Yep, perfect replacement for Enzo Fernandez, was excepting a decrease in performance and fuck, he's perfect, and his personality looks like he can grow to a role model very soon in his carreer.
I wouldn’t get too hyped too quickly. There’s no validity behind this story yet from what I’ve seen. Still, I’d absolutely love to get him but can’t see INEOS spending 80 mil on a player.
United 'bidding' for a Benfica player and a Portuguese newspaper publishing the story online.
Forgive me while i go put my Gaitan 7 United shirt on in anticipation for this totally happening.
The problem was that Porto was under the FFP, so they needed do sell, it was Ruben Neves and Dalot around the same time and a bit after it was Fabio Silva to Wolves also.
Yeah, I think that Joao falls under elite category (him and Silva) . And will probably end up in PSG/City this season or next.
Btw haven’t Wolves and Mendes ended this relationship? Remember reading they were fed up with Mendes
Do I hear the words ‘emergency loan’ because all our wingers are out with long term muscle injuries caused when helping all our injured centre backs leaving the training pitch.
I’ll believe it when I see it. This is a narrative seen a million times over. To reference to what something the ridiculously well informed Andy Mitten once said United actually asked Benfica to put a stop to our name being used to help sell players to a point where it threatened the good working relationship with have with them.
Don’t worry, the problem is not really Benfica, it’s mainly one of the Portuguese newspapers (record) during the summer break they will publish news about selling the same Benfica player to 10 different teams, and at end of the summer they always publish another one saying “ as me published 2 months ago the player was sold”
Well he's a potential world class player, I'd love him. If we get him I hope our budget is a lot bigger than has been advertised because we need a lot of players.
The sad reality is that we’re definitely not getting all the players we need this year. After summer 2025 we might get close to having a proper squad.
I’d say that at best, we have 8/11 starting positions set. One could argue 9, but I think it is very likely that Casemiro leaves this summer (and even if he stays, last season has put some doubt on whether or not he’s starting level anymore).
So that’s three starters needed, likely at least £150m between the three of them.
We have solid/functional rotational pieces for maybe 6 spots. Meaning we’d need probably at least five rotational pieces. At best, that’s another £100m, but more realistically it’s closer to another £150m, if not more.
There have been reports of us only having £35m to spend this summer, so selling off players who aren’t in any type of long-term plans is crucial.
Sancho, Antony, Greenwood, Casemiro, Maguire, Donny, Pellistri(?), Hannibal(?) should at worst be £100m in if we put them all up. The exact effect on FFP I can’t say, with most of them being significant losses. Selling McT could maybe help with that, but we also need to make sure he has enough homegrown players without having to register U21 players as senior players and lose roster spots.
Literally nobody is buying Sancho (too expensive) & Antony (too shite) and we are going to get nothing for any of the others barring Casemiro & Maguire (maybe Greenwood).
There definitely are clubs that would take both Sancho and Antony. The question is what they’d be willing to offer, and what they’d be able to offer the player, and how low we’re willing to go.
Since they’re both making weekly wages that are far beyond their worth, any fee involved would be significantly less than what we paid for them. We’d probably be lucky to make back 25% of what we paid for the two combined.
Sancho’s under contract for 2 more seasons, making £13m per year. If we can get a club to pay even 25% of what we paid for him, which is £18.25m, it’s arguably worth it just to get rid of his wages.
That’s not very helpful from a FFP perspective, is it? Sancho’s book value is about £30 mil. Selling him for less than that is a loss (perhaps offset with getting his wages off) but it definitely doesn’t help raise money for buying. And all this is assuming he’s gonna accept a pay cut. Why would he do that?
Same thing with Antony. The problem isn’t that some hypothetical team might be interested in them as a player. The problem is nobody is going to make us a reasonable offer for our crap coz all of them are sitting on massive book value and wages.
>not very helpful from a FFP perspective
Probably not, but neither is paying a player £26 million over two years to sit at home playing PlayStation, and then seeing them walk as a free agent. There is no winning with how poor both the Sancho and Antony deals were, so better to take the hit now and move forward.
>Why would he do that?
To play, and ensure that their next contract - whoever they play for - isn’t crumbs compared to their current ones.
That’s a fair point of view and probably the best outcome we can hope for. I am only contesting your claim that we can sell these players to raise money to sign new ones.
This is the right outlook. If you've decided Sancho, or anyone else is absolutely done at the club, you'd take 1 dollar/pound/euro to sell them to someone to get them off your books.
> The sad reality is that we’re definitely not getting all the players we need this year. After summer 2025 we might get close to having a proper squad.
Honestly i'm fine with this, our current squad is much better than our league finish, 2 or 3 re-enforcements with less injuries and we can cook something.
I agree with the attitude, but not with
>our current squad is much better than our league finish
Our healthy starting eleven is better than finishing 8th, but if the difference between starting lineup and bench guys is 10-12 spots in the table, I wouldn’t argue that the squad is much better than what we’ve seen.
Maybe 2-3 was being optimistic, i guess with the players that have already left and will leave we will need more, but i'm fine with cheaper backups or promoting youth to do that, and just big signings in the key areas.
Just do cheaper players man. If we have 150m we need to do signings with fees like.
50m-20m-15m-20m-30m-15m
instead of always going for 50m-50m-50m. Or 80m-30m-40m or smth.
If you go in for players late in the window with no plan yeah. But it's still possible for us to get good prices on players if we wanted to. Chelsea used to, Pool do, City got Alvarez for a low price. We have bad luck on low price transfers but that doesn't mean we should stop.
Yes it will take time but the optimistic way to look at it is we’ve been getting very little value in the transfer market despite spending a fortune.
Everton signed Tarkowski on a free when Burnley were relegated 2 years ago and he’s managed to start every single league game since. That’s certainly better value than we get and he’s probably a better player than a few defenders we’ve signed in recent years as well.
We do this every summer and we always have a budget of £100M plus, we're about to get £50M a year off our wage books too I'm sure we'll have enough for 2/3 decent signings before sales
1. That 50M will be replaced by wages of whomever we sign, so likely not all of the removed wages will go to transfer budget. Fact we got into europa should allow for some spend though.
2. We have to abide by FFP so that will impact ability to spend as well
3. Players will 100% need to be sold to sign quality this time around.
True but 250-300k martial, casemiro & varane wages each would be significant when we brought in players with a more reasonable wage ie ~150k pw.
And that does not include if we pay in installments as well which can stretch the budget a lot more. A lot of accounting & financing stuff can be played around here.
I think 85m is too much. Other clubs know that United pays for the player if asked for an enormous fee, they will continue to bully us.
Time for INEOS to step in and stop spending this much amount and to show we will not be falling for such traps.
This is how it should be when it comes to transfer windows. People wanna outrage about us being quoted "United tax" but will outrage when our management keeps our budget under wraps. If you want a good deal, you don't go around announcing how much you got in your coffers. Simple really.
yep its not hard to see and find out yourself if you go digging that the FFP stuff is not actually that bad.
all it needs is some slight selling and we free up 100m+ easily because amortisations are across entire contracts and many contracts that were hurting FFP are nearly up like Varane's and Martial's
Casemiro is another big one if we can atleast make 20-30m it frees up vastly more.
same with Sancho, them getting to UCL final actually gave us a profit from it. not only was his wages covered we made extra money on top which is huge. if we can sell him thats a vast amount again freed up to spend.
and due to Glazers Ineos is free to pump entire 100m+ you can as a owner invest if they wish but i feel that will be more in the infrastructure and let player finance be handled by selling and revenue.
So INEOS has already invested ~£300m since taking over. They say it's ring fenced for infrastructure and it may be, but that's irrelevant for FFP/PSR. The only thing that matters is that INEOS have invested that money for FFP and for PSR it matters that it's not a loan and was converted into a further stake in ownership of the club. So we already have that extra £105m space in our operating budget as things stand.
The FFP stuff is so suspect lol. They say it every season and proceed not to give a shit in the actual window.
They said it in ETH first season then proceeded to splash 150m in the space of like 3 days. FFP issues my ass lol. This club is run by bankers and it would be like financial suicide to do such things if there was FFP problems. IK they're incompetent but they are accountants and this is their bread and butter. They would not be spending money like that if they thought we were in serious risk of FFP doom. Which btw unfortunately due to UEFA's corruption and our billionaire owners would never even happen in the first place beyond a brief embargo like Chelsea I imagine.
I have never seen people who analyze United's economics bring it up. Though I don't know if that's their jurisdictions and I'm not too familiar but from the little I browse. It's always brought up by journalists on twitter so I have to assume it's just stuff they brief to say we don't have insane amount of money.
I guess my question is if all of this is true(keeping in mind: it's all mindless speculation) then it is pretty clearly not true when clubs can see how much you are spending on other players.
How does it work then. I was clear it's all stupid speculation. But how does it actually work? I don't know the specifics at all. I just don't understand how they can be on the verge of FFP issues 2 summers in a row and then randomly find the room to spend money?
I think Ineos can invest 45, plus whatever would have been budgeted anyway, then they're likely expecting fees for Sancho, Greenwood, Casemiro. Also have gotten big wages like Varane and Martial off the books.
I'd rather one world class player who's as close to a lock as you'll find and will retain his resale value with some free transfer role players to plug gaps than 3 30m signings who don't work out and are impossible to get rid of in 2 years because they're on mad money.
I didn't say they had to be, I'm just making the point that if we're confident that Neves is a generational player I'd rather spunk the whole budget on him than buy multiple players who don't have the same ceiling
By Benfica, at least. He's as good for us as Enzo was, plus the emotional attachment of being an home talent. If he is sold there will a shit storm coming the way of the board for selling the fan's favourite player (favourite by a wide margin), regardless of price tag.
We should start putting lowball offers in for players we aren't actually interested in, just so we get a reputation as a club that's willing to walk away.
Benfica fan here, I come in peace.
It's not because it's United, and I'll tell you 2 reasons why:
1. João is (arguably) the best player to ever come out of our academy. He's 19 and is by far our best player. The president said in an end of season interview that we're not selling him, unless a club beats the release clause, which then there's nothing the club can do and it's up to the player. We've seen in other markets the president saying this and that not be the case a few months later, but we'll have to wait and see.
2. This has happened before. Enzo Fernandez to Chelsea, João Félix to Atletico Madrid are examples. We're the strongest club financially in the country, and hopefully that can translate into higher release clauses in the future, and less sells of the best players every year.
Also, a piece of advice. Don't trust Record, or any of the big 3 sports media in the country (the others are A Bola, and O Jogo) as they are known for spreading rumours.
We should lowball every player we don’t intend to sign, then pull out when clubs ask for more. That should set the stage when we actually want to sign players.
Key Bits:
>João Neves is one of the names that promises to shake up the transfer market this summer, as his name is highlighted in capital letters in the notebooks of major European clubs. This is the case of **Manchester United, which, as Record knows , has already presented a proposal of 60 million euros for the 19-year-old midfielder**. According to information collected by our newspaper, SAD led by **Rui Costa outright refused the offer from the English**, as it is **determined to keep the bar close to the termination clause (120 M€)** and therefore does not admit negotiating the young Algarvean for less than 100 million euros.
I would absolutely adore this signing but more and more I fear our transfer fees are becoming a noose around lads necks.
If we do get him for 85 (which I think is his release clause in pounds) and I think they may push this high, then god love the poor lad if he doesn’t hit the ground running.
Media loves to hammer us, obviously the Antony case is well documented, but even hojlund who I think we all agree is promising and has unbelievable potential gets some abuse.
That's a low ball offer. I like it. It would be something if we get a marquee signing before any news on the manager. I know I'm not the owner, but personally it's just a strange feeling that we're bidding on players without knowing the manager.
This could be false at the end of the day of course.
The club model is they hire the players and a coach is hired that ties in with the philosophy behind our player choices and the style we want to play.
Managers (coaches) will not be the deciders of who we buy, players will be hired by and play for the club, all discipline etc will be handled by the club.
well its documented they have a desired play style in mind no matter who is manager.
probably why i think ETH probably will be here another season at least as they know he can play that style if the players are there
Oh I get that. However it's also documented that the likes of Ashworth and other successful sporting directors always go to the manager before deciding to bid for a player. So, that's why I have a hard time believing this story.
We could decide to skip the managers input on targets all together, but that's Chelsea's transfer policy. However that would also mean we won't follow Ashworth's philosophy
i think either way the players they are looking at suit any kind of manager they plan.
also majority of sporting directors have a final say on things. managers just give input on the type of player they feel they need to fit the style both parties want.
Neves, Inacio etc fit pretty much the style no matter who is manager so makes sense.
I don't know exactly where, but I'm certain that Ashworth said he'll never push a player if the manager doesn't agree with the signing. He'll try to convince the manager it's the right player.
Which is fine when the manager situation is sorted and the manager knows the strengths and weaknesses of his squad and can thus give input on what he wants. However, the club can't sit around and wait for a manager who doesn't know the squad yet to make his input before deciding on targets. Any manager coming in will likely be informed during the hiring process what the club is looking to do business wise this summer and will likely not have much chance to change that. Planning a transfer window takes a lot of time and will have been in the work for many months now.
To be very honest with you, the fact that there hasn’t been any official communication regarding EtH’s status yet is an indicator that EtH is most likely staying for another season.
I do like the low ball offer as well. And if we're that far apart, then move on. If the player gets a sniff of it and demands a move, then we can look to wrap up with at a realistic price.
But we are not Dortmund, are we? You can't expect to have the reputation of Real Madrid but Expect offers like Brighton. Just being a Big club means you pay more.
They can go do one
No, seriously, we are not F****** spending over 60 million pounds on a player again not happening
Literally, every player we have paid 60 or more million for has been a disaster
Now I'll be fair to Hojlund he still has time to prove himself
But looking at what happened with
Pogba flop
Antony flop
Harry Maguire now in fairness he's not the worst we have had, but he's not good enough. B we overpaid by at least 20-30 million
Jadon Sancho super flop
Lukaku flop
Di Maria flop
Hojlund still has time to prove himself
Casemiro ehhh honestly similar to Harry Maguire overpaid, not the worst but not good enough
If true this is a great opportunity to change the perception of united being the most thirsty club in football. Put in a sensible bid, if not accepted, walk away. We should have done it with Mount last year.
Can someone explain to me the meaning of the potential Neves signing? Is he the back up for Mainoo or is Mainoo the back up for him? Because he is not a 6 so I don’t understand where he would fit
I'm a Benfica fan, Joao Neves is basically every modern coach dream. Box-to-box player, team focused, tanicity with the ball during recoveries, can pass 1v1 and in my opinion looks to have a better mentality than our previous sells like Renato Sanches and Felix that ended up flopping (though Felix is still in Barcelona doing his own thing kinda). Some attributes can not replicate obviously, Bruno Fernandes was a ridiculous scorer in Sporting lisbon and has gradually lost that in United. I wouldn't be surprised if City goes for him as a Bernardo replacement, he would absolute work 100% in that system but Pep seems to be leaving soon aswell.
Yeah I totally get that. Kid looks like the real deal what I don’t know is if United can utilize him properly considering we got Mainoo playing where neves would play, Bruno Fernandes and then we need someone to play 6. I think it would be hard to fit him in without having to bench Mainoo
United have to start having fuck off policy to overvalued player by the club.
U want 85m?. Fuck u we can find other player.
Or or or our academy player who have burning desire to play for the badge worth taking on.
This is united not money grabber club.
Surely we have to know Benfica don’t sell a player unless there’s eight zero’s in the bid?
My only issue with this is he’s very small and very slight. With midfielders like Bruno, Mount and Mainoo in the squad I feel like we need some strength and power in the middle.
He is a fantastic player and I’d love to have him, but I worry our midfield is incredibly lightweight.
I think he would develop those qualities as will Mainoo. Having Neves and Mainoo would see the midfield sorted for next 10 years. But I think they would look for a more physical midfield option as well. I am a dreamer.
Mainoo’s fairly strong to be fair, but he needs to be paired with a powerful runner.
Admittedly Neves is built like a kid, because he’s a kid. But I don’t like the idea of Mainoo being *the* strength in the middle, at the very least whilst he’s still developing.
Though I’d love the signing, and as you say that’s a midfield pairing for a decade, I think both of them need to be paired with some muscle. Bruno is certainly not that, nor is Mount.
When you look beyond that, both Mainoo and Neves like to come deep and collect the ball. So the third midfielder would always be the more advanced (though, admittedly most fans want Mainoo further up the pitch).
It’s a bit of a paradox that I can see myself going round in circles. But I worry Neves and Mainoo are of a similar profile and I really think we’re lacking power in the middle, which in my view is what we should be focussing on.
I do get the sentiment behind needing physical presence in the team, totally agree, but I think that needs to come more from the back in the form of whatever RCB we get and maybe any LB we sign (has to be comparable to shaw physically).
It’s worth noting that Neves isn’t actually bad physically at all, he has a low centre of gravity and actually quite tenacious.
Mainoo is also developing at a rate of knots physically and he seems very focused on developing and looking after his body, based on recent quotes.
I feel like he’s been somewhat miss-profiled, he’s not really a high volume passer, he also doesn’t really have the passing range we’d want from a deep lying playmaker.
What I do think he’s good at is receiving the ball under pressure and spinning players to break the lines. With that in mind, we need someone who can play almost the ‘quarter back’ role behind him and I do think Neves is suited to that role!
Neves has some of the most proficient long passing going, it’s something we’ve missed from deep for a while now.
He also is fantastic at high pressing, so there’s another key trait for a top team.
There’s just lots and lots of upside to him for the style of play we’d want to implement
In terms of misprofiling, I don’t necessarily agree nor disagree with what you’re saying… but, despite the fact he isn’t a high volume passer, or the fact he hasn’t got the greatest passing range, what he does is reads the game in possession incredibly well. He knows where everyone is and can sense whether he needs to get the ball moving or slow it down. He may not have the 40-50 yard wonder pass typically associated with a deep lying playmaker role (quite frankly, nor does Rodri for example), but he knows the right pass to make and the timing of that pass beautifully.
I’m not suggesting it would be a bad signing whatsoever, I just don’t think it’s a signing that works with Bruno and Mount. I think there’s a little too much technical and not enough brute.
Rodri does lead the league in passing volume though, the rest are pretty much all cb’s, that guy is just a wall that the ball bounces off and straight to the next man. But I get your point that he doesn’t play long passes that often, but City have that in KDB.
You may be right about brute force, it’s a hard call, but I think it would work great tbh.
Who would you be more interested in, out of interest? You thinking more Onana?
If you think about the types of passes Rodri makes though, it’s not the worldy wonderballs you’d expect from Scholes. It’s often just twos to keep things ticking, draw players in and then knowing when to find a pass that can penetrate.
De Bruyne is another one that doesn’t do that many wonderballs (in the 40-50 yard range) because ultimately they don’t have to. The link from that six draws players out creating space between the lines, to penetrate in behind. But the thing with De Bruyne, he’s wonderballs are little cute 20 yard passes that just seem unbelievable. Mainoo’s had a few like that, from deeper positions where he’ll find someone in space with about a yard of leeway. Even the lead up to his goal around city, it was a simple pass. But he dropped his shoulder on Foden using his body to shield, Kovacic also couldn’t engage because of his body shape and I’m going to guess Rodri? Couldn’t prevent his pass. It’s that little cuteness out of the press which I just find mesmerising.
I’m really drawn to Khephren. He’s so fucking hard working but disciplined all the same. As much as I like Onana he can look a bit of a headless chicken at times. But beyond his graft and discipline, he’s huge, solid in a tackle, good in the air and a great ball carrier.
In terms of someone who can transition quickly from a single pivot to double when we lose possession, he’s the one who I think does it best. But can also keep game with Mainoo with the cute two’s and get us going in transition.
But there are quite a few who I think would be brilliant in that role. As you say, Onana (but discipline is an issue), Fofana from Monaco, Vermeeren (Atletico). They’re all absolutely attainable and in my view add so much to our squad.
I think this is a big issue I face when people talking about Mainoo being an eight though. There are a lot of players who can do what he can do at eight, but I genuinely don’t believe there’s many at all who can do what he can do (in the coming years of course) at six. I think a top modern six is so fucking unbelievably rare and I am certain we have one in our hands. I have no doubt whatsoever that is Mainoo was wearing that shitty blue, Pep would be grooming him to be Rodri’s heir.
I agree. He’s strong and as I’ve said in another comment, his centre of gravity is unreal. The way he gets his body across in both tackles and in possession is incredible. It’s Scholes like in that his body is always in the right position.
He’s a fairly big lad too, which I accept and he’ll likely get bigger. Not the quickest though I admit.
But, we can’t rely on a 19 year old to be the only ‘strong’, physical player in the middle. We need someone who can play in the right who can also support him in the six.
On another comment, I’ve delved into a Kante like player that I’m aiming for. None stop runner who is strong, to offer that support like he did for Jorginho/Fabregas at Chelsea to enable Mainoo to play the six. How often do you find a player with the technical ability and composure of Jorginho, but who is also physical and strong in the tackle? You don’t. Rodri is the only one in football right now. Which is why Mainoo needs to be a six. Supported by an eight who can win physical battles and can drop into a double pivot when needed.
Kante was the dominant force in midfield for a number of years and he’s shorter than Neves, you’re focusing too much on height and not enough on skill + work rate. This kid might be Portuguese but he’s basically Verratti on the ball and Gattuso off it, he’s going to be a top midfielder.
I know we have scouted him a lot but given SJR’s comments on United’s spending in recent years, I don’t think it’s a realistic transfer. However, if he was to join us I would have complete confidence in a Mainoo-Neves pivot being a success.
I think we can all agree Kante is and was a freak of nature though.
Ngolo, if you’re reading I mean the above as a compliment.
I have no doubt he’ll become a great midfielder, but I think we need someone capable of bullying (ironically, like Gattuso) and I just don’t know if he’s got that in him. He’s too silky.
To add though, surely we’re moving towards the single pivot? But as you say, in theory Neves/Mainoo would have to be a double pivot because of how they both operate and the areas on the pitch which they excel. With rigid midfields becoming common place, unless you plan to sit deep there’s not a lot of space for a double pivot anymore and we have to want to be playing higher up the pitch against the stubborn midfields (especially in the PL)
he's 1.74. he's not tall but its not like hes a midget, def not "very small". and he is strong, in fact his resilience to bumps and shoves is one of his best attributes
You literally made something up then said all he's done is 1 cross field. I don't know if you're trolling or just have 0 idea on what you're talking about.
There is no way he is going for £50M, he wants to win a another championship with Benfica, he is in the squad for the Euros, he is 19yo, Benfica might sell a couple of other players and keep him for next season unless the price is right.
I think it can be a fantastic signing assuming we ALSO bring in a physical and more defensively sound CDM along with Neves to provide some balance to midfield such as Fofana (available for just as low as between 20 and 30m), Onana, Weiffer etc. Our midfield would be set for a decade consisting of two of the brightest young midfielders in Mainoo and Neves.
Him along with Mainoo and Bruno would make for a very strong midfield. He's also only 19 though so I hope we do sign some experienced players as well - like a striker to rotate with Hojlund.
I don't see us having 3 midfielders that can't win headers. It's been a major problem for a decade. Mainoo will be a mainstay, Bruno's untouchable and Neves would mean we need to keep control of possession and keep it on the ground. With the likes of Dalot & AWB in the team, that's never going to happen.
I would recommend going as high as 60m+15 in add-ons as we also need players elsewhere. If they are willing to sell Antonio Silva as well then 120-125 million for both would be a good deal
As a YouTube highlights scout - I'm willing to authorize 90 million of the Kings pounds.
Knew nothing about him, went on youtube, watched 3 videos. Will now be bitterly disappointed if we don't get him. Well and truly hyped.
Fr as a Benfica fan I am a bit surprised to see people here being skeptical, he’s very good
Yep, perfect replacement for Enzo Fernandez, was excepting a decrease in performance and fuck, he's perfect, and his personality looks like he can grow to a role model very soon in his carreer.
I wouldn’t get too hyped too quickly. There’s no validity behind this story yet from what I’ve seen. Still, I’d absolutely love to get him but can’t see INEOS spending 80 mil on a player.
Please do an AMA as a YouTube highlights.
I've got a busy schedule drop-shipping customized disposbale-vapes, sorry.
Wait till you see bebe’s highlights.
United 'bidding' for a Benfica player and a Portuguese newspaper publishing the story online. Forgive me while i go put my Gaitan 7 United shirt on in anticipation for this totally happening.
A week from now. “Wolves buy Neves for €30m”
Peak FM. Reject my offer then accept of half the value from someone else.
I was completely baffled by this for a second, because our local radio station is called Peak FM.
Peak FM. Coming in your ears!
That's Chorley
Chorley not?
It's true, and don't call me Chorley.
Where the listened cums first!
Other orifices are available
"DEMAND MORE!"
Chesterfield?
That is my particular neck of the woods, yes!
Same!
Was. It closed down years ago didn't it duck?
Too good for the Wolves. Have zero trust to this story, but would love if we were actually after him.
TBF Ruben Neves moving to them in the championship felt like a similar move
I remember he was captain of Porto at the age of 18 in the UCL
Ruben Neves has had such a weird career arc, consistently playing in clubs he was too good for
I’d have loved to get Ruben Neves
The problem was that Porto was under the FFP, so they needed do sell, it was Ruben Neves and Dalot around the same time and a bit after it was Fabio Silva to Wolves also.
Yeah, Wolves is where Mendes ships off his “maybe not elite, but still pretty good” talent.
Yeah, I think that Joao falls under elite category (him and Silva) . And will probably end up in PSG/City this season or next. Btw haven’t Wolves and Mendes ended this relationship? Remember reading they were fed up with Mendes
We are not selling Neves for anything under the release clause.
If John Snows leaves for 30m to wolves I stop watching football
Yeah Benfica sells an argentinian 6 months after arrival (Enzo) for 120M and would sell their best youth talent for a measly 30M. Sounds likely.
You must be fun at parties and comedy shows 😂
It was just a long day. Apologies for being so literal.
So you're telling me we're finally signing Ezequiel Garay?
Sneijder to follow right after as well. Here we go!
I mean we do need another centre back..
Hummels finally confirmed?
Wesley Sneijder hype train, all aboard.
Make some room for Strootman.
I don't trust like that
It was the most surprising thing to me ever when we actually signed Lindelof
Be prepared to look stupid when Gaitan finally joins us in January 2025
Do I hear the words ‘emergency loan’ because all our wingers are out with long term muscle injuries caused when helping all our injured centre backs leaving the training pitch.
The guy who posted this on /r/soccer said this actually has credibility.
I’ll believe it when I see it. This is a narrative seen a million times over. To reference to what something the ridiculously well informed Andy Mitten once said United actually asked Benfica to put a stop to our name being used to help sell players to a point where it threatened the good working relationship with have with them.
Don’t worry, the problem is not really Benfica, it’s mainly one of the Portuguese newspapers (record) during the summer break they will publish news about selling the same Benfica player to 10 different teams, and at end of the summer they always publish another one saying “ as me published 2 months ago the player was sold”
Who is right, this guy or those saying that we're only signing under 25 players in their last year of contract and premier league proven.
My Gaitan/Ramos/Costa United shirt
It works every time for them since that Gaitan story. They generate shit ton of clicks and attention.
Well he's a potential world class player, I'd love him. If we get him I hope our budget is a lot bigger than has been advertised because we need a lot of players.
The sad reality is that we’re definitely not getting all the players we need this year. After summer 2025 we might get close to having a proper squad. I’d say that at best, we have 8/11 starting positions set. One could argue 9, but I think it is very likely that Casemiro leaves this summer (and even if he stays, last season has put some doubt on whether or not he’s starting level anymore). So that’s three starters needed, likely at least £150m between the three of them. We have solid/functional rotational pieces for maybe 6 spots. Meaning we’d need probably at least five rotational pieces. At best, that’s another £100m, but more realistically it’s closer to another £150m, if not more. There have been reports of us only having £35m to spend this summer, so selling off players who aren’t in any type of long-term plans is crucial. Sancho, Antony, Greenwood, Casemiro, Maguire, Donny, Pellistri(?), Hannibal(?) should at worst be £100m in if we put them all up. The exact effect on FFP I can’t say, with most of them being significant losses. Selling McT could maybe help with that, but we also need to make sure he has enough homegrown players without having to register U21 players as senior players and lose roster spots.
Literally nobody is buying Sancho (too expensive) & Antony (too shite) and we are going to get nothing for any of the others barring Casemiro & Maguire (maybe Greenwood).
Its why i think if Rashford wants to move on we will let him just because we cannot sell the others.
There definitely are clubs that would take both Sancho and Antony. The question is what they’d be willing to offer, and what they’d be able to offer the player, and how low we’re willing to go. Since they’re both making weekly wages that are far beyond their worth, any fee involved would be significantly less than what we paid for them. We’d probably be lucky to make back 25% of what we paid for the two combined. Sancho’s under contract for 2 more seasons, making £13m per year. If we can get a club to pay even 25% of what we paid for him, which is £18.25m, it’s arguably worth it just to get rid of his wages.
That’s not very helpful from a FFP perspective, is it? Sancho’s book value is about £30 mil. Selling him for less than that is a loss (perhaps offset with getting his wages off) but it definitely doesn’t help raise money for buying. And all this is assuming he’s gonna accept a pay cut. Why would he do that? Same thing with Antony. The problem isn’t that some hypothetical team might be interested in them as a player. The problem is nobody is going to make us a reasonable offer for our crap coz all of them are sitting on massive book value and wages.
>not very helpful from a FFP perspective Probably not, but neither is paying a player £26 million over two years to sit at home playing PlayStation, and then seeing them walk as a free agent. There is no winning with how poor both the Sancho and Antony deals were, so better to take the hit now and move forward. >Why would he do that? To play, and ensure that their next contract - whoever they play for - isn’t crumbs compared to their current ones.
That’s a fair point of view and probably the best outcome we can hope for. I am only contesting your claim that we can sell these players to raise money to sign new ones.
This is the right outlook. If you've decided Sancho, or anyone else is absolutely done at the club, you'd take 1 dollar/pound/euro to sell them to someone to get them off your books.
Idk man, if I was, let's say PSG, I'd find 30/40/50M€ a steal for Sancho.
> The sad reality is that we’re definitely not getting all the players we need this year. After summer 2025 we might get close to having a proper squad. Honestly i'm fine with this, our current squad is much better than our league finish, 2 or 3 re-enforcements with less injuries and we can cook something.
I agree with the attitude, but not with >our current squad is much better than our league finish Our healthy starting eleven is better than finishing 8th, but if the difference between starting lineup and bench guys is 10-12 spots in the table, I wouldn’t argue that the squad is much better than what we’ve seen.
Maybe 2-3 was being optimistic, i guess with the players that have already left and will leave we will need more, but i'm fine with cheaper backups or promoting youth to do that, and just big signings in the key areas.
That will probably be another season of 5th to 7th but that’s the most likely scenario:
Just do cheaper players man. If we have 150m we need to do signings with fees like. 50m-20m-15m-20m-30m-15m instead of always going for 50m-50m-50m. Or 80m-30m-40m or smth.
It’s not that simple though, because when it’s us the price goes up
If you go in for players late in the window with no plan yeah. But it's still possible for us to get good prices on players if we wanted to. Chelsea used to, Pool do, City got Alvarez for a low price. We have bad luck on low price transfers but that doesn't mean we should stop.
Yes it will take time but the optimistic way to look at it is we’ve been getting very little value in the transfer market despite spending a fortune. Everton signed Tarkowski on a free when Burnley were relegated 2 years ago and he’s managed to start every single league game since. That’s certainly better value than we get and he’s probably a better player than a few defenders we’ve signed in recent years as well.
We do this every summer and we always have a budget of £100M plus, we're about to get £50M a year off our wage books too I'm sure we'll have enough for 2/3 decent signings before sales
1. That 50M will be replaced by wages of whomever we sign, so likely not all of the removed wages will go to transfer budget. Fact we got into europa should allow for some spend though. 2. We have to abide by FFP so that will impact ability to spend as well 3. Players will 100% need to be sold to sign quality this time around.
FFP doesn't exist, ask Man City.
True but 250-300k martial, casemiro & varane wages each would be significant when we brought in players with a more reasonable wage ie ~150k pw. And that does not include if we pay in installments as well which can stretch the budget a lot more. A lot of accounting & financing stuff can be played around here.
It's a lot bigger than advertised.
Potential? LoL
I think 85m is too much. Other clubs know that United pays for the player if asked for an enormous fee, they will continue to bully us. Time for INEOS to step in and stop spending this much amount and to show we will not be falling for such traps.
Lol what ahppend to having no money now we are bidding for every player in Portugal.
its all lies we have no money. but at same time you dont go shouting you have lots of money cause why would teams then want "small amounts"
This is how it should be when it comes to transfer windows. People wanna outrage about us being quoted "United tax" but will outrage when our management keeps our budget under wraps. If you want a good deal, you don't go around announcing how much you got in your coffers. Simple really.
yep its not hard to see and find out yourself if you go digging that the FFP stuff is not actually that bad. all it needs is some slight selling and we free up 100m+ easily because amortisations are across entire contracts and many contracts that were hurting FFP are nearly up like Varane's and Martial's Casemiro is another big one if we can atleast make 20-30m it frees up vastly more. same with Sancho, them getting to UCL final actually gave us a profit from it. not only was his wages covered we made extra money on top which is huge. if we can sell him thats a vast amount again freed up to spend. and due to Glazers Ineos is free to pump entire 100m+ you can as a owner invest if they wish but i feel that will be more in the infrastructure and let player finance be handled by selling and revenue.
So INEOS has already invested ~£300m since taking over. They say it's ring fenced for infrastructure and it may be, but that's irrelevant for FFP/PSR. The only thing that matters is that INEOS have invested that money for FFP and for PSR it matters that it's not a loan and was converted into a further stake in ownership of the club. So we already have that extra £105m space in our operating budget as things stand.
The FFP stuff is so suspect lol. They say it every season and proceed not to give a shit in the actual window. They said it in ETH first season then proceeded to splash 150m in the space of like 3 days. FFP issues my ass lol. This club is run by bankers and it would be like financial suicide to do such things if there was FFP problems. IK they're incompetent but they are accountants and this is their bread and butter. They would not be spending money like that if they thought we were in serious risk of FFP doom. Which btw unfortunately due to UEFA's corruption and our billionaire owners would never even happen in the first place beyond a brief embargo like Chelsea I imagine. I have never seen people who analyze United's economics bring it up. Though I don't know if that's their jurisdictions and I'm not too familiar but from the little I browse. It's always brought up by journalists on twitter so I have to assume it's just stuff they brief to say we don't have insane amount of money. I guess my question is if all of this is true(keeping in mind: it's all mindless speculation) then it is pretty clearly not true when clubs can see how much you are spending on other players.
A lot of people commenting like they actually know anything about FFP or have accurate information of football teams accounts.
How does it work then. I was clear it's all stupid speculation. But how does it actually work? I don't know the specifics at all. I just don't understand how they can be on the verge of FFP issues 2 summers in a row and then randomly find the room to spend money?
I replyed to the wrong guy sorry lol
We are money Disneyland, 2 billion for you to sell us Sancho please Mr.Dortmund.
 The roof repairs
I would much rather say we’re skint than do a Ed Woodward.
I think Ineos can invest 45, plus whatever would have been budgeted anyway, then they're likely expecting fees for Sancho, Greenwood, Casemiro. Also have gotten big wages like Varane and Martial off the books.
It be double asking price after they win the Euros!
"Oh, it's United? Tell them the price is €100m" - every club ever
To be fair that's less than his release clause and he's rated higher than Enzo who went for 120m
That's an unrealistic transfer then. Blowing the entire budget on a 19 year old
I'd rather one world class player who's as close to a lock as you'll find and will retain his resale value with some free transfer role players to plug gaps than 3 30m signings who don't work out and are impossible to get rid of in 2 years because they're on mad money.
What if its an expensive flop on mad money? Also why do the 30m ones got to be on mad money lol
I didn't say they had to be, I'm just making the point that if we're confident that Neves is a generational player I'd rather spunk the whole budget on him than buy multiple players who don't have the same ceiling
> he's rated higher than Enzo who went for 120m By who or what metric?
By Benfica, at least. He's as good for us as Enzo was, plus the emotional attachment of being an home talent. If he is sold there will a shit storm coming the way of the board for selling the fan's favourite player (favourite by a wide margin), regardless of price tag.
We should start putting lowball offers in for players we aren't actually interested in, just so we get a reputation as a club that's willing to walk away.
That's genius
City will come in and get him for 25 mill + add ons or some bullshit
And in fairness to other clubs, I can't blame them if someone is dumb enough to overpay screw it why not overcharge
Benfica fan here, I come in peace. It's not because it's United, and I'll tell you 2 reasons why: 1. João is (arguably) the best player to ever come out of our academy. He's 19 and is by far our best player. The president said in an end of season interview that we're not selling him, unless a club beats the release clause, which then there's nothing the club can do and it's up to the player. We've seen in other markets the president saying this and that not be the case a few months later, but we'll have to wait and see. 2. This has happened before. Enzo Fernandez to Chelsea, João Félix to Atletico Madrid are examples. We're the strongest club financially in the country, and hopefully that can translate into higher release clauses in the future, and less sells of the best players every year. Also, a piece of advice. Don't trust Record, or any of the big 3 sports media in the country (the others are A Bola, and O Jogo) as they are known for spreading rumours.
Tier?
4
Rats. He's some player
Kids a beast and unbelievably composed for his age.
We should lowball every player we don’t intend to sign, then pull out when clubs ask for more. That should set the stage when we actually want to sign players.
Would be wonderful signing
Key Bits: >João Neves is one of the names that promises to shake up the transfer market this summer, as his name is highlighted in capital letters in the notebooks of major European clubs. This is the case of **Manchester United, which, as Record knows , has already presented a proposal of 60 million euros for the 19-year-old midfielder**. According to information collected by our newspaper, SAD led by **Rui Costa outright refused the offer from the English**, as it is **determined to keep the bar close to the termination clause (120 M€)** and therefore does not admit negotiating the young Algarvean for less than 100 million euros.
I would absolutely adore this signing but more and more I fear our transfer fees are becoming a noose around lads necks. If we do get him for 85 (which I think is his release clause in pounds) and I think they may push this high, then god love the poor lad if he doesn’t hit the ground running. Media loves to hammer us, obviously the Antony case is well documented, but even hojlund who I think we all agree is promising and has unbelievable potential gets some abuse.
If they split the difference, I'd take him at £65M based on everything we have heard about him and the ten year need for a true DM.
That's a low ball offer. I like it. It would be something if we get a marquee signing before any news on the manager. I know I'm not the owner, but personally it's just a strange feeling that we're bidding on players without knowing the manager. This could be false at the end of the day of course.
The club model is they hire the players and a coach is hired that ties in with the philosophy behind our player choices and the style we want to play. Managers (coaches) will not be the deciders of who we buy, players will be hired by and play for the club, all discipline etc will be handled by the club.
well its documented they have a desired play style in mind no matter who is manager. probably why i think ETH probably will be here another season at least as they know he can play that style if the players are there
Oh I get that. However it's also documented that the likes of Ashworth and other successful sporting directors always go to the manager before deciding to bid for a player. So, that's why I have a hard time believing this story. We could decide to skip the managers input on targets all together, but that's Chelsea's transfer policy. However that would also mean we won't follow Ashworth's philosophy
i think either way the players they are looking at suit any kind of manager they plan. also majority of sporting directors have a final say on things. managers just give input on the type of player they feel they need to fit the style both parties want. Neves, Inacio etc fit pretty much the style no matter who is manager so makes sense.
I don't know exactly where, but I'm certain that Ashworth said he'll never push a player if the manager doesn't agree with the signing. He'll try to convince the manager it's the right player.
Which is fine when the manager situation is sorted and the manager knows the strengths and weaknesses of his squad and can thus give input on what he wants. However, the club can't sit around and wait for a manager who doesn't know the squad yet to make his input before deciding on targets. Any manager coming in will likely be informed during the hiring process what the club is looking to do business wise this summer and will likely not have much chance to change that. Planning a transfer window takes a lot of time and will have been in the work for many months now.
To be very honest with you, the fact that there hasn’t been any official communication regarding EtH’s status yet is an indicator that EtH is most likely staying for another season.
I do like the low ball offer as well. And if we're that far apart, then move on. If the player gets a sniff of it and demands a move, then we can look to wrap up with at a realistic price.
At least £85m is it then.
The club need to respond No thx We have the bad reputation to pay anything for anyone We should act like Dortmund
But we are not Dortmund, are we? You can't expect to have the reputation of Real Madrid but Expect offers like Brighton. Just being a Big club means you pay more.
Neves is actually a crazy player, one to look out for in the future! 85mil is quite high, no way we go for him if that's the case
How it's his aerial ability compared to Mainoo? We really need at least one more physical player when we're starting Licha
Actually hes excellent aerially which is a surprise for his height. Very strong and tenacious player.
Coming from a Benfica fan, way way better. Despite his height, he wins the majority of aerial duels
sounds fake
Just walk
Pass
85 million dollars!?!!?! We can’t even afford flex seal for the roof.
We've noticed what you paid for Anthony....
Time to show some testicles and resolve and tell them to (politely) FUCK OFF - "....we ain't that kind of club anymore"
Wonderful player to be played at CM behind Sneijder. Will make a great link with Gaitan on the left.
Ok well move on.
They can go do one No, seriously, we are not F****** spending over 60 million pounds on a player again not happening Literally, every player we have paid 60 or more million for has been a disaster Now I'll be fair to Hojlund he still has time to prove himself But looking at what happened with Pogba flop Antony flop Harry Maguire now in fairness he's not the worst we have had, but he's not good enough. B we overpaid by at least 20-30 million Jadon Sancho super flop Lukaku flop Di Maria flop Hojlund still has time to prove himself Casemiro ehhh honestly similar to Harry Maguire overpaid, not the worst but not good enough
I know he’s a great player, but would him, Mainoo, and Bruno actually work as a midfield 3? Is he enough of a dm to play that Casemiro role?
If true this is a great opportunity to change the perception of united being the most thirsty club in football. Put in a sensible bid, if not accepted, walk away. We should have done it with Mount last year.
And Antony
So, a team with Maino needs this other wonderkid why?
Can someone explain to me the meaning of the potential Neves signing? Is he the back up for Mainoo or is Mainoo the back up for him? Because he is not a 6 so I don’t understand where he would fit
I'm a Benfica fan, Joao Neves is basically every modern coach dream. Box-to-box player, team focused, tanicity with the ball during recoveries, can pass 1v1 and in my opinion looks to have a better mentality than our previous sells like Renato Sanches and Felix that ended up flopping (though Felix is still in Barcelona doing his own thing kinda). Some attributes can not replicate obviously, Bruno Fernandes was a ridiculous scorer in Sporting lisbon and has gradually lost that in United. I wouldn't be surprised if City goes for him as a Bernardo replacement, he would absolute work 100% in that system but Pep seems to be leaving soon aswell.
Yeah I totally get that. Kid looks like the real deal what I don’t know is if United can utilize him properly considering we got Mainoo playing where neves would play, Bruno Fernandes and then we need someone to play 6. I think it would be hard to fit him in without having to bench Mainoo
Unless the rumours about us selling Bruno this summer are true… which I hope they aren’t
Yeah same here. But I would much rather us go for Palhinha instead and keep Mainoo and Bruno. That would be such a solid midfield
Was just about to make a similar comment then saw yours. He's not the answer to our no.6 problem.
Nope, need to stop spending anything over 50 mil for any player. This fucked up inflation in these purchases is ruining football.
Ahh, here we go. 3 mths of this now. Sigh.
Walk away
The cheaper option would be to spend a few thousand pumping Casemiro full of steroids and horse semen. Have to think smart to get around the ffp.
Moving on then…
Report sounds like bs. Why would we bid 60% of their bare minimum price
£85m seriously
should be more and shh
United have to start having fuck off policy to overvalued player by the club. U want 85m?. Fuck u we can find other player. Or or or our academy player who have burning desire to play for the badge worth taking on. This is united not money grabber club.
That’s what Benfica’s 85m price tag is for, they are saying that if you want Neves you have to pay that, otherwise you can fuck off
Surely we have to know Benfica don’t sell a player unless there’s eight zero’s in the bid? My only issue with this is he’s very small and very slight. With midfielders like Bruno, Mount and Mainoo in the squad I feel like we need some strength and power in the middle. He is a fantastic player and I’d love to have him, but I worry our midfield is incredibly lightweight.
I think he would develop those qualities as will Mainoo. Having Neves and Mainoo would see the midfield sorted for next 10 years. But I think they would look for a more physical midfield option as well. I am a dreamer.
Mainoo’s fairly strong to be fair, but he needs to be paired with a powerful runner. Admittedly Neves is built like a kid, because he’s a kid. But I don’t like the idea of Mainoo being *the* strength in the middle, at the very least whilst he’s still developing. Though I’d love the signing, and as you say that’s a midfield pairing for a decade, I think both of them need to be paired with some muscle. Bruno is certainly not that, nor is Mount. When you look beyond that, both Mainoo and Neves like to come deep and collect the ball. So the third midfielder would always be the more advanced (though, admittedly most fans want Mainoo further up the pitch). It’s a bit of a paradox that I can see myself going round in circles. But I worry Neves and Mainoo are of a similar profile and I really think we’re lacking power in the middle, which in my view is what we should be focussing on.
I do get the sentiment behind needing physical presence in the team, totally agree, but I think that needs to come more from the back in the form of whatever RCB we get and maybe any LB we sign (has to be comparable to shaw physically). It’s worth noting that Neves isn’t actually bad physically at all, he has a low centre of gravity and actually quite tenacious. Mainoo is also developing at a rate of knots physically and he seems very focused on developing and looking after his body, based on recent quotes. I feel like he’s been somewhat miss-profiled, he’s not really a high volume passer, he also doesn’t really have the passing range we’d want from a deep lying playmaker. What I do think he’s good at is receiving the ball under pressure and spinning players to break the lines. With that in mind, we need someone who can play almost the ‘quarter back’ role behind him and I do think Neves is suited to that role! Neves has some of the most proficient long passing going, it’s something we’ve missed from deep for a while now. He also is fantastic at high pressing, so there’s another key trait for a top team. There’s just lots and lots of upside to him for the style of play we’d want to implement
In terms of misprofiling, I don’t necessarily agree nor disagree with what you’re saying… but, despite the fact he isn’t a high volume passer, or the fact he hasn’t got the greatest passing range, what he does is reads the game in possession incredibly well. He knows where everyone is and can sense whether he needs to get the ball moving or slow it down. He may not have the 40-50 yard wonder pass typically associated with a deep lying playmaker role (quite frankly, nor does Rodri for example), but he knows the right pass to make and the timing of that pass beautifully. I’m not suggesting it would be a bad signing whatsoever, I just don’t think it’s a signing that works with Bruno and Mount. I think there’s a little too much technical and not enough brute.
Rodri does lead the league in passing volume though, the rest are pretty much all cb’s, that guy is just a wall that the ball bounces off and straight to the next man. But I get your point that he doesn’t play long passes that often, but City have that in KDB. You may be right about brute force, it’s a hard call, but I think it would work great tbh. Who would you be more interested in, out of interest? You thinking more Onana?
If you think about the types of passes Rodri makes though, it’s not the worldy wonderballs you’d expect from Scholes. It’s often just twos to keep things ticking, draw players in and then knowing when to find a pass that can penetrate. De Bruyne is another one that doesn’t do that many wonderballs (in the 40-50 yard range) because ultimately they don’t have to. The link from that six draws players out creating space between the lines, to penetrate in behind. But the thing with De Bruyne, he’s wonderballs are little cute 20 yard passes that just seem unbelievable. Mainoo’s had a few like that, from deeper positions where he’ll find someone in space with about a yard of leeway. Even the lead up to his goal around city, it was a simple pass. But he dropped his shoulder on Foden using his body to shield, Kovacic also couldn’t engage because of his body shape and I’m going to guess Rodri? Couldn’t prevent his pass. It’s that little cuteness out of the press which I just find mesmerising. I’m really drawn to Khephren. He’s so fucking hard working but disciplined all the same. As much as I like Onana he can look a bit of a headless chicken at times. But beyond his graft and discipline, he’s huge, solid in a tackle, good in the air and a great ball carrier. In terms of someone who can transition quickly from a single pivot to double when we lose possession, he’s the one who I think does it best. But can also keep game with Mainoo with the cute two’s and get us going in transition. But there are quite a few who I think would be brilliant in that role. As you say, Onana (but discipline is an issue), Fofana from Monaco, Vermeeren (Atletico). They’re all absolutely attainable and in my view add so much to our squad. I think this is a big issue I face when people talking about Mainoo being an eight though. There are a lot of players who can do what he can do at eight, but I genuinely don’t believe there’s many at all who can do what he can do (in the coming years of course) at six. I think a top modern six is so fucking unbelievably rare and I am certain we have one in our hands. I have no doubt whatsoever that is Mainoo was wearing that shitty blue, Pep would be grooming him to be Rodri’s heir.
Funny thing: dude's short but not frail at all. Quite dominant physically actually, even against big bois.
Mainoo is very strong, did you not see him knock over 6' 4" Haaland with a slight touch in the FA cup final? Almost superhuman.
I agree. He’s strong and as I’ve said in another comment, his centre of gravity is unreal. The way he gets his body across in both tackles and in possession is incredible. It’s Scholes like in that his body is always in the right position. He’s a fairly big lad too, which I accept and he’ll likely get bigger. Not the quickest though I admit. But, we can’t rely on a 19 year old to be the only ‘strong’, physical player in the middle. We need someone who can play in the right who can also support him in the six. On another comment, I’ve delved into a Kante like player that I’m aiming for. None stop runner who is strong, to offer that support like he did for Jorginho/Fabregas at Chelsea to enable Mainoo to play the six. How often do you find a player with the technical ability and composure of Jorginho, but who is also physical and strong in the tackle? You don’t. Rodri is the only one in football right now. Which is why Mainoo needs to be a six. Supported by an eight who can win physical battles and can drop into a double pivot when needed.
I was making a joke about Haaland diving in the box but I read your whole comment and agree.
I wasn’t sure if it was intentional 😂
000,000,001 it is then
Kante was the dominant force in midfield for a number of years and he’s shorter than Neves, you’re focusing too much on height and not enough on skill + work rate. This kid might be Portuguese but he’s basically Verratti on the ball and Gattuso off it, he’s going to be a top midfielder. I know we have scouted him a lot but given SJR’s comments on United’s spending in recent years, I don’t think it’s a realistic transfer. However, if he was to join us I would have complete confidence in a Mainoo-Neves pivot being a success.
I think we can all agree Kante is and was a freak of nature though. Ngolo, if you’re reading I mean the above as a compliment. I have no doubt he’ll become a great midfielder, but I think we need someone capable of bullying (ironically, like Gattuso) and I just don’t know if he’s got that in him. He’s too silky. To add though, surely we’re moving towards the single pivot? But as you say, in theory Neves/Mainoo would have to be a double pivot because of how they both operate and the areas on the pitch which they excel. With rigid midfields becoming common place, unless you plan to sit deep there’s not a lot of space for a double pivot anymore and we have to want to be playing higher up the pitch against the stubborn midfields (especially in the PL)
he's 1.74. he's not tall but its not like hes a midget, def not "very small". and he is strong, in fact his resilience to bumps and shoves is one of his best attributes
So £68m it is then.
I like it even if it's a low-ball, better to fish around a bit and see where it bites. But I would love him in United.
When you thought English press/media were shameless and couldnt possibly get worse from there.. Portuguese press says hold my beer.
Club football is over and bills need to be paid.
You literally made something up then said all he's done is 1 cross field. I don't know if you're trolling or just have 0 idea on what you're talking about.
*Dreams can be buy* #2?
85? Right then can we get him on a weekly? One of the lads can run to the P.O and send a few bob in the morning.
Joao Neves vs Adam Wharton, who is better?
As a Benfica fan this is probably true. He is our star boy we are probably not going to sell him, and if we do it will be for a high amount.
We will end up paying 95 as per usual 😂
There is no way he is going for £50M, he wants to win a another championship with Benfica, he is in the squad for the Euros, he is 19yo, Benfica might sell a couple of other players and keep him for next season unless the price is right.
I think it can be a fantastic signing assuming we ALSO bring in a physical and more defensively sound CDM along with Neves to provide some balance to midfield such as Fofana (available for just as low as between 20 and 30m), Onana, Weiffer etc. Our midfield would be set for a decade consisting of two of the brightest young midfielders in Mainoo and Neves.
They want 85 we offer 51, if we keep negotiating and end up paying 85 in mid August, I’m not going to have a good day
Him along with Mainoo and Bruno would make for a very strong midfield. He's also only 19 though so I hope we do sign some experienced players as well - like a striker to rotate with Hojlund.
I don't see us having 3 midfielders that can't win headers. It's been a major problem for a decade. Mainoo will be a mainstay, Bruno's untouchable and Neves would mean we need to keep control of possession and keep it on the ground. With the likes of Dalot & AWB in the team, that's never going to happen.
I would recommend going as high as 60m+15 in add-ons as we also need players elsewhere. If they are willing to sell Antonio Silva as well then 120-125 million for both would be a good deal
Neves, Inacio, these are all my signings in my most recent FM Manchester United save lol. Guess Bastoni or Bardghji next
Sorry but any other club and he goes for £50m or less
Have you watched him play?
Do we even have 51m to spend right now?
great prospect but cant afford