The Manchester United Thread XIX

find me 5 better players in his age group xx

Ribery, Robben, Torres, Van Persie, Cech, Lahm, Yaya, Tevez all within a year of him xx



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They aren't entirely useless, they just need to be used with some subtlety, taking into account the particular circumstances being examined.

Thats equally true for 'attacking' statistics as well though.

You've used them before to argue that Sterling puts as much defensive contribution as Hazard does

Posted from TSR Mobile

I'm pretty sure there are better things we could spend £140mil on, than go on a rabbit chase for Neymar.

Defensive stats used in isolation and in the wrong hands can be damaging, but when you start controlling for set piece positioning, role within team, style of play of team and look at the individual circumstances where the stats are coming from (i.e. looking at the individual tackles, interceptions etc, and the situations surrounding them) then they become relevant as supporting evidence.

That's the amount of his release clause so it wouldn't be a rabbit chase as they'd have to accept it.

On the other hand Neymar would never want to move from Barcelona to Manchester United unless we turned into an elite force.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35227015

Hainer said: "We sell more jerseys than expected, the foreign share is 60%. We are satisfied, even if the actual way of playing of United is not exactly what we want to see."

How long can Man Utd not be a winning force before the foreign fans all start to become Man City/Chelsea fans?

I imagine that Chinese deal that the Man City owners signed could mean that most Chinese fans will become blue in the next 5 years?

Spanish release clauses don't work the same way, there's rarely any legal basis to them - they're just nominal amounts (that's why they're set at ridiculous numbers usually, even though Neymar's isn't ridiculous). Dunno if Neymar's is an exception but I doubt it, if it's in the media.

Its already happening - see it every day in the students I work with.

Fans respect united, liverpool and arsenal.. but support the team that is winning now.

Amazing how many chinese fans of the german national team there are now.. will all be 'x-winning country' in 4 years times, and will buy a hell of a lot of merch for what ever that team is.

Not just a united problem though - the whole prem is suffering in the east, due to our teams being seen as inferior to the Spanish giants/bayern.

Its still a growing market for football clubs, so I imagine there is no actual drop in sales, but rather a slow-down in growth, compared to what is happening for spanish clubs/bayern

Yea the support for Real Madrid/Barcelona/Bayern Munich must be huge these days.

True - we're probably looking for a Man City CL win before people really start to take notice of them.

You'd imagine a fall in popularity would hurt Man Utd the most though? Since that is where you generate the most cash. Man City just have their artificial deals with Etihad, Arsenal have never been that popular abroad and Chelsea have fingers in all pies these days too.

Your right, if things keep going on this trend, it will be united who feel it..

All those noodle sponsers may dry up!

I thought in Spain every footballer contract was required to have a release clause? That's why most are ridiculously high since the clubs don't want the release clauses to actually be triggered.

If Neymar's release clause is 140mil (which would be approx 190mil/200mil euros) then it basically is ridiculously high (Bale's transfer was the most expensive at £86mil/100mil euros).

Anyway while Barcelona wouldn't be able to do anything (other than take the money) if Man Utd made such an offer, it would be up to Neymar to decide if he wants to move or not. Can't be many players who would give up a starring role next to Messi/Suarez even if he was to get 300-500k a week.

I thought in Spain every footballer contract was required to have a release clause? That's why most are ridiculously high since the clubs don't want the release clauses to actually be triggered.

If Neymar's release clause is 140mil (which would be approx 190mil/200mil euros) then it basically is ridiculously high (Bale's transfer was the most expensive at £86mil/100mil euros).

Anyway while Barcelona wouldn't be able to do anything (other than take the money) if Man Utd made such an offer, it would be up to Neymar to decide if he wants to move or not. Can't be many players who would give up a starring role next to Messi/Suarez even if he was to get 300-500k a week.

They are, but it's a lot more complicated than just offering X amount and the club having to accept. To my knowledge the clause actually has to be paid by the player themselves (like when Herrera joined United IIRC) and the Spanish government take a heavy fee in tax. I think it's particularly problematic when a player is moving abroad from a Spanish club.

When Costa joined Chelsea e.g. his release clause was £32m but the clubs agreed on a fee of slightly less to prevent complications and Atletico losing out to the tax man.

Every contract has a release clause but the application of them is different when it comes to foreign purchasing clubs, and they're rarely triggered in Spain between clubs anyway. The legality and procedures are pretty weird, and in reality they usually just exist as nominal, irrelevant amounts. As a result, Barca aren't obligated to sell to a foreign club if there is the usual Spanish-law-dictated 'release clause' in Neymar's contract. If there's a separate, more watertight clause then maybe, but like I mentioned before, it's a maybe. It's a bit too technical and vague for non-Spanish speakers like me to bother with full understanding but in essence, there is little chance of Barca being obligated to sell if United do meet some release clause figure.

If 27 year old Suarez was slightly underpriced at 65-75m then Neymar, who is just turning 24, is worth £140m. Neymar is comfortably a better deal at £140m than Bale was at £86m. Without a shadow of a doubt.

And by ridiculously high, I was referring to £100m clauses on the likes of Sanchez and Fabregas iirc, and £750m on Ronaldo.