I would bring Zaniolo as a CM. However his versatility to play across the entire forward line (ex stk) is surely an asset. As right winger he scored 4 goals and had 3 assists in 11 games. That including a superb goal against Napoli and another great goal vs AC Milan.
Most important summer window in years (100-150m budget)
- Thread starter bond19821982
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I would bring Zaniolo as a CM. However his versatility to play across the entire forward line (ex stk) is surely an asset. As right winger he scored 4 goals and had 3 assists in 11 games. That including a superb goal against Napoli and another great goal vs AC Milan.
The club should spend big but play it safe this summer.
Sancho
Grealish
Ndidi
Would love a CB but I can’t see that happening. Maybe in January to gauge Tuanzebe more & Baily who might be on his last chance saloon.
It saddens me to say it because I love Fred but I don’t quite see how he fits in our formation using 3 in midfield... I’m hoping he proves me wrong.
Ndidi and Pogba could be a winner though as a partnership!
Sancho
Grealish
Ndidi
Would love a CB but I can’t see that happening. Maybe in January to gauge Tuanzebe more & Baily who might be on his last chance saloon.
It saddens me to say it because I love Fred but I don’t quite see how he fits in our formation using 3 in midfield... I’m hoping he proves me wrong.
Ndidi and Pogba could be a winner though as a partnership!
I think we've two issues we need to consider and balance this Summer - quality and quantity
A good Summer for many would seem to be - sell Rojo/Jones/Smalling/Fosu Mensah/Dalot/Lingard/Pereira/Mata/ Sanchez
Bring in - Sancho, a DM, a CB and if we are lucky one more
I'd question the depth of the squad after that kind of window with us letting too many go. We will most likely only bring in 2 or 3
Experience shows we cant rely on players like Shaw, Tuanzebe, Bailly, Pogba perhaps, Rashford or Martial to stay fit for long periods for whatever reason. This is in contrast to teams like Liverpool where key players barely miss a game in a high energy team strangely.
Think a lot of our 'dead wood' will stay out of necessity
A good Summer for many would seem to be - sell Rojo/Jones/Smalling/Fosu Mensah/Dalot/Lingard/Pereira/Mata/ Sanchez
Bring in - Sancho, a DM, a CB and if we are lucky one more
I'd question the depth of the squad after that kind of window with us letting too many go. We will most likely only bring in 2 or 3
Experience shows we cant rely on players like Shaw, Tuanzebe, Bailly, Pogba perhaps, Rashford or Martial to stay fit for long periods for whatever reason. This is in contrast to teams like Liverpool where key players barely miss a game in a high energy team strangely.
Think a lot of our 'dead wood' will stay out of necessity
I... you don’t want a replacement who weakens the team significantly. That’s what currently happens with Mata, Pereira and Lingard. A club looking to compete needs high quality players in first change.
We can, it just means one of our wingers/inside forwards is replaced by Grealish. Which isn't ideal either. Grealish even with Bruno with Pogba out would be a questionable fit with Bruno and Matic in a midfield 3.
I think there is a large gap between paying 60m or so for Grealish and resorting to Mata, Pereira, and Lingard as our replacement #10's or attacking midfielder in key games. It could be playing Pogba more advanced when Bruno is out, while also adding a more traditional midfielder 8/6 (or just playing 2 of Fred/McTominay/Matic behind him). It could be buying a cheaper non-EPL player to rotate into Bruno's spot for non-UCL or EPL matches.
I mean, I don't get why we even pay for a scouting staff, if we can't find a promising young player who could fill-in for Bruno or Pogba for less than 40m.
I agree, but I don’t think Grealish will be moving for that amount of money, which may be where the issue lies. If he can be got for £40m or so without affecting the Sancho transfer I’d be OK with those being all of the summer incomings.
I don't see Grealish or a CB affecting the Sancho transfer because either of those deals would come from player sales. Just out of interest how much do you think we can raise from that
Personally I reckon around the £60m mark if we could sell 5 players which could get Jack, yes I know that wouldn't leave much for a CB but hard to know which Ole is prioritising out of the two.
Sancho: 110m
Grealish: 60m
A quick defender that can play out under pressure: 40m. Someone in the Ake mould.
= 210 m in total
Then we'd have to sell 5-7 players for 60 m which is doable.
I wouldn't sell Fred neither. He's great, and we never know with Pogba. We should definitely push him this summer, to see if he wants to stay and extend or not. If not, sell him too and fund a solid rebuilt.
Grealish: 60m
A quick defender that can play out under pressure: 40m. Someone in the Ake mould.
= 210 m in total
Then we'd have to sell 5-7 players for 60 m which is doable.
I wouldn't sell Fred neither. He's great, and we never know with Pogba. We should definitely push him this summer, to see if he wants to stay and extend or not. If not, sell him too and fund a solid rebuilt.
High priorities:
- A creative winger.
- An energetic disciplined anchor midfielder.
Our defense needs improvement but it still a very decent back four overall.
- A creative winger.
- An energetic disciplined anchor midfielder.
Our defense needs improvement but it still a very decent back four overall.
I think we need to plan this summer and next summer to really complete the squad - in total (first XI and squad cover) probably need to upgrade on 6-8 positions, but needs to be staged over 2 summers. Thinking back to when Spurs sold Bale and bought 7 (?) players in 1 window, they had no cohesion that year. I'd probably go for 3-4 signings this summer and same the next.
This summer I think go for 2 first team players - defensive centre-mid and right wing/attacker (Sancho + someone else). The defensive mid should be someone who can go into the first team and then leave Matic for replacement/rotation - it's a long season, will be plenty of game time with 55-60 games and Matic can't play 2 games a week at the crunch end of the season.
Seems like Sancho is the obvious choice for right wing if that deal happens - would be happy with Rashford, Martial, Mason and Sancho for the front 3 positions, again plenty of game time over the season. Also means we would have a strong attacking option off the bench as well.
I'd then go for 1-2 squad players - atm there's a frightening drop off in quality when any of our first XI need a rest/out of form/injured. Main positions for this is probably in Bruno and Matic position (Scott/Fred are different type of players to Matic, we don't really have a like for like replacement). So 1 squad signing should be someone who can come in for Bruno without the current huge drop in quality. A possible second squad signing could be either a right back if Dalot doesn't float Ole's boat or a centre forward who would be an option off the bench (depending on what happens with Ighalo). Ideally we could do with someone who did the same role for us as Chicarito - he was probably the ideal 3rd/4th striker, someone in that mould would be perfect but no idea who that is in today's game.
I think left back/centre back upgrades/options could be left until next summer, feel the other positions are more pressing.
Ole also probably needs to make a call on DDG/Henderson for next season - maybe tell Hendo to wait 1 year and then come back to be no. 1?
This summer I think go for 2 first team players - defensive centre-mid and right wing/attacker (Sancho + someone else). The defensive mid should be someone who can go into the first team and then leave Matic for replacement/rotation - it's a long season, will be plenty of game time with 55-60 games and Matic can't play 2 games a week at the crunch end of the season.
Seems like Sancho is the obvious choice for right wing if that deal happens - would be happy with Rashford, Martial, Mason and Sancho for the front 3 positions, again plenty of game time over the season. Also means we would have a strong attacking option off the bench as well.
I'd then go for 1-2 squad players - atm there's a frightening drop off in quality when any of our first XI need a rest/out of form/injured. Main positions for this is probably in Bruno and Matic position (Scott/Fred are different type of players to Matic, we don't really have a like for like replacement). So 1 squad signing should be someone who can come in for Bruno without the current huge drop in quality. A possible second squad signing could be either a right back if Dalot doesn't float Ole's boat or a centre forward who would be an option off the bench (depending on what happens with Ighalo). Ideally we could do with someone who did the same role for us as Chicarito - he was probably the ideal 3rd/4th striker, someone in that mould would be perfect but no idea who that is in today's game.
I think left back/centre back upgrades/options could be left until next summer, feel the other positions are more pressing.
Ole also probably needs to make a call on DDG/Henderson for next season - maybe tell Hendo to wait 1 year and then come back to be no. 1?
The issue about our centre back is that apart from Maguire & Lindelof, the rest are unreliable. If Maguire is injured, we could be in trouble. And the fact that we need to play Maguire in almost every game even against Championship side & Europa League matches this season reflects to how unreliable the others. Don't need to be world class or top class but someone reliable & good enough to play for us.
I hope we are going to go for 3 major signings this window. Number one for me has to be CDM. Partey or someone with similar qualities. Then a CB with Pace and bite who can complement Maguire. Finally Sancho for another option for the right sided forward position. If they are settled well and the squad we already have continue to develop we could have a real title challenging squad.
Good point, maybe get a squad CB instead of RB this summer. Then give the new CB/Tuanzebe/Lindelof one season to cement themselves as Maguire's partner, and if none of them can do it splash out on a top quality CB next summer. This would be dependent on moving out 2 of Smalling/Bailly/Jones because we'd probably be overloaded then.
Not seen much of Tuanzebe personally, would he complement Maguire well? Has he got the pace to cover for Maguire?
We finished the season with a complete starting line up since we had all the positions filled with good players. But there were certain players in there we couldnt do without. Our best XI was De Gea Awb Lindelof Maguire Shaw Matic Pogba Bruno Greenwood Martial Rashford.
So Looking at the best XI and their backups:
De Gea - Solid back up in Romero
Awb - Decent back up in Williams
Lindelof and Maguire - Very unreliable back ups and if we lost Maguire we don't just replace him with an injury prone, inconsistent Bailly but we also lose Maguire's commanding presence
Shaw - Williams was his back up but Williams being right footed really hurt our attack
Matic - Mctominay and Fred were his backups. The former is clearly still learning the role and has not convinced anyone we can do without Matic. The latter did well in Matic's position when he was paired with Mctominay but we are yet to see if he can do well paired with a different CM like Pogba
Pogba - Had decent back ups in Fred and Mctominay. I recall some ridiculous posts about Pogba needing to earn his place when he returned from injury. At least that suggests we are not useless without him.
Bruno - Not a single decent back up and we had about 3 other players in his position
Rashford - Martial's ability to play there is a solid option when we are without Rashford. James also played better in this Rashford's position
Greenwood - No decent back up
Martial - Good back up option in Ighalo
Based on the above, we finished the season lacking enough quality in these positions - CB, LB, DM, AM and RW and this is were we need to improve in the future
If we were operating on a 150m budget as reported I'd imagine we can still add at least another 50 on player sales making it 200m budget. My choices would be
AM - Grealish/Buendia(nothing more than 40m)
RW - Sancho (100m)
Commanding CB - Kabak (35m)
Left footed LB - Lewis (25m)
With no more money left for a DM to succeed Matic I think we can use next season to see if Fred can actually play that role when paired with Pogba and if Mctominay can end up learning the role.
So Looking at the best XI and their backups:
De Gea - Solid back up in Romero
Awb - Decent back up in Williams
Lindelof and Maguire - Very unreliable back ups and if we lost Maguire we don't just replace him with an injury prone, inconsistent Bailly but we also lose Maguire's commanding presence
Shaw - Williams was his back up but Williams being right footed really hurt our attack
Matic - Mctominay and Fred were his backups. The former is clearly still learning the role and has not convinced anyone we can do without Matic. The latter did well in Matic's position when he was paired with Mctominay but we are yet to see if he can do well paired with a different CM like Pogba
Pogba - Had decent back ups in Fred and Mctominay. I recall some ridiculous posts about Pogba needing to earn his place when he returned from injury. At least that suggests we are not useless without him.
Bruno - Not a single decent back up and we had about 3 other players in his position
Rashford - Martial's ability to play there is a solid option when we are without Rashford. James also played better in this Rashford's position
Greenwood - No decent back up
Martial - Good back up option in Ighalo
Based on the above, we finished the season lacking enough quality in these positions - CB, LB, DM, AM and RW and this is were we need to improve in the future
If we were operating on a 150m budget as reported I'd imagine we can still add at least another 50 on player sales making it 200m budget. My choices would be
AM - Grealish/Buendia(nothing more than 40m)
RW - Sancho (100m)
Commanding CB - Kabak (35m)
Left footed LB - Lewis (25m)
With no more money left for a DM to succeed Matic I think we can use next season to see if Fred can actually play that role when paired with Pogba and if Mctominay can end up learning the role.
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I think it's important to look at need by priority. I see this happening in the next 2-3 windows.
High Priority:
* RW / attacking cover + options: If the reports are accurate, we are in for Sancho. Allows cover in all three front positions and emergency cover for Bruno. Clearly going to start on the RW. Greenwood and James for cover.
* Midfield DM: Fred and McT are decent squad options for Matic, but I wouldn't want either one playing more than 20 matches a season. Matic is getting older (aren't we all) and we need a long term replacement. I really like Partey and Brozovic, but we should go younger. Ndidi would cost a lot...
* Pacey, ball playing CB: Upamecano just signed a new contract, but I think the release clause is still active? Others would be the young CB from Lille that we were recently linked to...
Medium Priority:
* Replace DDG. I wouldn't be opposed to having Dean Henderson come in and give Dave competition. I think that's the last thing DeGea wants, but he's been awful the last two seasons.
* Pogba/Bruno coverage: Donny Van de Beek would be a decent choice here. He can play both positions and when Pogba is out injured for half the season would do a much better job than Fred/McT. 40m?
Lower Priority:
* Bruno backup, no.10. Will Mejbri be ready soon?
* LB/RB backup: Williams, for me, is adequate, and I really like his makeup. Never backs down and the ability to put mistakes behind him and still perform is a big plus for me. I'd like to see Ethan Laird make the first squad this next season.
* Striker backup: I see this as Mason + Martial, Rashford in an emergency. Having Ighalo would be good depth.
* More CB cover: Hopefully Tuanzebe will get healthy, and this kid in the reserves, Teden Mengi, looks a beast -- big, fast and skilled. Would love to see him develop into an option
Out:
Andreas 10m
Lingard 15m
Smalling 15m
Rojo 5m
Jones 10m
Dalot 15m
Total: 70m (this is a pipe dream)
In:
Sancho 100m
Upamecano 50m (60m euro release clause)
Ndidi or VDB 50m
Total: 200m
Total outlay: 130m
High Priority:
* RW / attacking cover + options: If the reports are accurate, we are in for Sancho. Allows cover in all three front positions and emergency cover for Bruno. Clearly going to start on the RW. Greenwood and James for cover.
* Midfield DM: Fred and McT are decent squad options for Matic, but I wouldn't want either one playing more than 20 matches a season. Matic is getting older (aren't we all) and we need a long term replacement. I really like Partey and Brozovic, but we should go younger. Ndidi would cost a lot...
* Pacey, ball playing CB: Upamecano just signed a new contract, but I think the release clause is still active? Others would be the young CB from Lille that we were recently linked to...
Medium Priority:
* Replace DDG. I wouldn't be opposed to having Dean Henderson come in and give Dave competition. I think that's the last thing DeGea wants, but he's been awful the last two seasons.
* Pogba/Bruno coverage: Donny Van de Beek would be a decent choice here. He can play both positions and when Pogba is out injured for half the season would do a much better job than Fred/McT. 40m?
Lower Priority:
* Bruno backup, no.10. Will Mejbri be ready soon?
* LB/RB backup: Williams, for me, is adequate, and I really like his makeup. Never backs down and the ability to put mistakes behind him and still perform is a big plus for me. I'd like to see Ethan Laird make the first squad this next season.
* Striker backup: I see this as Mason + Martial, Rashford in an emergency. Having Ighalo would be good depth.
* More CB cover: Hopefully Tuanzebe will get healthy, and this kid in the reserves, Teden Mengi, looks a beast -- big, fast and skilled. Would love to see him develop into an option
Out:
Andreas 10m
Lingard 15m
Smalling 15m
Rojo 5m
Jones 10m
Dalot 15m
Total: 70m (this is a pipe dream)
In:
Sancho 100m
Upamecano 50m (60m euro release clause)
Ndidi or VDB 50m
Total: 200m
Total outlay: 130m
Alexandre Pato, anyone?
If you dont trust your manager, you sack him. He didn't do it but instead bought someone who was actually not needed without the manager’s approval. Now, the manager was eventually proved right that we needed a CB and we got the same player next year for more money.
Ed failed to understand our needs that summer and it was a golden opportunity missed that set us back by 1 year. We just blew it.
Read it. I don't think his quotes say any of that. He just said of course, what you have spent now impacts budget for future. Same as saying of course, if you sell players you have more cash for incoming players.
It's the media spin that this was pre-spending for the summer.
He did.
"Of course, signings and expenditure will affect your budget.”
"It won’t be six or seven coming in, definitely. It will be a similar window. But, here we go again, January is not even done, but we are talking about the summer window. Hopefully we can do our business early on."
You are just making assumptions by saying his signings weren’t manager approval.
Ed gave him more than 60m to spend for centre backs, he spent it on 2 centre backs Lindelof & Bailly which not solving issues but creating more problems. Ed gave him 80m to spend, instead of using it on Van Dijk where the problem is, he spent it on Lukaku and refuse to put more faith & develop Rashford & Martial which not solving issues but create more problems. Almost every pennies he spent, he’s not fixing them but creating more problems.
Why would the board has to break the bank to buy the same positions that he already spent? If those signings were just broken toys then it’s reasonable for the board to question the manager’s idea of recruitment. It’s about man management & plan.
The board wouldn’t let Ole to spend big again on a new right back this summer after spent 45m on Bissaka.
I think we will sign Sancho and sell Smalling, Rojo and Sanchez.
Wrong - Athletic reported that Jose never wanted Fred. Since its behind a paywall , I am giving a different source. If you have an account, feel free to search the article.
https://tribuna.com/en/manutd/news/...inho-only-signed-fred-on-thisornothing-basis/
https://talksport.com/football/614972/jose-mourinho-fred-price-manchester-united-ed-woodward-sign/
Because our options were crap and would need multiple signings to fix it. We are again targeting a CB this year despite spending 130m last year. Isn't that rule applicable here ?
What about you read it again. ‘’It was the Portuguese who greenlighted the move but only because he felt it was Fred or nothing’’. He was the one who has the final say about signing Fred. Throwing 50m away like it was nothing.
Seriously? He never wanted Fred and thats the whole fecking point.
What about 20M+Dalot for Jiminez ?
He is 29 and still can give us 3/4 seasons until Mason fully develops as 9
He is 29 and still can give us 3/4 seasons until Mason fully develops as 9
He was given enough money in his budget during 2017 summer window & Van Dijk was available but he wasted them on the wrong ones.
We signed 1 centre back last year. The plan was to sign 2 centre backs and we were never going to sign 2 last year. Mourinho threw the money away to sign 2 centre backs which you called crap, and he wanted more to replace them. The board is right to question his idea of the recruitment.
Wondering who would be your choice between Ndidi/ Partey/ Saul/ Zakaria/ Carmavinga/ Rice ?
I prefer Ndidi as he is 23 and priven EPL player plus his style suits to our players.
Carmavinga is too young but he is like Varane who can give good 10-12 years
I prefer Ndidi as he is 23 and priven EPL player plus his style suits to our players.
Carmavinga is too young but he is like Varane who can give good 10-12 years
You don’t throw away 50m money on player you don’t want and that’s the whole point.
Why do people talk about VDB? he really does nothing to an excellent level. Am tired of signing players who are particularly not great at something. Rather just get Freakish for 10m more.
I think it'll be Sancho and that's it, just zero smoke about anyone beyond Sancho other than Grealish with the news on that front being that we're tapping out
Can see us getting Sancho and then keeping whatever other funds are left over for January if reinforcements are needed then
Can see us getting Sancho and then keeping whatever other funds are left over for January if reinforcements are needed then
For the nth time - Ed did that.
I think you are probably right.
Manager has the final. The article clearly said ‘’it was the Portuguese who greenlighted the move”. Is Ed the Portuguese? (just want to remind you this is rhetorical question).
Simple, you don’t waste 50m on player you don’t want, rather get nothing than just waste it to create more problems. Not very difficult to understand.
Can't fecking believe I am biting the bullet again.
Mate - my last post on this
Did Jose wanted Fred ? No.
Did he want to sign a CB - yes
Did he get it ? No
What was he given - Fred or nothing
What did he take- better than nothing.
What did Ed do very next year - signed the same guy who Jose wanted last year.
Seriously man ?
The Ed message is out already, have to pull back interest in Grealish transfer to work on Sancho. WTF , the geniuses in the club (Judge and Ed) can only work on one deal at a time, contrast that to our rivals in Citeh and Chelski.
a definitive off season for the club and the media message from the club is again lethargic.
a definitive off season for the club and the media message from the club is again lethargic.
Why is it so difficult to understand this.
When Jose & Ole took in charge, they were given certain amount of budget for the project, the managers gave the idea and the blueprint of how the money will be used. He was given enough money to fix the defense and used the money on 2 CB ffs! And he still wanted the 3rd one.
The same thing will happen if Ole is asking big money for a new right back this summer, he won’t get it.
It’s not very difficult to understand why the board is questioning Jose’s idea of recruitment.
Dalot £15m
Bailly £25m
JOnes £8m
SMalling £18m
Sanchez £10m
Rojo £5m
Lingard £20m
Pereira £10m
Fred £25m
£136m
Upamecano £50m
Camavinga £50m
Sancho £95m
Grealish £70m
£265m - Net Spend £129m
Gk: DeGea - ROmero
RB - Bissaka - Laird
CB - Upamecano - Lindelof
CB - Tuanzabe - Maguire
LB - Shaw - WIlliams
DM - Matic - Camavinga
CM - Pogba - McTominay
AM - Fernandes - Mata
LW - Rashford - Grealish
RW - Sancho - James
ST - Martial - Greenwood
Mengi - Mjebri - Ighalo - Grant make up the rest of the squad
If only it were that simple, but that is a side in my opinion could actually challenge within budget and same time lowering our wage bill too
Bailly £25m
JOnes £8m
SMalling £18m
Sanchez £10m
Rojo £5m
Lingard £20m
Pereira £10m
Fred £25m
£136m
Upamecano £50m
Camavinga £50m
Sancho £95m
Grealish £70m
£265m - Net Spend £129m
Gk: DeGea - ROmero
RB - Bissaka - Laird
CB - Upamecano - Lindelof
CB - Tuanzabe - Maguire
LB - Shaw - WIlliams
DM - Matic - Camavinga
CM - Pogba - McTominay
AM - Fernandes - Mata
LW - Rashford - Grealish
RW - Sancho - James
ST - Martial - Greenwood
Mengi - Mjebri - Ighalo - Grant make up the rest of the squad
If only it were that simple, but that is a side in my opinion could actually challenge within budget and same time lowering our wage bill too
Interesting as if we could sign any of those players I would actually place all of them above Ndidi personally, which is no slight on Ndidi by the way
I think TFM and Mata will stay, maybe Lingard. The others would be youth players.