Manchester, welcome to Zlatan - The Zlatan Ibrahimović Thread

@Ashur How old are you?

 

That's a harsh comment given the market at the time.

 

Just wondering. I thought you were a bit older that's all.

 

Signings are relative to the best in that generation, not best available in a particular window.

 

Ya old.

 

Zlatan no doubt wants to be part of a deep CL run that has us with an outside chance of making the CL final. We'd need to luck to get there but luck has happened before to clubs who've made it to the CL final.

Once our CL run is done I suspect Ibra goes to MLS.

 

Astroturf and extensive air travel. Just what the body needs after a serious knee injury.

 

I don't see Ibra lowering himself to those levels. I think he'll quit whilst at the top .

 

He would have quit after his 1st year in PSG if that was the case. He lowered himself to that standard, he might as well do it again, for another pay check.

 

Astroturf is a thing of the past, even in baseball. And the air travel in the US isn't as bad you think. You get used to it pretty quickly.

The rumor of the hour is that Ibra is going to LA Galaxy. We'll see. After a long career and more wealth than he can possibly imagine ever spending, it's a fair question to ask why he'd bother with more of this. All I can say is that for most futbolistas it's really not about the money, but the rush of competition and, perhaps in his case, being in the spotlight. And Ibra would absolutely be in the spotlight were he to go to MLS, especially LA Galaxy.

 

Anyone who thinks Ibra is too much of a "competitor" to take a payday in the MLS is

A. Naive
B. Forgetting that he went to PSG when they were a nothing French team with new money and got a huge pay bump.

 

We shall soon see ...,

 

I was really referring to artificial surfaces and my point was informed by recent testimony of players who have been in MLS.

Several - Steven Gerrard for example - have commented on how they just weren't prepared for the toll that the extensive travel took on them.

Likewise, Thierry Henry often sat out games on artificial surfaces because playing on them aggravated his knees. These surfaces are the norm in NFL venues and a number of teams (Seattle and Atlanta for example) still play in them.

 

But several European players have adapted quite well to the various surfaces used in North America. And it's not just the surface...we have more extreme weather in North America, including the brutally hot and humid summers on the east coast. I'm looking forward to see how soccer (since we're talking MLS) players handle the insane heat and humidity in Miami from June to September. Some foreign players handle our extreme weather just fine and some don't.

Ibra loves the spotlight so my guess is that he'll go to MLS for a season or two. But I agree with those here who would urge to hang up his boots and not lower himself to an MLS club. He's not the player he once was, soccer is still the fourth (maybe fifth) most popular sport in North America and whatever wealth he would gain from the experience would hardly make a dent on his net worth. He could instead begin working on his coaching badges. And why not? If Zidane can carve a success managerial career, so can Ibra. Maybe apples and oranges, but Ibra has a winning mentality that I think he can instill in footballers.

 

Probably bollox as usual .... can't believe the nonsense these idiots in the media make up all the time ..

 

I hope it's true. He needs to go. The odds of him returning to a level that would help us is slim and he wants too much money for what he is now.

 

Based on MLS roster and cap rules, it wouldn't be much. Our designated player slots are all taken (the Dos Santos brothers - seriously, anyone who laments us signing Lukaku should watch Gio for the Galaxy - and Romain Alessandrini) which would mean he'd be on the roster maximum (a bit over $500k per year) plus whatever we can fudge out of the other mechanisms.

The rumor actually suggested that this is what was planned, which gave the rumor more credence because most fluff reports don't even consider those aspects.

However, it was still a hell of a stretch. I mean, we just spent a lot of money and cap-space getting Ola Kamara and in MLS, those roster rules mean you don't do that with depth - which he'd presumably be if Zlatan was in-house.

 

Thanks for the info...I don't follow MLS financials very closely. It would be all about wringing out another year or two in the spotlight. My hunch is that he'd take a pass on an MLS club anyway. The glory he seeks is that of a CL trophy. And if that eludes him, which it probably will this season, I suspect he'll hang it up once and for all and go into managing. Maybe assistant manager for Mourinho for a season or two?

 

I could see him enjoying the lifestyle and doing a bit of showboating for a couple of years.