Manchester United

There are few players like Bale and many like Pogba.

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Really hard to call who will win the league between Manchester City Manchester United and Chelsea

If Mourinho doesn’t deliver the title in his first season is it a failure?

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And they still won’t win the league.

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But they’re definitely trying to at least.

It says a lot that despite them having finished once in the top 4 in the past 3 seasons, they’re being tipped to do greater things than us this season.

How I really hope it fails…

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Because they’re bringing in a lot of talented players and as much as I hate him have one of the best managers ever, I think they’ll finish no lower than second. Arsenal need to gamble more rather than relying on fucking Walcott and the medical team to deliver a title. Absolutely embarrassing comparison between the two. The mid 2000s way of running your club and the prices paid at those times are no longer possible but the powers at the top will never succumb to this. Mediocrity has diluted, infected and infested your club and I hate to say all of that, it’s actually fucking frustrating.

Teasing you with the odd big name purchase and then a decent middle-top range purchase this summer, injecting a glimmer of hope that immediately fades once the realisation of a decade of reality takes over. One great player every summer isn’t enough anymore. But inactivity overall has caused serious stagnation and I’d even hazard that you’re being left behind now that the likes of utd can spend so much money (and actually want to).

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They’ll finish below is this year, fuck them.

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I’m curious what the longer term plan for Pogba is at United. With the brief exception of Fabregas in the fall of 2014, Mourinho has never given his 8 midfielder a lot of license to be creative offensively: His 8s have tended to be high energy powerhouses like Essien, Khedira, and Cambiasso. While Pogba may play more like an 8 in this transitional year for Mourinho, I have to think that the longer term plan is to build the team around Pogba as the 10 (or as the more offensive-minded 8 in a 4-3-3). Pogba has said that he would like to be a player like Lampard - clearly the most offensive midfielder in his iconic Chelsea teams under Mourinho and afterward - and I doubt he would have come to United unless he had some guarantees that he would be made an offensive focal point. Plus, United is clearly hoping to market the hell out of Pogba and try to make him into the face of their team and a global star. You don’t do that with a guy playing the Essien or Khedira role in a Mourinho side.

But that leaves two questions: First, how good can Pogba really be as a 10 (or whatever you want to call the most offensively minded of a midfield trio)? Once you get into that part of the pitch, its very difficult to stake a claim to being among the best in the world. Second, what happens to Rooney? The only place he can really play at this point is the 10, he is under contract until 2019, and he will be very difficult to sell due to his wages and club legend status.

My bottom line: It sucks that United got Pogba because he will improve them, but I don’t think he’ll improve them nearly as much as the hype would suggest or that he is a particularly great player to build a team around, especially once he inevitably migrates to the 10 role. It would have been much worse if they had been able to use their financial heft to land Neymar, Bale, Muller, Dybala, or Griezmann.

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Im tipping them for the Title due to the powerful additions they have made and I have huge concerns about Man City’s defence, Chelsea are also in the mix as I think Conte will do a fairly good job.

Underrate Pogba at your own peril. He’ll never be worth £89m (nobody is), but he’s as gifted as those who watch him every week say he is.

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No. Still too many question marks in their team imo. Valencia? Blind? Can Carrick still perform for a full season? Rooney isn’t the same player he was.

Ibra could walk backwards the entire game and still be more effective than Giroud. The guy is a born winning goal machine.

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Sell for £1.5m
Buy for £89m

Economics in football is crazy :slight_smile:

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Pogba doesn’t change the fact they still need a deep-lying playmaker. But Mourinho doesn’t like them.

Indeed at first glance is it the kind of signing that would fire a team to the title? Not really no which for the amount of money spent is bemusing. With that said he can’t be blamed for the fee but it shows how increidbly desperate United are. When Real pass on a galatico signing it should tell you something.

Then there’s the fact it’s difficult to see Mourinho getting the best out of Pogba at least initially , it’s not going to happen playing him in a midfield two he’d have to play in a three which I don’t quite see Mourinho employing.

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United so far have a poor record with big money signings, let see how this pans out.

I watched him for France at the Euros and struggled to identify what position he’s supposed to be playing or what in fact he brought to the team?

Perhaps we didn’t get to see his natural quality because he played a more withdrawn role but I didn’t really see anything at all to suggest he is an £89m player. Playing at home in the European Championships should have brought the best out of him.

Match winning goal scorers are bought for that sort of money. Not players who effect the midfield area and contribute 10-15 goals a year and a similar number of assists. Madness the amount they’ve paid for a midfielder, just madness.

I compare the price to players like Bale, Suarez and Ronaldo. These guys bang in goals and make a consistent difference in matches. I just can’t comprehend spending that much on Pogba.

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Congratulations to United, their marketing strategy with Adidas has been fantastic.

Half a billion spent and only 1 FA Cup to show for it.

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