We've been heavily linked with Taylor Booth of Utrecht. I wonder if this is a sweetener. I've no idea if Booth is any good. Iqbal looks classy and there's something there. Even if we ultimately end up selling him, a decent loan will do him wonders.
Zidane Iqbal
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Yeah I don't really follow the reserves beyond occasionally reading posts on here and watching highlights, but I don't remember anyone clamouring for him to be included in the first team until he had a couple of good games in preseason, right? I can probably think of at least ten youth team players from the last decade who had more hype around them based on U23 performances
He is skilful but so lightweight and slow. Like Gomes but not as much talent.
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How do we always get nothing for our sales ffs?!
I’m guessing we sacrificed a bit for the sell on clause
wasn't he supposed to be quite promising?
What a shite deal
This is so pathetic, who sells a player like him for that price?
Why not loan him out? I can’t wait until we get new owners as this is pathetic.
Why not loan him out? I can’t wait until we get new owners as this is pathetic.
Disappointing he never got a chance.
This is an apalling decision, i reckon its being pushed by player wanting regular minutes
Maybe bad attitude or something? Very strange.
It’s still a shit deal no matter how you look at it. Why the hell did we block loan moves for him this season, if this was the plan? ETH’s interview where he confidently says that youngsters wouldn’t play in our last Prem game which was a dead rubber was annoying too. He says they need to earn the chance but a lot of them do, SAF would always throw kids in for a dead rubber game.
Is it, why?
This is the only reason I can think of as to why we would sell him for basically nothing. Im sure putting him on loan at the very least would have increased his value, no?
Feel like City, Liverpool, Chelsea type team would get around 10m for him at least.
Eh? He looked good in the pre-season not long ago, the state of this news....
I don't know what the big deal is. He was never amongst the top prospects. I wish him well.
According to the Caf he's worth 20 million and a future Scholes. I guess the club really has zero trust in him becoming good enough if they decided to sell for a this measly sum.
Maybe he's just not as good as we'd like to think?
Unless the sell clause is 50%+ then seems ridiculously low
In hindsight He should have been on loan last season
In hindsight He should have been on loan last season
A loan a year or two and the price would probably go up. Must be attitude.
Impossible. Next you'll tell me James Garner and Ryan Tunnicliffe aren't going to be Paul Scholes reincarnated.
From what I remember on here most regular watchers of the youth sides never really rated him.
Or they're gambling that he might actually develop into attractive-prospect with regular game-time (and comparatively lower standard of opposition overall), get sold for 20m+ and we get 50% or whatever.
Still think ETH should have been giving him 15 minutes here and there when we were clear in games, if no other reason than to drive the selling price up. Iqbal looked pretty composed in pre-season, if nothing else, so even failure to do 'stupid things', plus some first-team experience, gets us better selling price.
Still think ETH should have been giving him 15 minutes here and there when we were clear in games, if no other reason than to drive the selling price up. Iqbal looked pretty composed in pre-season, if nothing else, so even failure to do 'stupid things', plus some first-team experience, gets us better selling price.
Weren't we only 2pts ahead of Newcastle and going into that game? 3rd wasn't wrapped up so it wasn't what I'd call a dead rubber.
Brandon Williams and Tuanzebe also started for England last night didnt they? Some other academy future superstars!
He was always a solid 6/7 out of 10 and would occasionally play very well in my opinion. Was never going to make it United
Oh yes, it was also great to see Will Keane and James Wilson up front banging in the goals.
1 million 
Low wages, low risk, high potential. No upside to selling
ETH played Mainoo in a dead rubber game. ETH just didnt get to play as many dead rubber games as SAF used to play.
Last season Manchester United at times struggled to win with the best eleven on the pitch so not really an option to put in a youth player. City can do that because they are so dominant and SAF could do it because Manchester United was dominant at the time.
ETH watched Iqbal for a year and must have decided he isnt good enough. Seeing that Utrecht is signing Iqbal (mid table Eredivisie) and not a better club also tells you something
Didn't we turn down loans last year, so he could train with the first team - seen more important to do so.
What was the point then?
What was the point then?
As I always said, nowhere near good enough.
The fact that Mainoo was the one who appeared on the bench says a lot. Iqbal probably just isn’t good enough and good on him if he wants to fly the coop to prove himself elsewhere.
We need to get out of this habit of thinking all our academy players are destined for the top echelons of football. We shouldn’t reward contracts to youth players for merely hanging in there like we did under Woodward, which is why the likes of Brandon Williams and Axel Tuanzebe have been around for as long as they have.
We need to get out of this habit of thinking all our academy players are destined for the top echelons of football. We shouldn’t reward contracts to youth players for merely hanging in there like we did under Woodward, which is why the likes of Brandon Williams and Axel Tuanzebe have been around for as long as they have.
Did we even try and negotiate?
He obviously wasn’t good enough to do a job for us atm but selling him for 1 million is ridiculously bad business however you look at it.
Something is not really right. With £1m I guess the clause will be around 40-50%. Otherwise I have no idea. Although I don't rate him as high as some of you others do.
Really not sure about that at all.
Can't see why we wouldn't just stick him out on loan next season and then judge. Must be an absolute dickhead or something.
Bizarre decision.