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

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I wouldn't be 100% surprised if ETH quits before the end of the season... it really is that much of a sh*t show
 
UnitedFire said:
Does the forum ownership have a licensing requirement or financial incentive to maintain positivity? Genuine question.

If its not that where does your positivity come from? Do you believe that despite us being entirely useless last year and appearing like one of the worst Man Utd squads ever that it'll suddenly come together under Ten Hag working miracles.

Or you just expect the signings will eventually come and despite a lack of working with the squad in pre season they'll just fit like a glove?

I actually wish I could have a glimmer of positivity, but I just don't see it. We desperately need some high quality signings
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We have one of the best young coaches in Europe,

if people could contain themselves and understand that like any other season we will work until the final day, they might be a whole lot less stressed in life.

signing then to all join a preseason tour is a pipe dream.
 
golden_blunder said:
We have one of the best young coaches in Europe,

if people could contain themselves and understand that like any other season we will work until the final day, they might be a whole lot less stressed in life.

signing then to all join a preseason tour is a pipe dream.
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I guess time will tell, but I've not seen much evidence of patience being a benefit.

If I knew we could buy 4 players with £10m discounts on each by being patient and spend that £40m saving on another position then I could see this being worth the trade off. You get less pre season prep, but that extra position resolved might pay back.

The problem is so far we look like either having no real discount on most signings or even worst over paying for Ajax players where better prices seem like they would have been found before other clubs gave them a surge of cash.

So right now we just seem to be failing to effectively negotiate or to have a range of targets to allow us to play harder ball.

I'm sure half the reason clubs overcharge us is because we become obsessed with individual targets.
 
mitchmouse said:
I wouldn't be 100% surprised if ETH quits before the end of the season... it really is that much of a sh*t show
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I just hope he doesn’t have a cooling off period in his contract, otherwise he could go before the start of the season!
 
We should go for Ziyech on a free. He’s worked with ten Hag before and has premier league experience. Instead of paying 60m for Antony, we could use the money on a striker or another position of need then.

Edit: oops, my mistake, I thought I read that he was free this summer.
 
The Irish Connection said:
We should go for Ziyech on a free. He’s worked with ten Hag before and has premier league experience. Instead of paying 60m for Antony, we could use the money on a striker or another position of need then.
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Does playing badly in the Premier League really count as having Premier League experience? He’s not good enough for Chelsea and he isn’t for us.
 
Tavern in the town said:
Does playing badly in the Premier League really count as having Premier League experience? He’s not good enough for Chelsea and he isn’t for us.
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De Jong hasn’t played brilliantly for Barcelona but ten Hag wants him because he knows how to use him.
Antony has a lot to prove and Ziyech actually looked better than him when he was at Ajax.
Anyway, I don’t think he’s actually a free agent anyway so it doesn’t matter. On a free he would be good, if it meant we could use more funds on another needed position.
 
As expected the people who worked alongside Woodward and probably got their jobs because of him aren’t finding it any easier. Have to remember when they got their roles the club though everything was going well and the remit was probably to carry on Woodward’s work.

Once again the club’s ability to brief exceeds ability to get deals done, if they had a strategy it’s clearly not working. Can still salvage the window but the lack of competence is as concerning as ever.
 
Prospect left back in.
Eriksen close.
Martinez every chance.
De Jong still possible.

It "could" still be a decent window.

But if we've learnt nothing from the last decade it's not about names, it's about how they actually play. So signing anyone is only half of the story.
 
mitchmouse said:
I wouldn't be 100% surprised if ETH quits before the end of the season... it really is that much of a sh*t show
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I wouldn’t be surprised either.

In fact, if the board stand in the way of any sales or signings (within the budget), I actually want him to quit and tell the world why.

On the other hand, let’s hope he’s respected and gets the proper chance to manage the way he wants to.
 
I’m loving my life said:
I think we’re coming round to the reality that actually nothing has changed except the de facto focus of blame (Woodward) has gone. It was inexplicably dumb to merely just promote a couple of his acolytes to the most prominent positions in the club…jobs for the boys/promoting from within/protecting the Glazers flow of money by prioritising marketing and PR over football.

The transfer market performance this summer is the proof in the pudding. We employed ETH in April (literally the only good thing Murtough has done in his year-long tenure). He could have had a quality squad to work with but he’s been massively debilitated by the ineptitude of his yes-man, inexperienced, Glazer-puppet DoF.

Arnold getting Woodward’s job is another massive red flag. This guy was basically working under Woodward for years. It’s literally more of the same but the club have just got better at PR. He got the job because he will carry on with the primary objective of lining the Glazers pockets. That’s the only reason. If you look at this nothing has changed. We have a new manager but he’s not being backed and in a few months the playing staff will down tools, because their remit is to generate social media clicks and they know they will get long contracts and pay rises for doing that and not being good on the football pitch.
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I don’t think I agree with the bolded; can you give examples?

The players we are targeting are ones that the manager wants in order to establish his brand of football, not ones that are marketing oriented. Malacia certainly isn’t, and De Jong is hardly glamorous. Ronaldo was undoubtedly a marketing and PR signing, but that was under the previous management and he’s turning out to be more trouble than he’s worth.
 
Does any activity ever actually happen at the weekend?
Just asking so I can stop refreshing pages until Monday.
 
Lights Out said:
Does any activity ever actually happen at the weekend?
Just asking so I can stop refreshing pages until Monday.
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Other clubs do. We defend our club by spouting some stock exchange shite in New York not being open.
 
One other negative thing to me. In an age of social media, worldwide scouting and in depth statistical analysis available. Is our apparent player search a little bit strange so far going from press reports the last few months?

May or not be truth in the stories of course, but whilst Ragnick seemed to have a role to play....virtually all the players he seemed to be interested in us signing were from the German league, virtually all of the players tha Ten Hag has been linked with have originatede from the Dutch league.

All seems a little strange. Only couple I can think of us being linek dwith is Torres from Spain who Ten Hag doesnt seem to favour (and neitehr do I) in a league there are lots of gems in and then Eriksen from the premiership (again originates from the Dutch league of course).

What about France and Germany where there are loads of hugely talented young players, South America etc etc, all seems blinkered and our scouts may as well not even be there currently
 
ETH was the best signing we’ve made. Potentially we have Eriksen, De Jong, Martinez, Antony along with Tyrell whos just signed.

Little bit more calm amongst the fans would make everyone happier.
 
lefty_jakobz said:
ETH was the best signing we’ve made. Potentially we have Eriksen, De Jong, Martinez, Antony along with Tyrell whos just signed.

Little bit more calm amongst the fans would make everyone happier.
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Agree, though the possibility exists of us failing to sign Eriksen/Martinez/Antony and only getting Eriksen and Malacia, and then scrambling and overpaying for someone like Ruben Neves or Tielemans. A certain level of incompetence and Ten Hag might just walk....
 
Shakesey said:
Well, you could hardly blame the poor fans.
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Yeah I get that and normally if be the same but we have signed one of the most promising young managers in Europe, that in itself shows me we are already better equipped than last season.
 
bosnian_red said:
Agree, though the possibility exists of us failing to sign Eriksen/Martinez/Antony and only getting Eriksen and Malacia, and then scrambling and overpaying for someone like Ruben Neves or Tielemans. A certain level of incompetence and Ten Hag might just walk....
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I don’t think he would walk. Managing one of the biggest clubs in the World with a view to take them back up to that level is what’s driving him, we always want hungry players at our club, now we have a hungry manager. Can’t wait for this season to start.
 
mitchmouse said:
I wouldn't be 100% surprised if ETH quits before the end of the season... it really is that much of a sh*t show
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OrcaFat said:
I wouldn’t be surprised either.

In fact, if the board stand in the way of any sales or signings (within the budget), I actually want him to quit and tell the world why.

On the other hand, let’s hope he’s respected and gets the proper chance to manage the way he wants to.
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:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Oh wait. You're actually being serious.
 
lefty_jakobz said:
Yeah I get that and normally if be the same but we have signed one of the most promising young managers in Europe, that in itself shows me we are already better equipped than last season.
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I agree 100%.

But I also understand that many fear we've been down this road before. RedCafe is literally the only footie/media website not oozing with Utd pessimism. Most have been understandably consumed by it.
 
bosnian_red said:
Agree, though the possibility exists of us failing to sign Eriksen/Martinez/Antony and only getting Eriksen and Malacia, and then scrambling and overpaying for someone like Ruben Neves or Tielemans. A certain level of incompetence and Ten Hag might just walk....
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Why is it incompetence when we miss out on players but fine when others do it? This summer alone Chelsea have lost out on Kounde, De Ligt, Raphinha, Richarlison and possibly Dembele. When City signed Dias they went for Koulibaly and Kounde first. They missed out on Kane last summer and signed no replacement. What we need to do is to stop being so tunnel fecking visioned and move on to other players.
 
Shakesey said:
I agree 100%.

But I also understand that many fear we've been down this road before. RedCafe is literally the only footie/media website not oozing with Utd pessimism. Most have been understandably consumed by it.
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This has got to be sarcasm, surely?

Everyday there's bucket loads of pessimism in every thread!
 
Mickeza said:
Why is it incompetence when we miss out on players but fine when others do it? This summer alone Chelsea have lost out on Kounde, De Ligt, Raphinha, Richarlison and possibly Dembele. When City signed Dias they went for Koulibaly and Kounde first. They missed out on Kane last summer and signed no replacement. What we need to do is to stop being so tunnel fecking visioned and move on to other players.
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Chelsea's window this summer is incompetence, nobody should say otherwise. Its a new owner doing it all on his own. It doesn't work.

Its fine to move on to other targets. But they have to actually be good signings, not spending 60m on average players like tielemans or Ruben Neves which is likely what we'd have to move on to. We missed out on plenty of good signings already on the basis of "we'll get Frenkie first and go from there". Well, going from there means other targets like Martinez got more expensive after they sold other players, and then if we actually just don't get Frenkie, then the whole strategy is fecked.

There's time left in the window, but pre seasons already started, and we only brought Malacia in. Its not ideal and definitely a sign of "nothing has changed" despite all the changes we've had this past summer. I love that we have Ten Hag, but he still needs to be supported with reinforcements, which at the moment hasn't happened. And he needs supporting every summer, not just this summer. So hopefully we sort ourselves out.
 
Normally when United are on tour they will have private sit downs with the media and that’s when you get all similar stories coming out at the same time (briefing)

Wonder if we’ll get that this year. And if so, you’d think it will be soon
 
bosnian_red said:
Chelsea's window this summer is incompetence, nobody should say otherwise. Its a new owner doing it all on his own. It doesn't work.

Its fine to move on to other targets. But they have to actually be good signings, not spending 60m on average players like tielemans or Ruben Neves which is likely what we'd have to move on to. We missed out on plenty of good signings already on the basis of "we'll get Frenkie first and go from there". Well, going from there means other targets like Martinez got more expensive after they sold other players, and then if we actually just don't get Frenkie, then the whole strategy is fecked.
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Martinez isn’t more expensive because we waited until the end of June (no idea htf that’s considered late these days) to bid for our 3rd priority - he’s more expensive because Arsenal want him too and Ajax don’t want to sell. Gravenbach was always leaving this summer - he had 1year left and the deal was wrapped up before ETH was even our manager. The other reason he’s so expensive is Ajax know we’ll pay it because ETH wants him, doesn’t want club targets like Torres and if we don’t get him toxic bellends will call for the storming of Old Trafford.
 
Mickeza said:
Why is it incompetence when we miss out on players but fine when others do it? This summer alone Chelsea have lost out on Kounde, De Ligt, Raphinha, Richarlison and possibly Dembele. When City signed Dias they went for Koulibaly and Kounde first. They missed out on Kane last summer and signed no replacement. What we need to do is to stop being so tunnel fecking visioned and move on to other players.
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They are incompetent too but got new owners and are actually in a better position footballing wise than we are. For us on the other hand this was supposed to be the summer where we get things right, act quick and decisive. Yet we are here with one inexperienced LB as our only signing before going to pre season tour
 
Signing a left back, and Eriksen on the way is so far behind where I thought the club would've been at this point in the critical window.

Still left to sort out CDM, CB, RW and ST. Maybe even RB.

Can't see the club signing 5 players before the season starts.
 
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