Man Utd Thread:

[yellowcard]

If they don't make it back in Europe next year it maybe harder to convince the big names to stay (Rooney is known to hand in requests) and even harder to attract more in. I would imagine if they are only 10 ten points off the top four around January's window then they will break the bank on defense.  Otherwise I fear last year could repeat.

Rooney will not be going anywhere for the next 4 or 5 years. No other sane club would be willing to meet his £300k per week current wages. Also if they are 10 points off the top 4 come January (which I don't think they will be) they will not be finishing in the top 4 at the end of the season. I still believe that the 3rd and 4th spots will be fought out between Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal.

[yellowcard]

The hysteria needs to die down. LVG will get this right but there will be plenty of nasty shocks along the way, like last Sunday. It will take time and his track record shows this. I take comfort from the fact that most of United's competitors for top 4 places are dropping points too so that hopefully when things are settled and bedded in (and the defensive injuries mean it's not Evans and Blackett as CB's  ) there won't be too much of a deficit to claw back. Chelsea look a cut above everyone though I did laugh at Lampard getting the equaliser.

Anyone defending Moyes is either having a laugh or a complete idiot. Players didn't come to United because of him. It's different with LVG of course.

The size of the pay packet and the clubs stature are bigger selling points in attracting players rather than basing it on who is the manager. I'm fairly sure that if Moyes had been given a second season that he would have bought just as many players as Van Gaal did. I'm not even sure that Van Gaal had much of a say in most of the summer signings. I wouldn't apportion all of man Utd's problem with Moyes as its obvious from the start of this season that there are plenty of other problems in terms of the players he was left with. Van Gaals record suggest that he is a top class manager and I still think he can turn the situaton around but I'd agree with Neville who has said it may take another £100m of transfers before they can get back to winning league titles. The biggest concern is that they have played all 3 promoted teams among their opening 5 games and picked up only 5 points in total.

a) Neville said it would be another £200m!

b) Throwing money at it isn't the solution. Look at Madrid - they may have won the CL and Copa del Rey last year but in the Guardiola era they could barely compete with Barca despite chucking money at it every summer. Ronaldo, Marcelo, Modric, di Maria, Benzema etc had one Copa del Rey (Barca subsequently spanked them in the CL semi finals) and one league to their name before last year. They went out and spent a fortune on James Rodriguez this year and have had two shockingly bad losses already this season. It's all about where the money is invested. United have spent something like 185m since Ferguson left and none of it on the centre of their defence. It will continue to be an issue for them and hamper their attempts to get back to the top until they sort it out. Barca have been rightly lambasted for years over their failure to invest in the defence and have probably left a couple of Champions Leagues behind because of it.

Throwing money isn't necessarily the solution but it does give you a better chance of success. For years under Ferguson the fans criticised the Glazers for not spending money with the green and gold scarf campaign but it has been proven in the last 12 months to be folly since the Glazers have splashed heavily on strengthening the first team. Ferguson either wasn't willing to or didn't feel the need to strengthen in the manner that they have done in the last 12 months. I don't believe there is any way Ferguson would have sanctioned the signings that took place this summer whilst neglecting the centre back and centre midfield area which was top priiority. With some of the signings (Falcao, Di Maria and Mata) there is a certain element of playing to the fans. It bought a period of feel good factor among supporters but none of them were necessities. 

[thebigfella]

I wouldn't hit the panic button just yet, Utd in their last 2 matches have probably scored more goals than they did under the entire time Moyes was in charge

Slight exaggeration but like Liverpool 2 seasons ago, there appears to be a plan but it may take time to kick in. Utd lost Evra, Vidic and Ferdinand at the end of the last season; plus the Moyes era destroyed any confidence the remaining defenders had. No doubt they need a decent or world class centre half (if not 2) and suddenly the spine of the team (with Carrick to come back too) looks pretty solid.

Its a long way to go yet and no doubt the results last weekend helped Utd. The team Van Gaal is building looks like it will get goals, if he resolves some of the defensive frailties then they should be aiming for 3rd (City and Chelsea are miles ahead IMO). There will plenty more loses (I don't expect them to get anything from Chelsea or City games) but at least they are trying to win under Van Gaal rather than the Moyes tactic trying not to lose. Van Gaal might not have as many points as Moyes at this point but he took over a different team to Moyes. I'll reserve judgement to around Christmas but I still think he's doing the right things with the team.

[nrico2006]

The hysteria needs to die down. LVG will get this right but there will be plenty of nasty shocks along the way, like last Sunday. It will take time and his track record shows this. I take comfort from the fact that most of United's competitors for top 4 places are dropping points too so that hopefully when things are settled and bedded in (and the defensive injuries mean it's not Evans and Blackett as CB's  ) there won't be too much of a deficit to claw back. Chelsea look a cut above everyone though I did laugh at Lampard getting the equaliser.

Anyone defending Moyes is either having a laugh or a complete idiot. Players didn't come to United because of him. It's different with LVG of course.

The size of the pay packet and the clubs stature are bigger selling points in attracting players rather than basing it on who is the manager. I'm fairly sure that if Moyes had been given a second season that he would have bought just as many players as Van Gaal did. I'm not even sure that Van Gaal had much of a say in most of the summer signings. I wouldn't apportion all of man Utd's problem with Moyes as its obvious from the start of this season that there are plenty of other problems in terms of the players he was left with. Van Gaals record suggest that he is a top class manager and I still think he can turn the situaton around but I'd agree with Neville who has said it may take another £100m of transfers before they can get back to winning league titles. The biggest concern is that they have played all 3 promoted teams among their opening 5 games and picked up only 5 points in total.

a) Neville said it would be another £200m!

b) Throwing money at it isn't the solution. Look at Madrid - they may have won the CL and Copa del Rey last year but in the Guardiola era they could barely compete with Barca despite chucking money at it every summer. Ronaldo, Marcelo, Modric, di Maria, Benzema etc had one Copa del Rey (Barca subsequently spanked them in the CL semi finals) and one league to their name before last year. They went out and spent a fortune on James Rodriguez this year and have had two shockingly bad losses already this season. It's all about where the money is invested. United have spent something like 185m since Ferguson left and none of it on the centre of their defence. It will continue to be an issue for them and hamper their attempts to get back to the top until they sort it out. Barca have been rightly lambasted for years over their failure to invest in the defence and have probably left a couple of Champions Leagues behind because of it.

Phil Neville said £100 million,  but what him or Gary say isn't really important.  United need one or possible two defenders.  If they brought a top quality centre back in and paired him with Rojo, with Rafael and Shaw either side that would be promising.  I think Jones could establish himself but this is the season to do it.  If he gets to play 30 games at CB we will see what he is made of, but at this stage its not looking good as he is extremely injury prone.  Until Van Gaal arrived, United have had a bad habit of hanging onto players for too long who are contributing nothing, i.e. Nani, Anderson, Smalling, Cleverly, Smalling, Young etc.  Smalling does not look like he is going to be a top class CB, has neither the aggression, desire or positional sense.  Why the hell would you not drive him down to Arsene Wengers house if he is interested in him?  On top of the negative attributes he has, he is also injury prone.   

[gallsman]

Neville said £100 million,

No, he said something along the lines of they need two transfer windows "of similar amounts, maybe £100m". Which, if you can do the arithmetic, is £200m.

EDIT - I see he clarified on twitter that he meant 100m total. My apologies.

Who do they get for 100m that fixes the problems?

[Boycey]

Has Philip Neville suddenly become the font of all knowledge?

[Joe Blob]

With a couple of hundred million already spent post Fergie the Glazers will obviously be weighing up how much more is a reasonable amount to spend to challenge for a title. Will they spend another £200m just to challenge? How much is it worth to win a Premier League?

The difference between Liverpool, United, Arsenal versus say Chelsea and City is these clubs are run by businessmen who expect to be profitable. Abramovich and the oil men of City treat their clubs like a hobby and are happy to buy success no matter what it costs. I'm not sure United will follow the same path and would be surprised if they continue the spending to the extent we have seen over the summer.

[nrico2006]

I don't think United need to spend another £100 million.  They should be able to get very good centre backs for anything between 10 and 15 million, there are scouts there who should be earning their money.

[Dinny Breen]

I remember Denis Bergkamp saying he couldn't wait to work with Bruce Rioch.

[yellowcard]

I don't think United need to spend another £100 million.  They should be able to get very good centre backs for anything between 10 and 15 million, there are scouts there who should be earning their money.

If its bargain hunting for then that is the price range they should be buying in. However Man Utd are one of the biggest clubs in Europe and should not be shopping in the £10-15m players unless they are beefing out the squad or taking speculative punts on young players like they done with Smalling and Jones. Its ready made players that they need to step straight into the first team and those type of players are not available for £10-15m.

[David McKeown]

I see there is only one fit centre back available for this weekend so there may be a debut young McNair whilst I would personally love him to get his chance of imagine Blind may have to play CB this weekend with possibly Fellani covering in front.

[seafoid]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/25/manchester-united-cristiano-ronaldo-transfer-real-madrid

Manchester United calculate the cost of Cristiano Ronaldo's return: £140m

Ronaldo earns €21m a year, which is £16.4m or £315,384 a week, with Real paying all of his 52% tax. He costs the Spanish club £34.1m a season. Given his pay equates to £693,844 gross under the UK's 45% tax bracket for high earners, Ronaldo would have to agree a sizeable pay cut on his basic terms if he were to return to United.
United could further boost his take-home pay by offering him a lucrative image rights deal and other sizeable commercial incentives beyond the normal bonuses awarded for successful on-field performance.
The £140m cost for United – or any prospective suitor – would be the transfer fee of around £60m and his basic wage, should he agree to around £380,000 a-week as a gross figure, which on a four-year contract amounts to £79m.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/16/pep-guardiola-bayern-munich-players-not-interested-manchester-united

Pep Guardiola tells Manchester United his players were not interested in them

• Bayern Munich stars preferred to try luck elsewhere
• Reds looked at Müller, Schweinsteiger, Robben, Kroos

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/25/louis-van-gaal-manchester-united-hardest-challenge

Louis van Gaal says Manchester United challenge is hardest of career



I think LVG is a poor man's Cruyff as well ....

[BennyCake]

Vidic sent off and concedes penalty on Inter debut. Next game, gives away soft goal.

Thank feck United got rid of that clown.

[nrico2006]

Vidic sent off and concedes penalty on Inter debut. Next game, gives away soft goal.

Thank feck United got rid of that clown.

Nani had a similarly terrible debut as well.

[magpie seanie]

Defenders often have bad debuts or starts to their careers at different clubs. Bruce was all over the place and got his nose broken on his I think, Pallister was all over the place for weeks, I think Vidic and Evra were at 6's and 7's in their first gamkes.

As for Nani - he could be just shit.