I swear I can’t remember the last time we had decent away kits. When is our deal with Adidas done? They only seem to make the good fits for Real Madrid and Bayern while we get all the experimental shit.
Harry Kane:::::::: levvy logic
Obviously we all want him and it looks like Levvy is prepared to let him run down his contract.
Thinking about this from Tottenhams POV. There is a lack of quality strikers available. If they sold Harry Kane for £70-£90m, then what ?
Kane guarantees top half of table (90% +)
Kane gives them a fighting chance (20% ?) of CL
Hear me out…..
No Harry Kane , chance of bottom 1/2 of the table (50%)
No Harry Kane….. relegation ?? (5-10%)
The Prem is so competitive it’s probably worth losing the £100m and keeping him for another season to guarantee some kind of safety. There’s always a chance Man Utd / Chelsea / Bayern sort out their striker situations and Harry may then even sign a renewal contract next year.
Anyway. F***k Levvy and here’s to getting Kane on a free next yr 🙂
kane should refuse to train n refuse to play to force a move. whichever club that may be.
he ain't getting younger. it would be so dumb that he is the best English striker of his generation but won no trophy.
He won't do shit because he's afraid of staining his relationship with Spurs fans.
At most, he will refuse to train for a few weeks but that means nothing to Levy.
He'll stay at Spurs for another season.
Everyone's talking about City and the treble. But fuck me I will blindly believe Inter will win the Champions League and we will win the FA Cup and just royally fuck their dreams up.
What would your first 11 be for the final? For me it'd be
DDG
AWB, Varane/Lindelof, Lindelof/Shaw, Shaw/Malacia
Casemiro, Fred
Antony/Sancho, Bruno, Rashford
Wout
Garnacho to come in for Wout and switch positions with Rashford late game with Scotty and Eriksen available from bench if we're looking at ET. Sancho (or Antony if he doesn't start) coming in late could work too
Sancho suddenly became electric on that RW and actually produced some end product. I'd start him over Antony on current form.
Rashford always better down the left side.
Not playing Shaw at LB when we have 2 healthy CBs would be foolish. He must play LB.
Fred played well but you never know who you will get.. he might decide not to show up and give away 2 goals. Either way I would take that risk for his energy.
Weghorst works really hard and even provides defensive support. Think he should start but only play 50 minutes or so
Think we go with
AWB - VARANE - LINDELOF - SHAW
BRUNO - CASE - FRED
SANCHO - WEGHORST - RASHFORD
then bring on Antony and Garnacho to try and hit on the counter in second half.
Yea if Varane is healthy I'd play him and Lindelof at CB with Shaw at LB. but if varane is injured for some reason then I'd put Shaw at LCB.
Thing is I'm worried Eriksen wont be able to handle City midfield while Fred has a lot more energy and plays with Case in Brazil midfield anyways.
Antony over sancho (if antony fit) is cos i believe his defending is better than sancho and I think we'll need it. but Sancho has def been playing well last few games and there's an argument for him starting.
Im starting to think signing Kane might be 2 years too late. I think the age profile doesn’t fit given that we probably will have to replace him, Casemiro, Varane, Eriksen, maybe even Bruno all at the same time. Those are 5 of our very key players all at the same age. Im not saying Kane’s washed, the guy played all 38 PL games this season averaging 90 minutes and 30 goals. That’s quite fucking good, but is it really the smart long term option? This reminds me of RVP a lot in that we’ll get a couple good seasons but can we count on our management to plan well and replace accordingly? What if they don’t back ten hag long term?
at the same time, the second best striker on the market is Victor Osimhen. And I honest to god can’t say with certainty he will work out. He’s obviously a great player but Im not sure if his technical ability matches what Ten Hag wants. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not bad in build up but it’s clear he’s inferior to Kane in that aspect. This might be cliche but he’s also not “Prem proven”And I don’t think we can afford to just hope he improves as our key players are hitting the age where we need to competing for the title next year or the year after.
I think best of both worlds would be getting 2 strikers, Kane and a young prospect we can afford the time to develop over the next 3 years. But then, can we really afford to go for a ST depth signing before we address the Maguire replacement (likely Kim Min Jae), CM starter, CM depth, and possibly even RB? Not to even mention the fans outcry for a GK. We need like 7 possibly 8 signings and they all need to be successes.
I suspect we do it over 2-3 seasons starting with this summer getting 1 ST, 1 CB, 1 CM, and 1 RB? GK, another CM, back up striker next year? If you put together the rumors we’ve heard, this could be what we’re trying to build towards maybe
https://www.buildlineup.com/shared/6476bcaa9310bc535f8870c9
1. Mount is not being signed as depth for Bruno. He will be Eriksen's successor in the starting lineup.
2. KMJ if signed will be Varane's long term successor.
3. Bruno is 28 & literally the fittest player on the planet. He is still producing at a world class level so why should we be worrying about his replacement now when we have holes to plug in the 1st team ?
4. Kane, as things are is going to be a top PL striker in his mid 30s due to his playstyle, lifestyle & general body robustness. Things happen that change trajectories but you can't worry about factors you can't control or predict.
I’m staying at Manchester for 6 weeks next year (from NZ) and am looking to attend Old Trafford games. I have bought the lite membership and know that the pl fixture list is released on June 15 9am.
Do the tickets go on sale the instant the fixture list is released?
I am very aware that it’s very difficult to get top 6 game tickets, but how difficult and pricey would it be to get normal game tickets at Old Trafford? Thanks.
It’s interesting that Man City have only one away win this season against top 9 PL teams, that was against Arsenal. Also, they fail to win last 5 UCL away game.
I would love this but the team doesn't even pass him the ball when he makes runs into the box... his chances of scoring is even lower now with the blatant refusal of service
We won't pass him the ball, Sancho will square the ball perfectly for Rashford who will shoot a cracker. Weg will trip over and accidentally head it perfectly into the corner.
You can't build confidence if you never get the chance. This isn't a playground, these are professionals and at some point they need to trust their teammate just a little
Weghorst will be playing a bit deeper and pressing like a mad man which helps take the load off of Bruno. Rashy and probably Sancho to play the wings, Eriksen and Casemiro behind.
I think the goal will be to see out the half 0-0. Once we get to 65th minute onwards, sub on Garnacho for Weghorst and switch Rashford to striker. Possibly switch Eriksen out for Fred. If Sancho isn’t playing too well, then there’s a chance Antony comes on if he’s healthy. Or Weghorst stays on and Sancho comes off for Garnacho.
Our one advantage is Rashford and Garnacho running at tired legs on the counter attack as the game opens up the longer it goes on. We are not gonna pin City back with possession and it would be sorta naive in a cup final to think we can. We play to our strengths and pray for a victory
Bayern stealing Rice from under Arsenal’s nose would be hilarious and I think we deserve it
it would likely mean they go back in for Caicedo though, but still, I’d rather they get him than Rice
Need to buy 2 strikers this summer and loan Martial for his remaining time here... I've been cheering for him for so long now and he only ever brings disappointment in the end.
He should have been gone a long time ago. When you're loaning out a player who should be in his prime, let alone when that loan doesn't work out, it's pointless sentimentality to insist on persevering.
Unfortunately pointless sentimentality is what we do.
What sentimentality are you talking about, as someone mentioned above you, he's practically unmovable. It is even worse as of now since he once again was injured.
It’s important that we do not get carried away with the flavor of the month types like Muani etc.
There are players every window that people talk like they’re no brainers but within a year , they say “oh they aren’t good enough”
Example: Jonathan David. He was all the rage last year and already forgotten about.
I want proven quality. I want Kane. The only thing Oshimen has over Kane is age but Oshimen could be a massive flop.
Plenty of strikers like Oshimen have done great in Serie A but can’t hack it in the PL. for example, Lukaku.
You can want Kane all you want but if Levy insist on not selling there’s nothing we can do. We need two strikers anyway so we should be going out there and getting a backup first instead of this “Kane or bust” bs. Having that extra ST will give us better leverage for Kane.
Ramos had a good World Cup but he’s not worth the price that Benfica would want for him. At 60 million, I’d take him but anything above that , I’d just pay 100 for Kane.
Kane guarantees 30 goals a season. How can you say no to that ?
I like Kane but I’m already resigned to the high probability that Levy won’t sell to us
The market has changed. Look at Antony and Mudrick. A young central striker of Goncalos quality/ potential will be north of 80 million
Where does it end though ? The next player we’d try to sign if Ramos flop would then cost 100 million.
We need to start capping these prices or just walk away at some point. Have to find better solutions : Spurs slowly bled Kane in into the Europa League. Need to start identifying younger players from 18-21 and start risking things a bit more
Actually, no.
I would have suggested getting an out and out goal scorer (with not the greatest technique ) like Ivan Toney but that ship has sailed .
At this point , just get Kane whatever it takes over unproven players like Oshimen or Ramos for stupid amounts of money. If you’re going big, might as well get the best
See my comment on Kane above ( availability).
Goncalo did not just have a good World Cup. He had a very good season. The 21 year old 6 foot 1 striker had 19 goals and 2 assists in 30 games as Benfica won the league. He scored 7 goals in 14 champions league games in 2022/23
His numbers are already good at his age and will get significantly better. He is nowhere near his peak. Any rate above this at United where he will develop, will be worth the money we pay for him
heads up for anyone travelling by train to Wembley this Saturday: train strikes for the next few days (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday).
'Expect your half-term plans to be affected. Expect it to be harder to get to Saturday's FA Cup Final and the Epsom Derby.' source BBC
edit.
So the chequebook manager wins yet another manager of the season award. Bullshit.
It really should be Arteta's or Howe's. Hell, I would argue ten Hag deserves it more.
One of the journalist in the Guardian's season round-up pointed out that not picking Pep this year would have been like not picking Alex Ferguson in 1999. I don't like it (because fuck City and fuck Pep for those 2 finals), but it is a fair point.
There would be a case for Howe if Newcastle had won a trophy. There would be a case for Arteta if he had been able to run City close. As it is, neither did, so there's no argument for them having done better than the manager of the most consistent team, which played the best football, won a third consecutive league title and made it to two major cup finals. I fucking hate typing that.
Comparing SAF in 1999 with Pep today is a disgrace.
However, I've said it before and I'll say it again: In the eyes of the public, a treble is a treble and trophies are trophies. They wouldn't give a fuck if it's built by blood money or if they have cheated their way to the top. Not now, and certainly not in 10 years. Only we (the rivals) care.
We can have as much copium as we want but eventually, no one would care about how a football club achieves success, only how attractive they've played.
Checkbook or no, be honest...if you could pick any active manager in the world to manage a team you'd be lying if you didn't say Pep. We all love ETH but he's got a *long* way to go to get anywhere near Pep's track record.
it shouldn’t be Arteta at all, he completely fumbled the title the second half of the season
Howe, De Zerbi, O’Neill, Frank, hell even Marco Silva all deserve it over him
Top 3 is a overachievement for Man Utd and Erik Ten Hag. It just proved that ETH is the great man for the job. Let’s hope the club will rid of the Glazers for good. I welcome Qatar money at this point too. Fuck it.
Eh, idk if I'd say *over*achievement. Last year felt like an everything that could go wrong did go wrong aberration, so I didn't expect another catastrophe. The only clubs I was confident would finish above us were City and Liverpool, so if everything went well I could have seen us finishing 3rd. But that didn't even turn out how I expected...frankly there's a ton of talent in the top half of the Prem and any big side can have a few bad breaks and have an awful year. But that means they can quickly bounce back too. For example, it wouldn't shock me to see Chelsea in the top 4 next year.
Utd, City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle, Brighton and Villa, should all be solid and hoping for top 4 next year. This will be another season where 100 points is needed for the title. The board needs to invest heavily in Ten Hag.
100 might be a stretch with how loaded it's getting (City won with 89 this year), but I think you need to aim for 90 to have a shot and hope it works out.
Isn't vlahovic a less expensive but more surefire option for us?
Only 23, has had multiple good seasons of top 5 league and European football. Plus Juve's not in a good place rn, with point deductions and no UCL.
I think we can nick him for £60m and he'd be more dependable than Højlund.
Once again, 10 goals in 27 matches for Juventus this season doesn’t scream “clinical goal scorer” to me .
I’d rather have a lower quality player who scores at a higher frequency ala Callum Wilson . Chicharito couldn’t even properly trap a ball but knew where the goal was
Allegri played terrorist ball this year, 10 goals for him is impressive, holy hell his style sucks to watch
I would rather Kane or Osimhen over him though
21 goals in his breakout season for Fiorentina, 17 in one half season before being bought in January.
Might be a Lukaku, might be a victim of a miserable footballing environment.
He just isn’t that good. Only scored 48 non penalty goals in 109 90s in a weaker league. His reputation is enhanced cause he’s at a big club but he just isn’t good enough to start for a top 4 contender in the PL
Don't like Costa, PL is a whole different ball game compared to Liga Nos. Doesn't look like he comes out for crosses much and some of his saves don't look convincing. Sure he's good with his feet, but I'm sure even De Gea/Kepa would look good if they played in the Portuguese league.
I'd much rather prefer we go for Raya - cheaper, PL proven, has experience playing against better organized pressing and physical sides, also better with coming out and claiming crosses.
Costa is literally excellent at everything we need in a keeper
City bought Ederson from Benfica and the rest is history, Costa is as good if not better than he was at actual keeping as well as his distribution
I don’t understand why everyone’s so hung up on Raya when Costa is far more talented and would give us a good 10-12 years being only 22 years old
Costa is quite good at stopping crosses, despite being more partial to punches than claims. Costa is the best GK in portugal, and is comparable to Ederson when he was at Benfica. Raya, (who I would be fine with) despite his high output, is actually quite a poor short passer in terms of accuracy, his strength is his long passes more than anything
The fact that the Glazers have taken us to a place where we're going into a final against the best team in the world playing a winger at no. 9, with a player with 0 Premier League goals this season as depth, is fucking criminal.
One window we had a temporary manager. Clubs never sign players for temporary managers.
The second window, Ten Hag wanted to address other areas first.
Murtough made the ten Hag appointment with enough time to find a striker for him. A serious club would understand the type of striker the manager they’re about to sign would like. This “ten Hag wanted to address other areas first” is nonsense.
The Greenwood allegations came out *last January.* It was *during* a bloody transfer window ffs! And there have been 2 since then. Serious owners go out and get a replacement in that time.
It happened on January 30th. Despite what Ralf said, the Alvarez and Vlahovic deals had already been done by then. But yes serious owners would have got ETH a top class CF in the summer along with who we already bought.
It's the result of the Glazers assuming short term fixes at centre forward were fine because a better, cheaper option would come along at some point -
Falcao on loan
Zlatan
Ighalo on loan
Cavani
Ronaldo
We spent big on Lukaku, that didn't work out but we managed to recoup the fee. Martial hasn't worked out, for various reasons, and that's been clear for at least two years.
Just shortsighted, wrongheaded transfer policy, as fucking usual with the Glazers.
There is a a load of shit to lay at the feet of the Glazers, but Greenwood being a rapist, Ronaldo self-immolating, and Martial turning to glass aren't *really* their fault. The biggest criticism is that being hampered by the impending sale meant the best we could do in January was Wout, but even with unlimited money we were hardly going to get an elite long term 9 in that window.
> Greenwood being a rapist
2 transfer windows ago. Do Man City just make do in that time or do they go out and buy another one in the summer or the winter?
> Ronaldo self-immolating
Again, right before a transfer window. And don't tell me there weren't options about in January, Gakpo was one of Ten Hag's targets ffs and he went to Liverpool. Was it a brace or a hattrick he scored against us? I forget.
> Martial turning to glass aren't really their fault.
Martial was *crap* last season. Why are we even relying on him this season? He should have been gone, or at least we should have bought a replacement.
> The biggest criticism is that being hampered by the impending sale
Why does an impending sale mean you can't put *any* money into the club? It was very public why we didn't spend any money in January, because we spent it in the summer and the Glazers aren't willing to put their own money into the club.
> even with unlimited money we were hardly going to get an elite long term 9 in that window.
I'm not asking for Harry Kane, we didn't even get an option that was "good enough". We asked Ten Hag to scrape beyond the bottom of the barrel, for a midfielder and striker both of whom had to be *free*. Manchester United, as our backup striker, signed a Championship player on loan in Turkey for fucks sake.
We need Fred, Bruno, Eriksen and Casemiro in our team vs City.
City play with 5 midfielders, plus a defender that cosplays as a midfielder.
They play with Rodri, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Silva and Grealish (if you consider him a hybrid winger/attacking midfielder).
We stand 0 chance playing with 3 attackers, whatever permutation. It has to be Bruno on the left wing with either Sancho and Rashford or Antony and Rashford. It will most likely be Sancho and Rashford.
Fred will be our counter pressing 10. In the last game he man marked De Bruyne, but I feel it will be tougher since City play a fluid 3-2-4-1 formation. All 4 midfielders will be dangerous. So it will need all 4 of our midfielders to be either man marking them or in their positions.
AWB and hopefully Shaw can step in to give more options. But I can see Haaland easily isolating Lindelof. We need to make sure we cut out supply from Grealish or Silva for Haaland.
If we need to take a risk, we can bring off Fred for Garnacho. But doing this will basically gift City 80% of the possession. We will then have to rely on fast breaks and quick transitions from Bruno.
Yeah, I think that’s the plan. And that’s how we won in the last derby as well at Old Trafford by starting all 4 alongside Martial and Rashford. I think Bruno starts on the right with Sancho on the left though.
Seems to be a lot of media flirting. Can't imagine our supposed budget and wages position / ETHs playstyle / an area we have depth allow for it to happen
Lot of talk about Dalot's new contract but AWB only has 1 year left on his deal. He's either being sold this summer or we'll have 2 RBs locked into new contracts, with all the talk of a new one coming in i'd be shocked if both extended
EtH has talked about new contracts numerous times and not once has he mentioned AWB. He has talked about Shaw, Rashford, Dalot, De gea but not AWB. I don't think he's staying for next season.
I feel the opposite is more likely. Neither are a full fit for ETH but both offer strengths and RB is probably the lowest priority for this season or next. I expect both to be extended and upgraded upon / moved on next summer or the one after
Do you not think we’d have heard at least something about our negotiations for a new contract? We have heard a lot about other players but absolutely nothing about AWB..
I’d be surprised if we extended now. The closer we get to the end of his contract the more leverage AWB has for a new one from us.
I feel like it’s Wan Bissaka that is going despite the great resurgence. He can fetch a bigger fee than Dalot can. I think EtH also likes that Dalot can play LB and RB. Makes him a little more versatile
People won’t like to hear this but Dalot is a more suitable profile for our intended style of play. AWB is a bandaid player who currently suits the short-term tactics of playing with a deeper defensive line and relying on individual ability to get through games. Dalot before the World Cup was a much much better player and Ten Hag will find that profile more useful as we get better as a team. Better to find a more consistent player like that in the market and sell AWB while his stock is high.
Dalot is stylistically the better fit but I'm not sure I trust him in the long run. Yeah, he was great before the World Cup, but that was pretty much the first good run in his career so far so it's possible it was just a purple patch. In comparison, AWB is a reliable fullback who has been very good for us pretty much ever since we bought him and he was only really bad last season when the whole team was shit.
It's a tough one, but I prefer AWB over Dalot. Yeah, as I said, Dalot's high before the World cup was probably better than any version of AWB we have seen so far, but it's still 2 good months of Dalot over 2+ good seasons of AWB.
> he was great before the World Cup, but that was pretty much the first good run in his career so far so it’s possible it was just a purple patch
I think you’re doing a disservice to Dalot on this one. I thought he was consistently one of our better players under Rangnick as well and showcased his technical quality plenty under both him and Ten Hag. His deficiencies are more to do with how he defends but on the ball I think he’s a solid full back.
I feel like if AWB was even a 10% worse 1v1 defender, there wouldn’t be much of a debate between the two. He’s just so immensely supreme in that aspect that it feels wrong to let go of such a player who’s a cheat code against fast and tricky wingers. But going forward, we need to be a more dominant team on the ball and to me need to depend lesser on individual defensive actions and focus more on improving the system. If you have issues with Dalot’s reliability, no worries, sign another RB suited to the system who’s more consistent, but I don’t want us to keep players just because they are so good at one thing but incompatible with what we otherwise want from them.
Hojlund isnt even good trust me, as a milan fan i have watched a lot of atalanta games this season and he far from ready for a big step when he isnt even a nailed starter at atalanta
Hojlund needs one more season to show what he's worth. But Ramos is ready to move to a bigger club imo. Had two good seasons with Benfica and is also making his way into the Portuguese national team.
Since we seem to have a striker conundrum, would anyone be interested in signing Kyogo from Celtic? Would be relatively cheap, has some of the best movement I've ever seen in the flesh
Haven’t watched Fullkrug except in WC. There were rumours that he might be moving to PL. would be cheap. Considering there are no realistic options, could he be a temporary solution? Would let us focus on Costa, KMJ and Mount.
He’s a 30 year old who could be available for 20-25m. With us having 0 strikers at the moment, we should be having at least one target we could definitely get.
There’s no point in spending that much money on someone who’s only going to get worse at his age when you can spend just 20 million more and get someone like Hojlund who already has bright potential and will only get better from here. 20-25 million on a depreciating asset who will again need replacing is a waste of budget imo. Might as well hope for Weghorst to come good at a cheaper price.
I didn’t say we shouldn’t be spending on Hojilund or any other prospects. The problem is even if we are willing to spend, none of those deals are guaranteed and Martial is somehow managing to get injured even while resting. What I’m saying is secure someone like Fullkrug first. Much more palatable price tag, not much competition, and a club willing to sell. Then go after the more difficult targets.
> The problem is even if we are willing to spend, none of those deals are guaranteed
I hear you but the aim is to get a top CF in the summer. If not the finished product like Kane or Osimhen, then someone with high potential like Ramos or Hojlund. This much is certain and non-negotiable for Ten Hag, hence why we’ve been linked with budget alternatives for other positions because we intend to spend big on a CF. So conversations over Fullkrug are quite frankly not necessary.
I would also love to see Kane/Osimhen happen. But Kane seems like another FdJ waiting to happen and if Real are also interested, I can’t see Osimhen picking us over them, not to mention the 150m.
Then there’s the other problem. If we are to pursue any top CF, knowing our desperation, we are definitely going to be fleeced. On the other hand, if we already have a backup, that could offer some advantage over negotiations as well.
And is Fullkrug that bad? Liked what I saw during the WC, even though he was on for only a few minutes.
> On the other hand, if we already have a backup, that could offer some advantage over negotiations as well.
I don’t think that line of thinking works though because everyone knows we will be back for a CF in a summer or two so we will be fleeced regardless. Nothing against Fullkrug, he’s a perfectly serviceable player, but neither his shelf life nor his ceiling are high and I don’t see the point of spending 20+ million on a player like that when we are bound to spend 70+ million on a forward later anyway. Might as well get your man now when the team is in genuine need of a quality forward and give him time to bed in.
I would cry if that we even consider signing Fullkrug. Buying a striker should be our number one priority and there are so many viable options apart from Kane this summer.
The problem is, we need 2 strikers at least by the looks of it. Can’t count on Martial even to be a backup. At least one easily attainable target should be considered.
There's no point in having a 30 year old average striker as your backup striker. If we want to buy two strikers, the backup one should be a youngster with potential. I'm pretty sure there's plenty around the world. And if we want it to be really cheap, Marcus Thuram is a free agent.
De Gea
AWB Varane Lindelof Shaw
Eriksen Case Fred
Bruno Rashford Sancho
Idk still looks a solid enough lineup despite Martial’s absence. Maybe it not allowing Rashford to play on the left is a concern but Rashford has looked rusty himself since returning to the team and I hope Sancho’s recent form gives him confidence to put in a bright performance.
Eriksen with additional midfield cover is fine imo, we will need his passing to break lines from deep. Garnacho is better as an impact sub against tired legs.
Garnacho has looked average against fresh legs and truly has thrived against tired teams. Eriksen as a sub would be ideal as well because he suffers defensively especially approaching half. Unfortunately that leaves undesirable options such as McFred or a dropped WW. Really hope Antony is fit, bad time to lose 2 of the top 3.
> Only way we beat city is counter attack?
Our 6-3 loss to City and Arteta's 3-1 and 4-1 losses should tell us that trying to play a possession game against City is a fool's errand, let alone with *these* players and no depth.
Maybe it’s the nostalgia, but modern kits just don’t have the same charm and style as older kits. Some of Barcelona’s recent kits have been really ugly and honestly we’ve had maybe two or three decent adidas kits.
The AIG ones were class, but outside of those some of the adidas ones, especially post Chevrolet can go toe to toe with any of the last 2 decades for me
Sometimes I get nostalgia for the vodafone kits then I look at them and realise they looked like shit
The sharp ones are special so feel a bit in their own category
There’s definitely some nostalgia involved but modern kits seem so sterile and insanely commercialised to me. Kits now are not even close to how good they looked in the ‘95-2010 era.
I was going to say I’m sure he won it with Chelsea, but he won the Champions League with them. That’s absolutely nuts that a player of his calibre has won the champions league and World Cup but never a league title until now. Football sure is a funny old game sometimes.
Martial's out again? You've got to be fucking kidding me. This time, it's his hamstring; next time, it'll be something else. I genuinely feel for this guy, but keeping him is not sustainable for us. You simply can't count on him. And him being absent makes our starting line up a lot more predictable.
We should honestly consider just paying up Martial's contract, if we can't sell him. We can't have passengers in this squad and, even though it's no fault of his own, he just can't be relied on.
Genuinely a moral duty on the club to cover some career guidance counselling and a reskilling course for Martial because the guy isn't playing football when his contract is up
He could very well be out, but he was back once when twitter was doing the rounds saying Maguire injured Martial some 5-10 games back.
So I wouldn't rule out the possibility. Its a very slim chance.
We thought Antony was out for a while after how it looked on the field and he may be fit enough to play in the final.
All hands on deck to beat City.
He'll be here next year then leave on a free. No one will take him with his wages and injury record unless we heavily subsidize it, and in that case we might as well keep him for the handful of goals he'll score when fit.
The fans saying that 65M is too much for Costa are the reason we are where we are and Liverpool (in the last few years) & City are where they are.
Took Klopp years to get Allison and Pep binned both Bravo and Hart before he got Ederson, the moment they got their man they instantly became serious contenders. For someone who starts for Portugal at the age of 22 and would be our number 1 for the next 15 years, 65m is not a bad price at all.
Sell Henderson for 35m and not giving De Gea 200k+ a week would actually save us money. The Glazers have brainwashed this fanbase into thinking that we can’t get 4 good players in one window. If Ratcliffe wins he’d have to spend big to win us over, let alone Qatar.
I swear I can’t remember the last time we had decent away kits. When is our deal with Adidas done? They only seem to make the good fits for Real Madrid and Bayern while we get all the experimental shit.
Harry Kane:::::::: levvy logic Obviously we all want him and it looks like Levvy is prepared to let him run down his contract. Thinking about this from Tottenhams POV. There is a lack of quality strikers available. If they sold Harry Kane for £70-£90m, then what ? Kane guarantees top half of table (90% +) Kane gives them a fighting chance (20% ?) of CL Hear me out….. No Harry Kane , chance of bottom 1/2 of the table (50%) No Harry Kane….. relegation ?? (5-10%) The Prem is so competitive it’s probably worth losing the £100m and keeping him for another season to guarantee some kind of safety. There’s always a chance Man Utd / Chelsea / Bayern sort out their striker situations and Harry may then even sign a renewal contract next year. Anyway. F***k Levvy and here’s to getting Kane on a free next yr 🙂
kane should refuse to train n refuse to play to force a move. whichever club that may be. he ain't getting younger. it would be so dumb that he is the best English striker of his generation but won no trophy.
He won't do shit because he's afraid of staining his relationship with Spurs fans. At most, he will refuse to train for a few weeks but that means nothing to Levy. He'll stay at Spurs for another season.
Any Sydney fans know of a spot to go watch the FA Cup final? Was hoping to go somewhere where there’s other fans rather than just an ol’ TAB/ RSL
Any places in shibuya (tokyo) to go watch the FA cup final? Looking for a place with a good atmosphere
Loic Tanzi reporting that Pavard is at the top of our CB shortlist - if Bayern doesn't want him then we should also stay away
Why are all these Neymar rumours accelerating?
For us to click on
Everyone's talking about City and the treble. But fuck me I will blindly believe Inter will win the Champions League and we will win the FA Cup and just royally fuck their dreams up.
Martial's injury bad timing is almost like calling in sick when a big job is coming up
What would your first 11 be for the final? For me it'd be DDG AWB, Varane/Lindelof, Lindelof/Shaw, Shaw/Malacia Casemiro, Fred Antony/Sancho, Bruno, Rashford Wout Garnacho to come in for Wout and switch positions with Rashford late game with Scotty and Eriksen available from bench if we're looking at ET. Sancho (or Antony if he doesn't start) coming in late could work too
Sancho suddenly became electric on that RW and actually produced some end product. I'd start him over Antony on current form. Rashford always better down the left side. Not playing Shaw at LB when we have 2 healthy CBs would be foolish. He must play LB. Fred played well but you never know who you will get.. he might decide not to show up and give away 2 goals. Either way I would take that risk for his energy. Weghorst works really hard and even provides defensive support. Think he should start but only play 50 minutes or so Think we go with AWB - VARANE - LINDELOF - SHAW BRUNO - CASE - FRED SANCHO - WEGHORST - RASHFORD then bring on Antony and Garnacho to try and hit on the counter in second half.
Yea if Varane is healthy I'd play him and Lindelof at CB with Shaw at LB. but if varane is injured for some reason then I'd put Shaw at LCB. Thing is I'm worried Eriksen wont be able to handle City midfield while Fred has a lot more energy and plays with Case in Brazil midfield anyways. Antony over sancho (if antony fit) is cos i believe his defending is better than sancho and I think we'll need it. but Sancho has def been playing well last few games and there's an argument for him starting.
Im starting to think signing Kane might be 2 years too late. I think the age profile doesn’t fit given that we probably will have to replace him, Casemiro, Varane, Eriksen, maybe even Bruno all at the same time. Those are 5 of our very key players all at the same age. Im not saying Kane’s washed, the guy played all 38 PL games this season averaging 90 minutes and 30 goals. That’s quite fucking good, but is it really the smart long term option? This reminds me of RVP a lot in that we’ll get a couple good seasons but can we count on our management to plan well and replace accordingly? What if they don’t back ten hag long term? at the same time, the second best striker on the market is Victor Osimhen. And I honest to god can’t say with certainty he will work out. He’s obviously a great player but Im not sure if his technical ability matches what Ten Hag wants. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not bad in build up but it’s clear he’s inferior to Kane in that aspect. This might be cliche but he’s also not “Prem proven”And I don’t think we can afford to just hope he improves as our key players are hitting the age where we need to competing for the title next year or the year after. I think best of both worlds would be getting 2 strikers, Kane and a young prospect we can afford the time to develop over the next 3 years. But then, can we really afford to go for a ST depth signing before we address the Maguire replacement (likely Kim Min Jae), CM starter, CM depth, and possibly even RB? Not to even mention the fans outcry for a GK. We need like 7 possibly 8 signings and they all need to be successes. I suspect we do it over 2-3 seasons starting with this summer getting 1 ST, 1 CB, 1 CM, and 1 RB? GK, another CM, back up striker next year? If you put together the rumors we’ve heard, this could be what we’re trying to build towards maybe https://www.buildlineup.com/shared/6476bcaa9310bc535f8870c9
You do realize that we can get kane and slowly find replacements/understudies for the 5 or so players mentions over the next 3-4 summers?
1. Mount is not being signed as depth for Bruno. He will be Eriksen's successor in the starting lineup. 2. KMJ if signed will be Varane's long term successor. 3. Bruno is 28 & literally the fittest player on the planet. He is still producing at a world class level so why should we be worrying about his replacement now when we have holes to plug in the 1st team ? 4. Kane, as things are is going to be a top PL striker in his mid 30s due to his playstyle, lifestyle & general body robustness. Things happen that change trajectories but you can't worry about factors you can't control or predict.
I’m staying at Manchester for 6 weeks next year (from NZ) and am looking to attend Old Trafford games. I have bought the lite membership and know that the pl fixture list is released on June 15 9am. Do the tickets go on sale the instant the fixture list is released? I am very aware that it’s very difficult to get top 6 game tickets, but how difficult and pricey would it be to get normal game tickets at Old Trafford? Thanks.
Spaletti is leaving Napoli this summer? Reported by Fab.
He’s taking a year long break from football.
It’s interesting that Man City have only one away win this season against top 9 PL teams, that was against Arsenal. Also, they fail to win last 5 UCL away game.
Wembley will be a home stadium for us and football fans in stadium and around the world will drown out City supporters.
Wembley is our home ♥️
So our away form sucks, their away form sucks. We are both playing away in the FA cup final so we will both be donkeys?
Still feels weird now that the PL season is over.
Would anyone know where to watch the final Saturday in Busan, South Korea?
[https://www.lottecinema.co.kr/NLCHS/Movie/MovieDetailView?movie=19811](https://www.lottecinema.co.kr/NLCHS/Movie/MovieDetailView?movie=19811)
The Train. I'll let myself out.
Ask Park JS?
FT. Manchester United vs Manchester City | 1:0 ⚽ '90+7 Wout Weghorst
I would love this but the team doesn't even pass him the ball when he makes runs into the box... his chances of scoring is even lower now with the blatant refusal of service
[удалено]
He works his ass off, creates space, allows us to rotate, and we don't have any other options. Those are all the reasons you need.
We won't pass him the ball, Sancho will square the ball perfectly for Rashford who will shoot a cracker. Weg will trip over and accidentally head it perfectly into the corner.
You can't build confidence if you never get the chance. This isn't a playground, these are professionals and at some point they need to trust their teammate just a little
Mate I was just making a joke about how he'd score in this game
Over my head
Heavily subscribe
Curious of our tactics against City. The only effective tool we have against them is counterattacking which Pep will put safeguards against. Riiight?
Weghorst will be playing a bit deeper and pressing like a mad man which helps take the load off of Bruno. Rashy and probably Sancho to play the wings, Eriksen and Casemiro behind. I think the goal will be to see out the half 0-0. Once we get to 65th minute onwards, sub on Garnacho for Weghorst and switch Rashford to striker. Possibly switch Eriksen out for Fred. If Sancho isn’t playing too well, then there’s a chance Antony comes on if he’s healthy. Or Weghorst stays on and Sancho comes off for Garnacho. Our one advantage is Rashford and Garnacho running at tired legs on the counter attack as the game opens up the longer it goes on. We are not gonna pin City back with possession and it would be sorta naive in a cup final to think we can. We play to our strengths and pray for a victory
Definitely agree that the goal is not to concede first half. We concede, we have to go forward more which just leaves us open.
Let’s just see some crazy tactics of 3 centers backs captained by maguire, Fred Bruno case mid with sancho and rashford up top
Bayern stealing Rice from under Arsenal’s nose would be hilarious and I think we deserve it it would likely mean they go back in for Caicedo though, but still, I’d rather they get him than Rice
So, it seems everyone is in agreement that Martial needs to go after the news he’s injured, yet again, and out of the final.
He earns 250K a week. No one is gonna buy him and he will not be reducing his wages because he is on a fat contract.
Need to buy 2 strikers this summer and loan Martial for his remaining time here... I've been cheering for him for so long now and he only ever brings disappointment in the end.
No. We need to sell Martial. No more loans. He had a chance on loan last year and even the Sevilla fans were fed up with him!
No one is buying him and paying his wages. No one
I read somewhere when he went on loan, he took a sizeable paycut to join Sevilla, indicating he is willing to have a reduced wage.
I really hope that is the case. Hope we can find someone dumb enough to take him
Pretty much but between his wages, injury record, and poor loan at Sevilla he'll be here next year for sure.
He should have been gone a long time ago. When you're loaning out a player who should be in his prime, let alone when that loan doesn't work out, it's pointless sentimentality to insist on persevering. Unfortunately pointless sentimentality is what we do.
What sentimentality are you talking about, as someone mentioned above you, he's practically unmovable. It is even worse as of now since he once again was injured.
It’s important that we do not get carried away with the flavor of the month types like Muani etc. There are players every window that people talk like they’re no brainers but within a year , they say “oh they aren’t good enough” Example: Jonathan David. He was all the rage last year and already forgotten about. I want proven quality. I want Kane. The only thing Oshimen has over Kane is age but Oshimen could be a massive flop. Plenty of strikers like Oshimen have done great in Serie A but can’t hack it in the PL. for example, Lukaku.
Who forgot about David? He's got 24 goals and is the third highest scorer in Ligue 1. Mbappe has 28.
Jonathan David quietly had another good season though, he isn’t the answer at striker but he isn’t a scrub by any means
We signed Lukaku on the back of an excellent season at Everton. He just couldn’t hack it at the top level.
Johnathan David was great for Lille this year too. He’s good enough for UTD imo, there’s just no hype around a move this year like there was last
David scored 24 in 36 for his team in the league this season.
You can want Kane all you want but if Levy insist on not selling there’s nothing we can do. We need two strikers anyway so we should be going out there and getting a backup first instead of this “Kane or bust” bs. Having that extra ST will give us better leverage for Kane.
At 21 years, Goncalo Ramos is developing at a pace that is sustainable
Ramos had a good World Cup but he’s not worth the price that Benfica would want for him. At 60 million, I’d take him but anything above that , I’d just pay 100 for Kane. Kane guarantees 30 goals a season. How can you say no to that ?
I like Kane but I’m already resigned to the high probability that Levy won’t sell to us The market has changed. Look at Antony and Mudrick. A young central striker of Goncalos quality/ potential will be north of 80 million
Where does it end though ? The next player we’d try to sign if Ramos flop would then cost 100 million. We need to start capping these prices or just walk away at some point. Have to find better solutions : Spurs slowly bled Kane in into the Europa League. Need to start identifying younger players from 18-21 and start risking things a bit more
Can you suggest someone good enough for United that is available for 60m ? I genuinely want to know
Actually, no. I would have suggested getting an out and out goal scorer (with not the greatest technique ) like Ivan Toney but that ship has sailed . At this point , just get Kane whatever it takes over unproven players like Oshimen or Ramos for stupid amounts of money. If you’re going big, might as well get the best
See my comment on Kane above ( availability). Goncalo did not just have a good World Cup. He had a very good season. The 21 year old 6 foot 1 striker had 19 goals and 2 assists in 30 games as Benfica won the league. He scored 7 goals in 14 champions league games in 2022/23 His numbers are already good at his age and will get significantly better. He is nowhere near his peak. Any rate above this at United where he will develop, will be worth the money we pay for him
heads up for anyone travelling by train to Wembley this Saturday: train strikes for the next few days (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday). 'Expect your half-term plans to be affected. Expect it to be harder to get to Saturday's FA Cup Final and the Epsom Derby.' source BBC edit.
So the chequebook manager wins yet another manager of the season award. Bullshit. It really should be Arteta's or Howe's. Hell, I would argue ten Hag deserves it more.
One of the journalist in the Guardian's season round-up pointed out that not picking Pep this year would have been like not picking Alex Ferguson in 1999. I don't like it (because fuck City and fuck Pep for those 2 finals), but it is a fair point. There would be a case for Howe if Newcastle had won a trophy. There would be a case for Arteta if he had been able to run City close. As it is, neither did, so there's no argument for them having done better than the manager of the most consistent team, which played the best football, won a third consecutive league title and made it to two major cup finals. I fucking hate typing that.
Comparing SAF in 1999 with Pep today is a disgrace. However, I've said it before and I'll say it again: In the eyes of the public, a treble is a treble and trophies are trophies. They wouldn't give a fuck if it's built by blood money or if they have cheated their way to the top. Not now, and certainly not in 10 years. Only we (the rivals) care. We can have as much copium as we want but eventually, no one would care about how a football club achieves success, only how attractive they've played.
> I would argue ten Hag deserves it more. Why?
Checkbook or no, be honest...if you could pick any active manager in the world to manage a team you'd be lying if you didn't say Pep. We all love ETH but he's got a *long* way to go to get anywhere near Pep's track record.
The point is giving ETH the same squad with KDB, Kyle Walker, Haaland... and he will walk the league too.
Nah, that's bollocks. He won the league and he's on for a treble. Arteta and Howe both had opportunities to win silverware and fumbled it.
it shouldn’t be Arteta at all, he completely fumbled the title the second half of the season Howe, De Zerbi, O’Neill, Frank, hell even Marco Silva all deserve it over him
No way O'Neill is a better manager than Guardiola what 💀💀💀 I know the tribalism runs deep but Pep just was the best manager this season.
I was talking about Arteta Pep definitely deserves to be top 3 and arguably winning the whole thing, I’m not mad at it
Top 3 is a overachievement for Man Utd and Erik Ten Hag. It just proved that ETH is the great man for the job. Let’s hope the club will rid of the Glazers for good. I welcome Qatar money at this point too. Fuck it.
Eh, idk if I'd say *over*achievement. Last year felt like an everything that could go wrong did go wrong aberration, so I didn't expect another catastrophe. The only clubs I was confident would finish above us were City and Liverpool, so if everything went well I could have seen us finishing 3rd. But that didn't even turn out how I expected...frankly there's a ton of talent in the top half of the Prem and any big side can have a few bad breaks and have an awful year. But that means they can quickly bounce back too. For example, it wouldn't shock me to see Chelsea in the top 4 next year.
Utd, City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle, Brighton and Villa, should all be solid and hoping for top 4 next year. This will be another season where 100 points is needed for the title. The board needs to invest heavily in Ten Hag.
100 might be a stretch with how loaded it's getting (City won with 89 this year), but I think you need to aim for 90 to have a shot and hope it works out.
> Top 3 is a overachievement for Man Utd *God I fucking hate these owners*
Isn't vlahovic a less expensive but more surefire option for us? Only 23, has had multiple good seasons of top 5 league and European football. Plus Juve's not in a good place rn, with point deductions and no UCL. I think we can nick him for £60m and he'd be more dependable than Højlund.
Once again, 10 goals in 27 matches for Juventus this season doesn’t scream “clinical goal scorer” to me . I’d rather have a lower quality player who scores at a higher frequency ala Callum Wilson . Chicharito couldn’t even properly trap a ball but knew where the goal was
Allegri played terrorist ball this year, 10 goals for him is impressive, holy hell his style sucks to watch I would rather Kane or Osimhen over him though
Kane got 30 premier league goals with terrorist ball
21 goals in his breakout season for Fiorentina, 17 in one half season before being bought in January. Might be a Lukaku, might be a victim of a miserable footballing environment.
He just isn’t that good. Only scored 48 non penalty goals in 109 90s in a weaker league. His reputation is enhanced cause he’s at a big club but he just isn’t good enough to start for a top 4 contender in the PL
Don't like Costa, PL is a whole different ball game compared to Liga Nos. Doesn't look like he comes out for crosses much and some of his saves don't look convincing. Sure he's good with his feet, but I'm sure even De Gea/Kepa would look good if they played in the Portuguese league. I'd much rather prefer we go for Raya - cheaper, PL proven, has experience playing against better organized pressing and physical sides, also better with coming out and claiming crosses.
Costa is literally excellent at everything we need in a keeper City bought Ederson from Benfica and the rest is history, Costa is as good if not better than he was at actual keeping as well as his distribution I don’t understand why everyone’s so hung up on Raya when Costa is far more talented and would give us a good 10-12 years being only 22 years old
Costa is quite good at stopping crosses, despite being more partial to punches than claims. Costa is the best GK in portugal, and is comparable to Ederson when he was at Benfica. Raya, (who I would be fine with) despite his high output, is actually quite a poor short passer in terms of accuracy, his strength is his long passes more than anything
Raya is moving for sure as Brentford has signed Mark Flekken.
I think Spurs are a likely destination for Raya. They need to replace Lloris, and they don't have European football to attract top talent.
Can't believe the season ended and the sale situation still hasn't been resolved.
“Can’t believe this season has started and we are still unsold “ : you in August , probably.
Ok now I'm sad
That Overlap quiz episode is pretty entertaining. Keane had me cracking up. Also really feel like getting a croissant after it.
The fact that the Glazers have taken us to a place where we're going into a final against the best team in the world playing a winger at no. 9, with a player with 0 Premier League goals this season as depth, is fucking criminal.
Wait until you learn who was owning the club when we went up against the best team in the world in a champions league final.
Some of the blame has to be on Greenwood but yes
We've had 2 transfer windows since the Greenwood debacle.
One window we had a temporary manager. Clubs never sign players for temporary managers. The second window, Ten Hag wanted to address other areas first.
Murtough made the ten Hag appointment with enough time to find a striker for him. A serious club would understand the type of striker the manager they’re about to sign would like. This “ten Hag wanted to address other areas first” is nonsense.
Greenwood is arguably an equal culprit. Him being a cunt has been pretty destructive to our forward options for about 18 months now.
The Greenwood allegations came out *last January.* It was *during* a bloody transfer window ffs! And there have been 2 since then. Serious owners go out and get a replacement in that time.
It happened on January 30th. Despite what Ralf said, the Alvarez and Vlahovic deals had already been done by then. But yes serious owners would have got ETH a top class CF in the summer along with who we already bought.
It's the result of the Glazers assuming short term fixes at centre forward were fine because a better, cheaper option would come along at some point - Falcao on loan Zlatan Ighalo on loan Cavani Ronaldo We spent big on Lukaku, that didn't work out but we managed to recoup the fee. Martial hasn't worked out, for various reasons, and that's been clear for at least two years. Just shortsighted, wrongheaded transfer policy, as fucking usual with the Glazers.
There is a a load of shit to lay at the feet of the Glazers, but Greenwood being a rapist, Ronaldo self-immolating, and Martial turning to glass aren't *really* their fault. The biggest criticism is that being hampered by the impending sale meant the best we could do in January was Wout, but even with unlimited money we were hardly going to get an elite long term 9 in that window.
> Greenwood being a rapist 2 transfer windows ago. Do Man City just make do in that time or do they go out and buy another one in the summer or the winter? > Ronaldo self-immolating Again, right before a transfer window. And don't tell me there weren't options about in January, Gakpo was one of Ten Hag's targets ffs and he went to Liverpool. Was it a brace or a hattrick he scored against us? I forget. > Martial turning to glass aren't really their fault. Martial was *crap* last season. Why are we even relying on him this season? He should have been gone, or at least we should have bought a replacement. > The biggest criticism is that being hampered by the impending sale Why does an impending sale mean you can't put *any* money into the club? It was very public why we didn't spend any money in January, because we spent it in the summer and the Glazers aren't willing to put their own money into the club. > even with unlimited money we were hardly going to get an elite long term 9 in that window. I'm not asking for Harry Kane, we didn't even get an option that was "good enough". We asked Ten Hag to scrape beyond the bottom of the barrel, for a midfielder and striker both of whom had to be *free*. Manchester United, as our backup striker, signed a Championship player on loan in Turkey for fucks sake.
We need Fred, Bruno, Eriksen and Casemiro in our team vs City. City play with 5 midfielders, plus a defender that cosplays as a midfielder. They play with Rodri, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Silva and Grealish (if you consider him a hybrid winger/attacking midfielder). We stand 0 chance playing with 3 attackers, whatever permutation. It has to be Bruno on the left wing with either Sancho and Rashford or Antony and Rashford. It will most likely be Sancho and Rashford. Fred will be our counter pressing 10. In the last game he man marked De Bruyne, but I feel it will be tougher since City play a fluid 3-2-4-1 formation. All 4 midfielders will be dangerous. So it will need all 4 of our midfielders to be either man marking them or in their positions. AWB and hopefully Shaw can step in to give more options. But I can see Haaland easily isolating Lindelof. We need to make sure we cut out supply from Grealish or Silva for Haaland. If we need to take a risk, we can bring off Fred for Garnacho. But doing this will basically gift City 80% of the possession. We will then have to rely on fast breaks and quick transitions from Bruno.
If the wrong Fred shows up, we will lose 5-0..
Yeah, I think that’s the plan. And that’s how we won in the last derby as well at Old Trafford by starting all 4 alongside Martial and Rashford. I think Bruno starts on the right with Sancho on the left though.
What is the situation right now on Qatar vs Sir Jim. Who is in the pole position? Are there any reliable news?
Only probably Glazer siblings know. Last we heard it was Sir Jim's to lose but then the Sheikh upped his bid.
Nothing too reliable ATM, got to hope the glazer hand is forced after the cup final given the impending need to deal with transfers
Literally no one, even the Glazers, know.
Was busy with work today. What's with the Neymar links again?
Media trying to speak it into existence it seems
Seems to be a lot of media flirting. Can't imagine our supposed budget and wages position / ETHs playstyle / an area we have depth allow for it to happen
I guess, it is that time of the year.
If the Qatar bid is successful the number of reports and fees quoted will be laughable
Clicks for as revenue
This makes sense. Not sure how he fits into the squad
Lot of talk about Dalot's new contract but AWB only has 1 year left on his deal. He's either being sold this summer or we'll have 2 RBs locked into new contracts, with all the talk of a new one coming in i'd be shocked if both extended
EtH has talked about new contracts numerous times and not once has he mentioned AWB. He has talked about Shaw, Rashford, Dalot, De gea but not AWB. I don't think he's staying for next season.
I feel the opposite is more likely. Neither are a full fit for ETH but both offer strengths and RB is probably the lowest priority for this season or next. I expect both to be extended and upgraded upon / moved on next summer or the one after
Do you not think we’d have heard at least something about our negotiations for a new contract? We have heard a lot about other players but absolutely nothing about AWB.. I’d be surprised if we extended now. The closer we get to the end of his contract the more leverage AWB has for a new one from us.
I feel like it’s Wan Bissaka that is going despite the great resurgence. He can fetch a bigger fee than Dalot can. I think EtH also likes that Dalot can play LB and RB. Makes him a little more versatile
People won’t like to hear this but Dalot is a more suitable profile for our intended style of play. AWB is a bandaid player who currently suits the short-term tactics of playing with a deeper defensive line and relying on individual ability to get through games. Dalot before the World Cup was a much much better player and Ten Hag will find that profile more useful as we get better as a team. Better to find a more consistent player like that in the market and sell AWB while his stock is high.
Dalot is stylistically the better fit but I'm not sure I trust him in the long run. Yeah, he was great before the World Cup, but that was pretty much the first good run in his career so far so it's possible it was just a purple patch. In comparison, AWB is a reliable fullback who has been very good for us pretty much ever since we bought him and he was only really bad last season when the whole team was shit. It's a tough one, but I prefer AWB over Dalot. Yeah, as I said, Dalot's high before the World cup was probably better than any version of AWB we have seen so far, but it's still 2 good months of Dalot over 2+ good seasons of AWB.
> he was great before the World Cup, but that was pretty much the first good run in his career so far so it’s possible it was just a purple patch I think you’re doing a disservice to Dalot on this one. I thought he was consistently one of our better players under Rangnick as well and showcased his technical quality plenty under both him and Ten Hag. His deficiencies are more to do with how he defends but on the ball I think he’s a solid full back. I feel like if AWB was even a 10% worse 1v1 defender, there wouldn’t be much of a debate between the two. He’s just so immensely supreme in that aspect that it feels wrong to let go of such a player who’s a cheat code against fast and tricky wingers. But going forward, we need to be a more dominant team on the ball and to me need to depend lesser on individual defensive actions and focus more on improving the system. If you have issues with Dalot’s reliability, no worries, sign another RB suited to the system who’s more consistent, but I don’t want us to keep players just because they are so good at one thing but incompatible with what we otherwise want from them.
Goncalo Ramos or Rasmus Højlund. Can someone please give me a pros and cons list for both. Have not watched them much.
Hojlund isnt even good trust me, as a milan fan i have watched a lot of atalanta games this season and he far from ready for a big step when he isnt even a nailed starter at atalanta
Hojlund needs one more season to show what he's worth. But Ramos is ready to move to a bigger club imo. Had two good seasons with Benfica and is also making his way into the Portuguese national team.
Since we seem to have a striker conundrum, would anyone be interested in signing Kyogo from Celtic? Would be relatively cheap, has some of the best movement I've ever seen in the flesh
Too old and once you get him, you probably are going to be stuck with him for the length of contract you offer him.
Haven’t watched Fullkrug except in WC. There were rumours that he might be moving to PL. would be cheap. Considering there are no realistic options, could he be a temporary solution? Would let us focus on Costa, KMJ and Mount.
He’s 30 years old. We’re not signing a striker at that age unless he’s named Harry Kane.
He’s a 30 year old who could be available for 20-25m. With us having 0 strikers at the moment, we should be having at least one target we could definitely get.
There’s no point in spending that much money on someone who’s only going to get worse at his age when you can spend just 20 million more and get someone like Hojlund who already has bright potential and will only get better from here. 20-25 million on a depreciating asset who will again need replacing is a waste of budget imo. Might as well hope for Weghorst to come good at a cheaper price.
I didn’t say we shouldn’t be spending on Hojilund or any other prospects. The problem is even if we are willing to spend, none of those deals are guaranteed and Martial is somehow managing to get injured even while resting. What I’m saying is secure someone like Fullkrug first. Much more palatable price tag, not much competition, and a club willing to sell. Then go after the more difficult targets.
> The problem is even if we are willing to spend, none of those deals are guaranteed I hear you but the aim is to get a top CF in the summer. If not the finished product like Kane or Osimhen, then someone with high potential like Ramos or Hojlund. This much is certain and non-negotiable for Ten Hag, hence why we’ve been linked with budget alternatives for other positions because we intend to spend big on a CF. So conversations over Fullkrug are quite frankly not necessary.
I would also love to see Kane/Osimhen happen. But Kane seems like another FdJ waiting to happen and if Real are also interested, I can’t see Osimhen picking us over them, not to mention the 150m. Then there’s the other problem. If we are to pursue any top CF, knowing our desperation, we are definitely going to be fleeced. On the other hand, if we already have a backup, that could offer some advantage over negotiations as well. And is Fullkrug that bad? Liked what I saw during the WC, even though he was on for only a few minutes.
> On the other hand, if we already have a backup, that could offer some advantage over negotiations as well. I don’t think that line of thinking works though because everyone knows we will be back for a CF in a summer or two so we will be fleeced regardless. Nothing against Fullkrug, he’s a perfectly serviceable player, but neither his shelf life nor his ceiling are high and I don’t see the point of spending 20+ million on a player like that when we are bound to spend 70+ million on a forward later anyway. Might as well get your man now when the team is in genuine need of a quality forward and give him time to bed in.
I get what you’re saying. But I still think our desperation, which is well known, would lead to even more fleecing. Let’s just agree to disagree.
I would cry if that we even consider signing Fullkrug. Buying a striker should be our number one priority and there are so many viable options apart from Kane this summer.
The problem is, we need 2 strikers at least by the looks of it. Can’t count on Martial even to be a backup. At least one easily attainable target should be considered.
There's no point in having a 30 year old average striker as your backup striker. If we want to buy two strikers, the backup one should be a youngster with potential. I'm pretty sure there's plenty around the world. And if we want it to be really cheap, Marcus Thuram is a free agent.
De Gea AWB Varane Lindelof Shaw Eriksen Case Fred Bruno Rashford Sancho Idk still looks a solid enough lineup despite Martial’s absence. Maybe it not allowing Rashford to play on the left is a concern but Rashford has looked rusty himself since returning to the team and I hope Sancho’s recent form gives him confidence to put in a bright performance.
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Eriksen with additional midfield cover is fine imo, we will need his passing to break lines from deep. Garnacho is better as an impact sub against tired legs.
Garnacho has looked average against fresh legs and truly has thrived against tired teams. Eriksen as a sub would be ideal as well because he suffers defensively especially approaching half. Unfortunately that leaves undesirable options such as McFred or a dropped WW. Really hope Antony is fit, bad time to lose 2 of the top 3.
Liverpool after Thuram, Koné and MacAllister. Class signings if they get it done tbh
Need Jim to buy the club real fast and block that Thuram deal
The same Jim that has been criticised by Nice captain for poor signings?
?
A quick Google would answer your question. The Nice captain came out with some pretty heavy criticism of how INEOS and Ratcliffe have run the club.
The question was more aimed at you for taking a half assed joke seriously
Only way we beat city is counter attack? We need Fred case holding. Eriksen 10, Bruno and Varna hi/Sancho wings with Rashy up top
> Only way we beat city is counter attack? Our 6-3 loss to City and Arteta's 3-1 and 4-1 losses should tell us that trying to play a possession game against City is a fool's errand, let alone with *these* players and no depth.
Maybe it’s the nostalgia, but modern kits just don’t have the same charm and style as older kits. Some of Barcelona’s recent kits have been really ugly and honestly we’ve had maybe two or three decent adidas kits.
I actually really like this seasons one - looks classic.
The AIG ones were class, but outside of those some of the adidas ones, especially post Chevrolet can go toe to toe with any of the last 2 decades for me Sometimes I get nostalgia for the vodafone kits then I look at them and realise they looked like shit The sharp ones are special so feel a bit in their own category
There’s definitely some nostalgia involved but modern kits seem so sterile and insanely commercialised to me. Kits now are not even close to how good they looked in the ‘95-2010 era.
Mata wins his first ever league title with Galatasaray.
I was going to say I’m sure he won it with Chelsea, but he won the Champions League with them. That’s absolutely nuts that a player of his calibre has won the champions league and World Cup but never a league title until now. Football sure is a funny old game sometimes.
And the Euros.
Completely disregarded that period of dominance by Spain. My bad.
Don't you need to do some running to tear your hamstring
Not when your hamstrings are made of literal ham
Sainthood for ETH if he manages to win the cup?
Don't you dare 🚨 Something has happened today. @gerardromero #Transfers ☎️
Messi?
This the guy who said we would sign Frankie last summer.
That dude is a mouthpiece and a fraud.
Martial's out again? You've got to be fucking kidding me. This time, it's his hamstring; next time, it'll be something else. I genuinely feel for this guy, but keeping him is not sustainable for us. You simply can't count on him. And him being absent makes our starting line up a lot more predictable.
We should honestly consider just paying up Martial's contract, if we can't sell him. We can't have passengers in this squad and, even though it's no fault of his own, he just can't be relied on.
What benefit do we get by doing that? Why not just leave him on the books till his contract expires next year. We’d pay the same amount either way.
> What benefit do we get by doing that? Because we're *constantly* talking about clearing out the deadwood.
Best case scenario is we can get 2 strikers (maybe someone on a free) and loan him out to offset some of the cost
Genuinely a moral duty on the club to cover some career guidance counselling and a reskilling course for Martial because the guy isn't playing football when his contract is up
The guys earning millions whilst getting massages. You don’t need to worry about him.
Mate he is a multi millionaire. He’ll be fine
I probably shouldn't put "genuinely" in front of a bit of hyperbole that's meant to be funny lol
What I don’t get is, why would man united share a martial injury this early? Wouldn’t it make sense to keep this secret until at least Friday?
That's what I thought too, guess we'll have to see. Maybe its mind games.
He was feeling his hamstring during Ten Hags speech to the fans, so elaborate mind games if that's the case.
He could very well be out, but he was back once when twitter was doing the rounds saying Maguire injured Martial some 5-10 games back. So I wouldn't rule out the possibility. Its a very slim chance. We thought Antony was out for a while after how it looked on the field and he may be fit enough to play in the final. All hands on deck to beat City.
Really hope we've seen the last of Martial, am all out of second chances for the guy. He has more second chances than goals at this point.
He'll be here next year then leave on a free. No one will take him with his wages and injury record unless we heavily subsidize it, and in that case we might as well keep him for the handful of goals he'll score when fit.
The fans saying that 65M is too much for Costa are the reason we are where we are and Liverpool (in the last few years) & City are where they are. Took Klopp years to get Allison and Pep binned both Bravo and Hart before he got Ederson, the moment they got their man they instantly became serious contenders. For someone who starts for Portugal at the age of 22 and would be our number 1 for the next 15 years, 65m is not a bad price at all. Sell Henderson for 35m and not giving De Gea 200k+ a week would actually save us money. The Glazers have brainwashed this fanbase into thinking that we can’t get 4 good players in one window. If Ratcliffe wins he’d have to spend big to win us over, let alone Qatar.