Smalling / SIGNED for Roma

[Ranchero]

Does it make sense to lose arguably a first choice central defender to Roma for the budget price of £20m?

At a time when our defence is under question, to me, it makes no sense whatsoever when our transfer dealings are at a dead end.

Mindboggling.

 

[RedorDead21]

Does it make sense to lose arguably a first choice central defender to Roma for the budget price of £20m?

At a time when our defence is under question, to me, it makes no sense whatsoever when our transfer dealings are at a dead end.

Mindboggling.

Before he went to Roma the majority thought it mind boggling he was a first choice here for so long.

 

[In Rainbows]

Because he's 30 years old and about to be 31. In the short term he could help, but getting a fee for him could help in the long term. The long term window is the more important window because we're clearly not good enough in the short term to win the biggest titles. Therefore, it's better to prioritize the long term window.

 

[HackeyC]

If he doesn't want to stay do you really want an unmotivated player in a critical position?

 

[crossy1686]

It's mindboggling this is a thread.

Last season he was comfortably our 3rd or 4th best CB, according to the fans. Now because someone actually wants him people around here are getting cold feet about selling him.

Can't wait for the "Why lose Jesse Lingard for £20m?" thread next week.

 

[Marcelinho87]

Because he is shit, just because our defence is not where it needs to be doesn't mean we retain crap players.

 

[James Peril]

I like Smalling, I don’t think he’s worse than Lindelöf or Maguire, but he represents the past. Bringing him back means we’ve failed, means Solskjær was wrong to loan him out and that he’s not been able to replace him. Solskjær ain’t admitting that, hence he will leave the club.

 

[DWelbz19]

£20m Yeah, right. We’ll get about £12m or so.

He wants to leave, and the manager doesn’t want him. Simple really. Is he better than what we have? Probably. But that doesn’t matter when you consider point 1 and point 2.

 

[CM]

Smalling is a good player in a certain style but a ball playing defender he is not, and that's the direction we seem to be moving in (even though we can't play out from the back to save our lives).

He's also one of the few players we want to sell who has any resale value.

 

[RUCK4444]

Before he went to Roma the majority thought it mind boggling he was a first choice here for so long.

Shows how the majority here can be wrong.

Comfortably our second best defender and not made of glass like the rest.

Over the course of a season it would be much better to keep him rather than play the serial feck up that is Lindelof or pin our hopes on permanent crock that is Bailly.

Of course I’d prefer to sign Upamecano or another top level defender but just because I’m bored of having him at the club (like others) doesn’t sway my opinion on his ability compared to the other ‘defenders’ we have milking a living here.

 

[Plant0x84]

Does it make sense to lose arguably a first choice central defender to Roma for the budget price of £20m?

At a time when our defence is under question, to me, it makes no sense whatsoever when our transfer dealings are at a dead end.

Mindboggling.

Chris isn’t first choice here, plain and simple. He wants to play football and we can’t/won’t offer that to him. The game now is to maximise the fee we get for him. If £20m is the max we can get then so be it.

 

[Bobcat]

The club has done some terrible business the last few years, but this is not among them. Hes 30 years old so 20 million for a pretty mediocre CB is fair

 

[SadlerMUFC]

Does it make sense to lose arguably a first choice central defender to Roma for the budget price of £20m?

At a time when our defence is under question, to me, it makes no sense whatsoever when our transfer dealings are at a dead end.

Mindboggling.

Meanwhile Roma doesn't even want to pay that amount and keep lowballing when we are already asking lower than what he's worth. Napoli wants 80m+ for Kudibally who is a year older (I think). If that's his value, then Smalling should at least be 40m. But I guess that's the difference between Italian teams buying and selling players...

 

[He'sRaldo]

Similar to Mourinho selling Blind for cheap. We then proceeded to buy Lindelof.

 

[Strats]

20m is fair.

I'd gladly give his minutes to one of Bailly, Tuanzebe(is he back yet by the way?) or Mengi.

 

[RedDevilCanuck]

We are 1 injury away from lining up with Lindelof and Bailly.

And we are an injury crises away from playing Jones and Rojo.

If we need 20 million that bad it should be for beans beans beans.

 

[SilentWitness]

1. Turning wrong side of 30.
2. He's not better than Maguire (Not that he's any worse).
3. Manager doesn't want him.
4. He doesn't want to stay.
5. 3 + 4 = Clubs are interested.

 

[Ali Dia]

We need to be A LOT more decisive when it comes to selling players. Let’s start with Smalling. Just move on and keep trying to improve.

 

[Gandalf]

Meanwhile Roma doesn't even want to pay that amount and keep lowballing when we are already asking lower than what he's worth. Napoli wants 80m+ for Kudibally who is a year older (I think). If that's his value, then Smalling should at least be 40m. But I guess that's the difference between Italian teams buying and selling players...

Koulibaly just turned 29 this June and Smalling turns 31 in November so he is close to being 2 years younger rather than a year older.

 

[FrankDrebin]

Honestly if we're not going to receive the 20 million euros I would keep Smalling. He's comfortably up there with our best defenders, granted that doesn't say much, and we also know that Baily,Axel,Jones cant be relied upon for fitness.

 

[JJ12]

It's mindboggling this is a thread.

Last season he was comfortably our 3rd or 4th best CB, according to the fans. Now because someone actually wants him people around here are getting cold feet about selling him.

Can't wait for the "Why lose Jesse Lingard for £20m?" thread next week.

Was he feck.

 

[Eplel]

Before he went to Roma the majority thought it mind boggling he was a first choice here for so long.

I never thought he was bad, the problem is that for some reason in our squad the central defenders are tasked with bringing the ball forward, instead of a midfielder dropping deep, or our wing backs/wingers penetrate. And somehow we never buy central defenders that are good on the ball.

 

[SadlerMUFC]

Koulibaly just turned 29 this June and Smalling turns 31 in November so he is close to being 2 years younger rather than a year older.

Ahhh....i had that backwards

 

[AshRK]

It's mind-boggling how since joining roma he has become so overrated for some fans.

 

[UncleBob]

Does it make sense to lose arguably a first choice central defender to Roma for the budget price of £20m?

At a time when our defence is under question, to me, it makes no sense whatsoever when our transfer dealings are at a dead end.

Mindboggling.

If he's arguably a first choice central defender, then the argument is wrong

 

[Buster15]

Before he went to Roma the majority thought it mind boggling he was a first choice here for so long.

Just goes to show, you don't know what you've got till it's gone.

 

[Leftback99]

Not at all. Turn the tables and if we were trying to buy a good performing centre from Serie A the price would be £30m+ easily.

Casting him aside without even trying him alongside Maguire is one of Solskjaer's biggest errors in his time so far.

 

[::sonny::]

Not his fan, but he is the best cb in the squad

 

[crossy1686]

Was he feck.

Ah revisionism at it's finest

 

[Leftback99]

Before he went to Roma the majority thought it mind boggling he was a first choice here for so long.

And they were wrong. There can't be anyone left that still thinks Lindelof, Bailly, Rojo or Jones are better than him?

 

[Irwin99]

Other than Jones and DDG he must be one of the last SAF players to still be at the club. He's a good defender and out of Evans, Jones and himself- who were meant to be the future of our defence back then- he probably has performed the best. Still it's probably for the best for his career if he goes and we can look more to the future.

 

[Zen86]

I like Smalling. But he was endlessly criticised on here before he went to Roma, he’s prone to drop a clanger every so often, and he’s never really cemented himself as our #1 defender despite being here for so long. He’s not the worst defender we have on the books but he certainly isn’t the answer to our defensive frailties.

 

[hobbers]

Since we're obviously not capable of making signings we should be keeping him.

I'd rather spend £20m cancelling Jones' contract tbh.

Maguire, Smalling, Bailly, Lindelof should be the order they're picked.

 

[RUCK4444]

Bailly looking so shaky against Luton, why people think Smalling should be sold before others we have is mental to me.

 

[TheGodsInRed]

Sounds like we need to raise some cash so we can put a bid in for Sancho.

This is probably why we paid the asking price for Maguire the day after selling Lukaku. We have squandered so much money we don't have the capital to pay up front any more.

Problem is our wages are so high we can't shift our players: Jones, Rojo et. al.

 

[JPRouve]

We are 1 injury away from lining up with Lindelof and Bailly.

And we are an injury crises away from playing Jones and Rojo.

If we need 20 million that bad it should be for beans beans beans.

So you somehow assume that the one injury won't concern Bailly? That's bold.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

Does it make sense to lose arguably a first choice central defender to Roma for the budget price of £20m?

At a time when our defence is under question, to me, it makes no sense whatsoever when our transfer dealings are at a dead end.

Mindboggling.

You had me up to "first choice".

 

[Bwuk]

Can barely control a football and people want him to come back. He’ll go for like 12m.

 

[Bastian]

To make room for quality?

Honestly, there isn't a centre back at the club I wouldn't sell. Maguire is the best of the bunch, but we spent about 40m too much.

 

[Red00012]

Does it make sense to lose arguably a first choice central defender to Roma for the budget price of £20m?

At a time when our defence is under question, to me, it makes no sense whatsoever when our transfer dealings are at a dead end.

Mindboggling.

Mind boggling this is a thread

Ole doesn’t rate him he wants him out , luckily Ole hasn’t forgotten how bad he is as a central defender just like you have.