Arsenalesque situation under Wenger, but we don't need to keep most of them. Shaw, Pogba (contract not expiring, but obviously could leave), Martial, Pereira and De Gea are the ones we should care about. Others, both on that list and not on it, bar maybe Smalling, can feck off for all I care.
11 United players contracts expiring in the summer
- Thread starter AlexUTD
- Start date
Keep Smalling, DeGea, Shaw, Martial and Pereira. One year extension for Young, still like him as a squad player. Ditch the rest.
Not overly bothered about losing any of them except for De Gea.
Apart from Valencia (he's finished), I'd exercise all the one-year options. I'd definitely let Young and at least one of Smalling/Jones leave.
Apart from Valencia (he's finished), I'd exercise all the one-year options. I'd definitely let Young and at least one of Smalling/Jones leave.
Biggest question for me is; can Jones survive again?
I'm shocked at how many people aren't bothered if Herrera leaves. He's one of the only players in the squad that really understands what it means to wear that shirt.
The fact that he's been hugely misused and had a few injury problems seems to have been lost on many United fans.
The fact that he's been hugely misused and had a few injury problems seems to have been lost on many United fans.
Most of These players while wasnt the fault of their own isnt united standard.
The only way we can move them is let their contract roll. No teams would want to buy the likes of hererra, valencia, young, jones, smailing at their current age and wages.
The only players on the list worth keeping has been offered contract, it's not like we're just sitting on our arse.
The only way we can move them is let their contract roll. No teams would want to buy the likes of hererra, valencia, young, jones, smailing at their current age and wages.
The only players on the list worth keeping has been offered contract, it's not like we're just sitting on our arse.
Ashley Young (33) - Please Go
Antonio Valencia (33) – Please Go
Matteo Darmian (28) – Please Go
Chris Smalling (28) - Please Go
Phil Jones (26) - Please Go
Ander Herrera (29) Go
Juan Mata (30) - 1 year
Luke Shaw (23) - Renew
Anthony Martial (22) – Renew
Andreas Pereira (22) – Renew
David De Gea (28) – Beg
Antonio Valencia (33) – Please Go
Matteo Darmian (28) – Please Go
Chris Smalling (28) - Please Go
Phil Jones (26) - Please Go
Ander Herrera (29) Go
Juan Mata (30) - 1 year
Luke Shaw (23) - Renew
Anthony Martial (22) – Renew
Andreas Pereira (22) – Renew
David De Gea (28) – Beg
Interesting to see people so willing to ditch so many. Yet I've seen these same people argue we've got a better squad (a capable title winning squad) than the likes of Spurs who get given the excuse of the squad being thin for some reason.
One reason i look forward to Jose going is that perhaps we can have such debates without contradictory arguments built only to attack the manager.
One reason i look forward to Jose going is that perhaps we can have such debates without contradictory arguments built only to attack the manager.
- Ashley Young (33) Think his time is done, happy to let him leave on a free. We should replace him with a proper full-back, and he could still go to mid-table or lower and be first time for another season. Came and did a decent job and never complained.
- Antonio Valencia (33) I'm conflicted, I like Valencia but at times he can be a liability. If Dalot kicks on I'd like to see Valencia as back-up but Dalot is so young so it's hard. I'd rather have a new full-back with Valencia as a back-up. Or a new full-back with Dalot as back-up. Been a great servant.
- Juan Mata (30) I absolutely love Mata as a person and as a player but I don't think he has a place in the squad. He isn't a wide player, and how often do we play with a proper number 10 with instructions that would suit him? I think he'd do great in Italy or somewhere, he has a few years left at the top level. Possibly sign a contract and sell him.
- Ander Herrera (29) Like Herrera and he cares, he isn't first team materiel but he should definitely be in and around the squad and can do a job, keep.
- Matteo Darmian (28) – Optional 1 year addon. Honestly not arsed. Let him leave. But if there is actually someone who wants to buy as seems to be ever rumoured but never happened then get the extra year and sell him for a few million.
- Chris Smalling (28) Not really good enough, but also shouldn't let him leave on a free. Renew him as a back-up, or renew and sell.
- David De Gea (28) – Optional 1 year addon. He seems to sign a new 3 year contract every season but then mid-way through the season he got told his contract is expiring. Has this man ever not been in contract negotiations? Either way get that extra year and move heaven and earth to extend. Absolutely integral.
- Phil Jones (26) Release, or Renew and sell. He's injured 90% of the season, he'll play 5 games and in 1 game he's suddenly Vidic and we all love him, in 3 he'll be average but give us a few funny faces and in the last one he'll score an own goal, give away a penalty, get sent off and injure him all in one swift move.
- Luke Shaw (23) Keep. Still only 23 and has kicked on this season.
- Anthony Martial (22) – Optional 1 year addon. Extend and keep giving him chances, still flashes of brilliance from him. Even if he doesn't properly kick-on we should renew and sell rather than release. He certainly has value.
- Andreas Pereira (22) – Optional 1 year addon. Extend and give him another year, still young and looks decent. If he doesn't appear to be at the right level next year let the lad leave and go have a decent career at a smaller team.
There's no question about their potential, but what I saw from them seem they are still severely lacking physically wise and gonna find it hard to compete with the premier league defenders. We all saw this with Chong and Mitchell in preseason as well. Gonna be unfair imo to throw them under fire. Patience needed.
I can't understand the indifference to Mata. He's a quality player playing with a team that is not on his wavelength and is capable of moments real class. Why wouldn't we keep him as a squad player? How much would it cost to bring in someone with his ability to be a squad player?
Say mata is on 150k a week, by simply letting him go fee you save 7.8mil on wages
a year and thats before employers national insurance.
If you re sign him for the same money for say 2 years, you may never get him sold and will have to pay circa 15mil in wages of the 2 year deal.
I agree with you. If the plan is to re sign simply to sell, its not worth it, just let them go now
Im more shocked at smalling. How can we let our best defender leave?
Even if you sign 2 top quality defenders for 100mil, one injury and we are right back to rojo jones bailly and lindeloff
To be fair, I'd be more inclined to keep the three Spaniards than most of the rest of this list. I think Mata/Herrera are useful squad options to have around and both seem relatively settled in the City/at the club.
I'd keep De Gea, Martial, Pereira, Shaw and Smalling for definite. I'd let Young, Mata and Valencia go. I'd renew Jones, Darmian and Herrera only because I believe we could get transfer decent fees for them, if we weren't going to get a decent fee for them I'd let Darmian and possibly Jones go, Herrera still has his uses.
This is what I think will happen: Shaw, Martial Pereira & De Gea will get new contracts. We will exercise the add-ons, but will most likely result in those players getting sold.
Ashley Young (33) - Sell
Juan Mata (30) - Sell
Ander Herrera (29) - Sell
Phil Jones (26) - Sell
Matteo Darmian (28) – Optional 1 year addon. - Sell
Chris Smalling (28) - Sell
Antonio Valencia (33) – Optional 1 year addon. - Sell
David De Gea (28) – Optional 1 year addon. Keeeeeep!
Luke Shaw (23) - Keep!
Anthony Martial (22) – Optional 1 year addon. - Keep!
Andreas Pereira (22) – Optional 1 year addon. - Keep!
Ashley Young (33) - Sell
Juan Mata (30) - Sell
Ander Herrera (29) - Sell
Phil Jones (26) - Sell
Matteo Darmian (28) – Optional 1 year addon. - Sell
Chris Smalling (28) - Sell
Antonio Valencia (33) – Optional 1 year addon. - Sell
David De Gea (28) – Optional 1 year addon. Keeeeeep!
Luke Shaw (23) - Keep!
Anthony Martial (22) – Optional 1 year addon. - Keep!
Andreas Pereira (22) – Optional 1 year addon. - Keep!
Presuming all the options are exercised.. we then probably need to sign
a centreback
a left back
a central midfielder
an attacking midfielder / winger
which is basically what Jose apparently wanted to sign in the summer
Net result of that would be...
Still here next season: De Gea, Martial, Pereira, Shaw, Smalling and Herrera.
Gone in the summer: Jones, Darmian, Young, Valencia and Mata.
I might perhaps keep Mata as a squad option, but otherwise, this looks about right to me.
Yeah I'm a bit on the fence with Mata, he's a good professional and happy in the squad role, but I think once he loses the rest of what physicality he has left then he's done at this level and we saw signs of it on the wane at the start of the season.
Anyone saying Smalling I just take it as they haven't a clue. Imagine if we were left with Bailly and Lindelof playing every game. Absolute mess.
No doubt they'll list off a few names to buy who we'd buy and would just be shit like Lindelof and Bailly.
Looking to upgrade your CBs? You don't start by getting rid of your best and only consistent one.
It's not lazy.
A headline saying:
6 United players contracts expiring in the summer and three of those players are in their thirties, and united give only 1 year rolling contracts for players in their thirties.
Wouldn't do it for them.
Personally:
. Ashley Young - new 1 year contract
. Valencia - do not offer extension and release
. Juan Mata - I really like him, but release
. Herrera - as above, but t release
. Darmian - no one knows why he’s still here.
. Smalling - our only reliable CB, should be given a new 3 year contract. Since he has been here, not a single other CB we signed has been any good.
. DDG - needs to sign a 5 year contract.
. Jones - just not good enough, and never fit in any case. Need to let go.
. Like Shaw - now he’s a first team player, am sure he will now sign a new contract.
. Martial - 1 year extension. Decision in the summer whether he stays and signs a new contract or is sold.
. Pereira - doesn’t look like he will make it, activate 1 year extension and sell in the summer.
Utter rubbish - every CB we have signed since he joined has failed. He’s essential to our squad and team. He’s not World Class and we were lucky/ spoiled to have the likes of Rio and Vidic, we would be utterly screwed without him. We can’t just go and sign 2 or 3 more CB’s this summer and hope we get a partnership that works. We need some continuity.
Keep
Ander Herrera - Would keep him as a squad option if happy
Chris Smalling - Also squad option if he's happy enough
David De Gea - Pay him whatever he wants but get the feeling he won't commit under this regime, we aren't going anywhere significant and he's good enough to be winning titles
Luke Shaw - A great resurgence, keep this up and he should cement that LB for himself
Anthony Martial - When he's on it, he's dangerous, still young, no brainer to keep him
Andreas Pereira - I want to keep him because I think he could become a great CM for us, but get the feeling he won't commit simply because even now he's not getting chances and he will want to play
Bin off
Ashley Young - 33 and bang average
Antonio Valencia - 33 and not needed anymore
Matteo Darmian - Bang average
Phil Jones - an unmitigated disaster waiting to happen with no brain who is constantly on the injury table, just get rid.
Juan Mata - As a person, love him. As a footballer who we keep insisting on playing on the right wing, meh, would prefer a young fast winger.
Ander Herrera - Would keep him as a squad option if happy
Chris Smalling - Also squad option if he's happy enough
David De Gea - Pay him whatever he wants but get the feeling he won't commit under this regime, we aren't going anywhere significant and he's good enough to be winning titles
Luke Shaw - A great resurgence, keep this up and he should cement that LB for himself
Anthony Martial - When he's on it, he's dangerous, still young, no brainer to keep him
Andreas Pereira - I want to keep him because I think he could become a great CM for us, but get the feeling he won't commit simply because even now he's not getting chances and he will want to play
Bin off
Ashley Young - 33 and bang average
Antonio Valencia - 33 and not needed anymore
Matteo Darmian - Bang average
Phil Jones - an unmitigated disaster waiting to happen with no brain who is constantly on the injury table, just get rid.
Juan Mata - As a person, love him. As a footballer who we keep insisting on playing on the right wing, meh, would prefer a young fast winger.
The trouble is that once the 1 year option is activated then we'll have to sell (probably on cheap). We can't afford risking losing the likes of Martial, Periera and DDG on free.
Honestly I don't mind seeing Young, Valencia, Mata and Jones to walk on free. However the rest must be kept.
A lot of people keen to hang on to Smalling. Personally I'd carry him on my back down the motorway to an Everton or a West Ham where he belongs.
I know it's not ideal to be making wholesale changes to a squad but when mediocrity has been allowed to infest itself within a group, you need to weed out those who aren't and will never be good enough before they can drag those with promise down to their level.
We should have been slowly removing the likes of Smalling, Jones, Valencia and Young and replacing them with better quality over the past 5 years. We didn't do that - we kept them and worse still, added other average players alongside them.
So now we find ourselves in a situation whereby we either spend another 3-4 years trying to slowly weed and replace while hoping the bad eggs don't ruin the new or younger talents, or we do something drastic.
I know it's not ideal to be making wholesale changes to a squad but when mediocrity has been allowed to infest itself within a group, you need to weed out those who aren't and will never be good enough before they can drag those with promise down to their level.
We should have been slowly removing the likes of Smalling, Jones, Valencia and Young and replacing them with better quality over the past 5 years. We didn't do that - we kept them and worse still, added other average players alongside them.
So now we find ourselves in a situation whereby we either spend another 3-4 years trying to slowly weed and replace while hoping the bad eggs don't ruin the new or younger talents, or we do something drastic.
I don't think Smalling's an amazing player by any stretch but he's our best defender and even if you want to gradually improve your defence you don't get rid of your best defender first, even if you don't think he's up to scratch. I agree with you that we should've been removing these players sooner but we didn't so for now Smalling isn't someone we should think about removing until he's comfortably 3rd/4th choice behind real quality defenders.
Underrated/underappreciated comment. We're rich, but also guaranteeing we use as much cash as possible.
De Gea leaving this club for free in 1+ year should be all the indication fans need that the upper level management is inept.
As long as we get rid of Valencia and keep Dave I'll be satisfied. I think those are the most important two. After that we should be keeping Martial and Shaw also.
Valencia's been a good servant to the club but he's utterly rubbish and the most frustrating player I can think of now. He's totally inept going forwards. Just cross the fecking ball man!!!
Valencia's been a good servant to the club but he's utterly rubbish and the most frustrating player I can think of now. He's totally inept going forwards. Just cross the fecking ball man!!!
IN
Juan Mata (30)
David De Gea (28) – Optional 1 year addon.
Chris Smalling (28)
Luke Shaw (23)
Anthony Martial (22) – Optional 1 year addon.
Andreas Pereira (22) – Optional 1 year addon.
OUT
Ashley Young (33)
Antonio Valencia (33) – Optional 1 year addon.
Ander Herrera (29)
Matteo Darmian (28) – Optional 1 year addon.
Phil Jones (26)
Seems harsh with the older guys. They have been good but never world class, and are advancing into their mid-thirties.
It's time to inject some new blood in the team, regardless what happens regarding the manager.
P.S. I have mixed feelings about Smalling. He's a man-child on the pitch and is little above average in my opinion. But we are not in a position to let away fit CBs who know the club inside-out.
Juan Mata (30)
David De Gea (28) – Optional 1 year addon.
Chris Smalling (28)
Luke Shaw (23)
Anthony Martial (22) – Optional 1 year addon.
Andreas Pereira (22) – Optional 1 year addon.
OUT
Ashley Young (33)
Antonio Valencia (33) – Optional 1 year addon.
Ander Herrera (29)
Matteo Darmian (28) – Optional 1 year addon.
Phil Jones (26)
Seems harsh with the older guys. They have been good but never world class, and are advancing into their mid-thirties.
It's time to inject some new blood in the team, regardless what happens regarding the manager.
P.S. I have mixed feelings about Smalling. He's a man-child on the pitch and is little above average in my opinion. But we are not in a position to let away fit CBs who know the club inside-out.
I love a bit of United football transfer fantasy, someone mentioned that we don't do 'mass exodus's' but allowing up to 7 on this list to leave may be what's needed, I personally think Young, Valencia, Darmian, Jones, Herrera & Mata should move on, I would keep the rest because there's another 5/6 I would gladly see the back of, if that's not a mass exodus I don't know what is.
Agreed. We need to dump as much as we can especially if a new manager comes in. If we are out of the top 4, a new manager with a smaller (18-20 players), younger roster would be beneficial long term. He can install his philosophy into fresh minds and avoid bad habits. The likes of Smalling, Jones, Valencia, and Young should not be here for a fifth manager, that fifth manager will suffer the same fate as the previous three regimes. Extending these career losers and hiring a new manager is like taking a step forward only to take 5 steps backwards.
The reason this makes no sense, is because he's clearly better than Bailly, Lindelöf, Rojo and Jones.
You start shipping a couple of that lot out first.
Sorry it made sense to me in context to my previous post which said I was happy for all of those to leave. The post you quoted was in response to several people saying they agreed but would keep Smalling.
I should have quoted a few of those responses to be a bit clearer.
As it happens, I still think Bailly will be a better defender and player than Smalling ever has been.
Renew DDG, Shaw, Herrera and Mata. Offer the rest backup wages at best, if they don’t accept, get shut. Extend the optionals with the exception of Valencia (get shut).
Extend De Gea (world class) and Shaw (decent backup left back at worst). Rest as just extra padding for the squad and not good enough in a world class team like Man Utd aspires to be.
This.
One could make an argument for giving Young more season or Mata one more season, but definitely not both one more season.
The level of stupidity required to get into this situation in the first place is actually quite astonishing. It's why I'm left scratching me head in bemusement when you get people on here defending Woodward or presuming that because he is doing something important he must be smart or good at it.
There is no explanation for this that doesn't involve an absolutely massive level of idiocy. It's also not smething you can pin on the manager as it's a situation that shouldn't be allowed to happen even if you don't have a manager.
One or two players who you are not sure how much they offer to your team or want to chance it, fair enough. 11 at the same time...I mean even if you think they all need replacing, that obviously isn't going to happen, so you don't dice around creating a scenario where it might need to.
We create a situation now where all of these player's agents will also be aware that we can't afford to let all of them go, so any contract we offer anyone is immediately going to come back with a load of extra demands, even if the player is 100% happy to stay.
fecking drama queens in this thread.
All players over 30 are usually on one year contracts anyway. So no big deal.
Some of the younger ones, such as Shaw and Jones had not merited new contracts.
Lots of others have one year options.
And the two Marquee players on that list, DDG and Martial, have been reluctant to commit because of Jose Mourinho.
All players over 30 are usually on one year contracts anyway. So no big deal.
Some of the younger ones, such as Shaw and Jones had not merited new contracts.
Lots of others have one year options.
And the two Marquee players on that list, DDG and Martial, have been reluctant to commit because of Jose Mourinho.
It's ridiculous really. Everyone seem to think that changing the players will make a massive difference, it won't.
Ashley Young has been a great servent, was in the team of the tournament at the world cup and is among the fittest at the club despite his age. Shaw has a decent start and all of a sudden we should get rid of Young? Rewind 6 months and the same people would have said the opposite!