Manchester United Rumours Archive August 19 2015

19 Aug 2015 16:05:24
@Ed001

Reports just coming out that we made a bid last week for Sadio Mane of Southampton and that we have enquired again after opting not to meet Pedro's valuation.

Have you heard anything regarding this? What's your opinion on him?

{Ed001's Note - you enquired and were told he was not for sale at the time you bought Schneiderlin. I do not expect him to move this summer.

I rate him, he is inconsistent but boy has he got some talent. They really can not afford to lose him right now.}

19 Aug 2015 17:21:17
@ed1, sorry if you have been asked this already, I'm on holiday so haven't been able to check the website.
Now we missed out on Pedro are you aware of any other players we are lookin to bring in?

{Ed001's Note - I am not aware of any now, might be a case of hanging on until January now.}

19 Aug 2015 18:08:15
One to watch then ed? Do you think we could go back next summer?

{Ed001's Note - yes I do, maybe even January.}

19 Aug 2015 18:40:18
Ed001

is the Pedro thing about us not seeing eye to eye on barcas valuation or something else we are after or a bit of both.

{Ed001's Note - just the valuation mate. Barca knew there was interest from Chelsea so refused to budge on their valuation. United simply felt he wasn't worth that much to them when he was more keen on the Chelsea move. If he had shown a real desire to join, I do think the money would have been found.}

19 Aug 2015 21:18:37
We need a striker. That cannot be avoided if we are to challenge for the league this season. United have to address that issue. Simply accepting this transfer window as complete just wouldn't be good enough

20 Aug 2015 03:01:19
Do we? Forgive me for thinking Rooney, Chicarito, Memphis (when needed), Januzaj (when needed), Wilson, aren't enough choice as a front striker. Going by Van Gaal's usual 'philosophy' he'll be looking at goals coming from midfield, from the attacking midfield and the front lone striker. Just my opinion on his past ways.

20 Aug 2015 03:03:01
And considering there is no one really available at the moment outstanding I don't see why splash the cash just because you can. Wait at least until January.

20 Aug 2015 04:31:13
Did Pedro's desire weaken because of how long United took to negotiate a deal? Or was he always preferring a move elsewhere if a better offer came, and only thought of United as a compromise?

19 Aug 2015 20:21:20
I am going to borrow that ed001 if you don't mind.

{Ed001's Note - not sure what you want to borrow but ok mate, I will say yes on the hope I am not dropping myself into something brown and smelly!}

22 Aug 2015 15:38:16
Minister,

Thought I'd wait until after the match before replying to your poorly evidenced response.

Rooney - horrifically out of form and if it wasn't for the captaincy it's hard to see how he'd even get in the side.

Januzaj - not a striking option. One deflected goal doesn't make up for two seasons of mediocre performances.

Wilson - loan material at best.

Memphis - serious talent. Wasted as a number 9 though.

Chicarito - so good we sent him out on loan.

United need a clinical striker. It's not difficult to see the difficulties we're experiencing in the final third with taking the chances we create.

19 Aug 2015 15:25:37
hi all just heard on radio station here in ireland that utd won't sign anyone else this summer and that LVG is happy with what he got please say this is not true anyone of the eds any update or anyone else that lives in manchester know anything. because if this is the case it will be fourth place again i think

19 Aug 2015 16:27:28
Welcome Holly,

Arent we joint top of the league at the moment? We've performed better than Chelski and the Gooners? Why exactly will we come 4th and not either of them?

19 Aug 2015 17:55:31
long season harry we just don't have enough cover up front we need 2 more a number 9 and a winger if rooney gets injured we only have wilson and hernandez and none of them will get u 20 season we need a van nistelrooy type striker

20 Aug 2015 11:12:29
Rooney is possibly the most influential player we have, however he can only be influential when he gets on he ball. He can't play as the lone striker because he can't drop back, which is why he seems so out of it. Playing Rooney behind Hernandez has worked before so I don't see why it can't work again. These two on form can each get to the 20 goal mark. Wilson is good, but too inexperienced to be their back-up.

The most dangerous situation is our defense at the moment. Smalling has been fantastic so far, but we can't forget how inconsistent he's been since we signed him. Blind is playing well, but is still out of position and Jones should have a fragile sticker on his forehead at all times. Rojo is decent, but seems error prone at times.

A striker and a CB is all we need. We have enough cover on the wings with Depay and Young on the left, Januzaj on either, and Mata on the right with Valencia able to play there as well since we signed Darmian.

Our 'targeted' players have either moved already or have no real interest in leaving their clubs. Van Gaal said he's working on a surprise, so hopefully he springs it on us soon, considering any player signing now would be a surprise.

19 Aug 2015 16:05:09
Can anyone confirm if we have bid for Southampton Sadio Mane please?

19 Aug 2015 17:52:51
Sounds like we are briefing that we bid when we just enquires it makes us look better after we say we have lost interest in Pedro , jright about the time he said he was going to Chelsea.
Isn't mane supposed to be a bit of bother, and he will cost almost as much as pedro .
Now that he is aware of the enquiry see how he reacts.how does pereira compare on pace and trickery?

19 Aug 2015 12:18:31
Could any of the eds confirm that manutd have ended interest pedro thanks in advance

{Ed001's Note - Chelsea have sorted a deal, United haven't, it is that simple.}

19 Aug 2015 13:13:19
We have also ended interest in Fabregas, Otamenfi,Ronaldo and Ramos and Alves

19 Aug 2015 12:50:05
Would love to know what gaal is thinking. What does he want?

{Ed001's Note - I think he believes Januzaj might just turn out to be a better option right now than spending the money on Pedro.}

19 Aug 2015 12:51:49
the end of the window is edging ever closer and we have failed to land our target despite having agreed personal terms (well if sly sports is believeable)

LVG did a great job sorting out the midfield but his love of Rooney and Blind has blinded him to the need of a CB and Striker it would seem. and the handling of De Gea has been a shambles. if De Gea goes we have very little time to get a replacement in unless he has faith in Romero as 1st choice. which i hope he isn't cause if he keeps going on waiting for an attacker to charge in on him before making a clearance i'm going to have a heart attack before long!

19 Aug 2015 13:17:47
More incompetance from our once great club. I am livid

19 Aug 2015 13:27:15
As I said last week.No one of any substance will sign for us as long as van gaal is in charge, his arrogance is putting players off. Do you not think that the players we target don't speak before hand to a current players asking what it's like to play for man utd and van gaal.This man is an absolute joke,and don't say we have won 3 games either. My Sunday team could have beat those teams. i hope the owners soon realise they have dropped a clanger and get rid off soon. He is running the club like a utter buffoon.

19 Aug 2015 13:52:43
Rock,

Yep your Sunday team would have beaten Spurs, the 7th best team in the Premier League, how many games do we need to have won before we can say we have won that many games? 38?

19 Aug 2015 13:57:20
All this based on not getting Pedro? I hope this is a joke though.

Do you not think he would have spoken to Mata as well. He would have told him to come as no matter how frustrating your game is, you shall play.

19 Aug 2015 14:02:12
Everyone on here gets caught up in then paper talk and what sky's ports reports Man Uniteds interest in Pedro was. I think Januzaj can develop nicely and he works very hard. Pedro would have been average at best. Have some faith he will sort out the CB and striker issue and ignore the paper talk on all these "missed targets". If the club announce a big signing before the end of the window you will all be back singing praises for LVG. Have some trust, get your nose out of the papers and look at the positives in the team and coach for once.

19 Aug 2015 14:03:46
Spot on there Rock, I mean what is LVG thinking of? Does he think he knows more than you for example. I find it hard to believe that United have got to where they are now employing these amateurs when the real experts from this site could have done much better.

19 Aug 2015 14:54:36
We need to just hope that the van gaal has a better option than pedro lined up.I just hope he isn't getting carried away with our start of the season and thinks the squads good enough to go right through the season without suspensions or injuries as that would be a major mistake
Be glad when the windows shut and we can just get behind the team

19 Aug 2015 15:01:34
So no one of substance will sign for United Rock?

Memphis?
Schweinsteiger(sp)?

Who have we actually missed out on?
Ramos - was he ever really going to leave Madrid?
Pedro - a benchwarmer for Barca, any better than Memphis or Januzaj?

19 Aug 2015 14:24:29
Jeez people calm down, there's 2 weeks left in the window. I for one reckon we're pretty well stocked in the winger / Inside forward positions. Think of all we have, plus there's Perierra who is going to be a beast and needs games in those positions and at 10.
I do think we need a cb and a cf to be honest but Ramos was never coming, otamendi is drastically overpriced, hummels I don't think was ever going to come.
We cleared off some massive wages and deadwood from our squad, Nani, rip, falcao, do Maria, raf, ando, cleverly.
In the past year and a bit we've signed di Maria, falcao, blind, Rojo, shaw, mata, Hererra, depay, schneiderlin, schweinsteiger, Valdez, Romero, Darmian. that's 13 bloody players and most of those are very very good players, a couple verging on world class and a couple more with the potential to be world class.
I know it's frustrating that we're not getting every player that we want as fans, but I believe we're in a much much better position squad wise than we have been for the past 4 or 5 years probably.
Di Maria didn't work, falcao didn't work, Torres didn't work, shevchenko didn't work, cuadrado didn't work, mangala didn't work, ballotelli didn't work, Carroll didn't work, BIG MONEY SIGNINGS don't ALWAYS WORK. They're not always the golden answer.
We have some fantastic young player at our club who we need to believe in as well as our current and potential additions to the squad.

19 Aug 2015 14:31:24
antmany2k. I went to the Bruges game and Blind is far better than he is given credit for, reads the game very well, good distribution and doesn't panic. Smalling was very good again and has improved immensely, Rooney was better and it always takes him a few games to get going. Januzaj and Depay were a constant threat, Shaw looks leaner and fitter, Darmain looks a steal,the bench is stronger as proven when Hernandez and Fellaini and Bastian came on. The only chances Bruges had were from sloppy back passes.If you watch the games on TV you only see what the camera points at and not the whole game

19 Aug 2015 14:34:44
Hi all thanks to the Eds as always.
I am going to totally disagree with the majority here. I am pleased to see interest in Pedro dropped, really I am and here's why. Back in 2012 Barcelona displayed the best football team I have seen, that included a front three of Messi, Villa and Pedro. Since then Pedro for me is a player that has gone down hill. Fitness wise he isn't where we need him and injuries have begun to disrupt his career. When I heard the initial interest I was surprised as he isn't what we need. Januzaj DESERVES more of a chance too and so comments like 'more incompetence from a once great club' are ridiculous, the foundations of this club were built on youth development. Pedro can't offer us any improvement on what we have, what we need is a dynamic CF and potentially a GK. Spending £22 million would have been unnecessary and for me it's a panic buy for Chelsea that won't pay off, just another injury prone forward for them. Another good decision LVG, I for one applaud you.

19 Aug 2015 15:16:50
Ed pedro would have been replacing mata not januziaj as van gaal fancies him as the second striker. So I hope that's not his thinking and he has someone better lined up instead as mata is too slow and pedestrian to play as a winger. Let's pray it's muller

19 Aug 2015 15:29:29
A little harsh Rock. Things could be better, or, when 3rd in the league, they could be a lot worse.

19 Aug 2015 15:39:47
Jesus. Sorry to have an opinion. I keep forgetting how long I've supported man utd. 45 years plus. Forgot how many shirts I've bought. Forgot how many games I've been too. unlike many on here I say it how I see it. VAN GAAL IS NOT THE MANAGER HE ONCE WAS. He is using our club as one last hurrah, who ever comes in after him will have a tough time rebuilding the club. Don't care who he buys next as long as the team wins. But it's no good going for has beens all the time. But have to agree that's the best I've seen Shaw play. Just a shame it's taken twelve months to achieve a decent game

19 Aug 2015 16:25:00
Rock,

You are a bigger fan than all of us mate, sorry for disagreeing with your utter negative opinion.

LVG will leave a good squad with young players who are coming up to 23-24-25, the next manager will be in a fantastic position.

19 Aug 2015 16:41:04
One last hurrah? How?
Rojo, blind, Darmian, Hererra, schneiderlin can all have a major influence on our tem/squad for the next 5-7 years.
Shaw, depay can have major influence on our team/squad for more than the next 10 years.
These are just the players lvg has signed, hardly smacks of a last hurrah signing 7 players young enough to be the fulcrum of our side for the next 5-10 years.
Add to that an absolute undeniable quality signing in schweinsteiger
Then lvg has given the youngsters in our academy chances too, McNair, Blackett, Perierra, Januzaj (although less than many of us think is needed in his case.
Lvg also went through the pre-existing squad got rid of a lot of players that were dead weight and had huge wages, and reinvigorated others in our squad who went onto have key roles last season and I'm sure this one coming too, i.e. Fellaini and young.

I've loved United for nearly all of my life and have been blessed to witness unrivalled success as an English team. I love Fergie for being the one that drove that success because that man was a monument for United.
But if I'm honest I think Fergie was the one who was enjoying the last hurrah. Bought rvp at29 for one reason, to win his last title, didn't give pogba the minutes he wanted and his performances in the reserves deserved and so lost probably one of the most gifted youngsters ever to go through the United academy. Left an ageing and inferior squad of players, raf, evra, Rio(who was a legend but his time at United was up before moves came, fletcher, cleverly, ando, Nani, rvp etc.
I for one think lvg is exactly what this club needed, we needed an authoratitve man who wasn't afraid to make big decisions and cull players if they needed to be culled. We didn't need someone with a 6 year project, we needed someone who in 3 years could trim the fat from our squad, could add to and better our squad by making quality signings, married with the useful elements from our existing squad, married with giving uniteds youngsters a chance as that is also one of the fabrics of our great club, finally married with succes in achieving goals.
He was asked to get champions league last year, he got it. We've won 3 games on the trot so far let's just be patient and see what the man delivers this year

19 Aug 2015 16:50:55
Sorry Rock, I out rank you. 60 years here!!! ;-). Seriously, every comment on here is open to criticism, so you have to expect it. Some people just hate you to disagree with them, obviously they can't be wrong, but don't let it put you off. The truth is, no one on here has a Scooby as to what is really going on, Eds included, so have your say and move on. Pinch of salt, and all that. ;-)

19 Aug 2015 17:15:57
One thing you can't accuse LvG of is Favouritism. Example being, RvP. He stopped being useful to us and LvG got rid. He has no favourites except the ones who fit his system.

Also, we as a club have never worried too much about overpaying for a player we WANT. Ronaldo, they said, was worth 6-8 mn when we paid 12-13 mn to get the deal done ahead of others. We liked Veron, we paid 30 mn. We broke the bank for Di Maria and Falcao. We asked Chelsea to name their price for Mata. We knew we wouldn't get many stellar seasons from RvP, but we still paid 24 mn. So don't pay too much attention to rumours saying we stalled over a couple of millions for Pedro.

19 Aug 2015 19:20:59
Your right OT7 . 2 pinches of salt taken

19 Aug 2015 19:37:58
Did Manchester United really want a player who couldn't get a game for Barcelona.
Van Gaal knows what he's doing - the net spend is 20 million so far - top players are coming soon

19 Aug 2015 11:44:00
Loads of talk this morning Chelsea are in for Pedro and he's in London having medical - Any of the Eds know anything about this?

{Ed001's Note - I don't get it, but it is true. Not sure why Chelsea want him, but there you go.}

19 Aug 2015 13:12:25
Panic buy, Cuadrado anyone? lol

19 Aug 2015 12:48:10
Ed001, do you think any of it goes back to Chelsea's habit of moving for opponent's targets? Abramovich seems to have authorised it in the past.

There's no way he's better than what they have already.

{Ed001's Note - I think they just had to get someone in to give them a lift and most of their options were out of reach this summer. Griezmann was out so it was a case of looking elsewhere. They couldn't stay with what they had, the club did need that lift and he will suit the Jose system quite well, like Willian does.}

19 Aug 2015 14:41:57
Absolutely delighted Pedro isn't coming, with his big sulky head, any club he was going to go to was a step down. I think an out and out cb is all we need. felliani as a centre forward is ideal and I'm delighted chicharito is back, there's a great skill mix there that allows us to change tactic dramatically in a game and not many defenders are capable of dealing with both , last night being a great example. I really hope he starts giving pereira a chance too, he looks like an outstanding prospect and full of skill. Last night was an entertaining game, januzaj and depay made it exciting, I think pereira has something special like these two, signing Pedro would only hinder his development.

19 Aug 2015 20:24:53
Thanks Ed. Personally don't think he's close to Willian in terms of work-rate and energy, and he's not got the class of Oscar. Not comparing to Hazard for obvious reasons.

He would have improved us but not a huge amount, so not too big a kick in the teeth really.