I don’t see him as being a million miles away from the Depay at United tbh.
Don’t think he’s in any way an arsehole of a problem child or anything like that, I think there are justifiable concerns about whether he wants it enough though. There was some talk a while ago about how he was one of those footballers who doesn’t really like football that much and how he’s actually way more passionate about his music production or something. Might be nothing to that but without the drive to make it, he’s not gonna make it. Certainly not at United anyway.
Don’t get me wrong, don’t think he’ll make it at United. Just think he’ll be part of the growing trend of players around 22 or 23 that are sold by top clubs, only to be a worldie at another big club 2 years later
Aye, that may well be the case. It probably will in fact but if it does happen I don’t think it will be as much the fault of the manager as many will attribute it to.
Same as Zaha to an extent innit, was way too immature to get the move he got at the time, is now flourishing having got his head down.
Buybacks are basically gentlemen’s agreements in Premier League football as far as I’m aware. Not sure the ones we have with Depay or Januzaj hold any sway in practice (not that I can see us going back for either)
Aye. Shows an inherent flaw with the system at the moment. You buy young because you can attract the top talent and world class players are so expensive in their peak, but there’s no room for mistakes in most top teams, which means they don’t get played, get sold, peak elsewhere and make a tidy profit for the intermediary club. Even when the club is doing it for profit, like Chelsea, it’s hard to argue it’s the most efficient use of those resources when other clubs are seeing the big bucks, not them
Think it’s an increasingly challenging model for top clubs, and I hope to see the likes of Sessegnon putting off a big move until they’re ready to play in the first team. Also. fair play to Madrid for if they do decide they’ve got the talent to compete and give it a bit of room to breathe
Seems like this is how we’ll be lining up… if Evans gets injured or Maguire goes then we’ll have Wes Morgan in our back line and that’s terrifying, his legs have completely gone now.
Still unconvinced by Chilwell and Gray but hopefully they’ll come on this year. Really excited to see Pereira and Maddison, both could be great.
Think we’ll finish in the bottom half, don’t trust Claude to do any better.