Fabregas, Di Maria, Ronaldo, Ramos, Pedro to name the players he's run after like a lap dog and who have iltimately made him look a right mug. Is this guy's continuous infatuation and courting of the world's biggest names from two of the world's biggest clubs distracting us from building a proper team post-Fergie. He keeps going on about single-handedly trying to make us into some galacticos where he will overtake everyone for the big name signings. But the irony is, all he ends up doing, by the way he gets taken advantage of by the players mentioned, and the likes of Real & Barca is that they are still the bigger attraction. He is the ultimate plastic imo and I wish he would just focus on players we need rather than having his chain pulled by others. My advice to Ed would be, if you really want to show us to be the big club we are, the next time someone like Ramos says they want to come to us...say "no thanks we don't need or want you". Either that, or shut the fck up and prove yourself by your actions. Buy players that actually WANT to play for us first and foremost.
He's a marketing man and a ****ing good one at that but he doesn't seem to be a good negotiator when it comes to transfer deals. It probably doesn't help that he looks like Ian Hislop.
I'm not sure why you include Di Maria seeing as he acquired him, if he wants to leave now what can he do about it? To be honest I think he wanted to join PSG originally anyway. As for Pedro, unless I am mistaken aren't we still in for him? United's name gets bounded about so often it's difficult to gauge what's true, but do you seriously belief that LVG has no say in who he wants and so it's all down to Ed? Can't see it myself, personnaly I'm glad we are looking at top quality players, but there are no guarantees that they will want to join or their clubs will release them.
I agree with you about Di Maria wanting PSG in the first place. Which answers why included him. We paid £60m for a player who didnt want to play for us. Think about that. What motivated Woodward to buy such a player? Bcos ADM was good for the club... or bcos Woodward wanted a trophy signing? More importantly, was he the right signing? I think what I'm trying to point out is that these reactionary big name chases are a distraction from a clear vision to build the right team. Prior to Di Maria and Mata when was the last time United chased & signed a world class player? We went for them, sure we did, but not at any cost, and not at the expense of a an otherwise clear strategy to continually rebuild the team with the right players. I also agree with you that I'd like us to look at top quality players. But with Ed there is no planned strategy to acquire them. It's always driven by a spur of the moment reaction to player X wanting a move. Which is fine IF that was happening as a one off, while you could see Woodward targetting a flurry of other top quality players. But it's not. Every one of the names mentioned in the OP were reactionary. As for LVG I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this, but watch this space...Herrera is allegedly not one of his signings and what will be a tragedy is if he gets sidelined as a result of this (bcos I think he's absolute class). Same for Mata btw.
I can see why ADM was targeted last season as there was lots of disgruntled fans who felt that the truly big players were no longer obtainable. That said I'm pretty sure LVG said that he liked ADM prior to us going for him. So what I'm saying is that I think LVG is just as culpable here. That said I'm quite happy with who we have brought in although we are still light at the back and up top. The problem I am having though is that LVG seems to want to play our players out of position, but I also share your frustrations about Herrera and Mata.
Ramos just wanted a contract extension, so used UTD as a bargaining chip, also Spanish weather is better than rain in Manchester
Here's the thing I dont get with both Ramos and Pedro. Ramos says he wants a move. United go all guns blazing to get him. He doesnt come. Now couple that with season long rumours of us going for Hummels and/or Otamendi. But we made zero effort to get either. So... we put in 2 bids for a player who decided in the summer he wanted a move BUT had no plans whatsoever to bid for any other top quality CB? Instead, having been fcked around by Ramos we decide we dont want or need a CB? But clearly ae do if you're willing to spunk £40m on one. Now someone may turn around and say, the opportunity arose to buy Ramos. But is that enough of a reason to buy him. And if you really want a top quality CB why not have a clear strategy or plan to buy one which you've spent months working on. And then, how about putting in a bid to at least test the water??? Regarding Pedro, he's another one we're trying to shoehorn. We let go of Falcao and RvP (and we let go of Welbeck a year before). Do we plan to have someone to bring in to replace them? No. Once again a player (Pedro) says he wants to leave and the next thing we know we're talking about playing him as a striker. Really? That's your plan? So what happens if we dont buy him? Will we then have someone tell us actually we dont need to buy a striker? Bcos that's patently bollox. I'm not bothered if we win the title as long as we've done our job properly and put ourselves in a position to challenge at least. Does anyone really believe we've done that in this transfer window? I hope I'm wrong but I personally don't think so. Who knows, maybe there is a quality signing planned and to be delivered. But I dont see that is likely as I think LVG would have wanted them in for preseason. I dont think he would want a repeat of last summer where we were bringing in players after the season had started.
are you saying a lot of players Turned down United? Never!! Not Thiago Muller Kroos Bale Reus Koke Kane
I'll give you some of them. Thiago certainly. How many strikers turned down Chelsea before the Sulking One had to resort to signing a United reject? I'm sure you'll agree Failcao looked very sharp in the defeat to Arsenal!
Most of them were also linked in the papers to Chelsea so I guess they all turned us both down right?
Eh? Of the players you mentioned only two have gone anywhere, Tiago and Kroos. So, we missed out to Bayern with Tiago and Real with Kroos. This of course has NEVER happened to any other club, ever.