I do love this argument. Are you suggesting that had Liverpool tried to sign Maguire that Leicester would have accepted £50m from us? The 'Utd tax' is nothing more than a myth. Selling clubs will always try to get as much money as possible for their players, it just so happens that Utd have continuously been willing to pay the ott fees selling clubs have demanded where as other sides have walked away from those deals. And that's why Utd have ended up with one of the costliest squads in world football and yet are sitting in mid table, and why they have continuously struggled to sell players too.
Solskjær... on borrowed time + board/ownership issues
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I do love this argument. Are you suggesting that had Liverpool tried to sign Maguire that Leicester would have accepted £50m from us? The 'Utd tax' is nothing more than a myth. Selling clubs will always try to get as much money as possible for their players, it just so happens that Utd have continuously been willing to pay the ott fees selling clubs have demanded where as other sides have walked away from those deals. And that's why Utd have ended up with one of the costliest squads in world football and yet are sitting in mid table, and why they have continuously struggled to sell players too.
This tax thing is even funnier when you look back at when Liverpool bought Mane, VVD, Alisson, Henderson, Wijaldum, Salah, etc in that everyone commented saying they paid a ludicrous amount, yet are now bargains. Man U's recruitment has been appalling for a long time and hence why they keep overspending on players, not because they're held to ransom.
I read Southgate's name being mentioned somewhere about replacing Solskjaer, probably a BS rumour but funny all the same.
I read Southgate's name being mentioned somewhere about replacing Solskjaer, probably a BS rumour but funny all the same.
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There is a rich club tax but it's definitely not a United tax, a lot of big clubs face the same thing. The problem is that we're trying to buy players exclusively from clubs who have no reason to sell and can afford to put ridiculous prices on their players. Our insistence on waiting until a player has 'made it' before trying to buy them is what costs us. We could have got Maguire for a fraction a few years before we did.
Liverpool could have got VVD from Celtic for a quarter of what we paid but there’s always that ‘can they hack it in the Premier League?’ Thought. Many players have come with big reputations and failed to flourish.
Maguire is an average player at best, hes worth 20m at the most. Man Utd got mugged by giving 80m.
Hes good in the air but apart from that hes terrible, I watched the Sheffield Utd game and he kept giving the ball away with simple passes.
As with Solskjaer he will be gone by Christmas imo
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Hindsight is a great thing but Man Utd jumped into the decision to give Ole the job.
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Sorry but that is nonsense. Maguire was poor against Sheffield but overall his passing has been fine. Maguire is definitely good, the problem is he doesn't match up to the great defenders like Rio or Vidic.
But if we didn't give him the job Barca, RM and the like would all have instantly sacked their managers and gave him £50m to sign on with them!
Its hard to say how each of those guys would have been without the players around them as well. The whole defensive unit was great at the time. They still made mistakes but when those mistakes aren't costing you games they are quickly forgotten.
Thats kind of the issue with defenders. When you have a top quality team which is great going forwards and has a solid midfield, you don't have as much defending to do because the other team is pinned back and your midfield does their job of shielding you. You are also under less scrutiny when you are top of the league and winning all your games. 2-1, who cares about that goal. 4-2, who cares.
I'm not sure about that. Man City are clearly suffering as their back line isn't up to the task, they have a great midfield and attack. Liverpool are somewhat of an example, they haven't kept a clean sheet at home all season, yet are 8 points clear, that's pretty mad.
Utd don't pay significantly more for players than any other rival club just because they are 'Man Utd'. The expense comes from buying 'in the moment' hyped players rather than identifying players with the right profile or talent earlier. Utd are the type of club that would buy Andy Robertson for £80m rather than spotting the potential when he could have been had for £8m. If you constantly target players that are at their zenith, they won't come cheap - particularly if they are English.
Arguably the only recent exception is Daniel James, but there you are paying the English tax, not some mythical Utd tax. There is plenty of value to be had if you have a capable recruitment structure.
Arguably the only recent exception is Daniel James, but there you are paying the English tax, not some mythical Utd tax. There is plenty of value to be had if you have a capable recruitment structure.
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For the past ten games we have been playing with no big number players with the exception of Maguire which was massively inflated due to poaching him from Leicester City. Look at the squad that played villa. Only Maguire and Fred cost more than £50 million.
All that expenditure that United have spent has mostly been sold on because they were just not right. Di Maria and Lukaku are 130 million between them alone. There is no denying we have spent a lot and spent it mostly wrong but to assume the team we are fielding now is full off massive big number players is just wrong.
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But a load that cost 30m+, Mata, Lindelof. Surely you've paid all of Martial's fee now? Wasn't he something mental back then? Also Wan Bisakka played that game?
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AWB was 45 million, and Martial 36 plus add ons. Mata was worth 30 odd million all those years ago but not now.
People expect United run around with 70 million+ players every week but we don't anymore. Pogba hasn't played since August!
30 million is bang average for anything in the top 6 now to be honest.
So unless you run with mentally priced players you aren't going to be beating Villa, Sheff Utd, Bournemouth etc?
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Please this isn't the 90's anymore.
Do City have a balanced midfield though. You can have all the talent you want in midfield but unless then shield the defence at least a bit then you will struggle.
The point stands, though. With the players they have - even if not the "top" players costing £30m plus - United should be beating most sides in the league.
80M for a good centre half what world you live in?.
For 80m id expect the best centre half the world has seen!