£20m Summer Transfer Budget

this was laughable when they started it, however the way we are dealing makes it feel more and more credible.
1- we seems to be stalling on De Jong, the price from Barca doenst seem that high (compared to the like of Rice or Ruben Neves) yet we keep saying we will walk away while we all know maximum saving on this initial asking price wont exceed 10M. for 10 M we are risking losing out when a PSG or another team will come and pay the fee requested by Barca. This looks as thogh we just dont have cash.
2- targets like Antony , Timber should not take long to conclude if the budget is here, yet no offer made.
this looks like we are waiting to sell to be able to buy, this means we are really in trouble since we dont have sellable assets... and potential buyers will know they can wait the last days of this window to send low offers and get them.
my biggest issue though is how would ETH accept to take this job without having a good budget?
 
It's not £20m

But £50m might be realistic....

So when do the Glazer our riots start? October? This is not sustainable. I sense misery.
 
It will obviously be more than £20m but less than many think. Blowing CL put us in a big hole.
 
this was laughable when they started it, however the way we are dealing makes it feel more and more credible.
1- we seems to be stalling on De Jong, the price from Barca doenst seem that high (compared to the like of Rice or Ruben Neves) yet we keep saying we will walk away while we all know maximum saving on this initial asking price wont exceed 10M. for 10 M we are risking losing out when a PSG or another team will come and pay the fee requested by Barca. This looks as thogh we just dont have cash.
2- targets like Antony , Timber should not take long to conclude if the budget is here, yet no offer made.
this looks like we are waiting to sell to be able to buy, this means we are really in trouble since we dont have sellable assets... and potential buyers will know they can wait the last days of this window to send low offers and get them.
my biggest issue though is how would ETH accept to take this job without having a good budget?

Or, on the other hand, its quite likely that we will be able to agree better terms on players by negotiating and not just immediately paying the asking price. Ajax will generally accept a fair offer for a player but in the case of De Jong, playing it smart could result in a significant saving that could be the difference between signing another player or not. If he is our marquee signing of the summer then the final terms of that deal will dictate the rest of our strategy.

Yes there might be a risk that we could lose the player but if another club has him in their sights and are waiting to pounce then that was always going to happen regardless.
 
It was stupid and still is stupid because that isn't how budgeting for transfers works.

There isn't one pot of money just for transfer fees and another completely separate pot of money for wages, etc. The entire combined cost of the transfer is what gets accounted for.

When we sign a player like Ibrahimovic for "free", that impacts what we can spend elsewhere that summer. It doesn't magically not count just because the money we're spending doesn't include a transfer fee. We're still committing to that total financial package and that still restricts what we can do elsewhere, just as if we bought someone for the same total cost but in the form of a transfer fee with lower wages.

So in order to come up with an accurate idea of what we'll spend on transfer fees you'd have to know who we're going to sign, how the total cost of their transfer breaks down between different elements of the deal and then work backwards from there to come to our transfer spend figure. If I'm being generous I'd say you could maybe work out a very rough guess based on how average transfers break down between the different elements and a deep pour over our accounts but that's very dubious.

Yet every summer outlets churn out the same nonsense estimates for clubs' transfer budgets like they're talking about a shop run by transition year students. And fans lap it up, because a magic money pot for transfer fees is easier to wrap their head around than actual complex accounting. The latter of which is, unsurprisingly, how these multi-million deals actually get structured and accounted for.
 
Last edited:
It was stupid and still is stupid because that isn't how budgeting for transfers works.

There isn't one pot of money just for transfer fees and another completely separate pot of money for wages, etc. The entire combined cost of the transfer is what gets accounted for.

When we sign a player like Ibrahimovic for "free", that impacts what we can spend elsewhere that summer. It doesn't magically not count just because the money we're spending doesn't include a transfer fee. We're still committing to that total financial package and that still restricts what we can do elsewhere, just as if we bought someone for the same total cost but in the form of a transfer fee with lower wages.

So in order to come up with an accurate idea of what we'll spend on transfer fees you'd have to know who we're going to sign, how the total cost of their transfer breaks down between different elements of the deal and then work backwards from there to come to our transfer spend figure. If I'm being generous I'd say you could maybe work out a very rough guess based on how average transfers break down between the different elements and a deep pour over our accounts but that's very dubious.

Yet every summer outlets churn out the same nonsense estimates for clubs' transfer budgets like they're talking about a shop run by transition year students. And fans lap it up, because a magic money pot for transfer fees is easier to wrap their head around than actual complex accounting. The latter of which is, unsurprisingly, how these multi-million deals actually get structured and accounted for.

You are right but can you imagine a sport journalist writing a paper about projected revenues, projected spendings and unallocated funds over the next 3 or 4 years. Also take into account potential unexpected spendings and reserving funds for them.
 
Looking at free transfers and can’t afford a £30m release clause for a Wolves reject

Looks like this was true after all @Blood Mage
Oh is that why we’re clearly after De Jong and Antony? Or is going after Eriksen now proof that we’re only after free transfers? I wonder why we passed up on Kamara then, free transfer in the position we need to strengthen the most?
 
Why does it seem like we are always 'dragging our feet' on transfers....Oh wait maybe it's because we are!

The Captain may have change and some of the crew, the deck chairs have been rearranged, but the owners are still steering the good ship Man United towards the ice!!
 
this was laughable when they started it, however the way we are dealing makes it feel more and more credible.
1- we seems to be stalling on De Jong, the price from Barca doenst seem that high (compared to the like of Rice or Ruben Neves) yet we keep saying we will walk away while we all know maximum saving on this initial asking price wont exceed 10M. for 10 M we are risking losing out when a PSG or another team will come and pay the fee requested by Barca. This looks as thogh we just dont have cash.
2- targets like Antony , Timber should not take long to conclude if the budget is here, yet no offer made.
this looks like we are waiting to sell to be able to buy, this means we are really in trouble since we dont have sellable assets... and potential buyers will know they can wait the last days of this window to send low offers and get them.
my biggest issue though is how would ETH accept to take this job without having a good budget?

Even the Glazers are not so idiotic as to shut the purse in the most important transfer window of this club's history. It would be the biggest act of self-sabotage ever seen. It's more likely that ETH is taking some time to take stock of things before signing new players. It may also be that De Jong just doesn't want to come here. We have no idea what's behind the lack of urgency, so to assume that the answer is that the owners have intentionally destroyed the club's future by cutting off the transfer funds, the one year where it's needed the most, is a bit silly. For what possible reason would they do that?
 
this was laughable when they started it, however the way we are dealing makes it feel more and more credible.
1- we seems to be stalling on De Jong, the price from Barca doenst seem that high (compared to the like of Rice or Ruben Neves) yet we keep saying we will walk away while we all know maximum saving on this initial asking price wont exceed 10M. for 10 M we are risking losing out when a PSG or another team will come and pay the fee requested by Barca. This looks as thogh we just dont have cash.
2- targets like Antony , Timber should not take long to conclude if the budget is here, yet no offer made.
this looks like we are waiting to sell to be able to buy, this means we are really in trouble since we dont have sellable assets... and potential buyers will know they can wait the last days of this window to send low offers and get them.
my biggest issue though is how would ETH accept to take this job without having a good budget?
It was laughable, BUT I believe it anyway
 
Even the Glazers are not so idiotic as to shut the purse in the most important transfer window of this club's history. It would be the biggest act of self-sabotage ever seen. It's more likely that ETH is taking some time to take stock of things before signing new players. It may also be that De Jong just doesn't want to come here. We have no idea what's behind the lack of urgency, so to assume that the answer is that the owners have intentionally destroyed the club's future by cutting off the transfer funds, the one year where it's needed the most, is a bit silly. For what possible reason would they do that?
since its silly. may be you could share the potential reason why there is no urgency in our buying as of date.
 
It will obviously be more than £20m but less than many think. Blowing CL put us in a big hole.

Yes, exactly. I'd assume something in the region of £75m net.

The club had £95m in cash at the end of March 2022, but we still owe c. £300m in purchase obligations. Wages have shot up 21% this year (although we will be clearing a decent chunk of player salaries off the books this summer). Revenues haven't bounced back to pre-covid levels. Overall, the financial picture isn't brilliant.
 
Feels like the Glazers are bringing the expenses down in order to facilitate a sale
 
Oh is that why we’re clearly after De Jong and Antony? Or is going after Eriksen now proof that we’re only after free transfers? I wonder why we passed up on Kamara then, free transfer in the position we need to strengthen the most?
Everybody here who is being honest with themselves know that neither Frenkie De Jong or Antony will be United players this summer
 
this was laughable when they started it, however the way we are dealing makes it feel more and more credible.
1- we seems to be stalling on De Jong, the price from Barca doenst seem that high (compared to the like of Rice or Ruben Neves) yet we keep saying we will walk away while we all know maximum saving on this initial asking price wont exceed 10M. for 10 M we are risking losing out when a PSG or another team will come and pay the fee requested by Barca. This looks as thogh we just dont have cash.
2- targets like Antony , Timber should not take long to conclude if the budget is here, yet no offer made.
this looks like we are waiting to sell to be able to buy, this means we are really in trouble since we dont have sellable assets... and potential buyers will know they can wait the last days of this window to send low offers and get them.
my biggest issue though is how would ETH accept to take this job without having a good budget?
You answered your own post in the last line. We clearly are not going to overpay anymore to get our targets, there is an image of United tax that needs to end, and that's why we spending that extra bit of time to secure the signings as per our valuation, rather than being a PSG and paying whatever the selling club asks us.
There will be a budget no doubt however, we have a lot of quality needed in ST, RW, CM, CDM, CB, and RB, if we want to secure these signings or close majority of these gaps we need to be careful in our spending. A Nunez and FDJ signing alone eg could blow the whole budget.

Also, who says Timber and Antony are our targets? A lot of rumors flying around since the start of the window as they are ajax players but nothing that confirms that they are our targets.
 
Get a grip for fecks sake, we obviously have more than a £20 million budget.
Friends of mine who support rival fans keep talking about how entitled United fans can be. There certainly is some truth to it, you only have to read a few threads on here to confirm it.
 
20m pot and whatever we make from sales.

So about 10m net then :drool:
 
Fudge it
20m it is. Not gona do much, so let it sit.

Promote the kids and constantly train the adults to the new tactics. Sort out the club finances and trim even more of the excess playing staff and lean up the squad.
 
I’m prone to a meltdown now and then but the fact some of you melts are buying into the £20 million budget is fairly pathetic. Even in a COVID season we spent over £80 million re: summer of 2020.
 
Feels like the Glazers are bringing the expenses down in order to facilitate a sale
Must be why they've gone so public and hired people to come up with plans to rebuild/renovate Old Trafford.
 
I'm not sure I buy that Ten Hag would have taken the job if this was the case. I think his stock was at least as high as ours. Even though it's only the Eredivisie, he had the CL run and they were great this year again and unlucky to lose out to Benfica and +79 GD in the league is surely at the boundaries of what's even possible, even in that league.
 
The state of this thread :lol:

We are negotiating for De Jong, we were negotiating for Nunez and we were interested in Timber, and yet we were supposed to sign these players with only 20 mil?

Feck, build Murtough a statue next to SAF cause this is GOAT tier negotiation then.