Selling Fred was a mistake

[RedDevilCanuck]

We'd still be in Europe.

 

[Plant0x84]

Selling Fred was like selling Evans

We are going to sign him back on a free?

Fred isn't good enough to be a starter, and if that's what he wanted then fair enough. But if he was happy to be a squad player, then we downgraded with Amrabat.

We did that either way. He doesn’t have the energy or dynamism of Fred. Sofiyan is gassed after an hour!

 

[lex talionis]

One man is responsible for selling Fred and keeping McTominay and his name will go down in United infamy.

 

[Leftback99]

It's ridiculous how predictably bad so many of our transfer decisons have been. I could list so many that I wouldn't have made (and back it up with quotes on here) and I'm no expert whatsoever.

 

[Sgreddevil]

Fred was never the priority to be sold. He might not be regular first team but would be good backup when Casemiro is out. He is good with sniffing out opponent cut back which our current team somehow don't have the intelligence to anticipate that. Other teams knew this weakness and have been exploiting that continuously but out manager is stubborn to get that sorted in the players. Forest both goals were all simple cut backs and shoot attempts. It does not also help when we have an average GK that even has trouble saving basic shots. The 2nd goal would likely to be saved by a genuine world class GK. Even Forest GK might have saved that with his form yesterday.

 

[foolsgold]

Selling Fred wasn't a mistake, he was the type of layer we needed to move on from. Not purchasing players to have a functional midfield this seasons a mistake however.

 

[AbusementPark]

Wasnt good enough and selling was the correct thing, signing Mount and not a replacement for Fred was the clubs downfall.

 

[GledTheRed]

Was a dumb sale at a dumb price.

 

[Kostov]

Fred was garbage, and should have been sold 2 years ago.

 

[Yakuza_devils]

He almost sold Maguire too. That means we could be in much worse situation than now.

 

[grahamo]

Fred had to go. Pity a few others didn't go with him.

 

[SalfordRed18]

Cult of Fred lives on I see.

 

[Lee565]

Buying Antony 85 million and snubbing elanga/diallo last season and then selling elanga for like 20 million

Selling fred for 10 million and then buying mount for 60 million and 10 million for amrabat on loan.

Letting de gea go and then shelling out 45 million for butterfingers.

So much money down wasted that has actually made us worse and unlike in the past when a manager would inherit such flops, this is all on ten hag and I didn't even bring up hojlund transfer fee and him being injured half of the time and ten hag snubbing ronaldo as a starter and to think we all thought ronaldo was a big reason why we were struggling in attack and roll on 12 months and we are easily as bad without him supposedly stifling our attack

 

[JJ12]

Fred was garbage, and should have been sold 2 years ago.

He wasn't good enough like many others but he wasn't garbage by any stretch of the imagination

 

[RedRoach]

Not retaining Fred whilst not strengthening midfield is criminal. ETH should get the sack solely for our transfer activity as well as anyone who was complicit in it.

The signings of Mount, Antony, Amrabat and Onana have been nothing short of disastrous.

We are a demonstrably worse team than 2 years ago.

 

[Denis79]

Buying Antony 85 million and snubbing elanga/diallo last season and then selling elanga for like 20 million

Selling fred for 10 million and then buying mount for 60 million and 10 million for amrabat on loan.

Letting de gea go and then shelling out 45 million for butterfingers.

So much money down wasted that has actually made us worse and unlike in the past when a manager would inherit such flops, this is all on ten hag and I didn't even bring up hojlund transfer fee and him being injured half of the time and ten hag snubbing ronaldo as a starter and to think we all thought ronaldo was a big reason why we were struggling in attack and roll on 12 months and we are easily as bad without him supposedly stifling our attack

Our transfers have been absymal under ETH, they are so bad that you would almost think he's trying to sabotage the squad on purpose. In my opinion this the worst squad we've had since SAF retired.

 

[RedRoach]

He wasn't good enough like many others but he wasn't garbage by any stretch of the imagination

What we had in the 2nd half in midfield yesterday was garbage. Fred even with his obvious flaws would have been an improvement.

 

[mintyred]

Fred was like Psyduck in midfield. He was confused and he confused everyone else, and it actually made us more solid in midfield. He's a wildcard and when no one knows what a guy is going to do it's dangerous. All of our current midfielders are predictable bar Bruno in attack sometimes.

 

[Jig1234]

Yes, 100%

1. We got peanuts for him anyway. So it would have been better to keep him. letting him walk on a free.
2. We should have focused on selling Mctominay and getting a proper replacement for Casimiro and Eriksen who are a liability. Would planned for life without or beyond Casimiro, Eriksen and Mctominay.

We ended up selling Fred, out all the midfielders wasn't showing his age, or signs that he has lost his legs - Eriksen & Casemiro are finished/washed. Fred was still operating at a high/good level - Not saying his performaces were perfect but, never looked at Fred and thought he can't run or get about anymore. Eriksen & Casemiro were showing those signs last year. Weird that we were so keen to bin off Fred for hardly any money. When we had decent received offers for Mctominay.

Mainoo has been fantastic for us, I think we should use Hannibal more too. Eriksen Mctominay are not good enough midfielders. ETH needs to set-up without them, also Antony. Build his midfield around Mainoo, at least until the reason of the season, because I doubt he is getting money to spend after wasting so much on Mount and Antony.

 

[Paul778]

Yes, 100%

1. We got peanuts for him anyway. So it would have been better to keep him. letting him walk on a free.
2. We should have focused on selling Mctominay and getting a proper replacement for Casimiro and Eriksen who are a liability. Would planned for life without or beyond Casimiro, Eriksen and Mctominay.

We ended up selling Fred, out all the midfielders wasn't showing his age, or signs that he has lost his legs - Eriksen & Casemiro are finished/washed. Fred was still operating at a high/good level - Not saying his performaces were perfect but, never looked at Fred and thought he can't run or get about anymore. Eriksen & Casemiro were showing those signs last year. Weird that we were so keen to bin off Fred for hardly any money. When we had decent received offers for Mctominay.

Mainoo has been fantastic for us, I think we should use Hannibal more too. Eriksen Mctominay are not good enough midfielders. ETH needs to set-up without them, also Antony. Build his midfield around Mainoo, at least until the reason of the season, because I doubt he is getting money to spend after wasting so much on Mount and Antony.

Erikson has been a huge plus since he's been back. Having two midfielders available in the middle who are press resistant is massive.

I agree we need to phase him out and that he struggles with 90 mins and/or consecutive games but in a league with five subs a game he's a very useful option for us. There are far more glaring problems that Erikson right now - if we had a good settled defence capable of playing a high line and in form attackers who played as a team and generated threat the midfield would be far less of a problem.

Considering we are hardly the most actractive option for new players (when was the last time we improved a signing) it's going to be hard to tick all the boxes for an Erikson replacement without our usual stupidity of massively overpaying and risking being stuck with them.

 

[doughole]

I think its become clear to everyone that ETH is a tactical mastermind, but he is out of his depth when it comes to buying players for the premier league.

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

I think its become clear to everyone that ETH is a tactical mastermind, but he is out of his depth when it comes to buying players for the premier league.

Yes tactical mastermind who started his tenure with Mctominay and Eriksen in midfield, realized it didn’t work, panicked and bought Casemiro and then went back to McTominay and Eriksen when needing to win a game, two years later as if he had learned nothing after two years in the job.

 

[ayushreddevil9]

Yes tactical mastermind who started his tenure with Mctominay and Eriksen in midfield, realized it didn’t work, panicked and bought Casemiro and then went back to McTominay and Eriksen when needing to win a game, two years later as if he had learned nothing after two years in the job.

He will win a game with certain combination and then go back to the combination which didn't work for last 20 games hoping it works.

 

[ayushreddevil9]

Classic example of a player's reputation going up when we are doing shite without him.

 

[FerociousCorgis]

Wish we could not have these threads about old players. Just because we bought poor it seems doesn't make it wrong to get rid of players we know weren't good enough

 

[Litch]

Mistake or not, many on here were convinced he was the problem and couldnt wait for him to leave....hes left and nothing has changed.

Not sure why the thread is still going, maybe its a reminder that scapegoating or polarising the issues to individual players isnt it.

Onana is the new 'Fred'.....

 

[peridigm]

Classic example of a player's reputation going up when we are doing shite without him.

Give it time. He'll be back on a free in 5-6 years.

 

[Godfather]

There's no way I'd have kept McT over him

 

[DON’T PANIC ™]

Selling Fred was no mistake. Keeping McTom was a mistake.
Neither were ever good enough for Utd.

 

[VorZakone]

Wasn't his form at some point so good that he was compared to Kante?

 

[Sunny Jim]

Selling Fred was no mistake. Keeping McTom was a mistake.
Neither were ever good enough for Utd.

This, however if i had had to pick one to go in the summer i would have kept Fred.

 

[mikeyt]

Wasnt good enough and selling was the correct thing, signing Mount and not a replacement for Fred was the clubs downfall.

This is absolutely right, people thinking we should have kept Fred because we're shite, are off the mark. He was poor overall in his time here bar the odd couple games a season. Had we bought a competent replacement and someone who could have started games for us on a regular basis we'd all be pleased.

Selling Fred was the start, McT and Eriksen need replacing but the signing of Mount for that money when he'd have been free this summer should be a sackable offence on its own.

 

[doughole]

Yes tactical mastermind who started his tenure with Mctominay and Eriksen in midfield, realized it didn’t work, panicked and bought Casemiro

Exactly, as I said, purchasing isn't ETH's greatest strength. And remember, you can only use the players that you have, when a manager starts a new career at a club he has to use the hand he has been dealt

 

[roseguy64]

We sold Fred to keep the sack of shite named Scott McTominay... WHAT THE F.UCK?!

No, we didn't sell Fred just to keep McTominay. Just being abusive here.

Can this thread be closed so we don't have to see stuff like this?

 

[steve zizou]

I like it when people say - "Selling Fred wasn't a mistake. The mistake was not getting someone better to replace him". Isn't that the definition of a mistake then If the goal of player recruitment is to improve the team? Like saying I'm going to sell my sometimes unreliable car and in replacement... I'll buy the Sinclair C5.

 

[roseguy64]

Mistake or not, many on here were convinced he was the problem and couldnt wait for him to leave....hes left and nothing has changed.

Not sure why the thread is still going, maybe its a reminder that scapegoating or polarising the issues to individual players isnt it.

Onana is the new 'Fred'.....

Fred was never the actual detriment to us regularly challenging for trophies. Anyone saying that just disliked him and had an agenda.

 

[steve zizou]

Classic example of a player's reputation going up when we are doing shite without him.

Irony being the player is actually playing well without us. So maybe we were the problem.

 

[Sandikan]

Look forward to the threads on how selling Maguire, McTom, Amrabat, Dalot etc were a mistake next season.

 

[GL21]

Fred was never the actual detriment to us regularly challenging for trophies. Anyone saying that just disliked him and had an agenda.

I totally disliked him and had an agenda against him. at times he was the worst standard of footballer to ever be a regular for us. initially I couldn't believe how poor he was but gave that the whole 'he was 50M he'll come good belief ' and he had a likeable personality. but this started changing for me when the smiling fred was smiling from the countless times he lost possession, it actually got unbelievable. only possession stats he had were safe balls back to maguire etc. in the end I couldn't stand his constant hand up apologies every game or actually laughing at himself at times. he should never in this world have earned any money from united let alone the 16M or whatever it was. fans that have believed he was good enough have fallen terribly in their beliefs of what a utd midfielder standards are. So happy he's gone. and doing OK in Turkey doesn't make him Roy keane either

 

[holdsteady]

He was a player with 1 year left on his deal. We weren't going to sign him so a sale is totally fine. Anyone upset about this is bizarre. If we let him go on a free after this season you'd be whining about that too