None of them will start 60 games.
£36 million front three, 55 goals.
- Thread starter meamth
- Start date
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
We've paid €60M so far.
- €20M within three business days after he was registered with us
- €30M on 1 July 2016
- €10M for scoring 25 goals in First Team Competitive Matches
- €10M for 25 appearances for France (currently on 18)
- €10M for being nominated for Ballon d'Or
26, 16, 17 league starts in last 3 seasons. It's not a myth, people who are too lazy to look at proper numbers goes with appearance without checking how many games they started or how many mins they played.Marcus Rashford made 152 appearances in the last 3 seasons. This myth needs to die
Same with Martial, he played around 50% of total mins but somehow people moan about how he never scored 20 goals.
That doesn't mean we have to spend £100m+ on a player, just because our front 3 "won't start 60 games". You pay that money for someone who is undoubtedly more talented and better than the player he is going to displace.
And like I said, I'd like us to invest in other areas first right now.
Do these clauses have an expiry date or something like that?
Sancho is undoubtedly more talented and better than any wide player we have at the club
Exactly. They were always either substituted on or substituted off. And were never given consistent game time under Mourinho, who loved to chop and change the team (apart from Lukaku, of course).
I don't agree with that. When watching Rashford and Sancho with the English national team, I always think that the former is showing so much more quality and attacking intent than the latter. And like I said, I think Greenwood can be a better player than Sancho, so yeah, that's how I see it.
Sancho can play on the left too you know. And he would be our best dribbling talent and defense disruptor via that ability. Greenwood is a completely different type of beast to Sancho. He's an amazing goal scorer. Sancho offers something different. Actually, he's different from Rashford and Martial too as those two are also more of goal scorers.
Look at their respective ages. Greenwood for the u21s wasn't as great and confident as he was for the u18s. Doesn't mean he isn't a superior talent to almost all of his teammates. It also doesn't mean that his performance for England won't change. It's the same with Sancho.
With United, has Greenwood been full of confidence and playing free flowing since the start? No. Just look at how he played for the youth teams. He's now showing glimpses of that since the restart, but he has more to offer. It's the same with Sancho in England's national team.
Or maybe he just does't take well to England's national team. Who knows? Wouldn't be the first time a top player underperforms for his national team. Doesn't mean anything to United.
Last edited:
Rigghhhttt....
Not just that but it will inspire the current crop, Greenwood bridges the gap from first team to youth team. He’ll probably be closer pals with the younger players and will bring belief that they can be good enough to make the step.
Mate, you've been giving me shit one-liners in this whole conversation. Your debating abilities are below zero so I don't see why you have to be obtuse about it. We can agree to disagree, this is my opinion and I backed myself with valid arguments. Move on now.
You are on to something, my mind says we should protect Greenwood from pressure over the next three seasons but my heart says Mbappe wasn't protected and simply grew from strength to strength and even Sancho he is pretty young himself.
I think we can buy a journeyman winger for around £30m to add depth and invest in a DM to replace Matic, CB to partner Maguire and possibly Grealish for depth and competition. But Sancho will elevate our attack for years to come yet we don't know how good Mason can be, the boy looks like he can score with every shot and the creative side to his game will shine the more settled he gets. Big decision.
Also missing the point that Greenwood isnt even a winger
Yep. It should give motivation to players like Garner, Levitt, and Laird. And although Mejbri didn't play with Greenwood, the fact that he's only like 2 years removed from him via age, should give him extra motivation to follow that path. Probably also from knowing that Pogba, Rashford, and McTominay are regulars for United. That's a lot of first team players that came from the youth set up.
No. They specifically state in each case "during the period that he is under contract with MUFC".
What did have an expiry date was a bonus fee to be paid to Monaco if we sold him before the end of the summer 2018 window (when Mourinho was trying to flog him) but that was if the price was above €60M and Mourinho was trying to exchange him for Perisic. Now, if we do sell him, we don't have to pay anything to Monaco.
I think we have enough games left to see how our attacking trio develops in terms of relationships on the pitch. Games in the Europa League will also be fun to watch.
And you only need to be a winger to play on flanks, right? I wouldn't describe Mane or Mbappe as a winger, the bottom line is can he be effective playing for Manchester United starting from the right? The past few games say he can.
Not going for Sancho doesn't mean we forgo the signing of a right winger we simply sign a cheaper option who can play a role and make Mason our primary Right Forward.
Exactly. Greenwood is a modern-day two-footed forward, who can literally play across the whole attacking front. I wouldn't class Salah as a winger either, or Ronaldo after leaving us for Real Madrid. Actually, when you look at it, the most successful teams in recent history rarely have pure wingers in their starting 11. Modern football has changed the way managers deploy their teams and what players they use.
I'd say we need a specialist left-footed player for the right side, it would be the most effective way to strengthen our options, as Mata is physically done at this point, though he can still stay in the squad for his experience and play the odd cup game.
Who the heck would pay 100m for Martial?
Sell all 3 and let invest the money in a long term bond to earn a bit of interest
Better value for money than our near 200m defence
Think the clause expired with the new deal he signed.
How are people seriously questioning if we sign sancho?
Do people not remember the glory days?
We always had top quality players to rotate.
Yorke cole teddy ole
Ronaldo rooney tevez berba etc.
Look at citys squad sure or madrids and barcas over the years.
Your players coming of the bench and your starting rotation options need to be as good as your starters in some positions to ensure no drop of.
If your playing 60 games a season with a front 3 and have 4 top quality players, thats 45 starts a season each.
Plenty of game time.
I actually think longterm we could do with sancho and someone else up top and here we have people not even wanting him.
Madness.
Do people not remember the glory days?
We always had top quality players to rotate.
Yorke cole teddy ole
Ronaldo rooney tevez berba etc.
Look at citys squad sure or madrids and barcas over the years.
Your players coming of the bench and your starting rotation options need to be as good as your starters in some positions to ensure no drop of.
If your playing 60 games a season with a front 3 and have 4 top quality players, thats 45 starts a season each.
Plenty of game time.
I actually think longterm we could do with sancho and someone else up top and here we have people not even wanting him.
Madness.
Greenwood's twofootedness will mean he can play either side - like Sancho - but centrally too.
Signing Sancho shouldn't stop Mason progressing into a world class player.
Signing Sancho shouldn't stop Mason progressing into a world class player.
Thread would be funny to revisit when we pay 100m for Sancho
Your username probably gives away your biases.
In terms of United even Fergies great teams relied more on sucking teams in and hitting them fast on the break. Football was not passing the ball around endlessly looking for openings, it was about getting in behind, down the channels as quickly as possible, getting the ball in the box as early as possible.
thats how ole is developing the team I think
What they don't get is that, if we don't sign him....our competition would. And they probably don't even need him as much....So when they say don't sign him.....they're either supporters of other clubs or they haven't thought it through. Yes! Let's let Liverpool sign him. City Sign Him. Chelsea. What's the worst that can happen?
While there's some truth to that, you can apply the same logic to any player. Should we also be signing Thiago for that reason? Griezmann?
Dont think that's a feasible approach generally speaking.
Dont think we should look at transfers like that.
Thats how you end up with bad deals
The bolded part is exactly my point.
So if Sancho plays every game from the right where does Mason continue his development?
Obviously as the number 9 if you ask me. I don’t want to seem like I’m writing Tony off because of Mason because we need multiple quality players rotating for each position.
Are you suggesting Mason becomes the squad player?
If so I wholeheartedly disagree, this kids ceiling is above all of those in front of him, he needs to be starting a lot of games.
He’s coming through at a rapid, Rooney-like rate.
It comes back to rotation but Masons progression needs to be factored in and I would argue prioritised to some degree - and I absolutely believe we have to press ahead with the Sancho signing.
Ronaldo, who is arguably the greatest ever to play the game, didn't need the same assurances when he was Greenwood's age. In fact Fergie promised his mother that he would protect him from burn out as much as he could and that's what swung his mum's decision towards United. Mason needs the same protection and we have seen Rashford suffer from burn out at the tail end of last season.
No we won't pay 100m after Greenwood's rise, I have a feeling Ed will be reluctant.
I just don't see the attack being our main problem right now, our current front 3 are on of the best scoring in the world, better than Liverpool's front 3 (in terms of goals, at least). And our players are still very young, they will just get better and better.
I'd honestly prefer if we spend the money on our more pressing areas. I'd say even GK is more problematic than the attack right now.
Damn I forgot about Ed
. He's very capable of making such a decisionYeah sure I agree it’s a balance but that balance includes a high amount of game time tempered with that protection. Rather than a lot of bench time and trying to progress through sub appearances.
I fear the latter may slow his progress, most agree he’s the best talent we’ve seen come through the youth system in our lifetime, surely that needs factoring in. But I agree we can’t risk burnout. I’m confident Ole will get this right, he rates Mason as highly as anybody so he will make sure he’s playing.
I'll raise you 8M€ and 83 goals (across league, cup, and CL) 
Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date
Where has this obsession with a first 11, and players playing every game come from?
We play around 60 games a season, with a front 4 to choose from of Rashford, Martial, Greenwood and Sancho, that could be 45 starts each across the 3 positions, whilst coming off the bench for 15 games a season.
There is no way someone with 45 starts isn't classed as a first team starter, and yet you've got 4 players incredibly talented and happy with their minutes.
Ask most people to name our most common midfield from the treble winning season and you'd get Beckham, Keane, Scholes & Giggs yet that midfield hardly ever played together.
All of this is without taking any injuries into account, which undoubtedly will happen and when they do I'd rather know we've got the quality to cover it than being instantly stuck with playing James week after week.
We play around 60 games a season, with a front 4 to choose from of Rashford, Martial, Greenwood and Sancho, that could be 45 starts each across the 3 positions, whilst coming off the bench for 15 games a season.
There is no way someone with 45 starts isn't classed as a first team starter, and yet you've got 4 players incredibly talented and happy with their minutes.
Ask most people to name our most common midfield from the treble winning season and you'd get Beckham, Keane, Scholes & Giggs yet that midfield hardly ever played together.
All of this is without taking any injuries into account, which undoubtedly will happen and when they do I'd rather know we've got the quality to cover it than being instantly stuck with playing James week after week.
Look at it this way, we will be in Europe next season meaning that we will have to rotate players moreso with the heavily cut preseason due to COVID-19. Greenwood, Sancho, Martial and Rashford are versatile players with the former two being able to play across the frontline. One week it could be Sancho that needs a rest, the next its Martial/Rashford and vise versa which guarantees that Mason will get 30 plus starts notwithstanding fitness and form. He will be ok with that for three seasons.
Have you not seen some of our recent goals? Jesus!
Some of our best team goals in the last decade or so have been scored between yesterday and January! We are zipping the ball around with tempo, fantastic inter changing of our front 3 and our fullbacks are no slowly showing attacking intent also.