Manchester United Banter Archive January 26 2015

26 Jan 2015 16:53:40
Juventus' manager has been reported to have said that Paul Pogba may have to be sold with his reputation being boosted each and every performance.

Does anybody including the Eds, have anything to add about this? Is there interest from Man utd as i feel there should be??

IMO £70million is the right pricetag for someone i could see becoming the next Yaya Toure figure in the PL.

{Ed002's Note - Read the posts or use the search engine.}

26 Jan 2015 17:07:54
I think views will have a day in where he goes, he did last time.
I am sure his agent will be looking to get another slice of a huge signing on fee, but then again he might not be too fussed where that money comes from.

I imagine his destination will be Real Madrid unless they are concentrating on Reus and Aguero. I would love us to go in for him, and I think we are one of the few clubs that could safely afford the transfer fee.

Will it come down to Pogba's choice in the end? Honest question. I imagine Real Madrid, PSG, and maybe Chelsea and Man City will be waving big money his way besides us.

26 Jan 2015 15:34:16
One of my all time favourite player - Juan Roman Riquelme retires today. What a player at his peak? Mesmerizing and could toy with players. His weight of pass and precision were unmatched. Take a bow!

Deeps.

Riquelme was one of the few players I have ever seen who could single-handedly dictate the tempo of a match. He was a pleasure to watch.

26 Jan 2015 13:19:29
I am really unhappy about the way LVG is treating the players especially the youngsters.

Take Januzaj for example. I watched him for two years before he came into the 1st team. I really do think he could become a great player but at the moment he is not being given a consistent run in a position where he can excel. Being a young lad it cannot help his confidence to be left in limbo like this. Playing very infrequently in a struggling team and not in his best position obviously doesn't help but it would be criminal to not get the best out of him. Shaw was bought as a rampaging left back. Stick him there and let him bed in. Or if LVG fancies him further forward let Blackett settle into the left back role and play Shaw as a leftsided attacking player. Blackett clearly has potential and has been pretty solid when played.
In midfield Herrera is a relatively young player too and needs to be given a run of games so he feels confident enough to relax and play his normal game. The boy clearly has talent and moves the ball quickly which is how all top teams play.

LVG has a reputation for giving youth a chance. this was always the Man Utd way. but at the moment he needs to really do this more. What incentive will young players have to come to us if they never get a proper chance. Pogba we all know was a fantastic talent. regardless of whether he will turn out to be just in it to get as much money as possible it is indisputable that by moving to Juve he did the right thing for his playing career. I don't care if we lose games in the short term if it means we get the foundations right for continued long term success. Right now we are building on shifting sands

Blackett, McNair, Wilson, Januzaj have all played in the team at some point.
Shaw has been more injured than not, so LVG has to be careful otherwise, these injuries will affect his long term recovery.
Hererra is the only one who should be getting starts and is not for some reason.

Blackett & McNair have only played because we have had injuries. I doubt we will see them after this season and had he played 4 at the back I doubt we will have seen them much this season.

Wilson is the only young player LVG seems to be grooming. I will praise him for that as it would be easy for him to push Rooney up instead.

In LVG's defence without Europe it has been harder for Januzaj as he shouldn't be starting ahead of our other midfielders on form alone. He needs to be loaned out this season.

I would be far more concerned with his treatment of senior players.

Van Gaal works like an old style school master which is fine for some of the younger lads who are happy to be treated like pupils and obediently follow instructions (obviously some youngsters don't and I think this may be the case with Januzaj).

However, van Gaal also adopts this tact with senior players who years of experience playing at the top level, and that is a recipe for disaster.

I think the one thing you can't have a go at van Gaal at is his youth policy.

Yes Januzaj hasn't played, but he isn't fitting with the formation right now and he might be performing very poorly in training.

Injuries have helped McNair and Blackett, but nevertheless they have played. Fergie would probably have put Fletcher and Carrick at centre back rather than two inexperienced youngsters.

Januzaj has performed poorly whenever picked for the first team this season aside from last week, where I thought he did ok. In saying that I think Mata & RVP have maybe mustered one good game between them this season so its difficult to rate our attacking players this season as they don't have the ball much or options when they do have it.

You are probably right about SAF Fresh, I don't rate Blackett or McNair and don't see them playing their football at Utd in a year or two, at least LVG is taking a look at them though as you say.

Both mcnair and blackett are out of contract this summer

26 Jan 2015 17:59:15
I think McNair could turn out to be a great CB. Needs an experienced mentor really and could do with bulking up a bit. Blackett looks alright but he seems to have a really casual attitude for someone trying to prove himself. Kind of under the impression that he's done relatively well at youth level because he's always been a big strong lad.

I can see McNair and Blackett leaving, as well as they have done, they will have their place taken by a £30 million player who they can't compete with.

26 Jan 2015 21:58:38
Beast is that you praising LVG? 😉

26 Jan 2015 09:56:47
Morning Ed's

Do you think MU will put in a bid for Pogba this window?

Thanks

{Ed002's Note - I really don't want to try to answer questions about timescales.}

26 Jan 2015 11:00:05
Thanks for the reply anyway

Do you believe they will put one in a some point though ed?

{Ed002's Note - Use the search engine.}

I think we will in the summer but I don't think we will be successful in doing so.

26 Jan 2015 05:55:59
Watching Pogba for Juventus in his last match and I have to say we have made some mistakes over the years but none more so than this guy. He has it all. Passing, shooting, strength, positional awareness and can score goals.

Having watched him the last couple of weeks though I believe he has the makings of a number 9 as well as a world class midfielder. Does anyone know if he ever played up top in his younger days? Very, very good player.

26 Jan 2015 09:10:24
We get this post every time he has a good game. So to clear it up:

We get it, he is top class
We get it, we let him go too soon

Whether we made a mistake depends on whether you think an 18 year old should be able to dictate a managers selection and break a wage structure that would cause issues with all young players at the club.

I saw something the other day that I agree with:

For Pogba, see Anelka.

26 Jan 2015 09:29:24
If you were a manager of a club and you knew through your sources that a player had already agreed to go somewhere. When the time arose when that player should have been picked due to other players not being available, would you play him? I wouldn't hence Rafael playing in midfield. Like saf said " we knew he'd already agreed to join juventus a long time ago".

Anelka had flashes of brilliance in his youth, Pogba is brilliant.

26 Jan 2015 10:03:30
JaMax,

I think the quote relates more to the fact he will end up having a decent career playing for many clubs and picking up as many signing on fees as he can for himself and his agent, not about playing ability.

Who is disagreeing with my post, please explain?

How did he earn that tag for himself? He left because of playing time which he has been getting at Juventus since he signed for them.

You are essentially saying Pogba is after money. Do you know him on a personal level or something. There is no evidence of this. He was given the opportunity for first team football at an illustrious club like Juventus and he took it. I know i'd take it if I felt I was ready.

Supasub, Saf would never admit to a mistake and he made that with Pogba pure and simple. Pogba made 7 appearances coming on as a Substitute. If what you say is true then why bother when other players could have been used in those appearances?

26 Jan 2015 12:38:24
Jamax, I do know someone who knew the 2 french agents at the time who were hawking him around long before that game where Rafael played in midfield. It was the understanding that the parents wanted as much money as possible. Where he played (club) wouldn't really come into it.

GDS, he has one bad game in 10, he is on top of his game and will only get better. No matter what anyone says, Fergusson made the biggest mistake of his life by not playing him and instead bringing in Scholes from retirement.
All the rubbish about his agent was touting him is exactly that, rubbish. If Fergusson had played him, when he obviously was ready, then he'll still be here.
I think we have nil chance of bringing him back to United.

26 Jan 2015 14:10:25
If it makes people happier to blame it on someone like saf then so be it. The ed's have gone over it a few times I believe including about the agents but people carry on believing what they want to suit their own idea of what happened. Disregard me as talking rubbish but there are certain things that were going on. Look at who Pogba has for an agent now ffs. Look at the lost of players the agent has and how those players careers have gone. Pogba as much as I I'd love to still have him at the club will have more clubs in his career than tiger woods I expect.

26 Jan 2015 15:33:33
NM,

I am only gong off the information given by Ed's on this site and what I know about his agent etc, I don't know him personally, but I can only go off what I have been told. You can choose to ignore that if you want to say it was a Fergie mistake, but can't believed the Ed's when it suits and not believe them when it doesn't.

I would love to be wrong, Pogba loves the club and begs to come back to us in the summer, he is an amazing talent and would transform our midfield immediately, but I imagine this will not happen and he will go and get his next pay day elsewhere.

I don't understand why this argument hasn't been made already.

I watched Pogba play in non-first team games and he was very good, not anywhere near as good as he is now but a good youth player - he has progressed rapidly and plays in an easier league.

In the games that he played at first team level he was terrible. I'm aware that you have to give youth player a chance, but he was AWFUL, and was clearly not ready to play.

If he wanted to play he was going to have to leave, he wasn't ready. A loan move would have been better but any notion that he should have been playing instead of Scholes is utter rubbish.

Now, if SAF's objective wasn't to win the league one last time (i.e. future leagues too) then it might have been different, but surely all managers must aim to win the most amount of matches that they can?!

26 Jan 2015 18:02:35
Everyone knew how good Pogba was, especially Saf. He was being hawked around from the previous summer, months before the Blackburn game. It was an open secret. He also refused at least 2 contract offers if I remember correctly. We knew he was off so giving him more playing time would have been of no benefit. It can't be a major mistake on saf's behalf as he had little to no say in the matter and knew what was going on behind the scenes.

I think there is an argument that if fergy knew how good he was he maybe should of give him a run of games a big contract and tried to change his mind.
If it was just about money could we of offered more than juve

26 Jan 2015 00:32:54
I'm getting a little fed up of our players coming out in public making ridiculous statements. Mata and Di Maria in particular really don't seem comfortable with the way we are playing and yet both have come out publicly and talked about how great LVG's system is and how we're playing attacking football.

Moral must be pretty bad already with the way we are playing; but making players make bs statements to the press is going to make things a lot worse. I'd much rather have them come out and tell it like it is. Maybe then we'd get an insight into where things are really going wrong (other than on the pitch, that is)!

26 Jan 2015 09:12:01
Surely if they came out and told it 'like it is' (or how you seemingly think it is) that would prove that morale is lower than it has ever been. Or maybe they do enjoy it under LVG but it just isn't clicking into place as yet.

Relatively new signings with a lot to prove coming out with rubbish trying to justify what we are seeing - sounds just like the manager!

It must be difficult working all week in training and then it not coming off in games, eventually you have to start questioning things because what we are seeing is not what the manager wants as he criticises the performance after every game. So I see these player comments as one last shot at trying to back the method, last resort and funnily they have taken more shots at this than they have in games this season!

So the players that are thinking they are not living up to expectation or the ones given special treatment (Captain) will come out and praise things, its a joke but unfortunately they think they are so superior that they can convince us that White is Black - fools.

I am surprised they would stoop so low, either they are following the managers instruction of are trying to kiss his backside voluntarily - either way they are talking rubbish.

26 Jan 2015 13:41:58
Beast,

I think your word 'eventually' in that post sums up where I am at.

Eventually you have to start questioning things, and I don't think we have quite got to that point yet.

I think what we need are leaders in the team. When Mata and Carrick say that we've played badly and we have to improve, it doesn't seem to hold any gravity. If Keane in his time, said we must improve, then somehow everyone listened to him.
The team is totally devoid of characters, the only two who seem to have guts are Da Gea and Rooney. Our need for dominant CB and Midfielder has never been more glaring than it is now.

GDS2 - Yeah its horses for courses, typically I would want to give more time before passing sentence (like I did Moyes), but the person in trouble should show signs they are willing to change or improve their behaviour, at least accept they are not currently 100% right with their MO.

Do you think LVG would want to sign a strong personality Nomidfield?

I agree we need some strength of character more than ever, but I don't know if that fits with the managers view - they would need to have 100% belief in everything he says for it to work otherwise it cause mayhem for LVG and he is all about ruling the roost, big gamble for him if he signed a Keane equivalent.