About Carrick I'm happy as well but what's according to Rooney- I don't believe he's going anywhere cause his price and wage is way too high for anyone to want him. About Zlatan, yes probably it would be great to have him as a squad bplayer with significant wage cut but for god sakes, he's The Zlatan! I cant' see him agreeing for those terms, as he told himself he came as Legend and will go as God! He's ego won't allow nothing to be smaller as it used to be. :)

As for Rooney - I think he'll want to play more than receive money. The first google search answer estimates that he might have around 100m already. I don't see what his motivation would be to earn some 10 more million if this also brings ridicule and unhappy fans because he can't pull his weight at United.

I don't see him moving to China. I think he'd be happy to move to Everton and see if he can make it work there. And if that doesn't work out he might just retire.

As for Zlatan - I think he can redefine what it means to be god. Because god can also be the one who teaches the rest of the squad how and what to do to succeed. But then again what do I know about being Zlatan. I'm just a simple mortal being :)

If Mourinho is searching for a left back, then he should definitely consider Theo Hernández from Alaves (I think he is on loan from Atletico Madrid, but I'm not sure).

Already a brilliant player at only 19 years, but above all a great potential.

Personally, I would like Luke Shaw to succeed and take the LB place as a starter, but in case this doesn't happen, I'd be pleased if we brought Hernández.

There are rumours that he is joining Real Madrid this Summer, but then he'd not be a starter, as they already have Marcelo and I don't think they'd let him go. If the kid goes to Real to be a bench player, he's stupid, as he could be a first team player in almost any team.

Nemanja77 wrote:

If Mourinho is searching for a left back, then he should definitely consider Theo Hernández from Alaves (I think he is on loan from Atletico Madrid, but I'm not sure).

Already a brilliant player at only 19 years, but above all a great potential.

Personally, I would like Luke Shaw to succeed and take the LB place as a starter, but in case this doesn't happen, I'd be pleased if we brought Hernández.

There are rumours that he is joining Real Madrid this Summer, but then he'd not be a starter, as they already have Marcelo and I don't think they'd let him go. If the kid goes to Real to be a bench player, he's stupid, as he could be a first team player in almost any team.

I'm Atlético de Madrid fan, and yes, if he is going to Real Madrid, he is stupid.

Not about the rivalry, but he isn't ging to play many matches with Marcelo there. Maybe with Filipe it¡s difficult too, but Filipe is older and probably need more rest.

Anyway, I don't think Theo is ready to be a starter in a first level team. He is playing in Alaves and made a good season, but in a 5 defender formation, and without exigence...

Anyway, I don't think Theo is ready to be a starter in a first level team. He is playing in Alaves and made a good season, but in a 5 defender formation, and without exigence...

Maybe you're right. I haven't really watched him much, but I see great potential in this player. Strength, pace, a good left foot, determination...

I'd like us to buy one or two such players each Summer, something similar to what Fergie used to do, instead of going for the flavor of the month/season players at all costs.

Of course, the right combination of young players and some more experienced ones is always necessary.

A story about United wanting to sign Ivan Perisic just won't go away.

In Italy, the media are saying there is a concrete interest from United (confirmed by Inter) who have allegedly agreed personal with the player's agent.

However, Inter is asking for about £48mil, while United is ready to offer £38mil.

I cannot understand why would Mourinho want to buy Perisic and pay a huge amount of money. Imo, we should strive for better players and there certainly are better than Perisic. He is a very good player, but United should do better. Moreover, he is 28 years old and I think we should bring younger players. Bringing someone who is more than 27 should be only if the player is really special, like for example Gareth Bale.

I totally agree. I can't understand the logic if this isn't some made up story.

38m for a 28yo player is just bad business, unless that player is about as good as Van Persie.. Van Persie was about 6 months older and cost a third less. Even if we assume that inflation means the price is the same for the two - I'm sure you couldn't say that Perisic is as good as RVP was at that time?

I also agree that if we are to look for someone in that age group, then it either has to be a defender(they just play longer at a high level) or someone who is just among the very best in the world.

This feels like Fellaini/Mata/Schneiderlin all over again for me. I have nothing against those player, but I don't like such transfers. Schneiderlin perhaps was ok at the time, but looking at who we signed last summer it feels like he wasn't really up to the standard we should look for.

Maybe Mourinho is just doing a favor to his ex-club Inter and trying to draw PSG to offer more money :)

Jokes apart, I am trying to figure out why would Mourinho want United to buy Perišić.

Is it because he is a winger who contributes also in defensive duties? I don't know this player so well, but I must presume so, as I don't see any other special reason for us to buy him and see him as an improvement.

There are also stories that we might sell Martial if we buy Perišić, but for now I will just discard those as rumours.

Hi Guys

I have also been following the news about Perisic, and I agree with you that the price tag is extremely overpriced, but that is just what happens when an English club approach about a player the pricetag increases extremely.

But other then the price, (which I really don't care about, let the Glazers pay up, they milk united enough every year) im really exited about Perisic and I can see why mourinho likes him.

he can play all over the attack: AML, AMR, AMC even forward, he is good with both legs, he is creative and a team player.

The age think dosen't really concern me to much we need "older" experienced players, so I think he would fit in just perfect with united and Mourinho.

Even if he is better defensively than Martial or just overall slightly better than him, then this is something that I don't particularly like. If such a deal goes through, then it confirms the short-term nature of Jose. He isn't thinking 10 years ahead when he buys someone. If he looked at his job as someone who needs to take care of the club for until he grows old, then he wouldn't do such a deal.

Buying 28yo players is rarely a good strategy if you're into managing the club in the long term. First of all they'll play at a high level max 5 years, with attacking players most probably 3 or 4. Secondly - they won't become part of the club like those who stay 10+ years. Thirdly - you'll have to replace them every 5 years, which means that if you want to keep the club at a high level, you must make good transfers every 5 years. If you do it every 10 years, then you can gamble much more in the transfer market - if you do get a hit, then he'll be there for a long time. And every transfer is a gamble - you can't be sure someone will be a success. I mean look at Mkhitaryan - Bundesliga player of the year, should be one of the main men right away. Couldn't get into the team until December? In the end he's been good, but only Pogba, Martial, Di Maria, Rio and Mata have cost more. The prices have inflated since 2000 obviously, but so far he's just been a good player, not a brilliant one. He was a much needed improvement to our attack, but he is not Ronaldo/Rooney quality. Not even Van Persie quality. Probably comparable to Nani in terms of end product.. But Nani arrived as a young boy, Miki came at the age of 27... Even if he does manage to raise his game and do brilliantly, he'll only do it for 2-3 more seasons. While when we bought Nani and he had a good season we were looking at 10 more seasons of a quality player. Unfortunately his injuries kept him from being great all that time, but the difference is clear IMO.

That's why the transfer strategy at United should be about bringing in under 23 players who have the talent to become great(players like Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele for example) and then maybe one or two players per every five years who are in their prime and who just add to the quality of the team. But that's usually when some of the previous younger players haven't been able to live up to the expectations for some reason.

I'll be unhappy if we buy someone like Perisic. Nothing personal and I'll support them once they come, but if Jose requests such players, then he is dropping the ball in that part of the management.

The age think dosen't really concern me to much we need "older" experienced players, so I think he would fit in just perfect with united and Mourinho.

We do have experience in the squad.

If I don't mention Carrick and Zlatan, then we still have:
Young(31), Rooney(31), Valencia(31), Mata(29), Mkhitaryan(28), Smalling(27), Rojo(27), Blind(27), Darmian(27), Herrera(27) who are already quite experienced.

That's 12 players in our this seasons squad that should be experienced. I don't think we need more of that.


To be honest I wouldn't be excited about Perisic even at a lower price. If we were to buy someone of that age, then we should look for the quality of Bale for example.

chuksi wrote:

The age think dosen't really concern me to much we need "older" experienced players, so I think he would fit in just perfect with united and Mourinho.

We do have experience in the squad.

If I don't mention Carrick and Zlatan, then we still have:
Young(31), Rooney(31), Valencia(31), Mata(29), Mkhitaryan(28), Smalling(27), Rojo(27), Blind(27), Darmian(27), Herrera(27) who are already quite experienced.

That's 12 players in our this seasons squad that should be experienced. I don't think we need more of that.


To be honest I wouldn't be excited about Perisic even at a lower price. If we were to buy someone of that age, then we should look for the quality of Bale for example.

Yeah we do have experience in the squad but I don't think we have enough experience in the starting 11

Young, Rooney, Mata, Blind (Darmian) is not going to start very much next season IMO then we have Miki, Smalling, Rojo and Herrera left maybe De Gea or Romero as well, thats less then half the starting elleven, IMO that is not enough to compete for the title or champions league, as much as I like seeing all theese youngters playing every week for united I just can't see us winning the title back with all youngters.

I would love us to sign Mbappe, Tielemans etc. and letting them be part of the first team, but im not sure we are going to be title contenders for the next coulpe of seasons then.

I am very exited by Perisic, and are looking forward to see him in the PL, if united can get a deal done for him :-)

That's true and I also made a comparison with Mkhitaryan when I thought about a possible transfer for Perišić - more/less the same age, same price, etc.

Zlatan's example is a bit different so I will not put it in the same basket, but it is still another transfer with the goal of instant success.

I think Mourinho is under a huge pressure to deliver trophies immediately and to prove that he can cope with the difficult job of managing United, so he is reaching out for those players for whom he believes will bring him stability and quick success.

I hope this is just a transitory solution for Mourinho, in order to bring peace now and start building a team for the future. Hopefully for every transfer of a player who is older than 27yrs we will bring another two below 23yrs, either from our reserve team, academy of from outside.

We are still in transition and José is still trying to create a team of his own taste, put his own stamp on it. He is an intelligent person and therefore knows that on long term he will need to follow United's way, make us play more attractive football and start putting more trust into younger players. Hence, I think this will last only until we reach a certain level of stability.

I am not excited by a possible transfer of Perišić, yet I can't exclude the possibility of him being a positive surprise. Even though I don't like such transfers, now I can only hope Mourinho knows exactly why he's doing it.

Of course, nothing is done yet, but looking at information from different sources (Italy, Croatia, England) it seems to me there is a concrete interest from our side. Maybe it is nothing more than a simple inquiry, even if Mourinho's trip to Zagreb a couple of months ago might suggest the opposite.

Even if he is better defensively than Martial or just overall slightly better than him, then this is something that I don't particularly like. If such a deal goes through, then it confirms the short-term nature of Jose. He isn't thinking 10 years ahead when he buys someone. If he looked at his job as someone who needs to take care of the club for until he grows old, then he wouldn't do such a deal.

This I totally disagree with

IMO you can't allways think 10 years ahead with every transfers, im sure Martial is gonna be a huge star for united in the future but he is still young (21), (and to be honest he wasn't good this season 4 goals and 6 assist in the PL) you need to have a nice blend of young and experience.
And another thing is, I think Mourinho will use him on the right side.

last year he bought Eric Bailey and Poul Pogba 22 and 23 at that time, then he brought in Zlatan and Miki for experince as well.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Es-RIBnba8) :)

Experience can work well in certain situations but I think that ultimately skill is more important. You can learn and become experienced, but when you're a grown up, you don't get much more skillful.

Besides - if you compare Perisic with Mkhitaryan for example, is he better? Miki was Bundesliga player of the year, but has struggled. Perisic isn't the best player in Italy surely. He might not adapt in a new country, there's always that risk for example. And he is 28, so if he takes one year to adapt(like I hope it took Miki a year to adapt and next year he'll do more), then he will be 29 before he has had a good season at United. Then he might make a step up(if he isn't unhappy about being on the bench and looking to move on to somewhere else to get regular football) and play two seasons of good football. How many wingers have their best seasons after they're 31?

Even evergreen Giggs slowed down at that age..

This kind of a transfer has the upside of improving the team a little(I think you'll agree here, right?), but the downside of the club blowing a good part of 35m without getting an improvement to the team. If the club buys a young player for that money, then surely we'd get the money back(at least a decent part of it, like with Memphis).

It's also financially bad. For comparison:

Signing Perisic for 35m - assuming he'll be here until he is 31, that would be about 11m per season+wages.
Signing Mbappe for 120m - assuming he'll be here until he is 31, that would make it 9m per season+wages.

With Mbappe there is the real chance that he might be the best player of his generation and improve considerably still. Like Ronaldo or Rooney improved from the age of 18 to the age of 23-25. With Perisic there is little chance that he'll improve considerably.

We are still in transition and José is still trying to create a team of his own taste, put his own stamp on it. He is an intelligent person and therefore knows that on long term he will need to follow United's way, make us play more attractive football and start putting more trust into younger players. Hence, I think this will last only until we reach a certain level of stability.

I have serious doubts about this.

He can talk the talk, but in the first few months so could Van Gaal. He was also bullish and aimed high, but it turned out.. well, we know how.

I think this is hope talking more than expectation that he'll change :).

I also hope that he'll change. But we constantly see signs that he is doing things just like he did at his previous clubs - Tuanzebe and Fosu-Mensah don't really get that many games, even though they haven't done anything badly on the pitch so far. He hasn't kept the criticism of his players in-house, but has washed the dirty laundry in front of the whole world. He is moaning about the referees, fixture congestion and whatnot, even though the problems come from him not rotating, not the fixtures being that much worse than they generally are.

The problem with this transfer for me is that even if it works out brilliantly(which it might not), then the upside is pretty small. I wasn't a fan of the Mkhitaryan transfer either and I liked Zlatan only because I've been a fan of him since... 2002ish.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Es-RIBnba8) :)

;-)

Experience can work well in certain situations but I think that ultimately skill is more important. You can learn and become experienced, but when you're a grown up, you don't get much more skillful.

But skillfull dosen't make you consistant in your performances experinece does, i will agree with you that Martial is more skillfull then Perisic is (but this season you could see Martial was young)

Besides - if you compare Perisic with Mkhitaryan for example, is he better? Miki was Bundesliga player of the year, but has struggled. Perisic isn't the best player in Italy surely. He might not adapt in a new country, there's always that risk for example. And he is 28, so if he takes one year to adapt(like I hope it took Miki a year to adapt and next year he'll do more), then he will be 29 before he has had a good season at United. Then he might make a step up(if he isn't unhappy about being on the bench and looking to move on to somewhere else to get regular football) and play two seasons of good football. How many wingers have their best seasons after they're 31?

Even evergreen Giggs slowed down at that age..

I wouldn't say he is better, maybe around the same player as Miki but a little more versatile then Miki and IMO Miki has had a really bad season (so I also hope he picks up his game)

This kind of a transfer has the upside of improving the team a little(I think you'll agree here, right?), but the downside of the club blowing a good part of 35m without getting an improvement to the team. If the club buys a young player for that money, then surely we'd get the money back(at least a decent part of it, like with Memphis).

It's also financially bad. For comparison:

Signing Perisic for 35m - assuming he'll be here until he is 31, that would be about 11m per season+wages.
Signing Mbappe for 120m - assuming he'll be here until he is 31, that would make it 9m per season+wages.

With Mbappe there is the real chance that he might be the best player of his generation and improve considerably still. Like Ronaldo or Rooney improved from the age of 18 to the age of 23-25. With Perisic there is little chance that he'll improve considerably.

Yeah I would agree that it improves the squad and the attack "a lot"

I just don't understand that we allways are concerned about the money we use on players, we shouldn't care, united is a filthy rich club and we have owners that milk the club every year for millions upon millions so I personally don't care if we pay 50 mil for Perisic (even though I would agree its to much for Perisic) but if that is what united will pay for him it's fine with me :-)

I would love Mbappe in United and I still hope we sign him, and who says we don't sign him and Perisic??

SuperNuuK wrote:

Even if he is better defensively than Martial or just overall slightly better than him, then this is something that I don't particularly like. If such a deal goes through, then it confirms the short-term nature of Jose. He isn't thinking 10 years ahead when he buys someone. If he looked at his job as someone who needs to take care of the club for until he grows old, then he wouldn't do such a deal.

This I totally disagree with

IMO you can't allways think 10 years ahead with every transfers, im sure Martial is gonna be a huge star for united in the future but he is still young (21), (and to be honest he wasn't good this season 4 goals and 6 assist in the PL) you need to have a nice blend of young and experience.
And another thing is, I think Mourinho will use him on the right side.

last year he bought Eric Bailey and Poul Pogba 22 and 23 at that time, then he brought in Zlatan and Miki for experince as well.

For Martial the season wasn't that bad. The 4 goals and 6 assists came in 1558 minutes, which is 0,58 goals+assists per 90 minutes.

Perisic for comparison - 11 goals and 8 assists in 2757 minutes, which is 0,62 goals+assists per 90 minutes.

The difference is quite small. Perisic played in what is probably an easier league. If he comes to England, will he be able to score/assist as many goals?


If you think he will play Perisic on the right, then it's replacing Mata or Miki. While Mata is someone I think that just isn't good enough for United(but good enough on the bench - the role he played this season basically), then replacing Miki seems absurd to me. Why did we buy him for such a big amount of money at all if we don't trust him to be a first team player? Or if Perisic is going to be a backup for him, then it makes even less sense. 35m for a bench player? That's just pointless.

I just don't understand that we allways are concerned about the money we use on players, we shouldn't care, united is a filthy rich club and we have owners that milk the club every year for millions upon millions so I personally don't care if we pay 50 mil for Perisic (even though I would agree its to much for Perisic) but if that is what united will pay for him it's fine with me :-)

A few things here.

1. Any extra money we spend on transfers will in some ways go to strengthen our rivals. Whether it's some other English club or someone we play in Europe doesn't really matter. Either way it's not a good idea IMO.
2. The resources aren't limitless. If we pay too much for one player, then we might get priced out for some other player. For example if we spend 35/40 mil on Perisic, then do we have money to go all in on Mbappe(should we want him)? I doubt it.
3. The players we buy are the players we're going to watch the next few seasons. If things don't go horribly wrong for them(which is even worse).

If we overpay for someone like Pogba or Bale or Ronaldo or Messi(yes, even at his current age pay 100m!), then I don't mind it one bit. I also don't mind it if Zlatan gets 300k or 400k per week as long as he plays well, makes special touches on the pitch, remains funny in interviews and mentors the young strikers at the club.

But I do mind if we spend huge amounts of money on some above average player who will just do things slightly better than the player we have at the club now in his position. And maybe not improve the team at all. I'd rather see us spend 5mil each on 7 under 18 players who can do something special but who are really really raw right now.

I would love Mbappe in United and I still hope we sign him, and who says we don't sign him and Perisic??

We can't have 30 players in the squad. We play 4-3-3 usually with Herrera-Pogba-another in midfield.

Who are the 6 players who you'd want to have in attack? 3 starters and 3 subs.

Currently we have:
Zlatan, Rooney, Martial, Rashford, Miki, Mata, Lingard and you'd add Mbappe and Perisic.

Even if we assume that Rooney and Zlatan won't be here you're still left with only one slot for a new signing. Lingard signed a new deal a few months ago so selling him isn't an option.

We can buy one player to replace Zlatan basically and that's it. Assuming Rooney is out of the picture basically. If he remains, then any new signing also means that one player will have to leave.

(http://www.espnfc.com/story/3136474/riyad-mah...leave)

I'd prefer him to Perisic. Probably wouldn't cost more. Younger. Sort of an upgrade to Mata, because he has a great left foot as well and just is quicker and a better dribbler.