Literally every player that gets transferred to United eventually starts to underperform and fall off a cliff compared to their past performances and the conversation always ends up being how United has overpaid for said player or how they weren’t cut out for premier league or how they’re too old now but very rarely do people bring up how United might just be a graveyard for talent and the systemic issues at the club make the players worse instead of the other way around. It happened with Maguire, Sancho and Anthony. Now Casemiro and Varane are in talks of being possibly sold and the conversation around that is again revolving around how Real scammed United and that they’re falling off because of their ages (Varane is literally still 30 and Casemiro is 31). I’m willing to bet that if Doku had moved to United instead of City, he would’ve also had an incredibly difficult time and people would be laughing at United saying how they got rinsed paying 70 million for a talent that performed well in Ligue 1 for a single season. I think we should really stop judging players too harshly based on their performances under this United side.
I wouldn’t say everyone has fell off a cliff. But United is not an easy club to play in, which isn’t helped by the Frankenstein the club currently is
Liverpool had this problem for years. Took time for almost every player. Its a big move when you come from Southampton😅 Pressure at these clubs are massive, and if the boss(es) and structure isnt at the best level it will take time. Manu is enormous, and a mess, takes a real talent and man to not be eaten up by that.
Every big name has flopped since the successful Zlatan transfer
They didn’t go out and sign Osimhen ? They deserve mediocrity
Using Antony as an example:
He was playing for Ajax. Ajax were the strongest team in a league that struggles to be ranked in the top 10 leagues in Europe.
So he was playing for the strongest team in a weak league where a lot of the opposition teams were pretty poor.
His teammates were some of the best in the league. He had solid defenders behind him, top attackers fo get him assists and top creators to get him goals.
So he looks great.
Then he moves to a team who are struggling to fight near the top of what is arguably the most competitive league in world football. The defence is struggling, meaning he is required to chase back far more. The attackers are impotent, meaning he gets fewer assists, and the best creative player (Bruno) is often forced to play out of position, meaning he gets fewer chances created for him. Add to that the fact that pretty much every single opposing left back in the league knows that he wants to cut inside onto his stronger foot now, and you get a player struggling.
Antony would have struggled in pretty much any team in the league.
Let’s look at your Doku example.
I’m not sure he would have struggled as much for Man U as you expect. He was performing well in a more competitive league, for a side who weren’t the best in the league. Or even the second best. He was playing for Rennes for 3 seasons, who finished 4th last season, 4th the season before that, and 6th the season before. So, pretty much Man U’s level.
Last season he managed 6 goals and 2 assists in the league. Season before that, 1 goal and 2 assists, season before that, 2 goals and 3 assists. Not brilliant numbers, but this season he’s already got 2 goals and 5 assists, which is a great return in a debut season in the Premier League.
One thing you’re not factoring in when it comes to people shitting on Antony is how incredibly unlikeable he comes across as on the pitch. Doku seems to play with a smile whilst Antony plays with a scowl. As such, people seem happier to give Doku the benefit of the doubt more than Antony.
He’s not the only player under-performing though. Sancho, Casemiro, Varane and Mount are all having a difficult time. Eriksen did decent last season but is on a single goal and assist so far, he still seems to be performing at a good level but it’s not translating into goals/ assists because no one is scoring. Both Ronaldo and Cavani fell off in their second seasons in the past. Rashford is always oscillating between hot and cold patches. Apart from Bruno, none of the players seem to be performing at a good enough level consistently. Others that do perform like Aaron Wan bissaka and Luke Shaw seem to be quite injury prone. This is a huge sample size of players that are under-performing and I don’t think it’s fair to attribute the failures of the club to the players anymore.
I forgot how Mount was absolutely tearing up the league last season before his move…
Has Varane even been injury free more than 2 games in a row?
How is Casemiro having a difficult time?You expect Ronaldo and Cavani to “re-bloom” coming in playing against tougher competition in the twilight of their careers?
Sancho has had an attitude problem everywhere he’s been, and that was why City let him go in the first place.I feel you’re reaching hard trying to paint exactly the picture that you want.
You can find real examples for sure (pretty much everywhere) but it’s no “epidemic”, this all reeks of tabloid sensationalism.What’s a real truth in regards to United transfers is that they overpay. That’s something they’ve done a lot.
Case looked great for United last season so if you’re going to use that same logic for Eriksen at least be consistent.
Sancho isnt good enough for the prem.
Mount has been shite for a while
>United might just be a graveyard for talent and the systemic issues at the club make the players worse instead of the other way around
As a United Fan, you hit the nail in the head
Ronaldo called it out when he noted it was all the same training facilities as ten years before.
Every other major team has been spending hundreds of millions for new shiny training facilities.
United have the transfer money of the biggest team in the world but its clear thats all they invest it. Every less visible part of the club is in ruins. Training, stadium, staff, scouting, its all aged and out of date.
So they get these players and without the same level of care and training as other clubs they fall off.
Ronaldo called it right , he just chose the wrong way and utterly the wrong person to do so with
I think you mean Manchester United. Whereas referring to just ‘United’ within a Greater Manchester context is fine, there are other uniteds in English football so to use the suffix only is the height of arrogance and ignorance.
Varane was already washed I’ve been saying it from day one
It’s bad recruitment and then bad coaching to compound it
If Real Madrid are willing to sell players that have been pivotal to their starting XI for years, then chances are they’re going to decline. Casemiro and Varane were going to be good stop-gaps for a couple of seasons, Utd’s failure was finding long-term talents that could learn from players like this whilst they’re still here. Their problems are only going to get worse.
I think it was more a case of Casemiro wanting a new challenge and the club respecting his wishes. Both Modric and Kroos are significantly older than him and are still playing, I’m sure he could’ve continued for a few more years as well if he had wanted to.
Wow a sensible comment. Casemiro was class last season, this season he should have been playing less with an understudy coming up, so he can still bring experience and leadership to big games. Varane has been injured but you could argue they actually did get a replacement in Martinez but he’s out as well
This sub makes a new thread about United clickbait articles every few hours. It’s almost impressive
To be fair, I feel this is largely due to overpaying, by an insane margin on players. If they were able pay a realistic amount for their player, I doubt they’d seem as bad.
Then again PL is insane. It’s not just Man U, rest of world knows PL is a cash cow super league, therefore most multimillion pound transfers seem like flops, as they know PL clubs can, and will overpay.
This is what happens when you get your information from clickbait articles and memes… Case and Varane are not on their way out… Maguire was excellent his first 2 seasons here and has been excellent again this season. Antony was never worth the money paid for him. Sancho is the only one of that group to truly not be worth it. That comes down to his attitude that he had at your club and at Dortmund.
I mean I do get most of my information about non-city clubs solely from reddit so maybe I’m just misinformed but there’s literally an article right now on r/soccer saying how Casa and Varane might be on their way out and most of the top comments are saying how United made a bad call investing in older players. I also remember a lot of previous instances of people saying how real always knows the right time to sell it’s ageing talents (it was in context of Casemiro’s performances). That is pretty much what prompted me to make this post because it’s not like it was a couple of hottakes that got downvoted to oblivion, it seems to be the majority opinion.
I know the post you’re talking about and the entire comment section is calling out the article for being clickbait trash with no source. Be better.
I feel like either we’re seeing two completely different threads or you’re just straight up lying because all the top comments I’m seeing are “Saudi Arabia music” and “Casa/ Varane are washed”.
Dr I y DC cdbtt r h no
I would honestly be even less interested than Sancho if I was his age with those wages. Can’t blame him
People don’t understand the mentality of footballers at all,these guys have basically gave up their childhood and teen years to reach the top,doing 10k runs while their mates were out drinking chasing girls,he won’t want to be sitting not playing and collecting wages for doing nothing it’ll be killing him,footballers are ultra competitive.
Exactly! He still has a more privileged life than your average bloke but his ultra competitive nature is what got him to that privileged position in the first place and I’m sure he beats himself up a lot over how the last year has panned out for him despite being among the highest earners of premier league.