Manchester United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread - Mod Notes in OP,22/7

On a seperate note relating to managers knowing about footballers. While I'm sure the managers are aware of X player in relation to their ability, it's not as straight forward as " He is good, I must buy"

The work that is done by scouts, and scouting reports is pretty indepth. I had the wonderful experience, and rare one, of seeing a scout report done on myself. I had been unsuccesfull in a trial and before leaving I asked if it would be possible to have a read of my scouting reports with the scout present, so we could talk about the issues that I could maybe address going forward. They were very accomodating and I saw one, now obviously can't say they are the same for every club, but there was a lot of detail.

(Now mine was different being a GK but I could see the sections marked N/A)

A scout will cover a HOST of issues that really was seriously indepth.A few of them would be:

Tactical awareness: The players awareness of what's happening on the pitch, their ability to identify issues, weakness in their own team and opponents, and take steps to address/expose this, without instruction.

Flexability: The players ability to slot into varying systems, and the scouts interpretation of what the player could and could not do. This overlaps with a number of areas identified in other sections.

Communication: How the player communicates with his team mates, and coaching staff. Positive re-enforcement? Negative behaviour like sulking and criticising team mates. Ability to convey instruction to team mates. Relevant to Tactical awareness. Does the player relay their thoughts to team mates, or action upon it themselves.

Physique: Self explanatory really. Mine sighted I was "suprisingly" fast of my line, and had good spring. My height provided me advantage in dealing with aerial balls into the box. Major concerns over weight.

Health: Discovery of any issues of health with the player. Mine outlined issues with Asthma, history of a thing where the muscle grows too fast for your bones growing up , something shattlers disease or something. This was marked as a major concern, as it can lead to issues with knee and back ( Which I suffer from now big time)

And there was a rake of others, it was very detailed, as you would be when you are trying to decide out of a bunch of 25 goalkeepers, what three you want to take on a scholership.

So I can only imagine the detail involved when your deciding to spunk £20m on someone.

While the manager will have a high level idea of a player, from watching them in person or on the telly, the scouting reports are important in order to be certain this is a player they want and will fit into their plans

Mitch Connor wrote: »

And that clinches it for me, Herrera is a done deal now, imo.

Who's Andy Mitten?

MagicIRL wrote: »

Who's Andy Mitten?

Editor of United We Stand, and freelance writer for media outlets - does a lot of feature pieces for Four Four Two and others, rather than match reports etc.

If he is saying it is true, it is true imo - he would have good connections on this, imo.

Reading Koeman has instructed the board at Southampton he will not sanction the sale of Shaw for less then 40m...with the funds used to bolster the squad.

Saga inbound. Herrera deal sounds lovely.

TheDoc wrote: »

Reading Koeman has instructed the board at Southampton he will not sanction the sale of Shaw for less then 40m...with the funds used to bolster the squad.

Saga inbound. Herrera deal sounds lovely.

As good as I think Shaw is, I'd tell them to f off and look at Blind, or Rodrigues etc.

He's an 18yr old LB. 40 ****ing mill is a joke.

Not sure how truthful it is now. But Reddit have it marked as "reliable" and the guys there are really on top of the "who's reliable and unreliable" in terms of MUFC stories.

Was the problem I thought would arise, new manager has come to the club, probably his questions in the interview were" Are you going to hang me out to dry by selling Shaw and Lallana".

I'd imagine it was discussed and a fee was agreed by which the club would sell, allowing the manager to reinvest those funds into the squad.

No surprise here, and as I said no surprise this will drag out. New manager is going to test the boards metal in terms of his authority. And the board arnt going to overule him so early in his tenure.

Expect this to drag out, either United stump big money, or they start making Shaw voice his desire to leave. Shaw being very quiet in this regards, which to me says his agent is telling him to play cool. If your sold you get a bumper contract with United, if you stay, club will have to bump your salary.

Win win for him,.

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Nope.

If Mitten is saying the Herrera stories are true, then they are true (imo). I would say the same if he called the stories boll0cks too. I'd trust Mitten on this over any journo.

Its pretty easy for someone to come out and say something is true when so many media outlets have already been running with the story.