Manchester United Banter Archive August 10 2013

10 Aug 2013 23:53:51
I have come to a point where I say - I have given up on this transfer thing. The United way is to promise and never deliver the real targets every season.

In the last 2 seasons we bought Shinji Kagawa, Robin Van Persie, David de Gea, Phil Jones, Ashley Young, Alexander Buttner and Wiflfred Zaha, one of which is a worldclass player, 3 of which are recognised world class talents and the fifth is a supremly talented youngster.

Ye but SAF and David Gill were in charge then buddy.all the winning coaching staff are gone.i think most people are trying to be optimistic because we are Manchester United, but I think a lot of us are frustrated as with Moyes and Woodward, they haven't set the world on fire since they came in!nothing has happened and even the preseason results have been disappointing!So its a worry!for me I think there's still time, but ideally we would want our new players signed before th PL kick.
On supporter I know of is so worried, he actualy said to me, 'has there ever been a team that has won the league and the following season they got relegated?
I just said to him they're no way, that's going to happen!but that's just an example of how some of our fans are worried.

I wouldn't shout too loud about Young and Buttner - poor to average players. Not good enough for United.

RVP - good signing but IMO he was a panic buy from Ferguson. His 2 primary targets were Hazzard and Moura and they both chose not to come. With money burning a hole in his pocket and the window starting to close he calls Wenger to leverage the RVP sale. Panic buy.

Kagawa - good player but a poor season. He needs to excel this year otherwise I think he will want a return to Dortmund.

de Gea - stated poorly but came good. Need to see this consistently now.

Zaha - has potential

Mixk

I love your optimism but I can't see which 3 are eprecognised as world class talents, particularly if you mean Ashley Young. RVP yes, Kagawa looks, like he can be brilliant, Jones is very promising but I never did understand why we bought Young. As for Buttner, we shall see if he develops but so far I'm not sure he will make it with United.

No name,

Tell your mate to strap a pair on and stop being a moron. How the hell could anybody think the squad we have could get relegated? Some people are on a different planet to me I think.

How was van Persie a panic buy? Correct me if i'm wrong but wasn't we after both him and Moura at the same time.

10 Aug 2013 23:34:52
Vidal, fabergas, gundogan.
3 players I think would make a real difference to United when you take in to account how much the player is worth how much United need him how much would people pay for each one .
Jred {Ed004's Note - Up to 35-40 for each of them}

I would maybe pay 40 +

Jred
The difference between me and you is what determines success I'd sign Hummells before anyone.
Why because you only win major honours when your solid at the back and that's why Chealsea will win f---all this season because TheHappy man will go with Terryand Chek in goal.
Dylan

To be honest I would sign subotic rather than hummels. Both are the same age but subotic is the better defender in my opinion with hummels better at going up.

Special K

Dylan

I don't have chelsea winning it either and have city ahead of them. I would buy Varrane as he is better than all of them.

Shahram

10 Aug 2013 23:06:47
Id be pretty pleased with one of:
Eriksen
Honda
Mccarthy
Modric
Vidal

I believe all these would improve our starting 11 with the exception of McCarthy. Not made my mind up yet about Fellaini, reckon there are better options out there than him for a cheaper price. But if it came to the end of the window and we have signed no other people then would definitely take him.

Cob

Cob
The vibes I'm getting off this site concerns me, I've seen this attitude/bigotry ruin many clubs.
We have no right to be champions SirvAlex surely educated us to realise how demanding this league is and that it's not about entertaining football but getting results(nice to win with class as we have) but what lays the marker down is winning it ugly because that does wonders for team spirit which believe me is key.the players sense if there are doubts and right now their concerned Rooney ain't helping and more importantly most people on here aren't with their where going to be left behind nonsense.
Dylan

10 Aug 2013 22:51:04
Dylan I sometimes wonder if you watched us play last season, yes we won the prem but the standard of our football was average.catching our main competitors lacking like last year will not happen again.we have too many average players most of whom wouldn't get near our main rivals teams.

johndenton
_____________________________________

John this is what I have been saying to my friends for a long time. Everyone says we won the league easy but I agree we did not set the league on fire last season. There was a lot of grinding out results last season. I know a lot of us were far from pleased with our performances last season. The standout game had to be against Madrid but other than that we looked very ordinary. Lots of scrappy play with a soft midfield that got walked through at will. We need reinforcements if we don't get them and sell Rooney I am sure we will struggle. Just tired of hearing how we won the league at a canter last season we never looked comfortable even with the huge lead we had.

We won the league last season not because we were good but because evryone else were poor.

The standard in the PL last season was poor.

John, Darren

On occasions, whilst I am embarrassed to admit it, I got a little bored watching some of our games. It wasn't the United way

I agree, it certainly wasn't as easy as many people are saying. The amount of games we came from behind to win or draw was incredible, however I don't think we can be so careless this season. I'm sure we will strengthen the midfield, just hope it happens sooner rather than later.

No Question we won the league last season with football that was not great and many of the results could have been draws instead of wins plus city's and chelsea's internal issues helped.

Shahram

10 Aug 2013 22:31:11
Does anybody think Mascherano's comments mean he could be on the move?

Worth an enquiry?

Would he consider United?

Would WE consider him?

Interest from arsenal according to reports.

10 Aug 2013 21:51:18
With the greatest of respect to everyone who says we don't need to strengthen our team, that's just stupidity. We have never really had a good midfield to cope in Europe since Hargreaves has been injured. It has always been weak. I had been crying for a spanish midfielder as they are technically gifted to retain the ball since Barca won us in the CL final. This was supported by the fact Spain was the no1 team. the weaknesses were covered up by wingers and Fergies brilliance of getting the team to play till right till the end of each gone. Chelsea have got Mourinho who in my opinion will instill enough confidence in his team that they will be very hard to beat and Man City have the engineer with the best squad on paper. Carrick no matter how good he is, is not a creative midfielder nor a Defensive midfielder. who have we got other then that? Anderson has been changed from an AM to a CM/DM? ok he has had fitness problems. Cleverly same over rated. we missed Fletcher. We really need a DM and a creative midfielder. Our wingers no matter if they not as strong as others, will tick play together with a good cnetral midfield. Moyes no matter how good he is, if he not got a team that is strong as not stronger but as strong as Chelsea or City can't do alot. Last year we only won the tiltle bcuz the other teams messed up. Yes we will support our team always in any situation but let's face reality and we need 2 midfielders. Why we didn't buy strootman puzzles me? strootman and Fabregas would have been a great summer just what we needed. Last year I was crying for Martinez and he was bought by Bayern. We really lack the pulling power we once used to have bcuz players now look beyond history. We really need to look at our best 11 and realise where we need to improve. Rooney for all his energy has lost his mind and we should ring Wenger and say pay us £30 mil and take him but we should not sell him to chelsea.

I agree with you mate. Sensible post. Some muppets really don't realise other teams have strengthened while United have not.

Beastie

Totally agree especially on the Martinez transfer, would've been the perfect player for us. After that I thought, ok let's get Dembele on the cheap and with Berbs going the other way it's a no brainer. But No!
This summer I would've gone for Wanyama (again cheap) and then looked for a creative midfielder.
Boyley

I agree too though I remember the days when fergie sold hughes, ince and kanchelskis in the same summer the fans then thought fergie had lost the plot when he brought in scholes, beckham, neville and butt to add to the already playing giggs those 'kids' repaid his faith with a double of league and fa cup.We have other youngsters coming through in powell, januzaj, lingard the keane bros to add to the experience of younsters we have already in the squad as in de gea, smalling, jones, rafael, hernandez, welbeck and cleverly, who by the way helped win the league at a canter last season.The fact is we as fans of this great club have been spoilt for the last 20 years.We've had major upheaval for this coming season and now is the time for patience.Fans have been saying for the last few seasons to give youth a chance is'nt that what were about?

Nelly that group of young players was a total one off you will never see it again in the modern game.we have some talented prospects at the moment but you will not get 3, 4 or 5 coming through and staking a claim for a place.januzaj is a real talent but he won't play a lot of league games next season and will probably be mainly used as a sub.i watch a lot of youth football at utd and was excited by pogba and a few others like dailhi who I was surprised when he left.im not that impressed with the u21, s and feel we have a lot more potential in the u18 group with some stand out players like pearson and wilson and quite a few others if they carry on developing.you and others keep saying we won at a canter last season, it won't happen again we were very average and our main rivals won't let us do that again.

My point was there's no need to panic over the lack of transfers as we still have a strong core of young players that should only get better.This moment in time could be a transitional period and patience may be needed.

10 Aug 2013 21:29:39
Hi everyone, life long United fan here & I would like to add a few points/thoughts into the mix.
1. Rooney should NOT be sold to Chelsea under any circumstances, he should be dragged in front of the board and told he is staying, and to lose some bloody weight. His agent should be barred from Old Trafford & Carrington.
2. David Moyes. I believe Moyes will do a decent job but no more than that. we will hover about 4th-5th in the league for a few seasons and then do a Liverpool
(please let me be wrong) We now have The Everton backroom staff and I'm afraid they are very much out of their depth as is Moyes, obviously I hope I'm wrong on both counts.
3.Transfer Policy. Well where do we start with this? it's been amateur night at Old Trafford for the last five weeks. Surely someone at the club had a list of possible transfer targets before the end of last season. Targeting players that we have no chance of getting and leaking it to the press is just a cynical ploy to sell season tickets and keep us in media focus during the close season.
4. Players. let there be no doubt, WE NEED 3/4 World CLASS PLAYERS NOW. For the love of Jesus! Tom Cleverly! what has he got to offer a club of our standing? Anderson, Cleverly, Young, Fabio, are all Championship players at best, if these guys were playing for Liverpool or City we would be pissing ourselves laughing. Valencia looks finished & Nani has yet to get started after five years, and the reason why we have not sold any of these players is very simple, no one wants them.
5. We have a few good young players coming through but we can not expect them to carry the can for our failed transfer policy since the Glazers took control of our club. Januzaj, Lingard, Zaha, etc can all make a contribution now but need time to develop without the weight of Old Trafford on their shoulders. So moyes get your finger and get signing some top class players (none from Everton please) NOW!
By the way, I have supported United through thick and thin since 1970 so I reserve the right to an opinion on the club I love without the MUTV/Pravda brigade coming down on me for being too negative.
rant over, Phew!

Sorry lads! the name is luca Brazi

Agree with all points made. If ordinary fans can see what is happening to our club, why can't the management!

GLC

I too have been supporting the club for over 40 years, so hopefully this will entitle me to express an opinion.

I think DM might actually do better than you have described, but I totally agree with your comments about Rooney, our current crop of players and the transfer policy.

I've been trying to decide if our public approach to transfers has been a clever smokescreen or just simple naivety. The longer we wait for any meaningful activity, the more I am inclined towards the latter view - but boy do I hope to be proved wrong!

DL10

Agree with all your points, was disappointed to see moyes take over to say the least, think he was the easy option, as he has run everton on a tight budget for years.
Totally agree with you on cleverly, most over-rated player I have seen in years and welbeck's, not far behind him, welbeck trys his best but 1 goal last year in the league is embarassing.
Aother point I would add and this goes back at least 2 seasons is the severe lack of midfield quality we have. Pogba should have been kept and given his chance 2years ago.

Ah well, will still support them thru thick and thin and hope it leads us back to the summit of european football

Hmnnn, actually a well written piece with all the objections handled before anyone makes them.The problem is it masks the real intentions and purpose of the writer.
Firstly Nani was player of the year a few year back, so bulls.hit.
Secondly United are a multi-miliion pound world brand, no owner goes out to destroy that and that includes misleading the fans. More b ullrubbish.
Someone had to replace G od. Moyes is as qualified as anyone and I suspect the
work behind the scenes will bear fruit over time.
Agree from my perspective Rooney should not be sold but do you really think the club would sell him if there was better option.
You people talk about the club like it is run by persons. That is not the case and if you could do better you would be the owner not the moaner. Fact.
MUTV/Pravda brigade. really? No one else could possibly disagree with your b.ullrubbish? Wrong. make your argument on merit not try to do credit the people who just maybe have more passion for the club than you anyway.
Supported United through thick and thin. Hmnnn I don't think so reading this post.

The club is a world brand with huge marketing expertise. The club is not daft. The club will do it's best to make proper and sound business decisions. The club will deliver value and trophies over time.

The players however need support from real fans to succeed not numpties playing out their fantasies based in a single transfer window.
Get a grip.

Steveytrader

Fed up with the negativity and whingy fans . wait and see . Right now we are he Champions!

10 Aug 2013 20:19:32
Rooney out for the game on Sunday, appears he will never play for us again. The boy really is a fool, he could be the all time leading goal scorer for one of the biggest clubs in the world. The fact that he has his heart set out for a move to Chelski, a main rival, is really sickening. A few years ago it was City that he used to get an enormous contract. It's ironic that he said the club lacked ambition but when we bring in a player at his position he shrinks from the challenge. If we do sell to Chelski, we shouldn't settle for anything less than 40m.
My only worry is that we won't reinvest it in new players.

Flint

Flint

It's not Rooney's fault, he is the innocent party here

10 Aug 2013 19:03:13
Woodward was spectacularly successful bringing in sponsorship deals but in doing so has created a level of expectation commercially in his new role that should bring transfers into sharp focus.

The major increase in heavy spending sponsors will bring notably increased pressure, those sponsors will want to see United making headlines for the right reasons, challenging for the top prizes and most importantly have the very top players that bring their own good headlines, faces and stories they can use.

At the moment RVP aside we are rather characterless and faceless, Rooney is not making good headlines, the other players are good but not great. The spine of our team has aged and is deteriorating. We get frustrated by the buying policy or lack of it from the club but imagine how the sponsors feel, who is the poster boy who will sell the product they have paid millions on us to highlight. Are they going to start getting nervous at the transfer efforts so far?

So what? you ask, well this window we need top players not just to improve the team but to keep our sponsors on board. When putting forward the Cabaye, Modric rumours, ask if they will propel the team to the top of the league but also are they top players who appeal to our worldwide audience that sponsors want to reach?

A team of Cleverleys, Andersons and even Modric, Cabaye are no more than ok but are they really global superstars? You should know they are not and therefore we rely upon RVP, 30 and 1 year at the club to carry us forward on the pitch plus commercially and let us remember he left Arsenal to win trophes but also to play with top players. Add to this we did not appoint a globally recognised manager.

The next few weeks are more important than many realise and Woodward needs to spend major money not only to improve the team on the pitch but also to give us the star factor that keeps the sponsors on board. No matter which way you look at it Cabaye and Modric are not it. A faceless team like there was at Everton will not cut it with those spending millions and if they stop investing our owners will not be happy.

When looking at potential players I ask myself would they have got into the 1994, 1999 or the 2008 side? Modric, Cabaye no chance, drop our standards and the spectre of Liverpool post 1990 looms.

Mr "no retooling" has been good to his word so far but sponsors as well as fans will be watching now.

I would be over the moon with Modric, Fellaini & Baines.

Good post.

I have to admit I hadn't thought about it like that. I'm still a fan of the football club and struggle to consider the business aspects. It makes sense though, especially when you consider how Kagawa was treated like a rock star on the tour. United are short of players that can be used in worldwide marketing campaigns.

Red Man
So in the space of a close season having won the league by a canter where now facing a decline the likes of L, pool have experienced.
Our pre season hasn't been the easiest for DM with players not being available for whatever reasons however with a couple of signings which will no doubt come off and the exciting Januzaj showing great maturity I feel you need to chill out, relax and realise the squad your doubting have it in their DNA to prove pundits wrong.
Dylan

These stars you are talking about were bought when they were young and developed into stars. Ronaldo was a young talented player who Fergie slowly developed into the world class player he is today. It's not the United way, that's the Madrid way.

I totally agree Sydney, those three would be great and keep Mr Rooney and I think we really could win the league again this season.

Great post redman hit the nail on the head

Yep, agree, for the sponsors (and the fans) Ronaldo was the perfect signing, but that boat has sailed.

But if the team starts well and the young lads coming thru really excel then sponsors won't mind about a single global star, they will just market that they are involved with a successful team. While they would love the poster boy, most big companies like to advertise that they are a team and its the team, not any 1 person that is the importance.

Kepp the faith, transfer window not closed and we are still champions.

I wonder what people's opinion of a "Director of Football" are now given the apparent ineptitude so far in transfer dealings. I really think we as a club are missing out on using David Beckham as well right now. From afar it seems he would jump at the chance to be associated with us again and given the recent unveiling of the beckham exhibit in the club museum its time to get him back in some capacity!

Dylan I sometimes wonder if you watched us play last season, yes we won the prem but the standard of our football was average.catching our main competitors lacking like last year will not happen again.we have too many average players most of whom wouldn't get near our main rivals teams.

10 Aug 2013 17:08:32
think we are in for an interesting 3-4 years with the new breed of superkids coming thru . zaha, januzaj, lingard, keane all playing along with smalling, jones, buttner, the twins at the back. cleverly, carrick(new giggsy) in the middle . and wellbeck, chica and henriqez up front

dont care if we don't buy anyone this season, let's look to the future

4-5 of that list will not be with utd long term simply not good enough

Nick powell too. i'm hoping he can stay free of injuries and really develop. think he could be a special player for us

vinny

Other teams are developing more talented kids. If we do not make it into Champions League next year the financial implications could be very negative. If they really wanted Fabregas I don't know why the didn't offer 40m+ on day one.

Really cleverly? And injury prone smalling and jones.

We need players now not for the future, look at arsenal for the past 5-6 years there kids have been dubbed "its there time this year"

Dont get me wrong of course the youth in very important but we need world class players arpund them to help them progress.

Its not like 92 u can't win anything with kids just look at villa

SPB

Im a optimist I know, but with DM as the new boss and his "get the job done with zero funds" reputation the glaziers are going to keep the transfer kitty at a minimum
so we got 3 options
1. get behind the boss and the team, last thing we need is negative crowds and don't give the press any chance of printing bxxxxhit
2. the glaziers sell up
3. SAF come outta retirement

feel free to add any more

All I would like to see is one player brought in and that would be a cm preferable defensive, someone to break up play and regain possession.
i couldn't care less if we don't strenghten anywhere else, this is the only position that even a blind man could see we're lacking and haven't done anything about it in years.
we had the answer to our problem but we let him go to juve.
what is everybodies opinion on going for pogba?

You'd be happy with one more player? You've got to be joking what about if Carrick gets injured? What are we going to do about our paperback midfield then? We need at least 3-5 players, look at real madrid and bayerns strength in depth with quality everywhere. We are one of the top teams in the world we need to better than them that is the aim.

Coups

Yes Coups i'd be happy with one world class mid and by the way things are going one would be better than none. and yes in an ideal world i'd love us to sign 3-5 top notch players but it doesn't look like its going to happen but hope i'm wrong.

10 Aug 2013 16:43:06
I'm sure many of you have already seen this but I just thought I'd share this little nugget with you from the guardian

Su�rez, meanwhile, talks about his emotional attachment to Merseyside. "Liverpool will always be a special place to me, my daughter was born here." Delfina was born on 5 August 2010. Su�rez, for the record, signed for Liverpool on 31 January 2011.

too thick to remember or just compulsively deceitful?

Maybe it was lost in translation

10 Aug 2013 15:22:31
With the 35 mil we were dropping on fab why not look elsewhere I'm sure juventus would accept 30-35 for machisio or Vidal. Sneijder plenty of other options. Anyone else think this will be a tough year of no one is signed we lack control and that special something in the midfield. We need a dominate CM and let Rooney go use money for lewandowski benzema anyone who would be proud to wear the red

10 Aug 2013 14:07:26
Told today from a source that Rooney is definitely off to Chelsea, we are holding out for as much money as possible but will not sell him till after the home game against Chelsea

Guff Never going to happen!!!

Rooney is as good as gone just move on, wether you like it or not its unlikeley he will pull on a red shirt again

10 Aug 2013 13:38:35
I think it's time for the few posts about team selections for the competitive matches! Really looking forward to the Shield tomorrow, this is how I think we will line up:

De Gea, Rafael, Vidic, Jones, Evra, Zaha, Carrick, Anderson, Kagawa, Welbeck, RVP.

I think that will be a changing 4-4-1-1 to 4-3-3. I also suspect Januzaj and Lingard will both make an appearance and Henriquez should be on the bench because I have no clue where Hernandez has disappeared too.

Any formation other than 4:4:2, which is outdated

I think Jones will play in midfield, as Anderson started yesterday, with Evans coming in. Also I imagine Young will start on the left as he was rested, with Welbeck benched. Apart from that I think you're there Fresh!

For me the lineup will be
de gea, rafael, vidic, evans, evra, carrick, anderson, nani/valencia/zaha, kagawa/januzaj, danny boy, van persie (4-2-3-1)

I really hope Giggs doesn't start tomorrow. Its time he stays even more on the periphery of the starting XI and this should happen from tomorrow itself. Also am wondering where is Chicarito?

10 Aug 2013 13:08:18
Right I've not posted in awhile but have been reading a lot of crap on this over last few weeks. I do agree it's taking DM awhile to find his feet in one of the biggest clubs in the world(remember it took SAF 5/6 years to win league). DM wouldn't have been my first choice but he's a good manager and good guy, he's also quite good record of finding good young players and nurturing them. We have a huge academy but we haven't really produced any real top talent in quite awhile. I'd love to see DM give the young players a chance and also give nani, Anderson and few more a full season to prove themselves. Yes we do need a centre midfield player but I'd give what we have a chance first. So what if we don't win league but at least we'd have given players a fair chance and give the younger ones experience( that's why we lost pogba). Fergie was a legend, but he had his faults as well, if you fell out with him it was curtains for you, I think he done the club no favours on the Rooney issue. He should of stayed quite and let new manager deal with it. I hope we do bring in someone but if we don't I'm still quite happy with what we have and hopefully a few of the players that didn't get the play time under fergie get there chance and prove him wrong.
Johnny

10 Aug 2013 13:04:58
so rooney posted on his page how happy and eager he is to link up with the england squad, shame he can't the same for utd, I think it has become pretty clear that wayne does not want to play for us again, but what is making me sad and kinda angry is not the fact he does not want to play for us but the fact that he wants to leave us for our rivals.so if/when he leaves do you guys think he will kiss the chelsea badge when he scores aginst us?

10 Aug 2013 12:39:19
Anyone worried that our brightest prospect, Adnan Januzaj, is going into the last year of his contract? Apparently Barca and Juve are interested in him. I hope we give him game time so he signs a new contract because this kid is going to be world class.

Ozzy

10 Aug 2013 11:37:13
I know this really doesn't mean much and I'm over thinking but here it is .Ok, so I went to the local sports store and went to the kits section and the Manchester United section was towards the end of the isle and was the farthest kit away. I kind of feel like that's just how things have become over the past few years, we are the last choice for people and that's why "were at the end of the isle". I know I'm probably over thinking it but tell me what you guys think.

THE SHINING KNIGHT

Mate, it's posts like this that have led to some of the regulars taking a break. Are you serious? The shop keeper has. Decided we are now last choice so he's put our shirts at the back? Check the numbers man and tell me how many shirts we sell compared to other clubs. Give me strength

Did you think the other kits were up front because no one was buying them and the sports store was trying to move them? Whereas people actually go looking for the United kit as you did in this case

It doesn't matter where they put our kit its the most popular selling replica footy shirt in the world. Look up the stats for sales in Asia you will be amazed.

10 Aug 2013 09:59:00
Just a quick post to divert from the usual topics on here. Its regarding tomorrows Community shield, Wigan have sold only 5500 tickets, which is absolutely p£ss poor. United on the other hand have sold all their allocation of 39000 & another 7500 extra that they requested from the FA. The FA must be squirming at the thought of tens of thousands of empty seats at the seasons showpiece curtain raiser. Well done to United fans for there fantastic following ( myself included ). Just wondering why we can't have it at Old Trafford & save everyone the bother of travelling to London. Last seasons Community Shield was switched to Villa Park for the city v Chelsea game to accommodate the Olympics so it can be done. By the way the crowd for that game was 36,000, massive clubs my a%*se .

Highly impressive but also, a big factor in why a lot of us are frustrated with our lack of reinforcements. The club makes an insane amount of money, a lot of which comes from the pockets of the fans - therefore, it shouldn't come as a surprise that those fans want to see some of that money invested in the team to keep us competitive.

All other rivals have invested, some very well. So far we've spent £2million tops. I have no problem with promoting youth either, but there has to be a balance - the owners can't keep taking without giving.

Window's not done yet though so fingers crossed. CS should be a decent game and we SHOULD win handily - would be a great way for Moyes to get his competitive United career underway.

RED_SKY

Because OT is not a neutral venue. Like ot or not, Wigan won the Cup so they are entitled to another day out

10 Aug 2013 09:35:19
I don't get it. I mean, we can offer modric first team football on a REGULAR basis. We can certainly match his wages and have the 35 million or around to spend so why on earth wouldn't he want to come?
That is assuming there is interest from our side, which should be the case after his performance against chelsea.

Did Modric say anything or did I miss something?

REDFAITH

He didn't exactly say anything, and I have to admit there are a lot of other variables to consider. But the major ones remain the selling club's, buying club's and the player's ambition. We seem to have the latter two down (theoretically), I'm just trying to wrap my brain around the fact that why is Luka modric such a difficult target.

Will just be another drag on like fab was bring back gill I say at least he got things done early where did this guy appear from lol has he ever been seen since boarding aplane a few weeks ago

I don't think he is a difficult target if Real are open to his sale, which they apparently are.

They are also open to selling Di Maria, Coentrao and Khedira. To be honest those 4 would do nicely for us imo, don't know why we have been going for difficult targets, when some other good players are clearly available.

I agree Redfaith. understandable if united don't want to go for the well established players commanding a transfer fee well north of 30 mills since we have brilliant players coming through and don't need to catch up to anyone (domestically ofcourse). Why don't go for the future stars.
Thiago was a massive loss in that regard but there are still plenty of talents in the transfer market. Kongdobia, Eriksen even Gustavo are cheap and half decent players. Gustavo is better than Anderson and Cleverly combined. is available. and would not mind playing for the biggest club in England and yet we have no interest in him. really would like to know what's going on in the minds of the people in charge.

Oswaldo

Perhaps you should contact the Glazers and offer your services. If Eriksen is so good, why do none of the 'big' clubs want him? The same could be asked of Strootman. I am sure DM has targets in mind and is working through them. If we don't sign quality I will be happy to come on here at the end of August and rant with everyone else.

AJH
You are spot on!
/The Dane

10 Aug 2013 09:08:25
Sick of reading "don't be so negative! We are the greatest/biggest team in the world". I am sure Liverpool felt the same way after their 80s dominance, I bet they thought in the early 90s, don't worry lads we jus need a player here and there. My point is this, our team think like champions and act like champions mainly down to Fergie who in stored this into the team and more often then not we were infact champions. Now without Fergie feeding this and without recruitments to compete how long will our team indeed think and act like champions? It's hard to act like a champion if your not fighting for the title. So why not question the dedication and commitment of the owners, why not a bit of negativity? What have they gave us to be Jovial about? Fergie retired, scholes retires again, one of our stars maybe going to a rival and we are struggling to fix a very very questionable midfield. Surely as fans we are aloud to vent and moan? As other teams don't seem to struggle to fix their problem areas and I ain't on about the money bags teams but even the like of spurs have gone out and bought well, I jus don't understand why we can't. Unless its true tht moyes was bought in because he indeed can work with no money, which in my mind will be a sad end to a fantastic era for our great club.

Strebor,

You can be as negative as you like and backing your post up with reasons why you are negative is absolutely fine and I think most of the optimists have the worries like you do.

The issue the regulars have is with people with no name coming on here saying 'we are rubbish won't even finish top 4', 'moyes and Woodward are a joke', 'I think. '. Nobody cares what a person with no name who can't even back up his points thinks and that's what gets frustrating.

Spot on GDS, it's not about censoring negativity it's just the 'end of the world' style posts without reasoning behind them which are annoying. I do share some of the OP's worries and I do feel we need adequate reinforcements but there are positives too with our youth improving e.g. DDG, Rafael, Jones, Zaha, Januzaj.

Let's hope we get in 1 or 2 quality players to lift the squad and that Moyes finds the right shape/system to get the most from our players. We still have great strength in depth and some quality players in Vidic, Carrick, RvP etc. Our big squad will come more into play as the season progresses.

Sterebor, I take your point. Think back to Liverpool's demise. They had been dominant for a out 17 years and then started buying players like Jimmy Carter and David Speedie as opposed to the likes of John Barnes and Peter Beardsley. You will have noticed how grumpy I get with no name neg heads but I also share the worries. I have some concerns about how long it is taking us to sign quality and I have no idea if we have proper cash or it's all a red herring. Since Berbatov, our transfer policy has not appeared to be that of a big club and SAF has worked wonders with what he had. We shall see

And Gav, I thought you were taking a break? Or or you back after a break? Lol

The thing is I expected things to be slower with us having a new manager and a new chairman but surely something should be happening by now. I do agree tht the no namers coming on saying we are rubbish (which from what I can gather are fans of other teams trying to wind us up) need to be told straight, but I suppose As a united fan I'm not used to this air of uncertainty. I think I personally never really worried about who we signed in the past because we had the best 12th man in the world SIR ALEX.

Sorry mate, just realised I got your name all jumbled up

Be like me don't expect any major signings then you won't be disappointed

AJH, I've been back from my break for a while, lol, just not visiting/posting so often these days. I'll be back to normal soon though especially when the real action begins. Hoping for a good game tomorrow!

10 Aug 2013 09:01:18
I've been getting sick of constantly trying to find middle ground of some kind between the extreme pessimists who I believe are off their meds, and the sunny optimists who I believe are being too nonchalant about certain legitimate problems. So I'm giving up on transfer talk for as long as I can (don't see anything noteworthy happening soon anyways) and figured now would be a good time to do a preseason review on our current squad and what we can expect of them. I figure I'll go in squad number order, and take care of 2-3 players a day if my schedule allows. I am eager to hear all of your feedback.

Day 1: David De Gea (1) and Rafael (2).
-It's nice to be able to start this little summer project with two of our brightest stars. Both are still very young, in their early 20s, but both have already had an enormous amount of first-team football in top-level competitions.

-De Gea was the keeper I had been most supportive of approaching (over Lloris and even Neuer) as I saw De Gea as pure potential. He is already perhaps the best pure shot stopper in the world (even if his kick saves make my heart skip a beat), and as expected he has put on some weight and some toughness when dealing with crosses into the box. He's really had only two mistakes in his time at United and its unfortunate that both happened early in his first season which forced him to fight an inaccurate perception for quite a while that he was unreliable. However having watched almost every PL match this past season, he was also the most consistent and reliable of the keepers (Joe Hart had countless errors last season and gave up some soft goals). It was almost understood this past season that if a goal was scored against us, chances are there was nothing De Gea could do about it. At such a young age, especially for a GK, I can only see him continuing to develop into the top GK in the world, as he's already in the discussion IMO. I do worry that the draw of heading back to spain will prove too strong some day, I hope we can ensure that he stays with us for a long long time. Let's get him a nice Manchester wife and kids with close family in the area. No spanish pop stars please!

Rafael has been one of my favorite players since he began playing regularly for the first team. He is so incredibly dangerous going forward, even when combining with the underwhelming Valencia and Nani, and I hope Moyes gives him the freedom to get forward often, as he can provide a similar offensive threat as Dani Alves does for Barcelona. Most importantly however is that he has shored up the weaker part of his game, his defending. Always eager in the tackle and willing to put his body on the line, Rafael's commitment has never been in doubt, but his timing on some of those challenges was a different story. That being said he has improved dramatically in the last 18-24 months and is now not only a reliable defender, but a very good defensive RB in addition to his offensive potential. If we end up playing with two deep holding midfielders (Carrick/Fellaini-Anderson-Etc) I would much prefer to let Rafael provide width and support and let one of the holding midfielders shift in to cover his defensive reponsibilities. Evra doesn't provide the same threat down the left as he once did, and the lack of a good left-footed LW has left that side of the pitch weaker (Ashley Young's presence doesn't help matters), but I believe combining Zaha and Rafael down the right, with Kagawa, Rooney and RVP making runs in the box, we will be far more successful than holding rafael back and hoping that carrick or anderson will be a better attacking option (still love the 2-3 penetrating runs Ando makes thru the center of the pitch every match). We still struggle to get that extra man into the box (Carrick, Anderson, Fletcher and Cleverley are never going to provide that trailing support that a Fabregas, Lampard or Gundogan can) and we will struggle to score like throughout this preseason when we would work the ball on the counter, pass it out wide, but zaha had only one or two attackers in the box and 4-5 defenders back there. The reason why a CM like fabregas is so valuable and why he would have been the perfect buy is bc he not only is responsible defensively, and can play from deep, he is also so good at getting into the box late, providing another option for the barca attack. We were fine playing this style with Carrick, Scholes, Fletch, etc bc we had Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez who could score on a counter even if they were outnumbered. But RVP is more of an in the box predator and we don't have the world class attackers that would be needed to succeed. Rafael being allowed the freedom to join every attack will lead to far more success in the attacking third, and Carrick/Ando are more than capable of sliding to the right to cover until Rafael can get back. Rafael seems to have been given the cold shoulder by the Selecao, which is insanity in my mind as he's been starting for a big european club since he was a kid and played so well, but I imagine that another strong season as our RB will see him back in the Brazil setup for the WC, and I hope he continues to improve at the rapid pace of the past few years, as we could soon have a player who could one day rival the best RBs this club has ever seen.

It's great this started on such a positive note. Tomorrow I'll try and handle 3-5 (evra, Jones, Rio) which should be less warm and fuzzy and certainly likely to bring more debate in the community.

PLEASE RESPOND, COMMENT, CRITICIZE, OR MAKE YOUR OWN! Trophies are my favorite way to spend Sundays! {Ed004's Note - I reckon this is a good idea my suggestion would be to take a break on match days as the post will more likely get lost due to all the posts regarding the match. Though it was a good read and I was surprised it wasn't from Shappy as it was quite long haha}

Good post Kg, I was shocked to see at the end that it wasnt shappy lol. but neverthe less very good post.

singh

Haha! Ed 004 even I before reading came down to thank shappy! Seems you have competition shappy mate!

Fair enough. On match days well actually have something to discuss other than transfers. Between matches not as much. But I'm tired of transfer overreactions, under reactions and a lot of people treating each other like they're the enemy bc they do/don't support Rooney, moyes, etc. -KG

Good post nice break from the normal topics
Jred

Nice post mate. Agree about De Gea and Rafael. Top players imo and will only get better.

Nice post. DDG is looking great and hopefully still improving.

I'm a big Rafeal fan and he's already improved plenty, he's great going forward and more solid at the back now. I still feel he needs to work on his concentration and rashness at the back, that's still where he's prone to the odd error. He has all the qualities to be the best RB around though if he keeps working hard to improve.

Good post, I also have high hopes for these 2 this year, along with Jones

There is a long way to go to rival Shappy's record. 17 scrolls down on my mouse button if I remember correctly.

Rafa. I agree there is a massive improvement on his part defensive wise and control of his tackle. Still capable of the odd petulant kick out and Luiz played on that last year but more of the same from him and I fully agree he will be up there with our highest thought of RB's.

DDG. Well I have always been a fan ;). No I have seen improvements in his all round game and highlighting errors after Jan time was difficult for me but one thing I am sure only me and KLOOT have pointed out is that SAF changed the tactics of the whole team without the ball to help DDG by not allowing the opposition as many crosses as the first half of the season. The team as a whole sat back on our box with both FB's and wingers doubling up on the wingers making the option for the cross very hard but also putting our whole centre camped on the edge of our box. It did allow Vidic to manage the defence better and highlighted Evra MIA many times but also helped DDG not have to deal with as many crosses.

I have not managed to catch any pre season games due to being away and the first will be the CS tomo so I cannot comment on tactics by Moyes but it will be interesting to see if teams target that area again if Moyes playes a more expansive pressing game.

DDG as an all round keeper has developed well and with the last few issues ironed out I will keep eating that humble pie I started toward the end of last season.

I look forward to your Evra assessment ;)

10 Aug 2013 06:07:14
I do not understand why United would sell Nani but keep Ashley Young. Even days when Nani seems down, he can still pull tricks better than Valencia.

10 Aug 2013 02:53:11
Like many of you on here we are all trying to think positive but it is so hard to stay quiet when you feel so strongly about something. Like a lot of you on here, you have families, work and just life. I am 40 and United have been a tremendous influence in my life so. sign someone please. Moyes will not be able to hold together a leaky defense or find wins we found last season so.

Sign this kid we saw tonight for 10 mil less than fellaini, go get modric he is ripe for the picking and cheeper than Fabs and then sign rooneys replacement and there were options

now I am a positive person by nature but I am realistic and logical.

Get it done soon. cause I need ya!

10 Aug 2013 00:47:10
For all you moyes haters and impatiet and undedicated Manchester United fans, give moyes a chance, yous are blaming him for everything so far and yet you are still to see him play his full strength team and in a competitive match, as for signings we won the league by 11 points last season and still have 3 weeks to buy, so stop being some impatient and get behind the manager we are united and we win its in our DNA so let's support moyes and stop being so negative, sorry about the rant but I think some of us need to hear it. Davethered

You're sounding like our senior players. If we recruited a top manager li, e mourinho, ancelotti, then you and all the players would not have had to tell us to "get behind Moyes" every five minutes.
The fact is we recruited an average manager, predictable in his play, totally lacking in European experience, lacking in any winning experience. And we are expecting him to change overnight and become a master tactician and a serial winner!
Get real.

10 Aug 2013 00:31:25
ok, another poor performance and result tonight but its only a testimaonial. have decided to dispense with the negativity and get some positive vibes going.
we have good young players and it looks like we won't have any choice but to promote from within;
de gea, rafael, jones, evans, smalling, welbeck are all champions and with a few coming thru ie januzj, lingard, zaha, even fabio back. we have a bright future. (omitted cleverly as even i'm not that positive)
Would have liked a couple of signings, but 3 weeks left and am sure a website will try and promote (invent) a few for us. so maybe a couple will come in.
Get rooney to commit and pair him with RVP up front and they will score lots.

Champions again!!

I'm not sure Rooney is going to be around mate. The way we have treated him, it makes it difficult for him to stay now.
Nomidfield

Nm,

The way we have treated him!? Don't you think we have treated him exactly how his behaviour has deserved?

I don't think the whole situation has been handled very well, from both sides.
This should of been sorted out before now

The rooney case as I see it was instigated by a bitter SAF he should have kept there conversation private did rooney ask to leave or not now moyes has to pick up the pieces