The Manchester United Thread

[Anthony]

BBC with the most pointless sports news of the day.

But at least we get to see it on the BBC website and then come here to see it again

 

[Anthony]

if we don't reinforce this area another season of top 4 beckons, not a lot more.

My sentiments exactly.
I will never scoff at reinforcements to the sharp end of our team, but if we get to a week before deadline day and haven't brought in at least one fully capable and reliable center back, I will die a little inside.

 

[Theatreof Dreams]

Tom Cleverley and Ben Amos will be released by @manutd this summer once their contracts have expired #mufc #bbcrmsport

 

[Sherkey]

Tom Cleverley and Ben Amos will be released by @manutd this summer once their contracts have expired #mufc #bbcrmsport

Shame about Cleverley, he was a genuine talent earlier, but injuries didn't help him, and his decline under Moyes was shocking.

 

[fuelledbypassion]

With strong rumour of Arsenal signing Vidal, I'm starting to believe that Pogba will wait for Barca. Perhaps Schweinsteiger and Gundogan are the best and only alternatives?

 

[Theatreof Dreams]

With strong rumour of Arsenal signing Vidal, I'm starting to believe that Pogba will wait for Barca. Perhaps Schweinsteiger and Gundogan are the best and only alternatives?

I dont think there anychance in him going there tbh. Pogba will wait for Madrid or Barca. I would be delighted with those 2.

 

[zzeezzy]

United are understood to retain an interest in Schalke’s versatile defender Benedikt Howedes, but Borussia Dortmund centre-half Mats Hummels remains the top target.
Meanwhile, United are not currently pursuing Valencia defender Nicolas Otamendi, despite reports in Spain linking the Argentine with a move to Old Trafford.

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Latest from Mark Ogden's article.

 

[Theatreof Dreams]

United are understood to retain an interest in Schalke’s versatile defender Benedikt Howedes, but Borussia Dortmund centre-half Mats Hummels remains the top target.
Meanwhile, United are not currently pursuing Valencia defender Nicolas Otamendi, despite reports in Spain linking the Argentine with a move to Old Trafford.

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Latest from Mark Ogden's article.

TBH ive give up reading his tosh. Hummels is staying He and Dortmund have said so. Howdes would be good for squad depth and versatility, but not seen anything in German media about this. And were not pursuing Otamendi, even though the club President has said other wise as well as Ladyman,Jackson,Ballague. Ogdens days of being in the know on transfer are long gone! Last season he said we were not after Herrera till before the day he signed and we had no interest in Di Maria. And was one of the last to report on Falcao.

 

[zzeezzy]

TBH ive give up reading his tosh. Hummels is staying He and Dortmund have said so. Howdes would be good for squad depth and versatility, but not seen anything in German media about this. And were not pursuing Otamendi, even though the club President has said other wise as well as Ladyman,Jackson,Ballague. Ogdens days of being in the know on transfer are long gone! Last season he said we were not after Herrera till before the day he signed and we had no interest in Di Maria. And was one of the last to report on Falcao.

Tbf I haven't seen anything from Hummels saying so and I doubt we'd give up on him because of Dortmund saying so. Otamendi it's mainly just noise at the moment can't see anything concrete with us making a move.

Howedes would be great for our defence, would like Aldeweireld as well though. If we got Howedes and Aldeweireld I'd genuinely be over the moon, but one of them would be better than nothing.

 

[Theatreof Dreams]

Tbf I haven't seen anything from Hummels saying so and I doubt we'd give up on him because of Dortmund saying so. Otamendi it's mainly just noise at the moment can't see anything concrete with us making a move.

Howedes would be great for our defence, would like Aldeweireld as well though. If we got Howedes and Aldeweireld I'd genuinely be over the moon, but one of them would be better than nothing.

Bild,Kicker most German press and Zorc even stated that Hummels will stay and he has turned down utd. Otamendi is not just noise when the Valencia top man is quoting about our interest. And some good sources in media also.

 

[sunilvk7]

I think people are making too big a deal of De Gea. Yes hes a fantactic keeper, and would be a big loss, but a goalkeeper will only look good if he's getting the opportunity to make save after save after save. Our problem is stopping teams from getting into clear shooting opportunities in the first place. If we cut that out, we only need what I would call a top competent keeper, not nescessarily a "world class" one.
.

I disagree. You need a team with excellent goal keeper, even with weaknesses it won't matter but he should be someone whom their team can trust.

We couldn't replace Great Dane and our whole backline looked shaky with Barthez acting like a lunatic (he was good keeper though, made some world class saves), Howard not stepping up and countless keepers who just couldn't exhibit any confidence and whole backline looked shaky for that.

Only when we signed VDS we looked stable team with Rio, Vida and VDS. If we had Barthez or other keepers like Howard with Rio and Vida still we would have been very shaky.

GK is a huge position in defense and he is the one who can organize defense. Just like if the defense is weak whole team drop deeper without even knowing it.

 

[steveorobbo]

I disagree. You need a team with excellent goal keeper, even with weaknesses it won't matter but he should be someone whom their team can trust.

We couldn't replace Great Dane and our whole backline looked shaky with Barthez acting like a lunatic (he was good keeper though, made some world class saves), Howard not stepping up and countless keepers who just couldn't exhibit any confidence and whole backline looked shaky for that.

Only when we signed VDS we looked stable team with Rio, Vida and VDS. If we had Barthez or other keepers like Howard with Rio and Vida still we would have been very shaky.

GK is a huge position in defense and he is the one who can organize defense. Just like if the defense is weak whole team drop deeper without even knowing it.

So Valdes is an excellent keeper and can organise a defense? Barca destroyed everyone with him in net. Casillas has been **** for the last 2 years at least and Real Madrid won everything last year and nearly done it again this year. If you stop teams from shooting in the first place, and you can take 2 or 3 chances per game then you arent going to lose many.

Id rather sell De Gea for £40m and either use Valdes or go and get someone like Begovic, and use the money to buy a world class defender that can organise the defense to stop shots in the first place, than keep him and not have as much money to strengthen more areas of the team.

 

[Muhhaa]

So Valdes is an excellent keeper and can organise a defense? Barca destroyed everyone with him in net. Casillas has been **** for the last 2 years at least and Real Madrid won everything last year and nearly done it again this year. If you stop teams from shooting in the first place, and you can take 2 or 3 chances per game then you arent going to lose many.

Id rather sell De Gea for £40m and either use Valdes or go and get someone like Begovic, and use the money to buy a world class defender that can organise the defense to stop shots in the first place, than keep him and not have as much money to strengthen more areas of the team.

Valdes wasn't the one who organized the defence, it was Puyol.

 

[Sherkey]

So Valdes is an excellent keeper and can organise a defense? Barca destroyed everyone with him in net. Casillas has been **** for the last 2 years at least and Real Madrid won everything last year and nearly done it again this year. If you stop teams from shooting in the first place, and you can take 2 or 3 chances per game then you arent going to lose many.

Id rather sell De Gea for £40m and either use Valdes or go and get someone like Begovic, and use the money to buy a world class defender that can organise the defense to stop shots in the first place, than keep him and not have as much money to strengthen more areas of the team.

Naw, atm atleast, we have more than enough money to strengthen other areas of defence. Additionally, RM want to pay in the region of 20M or something like that with Coentrao added in. That's disgraceful, and it'd be more useful to us to let DDG leave on a free in a year, 20M is not that much amount of money. We're getting a WC keeper for a year on low wages.

Besides, can use the one year to get in a better replacement (Leno) for DDG than Valdes if DDG doesn't sign on.

 

[steveorobbo]

Valdes wasn't the one who organized the defence, it was Puyol.

FINALLY. I said exactly that in one of my previous posts. Did I not just say buy a world class defender that can organise the defense?

 

[Sherkey]

FINALLY. I said exactly that in one of my previous posts. Did I not just say buy a world class defender that can organise the defense?

IF you want to rely on defence, you literally need Puyol, or someone on his level like Vidic, who can organise defences really good. There's noone of either of those two's level available. Otamendi and Hummels are excellent, but don't have that level of defence organisation.

 

[steveorobbo]

Naw, atm atleast, we have more than enough money to strengthen other areas of defence. Additionally, RM want to pay in the region of 20M or something like that with Coentrao added in. That's disgraceful, and it'd be more useful to us to let DDG leave on a free in a year, 20M is not that much amount of money. We're getting a WC keeper for a year on low wages.

Besides, can use the one year to get in a better replacement (Leno) for DDG than Valdes if DDG doesn't sign on.

We have no guarentee that Leno would work out. Could be another Barthez/Howard/Taibi/Bosnich/Carrol. Id rather go for Begovic. Not a bad keeper and knows the league. He knows when he comes for a cross he's gonna get clattered. Leno could **** it for all we know, or not be able to handle it. Id rather not take that risk again at the moment and have the Schmeichel to Van Der Sar situation all over again. Concentrate on building the team. Once thats done, we can then replace one man. I'd rather take money now than lose him on a free. We have already ****** up with Cleverley on that one. Everyone knows English players come at a premium. He would walk into any side outside the top 4 or 5 and in todays market could have probably got around £10-15m for him if not more if he plays like he has done for the last 4 or 5 games.

 

[steveorobbo]

IF you want to rely on defence, you literally need Puyol, or someone on his level like Vidic, who can organise defences really good. There's noone of either of those two's level available. Otamendi and Hummels are excellent, but don't have that level of defence organisation.

Neither does De Gea going off our defence this season. If he was organising his defence properly he wouldnt have had to make all those saves. Theres been a few times this season (with Jones especially) where a defender has had to clear a ball thats going straight through to De Gea because he hasnt give a shout.

 

[MANUMAD]

We have no guarentee that Leno would work out. Could be another Barthez/Howard/Taibi/Bosnich/Carrol. Id rather go for Begovic. Not a bad keeper and knows the league. He knows when he comes for a cross he's gonna get clattered. Leno could **** it for all we know, or not be able to handle it. Id rather not take that risk again at the moment and have the Schmeichel to Van Der Sar situation all over again. Concentrate on building the team. Once thats done, we can then replace one man. I'd rather take money now than lose him on a free. We have already ****** up with Cleverley on that one. Everyone knows English players come at a premium. He would walk into any side outside the top 4 or 5 and in todays market could have probably got around £10-15m for him if not more if he plays like he has done for the last 4 or 5 games.

Whats with all the Cleverly revisionism on this site at least?!! The way I remember him is that he showed rare flashes that he could be decent in his first season but he's been really **** since (even at Villa for most of this season ffs). If he wasnt English nobody would be making all these comments imho.

 

[steveorobbo]

Whats with all the Cleverly revisionism on this site at least?!! The way I remember him is that he showed rare flashes that he could be decent in his first season but he's been really **** since (even at Villa for most of this season ffs). If he wasnt English nobody would be making all these comments imho.

I never said he was any good. But English players are way overpriced which we all know, and if we were to sell him im confident we would be getting at least £10m rather than letting him go for nothing.