The Manchester United Thread XIII

Lallana is only being bought because he's english tbh. He's a good player but if I'm being honest I think Coutinho has more potential. Lallana is doing well at a club because of continuity and tactics I feel. He's being bought for squad depth and he's English.

He's going to have an average world cup.

Shaw would be a great signing. He has 15 years in him, he is already one of the best LB's in the country and he's English.

I'm more than happy to pay 25-30m.

.

Lallana is only being bought because he's english tbh. He's a good player but if I'm being honest I think Coutinho has more potential. Lallana is doing well at a club because of continuity and tactics I feel. He's being bought for squad depth and he's English. He's going to have an average world cup.

A Couple of things I want to pick you up on.


A dig at our tactics Jammy?

People also have an annoying habit of underestimating how old players like Lallana are. He's 26 so I doubt he's going to blossom into a top top player at this stage.

Arsenal for instance are probably going to sign Aurier at RB who is 21, in the Ligue 1 team of the year and is probably every bit as good as Shaw. Transfer fee: £6m. Then look at other £6m wing backs like Azpi, Zabaleta, Sagna, Evra etc and it just doesn't make any sense to pay £30m for Shaw imo.

That's depressing for us and I take your point. How we could do with another Vidic and Evra double, that was a terrific window. Although you bought Andre Santos for 6M and he wasn't fit to clean Shaw's boots. Only points he ever secured were on his driving license.

No point buying English players, either develop them yourself or bring them in when they're 17 and take a chance before the hype gets out of control.

Well you can always get it wrong in fairness, but for £30m, you'd have 5 whacks at £6m fullbacks and odds are you'll get an Evra or an Azpi well before then. There are loads of talented continental WBs out there, seems eminently more sensible to find them then just throwing £30m on Shaw because he's English.

Santos was actually one of the best attacking fullbacks I've ever seen tbf, but defensively the guy couldnt have cared less

This essentially especially with defenders.

In fact Gary Cahill was 7M and his contract expired in the summer, surely just wait for their contract to expire, tap them up 2 years before their contract expires and then force the selling club to sell them for cheap.

English players should just be developed or done in exchange deals/wait for contract to expire. Only team that's really got bargains for top level english players have been Chelsea.

Yea Chelsea have done well from buying English players. In particular, Ashley Cole was an absolute steal for £5m + Gallas, but at the time Gallas was rated at about £15m IIRC so wasnt as had at the time. Lampard, Cahill, J.Cole etc all brilliant business too.

Everton have done well with the likes of Baines, Jageilka, Stones and on the other side receiving ridiculous transfer fees for Rodwell, Lescott etc.

I dont think Arsenal have done so badly either in sniffing out the lower league British players and steaming in before they took off. Ramsey for £5m, Walcott for £9m and AOC for £12m, Jenkinson £1m were smart moves. As I say, this is the only way to acquire talented English youngsters these days.

The two worst for blowing the farm on hyped up Englishmen are LFC and WHU, the penny never seems to drop for these two.

I'm not convinced that Gibbs, Azpilicueta or Ashley Cole have been better players than Luke Shaw this season. As I said he's in the PL team for a reason. But I suppose its different in a sense that they are 24 and he's 18. What do other think, who was the best LB in the Prem this year?

Which Moreno do you mean, the one at Sevilla or the one at Benfica? I'm not overly familiar with either.

Again, I'm just not sure Cabaye is quite good enough. And he really excelled in the #10 role towards the end, which we have in abundance. I'm talking about players on that next level. Cabaye was deemed not good enough by the Manchester United hierarchy, and I accept that.

Smalling isn't bad at CB and if he plays there, am sure he'll do a decent job but it's only when he plays at RB that he struggles. Johnson is in the squad, no Walker so imagine that Smalling/Jones will be RB cover - both whose crossing is woeful.

If Rooney has a poor WC - which is plausible - then I think he should retire from internationals. Compared to other players, I don't really feel he's going to get better with age and I'd rather he used the spare time resting and with Barkley, Sterling, Strurridge a potential front three, then Rooney just doesn't have that appeal if he doesn't do well.