Elliot Anderson | Athletic: United's main target

I’d rather we blow our entire budget if needs be on Anderson AND Baleba as they offer completely different qualities and I think Mainoo already offers a lot of the qualities Wharton does so a trio of Anderson, Baleba and Mainoo with Ugarte as back up and the likes of Kone and the Fletcher’s coming through is a strong core group.
 
goldenboy said:
Not only would Forest not sell him mid-season, but I don't think Anderson would want to move mid-season when he's currently a nailed-on England starter - with the risk that he'd be on his new club's bench a reasonable amount behind someone like Casemiro and thus lose his starting spot for the World Cup.
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Agreed. And another point is why would he commit to any club now when CL qualification is still in the balance? Makes way more sense to help Forest survive and then take his pick of the best offers this summer, and being able to play inter CL will almost certainly be a part of that equation.
 
philippexyz said:
Anderson, Baleba, Wharton are all players who probably want to start regularly and the price tag will reflect that. From what we've seen so far, Mainoo sees himself that way as well. These players would be pretty unsatisfied sitting on the bench.

Assuming Bruno stays as a 10, and Mainoo stays as well, there is only one place left in deeper/central midfield, next to Mainoo.

We'll buy at least two midfielders. One will be Anderson/Baleba/Wharton(Baleba seems most likely) and other a cheaper option, probably outside of PL(like Stiller, Kone etc...). If Ugarte leaves as well(very possible), we'll have to buy 3 midfielders.
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If you are a serious team and want to win trophies while playing every competition, we need 4 starting quality midfielders, so need to buy 3.
It Will be plenty of games and with no quality depth you are fecked with every injury.
So, I don’t buy that argument. It’s small team mentality.
No player should have a garenteed spot in the first eleven in a big club. When you want players to perform they need competition.
Baleba didn’t started a lot this year at Brighton. Why should he be a garenteed starter at United ?
We have Cunha, Mount, Sesko on the bench. And that’s great !
 
Zumbi said:
That’s a mid table club attitude. If we truly want to compete domestically and in Europe, we need at least three starting quality CMs.
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Even a mid table club put Baleba on the bench. Why sould he be a garenteed starter here ? Fans have no ambitions anymore.
 
Redfrog said:
Even a mid table club put Baleba on the bench. Why sould he be a garenteed starter here ? Fans have no ambitions anymore.
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Good point. Yeah, standards have been so thoroughly eroded. We are terribly short of quality and depth at CM with Casemiro due to leave and fans are arguing against bringing in two start quality CMs for a season where we’ll likely have a very busy schedule with European games. The mind boggles. I had a similar argument with someone claiming we didn't need starter quality options off the bench in attack, ignoring the fact that rivals like Arsenal, Liverpool and City have exactly that, which is what allows them to compete on multiple fronts.
 
Zumbi said:
Good point. Yeah, standards have been so thoroughly eroded. We are terribly short of quality and depth at CM with Casemiro due to leave and fans are arguing against bringing in two start quality CMs for a season where we’ll likely have a very busy schedule with European games. The mind boggles. I had a similar argument with someone claiming we didn't need starter quality options off the bench in attack, ignoring the fact that rivals like Arsenal, Liverpool and City have exactly that, which is what allows them to compete on multiple fronts.
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Truth is we need two A teams or close to it. There is plenty of games and players need competition to keep performing.
We need plenty of midfielders, an attacking player and I would like another right or left back as Shaw is old and injury prône and Dalot/Mazraoui not good enough for top teams.
But I Will be happy with 3 quality midfielders this Summer as Ugarte need to be sold.
 
CallyRed said:
Yep. Mr Marinackers will have his belly rubbed by the Sheikh and the price will drop.
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City's transfer business over the last fifteen years is completely illogical.

Look at some of the fees they get for fringe and academy players.

The Feran Torres deal with Barcelona was corrupt as fck.

I know they spent ages trying to bring the Grealish fee down, but Villa wanted it made public that they'd got £100m for him for PSR reasons and to appease their own fans as they couldn't turn it down.
 
davidmichael said:
I’d rather we blow our entire budget if needs be on Anderson AND Baleba as they offer completely different qualities and I think Mainoo already offers a lot of the qualities Wharton does so a trio of Anderson, Baleba and Mainoo with Ugarte as back up and the likes of Kone and the Fletcher’s coming through is a strong core group.
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Why spend your budget on a guy who can’t even perform for a small club like Brighton?
 
matherto said:
Yoro was pre INEOS no?
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Definitely not. The Ugarte signing was one of the sticks used to beat INEOS-and it's pretty much confirmed that they got Ugarte as a 'favour' to Mendes in return for him facilitating the Yoro deal at the same time. Utd were looking for a DM anyway, but Ugarte had red flags around his distribution even before PSG, there were various Ligue 1 watchers saying he wasn't the answer to Utds donut-ball issues under ETH etc, due to his being a 'chaser' who'd vacate space rather than a 'controller'
 
Good player, but I think there’s a bit of hyperbole in this thread.
 
Globule said:
I don't watch anything but United games, so I have no idea how good he is, but I don't think this video really counters the point @JoeyJoJoJrShabadoo was making.
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For passing hes in the high 90s percentile and for defending hes around 40th percentile.

So many bigger teams have looked and have passed on him. I think he could become a prem player but I think he would be a disaster for united right now.
 
Baxquux said:
Definitely not. The Ugarte signing was one of the sticks used to beat INEOS-and it's pretty much confirmed that they got Ugarte as a 'favour' to Mendes in return for him facilitating the Yoro deal at the same time. Utd were looking for a DM anyway, but Ugarte had red flags around his distribution even before PSG, there were various Ligue 1 watchers saying he wasn't the answer to Utds donut-ball issues under ETH etc, due to his being a 'chaser' who'd vacate space rather than a 'controller'
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Is this a defence of Ineos, or have I misinterpreted?

If they've wasted 50m as a favour to an agent, that's even worse than bad scouting.
 
Hes such a good midfielder amd wouod perform from the start. I still feel we will get Baleba and regret it
 
bosskeano said:
Find it hard to believe he’s barely coping when they are second in the league, he has 30 starts with 4 goals and 4 assists
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They are 2nd in the league and yet he is among the worst defensive stats in the league for his position and only has 4 goals and 4 assists. I imagine he can improve, but we really cannot afford a project. If he was smashing it in the championship then I would feel very different
 
The only Casemiro replacement though not exactly the same player.
 
Is it maybe worth trying out Martinez again in Casemiro’s role before the season end?

Has an eye for a pass too and it would save a lot of money on Anderson or if we can’t get him. Also it would develop Heaven.
 
MaMa given red said:
He's City bound sadly.

Part of the reason they have sold Ortega to them in this window is to help them get Anderson in the summer.
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Has there actually.been much on this? Not seen it personally but I don't really keep up to date. Just seen people often saying he's going to city.
 
pacifictheme said:
Has there actually.been much on this? Not seen it personally but I don't really keep up to date. Just seen people often saying he's going to city.
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City tried to sign him in January but were told he'd cost over £100m! so they are waiting until the summer. Him and Michael Kayode from Brentford are likely to join.

It sounds like it'll be Anderson to City and Wharton to Liverpool, which is why I think we are targeting Carlos Baleba.
 
MaMa given red said:
Bernardo Silva is leaving in the summer.
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I don't know, depends what happens with Pep, and maybe finally the charges aswell. They can't just keep dropping all this money on players totally unchecked forver given what they're accused of.

And players must look at the squads, Anderson is very good, but City won't think twice about treating him like Marmoush, Phillips, or Trafford, depending which way the wind blows, whereas he'll be straight in out team with no messing around, and it'll have to work, which has to count for alot.

The issues I see with Anderson is the cost, as I think we need at least 2 top midfeld players, and he is will likely swallow most of the budget.
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
I don't know, depends what happens with Pep, and maybe finally the charges aswell. They can't just keep dropping all this money on players totally unchecked forver given what they're accused of.

And players must look at the squads, Anderson is very good, but City won't think twice about treating him like Marmoush, Phillips, or Trafford, depending which way the wind blows, whereas he'll be straight in out team with no messing around, and it'll have to work, which has to count for alot.

The issues I see with Anderson is the cost, as I think we need at least 2 top midfeld players, and he is will likely swallow most of the budget.
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One swallow doth not a summer make.
 
I think Anderson is going to Man City, and Rodri is going to Real Madrid in the summer.

Rodri hasn't been happy at City since even before his big injury when they were playing him every game of the season. He said it was risking his wellbeing and he was proven right. You can tell he's playing within himself and just ticking over until the summer.

Wouldn't be surprised if City didn't already have this wrapped up for the summer ready for whoever their new manager will be. Then signing so much talent this year which don't strike as being Guardiola type players point to them being signed for another manager.
 
Dominos said:
Is this a defence of Ineos, or have I misinterpreted?

If they've wasted 50m as a favour to an agent, that's even worse than bad scouting.
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Not a defence, just clarifying what's been reported. Clubs do favours for agents all the time, especially 'super-agents;' like Mendes, it's about being strategic and even 'choosing your poison' in terms of bringing in 'lesser' players in return for access to a top tier one occasionally. People like to blame Wilcox etc (without a clear idea of what Wilcox does), but the larger problem has been dealing with the squad mess left to them and also negotiating from a weaker position. Were this the peak Utd of SAF, but with INEOS' willingness to fund, Mendes would be driving less of a hard bargain in terms of trade-offs. Real get a better deal from Mendes for this reason.

Some of those advantages other sides, like City or PSG, have are more than just financial, in terms of the relationship between politics, diplomacy, finance and football, which mean that UEFA decision-makers go easier on them (likewise internal FAs) to put it crudely, and likewise they're able to offer the likes of Mendes more than just hard cash (although they also use grey market payments). Hence why Utd and other interested sides were excluded from the Neves deal, why a guy valued at 100m by a Benfica that sold Felix for more than that, got big money for Darwin from Liverpool, would be sold for a relative pittance to PSG weeks later. Even so, I don't think access to Yoro and Mendes' 'client list' And negotiating services were all worth saddling the club with Ugarte.
 
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