Name four players you think we'll buy in the summer

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Meh.

Lukaku
Perisic
Keane
Hopefully Fabinho


Fabinho aside we're gonna spend a feck load of money and it can be argued the squad isn't much better for it.

Lukaku for Zlatan isn't much of an upgrade and is Keane so much better than Smalling? I doubt it.

Perisic looks alright but at nearly 29 and costing around £50m is he much better than Martial who we all know can be brilliant (hopefully he finds his first season form)....I'm really not convinced and I'm fecking dreading this summer.
 
NoPace said:
I think Mkhitaryan can play on either wing if we surround him with good players and our 3 man midfield can help us dominate games and win possession a bit higher up the field, create better transitions and so on.
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OK mate, but still we're looking at 5 additions really aren't we. Minimum. Even if it's 4, it's a tricky one. You could sign 4 top names and they don't all fit in. It's a lot to get playing the way you want. I trust Mourinho to do it given time though. Not his fault the squad he took over!
 
Posted in this a while back, but now that the window's open, I'm expecting something like this:

Morata/Lacazette
James
Douglas Costa
Fabinho
(Mendy)

EDIT: Somehow forgot about a CB. Keane or Lindelof I guess.
 
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Castia said:
Meh.

Lukaku
Perisic
Keane
Hopefully Fabinho


Fabinho aside we're gonna spend a feck load of money and it can be argued the squad isn't much better for it.

Lukaku for Zlatan isn't much of an upgrade and is Keane so much better than Smalling? I doubt it.

Perisic looks alright but at nearly 29 and costing around £50m is he much better than Martial who we all know can be brilliant (hopefully he finds his first season form)....I'm really not convinced and I'm fecking dreading this summer.
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That's actually 4 good signings that would improve us. Lukaku would get us goals, Perisic is a really good player (Martial was poor this season) Keane is better than you give him credit for and Fabinho is real quality. All would be regulars as opposed off Jones Smalling Carrick and as much as I love Zlatan he had started running out of gas imo before his injury (maybe the suspension would have reinvigorated him). But Lukaku guarantees goals galore.
If this is what Jose wants then I'd be happy as I trust him in the transfer market unlike LVG.
 
Sunny Jim said:
It looks like attacking players will be very difficult to obtain. I have no idea who were getting.
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Sounds like we can get Douglas Costa,Renato Sanches, lukaku/lacazette and Keane/lindoff if we really wanted.
Also perisic if we wanted to waste €50m+
 
My guess is that Griezmann was not a Mourinho thing but he was happy to add him, but now that that is done, Mourinho has asked for:

-A physical #9 because that's what he seems to favor
-A 3rd quality central midfielder because he's not crazy, Pogba is best in that setup at the moment and Mourinho likes a 4-3-3,
-An LB because he doesn't trust Shaw in general
-A CB because he doesn't trust Smalling or Jones to stay healthy

and that because he likes Rashford and has signed Mkhitaryan, maybe a winger is on the backburner. So that could give us a summer like this:

-Morata (Belotti, Lukaku)
-Fabinho
-Danny Rose
-Lindelof

with Rooney, one of Jones/Smalling and maybe a fullback (Blind, Darmian or Young) leaving. Let's say it's only Smalling (more rumored to leave than Jones) at the moment and maybe one of the fullbacks go in January or next summer, along with De Gea to Madrid maybe, and with Zlatan and Rojo coming back into the team as January-esque signings once recovered:

---------Morata----------- (Rashford)
Martial--------Mkhitaryan (Mata, Lingard)
---Pogba---Herrera------ (Fellaini, Pereira)
--------Fabinho----------- (Carrick)
Rose-------------Valencia (Shaw, Darmian)
-----Lindelof-Bailly------- (Blind, Jones)
---------De Gea---------- (Romero)

and then Young and Tuanzebe as wing, DM, FB and CB cover combined. Zlatan comes back in January to bump Rashford to the wing and Lingard to 5th choice winger.
 
Many of the wish lists including mine are at best optimistic but as we know Jose has his style and wants functional players.

So we likely to see Matic, Perisic and Lukaku
 
AndyJ1985 said:
Aside from Fabinho we'd be no better than last season. In fact you could argue we'd be weaker, because Morata isn't as good as Zlatan.
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We'd be considerably stronger in the middle with Fabinho. Micky and Martial can't be worse either, plus it's Mourinho's famous second year here/new signings have another year to gel. There's no way we'd be weaker.
 
yamo123x said:
Many of the wish lists including mine are at best optimistic but as we know Jose has his style and wants functional players.

So we likely to see Matic, Perisic and Lukaku
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That would be disappointing as feck
 
jungledrums said:
We'd be considerably stronger in the middle with Fabinho. Micky and Martial can't be worse either, plus it's Mourinho's famous second year here/new signings have another year to gel. There's no way we'd be weaker.
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Our biggest issue is not being able to score goals. Therefore keeping our attack the same whilst replacing our top goal scorer with an inferior striker would be making ourselves weaker.
 
AndyJ1985 said:
Our biggest issue is not being able to score goals. Therefore keeping our attack the same whilst replacing our top goal scorer with an inferior striker would be making ourselves weaker.
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That simplifies the problem though. It's not just the 'attack' that scores goals (or attacks, to put it simply). I think Pogba in that midfield (Herrera and Fabinho) would be devastating and I fully expect Martial and Micky to pick up from last season, not to mention any new additions we bring in, whether it be Morata, Perisic, or others. I see your point and I partially agree, as a lot of what I'm saying is dependent on players improving, but it's just my gut feeling.
 
Like others have said we need to improve our goal output. Mourinho wont want to keep parking the bus against (on paper) inferior teams, so the goals need to come from all over the pitch not just the attack. There is no point improving the attack to add 20 goals without the midfield and defence also being able to step up as we wont improve on 5/6th place. If a player, using Perisic as an example, will improve us, it doesnt matter how old or how much he costs. I would even set a goal target for all midfield and wide players of 6 goals apiece at least. Give them something to strive for, a reachable target. Imagine if Miki Lingard Martial Rashford Pogba Herrera Fellaini Mata and Carrick (using just the players from last season) could reach that between themselves, and if they were playing next season with a top striker who can hit 20-25 goals a season, and the backup could hit 10 then top 4 even winning the league would be easily in our grasp. Now If we could find our Lampard this would be a lot easier... one can dream!
 
With the Griezmann signing falling apart, who will be our marquee signing though? I can't see a summer where the club will pass up on a marquee signing, especially someone to take up the no. 7 jersey.
 
Not going to lie, when you look at the 4 most likely signings based on who we have been linked with it seems it will be a very underwhelming Summer for us. And before anyone says 'It's only June' which is true, the signs aren't good at the moment either way. Jose said he wants his signings done before pre season which starts in around a month. Cannot see us signing the quality we need all within a month.
 
AndyJ1985 said:
Aside from Fabinho we'd be no better than last season. In fact you could argue we'd be weaker, because Morata isn't as good as Zlatan.
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Fair enough, but who do you propose that would be an improvement on Morata? Who is out there that has a guaranteed 25 goals in them? Any choice, keeping in mind realism. It'd be easy to pull out the Kane card, but let's be honest, if Monaco want 130m euros for an unproven striker, what will Levy fleece us for Kane?

Unless your solution is more than one striker, but again, two 15 goals/season striker does not equal one 30 goal one, but maybe that's good enough...?

I don't think we will ever see Martial through the middle on a regular basis, and Rashford is still raw. I would love to see him pick up his game next season and bag us 10+ goals, but it's not something you want to bet on.

I agree with jungledrums' sentiment that it's not just the striker itself that is the cause, but if you were to solve the striker issue, assuming we flog Rooney and have a half fit Ibra, what would you do?
 
Lacazette (in lieu of Griezmann, don't see Morata coming)
Keane
Fabinho
Perisic

+ Varane (despite Keane coming back, allowing us to release Smalling and probably Jones whilst retaining depth).

Dave stays - RM can jog on.
 
What I want(wanted)
Griezmann
Nainggolan
Varane
Mendy
Fabinho

What we will most likely get
Keane
Perisic
Lukaku
 
Castia said:
Meh.

Lukaku
Perisic
Keane
Hopefully Fabinho


Fabinho aside we're gonna spend a feck load of money and it can be argued the squad isn't much better for it.

Lukaku for Zlatan isn't much of an upgrade and is Keane so much better than Smalling? I doubt it.

Perisic looks alright but at nearly 29 and costing around £50m is he much better than Martial who we all know can be brilliant (hopefully he finds his first season form)....I'm really not convinced and I'm fecking dreading this summer.
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I have to say that if there isn't any value in the market then we shouldn't go for it. At all. Mbappe is a very clear case of this.

But we have to strengthen some areas of our squad and address some imbalances. I have been chopping and changing on this but guys who look decent to me:

Lindelof
Fabinho
Perisic
Lacazette

Looks solid and not short of top flight experience. No matter how we skin it our club cant remold itself after a couple of transfer windows. It takes time to establish a solid foundation. It certainly took Ferguson a long time but then..... expedience is not what we need right now.
 
I'm going to try this again and be less pessimistic for once! I think we'll definitely sign Keane and I think Matic is likely. This sounds pretty negative but I think Matic, while super dull, could allow Herrera and Pogba to really come into the game. I'd have preferred Fabinho, but Matic makes sense in this respect at least. I also think we could get Morata, and I think that if we can get him for a reasonable fee that would be great business. The only issue I have is that we would need to add to our attack from last season and I certainly don't see Morata as an improvement over Zlatan. We've been linked heavily with James but I think we're looking at a midfield three if Matic is the target, so he wouldn't fit. We'd need someone like Bale (not happening), Griezmann (not happening) or the likes. With those two not looking likely I'd go for Douglas Costa or Mahrez. Hopefully Mkhi or Martial can come good to make up the other wing.

I think that if we made these signings (I've gone with Costa) then we would actually be an overall better unit, with Morata bringing the other forwards into the game and Matic allowing the other MF players to make forward runs to support. I think Keane would be a good fit with Bailly too and we should be solid with Matic as DM.

Out: Smalling (15m), Jones (12m), Fellaini (18m), Young (3m), Rooney (free).
In: Keane (20m), Matic (30m), Costa (45m), Morata (swap).
Net Spend: £95m (less if we also get cash with the De Gea deal).
Finishing place: 3rd.

Romero
Valencia---Bailly-Keane---Shaw
Matic
Herrera------Pogba
Mkhitaryan---------------D.Costa
-Morata-
​
 
As much as I wanted Griezmann I'd be happy with:
Sandro (£60m)
Keane (£20m)
Fabinho (£45m)
Lukaku (£70m)

That's 4 players that will come and play every week.

Lukaku
Martial Mykytarin
Pogba. Herrera
Fabinho
Sandro Keane Bailley Valencia
DDG

That's a very solid team and unlike this year we'd have a very settled starting 11. Would be such a solid base to build on for next year.
 
I don't see many people going for a true winger. I know Perisic is such, but he's 29 - 2-3 seasons and he'll be well over the hill. I want to see us getting players at the age of 23-24-25. Players who are entering their prime. On top of all, I hope we're keeping our business under the radar and feeding the journos fake stories to keep the crowds away.
If I remember correctly, last summer came up a story about our financial year/quarter finishing on June 30th, therefore no transfer deals would be announced before then or done before then - kind of feels the same this time around.
The players I would like to see are a bit pricey, but not impossible - Lukaku and O Dembele.
 
Reckon now it will end up something like:

Lindelof
Fabinho
Perisic
Lacazette/Lukaku
 
Winger - Dembele(45m) or Douglas Costa(35m)
DM - Fabinho(40m) or Dier(40m)
ST - Alexis Sanchez(50m) or Alvaro Morata(45m)
CD - Michael Keane(20m)
 
redsunited said:
Winger - Dembele(45m) or Douglas Costa(35m)
DM - Fabinho(40m) or Dier(40m)
ST - Alexis Sanchez(50m) or Alvaro Morata(45m)
CD - Michael Keane(20m)
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Surely Arsenal won't part with him for 50m. Best attacking player in the PL this season IMO (has the stats to prove it)

Would love him here though. Fabinho as well, great player.
 
Paul Merson, Gary Mabutt, Martin Keown, Abdu Salaah-Salaah and Tom Ince.
 
What I'd like;

Fabinho
Kovacic
Douglas Costa
Neymar

What I think we'll get;

Rose
Keane
Matic
Lukaku
 
tomaldinho1 said:
Surely Arsenal won't part with him for 50m. Best attacking player in the PL this season IMO (has the stats to prove it)

Would love him here though. Fabinho as well, great player.
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For last 3 years combined, he is the best. By the end of window 50m for Alexis Sanchez will be too good to refuse for Arsenal or end up giving away for free by next summer, If possible I would rather it be us who gets him rather than City/Chelsea. Bayern/PSG is more realistic though.
 
After ajax game i was in full muppet mode and i thought:
Griezmann, lukaku, varane and bakayoko. It would be perfect muppet summer.
Now i am in full pessimist mode ( yes, yes , i know it is only june) so we will end with 3 not united level and expensive players plus one galactico who we don't even need.
James, keane, lacazzete and one truly average midfielder.
 
So, what players have we been consistently linked with so far this summer?

CB - Lindelof, Keane
DCM - Fabinho, Matic, Dier
AM - Perisic, James
Str - Morata, Mbappe, Lacazette

Do we think our signings will come from this pool? Have I missed anyone?
 
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