Kalidou Koulibaly

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Adam-Utd

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I am a big fan of him actually. He's among the best CBs in the Serie A in fact alongside the likes of Chiellini and Skriniar. What I am not a big fan off is his fee. Mainly because I believe we need to sort 2 possible 3 positions in defence and I don't think he'll be able to paper the cracks by himself.

And FFS do you watch Game of Thrones? Jones is Bran ie someone whose constantly injured, he needs to be carried by other players, whose caught day dreaming during key moments etc. Hodor is big, dumb, kind and can only do one thing. He's basically Smalling in a nutshell.
We've got money coming out of our ears, If Liverpool can spend 75m on a CB we certainly can. I wouldn't worry about that.

:lol: TBF that description could well fit Jones too.
 

devilish

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We've got money coming out of our ears, If Liverpool can spend 75m on a CB we certainly can. I wouldn't worry about that.

:lol: TBF that description could well fit Jones too.
I am afraid that we'll have so many positions to strengthen that our financial muscle will be flexed significantly.
 

Alemar

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Last but not least, Toby would provide us with the commanding experienced figure we need as CB.
The only thing he would provide is additional workload for our medical staff. We need world class defender, not an injury prone player of average quality. Manchester United requirements are light years ahead of what current Toby may bring
 

devilish

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The only thing he would provide is additional workload for our medical staff. We need world class defender, not an injury prone player of average quality. Manchester United requirements are light years ahead of what current Toby may bring
This season Toby played more games for his club then Koulibaly did.
 

Fracture90

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For all his qualities I really feel that prices quoted for Koulibaly (around 100 million) is just too much considering we need to invest in a proper RW and some other areas as well. We can probably get 3, if lucky 4 good years from him, but if he fails to adapt we're feked.

If he's willing to force his move out and in doing so get us some discount for us to pay around 70 million than it would be OK, but breaking that 100 million mark for a CB sets a dangerous precedent.
 

davidmichael

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For all his qualities I really feel that prices quoted for Koulibaly (around 100 million) is just too much considering we need to invest in a proper RW and some other areas as well. We can probably get 3, if lucky 4 good years from him, but if he fails to adapt we're feked.

If he's willing to force his move out and in doing so get us some discount for us to pay around 70 million than it would be OK, but breaking that 100 million mark for a CB sets a dangerous precedent.
If as reported we’ve got £200 million to spend in the summer then £100 million on Koulibaly and £75 million + on Sancho fills the two spots most needed and selling Darmian, Valencia, Jones, Rojo and Wilson added to Fellaini creates more so we could sign Rabiot on a free and still have enough for an experienced right back.
 

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I cant see Napoli not accepting 80m euros (£70m). There is absolutely zero chance he will leave for 100m.
 

Fracture90

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If as reported we’ve got £200 million to spend in the summer then £100 million on Koulibaly and £75 million + on Sancho fills the two spots most needed and selling Darmian, Valencia, Jones, Rojo and Wilson added to Fellaini creates more so we could sign Rabiot on a free and still have enough for an experienced right back.
Still think it's too much money for Koulibaly. If we could get Sancho + Koulibaly combined for 150 million that would be amazing. Then we could add Rabiot for free and would still be left with 50 ish something million to fill other gaps.
 

Fracture90

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I cant see Napoli not accepting 80m euros (£70m). There is absolutely zero chance he will leave for 100m.
Their owner is one crazy mofo, but if Koulibaly starts forcing the move, Napoli will have no other choice but to accept those 70 million.
 

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If as reported we’ve got £200 million to spend in the summer then £100 million on Koulibaly and £75 million + on Sancho fills the two spots most needed and selling Darmian, Valencia, Jones, Rojo and Wilson added to Fellaini creates more so we could sign Rabiot on a free and still have enough for an experienced right back.
75m for Sancho? You're in dreamland. He'd be Dembele/Coutinho money at least.
 

Lash

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Their owner is one crazy mofo, but if Koulibaly starts forcing the move, Napoli will have no other choice but to accept those 70 million.
Yeah, which I think he will. De Laurentis will know he can buy in the league at a better price. He’ll probably buy Milenkovic and Andersen or one of them and a striker with the Koulibaly money.
 

Mcking

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We aren't signing a CB.
Rojo will be sold and that's it. Forget Koulibaly.
I think we will sign a CB if any of our current first-team CBs leaves. I'd rather stick with the five we have now than spend £100m on Koulibaly though. We have many other positions which we need to fix, and Koulibaly won't solve everything.
 

izec

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Pretty sure we will buy a CB. Not sure we will spend close to 100m though, i can see us going for Milenkovic for 40m or someone like that.
 

thegregster

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If Toby at 29 wasn't worth 55-60m then Kouli at 28 isn't going to be seen as a good option by Woodie at 80m.
 
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André Dominguez

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I am afraid that we'll have so many positions to strengthen that our financial muscle will be flexed significantly.
This is an obvious issue and we'll have to make a major investment and gamble the rest of the budget in players that are performing very well but are not in a top club of their leagues yet.
 

devilish

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This is an obvious issue and we'll have to make a major investment and gamble the rest of the budget in players that are performing very well but are not in a top club of their leagues yet.
Which is exactly what we had been doing for decades. Some people seem to forget that when we bought Stam, Rio and Vidic they weren't exactly the best defenders in the world. Stam was a highly rated CB who had never played outside of the Dutch league. Rio was signed 2 years after SAF ridiculed his fee at Leeds while Vidic was heading towards Fiorentina (not Real, not Barcelona, not Juventus but Fiorentina) up until we snapped him up at the 11th hour. You can't expect that a new signing would carry his entire department by himself. What you can do is improve that department with the talent you need while hoping that 1-2 of them would step up and make a huge difference.

I think that gambling everything on Koulibaly would be a big mistake.

A- while he's an excellent defender he's not a one man army. Don't expect him to cover everyone's arse like a Baresi would do. He's not that great
B- our defence need alot of TLC. The RB position is in shambles, we only have 1 natural RB whose a kid. Meanwhile the LB role isn't faring that great either. If Shaw goes back to the treatment room then we'll be in big trouble.

So instead of blowing our entire budget on 1 CB then lets properly strengthen the backline first. If we do that then we would be less reliant on the individuals and more on the collective. Which is exactly how proper top defences should operate.
 

Adam-Utd

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Which is exactly what we had been doing for decades. Some people seem to forget that when we bought Stam, Rio and Vidic they weren't exactly the best defenders in the world. Stam was a highly rated CB who had never played outside of the Dutch league. Rio was signed 2 years after SAF ridiculed his fee at Leeds while Vidic was heading towards Fiorentina (not Real, not Barcelona, not Juventus but Fiorentina) up until we snapped him up at the 11th hour. You can't expect that a new signing would carry his entire department by himself. What you can do is improve that department with the talent you need while hoping that 1-2 of them would step up and make a huge difference.

I think that gambling everything on Koulibaly would be a big mistake.

A- while he's an excellent defender he's not a one man army. Don't expect him to cover everyone's arse like a Baresi would do. He's not that great
B- our defence need alot of TLC. The RB position is in shambles, we only have 1 natural RB whose a kid. Meanwhile the LB role isn't faring that great either. If Shaw goes back to the treatment room then we'll be in big trouble.

So instead of blowing our entire budget on 1 CB then lets properly strengthen the backline first. If we do that then we would be less reliant on the individuals and more on the collective. Which is exactly how proper top defences should operate.
I see him doing this regularly for Napoli. The LB always plays very high, and with his pace and strength he covers the wide areas very well also.

As I've mentioned before this is very important in the way Solskjaer wants to set his teams up. He and Lindelof would be a great pairing for a high line.

I feel your worry about "blowing the whole budget" isn't realistic. We've probably got 200m to spend this summer + any sales. We should happily get 3 top class players out of that.
 

Rozay

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Which is exactly what we had been doing for decades. Some people seem to forget that when we bought Stam, Rio and Vidic they weren't exactly the best defenders in the world. Stam was a highly rated CB who had never played outside of the Dutch league. Rio was signed 2 years after SAF ridiculed his fee at Leeds while Vidic was heading towards Fiorentina (not Real, not Barcelona, not Juventus but Fiorentina) up until we snapped him up at the 11th hour. You can't expect that a new signing would carry his entire department by himself. What you can do is improve that department with the talent you need while hoping that 1-2 of them would step up and make a huge difference.

I think that gambling everything on Koulibaly would be a big mistake.

A- while he's an excellent defender he's not a one man army. Don't expect him to cover everyone's arse like a Baresi would do. He's not that great
B- our defence need alot of TLC. The RB position is in shambles, we only have 1 natural RB whose a kid. Meanwhile the LB role isn't faring that great either. If Shaw goes back to the treatment room then we'll be in big trouble.

So instead of blowing our entire budget on 1 CB then lets properly strengthen the backline first. If we do that then we would be less reliant on the individuals and more on the collective. Which is exactly how proper top defences should operate.
Stam and Rio both broke the world record for a defender.
 

Fracture90

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Iirc he will participate in this year's CAN tournament from June to mid July with his home country of Senegal, right?
 

devilish

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Stam and Rio both broke the world record for a defender.
Still they were not the best CBs in the world at that point in time simply because the top CBs in the world rarely change clubs when they are on top. We went for the most promising CBs on the market and they were able to step up.
 

devilish

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I see him doing this regularly for Napoli. The LB always plays very high, and with his pace and strength he covers the wide areas very well also.

As I've mentioned before this is very important in the way Solskjaer wants to set his teams up. He and Lindelof would be a great pairing for a high line.

I feel your worry about "blowing the whole budget" isn't realistic. We've probably got 200m to spend this summer + any sales. We should happily get 3 top class players out of that.
I follow the Serie A regularly too. He's an excellent player but he's no Baresi or a Rio. I also think we'll need to strengthen at least 4 positions (CB, LB, RB and RW), probably DM as well.
 

Andrew~

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I follow the Serie A regularly too. He's an excellent player but he's no Baresi or a Rio. I also think we'll need to strengthen at least 4 positions (CB, LB, RB and RW), probably DM as well.
This.

People who think the club is going to spend 90+ million on a defender are way off the mark. Liverpool could get away with it because they'd just sold Countinho and they believed that they had everything else in place and Van Dyke was the final piece of the puzzle for them to win the league. This is not the case for United, and we also need to factor in that this CB argument is part of what soured things with Mourinho.

I can see an Alderwereild coming in for like 25 million, no chance the club will sanction 90 million for Koulibaly.
 

thegregster

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This.

People who think the club is going to spend 90+ million on a defender are way off the mark. Liverpool could get away with it because they'd just sold Countinho and they believed that they had everything else in place and Van Dyke was the final piece of the puzzle for them to win the league. This is not the case for United, and we also need to factor in that this CB argument is part of what soured things with Mourinho.

I can see an Alderwereild coming in for like 25 million, no chance the club will sanction 90 million for Koulibaly.
Liverpool then went on to spend 160mil+ in the summer on a goalie, two CM and a attacking midfielder.
 

zenith

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I really don't think that we as fans should be too stuck up with the 'value' part of things. We have some financially obsessed people running the football club and I think they'll make good judges of what comprises value for money.

If they end up sanctioning a move for him, then great. We'd possibly be getting the best CB in the world. To put things into perspective, I don't think people are complaining about how much Rio cost, back in the day.
 

breakout67

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Not happening. We've got Jones re-signed so that's our defence sorted for the next 5 years. Finally he can fulfil his potential as the next Duncan Edwards.
 

Rozay

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Still they were not the best CBs in the world at that point in time simply because the top CBs in the world rarely change clubs when they are on top. We went for the most promising CBs on the market and they were able to step up.
So what does this have to do with Koulibaly? Is he too close to being the best CB in the world for your liking? Is it that you would like us to spend 100m on a defender who was ‘not the best at this point but the most promising’, which would be the same as what we did when we broke records on Rio and Stam? Or is it that you don’t want us to spend massive money on a defender at all, thus being nothing like Rio and Stam?

I think signing someone like De Ligt today is the equivalent of signing Rio or Stam, in terms of being the most promising ready to step up. Still loads of money though.
 
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