Luckhurst: United prepared to move for a holding midfielder in January

rotherham_red said:
But look where Pogba is playing right now. He's on the left. A position which Marcus Rashford calls his own. He has, for all intents and purposes, already been replaced with the signings of Bruno (as the #10), Donny (the 8/10) and Sancho (creator from wide positions). The one spot we don't have is the DM, and if Pogba ultimately ends up leaving, then we can use the proceeds from his sale fortifying ourselves in that exact position.
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Re. The bolded: This is in relation to Pogba theoretically leaving for free next summer.

I’ve read a few comments on the site regarding Rashford or [an]other taking that spot from Pogba, but quite frankly, if he keeps on the way he’s going, nobody we have is as talented or capable of usurping him, and he’ll make that spot his own.

VdB is a non-entity until proven otherwise who himself will be in need of replacing if things carry on the way they have done with him.


The issue with always being a piece or two a way from a full-blown title-challenging side is very much our reality at the moment, and could well be for years to come yet, outside of select number of conditions.
 
bosnian_red said:
Yeah the glazers are shit. But we've had a good window and I'm happy with it, midfielder or no midfielder, because Sancho and Varane are fantastic signings.

Sancho was 73m and Varane was 40m? 113m. Sure you can argue about payment structures, but transfers are literally always like that. We brought in 113m worth of transfers. So yes. I'm going to be happy with a fantastic window despite the impact of covid.
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6/10 window at best with no DM and no deadwood sold
 
#07 said:
No but a mid-table club somewhere in Europe might if they didn't have to try and match £100k a week wages, nevermind a transfer fee.

The likes of Liverpool don't give players like Rhian Brewster anything close to what Andreas Pereira and Brandon Williams are on. So they're more gettable targets for a middle of the road team. Its different to cough up £10/20m for a player if you're only having to pay them £15k a week. Nobody is going to buy our deadwood players and then give them £150k a week. That's why we end up giving away players like Alexis, Rojo and there will be others.

Our wage structure is bizarre and it stops us selling players. When I see the journalists writing up briefings about 'protecting value' I can only think they mean in pure accountancy terms e.g. a new long contract has a high book value. Cos I don't see any value in renewing deals like we do, for the players we do, on the money we do it. Its literally throwing good money after bad.
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Depressingly true and too late to do anything about it this summer sadly
 
Dazzmondo said:
Surely the board can't be dumb enough to think we can end the window without signing any midfielder after how City and Chelsea have strengthened and McTominay getting surgery? Can they? Do we have any hope of getting a mid?
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Not a prayer and that is absolutely gutting
 
croadyman said:
6/10 window at best with no DM and no deadwood sold
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Nah. 8/10 bringing those 2 in and keeping Pogba. DM with a few sales would make it 10/10. Missing one of those 2 make it 9/10.

6/10 after Sancho and Varane for good prices, you're crazy.
 
laughtersassassin said:
We need a new plan to compete cause we clearly don't have a good one. Chelsea and City have top class managers and money to burn

Liverpool got a top class managers and absolute geniuses on the board who work wonders in the market with making their money stretch.

We got an Ok manager, an incompetent board and an ability to never finish a rebuild. Sometimes you just go to bite the bullet if you want a shot at the big boy trophies.

Where is our Tom Brady?

All the Glazers aim to do is stop the protesets. That's their goal for the season.
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They won't be stopping the protests after todays news
 
Lash said:
Jesus lad, it's not that bad, for Christ sake. I want us to improve midfield, but we will be challenging this year even if we don't.
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Fourth is where the bookies were placing us before the season even started. It's not particularly a leap to think that's where we'll end up. Or that we'll struggle to finish ahead of City and Chelsea, who are the favourites for the title in most people's eyes.
 
Bilbo said:
There's going to be a ton of activity over the next few days. The dominoes are falling now. United will sell what we need to sell and we'll sign a midfielder. My prediction is the lad from Monaco
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Where are you getting that faith from that Tchouameni links will suddenly pick up again
 
Flytan said:
4/10 window. Can't be a good window if we fall further behind our "rivals".
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The inverted commas are right.

We have a rivalry with City in the same way that ants have a rivalry with humans.

We won't finish within 15 points of them if they get Ronaldo.
 
bosnian_red said:
Nah. 8/10 bringing those 2 in and keeping Pogba. DM with a few sales would make it 10/10. Missing one of those 2 make it 9/10.

6/10 after Sancho and Varane for good prices, you're crazy.
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Definitely not crazy just being realistic maybe 6.5/10 at a push then, would go to 7.5 if we just got a RB but if by absolute miracle we pulled out a DM from somewhere then it goes up to 9 so that's the difference in priority.
 
We absolutely must get in a good midfielder. Would be really poor business to not get one, when there's actually decent pickings out there.
 
I don't believe we'll sign another player this window but if we do I'd say bigger chance are it's gonna be Trippier than a midfielder.
 
MDFC Manager said:
We absolutely must get in a good midfielder. Would be really poor business to not get one, when there's actually decent pickings out there.
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Is there? 100m for Rice? Saul who isn't necessarily much of an upgrade or really a DM for 40m again like Van de Beek? Camavinga who is u20 and wants to go to Spain? Ruben Neves who is entirely average?

There isn't really anyone obvious.
 
bosnian_red said:
Is there? 100m for Rice? Saul who isn't necessarily much of an upgrade or really a DM for 40m again like Van de Beek? Camavinga who is u20 and wants to go to Spain? Ruben Neves who is entirely average?


There isn't really anyone obvious.
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Tchouameni seems like a good fit and a decent price
 
USREDEVIL said:
I wish I believed this Mr. Baggins, but it seems like every time we sign someone it was in the papers for weeks. There have been a few surprise signings over the years but they seem to be rare. Also we've already been given not so subtle hints from Ole and the press that our summer is over.
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This is the fun part of the transfer window. Every transfer leads to another one, and I just don't see somebody not coming in for Lingard. This is someone selected for the England squad again who has just come off a short spell of being arguably the form player in the league, but likely to be a bit part player at best at United and gettable for £15-20m. Loads of clubs can use a player like him. He will go, and we will sign a midfielder.
 
The only third signing we will make this summer, is when we reward Phil Jones for his loyalty, with a new 5 year contract.
 
Bilbo said:
This is the fun part of the transfer window. Every transfer leads to another one, and I just don't see somebody not coming in for Lingard. This is someone selected for the England squad again who has just come off a short spell of being arguably the form player in the league, but likely to be a bit part player at best at United and gettable for £15-20m. Loads of clubs can use a player like him. He will go, and we will sign a midfielder.
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Proves how bad England are tbh. (no offence Jesse)
 
choccy77 said:
Proves how bad England are tbh. (no offence Jesse)
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If it was some other guy putting in that level of performance for West Ham, with one year left on his deal, a bunch of our fans would be wanting us to sign him
 
bosnian_red said:
Is there? 100m for Rice? Saul who isn't necessarily much of an upgrade or really a DM for 40m again like Van de Beek? Camavinga who is u20 and wants to go to Spain? Ruben Neves who is entirely average?

There isn't really anyone obvious.
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Bissouma obvious one....but then there is Kamara and Caqueret.....could probably sign both of them for £30-40m, tonnes of othre options too
 
Bilbo said:
If it was some other guy putting in that level of performance for West Ham, with one year left on his deal, a bunch of our fans would be wanting us to sign him
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Yeah, but this is conveniently missing out the part where he's already played for us for several seasons and not cut it. People would be rightly be willing to give him a go on the cheap if he hadn't already had the chance at our level.
 
Lash said:
Yeah, but this is conveniently missing out the part where he's already played for us for several seasons and not cut it. People would be rightly be willing to give him a go on the cheap if he hadn't already had the chance at our level.
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I agree, but that's not the point I'm making. I'm arguing for his attractiveness to clubs like West Ham, for whom a player who can give them the level of performance that he did will actually lift the team up a level and get them European football and a handful of PL places.
 
Fortitude said:
Re. The bolded: This is in relation to Pogba theoretically leaving for free next summer.

I’ve read a few comments on the site regarding Rashford or [an]other taking that spot from Pogba, but quite frankly, if he keeps on the way he’s going, nobody we have is as talented or capable of usurping him, and he’ll make that spot his own.

VdB is a non-entity until proven otherwise who himself will be in need of replacing if things carry on the way they have done with him.


The issue with always being a piece or two a way from a full-blown title-challenging side is very much our reality at the moment, and could well be for years to come yet, outside of select number of conditions.
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I get what you mean re Rashford and Pogba (I do still disagree, but I understand the logic). My feeling is that Sancho at his best provides what Pogba does, but it will be from the right, while Rashford provides much more of a goal threat than Pogba does from that position. We will end up being a more balanced attack as a result than we would be if we continue to play Pogba there in addition to Sancho, for example.

The going on a free, if it does end up happening, will sting, no doubt, but what alleviates it a little is that we have been planning towards Pogba not being here since 2019/20. In his immediate positions, there are viable alternatives, and yes for me that includes VdB - we aren't going to spend upwards of £30m on someone and not give him a chance. It will eventually come, and I think now that we have Sancho, there is a more obvious role for him to play here.
 
Red Shorts said:
This thread wont have anything concrete until deadline day. Surely we are doing a deal under the radar, just not as large as Varane or Sancho?
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This is the muppets' hope in every transfer window. Very, very rarely proves to be the case.

If a midfielder is coming in, the first piece of news we'll hear is that a sizable offer has come in for Lingard/VdB.
 
Infra-red said:
This is the muppets' hope in every transfer window. Very, very rarely proves to be the case.

If a midfielder is coming in, the first piece of news we'll hear is that a sizable offer has come in for Lingard/VdB.
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Bar this window, I think we have done quite a few deals that we had no idea about until 24-48 hours until completed. Cavani was literally not spoken about until the day if I remember well?
 
Red Shorts said:
Bar this window, I think we have done quite a few deals that we had no idea about until 24-48 hours until completed. Cavani was literally not spoken about until the day if I remember well?
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He was out of contract, though. No clubs to deal with and therefore no leaks. We won't buy without first selling, so we'll hear that West Ham have offered £20m for Lingard before we hear about any new midfielders.
 
Infra-red said:
He was out of contract, though. No clubs to deal with and therefore no leaks. We won't buy without first selling, so we'll hear that West Ham have offered £20m for Lingard before we hear about any new midfielders.
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I agree on that part friend, a couple of £15-20m sales and then we will have more tractiom for sure. That amount for Lingard would work for both parties
 
Varane and Sacho are great signings. But as both deals are structured via annual payments for years to come (and there was money leftover from last years budget as a result of failing to sign Sancho) its not like there has been vast investment of immediate funds this summer. I'm disappointed we did nothing to address CM or Striker. Glad we have Varane but personally I thought Striker and midfielder were bigger problems than a center back.

Our failure to spend 1p on a striker since signing Lakaku looks even worse now that our 34 year old stopgap looks set to miss a significant amount of games. Baffles me that he was allowed to miss the start of the season at all, those games are worth just as many points as any other.
 
Doesn’t it come back to the ambition of the owners, when Tom Brady signed for Tampa Bay it was all “ the Glazers are winners and will do things to ensure success”.Hello , earth to Utd, they will only go so far for a game they have little knowledge of or interest in other than to continue dividends .

With Woody still controlling most things, so what has changed, get close but no real follow through to ensure the team can battle the top teams. No real effort to sell deadwood, or even reduce wages by moving them for free, then no move to get the DM needed, raises the question. Are the Glazers really interested in getting the team to compete as they did with Tampa Bay , or unwilling to risk their returns from the club that basically was bought for little or no outlay.
 
Tiber said:
Varane and Sacho are great signings. But as both deals are structured via annual payments for years to come (and there was money leftover from last years budget as a result of failing to sign Sancho) its not like there has been vast investment of immediate funds this summer. I'm disappointed we did nothing to address CM or Striker. Glad we have Varane but personally I thought Striker and midfielder were bigger problems than a center back.

Our failure to spend 1p on a striker since signing Lakaku looks even worse now that our 34 year old stopgap looks set to miss a significant amount of games. Baffles me that he was allowed to miss the start of the season at all, those games are worth just as many points as any other.
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Depends if how much is left of last seasons budget. If they had budgeted only for Sancho and when that was out of the question spent money on DVB , Pellistri and Amad.
 
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