Most important summer window in years (100-150m budget)

[croadyman]

Sancho & Grealish, then raise some additional funds by selling flood of useless players in our squad and go for the third one.

Use United's huge scout base as we don't have to sign every player for 50m plus. There should be good bargains on the market like Ziyech, but we simply have to do our research.

Yeah those two & young CB would do nicely for this window. Yes I know we need a DM to cover Matic but won't be this summer

 

[Van Piorsing]

Yeah those two & young CB would do nicely for this window. Yes I know we need a DM to cover Matic but won't be this summer

This summer may surprise many people. Imagine if we'd have to postpone Sancho deal like we did with Fernandes, I really won't be surprised, then we'll definitely have funds for this summer to spend on defensive minded midfielder and quality defender.

I can already see Ed Woodward stirring some excuses for possible plot twists plus, we have a history of backing off from deals when clubs trying to force their demands.

 

[croadyman]

This summer may surprise many people. Imagine if we'd have to postpone Sancho deal like we did with Fernandes, I really won't be surprised, then we'll definitely have funds for this summer to spend on defensive minded midfielder and quality defender.

I can already see Ed Woodward stirring some excuses for possible plot twists plus, we have a history of backing off from deals when clubs trying to force their demands.

Nah I genuinely believe it's different with this one but maybe I will be made to look really stupid

 

[CG1010]

For me its clear what we need over the next couple of windows.

A good attacking rb to swap with awb when we needed.

A cb with pace to start with maguire.

A dm to replace matic eventually

A tidy centre midfielder to come in and out with pogba

A 10 to rotate with fernades.

A starting rw

A backup 9 when ighalo goes.


3 starters and 4 squad additions.

Laird could be your rb, mct or fred may develop into your dm and cm so i would go for the rw, cb and 10 this sunmer and give the others a year to kick on.

I think if we buy Sancho, we are good rotation options for number 10, as both Sancho and Pogba can play that role.

There is certainly need for a traditional number 9 (especially one who is a good header) who is Ighalo at the moment but Ole doesn't seem to be trusting him with the role.

 

[Van Piorsing]

Nah I genuinely believe it's different with this one but maybe I will be made to look really stupid

I hope you're right and we get Sancho like every other club getting their target on the market, but this not exactly about who's right and wrong.

It's about Ed Woodward and Glazers having power over Solskjaer when it comes to final word on things.

 

[harms]

If we had signed Maguire in this window, we would have had extra 80m the next summer to spend on another player and be in a much better place today.

It doesn’t work like that, the transfer budget doesn’t reset every summer. If you spend 80 mil in one window, it’s going to affect your future spendings.

 

[bond19821982]

It doesn’t work like that, the transfer budget doesn’t reset every summer. If you spend 80 mil in one window, it’s going to affect your future spendings.

Yes right, but then we could have invested that available money to a position that was needed. We needed a CB but we bought Fred when we already had enough options.

 

[Borys]

That's why I want zaniolo ie someone who is comfortable at RW, CM and no 10

I don't, I want a player who is proper winger.

 

[bond19821982]

I think if we buy Sancho, we are good rotation options for number 10, as both Sancho and Pogba can play that role.

There is certainly need for a traditional number 9 (especially one who is a good header) who is Ighalo at the moment but Ole doesn't seem to be trusting him with the role.

A peak Alves would completely transform this team( yes, more than Sancho)

 

[Craig Ward]

Let me tell you a story. One fine day a small team called Perugia bought a Japanese player from Bellmare Hiratsuka called Hidetoshi Nakata. What happened after that was something beyond anyone's dreams. This small club found themselves overwhelmed with Asian supporters who joined the club's fan base the moment the club signed him. Perugia's games were shown live in Japan on a week in week out basis, their shirts sold throughout the entire Japan and Japanese journalists would track the team's progression week in week out. Once he moved to Roma all that fandom vanished overnight.

Lingard is nowhere near as popular as Nakata and United is not Perugia, however its undeniable that Jesse has got a huge social media following from teenagers who absolutely love him. I met Lingard once when the youth academy came to play in Malta a few years back and I assure you that his popularity has nothing to do with football. At the beginning of the training session everyone one was obsessed with meeting Pogba whom Sir Alex portrayed as the best thing ever happened to football since sliced bread. However by the end of it, the young generation had only eyes set on Lingard. The reason being that the guy knows how to connect with the young generation. While the other kids were busy focusing on their football, Lingard would wave at the teenagers whenever they chanted his name and he would run and celebrate at their corner whenever he scored a goal. It was like seeing Hulk Hogan in action. That's quite important as old farts like myself who can't be bothered spending money on United's merchandise are more likely to put their hands in their pockets if their kid asks them to. First of all because they love to see their kids happy and involved in their own hobby but more importantly because the closer they get to Manchester United the further away they will go from the Scouse inbreds we all fear they will one day support. Which explains why a player of such little talent is able to be so involved in our marketing campaign and why Lingard is worth far more money then what his talent suggest.

What an interesting, yet pointless story.

Lingard is an average footballer, and having a few kids wave at him now and then does not inflate his value by 10million quid.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

The only really weird thing about this Mourinho-Woodward window is that Woodward decided to not sign Maguire as he thought he was overpriced then next year he went on and paid 80m for him. Was really bizarre to see. If we had signed Maguire in this window, we would have had extra 80m the next summer to spend on another player and be in a much better place today.

Otherwise there's no problem with Ed blocking transfer requests from the managers and they definitely shouldn't have a free pass to do what they want overall, because no manager is staying here long term imo, not even Ole.

But the Maguire deal was just bizarre and terrible planning from Woodward imo.

That's also part of bad man management from the manager. Manager has the power to tell the board that centre back is very important and more important than midfield and he went to buy Fred for 50m and didn't use him. We could try to spend the money first on Maguire for 60m in that summer window and use the rest of the remaining budget on another midfielder that we can afford.

However, this looks different when Ole took in charge, much more organised in the recruitment area since the manager knows what he wants/needs. He realised that he needs to fix the defense so let's focus on defense. He wanted AM, but the budget isn't enough so we had no choice but to give Mata a new contract. Bruno's signing came from this summer budget which confirmed by Ole himself. This time the priority is attack & Sancho is the main target.

 

[EdinburghDevil]

I think everyone is in agreement that Sancho is top of the priority list and will be our 'big money transfer' of the summer. I think we will only spend £150m if we offload 4 or 5 players.

Ideally we would offload Smalling, Rojo and Jones (especially the latter two!!) and brought in Jan Vertonghen I think that would be a good bit of business. Also provides some cover at LB. Might allow us to then splash the big money on a CB next summer. I'd imagine he'd be another good character to have round the dressing room too.

I think Mata will leave, probably Turkey or Spain and possibly one of Lingard and Andreas. A Grealish type player to come in to replace these 3, promoting someone like Garner for example to compete with our current midfield options.

I'd like to see Dalot maybe sent off on loan or sold with a buy back clause and would be happy with Williams / Laird to provide RB cover for AWB.

 

[AneRu]

Sancho & Grealish, then raise some additional funds by selling flood of useless players in our squad and go for the third one.

Use United's huge scout base as we don't have to sign every player for 50m plus. There should be good bargains on the market like Ziyech, but we simply have to do our research.

This has to be lit approach because there is a lot of talent between a Sancho and a Daniel James, for example. And there are a lot of players who have just hit a dead end at United such as Pereira, Rojo, Jones, Mata, Sanchez etc.

We should be able to sell our non performing players and replace them with better players.

 

[Tom Cato]

A peak Alves would completely transform this team( yes, more than Sancho)

yes he's only the best attacking rightback football has ever seen, surprise there?

 

[Van Piorsing]

This has to be lit approach because there is a lot of talent between a Sancho and a Daniel James, for example. And there are a lot of players who have just hit a dead end at United such as Pereira, Rojo, Jones, Mata, Sanchez etc.

We should be able to sell our non performing players and replace them with better players.

Yes, not to mention they can't hog the place in the squad forever, otherwise we can forget giving Mengi, Tuanzebe, Mejbri and Chong chance to play whatsoever. Gomes already gone so perhaps it's time for a serious clearout.

 

[Siorac]

Yeah those two & young CB would do nicely for this window. Yes I know we need a DM to cover Matic but won't be this summer

We need a DM to replace Matic. He's one of the weak links in the team.

 

[Sarni]

Not sure about that, Ole was reluctant to play McTominay, Fred for last few mins vs West Ham, can he trust them against teams in CL? We need to invest smartly this summer, Sancho is a must, apart from that there will be few good players who will be available for decent price.

If we are looking to build depth and have players better than Fred and McTominay there then we are looking to spend £600m - £700m on 8-10 players. Doubt we can afford it.

 

[sp_107]

How many of you would actually sacrifice Sancho for other key signings?

I mean if we have 150m , it's quite big. But when you consider you have to spend 100m on Sancho then we are back to square one again.

I think we can make great strides if we sacrifice Sancho

Thiago - 35m
Kabak/Konate /CB- 35-40m
Replacement for Matic - 50m
Left back - 25-30m

Can we get some bosmans or cheap options for right ?

Lot of sense here. If we sell 5/6 fringe players like Jesse, Alexis, Smalling, Rojo, Dalot, Jones we might get good amount to sign someone like Grealish

Above list with Grealish could be a better summer

 

[bond19821982]

United’s manager wants quality strength in depth to be able to rotate and make substitutions that affect games in an attacking sense. That is why a striker remains on the list despite the form of Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood. A left-sided centre-half is another position sought.

From Athletic!

Sancho, striker and a CB - our priority signings this year .

 

[roonster09]

If we are looking to build depth and have players better than Fred and McTominay there then we are looking to spend £600m - £700m on 8-10 players. Doubt we can afford it.

Yeah, but we should sign more than 3 IMO if we let go players like Sanchez, Smalling and other players. We need depth too to play well in CL and league.

 

[croadyman]

United’s manager wants quality strength in depth to be able to rotate and make substitutions that affect games in an attacking sense. That is why a striker remains on the list despite the form of Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood. A left-sided centre-half is another position sought.

From Athletic!

Sancho, striker and a CB - our priority signings this year .

Admire The Athletic who are still absolutely adamant we will prioritise a striker over cover for Pogba/Bruno

 

[sp_107]

Anyone agrees for a straight swap of Chilwell and Shaw ?

 

[nme_pro]

Outs:
Smalling
Rojo
Tuanzebe (part exchange deal for Upamecano)
Bailly (part exchange deal for Torres)
Dalot
Mata
Sanchez
Periera
DeGea
Pogba

Ins:
Sancho
Ndidi or Kalvin Philips
VdB or Grealish
Ismaïla Sarr
Max Aarons
Upamecano
Torres
Henderson

Read that as Kevin Phillips and thought that you were having some sort of episode.

 

[CG1010]

A peak Alves would completely transform this team( yes, more than Sancho)

I agree - we have been quite poor in the central areas either in attack, midfield or defence. But having strengthened this, first time in several years we have great set of players centrally. And now to take the team to the next level, we need to dominate the width areas. I might be in minority here but I would focus on getting Sancho + a new LB and RB. They can compete for places with Shaw and AWB who are solid options but nothing great. To those who say we have invested 50 million already in AWB, well look at Pep, he made sure he had top wing backs to support his style of play. And with out and out winger becoming extinct in football, attacking wing backs are the only way to be able to play the United way.

Although we do need cover for CB more urgently so perhaps I would settle for one new LB/RB and get another one next season.

 

[sp_107]

Our defence conceded just 36 goals (least goals-33 by Liverpool) so why everyone talking like we are with a mediocre defence line ?

Better we fix DM/ACM/RW on top priority ?

I would be very happy if we sign Sancho/Grealish/Saul and if possible Konate and clear 6/7 players worth 70-80M together.That would be still around 160M Net spend.

We didnt use Lukaku money last year as our netspend is only 70M each for last 2 seasons

 

[Sarni]

Yeah, but we should sign more than 3 IMO if we let go players like Sanchez, Smalling and other players. We need depth too to play well in CL and league.

We cannot afford it. If we want to build depth AND address first team issues then it’s a 3-4 year project.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

Upsnacano and Sancho should be the priority

 

[roonster09]

We cannot afford it. If we want to build depth AND address first team issues then it’s a 3-4 year project.

For me RW and DM is the position we need to address for first team. Then we need back up LB, CB. Don't think thats a 4 year project.

 

[AneRu]

We cannot afford it. If we want to build depth AND address first team issues then it’s a 3-4 year project.

It's a difficult decision in such an uncertain period but this strong finish presents an opportunity to move the team up a level or two. We have two objectives, cut the gap between us and the dominant duo and then make sure that we maintain our spot so that we are best placed to take advantage should either of them falter.

Under normal circumstances, we don't know when of if ever that normal will return, the club is much like Real Madrid/Barcelona in that it is perfectly placed to take full advantage of success on the pitch. Our last season in the CL had us posting record revenues.

In my view we are stuck between a rock and a hard place, do we push the boat out to close the gap or do we become financially conservative and risk falling out of the top four again?

I think we need to strengthen but obviously we won't be able to solve all our issues but I think we should still be able to get Sancho, a DM and a CB. Anything less will be risky imo but if our backs are against the wall then it will have to be RW and CB because I think that Scot McTominay won't let us down if called upon.

 

[Jibbs]

Read that as Kevin Phillips and thought that you were having some sort of episode.

In all seriousness I think United will only go for Sancho and one of Rice/VdB/Ndidi this year. They will only go for Grealish if Pogba is sold.

 

[gorky_utd]

For me a rw and cb should be bought who are first xi quality. Next priority should be a back up striker and then if budget permits a backup mid.

 

[Tyrion]

The worst reason for signing him is the cover he gives us. We have no cover for Rashford of any quality only really Daniel James, the same for Greenwood on the right who will surely be a centre forward longer term, our cover really a the moment for Fernandes is Mata/Lingard/Perreira and surely most of them will be moved on. We do have cover for Pogba in Fred and McTominay or a morem defensive mindset so he increases the quality of cover in all those areas. That in itself is surely reason to sign him as if we need to change something and chase the game I would much rather him coming on than any of the other current options.

But he also offers us ball retention and the ability to ghost and dribble with the ball past players which we dont reallt have currently. We have ball retention from strength, dribbling through pace but with sides behind the ball we have lacked creativity recentlywhen Fernandes has been out of sorts, for me he doesnt just improve our squad depth hugely, I think many games over a season he will actually improve our first eleven, who knows how good he could actually be surrounded by a higher quality of player, we havent seen it at all in his career yet. Maybe he may not make the step up, maybe we havent seen anywhere near the best of him.

I do however agree that a defensive midfielder is needed too.

He's definitely good enough that he would help, I'm just cautious given how much he will surely cost.

 

[Tyrion]

We really shouldn’t be buying a “weaker” anything if looking to compete. Injuries happen! It’ll be interesting to see how far Ole trusts Fred and McTominay going into next season.

Well we can't play Grealish, Pogba and Bruno at the same time surely?

 

[sp_107]

Why we are ignoring Partey whose release clause is just 46M ?


Any better options for that price range ?

 

[RedSky]

For me RW and DM is the position we need to address for first team. Then we need back up LB, CB. Don't think thats a 4 year project.

I think we'll stick with Williams and Shaw at LB.
CB however is a real issue for us, Baillys injury record is awful, Tuanzebe also has injury issues and Rojo/Jones are clearly on their way out. If Lindelof/Maguire picks up an injury then we have serious, serious problems. Think Ole is wise going for another CB.
RW and DM are clear issues too, i'd be happy with 3 signings myself. RW, DM and CB. Although I do see the sense in getting another AM to allow Bruno some cover.

 

[edcunited1878]

An important thing people overlook is the fact that getting wages off the books is more important for a club like United rather than the sale and transfer fee of current players.

For example, Ashley Young's wages were freed (and his number) before the Bruno transfer.

The natural turnover of the squad results in new wage space that is taken by new players or new contracts, but in this case new players.

Juan Mata - 160K GBP per week, expires June 2021 but a club option thru June 2022
Marcos Rojo - 80K GBP per week, expires June 2021
Phil Jones - 75K GBP per week, expires June 2023 but a club option thru June 2024 (wtf!)
Jesse Lingard - 75K GBP per week, expires June 2021 but a club option thru June 2022
Alexis Sanchez - 350K GBP per week, expires June 2022
Chris Smalling - 70K GBP per week, expires June 2022 but a club option thru June 2023
Odion Ighalo - 130K GBP per week, expires August 2020
https://www.spotrac.com/epl/manchester-united-f.c/payroll//

Currently, three players are on loan (Rojo, Sanchez, and Smalling) with Ighalo's return unlikely due to loan terms.

If three players are going out at minimum, in addition to considering what has been spoken about, it's looking like four potential players - RW/RF, central midfielder, CB, and CF.

I'd be hesitant to put the entire frontline cover on Greenwood supported by James and it's nice having a different CF like Ighalo.

The other three positions, RW/RF, CM, and CB are clear with the RW/RF position the only one where a clear, bang on starting XI international player can walk right into the team (Sancho). Every player linked at CM and CB are not so clear cut starting XI, but they are close to it and should easily push the current starter and be clearly ahead of the immediate back up player (midfield - McTominay and Fred or CB - Bailly).

 

[The United]

We would be lucky to sign two players who will be competing for regular. I think we will go for Sancho and get some no name and, that might be it.

 

[croadyman]

Well we can't play Grealish, Pogba and Bruno at the same time surely?

I know this sounds mad but having the opportunity to rotate Bruno & Grealish makes Jack worth investing in.

Yes I know it will be big money but think he is capable of proving many wrong in the fanbase who have major doubts on him.

 

[Shiva87]

Supported him and swapped Martial for Willian?

Brilliant move that would've been

Willian, Perisic and Alderweireld. What a summer that would have been! More flair replaced with grafters.

Not sure why you keep going back to Jose here. That's not the point. We were at the highest point since SAF and there was an opportunity to attract quality players who wanted CL . We just didn't do it and missed a window putting us back by another 2 years. Ed can approve or reject Ole's options but end of the day we need the money to be spent on quality players and it needs to be done this window. Not next year or January.

I think the point he is making is that this window isn’t comparable to the Jose one subjectively. While it was our chance to strengthen, the board and the manager had differences on which direction we should take. Jose wanted to splash on making us a here and now team, but the board wanted long term investments.

This conflict blew it for us that summer. The point this time is that there are no excuses. No disconnect on overall strategy. The manager has delivered his side of the bargain, and wants to invest heavily to improve the long term squad health. Ole won’t demand finished product type signings!

That's also part of bad man management from the manager. Manager has the power to tell the board that centre back is very important and more important than midfield and he went to buy Fred for 50m and didn't use him. We could try to spend the money first on Maguire for 60m in that summer window and use the rest of the remaining budget on another midfielder that we can afford.

However, this looks different when Ole took in charge, much more organised in the recruitment area since the manager knows what he wants/needs. He realised that he needs to fix the defense so let's focus on defense. He wanted AM, but the budget isn't enough so we had no choice but to give Mata a new contract. Bruno's signing came from this summer budget which confirmed by Ole himself. This time the priority is attack & Sancho is the main target.

Where has Ole confirmed that the Bruno signing was from the summer budget? I’ll be surprised if we have no budget for January signings! I think a lot of that was media speculation that we are pre spending the Pogba cash, which doesn’t seem right for a 50 million signing. Fred was 50 m as well!

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

Where has Ole confirmed that the Bruno signing was from the summer budget? I’ll be surprised if we have no budget for January signings! I think a lot of that was media speculation that we are pre spending the Pogba cash, which doesn’t seem right for a 50 million signing. Fred was 50 m as well!

https://www.90min.com/posts/6550125...-will-impact-man-utd-s-summer-transfer-budget