⚽ Football (Soccer)

[blueharvest]

 

[B]

Have to say again, I'm very happy we signed him rather than paying presumably a similar fee, if not more, on Martinez who we already know has an element of eccentricity about him that has seen him make quite a lot of errors at Villa. That's not even considering his wages which I'm sure would have been a high ask also.

If Lammens comes in & doesn't work out, he at least wasn't a massive fee & his wages will be on the more reasonable side which will make moving him on easier. Obviously I hope he comes in & shows enough promise to overlook any deficiencies he might have while he develops, the bar is extremely low for him to be an improvement. Onana & Bayinder are making an error (or more) per game so far this season, all he has to do is limit errors to every other game & he'll look like a prime van der Sar.

I read the news about Onana coming back after the vacation wanting a new contract and a pay rise and I almost spit my water out. Honestly if there's any club in the world where you could be terrible and then have the audacity to ask for more money - and potentially get your way, it would be Man Utd.

Maybe they could have made it an incentives contract - more money for more shots saved, that kind of thing.

I literally just read this myself & hopped on here to see if anyone had mentioned it.

This is likely one of the reasons that explains why Amorim effectively has dropped him even though Bayinder has shown himself to be no more reliable. The balls on Onana to ask for a pay rise & new contract.. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall listening to what Amorim's reaction was to this request because I can only imagine what Sir Alex Ferguson's reaction would have been & I imagine it would have been a blunt response riddled with profanity about how **** he's been.

Since he's joined 2 years ago, in the Premier League, he's made the most errors leading to goals (for a GK) & likewise I believe he also leads the tally for errors leading to shots (again, for a GK). This isn't even counting CL, EL, FA Cup or LC errors of which I can think of another 4 or 5 just from memory.

Hope a Saudi club offers for him & takes him off our hands before their window closes, absolute clown.

 

[blueharvest]

 

[BlackFox]

Kind of feels like City have got a better keeper than us without even trying to think about it too much, we seem to be going for future potential though so I guess you cant have it all ways.
Vardy to Italy is so random

 

[Hunter Rider]

Glad the Lammens deal has went across the line, much prefer the potential of signing him than signing Martinez who is a ****house AND he's not far off being as blunder happy as our current dynamic duo of goalkeepers.

Sancho's been a crazy disappointment. Even after the Dortmund loan I'd have taken him back for a second (or third? I've lost count) chance at that point as I do like the intelligence of his game in comparison to the brainless style of Garnacho/Rashford displayed at times, but after the Chelsea loan with some of his snide digs on social media to the club & his general reluctance to make any sort of move happen for himself this window despite the club being willing to take a massive lose on him.. it's crazy disappointing to see the decisions he's made that have led him to seemingly Villa on loan & probably released on a free next summer.

Antony, don't hate him, we've sold him for a **** deal & I doubt Betis are that poor. Even if they are, there should have been incentives thrown in there that, if completed, would give them a few years before they'd have to pay them out to get the deal closer to £30m.
I'd be amazed if we saw anything substantial on that 50% sell on clause.

Garnacho was another **** deal. £40m + 10% sell on fee, crazy low. Chelsea have pulled our pants down with that one, particularly the sell on fee. Even if he under performs, could quite easily see Chelsea still being able to flog him for £60m+ making themselves a tidy profit.

Unfortunately Sancho is a complete waster, he lacked some of the physical attributes that make it easier to adapt to the PL, but that never stopped players like Silva and Modric, you need dedication and drive though, and Sancho has none of those qualities, he's happy to sit around and collect the cheque, if he'd had anything about him he'd have accepted the lower wage offer from Chelsea and been part of a team that has potential to actually win things.

Garnacho and Antony made things incredibly difficult because we had good offers from other clubs but both were hellbent on only going to Chelsea and Betis respectively, otherwise they'd have been out earlier in the window, and for more money. In the case of Antony I feel we were hamstrung by the fact Woodward and Co signed him for a ludicrous fee and put him on huge wages that were way above his talent level, so in the end we sold him for enough to cover the book value that was left after amortisation, and I'm glad we held firm on not giving him the £4M payoff. With Garnacho we could have stuck him in the reserves as his wages were low, but I guess we just wanted to remove the last of the entitled toxins from the club. I think we should have gotten at least what Arsenal paid for Madueke, and a 50% sell on clause like with Antony, but when you're dealing with unprofessional players, it's difficult, I mean look at Hojlund, acted like a total professional and in the end well end up getting more for him.

I read the news about Onana coming back after the vacation wanting a new contract and a pay rise and I almost spit my water out. Honestly if there's any club in the world where you could be terrible and then have the audacity to ask for more money - and potentially get your way, it would be Man Utd.

Maybe they could have made it an incentives contract - more money for more shots saved, that kind of thing.

With a contract stipulation like that he'll end up owing the club money by the end of the season!

Good signing for Inter.

Have to say again, I'm very happy we signed him rather than paying presumably a similar fee, if not more, on Martinez who we already know has an element of eccentricity about him that has seen him make quite a lot of errors at Villa. That's not even considering his wages which I'm sure would have been a high ask also.

If Lammens comes in & doesn't work out, he at least wasn't a massive fee & his wages will be on the more reasonable side which will make moving him on easier. Obviously I hope he comes in & shows enough promise to overlook any deficiencies he might have while he develops, the bar is extremely low for him to be an improvement. Onana & Bayinder are making an error (or more) per game so far this season, all he has to do is limit errors to every other game & he'll look like a prime van der Sar.

I have zero basis for this, but I've got a good feeling about Lammens, I just think he's going to turn out a good signing for us. Obviously he'll need some patience, but people keep talking about pressure and I don't think it's that big, because as you say, he merely needs to be competent at the basics and he'll already be an improvement on the 2 current keepers.

It seems they probably won't start him in the derby, which I think is a mistake, trust him from the start, City haven't started the season well, don't give them a goal headstart by putting Byandir or Onana in net.

Hmmmm Donnarumma is a bit like Haaland, in that they don't really feel like Guardiola players, in terms of how he wants his team to play.

Kind of feels like City have got a better keeper than us without even trying to think about it too much, we seem to be going for future potential though so I guess you cant have it all ways.
Vardy to Italy is so random

It's certainly a bold move for him at this stage of his career, but I year in Italy should be nice!

 

[Hunter Rider]

Gotta feel for Guehi, he behaves as a complete professional and misses out on his big move, but Isak and Wissa acted like entitled, petulant little *****es, and they get their moves.


If there's any truth in this below piece, then the delusion at the club is scary.







Evra sums up everything I've been saying for years about Bruno.

 

[BlackFox]

If there's any truth in this below piece, then the delusion at the club is scary.

Considering we clearly wanted Baleba for long periods of the window I dont completely believe this, its one of this things you put out there to try and big up the midfielders we have to make do with now this season, even though we probably tried to move a couple on to Suadi and get in Baleba but it never materialized. Propaganda from the club and spin it smells like.

If we didnt get Lammens they would have said the same about the keepers, lol.

 

[Zantera]

The thing with Guehi though is he is in his final 12 months so this deal falling through, while disappointing probably shouldn't have that big of an impact on him?

He'll be the starter for a good PL team with European football leading up to the world cup and had he jumped to Liverpool he would have faced limited gametime this season because VVD/Konate are still there. But this doesn't stop Liverpool from trying again in January, OR signing him for free next summer. Konate looks to be leaving and VVD is pushing the age and will probably start declining. So Liverpool will still be after CBs because they have a need to fill that position, and Guehi will still be a prime candidate to be signed.

The way players like Isak and Wissa have behaved this window just makes you lose faith in humanity but it is a fair point that it goes both ways. Hojlund seemingly wanted to stay and fight for his place with us and he was pushed out the door. It's quite rare that players are rewarded for loyalty but they're quick to be put on the chopping block. Maybe more players should start putting release clauses if the clubs fail to hit certain "promises" rather than throw out their toys when they want to leave.

 

[B]

Gotta feel for Guehi, he behaves as a complete professional and misses out on his big move, but Isak and Wissa acted like entitled, petulant little *****es, and they get their moves.


If there's any truth in this below piece, then the delusion at the club is scary.

Generally I think there's no smoke without fire so I'd reject this report completely. There's no way we've been in direct talks with a couple of clubs for midfielders not to mention the amount of links we've had to others.

Now I can believe it was lower on the priority list, I can 100% believe that judging by how we clearly made a conscious effort to improve our forwards with how many we targeted. I can believe it was probably on par with the goalkeeper need, when it was clear we couldn't get our midfield targets for whatever reason, GK then became the next choice.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Generally I think there's no smoke without fire so I'd reject this report completely. There's no way we've been in direct talks with a couple of clubs for midfielders not to mention the amount of links we've had to others.

Now I can believe it was lower on the priority list, I can 100% believe that judging by how we clearly made a conscious effort to improve our forwards with how many we targeted. I can believe it was probably on par with the goalkeeper need, when it was clear we couldn't get our midfield targets for whatever reason, GK then became the next choice.

What I'm suspicious of is we made contact about Baleba directly after we signed Sesko, we must have known the fee would be huge as Brighton are transfer extortionists, yet we then pulled out and had zero other options? The Baleba link felt like fan service, as there are other midfielders out there with the same skillsets, like Elliot Anderson and Hugo Larsson, and yet we went from Baleba, to apparently trying to loan Connor Gallagher on deadline day.

It being a lower priority is also a worry, we've botched and underappreciated midfield for ages and now we're going into a season with arguably the worst midfield United have had in my lifetime. I hope we go for a CM in January, I don't think the likes of Baleba, Anderson, Wharton, Larsson and Stiller will be available, but I'd like to see us go for Bouaddi from Lille, he's the Leny Yoro of young midfield talents Imo, he's not 18 until October but he's already starting week in and week out for Lille in Ligue 1.

 

[Zantera]

I don't see it happening to this extreme but I'd kinda like for us to fully revamp our midfield next summer. Casemiro is going, I would say unless he has a shockingly good season also get Ugarte out. I would get Bruno out but I don't see it happening. Get like 2 great CM signings but also add a third who is someone like Bouaddi who will get minutes but wont have to be a starter week in week out so fans can turn on them after 2 bad games.

 

[Hunter Rider]

I don't see it happening to this extreme but I'd kinda like for us to fully revamp our midfield next summer. Casemiro is going, I would say unless he has a shockingly good season also get Ugarte out. I would get Bruno out but I don't see it happening. Get like 2 great CM signings but also add a third who is someone like Bouaddi who will get minutes but wont have to be a starter week in week out so fans can turn on them after 2 bad games.

That's exactly what should happen, like this summer we moved Rashford, Garnacho and Hojlund on and bought 3 forwards, next summer should be Casemiro, Ugarte and Bruno out and 3 midfielders brought in. Like you Bouaddi would be the young talent option, and then a more experienced #6 and #8.

One each from these options:

#6 - Stiller/Wharton
#8 - Anderson/Baleba/Larsson

 

[BlackFox]

Andre Onana transfer: Man Utd goalkeeper considers Trabzonspor loan move

 

[blueharvest]

 

[Hunter Rider]

Andre Onana transfer: Man Utd goalkeeper considers Trabzonspor loan move

 

[B]

 

[BlackFox]

Its for the best all round, at least he wont even be an option this season although he will be back at the end of it still with no buy option but lets worry about that at the time.

Amorim is pinning all his hopes now on this new guy working out, who is unproven and has no Prem experience but at least he will live and die by his man and not Onana who clearly is not going to work out for us.

I hope Onana does ok, I dont put him on the same list as Sancho and Garnacho who seem to enjoy hating on the club but its best all round he is gone for now as it just wasn't working and he seemed to really struggle with the basics of keeping in English football. Perhaps Turkey will be better for him with less scrutiny and expectation.

 

[blueharvest]

 

[BlackFox]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c2en2xnpvlno

First Prem manager of the season goes...

 

[B]

Chelsea charges: FA hand Blues 74 charges relating to agent regulations and third-party investment in players

 

[blueharvest]

 

[Zantera]

This game played out pretty much like I feared it would. We look OK for parts of the game but we're way too easy to score goals on and we struggle a lot to score goals ourselves. A few decent chances but it looked like our players were wearing slippers. I'm also worried that Sesko will become the new Hojlund in the sense that he has nothing to work with, very little support in terms of passes and he spends most game making runs where nobody will try and find him.

Chelsea next up and it's not getting any easier. I could see Amorim being out by the next international break unless something big happens. I think the club will look at someone like Glasner. He has done wonders at Palace and has an expiring contract. He's also playing the same formation as us, yet the difference between them and us is night and day. Could see the club thinking of him as a solid choice rather than going back to square one with a 4-3-3 manager and having to sell off / change the squad again.

 

[BlackFox]

Very poor today against an average City side, we made it so easy for them in the end and third goal was comical in the end and summed us up when things start to go wrong.

The players dont really seem to understand or believe in the system or are just not good enough to execute the managers plan. Something needs to change and at the moment its hard to see it being anything other than Amorim if these results dont improve but with Chelsea and Liverpool coming up soon that might be that for him as we will likely be very close to the bottom end of the table for a while after those games take their toll. Things are looking bleak for him but he wont get any special treatment at the end of the day results will get him sacked like everyone else and our hand will be forced.

 

[Zantera]

A lot of the discussion gets bogged down in the formation but for me Keane said it best yesterday when he pointed out there were 0 yellow cards in a derby game. There's just no fighting mentality in this team and when players fail to get the basics right it makes me worried.

 

[B]

For me, the formation or system talk particularly after a game like yesterday is largely a moot. The biggest sort of issue we had was they constantly outnumbered us in the middle with Rodri, Foden & Reijenders playing against Fernandes & Ugarte. We looked stronger when Mainoo was brought on & Fernandes was pushed higher as he naturally was dropping to help out giving us 3v3 but by that point it was 2-0 & City were largely playing on the break to create holes in behind.

We had opportunities & we got into positions several times to create further, lacking a final ball or being clinical in front of goal. Which has been the story of our last 2 seasons.

This is the same as when OGS was manager with the majority of fans having an overreaction to wins except now it seems like theres an overreaction to any sort of a result.

These next 3 games will be huge, we need to start getting results, otherwise I fear Amorim will be gone.. and all in all I actually like Amorim.