Agree to disagree - you rate Rabiot, I think he is an over-rated trouble-maker when we should be recruiting far better, proven and more suitable options.
Manchester United have made a surprise enquiry about former Manchester City winger Leroy Sane’s availability as boss Erik ten Hag continues to assess his attacking options. Sane hasn’t had the smoothest of times since returning to Germany in 2020 to join Bayern Munich. And the arrival this summer of Sadio Mane from Liverpool has raised questions about how much playing time he will get this season.
Why are we going for average players in their late 20's? If we cant land our first choice targets, at least go for some younger guys with upside. We're going for guys that arent good enough in their prime and will be starting their decline soon making them less effective and harder to move/recoup fees. Its shit planning 101.
We definitely should aim much higher. I dont rate him like that. He's an upgrade. Were desperate. We lack numbers and quality. Rabiot is better than all our CMs as far as ability. (Im counting Eriksen as an attacker). He is a prick/not the personality we need. But...
Fabian Ruiz is a comparable level of quality. I would take him, but thats dead. Don't want Tielemans. Would take Neves. That would be a minimum of £50mil
Jesus. This team... I thought being a Pittsburgh Pirates fan was difficult. Picked the worst time possible to start following this team 10 years ago. Just been utter shite and pathetic the entire time I've followed. I'm sorry folks. It's my fault.
We are such mugs … What is most incredible about Manchester United signing Rabiot for 18m€,it’s that aside his poor performances, his contract is expiring next season.Having second highest Serie A wages at 9m€, Juventus would have pay to get rid of him.And they are getting 18m€…— Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) August 8, 2022
amazing how we magically gain the ability to do deals quickly in crisis - whether time or results or both. de Jong will go until next summer at least as all main expensive targets have in recent history - Maguire, Fernandes, Sancho etc. probably only going to go from €65m + €20m to €65m + €10m too also looks like the board didn't even bother to wait until season 2 to overrule the manager for transfers
It would have been better use of money to just pay the extra 17m for de Jong back in June Now the first weeks of the season will be wasted without owning the key player(s) who will be in your midfield
I also wonder if the negotiators just assumed de Jong would force his way out? Can they have miscalculated that he doesn't want to come to Utd except as his last resort?
well did they even have conversations with him or his camp? can't imagine playing CB sporadically off the bench will help him make the WC squad. maybe he's just stuck with 2 shit choices now
From what I’ve read it’s about him being lazy and generally thinking he’s a star and should get huge wages and all that. Also, his agent (mother) is notorious hard to deal with and insists in being involved in everything.
So the ticks all the boxes of a perfect post-Fergie player then: aging, high wages, nobody else wants him, troublesome agent, primadonna.
SMS makes more sense if you’re looking for an 8 to get McT out of this side forever, without losing the height & physicality. I haven’t watched him much since his breakout year but his technical ability is something we need across the team if we want to cut through teams more regularly. If it was a choice between Rabiot & De Jong or SMS and some other 6, I’d still go with the former. But it’s just impossible to know what the plan is with the midfield right now. I wonder what happened to Rabiot’s PSG form at Juve, how much of it is league quality and how much is team instruction/failure to adapt. Also, 6’7” Kalajdzic & 6’3” SMS side by side in the box for crosses, with a backline of Malacia, Lisandro & eventually Timber? So does height matter or not??