An excellent defender who's bad on the ball. Good player to have. Least of our problems
Smalling signs new contract
- Thread starter RonaldoVII
- Start date
I do feel like the club, or certainly the social media is so tone deaf and out of touch with how fecked off and miserable the fans are. The twitter feed is so laughably everything is rosey in the garden isn't life great, can't stand it.
Well said
God, 4 years?
Not overly excited but one of our best defenders at moment, shows how bad the competition for starting places is. Good back up option and cover for injuries but not a starter when we sign some new centre-backs.
You seriously think he's a Championship defender?
He'd walk into every team outside of the top 6.
I think that as long as we can't get the world class defenders (Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, Godin, Varane, etc level), then its a good decision to extend Smalling contract. He is a great defender. Not many players would be an upgrade on him. He needs a proper partner though, a CB that will play a whole season. Him and Jones used to make a great partnership, but Jones has been quite unreliable as of late, and all the other guys are not really that good.
Deserves a new contract. He's been a great servant for the club. Still a useful player to have in the squad.
The best of a bad group of central defenders, he deserves to stay and at the least is good backup.
95% guarantee we won't sell jones, rojo, or bailly. Everyone's getting extensions, the supporters should get use to it. The club is an investment to make money, not win trophies. Cheaper to extend, than to buy.
Four years is it?, fecking hell. He should be kept for a couple of years maximum while we sell jones etc and get more quality in.
of course, its 4 year deal with a player option for 1 more for a 29 year old cb. Its a terrible contract, just as bad as Rooney's before his decline. He's going to be 34 when the contract expires, most cb decline sharply after 30.
Its the same kind of feeling that you get when your new bank card arrives in the post.
Think it's a good decision overall.
Yeah, he'll be tough to shift. I assume it was to secure the clubs investment so he can't leave for nothing, as even his squad number has been demoted. No idea who would want him though, since he's rarely fit and when he is he's total nutter.
He won't be a backup.
Not good enough, but gets a 4 year contract. Miles behind the expectations most fans had when he started his career here. But then again, top 4 fight is what we aspire to every season
He’s our most reliable centre back by quite some distance.
That is not to say he shouldn’t be replaced as soon as possible, but he could be an okay back up
That is not to say he shouldn’t be replaced as soon as possible, but he could be an okay back up
I'll admit to being a bit glib but I honestly don't think he'd look out of place in the Championship.
Whenever I hear a supporter lump these 2 together I know instantly that he can't analyse football. It's a handy screening mechanism in some ways.
Smalling has been our best defender for at least 3 years and has become almost a meme for crap defending with some supporters while others such as Rojo have been genuinely terrible/injured and seem to get a free pass. It's a weird situation.
It's a three year contract with an option (unknown whether it's a club option, player option, or both have to agree) of a further year. He'll be 32 when the original contract ends, 33 if the extra year is taken.
If anyone has a noose, I need a lend of it. Thanks
No problems with this really. Wish he was more comfortable on the ball but he's a solid defender (perhaps the only one we have) and would make a good squad choice if we improved on our centre back options.
....hope this isn't the kiss of death for tomorrow's game if he's fit
....hope this isn't the kiss of death for tomorrow's game if he's fit
You should apply to be chief scout at the club. You will 100% get it and I'm not even joking
The problem is that he isn't actually fit but he's likely going to play anyway since all the others are once again struggling with injury and form. It was fine against Arsenal and Fulham, but sooner or later our opposition are going to be able to take advantage of it and he'll take the blame. People are still talking about the match against Chelsea two years ago where he played with a broken toe and had his worst ever match.....hope this isn't the kiss of death for tomorrow's game if he's fit
I don’t understand you all who think Smalling is the best of our center backs. Bailly is undoubtedly a lot better than him in my opinion, and Lindelöf has been our best center back this season hasn’t he?
Would people have a problem with him
Being 3rd choice CB? We sign a CB almost every summer since Fergie and he starts the season not favoured to always being recalled into the team. No issues with this renewal. Don’t you dare give Jones one!
Being 3rd choice CB? We sign a CB almost every summer since Fergie and he starts the season not favoured to always being recalled into the team. No issues with this renewal. Don’t you dare give Jones one!
Smalling is a decent #3 CB but no more. You need a WC guy to play alongside Lindelof who can be a fine player in time.
He should be an emergency CB, someone you throw in when everyone is injured or you want to defend a narrow lead against good opposition in the final minutes. The others arent great, but giving a 4 year contract to someone who also isnt good enough to be a starter, is something United do in 2018. Usually CBs can peak a tad later, but Smalling only will go downhill, as his football brain and technique isnt on the level you would expect. Once his athleticism goes down, he will be as useless as an injured Jones, or just leave the injured out.
Yes, and calamity Jones is good enough for England. Only England fans care about our players turning up for them. United first.
How is Bailly better? He's ridiculously inconsistent, makes far more mistakes, and in his entire time that he's been here he's had a grand total of two good periods. The first was his first few months where he was our best, and the second was for about a month later in that same season (and Rojo was better than him at the time). Outside of those two periods, he's had as many terrible matches as he has good ones. There is a huge difference between being potentially our best (which he is) and actually being our best. Otherwise we'd be talking about David Luiz being one of the best defenders in the world, and he's far better than Bailly.
As for Lindelof, he was better for three matches. Otherwise Smalling has easily been better.
What utter nonsense. What you mean to say is "I do not care about England".
If it’s just to play a squad role then fine, I am not bothered. I think we all know he has signed on to be a first choice centreback. It’s disgraceful, he’s a bench option at best, someone we should bring on to defend a lead.
The new modern defenders don’t play like smalling, with him as first choice we will never challenge for major honours.
Half our squad should be phased out like we used to do under fergie. But oh no not in our case anymore we give new contracts out left right and fecking centre. We are a shambles of club atm
The new modern defenders don’t play like smalling, with him as first choice we will never challenge for major honours.
Half our squad should be phased out like we used to do under fergie. But oh no not in our case anymore we give new contracts out left right and fecking centre. We are a shambles of club atm
Reliable squad player
Yes, myself and many others who are not fans/followers/supporters of England, one of many who couldn't care less if United players get called up to play for the so called three lions.
Well Calamity Jones is good enough for England.......
Everyone who is saying they don’t have a problem with it, wait until next season you will be in for fecking shock (or not) when he is first choice centre back and we are at in 6 position again
Tell us how you really feel.
Every decision the club is making right now seems to be the wrong one. Smalling is not our worst CB but that’s no major achievement. The bottom line is we’re handing out new contracts like they mean absolutely nothing. These players are serial losers, and it’s being rewarded.
Shambles.
Shambles.
He's not bad, very good at heading the ball. Unfortunately the other clowns like Jones just make him look far worse, he gets so much stick on here for nothing.
Thing is it may seem sensible now, but sign a top centre back in January (I'm taking it for granted that we will) then if we want to sign another in the summer (we should) Chris Smalling sitting on a 4 year contract with his big wages starts to look a problem.