basically, there was a whole thing when r/muppetiers started. The insiders who claimed to have info would report things there. Basically it started being in these treads his famous line for the De ligt
"Oh yea, De Ligt ✅"
Ultimately we ended up not signing him
as a result, he received a lot of toxic hate... to the point where he was getting death threats ... it was bad, this is why r/muppetiers became it's own subreddit because of how toxic it got here
Imagine sending someone a death threat for saying some footballer is going to sign for your club but it doesn’t end up happening 💀 how lonely do you have to be to get to that point in life?
In the modern day, people send death threats and say horrible things over literally ANYTHING. Especially in football. Say player X is better than player Y and theres someone out there who would send you a death threat if they saw it.
And then that sub got shutdown because of how toxic it got when they hadn't posted any deadline day news.
EDIT: Oh it reopened again, and then it closed again!
Thats pretty embellished.
He didnt have any sources, he was making up stories based on what the general news round up of the day way, ironicly still what Muppertiers is doing right now.
And he wasnt getting death threats, he got rightly called out for knowing nothing, threw all his toys out of the pram and then left.
That's why they set up their own sub? I always wondered I just thought it was because they behaved like the ITKs were solid but got pretty much everything wrong and they wanted to start again under the pretext that they were most likely wrong... if that makes any sense.
Miss the Muppetiers threads, not the same as a sub
This sub used to be filled with fake ITK’s. The only genuine one was some guy knew Kohler was going to be our sleeve sponsor, then he said we were signing griezman. It didn’t happen then he deleted his account lol.
Two things:
I wasn't the OG. We had some guys in the early days who knew a shitload of the inner workings, especially the academy
I had one guy that was giving me supreme bullshit. I had two others who were better. Unfortunately the supreme bullshitter was very, very convincing and had the stuff people wanted to hear more of.
A mod who started making up that he was in the know on transfer dealings of United back in 2019 (?), which was encouraged here for some reason.
In reality he was completely making it up, and if you want to be charitable he was taken for a fool by other people, and if you want to be accurate he was a liar on a power trip. One of his infamous posts was saying that De Ligt was a done deal, the summer he went to Juve, without any reliable links linking him to us.
The long term consequence was the (correct) banning of ITK accounts, which led to the 99% bullshit muppetiers sub, which bizarrely has led to the genuinely semi-informed Muppetiers Twitter account, which does get things right.
A very strange summer on this subreddit.
It’s genuinely crazy how the Muppetiers Twitter account is legitimately reliable, I don’t know how that’s happened but the whole thing is hilarious - does Spoofex still post on this sub?
> It’s genuinely crazy how the Muppetiers Twitter account is legitimately reliable, I don’t know how that’s happened but the whole thing is hilarious
Yeah it's incredible that a bunch of people pretending that they had sources in United actually managed to manifest themselves into actually having sources in United. Fair play to the guy who runs it, but in 2019 - 2020 it was complete fiction ha.
> does Spoofex still post on this sub?
I think he resigned as a mod after the 2019 summer, but I think he's here under a different account. I think...
It was a crazy time no doubt. There were good people and sources back then but heavily mixed into the massive number of bad ones. A fun and crazy time.
That entire saga was literally too fucking hilarious in retrospect. Like, we really believed a random guy who came here to say that his sister who worked for Kohler's PR had the ins of a multi-million euro transfer move lol.
That summer was absolutely peak entertainment in here. I was checking in every hour for weeks to see what got posted next.
Nothing will ever top bloodgate though
I would say that this is the easiest link to a CB, but I respect Ornstein too much. This guy decidedly doesn't talk unless it's happening in one way or another.
Not “unless it’s happening” but unless multiple sources corroborate the information. Just because he says here that we’re considering it doesn’t mean anything will happen. It just means that someone told him we’re considering it and at least one other source he trusts says yes we’re considering it and yes it’s independent of Braithwaite interest.
If we sign some other CB instead it doesn’t mean this was wrong. It just means that’s how it panned out.
You can only really *start* to believe a transfer rumour when there’s a picture of them in the shirt holding a scarf above their head in the stadium. Anything before that is premature at best.
that was murtough madness, no longer at the club. with SJR cancelling end of season party due to cost, don't see how anyone will have an easy time negotiating for wages.
My dream window has been two CBs incoming and three outgoing, with a group of:
LCB: Licha and Branthwaite
RCB: Yoro/De Ligt/Todibo and Kambwala
Evans as emergency backup on a one year deal.
Harry and Vic are decent dudes but they're ultimately flawed players (from our perspective). They're ok but not elite on the ball but not good enough to compensate for their physical limitations (speed and strength, respectively).
I’d love De Ligt + Branthwaithe. De Ligt would be perfect with Licha, and Branthwaithe would get a lot of games with us being in 4 competitions plus his ability to play on either the right or left side.
But the cost is too damn high. De Ligt is on 250k a week, that’s 2x what Licha makes. We’re never going to fix our wage structure with these deals. And paying more than 50M (including add ons) is way too much for Branthwaithe, especially in this economy.
IMO best scenario for us is convincing UEFA to let us have Todibo and getting Branthwaithe at a fair price. De Ligt is great when fit, but not worth it on those wages, especially when we’re still paying the price for giving out ludicrous deals to underperformers like Sancho. If Everton won’t budge on their price, I’d pivot to other options like Inacio at Sporting.
He is a good passer but he's nowhere near elite on the ball. He's slow, ponderous, needs a few touches, and takes too long to position his body for the pass. It's a big part of why Licha was such an upgrade, one or two touches, great control and quick direct passes forward.
I think Licha is elite on the ball...he can deal with being pressed, can play the ball to feel while breaking lines, and also can hit long passes.
The long range passes are flashy and sometimes useful, but I think they're less important than being able to play Carrick-eque passes on the ground through lines of defenders.
We could also wait for brainthwaite till next season potentially. We probably need to generate some $$ in sales to afford both. Meaning Sancho and Greenwood at the very least. Casemiro and AWB as well.
AWB departing would mean needing another RB. I can see AWB remaining till next summer, we let him run down his contract then we bring in someone.
unless someone offers us good money for AWB, which probably won't happen.
He is one of "the multiple possibilities that are being weighed up" and all "depends on departures, which are needed to generate finances and free up squad space."
So it's not just probably :)
If he stays fit, he would be a perfect partner for Licha, but I don't understand why we're going for him with his wage demands. He will just replace all the money we saved with letting Varane go
Does help that he’s very good, 24, and not nearly as injury prone as Varane. His injury issues in general have been blown out of proportion by this sub.
I love Varane and he is absolutely class, but he was never fit. If you want good players to join, you need to offer them decent wages. But the players need to keep their end of the deal and actually play games.
His injury issues are a concern though. He missed 20 games last season, 5 the season before, and 28 in 2020-21. For a 24 year old CB, that is concerning.
Injuries weren’t really a concern for Varane. It wasn’t until he got here when they really became a problem. In his last fours years at Madrid he misse 20 games total through injury. It was just unfortunate really, with the pace and intensity of the league perhaps being a factor
unless you think he’s going to have recurring shoulder injuries or you’re worried he’s particularly prone to catching covid, you shouldn’t worry at all about 22 of the matches he missed in 20-21. 6 absences due to a muscle injury really isn’t much at in a season where juve played 52 matches in all comps.
7 games combined in 2 of the 3 most recent seasons aren’t super concerning imo. Players get injured, it happens. Not everyone is a freak like Bruno who can play every single game.
It's just not the right move to give wages out like that anymore. There's always a shinier toy than the last out there that makes it more palpable but at United for like a decade it just ends up the same. Eventually we're paying 250k/w to some dude to sit out the bench,argue with the coach and go on loan.
Well we often go for players looking for one last paycheck before retirement who seem to not really care anymore. De Ligt is not only young, but often cited as future captain material by Bayern fans. Doesn’t really seem like a Sancho who comes here for the money then just checks out.
People complain no one we’re after is United quality, then when we do go after good and young players, people complain about wages. Good players want to get paid fairly, I don’t see an issue as long as we aren’t paying anything insanely stupid.
> Doesn’t really seem like a Sancho who comes here for the money then just checks out.
Sancho didn't really seem like a guy who comes here for the money then just checks out. He pretty much marked United down as his future club 2 years in advance and seemed ambitious and excited and that he specifically wanted to play here and then his attitude turned shit anyways. He came in hot on form too.
I mean maybe you're correct but I'm just jaded by large wages now. Seems like overall giving out big wages makes players check out early. It just makes them fight less overall when things go wrong because the bag has been secured we should at least pursue heavily incentive based contracts. You say "Not on their last contracts" but Varane and Cavani seemed at some point more dedicated than Sancho and Antony have for example. Cavani went massively downhill second season because he got a big contract and then got benched, he just seemed like he didn't give a fuck. Ultimately won nothing with Cavani in our squad. We've brought in players of every single profile of the last few years. Big club performers, young players, mid table players, etc. It seems like regardless of profile everyone is prone to failing here.
The type of injury matters a lot imo. Varane has tons of soft tissue injuries. De Ligt dislocated his shoulder in the 20 game season and this past season missed time with some knee issues. If we do our part to make sure it’s not a reoccurring injury, I don’t see why not.
> If he stays fit, he would be a perfect partner for Licha, but I don't understand why we're going for him with his wage demands. He will just replace all the money we saved with letting Varane go
Yeah I would definitely be concerned about his injury pattern in the last 3 years, lots of repeat soft tissue injuries in the upper and lower leg, including repeat injuries in the right knee. Could be poor management by Bayern or the player himself, or it could be the first signs of overuse in a very successful youth career. He has played 30+ 90s since he was 17, especially demanding physically for a defender.
That said, I like him as a player, hopefully INEOS have learned something from the Mason Mount fiasco and improved the fitness and medical evaluation side of transfers.
He's class, Bayern fans love him and are absolutely hating this news, but I think it's extremely fishy that Bayern want rid of an elite CB who is only 24.
- Bayern fans call him their best defender
- Young at 24 years old
- Has leadership qualities
- Is great on the ball
- Prolly partners up well with Licha
- Can prolly get him at a decent fee
- Knows how to play Hagball
- Played most of his career injury free
He is prolly one of if not the best defender at his age that we can get.
I haven't seen much of him since he went to Bayern, but when I see criticism of him it's often that he isn't good on the ball, so I really don't know who to believe.
It's concerning to me that at 24 this kid has already had two big money moves to massive clubs and they've both been willing (or seemingly willing in this current instance) to move him on after a short time.
Why is that?
You dont really get to play at Ajax if you are poor on the ball. But being great on the ball can be a very broad definition. So, it possible for some disagreement there.
He wanted to leave Juventus because hes ambitious. Juventus was trending downwards after mutiple CL finals and he had the possibility of going to Bayern who at the time were easily winning the league and competing for the CL.
Bayern however does want to get rid of him due to his wages.
How tf is that concerning? It’s a poor decision on Koeman’s part, one of several. Ake and Micky are playing leftback btw, so they’re actually being preferred over Maatsen.
Netherlands finished third in the group, conceding three goals against Austria, which is also concerning. Maybe de Ligt could have helped out. Aké and MvdV are left-footed btw, and are the options for the left spots.
ORNY BOMB
Edit: I understand being worried about etH's former players, but this one is different. We were linked to him before, he fits a huge need in our team, and is still only 24.
think the only red flag i have is availability. he got knee injuries right? with our history and luck (curse) i’d look at other options first. bayern will also want a lot i assume.
No club talks yet… is not the definition of “seriously considering”. Sounds like we deliberately leaked this to force Everton’s hand. I call this a bluff. No chance we’ll sign Matthijs de Ligt.
He really would be both the perfect partner to the right of Licha, and give us a top passing CB for the games he misses. This feels impossible given what’s been reported about our budget but from a football perspective it’s an ideal signing.
He’s on 250k a week, if we tone it down a notch and include bonuses I don’t see why not. 250 is a lot but certainly nothing crazy for a club like Bayern.
I’m not wholly against this but only at either a really low fee (£20m-ish), which seems unlikely. Or on loan with an option to buy, so he can prove he’s over the injuries that have plagued him since leaving Ajax.
Otherwise this smacks of - I hope - just a ploy to remind Everton we have other options besides bidding stupid money for Branthwaite
I want a right footed Martinez whoever that is to play RCB. Not sure about de Ligt surviving the rigours of EPL. I want Kambwala to be developed and given game time. I sense his fighting spirit
Not the same Bayern now. Bayern have been a mess the last year or so. De Ligt might not work out for us but to say he’s not a good player is a bit ridiculous.
> Bayern have been a mess the last year
The fact the best they could manage for the manager position is Kompany should be a big hint of that for people.
Idk, I seen a comment on the bayern sub that went along the lines of "people will think we're selling De Ligt" because he isn't good enough when in fact he's our best CB and our manager was too clueless to use him".
High wages, they want to free up finances for other moves, and he’s an easy player to sell for a decent fee. I don’t think it’s some mad gotcha. They just have a few CB options now, and he’s one they can get money for that they can invest elsewhere.
Because their management is kind of imploding on themselves. If you go to Bayern's subreddit everyone is saying not to sell him as he is the best ball winning defender they have.
He’s honestly who I’d be getting as a right sided centre back. The market isn’t great for our needs which is a quality defender, decent on the ball and dominant in the air. De Ligt ticks these boxes and won’t be too expensive for his quality. Wages and the fact he’s not rapid are the only 2 downsides but he’s a better partner to Licha than Todibo in my opinion due to his aerial ability. I’d hope we don’t overpay for Branthwaite though, we can’t spend over 100 mil on centre backs this summer with our PSR/FFP issues and the fact we’ve so many other needs.
I'm for de ligt if the deal is fair. His wages are too high at Bayern so we'd need to tailor it more for bonuses over a flat wage. That also means ultimately not throwing a wad of cash at bayern too. If this is a fair deal great, but its exactly the kind of deal we could seriously mess up. Id even argue its worth doing a 3Y+2 option, thats how bad weve preeviously been at big name signings.
This just checks pretty much every box for transfers we shouldn’t make.
Coming from a big club that’s better than us right now, already on huge wages and coming here would necessitate an increase, played for the manager before, and (somewhat) injury prone. If he was 28 instead of 24 it would complete the bingo card.
Well i think this is bad move. Injuries, high wages and smells of another ten hag signing and we know how that went. Idk man, hoping for a different window.
Surprised Orny reporting before any talks have taken place. Might be we’ve talked to his agent? I’m assuming this still hinges on Tah moving to Bayern too
Shaw/Branthwaite/Malacia, Martinez/Branthwaite, De Ligt/Maguire, Dalot/AWB would be an insane upgrade of our backline.
Plus a capable DM and a decent striker backup and we’ve got a more than decent squad for next season.
we back in 2019 lads
5 year contract for Martial incoming.
Might as well check what Sneijder is up to
And Gaitan
he is still at the airport.
Ronaldinho?
de Ligt, de Jong, Strootman, Sneijder and Huntelaar - the Dutch spine we always wanted
With an army of dutch coaches
No one fuck the bat
Holy hell was it really that long ago now? Damn saga still feels fresh...
Nice profile pic bro
Long live the king /u/spoofex ✅
He was playing the long game. Misunderstood genius
Context?
basically, there was a whole thing when r/muppetiers started. The insiders who claimed to have info would report things there. Basically it started being in these treads his famous line for the De ligt "Oh yea, De Ligt ✅" Ultimately we ended up not signing him as a result, he received a lot of toxic hate... to the point where he was getting death threats ... it was bad, this is why r/muppetiers became it's own subreddit because of how toxic it got here
Imagine sending someone a death threat for saying some footballer is going to sign for your club but it doesn’t end up happening 💀 how lonely do you have to be to get to that point in life?
Mate it was mental I didn’t think it was that serious
The lad was doxxed from Reddit and followed up on Twitter iirc. It was crack. That transfer thread had tons of activity that day. Some real scenes lol
In the modern day, people send death threats and say horrible things over literally ANYTHING. Especially in football. Say player X is better than player Y and theres someone out there who would send you a death threat if they saw it.
Plus united twitter found out about it and spoofex got doxxed
Goddamn, seriously?? Wtf is wrong with those people
And then that sub got shutdown because of how toxic it got when they hadn't posted any deadline day news. EDIT: Oh it reopened again, and then it closed again!
Who the fuck threatens to kill someone because of that? Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with some people?
This sub was funny as hell back then. I enjoyed the civil war summer, you’d have constant arguments between the subs
Thats pretty embellished. He didnt have any sources, he was making up stories based on what the general news round up of the day way, ironicly still what Muppertiers is doing right now. And he wasnt getting death threats, he got rightly called out for knowing nothing, threw all his toys out of the pram and then left.
That's why they set up their own sub? I always wondered I just thought it was because they behaved like the ITKs were solid but got pretty much everything wrong and they wanted to start again under the pretext that they were most likely wrong... if that makes any sense. Miss the Muppetiers threads, not the same as a sub
One of them started their own channel, pretty much same thing but outside of reddit Look up the muppetiers on YouTube
It was a crazy summer when ITKs were still allowed here. Spoofex was the most popular one
This sub used to be filled with fake ITK’s. The only genuine one was some guy knew Kohler was going to be our sleeve sponsor, then he said we were signing griezman. It didn’t happen then he deleted his account lol.
Bro in his defence, Griezmann definitely would have happened if it weren't for Atelti getting the transfer ban
Kohler guy is the real misunderstood genius
The OG insider info/leaker. Who it turned out didn't have any real info, someone was making a muppet of him
Two things: I wasn't the OG. We had some guys in the early days who knew a shitload of the inner workings, especially the academy I had one guy that was giving me supreme bullshit. I had two others who were better. Unfortunately the supreme bullshitter was very, very convincing and had the stuff people wanted to hear more of.
You are too modest, you will always be the OG in our hearts
I still maintain that I'm 99% certain that Jesse Lingard used to be on here as a reasonably active user back in the day too lol
So you were Jesse Lingards burner. It all makes sense. Love the celebration.
Do you mean the guy who moved tp twitter/started trying to charge for his leaks?
Man like Spoofex! I hope you're well 🙏🏾
A mod who started making up that he was in the know on transfer dealings of United back in 2019 (?), which was encouraged here for some reason. In reality he was completely making it up, and if you want to be charitable he was taken for a fool by other people, and if you want to be accurate he was a liar on a power trip. One of his infamous posts was saying that De Ligt was a done deal, the summer he went to Juve, without any reliable links linking him to us. The long term consequence was the (correct) banning of ITK accounts, which led to the 99% bullshit muppetiers sub, which bizarrely has led to the genuinely semi-informed Muppetiers Twitter account, which does get things right. A very strange summer on this subreddit.
It’s genuinely crazy how the Muppetiers Twitter account is legitimately reliable, I don’t know how that’s happened but the whole thing is hilarious - does Spoofex still post on this sub?
It's because some of the itks actually were itk..
> It’s genuinely crazy how the Muppetiers Twitter account is legitimately reliable, I don’t know how that’s happened but the whole thing is hilarious Yeah it's incredible that a bunch of people pretending that they had sources in United actually managed to manifest themselves into actually having sources in United. Fair play to the guy who runs it, but in 2019 - 2020 it was complete fiction ha. > does Spoofex still post on this sub? I think he resigned as a mod after the 2019 summer, but I think he's here under a different account. I think...
It was a crazy time no doubt. There were good people and sources back then but heavily mixed into the massive number of bad ones. A fun and crazy time.
Any news on Griezmann?
It’s gone Kohler.
That guy got so much undeserved abuse despite actually being the first person to mention the Kohler deal
That entire saga was literally too fucking hilarious in retrospect. Like, we really believed a random guy who came here to say that his sister who worked for Kohler's PR had the ins of a multi-million euro transfer move lol.
We all fell for it after he called the Kohler deal let’s be honest lol
I have completely detached myself from transfer sagas since Sancho saga during Ole’s second season.
Griezmann called Jose, through his watch, in one of the football commercial. That was the moment I thought it was a done deal lol.
Sneijder incoming...
That summer was absolutely peak entertainment in here. I was checking in every hour for weeks to see what got posted next. Nothing will ever top bloodgate though
Not the time traveller we deserved, but the time traveller we needed.
There is zero difference between this and the plot of 12 monkeys
So /u/spoofex isn’t posting oc? Ugh.
He has a new account.
u/spoofexcel
Fuck that guy lmao
ME REMONTADA
I would say that this is the easiest link to a CB, but I respect Ornstein too much. This guy decidedly doesn't talk unless it's happening in one way or another.
Not “unless it’s happening” but unless multiple sources corroborate the information. Just because he says here that we’re considering it doesn’t mean anything will happen. It just means that someone told him we’re considering it and at least one other source he trusts says yes we’re considering it and yes it’s independent of Braithwaite interest. If we sign some other CB instead it doesn’t mean this was wrong. It just means that’s how it panned out.
You can only really *start* to believe a transfer rumour when there’s a picture of them in the shirt holding a scarf above their head in the stadium. Anything before that is premature at best.
even then, the John Obi Mikel picture still haunts me
I can’t believe I put this as a joke and yet there’s STILL a counter example where even this isn’t enough.
I do think it's fair to say we had the final laugh though, having to settle for Michael Carrick
This guy’s defense numbers are extremely concerning. Unless we get him on a dime and he takes a pay cut, I’d rather go for another target.
Reports of 40million which would be a good price but i daresay he'll want a bump on his 250kpw wages
And our willingness to give Antony such a massive hike suggests that this won’t be too promising either
that was murtough madness, no longer at the club. with SJR cancelling end of season party due to cost, don't see how anyone will have an easy time negotiating for wages.
Yeah I hope so. We need to fix our wage structure or nothing will change. I’d rather we walk away than pay those inflated wages
Ot was only 19kpw to 200kpw wee buns
No, they're not. He'd probably be one of our best players. Better than Braithwaite or our fans' favorite Todibo.
He’s really good, idk about his stats but he’s genuinely a really good player
United “seriously considering” is something I’ve seen many times over the years. It usually ends at that
Independent of Branthwaite? Would be a crazy coup to get both Edit: may have read this wrong but De Ligt would be a great pull
you read it right, I think it’s very clear we’ll be aiming to sign two top CB targets
My dream window has been two CBs incoming and three outgoing, with a group of: LCB: Licha and Branthwaite RCB: Yoro/De Ligt/Todibo and Kambwala Evans as emergency backup on a one year deal. Harry and Vic are decent dudes but they're ultimately flawed players (from our perspective). They're ok but not elite on the ball but not good enough to compensate for their physical limitations (speed and strength, respectively).
I’d love De Ligt + Branthwaithe. De Ligt would be perfect with Licha, and Branthwaithe would get a lot of games with us being in 4 competitions plus his ability to play on either the right or left side. But the cost is too damn high. De Ligt is on 250k a week, that’s 2x what Licha makes. We’re never going to fix our wage structure with these deals. And paying more than 50M (including add ons) is way too much for Branthwaithe, especially in this economy. IMO best scenario for us is convincing UEFA to let us have Todibo and getting Branthwaithe at a fair price. De Ligt is great when fit, but not worth it on those wages, especially when we’re still paying the price for giving out ludicrous deals to underperformers like Sancho. If Everton won’t budge on their price, I’d pivot to other options like Inacio at Sporting.
Sorry mate but this is absolutely ridiculously optimistic!
I mean I did call it a "dream" window.
Maguire is elite “on the ball”. Excellent range of Long passes
He is a good passer but he's nowhere near elite on the ball. He's slow, ponderous, needs a few touches, and takes too long to position his body for the pass. It's a big part of why Licha was such an upgrade, one or two touches, great control and quick direct passes forward.
I think Licha is elite on the ball...he can deal with being pressed, can play the ball to feel while breaking lines, and also can hit long passes. The long range passes are flashy and sometimes useful, but I think they're less important than being able to play Carrick-eque passes on the ground through lines of defenders.
probably a strategy to drive down either asking price to normal.
We could also wait for brainthwaite till next season potentially. We probably need to generate some $$ in sales to afford both. Meaning Sancho and Greenwood at the very least. Casemiro and AWB as well.
AWB departing would mean needing another RB. I can see AWB remaining till next summer, we let him run down his contract then we bring in someone. unless someone offers us good money for AWB, which probably won't happen.
He is one of "the multiple possibilities that are being weighed up" and all "depends on departures, which are needed to generate finances and free up squad space." So it's not just probably :)
So this is our 4th choice CB target. I'll be quite happy with him. Hopefully, the past season was an outlier with his injuries.
If he stays fit, he would be a perfect partner for Licha, but I don't understand why we're going for him with his wage demands. He will just replace all the money we saved with letting Varane go
Does help that he’s very good, 24, and not nearly as injury prone as Varane. His injury issues in general have been blown out of proportion by this sub. I love Varane and he is absolutely class, but he was never fit. If you want good players to join, you need to offer them decent wages. But the players need to keep their end of the deal and actually play games.
His injury issues are a concern though. He missed 20 games last season, 5 the season before, and 28 in 2020-21. For a 24 year old CB, that is concerning.
injury issues are always downplayed here when we’re talking abt signing a player. happened w varane as well.
Injuries weren’t really a concern for Varane. It wasn’t until he got here when they really became a problem. In his last fours years at Madrid he misse 20 games total through injury. It was just unfortunate really, with the pace and intensity of the league perhaps being a factor
unless you think he’s going to have recurring shoulder injuries or you’re worried he’s particularly prone to catching covid, you shouldn’t worry at all about 22 of the matches he missed in 20-21. 6 absences due to a muscle injury really isn’t much at in a season where juve played 52 matches in all comps.
7 games combined in 2 of the 3 most recent seasons aren’t super concerning imo. Players get injured, it happens. Not everyone is a freak like Bruno who can play every single game.
It's just not the right move to give wages out like that anymore. There's always a shinier toy than the last out there that makes it more palpable but at United for like a decade it just ends up the same. Eventually we're paying 250k/w to some dude to sit out the bench,argue with the coach and go on loan.
Well we often go for players looking for one last paycheck before retirement who seem to not really care anymore. De Ligt is not only young, but often cited as future captain material by Bayern fans. Doesn’t really seem like a Sancho who comes here for the money then just checks out. People complain no one we’re after is United quality, then when we do go after good and young players, people complain about wages. Good players want to get paid fairly, I don’t see an issue as long as we aren’t paying anything insanely stupid.
> Doesn’t really seem like a Sancho who comes here for the money then just checks out. Sancho didn't really seem like a guy who comes here for the money then just checks out. He pretty much marked United down as his future club 2 years in advance and seemed ambitious and excited and that he specifically wanted to play here and then his attitude turned shit anyways. He came in hot on form too. I mean maybe you're correct but I'm just jaded by large wages now. Seems like overall giving out big wages makes players check out early. It just makes them fight less overall when things go wrong because the bag has been secured we should at least pursue heavily incentive based contracts. You say "Not on their last contracts" but Varane and Cavani seemed at some point more dedicated than Sancho and Antony have for example. Cavani went massively downhill second season because he got a big contract and then got benched, he just seemed like he didn't give a fuck. Ultimately won nothing with Cavani in our squad. We've brought in players of every single profile of the last few years. Big club performers, young players, mid table players, etc. It seems like regardless of profile everyone is prone to failing here.
Varane missed 19, 15, 14 games in the 3 seasons he was here. De Light missed 28, 2, 5 , 20 in the last 4 seasons. That's a lot!
The type of injury matters a lot imo. Varane has tons of soft tissue injuries. De Ligt dislocated his shoulder in the 20 game season and this past season missed time with some knee issues. If we do our part to make sure it’s not a reoccurring injury, I don’t see why not.
De ligt also suffered from a knee ligament tear. He's in the same area as Varane, probably worse.
Wow. I thought he was like 27. Anyone under 25 and of his quality is definitely worth going for
> If he stays fit, he would be a perfect partner for Licha, but I don't understand why we're going for him with his wage demands. He will just replace all the money we saved with letting Varane go Yeah I would definitely be concerned about his injury pattern in the last 3 years, lots of repeat soft tissue injuries in the upper and lower leg, including repeat injuries in the right knee. Could be poor management by Bayern or the player himself, or it could be the first signs of overuse in a very successful youth career. He has played 30+ 90s since he was 17, especially demanding physically for a defender. That said, I like him as a player, hopefully INEOS have learned something from the Mason Mount fiasco and improved the fitness and medical evaluation side of transfers.
I mean what else do you want to so with the varane money other than sign a varane replacement?
I really hope his wages are performance based that way if he’s injured we’re not stuck paying £300k a week
Bayern should sub some of his wages, we broke so can’t afford it…… ;-)
He's class, Bayern fans love him and are absolutely hating this news, but I think it's extremely fishy that Bayern want rid of an elite CB who is only 24.
He’s not good enough on the ball is the main reason, that and he’s on his own wages and they want to bring Tah in.
Matthijs de Ligt & Lisandro Martínez duo under Erik ten Hag would genuinely be fantastic.
- Bayern fans call him their best defender - Young at 24 years old - Has leadership qualities - Is great on the ball - Prolly partners up well with Licha - Can prolly get him at a decent fee - Knows how to play Hagball - Played most of his career injury free He is prolly one of if not the best defender at his age that we can get.
I haven't seen much of him since he went to Bayern, but when I see criticism of him it's often that he isn't good on the ball, so I really don't know who to believe. It's concerning to me that at 24 this kid has already had two big money moves to massive clubs and they've both been willing (or seemingly willing in this current instance) to move him on after a short time. Why is that?
You dont really get to play at Ajax if you are poor on the ball. But being great on the ball can be a very broad definition. So, it possible for some disagreement there. He wanted to leave Juventus because hes ambitious. Juventus was trending downwards after mutiple CL finals and he had the possibility of going to Bayern who at the time were easily winning the league and competing for the CL. Bayern however does want to get rid of him due to his wages.
He is fine on the ball, looked better years ago. Mediocre passing range.
# HORNY ORNY
those wages have gotta be pretty damn steep
Will need to take a pay cut and we aren’t paying more than 40m, which is still a lot for a player with a questionable injury record
De Vrij, Ake, Micky all are preferred over him in the Euros for NED, which is concerning. Too risky buy.
Don't be fooled by that. Koeman also prefers Wijnaldum above Gravenberch and benches Frimpong for Malen. These are all tactical choices.
How tf is that concerning? It’s a poor decision on Koeman’s part, one of several. Ake and Micky are playing leftback btw, so they’re actually being preferred over Maatsen.
Netherlands finished third in the group, conceding three goals against Austria, which is also concerning. Maybe de Ligt could have helped out. Aké and MvdV are left-footed btw, and are the options for the left spots.
On big wages too, he definitely hasn't gone on to be the player people hyped him up to be. I hope we go for someone else.
ORNY BOMB Edit: I understand being worried about etH's former players, but this one is different. We were linked to him before, he fits a huge need in our team, and is still only 24.
Hes only 24? Jesus
Jesus is 2024
Captained that Ajax side at 19
think the only red flag i have is availability. he got knee injuries right? with our history and luck (curse) i’d look at other options first. bayern will also want a lot i assume.
Well he’s injury prone and on massive wages, surely that’s pretty worrying?
cheaper to buy Ajax
The main takeway I’m getting from this is the Branthwaite bit - I hope it works out. Also, de Light would be on insane wages no?
Ornstein saying this… interesting 🤔
Spoofex: my time has come ✅
No club talks yet… is not the definition of “seriously considering”. Sounds like we deliberately leaked this to force Everton’s hand. I call this a bluff. No chance we’ll sign Matthijs de Ligt.
Is it time for Boom…. Boom…. Hell Yeah?! Long live Spoofex!
Can we get him on loan with an option to buy?
Dawson the only mufc correspondent to name him as a target no? Been p good again w targets so far.
He blatantly copied Florian Plettenberg after HIS exclusive that we're interested in him.
He's been young forever init
He really would be both the perfect partner to the right of Licha, and give us a top passing CB for the games he misses. This feels impossible given what’s been reported about our budget but from a football perspective it’s an ideal signing.
How much will de ligt cost? Doesn't he have insane wages too? Surely he'll come cheaper than branthwaite with those wages no?
He’s on 250k a week, if we tone it down a notch and include bonuses I don’t see why not. 250 is a lot but certainly nothing crazy for a club like Bayern.
With those high wages, surely bayern will request for less money or be stringent with wanting to recoup their money on him?
On 280/wk now I believe. I don’t see this coming to fruition if there’s any expectation of a wage increase. 14m/year is already pushing it
Agreed, this doesn't even make any sense. Top 5 bayern earners and injury prone, do we ever learn from our past mistakes?
Something tells me the ‘we can only spend 50M’ thing is all a load of bollocks.
Maybe they meant per transfer
Crazy that he’s only 24 lol I still really rate him coming outta Juve but haven’t really kept up with his Bayern career, anyone got any info?
Had a nasty shoulder injury. Bayern fans like him a lot.
Hello, old friend
Just smacks of a standard Woodward briefing - until the window slams shut. Plus ca change etc.
✅ de ligt ✅ rabiot ✅ forgot the 3rd one haha
Ruud, Hake, Zirkzee, De Ligt. You know what that means? It's Frankie De Jong season
I’m not wholly against this but only at either a really low fee (£20m-ish), which seems unlikely. Or on loan with an option to buy, so he can prove he’s over the injuries that have plagued him since leaving Ajax. Otherwise this smacks of - I hope - just a ploy to remind Everton we have other options besides bidding stupid money for Branthwaite
Does he actually mean *both*? That would be a bonkers amount of money. And surely means Maguire is going and probably a couple of others
https://preview.redd.it/4ul177yyfd9d1.jpeg?width=735&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=505999d55138d32d0e68efc09eb65459760976a4
I want a right footed Martinez whoever that is to play RCB. Not sure about de Ligt surviving the rigours of EPL. I want Kambwala to be developed and given game time. I sense his fighting spirit
Hes on 300k/w already
no. muscle injuries which'll only get exacerbated with the physicality of the premier league. Big fee and high wages. nexts
Bayern don't sell good players. There's a catch there.
Not the same Bayern now. Bayern have been a mess the last year or so. De Ligt might not work out for us but to say he’s not a good player is a bit ridiculous.
> Bayern have been a mess the last year The fact the best they could manage for the manager position is Kompany should be a big hint of that for people.
Toni Kroos
Moyes is that you?
Didnt he leave because they refused to match his wages?
Toni seems to just do what he likes though
Idk, I seen a comment on the bayern sub that went along the lines of "people will think we're selling De Ligt" because he isn't good enough when in fact he's our best CB and our manager was too clueless to use him".
High wages, they want to free up finances for other moves, and he’s an easy player to sell for a decent fee. I don’t think it’s some mad gotcha. They just have a few CB options now, and he’s one they can get money for that they can invest elsewhere.
They sold Zirkzee 2 years ago and we've been reportedly interested in him this summer
Because their management is kind of imploding on themselves. If you go to Bayern's subreddit everyone is saying not to sell him as he is the best ball winning defender they have.
get the old band back together.. where is spoof?
The reason why muppetiers started back in 2019. Here we go again ✅
He’s honestly who I’d be getting as a right sided centre back. The market isn’t great for our needs which is a quality defender, decent on the ball and dominant in the air. De Ligt ticks these boxes and won’t be too expensive for his quality. Wages and the fact he’s not rapid are the only 2 downsides but he’s a better partner to Licha than Todibo in my opinion due to his aerial ability. I’d hope we don’t overpay for Branthwaite though, we can’t spend over 100 mil on centre backs this summer with our PSR/FFP issues and the fact we’ve so many other needs.
Spoof died for this!
Ineos to Ten Haag: Erik, you stay, but we decide all the signings. ETH: At least let me get one Ineos: we'll think about it
I'm for de ligt if the deal is fair. His wages are too high at Bayern so we'd need to tailor it more for bonuses over a flat wage. That also means ultimately not throwing a wad of cash at bayern too. If this is a fair deal great, but its exactly the kind of deal we could seriously mess up. Id even argue its worth doing a 3Y+2 option, thats how bad weve preeviously been at big name signings.
Downvote me again, but our luck with players from Bayern or Madrid has been terrible. They don’t give up good players.
Massive fee. £250,000+ a week. Former Ten Hag player. We've learned nothing. Think outside the fucking box.
Martinez was also a ETH player and fans are delighted with him.
This just checks pretty much every box for transfers we shouldn’t make. Coming from a big club that’s better than us right now, already on huge wages and coming here would necessitate an increase, played for the manager before, and (somewhat) injury prone. If he was 28 instead of 24 it would complete the bingo card.
Wtf are we doing here lads - De Ligt is on 300k+ per month and from my knowledge is pretty injury prone. Surely we just steer clear.
The fact the Bayern and Juve don't want him is a concern. Juve know a good defender when they see one.
Mate what is this timeline ✅
You people called me crazy
Not a good sign if we’re looking at him seriously
Well i think this is bad move. Injuries, high wages and smells of another ten hag signing and we know how that went. Idk man, hoping for a different window.
[удалено]
I'm sorry but he has 2 many red flags as a player
He does, don't know why you're downvoted.
Well depends on the price I guess
Losing both Lindelof and Varane, so it makes sense that we are looking at two CBs. How we will afford them who fucking knows.
Surprised Orny reporting before any talks have taken place. Might be we’ve talked to his agent? I’m assuming this still hinges on Tah moving to Bayern too
Sigh
An alternative option for Todibo? We clearly want to sign Todibo, but if UEFA doesn't budge, perhaps it will be de Ligt.
Shaw/Branthwaite/Malacia, Martinez/Branthwaite, De Ligt/Maguire, Dalot/AWB would be an insane upgrade of our backline. Plus a capable DM and a decent striker backup and we’ve got a more than decent squad for next season.
Bring him, it's a good transfer for 30-40m
Orny bomb is here!