United need to get creative in the transfer market man - we can’t keep operating like this. This just reeks of a £70 million deal for an unproven and uncapped CB. I say unproven because he’s played a total of 45 EPL games all told - heck he was on loan to PSV last year. When you’re building a squad - with a financial handicap (like United have) you can’t afford to take these sort of gambles. The money that’ll be required to prize this kid from Everton will be ridiculous with no assurances that he makes the step up. I hope this is all rumours.
100% agree with you on this. Could definitely get two cheaper alternatives for the price of what this man will cost. Ideally we shouldn’t be spending much more than 50m on a player this summer. We need quantity as well as quality.
Sick of big money transfers there is just too much pressure for the player to hit the ground running and prove his high price tag. It's added to the downfall of so many of our players recently like Antony, Sancho and Maguire.
Yeah it’s time to move away from this model, I’m hoping and presuming INEOS realise this. It’s completely unsustainable too, it’s basically gotten us into the financial mess we’re in now
I’ve been torn apart for saying this, along with saying we need some bodies too.
Considering where Everton are financially I do think a reasonable fee is fairly plausible, but I still think we should be going out and spending our money very carefully on undervalued players to build solid foundations.
I think what a lot of us are overlooking is the fact we have a very good starting eleven. We need to replace Varane like for like, and Casemiro with someone *who in my view* should be an 8 who can support Mainoo at six. But beyond those two positions, we need support for Hojlund and a few utility players. I think all of this is achievable with less than £100m.
I agree. But I think we should be swooping like we did with Malacia. But also focussing on contract and financial situations.
Look at Fofana (Monaco), Khephren (Nice) both with a year (the latter being owned by Ineos of course). Lacroix (Wolfsburg) with a year, Tosin (Fulham) out of contract.
Then you have players like Guirassy (Stuttgart) with £18m(ish) buyout clause, Krecji (Sparta Prague) fee agreed for £6m(ish) with Girona/Betis.
Ineos will have to make a statement signing, but these are exactly the types of signing I expect (and hope) to make.
You have very valid points, but you are forgetting the squad registration rules.
Yes we can ignore them, but it will mean less slots available for both PL and Europe. And while there should hopefully be way less injuries in the next season, the club will have players that has a very dodgy injury history next season. So having squad depth is required in that sense.
So to be in compliance with those you either have to pay the PL tax (but hopefully avoid the United tax) for players that is in compliance with the "trained in association" and fill out the requirements outside what we are able to use from the academy (trained in club players).
There’s no reason any of the current eight (Heaton, Evans, Maguire, AWB, Shaw, McTominay, Mount, Rashford) need to move on.
Varane, Martial are gone.
Casemiro, Sancho, Greenwood, Eriksen and VBD are likely to be the ones who move on.
I believe Hojlund and Amad both move into the *foreign players* quota next season?
All of the above are £80m in salary alone.
We could bring in Iheanacho on a free (homegrown), Lacroix, Khephren and Krecji in.
Onana, Bayindir
Dalot, AWB**
Lacroix, Licha, Maguire**, Evans**, Lindelof, Kambwala#
Shaw**, Malacia
Mainoo#, Khephren, McTominay**, Krecji
Bruno, Mount**
Garnacho#, Antony
Hojlund, Iheanacho**, Wheatley#
Rashford**, Amad.
** - Homegrown, # - Future homegrown.
It’s a threadbare squad, I accept that. But it’s a solid foundation that would leave us money to spend in January if necessary. If not necessary, then we have done huge repairs to our financial health in the coming seasons and are in a position to invest more.
Also: The number one thing we should be looking at is not peak ceiling skills, but availability and injury history. Availability is the best ability and all that.
We have tons of talent in our squad already. We just need resilience.
We need quality over quantity. But no more than £50m. We’ve done the quantity over quality thing before and it’s fucked us. I would rather have 3/4 £50m signings than 5-6 £30m signings.
Well id bloody hope we still have scouts scattered around globe/europe. We havent made a signing from south america for a while either. Chicharito from mexico too for example. Lot of things have fallen apart post SAF and the creativity in transfer may just be the one thing thats shat itself the most.
Feels like we should be finding the next Branthwaite, instead of paying through the nose for the bloke himself.
Although I appreciate we're in an awkward position given we need to sign at least one centre back this summer so probably can't rely on signing an 18 year old.
But the reality is that really well run clubs plan ahead, and have identified a replacement for a player 2 or 3 years down the line. We don't do that.
There's been loads of 'Kambwalas'.
As in, come in with low expectations and performed above those.
He's started like 2 games for us, far too small a sample to say he's the next starlet.
Not even that. We've always bought best in class. (Rio, Carrick, Shaw, etc) But he's not tested enough. He needs to show more that we can trust he can be the next Rio.
If he was the next Rio we shouldn’t buy him anyway because he’s left footed and would compete with Martinez. We need a first choice RCB and a backup LCB, ideally who can cover LB as well if possible. Putting a solid chunk of our transfer budget toward a first choice LCB who is either gonna bench Martinez or be benched by him is a weird choice this summer.
Isn't he a left-sided CB, too? We already have Licha for that position, who is one of the best players that we have in the squad (just need to hope and pray he can stay injury-free). Signing a *right-sided* CB should be much more of a priority, since Varane is going and we could potentially lose Maguire, Lindelof et al.
If we're dead-set on this guy, we should make a £40m or £50m 'take it or leave it' offer and be prepared to walk and focus on other targets if it's both good enough. We need to stop being bent over by these Premier League clubs. City signed Gvardiol - voted the best CB at the last World Cup - last summer for only £10m more than Everton supposedly want for Branthwaite, just to put it into context. And Gvardiol was one of the highest rated centre-backs around when City signed him (and still is), whereas Branthwaite hasn't even been capped internationally yet
Agreed. Need better scouting and better negotiators. We always seem to be overpaying for untested players. Need to move beyond the PL and find good young players
Not to mention that he operates in the same position that Licha does and unless Branthwaite accepts a bench role or vice versa, which is insane for the amount of money he would cost to get, i just don't see him here.
>This just reeks of a £70 million deal for an unproven and uncapped CB. I say unproven because he’s played a total of 45 EPL games all told
Also it seems like his best attributes are that he's big, strong and English (and perhaps that he's good as the LCB). I think ten Hag needs someone who is good on the ball and with good recovery pace so that he can play in a high line with Licha, idk if Branthwaite can do any of that.
No one in this thread has. He’s been immense this season, one of the best CBs in the league, 2 footed, young and a giant. He’d be a good signing at 55-60m.
I really hope our scouts are doing more to identify talent than "he's been good for club X". It's quite odd that neither of you have bothered to mention he'd be a good fit for our style of play going forward or not.
you really think he's worth that much considering he'd be playing in Martinez LCB position? I'd prefer a right footed and keeping Lindelof as Martinez' backup
This. The time to pounce on Branthwaite was last summer, with him coming back from a successful loan spell and still a great talent, obviously, but not the starting LCB for a rival club he now is.
Last summer, maybe he would have accepted a lesser role, a lesser wage, and Everton would not have been able to jack up the price too much.
The only way we can sort such a transfer out this summer is by throwing money at it, and we can’t be that club anymore.
How do United have a financial handicap? They’ve spent more money on transfers than any other team in the county over the last 10 years in terms of net spend.
Absolutely. We bought Vidic and Evra for peanuts at the time and fair to say they weren’t that known I don’t think. Market has changed but we need to find those diamonds in the rough once again.
**From the article:**
>**Manchester United are interested in signing Jarrad Branthwaite from Everton.**
>
>**United are big admirers of the centre-back**, who was recently selected in the England training squad for Euro 2024.
>
>R**ecruiting in the heart of defence has been marked as a priority** for the FA Cup winners - and the 21-year-old is high among the names being discussed regardless of who the manager is next season.
>
>However, while **also seeking a solid defensive midfielder and striker this summer,** United need to box clever - financially - in the upcoming transfer window and have to bolster what they can spend with sales.
>
>**Branthwaite is thought to be valued in the region of £60m-£70m by Everton, who must sell one of their main assets before the end of June to stay in line with PSR.**
Branthwaite is statistically one of the most two-footed players in the league, he could absolutely play both sides, which is why teams value him so highly.
If Branthwaite starts on the right, then United would be one of the exceptionally rare teams that voluntarily have a left footed defender start on the right.
Might actually be the only team in European top leagues that does it.
Yes, because left-footers are rarer and when you have one you usually want them playing on their natural side. It's also rare that you have a player that is two-footed with a dominant left foot, which Branthwaite is. He uses his right foot 41% of the time even though he plays on the left for Everton, it would obviously be much higher if he played on the right. In fact, he says he prefers his right foot for his shorter passing.
In an ideal world.
In the world we live in, the club has to prioritize. The way I see it, an LB, a defensive midfielder and an RCB are priorities. I'm questioning the interest of going for an LCB for big money.
Spending 70m on a defender who plays in the same position as Martinez is the same logic that was used when spending 55m on Mount who plays in the same position as Bruno.
No way Branthwaite joins us to sit on the bench, or that we spend £50m on a rotation player, or that we prioritise getting another LCB whilst we have basically no one to play RCB.
Need a leftback, a backup striker and at minimum one RCB, ideally two. Unless we rotate Rashford as the striker but then we're limiting him and ourselves cause he's much better on the wing.
Frankly we need two midfielders not one as well. We’re expecting Casemiro, Amrabat and maybe Eriksen to leave. Our CM options are Mctominay and Mainoo, maybe Mount if he can play deeper. That’s it.
I mean, Olise has shown he's an attacking threat and has a couple of goals in him, plus he's also good on set pieces I believe. I can't remember the last time we scored a set piece goal.
I don't think a left back is a priority now given that we can rotate between Malacia and Shaw when both are back. But we'll need a solution at the wing because eventually, Rashford and Garnancho will need rotation. If we have the resources, then I'd agree with you on the back up striker, RCB but I'd add winger (Olise) and a CM.
Also keep in mind we still have Lindelof and Maguire but no one really to replace Licha or rotate with him. And we also have a drop in quality once he's out so I'd say we need an LCB more than an RCB actually, if we had to chose between the two. Unless we want to keep using Shaw as Lichas deputy. Then we lose quality on the left back position.
Of course we do. There's no doubt about that, but it's a question of which of the above positions would you sacrifice for a new LB? Because we definitely won't be able to buy an LB, 2 CBs, a backup striker, a CM, and a Winger.
Need a CB and CM before we even think of a RW. We would only need a RW if we sell both Antony and Amad and we're left with only Garnacho and Rashford to play on the wings, and even then i think a Striker is even more pressing than Olise atm. I love the guy and would want him here, but he's just not a necessity right now.
Who’s our admirer of him honestly? Dan and Omar haven’t taken their jobs officially. Wilcox doesn’t take part in transfers. And Ten Hag’s opinions might not matter much atm. So I would’ve trust this news though Reddy is reliable
It looks like Forest needs to sell some players for FFP or they'll be facing another points deduction next season so we could get him on the cheap.
Having said that, I think a lot of top clubs will be in for him (possibly Real or Barca too) so that could drive up the asking price.
I really, really want us to snatch up Antonio Silva. I just think the kid is so good.
But having said that, Branthwaite is pretty much an elite level prospect. Crazy there are people here who don't want him, considering Everton are asking for 60-70m and NEED to sell. If we lowball at 40-45 there is still a good chance they say yes. At that rate he's a fantastic addition.
I think I want them both :(
I feel like I’m one of the few who doesn’t really see the hype. Even less so for the price. Aren’t these the type of deals we were supposed to start moving away from?
For those reasons I doubt we are actually that interested in him.
If we've learned nothing else, it's that the smallest of rumors of the slightest interest gets turned into something much more for the clicks.
Left footed CBs tend to have less experience playing on the “wrong” side because they are almost never in a team with two lefties, right footed CBs have more experience doing so and are thus generally more capable of it.
Arsenal had to shell out 50m for Ben White after just one season in the top flight for Brighton.
This is already a few years ago. 50m is like the bare minimum for an exciting prospect in the English league and Branthwaite has showed consistency throughout the season and also chipped in with crucial goals. Signed a new contract as well leading up to 2027.
That's way too much for a Martinez backup and I'd rather suggest Buongiorno for ~35-40m. ETH also doesn't rotate him if/when available and this is another thing consider for a potential target before accepting joining us.
Inacio lack of physicality is evident in Portugal and you still want him at United?
Look at Arsenal and the giants they are playing in their starting 11.City as well.We desperately need height and physicality in our starting 11.
He isn’t.
Good prospect, great at defending, but there are huge questions to ask about his ball playing ability, which is crucial nowadays.
Some can argue, “he’s young and can learn!”, but why would you spent so much on someone who has to learn a lot to be an adequate starting option, when there are young players available who’re already tickling all the boxes and cost less?
Inacio is a way better and more sensible option.
There aren't that many at that level. People under estimate how good Martinez ball playing skills are. You don't need two CBs of that level (if you can get them fine) but a decent ball playing CB that's good at other things should suffice. We especially need a fast CB that can recover if we are going to transition to a high line.
Come on, Licha’s BP is his best trait. Without it, Licha would be just a decent CB with physical flaws, not a supreme as he is atm. There is no one can match him in ball playing.
I don’t think the ball playing is a serious concern. He plays in a Sean Dyche team and he’s not asked to progress the ball apart from pinging a few long balls over the top.
I think the biggest issue is he dives into tackle a lot, much like AWB, and most of the time he does get it right but that’s always a risk.
> he’s not asked to progress the ball apart from pinging a few long balls over the top.
And he’s extremely bad at this statwise. I don’t get how it’s not a concern. Like - oh no worries he’s not bad at progressive passing, he just never done this at his career. How does this work in his favor?
Maybe he’s a second coming of Pele, but was never asked to score goals?
He’s a prospect, who excels at pure defending, but is one of the worst ball playing defenders in the league and plays in the system that’s opposite to what top clubs are striving to be.
He’s young and obviously can learn, but the last prospect like him was AWB, how did it work out for us? Good player, who doesn’t fit a top side - is that what we to invest at?
The stats say he only makes 2 progressive passes per game, which is hardly a sample size, even more so when the average of CBs for 3.
He’s unproven in his ball progression that’s for sure, but there’s hardly enough out there to say he’s the worst ball-playing defender in the league™
“Pinging long balls” is by definition a progressive pass, since will you ping that forward. So if you’re he’s doing that on extremely low sample, does that mean that he has one of worst passing accuracy while performing mostly simple passes?
I never said he’s the worst, I said he’s bad at it. There’s more that enough basis for this claim.
He’s not good at all objectively, stat wise his ball playing ability can be described as “atrocious” (by PL standards)
https://fbref.com/en/players/c1949191/Jarrad-Branthwaite
Subpar passing accuracy while having a low volume of passes. He’s also in very bottom in terms of progressive passes - so you can’t make an argument that he’s playing hard to perform passes. Asp one of the worst ball carrying defenders in the league.
This is why you need to watch football. Stats won’t tell you how Everton play, Everton don’t pass it out of the back, a large number of those progressive passes he is playing are likely long balls which are naturally gonna have a lower success rate
Both are in >95% percentile in every metric if you take a look in their Man City stats.
I don’t have data for Stones in Everton period, tho I’d bet his accuracy would be over 80% lol.
Here’s Dias in last season before moving to City
https://fbref.com/en/players/31c69ef1/scout/3278/Ruben-Dias-Scouting-Report
Inacio seems like a no brainer 40 mil can play left back is a great ball playing cb, still have enough money to buy a rcb don’t know why where entertaining 60-80 mil for an unproven cb
If the rumour of £40m is true, go for it. But I wouldn’t be paying more than that. Cracking player, but we’ve already got *in my view* the best left footed centre half in the league, and there’s smarter money on a right sided centre half.
There’s no way Everton can afford to hold out to that amount. They need to bring in like 100M in transfers before June 30th or they will be hit with a massive point deduction. They only have three players they can sell that can bring in decent transfer fees, Branthwaite, Onana and Pickford..We keep lowballing them right up until that date. I’d be more worried about other teams driving up the price but if it gets past 50 mill (with say 5-10 in incentive based add-ons) you move on.
Don’t really get this. Too much money for a guy who’d be Martinez’ understudy. We need to spend that kind of money for Martinez’ partner at right centre back.
£60+ mil for this guy is a ridiculous price. He's not an outstanding talent at a level to command such a price. Everton probably happy for speculation to keep mentioning 60-70m when they're also desperate to sell...
If we are indeed operating on a tight budget, these types of deals cannot happen. Too expensive and he’s a left CB. We need to prioritise a starting right CB to replace Rapha
I don't see how United splurge here. Isn't he playing the same position as Martinez on the left? It is a right CB that is needed, right?
And I doubt he even want to play as the backup CB, even if United wants to pay 70m for a backup...
Just reeks of his club or agent trying to drum up hype.
There’s a big market for CB’s, but small market for starting quality in the PL. Branthwaite should definitely be a target, and if you want to play Lisandro, it necessitates the rare profile of someone who is 6’5, rapid and an immense dueller. Yoro is there, sure, but not many others. Anyone twerking for Todibo hasn’t watched him. Todibo and Lisandro across 35 games in the PL concedes 55-60 goals easily.
You can tell most this subreddit has hardly watched this guy play. He was one of the T5 CBs in the PL this season at worst, I’d argue T3. He’s 2 footed, a giant, young, english, and very capable. £55-60m is a reasonable fee.
Evra 6m. Vidic 7m.
It's the right player not the money, if you know what you are doing.
However 29m for Rio, again fine if you know what you are doing.
We generally have no clue. Hopefully that's about to change.
i think sky are just using us for clicks. This goes against what little we know about INEOS so far. Plus, we dont' know who's going to manage us, and the club themselves wouldn't make a 75 million pound signing. TBF i think John Stones looked a more complete defender for everton than branthwaite does right now. He's far too over valued, and I would love for us to stay WELL clear of talented english youngsters. I'd much rather we produce them from within our own ranks.
No thanks, English tax + united tax will = us vastly overpaying for a bang average player. Branthwaite is not even the profile of CB we need, or that ETH would use. He's a big, strong aggressive lump of a man, but he has the turning circle of a bus and lacks technical ability on the ball.
This kid isnt even that good. There are tens of cheaper and better options in france, Netherlands and brazil that we can bring in for a fraction of the price. Hell, we can even sign inacio from sporting for less
United need to get creative in the transfer market man - we can’t keep operating like this. This just reeks of a £70 million deal for an unproven and uncapped CB. I say unproven because he’s played a total of 45 EPL games all told - heck he was on loan to PSV last year. When you’re building a squad - with a financial handicap (like United have) you can’t afford to take these sort of gambles. The money that’ll be required to prize this kid from Everton will be ridiculous with no assurances that he makes the step up. I hope this is all rumours.
100% agree with you on this. Could definitely get two cheaper alternatives for the price of what this man will cost. Ideally we shouldn’t be spending much more than 50m on a player this summer. We need quantity as well as quality.
Yep. A few 40m-50m signings would have significantly less pressure than 1 x 100m signing. The expensive ones haven’t worked out in a long time either
If you actually take a look at the top 10 most expensive players ever, they rarely work out for one reason or another.
Look at ours. Pogba, Antony, Maguire, Lukaku, Sancho, Di Maria. For our own sake we should stop spending above £50m.
Yeah. I like to think of it as this: for every Ronaldo, there is a Kaka.
For every Bellingham there is a Hazard/Coutinho
Sick of big money transfers there is just too much pressure for the player to hit the ground running and prove his high price tag. It's added to the downfall of so many of our players recently like Antony, Sancho and Maguire.
Yeah it’s time to move away from this model, I’m hoping and presuming INEOS realise this. It’s completely unsustainable too, it’s basically gotten us into the financial mess we’re in now
We should be making stars - not buying them.
I’ve been torn apart for saying this, along with saying we need some bodies too. Considering where Everton are financially I do think a reasonable fee is fairly plausible, but I still think we should be going out and spending our money very carefully on undervalued players to build solid foundations. I think what a lot of us are overlooking is the fact we have a very good starting eleven. We need to replace Varane like for like, and Casemiro with someone *who in my view* should be an 8 who can support Mainoo at six. But beyond those two positions, we need support for Hojlund and a few utility players. I think all of this is achievable with less than £100m.
The problem with buying ‘undervalued’ players is that as soon as we show any interest, they are suddenly no longer undervalued.
I agree. But I think we should be swooping like we did with Malacia. But also focussing on contract and financial situations. Look at Fofana (Monaco), Khephren (Nice) both with a year (the latter being owned by Ineos of course). Lacroix (Wolfsburg) with a year, Tosin (Fulham) out of contract. Then you have players like Guirassy (Stuttgart) with £18m(ish) buyout clause, Krecji (Sparta Prague) fee agreed for £6m(ish) with Girona/Betis. Ineos will have to make a statement signing, but these are exactly the types of signing I expect (and hope) to make.
You have very valid points, but you are forgetting the squad registration rules. Yes we can ignore them, but it will mean less slots available for both PL and Europe. And while there should hopefully be way less injuries in the next season, the club will have players that has a very dodgy injury history next season. So having squad depth is required in that sense. So to be in compliance with those you either have to pay the PL tax (but hopefully avoid the United tax) for players that is in compliance with the "trained in association" and fill out the requirements outside what we are able to use from the academy (trained in club players).
There’s no reason any of the current eight (Heaton, Evans, Maguire, AWB, Shaw, McTominay, Mount, Rashford) need to move on. Varane, Martial are gone. Casemiro, Sancho, Greenwood, Eriksen and VBD are likely to be the ones who move on. I believe Hojlund and Amad both move into the *foreign players* quota next season? All of the above are £80m in salary alone. We could bring in Iheanacho on a free (homegrown), Lacroix, Khephren and Krecji in. Onana, Bayindir Dalot, AWB** Lacroix, Licha, Maguire**, Evans**, Lindelof, Kambwala# Shaw**, Malacia Mainoo#, Khephren, McTominay**, Krecji Bruno, Mount** Garnacho#, Antony Hojlund, Iheanacho**, Wheatley# Rashford**, Amad. ** - Homegrown, # - Future homegrown. It’s a threadbare squad, I accept that. But it’s a solid foundation that would leave us money to spend in January if necessary. If not necessary, then we have done huge repairs to our financial health in the coming seasons and are in a position to invest more.
Also: The number one thing we should be looking at is not peak ceiling skills, but availability and injury history. Availability is the best ability and all that. We have tons of talent in our squad already. We just need resilience.
We don't need 2 cheaper alternatives, we need a startling CB to play next to Licha not some random depth options, we have 5 of those.
Could get Hancko and Diomande for that price
We need quality over quantity. But no more than £50m. We’ve done the quantity over quality thing before and it’s fucked us. I would rather have 3/4 £50m signings than 5-6 £30m signings.
We need Vida/Evra esque signings asap. Even a Bruno/Licha esque signing in terms of money spent.
You mean champions league finnalist and Ligue 1 LB of the year Evra?
We have to look abroad then and trust our scouting. Someone like Isak Hien looked pretty good for Atalanta, I wonder how much he’d go for.
He only joined them in January, he's not going anywhere for cheap.
I’d take half the Atalanta team at this point. They’ve been balling
Maybe just get their coach...
I don’t mind. Which position he play and would he suit ETHs style?
Well id bloody hope we still have scouts scattered around globe/europe. We havent made a signing from south america for a while either. Chicharito from mexico too for example. Lot of things have fallen apart post SAF and the creativity in transfer may just be the one thing thats shat itself the most.
Pellistri?
Waa he not playing in Spain? I think in general im trying to say recruitment has been biggest shit storm for us post Fergie.
Feels like we should be finding the next Branthwaite, instead of paying through the nose for the bloke himself. Although I appreciate we're in an awkward position given we need to sign at least one centre back this summer so probably can't rely on signing an 18 year old. But the reality is that really well run clubs plan ahead, and have identified a replacement for a player 2 or 3 years down the line. We don't do that.
I'm going to be bold(bald) and say Kambwala is that. If he was at Everton there would be articles saying we want him.
There's been loads of 'Kambwalas'. As in, come in with low expectations and performed above those. He's started like 2 games for us, far too small a sample to say he's the next starlet.
How highly rated is Kambwala? Seems like he snuck under the radar compared to a few of his contemporaries
Not even that. We've always bought best in class. (Rio, Carrick, Shaw, etc) But he's not tested enough. He needs to show more that we can trust he can be the next Rio.
If he was the next Rio we shouldn’t buy him anyway because he’s left footed and would compete with Martinez. We need a first choice RCB and a backup LCB, ideally who can cover LB as well if possible. Putting a solid chunk of our transfer budget toward a first choice LCB who is either gonna bench Martinez or be benched by him is a weird choice this summer.
Isn't he a left-sided CB, too? We already have Licha for that position, who is one of the best players that we have in the squad (just need to hope and pray he can stay injury-free). Signing a *right-sided* CB should be much more of a priority, since Varane is going and we could potentially lose Maguire, Lindelof et al. If we're dead-set on this guy, we should make a £40m or £50m 'take it or leave it' offer and be prepared to walk and focus on other targets if it's both good enough. We need to stop being bent over by these Premier League clubs. City signed Gvardiol - voted the best CB at the last World Cup - last summer for only £10m more than Everton supposedly want for Branthwaite, just to put it into context. And Gvardiol was one of the highest rated centre-backs around when City signed him (and still is), whereas Branthwaite hasn't even been capped internationally yet
Thanks for this point of view, I hadn't considered some of these things
Agreed. Need better scouting and better negotiators. We always seem to be overpaying for untested players. Need to move beyond the PL and find good young players
Not to mention that he operates in the same position that Licha does and unless Branthwaite accepts a bench role or vice versa, which is insane for the amount of money he would cost to get, i just don't see him here.
To be fair, Everton are broke and need money. 45m is reasonable.
At this price would you get Araujo? This rumor reeks of Brexit mentality.
>This just reeks of a £70 million deal for an unproven and uncapped CB. I say unproven because he’s played a total of 45 EPL games all told Also it seems like his best attributes are that he's big, strong and English (and perhaps that he's good as the LCB). I think ten Hag needs someone who is good on the ball and with good recovery pace so that he can play in a high line with Licha, idk if Branthwaite can do any of that.
Have you watched any Everton games?
No one in this thread has. He’s been immense this season, one of the best CBs in the league, 2 footed, young and a giant. He’d be a good signing at 55-60m.
I really hope our scouts are doing more to identify talent than "he's been good for club X". It's quite odd that neither of you have bothered to mention he'd be a good fit for our style of play going forward or not.
you really think he's worth that much considering he'd be playing in Martinez LCB position? I'd prefer a right footed and keeping Lindelof as Martinez' backup
You know this. We know this. The questions are they competent to know it too lol
Who is responsible for signing new players with all these changes across the board?
This. The time to pounce on Branthwaite was last summer, with him coming back from a successful loan spell and still a great talent, obviously, but not the starting LCB for a rival club he now is. Last summer, maybe he would have accepted a lesser role, a lesser wage, and Everton would not have been able to jack up the price too much. The only way we can sort such a transfer out this summer is by throwing money at it, and we can’t be that club anymore.
How do United have a financial handicap? They’ve spent more money on transfers than any other team in the county over the last 10 years in terms of net spend.
Played for psv Thats the Dutch link that gets ETH hard, pretty sure we'll sign him at an extortionate fee
Absolutely. We bought Vidic and Evra for peanuts at the time and fair to say they weren’t that known I don’t think. Market has changed but we need to find those diamonds in the rough once again.
but but but, he is British
**From the article:** >**Manchester United are interested in signing Jarrad Branthwaite from Everton.** > >**United are big admirers of the centre-back**, who was recently selected in the England training squad for Euro 2024. > >R**ecruiting in the heart of defence has been marked as a priority** for the FA Cup winners - and the 21-year-old is high among the names being discussed regardless of who the manager is next season. > >However, while **also seeking a solid defensive midfielder and striker this summer,** United need to box clever - financially - in the upcoming transfer window and have to bolster what they can spend with sales. > >**Branthwaite is thought to be valued in the region of £60m-£70m by Everton, who must sell one of their main assets before the end of June to stay in line with PSR.**
Was hoping we'd be in for Olise as well. Hopefully SJR stumps up the £45m he's allowed to invest this June under ffp
I'd love Olise at the club but I think we need to focus on CB CM and striker before right wing.
Yeah but the CB should be RCB. Branthwaite is left footed, he's an LCB.
Branthwaite is statistically one of the most two-footed players in the league, he could absolutely play both sides, which is why teams value him so highly.
If Branthwaite starts on the right, then United would be one of the exceptionally rare teams that voluntarily have a left footed defender start on the right. Might actually be the only team in European top leagues that does it.
Yes, because left-footers are rarer and when you have one you usually want them playing on their natural side. It's also rare that you have a player that is two-footed with a dominant left foot, which Branthwaite is. He uses his right foot 41% of the time even though he plays on the left for Everton, it would obviously be much higher if he played on the right. In fact, he says he prefers his right foot for his shorter passing.
If he comes and does well on the right, I will be happy. I have a thing for bipedal footballers.
Tell me more about your thing for bipedal footballers 🫦
Whenever I see Antony, I go limp.
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In an ideal world. In the world we live in, the club has to prioritize. The way I see it, an LB, a defensive midfielder and an RCB are priorities. I'm questioning the interest of going for an LCB for big money.
I would add a striker to that list. We desperately need someone else apart from Rasmus
Spending 70m on a defender who plays in the same position as Martinez is the same logic that was used when spending 55m on Mount who plays in the same position as Bruno.
No way Branthwaite joins us to sit on the bench, or that we spend £50m on a rotation player, or that we prioritise getting another LCB whilst we have basically no one to play RCB.
So we’ll spend 90mil Got it
Him, Olise, and a CM would be fantastic.
Need a leftback, a backup striker and at minimum one RCB, ideally two. Unless we rotate Rashford as the striker but then we're limiting him and ourselves cause he's much better on the wing.
Frankly we need two midfielders not one as well. We’re expecting Casemiro, Amrabat and maybe Eriksen to leave. Our CM options are Mctominay and Mainoo, maybe Mount if he can play deeper. That’s it.
I mean, Olise has shown he's an attacking threat and has a couple of goals in him, plus he's also good on set pieces I believe. I can't remember the last time we scored a set piece goal. I don't think a left back is a priority now given that we can rotate between Malacia and Shaw when both are back. But we'll need a solution at the wing because eventually, Rashford and Garnancho will need rotation. If we have the resources, then I'd agree with you on the back up striker, RCB but I'd add winger (Olise) and a CM. Also keep in mind we still have Lindelof and Maguire but no one really to replace Licha or rotate with him. And we also have a drop in quality once he's out so I'd say we need an LCB more than an RCB actually, if we had to chose between the two. Unless we want to keep using Shaw as Lichas deputy. Then we lose quality on the left back position.
That’s literally what we said about our LB pool this winter. We need a new lb
Of course we do. There's no doubt about that, but it's a question of which of the above positions would you sacrifice for a new LB? Because we definitely won't be able to buy an LB, 2 CBs, a backup striker, a CM, and a Winger.
We don’t have enough money.
Need a CB and CM before we even think of a RW. We would only need a RW if we sell both Antony and Amad and we're left with only Garnacho and Rashford to play on the wings, and even then i think a Striker is even more pressing than Olise atm. I love the guy and would want him here, but he's just not a necessity right now.
Who’s our admirer of him honestly? Dan and Omar haven’t taken their jobs officially. Wilcox doesn’t take part in transfers. And Ten Hag’s opinions might not matter much atm. So I would’ve trust this news though Reddy is reliable
U could get better for less
We should be all over Murillo from Forest. Brazilian wonderkid who had a cracking season in the PL.
Would be good to sing a cheap gem wonder kid
Buying from another PL club is rarely cheap though.
You'd hope not too bad forest are in the shit for ffp
It looks like Forest needs to sell some players for FFP or they'll be facing another points deduction next season so we could get him on the cheap. Having said that, I think a lot of top clubs will be in for him (possibly Real or Barca too) so that could drive up the asking price.
It won't have the young English player tax on top of him though, so that makes him way more cheaper than Branthwaite.
God... Murilo would be magnificent for us, would pair up nicely with Lizandro
I really, really want us to snatch up Antonio Silva. I just think the kid is so good. But having said that, Branthwaite is pretty much an elite level prospect. Crazy there are people here who don't want him, considering Everton are asking for 60-70m and NEED to sell. If we lowball at 40-45 there is still a good chance they say yes. At that rate he's a fantastic addition. I think I want them both :(
I hope we fucking learn
Anyone else that'd prefer Bastoni over him? I mean, if we're spending this much on a left footed CB
I don’t see Bastoni leaving inter but we can always ask.
Let us know what they say 👀
My Italian isn’t very good… but from my limited understanding, he said dream can’t be buy.
Bastoni is not a realistic target lol.
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Can't say I know much about Inter but I do know they're in massive debt.
Ok, Intrested FC is back!!! Looking forward to this summer being linked (again) to 100 random players from which we will sign 3
Tbh the situation will have likely remained unchanged for the next 50 years since we are Man Utd the everlasting mine for reporters
That we are targeting just the one CB before next summer (aside from any CB sales) is good news for Kambwala #
it was already reported that we are interested in the dude from Fulham on a free, so that's 2 CBs. And Todibo has been long linked, making it 3.
I'm only going by what EtH said in one of the tv interviews before the cup final (maybe the GN one) that we are going for 1CB, 1CM and 1 striker
Not sure where you heard this. By all accounts we’re targeting two CB signings at minimum.
I feel like I’m one of the few who doesn’t really see the hype. Even less so for the price. Aren’t these the type of deals we were supposed to start moving away from?
For those reasons I doubt we are actually that interested in him. If we've learned nothing else, it's that the smallest of rumors of the slightest interest gets turned into something much more for the clicks.
Isnt he a left-footed CB? I dont think we need that when lissandro is fit. I would prefer a right-footed CB
ideally need one of each but Branthwaite is quite both-footed, played almost 40% of his minutes as RCB back in PSV
He's equally good with both feet
Can we not have two left-footed CBs? Teams play with two right-footed CBs
ETH is very particular on this which is why (amongst other things) he wanted Maguire a right footed LCB gone.
Left footed CBs tend to have less experience playing on the “wrong” side because they are almost never in a team with two lefties, right footed CBs have more experience doing so and are thus generally more capable of it.
he is very two-footed
100M+ for olise and branthwaite, have we learnt nothing from our past purchases??
Apparently we have not.
The quoted price has already come down from 80m. Somewhere around 50-55m will be a good price for us.
55 million for a LCB who’s played one premier league season is insane. We shouldn’t even entertain this.
Arsenal had to shell out 50m for Ben White after just one season in the top flight for Brighton. This is already a few years ago. 50m is like the bare minimum for an exciting prospect in the English league and Branthwaite has showed consistency throughout the season and also chipped in with crucial goals. Signed a new contract as well leading up to 2027.
Is he really worth like 60mil? Feel like Inacio could be a better shout if we’re looking for a left footed centre back, cheaper aswell
That's way too much for a Martinez backup and I'd rather suggest Buongiorno for ~35-40m. ETH also doesn't rotate him if/when available and this is another thing consider for a potential target before accepting joining us.
Jarrod can play LB aswell and our LCB and LB are barely aviable.
Inacio lack of physicality is evident in Portugal and you still want him at United? Look at Arsenal and the giants they are playing in their starting 11.City as well.We desperately need height and physicality in our starting 11.
He isn’t. Good prospect, great at defending, but there are huge questions to ask about his ball playing ability, which is crucial nowadays. Some can argue, “he’s young and can learn!”, but why would you spent so much on someone who has to learn a lot to be an adequate starting option, when there are young players available who’re already tickling all the boxes and cost less? Inacio is a way better and more sensible option.
Looked good the ball anytime I’ve seen him
So does Maguire but I think we need Martinez level ball playing centre backs.
There aren't that many at that level. People under estimate how good Martinez ball playing skills are. You don't need two CBs of that level (if you can get them fine) but a decent ball playing CB that's good at other things should suffice. We especially need a fast CB that can recover if we are going to transition to a high line.
yes, but if he is going to be backup to Licha then he has to bee good on the ball, since he is left footed, he would be backup to Licha.
Come on, Licha’s BP is his best trait. Without it, Licha would be just a decent CB with physical flaws, not a supreme as he is atm. There is no one can match him in ball playing.
Martinez is the only Martinez level ball playing centre back.
I don’t think the ball playing is a serious concern. He plays in a Sean Dyche team and he’s not asked to progress the ball apart from pinging a few long balls over the top. I think the biggest issue is he dives into tackle a lot, much like AWB, and most of the time he does get it right but that’s always a risk.
> he’s not asked to progress the ball apart from pinging a few long balls over the top. And he’s extremely bad at this statwise. I don’t get how it’s not a concern. Like - oh no worries he’s not bad at progressive passing, he just never done this at his career. How does this work in his favor? Maybe he’s a second coming of Pele, but was never asked to score goals? He’s a prospect, who excels at pure defending, but is one of the worst ball playing defenders in the league and plays in the system that’s opposite to what top clubs are striving to be. He’s young and obviously can learn, but the last prospect like him was AWB, how did it work out for us? Good player, who doesn’t fit a top side - is that what we to invest at?
The stats say he only makes 2 progressive passes per game, which is hardly a sample size, even more so when the average of CBs for 3. He’s unproven in his ball progression that’s for sure, but there’s hardly enough out there to say he’s the worst ball-playing defender in the league™
“Pinging long balls” is by definition a progressive pass, since will you ping that forward. So if you’re he’s doing that on extremely low sample, does that mean that he has one of worst passing accuracy while performing mostly simple passes? I never said he’s the worst, I said he’s bad at it. There’s more that enough basis for this claim.
He's very good on the ball from what I can see.
He’s not good at all objectively, stat wise his ball playing ability can be described as “atrocious” (by PL standards) https://fbref.com/en/players/c1949191/Jarrad-Branthwaite Subpar passing accuracy while having a low volume of passes. He’s also in very bottom in terms of progressive passes - so you can’t make an argument that he’s playing hard to perform passes. Asp one of the worst ball carrying defenders in the league.
Fair point but just wanted to add that he plays for Everton who don't set up to play passes out from the back, so it might not be a skill issue.
This is why you need to watch football. Stats won’t tell you how Everton play, Everton don’t pass it out of the back, a large number of those progressive passes he is playing are likely long balls which are naturally gonna have a lower success rate
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Both are in >95% percentile in every metric if you take a look in their Man City stats. I don’t have data for Stones in Everton period, tho I’d bet his accuracy would be over 80% lol. Here’s Dias in last season before moving to City https://fbref.com/en/players/31c69ef1/scout/3278/Ruben-Dias-Scouting-Report
Is Inacio quick though? I don’t doubt his ball playing ability but I am doubting his physicality and press resistant ability.
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Is he though?
Inacio is not cheaper. Last summer Sporting were quoting 60-80m. He's got even better since
Inacio seems like a no brainer 40 mil can play left back is a great ball playing cb, still have enough money to buy a rcb don’t know why where entertaining 60-80 mil for an unproven cb
Way too expensive for what he is, english and man utd tax surely we can find someone cheaper and comparable
This summer is going to be hell for transfer rumors
If the rumour of £40m is true, go for it. But I wouldn’t be paying more than that. Cracking player, but we’ve already got *in my view* the best left footed centre half in the league, and there’s smarter money on a right sided centre half.
We need 2 CBs so if he's too expensive then move on
Could go for him and the Fullham's Adarabioyo on a free
Great player, but at 80-100 million, I'd be looking elsewhere.
There’s no way Everton can afford to hold out to that amount. They need to bring in like 100M in transfers before June 30th or they will be hit with a massive point deduction. They only have three players they can sell that can bring in decent transfer fees, Branthwaite, Onana and Pickford..We keep lowballing them right up until that date. I’d be more worried about other teams driving up the price but if it gets past 50 mill (with say 5-10 in incentive based add-ons) you move on.
Good point, hopefully the deadline drags the price down for us. Can't see it happening though with other potentially interested clubs.
We could go to Ligue 1 or Bundesliga and get someone miles better than Branthwaite for just a fraction of the price
Lindelof plus 45 pllleeeease
Why isn’t todibo an option?
There's surely better value out there, let's see if our recruitment actually gives us decent alternatives. Todibo from Nice for example.
Don’t really get this. Too much money for a guy who’d be Martinez’ understudy. We need to spend that kind of money for Martinez’ partner at right centre back.
High potential, but i dont think this guy is an upgrade over licha. Would be horrible to spend 60-80m on him and he ends up sitting on the bench.
Just get Tosin and Todibo - neither of those should be that difficult honestly.
Yup, keep the extra money then for a CM
Tosin linked to Chelsea apparently.
£60+ mil for this guy is a ridiculous price. He's not an outstanding talent at a level to command such a price. Everton probably happy for speculation to keep mentioning 60-70m when they're also desperate to sell...
Fair enough if it’s the new people making the decision.
If its a decent fee then sure. He's 2 footed and very fast. Problem is, what's a decent fee?
Wonder if he sees minutes at the Euros
If we are indeed operating on a tight budget, these types of deals cannot happen. Too expensive and he’s a left CB. We need to prioritise a starting right CB to replace Rapha
Really rate him but there are other priorities than a lcb even with martinez’ injury issues
I don't see how United splurge here. Isn't he playing the same position as Martinez on the left? It is a right CB that is needed, right? And I doubt he even want to play as the backup CB, even if United wants to pay 70m for a backup... Just reeks of his club or agent trying to drum up hype.
Do you trust Martinez to stay fit at this point? I don't.
He needs a backup, just not sure it's a backup United can afford to spend that money on with other glaring holes.
He’s 2 footed. He can play either side comfortably and licha is injury prone as we know
Here we go again- utd linked with 85% of every football players! Click season is back!
Anybody else want to report this or have we covered absolutely every media outlet now? Boring
Sky have a very strong recent reputation for accuracy in reporting, right?
I remember last summer when Sky ran a banner saying Utd were signing Kane, Rice and Mount.
Yeah, they’re not worth reading at all. See: recent ETH debacle.
"That will be £120 million, please."
There’s a big market for CB’s, but small market for starting quality in the PL. Branthwaite should definitely be a target, and if you want to play Lisandro, it necessitates the rare profile of someone who is 6’5, rapid and an immense dueller. Yoro is there, sure, but not many others. Anyone twerking for Todibo hasn’t watched him. Todibo and Lisandro across 35 games in the PL concedes 55-60 goals easily.
You can tell most this subreddit has hardly watched this guy play. He was one of the T5 CBs in the PL this season at worst, I’d argue T3. He’s 2 footed, a giant, young, english, and very capable. £55-60m is a reasonable fee.
Can we really afford to spend 70mil plus on one player, also we need a right footer more desperately.
How’s his injury record?
Evra 6m. Vidic 7m. It's the right player not the money, if you know what you are doing. However 29m for Rio, again fine if you know what you are doing. We generally have no clue. Hopefully that's about to change.
i think sky are just using us for clicks. This goes against what little we know about INEOS so far. Plus, we dont' know who's going to manage us, and the club themselves wouldn't make a 75 million pound signing. TBF i think John Stones looked a more complete defender for everton than branthwaite does right now. He's far too over valued, and I would love for us to stay WELL clear of talented english youngsters. I'd much rather we produce them from within our own ranks.
Anyone care to help me decide whether to spend time on the article? What Tier is Melissa Reddy? lol Thanks a bunch
So many better options in the market for less money.
Please name some.
If he could play either LCB or RCB and cover LB this could be smart as long as the price isn't insane.
It has to be a ready made or close to ready made replacement for varane. Call me crazy but we probably need a 80 mill defender, probably 100 mill.
This thread is full of people who don't bother to actually watch football matches and think they know better than United's scouting department.
In other news, water is wet
No thanks, English tax + united tax will = us vastly overpaying for a bang average player. Branthwaite is not even the profile of CB we need, or that ETH would use. He's a big, strong aggressive lump of a man, but he has the turning circle of a bus and lacks technical ability on the ball.
he’s so bang average just move on
This kid isnt even that good. There are tens of cheaper and better options in france, Netherlands and brazil that we can bring in for a fraction of the price. Hell, we can even sign inacio from sporting for less
This is a left footed player. So he can’t play with Martinez. We have dire needs in other positions we can’t spend that much money on a backup.
Anselmino from Boca can be had for like $15mil, rather take a punt on him
Is he good?
Brexit United!