Manchester United launch £15 million Cabaye raid

The Sunday People / Daily Mirror are running with the story below.

"Manchester United have launched a £15million bid for unsettled Newcastle midfielder Yohan Cabaye, writes the Sunday People.
The champions are hoping to pip big-spending Paris St Germain and Monaco, who are both keen to take the French ace back home.
Cabaye, who cost the Geordies just £4.5m from Lille two years ago, has made it clear he would prefer to take up a fresh challenge in the Premier League.
And they don’t come any bigger than at Old Trafford, where new boss David Moyes is itching to make his first big-money signing after succeeding Sir Alex Ferguson.
The interest from United is another headache for Newcastle who fear being forced to sell Papiss Cisse over the Wonga shirt row.
Moyes wants a box-to-box midfielder and the 27-year-old Cabaye, also a free-kick specialist, is an ideal fit.
The French international, whose contract still has three years to run, has netted 10 goals in two seasons in the Premier League but became disillusioned with Newcastle after last term’s relegation near miss.
The appointment of former Toon boss Joe Kinnear as director of football has done nothing to ease his frustration with Kinnear labelling the club’s vice-captain Kebab in a radio interview."

Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/manchester-united-launch-15million-cabaye-2071196

Personally, I cannot see him being sold for that unless his depression is worse than being reported or he is badly unsettled.
Either way the worry has to be it could encourage other bids...

 

free-kick specialist... So anybody who scores like 2 free-kicks a season is a specialist?

Anyway, Cabaye at Man Utd? That'd be a bit of a joke really, because he's not good enough for them. I still think him and a few other of "the boys" are holding the French national team back, thankfully.

He's a decent player, sure, but he's far from the Gerrard of Newcastle that some people seem to think he is. He goes missing far too often, is prone to rash and spiteful challenges, his passing isn't as good as any of the top 5 club's CMs in my opinion, and he's a bit short to play in a 4-4-2 against a Stoke etc. I'd take £9 million in truth, double our money, and wish him well. Maybe he'll be better managed or fit better into their team and expose his better attributes more fully. Then again, I might just be jealous that he's a ridiculously sexy individual.

 

Bought for £4.5m then sold for £15m.

The Ashley plan in motion.

 

When are they allowed to peel away the "70% off sticker" that he's been playing with stuck on his head since he moved here?

 

Written by Alan Oliver, the bitter ex Chronicle drunk

Sure this paper has had him off to PSG, Arsenal, Monaco and now Manure

Paper sales must be down and he has to keep his booze income somehow

 

Tis laugable

 

Have to agree100% with all this .Very overrated for me .Don't get me wrong he is good but not what the fans make him out to be.

 

And the rest, Carroll 35 cayabe 15m
Move on

 

id take £20m but not £15.

wouldn't be sad to see him go for me sissoko is the the better player out of the two

 

If Man Utd buy Cabaye they will be very disappointed with their investment. He simply isn't good enough for them imo

 

Agree about Cabaye about being overrated. Think some fans got carried away over Cabaye.

 

Cabaye playing in the right system with a team that passes the ball is a great player, unfortunately last season that was not us. He was told by Pardew we'd play carpet football upon his arrival, Pardew has admitted as much and confirmed it was the major factor that persuaded Cabaye to choose us.

It just didn't happen at all last season, Cabaye clearly grew frustrated and unhappy and like anyone in any profession when you're unhappy you simply don't perform to the best of your ability.

In the right team he's worth 20 million and with Sissoko, HBA, Anita, Tiote we have the players that are tailored to help build a team around Cabaye and HBA (our two most gifted players, Colo's better but not as naturally gifted as these two). I guess we won't know if this will happen until 8-10 games in to the new season and only if he stays (which I doubt he will).

 

Really like Cabaye as a player but he was shocking last year. I've heard every excuse under the sun made for him (most as ever circling around Pardew), but bottom line for me is HE did not perform. All this "played too deep" bollocks was quickly trampled when he played further forward at various stages and was still ****e

I'd still like to keep him but he is fairweather in that he won't lead. When things are good, he is great, when things are bad he looks for the best place to hide. He could look great for a Man U but I'm not sure they'd appreciate someone so fairweather? Anyway if they were to bid, it'll be goodbye. That's football and no one can moan at board or manager. Massive club, if they come asking at a club like ours, the player asks to go. No big drama.

 

Not so much whether he played deep or further forward for me, more that in 90% of the games he played in the ball was kicked from defence to attack about 40ft over his head, It can't be denied that this wasn't the case because it's shown by the long ball statistics per game.

He was poor, that can't be denied and he must shoulder some of the blame, but our style of play isolated him just as much as it did Cisse.

 

As I say there are no excuses for me. He was a big part of why we struggled to get our passing game going. He didn't want to know when the going got tough and struggled to retain possession under pressure. They lost confidence in giving him the ball, and he had disappeared up his own arse the rest of the time. He was just very poor.

Long ball statistics are what they are. Incredibly inaccurate as they don't take into consideration a number of factors. Like most statistics they are only of minimal use. Watching the team is of far more use to me. They are any number of reasons for our poor direct play. Colo missing, Tiote/Cabaye unable to control or pass the ball but the main one is just confidence. You only have to look at the improvement in our passing game and Cabaye when we had the boost from influx in Jan. It was fragile though and quickly slipped when the pressure re-emerged.

I'm sure we'll see a nice passing game if we start the season well. Can we maintain that under the cosh though? Part of that is down to how they are trained, part of that is down to their character.

 

A teams style of play is all about how they're coached. I mean Swansea under Rodgers and Laudrup are a passing team. It's about the bravery of the manager to say pass the ball out from the back and if you get one wrong and the other team nip in and score I'll take the blame and not lay it at your door.

I completely agree that Colo is integral to this and him missing large parts did not help especially when Williamson is his replacement. Cabaye isn't a captain though but was made captain yesterday even though we had Saylor and MYM (a natural leader according to Pardew) so the signs are that Pardew hasn't learnt too many lessons from last season.

At the end of the day yesterday was a friendly so nobody is too bothered and it's far too early to go judging Pardew or ranting about him. In theory he should start the season with a clean slate, however in practice this won't happen because if the same mistakes from last season are on show in the first few games people will be ready with the pitch forks, it's human nature.

Back on topic I believe Cabaye will go and it will be for anywhere between 14-25 million.

 

Seen this in the papers and was seriously head scratching.

'If we don't get Fabregas, we'll go for Cabaye...'

Seems a load of utter ****e to me, they are hardly similar players are they? Style or stature.

Journo's get paid such good money for ****e, any one of u could make up a more likely tale than this.

 

Can't agree with this. It isn't all about coaching, its about character too and some of it has to come from the players themselves. Its also hugely about confidence. When Wigan were going badly, they went very direct at times despite having a manager who was famed for passing football. Laudrup is actually a very good example. When Swansea went through their tough trot after winning the Carling Cup, they weren't pretty to watch at times. It shows just how much of it is mental.

Its just too simplistic to say "ah they are not coached correctly" but obviously it also plays a part. Maybe not always in the way people think. KK had a very loose coaching method. No real drills done on passing etc. He worked incredibly hard on putting the onus on players expressing themselves, making them feel they were the best and basically overflowing with confidence. I think Pardew clearly struggled to communicate with his players in this regard. Pardew maybe needs to tweak his coaching a little away from getting the structure right, and get the players more taking responsibility. Of course it is easier to do that with a strong spine which we don't have.

 

I think you're doing a slight disservice to us there mate. I mean Krul, two from Taylor, Colo & MYM at the back, then 2/3 (depending on formation) from Cabaye, Sissoko, Anita, Tiote & Bigi is a decent spine. We lack up top but I actually think our spine is very good. Five of those players all have experience of winning titles which isn't the be all and end all but it shows that they're winners to some extent.

 

How much is Seb Larsson worth then?.