Can he play DM?
Benjamin Sesko | Despite Raees best efforts he’s joining Liepzig. Damn you Raees
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It does seem like either Chelsea are following us round and chasing our targets to make sure we don't get any, or we're purposely 'chasing' targets that we know we won't get in order to show willingness while also preserving the budget and not actually spending any more.
New CEO, DOF, and new coaching staff. So otherwise everything else is the same?
So is it Sesko and Antony, or one or the other? Think we need both a RW and CF tbh.
Yeah I'd probably put RW higher in the list too. Maybe we know Ronaldo is leaving and we're trying to sign him up before it's official.
Perhaps, unsurprisingly, more than one big side is interested in top players and talents?
And as far as I am aware, we are yet to lose out to Chelsea on anyone this summer.
Yes. We can absolutely get top 4. No problem.The issue boils down to this:
Are you happy with the transfers we made till now?;
Malacia balanced by Pereira - Eriksen on a free - Martinez who we still have to see how he settles in the PL?;
FDJ could be coming to be the most embarrassing transfer in our history - although i hope not!:
Antony is too expensive for us?:
Sesko could have been grabbed very quickly but a few days difference and other teams came swarming round?
We had a very bad season and teams like City and Liverpool got their men in a jiffy and without long-drawn series like Game of Thrones
And what have we fixed in our team without getting what we needed most - a good DM?
Can we win the league or at least compete for top four as we are now?
The players we have lost didn’t contribute a great deal in the season past. Pogba was mainly injured, Cavani was AWOL and Mata, Matic, and Lingard barely played. I’d hope you agree we have lost nothing.
We’ve added an exciting combative young LB who I believe will replace Shaw as a starter, a left footed CB which has been coveted since before Jose left, and a versatile and silky smooth midfield player in Eriksen. We are all aware what he does and how well he does it. I’d argue the squad is better as it stands.
Now I hear what you say about DM, but it doesn’t seem a position ETH is desperate for, and he’s looking to reinforce the midfield in other ways.
The big plus is the manager himself and his coaching staff. You can already see improvements in our players and our play, and a big take away from preseason for me was the fact that the 1st half teams played exactly as the 2nd half team did. Everybody is on the same page and pulling in the same direction. We will see team performances and not only individual brilliance pulling us to victory.
Im confident we won’t be seeing stupid results against the likes of Everton, Watford, Brighton etc as we have in the past which will boost our points total, and I think he will set us up against Liverpool and City etc in a way so as to not haemorrhage goals and we will see draws not defeats.
If you are judging the squad simply by cash spent then I don’t know what to tell you, we’ll have to judge in September as we are not privy to the ins and outs of transfer dealings.
Last season was extreme and it was awful, but it was an anomaly. There is no way we can be that bad again with the organisation and tactical competency that Erik brings to the table.
edit - holy moly, sorry for the long post
Still see no FDJ arrival personally, never have done and I still have the same opinion I did early on in the sage....he moves, someone else swoops in for him like Chelsea late on in the window.
I would ask this though. If you went back to the end of last season and how utterly abysmal we were, we knew the free transfers leaving already then. But if you were told, ROnaldo would leave (dont think he does actually), Henderson would go on loan so not sold and no back up kepper bought in, Dalot would be our starting right back, Bissaka would still be here (personally dont mind that at all), Williams, Tuanzabe, VDB, Martial and CHong would still be here as would all the other major stars who have had such poor seasons.....and on top of that, those are our five signings (dont no about posters and I havent watched much DUtch football, but Id never heard of three of those five until a few weeks ago)........and there isnt ONE all round midfielder or defensive midfield signing......
Would you have been happy with that four months ago....I say that as the way the window has gone I think peoples opinions have changed and been diluted out of the despair......I mean, you do even say top four or 5.....5th, really?
My post is almost irrelavant as I think there will be one more signing, not FDJ though, but dont know who.........but persoanlly as our squad stands, you miss one important part, it has improved less than the other three teams around us challenging for the top four and bar Arteta....is Ten Hag actually a better manager tactically or motivationally than the other managers? I dont know, knwo little of Ten Hag but four of the other top five have world class managers, its a huge bridge to gap as things stand, we dont make the top four for me, we could come third we could come 7th...I think 5/6th IF nobody else is added
We have Rashford, MC Tominay, and Greenwood as regular starters in the team. We sold pre season pirlo from our academy to a PL club. Henderson can be a keeper for many clubs in the PL. Zidane, Savage, Laird and Elanga are going to get many chances this season as well. We are great with youth. We have issues yes but developing our youth is not one of them.Good post. Cheers for the info
If I was him we would be pretty close to if not bottom of that list. We’ve not been developing young players as well as in the past. Recently our youth have had various well publicised problems from the more personal and criminal to not looking like they take the game or the club seriously enough or over promotion of players who just aren’t good enough. Bling culture etc. Add to that the disillusionment of Ronadlo, FDJs reticence to joining…. We just aren’t in a strong position to pull a player with options. It’ll be another Bellingham.
Fingers crossed but I see him going to Leipzig if he’s serious about his slower development. If he’s going for stardom and money PSG can offer him Messi Neymar and Mbappe behind him and bucket loads of goals for the next 4 years and annual CL football and all the riches in the world. We aren’t really at the races unless we tell him he’s our starting #9 and we think he’ll be a star player for us, EL is perfect to bed in etc and we pay him a lot of cash
Mason Greenwood is on bail after being arrested on suspicion of rape, assault and threats to kill.
I wouldn't equate that to standby to rejoin the team. Getting the impression many posters missed the series of events that led to this.
Point being there is a major need for a striker and plenty of space for a young one at that ti develop.
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Never heard of the player until now but going by the highlights he seems a great talent. Raw yet, some good traits and abilities to see already. Decent touch, acceleration and pretty quick turn for a player of his build, also seems to have a bit of a vision on him too. If he's hardworking enough we should go for him as he might not seem as great goalscorer as Haaland but certainly better all round player with a lot of years of development in a top club alongside top players ahead.
We could do with a striker regardless if Ronaldo goes or not..
We could do with a striker regardless if Ronaldo goes or not..
I reckon it's him and a RW if Ronaldo goes. If Ronny stays, then we'll probably loan him back to his club for the year and just get a RW. We are less likely to get him in the latter scenario as the competition is offering a move right now.
Personally, I don't think we're winning anything with or without Ronaldo next season, so I'd rather we start our rebuilding phase without the circus we got right now. If we get Sesko, a RW (probably Antony), FDJ and a RB, that will be enough for top 4 while still focused on building towards the future.
If Chelsea are looking at other strikers then they could be out of the running.
Romano reporting chelsea are discussing buying aubamayeng which hopefully means they are out of the running for Sesko.
It could also mean no one is getting Sesko if everyone has been out priced.
It could also mean no one is getting Sesko if everyone has been out priced.
If we end up with sesko, FDJ & Antony; it would be a good window but it’s very unlikely isn’t it ?
Would be an absolutely transformative window.
I doubt all of that happens, but we'd be heading in a completely different direction from the last few years, which would be refreshing.
Isn't that the problem though? We didn't move on them at all when we could have got them cheaper and are comparable talents to Sesko. Now it is likely that we will be forced to pay a higher fee than we would like due to the length of his contract and the Ronaldo situation.
Surely zero chance we sign Antony at this point if they're looking for 100mn. FdJ and Sesko in addition to the other signings would be a good window. A decent winger and right back on top would be great.
Would be exactly what we need and give us a chance if competing, so expect it not to happen.
We can’t sign every player. We COULD have moved for Ekitike, but it appears we are moving for Sesko instead, because we have decided that we prefer him. Which is totally our prerogative.
I think Sesko looks a better prospect than Ekitike to be honest. Never been too impressed with Ekitike's comps compared to other hot prospects.
This is definitely the thread for me. I’ll be camped here till this comes to a resolution. FDJ is just too complicated. This is straight up who does he chose and it’ll be done soon. This is a Rooney or Ronaldo type signing for me. For the first team from the off.
Welcome mate!
I have been camped in thread since the Whitwell tweet.That would cost us in the region of 200 million. Don't think we are spending that amount this window and personally I would be more than happy with Sesko and de Jong for now.
Same, can already see the boy with Ballon d'Or in 2024.
If we could get Sesko for the same price that PSG got Ekitike I'll be very happy. I hate to say but as much as I like Sesko the fees mentioned are nowhere near close to justifiable at this moment.
Recent reports suggest we're looking for a central midfielder, a centre forward and a right back. Seems very unlikely that Antony will be moving, and I'm quite happy about that personally. I think he's overrated.
Antony is dead. Let's not get greedy.
Here is a fairly recent interview (its in Slovenian, but google translate should do the job) Šeško gave about 2 months ago. The most interesting thing from it, when asked about his plans for the future he said: "I dont have chosen club where I'd like to go. I rather go step by step and see where it gets me. I hope to be somewhere where I can give a lot to the team and make a name for myself, but right now I'm focused on Salzburg - to explode here and from there onwards always with gradual steps, because a bad choice can cost you alot."
So it will definitely come down to what plans for his further development were offered, which of course at this point we can only speculate. One guess would be, that a club which is willing to secure him now but let him play one more year for Salzburg will prevail. The other option would be, that he was promised prominent first team minutes, but that doesnt seem likely to me with Ten Hag and his code of earning your spot on the teamsheet.
In any case I think that our club did its best here.. they were monitoring him for a long time, saw that he's about to explode this season, realized that if that happens he'll be out of reach next year and went strongly in for him with even being prepared to pay the obligatory United tax for an unproven potential... and at least the 'saga' will end in a few days compared to other transfers.
So it will definitely come down to what plans for his further development were offered, which of course at this point we can only speculate. One guess would be, that a club which is willing to secure him now but let him play one more year for Salzburg will prevail. The other option would be, that he was promised prominent first team minutes, but that doesnt seem likely to me with Ten Hag and his code of earning your spot on the teamsheet.
In any case I think that our club did its best here.. they were monitoring him for a long time, saw that he's about to explode this season, realized that if that happens he'll be out of reach next year and went strongly in for him with even being prepared to pay the obligatory United tax for an unproven potential... and at least the 'saga' will end in a few days compared to other transfers.
Or PSG could have gone for Tel and Bayern made a move for Ektike. Throw Chelsea in the mix as well, they have a more pressing need than us, so why didn't they go for either.
Ever thought that maybe the players didn't want to move to United? Or maybe we didn't think they would suit the manager's system or maybe they're not actually that good?
I think he could cover Martial if we let Ronny go. That will guarantee him plenty of minutes as Martial is bound to miss some time. Plus then you got all the cup games. He should get 30 games a season even if not all as a starter.
We definitely need another winger. Can't go into the season with Elanga as first point after Rashford or Sancho.
I think one of Amad, Pellistri or Garnacho will be ahead of Elanga this season. Although none of them look like they are anywhere near ready for the Prem, those 3 showed more than Elanga in the preseason.
Last one hinges on Wan Bissaka leaving (loan deal due to daft wages problem)
Yeah we do, but you can't fix everything in one window. Eriksen, Garnacho, maybe even Amad, if needed can play on the wing as well, so while lacking in numbers I think we can go through season without another addition and then prioritize it come next summer.
There is also a big issue of pretty much all our options being better at LW, but I just can't see us solving all our needs this summer. Especially with the way we are going through our deals so far.
Haaland had a release clause, City had been talking to him for months and paid his agent, his dad and the guy down the street multi millions.The issue boils down to this:
Are you happy with the transfers we made till now?;
Malacia balanced by Pereira - Eriksen on a free - Martinez who we still have to see how he settles in the PL?;
FDJ could be coming to be the most embarrassing transfer in our history - although i hope not!:
Antony is too expensive for us?:
Sesko could have been grabbed very quickly but a few days difference and other teams came swarming round?
We had a very bad season and teams like City and Liverpool got their men in a jiffy and without long-drawn series like Game of Thrones
And what have we fixed in our team without getting what we needed most - a good DM?
Can we win the league or at least compete for top four as we are now?
Liverpool paid a ridiculous fee for Nunez.
The issue is we've agreed a fee but Barca are a bunch of w@nkers so we have to be patient. Makes us look slow, we're not (with FDJ).
I think we've got a good shot at top.4 but it'll be a battle. I trust that ETH can coach them better but there's lots of team with a shout... the PL is different to other leagues.
Welcome mate!
These are the kind of signings that we need to be making. Slick recruitment of the best young prospects in the world, as I said above I have my doubts we will get him. If we were still winning I reckon we would have been picking up the Bellingham’s Seskos and Haalands of the world. Hopefully we are heading in a more suitable direction for this club that can have us back in contention either way. We need to be getting those kinds of players in as early as the RB/Dortmund/Ajax etc. We will lose too many of them if we wait until they cross into CL exposure.
Absolutely agree. I thought i was the only one who was nitpicking
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