Eh?
The definitive list of Caf mistakes
- Thread starter SER19
- Start date
Reo Coker
Schneiderlin
Reus.
Not a bad player when fit but hardly ever fit.
Not a bad player when fit but hardly ever fit.
I wanted us to get Jean-Michael Seri. Fulham took him, he came and left, making zero impact and now he's on loan to Galataseray. Feck me he's worse than Fred! Any other poster admit they were way off? Makes the thread more interesting!
Griezmann
Gaitan
Snijder
Snijder
Even the best get it incredibly wrong regarding players. Sir Alex for example likened Dong to Batistuta, Wallwork to Bruce and he thought that Wes was going to be twice the defender Rio was. Having said that I don't blame them. Players are incredibly complex people to judge. We're talking about people who usually come from a difficult background and who suddenly find themselves showed by money and attention. That changes people and most of the time not in a good way. Some get distracted, others might pick a severe injury and would spend their entire career making sure not to risk another injury of that kind not to risk ruining their career while others simply lose their love to the game. Pressure has an effect on players as well. Some might crumble under pressure (ex Schneiderlin) while others simply thrive in it and love it (ex Cantona).
Some players are very difficult to manage as well. The likes of Gazza and Balotelli are easy targets to mention but there are top professionals like Baggio whose sensitive character made him quite difficult players to manage as well. I've always said that my biggest regret in football is not to see Roby playing for Manchester United. In my opinion, Sir Alex could have easily made Roby the best player Manchester United had ever had. Baggio would have found in Sir Alex a top top manager whose also a father figure while Sir Alex would find in Baggio a ridiculously good player with unique intelligence, a talent which is at par to Ronaldo's and whom, unlike Ronaldo, would have probably have spent his entire career with us.
Kids are an extra layer of complexity. Everything surrounding them makes then unpredictable from how they grow, the injuries they might pick, the crowd they might mingle with, their parents (are they good people like the Nevilles were or are they only in it for the money?), their attitude, the opportunities they are given and the agents chosen
Some players are very difficult to manage as well. The likes of Gazza and Balotelli are easy targets to mention but there are top professionals like Baggio whose sensitive character made him quite difficult players to manage as well. I've always said that my biggest regret in football is not to see Roby playing for Manchester United. In my opinion, Sir Alex could have easily made Roby the best player Manchester United had ever had. Baggio would have found in Sir Alex a top top manager whose also a father figure while Sir Alex would find in Baggio a ridiculously good player with unique intelligence, a talent which is at par to Ronaldo's and whom, unlike Ronaldo, would have probably have spent his entire career with us.
Kids are an extra layer of complexity. Everything surrounding them makes then unpredictable from how they grow, the injuries they might pick, the crowd they might mingle with, their parents (are they good people like the Nevilles were or are they only in it for the money?), their attitude, the opportunities they are given and the agents chosen
In the summer of 2015 we were linked with Mane and Pedro, the vast majority of the caf favored Pedro as Mane was deemed by most to be "not United quality"
The classic "not United quality" tag has been given to van Dijk, Firmino & Bernardo Silva in the past also.
Back when we had van Gaal when I first joined the forum I remember several posters wanting us to sign Kevin Strootman & Jordy Clasie for our midfield.
The classic "not United quality" tag has been given to van Dijk, Firmino & Bernardo Silva in the past also.
Back when we had van Gaal when I first joined the forum I remember several posters wanting us to sign Kevin Strootman & Jordy Clasie for our midfield.
Umtiti?
Sneijder doesn't fit here.
That Mane thread is absolute quality. Remember we went from Pedro to Muller (although that was brief) to Mane and people lost their minds here. I'll admit I didn't see Mane becoming this good a player, but it was sort of obvious that we would get a pretty good player in our hands
Don't need Haaland because of Martial
Don't need Sancho because of James
Why not all of them
Don't need Sancho because of James
Why not all of them
Bernardo Silva? Really? When he was in that great Monaco team?
He never found the right club, could have been superb
To be fair to Gotze the guy was amazing, no one on here could have predicted his medical problems.
Haaland. If you watch his 24 goals so far this season,a lot of them has been crappy goals given to him on a sliver plate. And the Austrian league is ranked 12th in Europe.
I recall my friends being gutted we didn’t sign Sanches despite only seeing that cameo against England. How’s he doing at Lille?
Jamie Redknapp as manager.?
Biggest one of all. Jose Mourinho - manager wanted by 95% here.
Because a football team has 11 players in it and a modern squad has 25. Getting those 2 will cost 2 years worth of transfer budget but leave the 25 man squad with massive weaknesses. United management should fix all the squad weaknesses before splashing out on superstars.
Those years where we refused to buy any centre midfielder saw all manner of ludicrous names bandied around.
Gareth Barry pushing into his 30s I remember as being a particular low spot.
Gareth Barry pushing into his 30s I remember as being a particular low spot.
The graph of "he's good, to he's appalling" would have more peaks and troughs than any player we've had in the last 2 decades I reckon.
Mario Götze was nearly universally seen as the #1 upcoming - can't miss - talent at that time, so you might as well call every football person on the planet clueless.
Even if Haaland ends up a failure he isn't a "CAF mistake" either.
Even if Haaland ends up a failure he isn't a "CAF mistake" either.
People wanted Morata instead of Lukaku.
Although it didn't work out with Lukaku in the end, he did score a lot of goals during certain periods and we got our money back.
Although it didn't work out with Lukaku in the end, he did score a lot of goals during certain periods and we got our money back.
I don't think Mane would have been a hit here, he would have done a decent job but not like he does for Liverpool, IMO a lot of Liverpool players look better because of Klopp's system.
Would be very interesting to revisit this thread should Bale get signed.
Haaland is not rated because of his dominance in the Austrian league. Football is full of players who have been beasts in their weak domestic leagues who just fall flat in the Top5 leagues. He is rated because he is tearing up the Champions League, a vastly better contest. There wasn't even a serious Haaland discussion before his Genk Hattrick. He's netted three times against Napoli and he made Koulibaly looks silly. So that is why he is rated. https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/newsid=2632251.html
Or to put it in better terms: No one are thinking Haaland is a finished talent. We can all agree however, that setting goalscoring records in the Champions League warrants some discussion. His 7 goals in 4 matches during his first season is 2 more than number 2 on that list.
And hey, judging someone for scoring "crappy goals" is a bit silly. Remember Marion Gomez? First off, he puts himself into a situation where he CAN score goals. It's not random chance he's in the situations he's in. He's FAST, Daniel James fast. But most importantly he's had a somewhat immense development trajectory. 6 months ago he couldn't even crack the Salzburg team. Haaland is somewhat a rarity in football, a very tall forward with ball control ability AND pace at 1.91m tall.
Football has in large parts become about buying talent that can be that huge piece for the next decade. Atletico Madrid forked out their Griezman money for Joao Felix. Jadon Sancho is valued at £100m. Bayern Münich bid £35m for a at the time 17 year old Callum Hudson-Odoi, Vinicius Junior is Real Madrids newest potential megastar along with Martin Ødegaard.
Buying talent is what matters in modern football, buying established stars costs bank, but the talents cost as little as half. But if the talents already have performed in the contests you are aiming for? Man that price is up there with the most expensive. Clubs are buying the price for the potential upside before it's even reached.
I think £80m for Haaland is too much. And I'm Norwegian. I think his play in the CL and physical attributes makes him the most exciting forward prospect in football today, but there are still things we don't know, most importantly how his development progresses beyond this season. I'd prefer a bid around £50m max, but honestly its just a number I pull out of my a**, the comparable talents to Haaland with similar numbers are valued with triple digits, and that's not realistic. Barcelona is reportedly interested in the player, but are in no way willing to entertain Salzburgs evaluation of £80m. RB bought Haaland for £4~m 1 year ago. That is QUITE the investment increase.
I enrolled when Conte got the seat at Chelsea and many many posters were rating him pretty badly, even suggesting he should have taken an assistant position under Mourinho... Sure, he can behave like a proper nutter, but he proved again he is a top top coach by winning the PL immediately.
Ross Barkley.
Johann Vogel in the winter and summer of 2006 is my favourite. Those were desperate times.
Agreed. Could you imagine any attacking player doing well under Van Gaal? It was an exceptionally limiting system on the individual.
Oh yes, he was adored and wanted by many.
Harsh on Dembele. Great player with tons of potential - would he flourish in United? I'm not sure, but he was kind of a player we should always be interested in. Many will drool over his ability in the upcoming years.
12th ranked league or not, he's scored 26 goals already and we're in November. It's an incredible record.
It was probably justified to be fair to him. Who knows how could he would have been if not for his illness. He was exceptional for his age from 2012-15. People call his stint at Bayern a failure, but the guy still scored 15 goals in each of his 2 full seasons. He also has a World Cup Final MOTM and winning goal to his name, not a bad career really, despite his health problems.
Strootman was all the rage when LVG was here.
He had a serious injury and still had not recovered, yet people on here wanted him desperately.
The crazy thing was that he wasn't even the best player for Roma and when he returned, he wasn't particularly good.
I also recall people quite happy with us going infor Ron Vlaar. For those who don't know who this guy is, he helped get A.Villa relegated (Villa were one of the worst teams ever seen in the EPL) and after they got relegated, he was "released" by Villa as he was not deemed good enough for them (in the Championship), yet he apparently was good enough for us
These Dutch players were being heralded, because we had a Dutch manager.
Why’s Umtiti under dreadful signing? I’d still take him now - a career move would be what he needs. Would provide cover at left back too. Knees fecked I suppose
It is outrageous for OP to suggest the professional scouting network knows more about football than the fans. Outrageous.
I was a big Huddlestone fan
. Mind you, I don't think he would ever be the type of player to start in a game against a good team, but against the minnows he could have sat deep and picked out players on the fly. He had incredible passing range. My only problem with him was that he was too big and not mobile enough to play well against good teams who would press...I'm surprised Ozil hasn't been converted to a deep lying playmaker similar to how Pirlo started off as an attacking midfielder but then moved back to the #6. Of course, he would need a hard working ball winner beside him, but with his range of passing I could see that position working well for him at this stage of his career. Mind you, I would still keep him out of the starting 11 against the big clubs...I made the Ozil thread when he was running his contract down at Arsenal
Yeah the latest reports are he's in a worse way than they thought.