British Core

[UpWithRivers]

We're looking at young and upcoming players say between 19-25. We were quite successful over the past 20 years and there is a good chance many of the current English youngsters would have idolized our club while growing up. For them signing for us would be a dream come true. This might also be true for many youngsters outside England, but the United's success would have been strongly felt inside the country more than outside (for obvious reasons). Also, if we want to build a British core, this is the time to do it as some of the most talented bunch of players are rising.

None of this is true.
1. We were successful and just so happened that a number of players were British. There is no correlation between our success and Being British. We had loads of non British that were just as much a part of our success.
2. There is nothing to suggest that its a repetitive methodology. And there in fact there is nothing to suggest its a methodology at all. Sir Alex just happened to have a core if youth players that were British and when he bought he bought from within the league. At that time we could buy the best from other clubs. The game has moved on in so many ways.
3. There is nothing to suggest that British born players love Utd more. Nothing. And even if they did there is nothing to suggest that translates into better performances.
4. This is the time to buy British- its not. Its the worst time. British clubs are minted and dont have to sell. Hence ridiculous prices. There are just as good a froup of Dutch, Portuguese, french etc players

 

[Kaglish10]

Those players gave them a solid platform to build upon. Henderson, Milner, Sturridge and Llana are still part of that team so although they signed some shit, they haven’t done that bad out of it.

Solid platform my foot. They were languishing in the league and only had Suarez, Coutinho, Gerrard to thank.

 

[ash_86]

None of this is true.
1. We were successful and just so happened that a number of players were British. There is no correlation between our success and Being British. We had loads of non British that were just as much a part of our success.
2. There is nothing to suggest that its a repetitive methodology. And there in fact there is nothing to suggest its a methodology at all. Sir Alex just happened to have a core if youth players that were British and when he bought he bought from within the league. At that time we could buy the best from other clubs. The game has moved on in so many ways.
3. There is nothing to suggest that British born players love Utd more. Nothing. And even if they did there is nothing to suggest that translates into better performances.
4. This is the time to buy British- its not. Its the worst time. British clubs are minted and dont have to sell. Hence ridiculous prices. There are just as good a froup of Dutch, Portuguese, french etc players

The point i was trying to make was , there is a good chance United is seen as a step up by the local lad than someone from a different continent or a country, especially when we are at this state. Whether this model would be successful or not is a different topic.

 

[Cloud7]

I’m all for it. Fergie always had a British spine to his teams.

Rio - Gaz - Fletch - Scholes - Carrick - Giggs - Rooney

You need good British players who understand the league and the club. These players need to form the core of your team, after which you surround them with the silky and technical foreigners

Not to be that guy, but he’s pretty much the only league winning manager in the last 20 years or so to have done that. Disregarding the outlier that is Leicester, the other league winning teams were the invincibles, then the various iterations of city and Chelsea. Neither City nor arsenal had any significant amount of British players. For Chelsea you could make the case for Terry/Lampard/Cole but even then they continued to be good after those players waned.

The players you described for United were excellent for us because they are some of the greatest players in the history of the game, not because they were British. The former is why they were the core of the team, not the latter.

There is the point to be made that a British player is less likely to want to go to Madrid/Barcelona, Bale aside, but that’s a different discussion to the actual necessity of having a core of domestic players.

 

[Josep Dowling]

Might have something to do with one belonging to Dortmund.

More like the English tax. Obviously I want him but let’s be realistic here £100m+ is a massive gamble and takes a huge chunk of money out of our budget. We need a RW I’m just not sure it’s the right time to buy him.

 

[ForestRGoinUp]

Exactly! Unfortunately, ole and phelan are just yes men, nothing more! This is a Woodward masterclass that will end with the like of Leicester overtaking us! I'm sorry Ole fans. Awesome player, but won't be as manager! He record at Molde is sketchy to say the least!

Think we might be lucky if only Leicester move ahead of us. We’ve seen two months straight of proper relegation form from this manager and these players. If anything close to that continues the players will have well and truly mailed it in for the manager...and Carrick/Phelan ain’t gonna turn around the results. It’d be Big Sam time at that point.

 

[wolvored]

We do need an English core perhaps 3-4 and perhaps another 2-3 British in the first team squad, as we are an English club, but I wouldnt get hung up on seeing a mainly British squad. There are some great foreign youngsters out there that wont cost a fortune (A fortune is anything over £70 million) a player. I would prefer we bought 4-5 players who wont neccessarily propel us to City level next season, but will take a great stride towards it. We all know top 4 is the aim for next season and anything else is a big bonus. We all know the rebuild will take at least 2, maybe 3 seasons to achieve, so we dont need to spunk 100-120 million on one player, and hope it works straight away.
We have had the so called big players, the big managers and that didnt work. We have taken a big gamble with Ole, so lets give him a little time to try to get it to work.

 

[Cloud7]

We do need an English core perhaps 3-4 and perhaps another 2-3 British in the first team squad, as we are an English club, but I wouldnt get hung up on seeing a mainly British squad. There are some great foreign youngsters out there that wont cost a fortune (A fortune is anything over £70 million) a player. I would prefer we bought 4-5 players who wont neccessarily propel us to City level next season, but will take a great stride towards it. We all know top 4 is the aim for next season and anything else is a big bonus. We all know the rebuild will take at least 2, maybe 3 seasons to achieve, so we dont need to spunk 100-120 million on one player, and hope it works straight away.
We have had the so called big players, the big managers and that didnt work. We have taken a big gamble with Ole, so lets give him a little time to try to get it to work.

We have not had big players. What we have had tons of is players that were big once upon a time, but were past their best by the time we got them. The likes of Falcao, Schwein, Ibra etc were on their last legs or worse by the time they came here. The only big players you could say we’ve had are Pogba and Di Maria, one of which, despite what many say has arguably been our best outfield player in his time here, and the other one was our most productive creative player despite falling out with the manager and being dropped 2/3 of the way through the season.

You could argue that in a similar vein, the big managers we got were both also past their best.

 

[Rajappar]

Are we pushed to this British core approach, after being continuously taken for the ride by the big name players and their agents.Not sure, if we were good with these type of big signings even during our glorious SAF days.

 

[manesh]

Core British?
Yes please as they wontbcinstantly flirt with Madrid, Barca etc.

I'd take the money for pogba, Rashford and Lukaku, which should be close to £300m, add another £100m and say to ole, go and get the players you want.

If I was ole, I'd be going for the following:

Cody and Docherty from wolves
Vardy
Ward prowse as the brits then sprinkle Dacoure, tielemans, and Felipe Anderson.

All UK and prem league players.

With martial - who I think will reach his potential, the youngsters we have already, lindelof and Shaw, we have a good base.

We could even take a punt on players like ziyech who would give us something different.

This may sound like FM, but also makes sense to my muppetry

 

[witchtrials]

The idea that we are now looking to sign "young British talent" seems to have caught on in the press. Hard to say if there is any truth to it at this stage as I haven't actually seen any quotes attributed to Solskjaer or anyone else at the club (happy to be pointed in the right direction if there are any), and one completed signing is not enough to extrapolate from.

However, it seems to be an idea that's popular with some fans, so I'm curious to hear because I really can't understand: what is supposed to be the advantage of the Buy British approach? If you compare this to buying the best young players from across world football, I really can't work out why the British only / British preference approach would be more likely to elevate us.

Any thoughts?

 

[Josep Dowling]

It seems the British core is to help us fight it out of the Championship next season. Daniel James, Max Aarons. We may as well replace De Gea, Pogba and Lukaku with Henderson, Cattermole and Dwight Gayle.

 

[GBBQ]

The idea that we are now looking to sign "young British talent" seems to have caught on in the press. Hard to say if there is any truth to it at this stage as I haven't actually seen any quotes attributed to Solskjaer or anyone else at the club (happy to be pointed in the right direction if there are any), and one completed signing is not enough to extrapolate from.

However, it seems to be an idea that's popular with some fans, so I'm curious to hear because I really can't understand: what is supposed to be the advantage of the Buy British approach? If you compare this to buying the best young players from across world football, I really can't work out why the British only / British preference approach would be more likely to elevate us.

Any thoughts?

I would imagine that non British players like DDG and Pogba wanting to leave the club during their "prime" years is the issue. British players are less likely to move abroad so a successful and challenging United would be the pinnacle for most English players, giving United back control of when to sell players. Also things like climate, lifestyle, language, food and surroundings result in players settling quicker and adapting to life quicker.

 

[OL29]

The idea that we are now looking to sign "young British talent" seems to have caught on in the press. Hard to say if there is any truth to it at this stage as I haven't actually seen any quotes attributed to Solskjaer or anyone else at the club (happy to be pointed in the right direction if there are any), and one completed signing is not enough to extrapolate from.

However, it seems to be an idea that's popular with some fans, so I'm curious to hear because I really can't understand: what is supposed to be the advantage of the Buy British approach? If you compare this to buying the best young players from across world football, I really can't work out why the British only / British preference approach would be more likely to elevate us.

Any thoughts?

For me, the main benefit is that they tend to stay for longer. Not sure we can afford to pick players based off that though given our current position.

 

[JJ12]

It seems the British core is to help us fight it out of the Championship next season. Daniel James, Max Aarons. We may as well replace De Gea, Pogba and Lukaku with Henderson, Cattermole and Dwight Gayle.

Cool story bro

 

[witchtrials]

I would imagine that non British players like DDG and Pogba wanting to leave the club during their "prime" years is the issue. British players are less likely to move abroad so a successful and challenging United would be the pinnacle for most English players, giving United back control of when to sell players. Also things like climate, lifestyle, language, food and surroundings result in players settling quicker and adapting to life quicker.

I'm not really sure why we would think that De Gea and Pogba want to leave because they are foreign - is it not more likely that they want to leave because (in their own eyes at least, and not without any justification) they view themselves as world class players playing in a bottom-end-of-top-tier team.

How many non-British players have we really lost at their peak? There's Ronaldo of course, but who else? I'm struggling to think. If this is a real issue that's affecting us then you'd expect there to be lots of examples. If I think of prime players we've lost the next that comes to mind is Tevez, and it doesn't exactly seem like he was pining for sunnier climes. Maybe you could say Di Maria? I guess I'm blinded to that one somewhat as I never wanted him at the club and was glad to see the back of him.

I'm not big on United vs. City comparisons but it seems appropriate here: do City have a problem with all their foreign players agitating to leave? Same country, same city. Probably pretty similar wages; if anything we might pay more. The difference is that they are winning things where as we are floating around the lower end of the top 6.

That makes it look like the main advantage of Buy British is we'll have players who will be content playing for a club that settling into life as a big club making up the numbers.

 

[WolfInSharp'sClothing]

Forget spending £15m+ on new young players, just use the ones you already have to provide backup. Some will sink, but others will swim very successfully.

You can put this XI out of players that are aged 22 or under:

Henderson

Dalot___Fosu-Mensah___Tuanzebe___Mitchell

McTominay___Garner___Gomes

Chong_________________Rashford

Greenwood
​

Use them as your understudies.

They could end up bringing far more to the table than another year of Smalling, Jones, Young, Lingard etc. and they'd cost a hell of a lot less too!

Time to turn to your own youth. It's worked before!

 

[witchtrials]

Forget spending £15m+ on new young players, just use the ones you already have to provide backup. Some will sink, but others will swim very successfully.

You can put this XI out of players that are aged 22 or under:

Henderson

Dalot___Fosu-Mensah___Tuanzebe___Mitchell

McTominay___Garner___Gomes

Chong_________________Rashford

Greenwood
​

Use them as your understudies.

They could end up bringing far more to the table than another year of Smalling, Jones, Young, Lingard etc. and they'd cost a hell of a lot less too!

Time to turn to your own youth. It's worked before!

Well your comment bring out a bit of an ambiguity in this (supposed) strategy: as understudies they'd only be displacing the likes of Rojo, Pereira, Darmian etc. The players you listed - Smalling, Jones, Young etc. - are not understudies, they are currently first team players.

 

[hubbuh]

Core British?
Yes please as they wontbcinstantly flirt with Madrid, Barca etc.

I'd take the money for pogba, Rashford and Lukaku, which should be close to £300m, add another £100m and say to ole, go and get the players you want.

If I was ole, I'd be going for the following:

Cody and Docherty from wolves
Vardy
Ward prowse as the brits then sprinkle Dacoure, tielemans, and Felipe Anderson.

All UK and prem league players.

With martial - who I think will reach his potential, the youngsters we have already, lindelof and Shaw, we have a good base.

We could even take a punt on players like ziyech who would give us something different.

This may sound like FM, but also makes sense to my muppetry

That's got to be the most depressing FM fuelled muppetry I've ever had the pleasure of reading.

 

[Skills]

Brexit era

 

[WolfInSharp'sClothing]

Well your comment bring out a bit of an ambiguity in this (supposed) strategy: as understudies they'd only be displacing the likes of Rojo, Pereira, Darmian etc. The players you listed - Smalling, Jones, Young etc. - are not understudies, they are currently first team players.

This is what I don't understand about buying players like James and targeting players like Aarons.

Yes, they have masses of potential, but aren't instantly going to improve your first XI, which is what is urgently required.

As things stand, your strongest starting XI is probably:

GK: De Gea

Back 4 of: Dalot, Bailly, Lindelof, Shaw

Midfield 3 of: Mata, Matic, Pogba

Forward 3 of: Rashford, Lukaku, Sanchez​

​

But 5 or 6 of those have their futures up in the air and/or their contracts running down.

Realistically, Pogba will go and you should sell De Gea, Bailly and Rashford if they wont sign new contracts.

Rashford should be the priority from these for a new deal due to his age and potential and I think he will sign one. Bailly and De Gea wont, so should probably go.

So that leaves you currently with:

GK: Romero, Henderson, Grant, J. Pereira
DF: Dalot, Smalling, Lindelof, Shaw, Tuanzebe, Jones, Young, Fosu-Mensah
MF: Mata, Matic, Fred, McTominay, Garner, Gomes, A. Pereira, Lingard
FW: Rashford, Lukaku, Sanchez, Martial, Greenwood, Chong, James

The focus this summer has to be on first team players that will instantly improve the first team picture.

• A first choice right-back
• A first choice centre-back
• A first choice holding midfielder
• A Pogba replacement
• A forward that is predominately most comfortable on the right
• A De Gea replacement (this could be Henderson)

That would give you:

GK: NEW (or Henderson)/Romero
RB: NEW/Dalot
CB: NEW/Smalling
CB: Lindelof/Tuanzebe
LB: Shaw/Young
DM: NEW/Matic
CM: Mata/Fred
CM: NEW/McTominay
RW: NEW/James
CF: Rashford/Lukaku
LW: Sanchez/Martial

With squad support from (some will be sold/loaned): Grant, J. Pereira, Jones, Rojo, Darmian, Fosu-Mensah, Garner, Gomes, A. Pereira, Lingard, Greenwood, Chong

So my original post about having youth players as backup, is on the basis that you also sign the much needed first teamers! Which is going to happen, surely?! I'm a complete outsider and I can see that's what is needed.

Then you can get rid of the likes of Smalling, Young, Matic and Lukaku and actually have some exciting prospects replace them as backup.

 

[manesh]

That's got to be the most depressing FM fuelled muppetry I've ever had the pleasure of reading.

I would wager that squad would beat Cardiff, Huddersfield, Brighton etc

 

[hubbuh]

I would wager that squad would beat Cardiff, Huddersfield, Brighton etc

Well, hot damn, colour me convinced!

 

[Class of 63]

British players won't complain about the food the weather and are more likely to roll their sleeves up when the going gets tough

 

[Treble]

Liverpool and City are successful without quite having a british "core". It's a silly idea.

 

[Crashoutcassius]

The most nonsense statement ever that keeps getting thrown around like its a thing. Its bordering on far right ideology and shouldn’t have a place in football. Imagine any other company saying this.
Im pretty sure no one can tell you even what it means? Half the first team are british? Well that just means the majority of the squad is not. Half the squad is british? Well good luck with that. And why? It makes absolute 0 sense.
Its implying that British players are superior because they work harder and have more passion. Really? Does anyone actually believe this? Or its because they have experience in the league? Well then you would say we will build a team with a core of experienced prem league players.

And its impossible to implement if you want to be the best simply because there are not enough good available British players. Simple fact.

So what is the point of this statement? Tell me? What is it supposed to mean?

As someone said above it is common for barce real bayern juve to have the best players from their country and always has been.

 

[devilish]

As someone said above it is common for barce real bayern juve to have the best players from their country and always has been.

There's a reason to why Bayern and Juve go for local lads ie they tend to be cheaper then foreign ones. The situation is different in the UK were every club is rich. Manchester City has been dominating the EPL with no British core whatsoever.

 

[Paxi]

British players won't complain about the food the weather and are more likely to roll their sleeves up when the going gets tough

Yeah, if that’s the perquisite for playing for Man United, then we’re fecked.

 

[Paxi]

Liverpool and City are successful without quite having a british "core". It's a silly idea.

Exactly. Never heard so much shite.

 

[We need an rvn]

British players won't complain about the food the weather and are more likely to roll their sleeves up when the going gets tough

I can see where you're coming from in what you're saying, but I think you're over stereotyping a lot here to be honest with regards to the weather and food. Weather in Manch might be an issue for some players perhaps - I've noticed a big difference from Manch than down here on the south coast for sure, so can imagine the shock if you're from Barcelona etc. But then none of the Southern Europeans / South Americans seem to have an issue with the weather playing for City and Liverpool. Food, there are tons of foreign restaurants now and players probably get private chefs to cook their food anyway.

Going gets tough - that's just something every player should have and doesn't matter what country you're from - and it's partly driven by the coach / team mates too. We just don't seem to have those players in our squad compared to the other teams at the moment.

 

[Class of 63]

Yeah, if that’s the perquisite for playing for Man United, then we’re fecked.

No they'd have to have some footballing abilities as well.

 

[UpWithRivers]

As someone said above it is common for barce real bayern juve to have the best players from their country and always has been.

It has nothing to do with Nationality though. Its just how the market operates. Barca, Real, Bayern etc can and always have been first choice for players in their respective leagues. Like we used to be. Thats why Sir Alex bought the best from each team. We cant do that now.
There is no way any of those teams see a great talent and say oh but he's not Spanish, Italian, etc.

 

[Paxi]

No they'd have to have some footballing abilities as well.

some or world class abilities?

 

[matt10000]

None of this is true.
1. We were successful and just so happened that a number of players were British. There is no correlation between our success and Being British. We had loads of non British that were just as much a part of our success.
2. There is nothing to suggest that its a repetitive methodology. And there in fact there is nothing to suggest its a methodology at all. Sir Alex just happened to have a core if youth players that were British and when he bought he bought from within the league. At that time we could buy the best from other clubs. The game has moved on in so many ways.
3. There is nothing to suggest that British born players love Utd more. Nothing. And even if they did there is nothing to suggest that translates into better performances.
4. This is the time to buy British- its not. Its the worst time. British clubs are minted and dont have to sell. Hence ridiculous prices. There are just as good a froup of Dutch, Portuguese, french etc players

Buying British so that we have a British core makes sense. We need stability, character, identity, all for one attitude etc....British players are more likely to remain for a longer period so we gain stability. British humour, banter for a British club can only be a good thing so having a British core allows the team to develop this character and the non British players come on board (remember the toy car that they put in Ronaldo parking space after his crash?). Do you think Arsenal had an identity when they fielded no British players? I think that there is always room for non British players but should aim for a core of British players especially right now as we need to establish some character and identity..a team rather than 11 individuals trying to raise their own profiles. So I agree that right now we should be signing the best young british players and building a team that will mature together.

 

[Class of 63]

I can see where you're coming from in what you're saying, but I think you're over stereotyping a lot here to be honest with regards to the weather and food. Weather in Manch might be an issue for some players perhaps - I've noticed a big difference from Manch than down here on the south coast for sure, so can imagine the shock if you're from Barcelona etc. But then none of the Southern Europeans / South Americans seem to have an issue with the weather playing for City and Liverpool. Food, there are tons of foreign restaurants now and players probably get private chefs to cook their food anyway.

Going gets tough - that's just something every player should have and doesn't matter what country you're from - and it's partly driven by the coach / team mates too. We just don't seem to have those players in our squad compared to the other teams at the moment.

I was half joking, but the food and weather excuse is trotted out time and time again by numerous foreign players when they take the first opportunity to get back to mainland Europe when in fact most of the time the only real culture shock to them is the physical intensity of the League and having to work your tripe off every game to be successful, something they've rarely had to do before, certainly not week in, week out.

And Liverpool and City have had their fair share of players from Southern Europe/South America that have failed, but with the current ones it's a lot easier to settle(not look for excuses)if the team is playing well and winning, and in the case of Aguero, Silva and Yaya Toure get paid an obscene amount of money, which helps.

 

[Class of 63]

some or world class abilities?

Just some is enough, you bring those pesky foreigners in with their world class abilities to supplement the Brits.

 

[In Rainbows]

Buying British so that we have a British core makes sense. We need stability, character, identity, all for one attitude etc....British players are more likely to remain for a longer period so we gain stability. British humour, banter for a British club can only be a good thing so having a British core allows the team to develop this character and the non British players come on board (remember the toy car that they put in Ronaldo parking space after his crash?). Do you think Arsenal had an identity when they fielded no British players? I think that there is always room for non British players but should aim for a core of British players especially right now as we need to establish some character and identity..a team rather than 11 individuals trying to raise their own profiles. So I agree that right now we should be signing the best young british players and building a team that will mature together.

We kind of already have that. Smalling, Young, Shaw, Rashford, McTominay, Lingard, and Jones have been regulars. I'm of the opinion that if all things are equal you choose British players as they're less likely to leave, but they have to be equal in talent. Just because they're British doesn't mean they should be prioritized. And even having said that, we should still look at other factors like personality. It's not like non-British can't stay at the club the longest. Valencia is someone who clearly has shown this.

There's a balancing act. Maybe some British players are too complacent at United. So it's not as if being British is just a straightforward tick of the box that goes into planning transfer targets.

 

[red4ever 79]

We already have a strong British core which is top class and will ensure we challenge for the title next season. Not many other PRemier league teams can boast 7 British players in their starting eleven.
Young
Smalling
Jones
Shaw
McTomminay
Linz
Rashy

 

[We need an rvn]

I was half joking, but the food and weather excuse is trotted out time and time again by numerous foreign players when they take the first opportunity to get back to mainland Europe when in fact most of the time the only real culture shock to them is the physical intensity of the League and having to work your tripe off every game to be successful, something they've rarely had to do before, certainly not week in, week out.

And Liverpool and City have had their fair share of players from Southern Europe/South America that have failed, but with the current ones it's a lot easier to settle(not look for excuses)if the team is playing well and winning, and in the case of Aguero, Silva and Yaya Toure get paid an obscene amount of money, which helps.

To be honest I think you hit the nail on the head when you said it all makes a difference when the team is playing well and winning. When you don't win, it's just a excuse to leave by saying you're struggling to fit in with the culture and move to sunnier climate / warm evenings / eating out etc.

 

[Fluctuation0161]

None of this is true.
1. We were successful and just so happened that a number of players were British. There is no correlation between our success and Being British. We had loads of non British that were just as much a part of our success.
2. There is nothing to suggest that its a repetitive methodology. And there in fact there is nothing to suggest its a methodology at all. Sir Alex just happened to have a core if youth players that were British and when he bought he bought from within the league. At that time we could buy the best from other clubs. The game has moved on in so many ways.
3. There is nothing to suggest that British born players love Utd more. Nothing. And even if they did there is nothing to suggest that translates into better performances.
4. This is the time to buy British- its not. Its the worst time. British clubs are minted and dont have to sell. Hence ridiculous prices. There are just as good a froup of Dutch, Portuguese, french etc players

This makes sense.