Ole is yet to make a bad signing at Man Utd; Grealish worries and…

Editor F365
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer Man Utd
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer Man Utd

Thanks for your mails. keep them coming to theeditor@football365.com…

 

Credit where it’s due
Firstly I don’t consider myself to be either “Ole In”, nor “Ole Out”, so I don’t have overly strong a feelings either way on having him as the Manchester United Manager.

However… I feel like we have to give credit where credit is due; Ole has been in charge at United for a total of 12 signings from my calculations and every single one looks to be what you would class as at least a “good” signing:

Firstly there are those that are un-debateable: Bruno Fernandes has undoubtedly made us a better team, Harry Maguire was exactly what we needed, Wan-Bissaka has brought a stability to the RB position and will only get better, and Edinson Cavani brought 17 goals, 5 assists and the most glorious cheekbones we may have ever seen in the Premier League (he was also a free transfer).

After these 4 untouchables, there are players like Dan James, who yes, is not in that world class ilk, but still provides a fantastic option from the bench and plays his part in the squad. Alex Telles whilst not making a huge direct impact has probably been the kick up the backside that Luke Shaw needed – maybe its a coincidence that Shaws upturn in form coincides with the Telles arrival but maybe not. Even Ighalo was a shrude move, five decent goals during his spell and an attacking option which we badly needed at the time he came in. Donny Van De Beek is probably the most questionable member of this list, but the fact is he is still young, when he’s played he has been just ok, he hasn’t justified a regular starting birth but he undoubtedly strengthens the squad. Pellistri and Amad are both young, attacking, fast wingers bought at reasonable prices given their ages, and are benefitting from loan time away from the club.

Jadon Sancho Man Utd

That brings us to 10, with the last 2 being Sancho and Varane; a player with the potential to be world class, and a player who is definitely world class. Jadon will excite fans, and whilst there’s no guarantee he will be the second coming of CR7, it is all in front of him to do well and you’d be naive to write him off. Varane is, despite what Danny Mills says, an unbelievable signing. I cannot believe that fans and pundits alike are using the “poor quality of La Liga” as a reason to why Varane will struggle. If coming from a lower quality league is indicative that a centre back will struggle in England then Ruben Dias (Portuguese league), Vincent Kompany (Belgian and German Leagues), Cesar Azpilicueta (French League), and even Nemanja Vidic (russian league) all would like a word. Again, no guarantees he will hit the ground running but the world cup winning, multi-champions league winning, french international will inevitably show his class at some point.

That, in my opinion, makes 12 good signings – if you take off the blinkers that a signing has to be in the first team scoring 50 a year, and look at the bigger picture and the role they play in the squad, there’s not one of those 12 I would be happy to see leave.

Ole has his flaws without a doubt, he is far from the perfect manager and is visibly still learning on the job. He is also not the guy out negotiating these deals so I am not giving him full credit here, I know he’s just the manager. BUT if he is involved in identifying signings which I would like to think he is, then he is currently 12 for 12 in my eyes, which after watching Van Gaal throw money at players like Falcao, Di Maria, Schweinsteiger, Depay, Victor Valdes, and even Jose with Alexis Sanchez (credit to Jose, no one could have seen the nose dive of form coming for him), is extremely satisfying to see.

United aren’t back where it matters, challenging for the league and getting to the latter Champions League stages, but I think it is fair to say they are back at the big boys table when it comes to transfers. And that will lead to them being in the thick of it before too long.
Craig (even SAF signed Kleberson, let Ole have this please)

 

Worries about Grealish
Does anyone else worry about Grealish moving to Man City?

The guy is undoubtedly hugely talented, and has a great future, but Man City just doesn’t seem like a great place for him. Pep doesn’t have a huge amount of patients for players coming in, and with the resources available it’s seems unreasonable that if he doesn’t excel and push out some already excellent players he could find himself playing Caribo Cup games and dead rubber European games. Which will do very little for his development.

I’ve no real skin in this debate, just want to see English players do well coming up to the World Cup, and I think Grealish might find his play time and development finished in the Man City team.
Mark C (Written in my phone, so bad grammar, auto corrects and probably spelling all over the shop)

 

Jadon…
Sancho.

A quick response to AC in Milan re Jadon Sancho. First, the Pogba argument. Yes, both Sancho and Pogba were let go by Premier League clubs but Alex Ferguson has since said it was Pogba’s agent causing the hassle and they wanted to keep him. Also, Pogba won Series A about five million times with Juventus so it didn’t work out too bad for him. Sancho wanted first team football and he went and got it. That is not a bad thing.

Sancho is an unqualified success for Dortmund. And while he may rank high in being disposessed, he’s a winger whose main attribute is dribbling. If you’re going to be attacking a lot, you’re going to lose the ball sometimes. It’s the risk inherent in playing on the front foot.

Gareth Southgate’s unwillingness to pick seems to me to stem from the wealth of options he has attacking positions and a safety first approach. If you’re signing Sancho for his defensive contributions then you’ve either hit your head or you’re Jose Mourinho.

Finally, something more intangible. He’s the kind of player folks want to see. Like Mo Salah at Liverpool, you sit up when he’s on the ball because of the potential for something exciting. In short, while not a United fan, I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do.
Alan, Córdoba

 

AC in Milan
Good Lord, some people just need to look at their emails before they send them into the mailbox and ask a) what am I actually trying to say here? And b) is there any point in sending this message.

Case in point AC in Milan

“It would appear quite obvious that, while his potential may have a high ceiling, his ability to succeed in the Premier League should be analysed in depth”

This in-depth analysis then consists of listing a load of players that *checks notes* aren’t Jadon Sancho and saying because they’ve struggled, so to Jadon might.

And that’s it. That’s the analysis. What’s remarkable though is that he then manages to carry on typing for so long without saying anything particularly poignant.

He notes that Sancho might stifle the current crop of attackers but fails to mention that United struggled during the right flank last season and Ole, in a radical move, has signed someone who is adept at playing on both flanks (don’t worry AC, that includes the right flank). But hey, why let a lack of analysis get in the way of a poorly thought through narrative on *checks notes* in depth analysis.

He then concludes with saying United still need more players.

Cheers.

So to sum up.

Sancho is good, but might not work out as not all transfers do. Also United still need to sign more players.

Everyone already knows this. Everyone. I get most people are bored, hence why I’m writing this email, but surely there are better things do than this? Clearly all that typing and allll that analysis took an age, but was there nothing really any better to do? Even going for a walk?

Maybe I should really be blaming the editor (yeah, you), in posting these incendiary mails just to make suckers like me message in. Just because people have opinions doesn’t mean I have to read them, geez.

Right I’m going for a long walk, thanks a lot.
Chris, love you really Ed

 

Man Utd media bias
Think JB and his tinted glasses claiming there is a united media bias needs a bit of a reality check. Barely reported were Liverpool shafting new balance to get the Nike deal over the line, not even a headline for Liverpool hacking City’s scouting system, had united done the same there would be calls for points deductions.  Buying up homes round anfield, allowing them to fall into dilapidationforcing the current residents to move out of fear, not a word, but shiny new stadium all praise.

United fans would have rioted if rashford didnt make the england squad? my backside, we wanted him to have the surgery and recover over the summer as United players are normally the scapegoats for Englands inevitable collapse.

So for all you can claim the media favours united, don’t forget what they’re choosing not to report about Liverpool cause lo and behold, they wouldn’t want the media darlings to look bad.

If Ole did any of the crappy ads klopp does he’d be vilified and you know it.
Anthony, Dublin

 

So bored of the Martinez vs Leno
Firstly, Leno had been one of the best keepers in the league. We have conceded just one more goal than Aston Villa despite having inferior performances. If you watch our goals it’s evident that Leno is one of the few players that kept us from relegation material, as individual errors time, including from our defense, put Leno in terrible situations.

Secondly, yes Leno was the safer choice. Martinez had played a dozen good games vs Leno who until his injury had again been one of the best keepers in the league and over 100 starts at Senior level. He was a goalkeeper that Arsenal had already invested heavily in, paying 26m as well as 100k per week wages. Martinez, if he had become number one would have needed a big pay rise and we don’t have the money for 2 high wage goal keepers. We got a very rare 20m for a, bar a dozen performances, second choice goalkeeper with just 15 senior starts. In hindsight it was cheap but nobody called it a bad deal for either party at the time.

Thirdly, that money got us a world class midfielder, a player we had to fulfil a cash release clause for. We’ve been unfortunate with his injuries (how very Arsenal) but we needed top class midfielders desperately. In fact we still do (thank you Xhaka…) but the bigger hole was filled rather than have 2 goalkeepers angry they aren’t number 1.

Even knowing everything we know now I would do the deal again. Arsenal wouldn’t have been able to sell Leno mid CV19 and you can’t have 2 first choice keepers. If football was as simple as the media suggest it is, then it would have been great to have Emiliano, but it isn’t. So we have one of the best keepers in the league instead of one of the best keepers in the league. We have more than enough problems without worrying about who is between the sticks and that 20m was more useful to us than another top class goalkeeper
Rob A (so far so good for our transfers) AFC