Cause one is a winger the other full back?
Alejandro Balde
- Thread starter MyOnlySolskjaer
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We're signing both!
trash source, it's exactly the type of nonsense story Sport invent for clicks from Barca fans
I decided to believe in this.
Balde has had some issues with injury, but I think the reality is that he hasn’t really progressed in the last couple of seasons. When he broke out 3–4 years ago, he was fast, athletic and a good ball carrier, but he couldn’t defend, was a poor crosser/passer of the ball, and struggled with his end product. Fast-forward to now, and he’s pretty much in the same place.
IIRC, Gayà/Balde were expected to be the first-choice LBs for Spain at Euro 2024, but both picked up injuries in the run-up to the the tournament. For the World Cup, I don’t even think Balde was a serious consideration for the squad.
He still has some potential but he has massively stagnated. He’s behind a good, but defensively and athletically limited Cancelo. Flick also seems to have opted for makeshift LB’s over balde too at times, like Gerard. Not sure he’d make much of a difference for Utd currently, which is probably why there’s a lot of dithering or more interest in a loan. Barca probably want to replace Balde, but may not have the money to do so unless they get a decent fee. If they can’t get that, given he’s on a low salary and an academy product, there is probably little incentive to pursue a loan move for him from their perspective.
IIRC, Gayà/Balde were expected to be the first-choice LBs for Spain at Euro 2024, but both picked up injuries in the run-up to the the tournament. For the World Cup, I don’t even think Balde was a serious consideration for the squad.
He still has some potential but he has massively stagnated. He’s behind a good, but defensively and athletically limited Cancelo. Flick also seems to have opted for makeshift LB’s over balde too at times, like Gerard. Not sure he’d make much of a difference for Utd currently, which is probably why there’s a lot of dithering or more interest in a loan. Barca probably want to replace Balde, but may not have the money to do so unless they get a decent fee. If they can’t get that, given he’s on a low salary and an academy product, there is probably little incentive to pursue a loan move for him from their perspective.
Good summary of the situation.
Sounds like someone who'd be better in a back 5 but this might not be as big of a problem against low block teams if we play a conservative midfield that will snuff out counter attacks while we are throwing the kitchen sink at them
Would take him if all other LB options are exhausted
What has that got to do with them supposedly having no money?
Their financials are no secret. They also bought Rodri and badly need a striker. Balde is expandable to raise funds.
What happened to all those levers they pushed and pulled? How did that work out?
Never sign a player who has no desire to move. Shaw and Mazraoui it is.
We’ll still sign someone. Who it is, I’m not sure.
it's all good and well we signed three midfielders but if no LB is brought in at all it's a major feck up
Surely the club has to move on now and find another target ASAP. It'll be stupid not learning again from the FDJ and Tchouaméni mistakes.
this has been some Frenkie de Jong bullsheeeeeeitHans Flick... ive never liked him.
Off to the [insert to be named LB target] thread.
Right! Salinas it is. Let's hope he's into moving to England for a tasty raise and Atlectico don't jump in! He could end up playing a lot of football this year, it's a great move for him
Right, put a fork in this thread rhen.
To be fair, no one serious put a direct link to us, it seemed more of Balde's camp pushing the link.
Yeah that's very true
Get the Club Brugge LB who’s rated very highly and not so expensive to Balde
They were quoting more for seys than barca apparently were for Balde.
Looks like Salinas comes in with Shaw remaining starting lb for a while
Thought he was going to Atletico?
I expect Salinas to go to Atlético.
Suck it Ron!
Well Seys is not available and as you say his price is higher than Balde anyway. Salinas is supposedly headed to Atletico and all reports have mentioned he prefers to stay in Spain so we might have missed the boat there too. I would hope we have some other options that have not been mentioned in the media yet but I am slowly coming to the conclusion that with no serious bids having been received for him we are going to end up keeping Amass and using him to rotate with Shaw for the coming season.
Not sure you can miss a boat for a player if they had no intention of joining
Apparently off to Athletico
I always find it hard to trust when players that play for Barca and Mardrid especially Spanish ones links to us. Hardly anyone of them wants to leave Spain.
Well I think there might have been an opportunity if we had moved early in the window rather than sit there pining for Lewis Hall to become available for 10 quid and a packet of monster munch. In this case we waited until close to the deadline and now Salinas has options in Spain that were not there in July and so he is going to prioritize them. I don't go overboard with criticizing our transfer strategy but in this case we have been negligent, Hall was clearly not happening both because Newcastle don't want to sell and because we clearly don't want to spend the money required to get him and so we should have been aggressively pursuing alternatives several weeks ago and we might have addressed this already.
We've been linked to Salinas for a long time and originally the story was he wanted to go to Barca. I imagine the only reason he's not going the is because they need to flog Blade first.
Maz is nowhere near good enough.
He's miles off the level needed even as a squad player. Every break dies when it falls at his feet.
Agreed, but we can't afford Hall or Balde.
I think his future may be as a centre back. He's a decent squad player.
Isnt balde £38m and prob £80k a week?
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