Recent content by WolfInSharp'sClothing

From an outsiders perspective, for me the biggest indicator of whether ETH was potentially the real deal, or just another false dawn came down to 3 things. How he managed the departures of Ronaldo, De Gea and Maguire as captain. Just over a year in and he's nailed them all.

Because he wouldn't be able to play against them maybe, but could help take some points off the other teams battling for 3rd?

Actually, it was quite a rare fractured knee cap, not a ligament injury. Can be a difficult injury to heal, so initially we were concerned he wouldn't come back the same player. Last season, he came back and looked well off the pace. This season has started more promisingly.

Yeah agreed. There seems to be a lot of give and take with Mendes, even for a club with a club where as you say, he 'cares' more about not upsetting. I think beyond all the clubs he is associated with, he has such an incredible network of contacts that he does favours and calls favours in all...

Absolutely. I have no doubts that I'd be heavily critical of this if it were of no benefit to my club! The world of business and football is full of hypocrites, me included! ;)

Yeah, I think so too. But a lot of others say it's almost like cheating. In reality, it's just a very smart, shrewd business move.

How is this any different to how any agent operates? Look at Haaland. He could have joined an elite club a few years ago, but went to Dortmund with a buyout clause, so he could move on again. It avoids the situation of having that big move too soon and careers stalling. If you look at how...

Get your own name!!! ;)

Very similar player to Jordan Henderson. Swap them around and McTominay would look much better with Fabinho behind him and Tiago next to him. Similarly Jordan Henderson would look much worse with Fred and Pogba chasing shadows ahead of him.

Maybe. But Maguire is a still a good player, who is having his worst ever season and is suffering from a massive crisis of confidence at present. You could argue that swapping the defenders in front of De Gea could improve performances. But how many times has that been done already and not...

That's been a key mistake of United's for years though. The team should be greater than the sum of its parts. Which doesn't mean going out and buying good players in every position in the hope they will somehow gel. Or keeping players that excel in some areas but don't make the team better...

Could potentially win a medal for every club competition he has appeared in this season, including 2 with Porto!!

I think a goalkeeper that leaves his line to sweep up helps to get rid of that comical defending. When we had Patricio rooted to his line, Coady and the rest of our back line sat so deep, it didn't matter. There was no space between goalkeeper and defence. This season, Bruno Lage has...

Ralf Rangnick coming out and saying that Goalkeeper is the only position that you don't need to strengthen makes me seriously doubt his judgement on modern football. De Gea is an all time great of Man United and the Premier League, there is no doubt about that. But he's much more of an...

There's a patch of grass outside my house. If I have anything that's a bit knackered, but could potentially be refurbed and be of some use to someone, I stick it on the grass. The longest anything has been there was 3 hours. If Old Trafford has a similar patch of grass, maybe stick him on there?