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Squad Changes; thoughts?
Topic Started: May 18 2014, 10:19 PM (9,058 Views)
Naebody
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Twat
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It does seem a bit unbalanced to have 13 first-team players for the four forward roles and only one recognised left-back. Perhaps Jackie compares all potential signings against his (heavily edited) self image, and none is up to scratch.

Spittal's apparently played there (unenthusiastically) in friendlies so maybe that's the plan. If Robertson leaves us, Jackie can force someone vaguely similar to pretend to be Robertson, like a widower who nags his new girlfriend to wear his wife's old clothes.
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Morvant's Finest
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Tommy McLean
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Naebody
Jul 22 2014, 07:27 AM
.................. Cz
Watson Fojut Souttar Robertson
........ Rankin Paton
.... Dow Armstrong Ciftci
...... ....... Bicurious

Understudies:

. ............... McC
Wilson Dillon Morris Spittal
.......... Petrie Fraser
.... Connolly Telfer Smith
.............. Graham
Lots of cover across the whole squad there, (apart from LB, which seems to suggest the club's determined to rebuff any bids for A-Rob in the meantime at least).

However looking at the options in the attacking midfield areas, I do fear that if GMS follows Gauld out the door we're severely struggling in the "jinky/beating a man/chance-making/creativity" department.

Let's hope someone like Telfer or Connolly can make the break-through this season to fill the void....
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Naebody
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Clearly, GMS would be a loss. He's a clever player who, if it hadn't been for underperformance and malingering illnesses last season, would have moved in the direction of the EPL by now. He's not going to be easy to replace, because his grade of quality is well out of our usual price range.

However .......

Dow looked a capable winger in the last few months of last season ...... Two target men on the books allows Ciftci to drop back as needed ........ Erskine has been getting a runout in the friendlies and may yet come good ......... Then there's a bunch of unknown quantities, like Connolly, Spittal and Smith. ........... The position looks covered adequately, even if it means we're not featuring as much on the Soccer AM Showboat.
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Setenza
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The thing GMS has that I don't think any of our other midfielders have is real pace. Dow's and Ciftci are not very quick, Armstrong has pace at times, but more running pace than a quick burst of acceleration.

I think pace has been a big part of our attacking success, and we'll miss that if GMS goes. But I think he'll be around for another year. Can't see anyone paying too much for him now, and manager doesn't seem to want to sell.
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reekie
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Agreed. Stretch has good speed once he's built up a head of steam but GMS has that uncanny extra gear that special players have.
He's also a great (our only?) outball. We've plenty of players who can hold the ball up excellently while support, as well as opposition defence, arrives.
However, GMS just attacks his opposite number, usually beating him, which often means we end up in 3v2 or 4v3 situations.
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Naebody
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Reading elsewhere, I get the feeling some fans have forgotten that mediocre wingers exist. We've been lucky with them for more than a decade. Robson was replaced by Conway, who was replaced by GMS. You have to go back to the dark days of 2001 to find a United team without a lively winger at its disposal. What we had then was Charlie Millier waddling around the centre circle rubbing fistfulls of £20 notes down his shorts. But then, reading elsewhere, some people seem to think those were halcyon days. So perhaps the moral is not to read elsewhere. Good evening.
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vvhatsthatonyourback
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I do love it when Charlie Miller is heaved up in conversation with Arabs. It's a quick way to know who are idiots, and also a quick way to make said idiots edge away from me.
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vvhatsthatonyourback
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Seems like we're beating off Andrew Robertson bids like, erm, a sexual reference in a crowded priest's hole. What is that now, 3 from West Ham and 3 from Hull? £2m+ the latest Tigers' bid.

Rather nice to see us not jumping at the first 6-figure offer for a player we only signed for free a year ago.
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TheDean
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Morvant's Finest
Jul 23 2014, 11:19 AM
Naebody
Jul 22 2014, 07:27 AM
.................. Cz
Watson Fojut Souttar Robertson
........ Rankin Paton
.... Dow Armstrong Ciftci
...... ....... Bicurious

Understudies:

. ............... McC
Wilson Dillon Morris Spittal
.......... Petrie Fraser
.... Connolly Telfer Smith
.............. Graham
Lots of cover across the whole squad there, (apart from LB, which seems to suggest the club's determined to rebuff any bids for A-Rob in the meantime at least).

However looking at the options in the attacking midfield areas, I do fear that if GMS follows Gauld out the door we're severely struggling in the "jinky/beating a man/chance-making/creativity" department.

Let's hope someone like Telfer or Connolly can make the break-through this season to fill the void....
Wilson and Watson both injured so cover at RB is thin.

Looks likely that our club captain will have an extended run there with Soapy, Fojut. And Morris covering the cb positions.

lB will still be threadbare post Robbo's £5m transfer
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Setenza
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vvhatsthatonyourback
Jul 23 2014, 05:32 PM
Seems like we're beating off Andrew Robertson bids like, erm, a sexual reference in a crowded priest's hole. What is that now, 3 from West Ham and 3 from Hull? £2m+ the latest Tigers' bid.

Rather nice to see us not jumping at the first 6-figure offer for a player we only signed for free a year ago.
It's be nice to know what the adds on were from the bids.

Maybe £3m up front is the magic number to keep everyone happy.
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vvhatsthatonyourback
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wild eyed
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Setenza
Jul 23 2014, 11:26 PM
vvhatsthatonyourback
Jul 23 2014, 05:32 PM
Seems like we're beating off Andrew Robertson bids like, erm, a sexual reference in a crowded priest's hole. What is that now, 3 from West Ham and 3 from Hull? £2m+ the latest Tigers' bid.

Rather nice to see us not jumping at the first 6-figure offer for a player we only signed for free a year ago.
It's be nice to know what the adds on were from the bids.

Maybe £3m up front is the magic number to keep everyone happy.
With that weird timed release of the bank debt, maybe the club want less up front and rapid escalation of virtually guaranteed add-ons once the obligation to give the bank a cut disappears.
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Naebody
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Twat
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TheDean
Jul 23 2014, 07:44 PM
Wilson and Watson both injured so cover at RB is thin.
Well, no. The first two choices are injured (not mortally, one assumes) so the third choice comes in. That's not thin cover. That's cover.
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Setenza
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vvhatsthatonyourback
Jul 24 2014, 07:33 AM
Setenza
Jul 23 2014, 11:26 PM
vvhatsthatonyourback
Jul 23 2014, 05:32 PM
Seems like we're beating off Andrew Robertson bids like, erm, a sexual reference in a crowded priest's hole. What is that now, 3 from West Ham and 3 from Hull? £2m+ the latest Tigers' bid.

Rather nice to see us not jumping at the first 6-figure offer for a player we only signed for free a year ago.
It's be nice to know what the adds on were from the bids.

Maybe £3m up front is the magic number to keep everyone happy.
With that weird timed release of the bank debt, maybe the club want less up front and rapid escalation of virtually guaranteed add-ons once the obligation to give the bank a cut disappears.
I'd imagine the bank would have covered that in the agreement, otherwise they'd be getting nothing surely. Sure the buyer wouldn't mind a year long delay before they pay much either.

Courier says Hull are going to come back again. If they keep increasing their offer by £250k a week, we should be just about there on the last day of the transfer window.
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Naebody
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Twat
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Setenza
Jul 24 2014, 08:50 AM
vvhatsthatonyourback
Jul 24 2014, 07:33 AM
With that weird timed release of the bank debt, maybe the club want less up front and rapid escalation of virtually guaranteed add-ons once the obligation to give the bank a cut disappears.
I'd imagine the bank would have covered that in the agreement, otherwise they'd be getting nothing surely. Sure the buyer wouldn't mind a year long delay before they pay much either.

Courier says Hull are going to come back again. If they keep increasing their offer by £250k a week, we should be just about there on the last day of the transfer window.
Scanning back over the bank debt gone thread suggests one potential reading of this:

United paid £1.45m to cancel £4.7m of debt, with a side agreement guaranteeing the bank a further payment of £250,000 and £2.65m based on player transfers. As in, the bank was taking a haircut of as much as 63% on debt for a solvent business. I said at the time that seemed overly generous, and stick by that opinion.

Spin forward and Gauld was sold for an undisclosed fee, reported to be £2.2m down. After tax that's about £1.7m. Assuming the bank gets at least 15% of that, it'd mean the minimum payment has been covered and United are actively disincentivised to sell anyone else. By that reading, both the bank and the club have bound themselves with 13 months of restrictive clauses that pit them against each other in a prisoner's dilemma, which is pretty bloody stupid really.

However .....

If we assume the bank got all of the Gauld cash, untaxed, it'd leave a £500k liability to cover. And how much might United expect to earn from the Gauld's clauses and such over the next 13 months? I'd guess we could expect somewhere between zero and £500k. If the bank also took that cash, the haircut therefore falls to between 13% and 23%, which seems much more palatable.

So .................

Did United agree to the bank deal after receiving Sporting Lisbon's offer and pledge him as collateral?
Is the bank actually due anything else from any other transfer?
Am I perhaps overthinking all this? Should I get a different hobby?
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Setenza
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Someone should e-mail Thompson and ask him.

Do they still do that Q&A thing with Derek Robertson?

Otherwise I think we'll have to wait until the next financial statements and then we can get another set of clues to add to the mix.
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