The club doesn’t learn. If Chelsea get him everything I have put in this thread and have been vilified for by others will be justified.
Frenkie de Jong | The last muppeting lap
- Thread starter davidmichael
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But this is exactly the point: we shouldn't live or die by the managers' knowledge of players. That's why clubs have scouting networks and directors of football and all that fancy stuff. It shouldn't all be down to the manager and the manager alone.
When you spell it out, we literally have no right, like none whatsoever, to be competing this season.
Congratulations
Attack
No, what we'll see is if that is an actual issue for him at all.
Champions League is a temporary thing, it obviously changes from season to season
I didn't realize that Cobham was that far. It reminds me as a kid going to watch the
According to Ornstein, Chelsea are negotiating a fee directly with Barca and are optimistic that a deal can be agreed.
how many players did virtually everyone agree we needed? I don't remember it being three... but hey, close your eyes and do a Boris Johnson impersonation and pretend everything is wonderful. just don't expect everyone to play that gameSigned 3 players you mean
MoanMouse strikes again
Chelsea are talking to Barca about De Jong and are confident of striking a deal with them. Apparently something about De Jong preferring to live in London was also mentioned in an Athletic article but I've just seen that through the Twitter account UtdPlug, and haven't verified if it was from Ornstein, a separate article or if it even exists.
I'm not really sure what else we are supposed to do?
It's clearly ETH's decision to keep pressing on with the deal. The only one it hurts is him.
Yes it sucks if we've wasted all this time and he then chooses Chelsea, but I really don't see what else we could have done.
I say screw him and lets grow Iqbal for the position.
Barca is clever. If Chelsea is willing to cover De Jong's deferred wages as well, it is a clear win for Barca. This also puts pressure on United to do the same. If Chelsea is not willing to cover the deferred wages, then it is 50-50 whether he comes to United.
Why does it feel that the image of these two linen clad men will still haunt us in 5 years time. Will be hard to live down for them.
So, is it over Berba? Do we move on to Neves?Attack
to be fair, it's not - short distance from west london on the M25 (when the traffic is moving)I didn't realize that Cobham was that far. It reminds me as a kid going to watch theLondonWasps, they had nothing to do with London.
"Utd remain quite confident"
The knives are out for ETH already, the season has not even begun yet and we’re all having a meltdown over something that hasn’t even happened. Good ol’ CAF
If there were a strong structure in place, that wouldn't be the case. When he went to Ajax, he bought some players from his old clubs but they had the right structure and scouting network to support him with other players and he didn't oppose that.
Most of the blame should be on the likes of Murtough and Arnold and the clowns they replaced, not the man who walked into the mess that has been going on for 9 years.
Same thing with every city. The footballers don't tend to actually live in them, but having a big city near is seen as better than not having one.
fecking get a grip
Morning Dean Henderson.
Some people have played too much Football Manager and think that the manager handles everything from transfer negotiations to setting ticket prices.
If we've really spent the whole summer identifying alternatives to De Jong and the best the club can come up with is Neves, who will probably cost as much as him, then we are truly a disgrace of a club and deserve the failure. I really, really hope he's not the backup.
United only qualify for the competition one season in two. Chelsea won the thing in 2021. It's night and day, unfortunately.
I know I’m knee jerking cause I don’t want to see him at Chelsea - rather he stay at Barca!You've quickly changed your tune. The other day you were telling me to be patient about our window and that the club were doing the right thing holding out for him
I agree
Cheers guys.
Well, i suppose that it's a 50/50 chance now. I'm still somewhat confident, but not as much. I do think we'll see some moves from United now though, either in a last ditch attempt to get this sorted, by covering his wages, or by pulling out and saying we're done.
We really need to shift some midfielders if we’re signing De Jong.
We have Kovacic, Kante, Jorginho, RLC, Mount, Gallagher, Barkley, Carney, Gilmour and Hutchinson now. We have a massively bloated squad in general so we really need to start shipping players out.
No.
Imagine CEO and Director of Football travelling to Barca, snapped.....And a new owner with zero experience in negotiating comes and take away the player who we have been chasing for months.....
Irrespective of whatever we say, it will look so so so funny, we will be a laughing stock...
Irrespective of whatever we say, it will look so so so funny, we will be a laughing stock...
Yes, not a good look if this collapses after such a protracted negotiation and he ends up in the blue of Chelsea. Woodward never really recovered credibility after 2013.
Why does it feel that the image of these two linen clad men will still haunt us in 5 years time. Will be hard to live down for them.
While I do think Chelsea look more likely to be successful in the future, the two clubs' league performance over the last five seasons look pretty much identical.
That's definitely the most important thing about this entire saga.
"London living" is hilarious as a concept in the context of Premier League footballers.
Of course, they're all taking selfies in front of Big Ben and riding the London Eye followed by a day out shopping on Oxford Street and a nice, relaxed picnic in Hyde Park.
As I've already stated in the thread, the material difference between their lived experience vs. Cheshire is miniscule. Training ground during the week, milling around their mansion with the family in the evening, driving their sports cars at the weekend, private dining and shopping away from public glare.
If the weather or setting was a huge factor I could see it, it isn't. If anything the north west has nicer surroundings, just a couple of degrees cooler.
I don't doubt the London factor is a thing for footballers, but it is nonsense. If anything they might as well go to a North West club and end their careers with a lot more money in the bank given the difference in cost of living.
Romano said that Chelsea would only bid once they knew that Frenkie is open to leave Barca, well they are now going to bid so it would appear its down to who the player who he wants to join, they have London and CL and we have Ten Hag so its not over but we have seen this play out before and rarely does it go in our favour.
Mctominay and Fred aren't the only players we have capable of playing in Central midfield, and they're nowhere near as bad as it's made out on here. I have faith in this manager's ability to improve players, and I saw enough of garner last season to know that he has the ability to make it here.
We've also signed Martinez, who looks like he's comfortable on the ball and can play in midfield.
The key thing though, is that we'll press and win the ball back, and actually counter when we have the ball. The full backs are bombing forward as soon as the ball goes into the centre forward. We have midfielders that can press and run all day. It's not too dissimilar to Liverpool before they added Thiago to their midfield. The only difference is the positionally disciplined midfielder at the base that we lack, but I think Martinez or Garner could do that job.
Spending £50m+ on a player like Neves would be a huge mistake.
That 'embarrassing' word gets chucked around a lot here but it will be rather blush inducing if FdJ does end up in London. I had high hopes for a change of direction in how we conducted our transfer business once Ed et al were kicked out but this would be a very inauspicious start for Murtaugh. That said, if it came down to a choice between paying the wages that barca owed him ourselves or not, I'm glad we chose not to.
Look at Richard Keys over here
And some actually believed that United had turned a new page when we replaced Woodward with his university class mate and we promoted his man as DOF. I'll miss the detailed analysis of you know who on how things had changed at United.
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