I would just be hyped to have a Jamaican at Manchester United. Yes I am biased.
Leon Bailey
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If he fails you will be haunted forever, just like Depay's agent, Nlmax.
I arrived to work in Nigeria 2004, a year before the Jon Mikel Obi fiasco...
Then again, we made 12 Million Pounds without him kicking a ball
Then again, we made 12 Million Pounds without him kicking a ball
If there's something we really don't need, then it's another young winger that showed his class in one of the lowest leagues in Europe. With Martial, and Memphis that spot is covered, and he really isn't as good as both of them.
Any relation?
Where is that guy anyway?
... An orthodox winger with real pace is actually what we need. Memphis is shite, and will be booted. Bailey actually has pace, and a lot of it. His better games this season have actually come in the Europa League, against teams like Sassuolo and Bilbao.
i cant get excited with signings like this anymore. Even under SAF it wasnt all that high but now after the last 3 years, the signings i have actually wanted (schneiderlin, mkhitariyan schweini di maria, falcao) have actually been disappointing and signings i was 'meh' about like Blind Martial and Bailly have been very good.
I trust Jose in transfers though.
I trust Jose in transfers though.
Sign him and loan him back
We should sign him and loan him to a PL club next season, Newcastle for example. A year under the FSW will do him good.
Martial has pace, and isn't going to be moved to strikers position anytime soon (Zlatan just said he will stay another year, and then there's still Rooney, and Rashford who Mourinho prefers as strikers). I just don't see any reason for him to join our ranks, I would prefer someone more solid, that has already shown that he's able to perform at the highest level
There isn't really any established wingers out there that won't cost the earth or aren't washed up.
Just because he's young doesn't mean he won't be good. We need somebody who's fast on the right wing, neither Martial/Rashford/Memphis are effective on the right side, that's why Mata keeps being played there although he's a better 10.
But sometimes that doesn't work out too - look at Mickey
Never seen him play, but judging by the comments, he sounds like someone who is focused on progressing as a player, rather than looking for fame/money.
You've already given up on mhicky? I still think he can come good, he barely played for us...
Got another assist for Genk tonight against Wien.
Although the assist was a header which he hit the post with, his teammate scored the rebound.Tweet
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He and Genk are only playing well in the EL? How come Genk are so average in their league
The league altogether has been a right mess for the big Belgium teams this season, pretty much all of them (Anderlecht, Brugge, Genk, Gent and Liege) have all been wildly inconsistent this year. The two top teams are Zulte Waregem and Oostende at the moment, who are both respectable teams, but not the biggest/best by any means. It's been a really awkward season in the Belgium league so far.
It should even itself out soon enough though.As for Genk in particular, the last few years have been a been of a term of wilderness for them. They're very reliant on their youth academy and scout system on younger players (which both produce a lot: see Courtois, KDB, Benteke, Koulibaly etc...) but skimp on qualified first team signings.
Anderlecht and Genk are both top of their groups in the Europa so far though, so yeah, it does seem like both sides are playing better there.
Not at all. Just trying to counter the argument that we always need to sign "galacticos"
Ronaldo was unheard of. Look how he turned out. Yes for every Christiano there are five times or more "punts" that fail. But this kid seems worth a try
Ronaldo wasn't unheard of,as such, we just moved quicker as there were clubs sniffing around
That's true, and I don't think we should always buy "galacticos", I'm very pro getting young guys in the team, but not too many. I actually think we've got enough talent at the moment with Bailly, TFM, Pogba, Memphis, Martial, Rashford, and our loaned out players Januzaj, and Pereira. With Memphis, Martial, Januzaj, and sometimes Rashford I'm not sure we need another young winger. Maybe first sell others than instead of putting them on the bench. I'm all for selling Memphis if he isn't going to get playtime.
Januzaj? Januzaj, Now there's a name I've not heard in a long, long time. A long time.
That's far from the truth. In Italy Ronaldo was closely followed by at least 2 clubs which were Juventus and Parma (at the time Sacchi was a director). The latter went bust and the former thought it would be stupid to spend £12m on a young talent who used to dribble his way to the corner flag without producing anything tangible.
We didn't 'discover' Ronaldo. We were the only once ready to match the price his club wanted for him
Er, am I missing something Devlish..that's pretty much what I was alluding to in my original satement
I haven't seen the n't in wasn't and got pissed off by that claim and stopped reading the rest. Sorry
No probs. Just finding the belief that Ronaldo crawled out of some desert rock and we were there to 'discover,' him somewhat laughable
Liverpool for one were very interested in signing him.
TBF I do remember the Italian media going in great lengths in ridiculing us for spending 12m on him. Which is kind of rare, considering that SAF is highly respected in Italy and protected by the likes of Lippi whose also a big friend of his.
They thought that it was ridiculous that United spent 12m on someone who could only dribble and had no football brian at all. Italian football was already in decline and that money was enough to buy a top quality/estabilished talent, not some kid.
In time they revisited their opinion and criticized the Italian estabilishment (including themselves) for being too much of a coward and less open of taking risks. Too many young talent had been casted away with barely any chance of showing what they could do. Vieira, Bergkamp and Henry were among those mentioned.
Wasn't he meant to go to Real initially?
Exactly, it was after he tore our defenders a new one in a friendly that Giggs et al urged SAF to nab him quick or risk losing him
Wenger initially turned him down apparently
Heard that one too. The most concrete one I've seen is that Real wanted him to stay at Sporting for a couple of years then make the move. We just jumped in with too much money at the time (9m up front + 3m in bonuses), and they actually tried to match that but SAF sold us to him already.
Doesn't get more concrete than this
That's the best part of the story
Even Arsenal.
The issue with Ronaldo was the fee. Sporting Lisbon wanted 12m flat. No one was willing to give them that amount of money. They were keen in adding performances clauses but that was it.
TBF it was quite a leap of faith from our part. Many Portuguese players have moved to the continent and had failed miserable. I remember that at one time Quaresma was considered a safer bet then Ronaldo and we all know how that ended
In lots of shite tattoos and haircuts.
Many Portuguese players who were 2-3 years older then Ronaldo had failed to make an impact. Postiga, Viana and Quaresma to name a few. Ronaldo was followed by Nani, Bebe and Anderson who hardly left a good impression for us either. Portuguese talent tend to go to extremes. They are either great (Figo, Ronaldo, Carvalho, Deco ) or meah bordering to the crap.
I though Nani was a good player TBH.
I feel sorry for Nani TBH. He had to live in Ronaldo’s shadows, whom he tried to emulate both in terms of the good things (ie dribbling, unpredictability and creativity) and in the bad things (lack of backtracking) and that ruined him. He simply didn’t had the explosive talent to force SAF to build the team around him as he did with Ronaldo (tbf Ronaldo was the third and last player SAF built a team around, the other two being Cantona and RVN with the latter being a forced decision rather then a matter of choice).
In my opinion, Nani should have tried to emulate Giggs instead. Similarly to the Welsh wizard, Nani was more of a traditional winger, ie he had great technique, a good cross and on his day he was unstoppable. However similarly to Giggs he had to backtrack and work hard for the team like the rest.
Whatever the case, he has had a fantastic career with us and now Portugal, wore the captain armband in his countries first ever victory in a major tournament.