Has our window of opportunity to sign world class attackers just closed?

KingMinger22

City >>> United. Moaning twat
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In the four years since Fergie left, no other big club has been so desperate to get in some world class attacking talent.

Do Maria flopped, Bale/Ronaldo never materialised, Griezmann said no (for now, hopefully).

The Neymar and Mbappe fees are likely to make the previous records look bargains.

We will now have the likes of Barca, Real and Bayern competing for the best attackers as Ronaldo, Benzema, Robben, etc wind down.

Is anyone else feeling slightly deflated about our prospects of having another peak Rooney, Ronaldo or RVP in the coming years?

It's been way too long since we had a player that people loved to watch.
 
KingMinger22 said:
In the four years since Fergie left, no other big club has been so desperate to get in some world class attacking talent.

Do Maria flopped, Bale/Ronaldo never materialised, Griezmann said no (for now, hopefully).

The Neymar and Mbappe fees are likely to make the previous records look bargains.

We will now have the likes of Barca, Real and Bayern competing for the best attackers as Ronaldo, Benzema, Robben, etc wind down.

Is anyone else feeling slightly deflated about our prospects of having another peak Rooney, Ronaldo or RVP in the coming years?

It's been way too long since we had a player that people loved to watch.
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Like Martial in his first season?
 
We have signed Pogba and I really love to see Rashford, he can have a big ceiling.

But I get what you arte saying for all the money we have invested over the last seasons we have very few exciting quality players to show for it.

Griezmann deciding to stay at Atletico is still hurting me.
 
KingMinger22 said:
In the four years since Fergie left, no other big club has been so desperate to get in some world class attacking talent.

Do Maria flopped, Bale/Ronaldo never materialised, Griezmann said no (for now, hopefully).

The Neymar and Mbappe fees are likely to make the previous records look bargains.

We will now have the likes of Barca, Real and Bayern competing for the best attackers as Ronaldo, Benzema, Robben, etc wind down.

Is anyone else feeling slightly deflated about our prospects of having another peak Rooney, Ronaldo or RVP in the coming years?

It's been way too long since we had a player that people loved to watch.
Click to expand...
None of them were top class players when we signed them.
 
Kostur said:
Like Martial in his first season?
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Much as people loved to watch Martial in his first season, I think it was with one eye on what he could become. That can still happen, but to compare his performances in his debut season with that of peak Rooney, Ronaldo or RVP is a bit much.
 
Is there a way to just quote the second description under the OP's username without just typing it out? I think that would be apt here.
 
Lucky we just signed Lukaku and before that Martial and we have Rashford and maybe Zlatan coming back and maybe still Griezmann as everything about clause remaining in place suggests a deal is already lined up just postponed.

Oh and Mhki who was one of top talents when we signed him with excellent scoring record.
 
You could say the same for any club at the moment with a few rare exceptions.
 
You wonder if the Spanish clubs decide to up the buyout clauses it might actually deter players from outside the country going there as they may feel they are trapped in Spain if they want to move to another country. They may like the idea of coming to a country without clauses and move to Spain late on in their careers. The clubs can then make the money rather than the Spanish clubs.
 
If it's closing because we're incapable of or unwilling to spend £200 million on a player, then slam the door shut for me.

The Neymar release clause was set so as to be unattainable. No club was supposed to pay such an outrageous amount. The fact that PSG have paid it demonstrates that they're not operating by the same rules as everyone else (well, anyone apart from City) and that they don't care about distorting the market.

Personally I think the brethren of the Caf are too fixated on signing big-name world-class players. None of our great players has been a world star before joining United; in fact if you look at the history of mega-transfers they tend to fail more often than they succeed.

I'd rather we rely on our new network of scouts to find up-and-coming stars in future, as we did with Ronaldo, Solskjaer, Kanchelskis, Vidic and Evra.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
None of them were top class players when we signed them.
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Well Van Persie definitely was but I agree, fergie tended to make them into top players and got the right before they made it big. Hopefully rashford and martial can reach the top level as they do have potential, and hopefully lukaku can take his game up a level as well. We don't need to buy someone like pogba every summer
 
This whole avalanche caused by Neymar and Mbappe could lead to interesting 2nd half of the window but Jose will probably remain realistic.
 
Decomposing In Paris said:
Much as people loved to watch Martial in his first season, I think it was with one eye on what he could become. That can still happen, but to compare his performances in his debut season with that of peak Rooney, Ronaldo or RVP is a bit much.
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I read that as RVN for some reason.

The points stands, though. One big reason we were able to get RVP was because he was at Arsenal.
 
KingMinger22 said:
RVP and Rooney weren't top players when we signed them!?

Rooney was the most expensive teenager for the next ten years. He was a super talent.
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RVP was. Rooney obviously wasn't. Super talent but in no way a 'world class'/top player.
 
KingMinger22 said:
In the four years since Fergie left, no other big club has been so desperate to get in some world class attacking talent.

Do Maria flopped, Bale/Ronaldo never materialised, Griezmann said no (for now, hopefully).

The Neymar and Mbappe fees are likely to make the previous records look bargains.

We will now have the likes of Barca, Real and Bayern competing for the best attackers as Ronaldo, Benzema, Robben, etc wind down.

Is anyone else feeling slightly deflated about our prospects of having another peak Rooney, Ronaldo or RVP in the coming years?

It's been way too long since we had a player that people loved to watch.
Click to expand...
No. at the moment we are spending £130m-£200m+ a season on around 4 players. Last year we brought a world class talent for a world record fee. We are at the moment attempting to build a balanced squad.

Once we have a balanced squad we can look at splurging £130m-£200m on 1 superstar rather than spending that on 4 players. Our spending wont be much different that PSG's this year only ours is spread over the team rather than on 1 main target.
 
Veron aside, when have we really been a superstar buying club? We are moulders not collectors

Some could say that was due to sir Alex's skills and we now need to adapt (eg Pogba) but look at what Jose is building... A young squad core full of potential

Who knows in the bear future our attack could be

Lukaku
Martial----griezeman----dembele
​
That's going to get pulses racing
 
JohnnyKills said:
If it's closing because we're incapable of or unwilling to spend £200 million on a player, then slam the door shut for me.

The Neymar release clause was set so as to be unattainable. No club was supposed to pay such an outrageous amount. The fact that PSG have paid it demonstrates that they're not operating by the same rules as everyone else (well, anyone apart from City) and that they don't care about distorting the market.

Personally I think the brethren of the Caf are too fixated on signing big-name world-class players. None of our great players has been a world star before joining United; in fact if you look at the history of mega-transfers they tend to fail more often than they succeed.

I'd rather we rely on our new network of scouts to find up-and-coming stars in future, as we did with Ronaldo, Solskjaer, Kanchelskis, Vidic and Evra.
Click to expand...

I would love for us to scout gems before they become stars.

Who wouldn't want that?

Point is that now what is considered a gem, e.g. Martial still costs up to £60m and that was two seasons ago (see: Mbappe).

Secondly, we have been trying to buy the new Vidic etc for over a decade with nothing but failures to show - Smalling, Jones, Bebe...

see: Depay.
 
Barca / Real / Bayern can't really compete though.
Madrid themselves are already being priced out and are focusing on signing young talent from within La Liga.
Mbappe and Dembele haven't moved yet, I don't understand why they're already seen as Madrid and Barca players.
Mbappe apparently wants PSG over a Madrid move.
 
I saw that Barca are toying with the idea of paying 178£ M for Griezmann as a Neymar replacement. Seems the Griezmann window is firmly shut, if true.
 
KingMinger22 said:
I would love for us to scout gems before they become stars.

Who wouldn't want that?

Point is that now what is considered a gem, e.g. Martial still costs up to £60m and that was two seasons ago (see: Mbappe).

Secondly, we have been trying to buy the new Vidic etc for over a decade with nothing but failures to show - Smalling, Jones, Bebe...
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Bailly looks promising. Anyway, there are risks whether you're signing established stars or potential. Di Maria and Falcao had everyone excited and look how that turned out. Before those two I thought Veron was going to be amazing.

On the other hand, we signed Ronaldo who pissed us all off for a season or two before turning into the world player of the year.
 
Yes, buying a player like Dybala will now be nigh on impossible and Dortmund are going to want beyond crazy money for Dembele, while Mbappe is off to Real Madrid. Griezmann might still be possible though, it depends on if we already have an agreement in place with him and Atleti for when their ban is done. Next level down players like Lemar and Pulisic should still be attainable, but for the most part we are stuck hoping the ones here already become a lot more than they currently are.
 
Ronaldo and Rooney were not at their peak when we bought them. We just got Pogba last year, and were about to get Griezmann when the deal fell through because of the ban. We can easily match the fees and wages with the big clubs. Some players we did get flopped - ADM and Falcao, which is bad luck. I'm not worried about Madrid and Barca.

What I am worried about is clubs like City and PSG. They have virtually unlimited money. And PSG signing Neymar makes getting top talent much easier for them in the future.
 
Lets be honest, neymar was never going to come here, the guy reminds me alot of Robinho and i dont think Jose would have loved him anyways. Let the big oil clubs blow their load on the biggest names while we look at the likes of Dembele and Pulisic and let Jose build his team. I'm happy with Pogba, especially back when 90% of the caf thought it would be impossible.
 
KingMinger22 said:
I would love for us to scout gems before they become stars.

Who wouldn't want that?

Point is that now what is considered a gem, e.g. Martial still costs up to £60m and that was two seasons ago (see: Mbappe).

Secondly, we have been trying to buy the new Vidic etc for over a decade with nothing but failures to show - Smalling, Jones, Bebe...

see: Depay.
Click to expand...
Yeah fair point, but surely this is why we've signed a whole load of new scouts, right? We've taken the chief scout from Juventus and one of the main guys from Atletico - that suggests we're hoping to emulating them. Hopefully that'll happen.
 
cyberman said:
Barca / Real / Bayern can't really compete though.
Madrid themselves are already being priced out and are focusing on signing young talent from within La Liga.
Mbappe and Dembele haven't moved yet, I don't understand why they're already seen as Madrid and Barca players.
Mbappe apparently wants PSG over a Madrid move.
Click to expand...

What planet are you on?

Madrid have a very good chance of signing Mbappe for something in the region of £120-160m

Both Real and Barca have revenues within a couple of percent of us. In fact, we only over took them last year. Prior to that Real had the highest revenues in the world for 10 years.

It's important to note that they are member owned and reinvest every penny back in the club. We are shareholder owned and will ne expected to post dividends in the coming years.
 
I feel a bit let down at the moment - Ed said recently that we can do things in the transfer market that other clubs can only dream of

The common complaint on here is "yes, but these world class attackers are simply not available!"

And yet, here we are this summer where Neymar, Mbappe, Sanchez and Bale all appear to be potentially available and yet we don't appear to be signing any of them!
 
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