Let's say INEOS go full fire sale this summer: Who are your untouchables?

I want to change the OP’s request slightly. For me, it’s where we need to buy, in order of priority. Now, what does that mean? I think another striker is imperative, for example, just because I think 40 appearances for Hojlund is the limit and we have no back ups.

For me, it’s this:
1. Striker: we struggle to score goals. We must have 2 legitimate strikers in the squad. Toney? Watkins? Keep Hojlund obviously. Martial out
2. CB: we absolutely need a top class CB. Sell Maguire, Lindelof. Keep Varane. Keep Licha.
3. Winger: it’s an absolute joke that we are still buying fecking wingers. Keep Garnacho, keep Rashford (sigh). Sell Antony. Sell Sancho. Sell Pellistri.
4. CM: we need depth here and youth. Keep Mainoo. Keep Casemiro. Sell Eriksen. Sell Mount. Sell McTominay
5. 10: Keep Bruno. But we need a young 10.
6. RB. Keep Dalot. Sell AWB
7. LB. Keep Shaw. Keep Malacia (for now).

if we bring in 7 new players and sell 9, that would be a massive overhaul. I’m guessing roughly 250m net spend.
 
Hal9000 said:
Injury prone? It's not like Martinez is pulling muscles all the time. He broke his foot, then had to have another surgery on it and he's come back and got injured weird challenge.
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Injury prone means someone who keeps getting injuries not just muscular injuries. He was injured for a long time last season as well. So far he has missed 234 days in a season and half and hes out for another 8 weeks according to the media so that will be 300 days missed and you say hes not injury prone?
 
wolvored said:
Injury prone means someone who keeps getting injuries not just muscular injuries. He was injured for a long time last season as well. So far he has missed 234 days in a season and half and hes out for another 8 weeks according to the media so that will be 300 days missed and you say hes not injury prone?
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There is injury prone and there is just being unlucky. He broke his foot, and had complications from that foot. He comes back and a weird challenge he pulls his knee. It's not like he's out with pulls and strains all the time.
 
Bertie Wooster said:
Pretty much agree with all those groups.

Though, I'd put Hojlund in the same company as Garnacho and Mainoo so move him up to Group 1.

And I rate Hannibal about the same as Amad so therefore I'd put Hannibal in group 3 as he's also a young player with good potential who has barely been given a chance, same as Amad. So I wouldn't lump in group 6.

Other than those, I'd say that's spot on.
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Højlund, you could certainly make that case. It's very hard to see there'd be a case for selling him, particularly given that we need another striker in any case.

The reason I put Hannibal in that category is that unlike with Amad, he's gotten a few chances and I don't think what he's showed warrants much confidence that he can become a regular on this team. He just doesn't seem to have the quality on the ball to be a viable option in the attacking positions, and EtH haven't even tried using him further back, which presumably also says something. It's hard to imagine him getting many opportunities going forward, and this just seems like the right time to move him on.
 
justsomebloke said:
Højlund, you could certainly make that case. It's very hard to see there'd be a case for selling him, particularly given that we need another striker in any case.

The reason I put Hannibal in that category is that unlike with Amad, he's gotten a few chances and I don't think what he's showed warrants much confidence that he can become a regular on this team. He just doesn't seem to have the quality on the ball to be a viable option in the attacking positions, and EtH haven't even tried using him further back, which presumably also says something. It's hard to imagine him getting many opportunities going forward, and this just seems like the right time to move him on.
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He certainly did at youth levels.

When I watched him plenty with the U18's and U21's he was one of the main playmakers - looking to get on the ball all the time and drive forward with it, linking up in attacks or playing through balls.

He was quite like Bruno at that level - it didn't always work, but he was always looking to go forward and make something happen. The big difference being he's never been much of a scorer and could certainly improve there. But on the ball he oozed quality. I'm not at all sure why we've mostly only seen the fiery, hard working side of his game in his fleeting first team appearances. But there's definitely more to his game that that.
 
devilish said:
we're talking of untouchables here ie players we shouldn't sell irrespective of fee and circumstances. That list is bound to be small unless we're treble winners.
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It's more the constant theme of threads like this on here which are basically "all our players are shite except these three and maybe this one"

That isn't really true is it? Because otherwise we'd be about 16th in the table. There are no untouchable players because most of the time if a player leaves,it is, at least in part, because THEY want to, and the same applies to if they stay.

The only players who the club would qctively look to get rid of are ones who either want to leave, have severe discipline problems, or contribute nothing, and that is mever going to be a huge list even at United where it admittedly seems to constantly be longer than at most clubs
 
noodlehair said:
That isn't really true is it? Because otherwise we'd be about 16th in the table. There are no untouchable players because most of the time if a player leaves,it is, at least in part, because THEY want to, and the same applies to if they stay.
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And it's funny how more or less the same squad finished 2nd in 2021, and then 3rd in 2023.

Gotta be some crazy coincidence for some midtable side (which we apparently are, as every player we have is dogshit, according to some) to finish top 4 twice out of 3 seasons.
 
VivaObertan said:
Which ones? I'm open to the discussion! (I'm thinking about a 23 player squad here rather than XI, otherwise it'd be: Martinez, Dalot, Casemiro, Mainoo, Bruno, Garnacho... maybe Hojlund)
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Varane, Lindelof, McTominay, Casemiro and Antony should all definitely be sold in my view. I have more time for Casemiro than the others, but I feel we should build around younger players. He could decline massively at any point. Injuries too may become a problem.

Mount gets another year purely because we haven't seen enough to form any sort of conclusive opinion of him. I'm still far from certain that Dalot is good enough to be our starting right back, but yeah if you're talking about a 23 man squad fair enough.

Bruno and Rashford are a bit of a dilemma. I think we may find that we would function better as a team without Bruno. Perhaps less of a gunslinger who offers more discipline, without sacrificing creativity? Maybe I'm looking for someone who doesn't exist. Even so, Bruno is coming to an age where we either sell for a good fee or reward him with another big deal. I think the former would be prudent.

As for Rashford, his performances are far too inconsistent relative to his status and salary.
 
noodlehair said:
It's more the constant theme of threads like this on here which are basically "all our players are shite except these three and maybe this one"

That isn't really true is it? Because otherwise we'd be about 16th in the table. There are no untouchable players because most of the time if a player leaves,it is, at least in part, because THEY want to, and the same applies to if they stay.

The only players who the club would qctively look to get rid of are ones who either want to leave, have severe discipline problems, or contribute nothing, and that is mever going to be a huge list even at United where it admittedly seems to constantly be longer than at most clubs
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Its true that United players aren't shit. EPL players are among the top 2% of footballers and United have among the top 40% of that. Whether they are good enough (talent wise, physically wise (age, fitness etc), characteristics wise (can they play in high line etc) or/and mentality wise) to fulfill United's ambitions is open to discussion and that's the correct discussion we should be having. Even then one has to take in account whether we'll able to find buyers for those players on terms that the club/player would accept as well. For example I won't be surprised if Sancho remains at the club past next summer. He's on a silly contract, his talent doesn't match his salary and his reputation is shot.

However as said before this is about untouchables ie players we should refuse a bid for no matter how big that bid is. Strictly speaking we shouldn't even have anyone in that list as that means that there's a player out there that the club fully depends upon and as SAF used to say no one should be bigger then the club. However I do concede that selling the likes of Mainoo, Hojlund and Garnacho would be silly given their talent, their attitude and the club's trajectory.
 
Bertie Wooster said:
He certainly did at youth levels.

When I watched him plenty with the U18's and U21's he was one of the main playmakers - looking to get on the ball all the time and drive forward with it, linking up in attacks or playing through balls.

He was quite like Bruno at that level - it didn't always work, but he was always looking to go forward and make something happen. The big difference being he's never been much of a scorer and could certainly improve there. But on the ball he oozed quality. I'm not at all sure why we've mostly only seen the fiery, hard working side of his game in his fleeting first team appearances. But there's definitely more to his game that that.
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I thought so too, though I haven't watched him at the youth level like you have, but we've not really seen it. Maybe my judgment is wrong. I've nothing more to go on than what we've seen this season. I suppose his performance at Sevilla should tell us something.
 
I'm not sure anyone is untouchable in that a huge fee might tempt us. But since you never replace virtually a whole team it is a bit of a meaningless question anyway (sorry OP).

You would think central defenders and strikers would be a priority and then replacing other players who we can offload e.g. Casamiro to (?) Saudi or wherever.
 
Probably only Hojlund, Garnacho, and Mainoo. I know we won't sell all the rest but they would all be expendable. We're unlikely to win a league in the next 2-3 seasons with most of this squad so you're unlikely to have still-useful players like Shaw, Martinez, Bruno contributing at high levels in 4+ years from now. FFP considerations impossible to ignore as well, so we will have to eventually make tough decisions such as selling Rashford. Maybe we will be better off getting rid sooner than later and reinvesting decent fees from those players to offset the complete losses we will get on players like Antony and Onana.

Guess you can keep Mount too as the Bruno replacement if you sell him. Not saying Mount is better but he's much younger and more likely to be of value once the younger stars are hitting peak levels.
 
How people aren't naming Martinez is beyond me. He transforms the way we play, arguably more than any other player in the squad.
 
No one is untouchable, everyone has a price. Ferguson got rid of better players than anyone in our current team.

But with that said, it'd take incredibly high fees to tempt us into selling Mainoo and Gernacho, so they're probably as close to untouchable as you can get. But beyond that I don't see why we wouldn't be open to selling anyone if a reasonable offer was made
 
must sell: Antony, McTominay, Maguire, Dalot, Onana

must keep: Mainoo, Garnacho, Licha, Hojlund, Bruno
 
Wibble said:
I'm not sure anyone is untouchable in that a huge fee might tempt us. But since you never replace virtually a whole team it is a bit of a meaningless question anyway (sorry OP).

You would think central defenders and strikers would be a priority and then replacing other players who we can offload e.g. Casamiro to (?) Saudi or wherever.
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Pretty much this.

It's about priorities. I would say nobody is untouchable, but it'd be silly to sell Shaw for example when we have other areas we need to focus on.

I think the approach should be to sell those who are deemed not good enough.
 
In terms of a fire sale I'd offload

Rashford
Mctominay
Eriksen
Sancho
Martial
Lindelof
Antony
Diallo
Wan Bissaka
Onana (I hope he proves me wrong and shows his form from Ajax/Inter).

Question marks over Mount for me, but I do feel he deserves another crack at it next season. Started poor, never truly recovered, played out of his normal role and has been injury prone. Another season of misfortune and I'd say he can pack his bags too.

Similar echoes of posters above for the untouchables.

Mainoo, Casemiro, Varane, Martinez, Garnacho, Hojlund, Bruno.
 
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Untouchable to me means if a team offered market value or above who wouldn’t I sell. With that in mind mentioning Dalot as an untouchable is pretty fecking bonkers.

Mainoo and Garnacho are the only ones I think aren’t up for debate and that’s because of their potential upside and being homegrown. Hojlund and Martinez are the next two you could add to the list because it seems they could have a big part to play in us going forward.

Every other player is either not good enough or for the ones that are pretty good have been here long enough and it’s time to move on freshen up the team.
 
Ish said:
Hojlund, Garnacho, Mainoo, Martinez & Shaw. I like Dalot as well but I don’t think he’s untouchable.
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Pretty much this, although I feel that Martinez is too injury prone to be untouchable. Actually, I think the club should get rid.
 
SmashedHombre said:
Licha, Shaw, Bruno, Garna, Mainoo, Rasmus.
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Will keep saying it because honestly believe we would be a better team without Bruno's antics and wastefulness. I like Shaw but it's becoming very clear he is very injury prone so can't rely on him.
 
Mainoo, Garnacho, Martinez, Dalot, Hojlund, Shaw, Onana, Bruno, Mount.


Just being realistic as we are not going to sell most of the above on INEOS first summer when there are much much bigger issues to fix.
 
Hound Dog said:
Pretty much this, although I feel that Martinez is too injury prone to be untouchable. Actually, I think the club should get rid.
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Sorry, but this is such an awful take. Despite his injuries, we'd be stupid to sell him.

He's the most press-resistant centre back in world football. Can be a starter at both LCB or the CB/LB role Aké/Zinchenko plays for almost any team in the world. No need to mention how great he would be as the LCB in a back 5 either. He's one of the few players we have that would get significant game time at any of City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Bayern Munich or Real Madrid.

He's also on 120k per week, which is a perfectly fine amount for a player of his qualities, and we bought him for around 50 million, so selling him wouldn't even help with FFP, unless we sold him for 100-150m. But defenders never go for that much.

Literally one of the last players we should entertain selling, unless we're out of our minds.
 
Nobody is untouchable in this squad but the likes of rashford, greenwood, sancho, maguire, mctom, eriksen, donny, martial, Evans, amrabat, lindelof have got to go first.

I’d keep the newer signings.
 
Mainoo, Garnacho and Hojlund. That's all really. Some of the other players depends on what offers we can receive for them nut they are not untouchable per se.
 
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