27 May 2015 22:45:30
Feel free to correct me if what I'm saying is incorrect, but as far as I remember the bids by United and Chelsea for Hazard were very similar. Hazard chose Chelsea. We will never know the exact story but had we offered an extra £5m + £25k a week more in wages, would he have made another choice?
The reality we need to face is that Manchester United is not necessarily the most desirable team to play for. Chelsea and Arsenal have London, rather than Manchester, PSG has Paris, Barcelona and Madrid appeal naturally to the Latin players offering desirable locations and as much or more money. If we want the best established players today we are going to have to outbid the opposition because we are not going to do it on name alone.
And the same goes for managers. Objectively where would you have preferred to go these last couple of years - Bayern, Real, Barcelona, Paris, Chelsea or a Manchester United dealing with an aging squad and the SAF hangover?
I'm not saying we won't make it back to the top, but we have our work cut out for us. Some teams would kill for 4th place, but United fans in general have greeted it with negativity. Get real.
27 May 2015 22:57:26
Come on Shawthing that is ridiculous. Yes other clubs may be in more desirable locations and I can see why they would appeal to a foreign lad but we are a global brand and have plenty of appeal. Top level appeal at that. If a player would rather live comfortably in a certain city rather than win trophies (Di Maria) during their career then good riddance to them.
We are not a mediocre club, stop trying to make us sound like one.
28 May 2015 00:17:06
I can't believe that people still think that we were anywhere near matching Hazard's valuation.
In an interview shortly after Hazard was signed SAF stated that £34m was way too much, "It's all about what you think is value for a player. I am not envious of those deals at all. We placed a value on Hazard which was well below what they were talking about"
28 May 2015 01:01:45
Agree what jmb said, and the Man Utd managers job was the rarest about with SAF been there so long. Virtually all managers would jump at the chance to manage us.
28 May 2015 06:00:15
Danny
I also believe fergie wanted Lucas Moura and if you remember correctly we got stumped by PSG on fees on that one too in the same summer.
Also read something about fergie refusing to pay the agent fees in the hazard deal, which was reported to be 5 or 6 mill which he thought was ridiculous/atrocious if i remember correctly.
28 May 2015 06:17:40
Shawthing
You are kidding right? I think you are getting too hung up reading half the bs the metro or star rights. I have always maintained even at great debate here lol when people said we had the 30 million plateau that when we want a player and if they are available and we deem the numbers worth it 90% percent of the time they will come.
There is always that 10% who choose other clubs for various reasons i.e relationship with the manager or just the style of play suits their ability better. We are a lot bigger than you think and next year will surpass Madrid as the biggest club in the world and i think you will see the gap increase over the next 5 years.
I would argue in the UK and for UK based players that number is even higher no one comes even close. I know chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal fans will disagree but who cares. The issue with us has always been that it is very hard to break into the first team and that puts off some young players and we do not have the patients as club or fans to watch a player making mistakes and learning on the pitch.
Read somewhere Varrane decided on Madrid because we signed Jones and Smalling and had Vidic and Ferdinand and Evans and thought he would hardly get a game.
Our issue has been some of the young players we have banked our future on have not developed to the extent that was expected and some have been a complete miss but then again we have always as a club bought high potential young players and some turn out like Ronaldo and some turn out like Zaha, cleverly, Powell, Anderson, Nani etc etc who might still come good in a few years but we are not willing to wait that long.
28 May 2015 09:09:19
ed 002 said at the time the glazers had a issue stumping up for agent fees
28 May 2015 11:07:34
GCU that was the summer when we wanted a young winger, but only on the cheap. Chelsea got Hazard who has developed into the best player in the league, PSG got Moura who has played a big part in their last two title wins, and we got Zaha who made a total of 4 appearances for us before we finally sold him back to Palace for a significant loss.
But Fergie was totally right, £34m for Hazard was a complete waste of money. Boy is there egg on Chelsea's face right now.
28 May 2015 12:58:15
Yeh I thought it was agents fees of around £5m which were the issue?
All irrelevant now although he turned out to be a great deal even at the total price.
28 May 2015 18:24:04
Danny
The response was to hazard choosing chelsea over us and in this case it was about us not willing to pay the agent fees. Moura was coming until Leonardo and PSG just put silly offer on the table and he went the other way.
Many clubs walk away from players if the cost is to high so nothing unusual there.