I think Malacia has been a disappointing signing as I was expecting someone to push Shaw but he is nowhere near that. Casemiro for me was the wrong signing for us. Yes he's been good but for me a waste of money on the wrong profile of player for that position. Antony has been disappointing relative to his price tag. If he had been bought for 30/40mil I'd be fine with him. Mount I can see the idea behind buying him, however for the price tag I think we should have gotten someone else, either someone more creative or someone who can control the game.
Did we waste €200 million this summer?
- Thread starter Andycoleno9
- Start date
If we could turn back time…
Malacia <> Udogie
Casemiro <> Palhinha+Bissouma
Antony <> Raphinha/Olise
Mount <> Nunes/Kone
Saying that, Palhinha was a fecking obvious move at 1/4 of the price and 3 or 4 years younger than Casemiro, still annoys me today. As much as I love and respect the man, he was exactly the age profile of player we needed to move away from.
Yep. This summer was complete waste of money. Expensive midfielder who is benched by McTominay and striker who is still to score in PL. Maybe they will come good next year but for this year it was complete waste to spend money like we did.
But long term and shit.....
But long term and shit.....
Our signings are invariably awful. Or else they are good players turned awful by the toxic atmosphere of the place.
It's not just £200m this summer. It's everyone bar maybe Martinez, Malacia and Hojlund.
In reality, it's about £400m or something wasted.
In reality, it's about £400m or something wasted.
Hojlund has less goals than Nunez did last year and hasn’t even scored a league goal yet. Early to say if he’ll be a success. Malacia isn’t a success at all. Martinez is injured all the time. Basically we either have rotten luck or just have no clue what we are doing. Bit of both I’d say.
I'm just thinking long term. Like, they're not now, no, but they have the potential to contribute and live up to their transfers.
Everyone else? An absolute waste.
Of course we did. This has been our gimmick for about 10 years now, why stop now?
Again it’s insane how much money we’ve spent and wasted. Complain about City spending loads but we’ve done the same and the team hasn’t changed a bit.
I'm contributing to my passive aggressive tagline here, but the difference is press resistance.
City target players who excel under pressure. We sign players based off name value and stats. Or if ten Hag has previously worked with them.
Until we target press resistant players, things aren't going to change. It's why Arsenal are now competing. They got Arteta and Edu in to prioritise these players and they're reaping the rewards with excellent football and results.
I said a couple of months ago that we'd have been better off if we didn't sign anyone and kept the squad from last year. Keeping De Gea, Fred etc. and not signing anyone is definitely better than overpaying for Onana, Mount, Amrabat etc. So yes, we wasted 200m only to make our squad worse.
Here is the another thing which shows how bar is low.
Martinez is labelled as top signing. He had good half of season and got injured. Not Erik's fault that of course but he did miss cruical part of last season and will miss half of this season.
Also, what Hojlund did so far? Again, he will maybe come good in future but in this season he scored 0 goals in PL.
Not top signings, no. Just signings that have shown they at least have the potential to live up to said transfers unlike everyone else. Of course, they may not knowing our track record, but who knows.
Undoubtedly
Yes. We're similar to Chelsea in that, no matter how much we spend, whenever you see the team sheet you still think it needs another 400m to sort out.
We wasted about £250 million the summer before too.
ETH’s recruitment has been nothing short of shambolic.
ETH’s recruitment has been nothing short of shambolic.
Yes.
I think its going to prove to be our worst window yet. Even worse than the 2019 one.
It’s not his job, that’s Murtough’s job.
They were all Eric’s picks
Hojlund looks like he could be a star in a few years time. Lets just hope we don't break his spirit completely.
A better question might be why. Good players turning bad seems to be as common as signing the wrong players.
The way I see it we are competing against 19 other teams many of whom are trying to win football games first and foremost. Basically Pep summed it up...
"We are in the same direction, me, the CEO, the sporting directors, the chairman. That is why I think the club is so stable." That is why we sign the wrong players.
The way I see it we are competing against 19 other teams many of whom are trying to win football games first and foremost. Basically Pep summed it up...
"We are in the same direction, me, the CEO, the sporting directors, the chairman. That is why I think the club is so stable." That is why we sign the wrong players.
we have spent nearly half a billion since Ten Hag took over and we are a mid table team, so yes o would say we have wasted more money then any club in the history of football
I know Chelsea aren't very good, but I'd trade squads with them in a minute. They have a lot of young talent and I'd guess their team will be good in 2-3 years. I don't see why our team will be.
Sterling/Mudryk---------Nkunku/Jackson------------Madueke/Palmer
--------------Gallagher/Chukwumeka--------Enzo/Santos--------------------
------------------------------------Caicedo/Lesley----------------------------------------
Chilwell/Cucarella-Colwill/Badiashile---Disasi/Fofana----------James/Gusto
--------------------------------------------Sanchez/Petrovic----------------------------
Apart from Sterling, everyone in that entire list is at an age to improve. Colwill, James, Caicedo and Enzo are all quality footballers 23 and under.
No he's the man that should have said no and his value to us it 40 million not 90 million.
Both should go!
We'll probably give up on him next summer. We'll sign another strike and then 'develop' Hojlund off the bench with 10 minute cameos, and then blame him for not improving.
That's the point Murtough should have never allowed it.
The Glazers will rightfully think that from a business POV it would have been wiser to pocket those 200M and they will probably do so in the next window
Ten Haag is very overrated. His purcase has a success rate of 10% and that's generous.
Completely agree. Far more to work with going forward. A couple of reliable goalscorers away from a decent side. Us on the other hand need upgrades in nearly every position.
There's only Hojlund that we'd get anywhere near our money back on if sold today.
That's just hindsight though. If he didn't back him it would be his arse out the door right now. Not that I'm defending him but We all thought ten hag knew what he was doing.
Where was Doku on our lists?
Madison for £40m?
Madison for £40m?
Until the club & fans accept taking a proper step back, one which will involve selling the Bruno’s, Rashford’s, Shaw’s we won’t go anywhere.
Onana and Holjund will turn out to be fine. Now that we’ve seen how Mount was planned to be used, that’s a Havertz level oopsie
No it's not hindsight. There were a fair amount of us complaining that we were doing what had been done before. There is moaning all over this thread about it. Backing the manager by buying the players he picks out should have long ended with the lvg .
I like Onana. I like Hojlund. I even like Mount and I'm okay with Amrabat. But it's bloody damning that the only new signing that can play 90 minutes is the goalkeeper. Gets worse when you see some of the other players who moved flourishing at their new clubs and becoming key players.
All of our signings might come good in the end but it's clear we didn't improve the team enough in the short term and, while there was clearly a will to do so, the fact that we were left gambling on departures late in the window to raise funds does make the €200m spend look poorly thought out.
I accept that injuries in the backline have hampered our play massively, but we know Shaw is good for a layoff and we knew Licha would be coming back from a horrible injury. We know Varane has constant fitness issues too. Losing our ball players at the back - while unfortunate - was an eventuality we could have seen coming and better prepared for, particularly given how pivotal that area of the pitch is for us.
All of our signings might come good in the end but it's clear we didn't improve the team enough in the short term and, while there was clearly a will to do so, the fact that we were left gambling on departures late in the window to raise funds does make the €200m spend look poorly thought out.
I accept that injuries in the backline have hampered our play massively, but we know Shaw is good for a layoff and we knew Licha would be coming back from a horrible injury. We know Varane has constant fitness issues too. Losing our ball players at the back - while unfortunate - was an eventuality we could have seen coming and better prepared for, particularly given how pivotal that area of the pitch is for us.
Not everyone blindly follow the manager and believes he knows best. It's just those who speak out are laughed at and told to shut up. Until we reach this part of the process, where it all falls apart and it turns out the manager didn't actually know what he was doing, that everyone then turns around and with hindsight looks back and identifies his long list of feck ups
There were people in here praising the last two transfer windows as 8/10s etc, and would go to hell and back to defend don murtough's decisions. People who said Maddison>Mount, were told they didnt understand ball 
Truth of the matter is simple. We have a DOF who is a clown, we target names and not profiles, and when we manage to sign players we delay and overpay. We cant sell. We give fat contracts to undeserving players whose form goes to shit the moment they sign their extensions. We give the manager too much power because we have a spineless DOF.
Sack Murtough and co. Get a proper DOF and recruitment team in, and the change will be easily seen.
Truth of the matter is simple. We have a DOF who is a clown, we target names and not profiles, and when we manage to sign players we delay and overpay. We cant sell. We give fat contracts to undeserving players whose form goes to shit the moment they sign their extensions. We give the manager too much power because we have a spineless DOF.
Sack Murtough and co. Get a proper DOF and recruitment team in, and the change will be easily seen.
I don't know how some people can't see it, but Hojlund is going to be an absolute top striker. He's got the passion and determination when he plays that most of our squad have never seen. He looks dangerous regularly, and he's very young.
With a decent group of players around him he'd be doing really well already. Sadly, he has a group of clueless zombies around him, not one of whom can cross a ball and recently, seem unable to even complete a simple through pass or 1-2 with him.
The only way he doesn't become a star is if we ruin him by letting the rot in the club spread.
With a decent group of players around him he'd be doing really well already. Sadly, he has a group of clueless zombies around him, not one of whom can cross a ball and recently, seem unable to even complete a simple through pass or 1-2 with him.
The only way he doesn't become a star is if we ruin him by letting the rot in the club spread.