James is not on £175k a week 
I reckon £50-75k.
I reckon £50-75k.Should we sell Dan James? - Leeds move confirmed
- Thread starter RiqCantona
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Id definitely keep him. Hes better than a lot on here think and hes on low wages. Theres a few forwards who might leave yet as well.
I understand what you are saying. I think considering Amad's young age, you have a strong point, but the problem is generally with the thinking that all our best players need to be starting every game. We will never win anything with that kind of thinking. Winning trophies takes squad depth, and not the kind of depth where your second choices are barely adequate, but the kind of depth were you pretty much have similarly great choices for the same position. That is how City is winning. It's not just Pep's "genius" as a coach and a manager.
It is also not a new phenomenon. Ole himself was an unbelievable attacker, both extremely talented and very hard-working, very effective. He was our backup attacker!!! And that's why we were winning everything because we had that kind of depth. Would you EVER compare Dan James to somebody like Ole?
I hate to say it, and I hope they are very successful elsewhere but the fact is: for us, long track record has shown hat players like Dan James and Jesse Lingard are simply not good enough. They are not the kind of super-subs that we need to win things.
Now, I can accept the argument of Amad being young and needing regular play time to develop, but for us to afford that luxury, we need somebody better than Dan James at home. That is the issue. If we don't have anybody else, then we may need Amad to stay just because we will need him during the season
I love James' attitude and his desire - but his skills are lacking. He hasn't been able to turn his blinding pace into a real threat. Amad, Pellistri, and now Sancho should be in the team ahead of him. James' minutes will be/should be drastically cut this season, so if he wants to play every week it's either loan him out or sell him. I think he's pretty much as good as he's going to get, so my vote would be do whichever option James is happiest with. If he wants a loan and wants to try and play his way back in - let him. If he wants to leave - let him. If he wants to stay and get almost no minutes - we'd be better off selling him.
He is pretty limited but... he has pace, work-rate, tackles back, and scores goals (although wasteful). These qualities make him a useful bench option because it can affect how other teams are set-up against United and could benefit the team as a whole. I wouldn't sell him.
He is at 50k/week
This was widely reported early last year after we gave him a new contract.
Not the right time yet unless he pushes for a move himself. Wait until one of Amad / Pellestri takes their chance.
There is a thread called why are we so poor at selling players. One of the points was that the fans and the club fall into situations where we don't sell when the stock of the likes of James is high. We keep him this season he sees the bench a lot and we sell for 15m whilst Liverpool will sell some academy lad for 20m.
Martial was bad last season but let's not act like the normal average martial isn't a step above James. Martial and Greenwood will be backups on the wings and for Cavani with Amad and Mata providing more cover. Chong, James, Jessie, Andreas should be let go then loan Elanga and Pellestri.
Martial was bad last season but let's not act like the normal average martial isn't a step above James. Martial and Greenwood will be backups on the wings and for Cavani with Amad and Mata providing more cover. Chong, James, Jessie, Andreas should be let go then loan Elanga and Pellestri.
How is will anyone else get a chance when they can't even get the squad place occupied by James?
I hope Ole finally changes that this year
Why did James get a run last season between February and April? He was ahead of Martial or Greenwood based on merit. Martial was terrible last season and Greenwood barely scored a goal until that great run towards the end. Not scoring any goals as a winger/striker for 70% of the season as a starter isn't acceptable.
None of the players we have is a super sub in the way that Ole was and we had many players for squad depth back in the day that weren't super subs, like Jordi Cruyff.
So why are we comparing Dan James to Ole and not Greenwood or Martial? James was clearly down in the pecking order but had to step in because they were stinking up the place. Dan James isn't supposed to be the first guy off the bench, like Ole was. Cavani had that role last season and next season it could be Greenwood or Martial.
James and Mata should realistically speaking be 3rd choice. There's absolutely no point for Amad to be 3rd choice, he could end up featuring as little as Donny Van De Beek last season.
We can all see the talent, but we don't even know if Amad is a better player than James, currently. We also thought Greenwood was clearly better than Dan James, but he ended up displacing him when his poor form lasted for half a season. If Amad is as talented as we think he is, he'll prove it on loan, not training with the first team waiting for 2 key players to get injured.
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Question: Is Dan James's squad place is based on merit?
Answer: Not according to stats:
| PL minutes | Goals | Assists | Total | Goals+Assists per 90 mins. |
Rashford | 2928 | 11 | 9 | 20 | 0.61 |
Elanga | 156 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.58 |
Amad | 167 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.54 |
Greenwood | 1826 | 7 | 2 | 9 | 0.44 |
Martial | 1488 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 0.42 |
James | 914 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0.39 |
That's a straw man. I wrote:
I'm clearly talking about the point in time when James displaced Greenwood, somewhere in February.
Greenwood had only scored one goal in the league up to that point. He had 4 goals across competitions up to that point, with one against Luton. He started quite a lot of games, only against strong opposition was he dropped for McTominay.
I have no clue how to look up how many goals per 90m he had up to that point (edit: probably less than 0.1 GA/90), but it's undeniable he was horribly unproductive and he would place lower than James in that table that point in time.
After James got into the line up, Greenwood and Martial started to compete for the spot up top. Martial doesn't play on the right, so there's no direct comparison to be made there. They also offer vastly different things, I don't think there's a point in arguing about a 0.03 goals per 90 difference between a hard working winger and a statue target man.
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That's up to Ole / Amad / Pellestri IMO. Ole has to give them chances and they have to prove they have the potential to make it here when they do get the chance.
I’d offer him to west ham plus jesse as a swap for rice….
Hectic was throwing his net to see how many he could capture. You're the first
Sancho
Greenwood
Amad
Pellestri
James
Mata
Dalot
Can all play on RW. I still don't understand why we extended Matas contract, don't get me wrong i love him but as a player he too slow and have no place in the team. Pellestri should get one more season in Spain, if we are not planning to use Amad on a regular basis then try to loan him to a team in PL or Bundesliga. Dalot should be back up for AWB and focus on his defending abilities, to develop them. Mata should, if we play him, only play in a central position. Sancho will course be our first pick, after him Greenwood (if we don't sell Martial and rotate Cavani and him for the ST position). James is a good option against weak teams in the cups or to throw in with 20-10 min left of the games.
Greenwood
Amad
Pellestri
James
Mata
Dalot
Can all play on RW. I still don't understand why we extended Matas contract, don't get me wrong i love him but as a player he too slow and have no place in the team. Pellestri should get one more season in Spain, if we are not planning to use Amad on a regular basis then try to loan him to a team in PL or Bundesliga. Dalot should be back up for AWB and focus on his defending abilities, to develop them. Mata should, if we play him, only play in a central position. Sancho will course be our first pick, after him Greenwood (if we don't sell Martial and rotate Cavani and him for the ST position). James is a good option against weak teams in the cups or to throw in with 20-10 min left of the games.
For the money we paid on his fees and his wages, he is very suitable for backup. However, we are not paying 73m on Sancho so he can share games with Daniel James, we paid the money so he can at least start 25+ league games. That means less game times for James. Big decision for James, he should leave if he wants more game times. Brighton and Leicester are linked with him this summer, both teams will be good move for his career.
I didn't think we would sell him tbh. But here we are! Right decision?
Selling him when he still has some value and perceived potential is unlike Utd, in a good way. Gives him a chance to make an impact elsewhere, opens up space for Diallo and Pellistri moving forward.
With the roster of forwards we now have, Martial is going to struggle to get into the starting lineup unless someone is hurt. I love Dan James, but there's no longer room for him and Leeds wanted him. This is a good deal for all involved.
And when we beat them 5-1 in the spring, I hope the goal is his.
And when we beat them 5-1 in the spring, I hope the goal is his.
Ultimately he's wasn't good enough for us. I wish him all the best at Leeds and hope he does well there, but it was a great deal getting that amount of money for him. Personally, he wouldn't be the first player I'd get rid of at United.
Time to lock this thread I guess..
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