The Mailbox reckons Manchester United would be ‘stupid’ to sell Alejandro Garnacho, while expulsion for Man City could ‘bankrupt the Premier League’.
Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com…
Selling Garnacho is a ‘stupid idea’…
When the news first broke that United would consider offers for Garnacho and Mainoo I wrote in explaining that the Argentinians sale, though a darling of the Stretford End, could be justifiable given the need for a more suitable player in his position and what would be a large fee.
The closer we get to the reality of him being sold, the more I’m convinced it’s a stupid idea. Despite what that unpleasant canine might say the funds received wont magically solve United’s problems and would in fact create a bigger issue in the short term.
Garnacho is fundamentally United’s best attacking player and his absence from the team over the last month has significantly stunted the attacking output. There are of course other factors which contribute to this but his numbers don’t lie. He is top for shots per 90 and xg per 90 in the squad and his box efficiency, 7.75 penalty areas touches along with 3.75 shots per 90, rank him amongst the best in Europe approaching similar numbers to Musiala, Kane, Haaland, and Yamal.
Amorim likes his two number 10’s to have different roles, one is the playmaker and the other a runner. Though Garnacho doesn’t suit the runner role exactly (his passing in generally not great) his is still the closest and most dangerous player we have for this job.
Selling him, whilst good for the balance sheet and enabling structural purchases would leave a massive hole in the attack that could not be filled till the summer. None of the remaining players, bar a Rashford redemption, could come close to being the running 10 and even then it would not be as effective.
I really hope they reconsider this, we’re having enough trouble with scoring as it is and the team looks so much more dangerous and lively when he’s on the pitch.
Dave, Manchester
READ: Rashford and Garnacho the latest to fail upwards from Man Utd?
Dearest Mailbox,
Just another thought from another Manchester United fan on the potential sale of Garnacho: yes please. The bizarre financial rules around selling ‘home-grown’ (or poached as a near-adult in this case) make it a good move at pretty much any price, as it’ll allow some essential strengthening of the squad.
On top of that, getting 50 million Euros Childs for him is good business. Against Southampton he missed a sitter, and last night against Rangers he missed another sitter. He regularly runs down dead ends. And he’s more than once been involved in some pass-agg social media arseholery. That’s a problem when you’ve got a limited squad who will need to be committed to working together to get results.
On the plus side, he looks like a young Steven Tyler, but that’s hard to use to the team’s advantage in a game of football.
Dan, Worthing
‘Stop haggling’
Hi there,
Badwolf thinks Manchester United should stop holding out for the fee they want for Garnacho. I disagree. If you look at the Big Six clubs who sell fringe players well, which are Liverpool, Man City and (whatever the other aspects of their transfer business) Chelsea, they clearly set out a value for a player, and hold out for it. There are lots of scenarios where Liverpool, in particular, have lost out on transfer fees with the player leaving on a free, because their value is their value. The thinking seems to be that, even if you lose out on one player, the message it sends, which is that you’re not a patsy to be steamrollered, is important. Accepting an under-value bid for a promising young player because you really need the money to spend in the same window is, I’d argue, exactly the sort of short-term thinking that has got Manchester United into the mess they’re in now.
Which, of course, I’m all for. Carry on.
Dara O’Reilly, London
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Arteta thoughts…
Dear F365,
Reading conflicting views about Arteta got me thinking about one of my favourite metrics for whether managers are doing a good job. Do I, as the fan of a rival team (Liverpool), want them to stay in post or get moved on?
For example, Pep may be having a tough year, but I will be glad when he’s gone. I would never put it past him to find an answer to his problems and turn City into a behemoth again.
On the flip side, I have yet to encounter a post-Fergie manager of Man United who I wanted to see fired. It was a sad day when ETH was given his marching orders. Go well, sweet prince.
Arteta, for all his faults, is another one I will be delighted to see ousted. He’s made Arsenal into a proper team again that you fear facing, which did not seem terribly likely during the late-Wenger period.
Maybe he won’t win the Prem or UCL with them, but this feels like a “careful what you wish for” scenario for Arsenal fans bemoaning his limitations far more so than with the previous incumbents.
Tom
Sorry to disappoint Man City’s haters…
It always amuses me how people go on about the 115/130 charges City have, like it’s a huge deal. Everyone banters about them being kicked down to League Two or whatever.
But let’s look at it logically…
Will they get done for every charge? No.
Will they get done for at least half/maybe most? Maybe/Possibly.
Will they be kicked out of the league? No/maybe in an extreme case.
And why? Because without their money, power, big names, constantly getting into Europe (which gains money English football), losing City out of the league will kinda bankrupt the Premier League and effectively make it a worse league as there’ll be no competition for Liverpool anymore. It’ll be a farmers league like Scotland, France or Germany.
Realistically, they’ll be looking at losing points, being banned from Europe for 1 or maybe 2 years at a push and a big fine. Worst case scenario is they get kicked to the Championship, which they’ll then walk and come back up with 15 games to spare.
Sorry boys but your wet dream of bankrupting City and non-league-ing them isn’t gonna happen.
You heard it here first!!
Matt Tee.
How have Man City coped?!
It’s hard to tell satire from sincerity in the modern world, so I’m not sure if Paul K, London was serious or on the wind up with his mail about Man City’s Champions League fixtures.
Imagine having to play the European heavyweights of Sparta Praha, Feyenoord, Club Brugge and Bratislava. How have they coped? It’s a miracle they are even in contention to qualify. Then on top of that, you play perma-flops PSG who are also struggling to qualify, 5th placed in Serie A Juventus, and then you have 2 decent teams in Inter and Sporting CP.
In fact, the good thing about this format is that you can actually see how good these teams are. So City have played the teams currently 29th,11th, 20th, 35th, 22nd,17th, 4th and 23rd. An average of 20th. What a brutal draw for them.
Liverpool meanwhile got games against: Real Madrid, AC Milan, RB Leipzig, Bologna, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Girona, LOSC Lille and PSV Eindhoven. I’m struggling to see how that is easier, and they’ve won 7 from 7.
Indeed, Opta did post-draw analysis and concluded that Liverpool had the second hardest draw of any team. As for Man City? Theirs was the second easiest, with only ones having a nicer time of things being the boys in Brest (quiet at the back).
Again, not sure if it was satire or not, but to argue Man City had a tough draw is pretty hard to prove with any actual evidence.
Mike, LFC, Dubai
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Another unsolicited opinion on Man Utd getting relegated…
Snaps for Ashmundo (14 more points is the first target)’s thoughtful email from Wednesday, which I only read today and thought was pretty spot-on. Manchester United’s squad is indeed poorly balanced and undermotivated (not to mention overpaid). It’s why I used to call Erik ten Hag a dead man walking: there was never anything he could really do to fix them, particularly as his eye for a player was so fallible. I expect he’ll find some success in his next job, which will be at a club with a solid scouting setup and Director of Football. Germany or Austria, perhaps. One could imagine him at Red Bull.
Ashmundo wasn’t the first to accurately observe in the last few days that ManU’s squad was built to counterattack. It’s certainly no accident that the players Amorim is the most down on and eager to sell on — Antony, Rashford and Garnacho (and perhaps by now Onana) — are, or are meant to be, useful in that sort of game. Though none have good pressing instincts. Whether possession-based 3-4-3 is the path to success in the EPL is a moot point. The board seems to think it’ll be successful, though.
On my travels, I got to have dinner last night with my elder son, now a semi-regular Mailbox reader. I mentioned a recent letter (I’m sorry, I can’t remember the author or day) suggesting that relegation might be a blessing for ManU. It’s rather unlikely to actually happen, but I agreed on a lot of levels. They’d get rid of a lot of expensive wages at the expense of a painful-but-bearable loss in terms of player prices. Their fans would have their expectations reset a bit. And they’d be certain to bounce back.
If I were on the board and had voted to hire him, I’d be arguing the club should publicly state that they trust Amorim to rebuild a squad capable of sustained and repeated success, and if the club has to be relegated to make it happen, well, they’d come back better. Indeed, they’d probably benefit from a few years of operating on a Championship-plus budget and scrubbing those losses off the PSR books before returning to the EPL with a bang, a seasoned Kobbie Mainoo and Amad Diallo, some financial elbow room, and a host of hungry former youth players, some perhaps blooded with EPL loans.
Of course, all this does rather beg the question of Amorim’s success. To me, his interviews suggest that he’s confidently walking the path he and the board agreed to when he was hired. For Manchester United supporters, I imagine it comes down to how much they trust him.
Chris C, Toon Army DC (They should still probably fix the roof, apologize to their employees, and do better in the future.)
Man Utd pair playing ‘cat and mouse’
– Good to win [for Man Utd vs Rangers] despite the scrappy performance. Keeps us in good stead heading into the final game and in control of automatic qualification to the next round.
– On the disallowed goal if the push was considered an offence then why’s their striker’s push on Maguire for their goal not given as a foul. In hindsight either of those were not fouls but within the game how one is given and the other isn’t. Again one was inside the box and the other wasn’t and hence the disparity in the officiating.
– The argument of an academy player leaving aside, purely in footballing terms and considering the season we’ve had it will really be a travesty if Garnacho leaves during this window. Accept that we need funds but he finally seems to be returning to form and with our deficiencies on the Left it will be sad to see him go.
– Zirkzee’s confidence looks improved but boy do we need to bolster our striking options. Him and Hojlund are always playing cat and mouse on who will be the least efficient. This needs addressing this window else we’ll keep struggling for goals.
– Talking about goals, we have partly improved on creating chances but how are we missing all these glorious opportunities. Maguire and Ugarte could and should’ve done better.
– On to Fulham and away from OT, I feel that there is massive pressure for this team to perform at home and playing on the front foot and creating opportunities and they keep failing miserably. But we seem to be better away from Home, will this Fulham fixture vindicate that or is our poor run going to continue. Fingers crossed.
Regards, Vasanthan
