Transfer thread for 2016-17 season

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I'd rather have kept Pritchard and £7m, plus a more reasonable wage than sign Zaha, frankly.
He's alright, but he's not anything special and he's definitely not a starter, so what's the point?

We did some good business early on in this window, but some of the later stuff is a mess.
N'Koudou and N'Jie still not done, no suitable back-up for Dembele on the horizon and various dragged out moves going nowhere.
This would be an equally uninspiring move, for me.
 
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Spurs or Sex? said:
While I'd say Zaha isn't a step up on Townsend and so it's somewhat of a weird transfer for us to be interested in...
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Haha with Townsend leaving us so recently, it does seem a bit like we've done a swap. <laugh>

Townsend wasn't good enough when we had him, so is Zaha gonna be good enough? We've progressed over the last year, too.
Strange one for me.
 
Citizen Kane said:
Largely agree with this apart from the description of Fergie.

The man struck gold with the 'class of 92' and essentially lived off that reputation for the rest of his career. The remainder of his successes in the transfer market were due to United's financial clout, not his ability to spot talent. He signed his fair share of duds over the years, especially towards the end of his tenure.

His record as a motivator and tactician was flawless. His record as a 'shrewd' judge of the market was as hit and miss as the next bloke.
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Yeah true he did have his fair share of flops, especially in the latter part of his tenure but there were still some very astute signings outside of the 92 class, both in terms of potential or value for money; Ronaldo, Cantona, Park, Vidic, Evra, Yorke, van der Sar, Ruud and I'm sure others I've forgotten.
 
Roo said:
Haha with Townsend leaving us so recently, it does seem a bit like we've done a swap. <laugh>

Townsend wasn't good enough when we had him, so is Zaha gonna be good enough? We've progressed over the last year, too.
Strange one for me.
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There is every possibility that we didn't really want to sell Townsend, but Poch forced his own hand due to his authoritarian approach to player discipline and now wants a like-for-like replacement who won't break the bank.
 
Spurs or Sex? said:
Yeah true he did have his fair share of flops, especially in the latter part of his tenure but there were still some very astute signings outside of the 92 class, both in terms of potential or value for money; Ronaldo, Cantona, Park, Vidic, Evra, Yorke, van der Sar, Ruud and I'm sure others I've forgotten.
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All of those players apart from Ronaldo and Park were pretty much proven talents well before SAF 'spotted' them. Cantona had a top season at Leeds, Yorke banged them in for fun at Villa, while the others were well established players at pretty big clubs. Van Der Sar must have been 38 when Fergie 'spotted' him <laugh>
 
Citizen Kane said:
The most important question is:

Is Zaha a step up from what we already have?

He hasn't got the best scoring record but that could largely be down to playing next to the collosal bellend with the turning circle of a combine harvester that is Connor Wickham.
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I usually like your posts as you always give us a clear picture of what you think so I am confused by your fence sitting over what kind of player Wickham is <laugh>
 
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Citizen Kane said:
There is every possibility that we didn't really want to sell Townsend, but Poch forced his own hand due to his authoritarian approach to player discipline and now wants a like-for-like replacement who won't break the bank.
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Perhaps, but isn't GKN that player though?
I'm just a bit baffled by this one.

If there was to be this extra player at the end of the window, I thought it'd have been a different type of player than another winger type.
 
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Citizen Kane said:
There is every possibility that we didn't really want to sell Townsend, but Poch forced his own hand due to his authoritarian approach to player discipline and now wants a like-for-like replacement who won't break the bank.
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So are people saying Zaha is best on the right ??
If so, why did we not sign a zippy right-sider before ?? (N')Jeez.
 
Citizen Kane said:
His record as a motivator and tactician was flawless. His record as a 'shrewd' judge of the market was as hit and miss as the next bloke.
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To some extent. Djemba and Djemba, Bellion, Bebe etc were woeful (although the latter two had the physical attributes to be top players - how much was down to the players concerned not taking the opportunities they were given?)

And you can't blame a manager from buying the best players available if he can (Keane & Ferdinand, for example,delivered exactly what they were bought for)

But it's easy to forget that many of the best players he signed weren't big names when they arrived and were signed for a (comparative) song - Schmeichel, Vidic, Evra, Ronaldo, Kanchelskis, Cantona, Viv Anderson, McClair, Irwin, Johnsen, Solskjaer, van der Sar, Hernandez
 
Citizen Kane said:
All of those players apart from Ronaldo and Park were pretty much proven talents well before SAF 'spotted' them. Cantona had a top season at Leeds, Yorke banged them in for fun at Villa, while the others were well established players at pretty big clubs. Van Der Sar must have been 38 when Fergie 'spotted' him <laugh>
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Lol scouting for 38 year olds is still legit! <laugh>

Must admit I'd never heard of Vidic prior to joining Utd, the rest I see your point with.
 
remembercolinlee said:
I usually like you posts as you always give us a clear picture of what you think so I am confused by your fence sitting over what kind of player Wickham is <laugh>
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<laugh>

I had no qualms with him until last season when he used all 3 of their games against us to inflict as much physical pain on our players as possible. It was his recklessly brutal mid-air elbow that caused Vertonghen to land awkwardly and miss 3 months of the season. At which point, I submitted an application for Wickham to be reclassified as

'Bellendus Collosus'
 
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Schalke confirm that Bentaleb will be wearing the number ten shirt
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This could be a mere coincidence, given Meyer wears the No7 despite being Schalke's most obvious No10, but I seem to recall Bentaleb played in a more advanced role in the Academy side

Alos, another one for the OP
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Roo said:
Perhaps, but isn't GKN that player though?
I'm just a bit baffled by this one.

If there was to be this extra player at the end of the window, I thought it'd have been a different type of player than another winger type.
Click to expand...

<ok>

100%

There are still gaping holes in the squad - proper competition for Dembele and Eriksen/Alli for starters. I see an ideal squad of 25 as comprised of 22 'primary' players, two in every position pushing each other for a spot in the starting XI, plus 3 young stars looking to break through.

We are very, very close to accomplishing this:

Lloris
Vorm

Walker Toby Jan Rose
Tripper CCTV Kev Davies

Dier Dembele
Wanyama Winks
Carroll

Lamela Alli Eriksen
Son Onomah GKN Zaha

Kane
Janssen
Edwards/Harrison

At the back, there is healthy competition almost everywhere (with the exception of Trippier who is miles off of Kyle's level), plus a youth prospect coming through.

Central midfield looks healthy defensively and in terms of youth prospects, but we are sorely lacking a player to push for Dembele's spot.

Up front - based on what we've seen so far from Janssen - looks spot on, although I'd be happier with a 3rd striker being brought in.

The problem area is attacking midfield. Our 3 regular starters have completely different styles to any of the back up, whilst much of the back up appears to be the same player cloned in slightly different heights and hairstyles, especially if you factor in Chadli's likely departure.

This means that - uniquely - those players aren't really there to provide direct competition. None of them can do what Alli or Eriksen can do, for example. They are there - all of them - to provide a Plan B.
Onomah is the only player there who could perhaps do what Alli does, but it is unlikely.

The problem with having lots of similar Plan B players is that if your Plan A is working well and one of the cogs in it picks up a length injury, there will be a noticeable drop in quality. We saw this last season whenever Carroll/Mason/Son came into the side. We didn't see it when Kev came in, nor this season when Wanyama and Janssen have come in. I know HBIC and I mention his name at least twice a day, but someone like Tielemans would push Alli in particular to the hilt. The players listed there simply won't.
 
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