There’s an awful lot of ‘they could use a 4th CB’ in your post which I can’t see Toby being eager to sign up for, even if those clubs were to move for him. He’d be first 11 every week with United and would push to go there.
They could use a 4th CB - doesn't mean that Toby will be that 4th CB. He could be first-choice, too. All depends on how things go, and that's ignoring the fact that Bayern and PSG (two of the four) actually do need starting CBs.
As for everything else, I’m really not fussed about precedent. The Eriksen situation is all ifs and buts and the likelihood is he will get a good new contract with us with our new stadium wage budget. But if he or anyone else pushes for a move, and we then drop them because harmony and standards are a bigger strategic advantage for us than any one player, then yes that will be the narrative. Because harmony and standards are more important to us than any one player.
So, you agree - in the end, whichever player decides to agitate for a move will be dropped, and then the narrative will become 'that player is no longer one of our best, we're better without him, we're not like Arsenal, really guv'nor'.
Possibly Eriksen, next year. Possibly Alli, two years from now. And so on, and so forth. And one day ,we will look back, realize that we have become just like Arsenal, selling all our players to the clubs around us and rationalizing it as necessary (only without the trophies to show for it). And at least Arsenal cited financial necessity as a reason for folding like a pack of cards in front of their rivals - we're apparently considering using the 'harmony and standards' justification. It amounts to the same thing, in the end.
We have ambition but we also have our place in the food chain, so we just need to do the best thing for us bearing in mind all of the other moving parts. I don’t think keeping a sulking Toby around while United sign someone else, we get less money next summer and have just spent a year with an over priced CB on our bench is in any way beneficial for us.
'We have ambition' and 'we have our place in the food chain' cancel each other out. If we have ambition, we do not respect our 'place' in the food chain so generously afforded to us by those above us - if we have our comfortable place in the food chain, then we are implicitly accepting that those above us will stay above us forevermore.
I believe telling United to include Martial or f*ck off is the only acceptable outcome here. Anything else is us capitulating to our 'place in the food chain' - nothing else, no matter how it's spun.
Setting a side that the Toby issue is - if the rumours are to be believed - about respect and trust because Poch went to bat for him and got shown up, squad management is about having everyone in the squad comfortable in their role. With enough depth but with enough good tension that players know they have a genuine opportunity for first 11 football but know that they can’t let their standards slip or they’ll be on the bench. We have this tension right across the squad and it motivates all the players to keep improving and keep their focus. Trippier / Aurier, Rose / Davies, Dier, Wanyama, Lamela / Dele / Moura / Son.
We have players that are stand outs that will start every week regardless in Lloris, Jan, Eriksen and Kane. And we have obvious back ups like Foyth that are happy to improve. If Toby believes he is an obvious first 11 pick every week, and isn’t comfortable being a back up of fighting for his place, relentlessly trying to improve, then he will be a bad apple that will impact the entire squad. Particularly if he’s already come close to a move. Those standards, that relentless desire for improvement, the right level of tension, that’s all part of the roostertail that keeps us moving forward and keeps us consistent.
Eh? So, if Toby was this disruptive black sheep, pulling fire alarms, spitting in Poch's food and being generally disruptive as a 'bad apple', then it would have been in evidence all last season after the contract brouhaha. And yet, I don't think it was.
Modric was denied his apparent 'dream' move, and caused far more of an outcry about it than Toby has so far. The window shut, he buttoned down and became our best player again pretty much straight away. And, in the end, he got his move - abroad, to Madrid, and we weren't hurt by that.
I don't think there's much in this idea that our squad are all some precious babies that need to be protected from any hint of unhappiness or displeasure with an existing situation. They will keep competing regardless of what Toby does, because *they* want to play, not Toby - and Poch demands that if you want to play. Toby being grumpy won't change that.
