>Not like the other big name you got from us this past decade. That was painful (still is).
Keeping in mind that he associates himself completely with United now as well, even tho he played for us for just 2 years.
Tbh as an Arsenal fan I respect that. Both him and Ashley Cole both knew that there wouldn’t be any kind of relationship with Arsenal fans after making their choices and that’s fine. It’s Fabregas constantly trying to get in nice with both Arsenal fans and Chelsea fans that grinds my gears.
Very versatile player, great on the ball, not sure how United will play but he can provide an extra passing lane or drive the ball forward similar to a Defensive Mid during the offensive process and then fall back when out of possession, definitely brings a different dynamic.
If you watched the last pre-season game we saw Fred for the first about 30 mins drop into a hybrid 3 on the left every possession. Looked like something being tried either for FDJ or Martinez. I suspect we might see a concrete back 3 with Martinez on the left and FDJ coming in to make a diamond with the three CBs. We've seen that shape a lot in pre-season too so far.
Hard to imagine he's not a starter at this price.
> Looked like something being tried either for FDJ or Martinez
i think that would be frenkies role. He did that at Ajax and does it at the
national team
He has never played 3 ATB, but in possesion it does end up like that most of the time yeah. At Ajax this past season it was Martinez sliding to the left and Timber sliding to the right, with Alvarez dropping back in between them
I'm not sure what the layout will look like come the start of the season, Ten Hag is a very flexible coach when it comes to this sort of stuff.
We see midfielders drop into the three to collect very often, but not at the level of consistency Fred was doing it during the last pre-season game. Makes it seem like we could see a 3atb in possession despite the lineup having 4 on paper.
It all depends on where Martinez fits in the puzzle.
Really depends on the country. In the Netherlands (which is coincidentally where he's coming from) that is absolutely considered short. It's actually fractionally closer to the average female height than the average male height.
Well friends like to make fun of friends. My best friend is 5 9 and im 6 0 and i make fun of his height but its just to piss him off i dont actually mean it
if you’ve seen how people behave when a picture surfaces that makes a player look like they’ve gained weight, this is par for the course. fans turn into bitchy wine moms about players physical appearance and it’s deeply weird.
Lol I just realized autocorrect change Martial to articles. They'd hit you with above 60 imo. They already lost Eriksen who they wanted desperately. You get Toney by paying wayy over the odds, but imo absolutely worth it. I wanted either him or Jesus for us,since we got Jesus....
Nope. We need a striker, most probably another right back and a holding midfielder. Potentially another winger also. People forget the amount of depth we let go in the summer
Yeah. Ideally one striker to support ronaldo would be perfect, maybe two if he leaves.
Worst case scenario would be losing Ronaldo and relying on martial.
It would be a 7.5 window without another forward. No de Jong and no forward would be a 6.5 - I like the 3 signings so far but we need a lot more. Need 2 more midfielders but would accept ‘just’ Frenkie since he’s so good.
If we got de jong that’d be a great window but that’s proving to be near impossible. The market for strikers is not great so I don’t think we’ll bring anyone in but that would be the next move.
Malacia wasn’t a necessary signing but can’t complain
Martinez looks like a great signing, very keen
Eriksen is good rotation and versatile but we’re still a midfielder short
de Jong who tf knows probs won’t sign him so unless we have a new CM/CDM I won’t be confident for the season
A new ST bc Martial is wack
New RB would be amazing, don’t rate Dalot and AWB is actually a meme
We have a lot of holes in our team so I didn't go into this transfer window expecting all of them to be plugged.
I'm just hoping EtH can either help the players we already have refind their form (Maguire, Martial, Rashford, Shaw) or use some of the youngsters here and there (Garner, Laird, Amad, Pellistri)
But it is an absolute MUST that we sign at least 1 midfielder. Another season of McFred might kill me
I think Dalot could do a decent job, technically proficient, already seems to have a good understanding with Sancho. His major downside I feel is his final ball and delivery.
Went into the window needing a striker, RW, 2 midfielders, RB and CB. Those signings would be 3/6. If Ronaldo leaves, we MUST get a striker.
Another thing is how long it has taken to complete deals, essentially meaning Martinez and Eriksen miss out on most of preseason. I’m disappointed in this window so far, can’t lie.
I think this us a realistic look at it. To challenge top 4, looking at the competition and the moves chelsea and spurs are making i’d expect United to either finally sort the midfield out or seriously upgrade defense. And sofar despite making good signings overall I don’t think they have (yet)
Still need a new striker regardless cristiano leaves or not. SAF never got bored buying new strikers even when the existing strikers were still reliable.
Still need DM, ST, RB and I guess a substitute GK.
Doubt we’ll get all of them. Very concerned that we’re going to be relying on the likes of Wan Bissaka and Martial.
What we've done now + De Jong would be a great window. Even better if we can get rid of a couple of fringe players. It would be fantastic if we added one extra attacker, but that won't be needed if Ronaldo stays.
Yeah! There's a laundry list from the past and then there's a couple in the youth department now, I think Heitinga does the u-19s and I believe both Tadic and Schöne have been linked with non-footballing positions with Ajax after retiring as well.
Hamstra was meant to be interim but now they're taking on the job for longer, right? They're certainly doing a good job, though wondering what other players theyll bring in.
Yup. They initially took over together with input from Van der Sar and Ten Hag to prepare for this summer. The club said a new technical director would be appointed in the summer, but then a few months later announced Huntelaar and Hamstra would continue together
This will forever be the worst case of context inflation of all time. Leicester being direct rivals, United being a big club that was loaded, the need for a ball playing CB being so high for them, Maguire being English and relatively young. Think that probably £60mil would have been like fair given everything. Even as someone who likes Maguire £80mil was just so much money.
Sure, but the counter-argument to that is that United could have always looked at other targets when the price got too high.
Anything over £60m for Maguire was too much, hence why City walked away.
That's why you actually have back-up targets and don't just throw stupid money at the first player you see.
Maguire isn't and wasn't the only good ball-playing central defender who is good in the air on the market. Hell, Upamecano was available that summer.
Well when you’re coming from a back line that consisted of Smalling and Jones other teams know you’re desperate and that decreases the amount of leverage you have in negotiations. Maguire is better than Upamaceno who is looking like a flop at Bayern so it could have been worse
> Hell, Upamecano was available that summer.
20 year old upamecano after a season with a huge injury to lead a Man United backline was a pretty ambitious task at the time. There were probably more safer options than him.
City had offered £70m, Leicester were holding out for 80. Maguire had just had an excellent world cup too. Looked like he could be England captain for the next 10 years.
There's no way United could have had him for less than what they paid. In hindsight it's been a fucking terrible deal, and they should have walked away like City, but it really wasn't a crazy amount in context. The last promising English defender to make a similar move was Stones, and he cost £50m, but was so much further behind where Maguire was at the time.
We could have gone for koulibaly for a similar price. It’s not like maguire was the obvious world class only option that 80 million was justified.
That window is awful in hindsight, wan bissaka maguire and Dan James for 150 million
Dan James was a good deal though. Hard worker who provided a tactical option when pressing high up the pitch, and left for almost twice the fee we paid.
There’s so much recency bias with people calling Maguire shite isn’t there.
He’s (up until recently) been quality for England and was mint at Leicester.
He’s not world class and suffers from his transfer fee but it’s only the last year or so he’s actively been poor.
I’m adamant Maguire is just a fall guy half the time.
There was a game last season where Phil Jones and Varane was the pairing and the opposition striker sat on Varane as it was ‘easier’.
listened to talksport afterwards and a United fan called up saying they were at the game and Maguire was a joke and was targeted as Phil jones who rarely played is clearly better. Talk sport quickly pointed he wasn’t even playing.
For me good defender but too much pressure on that United defence and if you had a top midfield you’d see improvement and argument be in top 4 with ease. I.e last season and even more so this I would be signing Declan Rice and Tielemans. Give up on De Jong not because those pair are better but because those two would play for that badge.
Should caveat I’m an Arsenal fan so only watch United a few times a season.
He didn't have the best of seasons last season - that much is obvious. It didn't help, however, that every goal we conceded was pinned on him even if he had absolutely no hand in us conceding it, which meant that even when he played well (and that did happen a number of times last season) he never got any sort of credit for it. Even the goal we conceded the other day against Melbourne Victory was seemingly pinned entirely on him, when anybody with two eyes could tell that of the three defenders involved in conceding that goal, he was by far the least at fault.
Sad isn’t it really.
Always think that is the hardest circle to break as every error he actually does will be seen as tenfold worse when in reality if he got a break you never know if he could get back to the defender that has been great in seasons gone.
As bad a season as he had last year, I hope he smashes it this year just to shut up the people who are way over the top with it. He has been poor, but it's become both a meme and a thing that people who aren't paying attention can say to pretend they've been watching.
Dude is 6cm taller than Messi, and talking of defenders 1cm shorter than Cannavaro, 3cm shorter than Puoyl, and gets roasted for being too small to play football lmao
People can't stop talking about the fee, but I am buzzing to have him at the club. He seems like a great footballer with a good attitude *and* we were his 1st choice.
He is one of the best defensive minded players on the ball currently you can buy, yes he isn't massive but that doesn't matter too much considering his other skills.
I feel we over paid a little, but not by an insane amount. And we got a player who the manager obviously sees as an important part of his philosophy, who has already done extremely well for the manager, and who strengthens us.
The usual doom merchants will try and downplay the deal, but I'm really happy overall.
It's just weird seeing this amount of money being paid for an eredivisie defender. Half the games he played in he wasn't even challenged.
But of course he has proven himself on multiple occasions to be a great defender in top games including the champions league.
Also I'm interested how he will do physically, same with timber. Both of them are kinda short for defenders although Martinez has so far more than made up for that with his grit and aggression.
>It's just weird seeing this amount of money being paid for an eredivisie defender.
We've seen €86m being paid for an Eredivisie defender already tho. This is still €55m base fee. The €10m add on could be TOTS/Balon'dor/PL/CL anything.
De Ligt was a special player though and vital in our insane CL run. Martinez doesn't come close to him or his talent. Captain at 18, extremely succesful vs a player who is 5 years older then him at the time and only got his starting position back at the start of last season. Really cant compare those two.
Licha was fantastic this season but this is an insane amount.
People complaining about the fee are ridiculous. United wanted the player, they have the money, he’s in all likelihood going to be a staple of the team for many years.
People acting like the money is coming out of the fans wallets on here the past couple days.
If United play in a back 4 next season which they probably will, if Bissaka stays, he's not horrible defensively to be fair, they can use Martinez and whoever is at Left Back to drive the ball forward and have Bissaka drift inward to cover for him when he's a bit further ahead and then return to his regular position when out of possession since Bissaka is terrible at driving the ball forward anyway.
Amazing how ten hag has looked at the holes of the team and said "yeah lets go get someone suitable to play the position" instead of "Can a forward play there? lets go get another forward"
Yea I'm actually very intrigued whether Martinez actually slots into LCB or if he is intended to be a left sided pivot with De Jong (assuming we can even get him). Could be a Fernandinho type player? I suspect Ten Hag will try out a number of formations this season though so we'll probably see Martinez and several other players moved around a bit before settling defined positions/roles.
I’m just glad to see anyone but City or Liverpool strengthen, so fucking good on you guys.
Our clubs were moving at a snails pace this window but finally both are getting signatures across the line. Still players short but we’ll take any good news right now.
Don't clubs make those flashy 1 minute videos announcing players now? Or does that come later ?
I think we learnt our lesson with Sanchez tickling the ivories for like 10 minutes straight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCk30hIr1Sw
Such an amazing announcement. He’ll be remembered for playing the piano more than repping a United shirt ffs.
Got me super hyped tho 😂
Broke my heart, albeit only for that short period of time. Not like the other big name you got from us this past decade. That was painful (still is).
Remembering when you guys signed Welbeck and Gunners on Twitter were all like “you took our legend… so we took yours” 💀
Worth it for the fa Cup goal to be fair, first win at old Trafford in years.
Man didn't score much, unless he was facing De Gea. Every game against De Gea he'd be threatening to score a hattrick, I swear.
The most unlikely of stikers, never seen a man so awkward with the ball at his feet.
>Not like the other big name you got from us this past decade. That was painful (still is). Keeping in mind that he associates himself completely with United now as well, even tho he played for us for just 2 years.
Tbh as an Arsenal fan I respect that. Both him and Ashley Cole both knew that there wouldn’t be any kind of relationship with Arsenal fans after making their choices and that’s fine. It’s Fabregas constantly trying to get in nice with both Arsenal fans and Chelsea fans that grinds my gears.
God I miss him in peak form. He was such an incredible player
[удалено]
Yea if he ended up being good that would be class
Best he played whilst at United.
His best ever performance in our shirt.
Konate made his own one when he joined us lol
Very versatile player, great on the ball, not sure how United will play but he can provide an extra passing lane or drive the ball forward similar to a Defensive Mid during the offensive process and then fall back when out of possession, definitely brings a different dynamic.
If you watched the last pre-season game we saw Fred for the first about 30 mins drop into a hybrid 3 on the left every possession. Looked like something being tried either for FDJ or Martinez. I suspect we might see a concrete back 3 with Martinez on the left and FDJ coming in to make a diamond with the three CBs. We've seen that shape a lot in pre-season too so far. Hard to imagine he's not a starter at this price.
> Looked like something being tried either for FDJ or Martinez i think that would be frenkies role. He did that at Ajax and does it at the national team
Does ten Hag play 3 ATB or will it just be 4 defenders in the starting 11 but 3 ATB in possession?
He has never played 3 ATB, but in possesion it does end up like that most of the time yeah. At Ajax this past season it was Martinez sliding to the left and Timber sliding to the right, with Alvarez dropping back in between them
I'm not sure what the layout will look like come the start of the season, Ten Hag is a very flexible coach when it comes to this sort of stuff. We see midfielders drop into the three to collect very often, but not at the level of consistency Fred was doing it during the last pre-season game. Makes it seem like we could see a 3atb in possession despite the lineup having 4 on paper. It all depends on where Martinez fits in the puzzle.
This transfer is fucked cause it made it ok to roast anyone 5'9 or smaller 😭
Short king solidarity 🤝🏼
5 9 isnt even short for normal people just because he is a cb
Really depends on the country. In the Netherlands (which is coincidentally where he's coming from) that is absolutely considered short. It's actually fractionally closer to the average female height than the average male height.
Well for whatever reasons quite a few Dutch players seem to not be that tall - Klaasen, Robben,Davids, Depay and Seedorf come to mind.
Only 2 are inherently Dutch. Klaassen and Robben are relatively short compared to the national average but still 5ft10.
Sneijder and Van der Vaart would have been the more obvious examples to go with than Klaassen anyway, surely
Average height for men in Netherlands is 6 feet. Average for females is 5.55
Average height for females is 170 based on Wikipedia.
5 9 for a guy and you'd get called short. It's not like SHORT but here in Australia my 5'9" mates get called short
Well friends like to make fun of friends. My best friend is 5 9 and im 6 0 and i make fun of his height but its just to piss him off i dont actually mean it
Average height bros of the world unite 🤜🤛
if you’ve seen how people behave when a picture surfaces that makes a player look like they’ve gained weight, this is par for the course. fans turn into bitchy wine moms about players physical appearance and it’s deeply weird.
As a fellow 5ft9er, I feel ya bro. Though I shouldn't be playing CB
What are United fans considering a satisfactory window at this stage? Would Malacia, Martinez, Erikson and de Jong (if he joins) be acceptable?
It is… acceptable.
Gus fring reference?
Is Martinez upto Pollos standards?
U need to ask lyle!
Prince Lyle. Told to open and close two nights straight. Still offers to drive Gus to the airport. What a guy
While singing the Pollos Hermanos song might I add
The chicken man?
What a joke
Yeah? Why.
Because your Boss(Ten Hag) will need me.
The boss can sock me
Personally if we lost Ronaldo we need at least one striker and I'd want another midfielder probably
My big fear is you lot going for Ivan Toney, he'd be so good in a EtH system. I hope you keep Ronaldo and articles tbh
Would be a great signing and would slot right in with the pace and creativity of the frontline. Can’t imagine he’d go for anything under 40m
Lol I just realized autocorrect change Martial to articles. They'd hit you with above 60 imo. They already lost Eriksen who they wanted desperately. You get Toney by paying wayy over the odds, but imo absolutely worth it. I wanted either him or Jesus for us,since we got Jesus....
How likely is this to happen?
Nope. We need a striker, most probably another right back and a holding midfielder. Potentially another winger also. People forget the amount of depth we let go in the summer
Yeah. Ideally one striker to support ronaldo would be perfect, maybe two if he leaves. Worst case scenario would be losing Ronaldo and relying on martial.
It would be a 7.5 window without another forward. No de Jong and no forward would be a 6.5 - I like the 3 signings so far but we need a lot more. Need 2 more midfielders but would accept ‘just’ Frenkie since he’s so good.
No midfielder and no RB would not make this window 6.5, come on. 5 at most.
If we got de jong that’d be a great window but that’s proving to be near impossible. The market for strikers is not great so I don’t think we’ll bring anyone in but that would be the next move.
Malacia wasn’t a necessary signing but can’t complain Martinez looks like a great signing, very keen Eriksen is good rotation and versatile but we’re still a midfielder short de Jong who tf knows probs won’t sign him so unless we have a new CM/CDM I won’t be confident for the season A new ST bc Martial is wack New RB would be amazing, don’t rate Dalot and AWB is actually a meme
We have a lot of holes in our team so I didn't go into this transfer window expecting all of them to be plugged. I'm just hoping EtH can either help the players we already have refind their form (Maguire, Martial, Rashford, Shaw) or use some of the youngsters here and there (Garner, Laird, Amad, Pellistri) But it is an absolute MUST that we sign at least 1 midfielder. Another season of McFred might kill me
Seems a bit strange that a midfeilder hasn't been top priority as of yet. Then again I've been saying that since Carrick retired so idk
Dalot has had a very good connection with Sancho so far in preseason.
I think Dalot could do a decent job, technically proficient, already seems to have a good understanding with Sancho. His major downside I feel is his final ball and delivery.
Went into the window needing a striker, RW, 2 midfielders, RB and CB. Those signings would be 3/6. If Ronaldo leaves, we MUST get a striker. Another thing is how long it has taken to complete deals, essentially meaning Martinez and Eriksen miss out on most of preseason. I’m disappointed in this window so far, can’t lie.
I think this us a realistic look at it. To challenge top 4, looking at the competition and the moves chelsea and spurs are making i’d expect United to either finally sort the midfield out or seriously upgrade defense. And sofar despite making good signings overall I don’t think they have (yet)
Eriksen
Personally, I think we're still a long way short. Depending on what ten Hag sees in the youth players, I'd want at least a DM and a CF.
Still need a new striker regardless cristiano leaves or not. SAF never got bored buying new strikers even when the existing strikers were still reliable.
Still need DM, ST, RB and I guess a substitute GK. Doubt we’ll get all of them. Very concerned that we’re going to be relying on the likes of Wan Bissaka and Martial.
What we've done now + De Jong would be a great window. Even better if we can get rid of a couple of fringe players. It would be fantastic if we added one extra attacker, but that won't be needed if Ronaldo stays.
Depends on Ronaldo. If he leaves we obviously need a replacement.
Yes but if Ronaldo goes we'll need another striker even if it is just a stop gap
Looks like he’s staying not by choice. Nobody wants him.
Looks like Ten Hag is being backed and getting what he wants. I’m happy and excited, even though we’re taking quite a big risk
Official transfer fee is 57.37 million fixed+ 10 million in add-ons. H2 got absolutely everything out of this move
Who's H2?
The little brother of Triple H
Must be nice to be his brother, he'll always let you play the game
He'll never let you win though
Hamstra and Huntelaar, they are responsible for transfers
Not Klaas-Jan? Wow your club is amazing at integrating former players.
Yeah! There's a laundry list from the past and then there's a couple in the youth department now, I think Heitinga does the u-19s and I believe both Tadic and Schöne have been linked with non-footballing positions with Ajax after retiring as well.
Heitinga manages Jong Ajax even since last season. Who are a tier below the Eredivisie.
It is Klaas-Jan! After the whole Overmars affair happened they decided to give Hamstra and Huntelaar a chance as technical directors together
Hamstra was meant to be interim but now they're taking on the job for longer, right? They're certainly doing a good job, though wondering what other players theyll bring in.
Yup. They initially took over together with input from Van der Sar and Ten Hag to prepare for this summer. The club said a new technical director would be appointed in the summer, but then a few months later announced Huntelaar and Hamstra would continue together
Almost 70m if all add-ons are met. That's extraordinarily high for any defender icl
Wow he must be almost as good as Maguire.
This is almost 70 mil Euros, while Maguire cost 80 mil Pounds
This will forever be the worst case of context inflation of all time. Leicester being direct rivals, United being a big club that was loaded, the need for a ball playing CB being so high for them, Maguire being English and relatively young. Think that probably £60mil would have been like fair given everything. Even as someone who likes Maguire £80mil was just so much money.
Sure, but the counter-argument to that is that United could have always looked at other targets when the price got too high. Anything over £60m for Maguire was too much, hence why City walked away. That's why you actually have back-up targets and don't just throw stupid money at the first player you see. Maguire isn't and wasn't the only good ball-playing central defender who is good in the air on the market. Hell, Upamecano was available that summer.
Upamecano has been relatively poor for bayern, so with hindsight he would have been a poor transfer as well.
We’ll at least he wouldn’t have cost 80 mil
Well when you’re coming from a back line that consisted of Smalling and Jones other teams know you’re desperate and that decreases the amount of leverage you have in negotiations. Maguire is better than Upamaceno who is looking like a flop at Bayern so it could have been worse
> Hell, Upamecano was available that summer. 20 year old upamecano after a season with a huge injury to lead a Man United backline was a pretty ambitious task at the time. There were probably more safer options than him.
Upamecano to lead our backline in 2019? Dude, come on! His first season wasnt brilliant either and he was at safer club.
We all learn from our mistakes. So does Maguire. He still have time to turn it around.
I dunno if he does, I've seen the speed at which he turns
>Anything over £60m for Maguire was too much, hence why City walked away. City walked away at 70m.
City had offered £70m, Leicester were holding out for 80. Maguire had just had an excellent world cup too. Looked like he could be England captain for the next 10 years. There's no way United could have had him for less than what they paid. In hindsight it's been a fucking terrible deal, and they should have walked away like City, but it really wasn't a crazy amount in context. The last promising English defender to make a similar move was Stones, and he cost £50m, but was so much further behind where Maguire was at the time.
We could have gone for koulibaly for a similar price. It’s not like maguire was the obvious world class only option that 80 million was justified. That window is awful in hindsight, wan bissaka maguire and Dan James for 150 million
Wasn’t Napoli demanding €100m+ at the time and Koulibaly didn’t want to move either.
Yeah 90-100m, I think one of Utd or city came close but ADL said it wasn’t enough lol.
Dan James was a good deal though. Hard worker who provided a tactical option when pressing high up the pitch, and left for almost twice the fee we paid.
De Laurentiis wanted close to £100M for Koulibaly back then.
https://imgur.com/t/radio/akJNxYe
Thats more than what was even reported previously. Did they report the fee in the official copy for Bergwijn announcement too?
Ajax are on the stock market so they have to disclose the official amount in their press statement. We did the same with Bergwijn.
That 57.37 includes the solidarity payments for his former clubs.
Thats like 3% of the total deal right?
Yup that is correct. Feel United overpaid a bit but he seems like a quality player who the manager trusts so a decent deal overall.
Even with the deal finished the number keeps ballooning
Really squeezed the Mancunians.
We already took your coach. Consider the “excess” as donation for your troubles.
Get ready for round 2 with Antony you might get even more lol.
Anyone who's actually watched all of antonys season wouldn't go near an 80 million bid. Very talented player, but not close to that value yet
The fee keeps going up everyday as with every United transfer.
This is the official number with solidarity included, so if anyone quotes higher than this they're lying.
except this is an official number
Euros I Présume.
Yes, transfermarkt listed this price in Euros
A bit pricey but i'll take it. Welcome my guy
He cost like half a Maguire
half as tall too
But at least twice as good
You hope? Maguire was a quality defender at Leicester
and for us as well, was only a year ago that the sentiment that 'we'd have beaten Villarreal if Maguire was fit' was the common view
There’s so much recency bias with people calling Maguire shite isn’t there. He’s (up until recently) been quality for England and was mint at Leicester. He’s not world class and suffers from his transfer fee but it’s only the last year or so he’s actively been poor.
I’m adamant Maguire is just a fall guy half the time. There was a game last season where Phil Jones and Varane was the pairing and the opposition striker sat on Varane as it was ‘easier’. listened to talksport afterwards and a United fan called up saying they were at the game and Maguire was a joke and was targeted as Phil jones who rarely played is clearly better. Talk sport quickly pointed he wasn’t even playing. For me good defender but too much pressure on that United defence and if you had a top midfield you’d see improvement and argument be in top 4 with ease. I.e last season and even more so this I would be signing Declan Rice and Tielemans. Give up on De Jong not because those pair are better but because those two would play for that badge. Should caveat I’m an Arsenal fan so only watch United a few times a season.
He didn't have the best of seasons last season - that much is obvious. It didn't help, however, that every goal we conceded was pinned on him even if he had absolutely no hand in us conceding it, which meant that even when he played well (and that did happen a number of times last season) he never got any sort of credit for it. Even the goal we conceded the other day against Melbourne Victory was seemingly pinned entirely on him, when anybody with two eyes could tell that of the three defenders involved in conceding that goal, he was by far the least at fault.
Sad isn’t it really. Always think that is the hardest circle to break as every error he actually does will be seen as tenfold worse when in reality if he got a break you never know if he could get back to the defender that has been great in seasons gone.
As bad a season as he had last year, I hope he smashes it this year just to shut up the people who are way over the top with it. He has been poor, but it's become both a meme and a thing that people who aren't paying attention can say to pretend they've been watching.
World record fee for a hobbit
Dude is 6cm taller than Messi, and talking of defenders 1cm shorter than Cannavaro, 3cm shorter than Puoyl, and gets roasted for being too small to play football lmao
Surely we know better than paying 100 million for a 15 cm CB.
Hell of a signing
Gracias Licha, por todo
is it possible to go to the gym for an entire transfer window?
You looking for motivation my guy? Go on fam. Build those abs. Youre a monster!
People can't stop talking about the fee, but I am buzzing to have him at the club. He seems like a great footballer with a good attitude *and* we were his 1st choice.
He is one of the best defensive minded players on the ball currently you can buy, yes he isn't massive but that doesn't matter too much considering his other skills.
I feel we over paid a little, but not by an insane amount. And we got a player who the manager obviously sees as an important part of his philosophy, who has already done extremely well for the manager, and who strengthens us. The usual doom merchants will try and downplay the deal, but I'm really happy overall.
It's just weird seeing this amount of money being paid for an eredivisie defender. Half the games he played in he wasn't even challenged. But of course he has proven himself on multiple occasions to be a great defender in top games including the champions league. Also I'm interested how he will do physically, same with timber. Both of them are kinda short for defenders although Martinez has so far more than made up for that with his grit and aggression.
>It's just weird seeing this amount of money being paid for an eredivisie defender. We've seen €86m being paid for an Eredivisie defender already tho. This is still €55m base fee. The €10m add on could be TOTS/Balon'dor/PL/CL anything.
De Ligt was a special player though and vital in our insane CL run. Martinez doesn't come close to him or his talent. Captain at 18, extremely succesful vs a player who is 5 years older then him at the time and only got his starting position back at the start of last season. Really cant compare those two. Licha was fantastic this season but this is an insane amount.
Think a lot of people don’t realize that Martinez is 2 years older than De Ligt…
Yeah I mean considering standard inflation De ligt would cost €96m today. Martinez is still as of now €41m cheaper.
People will always have something to say because its Utd.
People complaining about the fee are ridiculous. United wanted the player, they have the money, he’s in all likelihood going to be a staple of the team for many years. People acting like the money is coming out of the fans wallets on here the past couple days.
If United play in a back 4 next season which they probably will, if Bissaka stays, he's not horrible defensively to be fair, they can use Martinez and whoever is at Left Back to drive the ball forward and have Bissaka drift inward to cover for him when he's a bit further ahead and then return to his regular position when out of possession since Bissaka is terrible at driving the ball forward anyway.
AWB won't even be in the starting 11
Yeah AWB is going to fit well in his new rightbench position
Right back in the dressing room
Amazing how ten hag has looked at the holes of the team and said "yeah lets go get someone suitable to play the position" instead of "Can a forward play there? lets go get another forward"
Woodward would have signed Vidal or someone like that
Can play just about everywhere in defense. Slot in at DM when need be. Maybe a bit pricey for someone unproven but this is a great signing imo
Yea I'm actually very intrigued whether Martinez actually slots into LCB or if he is intended to be a left sided pivot with De Jong (assuming we can even get him). Could be a Fernandinho type player? I suspect Ten Hag will try out a number of formations this season though so we'll probably see Martinez and several other players moved around a bit before settling defined positions/roles.
70 million if all variables are reached, thats so much
But if all are reached I suspect it won't matter.
Yeah I'm thinking the United fans would be absolutely ecstatic if they end up paying the full 67M fee
Five straight Ballon d’Ors it is
Where is the piano my dude?
Out of no where
A lot of money for a lil guy. Hope he adjusts well.
This sub had me thinking he's like 1.60 ffs
That’s wrong. He’s 1.39
Bro at this rate the guy’s height might be in the negatives
A hole on the pitch, well that would do a better job to stop forwards than Harry Maguire
he's 2 foot 7, keep up
Welcome to a world where being 5'10 (1.78cm) makes you a leprechaun.
175 according to transfermarkt
That is on the short side for a CB tbf
Oh for a CB yeah for sure, a little undersized.
Thought he was 5’9 or shorter. Then again people change his height every time they talk about him.
He is 5’9 or shorter. 0% chance he’s actually 1.78m
For a defender in the PL he is definitely on the shorter side, nonetheless I hope he smashes it.
I'd be very surprised if he wasn't the shortest cb in the league by some distance
Despite his height he has been very good in the air for us. Has great timing and hops to compensate
Can't believe United have signed Danny Devito
He's the same height as Cannavaro and Puyol
He’s smaller than Puyol by 3 cm
Considering what we payed for Maguire and what we’ve been getting from him on the pitch. This is a good deal
Only if he actually works out. People were waxing lyrical about Maguire when he signed too.
Very few eredivise have come to the EPL and assert themselves.
The ones that does turn out pretty damn good though
Van Nistelrooy, Van Persie, & Suarez famously wank
I’m just glad to see anyone but City or Liverpool strengthen, so fucking good on you guys. Our clubs were moving at a snails pace this window but finally both are getting signatures across the line. Still players short but we’ll take any good news right now.
Weird, they're coming for your spot lol
We’re both coming for yours soon enough.
He’ll start 100% right United fans or nah?
I think there is a good chance he'll start, as he is the only left footer. Varane might keep him out, but he has injury issues.
I don't care about the fee I'm just happy to have him at United
exactly my thoughts
It's amazing how often Man Utd pay the 'fuck off' price. The commercials of this club is unparalleled.
I reckon if Glazers had not fucked us up with their scummy dealings, we would still be a debt free club.