03 Jul 2026 23:58:38
I'm reading that Real want about £70m for Tchoaumeni and he's on about £205k a week, which is £150k a week less than Casemiro. If the club doesn't rate him that's one thing but if it's really the case that our bosses consider this to be too much then I have a feeling this transfer window is not going to meet our higher expectations. If he's what the club want and the player wants to come then this should be well within our capacity.
Of course the player is currently at the World Cup and likely to be going all the way to the final, so any deal is going to have to wait until it's over. I suspect that we may be on hold for another couple of weeks because the players we really want are still engaged in the tournament. I hope so anyway.
04 Jul 2026 12:23:03
It depends. We had the same thought process when signing Alexis Sanchez. Yeah, the wages seemed high, but he was a top player, in his peak and was EPL proven. The fact that his fee was low (exchanging a player who wasn't performing for him) was justification for the high wages.
Yet, him flopping was only half the problem; the main issue was the message it sent out to our other players. On the back of that deal, we had to agree to pay DDG a record wage for a goalkeeper (which still hasn't been broken), and agree to the massive wages we now have Rashford on. Ultimately, would we have agreed such high wages for Casemiro if we hadn't thrown our wage structure out the window? That doesn't mean we wouldn't have signed him, but maybe he'd have been on 200-250k per week (after bonuses) rather than 300k.
The problem with increasing the top of the wage bill is that it forces you to either raise the rest of it as well or create disharmony amongst your squad.
Personally, I think players should get a competitive wage when they first join, but to get the massive wages they need to prove it first in a United shirt. I don't care if they've played well for Real Madrid or anyone else before.
Di Maria was amazing for Real Madrid, but he didn't earn his wages with us.
I highly doubt Tchouameni would be a failure with us, but I do have concerns that there are so few players at the top level currently with Tchouameni's skill set. Is he just unique, or is he a profile that is out of vogue and difficult to be successful at the highest level with?
Like I said, I don't think he'd flop, but there is a chance that, with him in the side, we fall just short of where we want to be due to his specific skills and how the modern game is played. Football is ultimately a team game. For any signings to be successful, it is about having the right mix of players who are able to play a style that gets the best out of them consistently enough to win.
Maybe the issue Real Madrid have with Tchouameni isn't his ability, but about finding the right players to be successful with him as a key player. Maybe that is why they are willing to sell him and why they are looking at players like Enzo Fernandez as possible replacements, a player who is definitely not a like for like replacement.