In their last respective full seasons at Madrid: Ozil 9 goals, 14 assists. ADM's last season at Madrid, 4 goals 17 assists. Indeed, Di Maria played more games than Ozil did too. So no, Di Maria is not better and I can only assume it's Man United fans clutching at straws who are your accounts. Even if I take your argument that Di Maria is better, the question isn't "Which player is better?" it's "Is Di Maria £20m better than Mesut Ozil?" (He isn't)

And yeah Di Maria is more proven than Rodriguez is. But then... why would Real Madrid sell a better player in Di Maria to buy an inferior player in Rodriguez? 'cause Di Maria is yesterday's news. Two equally gifted footballers, but only one can shift shirts. Who is worth more? Rodriguez is valued more, and that's what I'm driving at here. He's worth more but you paid the same.

No, United don't have to pay a premium. Yes, they're asked for a premium in many cases but they're mugs if they choose to pay it. I have repeatedly drawn comparison to MUFC and LFC so let's do that again. When LFC fell out of the CL, the club thought it had to pay a premium and so spent £Embarassing on players like Carroll and Downing. Now, while United has a larger budget than Liverpool usually, I am sure we can agree that this Summer, everyone knows Liverpool are smurfing rolling in it following the Suarez sale and the return of CL football - more than £100m is available that wasn't last season. So surely that means people want to take all of the moneys? Well, we just paid £12m for a Spanish international left back despite his club wanting £20m. Compare that to United who paid £30m for an English international left back. Indeed, Milan wanted £30m (seriously) for Balotelli at the start of the Summer and now it's £16m. There's value out there if you're not going to be a smurfing mug about it.

£5m knocked off? Try £20m. Oh, and I don't know about Vidal but Hummels doesn't want to touch Man United.