....

I just don't think there is the remotest chance of it happening.

jayo26

Mitch Connor wrote: »

lol at the comment that United had a rep for maximising transfer income - Ruud van Nistlerooy and David Beckham jump immediately to mind.

I was thinking the same. Fergie and Gill made plenty of mistakes over the years too.

I dont Think overall lvg did drastically bad with the squad apart from adm most others were soldid signings and Falcao was just a gamble and even with moyes his two players are key parts of the squad for the roles they play.

The problem looks like the previous two managers tried to change the mindset of the club to what they believed it should be and tried to accept lower standards. I wouldn't put much blame on Woodward apart from saying he backed trusted three opinions too much.

GSPfan

Has anyone else noticed we are the last team to play at White Hart Lane before its torn down? So not only will Spurs be fighting for a top table position but they will be trying to end on a win just like West Ham did.

Hope we aren't dependant on that game to secure a top 4 finish. Wouldn't fancy our chances.

Cantona's Collars

RobertKK wrote: »

The post at 12:14pm...

Guess who was watching Lego Batman at that time;)

As was said to me,"you only posted the link":)

jayo26

zerks wrote: »

Guess who was watching Lego Batman at that time;)

As was said to me,"you only posted the link":)

Infairness who would go quoting that entire article it was a bit much

Quandary

DM_7 wrote: »

Jose said he knew SAF was retiring well before the announcement.

SAF says Jose was going to Chelsea, Jose said he wanted to go Chelsea. So yeah, Chelsea.

It has been well known that Jose has long coveted the Utd job. the Utd board would have had a strong incling that Fergie was at the very least considering retirement, his age alone should have had them putting the feelers out for the successor. All they would have had to do was put in the ground work and Jose would have almost certainly snubbed Chelsea to take the Utd post.

Anyway, the discussion is moot at this point. He's here now and IMO is the right man to have at the helm for the next few years at least.

RobertKK

jayo26 wrote: »

Infairness who would go quoting that entire article it was a bit much

Exactly

Cantona's Collars

jayo26 wrote: »

Infairness who would go quoting that entire article it was a bit much

You know certain posters views on clicking links around here.
Anyway going to watch rugby now so anything posted in the next 2 hours may be reposted later.I should change my username to Dave like the TV channel, all repeats.:)

jayo26

zerks wrote: »

You know certain posters views on clicking links around here.
Anyway going to watch rugby now so anything posted in the next 2 hours may be reposted later.I should change my username to Dave like the TV channel, all repeats.:)

I will admit I didn't actually read the article until u post it haha.

I think dave+1 would be more appropriate for you haha.

RobertKK

https://twitter.com/eurosport_uk/status/835472651900567552

They say in the video piece that the Catalan newspaper SPORT say in their Spanish edition that their source for the Neymar story comes from a source inside Old Trafford.
That Jose started contacting Neymar when the final appeal failed in the courts over the issues with his transfer to Barcelona.

RobertKK

jayo26 wrote: »

I will admit I didn't actually read the article until u post it haha.

I think dave+1 would be more appropriate for you haha.

Shame on you...

zerks catering to lazy people who fail to exercise posted links, or fail to read all the posts...

RobertKK

There are claims United tried to sign Neymar last summer, however true.

Hococop

I see this day last year rashford make him impact debut

Crimson King

Mitch Connor wrote: »

lol at the comment that United had a rep for maximising transfer income - Ruud van Nistlerooy and David Beckham jump immediately to mind.

The Rooney for £30m to China was the one that killed me. A player being bought as much for his brand, easily in the top 5 most recognised players in the world for a price barely above Igalho. Ffs, I hope to God it was purely speculation. Even for quality of football he is easily at the level of others gone for stupid sums recently. Just not at the level United are striving for anymore and would remove huge wages from budgeted outlay.

bangkok

id say there is no chance of us signing Neymar and not sure why he would want to leave Barca or Barca to even sell for that matter

RobertKK

Why is Valencia still speaking Spanish on MUTV, living in the UK for so many years and it is Spanish every time, and he is answering questions asked in English...

RobertKK

This is what Duncan Castles wrote last October about Neymar.
It involves link clicking

https://twitter.com/duncancastles/status/803932435700387840

Cantona's Collars

RobertKK wrote: »

Why is Valencia still speaking Spanish on MUTV, living in the UK for so many years and it is Spanish every time, and he is answering questions asked in English...

He still has minimal English,Kevin Kilbane explained why a couple of weeks ago having played alongside him at Wigan.Val has very little formal education so when he moved to England even reading and writing in his native tongue was a challenge let alone learn a new language,even now his English is very poor.

Cantona's Collars

https://twitter.com/DavidAmoyal/status/835552480826126337

There are reports in Italy that Man United has a scout currently at Napoli-Atalanta to watch Hysaj, Zielinski and Kessie

Trigger

zerks wrote: »

https://twitter.com/DavidAmoyal/status/835552480826126337

Kessie came out last week saying it was his dream to play for United when asked about links to chelsea/United..

jayo26

astradave wrote: »

Kessie came out last week saying it was his dream to play for United when asked about links to chelsea/United..

Sounds like a bit of a Robbie Keane to me.

roosterman71

Anyone know whats going on with Mata? Didn't travel today to head for Spain for family reasons.
Should be back for the match though

Cantona's Collars

https://twitter.com/HenrikhMkh/status/835559199820103684

Mata didn't travel with the squad,he's expected to join up with them though having attended his grandfather's funeral.

Trigger

zerks wrote: »

https://twitter.com/HenrikhMkh/status/835559199820103684

Mata didn't travel with the squad,he's expected to join up with them though having attended his grandfather's funeral.

Supposedly already in London an all.. nice to see Mkhitaryan heading down.. wonder if he is alright

jayo26

astradave wrote: »

Supposedly already in London an all.. nice to see Mkhitaryan heading down.. wonder if he is alright

He looked pretty solid on his foot other night back in Manchester even if he misses final he should be ok next week.

Cantona's Collars

paulbok

roosterman71 wrote: »

Anyone know whats going on with Mata? Didn't travel today to head for Spain for family reasons.
Should be back for the match though

Is he not cup-tied though?