Number 1 priority... Central midfielder!

RedorDead21 said:
Every top team in Europe is looking for the same players. Teams which are in a far better position than us currently. And teams don’t need to sell anymore or simply won’t sell mid-season. Anyone we buy in Jan is more likely to be not Ole’s first or second choice but likely just all we could bring in. Doesn’t bode at all well for a top 4 push!
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But other teams will be buying from teams which will be selling and we are supposed to believe that United operate in a different market to other teams just as rich or richer than us. Transfer dealings are so fluid that if you are inflexible in your plans or tactics you will spend five years waiting for Ole's first choice, what will be the excuse in the summer when his first choices choose to go elsewhere or aren't available at terms that Woodward and Judge find acceptable?

A club with resources such as United shouldn't struggle to find useful players in midfield when we clearly need them and can relegate them to squad roles when the first choice players are secured - we are still going to need rotation options even if we sign Sancho and Maddison. I don't think if we instruct our scouting team for a central midfielder and a CAM they will fail to find a couple who are better than Lingard and Matic for reasonable prices.
 
Yagami said:
Orkun Kocku of Feyenoord looks really promising. What do you make of him, @KirkDuyt ?
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Ehh, he's okay, one of the bright spots of the season, but by no means of any interest to a club like United. Think he could develop into a roleplayer at a midtable team in one of the big leagues, but definitely not beyond that. Though I always said the same of Wijnaldum so who knows.
 
Could we get Herrera back on loan for 6 months? Doesn’t seem like he’s getting a lot of game time at PSG.
 
Our midfield options are disastrous. Bottom half material. I’ve said it all season and it’s laid bare in games such as the Arsenal one last night. I’d take Can. He’d improve on what we have, which admittedly isn’t difficult to do.

Come the summer, I fully expect both Matic and Pogba to leave. This means we’d have midfield options from McTominay, Fred and Pereira. It’s unbelievable how we’ve reached such a position.
 
The Brown Bull said:
We definitely need a top class midfielder more than anything else. In my view we haven't had one since Keane left.
That said Carrick, Scholes, Hargreaves Giggs were infinetly better than what we have now.
We messed up in not getting Kante.
We need someone like him.
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I always wondered why we wasnt going all in for Kante. Was probably not tall enough for Jose...Imagine having Kante with Pogba in the middle with a quality no 10 feck me that would make too much sense i guess.
 
Marc Roca and Dani Olmo are obvious shout outs. Olmo is on his way back to Barcelona though, but not picking up Roca seems really fecking stupid as he's a very good footballer and would surely be available this winter.
 
JoaquinJoaquin said:


Agree with this.
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Not to mention Sofyan Amarabat, who I prefer to everyone from that tweet, is probably going to cost less than 20 Million, too. He's pretty much a clone of Moussa Dembele - the one who used to play for Spurs and Fulham.
 
NewGlory said:
What do people think of Roma's Nicolo Zaniolo for ACM / #10 role?



For me it is amazing that somebody this tall is so good on the ball. Nice combination. He's also very young, which is great because adapting to EPL will be easier, and it's quite impressive he already made the national team.
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Looks like quite a player with not many weaknesses on the video. Cannot brag about watching any games with him to be honest.
 
We are clearly not going to sign anyone this window. There is clearly a CM problem but the club have decided not to do anything.
 
Kag said:
Our midfield options are disastrous. Bottom half material. I’ve said it all season and it’s laid bare in games such as the Arsenal one last night. I’d take Can. He’d improve on what we have, which admittedly isn’t difficult to do.

Come the summer, I fully expect both Matic and Pogba to leave. This means we’d have midfield options from McTominay, Fred and Pereira. It’s unbelievable how we’ve reached such a position.
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I cannot believe this myself. The one thing Manchester United always had during SAF time was a strong squad of players. It's unthinkable how far we have gone back.
 
Tosicsleftpeg said:
If we sign one player in January it simply must be a good midfielder. Against Sheffield United Andreas was absolutely abysmal!
The lack of quality in the middle of the park is criminal and it must be rectified. Mctominay is a half decent player and has done well but we need someone more mature in their prime to hold the middle of the park and get the ball forward to the front players. Not only would it take pressure of the defence but would provide the forwards some service.
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You forgot the word 'creative'. We keep making this mistake.
 
It seems only the fans think that the Priority no 1 is CM.

The suits are not bothered and Ole thinks TFM is the Saviour. Well we are well and truly fecked. Ed must be busy in Cambodia looking for some fertilizer sponsor to make more money for the leeches. Who btw paid themselves £45 million yesterday which might have bought us Bruno Fernandes. Who cares about the football anyways as long as the moneyy is rolling in.
 
ColvaleGoa said:
It seems only the fans think that the Priority no 1 is CM.

The suits are not bothered and Ole thinks TFM is the Saviour. Well we are well and truly fecked. Ed must be busy in Cambodia looking for some fertilizer sponsor to make more money for the leeches. Who btw paid themselves £45 million yesterday which might have bought us Bruno Fernandes. Who cares about the football anyways as long as the moneyy is rolling in.
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This. When you are a staff and the owners don't care about results on the pitch, only the commercial side why would a CEO spend more money and look bad when the end of year results come back?

It is in Ed Woodwards interest to produce positive commercial results rather than football results. The owners don't care about winning, or top 4. They would take a 17th place finish as long as we make money.

Spend £50m a year keep fans satisfied for 1 month knowing full well there will be a backlash at every transfer window however come match day there will be 75k fans at OT so who cares.
 
romufc said:
This. When you are a staff and the owners don't care about results on the pitch, only the commercial side why would a CEO spend more money and look bad when the end of year results come back?

It is in Ed Woodwards interest to produce positive commercial results rather than football results. The owners don't care about winning, or top 4. They would take a 17th place finish as long as we make money.

Spend £50m a year keep fans satisfied for 1 month knowing full well there will be a backlash at every transfer window however come match day there will be 75k fans at OT so who cares.
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This is why we are losing the Younger fans more and more each year. The Glazers don't care about the football and Woody is pulling the wool over fans eyes every transfer window.
 
Bestietom said:
This is why we are losing the Younger fans more and more each year. The Glazers don't care about the football and Woody is pulling the wool over fans eyes every transfer window.
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We keep hearing things like:

"funds are available"
"we can do things others can dream about"

We had a net spend of £50m for the last 2 transfer windows.
Alot of funds are available clearly.

We have reduced our wage bill this summer and with Pogba and others potentially leaving, we probably half our wage bill from 2 years ago this summer.

There is a clear pattern, if this was a business it would feel like the business is winding down.
 
romufc said:
We keep hearing things like:

"funds are available"
"we can do things others can dream about"

We had a net spend of £50m for the last 2 transfer windows.
Alot of funds are available clearly.

We have reduced our wage bill this summer and with Pogba and others potentially leaving, we probably half our wage bill from 2 years ago this summer.

There is a clear pattern, if this was a business it would feel like the business is winding down.
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Yes, but there could be another reason. Preparing for sale.
 
NewGlory said:
What do people think of Roma's Nicolo Zaniolo for ACM / #10 role?



For me it is amazing that somebody this tall is so good on the ball. Nice combination. He's also very young, which is great because adapting to EPL will be easier, and it's quite impressive he already made the national team.
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His contract with Roma lasts till 2024. Why would Roma sell an up and coming player for €40m when they wish for €100m in a year or two?
 
ColvaleGoa said:
It seems only the fans think that the Priority no 1 is CM.

The suits are not bothered and Ole thinks TFM is the Saviour. Well we are well and truly fecked. Ed must be busy in Cambodia looking for some fertilizer sponsor to make more money for the leeches. Who btw paid themselves £45 million yesterday which might have bought us Bruno Fernandes. Who cares about the football anyways as long as the moneyy is rolling in.
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Actually what I took from that comment is that we're actively looking for a midfielder and making enquiries to clubs. Saying we have options is just an attempt to tone down the appearance of desperation so we have some sort of hand to negotiate with.
 
romufc said:
We keep hearing things like:

"funds are available"
"we can do things others can dream about"

We had a net spend of £50m for the last 2 transfer windows.
Alot of funds are available clearly.

We have reduced our wage bill this summer and with Pogba and others potentially leaving, we probably half our wage bill from 2 years ago this summer.

There is a clear pattern, if this was a business it would feel like the business is winding down.
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Exactly. The amount of people who still defend that the Glazers have put money in is laughable.
 
The trouble is if we continue with the only wanting British players. A couple of reports have hinted this with who's apparently on our shortlist though I dont know how reliable they are. I feel we would be massively limiting ourselves while also paying a premium as there seems to be a mark up on British players. I just think we shouldn't rule out looking at other nationalities just because they arent British.
Obviously it may just be stuff the papers have made up so I dont truly know if that's our approach and while there are good British players eg Maddison or even a punt on Grealish we shouldn't be limiting ourselves so drastically. Think Liverpool have just got another cheap gem in Minamino who looked good when I watched them vs Salzburg in the Cl, think he was so cheap as well if he can't make the step up it's very little money wasted. However sounds like they have bought him as a bench option unfortunately we dont currently have the luxury of needing back up we need first team quality so less "risk" available.
 
Yagami said:
There's three that I like in Lobotka, Matheus Henrique and Amrabat that I not only think could be obtained in January, but I think all of them would improve us. Not that I think we'd be in for any of them, though.
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So, out of the three I mentioned at the beginning of the thread, it seems like Napoli have bought two in Lobotka and Amrabat. Together they probably cost less than 50 million, too! :(
 
Bestietom said:
I cannot believe this myself. The one thing Manchester United always had during SAF time was a strong squad of players. It's unthinkable how far we have gone back.
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the truly sad part is that I dont see things getting better anytime soon, not with our current leadership
 
A proper run club would have already identified clear targets to improve our midfield and sign them on 2 Jan to save our season.

But as usual Ed with his team are busy looking for commercial deals rather than football.
 
Pexbo said:
Actually what I took from that comment is that we're actively looking for a midfielder and making enquiries to clubs. Saying we have options is just an attempt to tone down the appearance of desperation so we have some sort of hand to negotiate with.
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That makes sense and god I hope you are right. Because if he honestly, even for a second, thinks that TFM is an option at CM for a premier league club then he is out of his mind.

Its incredible that the squad has deteriorated to this level. I started to list some examples illustrating the absolutely embarrassing squad depth we have, and I eventually had to quit and erase it as it just goes on and on. Its too depressing. Even more depressing than watching us try to navigate in the final third.

Feck the Glazers and feck Ed Woodward.
 
ColvaleGoa said:
It seems only the fans think that the Priority no 1 is CM.

The suits are not bothered and Ole thinks TFM is the Saviour. Well we are well and truly fecked. Ed must be busy in Cambodia looking for some fertilizer sponsor to make more money for the leeches. Who btw paid themselves £45 million yesterday which might have bought us Bruno Fernandes. Who cares about the football anyways as long as the moneyy is rolling in.
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This isn't discussed enough. United are merely a vehicle for these yanks to enrich themselves further still. They don't give a feck about football.
 
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