Have we signed anyone yet? | Yes, with stupid tax

Status
Not open for further replies.
Every season, it feels like we get to the end of it then look around, blow our cheeks out and ask "So who's available then?". This summer looking no different so far.
 
It's going to be a long summer window. If we are stacked in a position then we won't buy until we sell and right now we are stacked in attack and defense (doesn't matter the quality). This means, as Ducker has stated already, signing an attacker is dependent on selling Martial and signing RB and CB is also dependent on sales.

I'm guessing reinforcing the midfield - CM and DM is the priority...basically replacing Matic and Pogba
 
Teams that finished above us: Haland, Alvarez, Nunez, Perisic, Saliba

We: ???

The issue is clear. We can't even back our new manager because our owners use the clubs money for cumrags

This while losing a bunch of players on a free. Pathetic. If you ever wonder what the ambitions for our owners are it's clear as day and have been for ages now. Not going to delude myself and think otherwise until they are gone
I find the bubble some people are putting themselves in, where we somehow exist outside the realm of what's going on around us, quite fascinating to observe.

Like getting the bodies in by close of the window is all that matters, settling in and acclimatisation be damned.

If your supposed rivals are getting their houses in order, and they're already ahead of you with less work to do in the window, there should be a raised eyebrow at the very least. I see posts on here that are the dog in burning building saying everything is perfectly fine, brought straight out of the meme.

Supposedly it's objective, but the reasoning absolutely does not stand up to scrutiny.

If ever a manager needs things sorted as succinctly as possible, it's one new to a country, league and squad, particularly one that is rubbish and playing catch up from the outset.
 
We've clearly reached the stage of the summer where it's one of two situations:
1. ETH and the new crew are really quietly going about their business, and the press have no clue (outside FDJ)
2. ETH and the new crew are doing sweet f*ck all and we're once again going to do a transfer window wrong by not integrating players in pre-season

Given the fact that 7 first teamers have left the club - and these were oddly celebrated as a social media event - someone is aware we have a large hole in our playing squad. So I have, HAVE to assume it's the former option. Which would be amazing. It's in the boards interest, the manager's interest and of course our interest to have a really good summer. If they don't sort it out, the pressure is going to continue to mount in a way that at the very least makes the poor Glazers a bit less comfortable with their theivery.
 
so it's not useful to point out the top two clubs in the country have done major business by July 13 and the club which scrapped sixth spot has done nothing...? this is exactly why we are where we are
We are a not a top club anymore.
 
Erik ten Hag finding it tough to sell the Manchester United project

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...-sell-the-manchester-united-project-kzdctbtpw

When Erik ten Hag flew to London last month he knew the sheer scale of the task awaiting him at Manchester United.

The Dutchman had arrived at the club’s Mayfair headquarters as early as possible after finishing his commitments with Ajax to get a head start before the new season.

He spoke with confidence and purpose over his plans to get the club back on track in his first meeting with the media but with the transfer window having being open less than a week he will realise more than ever how difficult it will be to realise his vision.

Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur have already strengthened while United chiefs continue to work on a deal to bring their first summer signing to the club. The ideal is that all new arrivals will be at the club before they fly to Thailand on pre-season tour on July 8 but with no deal close to being completed, as it stands, that will be a stretch.

The Times understands talks are ongoing between the club and Barcelona over a deal for Frenkie de Jong but an agreement needs to be reached on the fee. The La Liga side are in a tough financial situation but United are not willing to overpay for the Holland midfielder which could lead to the deal dragging on.


In one of his numerous brutally honest press conferences Ralf Rangnick warned his predecessor that signing players ahead of Liverpool, City and Chelsea would be tricky and the realities of that are now facing the Dutchman.

Erling Haaland, with his father’s links to City, always seemed destined for the Etihad and now United have been left watching from the wings as Liverpool agree a deal for another player of interest: Darwin Núñez.

The 22-year-old forward was one of a number of players on United’s list of targets. The recruitment department draws up lists for each position and the manager works with football director John Murtough and chief executive Richard Arnold over the order of importance ahead of starting negotiations.

The manner in which United go about their transfer business and negotiations has come under scrutiny in recent years. Protracted discussions without a coherent strategy involving too many people is one of the main criticisms levelled at the club.

While there was a feeling of optimism that the strategy had started to change — Murtough and Darren Fletcher have been handed new roles as football director and technical director, respectively — some sources close to the Núñez deal claim Liverpool’s approach was more streamlined which gave them a significant advantage over United.


From the outside it looks like another player — with the profile to solve one of United’s main issues of overreliance on Cristiano Ronaldo — that has gone elsewhere.

From the inside United do not believe they have missed out. While there were talks and there is an acceptance that he was a player of interest there was never a bid from United as they prioritise spending on a midfielder first.

De Jong is the priority target while Declan Rice is of interest but United would be unwilling to pay the huge fee West Ham United would demand. After securing a midfielder the understanding is they would like to bolster their attacking options. They have not restricted themselves to only signing a centre forward, and right winger Antony, who played for Ten Hag at Ajax, is on their radar. It is also understood that a defender is on the transfer list with Ten Hag keen on another of his former players in Jurrien Timber as well as Villarreal centre back Pau Torres.


Sources say Núñez’s agent, Jorge Mendes, made United aware of the price but the club were not prepared to get involved in a bidding war with Liverpool over a player who was never a priority target.

But, the unfortunate reality for United at the moment is that, even if they had decided to go head to head with Liverpool, they are not the proposition they once were. There is a strong belief within the club they still have pulling power when it comes to landing targets but for players with interest from the top four, it would take a lot of persuading to get them to pick Old Trafford.

Rewind to 2005 and Liverpool missed out on Nemanja Vidic with the Serbian picking Old Trafford. The Merseyside outfit ended up with Daniel Agger instead. Now the tables have turned.

It is not only the big names in the Premier League that United are competing against. Ajax midfielder Ryan Gravenberch revealed this week he had spoken to Ten Hag about a transfer to United before ultimately deciding to move to Bayern Munich.

As Rangnick put it, the club needs to be “realistic”. And the reality is that, without Champions League football and at the beginning of yet another rebuild, the selling pitch to some players has become a lot more difficult than it used to be.

The size of the task laid at Ten Hag’s door will be getting clearer to the Dutchman each day.
 
We've clearly reached the stage of the summer where it's one of two situations:
1. ETH and the new crew are really quietly going about their business, and the press have no clue (outside FDJ)
2. ETH and the new crew are doing sweet f*ck all and we're once again going to do a transfer window wrong by not integrating players in pre-season

Given the fact that 7 first teamers have left the club - and these were oddly celebrated as a social media event - someone is aware we have a large hole in our playing squad. So I have, HAVE to assume it's the former option. Which would be amazing. It's in the boards interest, the manager's interest and of course our interest to have a really good summer. If they don't sort it out, the pressure is going to continue to mount in a way that at the very least makes the poor Glazers a bit less comfortable with their theivery.
This idea that you can do business involving multi million pound deals and keep it under the radar is fantasy. We might not brief the press, but surely any agent worth his salt, and also the selling club would let it be known that player X is available and in discussions. Why should they give a stuff about our transfer plans, end of the day they need to maximise the money they make from selling the player, and I struggle to think of a scenario where that could happen without a bit of noise to attract other suitors / facilitate negotiations.

There is little noise connecting us with other players, because were not involved, because our budget doesn't allow it. sometimes its the truth thats staring us in face that we done see.
 
I was concerned by the chat from ten Hag that the squad finished second not long ago and has potential. Not that I blame ten Hag at all - he's probably been fed this line. I'm more concerned now that after a 6th place finish, Man City, Liverpool and Spurs have all made impressive moves, meanwhile we have done nothing. We drag every transfer window out. I know there is plenty of time left to make moves, but this squad needs a lot of work, we need to act. Are we dithering as usual? Delaying other deals as we hold on to the hope of De Jong joining? He obviously doesn't want to leave Barca, this isn't good enough. Part of the problem may be that we have no Champions League to offer, if this is the case I hope it is a lesson to them. And what of outgoings? The only ones who are leaving aren't sales its out of contract etc. it may be understandable as all we have to offer is dross. It's frustrating and maybe I'm speaking too soon, be better judged at the end of the window.
 
Pretty clear that we're struggling to operate on a budget as our scouting strategy is in the stone age and we only know how to sign obvious, high profile targets who currently don't want to join our circus.
 
What's clear is we're still incapable of negotiating several transfers at once. And those that say that our subsequent transfer dealings are dependent on whether we get FDJ over the line - well that itself is testament to incredibly poor planning. As it stands we're going into preseason with the same failure of a squad from last season, but with even more depleted with outgoings and no one coming in to reinforce it.

I hope our board aren't expecting ETH to be some miracle worker that'll transform the jokers from last season into a CL pedigree team.
 
What's clear is we're still incapable of negotiating several transfers at once. And those that say that our subsequent transfer dealings are dependent on whether we get FDJ over the line - well that itself is testament to incredibly poor planning. As it stands we're going into preseason with the same failure of a squad from last season, but with even more depleted with outgoings and no one coming in to reinforce it.

I hope our board aren't expecting ETH to be some miracle worker that'll transform the jokers from last season into a CL pedigree team.

The glazer meddling in football affairs looks unchanged despite the structural changes everyone is raving about and the love in some have for Murtough. All I see is the same old shit. Chasing after pricey star players, failing to find value or unearthing class players off the radar. When’s the last time you can honestly say United made an intelligent signing? It’s been long. The most recent that comes to mind is chicharito, as he came on the cheap and had some success.
 
Nothing short of embarassing. What is going on at board level, surely Ten Haag was tapped up months ago, therefore we would have had a list of wants and not wanted. We havent shipped anyone really - only the released players have left and we havent brought anyone in?
We'll be at a bootsale soon near you - on our little table will be Aaron Wan Bissaka, Phil Jones, Eric Bailey and Antony Martial - pop along you might pick up a bargain...................................................
Bollox!!!!!!!
 
Nothing short of embarassing. What is going on at board level, surely Ten Haag was tapped up months ago, therefore we would have had a list of wants and not wanted. We havent shipped anyone really - only the released players have left and we havent brought anyone in?
We'll be at a bootsale soon near you - on our little table will be Aaron Wan Bissaka, Phil Jones, Eric Bailey and Antony Martial - pop along you might pick up a bargain...................................................
Bollox!!!!!!!

They'll be running their contracts right down and leaving for free. A product of the stupidly high wages we have to offer nowadays to entice players to come to us during this period where we arent successful
 
Scenes next year when Rebuild FC miss out on Top 4 again and have to start paying fines to sponsors for missing consecutive CLs which will come out of the transfer budget.
 
I'm not usually to complain about lack of signings but given how poor a season we had, the improvements we need to make and the amount of players we've let go, you'd think we'd be the ones making early moves. But nope. Spurs, City and Liverpool have strengthened.
 
Is Matt Judge still there? Didn't ETH start a month early? Its genuinely difficult to comprehend how slow we move in the market it really is, this snail pace haggling and "monitoring" of players that are desperately needed for our "rebuild" needs to go its almost like its done on purpose for clicks or something.

Only explanation at this point is the backroom must still be full of businessmen it doesn't make sense. A football orientated setup would recognise the urgency involved, work out the maximum fee willing to be offered and then put in the offer. If it gets turned down at that point you move on to someone else, time is valuable and preseason and team cohesion is so important.

Really is meet the new boss same as the old boss at this point, these eejits genuinely start at 80% of their maximum and will go up 5% a time like its an Ebay sale yet still end up acquiescing above 100% weeks down the line anyway, its just so so tiresome.
 
What a bunch of horsesht. Can't wait for us to get back to the top and for the vultures in the media to go mad again in frenzy over our success.

If we become successful again they will find ways to belittle it. I still remember articles in the early 2000s claiming Ferguson simply got lucky with the class of 92 written by a proper turd Steven Howard, and Liverpool fans claiming we were shit when we reached 3 CL finals in 4 years while still winning multiple league titles. Contrast this to articles this season asking if Liverpool are the greatest club team ever :lol:
 
Looking at those lineups they do indeed have us beat and both teams have only so far added Halaand and Nunez to their teams. They might add more and the gap will be even bigger. I've given up catching them, Chelsea will get players in, Spurs have already got players in (When they make it official). I know we were going to struggle for top 4 next season but we might end up in the same league position next season as we did last season.

We are such a run down club owners/board have destroyed this club and I don't see anything changing in the future. Mean while teams below us will strengthen and go past us in a couple of years.
I don’t expect we will get into top 4 next season to be honest. All I hope is that we will get more money ball type of signings this summer, to get play the way ETH is looking for. But it seems we are heading into wrong direction into transfer market so far, onto those unrealistic/fairly expensive targets who doesn’t want to join us.
 
I know current day Manchester United are an absolute joke

But for me how idle they’ve been so far this summer is a new low.

They need about 6 players, had their worst PL season ever, and aren’t anywhere near to 1 signing and are obviously going to go on tour with no signings

Absolutely crazy
 
Worst season ever in the Premier League, we've still got a load of deadwood in the squad, United are the biggest joke in the league, and you'll still have fools thinking we've changed, saying don't panic, it's only the middle of June, etc etc.
 
Worst season ever in the Premier League, we've still got a load of deadwood in the squad, United are the biggest joke in the league, and you'll still have fools thinking we've changed, saying don't panic, it's only the middle of June, etc etc.

Toys out of the pram alert. Hahahaha

We make plenty of signings every single summer. Why are people acting like we never do?

It's getting the right players that matters not just getting anyone in because you're like a 8 year old on Xmas Eve that can't wait to unwrap his presents.

Some players might not want to join us either. Have you considered that?
 
Found this depressingly funny:

1.png
 
There's a difference between signing loads of players last minute with no real plan for how or where they fit into the squad, and having a clear strategy and getting players intended to fit that, in good time for the start of pre season.

Pre season training for non internationals starts in 12 days and training with everyone back starts about a week after that. Pretty unlikely we will have more than one over the line before the 27th June
 
Toys out of the pram alert. Hahahaha

We make plenty of signings every single summer. Why are people acting like we never do?

It's getting the right players that matters not just getting anyone in because you're like a 8 year old on Xmas Eve that can't wait to unwrap his presents.

Some players might not want to join us either. Have you considered that?
I don't know what relevance you think this has? Do you think this summer is the same as 'the others'? Given the myriad of really, really bad circumstances, do you think this is the time to be sitting on our hands and getting players in towards the end of the window, or perhaps some way into pre-season?

I get why posters such as yourself are trying to assuage others with what you presume is logical and reasonable thinking, but part of logical and reasonable thinking is assessing the whole, not just the parts that seem rational.
 
I don't know what relevance you think this has? Do you think this summer is the same as 'the others'? Given the myriad of really, really bad circumstances, do you think this is the time to be sitting on our hands and getting players in towards the end of the window, or perhaps some way into pre-season?

I get why posters such as yourself are trying to assuage others with what you presume is logical and reasonable thinking, but part of logical and reasonable thinking is assessing the whole, not just the parts that seem rational.

It's the 15th of June mate. The season doesn't start for another 7 weeks. For all you know we could be days away from signing 2-3 players. The press really don't have a clue.

And this De Jong lad is about to go on holiday for 3 weeks along with every other player involved in the Nations cup. He won't be training with us even if we get him signed up this week. Not until his holiday is done.
 
It's the 15th of June mate. The season doesn't start for another 7 weeks. For all you know we could be days away from signing 2-3 players. The press really don't have a clue.

And this De Jong lad is about to go on holiday for 3 weeks along with every other player involved in the Nations cup. He won't be training with us even if we get him signed up this week. Not until his holiday is done.
It’s the 15th of June; when does pre-season start? How long should it take for players coming from other countries take to settle, as well as their families? And what if we’re not a few days away from signing 2-3 players?

You didn’t answer what I asked you previously, could you?
 
Pre-season starts in 12 days. If we are going to compete this season we need players bedded in as quickly as possible to the new manager's training methods.
It's not like Ten Hag has suddenly been appointed last night.
We knew for some time and this just reaks of more of the same from our board of clowns.
 
Scenes next year when Rebuild FC miss out on Top 4 again and have to start paying fines to sponsors for missing consecutive CLs which will come out of the transfer budget.
Exactly what would happen. We’d have a budget of about 30m net.
 
It’s the 15th of June; when does pre-season start? How long should it take for players coming from other countries take to settle, as well as their families? And what if we’re not a few days away from signing 2-3 players?

You didn’t answer what I asked you previously, could you?

You have no idea what the club are doing. None us do and neither do most of these journalists.

We managed to sign Sancho Varane and Ronaldo with Ole in charge. LVG n Jose also got plenty of cash.

It's ridiculous the level of panic already amongst you all. I hate the Glazers with every fibre inside me but lack of signings isn't an issue. We've signed more players than I have had hot dinners. It's signing the right ones where we have failed not lack of incomings.
 
You have no idea what the club are doing. None us do and neither do most of these journalists.

We managed to sign Sancho Varane and Ronaldo with Ole in charge. LVG n Jose also got plenty of cash.

It's ridiculous the level of panic already amongst you all. I hate the Glazers with every fibre inside me but lack of signings isn't an issue. We've signed more players than I have had hot dinners. It's signing the right ones.
You’re not answering and repeating what was initially contested by citing precisely what I asked you why it had any relevance in the here and now under wholly different circumstances where time is actually of the essence.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.