The Mailbox claims Man Utd target Sofyan Amrabat is ‘more limited’ than Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka, while Liverpool need to stop ‘scrimping’ and pay up for players. Plus, Women’s World Cup, Harry Kane > Rasmus Hojlund debate, Robert Sanchez and more…
Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com…
Just pay them the money
As a Liverpool fan its so frustrating to see we have a glaring defensive midfield problem in the team yet we refuse to quickly address (10 goals conceded in 4 preseason games).
Fabinho and Henderson were on their last legs last season so have rightly been moved on.
We could bring Caicedo for £90-100m and he would be an excellent improvement to our midfield. But clearly an expensive option.
We have had two offers rejected by Southampton for Lavia who is somewhat proven in the league. But it appears our offer is about £7m off their valuation.
Instead, if rumours are to be believed, we are offering £21m for unproven Andre from Fluminense.
Its rightly such a key position in football and you just need to see what our rivals spend in that position.
Why are Liverpool scrimping on a few million we definitely have. Pay the extra £7m and get someone decent (with a high ceiling) vs a totally unproven for £21m, could be great, might be meh or take a season to acclimatise…. Its a no brainer and maddening!
Good luck to everyone for the new season.
Zak
Sofyan Amrabat
Good day Editor!
Tim’s Sutton’s mail about Sofyan Amrabat got me asking the question, what qualities decide whether a player succeeds or flops in the Premier League?
I agree with Tim on the fact Amrabat is too mediocre to succeed in the PL especially at an elite club as he has no standout qualities. The league will just be too fast for him.
What confuses the answer to this question is that very aggressive, physical players like Nemanja Vidic, Didier Drogba and Patrick Vieira have prospered at the elite PL level but also smaller, technically gifted players like Gianfranco Zola, Dennis Bergkamp and David Silva have too.
They say players fail in the PL as it is too fast and physical for them but is this entirely true? Spain and Italy are slower and more technical, the Bundesliga however is faster and more physical but players from there regularly underperform or flop in the PL.
This would point to success being a more based on mental attributes than physical. The two most important being the ability to read the quicker English game and being able to adapt to the weather/culture. Angel Di Maria brilliant as he is underperformed at Utd due to the latter then went back to his usual world class level in the rather more ‘classy’ surroundings of Paris.
You don’t need to be the strongest, a speed demon or even the most technical player (although this one probably helps the most) to succeed at the top of the PL, you just need to be able to read the game quick enough and deal with the rubbish weather.
What do others think? Have I got it right? Wrong? Or somewhere in between? Probably the last one.
Person McPerson
Amrabat is, by every metric, well below average.
Every single measurable statistic of his performances over his entire career and just, like, watching him play make that a fact not an opinion.
He would not be in Fulhams first team.
“he was in the team of the tournament!” Uh huh. So was Maguire.
“He made a tackle on Mbappe!” Wan Bissakka makes lots of tackles.
Do you United fans really want to buy another (even more) limited player like those two?
Because I’m pretty sure Ten Hag does not.
Anyway I was actually just writing in to say that easing Hojlund into English football means Rasmus will be In The Shadows.
Tim Sutton (It’s a banger)
Unmitigated flops
Just a quick riposte to Dave, LFC.
Look, I’m not overjoyed with United’s recruitment record but I’m not having that blinkered list.
What’s the statute of limitations on Angel Di Maria references? He was a disaster but he signed for United nine years ago. Nine! That’s a lifetime in football. That’s the same season Liverpool signed Mario sodding Balotelli, collapsed, sacked their manager and finished sixth (two places and 10 points behind Angel!)
United actually lost less money on that disastrous transfer, £12m after one year (which amortisation fans will tell you means United actually turned a £500k profit*), than Liverpool did subsidising Balotelli’s wages while he went on a series of loan moves and then left on a free.
I don’t bang on about Balotelli, disastrous though he was, because it was a footballing lifetime ago – drop di Maria from your bloody list!
As for some of the other names on your list, almost none of them are “unmitigated failures”.
Calling 23-year-old Antony an unmitigated failure after his first (relatively decent) season in the PL is daft, to the point where I’d suggest you’re being deliberately obtuse. Antony made a valuable contribution to a better football team than Liverpool last season. If he was a flop, then Darwin Nunez (the marquee signing for what was, to hear Liverpool fans tell it, the best football team ever to grace the eyeballs of humanity), who led them from lofty heights to a collapse and Thursday night football… that’s an unmitigated flop.
Except it isn’t unmitigated, because there are plenty of positives about Nunez to say he isn’t and will probably prove a good signing (like Antony). So too for almost all the United players on your list, who have made decent contributions to United in their time at the club (during an admittedly lacklustre period for United). Like Maguire, whose time is probably at an end, who the team has probably outgrown, and who on balance probably wasn’t worth what was invested in him, but had a couple of really good years where he made a good contribution – nothing “unmitigated” about Harry Maguire’s failure, and plenty of reason to suggest he wasn’t a failure at all (as long as we recoup at least £27m, for the amortised transfer fee on the old ledger**)
A lot of not great value for money on your list, but very few disastrous signings – they’re not “Balotellis”, if you will..
Andy (MUFC)
*I am not an amortisation fan, fyi
** seriously… too many mentions of amortisation recently, its not chartered accountancy 365…
Hojlund > Kane… sure
Six paragraphs to let us know you didn’t fancy her anyway, we believe you Taz, Manchester.
James, Kent.
A lot of Man U fans pointing to Harry Kane’s wages being too high. Where were you guys when Ronaldo was resigned? Wait a minute, where are Ronaldo’s wages now? Wasn’t Alexis Sanchez’s wage about the same? Since when was Man U shy to give a big paycheque?
Simon M, LFC
Out of all the people mailing in about Hojlund, how come I agree most with Dave, LFC. Since when did we start having low expectations of players costing 70M+. Hojlund is not a man united academy graduate ffs, he came on a very high fee and needs to show value sooner than later.
@Taz, Manchester- how is an unproven 20 yr old with 9 goals costing 60M+ a low-risk gamble?
@Calvino- Why are we justifying Hojlund’s fee on the hope that he’ll be a top 3 scorer in 2 years. You know who is a top 3 scorer now – Kane
@Andy – bro, you are right that Kane’s transfer + wages would be astronomical. But if we compare that to the total money spent on Sancho (70M+250k pw), Antony (80M+200k pw) and Hojlund, you’ll start to see what the real bargain is.
To be fair, I’m more annoyed by Man United dropping 70M on any player from the Ajax/Dortmund/Atalanta cartel just because someone whispered the word ‘potential’, than I am by the players themselves.
And yes, it’s not my own money that the club is spending. But neither are those millions that Henderson will get, and y’all seem to have an opinion on that.
Gaurav MUFC, Amsterdam
The lack of self-awareness from some United fans is hilarious. Spending decades when they were good and winning things saying look at us, ‘hated, adored, never ignored blah blah blah’ and now it’s ‘nothing to see here’ after spending another huge amount on a forward player. Be patient. Give him time. Please for the love of God, he’s only human.
Hojlund may or may not do well at United. But you can bet your bottom dollar we will be ramping up that pressure on him because that’s what rivals do.
Ryan saying ‘I’m sure Liverpool fans will be calling him out as an expensive flop’ made me actually chuckle. Of course we will Ryan me old chum because you lot spent all of last season comparing Nunez to Haaland and saying he was rubbish.
The costly frontman who was actually rubbish with four Prem goals was Antony but he seemed to get a free ride. Not an out-and-out striker granted but neither is Salah who also apparently had a season to forget with his 19 PL strikes compared to King Rashy’s 17.
Now it’s our turn to compare Hojlund to Haaland’s first season in the Premier League and they have far more comparisons to start with – huge, blond and Scandi! Bring it on!
Jo (Sancho scored a third less than Nunez too) Kent
Women’s World Cup
Another match attended at the women’s World Cup.
France vs Panama. 5th in the world vs 52nd in the world and another virtually sold out stadium.
2 minutes in and Panama score a cracker of a free kick taking a shock lead and the Aussie’s in the crowd go nuts…. Aussies like nothing more than an underdog.
But France being clearly the better team asserted themselves and ran out 6-3 winners in an entertaining game.
But once more, the teams and tournament have been embraced by the Sydney crowd and Panama won their hearts.
The singing and dancing by the Panama players and officials at the end of the game to show their appreciation of the support was brilliant, France may have won but you couldn’t tell from the teams reactions.
This means a lot, to the players, to the crowds and especially the little girls in the crowd who have people to look up to in their sport.
Anyone not watching, is missing out.
Liam
Well, we have our last 16.
Spain vs Switzerland and I have to go with Spain here, the winner of this match plays the winner of Netherlands and our Banyana, I hope we can do it, but realistically it should be a Spain vs Netherland quarter-final.
Japan vs Norway, I would have had Norway right at the late stages but they haven’t really performed as expected, a common theme in this pair of last 16’s, and Japan have been great lately, so I pick Japan, to face the winner of
America vs Sweden, and despite a lackluster world cup so far, I am picking the States, but no longer for the whole thing, as I think an incredibly motivated Japan can get this done in a quarter final clash.
That sets up a Japan vs Netherlands semi final on the first side of the bracket.
Denmark vs Australia should be quite tight but the hosts should have enough to get into the last 8 and meet France there, who will have a delicious opportunity in the last 16 to avenge their male counterparts failure against Morocco at the Men’s World Cup.
England should see off an impressive Super Falcons side, probably late on, and then I hope to seen them play against Jamacia, presumably having seen Jamacia bet Columbia for the to happen, of course.
This leaves us France vs England in an epic second semi-final, and another match up that jumps out as an opportunity for redemption for England against France after Qatar’22.
And I pick England.
Who then play Japan for all the marbles.
Can Japan repeat 2011?
You bet they can, but I don’t think that means that they actually will.
I have England going all the way now, it’s coming home folks, the Euro’s and The World Cup at the same time.
That would be rather glorious.
Manc From SA (France are the big banana skin there I think, and if the USA make it to the final, well, them clearly)
Robert Sanchez
Dear ed,
According to the BBC website Chelsea have just signed Spanish Bob for £25m from the mighty Seagulls.
He didn’t exactly have a blinder of a season last year but is premier league proven an I think counts as homegrown.
So does anyone know why Spurs spent similar money on their Lloris replacement, or why Arteta is looking to spend £15m more on competition for Ramsey instead of Mr Sanchez?
Maybe he was worse than I noticed last year?
Ta,
Dave PVFC
Predictable outcomes…
Sometimes you see a transfer go through, and it just appears to make sense for everyone involved. Think Onana to United, McAllister to Liverpool, Rice to Arsenal.
The opposite is also true, and seeing today Frank Kessie being linked out of Barca was as obvious as anything. He isn’t a barca type of player and was never going to take the place of Gavi, De Jong and co. When I saw last year he opted to join them, I told a friend he would be sold in a year to help their finances, and looky looky.
Like, the old Chelsea, you were signed and gone before you had even signed. Is it money? Taking a risk? Or broken promises? Or is it like City, in that they will develop them, and get them to a level to make it to a bigger club they otherwise would not have joined? The history? Maybe a combination of all of these questions??
I wonder…
Calvino
Jordan Henderson
I’m not usually a fan of John Nicholsons ‘houlier than thou’ articles but I have to commend him for his article on exactly why he wouldn’t take the money. Respect to you JN, sadly it won’t appease the plethora of abusers in the mailbox.
Jon, Cape Town (Should change the sites name to FU365)