2
[Chris Wheeler/Sami Mokbel] Casemiro and Raphael Varane are heading for Manchester United exits
(www.dailymail.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2023
2 points (100.0% liked)
Football / Soccer / Calcio / Futebol / Fußball
142 readers
1 users here now
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Casemiro going from being over-priced questionable signing to essential part of the team to washed dead money back up has happened at a remarkable pace.
It’s happens sometimes when you spend big on older players. People like to think that top players all stay at peak level deep into their 30s but many do tail off fast.
Everytime you mention someone over 30 might decline suddenly you are bombarded with people claiming that there’s “no way a professional like him” could decline and that sports science has gotten so advanced that it essentially trumps biology meaning there’s no reason players would decline one bit before they’re 36 at the earliest.
This subreddit and other social media were hilarious when they signed them. Like it's logical to question the merits of spending that much on players of that age. Sure there's some who have held off their declines, but the majority of players dip at a certain age. For the money United spent, they could have bought far better long term options.
But they didn't want long term options. They've got the cash to sign a Casemiro every year or two.
They'd rather overpay for proven players than risk spending a chunk on a player who's not quite as good, but has room to improve.
Players of his calibre are so rarely available, and especially not willing to go to a borderline CL qualifier with little realistic chance of a title win.
The problem Man U have is that they've got the resources for those top drawer players, but they're not an attractive option.
I mean, imagine them trying to sign Jude Bellingham. Is there actually an amount of money they could have given him to sign there? 3, 4, 5 times the wages Madrid offered? I think he'd still go to Real.
And if he did go to Man U, it would literally only be for money, so not that motivated to put in a good performance. As we've seen over and over.
United now are no different to when Liverpool were taken over by FSG. They focused on long term building with smart signings. Signing players after in decline or just before their decline isn’t getting them anywhere. There’s a world of options between Casemiro and Bellingham.