Well Bayern just have signed 30 year old Mané, didn't they?
Is a 30-year old high profile player too old to be worth the outlay in the PL?
- Thread starter Fortitude
- Start date
Having a blanket decision on age is utterly daft.
A Walcott at 30 is well passed his best.
A holding mid not based on pace won't be as much.
A Walcott at 30 is well passed his best.
A holding mid not based on pace won't be as much.
If the idea is to play him in two man midfield with Eriksen and Bruno in front, then yes.
If he is to be the deep lying playmaker / holding midfielder i a 3, then no.
If he is to be the deep lying playmaker / holding midfielder i a 3, then no.
It's over the hill to be honest. Both in sport and in life.
Maybe I should have said some Madrid fans.
I think the point still stands about hunger and game in game out intensity which along with quality is what I believe Utd need the most in the incoming signings right now. Now Casemeiro is only 30, not like some of the 33-37 year old signings of recent years but the intensity of midfield play(over 40-50 games) in the PL(+cups) is a hard ask. Any signing is a risk but Utd fans have been burned often in recent years by picking up veteran winners, so I think some concern should be understandable.
No, I think we need to get over our obsession of only being happy when going after wonder kids
It’s fine if Mou isn’t doing it…apparently
Yes. When is the last time it actually worked for us? Zlatan? Ronaldo who has ripped the club apart…
Short term Duds: Falcao, Basti, Sanchez, ighalo, second season Cavani etc
Long term totally unsellable duds: Matic, Varane
It would be like singing DDG now for 10 million and sticking him on 450k a week and calling it a coup. It’s stupid.
Short term Duds: Falcao, Basti, Sanchez, ighalo, second season Cavani etc
Long term totally unsellable duds: Matic, Varane
It would be like singing DDG now for 10 million and sticking him on 450k a week and calling it a coup. It’s stupid.
The feck does Mourinho have to do with this?
How old was Alonso when Bayern got him? 33?
What a great transfer that was!
Some players age like wine. What they can give knowledge and experience to the other players - and often they are even more motivated than the young ones as they want to show it to everybody.
But specifically into the PL I think he means. Are there many examples of 30 year old players arriving in the PL and impressing week in week out..?
Zlatan, Thiago Silva and Ronaldo. All had really bad periods of form too. We are trying to rebuild. Stop looking at expensive unimaginative short term fixes and think about extracting value and maximising team development. All signings like this do is kick the can down the road
For around 35m not 60-70m. I am referring to blockbuster deals on 30 years old.
You can sign a 30 years old and still build for the future. There are players who get better with age even if the latter will catch up to them at some point. Others who flop way before reaching their 30s. People are pointing at SAF forgetting that the level of fitness greatly improved and 32-34 isn't the end of a career unless the player had serious injury problems or really didn't take care of himself.
It really depends on who you're signing.
None. So feck it
Oddly enough Fernandinho, another Brazilian DM, played at a top level until he was 36?
City signed him at 28
I think you need to ask yourself why a player wants to join a certain club and United should do that more than most. Mane made a sideways step to finally be the main man in a team that plays for the CL title.
Casemiro would leave the current CL and La Liga champs to be a panic transfer for an EL team that had a train wreck of a season opener. Why would he do that? Because he's a hungry player that wants to do the best for his career?
Appart from specific cases like Adriano and Ronaldingo, or injuries like Ronaldo and Kaka, brazilian players would have short careers when they play many years in Brazil before moving to europe. Is not the case with Casemiro. Its not about biological age, its about the number of games on your legs. Brazilian season have much more games and huge distances between cities.
Did Chelsea regret signing 30 year old Makelele?
Meh, Makelele left star studded league winners Madrid (having won a CL the season before that), to join Raneiri at Chelsea, a team who just finished 4th and hadn’t won a league title in half a decade.
Sometimes players move for a better contract, so fecking what?
Or Zola, who we signed at 30 and left as one of the all time greatest Chelsea players aged 37. As always it really is situational, and very much depends on the player. A blanket rules against every over 30 player is silly.
30yrs old is not an issue at all considering the sports science has evolved a lot over years.
but, high fee and high salary is the real problem. It’s just stupid to pursue that route. I think Casmiro is a smoke setting.
but, high fee and high salary is the real problem. It’s just stupid to pursue that route. I think Casmiro is a smoke setting.
30 is still in his prime, the problem is have to pay the quoted 80m for him which is not worth it imo. If we get him for 40/50m then he is well worth that fee.
I agree with this in theory, but who was the last young player we brought in who we developed into a very good/world class player.
Wouldn't that apply for any top class player joining United in their current state?
Is FdJ who publicly stated several times that he wants to stay at Barcelona the better choice?
How old was van Persie when he signed for us? Must have been 30 or damm close.
Everyone is different and if a player has looked after himself, careers can easily go to 35 or 36
Everyone is different and if a player has looked after himself, careers can easily go to 35 or 36
For us trying to build a functioning team, No. He’d just delay us getting out shit together by wasting money better spent on a player with 6 or 7 good years left. If we had a functional team, a 30 year-old might gives an extra option.
RvP was the final piece in a well-oiled machine. This current team is basically a spunk-stained shop rag with no machine in sight.
I don't necessarily look at age, I look at how much they've achieved and how much apatite would they have. See I'm not questioning their professionalism, but we aren't a functioning team that they can just walk into and slot in, the next few players we sign have to be quality, but also have to be hungry. Casemiro has won everything there is at club level. Now if he's coming into a regular club he'll improve the team, he will improve our team too, but we're going to need more than that, when the chips are down, which they are, how many fecks does he have left in his tank?
We don’t one big expensive signing who’s supposed to be the final piece. We need multiple cheaper signings who can be part of the starting 11.
The club constantly thinks that we’re just a player or two away from being proper contenders when in reality pretty much every single of our starting 11 should be replaced.
Ronaldo is old and doesn’t fit into ETH’s plans.
Rashford is utter trash who’s playing at championship level at best right now.
Bruno is playing like he’s playing FIFA where a through pass will always work.
Scott is trash who wouldn’t be starting for championship sides who are thinking of promotion.
Fred is an 8 and will never be good if he continues to play alongside Scott and Bruno.
Sancho is a left winger being played on the right to accommodate Rashford.
Shaw doesn’t have the hunger to prove himself any more and needs to be replaced by Malacia.
Maguire is not a better defender than Smalling, let alone a 80m one.
Lindelof/Varane/Bailly are crocks.
Martinez who knows how he’ll end up in the league.
Dalot/AWB are both shit and should be replaced.
De Gea was a great goalkeeper 10 years ago. The game has moved on now and he’s a liability for any club that intends to play more than just parking the whole team in their own half to sneak a draw.
The club constantly thinks that we’re just a player or two away from being proper contenders when in reality pretty much every single of our starting 11 should be replaced.
Ronaldo is old and doesn’t fit into ETH’s plans.
Rashford is utter trash who’s playing at championship level at best right now.
Bruno is playing like he’s playing FIFA where a through pass will always work.
Scott is trash who wouldn’t be starting for championship sides who are thinking of promotion.
Fred is an 8 and will never be good if he continues to play alongside Scott and Bruno.
Sancho is a left winger being played on the right to accommodate Rashford.
Shaw doesn’t have the hunger to prove himself any more and needs to be replaced by Malacia.
Maguire is not a better defender than Smalling, let alone a 80m one.
Lindelof/Varane/Bailly are crocks.
Martinez who knows how he’ll end up in the league.
Dalot/AWB are both shit and should be replaced.
De Gea was a great goalkeeper 10 years ago. The game has moved on now and he’s a liability for any club that intends to play more than just parking the whole team in their own half to sneak a draw.
Last edited:
You would have to balance that against Barca supposedly trying to force him out and their asking price limiting his options - but yes, I'd be a bit weary of paying huge money for him for that reason.
Getting the right player is key and can he work in your type of league.
We did get a prime Pogba and it didn't work out but obviously if you can find multiple hungry players in their 20s that's the best way still. Players still doing it at an older age can be great additions or ones to keep like Modric or Giggs.
The danger is putting a lot of funds in one or two players old or not and neglecting the rest of the team.
We did get a prime Pogba and it didn't work out but obviously if you can find multiple hungry players in their 20s that's the best way still. Players still doing it at an older age can be great additions or ones to keep like Modric or Giggs.
The danger is putting a lot of funds in one or two players old or not and neglecting the rest of the team.
@Fortitude
The contentious point is not that Casemiro is good or bad, no one can question his quality, he is arguably the best DM in the world in the past 4-5 years, he is only 30 years young, and still has at least another 4-5 great years to go, if not more, if the cost would be close to what Varane cost last summer (under £50M in transfer fees and £200-250K weekly) then I am 100% supportive of it.
The contentious point is the huge outlay, let's say for argument sake that the outlay is 400K weekly on a 5y contract, for fee of £70M++.
At that amount of money mentioned above, If a team is already doing well, with a mix of great players (young and experienced), then adding someone like Casemiro, even if it is on a huge salary and huge fee, it would be understandable/acceptable, as it will propel the team higher and offer a greater chance of success, an example of this would be Alaba to Madrid, although it was a free transfer, RM paid him a huge salary and it was worth it for them.
But, for a team like United, that has a lot of areas that require immediate improvements, and these improvements has to be of certain age in order to allow the club some room for long term planning (e.g. Malacia, Martinez, maybe De Jong?), spending such money (400K weekly on a 5y contract, for fee of £70M++) is a waste and such money can be diverted to getting more players who are younger than 30 years.
What I said above is the principle of the matter, and coming back to reality, the bigger problem for me is the lack of planning once Ten Hag accepted to be the Head Coach/Manager in late April this year, 3 signings aren't enough and more players were/are needed to elevate the current level of the squad and it is late in window so it is panic time for the club, but at least getting Casemiro, even on a huge fee + salary, is a far better option than getting the likes of Rabiot, so as a panic buy, Casemiro is the best option to "Panic Buy".
The contentious point is not that Casemiro is good or bad, no one can question his quality, he is arguably the best DM in the world in the past 4-5 years, he is only 30 years young, and still has at least another 4-5 great years to go, if not more, if the cost would be close to what Varane cost last summer (under £50M in transfer fees and £200-250K weekly) then I am 100% supportive of it.
The contentious point is the huge outlay, let's say for argument sake that the outlay is 400K weekly on a 5y contract, for fee of £70M++.
At that amount of money mentioned above, If a team is already doing well, with a mix of great players (young and experienced), then adding someone like Casemiro, even if it is on a huge salary and huge fee, it would be understandable/acceptable, as it will propel the team higher and offer a greater chance of success, an example of this would be Alaba to Madrid, although it was a free transfer, RM paid him a huge salary and it was worth it for them.
But, for a team like United, that has a lot of areas that require immediate improvements, and these improvements has to be of certain age in order to allow the club some room for long term planning (e.g. Malacia, Martinez, maybe De Jong?), spending such money (400K weekly on a 5y contract, for fee of £70M++) is a waste and such money can be diverted to getting more players who are younger than 30 years.
What I said above is the principle of the matter, and coming back to reality, the bigger problem for me is the lack of planning once Ten Hag accepted to be the Head Coach/Manager in late April this year, 3 signings aren't enough and more players were/are needed to elevate the current level of the squad and it is late in window so it is panic time for the club, but at least getting Casemiro, even on a huge fee + salary, is a far better option than getting the likes of Rabiot, so as a panic buy, Casemiro is the best option to "Panic Buy".
He's lasted until his age 34 season. Last two seasons he was a backup and clearly no longer good enough for more
Anyways, the answer is "It depends". There's no absolute answer because there are so many factors that go into it. Total cost. Context. Role. Personality. Baggage. Health. Mileage....
Mane is very expensive and thus risky to Bayern. If they win the CL thanks to him, it won't matter if his abilities decay before the end of the contract. Same player, same cost, but for a club in United's situation would be utter madness
Not anymore no (Depending on the player). Players can perform longer and longer these days.
Ronaldo, Silva, Ibra, Milner are just some examples
Ronaldo, Silva, Ibra, Milner are just some examples
I am sure we'll give him a 6 years deal, with extremely high wages.
And he will get injured in less than a month.
Depends on your transfer strategy. Some clubs cannot afford to take the depreciation hit and need to base their business on a player trading model. Others at the bloated end of the game - where there is a sharper focus on short-termism and clubs have the income to withstand a loss - can make those signings. Basically it's not ideal financially but when you're making so much money off the park it doesn't really matter.
Probably depends on the player and the market. If every club just signed young, exciting talents then there's room for a different strategy because 30 year olds will become underrated. What you don't want is spend much money on players entering their last big contract while the player lacks the hunger to still achieve something. Generally, it is really hard to move such players on since if they fail at your club, nobody will offer them the salary you are paying them and thus they're incentivized to see out their contract.
But I think many people believe a 30 year old is less likely to fail because he's "proven". That's a misconception, IMO. Every switch of clubs is a risk and can fail. But with younger players, you still have resale value and they're more motivated to try it elsewhere if things don't work out. Plus they usually earn less, ensuring more interest.
But I think many people believe a 30 year old is less likely to fail because he's "proven". That's a misconception, IMO. Every switch of clubs is a risk and can fail. But with younger players, you still have resale value and they're more motivated to try it elsewhere if things don't work out. Plus they usually earn less, ensuring more interest.
Real Madrid signed Camavinga along with 29-year-old David Alaba (on a free transfer and mindboggling wages), and Tchouameni along with 29-year-old Antonio Rudiger. Both type of signings have utility.
Last edited: