28 May 2025 22:52:36
Reports out of Brazil stating United have made an offer of £7.5m for Cuiabano, a lwft wing back/ winger who plays for Botafogo. 22 years old and electric pace with great positional sense and big engine.

1.) 29 May 2025
29 May 2025 04:19:30
Saw this also, looks positive.

2.) 29 May 2025
29 May 2025 08:47:49
This is the type of transfer that gets me excited. Seemingly out of the blue and a relative unknown.

Can't tell a lot from YouTube but one thing he does have is a great cross into the corridor of uncertainty.

Apparently been on Brighton's radar for a while and their track record for finding a bargain is usually on point.

3.) 29 May 2025
29 May 2025 10:34:18
The corridor of uncertainty. Love it.

4.) 29 May 2025
29 May 2025 10:47:18
I would call it the corridor of certainty at the moment. You can be certain that nobody will be there to meet it!

5.) 29 May 2025
29 May 2025 11:42:09
This is the kind of transfer I find most exciting. Just some total unknown picked out from somewhere. Highly likely that this type of signing doesn't hit the heights, but the low fee and expectations means they tend to be considered good transfers.

Players like Chicharito who come in for a low fee and do alright, adding something to the squad but they rarely go on to become regular mainstays with top class performances week in week out.

However, every now and then you unearth a Vidic and your club look like geniuses.

Clubs like Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth have made a habit of being able to pick out players from lesser shopped in markets or being able to spot someone before everyone else and sign a player a year or two before they explode and become the next most wanted player.

I'd love to see us learn a thing or two from them and be able to do this with a little more regularity.

6.) 29 May 2025
29 May 2025 13:26:03
I like the unknown but worry we are going to be overloaded with Left Footed Wingbacks, specifically when Amorim goes.

Dorgu, Amass, Leon, Shaw, Amad.

Granted Amass may get a loan, Shaw may become a LCB, Amad RWB, Dorgu plays both sides.

So I kind of get why Amorim needs 4x left footers for wingbacks but concerned it will leave us a squad built for Amorim not the club.

7.) 29 May 2025
29 May 2025 15:32:07
So what’s point of buying players not to suit RA……
Shaw is waste of time, Amass needs a loan out for a season, Amad won’t be a wing back, Dorgu not looked great so far……so I would say we certainly need someone.

8.) 29 May 2025
29 May 2025 20:37:23
Don’t we have Leon to do this exact role?

9.) 29 May 2025
29 May 2025 20:47:41
Leon is just 17 Spenno, some on here would lead you to believe he isn't up to it. I say let the pitch tell us whether they are or not!

10.) 30 May 2025
30 May 2025 10:39:58
The wingback positions are a tricky one to fill. Mostly because so few teams consistently play with wingbacks, meaning most players you sign will have had limited playing time in that role and will have to adapt to that role as well as a new club and most likely a new league/ country.

Players like Dorgu for example has shown flashes of ability, but has also shown that he is still learning/ adapting to that role as well as to the EPL.

I think he will come good, expecting him to hit the ground running when joining in January to a side that was struggling, when he is just 20 years old and is having to learn the new demands of a slightly different position to what he has typically played, was always an unfair expectation. Give him pre-season with the club and the coaches and I expect to start seeing more from him next season.

With Shaw, Dorgu, Amass and now Leon joining we do from the outside loom well stocked in that position.

Yet in reality Shaw probably isn't best suited to the role, wingback is very physically demanding. Amorim used to sub his wingbacks in most games at Sporting for the final 20-30 minutes. While Shaw has consistently shown that fitness is the biggest weakness to his game. In a 343 type system I think he is far more suited to playing LCB.

You then have Amass and Leon, both turned 18 in March/ April this year. They are very young, and in Leon's case he will be adapting to moving to an entirely new continent let alone country. He will need time to settle and adapt. I expect he will have a similar pathway to Sekou Kone who similarly moved to a new continent at 18 to join us. A year in the academy before maybe starting to get some chances either towards the end of next season or the season after.

Amass has looked promising but clearly needs to learn how to use his body better against men. His technique is great, and his positioning and reading of the game is excellent for a player so young. But he is too easily bullied and brushed aside. Maybe if he adds a little more muscle over the summer that might help, but it's more about learning how to plant himself at the right time and use his lower centre of gravity to make himself difficult to push aside. Maybe a loan to a championship club would be a good idea for him. Get him playing week in week out in a physical league.

All that said, I think we are probably better off creating our wingbacks from within more so then spending big fees on players who might not adapt well to the role.

Taking young academy players and coaching them in the specifics of the role rather than trying to change the habits of seasoned professionals to suit the role.

Maybe it is players like Amass, Leon, Kamason and Mantato who ultimately become our future top level wingbacks.

In the meantime maybe we have to make do with the likes of Dalot, Amad and Dorgu holding down the fort as the younger lads get up to speed.

As a side note, while I agree that I think long term Amad is more suited to playing in the inside forward positions. His best performances this season have often come from RWB, he got a hat trick from wingback and he had actually moved from inside forward to RWB when he scored against Villa in the final day of the season.

I think he'll split his time next season between playing inside forward and RWB. Especially if we sign Mbeumo who'll start most of the games as the right-hand inside forward.

Effectively our wingbacks should be more likely wingers than fullbacks. If next season we have Dorgu wide left whipping crosses in, with Cunha and Mbeumo either side of a new striker and Amad wide right rotating around with Mbeumo then I think we will score a lot of goals.

Players like Mount, Mainoo, Zirkzee and maybe Bruno also able to rotate in and out of that front line looks like decent depth given the reduced number of games. Along with Dalot maybe coming in at RWB for some games so Amad can play as the inside forward.

The key to the system working though is getting the wingbacks high to stretch play. It drags the opposition fullbacks towards the touchline creating space for the front three, often creating an over load against teams that play with a back four. They then have to drop a midfielder in to pick up the extra man which then gives us space in midfield for a late runner into the box unmarked.

Wingbacks are key to make Amorim's system work, and much like at Sporting it will likely be players already at the club adapting to the role that will likely be most successful rather than signing top class wingbacks. While Amorim saw a big overhaul in the squad at Sporting, his wingbacks were already at the club, Nuno Mendes, Quenda, Catamo, and Reis were already at the club when he took over. Catamo was a winger he converted to a wingback, Reis was a fullback. Mendes and Quenda were in the academy and he promoted them, Quenda had been a winger during his time at youth level, so was another converted for the role. The only player he signed to play as a wingback was Nuno Santos, who had spent most of his career as a winger before Amorim signed him and played him as a wingback.

I think if we are to sign another player to play wingback then I expect it to be someone whose spent most of their career as a winger to date. We have had links to Semenyo from Bournemouth, I think if we were to sign him it's more likely to have him play as a wingback, probably on the right allowing Amad to play more as a inside forward.