Zlatan Ibrahimovic |United Player | See the thread in the United Forum

Should we sign Ibra on a free this summer ?


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Irrational.

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It is though, signing any player is a gamble the risk increases the older the player is and doubly so if they have never played in England before, theres no guarantee he would be a success at United if we did sign him.

I assume we all hope he is great if we do sign him, but it's silly to claim this transfer carries no risk.

Shevchenko was arguably the worlds best striker when he moved to England at 29 and he flopped, if that can happen to a player like him in his 20's then it can happen with any player. Yes even Ibrahimovic.
You've hit the nail on the head there.

The more I think about it, the more I don't want us to pursue him, especially on the ridiculous wages mentioned. He'd give us one season at a push. I'd much rather we spent big on a young, pacy, powerful forward who will give us many years.
 

dasty

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Checked at transfermarkt because I wasn't sure and just overread that column :D
Still just one year and pretty irrelevant in my opinion. Would be a huge mistake by United.
It's not pretty irrelevant when Zlatan is waxing lyrical about Mourinho in his autobiography though.
 

7even

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Checked at transfermarkt because I wasn't sure and just overread that column :D
Still just one year and pretty irrelevant in my opinion. Would be a huge mistake by United.
Why huge mistake?

Wages?
We sign him on free?
Physical decline?
Don't score enough goals?
His ego?
Attitude?

Honestly. Please help me out. What part is a bad deal for United?
 

Carlsen19

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You've hit the nail on the head there.

The more I think about it, the more I don't want us to pursue him, especially on the ridiculous wages mentioned. He'd give us one season at a push. I'd much rather we spent big on a young, pacy, powerful forward who will give us many years.
Rashford.
 

izec

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Why huge mistake?

Wages?
We sign him on free?
Physical decline?
Don't score enough goals?
His ego?
Attitude?

Honestly. Please help me out. What part is a bad deal for United?
He means for Bayern. We are coming for them next year.
 

Rado_N

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You've hit the nail on the head there.

The more I think about it, the more I don't want us to pursue him, especially on the ridiculous wages mentioned. He'd give us one season at a push. I'd much rather we spent big on a young, pacy, powerful forward who will give us many years.
We've got two of them. Zlatan would be the perfect stop gap whilst they continue to develop.
 

fcbforever

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Why huge mistake?

Wages?
We sign him on free?
Physical decline?
Don't score enough goals?
His ego?
Attitude?

Honestly. Please help me out. What part is a bad deal for United?
Insane wages for an old dude with an unbearable ego who is far from a guaranteed success. This is Falcao and Schweinsteiger all over again. Signing a world star for the sake of it and some people seem to ignore all reasonable doubts. There's no denial that the club has become a bit of a circus and an international joke lately and this looks like another step to cement that. I'm a Fan of a club that has been through such a period, don't make the same mistakes all over again.

Buy for the need and potential, not the name.
 

Rado_N

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Falcao - coming off the back of an ACL injury with serious question marks over his ability to return to form

Ibrahimovic - coming off the back of a 51 goal season.

Yea, totally the same.
 

fcbforever

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Falcao - coming off the back of an ACL injury with serious question marks over his ability to return to form

Ibrahimovic - coming off the back of a 51 goal season.

Yea, totally the same.
At 35 in an insane team without the slightest of competition in the League. At this age, a career can end in month. Some here really are desperate to have a "Hurr, we are United!"-feeling again...
 

Adebesi

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Having said that I am increasingly enthusiastic about this transfer. I dont think its risk free by any means, and in fact I think it will make a much smaller impact than many people seem to expect. But I think he'll score enough goals to justify the move, and his presence in the dressing room will be positive.
 

Adzzz

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At 35 in an insane team without the slightest of competition in the League. At this age, a career can end in month. Some here really are desperate to have a "Hurr, we are United!"-feeling again...
This is weird...
 

Adebesi

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I completely get where you are coming from @fcbforever.

Personally I wont get the feeling you are talking about from this transfer. We have already proved ourselves more than capable of securing the services of aging stars looking for a final big payday in Europe before they go to a third tier league. Ibra may be a cut above some of the other players in this category we have signed in terms of quality, but it is still a signing in that category. It doesnt send the same signal as signing Pogba would, for example, or Neymar or Bale or anyone else in the top bracket who is actually in their peak years.
 

Rado_N

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At 35 in an insane team without the slightest of competition in the League. At this age, a career can end in month. Some here really are desperate to have a "Hurr, we are United!"-feeling again...
I don't even know what that's supposed to mean.

It's a very low risk deal, there's no transfer fee involved and it's for one year. If he does arrive and it doesn't work out then oh well, it was worth a shot. If he comes and scores 30 goals in all competitions then awesome.

It's a no brainer.
 

stevoc

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Having said that I am increasingly enthusiastic about this transfer. I dont think its risk free by any means, and in fact I think it will make a much smaller impact than many people seem to expect. But I think he'll score enough goals to justify the move, and his presence in the dressing room will be positive.
You've nicely summed up how i feel about this move mate, it's definitely risky but i have warmed to the idea with Rashfords emergence. And i agree if he came i reckon he would be good but not amazing.

Others seem to think he will move to England and smash in 30-40 goals and be the best player in the league. That seems overly optimistic to me.
 

ravi2

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Having said that I am increasingly enthusiastic about this transfer. I dont think its risk free by any means, and in fact I think it will make a much smaller impact than many people seem to expect. But I think he'll score enough goals to justify the move, and his presence in the dressing room will be positive.

I agree with this , Ibra is a no brainer for me.
We need leaders on the pitch who have balls and Ibra fits the bill.
 

Adebesi

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I don't even know what that's supposed to mean.

It's a very low risk deal, there's no transfer fee involved and it's for one year. If he does arrive and it doesn't work out then oh well, it was worth a shot. If he comes and scores 30 goals in all competitions then awesome.

It's a no brainer.
It is low risk, you are right.

What risk there is come from 1) very high wages, meaning this will not be an insignificant outlay, even if there is no transfer fee. And 2) When you have a new player with a big reputation coming from a foreign league, you persevere with them for quite a while, even if they struggle for form at first. We saw that with Falcao, when he started playing and wasnt great, we stuck with him longer than we should. He was a passenger and it was detrimental to the team. If memory serves, Chelsea had a similar experience with Shevchenko - it stands to reason. This is why in some ways getting a player in his peak years and proven in the league would be lower risk.

But yeah, I am in favour of this overall.
 

Irrational.

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Rashford.
We've got two of them. Zlatan would be the perfect stop gap whilst they continue to develop.
Good point. If we're considering Martial to be more of a wide forward than a true striker and expecting Rashford to take time to develop, why not someone like Lukaku? He'll cost more, sure, but he'll give us more bang for our buck.

I just don't think this Zlatan transfer will be as successful as we hope it to be. Will he play the majority of our games, especially if we're competing on 3-4 fronts? Can he stay injury-free at 35? Sure he's a big, strong forward but does he have the legs to run in behind? He's scored a zillion goals in the French league, but as we found out with Memphis, that is by no means a marker of how well he'll do here.

Happy to be proved wrong, and I'll be pleased if we signed him but I won't be jumping from the rooftops.
 

Raoul

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Don't read it then.

He's a gamble because of his age and that fact he's never played in the PL. It's too easy to underestimate how hard it is to adjust to the league and at very nearly 35 he's left it too late.

How on earth is signing a 35 year old with no PL experience not in some part a gamble? Of course it is.
It's not a gamble given his quality and the lack of a transfer fee .
 

Rado_N

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It is low risk, you are right.

What risk there is come from 1) very high wages, meaning this will not be an insignificant outlay, even if there is no transfer fee. And 2) When you have a new player with a big reputation coming from a foreign league, you persevere with them for quite a while, even if they struggle for form at first. We saw that with Falcao, when he started playing and wasnt great, we stuck with him longer than we should. He was a passenger and it was detrimental to the team. If memory serves, Chelsea had a similar experience with Shevchenko - it stands to reason. This is why in some ways getting a player in his peak years and proven in the league would be lower risk.

But yeah, I am in favour of this overall.
It depends what level of wages we're talking about; if the £200k-250k figures that were mentioned are accurate then it's really not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things.

I take your point about being overly patient, but I don't see him struggling to be frank. Even if he's 'just' a flat track bully, those lower level teams are where we struggled and I really don't see him struggling to adapt to the league, he's played in every top league in Europe.
 

Rado_N

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Good point. If we're considering Martial to be more of a wide forward than a true striker and expecting Rashford to take time to develop, why not someone like Lukaku? He'll cost more, sure, but he'll give us more bang for our buck.

I just don't think this Zlatan transfer will be as successful as we hope it to be. Will he play the majority of our games, especially if we're competing on 3-4 fronts? Can he stay injury-free at 35? Sure he's a big, strong forward but does he have the legs to run in behind? He's scored a zillion goals in the French league, but as we found out with Memphis, that is by no means a marker of how well he'll do here.

Happy to be proved wrong, and I'll be pleased if we signed him but I won't be jumping from the rooftops.
Lukaku would probably cost something like £50-60m with how transfer fees are going and the TV money now in the league, Everton can and will demand far more than he's worth, plus there's the fact that he's 23 so will be in the way of Rashford and Martial more long term and to be honest he's good but I don't think he's good enough.
 

Earthquake

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Why are people saying his ego is a negative? That's like one of the biggest plus points. Crying out for a player like that who has the ego and gravitas to kick the team up the arse.
 

MichaelKorleone

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Would the outlay look positive if we all assume Utd are buying a player coming off a 50-goal season for £8m in final year of contract and would be paying £6m wages?

There's still a slight risk that if he doesn't perform, manager would probably be forced to play him continuously for first 3-4 months at least considering the big name/wage and past performances. On the other hand, one positive compared to our recent purchases of Di Maria, Falcao or Schweinsteiger would be that Ibra is not coming off an injury and won't bother to sign for us if he didn't want to come.
 
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VP89

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I don't see a reason why, if we were actually favourites, this hasn't been tied down as yet.. Or at least reported to be close.

He is a free agent so literally an agreement alone is enough. It seems a very simple deal and shouldn't take too long to execute. Presumably zlatan and us would want it to be done sooner too, so with no Confo before the euro announcement, I think we are not favourites.
 

BarstoolProphet

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I don't see a reason why, if we were actually favourites, this hasn't been tied down as yet.. Or at least reported to be close.

He is a free agent so literally an agreement alone is enough. It seems a very simple deal and shouldn't take too long to execute. Presumably zlatan and us would want it to be done sooner too, so with no Confo before the euro announcement, I think we are not favourites.

Probably waiting for the Mourinho announcement to settle before we embark on yet another high-profile signing media frenzy. Or maybe we don't want to officially acknowledge that negotiations has taken place before LvG was sacked (even if it's obvious that it has).
 

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I don't see a reason why, if we were actually favourites, this hasn't been tied down as yet.. Or at least reported to be close.

He is a free agent so literally an agreement alone is enough. It seems a very simple deal and shouldn't take too long to execute. Presumably zlatan and us would want it to be done sooner too, so with no Confo before the euro announcement, I think we are not favourites.
Possibly because Mourinho is barely on the job yet.
 

Steven Seagull

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I don't see a reason why, if we were actually favourites, this hasn't been tied down as yet.. Or at least reported to be close.

He is a free agent so literally an agreement alone is enough. It seems a very simple deal and shouldn't take too long to execute. Presumably zlatan and us would want it to be done sooner too, so with no Confo before the euro announcement, I think we are not favourites.
Why haven't the actual favourites signed him yet?
 

sunama

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Sick of seeing this. How on earth is it a gamble? He's one of the top 5 strikers in the world, on a free transfer.
Some of our fans don't understand this.
Some fans have somehow deluded themselves into thinking that the likes of Kane, Ronaldo and Bale are/were not good enough to play for us. Now it seems, the same is being said about Ibra.

We are currently a 5th place team and if we can attract the likes of Ibra, Ronaldo (or previously Di Maria), we should thank our lucky stars. We all saw what happened last Summer, where no Galactico class players wanted to sign, despite us lodging World Record transfer bids.
A few months ago, LVG admitted that we can still attract big names, but only because we pay the biggest wages. Unfortunately, currently, that's our status.
 

VP89

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Probably waiting for the Mourinho announcement to settle before we embark on yet another high-profile signing media frenzy. Or maybe we don't want to officially acknowledge that negotiations has taken place before LvG was sacked (even if it's obvious that it has).
Possibly because Mourinho is barely on the job yet.
The likes of Darmein were signed within a couple days IIRC, while this is a free transfer and no brainer. He would seemingly be signed for the brand alone, I'm quite sure Mourinho doesn't need to analyse his squad to know that Ibrahimovic is required?

I get that a signed and sealed confirmation with him holding the United shirt is too early, but an agreement announcement before the euros is perfectly expectable. If it doesn't happen, I don't think us being favourites is as clear cut.

Why haven't the actual favourites signed him yet?
Maybe there are no clear favourites.
 
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