Keep your mails coming to theeditor@football365.com…
Basic maths
The estimated basic value (aside from sponsorship, brand promotion etc) of winning the league is about £150m. Prize money for winning the FA Cup it’s over £3m, or £1.5m for reaching the final. For the Champions League, it’s a around £15m.
On this basis alone, considering the performance of Utd last year, the £75m for Grealish and £110m for Sancho is pretty obviously a sensible investment, as such players would be the difference between nearly and actually competing with a chance of winning in each competition. Add in nationality and age, it’s a no brainer.
Utd are a staggeringly rich club anyway, and can easily afford it, while not investing in these players will see them stuck in the Arsenal Groundhog Day of just fighting for 4th and quarter finals every year.
I guess Woodward wants to be seen as some kind of haggling genius, but after Fellani, Di Maria and Sanchez (among many many others) that horse has not just bolted but already being packaged and sold in supermarkets.
I’ve said it before, but failure to land both these players, in a market where there are few rival bidders, is transfer window suicide and Woodward should take complete blame. It’s time to cough up or jog on.
A side containing a selection from Greenwood, Martial, Rashford, Pogba, Bruno, Sancho and Grealish would be a delight for club fans and (any remaining) neutrals. It would be a serious contender in all competitions.
So I fully expect both transfers not to happen and United to spend over the money in the second tier bin instead.
BadWolf
“Sour grapes?”
If we win its a ‘trophy’, if we lose, it’s a friendly, we lost, so look for some positives, but I don’t want to.
What I do want to question is the Mane ‘penalty’? My favourite analyser, Philip Walton said “there is contact, but not enough to justify a penalty”, WTF? When did we adopt NFL rules? Bellerin decides that he doesn’t want Mane to run past him and decides to, put as delicately as I can, impede his run, how is that not a penalty?
On 45 minutes, Mane (I think) catches an Arsenal’s players foot, very minimally and causes him to misplace a pass, because this is 30 yards from goal, a free kick is given, how is this different?
Nothing to do with me being an LFC fan, but I am sick and tired of referees double standards, where a foul outside the box is punished but the same foul inside the box is ignored, something that rhymes with hit houses comes to mind.
Howard (ffs grow some balls) Jones
Arteta showing why he is the leading tier 2 manager
Liverpool were flat and rigid until the introduction of Keita and Minamino. Milner, Fabinho and Wijnaldum is a good combination for defending a lead, but should be reserved for that situation alone. Keita is the most creative central midfielder Liverpool possess. He instantly gave the team more cutting edge, and hopefully we will see the best of him this season for an extended period free of injuries. Great stuff for Minamino to get off the mark with a goal. His confidence was clearly shining brighter for the remainder of the game than it has at any point so far. Even his penalty was lashed down the center with authority. Perfect timing to get a boost on the verge of the new season.
Arsenal played very well as a whole. Solid in defence, dynamic in midfield and created openings.
Sublime goal from Aubameyang. For me, he is the most potent goal scorer in the Premier League at this moment, regardless of Vardy winning the Golden Boot. I don’t know what his actual conversion rate was last season, but whenever I have seen him play he is simply clinical, and as a brilliant bonus, is able to create goals out of nothing through sheer quality. Elite player, and I have maintained for some time that put him in Liverpool or City, and he is a 30+ goal a season man.
Congratulations to Arteta for validating and maintaining his spot at the top of the Tier 2 Manager Rankings with yet another piece of silverware in the bag, irrespective of its significance. A trophy, any trophy, feels good. So well done to him and to Arsenal.
johnnyWicky
Couple of responses, plus Grealish…
Dear Mailbox,
Thanks to Gav, Edinburgh and Mark Danger Endicott, MUFC for their respective well thought-out and not as well thought-out responses to my email on what I think could be done to move Man United on to the ‘next level’. If I may, I would like to respond to each of…
Read More: It would be ‘transfer window suicide’ if Man Utd didn’t sign £185m duo
