Ángel Di María | Transferred to PSG

[Roopea]

If we can get £50m from PSG, we should snap their hands off and cut our losses.

I know the stats suggest that Di Maria had a decent season, but he was on the fringe of almost every match we played last season. His best season came when he played in the centre of a 3 man midfield rather than on the wing.

Whilst Pedro is clearly an inferior footballer to Di Maria, I feel he would be a better fit for us and will certainly improve the flanks with much needed pace and pretty consistent end product and would cost £20-25m which is hardly anything in today's market. My ideal signing would be Reus, but can't see that happening this summer.

 

[LazyRed-Ninja]

I fail to understand why a world class winger like Di Maria wants to dribble his way into the French league. Surely at 27 years of age he would have more admirable ambitions then going against opposition that half of the time can not even dribble around a statue.

 

[Top]

Huge shame this. I have no doubt he would have been a superstar here had the circumstances been different.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

If he does go it'll just go to show how dumb our transfer strategy was last year, despite everyone creaming themselves over it. Most of our signings had nothing to do with anything other than Woodward thinking he was cheating at Championship Manager. It was a waste of a year and we've spent most of this summer signing or trying to sign players we needed a year ago...

This is the crux of the matter for me.

Many seem fine with the idea that Di Maria is a square peg who simply isn't suited to LVG's brand of football and/or the rigours of the Premier League - and so he has to go, good luck, let's bring in a more suitable player.

But to me the above is simply unacceptable - if the premise is true. It would mean that we spent a record amount of money on a player who was either insanely poorly assessed by the management - or just randomly purchased for show without any proper assessment from a football standpoint at all.

I don't know what to think. But I bloody well hope that said premise simply isn't true - and that if Di Maria is indeed on his way out, it's because something unforeseen has transpired, something of a personal nature or the like, and not that he was a ridiculously expensive...whim of some sort.

 

[Pexbo]

I fail to understand why a world class winger like Di Maria wants to dribble his way into the French league. Surely at 27 years of age he would have more admirable ambitions then going against opposition that half of the time can not even dribble around a statue.

He's not a world class winger and never has been.

He's a world class CM but only in a system that suits him.

 

[Offside]

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No idea how true this is, looks like nobody has a clue.

 

[Speak]

He's had a tough season and instead of staying and fighting for his place his first instinct has been to just give up and go and play in a far inferior league. He's clearly very talented and a better player than Young for example so you'd think if he put the effort in he'd be easily above the likes of him and Fellaini in the pecking order.

There were times last season, West Brom at home for example, where he looked like he didn't give a shit. Came on, jogged about a bit took potshots on goal whenever he was within 40 yards, just rubbish.

It'd be fitting if his last appearance for Utd was him going off early for what looked like a nothing injury. Pedro may not be as gifted but I'd bet a 100% committed Pedro is a better player for Utd than the half arsed Di Maria we've seen in a Utd shirt.

He didn't want to come here anyway. He'd have gone to Paris or stayed in Madrid, given the choice. I wouldn't call it 'giving up', because he's getting what he wanted in the first place - a move to PSG. He wanted to play in that league before he even came to England and had a tough season.

He'd probably still have been up for going there this summer, even if he had a much better season here.

 

[Garethw]

If PSG want him then the price should be £60 million. It's not as if they can't bloody afford it.

 

[Berbaclass]

If PSG want him then the price should be £60 million. It's not as if they can't bloody afford it.

We bought him for £60 Million, it's not as if his value has increased since then. It's diminished, not substantially but some at least. If you'd have said 50 Million then I'd say fair enough but you're mad to expect such a number IMO...

 

[Amadaeus]

Dude, he wasnt our best player in the first half of season.
Firstly he arrived in Sept.
He had I think, 2 good games (against lower league opposition), after which some fans believed we had signed the future Ballon d'or winner.
And yes, he did play against Leicester - you remember that game?
Then his form began to dip.
Then he got injured and hardly played.
Then when he did return, he was pretty ordinary.
I remember seeing him play in the FA Cup against a lower division side (I can't remember who) and at no stage did it look like he was a cut above.
Then he started playing from the subs bench (even though he was fully fit).
Then he had his big chance, against Arsenal in the FA Cup - he blew it in the most spectacular fashion. You remember this?
From then on, he was a bench-warmer and nothing else. Coming off the bench I think he made some decent assists.

In a nutshell, thats his season.

In late Dec - early Jan there was a poll (on this forum). Who was our best player. De Gea was No.1. And Blind was No.2. I'm not sure where Di Maria was.

I realise that you are Di Maria fan, but lets not forget, he is a bench-warmer, not because he is one of our best players, but because he is not good enough to get into the first team. LVG is not a fool who would willingly put our best player on the bench. LVG wants to win (to save his own job) and he will use the best players available to him.

Some players just arent meant to perform well in the EPL - Di Maria and Falcao fall into this category.
I wish him all the best when he goes to PSG - where the girls are pretty, the weather is warm, the league is less physical and he'll get to work with in a team which score many goals. He'll probably win plenty of league titles there. Looking at it logically, I can't think of one reason why he should stay in MUFC (vs PSG). If I were his agent and I wanted to do good by him, I'd get him out of MUFC as quickly as I could.

In a nutshell, in the middle of the season their was a performance evaluation of our players from the who scored website and Di Maria, Blind and Herrera were our top three best player. If I could find that thread, I would gladly post it and the forum member response. Moreover, you do not have a terrible season when you are the second highest assist maker in the league with much less game time than your competitors. Fact supports that Di Maria was one of our best player earlier on in this season until he had to adopt a new style of play and lost his confidence.


On the other subject on Van gaal to blame for di maria form, I found this other article that puts a tactical perspective which agrees with my point.

http://www.whoscored.com/Articles/d...e-for-Frustrated-Angel-Di-Maria’s-United-Woes

http://www.whoscored.com/Articles/u...e-Suffering-From-Van-Gaals-Long-Ball-Approach

 

[RDCR07]

Give Di Maria to PSG and sign Silva in return. Give De Gea to Madrid and sign Ramos in return.

 

[Garethw]

We bought him for £60 Million, it's not as if his value has increased since then. It's diminished, not substantially but some at least. If you'd have said 50 Million then I'd say fair enough but you're mad to expect such a number IMO...

I don't understand why we should sell at a loss though. He had a difficult first season at United but people need to remember just how devastatingly good he was the season before we signed him.

He's a class player and any bid less than what we paid for him should be rejected.

 

[Berbaclass]

I don't understand why we should sell at a loss though. He had a difficult first season at United but people need to remember just how devastatingly good he was the season before we signed him.

He's a class player and any bid less than what we paid for him should be rejected.

It's simple, he's an asset and his value has depreciated over the last year.

 

[Garethw]

It's simple, he's an asset and his value has depreciated over the last year.

But we are sitting in a strong position. He's an asset that we don't need to sell.

From a financial stand point other transfers are not going to be dependent on selling ADM and I'm sure that Woody is not going to want to walk away from this saga looking like an idiot over a player that has only been here one season.

You may be right, but IMO we should be sticking to our guns and not selling for less than we bought him for.

 

[shabz]

I don't understand why we should sell at a loss though. He had a difficult first season at United but people need to remember just how devastatingly good he was the season before we signed him.

He's a class player and any bid less than what we paid for him should be rejected.

I think money is not an issue for United at the moment if it means getting the right players to fulfill LVG's wishes. If it means taking a £5 million hit in order to gain an opportunity to get another class player in, then I'm sure it is a no brainer. Wouldn't be surprised if we were trying to prise a player and cash out of PSG such has been our transfer tactics when the other team has something we want.

 

[shivab]

This is the crux of the matter for me.

Many seem fine with the idea that Di Maria is a square peg who simply isn't suited to LVG's brand of football and/or the rigours of the Premier League - and so he has to go, good luck, let's bring in a more suitable player.

But to me the above is simply unacceptable - if the premise is true. It would mean that we spent a record amount of money on a player who was either insanely poorly assessed by the management - or just randomly purchased for show without any proper assessment from a football standpoint at all.

I don't know what to think. But I bloody well hope that said premise simply isn't true - and that if Di Maria is indeed on his way out, it's because something unforeseen has transpired, something of a personal nature or the like, and not that he was a ridiculously expensive...whim of some sort.

well said. the way we've gone about our business is concerning. in the past would we have sold our record signing after one year even if the player had certain reasons? i dont think so.

 

[noodlehair]

But to me the above is simply unacceptable - if the premise is true. It would mean that we spent a record amount of money on a player who was either insanely poorly assessed by the management - or just randomly purchased for show without any proper assessment from a football standpoint at all.

I don't know what to think. But I bloody well hope that said premise simply isn't true - and that if Di Maria is indeed on his way out, it's because something unforeseen has transpired, something of a personal nature or the like, and not that he was a ridiculously expensive...whim of some sort.

I think it was true, and for most of our signings since Fergie left, up until this summer. The only one there was any evidence of us scouting and identifying properly was Herrera, who surprise turns out to be the most useful...and should have been signed a year earlier than he was but for Woodward fecking around pretending he could sign Fabregas.

Look at Mata, I mean he's a quality player so now he's here I hope we can make good use of him, but within a week of him signing Moyes had let slip that he hadn't even bothered to think about what position to play him in. Spending £40m on a player who your manager doesn't even have a place in the team for is not a plan or assessment.

Then last summer, you had Herrera and Shaw who were targets before Van gaal even turned up, Di Maria and Falcao who were blatantly just signed because so the club could fling it's dick around in public. That only left Rojo and Blind as signings the manager wanted, and even Rojo was apparently a Moyes target, according to Phil Neville...while Blind isn't really a solution to any particular problem, more just someone Van Gaal knew he could get in quickly.

Now this summer it's very obvious the signings and targets are based on what Van Gaal thinks he needs to add to the squad, and as a result they suddenly make a lot of sense and make us look stronger. Compared to last year where we left ourselves in a position where we were unable to field a balanced team even with all our players fit...I was genuinely concerned at the end of August last year, that we'd pissed around so much making a mess of our squad we'd cost ourselves a top four finish...and if Liverpool hadn't declined so much that's exactly what woulld have happened.

I'm glad we apppear to have learnt our lesson but it still pisses me off a bit we even had to learn it. Where we are now is where we should have been this time last year...except this time last year we had better options up front. A combination of changing managers and then dicking around without sufficient input from either is what I think has happened.

 

[SalfordRed1960]

Although I don't consider myself a big fan of ADM, to be selling him on after one season is quite bad. Even we are not losing £££s in the process, I don't know why we should let him go. Apparently there is no chemistry between the player and the manager, which is kind of sad.

Is that chemistry issue just media talk though. I remember the goal at Leicester and just thought wow. He plays well for Argentina so it might just be other factors have affected him.

 

[SalfordRed1960]

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No idea how true this is, looks like nobody has a clue.

Personally hope it is true. What a window, pee off RM, Bayern and now PSG. Take one (e.g. Pedro) from Barca and it almost feels like United are back.

 

[Randall Flagg]

We bought him for £60 Million, it's not as if his value has increased since then. It's diminished, not substantially but some at least. If you'd have said 50 Million then I'd say fair enough but you're mad to expect such a number IMO...

Our agreed price for Falcao was a little more than what Monaco paid for him, if we had gone ahead with that deal

That was a year and serious injury later. Not sure what that says about Ed in fairness though

 

[ChaddyP]

Personally hope it is true. What a window, pee off RM, Bayern and now PSG. Take one (e.g. Pedro) from Barca and it almost feels like United are back.

The glory days have returned

 

[AltiUn]

Personally hope it is true. What a window, pee off RM, Bayern and now PSG. Take one (e.g. Pedro) from Barca and it almost feels like United are back.

If we take Pedro and Ramos we've taken one each from the big 3.

 

[fatboy]

I have to assume Di Maria was a bit of a vanity project for Woody. I hadn't realised it then, but having tried to understand LvG's philiosophy over the past season, there doesn't actually seem to be a position/role that suits Di Maria. He plays his best running from deep, but LvG doesn't seem to like his midfielders to do that. Played in the wide forward position he just couldn't seem to link up well, and eventually the place went to Mata.

 

[NinjaZombie]

Huge shame this. I have no doubt he would have been a superstar here had the circumstances been different.

He could have been, had he really wanted to be here. Instead, the moment he lands in Manchester, he was talking about almost transferring to Paris or saying how he didn't want to leave Madrid. I really don't know what we were thinking bringing him in. Bringing in big names just for the sake of it was not Gill's or Fergie's style and hopefully Woodward and Van Gaal (Woodward, mainly) can see why now.

 

[Sam]

Been out for the last 2 days, whats the latest on this? Anything concrete-ish?

 

[Varun]

Been out for the last 2 days, whats the latest on this? Anything concrete-ish?

In true Woodward style, we have told them we'll have Verratti if they want Di Maria.

 

[Rake]

It would be silly for us to sell him for less than we paid. I guess Di Maria really wants to leave or we are looking for fast cash to sign other players.

 

[The Purist]

It would be even more silly for them to pay what you paid. Just because one team overpays for a player doesn't mean everyone should.

Liverpool didnt try to recoup 35m for Carroll, did they?

 

[Shyftyy]

It would be even more silly for them to pay what you paid. Just because one team overpays for a player doesn't mean everyone should.

Liverpool didnt try to recoup 35m for Carroll, did they?

Are we seriously comparing carroll to Di Maria?

Yes, we overpaid for ADM but his reputation alone would still allow us to roughly receive the same as what we paid for him, especially if you consider that the cause for his poor season seems to be blamed on us/LvG/the system but never him.

 

[Ronaldo's Mum Eh?]

Don't madrid get a cut if we sell him?

 

[Shyftyy]

Don't madrid get a cut if we sell him?

Don't think they count as the club that trained him. His former club in Argentina may slowly be getting rich though

 

[NK86]

It would be even more silly for them to pay what you paid. Just because one team overpays for a player doesn't mean everyone should.

Liverpool didnt try to recoup 35m for Carroll, did they?

Are you on a constant WUM? Comparing the MoM in a CL final to Andy Carroll. Seriously?!

 

[Hamadovich86]

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No idea how true this is, looks like nobody has a clue.

Nasser Al-Khelaifi is the Chairman and CE of both beIN Sports and PSG so they are reliable as heck when it comes to the parisians and they actually broke the news of ADM's transfer to United last year after the deal fell off with PSG. It could be an angle or a ploy from PSG somehow but cant be sure.

 

[Dans]

It's simple, he's an asset and his value has depreciated over the last year.

It might have more to do with the current euro to pound exchange rate which means 60m Euros last year was quite a few more pounds than it is now.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

I wouldn't be worried. Herrera, Mata, Rooney, Pedro, Memphis, Januzaj and Pereira would create and score plenty of goals.

EDIT: Not to mention the tried and tested combination of Young and Fellaini.

It's not amazing. A lot of safe and systematic players. Last season our attack was average, in preseason it looks average.

If Rooney returned to his best, Mata finally showed his Chelsea best, and Depay and Pedro have great seasons then yes. Basically a lot of them have to step up because on paper we don't have that one really brilliant attacker like Hazard and Sanchez.

 

[buckooo1978]

This is a team who spent 50 million on David Luiz....

That should be the minimum for a player who after a bright start had a run of bad form and had personal issues

Even when he was poor he was still productive in terms of assists

Terrible shame if he goes - I just wonder is the club driving it, recouping ££££ and replacing Di Maria with Pedro

It wasn't too long ago that ADM said he was happy to be at United

 

[MDFC Manager]

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No idea how true this is, looks like nobody has a clue.

Wouldn't be surprised if there were actually talks, wherein PSG initiated said talks, and we told them bluntly that AdM isn't for sale.

fecking media will make it sound like there were a long round of back and forth conferences about it.

 

[Dreaded]

If we sell for more than £48m it is a FFP profit.

 

[Sarni]

Wouldn't be surprised if there were actually talks, wherein PSG initiated said talks, and we told them bluntly that AdM isn't for sale.

fecking media will make it sound like there were a long round of back and forth conferences about it.

I'd be shocked if we told PSG to back off if they came and offered £50m for our squad player.

 

[Raees]

The more I watch us play this pre season the more I think we should keep him. . we need pace and flair badly in this side. Depay, Pereira are the only attackers we have with that bit of elite level ability to take a gameby the scruff of its neck.. run at players and commit them, everyone else just plays it safe and fails to inject any tempo.