Mail ~ JAAP STAM: Man United need to look at their recruitment after forking out £80m on Harry Maguire - Wes Brown was FAR quicker and better

Wednesday at Stoke

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Wes Brown was terribly injury prone for all but one season in the mid 00s. There is a reason why even Fergie went out and shelled big money on Ferdinand to anchor that defence. Maguire, although not the same caliber of defender as Rio was extremely reliable until this season.
 

#07

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Some say he's a Mourinho signing which is quite ironic considering that Mou left because he wasn't backed in the market. It seems that everyone has a finger in the pie these days (the CEO, Judge, Murtough, Fletcher, the manager and in the future Rangnick as well) which makes you wonder whether that's true or is it more of an attempt to distribute blame on as many people as possible thus keeping no one accountable for it. Whatever it is, United's transfer strategy is a mess. We usually go for obvious signings or players the manager can't be bothered playing, we tend to overspend and we're so damn slow (it might have taken us 2 summer transfer windows to sign Sancho and Maguire). Its baffling that we keep promoting people from within considering that they were either involved in this mess in the first place or are too inexperienced for the job.
Agree with everything you say. Especially the last part.

When Manchester City's owners decided they wanted to be the best club in the world, they looked at the then best club Barcelona and decided we're going to take their CEO, Sporting Director and Coach. One by one Soriano, Txiki and Pep landed at Wastelands. We've seen the results.

They always go for the best person for the job. Whereas we go for the person best suited to making sure the owners get their rent.

Even Murtough, who I hope succeeds, is learning on the job. Never been a Sporting Director before.

It crazy when you think about it. You'd never see Google put someone in charge of software development who had no IT background. You would never see Pfizer put someone in charge of drug development who had no pharmaceutical background. So why do you see Man Utd put people in charge of football without the required background? 'Best in class' to quote Red Nev.

Then we wonder how we've spent £1 billion since Fergie and done nothing. Garbage in, Garbage out. Its simple.
 

Cloud7

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I wonder if Ol Harry regrets coming to United? He’s made a lot of money, sure, but at the same time he’s been a massive target of criticism since his move, from the transfer fee to being deemed not good enough by some (I’m not here to debate his quality or not). In a lot of ways he’s become the symbol for our mismanagement of the last few years, similar to how Felliani was thought of as the symbol for the immediate post SAF era.

He probably wouldn’t have lost his England spot playing for Leicester. He hasn’t won anything since he came here. It’s really just the money, and I suppose the prestige for what that’s worth.
 

Smores

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I'm seeing a lot of praise for Brown and i rated him highly, this place at the time certainly did not!

He's another who like Carrick and more so Fletcher has become more universally liked after they leave. This place slagged them all off constantly during their united careers.

Probably a lesson there that current players are judged far harsher than they should be and will in time get a fairer assessment. Maguire won't be remembered for a bad season.
 

Chief123

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We've had other players who were fringe players or not regarded as our best at the time, but would still be better than Maguire. Ronny Johnsen, Henning Berg...

The truth is if we bought Maguire for £20m, he certainly wouldn't get the amount of game time and leeway he has got so far. His price tag just adds pressure to the whole club in trying to justify his purchase. Especially Ole who's signing it was. He probably felt it would just stoke the fire for criticism if he decided to bench him for a prolonged period of time.
 

Chief123

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Never forget Wes Brown’s performances at RB when we won the league and ECL double.
Brown bombing down the right wing in our treble season brings back good memories.

Some will even remember Chris Smalling marauding down the wing as a right back in his early days!
 

GifLord

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Wes Brown was so underrated.
Young Wes Brown was a disaster. The number of silly mistakes he made in the early 00s. Him, Barthez, Blanc and Silvestre were like watching the keystone cops at times.
 

devilish

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I'm seeing a lot of praise for Brown and i rated him highly, this place at the time certainly did not!

He's another who like Carrick and more so Fletcher has become more universally liked after they leave. This place slagged them all off constantly during their united careers.

Probably a lesson there that current players are judged far harsher than they should be and will in time get a fairer assessment. Maguire won't be remembered for a bad season.
The reality is that standards has slipped. Wes played at a time when we had Evra, Rio, Vidic and Gaz. We now have Luke '3 good months every half a decade' Shaw, Harry 1 'big mistake per game' Maguire and whatever player AWB is. Wes look like prime Moore on steroids near these guys.
 

Lee565

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I never quite under stood how he was worth buying at 80 million when during that same season gary Cahill who had all the physical capabilities that Maguire and was available on a free and whilst he may have been a short term solution with his age, he would have given us the much needed vocal leadership and organisation in defence and the money would have served us better in other areas of the pitch like an actual right winger or midfielder at that time and could have easily still kept smalling at the club. What makes it worse is that chelsea paid nothing for thiago silva who despite his age looks better in all areas if ability, leadership and organisation than the 80 million pound maguire and
 

GBBQ

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Maguire is a very good player having a bad season. Controversial I know.
Is he good enough to be Man United Club Captain and undroppable? Should we be building a team around him?

I don't blame him for the price tag, he shouldn't have to play like an 80 mil player because that's what Leicester demanded for him but I still don't think he gets near any of the top class CB pairings we've had since SAF took over, let alone be the captain.
 

horsechoker

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Are these stories becoming a bit boring?

It's essentially "ex-United players calls a spade a spade and says things used to be better"

Few of these stories actually create interesting talking points or propose solutions, and once you look past the headline they are often far less sensationalist.

I'm looking forward to

"Dwight Yorke says Rashford needs to stop shooting on sight"

"Nicky Butt reduced to tears by McTominay"

"David Beckham says United corners have driven him to drink"
 

Chairman Steve

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Jaap Stam DESTROYS Harry Maguire with FACTS and LOGIC! You WON’T believe who he said was better! This is a gamechanger and we’re excited about it!
 

Zen86

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We should've signed 08 Ronaldo as well. Far quicker and cheaper than this current version.
 

Glorio

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Was it our scouts though, or Ole's supposed obsession with creating a British core of players. Hence the Maguire and AWB signings.
Good point. At the time the cultural reset was supposedly largely about young british players. Another nostalgic Class-of-92 based piece of logic.
 

Gordon Godot

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Good point. At the time the cultural reset was supposedly largely about young british players. Another nostalgic Class-of-92 based piece of logic.
But he is also highlighting that our scouting is still crap, despite the promise of new scouts, more data, investigating players mentality blah blah blah. So all that effort and scuting 1000 right backs and came up with AWB. A player who cannot attack or cross. Just hot air and spin from Ed, who still refuses to install a DoF or create a proper football decision making process. Who decides on these transfers, who has the long term visions? Answer on teh first seems to be Ed, answer on the latter is noone. Even Ralf after the season is just a consultant. Why?
 

FrankDrebin

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If Wes didn’t have such an injury heavy career, he’d be talked about in the same company as Ferdinand, Vidic, Terry.
I liked Wes but ,when of form, those players listed were much more dominant and influential . Those players gave huge confidence in those infront of them. Wes never had that stature, that arrogance but he was a technically good all-rounder.

Personally I rate Wes alongside CB's like Cahill, who was so underrated outside of Chelsea, who just needed that leader alongside them.
 

Giggsy13

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Maguire is not a very good player. He and AWB were terrible purchases from Ole and expensive mistakes that are going to be difficult to repair. If you watched Leicester games closely then you’ll see that Evans played a large part in making Maguire look good. There is no getting around the fact that he’s one of our most disastrous signings in history on fee and expectations. Stam knows a good defender when he sees one because he was one of the best to play for the club.
 

#07

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Young Wes Brown was a disaster. The number of silly mistakes he made in the early 00s. Him, Barthez, Blanc and Silvestre were like watching the keystone cops at times.
Of that lot Brown was probably the best. Barthez was a calamity and, honest to God, my heart you used to start racing when I saw Silvestre's name on the team sheet.

For all that I'd still take Wes Brown over any of our current centre backs besides Rafa Varane. Even a young Wes was less error prone than Bailly, less likely to be bullied than Lindelof and more likely to recover a bad situation than Maguire.
 

norm87cro

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I loved Stam and he was a proper no nonsense CB along with Vidic that this club has has had in the last 25 years. But he is being a little hypocritical giving that 10 mil was an insane price for a CB when Fergie bought him and there were critics about his mobility too
 

devilish

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If Wes didn’t have such an injury heavy career, he’d be talked about in the same company as Ferdinand, Vidic, Terry.
I am too young to remember the first games of Baresi and Maldini. My old man says that despite being so young they looked as if they were 30 year olds playing. I witnessed that with Gianluigi Buffon who seemed so comfortable despite being 17 years old at the time. Wes Brown debut gave me such vibe. He was 18 or 19 at the time and SAF gave him his debut against Leeds. It couldn't have had a tougher game since Leeds hate our guts and they had a goal machine in Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. Wes completely annihilated the guy. It was so humiliating for him that he ended up seeing red.

Later on SAF would ridicule Rio's 18m signing to Leeds by claiming that Wes is worth more. I think that was a bit too much as Rio simply had the football genes to become a WC CB (he was tall, fast, he was a fantastic passer of the ball, he was a natural in handling pressure etc), as if he was born to do the job. All Rio had to do was to mature as a player. However I think that without the injuries Wes could have easily become better then both Terry and Vidic.
 

devilish

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I loved Stam and he was a proper no nonsense CB along with Vidic that this club has has had in the last 25 years. But he is being a little hypocritical giving that 10 mil was an insane price for a CB when Fergie bought him and there were critics about his mobility too
Do you remember Stam in his prime? Comparing Maguire to Stam is like comparing a Lada to a Bentley. I love Rio to bits but even he would struggle to go toe to toe against Stam. The Dutch man was the best defender Sir Alex had ever had
 

Kaos

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I loved Stam and he was a proper no nonsense CB along with Vidic that this club has has had in the last 25 years. But he is being a little hypocritical giving that 10 mil was an insane price for a CB when Fergie bought him and there were critics about his mobility too
The difference being was that Stam was a monster of a CB who Sir Alex himself belatedly admitted he regretted selling to Inter. Maguire isn't fit to lace his boots. Its not all about mobility.
 

FrankDrebin

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Wes was a good all round defender but, had it not been for injuries, he would've been better than Terry and Vidic ? come on now. This is scouse levels of delusion.

Anyway, I don't think injuries were the only issue Wes had at United. As I mentioned above, he sometimes lacked that arrogance and presence his teammate or rivals had ,which I think he himself admitted in a interview not long back.