I’d say he is, he’s made a few goals for Roma has he not?
I’ve always rated smalling and would have taken him every time he was linked to us in previous years.
Old Trafford just seems to be one of those places where player careers go to die right now, like Arsenal was in the late Wenger years.
He is better than all their CBs bar Bailly maybe as you say.
Saliba has the No.4…
Think Smalling-Evans is better than what they got right now? There’s a good case for it I think.
Leicester got away with murder with that Maguire sale.
I never really thought that much of Smalling, but I’ve got a newfound respect for him. I like seeing English players take the plunge and go abroad, make a success of themselves somewhere. Particularly when done like Smalling and you’ve got no compatriots in the team or coaching staff to provide that bit of familiarity and camaraderie. It would have been so fucking easy for him to go to a middling PL club and stick to what he already knew.
Its a shame that our players are that bit more insular than most other nationalities. Though I guess that’s in large part due to the money available in England, in the eighties and nineties you seemed to have more players plying their trade abroad, which is where the money presumably was: Wilkins and Blissett at Milan, Lineker at Barca, Gazza at Lazio, Platt at Bari, Juve and Sampdoria, Trevor Francis at Sampdoria and Paul Incernazionale. Probably loads more too if you include more from La Liga, but I’m drawing a blank there, I feel Italy might have been better travelled by Englishmen? Rush was at Juve too, now I come to think of it, though he is Welsh obviously.
Another W
I do. Also Jones and Smalling would have been world class under Fergie btw.
I agree but to be fair, did many Italian players leave for foreign clubs during Serie A’s heyday? When your domestic league is financially superior it seems to result in many international players joining and not many domestic players leaving. Drawn to the money as they say.
The injection on money from the Premier League created a level of comfort that seems difficult to pass on, unless you really care about your football career.
Yes they did, post PL a load came here.
Well it’s a PR marketing dream. Too good not too use.
Yeah man, totally agree. Could have been more explicit or put more emphasis on it, but that’s what I was trying to get at, it does make sense that fewer players have been doing it. I like to see it though.
Difference with Italian heyday was it was the best League in the world.
The prem always has detractors on this point. Italian league at it’s peak was clearly the best in the world.
A shame for him because he will get zero playing time.
I guess he can enjoy the wages and lifestyle here.
It’s not his fault this club acted dumb 2 years ago and signed him despite blatant red flags.
It’s a long season. He’ll play.
Will he even make the 25 man squad?
He’ll need a new squad number! January move on the cards now for a cut price deal or for free
I think him, Sead Kolasinac and Mustafi might be ones offloaded in January market. I think Mustafi and Sead wouldn’t be awful squad players for Europa League and the odd FA Cup and League game and get rid of both in the summer. I think Sokratis days are done, he barely played under Arteta can’t see that changing. So I definitely see him gone in January.
Come to an agreement and release him if needed. Should’ve done that before the transfer deadline. Kola needs to go too. Of the three, Mustafi has been the better player under Arteta and he’s injured, so difficult to offload.
They could’ve passed him to PSG but they rejected the move. They could have also not registered him for the PL but they did.
Really weird stuff with this guy. Something’s fishy with his situation.
I still don’t understand how Mikel refused to use him after the restart up until the last minutes of the FA Cup final.
I don’t think the current squad registration is accurate. The registration deadline for the PL hasn’t arrived yet. I think this is a prelim team and with Mari and Mustafi injured, they were left out up until now. It’ll be interesting to see if/how that changes come the reg deadline.
Both surely sit their contract out now and pocket a signing on fee for themselves next summer?