January Transfer Window 2017/18

[fez]

When I commented on Zlatan's transfer last season you said it was ridiculous that he was costing Utd anything like £20m for a season. Still think that?

Can you find me that post please?

You've clearly misunderstood the first part of my post. You're claiming for certain that the figures reported are rubbish and there's no way he's earning that much but at the same time saying there's no reputable information out there. You're contradicting yourself.

Not at all. If someone comes out tomorrow and says the world is going to end and I say "no its not, prove it" does that mean that I have to prove its not going to end or we are both just speculating wildly? One side of the argument is based on ridiculous speculation and 0 evidence and the other is based on common sense. Which is more likely, United have decided to pay a new player who is 29 nearly double what they pay their next highest paid player or they are paying him a similar amount. How many football related stories that come out of the media are complete BS and yet this is apparently true.

The press are being briefed. There's not a chance in hell that Utd will want all these stories about £400-500k per week and £180m being reported if there was absolutely nothing to them. Do you think it benefits Utd in anyway that people think they've paid this much?

I struggle to believe you actually think that the media only writes articles that are factual and correct and that talking utter **** that is controversial and plays to a certain audience doesn't sell papers or generate clicks. You can see how much people love to talk about how ridiculous the Sanchez deal is by the current discussion. What happens if it turns out United are paying him £150,000/week and we got arsenal to pay us £20m for the swap deal. Everyone stops reading the papers that got it completely wrong or they just move on to saying how good a deal it is and how bad things are for Arsenal. The dailymail has the highest readership of all the papers and 99% of it is badly written, wrong and completely sensationalist. By your logic there is no reason for them to do this because no one wants to read wild speculation or sensationalist crap.

Do you not think that these reports will not prompt agents of their own players or players they hope to sign to ask for more money? Who knows just how accurate the figures are but when all the press are reporting very similar things it's fair to assume that they've been briefed these figures and as above, if they were a million miles away then you can bet your bottom dollar that Utd would be briefing the press that it's bs.

When the press are all reporting very similar things they are all jumping on the bandwagon. You can trace the path of a rumour through all the newspapers and blogs etc quite easily. United have "signed" god knows how many players over the past 10 years that we never heard a peep about and yet at the time 90% of journalists seems in agreement that it was going to happen. Football rumours have almost 0 reliability and the name of the game is to chuck out as many rumours as you can that seem credible. Journalists aren't being briefed on these things they are hearing rumours and talking about them. One journo starts a rumour and the rest of them use that as their source.[/QUOTE]

 

[Robbo]

We had to structure the deal this way in order to get him now, signing him in the summer would be more difficult.

For me it doesn't matter, we are always going to have to pay top whack because people know we can, and for the very best players the other huge teams will be interested, pushing the price up further. Comparative to our revenue, our wage bill is the lowest in the league I believe (I'm no expert but I've seen this mentioned many times). That should put in perspective the kind of spending power we have available.

As ever, if he has two amazing seasons and makes the difference for us, nobody will care about the cost. This is just something for people to focus on to try and take the shine off the fact we're signing one of the best attackers around (this was my opinion before we were even linked to him). The main culprits are certain sections of the press who have clearly been briefed to try and stir up trouble. Of course City/Chelsea/Arsenal will want people to think he's on crazy money and that's all he wanted.

A lot of money has been sucked out of our club for non-football reasons, I'd rather the riches were splashed on world class players even if it doesn't represent the best value - nothing in football is about value these days.

Anyway, medical this afternoon!

 

[Lord-Jaffa]

My views on him as a player, and this pre-dates any link to Utd, are that he's hugely talented but has a terrible attitude. When he was being linked with City I said that he wouldn't make a noticeable difference to them and he only makes marginally more difference to Utd. He can play through the middle but you've got to assume that Lukaku will still be first choice there so he'll in effect be cover for that position. The most obvious role he's being signed for is to play on the left of your attack - is he a massive upgrade on Martial? Not on this seasons form he's not. As I said above, you can defend paying so much for somebody you desperately need but imo, Utd don't desperately need him.

Assuming the reported signing on fee and agent fees are fairly accurate then yea, £250k would be much more reasonable. An extra £150 to £250k per week is anything from £35m to £58.5m over the course of the 4 and a half year deal. That's a lot of money.

The money aspect of it all is slightly concerning, as I understand it he can also play from the right side, which would make more sense given Martials improvement on the left this season. When the dust settles it will be interesting to see what the actual numbers are.

 

[BaZ87]

The money aspect of it all is slightly concerning, as I understand it he can also play from the right side, which would make more sense given Martials improvement on the left this season. When the dust settles it will be interesting to see what the actual numbers are.

If you sign him to play on the right that only makes the deal weirder to me. Sanchez wants to play centrally - playing from the left is a compromise but being a right footer coming inside is a lot easier than from the right.

We had to structure the deal this way in order to get him now, signing him in the summer would be more difficult.

That's true. You've decided that you have to blow everybody out of the water to make sure you get the deal done. It's no different to when Newcastle spent £17m to sign Owen from Real - they knew they had to offer well in excess of what Liverpool were offering to make it impossible for any other outcome.

 

[nicktay2605]

Let's see what the wages are when he signs. I still find it hard to believe he's going to be on so much more than Pogba and Lukaku. I hope he's not because I think it would cause every other player at United to question their wage and could upset the dressing room.

I think it's more likely the rags are exaggerating to sell papers and increase website traffic, but we won't know for sure until the deal is done.

 

[Robbo]

If you sign him to play on the right that only makes the deal weirder to me. Sanchez wants to play centrally - playing from the left is a compromise but being a right footer coming inside is a lot easier than from the right.

I'm hoping we'll play as follows:

-----------Lukaku
Martial - Sanchez - Lingard (on current form?)
------- Pogba - Matic

Martial simply has to be included somewhere. Jose seems to like him now so I think he will be.

That's true. You've decided that you have to blow everybody out of the water to make sure you get the deal done. It's no different to when Newcastle spent £17m to sign Owen from Real - they knew they had to offer well in excess of what Liverpool were offering to make it impossible for any other outcome.

It's as much about timing as anything. Come the summer you could have Real Madrid, Barca and Man City all interested for less money (but still a lot) and then us getting him is far from certain.

 

[Shamikebab]

He's mostly played there, so no he hasn't struggled.

 

[BaZ87]

Can you find me that post please?

**** off. Go look yourself It definitely happened though.

Not at all. If someone comes out tomorrow and says the world is going to end and I say "no its not, prove it" does that mean that I have to prove its not going to end or we are both just speculating wildly? One side of the argument is based on ridiculous speculation and 0 evidence and the other is based on common sense. Which is more likely, United have decided to pay a new player who is 29 nearly double what they pay their next highest paid player or they are paying him a similar amount. How many football related stories that come out of the media are complete BS and yet this is apparently true.

You're doing it again. How do you know the reported wages being offered to Sanchez are double what the next highest paid player is getting? Unless you've seen all Utd's contracts then I assume you're basing the £200-250k figure on media reports? So Utd's top earners are getting that much because that's what you want to believe but the reported figures for Sanchez aren't true because you don't want to believe them.

I struggle to believe you actually think that the media only writes articles that are factual and correct and that talking utter **** that is controversial and plays to a certain audience doesn't sell papers or generate clicks. You can see how much people love to talk about how ridiculous the Sanchez deal is by the current discussion. What happens if it turns out United are paying him £150,000/week and we got arsenal to pay us £20m for the swap deal. Everyone stops reading the papers that got it completely wrong or they just move on to saying how good a deal it is and how bad things are for Arsenal. The dailymail has the highest readership of all the papers and 99% of it is badly written, wrong and completely sensationalist. By your logic there is no reason for them to do this because no one wants to read wild speculation or sensationalist crap.

When the press are all reporting very similar things they are all jumping on the bandwagon. You can trace the path of a rumour through all the newspapers and blogs etc quite easily. United have "signed" god knows how many players over the past 10 years that we never heard a peep about and yet at the time 90% of journalists seems in agreement that it was going to happen. Football rumours have almost 0 reliability and the name of the game is to chuck out as many rumours as you can that seem credible. Journalists aren't being briefed on these things they are hearing rumours and talking about them. One journo starts a rumour and the rest of them use that as their source.

I'm fully aware that the press report random bs. I'm a firm believer that when all the press are reporting the same story that more often than not they've been briefed this information though. It's not a massive coincidence that they're reporting the same things. Football is very political these days and clubs, players and agents will all brief the press their side of the story - the fact that these figures have come out and as yet there's been no response or denial from Utd is telling. As I said, these reports are damaging (if that's the right word) for Utd and will be used against them in every negotiation going forward - if they were hugely inaccurate they'd be shouting it from the roof top.

Anyway, I'm bored now. If you want to believe that Sanchez has performed a massive U turn on the City move based on Utd offering him £200k per week then fair enough. Obviously City were only offering him £4.50 and a pack of wine gums.

 

[Robbo]

Isn't that where Pogba struggled, at least relatively speaking? Don't you get the best out of him if he's played further forward with two midfielders backing him up?

He's thought to be best on the left of a midfield 3, but he seems to be OK at the moment. It can only work with Matic though as he shields the defence.

We could just play a midfield 3 and have Martial - Lukaku - Sanchez, assuming Sanchez is OK on the right. Statistically he's as good on the right as the left, just been looking at a stats breakdown.

Anyway, I'm bored now. If you want to believe that Sanchez has performed a massive U turn on the City move based on Utd offering him £200k per week then fair enough. Obviously City were only offering him £4.50 and a pack of wine gums.

Thank god it wasn't Jelly Tots or we'd have lost out.

 

[nicktay2605]

The biggest point is the cost of the player per year. So eg. if you spend £100m on a player and sign him for five years at £200k/week, that's about £150m. If you get someone on a Bosman and pay them £400k/week for five years... that's about £100m. The free (or cheaper) player has the leverage of saying, 'I'm saving you £x amount in fees... I want a cut of that'.

True, and that does tally with what we paid Ibra.

 

[fez]

Jesus. First you're upset about speculation around how much Sanchez is getting/costing... you want evidence. Then you assert that he's getting no more than Pogba - evidence for that? Then you trot out the top end up the Sanchez speculation. Your argument is a mess. You can't on one hand moan about speculation whilst yourself speculating to try and construct your position.

Like I said, one side is speculating that we are going to pay a new player who won't be the best player in our team TWICE the wage of our current earner and I am arguing that its very unlikely that he will be paid more that our current top earner in Pogba. It not a hard argument to fathom yet apparently ridiculous speculation has just as much merit as sensible speculation.

There are reasons he could justifiably be on more than Pogba - justifiable in terms of successfully selling that position to Manyoo. The market has moved on since Pogba's deal... if Pogba was signed now there's a good chance he'd be on more than he currently is. Sanchez is 'only' costing ~£35m (plus agent fees), whereas to get an equivalent player it'd cost more than that, so he can argue he should have some of that 'saving' in the form of wages/signing on fee. Then he can argue they should pay him £x now because in the summer he can sign for anyone and therefore they either pay £x now or risk not getting him in the summer. Etc.

There are very few clubs that could pay him ~£300k/week and of those clubs there are very very few that would pay him that much based on their current squads. I have no doubt we are offering him more than City were, in transfer fee and wages but I get the impression that City were offering him much less on the basis they don't really need him and he wanted to go there. Sanchez could wait until the end of the season and go as a free agent but I don't think that would change his position that much salary wise.

To put it another way, if the papers hadn't said a word, how much do you think United would pay Sanchez in wages if Pogba is on ~£275,000/week. Transfer fees may have been massively inflated lately but wages haven't done the same. They have increased but not in anything like the same way as transfer fees.

 

[Alex h]

Klopp says he won't be buying anyone else this window

 

[BaZ87]

Klopp says he won't be buying anyone else this window

Assuming you're talking about what he said in his press conference then no, he didn't say that. He said what everybody already knew, he won't spend for the sake of it.

 

[fez]

**** off. Go look yourself It definitely happened though.

I'll take your word for it

You're doing it again. How do you know the reported wages being offered to Sanchez are double what the next highest paid player is getting? Unless you've seen all Utd's contracts then I assume you're basing the £200-250k figure on media reports? So Utd's top earners are getting that much because that's what you want to believe but the reported figures for Sanchez aren't true because you don't want to believe them.

Because it makes 0 sense! Literally 0. I think he will be on about £300k/week. We would **** up our wage structure for Messi, Neymar or someone like that. We wouldn't do it for a 29 year old Sanchez.

Anyway, I'm bored now. If you want to believe that Sanchez has performed a massive U turn on the City move based on Utd offering him £200k per week then fair enough. Obviously City were only offering him £4.50 and a pack of wine gums.

I think he is signing for United over City because we are prepared to pay him more, play him more and we have met Arsenals valuation of him. You're just being ridiculous now.

 

[Alex h]

Assuming you're talking about what he said in his press conference then no, he didn't say that. He said what everybody already knew, he won't spend for the sake of it.

What I've read is he thinks you have lallana who can fill that position that coutinho left.which might be right .But I'd have thought had be looking for another central defender. as that's your weakest part of the team or goalkeeper

 

[jonneymendoza]

Right then do all of us a favour and go support Utd will you??

Huge asset for us? Was that when he was throwing his toys out of the pram?? Sulking like the little boy that he was?? Like I said we got the best out of him and since then he hasn’t been anywhere as good as he used to be.

No he showed passion and wanted to win unlike most of our crap players that don't give a damm.

He has worked his socks off while others don't. He has won us so many vital points in his time with us and shows proper desire and determination to win. All he and other arsenal fans ask for is for everyone on the pitch to show the same desire as well but they don't

 

[BaZ87]

I'll take your word for it

Because it makes 0 sense! Literally 0. I think he will be on about £300k/week. We would **** up our wage structure for Messi, Neymar or someone like that. We wouldn't do it for a 29 year old Sanchez.

I think he is signing for United over City because we are prepared to pay him more, play him more and we have met Arsenals valuation of him. You're just being ridiculous now.

1. You should, it's true.
2. Why does it make no sense and what wage structure? It's very strongly reported and featured in the football leaks thing (which nobody got sued over which is worth considering) that Zlatan ended up earning over £400k per week last season after bonus's.
3. I was taking the **** Meeting Arsenal's valuation meant little to nothing, Sanchez ultimately dictated where he was going. Given the relatively small transfer fee involved then I'd hazard a guess that City would have been paying him around £250k per week (that's what the press reported too ) - all things being equal, do you move to Utd over City for £50k per week?

What I've read is he thinks you have lallana who can fill that position that coutinho left

He actually says Lallana isn't a replacement for Coutinho, he's simply saying that we're not desperate to sign anybody and that Lallana being fit is another player that we didn't have earlier in the season. It does seem unlikely that we'll sign another attacker this window though, unfortunately.

 

[Alex h]

He actually says Lallana isn't a replacement for Coutinho, he's simply saying that we're not desperate to sign anybody and that Lallana being fit is another player that we didn't have earlier in the season. It does seem unlikely that we'll sign another attacker this window though, unfortunately.[/QUOTE]
I think your attack is up there with the best in prem with the pace and movement youve got and someone's on to a tanking from you soon.But your defence is your problem look at the city result last week 4 1 up then finished 4 3 and they had a great chance to level.

 

[BaZ87]

When we had Coutinho we had 4 outstanding players for our front 3 and then Sturridge, Ings and Solanke to cover. Now we have 3 for 3 positions and then a massive drop off.

 

[Alex h]

When we had Coutinho we had 4 outstanding players for our front 3 and then Sturridge, Ings and Solanke to cover. Now we have 3 for 3 positions and then a massive drop off.

Yeah I can see your point there but still think your defence is your weakest position .l also read that your looking to get rid of sturridge which is a shame but understandable injury wize