Christopher Smalling - Tribute for the man with the big chest and high voice

FujiVice · Oct 6, 2020

Wasnt a bad Man United career was it? A decade at the club, 2 Premier Leagues, an FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League. 300 games. Not exactly Mr Consistent, but I dont think he's left the club with many people hating him. Good luck to him.

Good pro.

Snow · Oct 6, 2020

Wish him all the best. Was a fine player for us in his time here and one of the few players left that played under SAF as his medals suggest.

littlepeasoup · Oct 6, 2020

All the best Mike.

Devil may care · Oct 6, 2020

I've got a lot of respect for Smalling, unlike those 2 wage thief bums Rojo and Jones he actually wants to play football, good luck to him at Roma.

AshRK · Oct 6, 2020

No ill feelings towards him. Great servant. Wish him all the success (not against United)

Zoo · Oct 6, 2020

He gave us good service and was a cool guy. Wish him well.

Chairman Steve · Oct 6, 2020

I feel like he's one of those players that suffered badly after Sir Alex retired and never recovered. The only time he reached those heights again is under LVG but we were a very defensive team.

I think the dream plan was for him and Jones to replace Rio and Vidic, but it never came to pass.

A solid defender on his day. Possibly limited in the creative department but next to one of Rio or Vidic he looked like he could hang with them.

Kudos to him for going abroad to better himself too. Not many English players do that so wish him all the best with that.

marktan · Oct 6, 2020

He was one of the better players in a struggle of a decade for us.

If he was born 10 years earlier he could have played next to Rio in our great 2000s team and played the Vidic role. I rate his defensive ability very highly

Red Shorts · Oct 6, 2020

I thought he was a solid CB for us, and was a good servant.

Best of luck with Roma, Mike Smalling

Jericho · Oct 6, 2020

Always a bit sad when someone whos been at the club for a long time leaves, particularly one of Fergies players.

Old Ma Crow · Oct 6, 2020

Good player for United and wish him all the best in his career. It’s a shame he’s leaving and not Phil Jones.

Alemar · Oct 6, 2020

Thank you for everything you have done, Mike. Good luck in your future endeavors!

K_Ash · Oct 6, 2020

Smalling(next Ferdinand ) and Jones(next Vidic)...oh man..I really believed in that :lol:

. Thanks for the memories

RedTiger · Oct 6, 2020

Was probably our best CB for the last 8 years. Sad to see him go but he'll prolong his career in Italy.

united_99 · Oct 6, 2020

2 PLs!! Seems a long time ago now. How confident I was back then basically every season that we would be winning it. Since 2013 until now I have not even been confident to win the next game, let alone the PL.
He has had a very solid career and hopefully he will continue to do well in Italy.

El Zoido · Oct 6, 2020

He was #1 on the “deadwood” list amongst Utd fans for for 5+ years, has one decent season in a softer league and now people think he’s the next Vidic. I got nothing against the guy but we’re really not losing anything here. Frankly the thing I remember him most for is when he idiotically got himself sent off against City for no reason. I’ll miss that.

Crashoutcassius · Oct 6, 2020

Class player. The club just needs some change after many years. Good luck

ti vu · Oct 6, 2020

Respect for him. Flawed, but could have gotten his testimony playing with us and leave on higher note, if not this Southgate bs which our manager is a follower.

RC89 · Oct 6, 2020

At his best was better than any other post Fergie CB for us. Easily achieved but I think under LVG he was very good.

m1tch · Oct 6, 2020

Unfortunately Mike's the only defender of ours that another club would part with money for. Sadly for us they weren't prepared to part with much though. I did think plenty of Prem sides would be in for him but I guess he was clear about going back to Roma.
Probably lost our most consistent centre back, it's not much of a compliment though.

el3mel · Oct 6, 2020

Good luck for him. He has had a respectable career even though I really don't rate him as highly as many here.

arthurka · Oct 6, 2020

Still our best CB. But all things must end. All the best in Italy Mike.

Tapori · Oct 6, 2020

Respect

Andersonson · Oct 6, 2020

Underrated and a top pro.

Good luck at Rome.

Ekeke · Oct 6, 2020

Very good CB, Vidic and Ferdinand were a hard act to follow and other than an aged Vidic while Smalling was young, he never got to play next to anyone who could be considered a better CB than he is. So he was the one holding his defenses together and its a shame really that we'll never see how he would have done with our £120 million of defensive reinforcements (+£20 million more now will Telles). He did well without them, he may have been fantastic with them. But ultimately he's been very happy to move on to a club where he is wanted. So good luck to him, hope the Roma fans treat him better than the United ones did.

Class of 63 · Oct 6, 2020

Got a lot of time for any player that comes into the game late and then makes it all the way to the top. Wish the kid well in Rome.

MadDogg · Oct 6, 2020

He's comfortably been our best central defender since Fergie retired, both in terms of peak (15/16) and average. Now that's more a sad indictment on all our other defenders as Smalling hasn't exactly been great throughout that time, but he's generally been a solid option while everybody else has fallen apart around him. Certainly a lot better than the vocal minority made out.

In his first season here I was a HUGE fan of his potential so it's disappointing he never came close to reaching that level, but he's still been good and I wish he'd been given a chance next to Maguire. But since that wasn't going to happen I'm glad he's had the drive to go elsewhere and succeed, and good luck to him in the future.

Ali Dia · Oct 6, 2020

Best of luck Smalling! He’ll play away out there now for years on his plant based diet and yoga and become one of the worlds best defenders!

Really good player on his day. Mad how we got rid of him so we could play out from the back better but even now we are still just as terrible at playing out from the back but we’ve spent a load of money trying to not be...Just united stuff really....

Will Singh · Oct 6, 2020

I think we should have kept him but the way he’s been treated I don’t blame him. Good luck Mike.

MuFc_1992 · Oct 6, 2020

Just went on his wikipedia page and found out that he's a vegan.

Leethal · Oct 6, 2020

Southgate ruined his reputation. What a cnut.

Smalling was easily good enough to continue playing for us, (and England), but unfortunately the crooked nosed gob-shite tarnished his reputation unfairly. I feel bad for him.

Admittedly, after seeing the shit-show of our defence this season, wish he was still wearing our shirt. I hope it continue to work out for him in Roma.

Basa1987 · Oct 6, 2020

I saw his first ever appearance for United back in 2010 in a friendly against Kansas City, in which we lost 2-1 with him making a mistake. Not the most auspicious of starts and was certainly not worth the 14 hour drive from Austin, TX.

But over time he grew on me as someone who was always fully committed, especially during the Lvg years. His lack of passing is over exaggerated (remember the Smallingbauer phase) and I think Mourinho's arrival and coaching led to him passing a lot more conservatively.

Overall, one of our better defenders since 2012 and I wish him all the best.

Irwin99 · Oct 6, 2020

I liked him a lot more than Evans, Rojo, Jones and a lot other defenders we've had over the past 6 or 7 years. The PSG performance was probably my favourite memory; a giant display from him. His running battle with Vincent Kompany on corners (with each of them losing the other for important goals) was a bizarre part of the Manchester derbys a few years back.

Genuinely wish him good luck.

NICanRed · Oct 6, 2020

Was always comfortable with Mike in defence although in the later years he had become very adept at wrestling the opposition in the penalty box. I was always worried what would happen once VAR came in. Maybe luckily for us he moved to Roma before that happened.

tombombadil · Oct 6, 2020

FujiVice said:
Wasnt a bad Man United career was it? A decade at the club, 2 Premier Leagues, an FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League. 300 games. Not exactly Mr Consistent, but I dont think he's left the club with many people hating him. Good luck to him.

Good pro.

Good post. Totally agree.

All the best to Christopher Smalling. Thank you for the good times. May the odds ever be in your favor. Unless you play against Man United. Then I hope you get benched. :lol:

Web of Bissaka · Oct 6, 2020

Interestingly post-saf, in all the 3 finals (League Cup, FA Cup and EL) that we won, Smalling started in all. He also started in the 2018 FA Cup final which we lost.

Also out of his total of 18 goals, he scored the most against City.

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Skåre Willoch · Oct 6, 2020

Good luck in Rome, Chris. Thanks for everything.

Vernon Philander · Oct 6, 2020

Lots of respect for vegan Mike

Johnson Yip · Oct 6, 2020

Thank you Mike and all the best to you for the upcoming Serie A journey!

Water Melon · Oct 6, 2020

Good luck and all the very best tto Chris. I am still sure he is way better than an absolute majority of our CBs. Good for him for having some desire to play regularly.

Christopher Smalling - Tribute for the man with the big chest and high voice

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