Man Utd set to appoint Director of Football (when hell freezes over)

[bucky]

I find it difficult to criticise Woodward, considering what he was delivered the last 4 years and not knowing who was first choice for us to sign. If our hierarchy in terms of recruitment is just the manager with a list and Woodward then proceeds to work from there, it's no wonder it's not working. Something is definitely wrong and like others, I am hoping for a DOF like Monchi or Reschke, who can help the manager and the CEO.

If it's true that we were interested in Willian, Alderweireld, Maguire and Boateng for the quoted prices, I find it perfectly reasonable to reject those deals. We have a lot of money, but we can't afford to waste a lot, like we did under van Gaal. The obvious questions are whether there were alternatives to Willian and those CBs, and whether Mourinho truly thinks Young and Valencia should be the starting FBs for us this season.

 

[RedorDead21]

I'd like to think he is being proactive and he's speaking to Zidane but that just seems so unlike our club. We bring in Moyes and Van Gaal...be don't bring in Pep....we don't resign Ronaldo which for 100m will turn into another Pep like slip up.....we are just not as on point as you'd expect!

 

[Im red2]

Aye 'well said'. Comparing Woodward to a cancer is totally normal.

You sound as ambitious as our owners.

 

[soap]

Aye 'well said'. Comparing Woodward to a cancer is totally normal.

 

[acnumber9]

I didn't "fail" to mention Spurs, I ignored them deliberately because they're irrelevant, they're not a top club and have no target for the upcoming season except sticking around.

Arsenal are targeting top 4 and get the players from this category they wanted.

Liverpool and Chelsea are targeting a title challenge and did what they wanted. City were targeting a minor improvement in their quality and did.

We targeted title challenge and did nothing to improve and do that.

So far the only one who seem to be moaning about the transfer window closing earlier are us tbh. The window closing early + presence of World Cup didn't come as a surprise for Ed or United. We knew that months ago. That's not an excuse.

They’re no less irrelevant than Arsenal.

Arsenal got what they wanted because of the calibre of player they were trying to get. Of course it’s easier to sign those players.

I can’t agree that Chelsea got what they need for a title challenge when they’re still stuck with Morata up front. The proof will be in the pudding and I’ll leave it at that because there’s no point in arguing agains an illogical arguement.

 

[el3mel]

They’re no less irrelevant than Arsenal.

Arsenal got what they wanted because of the calibre of player they were trying to get. Of course it’s easier to sign those players.

I can’t agree that Chelsea got what they need for a title challenge when they’re still stuck with Morata up front. The proof will be in the pudding and I’ll leave it at that because there’s no point in arguing agains an illogical arguement.

Before leaving can you tell me which striker Chelsea wanted and failed to sign ? Because Higuain himself said only Sarri was rating him in Chelsea and that's why he went to Milan.

 

[Im red2]

It is time to face the facts, the current owners of the club do not see it as a football club looking for success on the pitch. They see it as a financial investment where qualification for the champions league is all that is required to make a profit. So taht is all that they will aim to achieve. Our manager asked for 5 signings and we did not make a bid for any of them. We are really up shit creek without a paddle. The board chose the manager, and will not back him.. WTF does that say.

 

[acnumber9]

Before leaving can you tell me which striker Chelsea wanted and failed to sign ? Because Higuain himself said only Sarri was rating him in Chelsea and that's why he went to Milan.

Just the manager that wanted him? As long as it wasn’t somebody important, who picks the team or anything. If one of the ball boys had have wanted him he might have signed. Do you think Chelsea wanted Alvaro Morata leading the line for them again?

 

[spiriticon]

We entered the market wanting to strengthen the midfield, the 2 fullbacks and a right winger. Got only one, which is actually the least priority of these positions I mentioned.

Chelsea strengthened their midfield which was a major problem for them last season with only Kante as a good one. Now they have Jorginho, Kante and Kovacic.

City didn't need any signings and still got Mahrez to enforce their attack.

Liverpool entered the market wanting a GK and a better midfield, got all they wanted, and with a great quality too.

We're the least club among them in terms of strengthening our weakness. We're entering the next season with exactly the same squad +1 player. This squad did well enough securing second position, and that was a good improvement, ok, but we can't be targeting the same position again the upcoming summer.

The target was to decrease the gap with City, and we did nothing to do that. The results won't be changed much then, and it won't be considered an improvement then this season.

Come on dude. Chelsea have glaring weaknesses in their team still, particular upfront (lol Morata) and at the back (lol Luiz). They have defieciencies everywhere.

City 'didn't need any signings'? Since when has a club entered the summer transfer market with no intention of buying anyone? They were after 2 and got only 1.

We absolutely needed to strengthen the right wing yes. We didn't do it because Chelsea absolutely did not want to sell Willian. Why did we not chase after No. 2 right winger in Mourinho's list and spent all summer chasing a CB instead? Who the hell knows. Probably on Mourinho's advice.

 

[el3mel]

Just the manager that wanted him? As long as it wasn’t somebody important, who picks the team or anything. If one of the ball boys had have wanted him he might have signed. Do you think Chelsea wanted Alvaro Morata leading the line for them again?

I'm pretty sure you know Chelsea are the English version of Madrid in the perspective of the manager having a minor opinion on the ongoing transfers.

 

[spiriticon]

I'm pretty sure you know Chelsea are the English version of Madrid in the perspective of the manager having a minor opinion on the ongoing transfers.

So it's okay for Chelsea to not sign a player that the manager wants? But United are somehow judged differently...? I don't get this line of thinking.

 

[ti vu]

We can be better seconds and simply work on being a better team, that's what we should do. Simply improve and try to reach the top of the pyramid all of these players at the exception of Matic and Sanchez have a lot of room for improvement and the team as a whole too.

I don't think anyone would disagree that. However there is cap on how much we can improve. There is certain thing you can't improve such as Smalling, Rojo, Jones, Mata, Herrera, Valencia... wouldn't have their weaknesses disappear. We might improve to be able to challenge if City doesn't replicate last season form, but we're clearly chasing after them than playing on equal footing coming into the season.

 

[el3mel]

Come on dude. Chelsea have glaring weaknesses in their team still, particular upfront (lol Morata) and at the back (lol Luiz). They have defieciencies everywhere.

City 'didn't need any signings'? Since when has a club entered the summer transfer market with no intention of buying anyone? They were after 2 and got only 1.

We absolutely needed to strengthen the right wing yes. We didn't do it because absolutely did not want to sell Willian. Why did we not chase after No. 2 right winger in Mourinho's list and spent all summer chasing a CB instead? Who the hell knows. Probably on Mourinho's advice.

Hazard and Giroud worked pretty well for them last season. Morata wasn't even a starter coming the end of last season and won't be again this season. Their main problem was in the crap midfield pairing with Fabre being useless in 2 men midfield and Bakayoko being crap, and they improved that with 2 signings.

Which positions did City need to improve in ? They spend a lot last season and improved all the key points so that they can spend less the upcoming 2-3 seasons and be in a good position regarding FFP. That's called good planning.

 

[Im red2]

I'm pretty sure you know Chelsea are the English version of Madrid in the perspective of the manager having a minor opinion on the ongoing transfers.

United are a club with a huge financial muscle behind them. The problem is that most of the finances are going out of the club and into pockets. This will become more obvious in the near future.

 

[acnumber9]

I'm pretty sure you know Chelsea are the English version of Madrid in the perspective of the manager having a minor opinion on the ongoing transfers.

Do you think he had a minor opinion on the signing of Jorginho? Is it a coincidence that they worked together before? It’s ok to concede a point, you don’t have to engage in mental gymnastics to not admit it.

 

[el3mel]

So it's okay for Chelsea to not sign a player that the manager wants? But United are somehow judged differently...? I don't get this line of thinking.

Chelsea and Madrid have been run like that for ever.

United have always been dependent on manager in signings. If you want to be like them, got a DOF and put him in charge of transfers. I won't complain.

 

[ti vu]

So it's okay for Chelsea to not sign a player that the manager wants? But United are somehow judged differently...? I don't get this line of thinking.

Different model. Chelsea has no problem sacking managers who won titles for them, just previous seasons. There is no second chance.

United? Don't tell me you don't know

 

[el3mel]

United are a club with a huge financial muscle behind them. The problem is that most of the finances are going out of the club and into pockets. This will become more obvious in the near future.

Agree completely.

Do you think he had a minor opinion on the signing of Jorginho? Is it a coincidence that they worked together before? It’s ok to concede a point, you don’t have to engage in mental gymnastics to not admit it.

Yes and that's how Chelsea have always been run. Why do you think Conte imploded ? Because he had zero role in transfers and he didn't like that. Sarri is more of a coach rather than a manager, so he's not going to complain.

 

[James Peril]

I didn't "fail" to mention Spurs, I ignored them deliberately because they're irrelevant, they're not a top club and have no target for the upcoming season except sticking around.

Arsenal are targeting top 4 and get the players from this category they wanted.

Liverpool and Chelsea are targeting a title challenge and did what they wanted. City were targeting a minor improvement in their quality and did.

We targeted title challenge and did nothing to improve and do that.

So far the only one who seem to be moaning about the transfer window closing earlier are us tbh. The window closing early + presence of World Cup didn't come as a surprise for Ed or United. We knew that months ago. That's not an excuse.

Cherry picking much? Chelsea targeted the title? They were abysmal last season and clearly lack a goalscorer. Morata can turn very good, who knows, but they have lost a great goalkeeper and have little goals in midfield. Everything is on Hazard once again, they have not targeted the title with their signings at all. Chelsea are going to be very solid and compact, but they are not going to score goals for fun (just like us).

We have signed Fred for 50+ million, you can't decide to leave him out. We also have a new player in Pereira, he has to be counted as a new player since he didn't play here last season. Dalot is probably not going to play much so I'll leave him out, but we have actually strengthened our team with Fred. Sanchez too is like a new player as he was clearly tired last season and didn't show much for us in the few games he played. I guess that's a factor to include as well. It's 90% certain that Sanchez will be much better than he was for us last season, I'm guessing around 25 goal points for him. Our problems at the back is well-known, we have too many injured players - and the right side is going to be problematic if Mata, Lingard and Rashford play too much. Not signing a right winger was the biggest mistake, I have no idea why we didn't do it.

I am not very positive about this season, but imagine if we last summer signed Fred and Sanchez on top of the others - people would have been pretty ecstatic. We also need Lukaku to find the goal more often in the league, and we need Pogba to play 30+ games - he was injured and away for too many games last season. It's not all doomed, we can wrestle with Liverpool if we stay free of big injuries, and I am pretty certain we'll handle Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal. City we cannot do anything about though, that's not going to happen.

 

[acnumber9]

Giroud worked pretty well for them last season.

He was a sub. He scored one goal in six league starts for them.

 

[acnumber9]

Agree completely.



Yes and that's how Chelsea have always been run. Why do you think Conte imploded ? Because he had zero role in transfers and he didn't like that. Sarri is more of a coach rather than a manager, so he's not going to complain.

So Sarri played no part in Jorginho signing?

 

[Revan]

Pep already inherited a world class team and spend big to take it to next level. Remove Pogba, Lukaku, Sanchez and Ibra, who Jose brought and the only world class player we had prior to his appointment is De Gea.

They literally finished with the same amount of points as us in the league. If their squad was world class, then probably ours was too.

 

[spiriticon]

Hazard and Giroud worked pretty well for them last season. Morata wasn't even a starter coming the end of last season and won't be again this season. Their main problem was in the crap midfield pairing with Fabre being useless in 2 men midfield and Bakayoko being crap, and they improved that with 2 signings.

Which positions did City need to improve in ? They spend a lot last season and improved all the key points so that they can spend less the upcoming 2-3 seasons and be in a good position regarding FFP. That's called good planning.

Giroud? Please. If you're happy with Giroud leading your line, then you're happy with Smalling at the back.

City have not improved 'all key points' with one winger signing ffs.

 

[Smores]

We can be better seconds and simply work on being a better team, that's what we should do. Simply improve and try to reach the top of the pyramid all of these players at the exception of Matic and Sanchez have a lot of room for improvement and the team as a whole too.

Valencia, Mata, Young have a lot of room for improvement?

Incredible how people are trying to apply logic to us not getting anyone in for those positions. Even more amusing when all these lists include Dalot as 95% haven't seen him kick a ball yet.

 

[el3mel]

Cherry picking much? Chelsea targeted the title? They were abysmal last season and clearly lack a goalscorer. Morata can turn very good, who knows, but they have lost a great goalkeeper and have little goals in midfield. Everything is on Hazard once again, they have not targeted the title with their signings at all. Chelsea are going to be very solid and compact, but they are not going to score goals for fun (just like us).

We have signed Fred for 50+ million, you can't decide to leave him out. We also have a new player in Pereira, he has to be counted as a new player since he didn't play here last season. Dalot is probably not going to play much so I'll leave him out, but we have actually strengthened our team with Fred. Sanchez too is like a new player as he was clearly tired last season and didn't show much for us in the few games he played. I guess that's a factor to include as well. It's 90% certain that Sanchez will be much better than he was for us last season, I'm guessing around 25 goal points for him. Our problems at the back is well-known, we have too many injured players - and the right side is going to be problematic if Mata, Lingard and Rashford play too much. Not signing a right winger was the biggest mistake, I have no idea why we didn't do it.

I am not very positive about this season, but imagine if we last summer signed Fred and Sanchez on top of the others - people would have been pretty ecstatic. We also need Lukaku to find the goal more often in the league, and we need Pogba to play 30+ games - he was injured and away for too many games last season. It's not all doomed, we can wrestle with Liverpool if we stay free of big injuries, and I am pretty certain we'll handle Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal. City we cannot do anything about though, that's not going to happen.

They were abysmal in Mourinho last season and still won the title the next one. The last season is over, and they imploded for various reasons not just their squad is crap, it's not. Also Morata wasn't even a starter for them coming the end of season so I'm not sure why everyone keep mentioning him.

That's way too much positive thinking without looking at which weaknesses we entered the market to strengthen and didn't. We're entering this season with exactly the same problems as the last one, injury prone defense, mediocre to crap full backs and non existent right winger. We didn't solve any of these problems, so it's a terrible market.

Again, as it seems this point is hard for some to get, the current squad is good enough to finish 2nd or 3rd, which is what we did last season. The target, however, was to solve most of our weaknesses to have a run at the title, which we didn't, and we'll up again for another 2nd/3rd season and that's simply not good enough anymore.

 

[JPRouve]

I don't think anyone would disagree that. However there is cap on how much we can improve. There is certain thing you can't improve such as Smalling, Rojo, Jones, Mata, Herrera, Valencia... wouldn't have their weaknesses disappear. We might improve to be able to challenge if City doesn't replicate last season form, but we're clearly chasing after them than playing on equal footing coming into the season.

And I don't think that we even started the improvement let alone hit a cap. To me we are as raw as it gets, I recognize the imbalance in the roster but I really believe that we have a starting eleven, it's the one that I "fixed" earlier, for me that's our starting point.

 

[Brophs]

As regards transfers, I’d be fairly certain that Woodward is doing very little of the direct negotiation. So if there is a fault, it’s in allowing people to seemingly do a poor job of recruitment over a sustained period. But where there absolutely is fault is in him bigging up what we can do in the market and not even coming close to delivering a top class playing squad. Hubris only tends to look good on the victor.

 

[edgar allan]

I didn't "fail" to mention Spurs, I ignored them deliberately because they're irrelevant, they're not a top club and have no target for the upcoming season except sticking around.

Arsenal are targeting top 4 and get the players from this category they wanted.

Liverpool and Chelsea are targeting a title challenge and did what they wanted. City were targeting a minor improvement in their quality and did.

We targeted title challenge and did nothing to improve and do that.

So far the only one who seem to be moaning about the transfer window closing earlier are us tbh. The window closing early + presence of World Cup didn't come as a surprise for Ed or United. We knew that months ago. That's not an excuse.

With Fred coming in, that is 180 million spent on our midfield alone over the last 2 years and to listen to Jose you would think we are Spurs. Any chance of some decent football with that? , never mind a league challenge.

 

[RedorDead21]

They were abysmal in Mourinho last season and still won the title the next one. The last season is over, and they imploded for various reasons not just their squad is crap, it's not. Also Morata wasn't even a starter for them coming the end of season so I'm not sure why everyone keep mentioning him.

That's way too much positive thinking without looking at which weaknesses we entered the market to strengthen and didn't. We're entering this season with exactly the same problems as the last one, injury prone defense, mediocre to crap full backs and non existent right winger. We didn't solve any of these problems, so it's a terrible market.

Again, as it seems this point is hard for some to get, the current squad is good enough to finish 2nd or 3rd, which is what we did last season. The target, however, was to solve most of our weaknesses to have a run at the title, which we didn't, and we'll up again for another 2nd/3rd season and that's simply not good enough anymore.

But improving our results against the bottom 6 would be fixing our biggest weakness.....not buying players.

 

[JPRouve]

Valencia, Mata, Young have a lot of room for improvement?

Incredible how people are trying to apply logic to us not getting anyone in for those positions. Even more amusing when all these lists include Dalot as 95% haven't seen him kick a ball yet.

You missed an important post. And I'm not applying anything to justify our transfer window.

 

[Toad]

Makes no sense lol. Let’s eliminate a world record fee as he proves we spend money?

What the feck are you on about? I’m merely stating that I think we have spent more than £62mil on other players over 3 years...

 

[el3mel]

So Sarri played no part in Jorginho signing?

A minor role and if the board didn't want him he wouldn't have been signed.

You're acting like you don't know how Chelsea are run tbh.

Giroud? Please. If you're happy with Giroud leading your line, then you're happy with Smalling at the back.

City have not improved 'all key points' with one winger signing ffs.

Giroud was the main striker leading the line for the WC champions, and he didn't seem to hinder them by any means, even providing a space for their more flai plays to do the work. Also since when I mentioned Smalling as a problem anyway ?

What are the key points City needed to improve this summer ?

 

[RedorDead21]

With Fred coming in, that is 180 million spent on our midfield alone over the last 2 years and to listen to Jose you would think we are Spurs. Any chance of some decent football with that? , never mind a league challenge.

Putting decent football ahead of a league challenge is where too many fans heads are at! We need to play better granted than the 2nd half of last season...first half was good enough! Matic Pogba and Fred is levels above SAFs final midfields for me.......we just need to get them playing together.

 

[el3mel]

With Fred coming in, that is 180 million spent on our midfield alone over the last 2 years and to listen to Jose you would think we are Spurs. Any chance of some decent football with that? , never mind a league challenge.

I think some not even bother reading. It's tiresome repeating points tbh.

For the millionth time, we entered the market wanting to strengthen the major problems of last summer, the 2 fullbacks, the right winger and a midfielder, we got one starter to cover this, and that's even the least priority among these positions. That's a crap window whether you talk about how much money spent. We could have spent 150m alone on Savic and would have still been a crap window without improving the positions with major problems.

 

[spiriticon]

What are the key points City needed to improve this summer ?

For me preparing to replace David Silva and Fernandinho. The older players. Probably why they were targeting Jorginho and Mahrez.

 

[Revan]

Mou has spent enough to have an awesome team:

------------- GK --------------
RB - Bailly - Lindeloff - Dalot
------------- Matic ------------
------- Pog -------- Fred------
RW--------------------Sanchez
------------ Lukaku------------

This season is crunch time for him and I can see why Woodward wouldn't see the need for a £60m CB when we have 2 signed by Mou and a load more waiting in the wings, need some sales.

But we undespent a decade ago so we are still suffering cause of it. And anyway, Pogba was signed with Ronaldo's money, so it doesn't count.

 

[Coops73]

I think some not even bother reading. It's tiresome repeating points tbh.

For the millionth time, we entered the market wanting to strengthen the major problems of last summer, the 2 fullbacks, the right winger and a midfielder, we got one starter to cover this, and that's even the least priority among these positions. That's a crap window whether you talk about how much money spent. We could have spent 150m alone on Savic and would have still been a crap window without improving the positions with major problems.

I don’t know how you even know this.

 

[spiriticon]

But we undespent a decade ago so we are still suffering cause of it. And anyway, Pogba was signed with Ronald's money, so it doesn't count.

A decade. A decade ago. feck me.

 

[el3mel]

But improving our results against the bottom 6 would be fixing our biggest weakness.....not buying players.

That's a strange concept.

City had a terrible first season under Pep, with major weaknesses at fullbacks, defense and GK. they went on and spent 200m alone on fullbacks and GKs, then splashed another 50m on a defender in Jan, and thus ran with the title . If City was going by your logic, I think they would have been equal or even behind us in terms of points last season.

 

[el3mel]

I don’t know how you even know this.

Because these were our major problems last season.

If you want to see that the club and the manager were blind to these weaknesses, you're even opening more room to slaughter the club, not really a point to defend them.