Lotus

Better we get as a team the more we can charge for players we don’t need (perversely). Wouldn’t be surprised if he’s gone by next summer. Did well yesterday though. Outstanding character and good to see he’s well above the level of Tranmere. Not could say about all of the rest.

Actually forgot about Shelvey….

Once we start playing a settled back 4 we’ll find out how good he is (I have high hopes).

Would imagine he’ll struggle to make the squad by next summer. Has to be a transition for the squad. Place holders like him who love the club probably have their place tbf.

Even if Isak only trains with us for a day, he can’t be less of a goal threat than Wood.

Would think he can play either the 10 or the right spot in a 4 2 3 1. Bruno with a proper DM next to him. Bob’s your uncle.

De Gea is an excellent keeper like. Surely that’s not open to discussion? Had a few rough moments which are always costly in his position given the likely cost of such. Still one of the top keepers in the league imo.

Longstaff is really not suited to a deeper role. His awareness of players behind him and what space to occupy is poor. He’s a decent sub for the 1st team if we want to press. His passing is ok imo and he can use both feet pretty well. I’m sure it helps having local lads who are die hard fans playing for the club. Helps the culture and generating togetherness. He’s not awful, just average and if his wages are low, for where we are I reckon that’s ok.

I think you’ve misunderstood my post.

The Bed Wetting Police will be here in a sec…….

With 2 years left on his contract, £40m for Maddison is nowhere near realistic by anyone’s metric.

Er....wasnt being serious...

Who?

It’s not that. I love your positivity, I really do. It’s your apparent complete lack of subjective assessment of any ManU player or player heavily linked. It’s you thing I guess and it’s funny. Players, coaches, managers, they’re always amazing and the best in the world before they’ve even got their feet under the table. Except the owners I guess, haven’t seen you say too much good about them tbf.

Key point i think is that he wasn’t the best DM in the world until they were linked. If, for some reason he stays at Madrid he will tumble back down the DM global leaderboard ?

What kind of player is he then?

How the f*** would he know like? How could someone outside of the select few know in advance when a club is likely to contact another club with an offer? Wihout a serious leak that has got to be BS, surely?

Sorry if I’m mistaken but I’m sure you were very positive on Fred last season.

Also, what he said…..

As has been pointed out before, in the past Howe has been quite wedded to the UK market. That mayyyyyyy be a factor. Hard to say as the signings of Bruno and Botman obvs defy this. We also don’t know if Howe genuinely had much input in the scouting of those players. But, the UK market rarely offers value for money. Clearly, the idea that the player is acclimated to the place and culture pushes the price up. Wonder if there’s any data to actually support the notion that English based players are lower risk? We were fairly quick with Pope and Botman. I’m guessing there is a line of thought that strikers are always harder to find. Couldn’t validate that myself, every team has them like! The pattern of our forward targets is a little strange to me. The Joke Maddison bid is a definite outlier. Some obvs similarities between Pedro and Etikite. Ramos, I dunno. The point there is that I’m struggling to see the pattern other than value for money. But, I’m not in the room with them so can only come to half baked conclusions from the little evidence presented.

I've got to say, there are clubs all over Europe buying young players from £7m to £15m that fill out their squad and some of them go on to become very good players who are worth a lot more. The rest of them do just that, fill out the squads. Clearly we either don't have any scouts of contacts good enough yet (more than probable) or we have a management committee that is not willing to take any risks. But every club has to take risks. You pay more to mitigate that risk but if clubs always went for the absolute sure fire option the transfer market would be incredibly low volume. The bar is very low as far as RW goes in our team. We also don't have a DM at all. There are low cost options out there who are better than Murphy and better than nothing. Given our staff recruitment so far, I'm sure it's something we will address. In the meantime, we will have to watch them lurch around a bit.

Maybe it was never us?

Aye, with our current availability Bruno has to play there.

Really liked the look of Botman on YT but the fact is he hasn’t played for us. I’ll be sensible and judge him after a run of games.

If we could actually get a striker and a wide player (on loan) then I would like us to get a proper athletic DM who is actually aware of how to play that position. Bruno looks top as deep lying playmaker but I think he has some lapses on the actual defensive side of the game with players drifting in behind him. He’s also not particularly strong nor quick. Magic with the ball though and very good at nicking it further up the pitch.