Is “Buy British” Oficially Dead?

[manunited1919]

Last summer we were on a mission to buy British because those players had more grit and would play with heart on behalf of United. So we ignored other better choices for rightback and centerback, and overpaid for Bambi on Ice and Maguire. We also bought James. This “philosophy” was pushed by Gary Neville and perhaps other ex-players.

Fast forward to this summer, and we are now seeing how badly we were ripped off by Crystal Palace and Leicester. We could have gotten better defenders from other leagues, for less money. But now we are stuck with some very expensive & inept defenders.

I hope the idea that British players will play with more heart, pushed by Gary Neville and friends, is completely dead. We should buy players based on skill and experience, and not overpay for a particular nationality. Besides being a racist idea, we end up hurting ourselves.

 

[Bojan11]

We should have signed Grealish though. Last time I checked Sancho is British and we wanted him.

 

[kouroux]

If a player is good, his nationality is irrelevant. Maguire and AWB just weren't that good.

 

[jackal&hyde]

It was never a thing imo, just something made up because the 3 players we bought happened to be British.

 

[devilish]

Last summer we were on a mission to buy British because those players had more grit and would play with heart on behalf of United. So we ignored other better choices for rightback and centerback, and overpaid for Bambi on Ice and Maguire. We also bought James. This “philosophy” was pushed by Gary Neville and perhaps other ex-players.

Fast forward to this summer, and we are now seeing how badly we were ripped off by Crystal Palace and Leicester. We could have gotten better defenders from other leagues, for less money. But now we are stuck with some very expensive & inept defenders.

I hope the idea that British players will play with more heart, pushed by Gary Neville and friends, is completely dead. We should buy players based on skill and experience, and not overpay for a particular nationality. Besides being a racist idea, we end up hurting ourselves.

“Koulibaly is nothing to me. Nor Upamecano neither. Why should we pay huge money to take them, from some flowery seat in Italy or Germany? What do they know of the trafford centre or King Street or Manchester Cathedral? Their nationality is wrong. The Others take the French, too. I’ve had a bellyful of them.” “Why shouldn’t we not buy hardworking British players instead? It was the Glazers we married, and the Glazers are clueless!” “There sits the only king I mean to bend my knee to, my fans. The King in the North!”

 

[Lentwood]

Another ridiculous thread. You think the reason we’re underperforming is because we have bought a couple of English players?

Ridiculous

 

[Nickelodeon]

Officially*

 

[devilish]

Another ridiculous thread. You think the reason we’re underperforming is because we have bought a couple of English players?

Ridiculous

I don't think OP is saying that. However you have to concede that those 130m would have been better if we went for decent players rather then a CB with zero pace and a fullback who can only tackle. Leicester and Palace must be laughing their way to the bank.

 

[Stretender]

If a player is good, his nationality is irrelevant. Maguire and AWB just weren't that good.

Exactly. If our transfer business involved Ollie Watkins and Jack Grealish it would have been a good one.

 

[RedChisel]

So you think a British football team signing British players is racist? What does that make Bilbao then who only sign Basque players? There are plenty of non British players that have been performing like shit aswell but no let's just blame the Brits.

 

[Bojan11]

“Koulibaly is nothing to me. Nor Upamecano neither. Why should we pay huge money to take them, from some flowery seat in Italy or Germany? What do they know of the trafford centre or King Street or Manchester Cathedral? Their nationality is wrong. The Others take the French, too. I’ve had a bellyful of them.” “Why shouldn’t we not buy hardworking British players instead? It was the Glazers we married, and the Glazers are clueless!” “There sits the only king I mean to bend my knee to, my fans. The King in the North!”

What?

We refused to pay huge money for a British player all summer.

 

[Ekeke]

I don't think OP is saying that. However you have to concede that those 130m would have been better if we went for decent players rather then a CB with zero pace and a fullback who can only tackle. Leicester and Palace must be laughing their way to the bank.

For sure. But thats about our spending in general and has been the case since Sir Alex - its been money wasted. People talk about managers not being backed, but when they are backed with money we've spent far too much of it on average players.

 

[devilish]

What?

We refused to pay huge money for a British player all summer.

I am referring to the summer before this. Also that post was meant as a bit of a joke.

 

[Deery]

What I don’t understand is why does players regress at United instead of excel?

AWB was the best right back in the league, Shaw looked a prospect, Maguire was decent, Bruno was amazing when he arrived, James was good when he came, Pogba was banging them in for Juve, Matic was quoted as being the best DM in the league, Mata was a star player.

But, after 6 months here they all turn to shit why?

 

[Ekeke]

Exactly. If our transfer business involved Ollie Watkins and Jack Grealish it would have been a good one.

Depends entirely on the prices, same as AWB and Maguire

 

[devilish]

For sure. But thats about our spending in general and has been the case since Sir Alex - its been money wasted. People talk about managers not being backed, but when they are backed with money we've spent far too much of it on average players.

However we all know that British talent tend to be massively overpriced. Which makes sense really as most EPL clubs are rich and they don't need to sell.

 

[klsv]

Honestly don't think it was ever a policy we had. English club buying British players isn't something extraordinary.

 

[FrankDrebin]

Buy sensibly seems to be dead too.

 

[devilish]

What I don’t understand is why does players regress at United instead of excel?

AWB was the best right back in the league, Shaw looked a prospect, Maguire was decent, Bruno was amazing when he arrived, James was good when he came, Pogba was banging them in for Juve, Matic was quoted as being the best DM in the league, Mata was a star player.

But, after 6 months here they all turn to shit why?

That's a valid point. However AWB wasn't the best right back in the league and it was evident from miles away that Maguire is nowhere near to WC.

 

[Bwuk]

Should of signed Grealish. I’d take Tariq Lamptey too in a heart beat.

 

[Deery]

That's a valid point. However AWB wasn't the best right back in the league and it was evident from miles away that Maguire is nowhere near to WC.

Did AWB not win some prize or voting in some team of the year or something pretty sure he was well thought of.

 

[devilish]

Did AWB not win some prize or voting in some team of the year or something pretty sure he was well thought of.

Trent Alexander-Arnold is far better then tackles.

 

[Champ]

What I don’t understand is why does players regress at United instead of excel?

AWB was the best right back in the league, Shaw looked a prospect, Maguire was decent, Bruno was amazing when he arrived, James was good when he came, Pogba was banging them in for Juve, Matic was quoted as being the best DM in the league, Mata was a star player.

But, after 6 months here they all turn to shit why?

This.
Maguire was quality for Leicester, and has looked solid for England, yet looks hesitant when playing for United.
AWB was easily the best RB in the league before we brought him, and he has looked decent at times, yet his progress has stalled somewhat.

Is it a culture issue? You come to United to get paid handsomely yet put in less effort?
That's why we went British in the first place yet that's not working out, so it must be something else!?

 

[Greck]

It was never a thing imo, just something made up because the 3 players we bought happened to be British.

It was a policy. Every report coming out of OT said we wanted a British core confirmed when nearly every transfer target was British. Furthermore it's not actually a bad strategy, it's just we implemented it like amateurs. Going for every british youngster of the season and willing to overpay. SAF also used to buy British but did so wisely and left the idiots to buy players like Andy Carrol for 35mil. We seemed to have implemented our British strategy more similar to the latter

 

[Fracture90]

If a player is good, his nationality is irrelevant. Maguire and AWB just weren't that good.

I agree with this notion.

 

[Ekeke]

However we all know that British talent tend to be massively overpriced. Which makes sense really as most EPL clubs are rich and they don't need to sell.

Seems like everyone we try to buy is massively overpriced. Either that or we are just always picking the wrong targets, that are too well known and highly valued by their clubs

 

[Revan]

If a player is good, his nationality is irrelevant. Maguire and AWB just weren't that good.

That is how it should be.

I would argue though, that it Maguire and AWB were not British, we would have not been interested for them. And even if we were, we would have left the negotiations the moment their clubs asked for as much as half of what they paid.

 

[Ekeke]

Trent Alexander-Arnold is far better then tackles.

How did he do yesterday

 

[devilish]

How did he do yesterday

You know I am right.

 

[TehRed]

At this point, I would have no problem with us trying to sign Tarkowski today. Not gonna happen, but if we were to buy British today, that's who i'd go for.

 

[TheGame]

If clubs keep paying these ridiculous prices for domestic players, clubs will keep charging them.

 

[devilish]

Seems like everyone we try to buy is massively overpriced. Either that or we are just always picking the wrong targets, that are too well known and highly valued by their clubs

That's the propaganda the club wants you to believe. We're NOT the only big club with deep pockets in football. PSG, Real and Bayern aren't taken to the cleaners as we do. Also note that we didn't overspend on Bruno Fernandes and VDB.

I think United have 2 major problems.

a- the lack of a football people at board level. Which means that transfers and contract negotiation is done by a banker whose got no idea of how football work. It explains why we overspend, why it usually takes us ages to complete a transfer and why we're saddled with so much deadwood whose often on ridiculous salaries

b- the lack of proper coaching and fitness team. Which explains why players performance tend to go to the shitters months after we signed them. It also explains why players tend to vanish in the treatment room and never return from there

I believe that united are caught in a loop. A new manager comes in, he's given a lot of cash but no DoF to guide him. Since he does not know the scouts he can't trust them so he buys the players he know who are often expensive. Then a year later he start trusting his men but the club decides to stop funding him

 

[Adnan]

We have really talented players in our country but unfortunately we targeted the wrong two players. If we had signed James Tarkowski and Max Aarons instead we would've been a better team as far as playing a more fluid game. Partnering Tarkowski with Smalling would've been a much better pairing.

Aarons £20m, Tarkowski £30m? money saved £70m potentially. I personally would've signed a RB (Meunier) as a short term option until the very highly rated Ethan Laird was ready. We throw money away like confetti..

 

[Irrational.]

What I don’t understand is why does players regress at United instead of excel?

AWB was the best right back in the league, Shaw looked a prospect, Maguire was decent, Bruno was amazing when he arrived, James was good when he came, Pogba was banging them in for Juve, Matic was quoted as being the best DM in the league, Mata was a star player.

But, after 6 months here they all turn to shit why?

I doubt they were that good to start with. Players usually have a good run of form, and whenever United get involved the price rises exponentially.

That or our coaches turn them to shit.

 

[Damien]

It was never a thing imo, just something made up because the 3 players we bought happened to be British.

Yep, was just something brought up to be used as another stick to beat our "PE teacher" manager with.

 

[roonster09]

It was never our policy, it's just lazy thing made up by few twitter folks and then some how creeped here and people who didn't like Ole used it against him.

Many reports that we tried to sign De Ligt, he rejected us and signed for Juve. He must have had British passport or maybe he is half British.

When the opportunity presented itself, we tried to sign Dybala, he didnt want to leave Juve.

We even tried to sell players like Smalling and sold Young. Weren't they British?

It's actually hilarious, people somehow make up stuff and try to fit in everything as per that.

 

[Lentwood]

I don't think OP is saying that. However you have to concede that those 130m would have been better if we went for decent players rather then a CB with zero pace and a fullback who can only tackle. Leicester and Palace must be laughing their way to the bank.

Maybe if we identified what style of football we are attempting to play and then bought players to suit?

I'm not having this constant slandering of some of the players on this forum (not in your post). Harry Maguire is a good professional, he was outstanding at Leicester, he was outstanding for England at the World Cup. He was even good for the majority of last year. What do we all know about Harry Maguire? He isn't the most mobile. So what do we do? Ask him to play on the halfway line, man for man without a press against two of the best forwards in the league. You are asking for trouble

Likewise, AWB, what is he good at? Defending. What do we ask him to do? Play like Danny Alves! No wonder every player that comes to Utd crumbles into a shadow of themselves, we actively ask them to play in positions that expose their weaknesses!

You could even argue the same with Paul Pogba, much as I am done with excuses for him. By playing him at DM, we are literally exposing all the bad parts of his game and taking away the good parts

 

[Ekeke]

That's the propaganda the club wants you to believe. We're NOT the only big club with deep pockets in football. PSG, Real and Bayern aren't taken to the cleaners as we do. Also note that we didn't overspend on Bruno Fernandes and VDB.

I think United have 2 major problems.

a- the lack of a football people at board level. Which means that transfers and contract negotiation is done by a banker whose got no idea of how football work. It explains why we overspend, why it usually takes us ages to complete a transfer and why we're saddled with so much deadwood whose often on ridiculous salaries

b- the lack of proper coaching and fitness team. Which explains why players performance tend to go to the shitters months after we signed them. It also explains why players tend to vanish in the treatment room and never return from there

I believe that united are caught in a loop. A new manager comes in, he's given a lot of cash but no DoF to guide him. Since he does not know the scouts he can't trust them so he buys the players he know who are often expensive. Then a year later he start trusting his men but the club decides to stop funding him

Didnt we? Fernandes sure, but so far VDB is a £39 million sub.

 

[devilish]

Didnt we? Fernandes sure, but so far VDB is a £39 million sub.

That's because we chose to play him as a sub and tbf our CM is stellar. VDB would walk in most CMs in the world. He is that good. I dare to say I prefer him to Pogba as well.

 

[dogwithabone]

We could do with a good, old fashioned British centre back right now. Fergie brought in the likes of Donaghy, Bruce, Pallister from Luton, Norwich and Middlesbrough. Probably only Pallister was brought with the future in mind but Bruce proved his worth long term and Donaghy plugged a gaping hole for a bit.

I’m not suggesting we sign these players but Coady, Mings, Keane etc would all be upgrades on anything we currently have. Smalling is probably the best out and out defender we have but he’s not wanted.

It’s a right old mess.