I didnt make Arsenal. They were founded in 1886 as a munition workers' team from Woolwich.
I'm surprised you havent heard of them before
Smalling signs new contract
- Thread starter RonaldoVII
- Start date
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
I'm surprised you havent heard of them before
Since when being in England NT as the stick to judge a player? I thought United fans would be more wise than that. Remember Scholes, Carrick, Andy Cole, and John Terry vs Rio?
Sadly not the younger ones
Golden.
Glorious as the thought of Smalling threading balls through midfield to Xhaka and Aubameyang like Emery demands of his centre backs is I'm going to have to call horsesh*t on the notion of Arsenal wanting Smalling.
No where near good enough and just because he's the best of a bad bunch shouldn't mean a new contract, we're never going to be able to sell these players given the absurd money they earn at United so the only way to get rid is to let their contracts run out and yet with both Fellaini and now Smalling we've willingly decided to keep them
FFS
FFS
Yeh. Gareth Barry has more England caps than Michael Carrick.
And who does that at Arsenal? Mustafi and Rob Holding?
You would have thought so wouldn’t you, but it seems we’re getting worse by the fecking day.
That i can agree on, but wouldnt surprise me if that doesnt happen
Good old Ed eh?
I love how the 25 or so people on here think they know more than the thousands who see Smalling for exactly what he is.
Another bit of evidence that United are satisfied with mediocrity
If this is the only centre back signing we make, then the club is a joke. I can envision the club trying to haggle on price for selling defenders, meaning we cannot get in a new defender due to wage bill increase rules for England. Just like what happened in the summer.
I watch their matches instead. I suggest you do the same
As an example, Mustafi had 72.7% pass accuracy against United. Holding had 74.2%
Smalling had 97.1% and if he had 72% passing accuracy he would have been slaughtered
I think De Gea could have used the news of Smalling's new contract to demand an extra 100K a week.
Great. Now Jones and Valencia and Young and we are ready to go. Great. Delighted. Shows our ambition.
Clearly not closely enough if you think Emery goes for Smalling but ok everyone has their own point of view.
I've also watched his Valencia side every week that had Raul Albiol and Alexis in the backline and was the most calamitous and error prone defense I've seen since Wes Brown and Silvestre. But I'm sure you're the expert on Emery since you watched 2 youtube videos and learned that Rob Holding is a central defensive playmaker
Clearly not closely enough if you think Emery goes for Smalling but ok everyone has their own point of view.
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He is, but even if offering the contract was questionable (it isn't) it still is not a high wage. We've got multiple earners reportedly on 200K plus and one that will be negotiation more from that wage starting point. Smalling has given 9 years of service and the way the wage bill is structured then this level of service can carry a contract level of in excess of 200k as a starting point.
Signing him for 120k which is the reported figure (frankly don't really care, but that is by the by) is a sensible piece of business and his wage reflects what a 9 year earner at United should be making, regardless of what status he holds on the open market.
If he were to have signed a deal on 200k+ then I definitely would be questioning it. That is armband level wages for his level of service and I don't think he has the required leadership qualities to command that kind of price point.
Neither were Michael Carrick, Andy Cole or Steve Bruce apparently.
Ah. The guy that goes on other people's opinions.
Easily our best defender so highly logical that we’d sign him to a new contract.
I don’t really understand what people are expecting, that we just let him, Jones, Rojo, Young, Valencia, Darmian leave on frees and replace them all with £50m players? Pull the other one.
I don’t really understand what people are expecting, that we just let him, Jones, Rojo, Young, Valencia, Darmian leave on frees and replace them all with £50m players? Pull the other one.
What next? Jones renew his contract till 2040? Wtf is happening to this club. We need to get rid of him, Jones, Young and Valencia ffs enough is enough. We have to aim for better. Oh God this club sometimes
Good point, but to let it get to the point where all of our defenders are shite shows how bad our signings have been. The fact that Smalling is our best defender shows how low the quality of our team has dropped.
Yes let’s mention smalling in the same paragraph as the above names!! Jesus wept.
Indeed. No top club would willingly let their top defender go for nothing. It is amazing that we even managed to get him to sign a new long time contract. I wouldn't have begrudged him if he decided to move on to better things.
I don’t disagree with you, but rightly or wrongly that’s where we’re at. If we were giving out extensions to Jones or Darmian I would be very concerned but tying Smalling down is a highly logical move, no club is going to want to let their best defender go for free. Especially when that player is someone who would probably be more than happy to remain as a squad player when better players are brought in.
Glorious news! Just need to get Jones signed up and we're set for the next 5 years. Great times.
Well, if England caps is the criteria to judge, then there's nothing wrong with putting him next to a guy that beats him with just three caps.
Ok... so just to confirm, Emery gets to choose his ideal centre back for his style of play, you think he'll choose Smalling?
Incidentally why do you think he prefers Leno over Cech in goal?
Doesn't that say more about the type of pass?
Yes, that's me. The guy that doesn't have his Smalling coloured glasses on.
Nonsense. Anyone can spot the difference between the former players mentioned and smalling, I don’t think any sane person will be looking back at England and thinking if only smalling had played more games !!
Can any of you who are against this at least explain what would you do if you were in charge?
First time this season that Smalling is injured for 2 or 3 games and we literally haven't got two reliable CBs to field, let alone some decent option like Smalling, and we have around 5 cbs in our team. And yet everyone here is angry that we gave him a new contract.
I swear some of you don't even deserve the likes of Jones, let alone Smalling, or better players. Do people realise we need at least 3 new reliable CBs if we are going to sell Smalling, and we haven't manage to sign 3 reliable players in ten years, let alone CBs.
Can anyone give decent explanation except Smalling is shit, can't get into England side bullshit, etc?
First time this season that Smalling is injured for 2 or 3 games and we literally haven't got two reliable CBs to field, let alone some decent option like Smalling, and we have around 5 cbs in our team. And yet everyone here is angry that we gave him a new contract.
I swear some of you don't even deserve the likes of Jones, let alone Smalling, or better players. Do people realise we need at least 3 new reliable CBs if we are going to sell Smalling, and we haven't manage to sign 3 reliable players in ten years, let alone CBs.
Can anyone give decent explanation except Smalling is shit, can't get into England side bullshit, etc?
If I was making safe passes to my goalie or to another defender within 5 metres from me throughout the whole game, of course I would have 98% pass accuracy. Feck's sake.
The idea that 120k per week isn't a high wage is insane to me. According to Spotrac, he would be the 3rd highest paid defender in the league and the weekly wages aren't even the most questionable part of this contract to me.
I don't disagree with anyone who suggests he's been a good servant to the club. Contracts, however, should not be a reward for past performance...they're supposed to be based on future performance. The idea that we're signing paying him like one of the top 5-10 defenders in the league for his age 29-33 seasons is just bizarre to me. Smalling's a defender with minimal technical abilities who relies heavily on his physicality. If that diminishes as you would expect as he enters his 30's, what are we left with? Even when we bin Jose at the end of the season, you'd assume the next manager/coach would be someone with a more progressive style. What are the chances that Smalling is even first choice if we actually care about building out from the back?
I don't disagree with anyone who suggests he's been a good servant to the club. Contracts, however, should not be a reward for past performance...they're supposed to be based on future performance. The idea that we're signing paying him like one of the top 5-10 defenders in the league for his age 29-33 seasons is just bizarre to me. Smalling's a defender with minimal technical abilities who relies heavily on his physicality. If that diminishes as you would expect as he enters his 30's, what are we left with? Even when we bin Jose at the end of the season, you'd assume the next manager/coach would be someone with a more progressive style. What are the chances that Smalling is even first choice if we actually care about building out from the back?
If England caps is the criteria to judge, then there's nothing wrong with putting Smalling next to a guy that had just three more caps than him in 7 more years. Southgate will likely move on like every other England manager did, and a very good England defender will likely be back in the England team. Win-Win.
I've been on moaning about this but I'm not saying we shouldn't have extended his contract. He had been our most consistent defender over the past 3 years.
That being said, by the time this new contract has ended, I would like to see the club progress to the point where he isn't even our third or fourth choice CB.
No. It says more about Arsenal's inability to find each other on the day. Torreira and Guendouzi had to carry the ball a lot, the CBs werent playing good passes into attacking players
And no Arsenal wouldnt choose Smalling out of every CB in the world, just like we wouldnt. Neither of us have that choice
1) his contract expires end of 2019 season plus a one year extension I.e end of 2020 season by that point I would hope we would have centre backs that can play football.
2) by paying him £120k per week you make his value zero, as no other club would pay that even on a free
3) on £120k per week, the club sees him as a first team player in terms of budget. Are you happy with those aspirations?
4) he’s a donkey.