Nicolo Barella

[izec]

You think Kovacic will go back to RM, or that they would want to take him after he forced a move and posted on IG? He could go somewhere else I guess next season, was desperate to leave RM, seems unlikely to me that asking to leave would go down well with Perez.


Can't see us getting rid of Barkley either given our home grown quota issues. We need two holding players who can play the way Sarri wants. Jorginho isn't playing 50+ games this season. Barella is young and fits the profile of the kind of player we've spent big money on recently.

Dont know what will happen with Kovacic, but Jorginho and Kante seem starting most games. I guess Sarri wants Barella badly and so he would be the third starter. Barkley will stay as a squad player.

 

[Infra-red]

He's not Fabregas replacement, they are different players. Jorginho is Fabregas replacement.

He will be replacing Kovacic/Barkley. Kovacic will go back to Real since it is only a loan and Barkley is a squad/rotation player.

Jorginho-Barella-Kante sounds good on paper.

Replace the departing Fabregas in the squad, rather than the XI. I expect he'll compete with Kante for a place in the XI.

 

[Devil may care]

I wonder if our supposed interest in him is because Ander isn't going to sign a new contract.

 

[RedCurry]

I wonder if our supposed interest in him is because Ander isn't going to sign a new contract.

I think so too.

 

[Lennon7]

I wonder if our supposed interest in him is because Ander isn't going to sign a new contract.

Nah, it’ll be cause we desparately need another holding mid. Can see Ander staying on too.

 

[GledTheRed]

I wonder if our supposed interest in him is because Ander isn't going to sign a new contract.

Ander will stay, he loves United.

 

[Devil may care]

Nah, it’ll be cause we desparately need another holding mid. Can see Ander staying on too.

I admittedly haven't seen a lot of him but when I have he's struck me as more of an aggressive box to box type of CM as opposed to a DLP.

Ander will stay, he loves United.

I certainly hope you're right, he's a vital part of our midfield 3 and one of our most reliable performers.

 

[Silas]

Nah, it’ll be cause we desparately need another holding mid. Can see Ander staying on too.

Seems unlikely, considering Barella isn't a holding mid.

 

[United Pro]

I wonder if our supposed interest in him is because Ander isn't going to sign a new contract.

Fairly sure we're only linked to pressure Chelsea to up their bid.

 

[Ekeke]

Seems unlikely, considering Barella isn't a holding mid.

Neither was Ander when we signed him. He played in the hole like Barella mainly does

 

[Devil may care]

Fairly sure we're only linked to pressure Chelsea to up their bid.

Quite possible, it does happen fairly often.

 

[United Pro]

Quite possible, it does happen fairly often.

Yeah the original article said that we bid £30m and refused to increase that. Doesn't really add up when Cagliari reportedly want £36-45m. Seems like a ploy to start the bidding above £30m.

 

[Ekeke]

Yeah the original article said that we bid £30m and refused to increase that. Doesn't really add up when Cagliari reportedly want £36-45m. Seems like a ploy to start the bidding above £30m.

Or we only have so much to spend and don't think its worth going over £30 million for him. His club didnt like that amount so we've moved on

 

[Adnan]

Napoli about to spend some of that Koulibaly money..

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[2 man midfield]

Napoli about to spend some of that Koulibaly money..

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

They've probably still got Higuain money tbf

 

[izec]

I am missing the United interest sadly....

 

[Fosu-Mens]

I am missing the United interest sadly....

First Torreira, now Barella... Well we got Fred for the price of these two combined. Brilliant.

 

[Nirv]

I’ll admit first that I have never seen Barella play in actual games, only Youtube highlights, he does seem to be quite aggressive, to the point of being overly so. Looking like a player preferring to jump into tackles rather than winning the ball on his feet, ala Kante / Torreira.

Slightly concerned when I see the yellow and red cards he has been chalking up.

 

[red thru&thru]

I wonder if we have earmarked Taroure for next year. Butt did say we’ll be sending some players out on loan and he definitely seems one who has outgrown the youth ranks. Maybe a bit premature yet.

Barella and Ndombele seem the two we are after.

 

[RedTillI'mDead]

I’ll admit first that I have never seen Barella play in actual games, only Youtube highlights, he does seem to be quite aggressive, to the point of being overly so. Looking like a player preferring to jump into tackles rather than winning the ball on his feet, ala Kante / Torreira.

Slightly concerned when I see the yellow and red cards he has been chalking up.

My concern is more around his head down running on the ball and quite often getting disposed or running into trouble.

We've seen plenty of these talented players over the years who amount to nothing because they don't use their skill the right way or simply have no end product in the sense of crossing or finishing.

 

[United Pro]

Or we only have so much to spend and don't think its worth going over £30 million for him. His club didnt like that amount so we've moved on

Highly unlikely given how we've gone about our transfer business in the past. We've pretty much outbid every other club for players we're really interested in.

Also, it's not like Cagilari are asking for a ridiculous fee for Barella - they'll likely accept £5-6m more than what we reportedly bid. Much more likely that haven't bid at all, although I wouldn't be surprised if we were interested.

 

[Ekeke]

Highly unlikely given how we've gone about our transfer business in the past. We've pretty much outbid every other club for players we're really interested in.

Also, it's not like Cagilari are asking for a ridiculous fee for Barella - they'll likely accept £5-6m more than what we reportedly bid. Much more likely that haven't bid at all, although I wouldn't be surprised if we were interested.

Our transfer business that has gone extremely poorly? And for example a player like Fred who cost a lot of money and isnt playing much.

And now we're in a new post-Mourinho era where hopefully we're looking to do things differently, doing the same thing is hardly going to bring about different results is it?

 

[United Pro]

Our transfer business that has gone extremely poorly? And for example a player like Fred who cost a lot of money and isnt playing much.

And now we're in a new post-Mourinho era where hopefully we're looking to do things differently, doing the same thing is hardly going to bring about different results is it?

It may have been poor in the past but that's largely because we overpaid for average players. Based on the Koulibaly rumours, it looks like we're following the recent Liverpool model in investing heavily on top tier players in particularly weak areas rather than offering decent fees for just talented players that aren't ready yet.

Either way, offering a take it or leave it £30m offer for Barella doesn't fit either our old model or the model we should be moving forward with imo.

 

[ZolaWasMagic]

It's going to be us or Napoli. And if Fabregas is off and possibly CHO, i think we'll throw an offer at Cagliari.

 

[Lash]

I personally think we're interested, but we won't move for him now. We have a bloated squad and unless we can ship a CM out this month, no way he's coming in. Means Chelsea and Napoli will have free run at him.

 

[damageinc.]

1) Barella parents are Inter fans
2) Giulini (Cagliari owner) was a member of the board of directors of Inter during Moratti era and is a Inter fan
3) Beltrami (Barella agent) is in very good terms with Inter (hes also the Nainggolan agent)
4) Inter will have more margin of spending from the next summer and have followed him closely in the last 2 seasons.

So even though Chelsea have more need and more money to spend now, Inter will be the natural destination for the guy

 

[izec]

1) Barella parents are Inter fans
2) Giulini (Cagliari owner) was a member of the board of directors of Inter during Moratti era and is a Inter fan
3) Beltrami (Barella agent) is in very good terms with Inter (hes also the Nainggolan agent)
4) Inter will have more margin of spending from the next summer and have followed him closely in the last 2 seasons.

So even though Chelsea have more need and more money to spend now, Inter will be the natural destination for the guy

Watch him now go on to sign for Chelsea this evening

 

[Adnan]

Di Marzio says Napoli are the frontrunners for Barella’s signature, and that Chelsea doesn’t seem interested to invest in him to grant Sarri’s wishes. Listen to that over Sky Sports.

 

[Nick7]

Can't wait until he joins Napoli and is forever linked to us for north of €100m.

 

[Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber]

Chelsea look to be getting him and Paredes

 

[Ekeke]

It may have been poor in the past but that's largely because we overpaid for average players. Based on the Koulibaly rumours, it looks like we're following the recent Liverpool model in investing heavily on top tier players in particularly weak areas rather than offering decent fees for just talented players that aren't ready yet.

Either way, offering a take it or leave it £30m offer for Barella doesn't fit either our old model or the model we should be moving forward with imo.

It does if we don't rate him that highly

 

[Mb194dc]

Chelsea look to be getting him and Paredes

That would be odd, surely it's one or the other. We need cover for Jorginho, don't see why we would get two players this window. We need a striker as priority if Morata is going to Sevilla.

 

[United Pro]

It does if we don't rate him that highly

If we don't rate Barella that highly, why would we bid for him in the first place? Surely that's the sort of poor transfer model that we're trying to move away from?

 

[Ekeke]

If we don't rate Barella that highly, why would we bid for him in the first place? Surely that's the sort of poor transfer model that we're trying to move away from?

For squad depth. Matic is old, Ander is out of contract soon, he can score a few goals from midfield so could be a good stand in for Pogba etc. If we'd said we'll give you £30 million or walk away when it came to Fred in the summer, we wouldnt have one of our most expensive players in history being a rotational player. If they said no we wouldnt have wasted our money. Instead we paid whatever they wanted and now we're looking for more midfielders

 

[United Pro]

For squad depth. Matic is old, Ander is out of contract soon, he can score a few goals from midfield so could be a good stand in for Pogba etc. If we'd said we'll give you £30 million or walk away when it came to Fred in the summer, we wouldnt have one of our most expensive players in history being a rotational player. If they said no we wouldnt have wasted our money. Instead we paid whatever they wanted and now we're looking for more midfielders

But surely we don't need more squad players? We need first team quality and then our current midfielders can be squad players. So, rather than spending £30m to improve the bench and not really the first team (hypothetically speaking as I haven't watched Barella enough to say whether he'd improve our first team or not), it'd imo be better to buy a top tier midfielder and then bench Matic. Spending big sums on above average players is the main reason why we haven't really progressed performance wise even after spending about £600m in 5 years.

Fred will need a season to get used to the speed and physicality of the league. If he doesn't improve, it should highlight that our scouts did a poor job recommending him over other options.

 

[Ekeke]

But surely we don't need more squad players? We need first team quality and then our current midfielders can be squad players. So, rather than spending £30m to improve the bench and not really the first team (hypothetically speaking as I haven't watched Barella enough to say whether he'd improve our first team or not), it'd imo be better to buy a top tier midfielder and then bench Matic. Spending big sums on above average players is the main reason why we haven't really progressed performance wise even after spending about £600m in 5 years.

Fred will need a season to get used to the speed and physicality of the league. If he doesn't improve, it should highlight that our scouts did a poor job recommending him over other options.

We need both obviously. Every team does.

 

[Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber]

That would be odd, surely it's one or the other. We need cover for Jorginho, don't see why we would get two players this window. We need a striker as priority if Morata is going to Sevilla.

From what Ive seen and heard
Sarri wants two midfielders and a winger. He seems to lack interest in adding a forward. Only Morata leaving will probably force his hand

 

[damageinc.]

Watch him now go on to sign for Chelsea this evening

Still waiting for this…..

 

[izec]

Still waiting for this…..

Patience, day was wrong, but i think this is likely

 

[Fosu-Mens]

But surely we don't need more squad players? We need first team quality and then our current midfielders can be squad players. So, rather than spending £30m to improve the bench and not really the first team (hypothetically speaking as I haven't watched Barella enough to say whether he'd improve our first team or not), it'd imo be better to buy a top tier midfielder and then bench Matic. Spending big sums on above average players is the main reason why we haven't really progressed performance wise even after spending about £600m in 5 years.

Fred will need a season to get used to the speed and physicality of the league. If he doesn't improve, it should highlight that our scouts did a poor job recommending him over other options.

Which entity at our club that decided that Fred was a good transfer we don't know for sure. Was it a scout, was it Woodward copying Man City or was it Mourinho trying to irritate Pep? We simply don't know, and most likely wont until some guy at the club releases his biography 10 years from now.

Barella would not be a squad player nor a back up. Not rating him as high as i rated Torreira, but he would certainly be able to contribute immediately. Similar to Herrera in intensity and better going forward and on the ball based on what i have seen, but lacks Herreras experience. Paying £30m for him looks miles better than paying the stupid amount of £££ we paid for Fred. If we are only going to invest in "top tier"/fifa team of the year players we would be able to buy two players at most per season. Barella is a very good player and still fairly young and will hopefully improve under the right conditions.