Skint: The Manchester United Transfer Thread [R]

He 27, I honestly rather Mario Balotelli

 

I thought he would be around 23-24 but he is actually 27 yrs old. Havent seen much of him but he seems decent(youtube ).

We always get linked with strikers from serie A. But have ended up getting none of them.

 

It really depends. Balotelli is one for the future. I've see him play a bit and he's gonna be class, but will he really be able to make an impact in his first season here?

I feel we need someone who can step in right now (next season) and give us the Plan B that some people talk about or just slot into part of our Part A. He's got the technical ability to play with our slick passing, and hes very good in the air.

 

I don't know. I am all about the future. I think Manchester United's current striker situation is fine for the remainder of the season. Rooney, Saha, Tevez and Ronaldo seems to rotate in and out of that "area" lately. Next year Manucho might get in as well....

Mario it is.

 

You think our striker situation is fine? Rooney is suspended, Tevez is in need of a rest, Saha is never healthy, might as well take his make from the official roster, and Ronaldo isnt a 9.

We are desperately in need of another 9. I would even bring back Henrik Larsson. Thats how desperate I am.

 

There are rumours that Chelsea had a £20 million bid rejected. Having said that, we probably wont get him even if we were interested.

 

How has Mario Gomez been performing so far this season?

 

great player, wish we can bring him here, he s the one who is relatively cheap but extremely good

 

I dunno about cheap. He's one of the brightest young players in the world. I'm thinking he would cost 13+, but he would be a very good signing.

 

I thought he broke his leg, or had some long term injury. Not sure though.

 

how much did we pay for ruud , and mario is 21 years old , so he s young and proven , and i dont think he minds being after rooney or tevez in the pecking order ...

 

We paid £19.1 million.

 

I would pay 20m for Gomez. Very athletic, good finisher and will not mind being slowly introduced to the team.

I doubt we'll go for him.

 

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11667_3105399,00.html

Bosingwa's name keeps poppingup.

 

he s my number one, honestly, he can make an impact, i hope fergie sees him as a third striker, but i dont think he ll go for a german player, when was the last time we had a german player.....

 

It all depends on how we want to play. Generally speaking there are three options.

(1) Defensive full-back - The advantage to this is that it enables Ronaldo to have more freedom to attack because having someone who will stay behind him limits the potential of an opposition break down that flank. The obvious disadvantage is that we would lack anything from an attacking sense down the entire flank outside of crosses from deep, particularly as Ronaldo would not stick to the wing.

(2) Attacking full-back - A right-sided Evra will obviously cause a lot of problems for the opposition because it would provide penetration, width, interlinked passing and crossing from the byline. It also adds another player for the opposition to track which leaves more space for our attacking players to operate. The disadvatage is that it leaves a big gap that could be exploited on the break, particularly if our full-back is on the byline and Ronaldo has cut inside. One of our central midfielders (read Hargreaves) could cover the gap but Evra creates the same problem on the opposite flank and it makes little sense to lose two players from the attacking side of our game just to cover space.

(3) The all-rounder - Jack of all trades... It gives us the option to alter our style of play depending on the situation but we obviously lose a bit at both ends of the park unless we go for top tier player.



Given the names we have seen mentioned thus far the obvious choice is Phillip Lahm. He's only 24 years old, a proven player at international and club level, can play either flank and is one of the best full-backs in the game today. He is (was) looking to leave Bayern Munich and is out of contract in 2009. Considering the price quoted for several other options it would be stupid to not even attempt to make a move for Lahm providing he wants to start on the right. The potential is there to get him for a reasonable price in the summer but even if we need to pay his full valuation he would still be move than worth it and a far better option than what we have been looking at thus far.

The only thing that complicates things is Simpson and the lesser known Brazilian twin. If we rate either of them highly then it makes little sense to block their route into the first team by signing Lahm. Instead we should be targeting an older player who can be used as a short/mid-term option. Funnily enough the best option in that situation is another Bayern Munich player and he is Willy Sagnol. He also wants to leave the club and while he would be 31 years old in March and was injured he's still one of, if not the best, right-back in the business.

Obviously everything depends on Neville.

 

Lahm as first choice target

Bosingwa as second.

If you get Lahm that would be a superb catch!

Very versatile as well.

 

Lahm wants out of Bayern? Any reason why?

 

The English sources got the translation wrong.

All he said was "In the next months I and my agent will discuss a contract extension with Bayern. I haven't talked to any other club and don't intend to do so. My aim is to play for a club that can realistically win the CL every year. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Milan and Chelsea can offer me that but Bayern are on the right path to close the gap to those clubs."

He prefers to play RB like he does for Germany but Sagnol just recently stated he will probably finish his career at Bayern in a couple of years.

 

Why do you guys want Lahm? I thought you already had a RB coming through in addition to those brazilian twins.

You have to give him a chance before you already "replace" him. Lahm isn't a stop gap kind of player, he will essentially keep out any of your young full backs for a good 6+ years.

Most kids aren't going to look like world beaters just yet, and it might seem like you are throwing them into a situation that looks beyond them. but is the best way to top off their development. Give them an extended run, and if they aren't showing much promise then give the next kid in a line a chance.

 

As much as I would love for that to happen, you have to get 90 points in a season if you want to win the league which means even prodigies like Rossi would get sacrificed for someone who is at a higher level of development currently.