Rate our Summer 2022 Transfer Window so far (Out of 10)

Arrivals

Malacia 7/10
Just love a young cheap signing. Think he might become a Utd future great.

Eriksen 7/10
You know what you are getting and it's solid.

Martinez 8/10
Really what we needed.

Casemiro 10/10
Love the guy.

Anthony 7/10
Crazy money but exciting.

Departures 3/10
Ridiculously bad like always.
 
Solid 7/10. It was an 8/10 for incoming transfers, very good window in this regard, but need to subtract one point for not enough player sales.
 
Considering how many we let go over the past 2 seasons I'd say we needed a couple more players.

The De Jong and Timber failures have been somewhat countered with Martinez and Casemiro signings.

Adding Dubravka at the end of the window takes it to a 7 for me for arrivals.

We didn't get Ronaldo gone and a top young striker in, no AWB replacement means I won't give it higher than a 7.

Priorities for January/ Summer window next year now must be:
-GK that is good with his feet and can get on the front foot
-AWB and Shaw replacements in the squad,
-Maguire gone and replaced in the squad
-VdB/Fred gone and replaced with a CM
-Top young tall mobile Striker who can score

Then we're definitely challenging for the top 3 and not far off City or Liverpool.
 
A 7/10 for me
Pros:
- Signed 5 starters which is half a team and a solid back up GK that's better all round than De Gea, all of whom Ten Hag wanted, most being his top targets. None of the signings were forced on him
- Fixed problem areas with the right profiles(CB with a left footer that's good on the ball, RW with a left footer, a top class out out DM)
- Finally broke the £200m barrier after years of being within the £100/150m range which even mid table clubs can afford
- Didn't sign any potential deadwood on big money that we'll struggle to sell in a year
- Sold Pereira for actual money and made decent loan deals in Henderson, Laird, Fernandez, Amad and Hannibal

Cons:
- Failed to address RB, CM and CF positions
- Failed to sell players like AWB, Williams and Axel.
- Overpaid for Antony and Casemiro
- Could have sold Telles on a permanent instead of a loan and Garner for a higher fee
- The embarrassing FDJ saga
- Embarrassing links to Rabiot/Arnautovic
- The Ronaldo fiasco an unnecessary distraction
Next summer's immediate priority must be to sign a starting GK, RB to compete with Dalot and an out out No9. A CM IMO should depend on how Iqbal does as a first teamer and Hannibal's loan at Birmingham as I feel they have the talent and potential to be moulded into CM profiles Ten Hag wants.
De Gea, Ronaldo, Axel and Jones should be released for free. Telles, Henderson(if we buy a GK) Williams and AWB should be permanently sold next year. Rashford and Shaw should be sold if they don't massively improve their performances this season especially with their contracts running out in 2024 and players like Fred/VDB should also be assessed accordingly and a decision be made next year
 
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7/10 for me. Addressed a lot of issues but not all. Would’ve still liked a ST, Ronaldo, AWB, Jones, Tuanzebe gone, a new RB and another CM.

We could solve CM and RB positions next season but ST was imperative to solve this window.
 
Dubravka 5/10
Not really feeling this. I guess we needed a backup but didn't need to leave it till the last days of the window. Don't think it will matter but a more coordinated approach like City with Ortega would have been nice.

Malacia 10/10
Young developing player on a position of relative need at a cutthroat price. Can't be much better than that.

Eriksen 9/10
Borderline starter with PL experience that fits well with what ETH is doing on a free transfer. Feel like eventually he may get relegated to the bench so the 3 year contract feels like a lot given his age. But that's splitting hairs.

Martinez 8/10
Exactly what we needed, not only in terms of football but also attitude. Price far above market value (even if he may end up being worth it).

Casemiro 8/10
Position of need, brings the skills we need and wants to be here. A bit expensive and left it late in the window which means he needs to be eased in.

Anthony 7/10
Exactly the type of player we were looking for both in terms of skill set and position. Quite frankly we got rinsed even though I do think he'll justify the price tag. Left it way too late too, felt like we could have easily got him at the start of the window.

Departures 2/10
Did well with Pereira and okay with Garner, rest was terrible. Could do with a lot more trimming.
 
7/10

Plugging all the holes in our squad in one window is not very realistic to begin with.

Positives: Signings already look settled in and performing.

Negatives: Overpaid as usual, unable to sell players for decent fee, Ronaldo stays.
 
7/10

The first XI is dramatically improved. At an extortionate cost. The process clearly showed we do not have the required competency at decision making level (DoF), highlighted by Arnautovic's pursuit until the fan backlash, the Rabiot pursuit which was pure scattergun a la Woodward, and the failure of getting FDJ and the lack of clarity in whether he - at any point - was positive about joining.

Again, we struggled with outgoing transfers. Hopefully the loans have been carefully considered.
 
5/10

The incomings are positive. Malacia and Martinez are turning out to be great. Eriksen on a free is a good deal. We've also found someone to finally light a fire under De Gea. Managed to at least loan Telles and Bailly.

But I can't overlook the negatives. A 5 year deal worth ~€150M for 30-year-old Casemiro is something straight out of Woodward's playbook. We will need a replacement in 2 years as he turns into Matic. €100M for Antony is pure insanity. The lateness of the signings is also something to consider. 5 games into the season and Casemiro is still not bedded in. Antony will take even longer. Then there's the De Jong chase. Wasted 3 months on that when we should have walked away on the 1st of July. Utter failure. We desperately need a CM and didn't get one.

The outgoings are an absolute shambles. Barely made €30M after selling 3 players. And I'm not sure if selling Garner was a particularly good idea. There is no buyback clause apparently which is appalling. Ronaldo and Rashford are still at the club also. Both should have been sold and replaced with a quality CF.

All in all, a disappointing window, in line with how this club has done its business in the last 10 years. Dither the whole summer, then panic towards the end. Buy stopgaps and overpay. Hoard underperformers or sell for peanuts. No vision and no plan. Just throw money at it and hope for the best. I can't in good conscience give more than 5/10 when we were this close to signing Rabiot and Arnautovic.
 
Telsim said:
5/10

The incomings are positive. Malacia and Martinez are turning out to be great. Eriksen on a free is a good deal. We've also found someone to finally light a fire under De Gea. Managed to at least loan Telles and Bailly.

But I can't overlook the negatives. A 5 year deal worth ~€150M for 30-year-old Casemiro is something straight out of Woodward's playbook. We will need a replacement in 2 years as he turns into Matic. €100M for Antony is pure insanity. The lateness of the signings is also something to consider. 5 games into the season and Casemiro is still not bedded in. Antony will take even longer. Then there's the De Jong chase. Wasted 3 months on that when we should have walked away on the 1st of July. Utter failure. We desperately need a CM and didn't get one.

The outgoings are an absolute shambles. Barely made €30M after selling 3 players. And I'm not sure if selling Garner was a particularly good idea. There is no buyback clause apparently which is appalling. Ronaldo and Rashford are still at the club also. Both should have been sold and replaced with a quality CF.

All in all, a disappointing window, in line with how this club has done its business in the last 10 years. Dither the whole summer, then panic towards the end. Buy stopgaps and overpay. Hoard underperformers or sell for peanuts. No vision and no plan. Just throw money at it and hope for the best. I can't in good conscience give more than 5/10 when we were this close to signing Rabiot and Arnautovic.
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You clearly have an agenda

Why you’re trying to add up the wages in the Casemiro deal to inflate it is truly bizarre.
 
8/10

I expected much worse. Casemiro alone makes up for 4 pts.

Add Martinez who looks like a bargain at £57 million. Very important signing who already makes difference.

We signed world class players for CB and DMC, one of the brightest talents in Europe for LB, and a great (I hope) for RW.

Impressive.
 
ThinkTank@Cafe said:
8/10

I expected much worse. Casemiro alone makes up for 4 pts.

Add Martinez who looks like a bargain at £57 million. Very important signing who already makes difference.

We signed world class players for CB and DMC, one of the brightest talents in Europe for LB, and a great (I hope) for RW.

Impressive.
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I’m with you. Think it’s been a good start.

Imagine CF will be next
 
TheReligion said:
You clearly have an agenda

Why you’re trying to add up the wages in the Casemiro deal to inflate it is truly bizarre.
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I'm not, but it's what will have to be paid, even if he starts slowing down over time. The contract is also very long, it's what it took to convince him, and eventually shifting him would be problematic, meaning recouping some of the money looks unlikely. It's not like Antony for example where he could potentially be sold for a large amount.
 
Telsim said:
I'm not, but it's what will have to be paid, even if he starts slowing down over time. The contract is also very long, it's what it took to convince him, and eventually shifting him would be problematic, meaning recouping some of the money looks unlikely. It's not like Antony for example where he could potentially be sold for a large amount.
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You’ve obviously included the wages to inflate the deal though which shows you have an agenda.

We haven’t bought Casemiro or Eriksen to retain a sell on value. They are here to deliver immediately.
 
ThinkTank@Cafe said:
CF is the position to sign a good player for, IMO. With Ten Hag though, I’m sure we will find a gem.
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Yes it’s an important role in this system so I’m happy to wait for the right player and fit rather than bring in Auba or someone else and make previous mistakes again
 
TheReligion said:
You’ve obviously included the wages to inflate the deal though which shows you have an agenda.

We haven’t bought Casemiro or Eriksen to retain a sell on value. They are here to deliver immediately.
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Look, I'm not here to have a debate with you or convince you of anything. You are free to think whatever you want. I posted for posterity, we will see how it ages. You can bookmark it and quote me in 2-3 years to tell me I'm wrong.
 
Telsim said:
Look, I'm not here to have a debate with you or convince you of anything. You are free to think whatever you want. I posted for posterity, we will see how it ages. You can bookmark it and quote me in 2-3 years to tell me I'm wrong.
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You’ve only convinced me of your agenda by how disingenuous your post was.
 
I'm going to look at several elements:
1) Timing (In time for pre season etc)
2) Value
3) How important that profile was

That criteria is important as if I gave you that some money, I would wager the majority would have bought very differently and probably better.

I won't go through individuals but point 3 we were fairly good on (Needed another wingback, CM & Striker but we did enough there) 7.5/10.
Value and timings I would have at 4/10 and 4/10, we overpaid and did it far later so we are still having to slowly introduce some players like Casemiro and Anthony has only had 1 training session after 5 games.

15.5/30 is around a 5/10 despite the big names
 
Players brought in are 8-9/10.

Fixed some big holes & managed to add some much needed quality in areas we didn't think needed strengthened such as defence. I think Eriksen on a free was a great piece of business as well. Although Anthony hasn't played yet you can see how little depth we have in the forward line so was a much needed addition. Even Dubravka seems sensible.

The way the transfer window has been handled though only a 4-5/10.

Only really backed Ten Hag after the 2 losses at the start of the season. The window was only really saved, albeit it at great cost by the recent additions of Casemiro & Anthony. Holding out that long for Frenkie whilst letting prices inflate through desperation was a bit of a blunder. I just hope the new recruitment team analyse this window and learn from it going forward.
 
Clearly windows can’t be embarrassing for some easily embarrassed “fans” so I’d suggest curtains for next window
 
Do you guys think there’s any chance of us going back in for De Jong?
 
8/10

Can’t have been that much better apart from getting rid of Ronaldo and getting another player in. There’s no reality where we can sign the players we have AND get De Jong, a new RB and ST. Just not possible.

I actually think outgoings have been decent, £10m for Pereira, £15m for Garner, Bailly on loan with small fee + sale afterwards. Pogba, Lingard and Henderson out. That’s the business model we want, just more of the younger player sales with sell on % attached.
 
As it stands now 7/10. (Willing to go higher based on Antonys and Casemiros performances).

Still cant believe we signed Casemiro to be honest, that was totally a surprise start to finish.

The De Jong saga dragging on technically wasnt our fault and Id be quite happy if Barcelona as a football club ceased to exist.

I dont see us spending in January and am slightly concerned about next summers budget given we spent way more than probably forecast this summer.

Im really excited to see Antony line up for us, if only Martial could get fit now.
 
I would give it a 7/10 or 7.5/10.

We got 2 top midfielders and we don't have to see McFred together in the midfield (glad about that).

Malacia looks like a good player and might become an integral part of the team, he reminds me a bit of Evra (his work rate and the way he plays).

We got an RW who has high potential and hopefully performs up to that level, although we might have overpaid around 15 - 20 million more than expected maybe he's worth that much.

We got a CB who won't back down from a tough situation, unlike his predecessors Maguire, Lindelof, and others.

Just wish we had looked at other options instead of FDJ instead of putting all our eggs in one basket, Barcelona is a joke of a club and overrated AF, they can get fecked.
 
7.5/10. It would have been 8/10 if those signings are done before the season started. The rating could go up or down as the season progress to mid season and end of the season.
 
Telsim said:
5/10

The incomings are positive. Malacia and Martinez are turning out to be great. Eriksen on a free is a good deal. We've also found someone to finally light a fire under De Gea. Managed to at least loan Telles and Bailly.

But I can't overlook the negatives. A 5 year deal worth ~€150M for 30-year-old Casemiro is something straight out of Woodward's playbook. We will need a replacement in 2 years as he turns into Matic. €100M for Antony is pure insanity. The lateness of the signings is also something to consider. 5 games into the season and Casemiro is still not bedded in. Antony will take even longer. Then there's the De Jong chase. Wasted 3 months on that when we should have walked away on the 1st of July. Utter failure. We desperately need a CM and didn't get one.

The outgoings are an absolute shambles. Barely made €30M after selling 3 players. And I'm not sure if selling Garner was a particularly good idea. There is no buyback clause apparently which is appalling. Ronaldo and Rashford are still at the club also. Both should have been sold and replaced with a quality CF.

All in all, a disappointing window, in line with how this club has done its business in the last 10 years. Dither the whole summer, then panic towards the end. Buy stopgaps and overpay. Hoard underperformers or sell for peanuts. No vision and no plan. Just throw money at it and hope for the best. I can't in good conscience give more than 5/10 when we were this close to signing Rabiot and Arnautovic.
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Totally agree with this. In the end the players we got are good but you cannot take away how we got to them - wasting so much time on De Jong and the scatter gun approach. There clearly wasn’t a plan.

Also the cost of Antony in particular is madness. I hate it when fans say ‘it’s not my money’ or ‘that’s the market’. You spend more on one player the club has less to recruit other players. We are missing a decent CF. Season after season we always need 2/3 more players to finish the squad. That’s why it takes forever for us to progress.

Plus the Glazers have indebted the club further this summer because there was no cash reserves, so I’m guessing there will be no money available next summer. Akin to the Fred and Dalot summer where we owed some ridiculous amount in backdated transfers fees. Clearly the Glazer’s idea of spending to appease the fans has worked because everyone is now saying we have had a good summer.
 
On arrivals, I'll rate our transfer window at the end of the season.

But I am thrilled to see some players who had overstayed at United finally leave. Jesse Lingard for one. I have great respect for Juan Mata, but his time at OT was over. Now if only the Club could show Phil Jones the exit. Jones has been there since the days of A.H Albut.
 
We really judging time? I wish we got Berbatov and Yorke earlier but in a full season it makes no difference.

7/10 for me. Never expected all positions to be covered because in reality like Ralf said… we needed 9 players.

To make it a 10 we would of had to have brought De Jong, CF, RB and keeper.

I’m hoping in the next two windows we address those positions.
 
5 out of 10

We weren't going to address all the gaps in the team in one window but we could have done more. For example, we don't have a centre forward worthy of the name.

The price we are paying for anthony seems pretty outrageous and driven by our inability to look beyond the eredivisie.

The shambolic manner in which our business was conducted doesn't provide assurance that thus is going to improve in future windows. Murtough just doesn't seen upto the job and there is only so far a transfer policy nostly relying on players eth has worked with will take us
 
I can understand people being excited about the potential quality of the players we have brought in and I am hopeful that they all turn out to be massively successful (pretty crazy that I feel the need to qualify this as a United fan). However I can't help but feel like we are making the same exact mistakes that we have been making for the last 10 years, which has seen us with the largest net spend in the league and little to show for it.
  • Overpaying for players: There are a number of factors that play in to this, but a major one is we don't walk away from deals enough. Once we have our sights set on someone we will pay whatever it take to get it done. Other clubs see that and take advantage of it.
  • Signing players for the manager not the club: Every manager comes in with their own style of play and profile of player that they want at the club. The next manager comes in and they are benched or sold and we start the process all over again.
  • Signing high profile or past their peak players: I'm not against this approach per se, but when we get it wrong and we have mostly gotten it wrong in recent years, it's incredibly costly. Either we sell them on for a loss, loan them out and struggle to get their wages covered, or have them sitting on our bench spreading complacency and discontent to the rest of the squad.
There's optimism that this time will be different and rightly so, but I had a chuckle when reading the Maguire thread saying that it was clear to anyone at the time that we shouldn't have paid the money for Maguire and Wan-Bissaka. Is it completely out of question that in 3 years time we see the same things written about some of our signings made this window?

With the structural changes we have made at executive/director level, with Murtough, Arnold and Fletcher as well as a new manager it felt like a clean slate and a chance to change our approach. Use our scouting network to identify young, talented players, who are hungry for success and provide at least decent value for money. Maybe if Rangnick had stayed on as a consultant, we would have seen something closer to this, but his departure and our terrible start to the season saw us hit the panic button. Felt like it was a play pulled straight from the Ed Woodward playbook... things are going wrong? Throw money at it.

Even if we would have signed the exact same players, but had it done before the start of the season, I would have been reasonably impressed. How does it take us to the last day of the window to sign Antony for €100m? I feel like that deal could have been done two weeks in to the window. The de Jong saga caused a lot of uncertainty and needs to go down as a major failing of this window. Not because we failed to sign him, but because we acted so indecisively.

Our outgoings were fine. Should have got more for Garner. The fact that we struggle to shift some of our deadwood and need to resort to loans is frustrating... the ghosts of old transfers/contracts past, coming back to haunt us.

4/10 - Good players, no plan, terrible execution
 
Josep Dowling said:
Also the cost of Antony in particular is madness. I hate it when fans say ‘it’s not my money’ or ‘that’s the market’.
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The cost of Antony looks even more insane when you look at Man City signing Haaland for £51 million and he already has 9 goals in 5 games, his agent got £34 million but that's still not as much as we paid for Antony. This transfer window has been a bit better than the previous windows but our management needs to do far better in future transfer windows, if we continue the same in the future windows we will be back where we were before EtH came.
 
Memento28 said:
The cost of Antony looks even more insane when you look at Man City signing Haaland for £51 million and he already has 9 goals in 5 games, his agent got £34 million but that's still not as much as we paid for Antony. This transfer window has been a bit better than the previous windows but our management needs to do far better in future transfer windows, if we continue the same in the future windows we will be back where we were before EtH came.
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Nonsense, Haaland had a clause in his contract.

If Haaland had no clause he would have gone for 150m or more.
 
Malacia 9/10 Great price, right attitude and spirit to help the team, Similar to an Evra with his energy and enthusiasm

Eriksen 10/10 Free agent, and potentially world class on his day, no complaints

Martinez 9/10 Aggressive, but can pass out from the back, he will be a stalwart of the defence

Casemiro 10/10 World class, best DM in the world although we can argue about the price or perhaps wages, he brings leadership and class.

Antony 8/10 Will be top/world class within 24 months, nobody will look at the fee. Confidence, ability, fight and the right attitude to reach the top. Inevitably might have some small consistency issues. Hazard was borderline world class when he joined Chelsea at 24, Antony is 22. Give him a little time and he will be an automatic starter, he will be one of the top players in the wide positions in the league soon.

Dubravka ?/10 I reserve judgement I know very little about him

Overall window 8.5/10 solid rebuild much needed reinforcements, all the purchases were the RIGHT players, none of the buys were panics IMO all will bring the squad to the next level.

Departures 4/10: Many left as free agents, shows lack of plannings on selling in other windows.
Other players needed to be shipped out long ago.

Future Lineup:
-------------DDG/NEW
Dalot/NEW-Varane-Martinez-Malacia
--------------Casemiro-McT
--------Eriksen/NEW-Bruno
Antony--Ronaldo/NEW-Sancho

we need 4 world class/top class signings in future and the team will be title contenders IMO.
 
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