Moyes: "January not an easy month to purchase in. We have a good squad."

Is there anything to this "not signing anyone in a world cup year?.."

Summer 2006: In: Michael Carrick.
Summer 2010: In: Chris Smalling, Javier Hernández Marnick Vermijl and fan-favourite Bebe.

So probably, yes.

Edit: not Lingegaard
 
blythy said:
Agreed.

I think it's a whole lot of bullshit. The club was the source of a lot of hot air in the summer - and since when do United do their dealings in public? Seems to me that they wanted to appear to be in the market (sponsors) but when it comes down to it they are not prepared to invest the levels needed.

On a similar vein, this is worth reading http://www1.skysports.com/football/...vest-in-world-class-talent-says-jeff-stelling
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Has someone from the Caf written that?? ;)
 
Sunny Jim said:
Hernadez was signed in April, before the WC
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That still counts, it shows how difficult it is to do buisness in a World Cup year. Smalling was sorted before hand as well I think.
 
mickeza said:
Yeah, Smalling was done in January.
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And there was no hope in hell that he'd go to the World Cup. Same with Vermijl and Bebe. Weird examples tbh. I'm sure we can sign more Vermijls and Bebes. Even in January! It's not the point though.
 
You can't all have it both ways I'm afraid. It's as though people are looking for things now which is disappointing. Strange how different the opinions are at games. Bar the odd one, every player thread on here is full of criticism, yet it all seems to come back to him. People critising him for predicting what he may and may not do. As I say, looking for it.

We're just desperately short of confidence at the end of the day. What I saw at the game today was a team lacking any sort of faith and belief in their own ability. Players afraid to take risks and look to influence the game. It's a difficult position we are in, but we need to fight our way out of it. We need to get another win under our belts, as obvious as that may sound. As I said on the other thread, massive vocal effort needed on Tuesday.
 
You guys in the Stretford End are doing a fantastic job so far. Thank you.

I do go to games, but not as often as I'd like. I wish I could be there every game supporting Moyes and the team.
 
blythy said:
Agreed.

I think it's a whole lot of bullshit. The club was the source of a lot of hot air in the summer - and since when do United do their dealings in public? Seems to me that they wanted to appear to be in the market (sponsors) but when it comes down to it they are not prepared to invest the levels needed.

On a similar vein, this is worth reading http://www1.skysports.com/football/...vest-in-world-class-talent-says-jeff-stelling
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Jeff Stelling is right. I'm still hoping that the fact we didn't spend money in the summer was down to Moyes promoting and trusting our youth players like Welbeck and Cleverley and giving the squad a chance, like Moyes himself said. In my opinion that summer was our biggest for some time and we horribly failed at providing Moyes with funds. This January will show whether we do have the financial muscle we claim to have. Unfortunately in the age of the sugar daddy - barring an exceptional line of youth players or exceptional manager (SAF) - we simply have to spend to keep on top. Without the two billionaire clubs we would comfortably finish in the top 4 this season. But they're here so we have to deal with it. And if we finish outside the top 4 this year and then lose out on future potential world class talents to our rivals, it could be a long way back for us, especially with a good, solid but nothing spectacular manager like Moyes. All so easily avoided as well with a bit of spending when it was required.
 
blythy said:
Agreed.

I think it's a whole lot of bullshit. The club was the source of a lot of hot air in the summer - and since when do United do their dealings in public? Seems to me that they wanted to appear to be in the market (sponsors) but when it comes down to it they are not prepared to invest the levels needed.

On a similar vein, this is worth reading http://www1.skysports.com/football/...vest-in-world-class-talent-says-jeff-stelling
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Agree with that article on the whole, but there are a few dodgy points.

First of all, from what I remember, even in the pre-Glazer days, United weren't at the forefront of the marquee transfer market. Sure we signed Veron, but then we signed Berbatov after the Glazers took over. Same goes for spending on the likes of Rooney and Rio; we've recently spent big on Jones and RVP. This is not to excuse the Glazer's thriftiness (something that I believe exists,) but rather to point that we have never spent the way City, Chelsea or Real do (at least as far as I can remember.)

Next, I would say that De Gea, (and perhaps Rafael,) is certainly a world-class talent. As well, he mentions that we didn't replace Neville, but didn't Rafael (whom he mentions as one of our bright young talents,) do exactly that?
 
jem said:
Agree with that article on the whole, but there are a few dodgy points.

First of all, from what I remember, even in the pre-Glazer days, United weren't at the forefront of the marquee transfer market. Sure we signed Veron, but then we signed Berbatov after the Glazers took over. Same goes for spending on the likes of Rooney and Rio; we've recently spent big on Jones and RVP. This is not to excuse the Glazer's thriftiness (something that I believe exists,) but rather to point that we have never spent the way City, Chelsea or Real do (at least as far as I can remember.)

Next, I would say that De Gea, (and perhaps Rafael,) is certainly a world-class talent. As well, he mentions that we didn't replace Neville, but didn't Rafael (whom he mentions as one of our bright young talents,) do exactly that?
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We were always among the top spenders, never in the Madrid/City/PSG bracket right now obviously but because we were one of the biggest clubs in the world, we spent accordingly. We broke the british transfer record quite a few times as well.
 
shaggy said:
This January will show whether we do have the financial muscle we claim to have.
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It won't really, because some targets we may have in mind are simply not for sale in the middle of the season. And I don't expect us to move on to lesser choices.

I don't believe lack of funds was the problem in the summer. Some of it was Woodward's lack of experience in the football market, part - the bigger part, for me - Moyes's lack of knowledge in the bigger, more expensive market. I expect him to have a better sense of realistic targets.
 
January isn't an easy time to sign players, but is the summer going to be any better? Moyes can talk about availability all he wants, but Fabregas clearly wasn't available in the summer and we put in around 3 or 4 pathetic bids for him. Why can't we do that in January, except actually go for a player that might want to to join us even a little?
 
Stop it, by the weekend we'll be forced to pay all Premier League clubs for permission to have Ashley Young enter their grounds.
 
The Daily Mail believe that their 200m figure could be intended for use during up to three transfer windows [18 months is the way they have describe it according to Talksport].

No word on whether the Glazers are applying the Vincent Tan rule as yet, best keep the salaries and agents fees down just in case. :smirk:


ETA: I suppose it is in fact four transfer windows including the one we are in now.
 
200m over three windows would be a huge amount of money.

We only need a couple of players IMO as a priority, that being a top class central midfielder and a top class left back. Moyes first task should be getting the best out of his current players and getting the team playing cohesively because he's failed on that score so far.
 
£200m over three windows sounds right considering the clearing out we have to do also.
 
£200m doesn't go far these days. Not convinced it would be enough.
 
Pexbo said:
£200m doesn't go far these days. Not convinced it would be enough.
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If our transfer targets consisted of the likes of Bale, Ronaldo and Messi, it certainly wouldn't go far. For talented players that are available at the 30-50m mark, it would.
 
Pexbo said:
£200m doesn't go far these days. Not convinced it would be enough.
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Considering that a German guy practically made an entire team who was last year on the final of UCL with around 1/10 of that sum, I think 200m is more than enough.

We could get 7 Fellaini with that money.

I don't think that we'll spend 200m on the next 3 summers combined though.
 
Cal? said:
We've gone backwards, more than Dalglish or even Hodgson managed to do with Liverpool, or any of Chelsea's hundreds of managers between the 2 Mourinho reign. :(
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I know we discourage gifs in the football forum but this has to be posted.

PANIC.gif
 
Shark22 said:
but Fabregas clearly wasn't available in the summer and we put in around 3 or 4 pathetic bids for him. Why can't we do that in January, except actually go for a player that might want to to join us even a little?
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Fabregas clearly wanted to stay at Barca IF he got the support that he required and I'm sure we were getting a great deal of encouragement behind the scenes from his agent. The fee plainly wasn't the issue which is why we didn't offer more. He got the support he wanted from the club and therefore stayed.

Of course the club bidding for a player we couldn't ever get to fool the fans that there was money to spend is plainly a better story for more excitable United fans.
 
He's going to bid 20m for Ronaldo then spend 200m on Baines on the last day.
 
Shark22 said:
If our transfer targets consisted of the likes of Bale, Ronaldo and Messi, it certainly wouldn't go far. For talented players that are available at the 30-50m mark, it would.
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You'd need to be in the CL to get those types of players.
 
Our squad is full of mediocrity.

£200m is resonably about what it would take at market rates to refresh this squad. A good player costs at least £30m. Better players are going to be closer to £50m. Unless you can unearth gems, but even that can be pricey.
 
Cal? said:
If we had stood still (with Sir Alex still in charge), we'd be comfortably near the top of the table.

We've gone backwards, more than Dalglish or even Hodgson managed to do with Liverpool, or any of Chelsea's hundreds of managers between the 2 Mourinho reign. :(
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They won a CL and Europe Cup.
 
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