The positive in this is that it's fairly unlikely Man U will be able to usurp City and with the league as long as Pep is their manager.

Tam wrote:

I can't see the sense in this deal for United financially. I can't see him linking well with Lukaku or their other attackers either. I hope he bombs, but even if he doesn't, I can't see him being a difference maker that takes them up a level.

I think a large aspect of this deal was about putting City in their place. They are running away with the league and they were about to sign one of the very best players in the league. So United went of and committed 7,5m pounds extra a season in wages as a show of force. Absolute vanity, ego signing. They can always justify it by saying that the Total Cost of Ownership is tempered by the low transfer fee, but that salary is out of proportion with what one might consider 'fair' or reasonable value for his abilities. 

Sanchez will improve United a lot. They'd a front 4 of Mata, Lukaku, Lingard and Martial at the weekend and thats pretty much first choice. Sanchez is miles better than all those players.

Fortunately as BBKG said they still wont be as good as City. This will solidify their CL status, not make them champions. It'll also solidify our non-CL status if we don't do more than sign Mkhi.

Qwiss! wrote:

Sanchez will improve United a lot. They'd a front 4 of Mata, Lukaku, Lingard and Martial at the weekend and thats pretty much first choice. Sanchez is miles better than all those players.

Fortunately as BBKG said they still wont be as good as City. This will solidify their CL status, not make them champions. It'll also solidify our non-CL status if we don't do more than sign Mkhi.

Agree with this.

I'll say the same thing I said when United signed Lukaku, given the sort of players they could be signing with their resources, I'm glad they're signing players of this sort of profile. They're always going to get good players with that sort of money, it's just a question of how good.

Bear in mind with the amount they've spent on Lukaku and Sanchez they could have just signed Neymar or at least Mbappe.

Neymar wouldn't have gone. Maybe Mbappe.

Probably. I’m just saying, that’s he sort of level I’m terrified of them going for.

Thing is they're not attracting that sort of talent. Alexis is the best they could've hoped for and even he is probably on the way down already

They attracted Pogba. Amongst midfielders he's cream of the crop. He's not an exciting frontline galactico, but they did phenomenally well to get him. I think he's wasted under Mourinho.

He was one of the biggest talents in the world, not one of the best players. Huge difference.

Yeah but they did it at a low ebb. I think they'd have more pull now that they're back in the CL. The money they're paying is ridiculous. We all know players love money.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

He was one of the biggest talents in the world, not one of the best players. Huge difference.

Exactly. Not comparable to someone like Mbappe who's one of the biggest talents and one of the best players in the world.

Qwiss! wrote:

Sanchez will improve United a lot. They'd a front 4 of Mata, Lukaku, Lingard and Martial at the weekend and thats pretty much first choice. Sanchez is miles better than all those players.

Fortunately as BBKG said they still wont be as good as City. This will solidify their CL status, not make them champions. It'll also solidify our non-CL status if we don't do more than sign Mkhi.

Agree with this. Alexis will still conjure up with magic from time to time and combine with the skills of Pogba they will improve. Not uncatchable though, especially if Mkhitaryan hits the ground running

Here's Pires' entire interview with La Tercera:

http://eldeportivo.latercera.com/el-deportivo/noticia/pires-alexis-no-mercenario/42750/

He is spot on, I think. He basically says Alexis was happy at Arsenal but in order to keep him the club would have had to spend more aggressively and meet his contracts demands earlier on.

I cannot say that I blame Alexis, as he has been one of our best players throughout and we don't even look like qualifying for the CL next season. I also cannot blame Arsenal for refusing to meet his insane wage demands at this stage. But we should never have been in this position. If we had strengthened appropriately and renewed his contract two seasons ago this would all have been avoided.

Tony Montana wrote:

Qwiss! wrote:

Sanchez will improve United a lot. They'd a front 4 of Mata, Lukaku, Lingard and Martial at the weekend and thats pretty much first choice. Sanchez is miles better than all those players.

Fortunately as BBKG said they still wont be as good as City. This will solidify their CL status, not make them champions. It'll also solidify our non-CL status if we don't do more than sign Mkhi.

Agree with this.

Yep agree with this too

I think they'll get Griezmann in the summer (they've been on his case for a while), I can see them offering him wages that even the Barcas and Madrids of this world would baulk at. A front 3 of Cunt-Lukaku-Griezmann will unfortunately take them to another level IMO.

We are not acting like a  serious club here, handing one of our top 2 players to United for a player who is currently a burden on them (poor performances, high wages, doesn't agree with the manager's philosophy etc) that they'd otherwise struggle to get rid of because  of his high wages. So w are actually helping them out! You could accuse the scousers  of being delusional, but they'd never sanction a sale like this to United. Remember how much they resisted selling their best player to us ? They saw us as one of the teams they could catch with the right investment, so they were in no mood to help strengthen us (taking us further  away from them in the process). Contrast that to us helping Man United out by not only taking Mhikitaryan off them but helping solidify their top 4 status by giving them Sanchez. Disgusting 

jones wrote:

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

He was one of the biggest talents in the world, not one of the best players. Huge difference.

Exactly. Not comparable to someone like Mbappe who's one of the biggest talents and one of the best players in the world.

Come on Jones, Pogba was much more proven and  was widely recognised as one of the best midfielders in Europe before he joined United. I don't think he's at his best for them at the moment (think a midfield of say, Matic-Kroos/Modric- Pogba would get the best out of him) but he's still been very influential for them this season. 

Pigba was mostly potential when he was bought. Insanely talented yes but not one of Europe's best midfielders, not even top 3 for Juve. Mbappe on the other hand has abused Europe's best teams on his own, got to the CL semis and won a league title as a starter scoring 30+ in 2017 all at the ripe age of 18.

The gulf between them could barely be bigger. I remember being annoyed with Pogba at Juve because with all his talent it always felt he was short a step or two to become truly top class. Mbappe is basically a prime world class striker already and can only really be compared to Ronaldo at PSV/Barcelona

I disagree, Pogba had some very good seasons at Juve  (even remember him picking up an award when Juve reached the CL finals). I know it's easy to hype up youngsters these days but Pogba really backed up his talents with quality performances. He'd not have been so highly appreciated if his reputation was mostly based on talent. 

You just have to read Chillieni's comment to see how highly rated he was by his teammates :

"Last year we had a player like Pogba in midfield, who is the LeBron James, the Usain Bolt of football," Chiellini told Sky Italia.

"Last season Paul allowed us to play a certain way, but now he's not here and we made some changes. [Massimiliano] Allegri is working on finding a solution, we aren't idiots or clowns."


Mbappe had 1 single season at the top level, not even comparable IMO

None of that is really an argument Tactics, team mates will always hype their colleagues to the heavens.

We'll just have to agree to disagree here