JamesM

Apparently Pogba will be following him.

Interesting times at Chelsea. They actually had a reasonable season so to be changing manager can't be ideal. It will be tough for the new man who won't have Hazard in the side.

Is there any update on the Newcastle takeover? I think that could be the biggest disruptor to the Premier League in the next couple of years if it happens.

DaveLovesDee

Let's get the facts straight, shall we

No-one forced Liverpool to pay for Lovren, they chose to. The only apology needed is from LFC to their fans for buying him

Garbatellamike

no but rumour is the guy has the same level of wealth as the bloke who bought Sheff Utd and is not in Mansour's league, apparantly he has tried to buy other clubs but can't provide proof of funds to meet due dilligence.

Cainess

civilservant

Agreed. Not sure that there are that many better options out there though that hit the criteria of 'young' and 'good' - seems we might be after Maguire too, but all I see is another Chris Smalling who has one decent world cup and not alot else. It's not like Leicester were pulling up trees last year.

DaveLovesDee

Leicester selling Kante was probably part of Leicester's problem.

civilservant

That was 2016.

Even at the beginning of last season it was 2 years later. Time to move on I think.

DaveLovesDee

Time flies when one season is as bad as the last......

civilservant

as a United fan I can relate for pretty much the last 5 years!

Cainess

United are "run" by businessmen and bankers, not football people.

Our owners & CEO look for "value in the market" from a purely financial/commercial perspective. In their eyes, they'd already given Mourinho two more centre-backs (Bailly and Lindelof) to add to the ones already there (Smalling, Jones, Rojo, Tuanzebe), so spending another £50m to get Maguire last summer "wasn't sensible". I'd hope that it's even LESS "sensible" to give Leicester City £90m for him now.... but this is Woodward, so sense doesn't apply.

I don't rate Maguire as anything other than a decent English CB, nothing special compared with several others we've been linked to, and he's certainly not worth what Leicester City are trying to extort for him....they're hoping for a bidding war with citeh to develop.

I'm very disappointed in de Ligt. Had he chosen to go to Barcelona (or even one of our English rivals!!), I could have understood it- Barca are a fabulous club who compete for the biggest trophies every year in a tough league. Instead, he's apparently chosen PSG- a club who win their domestic title with ease every season because they can outspend their handful of domestic rivals (Lyon, Marseille) easily but have so far failed to 'buy' a European Cup. Raiola is poison in the modern game, as are most agents it seems. I'd love to know how much PSG are paying that runt for "advising" his client to take their filthy lucre.

yellowroom

I have enormous fondness for 'Arry from his time with us, and you're right, he's a decent CB. He's fearless, can move with the ball (got a decent Cruyff turn in him) and likes to go on a run - all which make him hugely popular with fans. But he's got a mistake in him too often at the moment to be worth what Leicester are asking, and when he does he tends to panic and then his default is to try to wrestle with the opposition.

As an aside, Daniel James is a local lad who started out in the Hull City Academy before moving to Swansea Academy so watching his debut at Old Trafford with interest.

Garbatellamike

come back in another 30 years if it stays the same..... the first decade is the worst

Garbatellamike

well you have got to be better than Phil Jones so give it a go

civilservant

I remember when United signed him, it really did seem like an excellent buy even at nearly $20 million. I had seen him play a little for Blackburn and he was tough, quick, and appeared to make good decisions in bad situations.

Where did that player go exactly?

Garbatellamike

People worked out his weaknesses and now exploit them mercilessly. He is very very fast in a straight line for a big man but struggles to change direction and has poor balance and positional awareness and he can't hide those problems when he is one on one with a Messi or Aguerooooo who just sit him on his backside. I suspect he doesn't have much intellectual horsepower either.