Baines only seems like an option because he is a) English and b) SAF has overlooked Evra decline for far too long c) Fabio is injury prone d) the misplaced hope Fabio will develop into a world class defender.
I'm behind you 100%.
It's almost the same as Oshea playing right back. Defending like a lefty at right back, Fabio defends like a righty at left back.
Evans isn't great at LB. He can fill in there for a few game or so, and started his NI career there, but if for example Evra picked up any kind of long(ish) term injury we'd be in trouble.
Exactly. This is the issue for me. They are decent players who often impress in the Premier League. Put them into a high pressure top end Champions League match and they are out of their depth. They can't influence those games as they do in England, the standard is so much higher. Hell Young struggled to impose himself on Basel and Benfica never mind the elite teams.
Yep.
That is a worrying thought. I actually believe that United need a lot more ambition in the transfer market simply to win the league back. City are only going to improve, Chelsea are rejuvenated from last seasons sucesses. This club needs more great players, or players who will develop into great players. Baines as you say..is neither of these and never will be. A completely irrelevant buy like Young.
Baines had been linked with Bayern for a few years. I agree with the bit in bold. Young hasn't been as bad a signing as some have made it out to be and some seemingly want us to sign a left back in their early 20's. We've already got a player who can do that. Baines isn't 28 as some have repeatedly said. He's 27 which is young enough but not too young that it completely blocks Fabio's route to the first team.
Indeed. Buying potential stars is all well and good but there comes a time when you need to buy proven players that that address current problems, and left back is a bit of a problem right now. What use would signing another talented youngster be?
He'd make your defense better.
I agree that buying players simply for the Premier League is a touch outlandish. I'm not sure that was exactly what he was trying to say. Of course they are good enough "to play" in Champions League. It's more that they are players who won't win us a Champions League.
Not a big fan of getting him here myself but thats just a ridiclous post pete.
To be perfectly honest the type of player he is referring to wouldn't be in a fully fit team in the crunch Premier League matches, so I agree with him in that respect. The likes of Young, Berbatov, Park and even arguably Giggs nowadays are fine as good squad players who will get you crucial points against most Premier League opposition, but I certainly wouldn't trust them to consistently perform against the Premier league/European elite.
Baines is not really that proven though is he? He's never really played competitively in Europe and has never been part of a team challenging for trophies. In terms of Premier League experience fair enough, but in terms of crunch, must win games Fabio has just as much experience.
Indeed, we've never done this before. We've never signed good but not great/top players from midtable PL clubs, or signed experienced PL pros as a short-term fix to give us a bit more time to find the right replacement for one of our most influential players. And it's definitely never helped us be successful in the Champions League.
He's PL proven. That's usually enough for SAF. Carrick, Valencia, Young etc
Slightly disingenuous... Yorke was Villa's best player over the last 20 years. It was obvious to anyone who watched him that he could make the step up to become a top player. We paid the money that was illustrative of his talents - £12.6m in 1998 was huge money.
Carrick and Valencia were bought when they were 23~, a different situation entirely in my opinion. Both had shown flashes of what they were capable of and given their age and talent it was obvious that both could significantly improve.
It's mental, isn't it? If he was Spanish they'd be creaming all over him.
Leightoni Bainisio?
Sounds Italian.
Exactly! I've come to a theory, that players who look like rats make the best fullbacks for United. Gary Neville is a prime example.
Fair enough... But I think most people would agree he was by no means the finished article, as if often the case with central midfielders in their early-mid twenties.
Not sure that's true... I don't see any threads or anyone creaming themselves about any of the mid table La Liga clubs' left fullbacks. I certainly wouldn't be if we were linked with, say Osasuna's LB (whoever that is).
Mostly because they don't need him when they have two quality leftbacks in Coentrao and Marcelo.
