Graham was the player of the year, the team he played in had the likes of Smallwood, Bennett, Bell and an aging Mulgrew who were way off the standard hence the bottom half struggle.

The question though is whether it is fair/moral to keep anyone at the club purely to predominantly keep the under 23s in a certain league when it could cost theme 6 huge months of senior football at a key point in their development? I am not sure that it is fair on Vale for example who may not make it here therefore could do with a productive loan spell in the lower leagues to try and make a career for himself.

Totally agree on your point about the cup v survival debate. Winning the Worthington Cup was in my second year as a fan as I was only young but it is still a day that will never be topped. Winning a cup is a rare thing for most clubs but tends to be the best memories. We were also fortunate to see our team play in Europe and it frustrates me as a football fan to see mid table/bottom half Premier League teams surrendering cup runs and even European runs so easily to "concentrate" on the monotony of a league season. That season the Cup win helped to generate promotion for comfortable survival too. Great memories.

100%. The achievement of promotion and the attitude towards the title are mutually exclusive. One deserves praise, one deserves criticism.

https://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/football/sheffield-united/sheffield-united-blackburn-rovers-given-a-non-negotiable-ultimatum-in-the-battle-for-scotland-attacker-3514447?s=09 Story from the Sheffield side. They wont be giving him away.

Totally without foundation to imply that Mowbray is encouraging bids for his/people he knows to personally benefit, and also that the player is anything but 100% committed.

Mowbray has always made it clear that he doesnt want any of his players to be sold but that any such bids would be considered by the owners, not him.

You havent read my point. Im not saying that if a player doesnt fit in one team then he wont fit in any team. Burke has had a poor career thus far and I dont want him here but thats not my point. Im saying if he was any good, would a top 6 challenger lend a player to a direct rival?

You are going round in circles. Sancho has basically exclusively played wide, why so many excuses? What are his strengths? They dont have any strikers as good as Ronaldo, or ones who will score as many goals. By you and others he is being seen as some sort of liability, with the other underperformers going under the radar or getting excuses. Sancho has been crap.

Regarding Burke, it would say a lot that Sheffield United who I think are a strong top 6 contender would be willing to lend us a player considering our league position.

In spite of outperforming all of his attacking counterparts, Ronaldo seems to have become somewhat of a scapegoat and the other Was he a wise signing or part of a plan? Perhaps not but for some reason, it is implied that prior to his arrival, that all of these other players were performing and grafting and Ronaldo has upset the applecart. Prior to Ronaldo, they relied heavily on Fernandes to get the out of the shit whilst the likes of Rashford, Martial, Greenwood etc offered zilch. Sancho has played basically every game he has featured in from a wide role, and has looked awful, he looks slow, he looks overweight, he lacks urgency, he isnt scoring or assisting and his decision making is terrible as summed up by not slipping Ronaldo in in the first half. What are his strengths as none are on show? Why does he get excuses whereas Ronaldo who is massively outperforming him get all the blame? Why is the sole focus on what Ronaldo does?

He has played quite a bit and has been consistently rubbish to be fair. I didn't realise how slow he was.

I don't get the fuss over Rankin Costello and I don't think that he would be an upgrade or even a better fit at right wing back than Nyambe. When he did play (obviously for the sake of this we are ignoring the fact that he is beyond fragile) he was steady enough and versatile but going forward he was hardly whipping in lots of crosses or being brilliant bombing on, and there is more than one way to skin a cat, Nyambe showed through brute force (not for the first time) against Birmingham what can happen when he powers forward, the cross may not have been inch perfect but it led to a goal. As a wing back, the importance of defending shouldn't be discarded either, and there is only one winner there, Rankin Costello is really poor at one on one defending, ultimately it is blatantly not what he is best at. I don't see how such a definite stance should be taken, what if we get promoted? Should a run of form 18 months prior be focused on above an unexpected current season promotion? If he got promoted, would that classify as "having ambition?" There is a fixation with "death spirals" without equally taking into account good runs of form, ultimately it is unfair to cherry pick runs of games to suit an agenda, the end finish in the table is what matters and is why Mowbray needed sacking last year. But he didn't so lets see what unfolds first.

Maybe it says a lot about the Bundesliga, he looks hopeless here and has never really impressed in an England shirt.

He did but I wouldnt say that his heading ability is one of his strengths.

The financial side of it is all conjecture, assumptions and estimations. Even if you have specifically been told that its been doubled which I read from your post to be very much an aasumption rather than a known fact, we dont know what he is on know, what other right backs in the league are on, what our other players are on. Waggott has said in the fans forum that our last contract offers to all 3 were as much as we could offer with the current budget so it is down to money, but the ins and outs are unknown. He might only be on 3k now and a double your money offer could still be considered paltry, totally hypothetical but all we know is that Waggott said we offered him (and the others) as far as we could go and the deals all remain unsigned months after that, in which time on the pitch things have gone very well.

No chance.

Even before Rangnick joined he was playing just as crap under Solskjaer. Is playing from the left unnatural to him? No.

The thing is, its not as if without him, they have the personnel to play high intensity pressing football, they didnt before he joined. Rashford has always been fairly petulant and inconsistent, Martial the same although he has now been jettisoned, Sancho looks from the same mould, Greenwood has fizzled to similar, Fernandes is hardly high intensity, Pogba is currently out but as lazy as anyone, the list goes on. I think because its Ronaldo, he takes the headlines good or bad and I have no doubt that he is not at the peak of his powers, but others are hiding behind him and not pulling their weight themselves. Without his goals, they would really be struggling.

Being Uniteds best player tonight is like being the tallest dwarf. For perspective, his main rival for that award would be Phil Jones! Sancho has played out wide basically every game including most of his time on ths pitch tonight and has been shit everytime ive seen him. Ronaldo may have been a signing made out of nostalgia but hes got them out of the shit numerous times and without his goals, they really would be struggling with the supporting cast equally lacking urgency but also not scoring the goals that he gives you.

Its ok to be frustrated when we dont win. That doesnt imply that you expect to win every single game. I am always frustrated when we dont win at home, never more so than when we are up at the top.

As a team chasing promotion, anything less than 3 points at home is frustrating, so we shouldnt be afraid at home. That being said, Brereton is not known for his aeriel prowess nor are either of your suggested wide men especially Dolan known for their ability to cross.

He has done nothing in any of the games he has played, he cant blame a 15-30 minute spell as a wing back. He looks so slow, a bit overweight, and his decision making is really poor. I think the English trio of him, Rashford and Greenwood (a lot of furore over him being subbed, I thought he was little/no better than the rest) are somewhat hiding behind the Ronaldo narrative when at least he scores, those 3 barely do yet also dont seem to be giving 100%. Seen much of Ajax? Pochettino did well at Spurs but ultimately won nothing.

We dont know what wage he has been offered. Although I would suggest as a regular and important member of the starting 11, he would be justifed to ask for a wage towards the higher end of our wage structure.

They seemed sensible to me.