Are we not allowed to Fellaini into this as well?
It's also been reported that a CB will likely be shipped out now we've got Maguire, if that was Smalling then we're looking at £20 million there. The point been it isn't as unlikely as everyone makes out.
Not that £100 million net is an issue, it's a very healthy budget when spent right.
I believe that January transfers are usually included in the Summer before for a yearly budget, but I also believe that a lot of transfers have staggered payments and add-ons which can increase or decrease what a club spends year on year. This may have something to do with why Mourinho was only given quite a small amount in his final season, but this is probably the kind of thing we'll never know unless manager's come out and say it. I do also believe that the budget for a season includes January, so this could be seen as further evidence to £100m being bogus, although it can work both ways. What if we went into the season with a net spend of £130m, but all we do in January is sell say, Rojo or Sanchez and get a good fee for them? And it turns out we spent £110m~ for the 19/20 season? But we could perhaps also pinch Longstaff from Newcastle in January and end up spending £150m+, who knows?
We currently have a squad of 27 players that need to be registered if we wish to use them in the Premier League (including Maguire). This of course instantly means that we need to remove two players from our squad somehow. It doesn't necessarily have to be sales, loans could also happen, but I am expecting at least Darmian to be shipped out. It seems strange that he is basically invisible at the moment. He hasn't been included in our squad for the AC Milan friendly tomorrow and he missed the trip to Norway. Neither the club nor Ole has commented on this, so I doubt there is an injury. I'll be amazed if he isn't sold. We have four goalkeepers, so I expect J.Pereira to go on loan and Grant will just run down his last year and leave on a free next Summer. This gets our squad down to 25 and unless there is a good offer or the club really does need to spend less, then I don't see a reason why the club will be actively looking to sell more players and decrease the size of ou squad. You can understand it from the board's point of view, they see players as assets and if they're not going to need the money they won't sell a player for the sake of it that simply decreases the depth of the squad unless that money is seen as impossible to refuse, or a player is forcing their way out through a request or the like.
It'll be interesting to see our player registration, as if we make it to August 8th and still have 27 players or perhaps even more if we do sign Bruno or Longstaff, some players will have to be left off the list and that will surely be a massive indicator that they are moving on in some way? I think it's an interesting discussion and while I think our net spend is going to float closer to £100m than a lot of people think when they do their Football Manager style transfer lists, I don't believe the club is restricted to spending £100m net this season. Look at Arsenal, apparently, they only had £45m but they've just spent £72m+ on a single player along with buying a couple of others and are looking at at least a few more who will be in excess of £20m. It could even be a tactic to try and convince selling clubs you aren't as rich as they think.
