Manchester United Rumours Archive July 22 2014

22 Jul 2014 21:31:05
I wouldn't have minded us taking a gamble on Bojan, everyone knows how's talented he is, and at 23 still has a lot of time to prove it, for 3m or however much it was could have have been a gem or worst case a decent squad player.

And if it didn't work out for him at United. Everybody would take it out on Van Gaal right?

He looked incredible in his breakthrough season (it's odd to think that that was seven years ago now) but has gotten progressively worse with every passing year. He's still only 23 - but unfortunately I don't see him making it now. Maybe a move to a club like Stoke will do him good though?

Sounds like Wilshire

Wilshere is a much better player than Bojan despite Bojan having more potential when he broke through. If I were to compare him with anybody it would be Jones - although again - Jones did not look anywhere near as good as Bojan at 16.

Bojan was easily as good as (if not better than) Neymar but was unfortunate to already be at a big club and didn't have the opportunities needed to develop the way he should have. I fear the same might happen to Adnan if we're not careful.

More like Macheda.

I follow ajax as well as Utd. he was on loan there, he didn't stand out in the slightest in the Eredivisie, tbh he's really not that great. defo not Utd standard

22 Jul 2014 10:48:32
Ed002
You have confirmed we are about to officially bid for Vidal and that we are trying hard to secure a deal for Hummells can you confirm if the interest in Cuadrado de frij and blind has resulted in us making a bid for any of those players and if not do you expect us to make a bid for any of the 3?
Thanks for the insights as always.

{Ed002's Note - I would think that Cuadrado will end up at Barcelona. De Vrij is looking like he is heading to Napoli. Blind will be expensive and may not yet be ready.}

22 Jul 2014 16:36:28
Thanks Ed

Saw a reporter say that Di Maria wants same wages as Bale and Ronaldo maybe that's why rumours of us going for Cuadrado have arisen

22 Jul 2014 20:26:35
To be fair I wouldn't mind Ron vlaar at the back for us , surely he wouldn't be that much to but either and plays very well under van gaal

23 Jul 2014 07:25:45
Ron Vlaar? Jesus get a life. He had an ok game in the World Cup due to having 2 other centre backs beside him! He's not good enough for united simple as that. And to Ed002 I disagree when u say Blind may not be ready? I couldn't disagree more actually

21 Jul 2014 23:02:32
seems reports that utd have offered 28million euro bid for hummels. can only think why reports of a bid of 16m euros made would have a player included in deal

Whilst I don't know if its true the price quoted there seems far more likely than the £17m I have seen mentioned in the press! Even at £30m for arguebaly the finished article and not just potential seems a great deal to me. Especially as sideshow bob cost £50m!

Dortmund don't want to sell. De Vrij (and Vermaelean) much more likely.

Every club doesn't want to sell big players. But every club has a price for these players. Take ronaldo utd didn't want to sell him and look what happened i'm not saying we are going to pay 90m fpr hummels bit there will be a price that changes dortmunds mind over him and utx will negoitate with him.

The difference with Ronaldo is that he openly wanted to leave, but agreed with SAF to stay on a year and United wouldn't stand in his way when he did leave. I am not sure Hummels has come out and said he wants to leave

At the end of the day the market dictates the price of a player. Its basic economics.

There are only a few teams in for Hummels and they are not prepared to spend more than £20million.

Iv said before I think Hummels is a world class player, but i'm also honest and I acknowledge what we all saw in the world cup final. The player does have a weakness.

Personally I hope we do sign him anyway. His presence in defence will not hinder us going forward in the majority of games. Against 1st class opposition, we will simply have to play a more balanced game. It won't be the end of the world.

If the Hummels price starts to climb to the 30million + mark however, I would have to question the logic of the transfer.

Mangala appears to be available for 35million. I don't think Mangala would make us a better team than Hummels, but he would allow us to play more attacking football, and that is a fact.

If you are going to come up with the money for one of these two, you might aswell purchase the player that allows you to play the most exciting football. If nothing else, it is at least a "good reason, " to pay premium prices.

For those confused as to why the reported transfer fee for Hummels is so low, - I would suggest this is the exact reason. Tier 1 teams in Europe are expected to play attacking football. They are less comfortable paying a premium for a player that limits their attacking potential.

I don't see Dortmund selling Hummels this year unless they get a 30m offer. His contract runs to 2017, so they can sell him next year at 20m if they find no takers at the moment.

Im not going to complain in the slightest if we do sign Hummels for 30m. He is a great player. I have to say however, we ought to be a little more ambitious as fans. With so much reinvestment going into the squad, there is no reason that Man Utd should not be the most exciting team in world football. We have the reputation, the size and the financial muscle to make that happen at the moment. Surely it should be a priority for us to be that team, that plays "the most" stylish football.

Hunmels has said in the past he would like to play for utd.

RedIsotope, I'm not having that. How can you say Mangala who is a centre half is worth more purely for his attacking ability. We signed Ferdinand back in 2002 for 30 mil and he's not attack minded at all. In fact he's got the same qualities as Hummels, playing out of defence and his distribution. PSG have done that with D. Luiz and he's going to end up the most expensive mistake this season. Call me old fashioned but I wanna see a centre half defend.

Redisotope I do love your long winded essays but that's about the 3rd time you've gone over Hummels 'weakness'

I personally do not think he has one. .you're talking about a World Cup winner. . named in the team of the tournament.

Is it not possible that he just had his pants pulled down by messi once or twice and let's face it, it was messi. .however bad he was at the World Cup that's what he does!

Hummels is world class, he would have no problem fitting in, in our league.
He's strong, I don't believe he's as slow as you make out, his distribution is brilliant, and he even chips in with a few goals!

2toms. I have not described Mangala as an attacking player. The point is tactical. A centre back with pace allows you to play a higher defensive line, which in turn allows teams to play attacking football.

Smudger, it wasnt just Messi in the final. All the Argentinian forwards were in on it. Argentina created so many chances in the first 60-70 mins, they only had themselves to blame in the end. I still think Germany deserved to win the tournament, but that final could have gone either way.

- Its funny, because we all had a similar discussion about Felliani last year. People went on and on about the way he dominated in midfield, about his acceleration being good - even if his stamina wasn't, about the way he had punished all the top teams.

I went to long lengths back then to explain Felliani will not be the same player if he came to United. He would not benefit from long balls at United. His lack of stamina and movement in midfield would compound the problems we already had there.

Hummels does not come with the baggage Felliani did. He has great ability that will help him compensate. Nonetheless I am seeing a similar trend here as to last year.

Felliani's ability to batter big teams at Everton, did not change the fact that United would play the ball on the floor. Nor did it change the fact that he would have less support in numbers, in Uniteds midfield. These are real facts and they turned into real consequences.

A year later what I'm saying about Fellaini seems obvious, but I assure you, people jumped on the Fellaini bandwagon more than they have now with Hummels.

Maybey we have learnt some hard lessons as United fans in recent years. I had to come to terms with Berbatov myself. I was adamant he would be the true successor to Cantona with his wonderful performances at Spurs. Alan Shearer went on and on about him having no work rate, but I was oblivious, dreaming only of the good things he could do in a United shirt.

Im happy for us to sign Hummels, but all i'm saying is that he should not carry the same value as a player who can bring our game closer to Barcelona and Real Madrid in terms of style. Not unless we have a blank chequebook and are prepared to continue this pleasant spending spree for years to come. I am a long way from having that type of condfidence in the Glazers. I suspect they will invest heavily in rebuilding United, at which point, they will close the pursestrings for 3-4 years.

I'm approaching this reinvestment period from the point of view that we ought to try be as efficient as possible, while the chance is there. I acknowledge Hummels as a good signing for £20m, and an alright signing at £25m. I won't complain if we end up signing him for £30m, but I will see it as an opportunity wasted.

RedIsotope, Fellaini is a midfielder. Hummels a central defender. How can you compare the 2 signings. You're right in what you said about Fellaini in him having no pace etc but you just can't simply say Hummels would be a mistake too. We need to replace Vidic and Rio, signing Hummels will go a long way in doing that. When you see rumours about players like Benatia, Mangala and the lad from Bilbao going for 35-40 milllion, anything around 30 million for Hummels seems fair. He was the best defender in a World Cup winning team.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this occasion mate.
Unfortunately I don't think a deal will happen anyway!