Is Jadon Sancho really worth the 100 plus million fee?

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UNITED ACADEMY

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Pogba was playing in the midfield pivot prior to Christmas, then he got injured, his only sustained run in the front 4 has been since he returned from injury this year, we also have Van de Beek to add the creative balance, meanwhile we don't even have a decent starting option in midfield, to buy a player for £70M so you have 4 creators and 4 scorers in attack while only having 2 midfielders period, both of whom are mediocre, makes no sense, you keep going on about depth, if Fred or McTominay are injured we essentially have nobody, Matic is finished and Pogba doesn't work in the double pivot. What you're suggesting is having 4 Ferrari's and 4 back up Ferrari's, meanwhile we have 2 Skoda's in midfield and no cover at all, talk about lopsided, think about that, I refuse to believe Ole is that naive. Let me make this clear as we are going in circles, I don't give a feck if we buy Sancho or Raphina or whatever player you guys want to add so there's more shiny toys in an already 7 deep set of options, we can't go into the season with only 2 central midfielders, especially 2 that mediocre, and expect that to be sustainable, especially against this current City and a Chealsea and Liverpool that will no doubt strengthen their first 11, not just add more coats of paint.
Since his come back from injury before Christmas, Pogba has been playing in double pivot against the bottom 8 teams but the top 11 teams he's been used on the left and we were still on title race at that time with that similar tactic. Our title race was already over when Pogba came back from injury this year. The Chelsea 0-0, Leeds 0-0, West Brom 1-1, Palace 0-0 were when Pogba was injured. 8 points lost.

VDB is not playmaker, he's a runner & someone who open and create space. I would like us to upgrade our midfield but in reality we can still have winning title form with those ''2 Skoda's'' in midfield but as soon as one of Pogba or Bruno is dropped/injured, title race is over. Like I said before, Lingard (25m-30m) to West Ham & James (25m) to Leeds will give us 50m-55m. We only need to add 20m and we will get Sancho. If your complain is that we don't have cover for the 2 Skoda's. 35m is enough to find similar profile as McFred to cover them. Is that not realistic net spent to you?

If we are not signing Sancho or someone who can cover Pogba or Bruno's playmaking ability, I'm telling you we better either put huge expectation on Diallo next season or pray those two not get injured.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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Greenwood and Pogba doesnt start in the same side that often since its now Pogba left and Rashford moved across. Its just strange how Chelseas forwards are being lauded here when its been their weakest area under Tuchel. I wouldnt swap our attacking options for theirs, we simply score more goals than they do.
Tuchels side isnt being called boring because they have fantastic attacking flair, lets be honest about it. They have a pragmatic approach that works for them.
Cavani won't play week in week out. The guy needs to be rotated. You will expect Greenwood & Pogba play on the same side often.

Again, I never rate Chelsea forwards. I told you we have better regular & XI than them. But they have better bench than us, I only rate their bench not their main players. Like I said before, I will take two of Pulisic/Ziyech/CHO over James & VDB. Would you not?

If we don't sign Sancho then we better make sure Diallo is 100% huge upgrade of James next season. The first step to convince me is if he starts tonight vs Roma and perform brilliant, that will be a message that he will be guaranteed to start over James next season and can cover Pogba/Bruno's creativity.
 

croadyman

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Pogba was playing in the midfield pivot prior to Christmas, then he got injured, his only sustained run in the front 4 has been since he returned from injury this year, we also have Van de Beek to add the creative balance, meanwhile we don't even have a decent starting option in midfield, to buy a player for £70M so you have 4 creators and 4 scorers in attack while only having 2 midfielders period, both of whom are mediocre, makes no sense, you keep going on about depth, if Fred or McTominay are injured we essentially have nobody, Matic is finished and Pogba doesn't work in the double pivot. What you're suggesting is having 4 Ferrari's and 4 back up Ferrari's, meanwhile we have 2 Skoda's in midfield and no cover at all, talk about lopsided, think about that, I refuse to believe Ole is that naive. Let me make this clear as we are going in circles, I don't give a feck if we buy Sancho or Raphina or whatever player you guys want to add so there's more shiny toys in an already 7 deep set of options, we can't go into the season with only 2 central midfielders, especially 2 that mediocre, and expect that to be sustainable, especially against this current City and a Chealsea and Liverpool that will no doubt strengthen their first 11, not just add more coats of paint.
Yeah completely agree with you that there is no depth behind Fred & McTominay in that position but all reports seem to suggest that our main targets are going to be either CB/CDM, RW & backup RB. Think that ST is off the table until next summer if Edi decides to stay and expect us to go all in for Erling next summer. I am pretty confident that we will only look at another creative CM good on the ball if Pogba leaves this summer otherwise expect the positions highlighted above to be the main focus.
 

Bebestation

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I absolutely love it when United buy young English players because it feels a bit like a kid coming back to their mum's during their University break.


However, has Sancho's performances been that good to the point that we would pay such a large amount for him if he wasnt an English player?

I'm not doubtful about him, but I just want to know what people think is worth such a 100M euro fee.
 

DSG

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Bolded part is pure bullshit.

Ole has a veto, confirmed by the club:

https://assets.manutd.com/AssetPick...ril_2021_Final_Minutes1619197103898_img1x.pdf

I even cut & paste the interesting part for you:

The scouting team work closely with Ole to produce options for consideration based on the type of profile which Ole feels that the team needs. Ole has a veto, because as a club we will not sign a player that a manager doesn't want.

It's been said several times that it was the pitch from Ole that convinced VDB to join.

Telles we could have gotten on a free this summer, so how is that also 'value'?

By the same measure is £130m on Maguire and AWB also 'value' signings?
‘Didn’t realize these statements would be so controversial.

I think the amount of playing time both VdB and Telles have had tell the story. If they were signings that Ole actively advocated for, they’d be playing a lot more regularly and in important matches. I always thought VdB would be played deeper.

“Veto power” is a funny thing. Of course Ole is not going to say no. Those two transfers came out of nowhere and were squad depth moves, not key player moves. I genuinely believe that he thought those two additions would help the squad.

I realize that we shouldn’t conveniently give Ole credit for the good signings and blame others for the bad ones. Both VDB and Telles have been pretty bad when on the pitch, it’s understandable he’s not playing them. Also, they are behind arguably our two best players, Bruno and Shaw.
 

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And why would that be the case? Isn't it a bit more probable that you want him to be RW because that would mean he fits into your team than me wanting him to be a LW just for the sake of it? ;)

Transfermarkt is quite shit at those things. Sancho these days isn't just first choice as LW, Terzic even plays other players such as Reus or Hazard out of position to play Sancho there. If you really want to go into detail, Sancho is more of an AM in many of Dortmund's games because they played three at the back quite often under Favre and Terzic. And in this case, Sancho is playing as one of two AMs, usually left sided, and almost exclusively moves in the half spaces or between the lines with the wing backs providing width, not him.

It also should have you thinking that every world class player with Sancho's profile plays with his strong foot on the inside. I believe it's not debatable that he's a player who drifts towards the center of the pitch and sometimes even starts there. He even does it when he plays on the right. And having the ball on your inside foot when cutting inside opens up more possibilities because if it's the other way round, you're not only dribbling away from goal, you also have to shoot and play through balls with your weak foot. There hasn't been a single world class inverted winger who played with his strong foot on the outside at all. Maybe Sterling if we're being generous.

I think this is incredibly obvious if you watch Sancho play to be honest. He's so clearly preferring the left wing and his best scenes occur either there or in the half spaces.
As many have pointed out, with multiple sources, he lines up on the right more often than the left. I agree he’s deadly on the left, but he’s also deadly on the right. He’s a very unselfish player and his gift unlocking the defense and making the extra pass, which can come from the right and the left. He’s not, in my opinion, a CR7, cut in on your right and shoot inverted winger. He’s more a chance creator.

As I said, I watch a lot of Dortmund matches,
 

#07

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‘Didn’t realize these statements would be so controversial.

I think the amount of playing time both VdB and Telles have had tell the story. If they were signings that Ole actively advocated for, they’d be playing a lot more regularly and in important matches. I always thought VdB would be played deeper.

“Veto power” is a funny thing. Of course Ole is not going to say no. Those two transfers came out of nowhere and were squad depth moves, not key player moves. I genuinely believe that he thought those two additions would help the squad.

I realize that we shouldn’t conveniently give Ole credit for the good signings and blame others for the bad ones. Both VDB and Telles have been pretty bad when on the pitch, it’s understandable he’s not playing them. Also, they are behind arguably our two best players, Bruno and Shaw.
Agreed.

Too much is made over the supposed veto. What if the club says to Ole its either X player or nobody. Sure you can veto the player proposed but if you're not going to get anyone else its not much of a choice.

Its like saying to someone you have a choice to eat what I give you or starve. Technically you have a choice, you can choose to starve. How many people will choose to starve though?

Mourinho may be a bit off the rails but there's nothing to suggest he lied when he said he was coach of Man Utd not manager. Unless people honestly believe he desperately wanted Grant, Dalot and Fred going into his final season at United.

I'm not holding my breath for Sancho, or any big name signings this summer. If the Glazers won't even pay to fix the turnstiles at Old Trafford why do people think they're going to go big on players? The supposed pressure to appease the fans is pure garbage. These guys have spoken to the fans once in 16 years. They couldn't give a monkeys about us from over in Florida.

There's likely to be a modest budget for signings this summer, as there was last summer, and the summer before. Any further moves will have to be supplemented by sales. As was the case when we only moved for Maguire after we'd sold Lukaku.

The Glazers don't want Ole competing with Pep or Klopp, they want him to be another late stage Arsene Wenger: Buy young and cheap, finish fourth, get the odd trophy here and there to keep us in the headlines.

I don't see us moving for Sancho, or another player in that £75m+ bracket, unless we get rid of Lingard and several others and restrict ourselves to bargain signings in other areas.
 

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Agreed.

Too much is made over the supposed veto. What if the club says to Ole its either X player or nobody. Sure you can veto the player proposed but if you're not going to get anyone else its not much of a choice.

Its like saying to someone you have a choice to eat what I give you or starve. Technically you have a choice, you can choose to starve. How many people will choose to starve though?

Mourinho may be a bit off the rails but there's nothing to suggest he lied when he said he was coach of Man Utd not manager. Unless people honestly believe he desperately wanted Grant, Dalot and Fred going into his final season at United.

I'm not holding my breath for Sancho, or any big name signings this summer. If the Glazers won't even pay to fix the turnstiles at Old Trafford why do people think they're going to go big on players? The supposed pressure to appease the fans is pure garbage. These guys have spoken to the fans once in 16 years. They couldn't give a monkeys about us from over in Florida.

There's likely to be a modest budget for signings this summer, as there was last summer, and the summer before. Any further moves will have to be supplemented by sales. As was the case when we only moved for Maguire after we'd sold Lukaku.

The Glazers don't want Ole competing with Pep or Klopp, they want him to be another late stage Arsene Wenger: Buy young and cheap, finish fourth, get the odd trophy here and there to keep us in the headlines.

I don't see us moving for Sancho, or another player in that £75m+ bracket, unless we get rid of Lingard and several others and restrict ourselves to bargain signings in other areas.
The logical assumption is that the Glazers only care about money... probably true.

Begs the question — is it better for the club long term to be shite, maybe even (gasp!) get relegated, so the cash dries up, they get tired of their play thing and sell?

It will be an interesting summer for sure. Hope we strengthen. After watching Chelsea beat City fairly easily, and dominate Real, the top 4 next season is going to be very challenging.
 

Devil may care

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Since his come back from injury before Christmas, Pogba has been playing in double pivot against the bottom 8 teams but the top 11 teams he's been used on the left and we were still on title race at that time with that similar tactic. Our title race was already over when Pogba came back from injury this year. The Chelsea 0-0, Leeds 0-0, West Brom 1-1, Palace 0-0 were when Pogba was injured. 8 points lost.

VDB is not playmaker, he's a runner & someone who open and create space. I would like us to upgrade our midfield but in reality we can still have winning title form with those ''2 Skoda's'' in midfield but as soon as one of Pogba or Bruno is dropped/injured, title race is over. Like I said before, Lingard (25m-30m) to West Ham & James (25m) to Leeds will give us 50m-55m. We only need to add 20m and we will get Sancho. If your complain is that we don't have cover for the 2 Skoda's. 35m is enough to find similar profile as McFred to cover them. Is that not realistic net spent to you?

If we are not signing Sancho or someone who can cover Pogba or Bruno's playmaking ability, I'm telling you we better either put huge expectation on Diallo next season or pray those two not get injured.
I'm telling you this mate, and you can save this for later, if all we buy is Sancho and some basic clogger for midfield depth the best we'll do is trail behind City and Chelsea next season, i don't care how many merch movers we add to the front line. Van de Beek can find defence opening passes in the final 3rd, you're acting like he's Lingard on the ball, him, Bruno and Pogba all play the AM role differently but all can be effective. Also the whole swapping Pogba to the left against better teams and into the pivot against poorer teams is hopefully a thing of the past as he's on the left even against Roma who are bang average. If either Fred or McTominay are starting regularly next season we are just treading water, you keep citing games where we dropped pojnts but a big part of why didn't create chances in those games is our midfield can't pass water so we can't exert pressure on teams to wear them down and create openings, they are useless in games where we have the bulk of possession against a low block, the biggest issue isn't attacking depth, its the complete lack of connection between the midfield and front 4.

Yeah completely agree with you that there is no depth behind Fred & McTominay in that position but all reports seem to suggest that our main targets are going to be either CB/CDM, RW & backup RB. Think that ST is off the table until next summer if Edi decides to stay and expect us to go all in for Erling next summer. I am pretty confident that we will only look at another creative CM good on the ball if Pogba leaves this summer otherwise expect the positions highlighted above to be the main focus.
Hopefully the reports are just clickbait mate, I mean the Kane, Sancho and Haaland stories get them a lot more views than midfielders will, even if logically everyone knows we have no chance of signing either striker even if Cavani was going this summer. For me 2 midfielders and a CB should be the priorities.
 

#07

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The logical assumption is that the Glazers only care about money... probably true.

Begs the question — is it better for the club long term to be shite, maybe even (gasp!) get relegated, so the cash dries up, they get tired of their play thing and sell?

It will be an interesting summer for sure. Hope we strengthen. After watching Chelsea beat City fairly easily, and dominate Real, the top 4 next season is going to be very challenging.
The issue is Man Utd is not a play thing for the Glazers. The one with the real business savvy, Malcom Glazer, is no longer around. His kids seem to have been managing their inheritance less effectively than he did. They need Man Utd, its providing a lot of their income. As I understand it their retail business isn't doing much of anything. United is effectively paying for their lifestyle. Hence why they continue to take dividends during a pandemic that has hammered both the club and the British economy.

The real question for them is, can they sell United at a large enough profit to continue living off of what they'll be paid for their shares for the foreseeable future? Do they, in the end, decide that its just not worth the hassle of being doorstepped by reporters etc

I think you ask a very good question about next season. I imagine City and Chelsea will strengthen, as there's no real constraint upon their owners even now. Leicester, who also have a billionaire owner as well as a very well run recruitment department, will continue to buy smartly. Liverpool will get their best players back from injury and, should they fail to qualify for the Champions League, may sack off the cups and focus solely on the league. Its not nailed on that United can stagnate and still count on finishing in the top four.

Have the Glazers learned that from the drop off between 2017-18 and 2018-19? If so then maybe the squad will get some badly needed reinforcement. If not it'll all be on Bruno, all over again, to keep us in the top four next season.
 

Zehner

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As many have pointed out, with multiple sources, he lines up on the right more often than the left. I agree he’s deadly on the left, but he’s also deadly on the right. He’s a very unselfish player and his gift unlocking the defense and making the extra pass, which can come from the right and the left. He’s not, in my opinion, a CR7, cut in on your right and shoot inverted winger. He’s more a chance creator.

As I said, I watch a lot of Dortmund matches,
My room mate is a Dortmund fan so I watch almost every game of them these days. Which is fine for me since Sancho is one of my favorite players in the world right now. So I lost count how many Sancho games I've seen but I'm defiinitely >60, too ;) And I know quite well how he developed positionally because I was convinced he'll end up on the left wing eventually from the first matches he played on the right, so I followed his positional development very closely. IMO the data you're providing is flawed. And that's because the media get the formations wrong all the time. I believe heat maps are a much better indicator of Sancho's positional preferences and they support my impressions. Check the heat maps on Sofascore

They show that he preferred the left in the following competitions:

Bundesliga 20/21 (6 and 11 in 1870 minutes)
Bundesliga 19/20 (17 and 17 in 2290)
Bundesliga 17/18 (1 and 4 in 685)
CL 20/21 (2 and 3 in 386)
DFB Pokal 20/21 (4 and 4 in 428)
DFB Pokal 18/19 (0 and 1 in 69)


And in those competitions he was found primarily on the right:

Bundesliga 18/19 (12 and 18 in 2460)
CL 19/20 (2 and 2 in 647)
International matches (3 and 5 in 843)


Undecided:

DFB Pokal 19/20 (0 and 0 in 256)
CL 18/19 (1 and 1 in 438)


I think overall, this speaks a very clear language. He's found on the right as part of Dortmund's fluid attacking play but that is that. The notion that he's a RW stems from his break through season and the matches for England (which were quite underwhelming according to many here).

And if you combine the heat maps with his scorers, it's quite obvious that he's much more productive on the left.
 
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Teja

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I'm telling you this mate, and you can save this for later, if all we buy is Sancho and some basic clogger for midfield depth the best we'll do is trail behind City and Chelsea next season, i don't care how many merch movers we add to the front line. Van de Beek can find defence opening passes in the final 3rd, you're acting like he's Lingard on the ball, him, Bruno and Pogba all play the AM role differently but all can be effective. Also the whole swapping Pogba to the left against better teams and into the pivot against poorer teams is hopefully a thing of the past as he's on the left even against Roma who are bang average. If either Fred or McTominay are starting regularly next season we are just treading water, you keep citing games where we dropped pojnts but a big part of why didn't create chances in those games is our midfield can't pass water so we can't exert pressure on teams to wear them down and create openings, they are useless in games where we have the bulk of possession against a low block, the biggest issue isn't attacking depth, its the complete lack of connection between the midfield and front 4.



Hopefully the reports are just clickbait mate, I mean the Kane, Sancho and Haaland stories get them a lot more views than midfielders will, even if logically everyone knows we have no chance of signing either striker even if Cavani was going this summer. For me 2 midfielders and a CB should be the priorities.
WDYT about signing someone like Grealish to play Pogba's role at LW and have Pogba central? Generally I'm with you that the left attacking mid role is where he excels but Pogba at CM is quite good.

This would mean no Sancho and having Rashford + Greenwood rotating on the right. CF is still a question mark but probably Rashford at CF some games as well.
 

Teja

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My room mate is a Dortmund fan so I watch almost every game of them these days. Which is fine for me since Sancho is one of my favorite players in the world right now. So I lost count how many Sancho games I've seen but I'm defiinitely >60, too ;) IMO the data you're providing is flawed. And that's because the media get the formations wrong all the time. I believe heat maps are a much better indicator of Sancho's preference and they support my impressions. Check the heat maps on Sofascore

He shows that he preferred the left in the following competitions:

Bundesliga 20/21 (6 and 11 in 1870 minutes)
Bundesliga 19/20 (17 and 17 in 2290)
Bundesliga 17/18 (1 and 4 in 685)
CL 20/21 (2 and 3 in 386)
DFB Pokal 20/21 (4 and 4 in 428)
DFB Pokal 18/19 (0 and 1 in 69)


And in those competitions he was found primarily on the right:

Bundesliga 18/19 (12 and 18 in 2460)
CL 19/20 (2 and 2 in 647)
International matches (3 and 5 in 843)


Undecided:

DFB Pokal 19/20 (0 and 0 in 256)
CL 18/19 (1 and 1 in 438)


I think overall, this speaks a very clear language. He's found on the right as part of Dortmund's fluid attacking play but that is that. The notion that he's a RW stems from his break through season and the matches for England (which were quite underwhelming according to many here).

And if you combine the heat maps with his scorers, it's quite obvious that he's much more productive on the left.
If he comes I think he'll swap positions through out the game with Rashford. We've been encouraging Rashford to play both RW / LW this season and I think he's pretty comfortable in both roles now. Ronaldo / Nani used to do this fairly frequently.
 

bsCallout

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Prioritise a CDM then get Sancho or Raphinha whoever is available. We should have funds for both especially as we should be getting rid of a few.
 

marktan

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Prioritise a CDM then get Sancho or Raphinha whoever is available. We should have funds for both especially as we should be getting rid of a few.
Bissouma and Saint-Maximin would be :drool:
Get an attacking RB too and we'd finally have top quality depth, first time since around the great 08 side.
 

Devil may care

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WDYT about signing someone like Grealish to play Pogba's role at LW and have Pogba central? Generally I'm with you that the left attacking mid role is where he excels but Pogba at CM is quite good.

This would mean no Sancho and having Rashford + Greenwood rotating on the right. CF is still a question mark but probably Rashford at CF some games as well.
Pogba has spoken about how much he likes playing in that left channel, citing it as where he excelled at Juve and played his best football, when he's in the double pivot he can improve us on the ball but he's a liability off it, he just doesnt cover enough ground or have the defensive nous for it, and i honestly think it stifles him, the one thing me and @UNITED ACADEMY agree on is Ole wants that high energy in the midfield base.

To be clear if the United brass moved in the transfer market the way Woodward's mouth used to I'd not be worried about counting the net spend, but knowing how we budget I just can't see the logic in spending so much on a player who plays in positions we already have quality in, while we don't have any quality in midfield nevermind cover.

With the striker position I'm actually curious to see Martial in a front 4 with both Pogba and Bruno.
 

bsCallout

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Bissouma and Saint-Maximin would be :drool:
Get an attacking RB too and we'd finally have top quality depth, first time since around the great 08 side.
I've not watched enough of either but I do like the look of Bissouma. We could get him too.
 

Polar

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Greenwood is already a better player than Sancho.
No way! At least as a wing player. Sancho has better technical skills, work capacity, passing skills and also looks quicker.

Greenwood is a better finisher , also saying he is better to positioning himself in goal scoring positions.
 

jamesjimmybyrondean

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Pogba has spoken about how much he likes playing in that left channel, citing it as where he excelled at Juve and played his best football, when he's in the double pivot he can improve us on the ball but he's a liability off it, he just doesnt cover enough ground or have the defensive nous for it, and i honestly think it stifles him, the one thing me and @UNITED ACADEMY agree on is Ole wants that high energy in the midfield base.

To be clear if the United brass moved in the transfer market the way Woodward's mouth used to I'd not be worried about counting the net spend, but knowing how we budget I just can't see the logic in spending so much on a player who plays in positions we already have quality in, while we don't have any quality in midfield nevermind cover.

With the striker position I'm actually curious to see Martial in a front 4 with both Pogba and Bruno.
Think the popular opinion is that this would be solved by getting a quality DM
 

DSG

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The issue is Man Utd is not a play thing for the Glazers. The one with the real business savvy, Malcom Glazer, is no longer around. His kids seem to have been managing their inheritance less effectively than he did. They need Man Utd, its providing a lot of their income. As I understand it their retail business isn't doing much of anything. United is effectively paying for their lifestyle. Hence why they continue to take dividends during a pandemic that has hammered both the club and the British economy.

The real question for them is, can they sell United at a large enough profit to continue living off of what they'll be paid for their shares for the foreseeable future? Do they, in the end, decide that its just not worth the hassle of being doorstepped by reporters etc

I think you ask a very good question about next season. I imagine City and Chelsea will strengthen, as there's no real constraint upon their owners even now. Leicester, who also have a billionaire owner as well as a very well run recruitment department, will continue to buy smartly. Liverpool will get their best players back from injury and, should they fail to qualify for the Champions League, may sack off the cups and focus solely on the league. Its not nailed on that United can stagnate and still count on finishing in the top four.

Have the Glazers learned that from the drop off between 2017-18 and 2018-19? If so then maybe the squad will get some badly needed reinforcement. If not it'll all be on Bruno, all over again, to keep us in the top four next season.
Agree that Malcolm made the money. My understanding is that it’s a lot of real estate and of course he bought the Bucs for 192m, now worth probably 2 billion. The NFL literally prints money. They can’t be skint, can they?

They’d stand to make 2 billion at least by selling their stake in United. I honestly don’t know what their motivations for owning the club are... is it worth being absolutely reviled by an entire fan base?

The more I watch Chelsea, the more they scare the shit out of me. Liverpool with VVD is another proposition. City may get Haaland or Kane.

Back to Sancho, I hope we spend 150m net, but I doubt we will. The Glazers HAVE spent money. Sancho would allow us more rotation across the front 4, I’d be happy with that, even if we don’t land a striker.
 

Cabin Clown

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Youll get a lot of stick for this but there isnt much difference between the two imo. If Greenwood played for Dortmund we would be salivating over him. Give Mason 2 more years to catch up to Sanchos age now and we could see a monster.
That's what I reckon. I think Greenwood would blow up the league being a regular starter with Dortmund.
No way! At least as a wing player. Sancho has better technical skills, work capacity, passing skills and also looks quicker.

Greenwood is a better finisher , also saying he is better to positioning himself in goal scoring positions.
I think Greenwood is better technically and has a really fantastic delivery. I feel like some of our fans underrated Mason and overrate players like Sancho.

I worry about Sancho's adaptability and price tag. All subjective of course but there's a part of me that thinks this move could be a costly mistake.
 

Zehner

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Most of his professional career has player as RW, some argue that he is naturally a LW but if he has produced those numbers mainly as a RW I think it's safe to say he can play RW comfortably.
But that's not true. He played more on the leftbwing and his stats got better the more he switched to it.
 

SAFMUTD

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But that's not true. He played more on the leftbwing and his stats got better the more he switched to it.
2020/21:
RW: 17 games, 6 goals, 5 assists. Whoscored raiting: 7.98
LW: 6 games, 2 goal, 3 assist.
Whoscored raiting: 7.64

While he produced better numbers per game on the left he played the vast majority on the right.
 

Zehner

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2020/21:
RW: 17 games, 6 goals, 5 assists. Whoscored raiting: 7.98
LW: 6 games, 2 goal, 3 assist.
Whoscored raiting: 7.64

While he produced better numbers per game on the left he played the vast majority on the right.
Only that those stats are wrong. Look at his heat maps: https://www.sofascore.com/de/spieler/jadon-sancho/851100
For the majority of his time at Dortmund, he occupied the left wing more than the right one.

Not saying you shouldn't sign him. But if your squad building is based on the assumption he's a RW, you'll be in for a disappointment. You'd better think of a way how to fit him, Pogba, Rashford and Bruno in one formation.
 

laughtersassassin

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The simple fact is last year we where going to sign him to play RW and wether Pogba plays LW or not nothing has changed.

We still need a top class RW just as bad as then. Sancho is the best winger available. And he can play RW. The fact he can also play LW and even Number 10 is a Bonus.

Some wingers are versatile and some aren't. Rashford isn't. Martial isn't. Mane for instance was a RW until Salah joined Liverpool and he had to switch sides.

The fact Jadon can play both to a clearly very high standard is a good thing!
 

BaillyBaillyBailly

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That would make him our 3rd or 4th most expensive transfer, a far cry from the supposed 100m fee that keeps getting repeated in here

Quite hilarious if they sell for that given that they by all accounts rejected a £91.3m offer from us last summer the smug cnuts :lol:
Not sure its that hilarious. If you imagine that Dortmund could realistically expect Sancho to reproduce his 2019/20 season again this year they would have got another season out of him and be comfortably in the CL positions in Germany. That's probably worth £10m to them. He is also an extremely marketable player so they would have taken revenue from that too.

Ok, his season didn't work out as well as last season but in terms of a business decision it makes sense. I'm absolutely certain if you offered Watzke £90m at the end of 19/20 or £80m at the end of 20/21 he would've taken the latter.
 
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