The question is finding them. All the clubs want the same thing and make a fortune. But these so called rough diamonds or "potential" are themselves very expensive with prices going through the roof in recent years. Martial, a young player of great potential, cost £58m, the same as a star striker like benzema or Aguero. Finding potential whom no one else is aware of is proving more and more as rare as finding a diamond in the rough
We didnt pay £58m for Martial. Nowhere near. And you don't have find a player no one is aware of. They'll be known. You just have to have the balls and money to take a punt on him. Ronaldo wasnt an unknown. Liverpool had the chance to buy him before us. Proper scouting and then spend the money.
At the very top everything is relative and linked to the wealth of the clubs chasing and how "rare" the talent is. It is a bit like some rare vintage Bugatti suddenly becoming available. The amount paid will be huge if the rich billionaires are desperate to get it. How desperate are Madrid, Barcelona and United to get him? That's why I am saying that if United truly need him, then they should get him (if he is willing to come). And to be honest, for a club like United paying £100m is no different to paying £70m. Just remember we paid up to £58m for a youngster with potential.
Sure but why not get the finished product for a bit more? £70m for a proven star is not much more than £40m-£50m for a player with potential. it could reach £58m.
If it reaches £58m he will have been worth it and we will have saved £12m He will last longer too unless we sell him to Madrid
I think that Moyes's and LVG's to a certain extent recruitment strategies were flawed. As manager of United they felt they had to go for every so called world class player that became available. Whether they were priority positions or not. We should go for the top players in positions that we need. A CM, a DM. A new striker that we needed is being recruited - Zlatan. Let's make sure we bring the RIGHT world class player.
Disagree on Moyes. It was widely reported that he wanted Fabregas and Kroos to strengthen the midfield. Those two sitting behind Mata would have been very, very strong. Woodward bottled it for Moyes.
But you absolutely know he exists? Good work Mystic Meg! Seriously, I think we've always been at our best when we've blended diamonds in the rough with big names. For every Ronaldo, Scholes and Giggs we bring through we've had a Robson, Sparky, Pallister, Ince, Keane, Cole, Yorke, Stam, Veron, Ruud, Rio, Carrick, Berbatov and RVP bought for a hefty sum (fair few UK transfer records in there) to give something for the diamonds to aspire to. That was SAF's genius imo - with a few exceptions he was the best there has ever been at identifying the right big name players to bring in to polish the diamonds. Keane and Cole were just what we needed to add the leadership and cutting edge to the young lads, Stam and Rio were examples for the young defenders, Carrick was the ideal foil for Scholes later in his career. To my mind that's the category Pogba falls into at the moment - the kind of all round quality player who will make the diamonds shine brighter for his presence. And given that we already have Carrick, Herrera, Schneiderlin and potentially Rooney to play CM next year, I think we should be looking at a player who is a substantial step up in quality in that position, rather than another player who will cost less but be at the level of the players we already have.
As has been pointed out before, we didn't let him go, Juve just went in there first and got him to agree a contract with wages and conditions well above what we offered. Ultimately you can't tie a player down and force them to sign a contract if they have already decided to go elsewhere. We've gotten enough players free / on the cheap from other clubs using the same methods (Pogba from Le Havre being one of them) so you can't really complain when it happens to us. Just part of the modern game.
Not really, just spend more money in that case. Arsenal were in for him before we were, and made an offer of around £6m. We just blew them out of the water financially, with our offer to the club and player, and got him as a result. Everyone knew he had the potential to be one of the best, we just were willing to put more money where our mouth was. Same principle applies here - Pogba is arguably the best CM in the world, so if we decide we want him then we'd better be willing to pay more than anyone else. Otherwise why bother even showing an interest?
The lad himself was quoted in the paper the other day as saying that SAF was round his house trying to get him to stay - so we can hardly be said to have let him go - the boy had his head turned by the bright lights and he was off. I just hope the manner of his leaving wouldn't prejudice his thinking if we ever did go in for him
Not he... they exist. Ofcourse they do, otherwise the quality of football would grind to a halt. I see a difference between Pogba at £70m, from the names you've mentioned. Granted we bought Robson for a record sum of 1.8m at the time, but we were buying him from West Brom. It's not just about the price but for me "big names" means Pogba, because he's playing for an established "big club" challenging for the same honours as us. That's the difference. So when I mentioned Di Maria, I saw that direct comparison. Very few, if any of the players you quoted match that. They were established players but not big names as I see it, before we bought them and don't fall into the same category as Pogba.
It's not the same principle for the reasons you've just stated. Ronaldo had potential, he was not the best in the world. Whichever player you buy you're going to usually spend more than the next club. We also get rinsed bcos ppl expect us to pay a premium. But both of those are beside the point. We still got Ronaldo for £12m not Ronaldhino for £30m (even if we lucked out there, it shows it's worth doing)
I guess I don't really see that difference - Robson was playing for West Brom, but they finished a fair way above us in the league the season we bought him, and qualified for Europe. You might as well say Real buying Bale and Barca buying Suarez wasn't buying a big name as they weren't playing for an established big club challenging for the same honours at the time (cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth ). Remember when we got Cole from Newcastle they were close to being our main title challengers, and Stam, Veron and Ruud were also well established when we bought them, playing for top clubs in their respective leagues When we took RVP from Arsenal they were challenging us domestically (admittedly not very well, but that's Arsenal for you!). Would you be happy to buy Pogba for £70m if he was playing for Lecce instead of Juve?
The principle is the same, it's just the target that is different. If you are willing to pay top dollar to beat you rivals to young players with potential, but scrimp and save when it comes to bringing in top players, there's no real point spending so much on youth. Just look at the long line of "next big things" from Liverpool and Arsenal which have fallen flat on their faces because their clubs are unable or unwilling to pay the price needed to ensure those young players can learn from the best. We lucked out on Ronaldinho, but how did Bebe work out as a long term replacement for Ronaldo? Or Djemba2, Zaha, Anderson, Nevland, and all the other times we spent a hefty chunk on potential because the finished article was a bit too pricey?
The way I see it is we rarely buy the best (enter position in here) in the world. We usually buy an established player and turn him into the best in the world, or near damn it! Or we'll buy an established player and they won't become the best in the world but still make a big contribution in our success. All this means we have something to work with, to improve them further or at least allow them to make a name for themselves and the club. What worries me about Pogba is that he's already coming in with that rep of possibly being the best in his position and that worries me because the expectations are higher. Where we do agree is that we definitely need a mix of both the established/diamond in the rough as well as the potential and homegrown. So in answer to your question, I would buy Pogba if he was at Lecce but only if he wasn't regarded already as one of the best in the world. Probably not explaining it very well, but I know there's a difference in my head at least
I can see your argument, but we did buy Stam and RVN when they were arguably the best CB and striker in the world and they were big successes, for all my reservations about how we adapted our system to fit RVN. Also a strong argument for RVP being the best out and out striker in the world when we bought him. So I think there is an argument, and precedent, for us spending big to bring in the best players in a specific position when those players fill a specific need for the team and give us something we are currently lacking. Which I personally think Pogba would do.
