Match Day Thread General matchday thread.

It’s the food chain, Fosse.

Sunderland have plucked players from league one and two, sometimes even further down. I’m pretty sure you’ll have done that at times, too.

 

Gyokores wasn’t ‘ok’ in the Championship.

You could always see that he was levels above his opponents. The Championship was too easy for him.

 

I half agree. If Man Utd were top 5 this season then they could sign anyone they wanted, at the moment they rank a bit lower. If they go up against Liverpool, Arsenal or Man City for a player they'd struggle currently. I'd go a step further and suggest you should question the motivations of any player who signed for Man Utd over those 3 this Summer.

They should be able to sign a player ahead of Newcastle, have always been able to do so in the past and will be able to do so in future but it isn't just about league position and European football it's about what that represents. If you have a group of players who seem to be gelling and a management team who are settled it's easier to convince a player to come. It puts a huge bearing on the management of Man Utd to have to sell the dream to prospective players that things will be different when in normal circumstances they could just say "we're Man Utd" and that would be enough.

 

With Real Madrid at the top and the rest of us taking positions below (part of the reason Liverpool fans have got annoyed about the TAA situation)

 

Absolutely. Madrid is the pinnacle, every player strives to get there. Every other club is a stepping stone to achieve that.

 

'Motivation' mate? ... biggest single motivation for the majority of footballers, IMH(if somewhat cynical)O ...is money ... awful I know!...

When Benteke signed for Villa one of his entourage had to show him a map of the UK so he'd know where he would be playing ... he had no idea about the club or its history... but he understood the zeros behind the £

 

He was at Swansea and did nothing of note.

He was good at Coventry, but it still isn't premier league level, which is the point.

 

It's a huge step up - just look at Nunolito at Liverpool...

 

Yeah but he outperformed championship levels at Coventry. Whenever I seen him he always looked a level above. His record in European football is also outstanding.

I think he’ll easy handle the premier league.

 

Maybe, but it's still a maybe.

Am I concerned that a player who wants champions league football will now prefer Arsenal over us and cost them £60 million in the process?

No, I'm not. We'd have to look somewhere else.

If he did sign though, great, I'm sure he'd do better than Hojlund.

 

32 goals in 57 league games
11 goals in 19 European games

compared to Gyokores playing for a lesser team in Portugal.

68 goals in 66 league games
11 goals in 17 European games


Gyokores also passes the ‘eye test’ over Nunez. He’s clearly a better footballer with more to his game.

 

I certainly don’t think Gyokores is some kind of superstar btw. I do like him though and think he’ll be a good premier league striker. Time will tell on this one.

 

...doesn't change my view ... and I would be more than happy to see appropriate measures apply to my own club ...

If any of it was really about natural order and 'food chains' we wouldn't have had FFP and PSR in the first place - a football food chain had been in existence since the start of the professional game - those spending the most won the most... it only changed in earnest when upstarts started to gatecrash the established hierarchy ...

How can the authorities pontificate about 'sustainability' without countering the pillaging of 'assets' of smaller clubs? ... cynical answer again is that it's something else that disproportionately favours the biggest clubs ...

Easy to fix - as is more fair and equitable PSR ... but such measures level the playing field - and that's not for everybody ..

 

Stats don't tell everything- Nunez had a serious knee injury at Benfica ... but that's not really the point - it's undoubtedly a huge step from the Portugese League to the Prem - as Islam Slimani found out with us ...

 

Slimani 48 goals in 82 league games.

That’s the only time he was ever ‘prolific’ in his career. Terrible comparison.

 

I doubt there's much lure in Man U these days tbh, as well as having no Europe, new players ain't gonna be enticed by being part of the worst Man U team ever.

 

... be serious...

They are the most famous English club in the world and, like Real Madrid, are known in every corner of the globe ...

You must really dislike them ...

 

Well of course I do, but that's beside the point.

They ain't got anything like the pulling power of Real Madrid right now, and signings will reflect that.

 

The only time Gyokores has been 'prolific' is whilst playing in the same league, for the same club, as Slimani...

'Terrible comparison' ? ... or actually just the most accurate?

 

Nobody has mate ...