Makes zero sense to keep him. He will not get a pair of fresher legs and we need to invest in a successor. Good times but we have to move on
Casemiro (out)
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
Sure, but you don't base on contracts on what players are now, you base them on what you think they will be over the course of the contract you're handing them.
Will a 34/35 year old Casemiro be our best midfielder next year? No. Aside from the very high likelihood he continues to decline with age, he's unlikely to even be a starter given central midfield is the priority position for recruitment.
Whatever we would pay Casemiro, it would have to be an amount we're comfortable giving a player to sit on the bench in most important games. Whereas £150k a week is the wage we reportedly just handed a key new signing like Mbeumo. Relative to his age and what he's likely to offer from next season on, that's big money for Casemiro.
Well firstly you've plucked all these numbers from your arse. If we don't have to sign a player to replace him for £50m then we could probably manage a slightly over the odds wage for him if we wanted, whether that's £50/100/150k or whatever the market says he's worth rn.
And secondly none of these things has anything to do with what he earns currently which is what you were talking about. We offer him a wage we are happy to and he accepts if he's happy to. It doesn't have to be complicated.
Yeah, you’re not wrong. I literally picked £150k from nowhere except the fact that’s it’s over a 50% cut from what he’s on now. In fact I think my original post said £130-£150k, but obviously that was jumped on with, “he’s never worth £150k!!!!”
And you’re right, he likely won’t be our best midfielder next year. But our record of signing midfielders in the last 15 years is very poor. So with some European football next year, one would hope, we’ll need to expand the squad to cope with that. If we allow Casemiro to go, and I think everyone agrees that Ugarte isn’t good enough, we’re left with Mainoo as a midfield option.
Even best case scenario, and we sign 2 of Anderson/Wharton/Baleba (or similar), would we all be happy to go into next season with 3 midfielders. Maybe Kone steps up, maybe Martinez is an option.
Either way, the club have to figure out what they value Casemiro at. If it’s less than 100k, because of our new wage structure, that’s fine. But as he’s currently on 350k, we shouldn’t be surprised if he’s not interested in that. And again, that’s fine, if that’s our valuation and he goes.
But if we have some European football next year, and so, a more hectic schedule, we might be in a position to have to pay someone like Casemiro a little more than maybe he’ll be worth in 2 years, in order to bolster our squad.
Maybe the club identifies some younger/cheaper targets instead. And if they do, and they’re good enough, super. But I certainly would want the club to carefully consider their options with Casemiro. He’s our best midfielder right now, so he’ll certainly have something to offer next season
He is currently the only midfielder who has had an entire season under his belt, playing consistently in his natural position. Mainoo and Ugarte didn’t get the same leeway Casemiro did from Amorim and Bruno was played out of position.
No he is not our best midfielder and can’t finish a game despite the team playing so little games. Paying him 150k a week till summer of 2027 is absolutely ridiculous suggestion.
Not sure you understand how these things work, contracts negotiations and everything. But we need to replace Casemiro as of summer 2024 and you still dwell on the idea of not replacing him in 2026?
He can’t finish a game of PL football as of this season when we play so little games and you think it’s smart to extend him? And good luck downgrading him from 350k a week to something reasonable. If somehow someone does want to entertain the idea of keeping him, something closer to 75k should be the final offer, which he won’t accept when he can earn much more in a retirement league.
I think we should hang on an extra year.
He’s quite clearly been our best midfielder this season.
Despite clearly not being nearly as good as he was in his prime, I'd be open to a rolling 1yr contract on massively reduced wages if he takes that offer. Difficult to replace the kind of experience the likes of him can bring, while still arguably being our best midfielder. (you can say this shouldn't be the case, but that's a different debate altogether)
Extending his contract doesn't mean you can't replace him. Must be very dramatic in your house.
And yes, if the club decides on what they think is a fair value for him and he doesn't want to accept the offer then that is absolutely fine, thank you for your service and goodbye. It's not some point of crisis like it seems to be to you.
I think we need to let him go and sign a replacement. However if Bruno leaves I think his leadership will be really important. Value wise it's been a bad signing but he's definitely been a huge positive for us.
I just don't think we have a choice, none of the youth are ready for that bench role. I think we also need his leadership and experience as that isn't an easy commodity to replace.
Extend him for a year on reduced wages. We will still buy Anderson and use Case as a situational supersub and in some of the midweek cup games.
This is the sensible answer as long as the wages are at least halved.
It is, but everyone obsesses about wages per week. There’s ways of being far cuter in terms of bonuses for appearances, European qualification, getting to the latter stages in the CL if we qualify etc. There’s probably an incentivised contract that, if he plays a big role in delivering our objectives, pays him a good chunk of what he’s currently on. I’m absolutely fine with that. Great character.
Should keep both him and Bruno. You need a big group there. Casemiros level obviously drops after 60-70 minutes or when we have mid week fixtures, but that doesn't mean he can't be an extremely useful player in the squad. If you look at having 6 players for that 3, we need 1 midfielder regardless, and then anyone we sell will need to be replaced. Doesn't hurt to drag him out here a bit longer, for his leadership too.
Hardly had much competition has he?
Mainoo & Ugarte have barely featured and he's played alongside Bruno = who is nowhere near a CM.
Being the best of a bad bunch, doesn't make you the best about. I've enjoyed Casemiro this season in truth, he's grafted, he;s put some good tackles in, his attitude is bang on and he's been there and done it. But he's also looked leggy, off the pace, hitting the ground too easy and missing tackles.
We've been so open in central midfield, and while that isn't solely Casemiro's fault - it doesn't help his case when he can't run or track runners through.
It's time for him to move on in the summer
If he can go on lower wages I'd certainly keep him.
It’s the right decision to let him go - it’s no coincidence that his form has picked up in a World Cup season and he’s incapable of playing 90 minutes effectively.
Right decision. Looks like club and player and handling it in the right way.
It's his leadership and attitude that will be the most missed. You can replace his performances and output with a large number of midfielders, but it's a lot more difficult to find someone with his mentality.
Probably the right decision but I will have good memories of Casemiro. First season excellent, second was very poor (EtH tactics), third had some of his best performances in the EL, and he’s been good this season. It’s a shame we didn’t win more trophies with him.
And when hes not being asked to cover the whole midfield by himself
Varane and Casemiro really handled themselves well, paid handsomely of course, but that doesn't always buy you class...both of them had it in abundance! 
Sad to see him go but you can understand the time is right.
Sad to see him go but you can understand the time is right.
He's a winner and has a winner's mindset. He'll be missed for sure from a leadership perspective.
Absolute legend of the game, feel the same way about him as I did about Zlatan, so glad they wore the red shirt of United.
Brilliant player and gave everything for us in some pretty desperate times.
Brilliant player and gave everything for us in some pretty desperate times.
Legends, but not because of their time at United.
Don’t forget the FA Cup final!!
Varane and Schweinsteiger (although we didn’t see much from him) are all similar. All past their best, glimpses/ or a bit more of the players they were.
Shame the PL is so physical, back in the 90s all these players would have performed relatively better in decline.
The salary simply made zero sense mate. You can't have a squad player on such silly money. It invites first teamers to come knocking at the door and ask for a payrise.
Varane and Casemiro really handled themselves well, paid handsomely of course, but that doesn't always buy you class...both of them had it in abundance!
Sad to see him go but you can understand the time is right.
Top guy, very nice speech. I know it's PR fluff but you can tell be loves the club and I've got a huge amount of time for that.
Sadly it's time to take him off the pitch. Wish we could keep him to train the midfielders or something but i'm sure he'd rather keep playing footie.
Phenomenal first year and very good this year. Its a shame he was gash years 2 and 3.
Top professional. Rare to find these days
Shame we wore him down and out. The WC mid-season didn't help. Mind you, the amount of cards he got that season, he should have had plenty of days off.
Quality footballer. Still the right decision for me.
He was patchy even in his first season here.
But never mind, I can look beyond the silly transfer fee and wages he was collecting and realize that we’ve wasted lots of money on much worse players and players who never even cared as much as him. Wish him all the best for the future.
I think it suits both United and Casemeiro in all honesty. He knows there is going to be a midfield overhaul in the summer and won’t be first choice and club don’t want to be paying 350k wages. Don’t think he’d be happy sitting on bench the even for 100k a week for a season with just playing cup games or coming on in the 70th min. Best of luck to him, a quality player.
Thank you very much Casemiro for all the wonderful memories. What a great professional! And, what a guy!
I'd say him coming back overweight that preseason didn't help his case. Tactics didn't help, but he finished his 1st season with us poorly after looking excellent in middle part. In fairness to him, he always came back in great shape after that.
Any playing style experts in here that can find a player that can do everything Casemiro is good at, with more mobility?
We're clearly going for a new starting calibre CDM and CM for the summer. Baleba and Wharton or Anderson and Wharton are the most highly linked ones. But I'm not sure Wharton fits the new mobile athlete mould if players we're signing.
We shouldn't be signing any Casemiro/Zirkzee type signings going forward. Hopefully INEOS do a better job of signing athletes. Cunha, Mbuemo, Sesko, Dorgu and Yoro are more like it.
Solid athletes for today or promising for the future atleast. We should get a big uplift in mobility in the summer replacing Maguire, Casemiro and maybe an upgrade on Mainoo in CM.
Just in time for Amorim to complete his transition to 3421 with mobile CBs and two mobile midfielders..... Oh wait....
We're clearly going for a new starting calibre CDM and CM for the summer. Baleba and Wharton or Anderson and Wharton are the most highly linked ones. But I'm not sure Wharton fits the new mobile athlete mould if players we're signing.
We shouldn't be signing any Casemiro/Zirkzee type signings going forward. Hopefully INEOS do a better job of signing athletes. Cunha, Mbuemo, Sesko, Dorgu and Yoro are more like it.
Solid athletes for today or promising for the future atleast. We should get a big uplift in mobility in the summer replacing Maguire, Casemiro and maybe an upgrade on Mainoo in CM.
Just in time for Amorim to complete his transition to 3421 with mobile CBs and two mobile midfielders..... Oh wait....
He certainly wasn't gash last season. In fact I don't think there's much difference at all between his performances this season and last season. He's been decent-to-good both seasons on average, while having some games much better than that and some games much worse.
It was only his second season where he really struggled, but that was more due to ETH's idiotic tactics than Casemiro himself. There's not a midfielder in the history of the game that could have looked good in that suicidal system. Push five players up to press high, have the four defenders sit fairly deep, then expect one midfielder to cover the huge amount of space between them all by himself. At a time where it became increasingly popular to pack the middle of the park and have players quite close to each other, ETH did the exact opposite and isolated one player in the middle of it all to an extent that I don't think I've ever seen before. The fact it was a 31yo who had obviously declined physically from his peak just made it worse, but whoever was there was being set up to fail.