Con

Grealish won't go anywhere near Chelsea's team this season. I reckon Chelsea will keep him at Villa on loan for the rest of this season* and perhaps the next. That would be part of the deal since Grealish is a Villa supporter.

That said we probably could still keep him here and own him until we sell for 5 times what Chelsea would pay if we put in a competitive bid that he is worth.

If our best offer is £5,000 a week that is shameful. Considering he is our best prospect for a long time we should offer him the best deal that an academy graduate has received for a long time. 

*from January

I've been a critic of Tom Cleverley at Man Utd and with England.

While his form did not deserve his place in these teams, he's better than he has shown.

Yeah 'what's the world coming to?' That's the expression. 'What's it coming to?', I guess might be ok too, but it's a stretch. 'It comes to something' though? Not for me

 

 

I've heard of "It comes to a pretty pass when..."

"Pass" in this case meaning a photogenic valley that often approaches the hiker in the Alps rather than a caressed side-footed ball forward from the in-step of that gifted central midfielder Aaron Ramsey.

The question is, what changed to stop the 'Golden Generation' from continuing?

 

You don't go from producing the cream of the Premier League crop from young buys/academy for the best part of 10 years - producing 2-3 real quality players every year - to producing absolutely nothing in 5-6 years. 

 

 

They've made some absolutely shocking young(ish) signings in recent years. Anderson, Bebe, Obertan, Smalling.. and their youth academy has brought through nothing of any major note (as far as I can remember). Moyes has been made a scapegoat, but truth is Man Utd stopped developing good players quite a few years ago. 

Put another way they failed to scout or buy Bale, Ramsey, Sterling, Baines, Hart, Milner, Sturridge, Barkley, Wilshire, Cahill, Henderson, Walcott and the great Andros Townsend.

Perhaps filling an academy with foreign talent is not the best idea. Maybe the sophisticated foreign kids don't settle-in to eating pork pies and snogging lager swilling northern gals. Having to adapt to a new culture is a stress that can affect their learning progress?  And even when they do okay the likes of Pogba won't show fan loyalty or patiently wait for his chance.

If Villa bought him we wouldn't be able to afford his wages beyond 18 years old so we'd sell him to Chelsea where he would be loaned to Ajax until 24 whence he'd be sold to Inter Milan for a decent career until 29 when he'd be bought by newly-promoted Premier League MK Dons.

T 13 SEP 2014 - PREMIER LEAGUE

Arsenal 1 : 2 Man City

Chelsea 2 : 0 Swansea

Crystal Palace 4 : 1 Burnley

Southampton 1 : 0 Newcastle

Stoke 1 : 0 Leicester

Sunderland 2 : 2 Tottenham

West Brom 1 : 4 Everton

Liverpool 1 : 0 Aston Villa 

17:30 SUN 14 SEP 2014 - PREMIER LEAGUE

Man Utd 3 : 0 QPR

MON 15 SEP 2014 - PREMIER LEAGUE

Hull 2 : 1 West Ham 

Why do Man Utd need Daley Blind if Luke Shaw is going to play left back?

Or maybe Van Gaal doesn't think Luke Shaw has the stamina for left back but would be an epic centre back. If this is the decision then Man Utd could have fixed their CB problem. Luke Shaw would be a great CB. Tony Adams and John Terry were epic from a young age. Shaw could help propel Man Utd back into the top four. Although to be honest I doubt it will be this year because they still need another midfielder.

Interesting for Puncheon. What did he say about Warnock again?

 

Puncheon - who excelled for the club under former manager Tony Pulis - was fined £15,000 by the Football Association and warned about his future conduct after he made comments on Twitter about Warnock. 

http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014/08/27/lineker-wishes-puncheon-good-luck-following-warnock-appointment/

 

 

 

 

Well I too thought Evans was their best defender but he played tonight and had a howler against MK Dons.

 

 

You were wrong (not for the first time). Although United's other defenders are so bad Evans isn't that far off being their best one. He is horrific though and is yet another in the long list of players who people vastly over rate because he plays for Man United.

 

So how am I wrong? 

Evans is United's best defender. That's exactly their problem. However - they have just bought Rojo and Shaw. Maybe they are better than Evans?

Not saying yes or no on that because neither has played yet. 

For comparison:

Evans = Phil Jagielka

Jones = Michael Dawson

Smalling = Richard Dunne

Saturday 30th August

Burnley 1 v 2 Man United 

Man City 3 v 0 Stoke

Newcastle 2 v 2 Crystal Palace

QPR 1 v 1 Sunderland

Swansea 2 v 1 West Brom

West Ham 1 v 2 Southampton

Everton 0 v 1 Chelsea

Sunday 31st August

Villa 1 v 0 Hull

Tottenham 1 v 2 Liverpool

Leicester 1 v 4 Arsenal

 

Jonny Evans is by far their best central defenders these days. Often in the shadow behind Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic the last five years, but he is very stable and a good tactical player. Injuries are messing up his career as well though, so they can hardly count him as a sure card. 

Well I too thought Evans was their best defender but he played tonight and had a howler against MK Dons. At fault for at least two and was nutmegged on the way to conceding the last of a 4-0 spanking.

they really do miss Carrick in midfield

What is Carrick now, 33? Older players usually get injured more frequently. What they need is Tony Kroos, not Carrick. But never stood a chance of getting him.

They actually don't have any competent defender. Phil Jones is about as close as they have. They need two CB's but they are spending £63m on a midfielder. I hope there's some money left to fix the defence. It's very funny watching them struggle though. Although it does increase Alex Ferguson's stock which is always a bad thing.

Phil Jones is a really good defender. Better than Smalling. However, is he really the kind of good Man Utd need to be Man Utd and win everything? Michael Dawson at Tottenham is a really good defender but he plays for Tottenham. Man Utd are missing two World Class level defenders. Rojo might be one. Luke Shaw might be another but they are both unproven and inexperienced. I also think they need more than Ron Vlaar because good as he is he'll get a calf injury before december.  

 

 I really believe Shaw could be a great CD and that making the switch is a way Man Utd could get a really great CD relatively on the cheap.

One of the 10 mostly costly defenders ever. Pretty cheap.

 

Back in 2002 23-year-old Rio Ferdinand signed for Man Utd in a £30 million transfer from Leeds. That's £3 million more than Luke Shaw has cost them Shaw was bought in an era of silly money.

I think I was justified to say Luke Shaw - if he turns out anywhere near as good as Rio - has been bought "relatively on the cheap."

How much do you think signing Hummels would cost Man Utd?

Rafael is a not a reliable player for Utd. Sending off waiting to happen. Ideally they need to replace him.

Are Marcos Rojo and Jonny Evans going to be good enough at CD? 

It's a bit risky going into the season with just those two given the low standard of their replacements.

Of course I think it's possible Luke Shaw might play at CD like Chambers has been playing CD for Arsenal. Van Gaal has already said he doesn't think he's fit enough to get up and down the wing. Now that may be because Shaw had  just come back from holiday break but it could also be Van Gaal's way of mentally preparing him to switch positions. I really believe Shaw could be a great CD and that making the switch is a way Man Utd could get a really great CD relatively on the cheap.

I was kind of hoping one of the rich clubs would swoop in and steal Berahino (or Berrinho as he seems to be known) to sit on their bench and fill the home grown quota.

No chance they will sell Berahino. He's their most important player. The reason WBA will stay up if they do stay up. Still inexperienced but he can score goals out of nothing. The brace he got in the first game against Sunderland shows he can also score being in the right place at the right time. A real talent.

Yes I've been diddled by 1 point for Saturday. 

I got Everton 2-2 and Villa 0-0 right which is six points and I got the Chelsea and Swansea results correct for a total of 8 points.

Mifner should have 5 points for Saturday, Swansea exactly right, plus the correct result for Chelsea and Villa.

Con you're gassing. It was probably a tongue in cheek comment but laced with a bit of truth as we know there are pro rata more racist incidents in Russian football then any other European nation. 

Unlike Russia we have a significant black population and a history of slave-trading and African colonialism.

Surely if this scandal tells us anything it is that the British are still in no position to judge other nations on their racism.

 

I can see him disappearing for a few years while this all cools off, then popping up in a managerial position in Russia or somewhere. 

 

He'd fit in well there!

 

And that statement is not racist how? There are plenty of black players in Russia football.

Oh the irony!

that part of the contract will look something like this

 

7.9  Fireworks

 

The undersigned party shall not attempt to use pyrotechnics without supervision for the duration of his contract.

 

 

Section 8. Random wanderings

 

8.1 Gatecrashing

 

The undersigned party shall not will-fully enter a press conference or other officially publicized event (such as a live televised programme) held for a person other than himself unannounced. 

 

8.2 Girls schools

 

Etc.

 

You mean educated enough to keep it to yourself? People from all backgrounds and 'classes' harbour these views. They are just more subtle in how they act about it.

 

I agree my working class/middle class cultural divide is a generalisation only. I've used the word "generally." One's views are not completely determined by one's background.

However, I would say that middle classes are generally more tolerant than the poorer classes. This does not necessarily mean they are better people. Sometimes they are more tolerant because they can afford to separate themselves from their subtle prejudices, and everything always looks nicer from a distance. 

Let's not confuse the middle classes with the upper classes though who if we are to generalise again are quite frequently openly racist and sexist etc. (e.g. Prince Phillip).

 

What are you laughing at?

 

I'm laughing at how you're now flipping this into an argument that people who are racist, sexist, homophobic and such 'generally' come from council estates and 'rough streets', and that these same people had a poor upbringing.

 

Isn't that what the premise is that there should be greater education to teach academy kids not to be racist, sexist, homophobic and anti-semitic?

A lot of them come from poor backgrounds and would not otherwise get exposed to these "cultured" values.

When Mackay came up through the youth ranks there was none of this PC education. Maybe it would have made a difference.

Con, what do you actually want to see happen to McKay and Moody?

 

It's not my business to dictate what happens next based on what they said. It's not directly anybody else's business other than potential future employers either.

 

What about the alleged corruption and unexplained payments / transfer fees?

 

 

 

Corruption is for the football authorities to sort out if true or not.

Are you equating the 'folksy racism' of a certain class or generation with that of a 42 year old millionaire, formerly in charge of a premier league team. Comments directed at individuals as opposed to regional and national stereotypes? 

 

What are you laughing at?

 

It's a clash of working class and middle class cultures.

 

A lot of the talent in football is from what used to be called the working class. They say things that you would never say holding a cup of tea and a scone. 

 

It isn't a clash of working class and middle class cultures in the slightest, I can assure you that I am far, far, far from middle class.

 

It doesn't matter what upbringing you had to be offended by it. 

What I mean't was that the people who use such language generally had a poor upbringing. Council estates, rough streets etc.