Club ownership | Senior management team talk

MikeUpNorth said:
Ok, that's more reasonable. I guess we weren't interested for some reason — I think he's had a lot of personal problems recently. Plus poor form.
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It's mainly because AC Milan's original position was to sell him or include a purchase obligation into a loan deal. United were never going to entertain those options.
 
Bertie Wooster said:
The loan fee was always going to be something like that - loan fees for first team players between clubs the size of United and Munich aren't going to be much lower.

Also, if the 'option to buy' was high, we didn't have to insist on it. We needed someone to tide us over to the summer before reassessing more than we needed a long term signing right now.

I'm happy for that player not to have been Tel. People are now pointing out all the reasons why he wasn't the answer - the worry is that the club seem to have spent all the window thinking he was, and pretty much having him (and maybe Nkunku) as the targets.

If he's definitely not the answer, and the club were right not to opt for a raw 19 year old on loan - why did they seemingly spend the window settling on him as the first / only choice? Only to finally come to the same conclusion as others as late as transfer deadline day.
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Tel's potential is very high. The dude is incredibly talented and athletic to boot. From what I've seen, he can become better than Kolo Muani. The problems started when Spurs got involved and offered their high fee. United were never going to offer that high fee as they valued Tel on his current rawness rather than his potential. That's why United weren't keen on a high-value purchase option even if they could have declined it.

United probably could've done better looking at other alternatives, but maybe they already did and found that their options were slim (hence Arsenal also not being able to find a forward to join them for the rest of the season). United were more interested in an experienced, ready-made option rather than bringing in another high-potential yet raw player. They already have that in Højlund with Zirkzee still settling into the league.
 
Ineos seems a bit like elon musk. Fire everyone and keep running the business with minimal no of people. In this case, players. They have no other vision.
 
mazhar13 said:
Tel's potential is very high. The dude is incredibly talented and athletic to boot. From what I've seen, he can become better than Kolo Muani. The problems started when Spurs got involved and offered their high fee. United were never going to offer that high fee as they valued Tel on his current rawness rather than his potential. That's why United weren't keen on a high-value purchase option even if they could have declined it.

United probably could've done better looking at other alternatives, but maybe they already did and found that their options were slim (hence Arsenal also not being able to find a forward to join them for the rest of the season). United were more interested in an experienced, ready-made option rather than bringing in another high-potential yet raw player. They already have that in Højlund with Zirkzee still settling into the league.
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Yeah the poor planning in terms of looking at alternatives is the really annoying thing. Hopefully Statler and Waldorf are sold off in the summer so only need to look at then until then
 
mazhar13 said:
Tel's potential is very high. The dude is incredibly talented and athletic to boot. From what I've seen, he can become better than Kolo Muani. The problems started when Spurs got involved and offered their high fee. United were never going to offer that high fee as they valued Tel on his current rawness rather than his potential. That's why United weren't keen on a high-value purchase option even if they could have declined it.

United probably could've done better looking at other alternatives, but maybe they already did and found that their options were slim (hence Arsenal also not being able to find a forward to join them for the rest of the season). United were more interested in an experienced, ready-made option rather than bringing in another high-potential yet raw player. They already have that in Højlund with Zirkzee still settling into the league.
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I completely agree that that should have been the target, for the reasons you give.

And you spend a lot more time following the transfer talk than I do so hopefully you're right. I can't say I heard of many rumours to established strikers during the window. Almost all the talk seemed to be about Tel - with occasional bits about Nkunku.

What other experienced, ready made strikers were reportedly our top targets? And did we get as far with any of them as we reportedly did with the Tel discussions?
 
Bertie Wooster said:
I completely agree that that should have been the target, for the reasons you give.

And you spend a lot more time following the transfer talk than I do so hopefully you're right. I can't say I heard of many rumours to established strikers during the window. Almost all the talk seemed to be about Tel - with occasional bits about Nkunku.

What other experienced, ready made strikers were reportedly our top targets? And did we get as far with any of them as we reportedly did with the Tel discussions?
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United was looking at Kolo Muani, but then Juventus got ahead and secured him. That's it, though.
 
mazhar13 said:
United was looking at Kolo Muani, but then Juventus got ahead and secured him. That's it, though.
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Thanks.

I'm fast coming to the conclusion that, really, there was never much interest / intent in bringing in another striker this window. There doesn't seem to have been (m)any serious targets, and just a few half hearted overtures.

I think had there been a real desire to bring in someone, a lot more could / should have been done over the whole window to get a lot of the negotiations in place ready for when we could make a move to conclude the deal.

Just feels like we paid lip service to a few 'targets' without much intention of bringing any in.
 
Its good to have best in class football people in charge finally.

I'm blindly gripping that right now as otherwise I have no idea what these people are doing.

Hire a new manager and then, at the first opportunity, do absolutely nothing to support him - fair play for sorting loans for Antony & Rashford, but incomings?

There's no reason to expect that anything we've seen so far this season is going to change... fans are impatient, we played Mainoo as a CF literally yesterday, with our 2 unproven strikers on the bench... come the summer there will be more and more people calling for the managers head and questioning whether he deserves to be backed next summer.

I have no idea what's going on at this club.
 
Not getting a striker in is a huge mistake. Losing Rashford, Höjlund and Zirkzee struggling massively. Our board seems happy to finish 15th, they couldn't run a kindergarten.
 
VP89 said:
He's not worth a £5m loan fee, assuming it's also an expensive option on top I think it's a good move to pass.
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I know it's not a guaranteed thing, but it will cost us much more if we don't win EL, and get into Champion league via that route. We now have to pray everyone stays fit.
 
Eyepopper said:
Its good to have best in class football people in charge finally.

I'm blindly gripping that right now as otherwise I have no idea what these people are doing.

Hire a new manager and then, at the first opportunity, do absolutely nothing to support him - fair play for sorting loans for Antony & Rashford, but incomings?

There's no reason to expect that anything we've seen so far this season is going to change... fans are impatient, we played Mainoo as a CF literally yesterday, with our 2 unproven strikers on the bench... come the summer there will be more and more people calling for the managers head and questioning whether he deserves to be backed next summer.

I have no idea what's going on at this club.
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This will take years to sort out. People are not laughing at us any longer, they pity us. Every decision we make is the wrong one.
 
I’m as frustrated as the next

But…now that ineos have said they effectively don’t want to impact the summer rebuild by spending cash on ‘plasters’ in January then so be it

Liverpool waited for their top transfer targets a few seasons back and there was endless media coverage about home sensible they were playing the long game. Worked out quite well for them…going on to become the bed rock of their team for the next few years

2 things HAVE to happen

INEOS now HAVE to spend money in the summer. And secondly, they HAVE to get it right. We can’t afford Another Antony, Casemiro, Sanchez, Sancho….etc

Good luck Dorgu

Interesting to see where Leon fits as well. He too looks quick and powerful
 
Pughnichi said:
I’m as frustrated as the next

But…now that ineos have said they effectively don’t want to impact the summer rebuild by spending cash on ‘plasters’ in January then so be it

Liverpool waited for their top transfer targets a few seasons back and there was endless media coverage about home sensible they were playing the long game. Worked out quite well for them…going on to become the bed rock of their team for the next few years

2 things HAVE to happen

INEOS now HAVE to spend money in the summer. And secondly, they HAVE to get it right. We can’t afford Another Antony, Casemiro, Sanchez, Sancho….etc

Good luck Dorgu

Interesting to see where Leon fits as well. He too looks quick and powerful
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They probably will spend but damage done
 
Plant0x84 said:
Nah, we have 4 players who can cover the 9 position. We have players to cover the 2 tens, and we have a couple now who can play false 9 if we need it. Wing backs were our greatest need (especially left) and we have addressed that at least. They are key to the way Amorim wants to play.
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We literally have 4 forward players left for the whole season. 4.
 
Bertie Wooster said:
Thanks.

I'm fast coming to the conclusion that, really, there was never much interest / intent in bringing in another striker this window. There doesn't seem to have been (m)any serious targets, and just a few half hearted overtures.

I think had there been a real desire to bring in someone, a lot more could / should have been done over the whole window to get a lot of the negotiations in place ready for when we could make a move to conclude the deal.

Just feels like we paid lip service to a few 'targets' without much intention of bringing any in.
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Precisely; if they were serious about bringing in a striker this month, they would have, but maybe that's why they were encouraging a Garnacho sale this month. With that never taking off, United were never seriously going to spend on an established striker.
 
BluesJr said:
Out of all them Berrada strikes me as a serious guy but how has he allowed this to happen? You could see this disaster coming a mile off and they’ve done nothing. Loans are achievable before anyone mentions money.
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This happened because of Berrada as he pulled rank on Ashworth and brought Amorim in knowing full well we had no money to help Amorim and the players wouldn’t fit, Berrada had no right making footballing decisions like that as he’s the CEO and it was Ashworth’s decision to make which is why Ashworth left as his two big decisions in sacking ETH and bringing in his successor were done by Brailsford and Berrada
 
davidmichael said:
This happened because of Berrada as he pulled rank on Ashworth and brought Amorim in knowing full well we had no money to help Amorim and the players wouldn’t fit, Berrada had no right making footballing decisions like that as he’s the CEO and it was Ashworth’s decision to make which is why Ashworth left as his two big decisions in sacking ETH and bringing in his successor were done by Brailsford and Berrada
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This is completely made up. The Athletic podcast suggested a difference in opinion from Ashworth and the rest of the decision makers - that includes Berrada and Wilcox. And I'd argue that the Ashworth suggestions were not remotely inspiring based on credible leaks.

Moreover Ten Hag renewed two months before Berradas first day. You seem to have got your time lines wrong.
 
Plant0x84 said:
Nah, we have 4 players who can cover the 9 position. We have players to cover the 2 tens, and we have a couple now who can play false 9 if we need it. Wing backs were our greatest need (especially left) and we have addressed that at least. They are key to the way Amorim wants to play.
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Whats the point of getting wingbacks if we dont have anyone who can put the ball in the back of the net consistently?

We needed both
 
Ratcliffe shared: "To become co-owner of Manchester United is a great honour and comes with great responsibility,"

"This marks the completion of the transaction, but just the beginning of our journey to take Manchester United back to the top of English, European, and world football, with world-class facilities for our fans."
 
I've been as annoyed as anyone after the Palace game and the lack of transfers today. But....

At least INEOS have a coherent strategy. They are sticking by it. Thinking about the long term and buying young players.

Lets be honest. Other than City, none of the big clubs did any business. Its better to keep our powder dry for the summer when there are better players available. Clearly they dont want to fall into the trap of buying players in a panic, overpaying and then being locked into contracts.

Dorgu is a good long term solution at a good price. Im sure Gyokeres will join in the summer along with a Cunha or equivalent.

Unfortunately our games until June are going to be rancid. But overall I think INEOS did the right thing.

Another thing to note, Amorim has to prove himself between now and the end of the season. Its not a great united team, but he should be doing better than he is. Its a positive that we didnt spend a fortune backing him and then he gets the sack right away. he has to earn the right to get backing in summer. Im not saying win the league, but we need to being much improved over what we have seen so far. If that doesnt happen, no way I want another 200m spent on him.
 
At least Antony is out and we didn't pay £60m for Nkunku is about the best you can say for that damp squib of a transfer window.
 
Do you all have an expiry date for INEOS? We spent ~250M EUR this season, so I don't have much patience for people claiming cost cutting / owners being stingy / whatever. Of course, balanced by outgoings of 100M EUR so a net of 150M.

I think I'm mostly happy with the incomings. Young, lots of potential and even in the case of slightly more limited players like Zirkzee, Ugarte and De Ligt, it's clear they'll have a big part to play in the next 4-5 years. The outgoings also make sense generally. They were more limited players (McT, AwB, Antony) or players with attitude problems or worse (Sancho, Greenwood) or has-beens (Varane). In Rashford's case probably all three. The wage bill is also mostly clean. Especially so if Rashford and Casemiro end up leaving this summer.

I think my clock starts ticking next season and will make up my mind in December. I imagine another window of this magnitude (150m or so net spend) with most of it going to the midfield and attack. I don't have specific aspirations for next year but they can't keep serving up this shit on a stick football after spending 250M on midfield and attacking reinforcements in the summer.
 
There is to much toxic positivity plaguing United fans on INEOS.
They have too much bad track records in their previous sport endeavors but many United fans just hypnotized them that "it will be different this time" (it is similar to women's mentality getting hooked up by the bad boys)
 
Disastrous first year, nothing they have done in their tenure has actually helped us on the pitch. Dithering on sacking ETH and then handing him another £220m to waste is more incompetent than anything Woodward did. Genuinely set us back couple of years and completely killed the current season.
 
Teja said:
I think I'm mostly happy with the incomings. Young, lots of potential and even in the case of slightly more limited players like Zirkzee, Ugarte and De Ligt, it's clear they'll have a big part to play in the next 4-5 years. The outgoings also make sense generally. They were more limited players (McT, AwB, Antony) or players with attitude problems or worse (Sancho, Greenwood) or has-beens (Varane). In Rashford's case probably all three. The wage bill is also mostly clean. Especially so if Rashford and Casemiro end up leaving this summer.

I think my clock starts ticking next season and will make up my mind in December. I imagine another window of this magnitude (150m or so net spend) with most of it going to the midfield and attack. I don't have specific aspirations for next year but they can't keep serving up this shit on a stick football after spending 250M on midfield and attacking reinforcements in the summer.
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Problem is that we say the same thing every time we have a new manager -- replace the deadwoods. But the problem is that we have been doing so under the past two regimes. The squad's barely recognisable from 5 years ago. Clearly, we arent good at a nuanced approach of either squad building or manager selection.

Maybe its the case that we learn from Chelsea. Under Abramovich, they changed managers like every 18 months. Now under Boehley, they are rotating players like a revolving door. But both approaches seem to have given the club some level of consistency.

What is it that Chelsea are doing that we seem to fail badly?
 
Kush said:
Disastrous first year, nothing they have done in their tenure has actually helped us on the pitch. Dithering on sacking ETH and then handing him another £220m to waste is more incompetent than anything Woodward did. Genuinely set us back couple of years and completely killed the current season.
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As some famous rapper battler once said, what's past is prologue.
 
Pughnichi said:
I’m as frustrated as the next

But…now that ineos have said they effectively don’t want to impact the summer rebuild by spending cash on ‘plasters’ in January then so be it

Liverpool waited for their top transfer targets a few seasons back and there was endless media coverage about home sensible they were playing the long game. Worked out quite well for them…going on to become the bed rock of their team for the next few years

2 things HAVE to happen

INEOS now HAVE to spend money in the summer. And secondly, they HAVE to get it right. We can’t afford Another Antony, Casemiro, Sanchez, Sancho….etc

Good luck Dorgu

Interesting to see where Leon fits as well. He too looks quick and powerful
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All makes sense but at the same time you can almost see the headlines now: ‘United’s summer spending plans limited due to lack of CL football; Berrada and co caught off-guard by lack of interest from top targets, etc’
 
jem said:
All makes sense but at the same time you can almost see the headlines now: ‘United’s summer spending plans limited due to lack of CL football; Berrada and co caught off-guard by lack of interest from top targets, etc’
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Eh? The United way is to pay the new players a king's ransom, right? That's how we always get our top targets.
I jest.

I suspect that we will be buying mainly potentials—young, high-potential kids. Develop them. Market them to make them appealling off the field and then flog off.

We will be building towards being a selling club. The Brighton of the North. Thats the new business model.
 
sglowrider said:
Eh? The United way is to pay the new players a king's ransom, right? That's how we always get our top targets.
I jest.

I suspect that we will be buying mainly potentials—young, high-potential kids. Develop them. Market them to make them appealling off the field and then flog off.

We will be building towards being a selling club. The Brighton of the North. Thats the new business model.
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Great. Now I feel even more depressed
 
Pughnichi said:
I’m as frustrated as the next

But…now that ineos have said they effectively don’t want to impact the summer rebuild by spending cash on ‘plasters’ in January then so be it

Liverpool waited for their top transfer targets a few seasons back and there was endless media coverage about home sensible they were playing the long game. Worked out quite well for them…going on to become the bed rock of their team for the next few years

2 things HAVE to happen

INEOS now HAVE to spend money in the summer. And secondly, they HAVE to get it right. We can’t afford Another Antony, Casemiro, Sanchez, Sancho….etc

Good luck Dorgu

Interesting to see where Leon fits as well. He too looks quick and powerful
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If that is the plan then fair enough. It does put a lot of pressure on them to get things right in the summer, and also puts a lot of pressure on the start of next season.

It does make you question where that leaves the rest of this season, however, and what exactly will be judged as acceptable.
 
This lack of ambition must surely affect the players for the rest of the season. Nothing to play for since INEOS has already given up on the season.
 
sglowrider said:
This lack of ambition must surely affect the players for the rest of the season. Nothing to play for since INEOS has already given up on the season.
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The players blaming Ineos for their poor performance tells us all we need to know about the players, and not Ineos.

There's 'ambition' and there is reality.
 
Shit squad, high ticket prices. You pay City prices to watch Sunderland! ....IDEOTs way
 
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