Very much agree with most of this, however I don't think Mata is expecting an automatic spot - just more game time than he's getting. The bloke is a gent and I haven't heard a peep about him complaining about the current situtation despite the WC being round the corner. We get a lot more as a team with Oscar than we do with Mata. IMO the combination of Hazard, Oscar and Willian is the best attacking midfield combination in the league. If we had a striker in the mould of Rooney, we'd be twice as good.
It's a fair assessment. Jose is the manager and must pick the team to do the best job. Mata may well be one of our best players with the ball at his feet but when defending and without the ball, probably not as effective as Oscar and Hazard for instance. You can't deny that with relatively small tweeks in the squad, Jose has got us competing again in the league which hasn't been the case at all since Mata joined. That's obviously not all Mata's fault but I'm more concerned with the team than any individual.
He has been the ultimate professional and kept any frustrations to himself (regardless of what was said about his reaction at Soton, he's human and eveyone is allowed to look pissed off from time to time). Not tweeted or gone to the papers like some primadondas have, but I wonder how long he will accept his position for, having been the focal point of the team for the last couple of years. I hope he stays and adapts to Jose's style of play.
I agree mate, and to be fair Jose did say as much too! However if a nice £35-40m bid comes in, I can't see us rejecting it.
Brilliant business, but I really would hate to see Mata wearing a United shirt . Let's hope we can conjur up some sort of deal with Atletico eh.
I can't really get my head around this. Selling him to a team so he can play against our rivals. It's two games....the long term effect would be much worse, we've seen how good a player he is over the last two years, it wont help us at all. 37M is a wonderful price but selling him to a team in our league? Outrageous. They wont sell us Rooney so i can't even see why we're considering selling Juan to them (assuming we are). He's one of the best players i've ever watched and seeing him in a Man Utd would be too much. If he goes, which he should as he's too good not to play then it should be abroad as there will be a number of teams wanting one of the best players in the world.
Exactly. It's not that dissimilar to Modric. Ultimately Levy was prepared to take less money from Madrid rather than strengthen a potential rival. My view would be the same. 35 million to abroad or 50 million to United plus Rooney and Cleverley (to mow the SB pitch)!!
Bayern, PSG, Atletico, Barca All would be interested in Mata and as long as we state to them that the fee is non-negotiable at 35m then whichever puts the money up gets him. Only reason for us to sell Mata is if a striker is coming in for big money. United were down at the end of City's title winning season, a top signing from a rival with Van Persie galvanised them to win the title. I don't want to see that happening. Jose should be kicking them in the balls when they are down, not giving them a hand up.
He's a clever sod, he knows that we play City and Arsenal in the next couple of weeks and he wants Mata to help him out.
That would be very short-term thinking on his part. Mata like Ozil did for us, would no doubt reinvigorate them and could be the start of a new era at United.
Doubt it. I don't think even Chelsea would run a club like that, stringing one of their own players along just to play childish games with another club
