That's what i've heard since the game last night, i disagree with that theory, we signed Mata in January for a club record fee. Tottenham and Liverpool signed top players with no champions league football, it can be done.
TBF, the Mata deal is a bit of a red herring here. He wasn't wanted at Chelsea but they weren't prepared to let him go cheap. Its a world cup year so Mata wanted to be playing. Only one option on the table makes things much easier. I don't think one season will stop you guys from signing top players but I do think it could effect your targets. What I mean is, if a player has an option of club A or club B with onyl one of them offering CL football, they are more like to chose the one with CL football. Only other option that could outweigh that is wages so unless you throw money at the problem you could encounter more problems than usual.
Agreed. Most recent example is Hazard. He'd have never have come to us without C.L football. Is Kroos for example going to want to leave Bayern who compete at the business end of the C.L every year to go and play Europa League? Not a dig but United normally take the best players from lesser clubs in the P.L as opposed to signing top stars from abroad. It's more likely you'll raid the likes of Everton and Southampton than take one of Bayern's best.
No CL for 1 year wont be an issue. Any longer and of course it will be. United are one of those clubs that for a time will live on its name. Put us in the Championship and we'd still be able to get players at the top level here because of our name. **** sake, City sign players using our name because of its appeal..
You have to admit it will be a factor in a player's mind though. It's not like you have a great manager either or any guarantee of top 4 next season. United can attract good players on their name alone but world class players? Not so sure. Players care more about money and personal glory than history.
Money is no issue. we apparently pay the biggest wages in the league. Personal glory......... well getting it at United would open more doors that at another english club. Those 2 would be no issue. Moyes would be however but some players sign for clubs who dont even have a manager
I don't know the behind the scenes details obviously but I think your above statement has proven the case in the past, but mainly due to two reasons: 1) After some foreign failures (Veron, Forlan, Bebe etc) I think the club prefer to buy from within the PL wherever possible, given the player has the necessary quality. The reason is predominantly due to the chance that a foreign player could either battle to come to terms with the different demands of the PL, or not settle in the country. 2) When we've made bids for the big name foreign players that many of the big clubs bid for (such as Hazard), I genuinely don't think we've been willing to offer the same wages as Man City (in particular) and Chelsea (to a lesser extent) have offered. Your point about the CL is valid, but the CL is secondary to the wages I would assume in most cases. Players such as Hazard and Kroos will be offered big wages by a host of clubs, of course $$$ + CL is better than $$$ + EL or no European football. But it's not sucha problem if it's only one year without CL, obviously the issue would be if it looked like the club were going to go without CL football for an extended period. Suarez is a good example of going to a big club with a rich history, and although they weren't in the CL for some time they were always on the verge of challenging to qualify and as a player he would have felt that he could help them get back in the CL, which he has done (unfortunately).
When Luis joined us, we were a million miles away from the CL, we hadn't been in it for a couple of years either. We only just got rid of the previous owners and Woy.
True, which was my point, CL is secondary to big cash. If they had the following three options which would players choose: Manchester United: CL and 80K a week. Chelsea: CL and 100K a week. Manchester City: No CL and 200K a week.
You will be able to sign good players, but perhaps the signings may be of a more riskier nature. I'll use Suarez as an example - we signed him and everyone knew he was good, but was he (at the time) 23mil worth of good? The answer is yes - so the risk paid off. So you just have to be more shrewd and be slightly more riskier in the market as most of the egotistical top players want CL football.
I'm certainly no Liverpool expert, but Suarez joined in Jan 2011. Liverpool finished the previous season (2009-10) in 7th place, yet the 4 season prior to that finished 3rd, 3rd, 4th and 2nd (2008-09). Not exactly relegation battlers prior to his arrival, and with quality in the spine of the team (Reina, Carragher, Skrtel, Johnson, Gerrard, Lucas, Kuyt).
So why did RvP join Man Utd then when its widely reported that Man City offered more money? What you put above is right but then, for the non-CL side, you doubled what was on offer anywhere else. that is exactly how Man City got the players. Now translate that to current wage figures. A top player will command around £150k per week as standard. If Chelsea and/or Man City want a player you guys do, you'll have to offer £300k per week to encourage him through money. Four or five players on that kind of money adds up, it equates to £62.4m or £78m per season! I don't believe money is the sole criteria for all players. For some it is no question, why else would we see players like Eto'o, Samba, M'Vila, etc disappear to Russian? But there are just as many players out there that take a pay cut to make a deal happen too. Some have true ambition and desire for CL football, those players will be harder for Man Utd to sign IF a CL qualified team is also interested.
We were in the EL the season before too although we'd dropped into it via the CL. My point was, the wheels had already clearly fell off and we'd already experienced Roy Hodgson as manager too. That spine was good but feel free to look at the rest of the squad, the likes of Joe Cole, Paul Konchesky and Milan Jovanovic! We've always had a strong spine as long as I can remember, doesn't mean we've had a good team.
I take your points. Suarez however wasn't a world star when he joined Liverpool. He had discipline issues and was coming from a weak league so there was an element of risk. Obviously every top club would gladly have him now but he didn't go to Liverpool ahead of a load of top CL clubs cos they weren't interested at the time. Had a top C.L club made offers, I'm sure he'd have gone there instead.
No, but they did have to pay some silly wages and fees to get the ball rolling. United are a business and wont give the likes of an Adebayor 180k a week. I'm saying it's a factor. Won't entirely stop you getting good players but it'll be hard to get players other top clubs want, especially within the confines of running United as a business. .
