Manchester United Thread 25/26 - Teamtalk/Transfers/Gossip Mod Note in OP 12.02.26

I'd imagine that what the club don't want is to continue paying £350k a week, especially not for a 34 year old midfielder who will absolutely struggle when the number of games increases.

I'd keep Casemiro as a backup, but only if that weekly wage dropped way, way, way down.

We look almost certain of European football next year, time to adjust our mindset that a new signing will mean "dropping" X over Y. We need 4 senior CMs minimum for next season imo, with an academy player covering as a 5th opinion occasionally. At present, it looks like we have Mainoo and Ugarte as senior players for those spots.

Re Ineos / Wages, they're probably looking at it that they can bring in 2 CMs and maybe have some change from Casemiro's wages.

It seems they've been negotiating a lower contract with Maguire, I assume they tried the same with Casemiro but he wasn't having it. I suspect he'll get a massive 3 year deal in Saudi vs a reduced 1 year deal with us. Financially, it's a no brainer for him I imagine and that's why there was such an early decision / announcement.

Wages and contract length will be the considerations for him I imagine. He'll get silly money in Saudi and more importantly, he'll get silly money for 3 years. He won't be getting such a lengthy contract from anyone in Europe.

People keep comparing Casemiro to Maguire but their contract situations are completely different.
Maguire’s contract is up so he can reduce his wages to suit both parties but Casemiro has an option of an extra year on his present wages so no reason for him to say he will play for less and who can blame him.
if we get 1 or 2 athletic midfielders and then rotate Casemiro and Mainoo it would seem perfect if we are playing twice per week but still don’t think Ineos will take up the Casemiro option as I think it’s well known he would have been offloaded to Saudi if they had to get their way over the last few seasons.

And just because he's got the option of an extra year doesn't mean you can't negotiate with him on a new contract for less wages. From the outside looking in it seems that didn't happen as they outright decided they had no intentions of keeping him beyond this season.

Maybe are their comments about transfers labeling some players not good enough and overpaid they don't want to backtrack on that. But then again Brexit Jim did say he wants to give Amorim 3 years to prove himself and that didn't last very long before backtracking.

The issue is you can't offer Casemiro a new deal or even extend on 350k but then sign a new midfielder(s) to replace him in the starting 11 on half that. No agent is going to agree to that deal.

We want to get our players on more sensible contracts so extending for a year on 350K is a no go, no matter how good he is playing right now.

I'd offer Casemiro a 1 year rolling deal similar to what Giggs and Scholes used to get.
100-120K per week with a nice appearance fee / win bonus. He'll (hopefully) get to play CL football again and could pick up a trophy.

He won't get another offer anywhere at a decent level on those figures.
If he'd rather head off into the sunset on a bigger wage at a lower level then thank him for his services and let him go.

Let's call a spade a spade here, he's going to drop off again in the near future due to age so we don't need to go all out.

It's a long one

https://x.com/i/status/2033604237964243055

I think Casemiro leaving is the right thing for all concerned. He gets to go out on a high, club need to move on and we don't see him get torn apart as the legs disappear with a heavier schedule next year. His experience and ability to get on the end of set pieces in both boxes is going to be missed massively, one of them absolutely has to be replaced.

He will go out on a high, he can play the squad role on a much reduced contract but I can't see someone with his mentality being happy with that, 20/25 games a year kind of thing. His earning potential and the ability to play where the pace is slower will surely be too much of a draw.

You could be right but obviously you don’t have to have been a season ticket holder from that time to remember the players from a certain era.

Bryan Robson would have played with a lot of the names mentioned and although technically Robbo did win the league with United , it came right at the end of his career when his role on the pitch had severely diminished. By the time he won the title in the early nineties he was no longer the absolute driving force he had been throughout the previous decade for us . Although I have no doubt he continued to have a massive influence on the dressing room and I remember a home video that Steve Bruce made of the title run in showing Robsons leadership qualities in driving everyone on in the dressing room before and after games. That would have been invaluable to a squad learning how to win.

For those who didn’t watch him week in week out, I don’t think younger United fans fully appreciate just how good Robson was in the eighties. He wasn’t just a talented midfielder, he was a monster for us and was the heart beat of that team. He could do it all… tackle, pass, score great goals and drag the side forward almost single handedly at times. It wasn’t a great time for United fans and we always seemed to fall short in the league but Robson was the one player that gave us hope and made us competitive.

In fact his fitness, or lack of it due to frequent injuries often felt like the difference between winning and losing. When he was in the team we felt like we could beat anyone. ( The Barcelona comeback in 84 was incredible) When he was missing we weren’t the same team and that edge disappeared.

So for me although he got his league medal eventually , the real Bryan Robson at his peak never quite got the rewards his performances deserved. People talk about what a great captain Roy Keane was for us, and rightly so but he learned from the best.

My all time favourite United moment was the Jimmy Greenhoff winner v them in the 79 cup semi.

@adox your time to shine pops