Kroos "the deal was all but done"

Waynne

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At one stage we had:

Falcao
Schweinsteiger
Di Maria
Ander Herrera

in our squad.

Still can't believe we lost the above. In the hands of a competent manager they'd be world beaters.
 

simonhch

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At one stage we had:

Falcao
Schweinsteiger
Di Maria
Ander Herrera

in our squad.

Still can't believe we lost the above. In the hands of a competent manager they'd be world beaters.
On paper it looks great, but in reality, Falcao was fecked when he came here. He needed a season or so in France to get himself back up to speed after his injury. Bastian was shot. His knees were done. Herrera, has so much spirit, but he was never actually that good. Probably a solid 7 in most categories, but no really stand out qualities.

Di María was at his peak though. And was fecking brilliant when he first came. But he was misused and untrusted by LVG. He’d have been fantastic on our right wing for the last two years. And quite honestly, I feel Ole would’ve made a McTominay, Fred, Di Maria midfield work really well. But it wasn’t meant to be, and you have to say that El Fideo was mentally suspect.

He’s one of those players, along with Veron, that I wish had been a huge success here. Incidentally, Veron is still my all time favourite “flop”. I actually think he was really good for us, especially in Europe, but he disrupted the perfect midfield, and for that he was never going to fit. Absolutely magnificent player though, and one who would’ve walked into our team at any time in the last 7 years.

It’s funny to think that under Fergie we had seasons where we had players like Brown, Butt, Berbatov, Giggs, Nani, Saha, Veron, Forlán, Evans, Park, Fletcher etc., that spent as much - or more - time on the bench as they did on the field, and any and all of whom would be massive players for us today, and in many cases automatic starters. He really was the king of building a competitive squad for constant rotation.

I feel that Ole is really working well to get us back to that. To having that depth. He’s cleared so much dead wood, and you’ll see him clear more this summer. And his signings are just on point. Excited to see who he adds this summer.
 
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Web of Bissaka

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At one stage we had:

Falcao
Schweinsteiger
Di Maria
Ander Herrera

in our squad.

Still can't believe we lost the above. In the hands of a competent manager they'd be world beaters.
Naah.

Falcao - not the same player after the injury. After United, he had another go with Chelsea, equally failed.

Schweinsteiger - not the same player. I suppose he can still be a good squad player but ala Carrick and Matic, need other midfielders to provide the legs. Herrera/McT/Fred would be that player. Thing is similar to Carrick, they're too close to expiry date. Matic is much more better in that sense.

Di Maria - he doesn't really want to be here and he with his wife hates Manchester's climate and environment. Any opportunities to leave, he'll be sure to grab it and plot his exit, but then I suppose we'll be generous in giving him ridiculous high wages so he'll stay. He'll care feck all and won't bother performing at his best. Mourinho may boost his motivations for a while though.

Ander Herrera - perfect as a regular player, not a starter unless ahead of him are pure terrible. Great squad player, always useful. He's getting injury prone though this past two seasons, so eventhough there are plenty players we should get rid first, we'll have to replace Herrera eventually.

Just one reliable player though.

Other one can be worldclass when he's in the mood but he is like a diva needed to be handle with care. Another one need adjustments for him to be better, and we already had Carrick for that role. The striker is uhh.. too limited.
 

Eddy_JukeZ

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At one stage we had:

Falcao
Schweinsteiger
Di Maria
Ander Herrera

in our squad.

Still can't believe we lost the above. In the hands of a competent manager they'd be world beaters.
Falcao and Schweinsteiger never played together.

Falcao was signed in 2014 and left in 2015. Schweinsteiger was signed in 2015 after Falcao.

And it's all pointless. Falcao and Schweinsteiger were both finished when they came here.

Di Maria started off hot, but then it all went south.

Herrera is best as a squad player and not a starter.
 

RoyH1

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Fantastic player, but would not bring anything new to what we have with Bruno/Pogba (although his passing range is mesmerizing). We need a holding midfielder that can move.

I'd make a cheeky bid for Casemiro. Is not one of the top earners for Madrid and is a world class defensive midfielder that scores the odd goal or two. Without him, Modric and Kroos would not perform at the level they have for the last 5 years.
 

RedStarUnited

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Fantastic player, but would not bring anything new to what we have with Bruno/Pogba (although his passing range is mesmerizing). We need a holding midfielder that can move.

I'd make a cheeky bid for Casemiro. Is not one of the top earners for Madrid and is a world class defensive midfielder that scores the odd goal or two. Without him, Modric and Kroos would not perform at the level they have for the last 5 years.
Have you seen how awful our build up and tempo generally is?

On the OP - Why is everyone killing LVG? He might nit even have known about Kroos being that close to signing. Maybe no one at the club told him that we had him in the bag.
 

djdhrubs

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Depressing shit, but every time I feel horrible disappointment at missing out on a player, I remind myself it's not as bad as when we missed out on Ronaldinho. Oddly, that makes me feel a bit better.
 

FreakyJim

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Worst football I’ve seen United play.

Pompous, arrogant, out of touch fraud of a manager.

Worse than Moyes
 

Eire Red United

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At one stage we had:

Falcao
Schweinsteiger
Di Maria
Ander Herrera

in our squad.

Still can't believe we lost the above. In the hands of a competent manager they'd be world beaters.
Two were past it and one was a greedy rat who never want to be here and didn’t have the balls to deal with the PL.
 

Dan_F

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I was just thinking of this. Their midfield is so well balanced it’s actually depressing to think about
 

dinostar77

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You do have to wonder what our midfield would have been like if the Thiago and Kroos deals hadnt been cancelled by Moyes and LVG respectively.
 

Champagne Football

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Will never forgive LVG for this
LVG was the worst thing ever to happen to Man Utd, a total bloody spoofer, but the thing is that Moyes had already shown that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing when it came to spending money, by wasting 70 million (which is around 100 million in todays transfer equivelant) on 2 players who were nowhere near Man Utd level in Fellaini and Mata. 2 players who would have been wonderful for Everton or West Ham.

So.... Moyes can say 'Oh if you kept me we would have had Kroos', and that may be true, but also that summer we probably would have signed Osman, Andy Carroll, Titus Bramble etc.

Van Gaal then arrives with his 20 years out of date methods and just wrecks the place even worse than Moyes could even have dreamed of!
 
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I love Kroos. Infurating how close we were to having the chance to watch him here for a decade.

Those rare 'conducter' types have always been my favourites. Even as a kid, it was always Scholes and Beckham pinging the ball around the pitch that seduced me.

Kroos is sort of the last genuinely world class one still playing.
 

Swiss_Red89

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Sensational player and from what i've seen in interviews or Social Media a very good guy. Would have loved him in red.
 

Valar Morghulis

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LVG was the worst thing ever to happen to Man Utd, a total bloody spoofer, but the thing is that Moyes had already shown that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing when it came to spending money, by wasting 70 million (which is around 100 million in todays transfer equivelant) on 2 players who were nowhere near Man Utd level in Fellaini and Mata. 2 players who would have been wonderful for Everton or West Ham.
Mata was an absolutely fantastic player at the time we signed him.
 

Stacks

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LVG was the worst thing ever to happen to Man Utd, a total bloody spoofer, but the thing is that Moyes had already shown that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing when it came to spending money, by wasting 70 million (which is around 100 million in todays transfer equivelant) on 2 players who were nowhere near Man Utd level in Fellaini and Mata. 2 players who would have been wonderful for Everton or West Ham.

So.... Moyes can say 'Oh if you kept me we would have had Kroos', and that may be true, but also that summer we probably would have signed Osman, Andy Carroll, Titus Bramble etc.

Van Gaal then arrives with his 20 years out of date methods and just wrecks the place even worse than Moyes could even have dreamed of!
Its 50/50 him and Jose. What do we have from the Jose Era we are truly thankful for? Pogba, who Jose was putting on the bench. Think how much money he spent and how many signings you would like in our 1st team going forwards.
 

snk123

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Naah.

Falcao - not the same player after the injury. After United, he had another go with Chelsea, equally failed.

Schweinsteiger - not the same player. I suppose he can still be a good squad player but ala Carrick and Matic, need other midfielders to provide the legs. Herrera/McT/Fred would be that player. Thing is similar to Carrick, they're too close to expiry date. Matic is much more better in that sense.

Di Maria - he doesn't really want to be here and he with his wife hates Manchester's climate and environment. Any opportunities to leave, he'll be sure to grab it and plot his exit, but then I suppose we'll be generous in giving him ridiculous high wages so he'll stay. He'll care feck all and won't bother performing at his best. Mourinho may boost his motivations for a while though.

Ander Herrera - perfect as a regular player, not a starter unless ahead of him are pure terrible. Great squad player, always useful. He's getting injury prone though this past two seasons, so eventhough there are plenty players we should get rid first, we'll have to replace Herrera eventually.

Just one reliable player though.

Other one can be worldclass when he's in the mood but he is like a diva needed to be handle with care. Another one need adjustments for him to be better, and we already had Carrick for that role. The striker is uhh.. too limited.
The present tense is making me travel back in time to the boring LVG era
 

Valar Morghulis

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Not really, he wasnt playing at chelsea that why they agreed to sell. He was great for them 1-2 years previously though.
Won there player of the year 3 years in a row and then got sold because Jose didn't want him but he was still definitely a great player at that time.
 

NinjaZombie

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Won there player of the year 3 years in a row and then got sold because Jose didn't want him but he was still definitely a great player at that time.
Agreed.

But signing Mata when we had other pressing issues in the team showed how clueless Moyes and Woodward were.

Ask anyone where we needed to strengthen back in 13/14 and I doubt people would say the attack. Mata was a vanity signing.

Less said about Fellaini the better.
 

Eugenius

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Agreed.

But signing Mata when we had other pressing issues in the team showed how clueless Moyes and Woodward were.

Ask anyone where we needed to strengthen back in 13/14 and I doubt people would say the attack. Mata was a vanity signing.

Less said about Fellaini the better.
Moyes coming into an ageing squad, and signing Mata and Fellaini to play in a 4-4-2 was really a massive, massive setback.
 

clarkydaz

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Agreed.

But signing Mata when we had other pressing issues in the team showed how clueless Moyes and Woodward were.

Ask anyone where we needed to strengthen back in 13/14 and I doubt people would say the attack. Mata was a vanity signing.

Less said about Fellaini the better.
We didn't even need Mata, already had kagawa being played out on the right out of position. Then done exactly the same with Mata
 

SungSam7

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Although depressing to know we missed out on him, I'm sort of relieved! A player of that talent and a guy who seems to show a lot of respect to other deserved a great career. Wasting years with LVG and JM would have been a crime.
 

sullydnl

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Easy to blame LVG but (I think I'm right in saying) we had a similar situation where Moyes took over and had to run rule over signings we had lined up and we ended up missing out?

The lesson is in having a DOF set-up and hiring managers who can work with similar players, I think.
 

Deery

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Toni Kroos eh, that’s the type of player we deserve travesty it didn’t happen..
 

VanDeBank

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We got matey Bastian and blind instead just as Moyes brought matey fellaini and Mou brought matey Matic. That what happens when you give full control to the manager.
Giving LVG carte blanche was the biggest mistake this club made post SAF.

What'd he buy Rojo off? Him analyzing Argentina during the WC!? Incredible that was allowed and that there are top managers out there thinking they can scout multiple players in an afternoon.