Liam Delap | £30m release clause?

They are both obviously better players but we aren’t really in a position financially or success wise to buy them.
I don't understand what people aren't getting about this bit.

Re-sale value is paramount here, there will be a lot of chances taken on younger talent that you can sign on a 5 year deal with low wages, then if they haven't worked out after 24months, recoup your FFP position or better. That is our new reality while we are paying for a stadium and for the mistakes of the last 12 years.
 
Osimhen seems to be going to Saudi as Napoli still want to charge a bomb and Gyokeres won’t be coming to United when there are other clubs offering better chances at success.

They are both obviously better players but we aren’t really in a position financially or success wise to buy them.
Napoli want to charge a bomb? Doesn’t he have a release clause?
 
Different ways to look at it. For me the biggest thing a striker brings is a target to actually receive passes and chances. They know where to move, where to stand, they have the ability to make chances for themselves and others and keep opposition defences on their toes. I am firmly in the belief that the reason we create feck all, is because our strikers are absolutely horrendous. Bruno is one of the most creative players in the world, has been for years. You can't tell me that we don't have players to supply chances. Rashford 2 years ago had an on-year and scored 30 goals across all competitions. Strikers will get the chances if they are good enough to receive the chances. Think it's been shown for ages that it's pretty much never a case of a top striker is just being held back by supply not feeding that player any chances to the point that they are literally amongst the worst players in the league (or even Europe) at getting shots off.

You put Osimhen in our team, and he'll score over 20 goals in all competitions next season. You keep Hojlund as our main CF, and he's gonna remain as a ~10 goal striker. That's just his level, getting some other creators won't change that much for him.
Look at it this way. Bruno is our play maker. In the systems we have played he consistently 'creates play" by mostly supplying balls to the wingers/wideforwards who are in turn supposed to play in the cf. What happens instead? The wide players have tended to cut in to shoot to score themselves.

Entirely ignoring the center striker unless he is in position to play them into a better shooting or scoring postion. 8/10 times. Rashford in his 30 goal year had Weghorst drawing all the center back attention playing almost as an extra attacking midfielder. So all Rashford had to do was play the ball off him or go himself. It wasn't by coincidence that the following season with an actual center forward operating in the box, his out put fell off a cliff because the onus was on him to create for the cf. Rather than the other way round.
Garnacho vs Forrest was an excellent example of this. We had a counter attack late on in which if his actual intention was to play in Rasmus, the defender had zero chance of blocking his ball. Instead he attempted a shot. So the ball was deflected away from Rasmus' path.

Currently United as a team do not consistently supply their center forward. Thanks to the 3-4-3 that puts that responsibility chiefly on the wide attackers, then the wingbacks. Whilst the center midfield conducts/creates play.

In our previous 4-2-3-1 its not by mistake a Rasmus scored more last season or in general because he had Bruno in behind him able to pick him out. However since Amorim took over and Bruno has moved deeper the supply has just got worse and worse. Pilling untold pressure on the precious few opportunities he or Zirkzee gets in the box.

I don't care if you put Kane, Gyokeres or Osimhen instead of our current lot. At most they'd have 10 -12 league goals. Why? ONLY 9 clear cut chances have been missed by our cfs. Meaning just 16% of all big chances we create ends up at our strikers feet! Unless you are playing prime Messi or R9 as your lead cf, who can consistently create goals for themselves all by their lonesome. There is literally NO cf who relies on supply who would morph into a 20 goal a season cf in a team that supply's our 9 as poorly as we do. IMHO that's a statistical impossibility.

Our first priority should be to improve the level of creativity in the 10 positions when a Bruno is deeper. THEN we can think of upgrading our cfs
 
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I don't like him, not the right fit we should be going for.
 
I don't like him, not the right fit we should be going for.

He's honestly no better than Hojlund currently, he's in better form due to the fact that he plays for a team that score the majority of their goals on the counter which gives him more space. Hojlund could do the same, neither are able to play the 9 to a high level currently for a team dominating possession unfortunately. That's where you need an Osimhen/ Gyokeres/ Boniface/ Isak/ Schick etc
 
He's honestly no better than Hojlund currently, he's in better form due to the fact that he plays for a team that score the majority of their goals on the counter which gives him more space. Hojlund could do the same, neither are able to play the 9 to a high level currently for a team dominating possession unfortunately. That's where you need an Osimhen/ Gyokeres/ Boniface/ Isak/ Schick etc
His hold up play is quite obviously better ans he has much better balance, but I also don’t think he is the right signing at 45m.
 
His hold up play is quite obviously better ans he has much better balance, but I also don’t think he is the right signing at 45m.
I personally haven't seen evidence of that as we are comparing a really out of form Hojlund with zero confidence against a lad with no expectation full of confidence. You can see more than enough examples in the past where Hojlund is capable but you must have had it yourself when in bad form, everything goes from bad to worse, he isn't a bad player but he also was never ready to bear the burden of an underperforming top teams main goalscorer at his age and experience.
 
I personally haven't seen evidence of that as we are comparing a really out of form Hojlund with zero confidence against a lad with no expectation full of confidence. You can see more than enough examples in the past where Hojlund is capable but you must have had it yourself when in bad form, everything goes from bad to worse, he isn't a bad player but he also was never ready to bear the burden of an underperforming top teams main goalscorer at his age and experience.
I’ve not had exactly that, but I’ve had the experience of going from worst to worse, so I kinda know what you’re talking about.
 
I personally haven't seen evidence of that as we are comparing a really out of form Hojlund with zero confidence against a lad with no expectation full of confidence. You can see more than enough examples in the past where Hojlund is capable but you must have had it yourself when in bad form, everything goes from bad to worse, he isn't a bad player but he also was never ready to bear the burden of an underperforming top teams main goalscorer at his age and experience.
Hojlund had periods of good confidence last season and those parts of his game were still worse than Delaps this season
 
Could probably be good if United's long-term aspirations are fighting for the top half of the table. Not so much if they are anything more.

I can see him scoring in a team like Fulham or West Ham in two or three years, though.
 
He's honestly no better than Hojlund currently, he's in better form due to the fact that he plays for a team that score the majority of their goals on the counter which gives him more space. Hojlund could do the same, neither are able to play the 9 to a high level currently for a team dominating possession unfortunately. That's where you need an Osimhen/ Gyokeres/ Boniface/ Isak/ Schick etc

I think he is better than Hojlund but there is a huge chasm between Hojlund and what we should be aiming for as our number 1 striker.
 
He's honestly no better than Hojlund currently, he's in better form due to the fact that he plays for a team that score the majority of their goals on the counter which gives him more space. Hojlund could do the same, neither are able to play the 9 to a high level currently for a team dominating possession unfortunately. That's where you need an Osimhen/ Gyokeres/ Boniface/ Isak/ Schick etc
His hold up and link up play are on a different planet to Hojlund who's never even shown a slimmer of improvement in, he's also far more physically dominant. In terms of Goal output he's outperforming Hojlund in a worse side.
 
His hold up and link up play are on a different planet to Hojlund who's never even shown a slimmer of improvement in, he's also far more physically dominant. In terms of Goal output he's outperforming Hojlund in a worse side.
Worse attacking side is maybe debatable but I agree on the rest
 
I cant see us going for him, seems too similar a profile for Hojlund and i cant see us being able to sell Hojlund this summer so we'd end up with 2 strikers who are very alike.
 
I don't understand what people aren't getting about this bit.

Re-sale value is paramount here, there will be a lot of chances taken on younger talent that you can sign on a 5 year deal with low wages, then if they haven't worked out after 24months, recoup your FFP position or better. That is our new reality while we are paying for a stadium and for the mistakes of the last 12 years.

Even without the stadium/mistakes, it's very refreshing that we are actually approaching many signings this way.
 
People who bring up the style of play and number of goals will be surprised when we finally got striker who is not a total shit at holding the ball up. Like seriously, our game can be a bit one dimensional, especially in this 3-4-3 formation, becasue simply Hojlund and Zirkzee are abysmall at keeping the ball at their feet. You can see that Amorim likes to speed things up very quickly too and that's including Bruno playing deeper and ability to pick a long ball from deep to any of the attckers on the wing OR STRIKER. He used that a lot with Gyokeres as well, who can run the channels and also can drop deep and turn or pass the ball to one of the wingbacks or combine in midfield who again quickly search wide players running in the space after the striker. And joining back the attack.

Delap is very good at it. He's very well round player who is similar to Gyokeres, that he's strong to hold the ball on the halfway line, to get the ball from the air from the goalkeeper and run in space when needed. Hojlund is not only a shit finisher, he's often bullied from the ball because he can't cover it. This alone is absolute game-changer in Amorim's style of play. Can give us another 5-10 chances per game or more to kill the opponent on the quick counter, or simply to keep the ball better and not starting to chase the ball from the scratch after every hoof under pressure. That can hugely add to our possession and ability to transition faster and through the middle as well.

And I also don't think Delap should our primary target but he would certainly be an upgrade on Hojlund. We would go from a kid bullied by pretty much every defender, to a player who can bully any defender. I also don't think he's type of a player who would get injured after two weeks in Premier league. Fitness is very important, and Delap looks very fit for the league. Imagine spending 60m for Osimhen and watch him from the bench. His intensity would then slow down too, becasue he would simply not want to get injured again. Similarly to Martial, who was in fact a bit lazy from the beginning but he gave up eventually because of that to press anyhow.
 
If we can't get Osimhen, I wouldn’t be against just Delap coming in to rotate with Hojlund. I think he ahead of Hojlund by at least a couple of years. His play style actually bears similarities with Gyokeres, with that punishing ball carrying style. I think he's a 20 league goals a season man.

Found data to back up my Gyokeres similarity claim :


Its hard to say how these guys will develop. Delap's 11 goals this year were achieved in a low pressure environment at a small club with few expectations. Hojlund's 16 goals last year were done in much more difficult circumstances at a high pressure club with an fan base desperate to reclaim the glory of the past, all of which finally caught up with Hojlund this year and sent his career spirralling in the wrong direction. I wouldn't therefore presume Delap will walk into this side like RvN circa 2001and do what Hojland can't, when Delap himself isn't any better than last year's version of Hojlund, who even on 16 goals wasn't sufficiently effective to move the needle for us on goals.
 
Look at it this way. Bruno is our play maker. In the systems we have played he consistently 'creates play" by mostly supplying balls to the wingers/wideforwards who are in turn supposed to play in the cf. What happens instead? The wide players have tended to cut in to shoot to score themselves.

Entirely ignoring the center striker unless he is in position to play them into a better shooting or scoring postion. 8/10 times. Rashford in his 30 goal year had Weghorst drawing all the center back attention playing almost as an extra attacking midfielder. So all Rashford had to do was play the ball off him or go himself. It wasn't by coincidence that the following season with an actual center forward operating in the box, his out put fell off a cliff because the onus was on him to create for the cf. Rather than the other way round.
Garnacho vs Forrest was an excellent example of this. We had a counter attack late on in which if his actual intention was to play in Rasmus, the defender had zero chance of blocking his ball. Instead he attempted a shot. So the ball was deflected away from Rasmus' path.

Currently United as a team do not consistently supply their center forward. Thanks to the 3-4-3 that puts that responsibility chiefly on the wide attackers, then the wingbacks. Whilst the center midfield conducts/creates play.

In our previous 4-2-3-1 its not by mistake a Rasmus scored more last season or in general because he had Bruno in behind him able to pick him out. However since Amorim took over and Bruno has moved deeper the supply has just got worse and worse. Pilling untold pressure on the precious few opportunities he or Zirkzee gets in the box.

I don't care if you put Kane, Gyokeres or Osimhen instead of our current lot. At most they'd have 10 -12 league goals. Why? ONLY 9 clear cut chances have been missed by our cfs. Meaning just 16% of all big chances we create ends up at our strikers feet! Unless you are playing prime Messi or R9 as your lead cf, who can consistently create goals for themselves all by their lonesome. There is literally NO cf who relies on supply who would morph into a 20 goal a season cf in a team that supply's our 9 as poorly as we do. IMHO that's a statistical impossibility.

Our first priority should be to improve the level of creativity in the 10 positions when a Bruno is deeper. THEN we can think of upgrading our cfs
Or just get a proper midfielder and play Bruno at the 10. The best 10s in our squad atm is Bruno and Amad. Unfortunately we’re forced to play Bruno in midfield because we’ve no one better and Amad is injured.
 
He's honestly no better than Hojlund currently, he's in better form due to the fact that he plays for a team that score the majority of their goals on the counter which gives him more space. Hojlund could do the same, neither are able to play the 9 to a high level currently for a team dominating possession unfortunately. That's where you need an Osimhen/ Gyokeres/ Boniface/ Isak/ Schick etc

I thought he looked significantly better than both of our strikers when we played Ipswich earlier this season. He looks like the player Hojlund is trying to be, and the one we thought he would be when we signed him. He actually seems to be a physical handful for defenders rather than ending up on his arse every time.

I don’t think we would realistically be able to afford, or be the first choice, for any of the strikers you have provided as an alternative.

I get that Delap’s not the perfect choice, but he seems likely to be an improvement, is affordable, and seems likely to be up for joining.

Keeping our powder dry, saving the big bucks for when a true United no.9 becomes available, seems like a better option than spunking lots of cash in a sellers market for a sub prime striker.
 
I thought he looked significantly better than both of our strikers when we played Ipswich earlier this season. He looks like the player Hojlund is trying to be, and the one we thought he would be when we signed him. He actually seems to be a physical handful for defenders rather than ending up on his arse every time.

I don’t think we would realistically be able to afford, or be the first choice, for any of the strikers you have provided as an alternative.

I get that Delap’s not the perfect choice, but he seems likely to be an improvement, is affordable, and seems likely to be up for joining.

Keeping our powder dry, saving the big bucks for when a true United no.9 becomes available, seems like a better option than spunking lots of cash in a sellers market for a sub prime striker.

Jonathan David is on a free and I would rather take that gamble just due to the age and respect he would command. Agreed with your points on Delap vs Hojlund but I pointed out one is in form and the other isn't, I don't disagree but I've seen Hojlund do these things and if you look at his rate in UEL this year or UCL last year you can see his experience, he struggles in this league currently and is playing awfully but I don't think that makes him a bad player but like Delap I don't think either are ready to lead the line for us just due to their age and experience.
 
What concerns me is his record even in the championship. He wasn’t exactly lighting it up there. I know he’s young but getting a striker that’s averaging 10 goals a season in his senior career doesn’t seem like will improve our attack significantly
 
OK i'm back. Looks like a poor man's Suarez/Kane. Holds the ball well, good turns to run at goal, very direct, and good passer. Big upgrade on Hojlund but he will need the ball a lot. Definitely has an eye for goal though.
 
Imagine having all of Delap, Zirkzee and Hojlund and none of them hitting the mark. That's just much of muchness. With what we have is the likes of Osimhen and Gyokeres that will be obvious upgrades.
In theory yeah, and if I had to pick I’d go Osimhen, Gyokeres, Delap in that order. But if the money isn’t there, then we might be forced to do the easier deal and go for Delap. His wages would probably be at least half of anything the other two would want.
 
i mean i get people thinking osimhen is the sure thing of the 3 choices, but definitely interesting to see such certainty with gyokeres. Looking at past liga portugal golden boot winners and the list really isnt that impressive. Could be a success, could be a flop, who knows. Almost feel like youd want to splurge the cash on Osimhen, or go with the potential of delap who at least has experience in the league. Gyo could be a mix of big money big risk.
 
In theory yeah, and if I had to pick I’d go Osimhen, Gyokeres, Delap in that order. But if the money isn’t there, then we might be forced to do the easier deal and go for Delap. His wages would probably be at least half of anything the other two would want.
But is the easier deal worth. Do we think he's going to become say a decent all rounder who consistently gives about 15 league goals because that should be the minimum.
 
But is the easier deal worth. Do we think he's going to become say a decent all rounder who consistently gives about 15 league goals because that should be the minimum.

25 should be the minimum imo. Even Hojlund contributed 16 last year which was nowhere near good enough to make a meaningful difference. Something similar to what Zlatan gave us (28 goals at age 35 ) should be closer to our target, and I sense that only Gyokeres, Osimhen, or Jonathan David would be capable of that.
 
But is the easier deal worth. Do we think he's going to become say a decent all rounder who consistently gives about 15 league goals because that should be the minimum.
No idea. I can imagine the club weighing it up as a total package and thinking if Delap costs 45m all in (transfer fee, wages, agent fees) and Osimhen costs 85m all in, getting Delap leaves us money for a right wing back as well. Amorim might prefer to go down that route, I guess it depends what else he wants and how badly he wants it.

By the sounds of it we’re in a state of sell to buy. So it literally could be a case of 2 players is better than 1.
 
25 should be the minimum imo. Even Hojlund contributed 16 last year which was nowhere near good enough to make a meaningful difference. Something similar to what Zlatan gave us (28 goals at age 35 ) should be closer to our target, and I sense that only Gyokeres, Osimhen, or Jonathan David would be capable of that.

The poster mentioned league goals. Around 15 of them.

I think Zlatan only got about 16.
 
25 should be the minimum imo. Even Hojlund contributed 16 last year which was nowhere near good enough to make a meaningful difference. Something similar to what Zlatan gave us (28 goals at age 35 ) should be closer to our target, and I sense that only Gyokeres, Osimhen, or Jonathan David would be capable of that.
15 in the league, such a player will get 25+ all competition.
 
No idea. I can imagine the club weighing it up as a total package and thinking if Delap costs 45m all in (transfer fee, wages, agent fees) and Osimhen costs 85m all in, getting Delap leaves us money for a right wing back as well. Amorim might prefer to go down that route, I guess it depends what else he wants and how badly he wants it.

By the sounds of it we’re in a state of sell to buy. So it literally could be a case of 2 players is better than 1.
So we're basically Brighton except we won't sell our best players.
 
i mean i get people thinking osimhen is the sure thing of the 3 choices, but definitely interesting to see such certainty with gyokeres. Looking at past liga portugal golden boot winners and the list really isnt that impressive. Could be a success, could be a flop, who knows. Almost feel like youd want to splurge the cash on Osimhen, or go with the potential of delap who at least has experience in the league. Gyo could be a mix of big money big risk.

This is sense. People on here are really over estimating Gyokeres holding the cards. Many great goalscorers in that league have been hideous players so the teams better than us will not be as gung ho in getting him as people are making out. Certainly not if Isak kicks up a fuss
 
Yes. Except Brighton might get into Europe
If this is the idea Ineos put on Amorim's table and he bought it, he better be ready.
Not too many United fans will accept anything other than a clear improvement in terms of performance and league position next season, this will derail any long term squad building they have in mind.
He obviously needs a few players to help speed things up and the owners need to make sure he gets them.
 
This is sense. People on here are really over estimating Gyokeres holding the cards. Many great goalscorers in that league have been hideous players so the teams better than us will not be as gung ho in getting him as people are making out. Certainly not if Isak kicks up a fuss

I get that but then people are also doing the same thing with Osimhen's scoring feats in Turkey this season. I am pretty sure being a number 9 for the dominant team in that league is nowhere near as challenging as playing for us and yes I know he had that 1 prolific season at Napoli but he didn't get close to maintaining that form the next season.

I think the reality is that if we want a sure thing we are going to be dissapointed, none of the players who are available or gettable come with any kind of guarantee. Gyokeres has never done it in a top league, Osimhen has red flags, Delap is just potential, Vlahovic has underwhelmed and Juve desperately want rid and so on and so on. I personally feel Gyokeres is the best bet simply due to familiarity with Amorim but of course that did not prove to be a winning formula when ETH was here. It could all be moot as with all the clubs chasing strikers at the moment we might not get a sniff of any of these players and if so I am hoping Ruben can repeat the trick he pulled with Gyokeres of identifying a realtively obscure striker who is a perfect fit for his system.
 
Look at it this way. Bruno is our play maker. In the systems we have played he consistently 'creates play" by mostly supplying balls to the wingers/wideforwards who are in turn supposed to play in the cf. What happens instead? The wide players have tended to cut in to shoot to score themselves.

Entirely ignoring the center striker unless he is in position to play them into a better shooting or scoring postion. 8/10 times. Rashford in his 30 goal year had Weghorst drawing all the center back attention playing almost as an extra attacking midfielder. So all Rashford had to do was play the ball off him or go himself. It wasn't by coincidence that the following season with an actual center forward operating in the box, his out put fell off a cliff because the onus was on him to create for the cf. Rather than the other way round.
Garnacho vs Forrest was an excellent example of this. We had a counter attack late on in which if his actual intention was to play in Rasmus, the defender had zero chance of blocking his ball. Instead he attempted a shot. So the ball was deflected away from Rasmus' path.

Currently United as a team do not consistently supply their center forward. Thanks to the 3-4-3 that puts that responsibility chiefly on the wide attackers, then the wingbacks. Whilst the center midfield conducts/creates play.

In our previous 4-2-3-1 its not by mistake a Rasmus scored more last season or in general because he had Bruno in behind him able to pick him out. However since Amorim took over and Bruno has moved deeper the supply has just got worse and worse. Pilling untold pressure on the precious few opportunities he or Zirkzee gets in the box.

I don't care if you put Kane, Gyokeres or Osimhen instead of our current lot. At most they'd have 10 -12 league goals. Why? ONLY 9 clear cut chances have been missed by our cfs. Meaning just 16% of all big chances we create ends up at our strikers feet! Unless you are playing prime Messi or R9 as your lead cf, who can consistently create goals for themselves all by their lonesome. There is literally NO cf who relies on supply who would morph into a 20 goal a season cf in a team that supply's our 9 as poorly as we do. IMHO that's a statistical impossibility.

Our first priority should be to improve the level of creativity in the 10 positions when a Bruno is deeper. THEN we can think of upgrading our cfs

Or just get a proper midfielder and play Bruno at the 10. The best 10s in our squad atm is Bruno and Amad. Unfortunately we’re forced to play Bruno in midfield because we’ve no one better and Amad is injured.

This is going to be my agenda for the summer (Olise was last year's)

Find a fecking playmaker that can pair with Ugarte at CM. Rock solid positioning, defensively strong, can play with back to goal, receive and turn in tight spaces, has a good line breaking pass. Someone like an Adam Wharton but on the cheap.

Move Bruno upfield. Sign a new #10 who can play the Garnacho role (want to agitate for Cunha but maybe too expensive). Move Amad to RWB permanently.
 
He left because the owner is a nut job who shunned him from the team after he wanted to leave. Osimhen was forced to go on loan to Turkey (later deadline day window) or spend the season playing no football
He wanted to leave, the owner wanted him to honor his contract, he threw his toys out the pram and somehow this proves your point that I was wrong about him being a problem. You're going to need to do that math for me.
 
Get Delap in.
Young, English and bags of potential and is handling the Premier league already and available at a decent price.
 
I think he is better than Hojlund but there is a huge chasm between Hojlund and what we should be aiming for as our number 1 striker.
Exactly , choosing a striker who’s getting relegated to be our number 1 forward next season is tragic . How the standards have fallen. And he is only a little upgrade on Hojlund to be honest