Martinez eyeing summer swoop for Cleverley

That will please the United fans as much as Moyes going.

Lazy journalism or does Roberto think he can get a tune out of him like he did when he had him on loan at Wigan? Would have to be for very little in transfer fees and wages to be of any interest.

Martinez could make a player out of him I reckon. Not at a big price though, a Gibson style bargain without the injuries.

If any of the united players should be on our radar it should be Hernandez or Wellbeck. Granted, the latter is a bit if a diving bastard, but he is good.

Only Utd player I would want to look at is Hernandez.
Too many Utd players are over rated and over priced or over the hill!

Naturally want to say 'Cleverley...dear god no!' but I had deep misgivings about Gibbo and was proven wrong!. Martinez knows him and what he's capable of....not sure I see how he gets guaranteed starts ahead of McCarthy, Barry or Ross...but if Martinez wants him I'll go on faith for now.

Although he's looked God awful this season I have seen him in the past and thought he looked good. If Martinez fancies him that will do for me though I'd be concerned if he was more than 5/6 million and young players with England caps seem to go for quite a premium. Most likely just paper nonsense initiated by his agent!

another Wigan link ?
cleverly is rated highly by many but for me hasn't delivered on his promise.
I have to trust Bobby after the masterclass on Sunday and another style of play delivered comfortably

So Mr Van Gaal, what would be your strategy for securing participation in the Champions’ League within a year?

It has to have there parts in my view. Firstly, we need to ignore cup competitions, except when we are drawn against serious opposition who will play their first team. Not likely I know but we need to use those games to bed in our European recruits into the English way.

Secondly we need to destabilise as many of the teams above us as we can. Easier targets would be Everton and Tottenham. We need to undermine their ability to compete across a season. For Everton we could do this fairly easily. We should Barry a contract offer he is unlikely to refuse. Given his age we should be able to easily outbid Everton or any other club that might consider him as a free agent. We should make a significant bid too for McCarthy and Coleman. We would immediately solve three problems for ourselves and the loss of those three players would destroy that club’s ability to compete at the top level.

Tottenham are less of a threat and less of a team. Again we can undermine them fairly simply. Bids for Erickson and Adebayor should do it.

These five players will not only destroy two serious rivals but significantly enhance our aging squad. The purchase of Lallana should ensure that we are not looking over our shoulders.

Now, the more expensive option of Suarez .........

The third element is of course our tactical approach. You should be aware that there are risks to be balanced in the way that we play. Managers have realised that draws are of little value and against most of the teams in the Premiership we have to risk an attacking approach with a strong press from the start ..........

Hernandez and/or Powell would be great.

Please ... No.

However I said the same thing when we were linked with Barry close season and have pigged out on humble pie since then. If we do go on to sign Cleverly (please .... no) I'd be delighted to gorge on another big slice again. (But, please Bobby.... no).

No thanks to Cleverly or Welbeck. Not good enough for any club with serious ideas of moving forward

no thanks!!!!!!!!!

These knee jerk negative reactions don't make much sense. We don't watch Cleverley every week and don't really know his strengths and weaknesses.

Danny Murphy said something very revealing on the BBC the other week, when he described conversations he'd had with Premier League players who had basically never been coached. He contrasted it to his upbringing under Dario Gradi at Crewe and really made the point that good managers and coaches get more out of players by doing something as simple as actually coaching them.

I think Cleverley would be a good signing, and would thrive away from the glare of Man United, but the main point is that anyone Martinez signs will become a better player whilst playing for us than he is at his current club. I'd developing a bit of a hobby horse about Jack Rodwell, who I see as a player of enormous talent being wasted at a club that doesn't really want or need him. If we re-signed him, Martinez's coaching and the examples of Barry and McCarthy to work and play alongside has a real chance of unlocking genuine international class in him.

I think there are a lot of players in the Premier League who we could sign, and the news wouldn't necessarily excite the fans, but that's because they are currently playing below their true potential under poor managers in struggling teams. Once they were inducted into Martinez's squad we would see improvements.

PS> One final thing, I've discovered the joys of Google Translate and was going to post this on the Stambouli thread but I can't get onto it as the Rumour Mill homepage doesn't seem to work. One French fan described Stambouli thus:

"Player simply enormous recovery of the ball, projects quickly forward, can play right side, left, central defender, midfielder and see especially midfielder. In the duel he eats everyone. Totally underestimated the walk, it is now the best player in the MHSC" He sounds like a good signing, and I especially like the bit about 'eating players in the duel'.

No no no and no.

Over-rated England player not a patch on any of the current midfielders at Everton, we need to be aiming fit better than Cleverly if we genuinely want to challenge the top 4 next season again.
Why go for a player who has failed to produce in a team that has/had the same ambitions as ourselves?

No to Powell also.

Again we need to be targeting better than a flop squad player at United.

What I saw of Powell when he came on for Wigan against Arsenal in that semi the other week he looked lightweight couldn't hold it up and couldn't shoot, we can and need to target better than that.

Over to Bill and the board to keep up Martinez's top class work.

Mike Allison (406), I agree with every word. I think Cleverly would be a quality addition and personally I'd take Rodwell back in a heartbeat.

If Bobby wanted to sign a one legged blind Chimpanzee i'd let him.
Until then i'll take Cleverley if the boss rates him.

The only time Cleverly has ever looked good is when he was playing for Martinez. I wouldn't be too upset if we picked him up on the cheap.

Clevererley can play the game but it would depend on where we played him; Roberto knows him from his time at Wigan. Tom is almost a Clever-tonian already.

Wow, another 'Wigan' player? Please come back Phil Walling!

Very impressive when he was on loan at Wigan and played well for a title winning side last season. It's been said that Barry didn't want to sign for us in the January window when he was made an offer, so if there's any truth in that he is probably off at the end of this season. Cleverley would be a perfect replacement for not much money.

It's all about setting your team up to play to their strengths - ask Mr. Naismith.

A few people mentioning Hernandez, but I really don't rate him for anything other than scoring a few tap-ins. Never a Martinez player for me. His first touch is usually accompanied by a linesman raising his flag.

A few people mentioning Hernandez, but I really don't rate him for anything other than scoring a few tap-ins. Never a Martinez player for me. His first touch is usually accompanied by a linesman raising his flag.

Dave Lynch, 463: one-legged blind chimpanzee, you say? Didn't we sell one of them for £27.5m on transfer deadline day?

I agree with those who say "why not?" - provided he's cheap, of course. It would be good business to take a promising youngster like Cleverley from one of the smaller clubs...

You wouldn't want him on his latest form but Martinez will know his capabilities. Along with Rodwell, he will be high on the list of possible signings. Character is a massive issue with our new boss and these two lads have already been assessed.

It will all come down to requirements in certain positions. Right now we are having problems at centre back where we have one young lad learning his trade and three mature pros who are not guaranteed to last 90 minutes.

On top of that, we have a star winger out for 3 matches and another winger who may not return next season. The former will return from the World Cup with muscle fatigue and will find it hard to exert himself too much before Christmas.

OK a lot of people are saying he would be a good buy on a cheap, and I agree. However how much is cheap? What do you guys think we will get him for? Personally I think we would be looking at £13M considering hes young, English and a Man Utd player.

Simon # 317 "Only Utd player I would want to look at is Hernandez.
Too many Utd players are over rated and over priced or over the hill!"

Careful, mate, that lends credence to the argument that DM inherited an ageing etc bunch of players!

Anything double figure millions should be a definite no. Man U need a decent clear out and I would be surprised if they considered Cleverley to be top level, which would beg the question 'why do we want him'? Does anybody even know his best position? We are far too light in the centre midfield area, really only having Barry and McCarthy when Gibbo is out, and we don't even own Barry! Martinez sure has some work to do in the summer.

I'm not the only one saying it. So many of the hacks have been saying the same thing for weeks now.

I have never understood how, if you are English and play for Man Utd, you seem to have an automatic God given right to play for the national team.

Forgot about him Richard. Good point....

No, please, just no!

If Señor Roberto told me he was signing Nathan Cleverley to play in midfield I would back his judgement.

Mike(406) Great post! I agree with everything you wrote there.

Furthermore, as Andrew says above, if Martinez thinks there is something there, we should back his judgement.

In truth there are very few players I wouldn't have from Utd. They've gone from being league champions with a trophy winning setup under Ferguson and his team, to Moyes, Round and the fucking notepad! Of course none of their players look decent.

With the exception of Baines, all of our squad is playing better under Martinez than they did with Moyes. I'm sure Martinez will get more out of whoever he brings in than most other managers in the league, primarily because I think the players actually want to do well for him.

Don't know if anyone as seen Midfielder Thorne, 21, at West Brom I think he's worth a punt. A better proposition than Cleverly.

Callum Macmanaman from Wigan for me. If Wigan don't go up then its on. Him and Seamus on the right sounds a good pairing.

David Price. Yes, like him myself Macmanaman. Done well in the cup games.

It feels like Barry is going to bugger off, probably he wants more money than were prepared to pay him,
Greedy springs to mine, but he's in the game to earn money, so who am I to say!

Roberto had Cleverly at Wigan for a season, so he will know his game well, which is good enough for me.
It also looks like he is searching for players in the up to £15m price bracket while our rivals for a CL spot will be looking at players valued at £15m+.

Having said that Roberto is the type of manager that will improve a player & get the most out of them.

I will back Roberto’s decision on Cleverley but I’d prefer Mario Suarez. Plays the Barry role but with more speed and skill. I still think Barry will stay though as he looks like he’s enjoying his football with us.

I can't say I have seen enough of him (or noticed him when he has been playing) to have a strong opinion one way or the other. Unimpressed would sum it up so far.

However, I do believe that RM knows which players he can work with and how best to use them, so I am not quaking in my boots at the prospect.

Not sure about Barry's future. He does seem to be playing his cards close to his chest; nevertheless, we could probably do with additions in midfield if he signs on or not.

Cleverly isn't the same prospect as Gibson. Gibson, like Phil Neville, had his route to the first team blocked by superior talent. Cleverly wasn't able to cement a place in far leaner times.

£6M is the fee being discussed. I would offer an alternative who is rumoured to be same price: Robert Snodgrass.

There is a site WhoScored.com that is good for getting stats. Snodgrass has a very good "Key Pass" stat (which is code for creating chances as opposed to "Assist" where the pass results in a goal, but it's Norwich we are talking about) and I am sure, if he's trained to, he can improve his overall passing game like the rest of our squad has had to. Snodgrass is linked to Celtic for £6m. He may want to play in the CL, I guess... but playing in Europe for us might be an attractive prospect.

The only other former Wigan player I want is Diame. Cleverley doesn't have that power to tackle or the trickery to get by defenders like Diame does. Barry, McCarthy, Gibson, and Diame would be a hell of a holding mid rotation for European football.

Diame plays for West Ham now.

He would do well in rotation with Gibson if we lost Barry.

Hernandez is a hard working and improving-- even w/little time on the pitch --player. His attitude after the lack of belief and time on the pitch is remarkable, and he would only get better under Martinez's tutelage. I do not see it happening, but his moving without the ball ability and nose for the net (tap-ins as some folks call it here) will be a great asset to any team that is willing to give him a chance.

Keith. That's why I said former. But yeah, even with Barry staying, we need 4 holding midfielders. Martinez was adamant about having 4 strikers so I would figure he'd feel the same about center midfield.

I’ve just read Roberto’s assessment of Tom Cleverley and he makes him sound like a new Iniesta or Xavi. According to Roberto his talents been wasted at Manu and he’s a star in the making,

Colin - you got a link?

Liverpool Echo Tim.

I thought April fools day was over....

If any of the Manu players are available, I'd get Kagawa and maybe Hernandez if they were both relatively cheap. Kagawa was simply awesome in his last season at Dortmund, neither SAF or Moyes gave him a proper run in his correct position.

Cannot see too much movement on the player front there until they've brought in a new manager though.

Cleverly would be a good player. I can see why Martinez would like him and I think he would clearly fit into the team. We need him to hold off signing a new deal though in order to keep the price realistic.

Agree totally with Mike's assessment on Rodwell also. At the right price (somewhere around 4-5m) I think that he would become the player we always hoped he would be under Martinez. A good alternative to Barry if he proves too costly

I have no idea of the cost but two players who impressed me are JohnJo Shelvy and Bony

Dick, 848, said the same about Shelvey too. He plays with a similar tenacity to what we used to see with Tim Cahill. Never really got his chance at Liverpool.

There might be some bargains to be had at United. The new manager will want his own players and if reports today are true of them being arseholes, the club will want shot of them quickly.

People are shouting for this player and that player but not all the best signings are ready made. Our scouts are forever searching the globe for promising young talent. The position they play is irrelevant. Some make it, some don't. Some are given the chance and take it. Some are never given the chance.

Gosling, Junior, Vellios, Gueye, Coleman, Oviedo, Stones, the German LB now doing well in Italy and a couple of keepers, including Robles. Some were free, some were cheap, some were expensive. It's a gamble you have to take. Rooney, Hibbert, Osman, Rodwell and Barkley were local academy lads.

In conclusion. There are diamonds out there, many of which have yet to see the light of day. It's up to us to find them.

Cleverley would be OK but NOT Rodwell. We did very well to get rid of Rodwell and Arteta.

Arteta is doing nothing at Arsenal except to slow them down by passing sideways and backwards. His stats are great for accuracy but he does not make really telling passes. He is no where near as good as he was with us before his injury and we did well to get decent money for him.

My God, some people will be asking for Gosling!

Of course, some of these diamonds are right there before our eyes but remain unnoticed. Yannik Bolasie, the 24yr old, 6'- 1" Palace rocket who ripped us apart at Goodison being the prime example.

An ex conference player who learnt his trade at Rushden and Diamonds, Barnet, Plymouth (under Peter Reid),and Bristol City, where he was voted young player of the year. Palace got him because he wanted to live in London.

Jags, Cahill, Lescott weren't exactly shining stars, Howard and Gibson were rejects and Distin was supposed to be past it. A motley bunch who did well.

So for every £15m+ ready made, there is a huge bag of mixed allsorts wating for a chance and some of them are very useful.

Harold makes a very valid point.

If it were me, I'd take Cleverly, Rodwell and Bony in the close season, as well as extending Del Boy's loan.

We should be challenging near the top with that squad.

Diame is the most overrated player whose name crops up on these boards regularly and for the life of me I can't see what he has to offer. I'll put my faith in Roberto, he evidently knows Cleverley well and OFM has clearly destroyed the lads confidence this season.

The idea of Cleverly is a very interesting prospect. Get the feeling RM would get him to his best which is a very educated footballer.

I was Rodwells biggest fan but became a little disillusioned by his lack of progression from that breakthrough season which was by far his best. From a box to box midfielder he did seem to lose a lot of confidence.. Maybe not of his making.
Perhaps the master stroke here is that he might be the long term replacement for Distin... Stones Rodwell... He did make his name for England youth as a CB and the talk was always he would move back one day. For me on loan for the first year to see if we can allow him to grow again.

This forum was full of people delighted to celebrate our "coup" in getting shut of Rodwell for what we did. They weren’t wrong. He was a player who lacked any kind of vision, disastrous for a midfielder, only marginally less of a problem for a central defender.

I can’t, by the way, see any evidence at all of his ability to play central defence other than the opinion of a now discredited former manager.

It doesn’t matter what a player costs, if he can’t do the job he’s too expensive, even on a free.

Move on.

I’ve just seen one of the worst pieces of gossip by the ever serious (football) direct news or FDN. Man City are planning a straight swap, Rodwell for Stones.

Who writes this shit? Some unemployed elves in the North Pole?

Quite ironic we have this discussion about possible signings and include Cleverley and Rodwell. I was at my Aunt's birthday meal over the weekend and met up with a cousin who has played at a reasonable level and coached. A fellow lifelong blue he said Martinez was the spark needed to get the most out of Barkley allowing him to get forward and play his game, make mistakes and learn from them with creative play rather than being over coached as he described Rodwell was. In his own words Rodwell was a classic example of an over coached player playing a set routing, collect the ball turn look backwards for a safe pass, repeat ad nauseum.

The trouble with a lot of coaching a la Howard Dreary Wilkinson badges is that this is what churns out of the end of the machine. Players need to have that bit of an edge, a bit of creativity a bit of the unknown to take into games and express and bewilder the living daylights out of the opposition. Yes there are drills for defending set pieces but its not all about parking the bus, the game is a whole lot more.

Martinez is his own man, ignore the shite the media churn out to sell papers, if he thinks a player will work then he'll see if Black Bill will spare him a few bob to go get them. He will also make mistakes, every last one of us does and learns from them, we just hope the mistakes are minor and not catastrophic.

Colin #61 I would like to register my disgust at your portrayal of Elves who happen to reside in the North Pole. Elves are hard-working well mannered and utterly dedicated to the happiness of children and it is not their fault that Santa only wants to employ them in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Also they are self-sufficient and rather good hunter gatherers who have high moral standards and would never ever resort to Sports Journalism as a way to earn a crust - besides which any association with the tabloid or popular media would contravene the ethical standards as laid down in Santa's Grotto.

Yes lads. Shame about Rodwell. Over-coaching turned him into a robot with no confidence in his own ability. Terrified of losing the ball and unable to see a forward pass. Whether or not Martinez could do something with him is anyones guess.

Our new boss likes players who can take people on one-on-one and open things up. He also likes pace.

Let's hope he finds what he's looking for.

David Chait (#029) I always thought that Rodwell was a ball playing CB rather than a CM. When Jags first came to the club he was primarily a def mid, and a pretty mediocre one at that; but that didn't stop him from becoming one of the best CB in the prem

Of course this link was going to surface - clear out at Utd, Cleverley played for RM at Wigan so clearly he likes the player so the hacks put the story up.

I think he'd be another good signing (Welback too) for us as RM knows what he's getting and knows how to improve a player by giving him confidence in his own ability. Just look at how every player in our team has improved this year under a manager who knows what he's doing.

Cleverley has talent, he's just been used badly at Utd.

David Hallwood - Jagielka played centre half for Sheffield Utd.