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

Very big chance but it could go either way

Never even thought about the Anderson situation....

Muppet mode engaged!!

I think he'll still go to City irrespective of Pep leaving. We'll end up signing Baleba:(

Can't see Baleba and Anderson being signed. If Baleba is signed i can see it being a signing to partner Mainoo in midfield.

We've already seen an incident like it this season. Georginio Rutter scored an injury time equaliser for Brighton against West Ham back in December having handled the ball in the build up. Because it wasn't Man United, the BBC reported it reasonably calmly and the ref was defended for the decision.

The video assistant referee (VAR) checked whether Rutter handled the ball before finishing - but the goal was allowed to stand.

The Premier League Match Centre said: "The referee's call of goal was checked and confirmed by VAR - with it deemed that Rutter's arm was in a natural position and he did not deliberately handle the ball, and the contact with the arm was not immediately prior to him scoring."

The referee's decision regarding Mbeumo is even stronger than that to allow the goal to stand. Not only was Mbeumo's arm in a natural position and the contact non-deliberate, Mbeumo did not even score the goal that followed. Rutter handled the ball and scored the goal that resulted from the handball. The ref is being thrown under the bus by the PGMOL despite being consistent to the same rule that allowed Rutter's goal to stand a few months ago.

Why would Baleba be a good option for Man Utd (for 50m quid) when he's not even an automatic starter for the Brighton team ?

He was excluded from the last Cameroon squad.

What am I missing here?

Not even consistent in the same match, as we saw in Bournemouth.

The only thing VAR et al has done is move where the bad decisions are made and have them take 10 times longer to make. It has been absolutely shocking for the game.

Offsides yes

Goal line tech, yes.

Anything else needs to be left in the context of the game and subject to the referee on the day.

there are still subjective elements to the laws.

There has to be, otherwise any time a ball touches a hand/arm it's handball and the subsequent disallowed goal or penalty awarded, no matter the circumstance.

I see Éderson isn't in the Brazil squad, could be a positive if he does sign

I know VAR is a melter but I'd still rather it instead of no VAR, the alternative of totally relying on the on field ref to make the correct decision is a lot harder to take. I was over for the FA cup game last year where there was no VAR and Maguire scored a late winner while being well offside. I'd like to see it remain in place but just better is all

I've only seen Ederson in European games and he looks decent, especially when they won the Europa League final.

If Athletico Madrid wanted him too he can't be too bad 😅

100% about the slow mo's and freeze frames. There should even be a limit I think to the number of replays allowed to be shown. It's taking far too much time to assess even obvious decisions at times. Football should not be stop start like rugby.

There's no way we'll loose Casemiro and not buy a midfielder.