Sofyan Amrabat | signs for United on loan

[Pexbo]

So what do they want him signed for then? To replace Cas? It's clear ETH wants two 8s so Caceido would need to be the replacement for Cas.

Caceido is a perfectly capable 8. This is like when people described Kante as a holding midfielder.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Cracking signing for the 20 million mentioned.

 

[kidbob]

While you are right in every word, I can understand fans feeling it is an underwhelming signing. They compare him to Mac Allister, Rice, Kovacic and Caicedo who our rivals bring in. (Most see Mount as more attacking and put him up against Havertz, Szobo). Amrabat is older than all of them bar Kovacic and have done very little at a high level.

Will he improve Man Utd? Probably! Is he a «shrewd signing»? I am sure he is! Will he make our midfield competitive against Arsenal, Liverpool and City?

Kovacic won't matter too much as City can't get that much better anyway and they lose those annoying Gundogan goals. Also we beat them last season and put it well up to them in the CL final. McAllister, we'll see how he does, but I don't see some exceptional player in there like I do with Enzo. Rice is completely overpriced and worse than Cas so we don't really need him. I have a simple way of looking at Amrabat - is he better than McTominay? For me he is and that's enough. It's the same with Mount who is better than Fred and current Eriksen. Posters always seem to act like we have endless funds but we don't. For me if we sign Amrabat and Mount then I see us building our midfield squad with better players but I ultimately see ETH wanting better starting players when the money is available. This was always going to take at least 3 years (like Arsenal have under Arteta) so a bit of perspective is needed. If signing Caicedo meant no striker then Redcafe would still be up in arms.

Ulrimately Mount and Amrabat will likely hugely stengthen our midfield and still allow us to get a striker and goalkeeper. Which for me is the best we can do with the funds available to us right now. People are living in cuckoo land thinking we can spend 100m on every position and bring in Kane, Caicedo and more apparently. I'd love if we could but realistically we are 2 years away from challenging because ETH has to sort out the mess of the last 10 years.

As for Arsenal and Pool I don't know if our midfield will stand up to theirs but then they don't either as they are changing theirs and we have another preseason under ETH. Remember the likes of Xhaka and Partey were a joke until last season. It took 3 years under Arteta for them to show what they did so who knows what our players might show next season.

 

[Cassidy]

While you are right in every word, I can understand fans feeling it is an underwhelming signing. They compare him to Mac Allister, Rice, Kovacic and Caicedo who our rivals bring in. (Most see Mount as more attacking and put him up against Havertz, Szobo). Amrabat is older than all of them bar Kovacic and have done very little at a high level.

Will he improve Man Utd? Probably! Is he a «shrewd signing»? I am sure he is! Will he make our midfield competitive against Arsenal, Liverpool and City?

He is being brought in to improve the squad not the 11, Mount Bruno and Casemiro are competitive against those and Amrabat is good cover

 

[kidbob]

Caceido is a perfectly capable 8. This is like when people described Kante as a holding midfielder.

Don't get me wrong he's clearly a very good player but none of what I've suggests he gives you enough offensively to be a reliable 8. However lets's say he is. Signing him for the reported prices gives us 30-40 million less to play with than signing Mount (who contrary to the opinion of so many of this board is a very good player). Suddenly we can't buy either a striker or a goalkeeper. So if we keep DDG fans lose their mind, if we don't sign a striker fans lose their mind. We have to operate in a budget because of the money wasted in the last 10 years. So fans can either bury their heads and want Caicedo and Kane and Costa or they can realise, that within our budget, signing Mount and Ambrabat is better than signing Caicedo. Especially if we can still get a keeper and striker.

I think ETH ultimately wants a FDJ type anyway for his 6 so what we are doing this season is improving the squad as best we can with the money we have. I expect Mount to be a squad player in 2 years time, as Amrabat will be and we will see 'big' signings for midfield when we identify the perfect player and have finds available.

 

[londonredmaniac]

He is being brought in to improve the squad not the 11, Mount Bruno and Casemiro are competitive against those and Amrabat is good cover

Sounds a decent depth signing. No issues there.

I hope you're right about Mount/Bruno/Casemiro in terms of competing.

Honestly struggling to see us competing with City/Arsenal. Hopefully I'm wrong.

 

[Devil You Know]

A few reports we have agreed personal terms with him.

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Their source is The Nazi One?

 

[Devil You Know]

Sounds a decent depth signing. No issues there.

I hope you're right about Mount/Bruno/Casemiro in terms of competing.

Honestly struggling to see us competing with City/Arsenal. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Arsenal came from out of nowhere last season. The jump they made then is smaller than the jump we'd need to make now.

 

[Blood Mage]

Casemiro, Amrabat, Mount and Bruno would be the most solid midfield we've had in ages.

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[Cassidy]

Sounds a decent depth signing. No issues there.

I hope you're right about Mount/Bruno/Casemiro in terms of competing.

Honestly struggling to see us competing with City/Arsenal. Hopefully I'm wrong.

We did already last season, the midfield wasn't really the issue there apart from Eriksens legs (fixed by Mount)

 

[Oranges038]

He looked good at the world cup. What struck me the most about him was him constant talking, controlling and organising those around him.

Could be a solid enough addition as cover for Casemiro.

 

[UnitedSofa]

He’s not good enough but the story is obvious BS.

The CAF has a very loose use of the term: "Obviously"

Based on Italian news outlets form this past month, that means it absolutely won’t happen and he’ll be going somewhere else.

May as well be sourced by Mario Spaghetti of the Pizza Times.

I hope it’s true because that would say to me that we have more transfer funds than we’re letting on.

Very much doubt that.

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[Ayoba]

Good player, impressed me a lot more than Rice in the conference league final

 

[Betson]

Good in the WC and good in the conference league final , but would not have seen enough of him for Fiorentina to judge if he has any consistency to play for a club like Utd

 

[daba]

Club would be better of looking at Lavia. Unless he's considerably cheaper.

Bizarre that we’d go for Amrabat over Lavia. Truly bizarre.

 

[SAFMUTD]

Club would be better of looking at Lavia. Unless he's considerably cheaper.

According to reports Southampton wants 50M for Lavia while Amrabat would cost between 20-25M.

Given the choice I don't think anyone would choose Amrabat ahead of Lavia but we're on a tight budget. We still need a new GK and more importantly a striker.

 

[daba]

He is being brought in to improve the squad not the 11, Mount Bruno and Casemiro are competitive against those and Amrabat is good cover

Shouldn’t be spending funds on 26 year old rotational options, period. This has been our mistake for years when it’s come to squad building and why we’re left with a load of regressing deadwood players on high wages that we can’t shift for even 25% of the initial transfer value.

This money should be spent on a young player who is happy to be more of a rotational player at a top team in Europe. Like Lavia or Varela from Boca Juniors. Casemiro is on the wrong side of 30 so there is a clear pathway for that young type of player to takeover and firm down a starting place within 2 years, so it shouldn’t be a hard sell.

If we buy Amrabat, he’ll be on higher wages, won’t get much game time, we’ll say he’s dead wood in two years time, no club he’s actually good enough to be a week in week our starter for will be able to afford those wages, we’ll loan him out for the remaining 2 years of his contract paying half those wages and he’ll leave for free. We’ll then need to splash £100m on the next DM alongside other priorities no doubt.

Same old.

 

[Cassidy]

Shouldn’t be spending funds on 26 year old rotational options, period. This has been our mistake for years when it’s come to squad building and why we’re left with a load of regressing deadwood players on high wages that we can’t shift for even 25% of the initial transfer value.

This money should be spent on a young player who is happy to be more of a rotational player at a top team in Europe. Like Lavia or Varela from Boca Juniors. Casemiro is on the wrong side of 30 so there is a clear pathway for that young type of player to takeover and firm down a starting place within 2 years, so it shouldn’t be a hard sell.

If we buy Amrabat, he’ll be on higher wages, won’t get much game time, we’ll say he’s dead wood in two years time, no club he’s actually good enough to be a week in week our starter for will be able to afford those wages, we’ll loan him out for the remaining 2 years of his contract paying half those wages and he’ll leave for free. We’ll then need to splash £100m on the next DM alongside other priorities no doubt.

Same old.

What planet are you on? We don't need to give him high wages either

 

[daba]

What planet are you on? We don't need to give him high wages either

Planet Earth my friend.

Given age profile and role in the squad. I can guarantee you he’ll be on minimum £120k a week, same as players like Fred and Donny. Lavia or Varela would likely be around 80k, with far greater sell-on potential.

 

[Alfie092]

Amrabat, Mount, Hojlund & Onana is a pretty solid 7 out of 10 window if you ask me.

 

[bringbackbebe]

Anyone who believes the signing of Amrabat will mean sacrificing on striker and goal keeping options is a village idiot who shouldn't be watching football. Him and Mount will be replacing McFred who will both most likely be sold this window.

 

[Red Royal]

This kind of signing at the figures being reported are where we need to shop for the foreseeable future. Will take a few windows to get to FDJ type signings I would definitely welcome Amrabat at United.

 

[FrankWhite]

Anyone who believes the signing of Amrabat will mean sacrificing on striker and goal keeping options is a village idiot who shouldn't be watching football.

Exactly, everybody and there mother knows those are the two high priority positions. There is no world where we don't sign at least one of each. Not seen much of Amrabat myself but what I do know us we need better cover than Mctominay for Casemiro.

 

[FootyGirl88]

Are the links to him genuine?

 

[Licha-Vidic]

Amrabat, Mount, Hojlund & Onana is a pretty solid 7 out of 10 window if you ask me.

With this, if City doesn't run away with the title for sure we can win it. This can potentially be a massive massive recruitment. Hopefully it happens the 4 of them.

 

[Bertie Wooster]

Amrabat, Mount, Hojlund & Onana is a pretty solid 7 out of 10 window if you ask me.

Yeah, given the takeover and FFP issues then I would be very happy if we did manage to complete all those deals.

In a normal summer, I'd have probably hoped for at least one of those to be a more 'elite' level addition. But with all the other factors going on, then we'd do very well if we do manage to bring in 4 solid additions like that and get out of it with it being, as you say, a 7 out of 10 window.

 

[Zed 101]

Shouldn’t be spending funds on 26 year old rotational options, period. This has been our mistake for years when it’s come to squad building and why we’re left with a load of regressing deadwood players on high wages that we can’t shift for even 25% of the initial transfer value.

This money should be spent on a young player who is happy to be more of a rotational player at a top team in Europe. Like Lavia or Varela from Boca Juniors. Casemiro is on the wrong side of 30 so there is a clear pathway for that young type of player to takeover and firm down a starting place within 2 years, so it shouldn’t be a hard sell.

If we buy Amrabat, he’ll be on higher wages, won’t get much game time, we’ll say he’s dead wood in two years time, no club he’s actually good enough to be a week in week our starter for will be able to afford those wages, we’ll loan him out for the remaining 2 years of his contract paying half those wages and he’ll leave for free. We’ll then need to splash £100m on the next DM alongside other priorities no doubt.

Same old.

If we play another 60+ game season, in theory (hopefully) without Fred, VDB,and McT then we will need Mount + another (add in Amad if he stays), when Casemiro gets suspended next season as he obviously will, then who do we have right now to provide cover... it undid us last season, likewise the period Eriksen was injured, Mount gives us a great option but we need more than just Mount, depending on price Amrabat is a clear upgrade in CDM on anyone we have barring Casemiro.

Last season what really shafted us was the lack of quality on the bench, if you took our best 11 of last season and swapped out DeGea as he seems to be off, Rashford up front, and Mount either left, cm or right for Garnacho, Eriksen or Antony, then our 1st 11 is pretty damn good, not City good but easily top 4....

Then look at our bench Sancho, Martial, Lindelof, Fred, McT, VDB, Maguire.... Pellistri .... I mean I am happy for Pellistri to be there he at least has potential... but as for the rest, they are ok if we are giving players a rest, playing league cup or against weak opposition but otherwise offer no threat or something different coming off the bench, if we are serious about competing we need a much better bench for rotation and for making in game tactical changes.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

Fairly interesting thing to note (and most probably been pointed out previously). ETH gave Amrabat his debut at Utrecht.

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He had hair????

 

[VP89]

Are the links to him genuine?

Not even remotely.

 

[UTD_Since_1978]

Amrabat, Mount, Hojlund & Onana is a pretty solid 7 out of 10 window if you ask me.

I'd give that 3 out of 10.

 

[Cassidy]

Amrabat, Mount, Hojlund & Onana is a pretty solid 7 out of 10 window if you ask me.

5/10 because you absolutely needed to sign a top striker, or at least one with real pedigree.

 

[lex talionis]

Quite a decent signing, should there be any truth to this. The dropoff from Casemiro to McTominay is like the dropoff from prime Muhammad Ali to Tweety Bird. We need a player like Amrabat to provide cover for Casemiro and I’m struggling to believe this deal could actually happen.

 

[red_de_pologne]

Italian sources on par with Portuguese this summer unfortunately. Would be a great, smart signing.

 

[romufc]

Italian sources on par with Portuguese this summer unfortunately. Would be a great, smart signing.

Yep, looks like the only ones this summer that are reputable are Ornstein and Fabrizio.

 

[daba]

If we play another 60+ game season, in theory (hopefully) without Fred, VDB,and McT then we will need Mount + another (add in Amad if he stays), when Casemiro gets suspended next season as he obviously will, then who do we have right now to provide cover... it undid us last season, likewise the period Eriksen was injured, Mount gives us a great option but we need more than just Mount, depending on price Amrabat is a clear upgrade in CDM on anyone we have barring Casemiro.

Last season what really shafted us was the lack of quality on the bench, if you took our best 11 of last season and swapped out DeGea as he seems to be off, Rashford up front, and Mount either left, cm or right for Garnacho, Eriksen or Antony, then our 1st 11 is pretty damn good, not City good but easily top 4....

Then look at our bench Sancho, Martial, Lindelof, Fred, McT, VDB, Maguire.... Pellistri .... I mean I am happy for Pellistri to be there he at least has potential... but as for the rest, they are ok if we are giving players a rest, playing league cup or against weak opposition but otherwise offer no threat or something different coming off the bench, if we are serious about competing we need a much better bench for rotation and for making in game tactical changes.

I’m absolutely not against signing cover, it’s essential we improve the cover we have as it hurt us last season.

My issue with Amrabat is his profile / age. I would much rather that spot be filled by a younger player with high enough potential to replace Casemiro Long-term and be a starter, rather than a 26 year old mid-table level CDM on higher wages.

 

[Cassidy]

I’m absolutely not against signing cover, it’s essential we improve the cover we have as it hurt us last season.

My issue with Amrabat is his profile / age. I would much rather that spot be filled by a younger player with high enough potential to replace Casemiro Long-term and be a starter, rather than a 26 year old mid-table level CDM on higher wages.

Except you’re forgetting that would be way more expensive and so out of reach this summer when we have other priorities

 

[Zed 101]

I’m absolutely not against signing cover, it’s essential we improve the cover we have as it hurt us last season.

My issue with Amrabat is his profile / age. I would much rather that spot be filled by a younger player with high enough potential to replace Casemiro Long-term and be a starter, rather than a 26 year old mid-table level CDM on higher wages.

I agree, the principle is somebody, anybody for me... would like to see Mejbri in preseason

 

[MadMike]

He's a much better footballer than McTominay and doesn't hide either.

He very clearly hides, when it comes to doing the defensive side of midfield work.

 

[Jimmy Greenhoff's Chest]

According to reports Southampton wants 50M for Lavia while Amrabat would cost between 20-25M.

Given the choice I don't think anyone would choose Amrabat ahead of Lavia but we're on a tight budget. We still need a new GK and more importantly a striker.

It's even more than that, Amrabat rumours are €20M, so £17M, or £50M for Lavia.
Also Amrabat may be happier to come and be a rotation option than Lavia, who was a regular starter last season so think he would expect to continue being a regular starter, and rightly knows that probably wouldn't happen at United.

 

[Bebestation]

feck me, he is literally only buying players he knows.

Ajax fans complained about this before he joined saying he only buys his players.

He seems to have no ability to work with scouts at United.