Four summer priorities

comment by Darren The King Fletcher (U10026)
posted 2 minutes ago
RR, yeah I do appreciate that. But from what I gather we’ve been putting in a lot of work to try and convince him this is the club he should play for in England. And we cannot just ignore the finances. It’s not just about wages but also compensating Dortmund adequately, it’s there where United will always be in a strong position to make big signings.

Though I guess it remains to be seen how we operate under the new structure. Both in terms of their reluctance to make really big signings, but also whether they’ll actually have the Glazers on the same page - I’ve said before that losing Woodward could actually hinder us when it comes to getting those record signings, such was his influence with the Glazers.

Personally I’m not all that bothered about Bellingham anyway. We need to sign more players in their prime over the next couple of years. Bellingham may well be potentially brilliant, but I don’t think he’s anywhere close to being that player yet. Which is why he can’t even get a start for an England team which has a weak midfield.
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I'm sure it's partly my innate pessimism (formative Manchester United experiences coming in the 1980s).

It may be that Bellingham doesn't realise his potential, but I think his potential is higher than any of the other English players in his age group. I would attribute his not being a regular starter for England to Southgate's conservatism as much as anything. (Which is a valid approach on Southgate's part: a national team doesn't have lots of time to gel, and a disproportionate number of international tournaments are won by reactive sides that are hard to break down.)

Bit off topic and probably already come up somewhere but all of the a podcast about tactics' episodes recently became available for free after the host Jon Mackenzie had to stop the pod due to becoming the new presenter for tifo. There's a good episode with Erik Elias, who's a Dutch scout who also runs the site between the posts, about ten hag's tactical evolution if any united fans are interested

But it’s also because of weaknesses in his game and his inability to impact the midfield. It’s unsurprising as he’s still basically a child. But my point is that it’s an example of where his current level is. This is a very weak midfield let’s not forget.

He has huge potential no doubt. I just don’t care because he’s currently nowhere near the best midfielders in the world, and that’s what we need not more potential that becomes unrealised.

If he goes to Liverpool and becomes world class then so be it (although my problem with that is that he’d inevitably become rubbish for England like all their players usually do). But I do think it’s a signing we can make anyway.

comment by Christopher (U20930)
posted 10 minutes ago
Bit off topic and probably already come up somewhere but all of the a podcast about tactics' episodes recently became available for free after the host Jon Mackenzie had to stop the pod due to becoming the new presenter for tifo. There's a good episode with Erik Elias, who's a Dutch scout who also runs the site between the posts, about ten hag's tactical evolution if any united fans are interested
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Thanks Christopher. Sorry, what's the name of the podcast / website?

Dazza, you may well have watched more of him than I have but I've been hugely impressed with him in some of his Dortmund appearances. E.g. in the two legs against Manchester City the season before last he looked frighteningly mature and confident, and definitely impacted the games. I've seen less of him this season admittedly, as they took Bundesliga off BT Sports, and I know BVB as a whole have had ups and downs in 2021-22.

comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Christopher (U20930)
posted 10 minutes ago
Bit off topic and probably already come up somewhere but all of the a podcast about tactics' episodes recently became available for free after the host Jon Mackenzie had to stop the pod due to becoming the new presenter for tifo. There's a good episode with Erik Elias, who's a Dutch scout who also runs the site between the posts, about ten hag's tactical evolution if any united fans are interested
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Thanks Christopher. Sorry, what's the name of the podcast / website?
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It's called 'a podcast about tactics', understand if that wasn't clear

I listen on Spotify but think it's probably available on all the usual places

Thanks! I'll check it out.

I’m not sure if I have, but I see him more as a moments player. He clearly has a lot of skill, but he’s understandably unable to really command the midfield. Maybe he never will, and he’ll develop into a goal and assist machine. But I’m just not really sure what kind of midfielder he is yet. He reminds me a bit of a young Pogba in that regard. And we know full well how he failed to develop into the player he promised to be.

That might make him very attractive as a signing as he’d malleable, but for me it’s why I don’t want him as it doesn’t really solve the midfield issues we’ve had for so long.

I just wanna see a top midfield with players in their prime. It’s literally been about 20 years since we’ve had that (unless you want to make the argument Scholes was better in his 30’s).

I listened to that episode of the podcast earlier on the way home from work, it’s a good listen if you like that kind of thing and an episode (ep 10) of particular interest to us Utd fans at this moment.

Listened to the first half of the podcast on my way to work this morning. Really interesting. Thanks again Christopher for the recommendation. I'm going to check out other episodes too.