To get someone in to replace him (being comfortably our best centre back) would cost at least £40m (or £8m a year over a 5 year contract, £150k+ a week) before wages on top.
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
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Yep, let's hope we can bring more players like Rojo, Lindelof or Baily.
Yes there is a saving (obviously) but if we keep penny pinching like this and not replacing the dross, we will remain in the position we are now in, too many average players.
Get shut of the dross and use the extra funds to sign top, top quality players.
That’s not what I’m saying, you don’t get world class centre backs for £40m anymore. We should use smalling wages to sign a decent centre back and yes their wages will be more and there will be a hefty £80m+ signing fee but we are Man Utd, not Everton!!
Boohoo. Publicizing it draws attention to what other people in his position can do and hopefully other footballers do it too. Pathetic to help spread the word about what you can do for charity.
Who are "world class" CBs? Most have a weakness. And few would be able to make our defense strong on their own. They'd need a Chris Smalling next to them to help them
Mike is a very good defender and easily our best. He would be a great CB if his passing and movement with the ball was better. People here are too harsh and forget that most CBs will make at least 1-2 big mistakes a season.
Happy to be renewing him. He is the least of our problems.
Happy to be renewing him. He is the least of our problems.
He's the best of our CBs, whilst not being at his personal best either.
Stick a very good CB next to him and see how he does.
Stick a very good CB next to him and see how he does.
Its completely fair to think that Smalling is not good enough and should be let go.
I dont agree, at least as long as Mourinho stays at the club. Smalling is still one of the leagues best defensive CBs, and if anything Mourinhos system might even excel with someone like Maguire as Smallings partner.
There is a reason why Mourinho plays him more than anyone else. That said, if we would change manager and adopt another style of play, Smallings starting place would be put in question. Still would not get rid of him though.
Think what you will about Smalling, again: thats fair. That was not my point though.
Your original post stated that 125k would be enough to offer as wages to sign a new starting CB. At least indirectly. Since we are United I would imagine that you would think that if we do sign a new "starting" CB he would be not just among the best 10 CBs in the league, he would have to be maybe top-3. Thats why I put forth the usual names that are being thrown around here.
Do you really think we could sign anyone of those players below 200k a week? Reportedly Aldewireld was asking for even more last summer. It will not be less this summer.
Its not really relevant to compare what other teams best CBs are on today either; since it in many cases they are on contracts signed before the last two years transfer boom. The wages are starting to correlate to this now and we need to get used to players demanding way higher wages than they did just two years ago.
So: what is relevant is to compare the alternative cost to upgrade Smalling next summer. And it will be at least 200k a week for the players I quoted.
They would if they were faced with playing next to Bailly or Lindelof instead. Suddenly they wouldnt be considered one of the top CBs. Would already have got their payday though
Yeah, I'm sure all the top defenders think that.
Yep, doesn't help when you have to play next to Jones, Lindelof, Bailly in a poor system with a passive Matic at DM. Any defender would instantly look worse.
Familiarity breeds contempt. Smalling, flaws and all, is a highly capable defender and if we manage to secure a top class option in the position then he would be a valuable rotational piece.
People have been saying for years that the latest signing, Rojo, Bailly, Lindelof, would be the end of him, you would think people would start to realize that it is not as easy as they think to secure a significant upgrade on him. All this nonsense of him being a West Brom level player is not realistic.
People have been saying for years that the latest signing, Rojo, Bailly, Lindelof, would be the end of him, you would think people would start to realize that it is not as easy as they think to secure a significant upgrade on him. All this nonsense of him being a West Brom level player is not realistic.
Offering deals to our players that have shown they are not good enough is a big reason why we're in the position we're in.
It’s a mystery that he’s so highly rated among some of our fanbase, he’s a calamity defender. He wouldn’t get near a top side if he left us. But we don’t have many other choices so there’s not much we can do.
Except hes consistently shown hes better than everyone we attempted to replace him with. They should be sold before him, he is better than all the CBs we have.
The best compliment we can give Smalling is that all the attempts at replacing him have been poor.
I like Smalling, but he's been here for years and the only thing he's consistently shown is that he isn't good enough.
Didn't know he was talking about Smalling tbh.
No, one proper compliment we can give him is that he's single-handedly led and held our defence with little support for over 3 years.
To be fair, the only time in his entire career that he's had a steady partner he was fantastic and won our Players Player of the Year.
This is something many tend to ignore. He's been perennially handicapped and have barely had what other defenders always have.
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Which is worrying because he's shown that he's better than half his team
It's awfully worrying, the whole squad needs a revamp unfortunately.
You can sign a player with Smalling’s physical attributes and is actually capable with the ball, Chris is then benched.
More likely he'd end up partnering him. We'd try the other options first, just like Mourinho does at the beginning of every season, but there's a reason Smalling always ends up ahead of them again.
It's not just his physical attributes. He also makes the least amount of defensive mistakes and has the best defensive positioning.
Yet in 6 years Moyes, Van Gaal and Mourinho have failed to do so. Maybe it is that easy but I'd rather sign this defender first before letting Smalling leave on a free!
Who is a 6'4 CB who is strong in the air, but also fast on the floor and has good defensive instincts?
Getting rid of Chris Smalling and Ashley Young will be the first step in our route to dominance.
Except he’s not our best CB, he’s a fecking liability. But continue believing otherwise.
That explains why we’ve done so well over the past few seasons when he starts nearly every game. If it wasn’t for De Gea, we would get thrashed every game. The amount of times he’s had to bail us out due to Smalling’s errors is incredible.
There’s no excuse for us for a club of our size to not be splashing the cash on at least one big CB like Koulibaly, Alderweireld or Varane. We have the money and we’d be willing to give the wages. Sell Sanchez and buy a new back line with his wages. Problem solved.
If Smalling isn't United's best centre back why do the club need to sign a new defence? Just play one of the many other better defenders at the club instead.
What fecking errors do you speak of? The other CBs we have are fecking jokers who either can't stay fit, make stupid rash mistakes and can't maintain consistency and look trash after international breaks. Three managers after Fergie have played Smalling more than the other options, even players they brought in themselves to improve our backline. Its all fecking Smalling's fault innit
Oh dear. If you want a club that has no respect for their current players and what they do on a game by game basis, go support a club that constantly replaces their players with oil money. Or just play Football Manager where you can make a mess and it doesnt effect anyone else. You certainly don't support Manchester United if you lie about our players.
Smalling have been our best and No.1 CB for four years. He is the old hand in our defence, and any defender we sign will either partner him or compete with Bailly, Lindelof, Rojo for a spot.
I could see Smalling being the one to compete with Bailly and Lindelof, assuming they arent sold - if we sign a new high profile CB like Skriniar for example. And I think he'd win his place in the team most of the time because Bailly and Lindelof arent as good.
You think a defender that have those qualities you mentioned would be as good as Smalling? You relegate Smalling to a defender with just physical attributes and that is probably why you came to that conclusion.
Fair. But like I said, the new defender will either partner with Smalling or compete with the others. Nobody knows how even Skriniar might turn out. Smalling is the steady devil we've known and had for years. He'd likely remain as No.1 while the new defender settles - if he doesn't hit the ground running from day 1 of course, unless the manager weirdly decides to drop Smalling and go with Bailly or Lindelof.
The Juventus goal in the 1-0 loss. Failed to block the pass which led to Dybala’s goal.
Gave away a stupid penalty against Everton. Absolutely no need to slide in like that when the player wasn’t even facing goal.
Slipped on his arse against Bournemouth (I think it was) which led to a one on one chance in the first half. Only De Gea saved it.
Just last week he jumped for a header with his hands in the fecking air.
Let’s not ignore all the time he shirt pulls and grabs players around the neck during corners and free kicks. The man is a liability. And every rival fan I talk to points him out as the weak link. Funny that.
The fact that he can’t pass wind which makes our building out from the back non-existent is another factor.
No. They won’t. Whoever Mourinho is ALLOWED to sign will replace him. Notice how I capitalize “ALLOWED”. He won’t be forced to play this shambles of a defender for much longer if they splash the cash on Alderweireld or Koulibaly hopefully.
So I’m not allowed to criticize a player and want somebody better? Get off your high horse. Watching City buy top class player after top class player while we’re stuck playing Smalling and Young every week makes me sick. You might be content with coming 6th or 7th again, I’m not.
Rojo is just coming back from injury. Lindelöf looks solid. Bailly had a mare against Brighton but his ceiling is much higher than that of Smalling’s so hopefully he’ll get his run in the team today and get some form going.
Jones is fecking worse than Smalling is.
Someone mentioned familiarity breeding contempt earlier - my god it’s so fecking true when it comes to Smalling.
The majority of our fan base have had it in their heads that he’s shite for years, that they can’t fathom him actually being useful to our squad.
The constant comparison with Jones
‘He has a mistake in him’
This idea that he wouldn’t make it into the other top 6
The fact that other fan bases don’t rate him
The excuses that people have for no giving him credit are predictable at this point because they have nothing else to grasp on to.
You realise that out of every example you posted, only two led to goals scored by the other team - and only one of those goals cost us points.
Your other examples are ‘what if’ moments that had no effect on the outcome of the game. Every defender has these and will make them in a game, if you watch their games regularly enough.
The difference is you’ve made up your mind that Smalling is shite so you’re not nitpicking every single decision he makes, as if he’s never allowed to make a mistake again. That’s an unreasonably unrealistic expectation, and one you wouldn’t place on any other defender - even the ones at our club. Bailly & Rojo have moments that could’ve led to goals in plenty of matches - but you don’t pay attention to their mistakes because you actually like them. If you watch the other top 6 games today, or even the likes of Juve, Madrid, Barca etc and watch their defenders I guarantee that some of them will play a bad pass or do something that puts their team in a tricky position - mistakes are made every game by the best players in the world.
Finally, rival fans didn’t rate Carrick, Fletcher, Park etc - who gives a feck what they think.
The majority of our fan base have had it in their heads that he’s shite for years, that they can’t fathom him actually being useful to our squad.
The constant comparison with Jones
‘He has a mistake in him’
This idea that he wouldn’t make it into the other top 6
The fact that other fan bases don’t rate him
The excuses that people have for no giving him credit are predictable at this point because they have nothing else to grasp on to.
You realise that out of every example you posted, only two led to goals scored by the other team - and only one of those goals cost us points.
Your other examples are ‘what if’ moments that had no effect on the outcome of the game. Every defender has these and will make them in a game, if you watch their games regularly enough.
The difference is you’ve made up your mind that Smalling is shite so you’re not nitpicking every single decision he makes, as if he’s never allowed to make a mistake again. That’s an unreasonably unrealistic expectation, and one you wouldn’t place on any other defender - even the ones at our club. Bailly & Rojo have moments that could’ve led to goals in plenty of matches - but you don’t pay attention to their mistakes because you actually like them. If you watch the other top 6 games today, or even the likes of Juve, Madrid, Barca etc and watch their defenders I guarantee that some of them will play a bad pass or do something that puts their team in a tricky position - mistakes are made every game by the best players in the world.
Finally, rival fans didn’t rate Carrick, Fletcher, Park etc - who gives a feck what they think.
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