Dodging a Bullet thread

Zlatattack

New Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2017
Messages
7,374
Recently? Wissam Ben Yedder from Sevilla?

In the mid-2000s there was Aldo Duscher from Deportivo who I mentioned before. There was also Marcos Senna from Villarreal but he wasn't a nobody.
It was a CM mentioned this year, I found it very strange, will try and find the thread.
 

Oddboy

Full Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2014
Messages
739
Location
UK
I’ve seen Leighton Baines listed a few times. He was a very sound PL defender with a good cross
Yeah this one is ridiculous.At his peak he was extremely productive and probably the best LB in the league for a few seasons.
 

Bebestation

Im a doctor btw, my IQ destroys yours
Joined
Oct 9, 2019
Messages
11,862
I personally am quite happy we have avoided alot of the French National team because the hype they got and still get is well above there level of consistency.

In terms of a consistent world class performance there was maybe Benzema,Varane,Kante and possibly the young player of Mbappe.

Ousammane Dembele, Ndombele, bakoyoko, Pavard, Griezmann, Konate,Fekir, Zagadou, Lemar, Moussa Dembele,Umtiti, Lacazette, Rabiot, Mendy x2, thanking, tholisso etc.

So many players that could have been signed that were lucky to have been avoided.

I'm personally expecting some of the next French players to join this list too.
 

JJ12

Predicted Portugal, Italy to win Euro 2016, 2020
Joined
Mar 30, 2016
Messages
10,838
Location
Wales
Freddy Adu
Nicolas Pepe
Charlie Adam
Nicholas Gaitan
Arturo Vidal
Jon Obi Mikel
 

Bondi77

Full Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2019
Messages
7,203
I personally am quite happy we have avoided alot of the French National team because the hype they got and still get is well above there level of consistency.

In terms of a consistent world class performance there was maybe Benzema,Varane,Kante and possibly the young player of Mbappe.

Ousammane Dembele, Ndombele, bakoyoko, Pavard, Griezmann, Konate,Fekir, Zagadou, Lemar, Moussa Dembele,Umtiti, Lacazette, Rabiot, Mendy x2, thanking, tholisso etc.

So many players that could have been signed that were lucky to have been avoided.

I'm personally expecting some of the next French players to join this list too.
Umtiti would have to be the pick of the bunch!
 

Redcy

Full Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2014
Messages
2,614
Maddison, good player but not sure he has ever reached the level expected
 

Redcy

Full Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2014
Messages
2,614
Idrissa Gueye, some minor links to him in 2019, but Everton wanted big money apaprently.
 

vodrake

Full Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2012
Messages
3,509
Another one to add to the list of endless average midfielders our fans have been desperate for us to sign at one point or other:

William Carvalho
 

AllAtSea

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Mar 20, 2019
Messages
12
Transfer rumours I just uploaded the transfer rumour bit from the 96/97 season review onto youtube, few odd names in this (and a few id have loved)
 

van Persie

Full Member
Joined
Aug 16, 2012
Messages
3,180
You can make a long list of dodged bullets when it comes to central midfielders but that's only because it's taken us too long to sort out the issue which in turn made us desperate. Too many missed opportunities.
 

Thunderhead

Full Member
Joined
Nov 2, 2016
Messages
3,154
Supports
City
Makes you wonder if we are being played.
Fred would have played more advanced for us, he wouldn't be a sitting midfielder but yeah I'm still pleased it's a bullet we dodged, Maguire would have been decent at City I reckon but I'm more than happy it didn't come off as I think we've a better player in Dias and he's 4 years younger. Sanchez meh. Still think Pogba would have brilliant for us, still pissed you got him even though he's been pretty inconsistent for you.
 

Sandikan

aka sex on the beach
Joined
Mar 14, 2011
Messages
52,710
Fred would have played more advanced for us, he wouldn't be a sitting midfielder but yeah I'm still pleased it's a bullet we dodged, Maguire would have been decent at City I reckon but I'm more than happy it didn't come off as I think we've a better player in Dias and he's 4 years younger. Sanchez meh. Still think Pogba would have brilliant for us, still pissed you got him even though he's been pretty inconsistent for you.
Our fanbase is quite toxic when things are going wrong, and they like to slate everyone and everything every time we don't win.

But for me you can't put those 3 players together at all.

Sanchez was an absolute disaster, scored a tiny handful of goals, and had dropped from a top 5 in the league player to not even being in the top 5 attackers in our own squad. He simply had lost any semblance of pace and acceleration and just couldn't beat anyone.
Aside from Fernando Torres' severe drop off I can't remember a player dropping gears so quickly.
And unlike many think, I don't believe it was a lack of effort either, just he was seriously shot away.

Fred is just limited, and needs 2 very certain types of midfielder round him to succeed. I just can't imagine how he'd have been a success for you lot. He isn't good at passing, let alone the sharp close passing you guys are famous for. He doesn't assist, he doesn't score, so how on earth could he get in your line up, I don't get it.
You have room for 1 limited player, and that's the defensive guy, which we've long realised isn't him.

Maguire has a very low bottom level, and of course was way too much money, but on form I think he's definitely in the league's top tier of defenders.
Yes I'd go with Dias and Van Dijk over him, but not a huge amount of others in fairness. But as he's currently on his go slow bottom level, people use that to judge him.
 

Cloud7

Full Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2016
Messages
12,776
To be totally fair with respect to the people saying Dier, at the time it seemed like a Dier or Matic choice, and Matic has never really been that good over a prolonged period of time for us. At his best he was great, but while he’s had good games for us here and there his age has showed since he came to United, along with the poor management. I don’t think Dier would have been any worse than Matic for us.
 

rizx

Full Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2019
Messages
198
We dodged the Nathaniel Clyne bullet from Soton only to get one in form of Matteo Darmian