CR7 has not been beating defenders from flank for years. As for Bale, lolz. Given offensive fullbacks under Zizu, opting to play with striker and secondary striker, i don`t see what exactly is so surprising with such lineup. Not to mention Hazard is highly dynamic in his positioning and likes to drift substantially.
I edited my post above. I added another fact, we don't share a great relationship with Raiola at all. Imagine the situation. He's the great friend of Juve, and made them bleed for De Ligt, yet some are hoping this madman that is neutral to us at best will do us a favor.
I don't see us paying 200 ME. Maximum around 170 M(150 MP). They have deluded fans who think Pogba, Bruno, Savic midfield is affordable and will work. I am not talking about such people. If they spend 160-170 ME on two midfielders on top of 80 ME CB, 60 ME RB and James for 15-20 ME, Pogba is getting sold for sure. Glazers taking over a billion out of the club is a fact. Not just fan whining. And except for 2-3 years since 2005, they have had lesser revenue than RM. The Glazers’ takeover has drained more than £1bn out of United since 2005, not too far off the amount Sheikh Mansour has invested into City https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/oct/04/glazers-manchester-united
My point was that using "their fans" as argument is not great at all because you can also find some of "their fans" arguments that go the other way. We can't pick what is good for or agenda, and ignore the rest. I don't think we will pay 200ME, but even 170ME would be the third biggest transfer in football history, and TBH, you won't find anyone in France that think he deserves that.
170ME + 20ME Raiola fee You can include me in the insufferable people I described above if we pay that for Pogba.
They were at one point the best wingers in the world precisely because they could beat players with speed alone. There was a time Benz would have also been a deadly winger, but that time is long gone. Like the other two he has slowed down enough that he's easily contained on the wing and he does his best work in the box. A wingerless formation will render Vincius and Rodrygo null and void. I'm not sure I like the idea of choosing to set the team up for a 31 y/o Benzema when it will so clearly disadvantage a 100ME worth of teenagers.
Ok I should have mentioned 1 billion drained without mentioning fans being concerned since you like to nitpick everything. Hope that confusion is over since I gave The Guardian link.
I though Saeta has included Fat ******** fee in that 170M. Nearly 200M. Absolutely insane. The only way i consider that is United agrees to take Bale off our hands. For like 60M+.
Sorry if I sounded like a prick. That was not what I meant. To me their fans are insane if you spend some time on Redcafe. If the Glazers start nitpicking about money, that's one more reason to believe they won't sell for cheap. I didn't say they will not sell. I believe they will. But I question this transfer if the club really really forks more than 150ME (without counting Raiola fee) in this.
Point being CR7 has not been that speedy winger under Zizu. We mostly played narrow with fullbacks providing width. I see two options. It is either Jović - striker, Benzema - supporting striker, Hazard - free role. Or Hazard LW, Benzema ST, Vin RW. The issue of the latter being we can easily go dry on goals.
Agent fees are separate for every transfer though. Hazard, Bale transfer fee alone was 100 ME. Juve paid Mendes 12 ME in agent fee on top of 105 ME transfer fee for Ron.
I think Flo will try his best as long as asking price doesn't go beyond 170 M. He wouldn't have waited this far with options like Eriksen available so early due to contract situation. Our net spent in last 5 summers is only around 30 M so we are in excellent financial condition. Pogba is one of those long drawn out Galactico transfers Flo likes and he does have marketing potential at RM. Also he wouldn't want to be seen failing to get another transfer from Utd after going all in post DDG saga. So he's either working on Eriksen deal by now behind the scenes or waiting for Pogba deal to be concluded. So far we have recouped around 130 ME selling players. I think the focus right now is selling James, Mariano, Lucas, Mayoral for 100 ME+. That'd mean net spent won't cross 250 ME even with Pogba.
I like Pogba, I’m very uneasy paying anything close to €170m for him though. I think the transfer either happens at a lower fee or it doesn’t happen at all.
Every one of these transfers have agent fees. It's disengenioous to only highlight the fees of the players and agents you don't like. We aren't spending €200M on Pogba. The only people spazzing out about this are people with agendas
Or maybe its precisely that other feasible options exists in Erikson and Lo Celso or even spending nothing and keeping James making Pogba's exorbitant fee easy to walk away from. Or maybe Flo has learned his lesson about overhyped and overpriced PL players. The DDG debacle turned out to be a blessing in disguise (Keylor turned up big time, DDG proved to be a choke artist and now we have Courtois).
1152303393253277703 is not a valid tweet id Who's willing to pay that number? I'm starting to think we should just do it. 120-130 would be more ideal.
Its a bit like not factoring in the warranty, tax, title and license (and loan interest) when buying a vehicle. Reasonable people factor in these other expenses as part of the "cost" even though they weren't on the MSRP, "sticker price." People who have their cars repossessed don't consider how they will pay for everything not painted on the windshield.
Zidane has insisted on Pogba and Flo is trying his best imo. Keeping James and not signing another midfielder is not an option with ZZ.
I'd take 150 ME given the market. Not many thought Hazard would cost 100 ME with his contract running out. When the likes of Savic costs 90 ME, can't expect Utd to sell Pogba for less than 150 ME. He's like the only world class player they have.
I refuse to believe Zidane is that dense. What's he going to do if in the end United refuse to sell and nobody buys James/Bale. He's really going to freeze out that kind of talent and risk everything should the team fall behind in the title race or find itself outmaneuvered after a first leg CL tie. If that's the case then I will totally be vindicated in my criticism. IMO, this is precisely the dilemma. United can't attract talent like Pogba at this point no matter how much they spend, essentially rendering him invaluable to them. They have to keep this project going as long as possible in the hopes that they can get back into title contention. They simply can't afford to rebuild the team before doing cosmetic work on their brand.