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Mou sides don't chase everything down. I doubt that'll happen any more. It stopped happening under Poch, which I think was a part of the decline in Spurs fortunes.
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there's a frog in my snake oil
Awww yeah

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1306934724707917825



The oddest turn of events seems to have turned up

The gossip-maesters that usually call this stuff right reckon it's all signed off.

We may be flat on the pitch, but the transfers are jumping . Midfield steel and a right-back rampager at a snip, now a promising Real Madrid LB and Gareth 'Love Heart' Bale . With supposed irons in the fire for a decent striker and another CB. Can't complain

(Oh yeah, and Joe Hart too )
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Only two things really struck me about the weekend. Firstly, has the signing of Bale sparked interest in the Spurs team or were Kane and Son just in better shape after another weeks training and a competative game? Also, whilst a good win and it might be churlish to mention it, but were Spurs lucky to win so convincingly on the scoreboard? Because I didn't see a 5-2 game.

Secondly, was anyone actually surprised United lost to Palace or is it just to serve the story? Because I'd have been more surprised if United had won after seeing Palace last weekend. It's exactly the kind of team United didn't want to face one day one, especially as they're playing catch up and the atmosphere around the place must be pretty bad.

How about the rest of you?



Didn't catch the Spurs game, but I totally expected Bale's transfer to give them a lift.
Delle's transfer saga seems weird but not surprising. It just feels like Mourinho doesn't trust him. And we all know what happens after that.



Watched the United game, and Palace deserved to win. You lot desperately need additions.


Everton are going to ruin someone's top four hope. At least the Derby will be competitive this season.


Our game was a weird one. We controlled it even when it was 11vs11 without making any proper inroads, with Chelsea (or rather Werner) showing flashes of good play. After the Red card, it was just too easy. Thiago looks mint. My all time favourite player, Xabi Alonso will finally be replaced.


I feel bad for Kepa. Reminds me of Karius, when his confidence was destroyed. He needs to go away from a major league or return to Spain.


I also feel bad for losing out on Werner. Boy looks special, even though on Sunday Fabinho dealt with him well. But Werner is going to be a star.



there's a frog in my snake oil
Spurs game was a bizarre 'game of two halves', and we did look again very caged in / uninspired in the first half. Was good to see Ndombele work his magic to get first goal underway though. (Great strength, great trick, great pass). Southampton's high line was absurd and there for the taking though throughout. HK did look fresher (but he has been down on pre-season time due to quarantine etc). Good to see him in quarterback mode and Son in full flow though, regardless of the circumstances

My main other takeaway from the w/e is I'm going to watch every Leeds game I can



To use the modern parlance. Lucky AF.
Certainly luckier than me - I got paid out on the draw only to see the money then disappear a couple of minutes later



We've gone on holiday by mistake
Certainly luckier than me - I got paid out on the draw only to see the money then disappear a couple of minutes later
Bet365 have an offer if you're team is 2 goals up, they payout. Today I had Sampdoria, 2-0 up, I got the payout, they lost 2-3 ........
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The thing isolated becomes incomprehensible
To use the modern parlance. Lucky AF.

ManUn is a strange club. They spend absurd amounts of money in cartwheels full of crap, like spending 50M for lindelol but then doesn't want to pay a fair price by Telles...



Seeing rumours that Man Utd have moved on to Sarr, whom Klopp wanted before Jota.


We said no, because Watford wanted 35+ upfront for him. If United do get him, I expect them to pay over that.


He is a really good prospect though.



ManUn is a strange club. They spend absurd amounts of money in cartwheels full of crap, like spending 50M for lindelol but then doesn't want to pay a fair price by Telles...
Lindelof didn't pay off. They were paying for potential (after a fairly short time in the Portugese league. I'm guessing City are doing the same with Diaz, though with more experience I believe?) and don't forget there's the Premier League price, plus the extra for it being United. Almost every signing costs more for United than anyone else. That's just how it is. It's one of the many things which is so annoying about the current board. Let's say that we had our last offer for Sancho accepted. It was reported to be £91.3m. Dortmond want £100m. We could've of had him for £100m on the first day of the transfer window and it would've cost United an extra £8.7m. For a club like United it would've been worth the extra having the deal done and dusted back then with a happy and settled player who'd had time to intergrate into his new team and his new teammates with him. Especially as we know we have to overpay. If we get him for £95m the moneymen will pat themselves on the back for saving £5m, but the football people will look at this situation and think, "you wasted all that time for £5m?"

Telles is a tricky one because there's only three months until they can negotiate with him for free. Despite everyone, including me, going on about how much United have and can afford, you have to remember that United are run by money men. Not football men. And there's a lot of problems on the money side at United atm. United have a lot of big wages they want to shift and in this window there's not much chance of doing so. Jones, Rojo, Smalling and Romero all need moving on. Plus, Pereira, Lingard, James, Dalot, Fosu-Mensah and Tuanzebe all need a decision made on their futures. That is an awful lot of money to be sat doing nothing. I don't know how much Telles is on at Porto but he could quite rightly look at Rojo et al and say, well if you're paying them that much to sit there I want at least that much to play. Plus we're losing £5m per home game.

As @WrinkledMind said, if we go for Sarr, expect us to pay more than what Liverpool were asked. Not only because it's United, but because Watford will know we've given up on Sancho for now and, therefore, have money and are desperate. It's poor negotiating if nothing else and just another example of how poorly United are run from the top down.



The thing isolated becomes incomprehensible
Lindelof didn't pay off. They were paying for potential (after a fairly short time in the Portugese league. I'm guessing City are doing the same with Diaz, though with more experience I believe?) and don't forget there's the Premier League price, plus the extra for it being United. Almost every signing costs more for United than anyone else. That's just how it is. It's one of the many things which is so annoying about the current board. Let's say that we had our last offer for Sancho accepted. It was reported to be £91.3m. Dortmond want £100m. We could've of had him for £100m on the first day of the transfer window and it would've cost United an extra £8.7m. For a club like United it would've been worth the extra having the deal done and dusted back then with a happy and settled player who'd had time to intergrate into his new team and his new teammates with him. Especially as we know we have to overpay. If we get him for £95m the moneymen will pat themselves on the back for saving £5m, but the football people will look at this situation and think, "you wasted all that time for £5m?"

Telles is a tricky one because there's only three months until they can negotiate with him for free. Despite everyone, including me, going on about how much United have and can afford, you have to remember that United are run by money men. Not football men. And there's a lot of problems on the money side at United atm. United have a lot of big wages they want to shift and in this window there's not much chance of doing so. Jones, Rojo, Smalling and Romero all need moving on. Plus, Pereira, Lingard, James, Dalot, Fosu-Mensah and Tuanzebe all need a decision made on their futures. That is an awful lot of money to be sat doing nothing. I don't know how much Telles is on at Porto but he could quite rightly look at Rojo et al and say, well if you're paying them that much to sit there I want at least that much to play. Plus we're losing £5m per home game.

As @WrinkledMind said, if we go for Sarr, expect us to pay more than what Liverpool were asked. Not only because it's United, but because Watford will know we've given up on Sancho for now and, therefore, have money and are desperate. It's poor negotiating if nothing else and just another example of how poorly United are run from the top down.
The information we have here is that ManUn and Telles have everything agreed, but that ManUn offered 15M€ to Porto and doesn't want to pay more than 20M€ at most. Well... He's not leaving for that price, even if he leaves for free next year. We'd more easily make that money on the CL if he's playing for us. The man is one of the best left full backs in Europe, and has a hunger and spirit of sacrifice like few. I have no doubt he would be one of your best players in a matter of weeks, like what happened with Bruno Fernandes.

About Dias. He never convinced me, tbh. Has a very bad sense of positioning that he compensated with agressivity, which was ok for the portuguese league but he always got sent off on CL... He's still better than Otamendi though. Always take transfers from benfica with a grain of salt. They're extremely good at advertising players, particularly young ones, but these are rarely worth the investment. Mainly because of Jorge Mendes...

But there's this new fashion of paying absurd amounts for players just for their ages and disregard solid investments. I mean, everyone who saw him play knew Lindelof wasn't going to pay off, at least not if you buy at that price. And I was also very surprised when you bought Rojo. It's like you're purposedly targetting the worst players from the big teams here and ignoring the best ones
Now... If you offer 10M for Telles + Dalot, I don't see Porto refusing that, though that won't happen.



The information we have here is that ManUn and Telles have everything agreed, but that ManUn offered 15M€ to Porto and doesn't want to pay more than 20M€ at most. Well... He's not leaving for that price, even if he leaves for free next year. We'd more easily make that money on the CL if he's playing for us. The man is one of the best left full backs in Europe, and has a hunger and spirit of sacrifice like few. I have no doubt he would be one of your best players in a matter of weeks, like what happened with Bruno Fernandes.
That seems to be about the same here in terms of numbers. It's worth remembering that this is how United deal since 2013. We offer far less than asked. Incrementally increasing until we either get to the price asked for in the first place (or more) or don't buy the player. It's a terrible strategy that just doesn't work in the football world because the team loses out. But we aren't run by football people and, worse than that, we aren't run by people who are interested in football. If the rumours are true then we didn't buy Perisic because the asking price was £1.5m more than we were offering and we wouldn't pay it. What are you supposed to do with people like that? That's the same Perisic which three years later won the CL with Bayern. Not saying that could've been us, just that he's good enough to play with that team but we didn't buy him for the asking price because he doesn't have any sell on value.

About Dias. He never convinced me, tbh. Has a very bad sense of positioning that he compensated with agressivity, which was ok for the portuguese league but he always got sent off on CL... He's still better than Otamendi though. Always take transfers from benfica with a grain of salt. They're extremely good at advertising players, particularly young ones, but these are rarely worth the investment. Mainly because of Jorge Mendes...
I've not seen him play so I've no idea on who he is or how he plays. Obviously I hope he's a complete bust for them.

But there's this new fashion of paying absurd amounts for players just for their ages and disregard solid investments. I mean, everyone who saw him play knew Lindelof wasn't going to pay off, at least not if you buy at that price. And I was also very surprised when you bought Rojo. It's like you're purposedly targetting the worst players from the big teams here and ignoring the best ones
Now... If you offer 10M for Telles + Dalot, I don't see Porto refusing that, though that won't happen.
That's because of the sell on value. Look at Ousmane Dembele or Joao Felix. Wonderful players with amazing talent. Even Mbappe. He cost £160m or something like that, but that's because of his potential and the career ahead of him. When PSG did that whole loan to buy bollocks what had he had? 6 months of good football for Monaco? I know everyone had known about him since he was a kid and Real have been courting him since he was 11 or something, but still. At 17 Ronaldo cost United £12.2m. At 18 Rooney cost United £26m. That's where the market has gone. Get them young for most/all their career or gamble that the market will grow and you'll sell for a profit or a loss relative to the time they've been at the club.

Just been on an inflation adjustment site and, at today's prices, Rooney cost £40m. Can you imagine how much Rooney would actually go for if he was 18 today? Ronaldo would only be £18.8m At the time Rooney was the most expensive teenager in the world.



The thing isolated becomes incomprehensible
I've not seen him play so I've no idea on who he is or how he plays. Obviously I hope he's a complete bust for them.

Same. Mainly because we're facing them on the CL... Tough group: Porto, City, Olympiakos and Villas Boas' Marseille!

That's because of the sell on value. Look at Ousmane Dembele or Joao Felix. Wonderful players with amazing talent. Even Mbappe. He cost £160m or something like that, but that's because of his potential and the career ahead of him. When PSG did that whole loan to buy bollocks what had he had? 6 months of good football for Monaco? I know everyone had known about him since he was a kid and Real have been courting him since he was 11 or something, but still. At 17 Ronaldo cost United £12.2m. At 18 Rooney cost United £26m. That's where the market has gone. Get them young for most/all their career or gamble that the market will grow and you'll sell for a profit or a loss relative to the time they've been at the club.

Just been on an inflation adjustment site and, at today's prices, Rooney cost £40m. Can you imagine how much Rooney would actually go for if he was 18 today? Ronaldo would only be £18.8m At the time Rooney was the most expensive teenager in the world.
Yeah, how can you possibly have profit with Felix after you spent 120M on him? Besides, that usually leads to the young players not being able to withstand the pressure of such a big buying in fee and flop. Look at Renato Sanches for instance...



Most of the groups are balanced. We got a tough group, the only group I would call the "Group of Death"! With PSG, Istanbul, Leipzig, I am predicting third with 6 points and a negative goal difference!
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So Shaq is gonna leave us. Did little and was mostly injured. But he had his moments and will be remembered. He was instrumental in the win against Barca (had a poor match overall but served the important assist for Gini's header) and scored those two goals at Anfield against United.


Harry Wilson and Brewster also expected to leave for Burnley and Sheffield respectively. Burnley getting a poor man's Beckham for their set-pieces and Sheffield getting a proper finisher.


Brewster leaving feels sad. Boy is a good player (has goals in him), but apparently not a Klopp player (overall pressing game is rubbish).



This is why I didn't want Mourinho at Tottenham, we're winning 4-1 at halftime but it leaves a horrible taste in your mouth, I have no doubt that Mourinho has been in Lamela's ear telling him who to wind up. It wasn't a red (Bailly's rake on Kane's ankle should've been)
Winning this way is better than losing I guess, but they're not satisfying in any way



The thing isolated becomes incomprehensible
This is why I didn't want Mourinho at Tottenham, we're winning 4-1 at halftime but it leaves a horrible taste in your mouth, I have no doubt that Mourinho has been in Lamela's ear telling him who to wind up. It wasn't a red (Bailly's rake on Kane's ankle should've been)
Winning this way is better than losing I guess, but they're not satisfying in any way
The difference of mentality between the British and the portuguese is so damn huge 😂😂😂



there's a frog in my snake oil
This is why I didn't want Mourinho at Tottenham, we're winning 4-1 at halftime but it leaves a horrible taste in your mouth, I have no doubt that Mourinho has been in Lamela's ear telling him who to wind up. It wasn't a red (Bailly's rake on Kane's ankle should've been)
Winning this way is better than losing I guess, but they're not satisfying in any way
Lamela probably should have gone as well (or neither of them), because that elbow was high & deliberate (and so were the shameful theatrics :/)

But he has always had this in his game man. That classic Argentinian-style gamesmanship (that Poch was very much on board with as well). And we've benefited from it a fair bit over the years. All the last minute tactical tumbles that led to a free kick equaliser or a pen. All the parts of his psycho-Duracell-bunny routine, constantly harrying, that have led to players accumulating yellows & reds. (Even if we saw the positive side of that in that insta-equaliser).

As much as I don't like the 'target the hot head' school of strategy (and I'm sure Mouh deploys it), I can't say that that game wasn't satisfying

The Son/Kane sumptuous-assist show continuing. Hojbjerg demonstrating yet again that he doesn't just boss midfield effectively, but he's got a slide-rule progressive pass in him as well. Ndomble getting back into his purple-pomp confidence, with some terrier steel to back it up. (Reguilon looking pacy, persistent, sensible and speculative - and able to play across most of the park seemingly. I could go on and on, about most of the main players )

Alll of that stuff counters the Mourinho stuff I'm much more worried about. The park-the-bus philosophy which relies on 5 breaks a game to flip it. To make sure you definitely don't lose.

Those boys can play that way, and still produce some damn fine stuff

(Also I feel arguing about Spuds internal concerns is the best the way to spare Honey's blushes at this point )