Completely pointless squad signing - with Mbeumo, Amad and Lacey, United are already well stocked with similar profile players to him.
Your Hidden Gems or under the radar - Wanted Signings
- Thread starter Dan600
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In the latest edition of the United Hour Podcast, we interview Duncan Drasdo of MUST - covering ticket prices, new stadium, INEOS and what fans should be demanding from our club.
Also, due to technical issues we couldn't put a notice up for the previous episode which was about the game against Bournemouth and other stuff. If you'd like to listen to it, click here.
Completely pointless squad signing - with Mbeumo, Amad and Lacey, United are already well stocked with similar profile players to him.
I wouldn’t exactly say it’s pointless, Mbeumo/Sesko might be our striker rotation again next season and having a PL proven option to rotate with Amad with potentially 10-20 more games next season is would be preferable.
Lacey should be eased into the squad not relied on.
Not really a hidden gem, but Victor Froholdt of Porto seems another really good CM (box to box). He's had an instant impact since joining from Copenhagen.
Nathan Collins has been impressive this season. He always looked decent but he's stepped it up a few levels. If he was a semi sensible fee I wouldn't be against signing him as a long term Maguire replacement.
Sano had a good game in midfield vs England
Some of you may have already read the research and analysis I posted in another thread regarding possible Casemiro replacements for a #6 /DM role:
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/centre-midfielder-transfer-links.488776/post-33997872
The closest things to ready-made replacements were mostly either obvious or mentioned before elsewhere, eg Anderson, M Sangare, Ederson, Casado. There are also some slightly younger, but likely expensive or unobtainable future prospects eg Chema and Yarmoliuk.
In another recent post, I'd also bemoaned how most of the exciting younger, and possibly less expensive CM prospects as potential CM understudies tended to be more 8s or even 10s eg Eichhorn, Bouaddi, Kostov, Smit.
Well, in having a go at applying my Casemiro-replacement search criteria to lesser leagues, one additional, exciting name jumped out - who appears the rare fish of being perhaps an elite potential CM with more of a ball-winner + deep-lying playmaker profile:
Matias Siltanen - Djugardens - 18
This kid was playing for KuPS in Finland at 17, and was apparently on Bournemouth and Man City's radars - but instead he went to Djugardens as their Bergvall replacement. At Djugardens he's now putting up an incredibly similar overall level of stats to those which Bergvall was also pulling at 18 before his €10mil+ move to Spurs. However, while Bergvall's strengths were in ball carrying and goal-scoring, Siltanen's are in ball winning and long-range passing.
I've added stats radars below for Siltanen's 2025 season at Djugardens as an 18 year-old, and Bergvall's final season there (2024) as an 18 year-old.
Funnily enough - Fotmob assigned Siltanen's 2025 season an overal player rating of 7.28, and Bergvall's s 2024 season there a rating of 7.27...
But also, don't just take the stats' word for it, his delicious forward passing and tenacious tackling can also be seen in the highlights reel below:
(Quick note that Siltanen's dribble success % on the radar might look distorted as he made so few, same with Bergvall's long-range passing %)
The Allsvenskan finally resumed this weekend, and so I finally got to watch a live match of Matias Siltanen, as Djugardens had a tough opening fixture on Monday away at last season's 3rd place GAIS.
Siltanen was about as good as I expected. He's a very talented player for sure. He's not the biggest, but still perhaps a similar size and stockiness to someone like a Mateus Fernandes.
His play style reminded a little bit of someone like Locatelli. He would often drop to just in front of the CBs to collect the ball and start the team's passing up the pitch. He was also quite vocal in dictating the play of his team-mates and in which direction the ball should be moved, which is quite notable for someone who only turned 19 a week or so ago.
As per someone like Locatelli, he would typically stay behind the ball, either to receive passes and switch play, or to try and cut off the opponent from transitioning up the pitch after re-gaining possession. He played a number of sharp, "smart passes" between the lines, and a couple of good longer balls over the top (though I thought he could have still tried to be a bit more ambitious at times). He was very sharp and strong in the tackle for someone his age and size, helped by his very good anticipation of when the ball was going to be fed to certain opponents. He regularly nicked the ball directly off the feet of senior opponents as they received passes, even when they tried to hold him away.
As per the likes of Mateus Fernandes and Locatelli, while not rapid he seems pretty nimble still. There were only a couple of occasions in the match where either an opponent either managed to skirt around him a defensive area from a standing start dribble, or his legs couldn't quite reach as he slid in on an opponent speeding away on a counter-attack (resulting in him catching the opponent and earning a yellow).
I'm not sure if there'd be the room for someone of his age and profile in United's squad necessarily, even though Bergvall has made a similar move pretty well. Regardless he looks a cert for a club in a top 5 league sooner rather than later. He'll be a good buy for someone at the supposed price of 15mil EUR.
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Johan Manzambi
To be fair he can actually play as a natural left winger. Even as a 10. For free that is excellent vesatility to have in an epl ready player.
7 of his 29 PL appearances this season have been as a 10, sure. But also if you want a left-footed shoot merchant as a back-up 10, then again you could also put Amad or Lacey there.
And zero of his appearances this season, in the best season of his career, have been on the LW.
Hate to quote myself but scored one and generally gave Milan the run around for Udinese today. Definitely destined for a bigger club soon.