Our Transfers: Falcao, Di Maria, Schweinsteiger, Sanchez

[shamans]

I am not including Pogba because he is young and time is on his side but have we been unlucky or have we been doing something wrong here?

The board has tried almost every season to get that marquee signing. You bet this summer we will be in talks regarding some big player again but maybe we need to invest in younger talent.

What is the deal here. I don't know myself really. If you told me in 2014 these players would be joining in the next 4 years I would have told you "leaders. Winners. Big game players. This is what we need". None of them have worked out.

How can we have any hope in signing quality when anyone we sign turns to shit.

P.S: I am not including other signings who just turned crap (or not as good as the used to be) over here: Mikhi, Schneiderlin, Shaw and can argue Mata (was unstoppable in Chelsea)

 

[FujiVice]

Moyes, Van Gaal, Mourinho.

That's your answer.

 

[Charles Miller]

Sanchez should not be already in that group.

 

[van Nistelrooy]

Falcao was a loan signing. Why do people forget this?

 

[shamans]

Sanchez should not be already in that group.

For the sake of argument I am assuming he is. Even if he performs next season the idea was that he would help us this season.

 

[friendlytramp]

You need to bring a marquee signing into a successful team with an established core.

Plus

Our marquee signings have all joined us reluctantly and/or in decline.

We need to rebuild properly rather than trying to fast track/cheat.

 

[AndyJ1985]

Not bad players, just bad management.

 

[Pexbo]

Falcao was a loan with high wages, if it paid off it could have been excellent.

Di Maria was a snake and the combination with LVG was toxic.

Schweinsteiger cost around £6m and was experience for an inexperienced squad.

Sanchez is on high wages but traded for a player not much his junior but very much his inferior.


It’s all well and good buying for the future but you do need experience too and buying 26/27 year olds of the quality/experience required is expensive.


But yeah the first three didn’t turn out to be great buys but to be honest lumping Sanchez in with them at this stage is provocative at best.

 

[VP89]

Why the feck is Sanchez in this list? Far far far too early to judge him yet.

Also Di Maria wasn't too old when he joined us. Falcao joined on a loan and Schweinstiger was what, 6m GBP on the transfer fee.

Outside Di Maria every single one of those players was worth a punt at the time.

 

[El Zoido]

For the sake of argument I am assuming he is. Even if he performs next season the idea was that he would help us this season.

But the league was already gone at that point.

 

[Hugh Jass]

You have to factor in there are six teams going for one spot. So five teams have to lose out. Thus if you come second or sixth, some posters automatically want half the team gone, on the assumption that buying fifteen new players will suddenly solve the problem. This is not like Germany or France or Italy. We dont have a monopoly on the league, thus we are not always going to come first, but that does not mean we are poor.

Granted, we still need a few MFs and full backs, depending on who stays/leaves.

 

[shamans]

But the league was already gone at that point.

Good performances would have counted and shortened the gap.

 

[el3mel]

Falcao was coming back from injury and Bastian was past it. We gambled on both and failed.

Di Maria is the shocking one. If Sanchez ended up failing he'll be close second but ADM was one of top 5 players in world when we got him and ended up being a sub for Ashley fecking Young. Apparently never wanted to be here from start and just joined because PSG couldn't handle his transfer sum at this time but it was still shocking.

 

[Rado_N]

Falcao was a loan and Di Maria could have worked out if LVG wasn't a massive feckwit.

Sanchez will be a good signing.

 

[M Bison]

Sanchez shouldn’t be anywhere near that list. We need to give him chance ffs, how can the fans be turning on him already?!

Falcao was off the back of a bad injury and Basti was a negligible cost. AdM was disappointing though, agree with that. Should have been just what we needed at the time.

 

[Rozay]

Becoming less convinced that the only way out of this period is to go full circle. My belief that any signings are going to win us major silverware lessens every year.

The best route is a class of 92 respawn with the likes of Chong, Gomes, O’Connor, Tuanzebe, TFM etc forming the core of a top side. That is years away, but still the best way I reckon we will finally have a team with an identity and cohesion.

 

[JPRouve]

Falcao was coming back from injury and Bastian was past it. We gambled on both and failed.

Di Maria is the shocking one. If Sanchez ended up failing he'll be close second but ADM was one of top 5 players in world when we got him and ended up being a sub for Ashley fecking Young. Apparently never wanted to be here from start and just joined because PSG couldn't handle his transfer sum at this time but it was still shocking.

He wasn't and it wasn't close.

 

[M Bison]

If we’re including Sanchez in the list (which is wrong), surely we should add Martial, big cost and has been hit and miss?

 

[Lentwood]

I don’t know it seems harsh to blame LvG, Jose and Ed Woodward with the benefit of hindsight as we were all buzzing when we signed those players.

I think a lesson we’ve hopefully learned is that we need functional players before flair players.

We’ve put the icing on the cake, but the cake is bang average! Stick two full backs and a world class CM in this team and I think you will see a different animal.

 

[M Bison]

He wasn't and it wasn't close.

He absolutely was. He was awesome that year for RM, was a strange decision to sell him.

 

[el3mel]

He wasn't and it wasn't close.

No he really was. He was a big reason and a key part in the Madrid side winning the CL just the season before.

 

[M Bison]

Becoming less convinced that the only way out of this period is to go full circle. My belief that any signings are going to win us major silverware lessens every year.

The best route is a class of 92 respawn with the likes of Chong, Gomes, O’Connor, Tuanzebe, TFM etc forming the core of a top side. That is years away, but still the best way I reckon we will finally have a team with an identity and cohesion.

Tend to agree, massive gamble and highly unlikely but would be interesting to see.

 

[Rhyme Animal]

Pogba has more reason to be in there than Sanchez.

Pogba's 25, and has been here for 2 seasons now.

Sanchez is showing all the mindset attributes that he should be. He wasn't in form at Arse before he came here, and has moved to a club that (I believe) needs freshening up from the top down. But even still, he's shown grit and determination to get things moving.

Whereas I'm starting to think that Pogba is incapable of that type of mindset.

 

[JPRouve]

He absolutely was. He was awesome that year for RM, was a strange decision to sell him.

No, he wasn't and he was only really good for half a season. At Madrid alone Marcelo, Ronaldo, Modric and Sergio Ramos were better, then you have Diego Costa, Godin and Koke playing exceptionnally well and winning La Liga and finally you have the usual suspects Messi, Iniesta, Robben, Lewandowski, Kroos and I'm forgetting others. Di Maria had a good season and we had high hopes but pretending that he was top 5 is either a mistake made then or now.

 

[FujiVice]

Funnily enough, Di Maria and Falcao (own goal, granted) both scored today for PSG.

 

[VP89]

Funnily enough, Di Maria and Falcao (own goal, granted) both scored today for PSG.

 

[Red_toad]

Sanchez should not be already in that group.

Yep fully agree. Stupidity to include him.

 

[M Bison]

No, he wasn't and he was only really good for half a season. At Madrid alone Marcelo, Ronaldo, Modric and Sergio Ramos were better, then you have Diego Costa, Godin and Koke playing exceptionnally well and winning La Liga and finally you have the usual suspects Messi, Iniesta, Robben, Lewandowski, Kroos and I'm forgetting others. Di Maria had a good season and we had high hopes but pretending that he was top 5 is either a mistake made then or now.

We’ll agree to disagree.

I was massively excited when he signed, he’d just got man of the match in the CL final (I think although could be wrong) and i thought his pace and direct style was just what we needed. If I’d had to name top 5 at the time, he’d have been in it.

 

[el3mel]

No, he wasn't and he was only really good for half a season. At Madrid alone Marcelo, Ronaldo, Modric and Sergio Ramos were better, then you have Diego Costa, Godin and Koke playing exceptionnally well and winning La Liga and finally you have the usual suspects Messi, Iniesta, Robben, Kroos and I'm forgetting others. Di Maria had a good season and we had high hopes but pretending that he was top 5 is either a mistake made then or now.

No he was, otherwise you probably have a short memory. Di Maria was mostly inconsistent in his Madrid years that I agree, but that was when he was played as a winger under Mourinho and Carlo, but when Carlo switched him to a 3rd midfielder with Modric and Alonso he became a world beater and had a big role in Madrid winning CL this season. Watch Bale goal again in CL final for example. Not many players in the world will do thing like this in a game of this caliper.

 

[manunited1919]

Ibra also fits the same mould, but I would say he wasn’t a flop at all. But I guess he isn’t in the list because he doesn’t fit the narrative?

 

[shamans]

If we’re including Sanchez in the list (which is wrong), surely we should add Martial, big cost and has been hit and miss?

Well I wanted to but Martial does have time on his side.

 

[shamans]

Ibra also fits the same mould, but I would say he wasn’t a flop at all. But I guess he isn’t in the list because he doesn’t fit the narrative?

I don't think we looked at Ibra as the guy who would change it all.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Sanchez shouldn’t be anywhere near that list. We need to give him chance ffs, how can the fans be turning on him already?!

Falcao was off the back of a bad injury and Basti was a negligible cost. AdM was disappointing though, agree with that. Should have been just what we needed at the time.

Because patience seems to be a trait football fans lack these days.

 

[JPRouve]

We’ll agree to disagree.

I was massively excited when he signed, he’d just got man of the match in the CL final (I think although could be wrong) and i thought his pace and direct style was just what we needed. If I’d had to name top 5 at the time, he’d have been in it.

And you would be badly wrong to put him in your Top 5, it's actually ludicrous. But you were right to be excited and it shouldn't make you badly overrate a player. By the way, Di Maria is a player that I like a lot and I was very optimistic when we bought him too.

 

[Revaulx]

But the league was already gone at that point.

The Champions League wasn't

I do have doubts about Sanchez, but they are over how he's going to fit into whatever attacking system we might have. Certainly not because of his attitude or his being past it.

 

[shamans]

Because patience seems to be a trait football fans lack these days.

Yeah because we need to be patient with poor Sanchez taking out his personal time to play for us on weekdays for the few quid we are throwing at him. It's been 13 games. I am not saying he will end up a flop but can you deny he has been crap for the past 13 games? Can you also deny we also thought he would be an instant hit?

 

[el3mel]

And you would be badly wrong to put him in your Top 5, it's actually ludicrous. But you were right to be excited and it shouldn't make you badly overrate a player. By the way, Di Maria is a player that I like a lot and I was very optimistic when we bought him too.

Not really.

Ronaldo
Messi
Modric
Di Maria
Robben

These were my top 5 in the world from this season, in no specific order btw.

Di Maria entered the world XI in this year as well.

 

[shamans]

And you would be badly wrong to put him in your Top 5, it's actually ludicrous. But you were right to be excited and it shouldn't make you badly overrate a player. By the way, Di Maria is a player that I like a lot and I was very optimistic when we bought him too.

It's safe to say putting Di Maria in your top 5 back in 2014 wasn't that outlandish. I didn't have any specific ranking but he was definitely there as one of the best in the world.

 

[manunited1919]

I don't think we looked at Ibra as the guy who would change it all.

Ibra was quite a success, he not only scored goals for us, but helped to bring about a change in mentality after the LVG years.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Yeah because we need to be patient with poor Sanchez taking out his personal time to play for us on weekdays for the few quid we are throwing at him. It's been 13 games. I am not saying he will end up a flop but can you deny he has been crap for the past 13 games? Can you also deny we also thought he would be an instant hit?

You have literally just proved my point.

He hasn’t been good overall for us yet I agree, but feck me he joined in the middle of a season where he was already playing poorly for Arsenal. No, I didn’t expect him to have an immediate effect, not after joining in January. I expect him to be far better next season after a proper pre-season and see how he goes. Vidic and Evra also joined in the January and turned out to be phenomenal for us. So the thing I mentioned, patience, certainly is required here before judging Sanchez.