United target Palace defender Clyne as long-term replacement for legend Neville Read

Red Dreams

Nathaniel Clyne wanted by Manchester United | Mail Online

Sir Alex Ferguson sees Crystal Palace's Nathaniel Clyne as the answer to Manchester United's problems at right back.

The United manager was impressed with England Under 21 defender Clyne's composure in Palace's shock Carling Cup quarter-final win at Old Trafford last month and is ready to make a move after hearing that Newcastle, Fulham, Aston Villa and Everton have all showed an interest in the 20-year-old.

Filling the void left by Gary Neville's retirement at the end of last season has proved difficult for Ferguson.

Chris Smalling and Phil Jones have filled in, but the dislocated shoulder suffered by Rafael da Silva ahead of the current campaign has proved very costly.

Palace may be tempted by a cut-price offer in January, rather than allowing Clyne's contract to run out in the summer.

IrishLegend

My Palace fan friend has been banging on about him for a while, say's he'll be England future right back.

If we could get him at a discount price it'd be worth a punt.

Hal9000

Do need a consistent right back.

Snow

We definitely need a right back, even if it's only 2nd choice for the future.

RDCR07

That is such a huge title. You could have just said Nathaniel Clyne.

sammsky1

We have enough candidates for right back!! Rafael, Fabio, Jones, Smalling. We have more than enough.

One of those players just needs to stay fit, step up like Gary Neville did all those years ago when he seamlessly replaced Paul Parker and make the position his own for the next decade.

Snow

We don't have enough choices. We have 5 center backs and three full backs. 2 full backs are injured and the nr. 1 center back. Smalling and Jones aren't full backs. They're emergency covers.

Rafael and Fabio frankly can't be counted on at the moment. Their health hasn't been the most stable since arriving.

Smalling frankly looks a bit tired. He's never played so much at this level before.

cj_sparky

Out of contract in the summer, huge potential and has over 100 games under his belt.

Could be worth a punt

Ekeke

He's very fast and looks a decent prospect. A left back is more important though

Snow

Yea but they don't exactly grow on tress. At least Fabio is very used to that position.

Sean_RedDevil

I really love the twins but they're too injury-prone, espcially Fabio.

Jones and Smalling wouldn't be our future right-backs, they're at home in other positions.

I've seen him in a few games for Crystal Palace and England's youth teams in the last months......imo he could be another Jones or Smalling BUT for a smaller price.

StanleyCupboard

Smalling and Jones will be our centre backs, either next season or the season after. We can't keep relying on them as right backs or it will stunt the development of their natural positions. It's a good experience for them, but sooner rather than later we need to start settling them down into their future positions.

Fabio should be our left back cover, freeing Rafael to be our right back. As their injury records are so rubbish that could leave us with NOBODY to play at right back without majorly disrupting the back line. I can certainly see why we might be looking at another young option, and a Palace mate of mine has raved about him a lot.

GledTheRed

Would be a no risk signing, low fee and low wages. If it didn't work out we would get our money back. He looked really good against us.

Kyle Walker was a similar signing for Spurs and he's doing alright for himself.

I'm always right

The twinjuries will get over their growing pains soon enough and become the 2 best full backs in the league.

Robbie Boy

Looks a very bright prospect, he is quick, strong and reads the game well. Has played a massive amount of games for such a young age. Palace appear to have a very good youth set-up there.

marjen

Anything to push Smalling into his favoured CB position.

devilish

The type of player United get

marjen

Come of it, seriously.

devilish

Its true though. He's young, he's on decent salaries, he is versatile and he won't cost us alot. Id rather believe to this rumor then to the ones linking us with estabilished world class players.

marjen

We would never sign players like de Gea, Young, or Jones, no. Not established talents playing in the top tier. No, siree, bob.

devilish

erm De Gea and Jones are both promising players who came from smaller sides (then ours), same as Clyne is. Young is a bit older but he was signed from a smaller side and he was one a decent salary. None of them can be classified as estabilished world class players

I can't understand the reason why you disagree with me to be honest. I mean even SAF say that we're always looking at value signings and Clyne looks like one of them.

golden_blunder

was impressed by him against United, very quick, defended well.

Didnt realise that he was so young, worth looking at for sure

Pogue Mahone

Maybe you could back up your point by reminding us all of the players we used to sign from bigger sides (than ours)?

marjen

Clyne is literally in a whole different league to the likes we signed this summer.

Not many clubs can just fetch a keeper like De Gea from Atletico Madrid.

devilish

My point is simple Pogue. Clyne seems to be SAF's type of signing. He is young, he's versatile, he plays with a much smaller side then we are (so his salary demands won't be excessive) and he plays in a position then we need to strengthen up. Id rather believe this rumor then some shady rumor linking us to lets say Higuain

devilish

Im confident that all top tier clubs (Real, Bayern, AC Milan, Inter, Barca, Liverpool) + the money loaded clubs (Shitty and PSG) could lure De Gea out from Madrid if they wanted AND needed him.

marjen

Yeah - all the top clubs. I think that underlines my point..

devilish

So what? He's not an estabilished world class player isn't he? He's a promising player who had a salary which is smaller then he can get at United and which therefore go in line with SAF's value policy. Same as Clyne, Jones, Smalling, Hernandez, Diouf and Bebe.

We're constantly linked with players many of whom are out of reach. As I said in my first post. I think that this rumor may be true. Clyne is the type of player United would get.

marjen

You're grouping Clyne with Jones, Smalling and de Gea.. That's not floating. All these players were proven top flight-players, with the possible exception of Smalling who'd played little top level football. Nevertheless, he cost a fair amount of money and came from a PL club.

You're just trying to have a cheap shot regarding our policy of recruitment - you're like a broken record. We all know you want us to spend £40 million on Sneijder or Modric, we get it.

Pogue Mahone

Do you realise how fucking insane you come across when you lump De Gea and all those other players you named into the same category? Seriously, have a word with yourself.

golden_blunder

De Gea was the goalkeeper for the victorious U-21 Spanish side, I'd say that marked him out as one of the best of his age. You're being silly Dev

devilish

The line of thought behind these signing is the same though. They were all promising players (or at least someone thought they were), with a probably good return on investment if sold and they wouldn't break our wage structure. Needless to say that De Gea is a safer bet then lets say Diouf but Im sure that is reflected in the salary/fee. None of them can be considered as estabilished world class players. Same as Clyne

devilish

He's a promising keeper, whose salary won't break our wage structure and who has the potential to give us a good return on investment if he's sold. He's fall in the value category like all the rest.

CnutOfAllCnuts

Is there anything you like about United, malteser?

devilish

I like you baldy...

amolbhatia100

To be fair, devilish isn't saying anything wrong. We generally tend to buy players with the potential to be top players rather than players who are top players already. But I think it genuinely annoys him as well to see us sign a Jones instead of a sniejder.

marjen

Signing a decent, promising right back from Palace, and signing two of the brightest talents in the world in their positions, is quite different things though. He's harping on with his agenda of us not signing "proven world class talent".

golden_blunder

we have very very rarely ever signed a "proven world class talent", so if that is what turns him on, he really should consider switching support to City or Madrid

United have always been about developing young players

marjen

Yeah, we tried to go down the route of ready-made players in Veron and Berbatov - not always the best way.

devilish

How can you categorize between a decent talent and one of the brightest talents unless you haven't seen them play week in week out in your team? I mean the most successful value signing we had was a former Mexican unknown with as much experience in European top flight football as we do. Not to forget that an unknown Brazilian kid who was frozen out from Flamengo's team had a fantastic debut season with us scoring against Arsenal in the process.

Its normal to say that De Gea is a safer bet then Bebe but all the players mentioned above fall under the value category (promising players, who won't break our wage structure and who who should in theory give us a good return of investment if sold). We rarely sign estabilished world class players so its only fair to say that I'd see Clyne as a more realistic rumor then lets say a rumor which say that we're going to sign Higuian and Maicon in the January sales.