Agreed, Maguire is a decent player. The issue for him at United is two fold, fans are on his back due to his price tag and internally the club treated him as if he was Vidic and you can't really comeback from that easily.
Adrien Rabiot | signs 1 year deal at Juventus. See you all next year
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
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Very good comparison actually. From more recently I think he reminds me of Matic (tall and left-footed, steady Eddie, good on the ball and maybe one-paced). I would take him on a free sure. The main telling point for me is he gets into a very good French team on a regular basis.Looking like this is on.
Our very own Emmanuel Petit(...just not quite as good or as handsome)
Btw, Gladbach are open to sell Kone for 30m euros according to German sources.
Exactly, not his fault expectation’s were through the roof due to his price tag. Once he started making mistakes the pressure was on and it broke him. A fresh start will do him good
he’s not bad player at all, I’m not arguing with that. The question is how people think the likes of west ham, Aston Villa and Spurs will invest a 30m on 30 years old centre back Maguire? We are making it sounds like 30m is a peanut for west ham, Aston Villa and Spurs to spend on a 30 years old defenders. 30m is big money for them.
30m for captain of England is a bargain considering you don’t get much for 30m these days!
Maguire is a decent CB in a low block. In a high line he's useless and that's why it hasn't worked for him here.
People act like Maguire was never a good football player. He has even played good for us but is at a stage where he doesn’t fit the United style of football and is low on confidence. He does perfectly fine for England in comparison.
I really doubt he will be hard to sell.
If it’s the other way around, we won’t be spending 30m on 30 years old Maguire. Forget about the name of Maguire, I think it will still be bad investment if we have to spend 30m on 30 years old Varane. So it’s not about Maguire.
That's beside the point. Maguire being a decent player means that he will have suitors that rate him for their team. All players have limitations and all players are rated differently in specific settings.
It only takes one foolish club but people really overestimate the willingness of clubs to pay significant transfer fees for 30+ players. There have been ~10 players in history that have ever sold for £30m or more at age 30+, most of them in Italy during times when clubs there were tossing money around stupidly. And some of them are players like Ronaldo, Lewandowski, Batistuta. Koulibaly last summer was the only one purchased by an English side and that has worked out predictably terribly.
In terms of specific clubs, zero chance that Spurs buys him as Levy is all about resale value and the fanbase would riot. I also think zero chance for Villa as they have three decent CBs (Carlos, Mings, Konsa) already contracted through at least 2026 and two of them are 30 themselves. West Ham could be a possibility if they win the conference league. They are locked into Zouma, Aguerd, and Kehrer on long term deals and while that's not a great group I can't see them prioritizing a 4th CB unless they are in Europe.
I don’t doubt it takes one foolish club to pay such a money. Hence why I said the only clubs that will spend 30m on 30 years old Maguire is club that is desperate. But who are those desperate clubs (I asked these questions already). The likes of Aston Villa and west ham already have enough centre backs. Chelsea just spent big on numerous centre backs. May be you can help us since you want to upgrade Holding. You need that saliba’s backup
There is zero precedent for mid-table clubs spending £30m for a CB in his 30s. It hasn't happened on even a single occasion. Why would the first player to be deemed worthy of that outlay be Harry Maguire? Because he plays for Manchester United?
Yeah, I think other than maybe West Ham it is hard to actually identify a club that would buy Maguire for a significant fee and pay the wages.I don’t doubt it takes one foolish club to pay such a money. Hence why I said the only clubs that will spend 30m on 30 years old Maguire is club that is desperate. But who are those desperate clubs (I asked these questions already). The likes of Aston Villa and west ham already have enough centre backs. Chelsea just spent big on numerous centre backs. May be you can help us since you want to upgrade Holding. You need that saliba’s backup
Even at West Ham they have one player over 125k per week so are they really going to pay Maguire 200k or whatever on top of a big transfer fee? They have lots of other needs and there are going to be better ways to spend the money from selling Rice.
Also instructive to look at the market recently for other PL experienced English CBs around 30. Tarkowski moved to Everton on a free, Coady was loaned to Everton and they have an option to buy him for 5m, Dan Burn was sold to Newcastle for 11m, you could probably get Lewis Dunk out of Brighton for 10-15m if you tried. So if you have those kinds of options on the market who wants to spend 30m and massive wages on Harry Maguire?
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I have no concern with the fees. I’m sure he wants to play means he’s willing to take paycut to 100k or 130k. Just buy Maguire, he suits Arteta.
Doesn't Maguire make something like £190k per week? Why would West Ham even consider paying that for a decent player at best?
They pay 100k p/w for Kurt Zouma, I think they will pay Maguire more than that.
If he wants playing time, he'll have to reduce his wages. He can stay here and be on the bench, but he's mentioned many times he's not happy being a bench player. Also, he might get less salary but a longer contract, his current deal expires in 2 years.
Btw, this is the Rabiot thread.
Yeah can we save this for another thread
I'm starting to think this could be really fecking important for our summer. If we can get Rabiot in, then even if we have to spend a king's ransom on a Rice or Caicedo or whoever, you're looking at 80 million for 2 huge upgrades which is good business in this market. We could sell McTominay to recoup some funds in that midfield area as well. I think it's the only way we can afford to do a proper job on our midfield while still getting a striker.
need to sell both of mcfred. Idc if fred has one great game in a while. rest of time he just is a disaster waiting to happen. Sell them both, add rabiot and one of the top options, and promote one of the youth options to getting more squad minutes. If we swap fred/mctominay for rabiot/caicedo/(iqbal-hannibal) or something that is a win for me on our midfield.
Rabiot and technical playmaker CM is ideal who doesn't have to cost a fortune necessarily then go big for Kane/Osimhen
Very comfortable in tight spaces and carrying. He's instantly the best dribbler in our midfield (not saying much there though)
If we could bring in one of Rice or Caicedo, Rabiot on a free then Le Fee who is very De Jong’esque and only has a year left on his contract whilst getting rid of VDB, McTominay and Fred I’d be ecstatic and it’s believable to be done.
Completely agree. Think Rabiot is a good player, but he hast had a big career, isnt like he is yougn and seems to come with baggage, but there is on here at least an obsession with free players and proven players, when really a club level what has he proved.
Thats fair enough, but you are inferring you dont see him as an upgrade possibly? I agree in our first eleven our side needs better i the areas you mention, but it also definately needs an upgrade int he position Eriksen is playig too, not forgettig Eriksen is as old as Casemeiro and taking the helath and injury problems and his lack of legs in the middle, would hazard a guess he doesnt go on as long, if he lasts two seasons....Rabiot is then 30 and we are in the same position as ow.
Appreciate we probably dont have as much money to spend as hope, unless wee really do sell properly this summer, but think too much emphasis is being put on free signings, that are plugging gaps and not actually solving anything beyond a short period of time, isnt moving us forward to me.
I think too much has been madeabout the siging of Eriksen and how badly he would be missed, was he really missed so much when Sabitzer was playing, creatively in games we were the better wide in to a degree, I think in some of our tougher games he wasnt really missed that much.
Persoally i terms of us maybe not having so much money I would much rather we try and utilise a couple of youngsters in terms of the squad more and/or make some lower key signings liek we did with Malacia that are the right age ad profile. We have Amad, Mainoo, Iqbal, Pellestri, Hannibal who have barely featured. Are any good enough or ready to step up...obviously we dont know without playing them, but that is good numbers of talented yougn players and I think one or two of them certainly have the ability to step up within the squad at least and thee of them are midfielders after all
Yeah, either Maguire massively reduces his salary demands to fall in line with the clubs who’ll be interested (which he won’t, who the feck does that?) or we have to let him go for a lesser figure.
When you look at Klopp and Arteta, they almost change their squad or team to almost unrecognisable compared to the previous regime.
I believe we need to do something similar by transforming our team to something new that almost unrecognisable (some player can stay if they are good enough for ETH rebuilding project). We just signed Eriksen to improve our midfield and I think the focus for this summer shouldn’t be upgrading what we just signed last summer.
DDG
AWB Lindelof/Varane Maguire Shaw
Matic Pogba (McFred)
Greenwood/Sancho Bruno Rashford
Martial
We have managed to transform 35% of our starting XI from the above to the below:
DDG
Dalot/AWB Varane Martinez Shaw
Casemiro Eriksen (McFred)
Antony Bruno Rashford
Martial
We already signed a CB, 2 midfielders, and a left footed RW to replace Matic, Pogba, Maguire/Lindelof and whoever on the RW with Casemiro, Eriksen, Martinez, and Antony. Imo the next step now is to replace the keeper, RB, and a striker, while Rabiot to replace McFred.
If you want to be a side that dominates the ball, we need to have a better midfield than Rabiot and Eriksen as the playmaking options. From what I remember of Rabiot as well, he's not a particularly progressive or adventurous in his passing, but he carries it well.
A lot of players will consider this, the alternative is them remaining at a club while their market value tanks, if you can get a reduced.contract with some more guaranteed years so that you make it up in the aggregate along with your signing fees then you take it.
Rabiot is kind of midfielder who is good in carrying the ball progressively while also capable to retain possession very well because his passing percentage is very high (89%-90%) before allegri came.
We won’t dominate the ball without upgrading our keeper who hoof the ball a lot and I think that’s where the problem should be solved first.
He likely won’t be the only midfielder we bring in (if we get him) budget permitting so the point is moot.
We need adequate depth and he would be a fantastic signing.
Feckin'ell he's 30?! His transfer really must have been our most stupid one.
But he's not as creative as someone like Eriksen, so rotating with Eriksen doesn't make us any better?
I agree the keeper needs to be a priority as well, but we can't settle for for Rabiot and Eriksen as our more forward thinking midfielder options.
Yeah that was my point, we need to bring in more than just Rabiot in midfield, as the suggestion was rotating Rabiot and Eriksen would be enough.
I genuinely think that Chelsea would go for him at 30m. Their defense need a "leader", and they're still playing a 38 y.o. T. Silva.
It's a matter of if United is willing to sell him there.
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Is Allegri really the problem? His pass percentage for France isn't very high
He had 85% in world cup. 92% in WC Qualifier.
He's not as creative as Eriksen with his passing but Rabiot is good player and his ability to carry the ball progressively in midfield would've given us a different element. That ability is still equivalent to progressing the ball from midfield or from the back to forwards. I haven't watch a lot of Gravenberch's games but based on what I watched up to now, Gravenberch doesn't strike me to be Eriksen kind of midfielder or FDJ kind of midfielder, but instead he has something similar to Rabiot in term of their passing level and ability to carry the ball progressively. This shows Rabiot can fit into ETH's profile.
We can't settle for Rabiot and Eriksen for long term. But for one season, I can live with it. In contrast, we ain't survive with DDG and Martial next season. And we need a progressive and proactive right back that can support Antony and Amad because our right back is nowhere near to what Shaw offers on the left. To do these, I believe we have to stick with Rabiot and Eriksen. Put it this way, signing Rabiot is also already considered as upgrading our midfield because he's far better than McFred in experienced, defensively and progressive play.
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Can guarantee we don't sign 3 midfielders,think it's highly unlikely we get even 2
I think rotating
Casemiro Eriksen Bruno
with
new dm Rabiot new am
would be enough. We should have two quality options for each position.
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