Galacticos or Not ?

Raoul

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Should our transfer strategy focus on galactico type players (Bale, Ronaldo etc) or should we be looking at more reasonably priced players like Dybala, Depay, De Bruyne, Godin etc ?
 
Easy to say a mix of both, but if we had to choose one startegy, then the more reasonably priced players.
 
Balance. A few world glass "gaalacticos" scattered around the team but complimented by top quality squad players. That is the way we have always carried ourselves in recent history. We don't normally buy ready made world class players. We create them.
 
Easy to say a mix of both, but if we had to choose one startegy, then the more reasonably priced players.

Why, other than from an monetary perspective? If you had to choose one, you'd surely go with the Galacticos as they are the better tier of players. But hope that thought was put in to which recruited for balance.
 
Transfer strategy should focus on bringing in the best players for the club at that moment in time. To me, I don't give a toss whether we sign a left back from Welling FC for £25,000 or a striker from Real Madrid for £100,000,00, as long as they fit the club and go on to improve us.
 
Why, other than from an monetary perspective? If you had to choose one, you'd surely go with the Galacticos as they are the better tier of players. But hope that thought was put in to which recruited for balance.

i just like to see them turning into great players. We need more than one palyer too. For the price of Bale, we could get Depay, Dybala and Godin.
 
The policy should be to bring in the right players for United. Not just shirt sellers. If the right player is a big name then fine. Otherwise if the right player is someone I have never heard of, but it works , then fine as well.
 
Ronaldo can go feck himself, for the amount of money he'd cost. If we pursue a policy like that then we're pretty much fecked. Buying star players for the sake of it doesn't make you win things, it just transforms you into a team full of mercenaries.
 
The policy should be to bring in the right players for United. Not just shirt sellers. If the right player is a big name then fine. Otherwise if the right player is someone I have never heard of, but it works , then fine as well.

This is the most logical answer and is the way we do business. Price is not an issue for a player. If we want him enough. weather that be £60 million or 5.5million. We overpay for players because we have showed in the past that we are willing to pay more than the player may be worth from purely a footballing point of view.
 
What galactico would sign for us?

Let's focus on players who want to play here and are hungry to succeed.

And let's hope we get cl football or we might have to be worried about out best player (de gea) going rather than signing galacticos
 
If we need a player who is expected to play in the first team, then a club of this size should be looking at the very best players in that position, but also players who are the right age and the manager/scouts believe can adapt to our system, if we even have one.
 
What galactico would sign for us?

Let's focus on players who want to play here and are hungry to succeed.

And let's hope we get cl football or we might have to be worried about out best player (de gea) going rather than signing galacticos

A lot will depend on our CL qualification. But I think that we can still attract players because we’ve money to spend and good salary cap.

Dani Alves can sign for us this summer. He’s free and waits for 2 years contract + big wages. We still have a lot in this department to offer. And he’s quite friend with Valdes too

Pogba can sign for us if we give Raiola 90M

Dortmund won’t be against 100M for Reus and Hummels

We can always sign Bale, Modric or Varane if Real decides to sell one of them.
 
The latter approach, definitely.
Depay, De Bruyne, Dybala, RB, Marquinhos would be close to a perfect summer of imports, in my eyes. Follow it up with shipping off what needs to be sold and we should be in a great position.
 
What determines a galactico signing? The Fee paid? or the quality of player? Was Lewandowski a Galactico signing even though he was on a free?
 
Second option seems to fit better with me, especially when we seem to need quite a few players to come in.
We also get the most reward when they go on to be superstars like Ronaldo.
Anyway a mix of the 2 would work for me, get a few futures stars in, and if a truely world class player becomes available that we need, then sign him.
 
Balance. A few world glass "gaalacticos" scattered around the team but complimented by top quality squad players. That is the way we have always carried ourselves in recent history. We don't normally buy ready made world class players. We create them.
We used to create them, until Fergie lost the plot with transfers.
 
For me, we should be looking to sign the next Messi.

I dont mean identify an up and coming talent, we tried that and it doesnt work. We need to sign superstars for tens of millions of pounds.

But not Messi. We need to wait until the next Messi comes along and pounce on him.
 
A lot will depend on our CL qualification. But I think that we can still attract players because we’ve money to spend and good salary cap.

Dani Alves can sign for us this summer. He’s free and waits for 2 years contract + big wages. We still have a lot in this department to offer. And he’s quite friend with Valdes too

Pogba can sign for us if we give Raiola 90M

Dortmund won’t be against 100M for Reus and Hummels

We can always sign Bale, Modric or Varane if Real decides to sell one of them.
Yeah agreed. Hell, throw in £250m and we'd probably get Messi.

Though I'll take a rain check on Alves!
 
It's funny that both strategies have high risk. One a much bigger one than the other. But the likelihood of a player working out seems to be the same.
 
Whatever it takes to win things.

Trophyless seasons with "reasonably priced players" is nothing to be proud of.
 
Mixture of both.

Happy with the galactico approach providing we are paying top money for stars yet to hit their peak, not castoffs from other top clubs. For example buying the likes of Neymar, Hazard from their original clubs.
 
Mixture of both.

Happy with the galactico approach providing we are paying top money for stars yet to hit their peak, not castoffs from other top clubs. For example buying the likes of Neymar, Hazard from their original clubs.

You wouldnt be happy if we signed Neymar and Hazard from Barca and Chelsea?
 
You wouldnt be happy if we signed Neymar and Hazard from Barca and Chelsea?
There was an article the other day about the dangers of buying players from other top clubs, clubs that might even be above you in the pecking order, where the player feels demoted when he arrives and never really enjoys playing for you. It was arguing this was the case with Di Maria. If you get a player from an unambiguously smaller club, and they arrive full of excitement about the prospect of silverware ahead, as Chelsea did when they signed Hazard, they are in a good frame of mind. If we signed Neymar from Barca would he be happy? Or would he wish he was still at Barca? How signing Hazard from Chelsea would fit into that I dont know. And Im not even saying I necessarily agree with it as a set rule, but it is certainly worth considering. I think there is a strong case to be made we are seeing that with Di Maria, though of course it could also be completely misreading the problem.
 
There was an article the other day about the dangers of buying players from other top clubs, clubs that might even be above you in the pecking order, where the player feels demoted when he arrives and never really enjoys playing for you. It was arguing this was the case with Di Maria. If you get a player from an unambiguously smaller club, and they arrive full of excitement about the prospect of silverware ahead, as Chelsea did when they signed Hazard, they are in a good frame of mind. If we signed Neymar from Barca would he be happy? Or would he wish he was still at Barca? How signing Hazard from Chelsea would fit into that I dont know. And Im not even saying I necessarily agree with it as a set rule, but it is certainly worth considering. I think there is a strong case to be made we are seeing that with Di Maria, though of course it could also be completely misreading the problem.
Yeah. They drop a level and feel they are doing you a favour. Same could be said of loans for youngsters.
Someone like Ferdinand joining QPR fits that description, I think.
 
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Stop signing average players for stupid amounts and on silly salaries, that's all I have to say. We're not even trying to pursue a Galactico policy, it's just the media [And Stan Collymore especially] who keeps pushing this silly notion, we need quality, top of the shelf players, end of.
 
Fair point, but they are yet to hit their peak, so meet criteria 1.

You know what I mean. Messi? Thiago Silva? Modric? Ronaldo? Busquets?

There was an article the other day about the dangers of buying players from other top clubs, clubs that might even be above you in the pecking order, where the player feels demoted when he arrives and never really enjoys playing for you. It was arguing this was the case with Di Maria. If you get a player from an unambiguously smaller club, and they arrive full of excitement about the prospect of silverware ahead, as Chelsea did when they signed Hazard, they are in a good frame of mind. If we signed Neymar from Barca would he be happy? Or would he wish he was still at Barca? How signing Hazard from Chelsea would fit into that I dont know. And Im not even saying I necessarily agree with it as a set rule, but it is certainly worth considering. I think there is a strong case to be made we are seeing that with Di Maria, though of course it could also be completely misreading the problem.

I read that. It was in the Di Maria thread. Load of bollocks if you ask me. The reason Di Maria hasnt set the league on fire isnt that he doesnt want to be here. If he wanted to stay at Real, he had the choice to do so.

I do agree that signing someone that desperately wants to be here is always a plus but at a club of our stature, players not wanting to be here isnt going to be an issue.
 
For me, we should be looking to sign the next Messi.

I dont mean identify an up and coming talent, we tried that and it doesnt work. We need to sign superstars for tens of millions of pounds.

But not Messi. We need to wait until the next Messi comes along and pounce on him.
:lol:
 
Traditionally we have bought a few top players, a few lower quality and home grown the others. Last summer OT went crazy in one transfer season, and it hasn't really worked or at least pretty average. Whether this was a first step to becoming a galatico team is yet to be seen, given that there is reputedly a huge bucket of sponsor cash burning a hole in Woody's pocket. Nothing comes free so let's not mistake the consequences of galatico status - prepare for higher ticket prices, team franchises in the Far East, and probable end of OT in both name and status.
 
You know what I mean. Messi? Thiago Silva? Modric? Ronaldo? Busquets?
Unless they were very cheap i wouldnt really want any of them. As i said, i want to see us buy players with their best years ahead of them.
 
Unless they were very cheap i wouldnt really want any of them. As i said, i want to see us buy players with their best years ahead of them.

Wow. Weird to hear someone not wanting the ones I've listed but fair enough if you actually think so.

Ideally, I feel a club needs to find the right mix. Use the academy to produce solid squad players, buy some talents just before they hit their peak for the 1st team and then buy top established players to complete the set. Too ideal a scenario though.
 
Another thing to remember, from the point of view of the club, is the commercial angle. Galacticos sell merchandise. Lots of it.
 
Another thing to remember, from the point of view of the club, is the commercial angle. Galacticos sell merchandise. Lots of it.

So did Ji Sung Park and he contributed so much to our success. We should target players who want to be here not because we were the highest bidder. Im not sure that was the case with Di Maria but I might be proven wrong.
 
Can't see the galactico route as being sustainable in the long term. Looking at the OP example - buying Bale for £80m as opposed to buying Depay, Dybala, Debryuune for the same amount seems like madness. The latter 4 are obviously more usable, in fact Depay himself may turn into another Bale type player.
 
I read that. It was in the Di Maria thread. Load of bollocks if you ask me. The reason Di Maria hasnt set the league on fire isnt that he doesnt want to be here. If he wanted to stay at Real, he had the choice to do so.

I do agree that signing someone that desperately wants to be here is always a plus but at a club of our stature, players not wanting to be here isnt going to be an issue.
Well I have to defer to your judgement on matters pertaining to Real but I must say I found the article made some sense. Would a player stay at Madrid if they knew the writing was on the wall for them there and they were no longer wanted? There were articles like this http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...drid-after-signing-for-Manchester-United.html saying he didnt want to leave, so it is clearly not a simple case of "if he wanted to stay he could have stayed."

Even if you accept the general premise that arriving here was a comedown for him, it isnt black and white. Maybe he was up for it, up for making the most of it, but found Manchester wasnt what he expected, hasnt enjoyed working with Van Gaal, whatever. These things are easier to cope with in a way on the way up in your career, if you are coming from some second tier club or second tier league it might not bother you so much, but if you have grown accustomed to being at the very pinnacle of football, in Madrid or Barca, and then have to deal with these "hardships" (in inverted commas because its all relative, isnt it, most people wouldnt find playing PL football a hardship) it may get you down more.

Its like the old experiment, put one hand in a bowl of hot water, another in a bowl of cold water, and then both together in the same bowl of warm water, each hand will tell you something different about the temperature of the water. Similarly, a player coming from a lower level club will experience arriving at Man United differently from one arriving from one of the two most prestigious clubs in the world.

As I say, I only get my info about Di Maria from the press, you obviously know the specifics of his situation better than I do, but as a general rule I can see why trying to sign players from other elite clubs may prove problematic over time.
 
Whatever we do it'll be wrong.

Spend lots on galacticos and it'll be "Woodwards a muppet, just desperate for a big name signing to make himself look good".

Spend a little on promising potential and we will paint ourselves like the Jewish kid at Christmas whilst City and Chelsea get all the great presents (players).

As long as we buy players who "fit the profile" as LvG describes it, I don't mind which category they're from. The main thing is that the give us what we don't already have.
 
Should our transfer strategy focus on galactico type players (Bale, Ronaldo etc) or should we be looking at more reasonably priced players like Dybala, Depay, De Bruyne, Godin etc ?

I still feel the best way to go about building a new team that can have a good 3-4 year of dominance in the league and Europe would be to get the most promising players that are younger than 23 and if one of them should cost a fortune, well than we have to splash the cash. As long as we don't see the likes of Hazard and Pogba end up with our fiercest competitors.

So in essence get them before they are the big super stars, even if they are expensive.
 
Whatever we do it'll be wrong.

Spend lots on galacticos and it'll be "Woodwards a muppet, just desperate for a big name signing to make himself look good".

Spend a little on promising potential and we will paint ourselves like the Jewish kid at Christmas whilst City and Chelsea get all the great presents (players).

As long as we buy players who "fit the profile" as LvG describes it, I don't mind which category they're from. The main thing is that the give us what we don't already have.
Yes - unless we are successful. In which case whatever route we took was right. The proof, as they say, will be in the pudding.