Solskjaer target 5 signings; 6 players could leave [BBC, Telegraph, Guardian]

Valar Morghulis said:
Yeah we will.
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I disagree. What makes you think that Zaha will be interested in coming back to a club he has made no secret as to how much he hated his time at Utd? Especially the money Palace want for him (£80M), I can’t see Utd spending that on a winger this summer when it looks pretty evident that they want a CB & CM. Look at the players we’ve been linked with, they are practically all CB’s & CM’s. I think the winger that they desperately want is Jadon Sancho. Getting him this summer is very unlikely and are prepared to wait till next summer to get him.
 
Florida Man said:
Might simply be the case of no buyers or reasonable offers for our deadwood.
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I believe this is very likely to be the case. Which suggests that, instead of giving the likes of Jones and Rojo new contracts we should have let their contracts expire and let them go.

No top six side would take them because they're not good enough. Teams in the Premier League lower reaches will be put off by their salary and injury record.

So we are stuck with them.
 
If we get Maguire then I think we should go all out for a DM - Tomas Partey or an alternative. Yes RW is blatantly lacking for 10 years but that would be icing on the cake. We cant fix everything.

--------De Gea
WB---Lindelof--Maguire--Shaw
--McTominay--Partey--Pogba
Lingard--Rashford--Martial

Looks good to me. But I still think we will struggle for goals. Nailed on for top 4 with that team though unless they down tools again.
 
Regarding the title, I'm actually more disapppointed at the fact we didnt sell 6 players than not having bought 5 yet
 
Al-T said:
I believe this is very likely to be the case. Which suggests that, instead of giving the likes of Jones and Rojo new contracts we should have let their contracts expire and let them go.

No top six side would take them because they're not good enough. Teams in the Premier League lower reaches will be put off by their salary and injury record.

So we are stuck with them.
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I also think they shouldn't have been awarded new contracts as they both terrible sick notes and they are on stupid salaries of which few teams would agree to pay the same terms.
 
UpWithRivers said:
If we get Maguire then I think we should go all out for a DM - Tomas Partey or an alternative. Yes RW is blatantly lacking for 10 years but that would be icing on the cake. We cant fix everything.

--------De Gea
WB---Lindelof--Maguire--Shaw
--McTominay--Partey--Pogba
Lingard--Rashford--Martial

Looks good to me. But I still think we will struggle for goals. Nailed on for top 4 with that team though unless they down tools again.
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The back four looks better but that’s it. Having a weaker midfield three than our strongest lineup last season doesn’t indicate ‘nailed on for top 4’ to me.
 
UpWithRivers said:
If we get Maguire then I think we should go all out for a DM - Tomas Partey or an alternative. Yes RW is blatantly lacking for 10 years but that would be icing on the cake. We cant fix everything.

--------De Gea
WB---Lindelof--Maguire--Shaw
--McTominay--Partey--Pogba
Lingard--Rashford--Martial

Looks good to me. But I still think we will struggle for goals. Nailed on for top 4 with that team though unless they down tools again.
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Looks like a cup team. Sure we will be hard to beat but where are the goals?!

You need to be able to beat 50% of the teams in our league and compete against he rest. To many draws in this team for my liking.
 
........................... De Gea........

Wan Bissaka.. Lindelof..Maguire..Shaw..

.........................McTominay..........
.......... Fernandes........... ... Pogba........

... Greenwood......Rashford.....Martial.....

I just see Greenwood forcing his way in as season progresses. A huge amount hinges on rashford, if ole develops him as he seems sure he can do and he hits 25+ then we could have a good season, back line looks far better. I can also see Smalling keeping lindelof out for spells
 
I could see a group of McTomminay, Longstaff, Pogba, Fernandes and Gomes producing some fantastic football. Loads of energy, technique and creativity. I'd be genuinely excited to watch them. Matic and Fred could fill in when necessary.
 
SER19 said:
........................... De Gea........

Wan Bissaka.. Lindelof..Maguire..Shaw..

.........................McTominay..........
.......... Fernandes........... ... Pogba........

... Greenwood......Rashford.....Martial.....

I just see Greenwood forcing his way in as season progresses. A huge amount hinges on rashford, if ole develops him as he seems sure he can do and he hits 25+ then we could have a good season, back line looks far better. I can also see Smalling keeping lindelof out for spells
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That would be a seriously fun and exciting team to watch imo. And if Fernades signs i'd expect to see it a lot.

Completely agree on Smalling also. Smalling is faster and better defensively than Lindelof and Maguire is better on the ball. Smalling and Maguire could be very good together. I wouldn't be shocked at all if Smalling forces his way in as the season goes on.
 
I think Daniel James will feature a lot in the coming season. No mention of him in the line up suggested above?? Fast skilful and has energy and desire
 
Fred cost a fortune so you have to give him another season. Which makes him Herrera’s replacement.
 
RedIan said:
I think Daniel James will feature a lot in the coming season. No mention of him in the line up suggested above?? Fast skilful and has energy and desire
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People still want to believe Martial might finally pull his finger out, be consistent and improve, you have to admire the blind optimism.
 
Martial is a funny one , puts in half arsed performances probably more than anyone and still he seems to be very popular . he has a lot of talent when he is on it but way too inconsistent for me at the moment . I would say he is definitely one that needs to have a good season or we should part ways .
 
SER19 said:
........................... De Gea........

Wan Bissaka.. Lindelof..Maguire..Shaw..

.........................McTominay..........
.......... Fernandes........... ... Pogba........

... Greenwood......Rashford.....Martial.....

I just see Greenwood forcing his way in as season progresses. A huge amount hinges on rashford, if ole develops him as he seems sure he can do and he hits 25+ then we could have a good season, back line looks far better. I can also see Smalling keeping lindelof out for spells
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Love the look of this side, I would be happy with this going forward. I can see McTominay making that spot his own if we do not sign a DMC, Fernandes would take the creative burden from Pogba and allow him more freedom, a lot more solid at the back and I can defo see Greenwood forcing his way in. Martial needs to start quickly or James could be putting him under some pressure but there are goals in that team for me.
 
StrettyEnder07 said:
Love the look of this side, I would be happy with this going forward. I can see McTominay making that spot his own if we do not sign a DMC, Fernandes would take the creative burden from Pogba and allow him more freedom, a lot more solid at the back and I can defo see Greenwood forcing his way in. Martial needs to start quickly or James could be putting him under some pressure but there are goals in that team for me.
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I think i'd put Rashford on left, James right (or the other way around), and Greenwood up front. Think he might be ready.
All of them can rotate, really, with Martial and Sanchez as backups - Hope Sanchez can have a good season, good chance he'll be better, and less lazy, than Martial.
 
Grylte said:
I think i'd put Rashford on left, James right (or the other way around), and Greenwood up front. Think he might be ready.
All of them can rotate, really, with Martial and Sanchez as backups - Hope Sanchez can have a good season, good chance he'll be better, and less lazy, than Martial.
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Yeah mate, think they are all happy enough anywhere along that front three so they could be a bit of a nightmare to defend against and on the break, plus with the added creativity in the middle of the park, could be some exciting times.

Sanchez can't get much worse so him improving would be a massive benefit, Martial needs to pull his finger out or he will be gone next year I think.
 
Escobar said:
We still have so many poor players who are not up to the needed standard. Really time to sell these players now!
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But that takes care of itself when you bring in better players. If we were to sell six (rubbish) players with no acquisitions, nothing good will come of it. If we make five signings and get rid of no-one, that’s hopefully five players who can impact on the team.
 
Judas said:
Maguire and that'll be us done I think. Which is laughably inept of us, but I can't say I'm too surprised, it's what's I expected sadly.
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I think we'll make one more signing after Maguire. We have been pretty strongly linked to Longstaff and Bruno.
 
sherrinford said:
But that takes care of itself when you bring in better players. If we were to sell six (rubbish) players with no acquisitions, nothing good will come of it. If we make five signings and get rid of no-one, that’s hopefully five players who can impact on the team.
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Better to sell and promote some young players than give some crappy players game time
 
Cathy Ferguson said:
Which part? That Matic and McTominay are not superior to Ndidi, Rice, Moutinho, and Gueye?
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I'm not arguing superiority. All 3 of them would be automatic starters for midtable teams regardless of whether you think they're good enough for a CL team.
 
Any chance Fernandes plays as more of an 8 than a 10? I keep seeing people assume we'd play Pogba a bit deeper in a 4-2-3-1 but I don't think it will happen. Yes, I know he can play in a two man midfield for France but I don't rate him in that role for the Premiership. He doesn't close opposition payers fast enough or tackle all that much. I've heard Fernandes does these things a bit better.
 
If we just buy a centre half then we will be in a relegation battle. However good the centre half is they need some protection and an inexperienced McT and a disaffected Pogba aren't going to give them a basis to form a cohesive defence.

We will get away with it for a couple of weeks and then teams will just waltz through us.

We need to replace Herrera and Fellaini in terms of ball winning and dominating space.
I'm not expecting Matic to offer much against anyone other than the weakest of opposition.
 
buchansleftleg said:
If we just buy a centre half then we will be in a relegation battle. However good the centre half is they need some protection and an inexperienced McT and a disaffected Pogba aren't going to give them a basis to form a cohesive defence.

We will get away with it for a couple of weeks and then teams will just waltz through us.

We need to replace Herrera and Fellaini in terms of ball winning and dominating space.
I'm not expecting Matic to offer much against anyone other than the weakest of opposition.
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I find that highly unlikely, relegation battle really?
 
So if Maguire is confirmed this week, we'll have like 3 weeks to do the remaining business.
  1. James - 18m
  2. Wan Bissaka - 50m
  3. Maguire - 80m
Could see us squeezing out 2 more, but likely only 1. 1 or 2, has to be midfielders IMO. 2 definitely if Pogba leaves, only likely 1 if he stays. Dont think we'll replace Lukaku. Will be a very good summer if on top of Maguire, we start a starting central midfielder. We'll see though.

Running out of time for outgoings, but the following have basically no real role and really should leave (especially if we sign Maguire):
  1. Darmian
  2. Rojo
  3. Henderson - loan
  4. J. Pereira - loan
  5. Bailly (if we sign Maguire) OR Tuanzebe - loan
  6. Sanchez - pointless OR Lukaku - has a role, but looks likely he will leave
  7. Chong - loan
  8. Garner - loan
 
bosnian_red said:
So if Maguire is confirmed this week, we'll have like 3 weeks to do the remaining business.
  1. James - 18m
  2. Wan Bissaka - 50m
  3. Maguire - 80m
Could see us squeezing out 2 more, but likely only 1. 1 or 2, has to be midfielders IMO. 2 definitely if Pogba leaves, only likely 1 if he stays. Dont think we'll replace Lukaku. Will be a very good summer if on top of Maguire, we start a starting central midfielder. We'll see though.

Running out of time for outgoings, but the following have basically no real role and really should leave (especially if we sign Maguire):
  1. Darmian
  2. Rojo
  3. Henderson - loan
  4. J. Pereira - loan
  5. Bailly (if we sign Maguire) OR Tuanzebe - loan
  6. Sanchez - pointless OR Lukaku - has a role, but looks likely he will leave
  7. Chong - loan
  8. Garner - loan
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We've got until the end of August to sell players abroad, and I believe the loan market in England stays open a little longer to. Reckon we'll manage to get a few out the door by the close of the European window.
 
I can understand a lot of the frustration this window. Our squad truly has a lot of weak areas, whilst some areas have a surplus of players but the issue is they are often players of similar quality (whether that be 'decent', 'average', or 'poor' depends on your opinion) and not enough of them are of the quality most of us think a 'Man Utd' or 'top four' is. Unfortunately, we are absolutely not going to fix them all in this first Summer window under Ole.

I am fully expectant that we don't get the Right Winger this time. I expect this one is being tabled for next year. Maybe we can twist Dortmund's arm for Sancho if we're in the Champion's League and looking a bit closer to what we want our level to be? Or perhaps there's another emerging right-sided forward we can land in the near future. I'll be amazed if it's this year though, we'll have to make do with Lingard, Mata, perhaps Dalot, or James/Rashford/Martial/Sanchez, possibly even Greenwood, Chong, or Gomes getting some games there. There are at least plenty of players to try there and hopefully, we can get just enough from that area of the field for a year while we patch up the other areas of our squad.

Right Back is finally fixed and we look set to sign Maguire. I'm more skeptical of the latter being the right one, but it looks so likely now that we're just going to have to have him as the CB in all of our hypothetical 19/20 squads until it's confirmed (or debunked). The rumours surrounding Longstaff are making me think that this one is getting done - Newcastle is just trying to squeeze as much as they can out of us for him like Palace and seemingly Leicester did. We will get our 'add-ons' deal over the line eventually. I initially thought we'd get the lad for £20m~, to be honest, but they look like getting a significant amount more than that. I couldn't see us spending over £30m on another player other than Fernandes or Ben Yedder and that's reliant on selling Lukaku IMO. The reason I think Newcastle are holding out for a big fee is that they need to find a manager. If they are selling a young talent and get upwards of £30m for him, then they will have made in excess of £60m from transfers and could be able to tempt a quality manager to jump aboard if they're promised to be allowed to spend around £100m~.

So, this says to me:

In: Wan-Bissaka (£45m), James (£15m), Maguire (£60m), Longstaff (£30m)
Out: Herrera (Free), Valencia (Free), Wilson (Free), Darmian (£10m), Bailly (£20m)

Net Spend: £120m

All of these incoming transfers will have 'add-ons' ranging from £2m-20m, most of which will be paid over the coming years and I think if the club knows Pogba is not going to be staying forever, we can get the big money for him and it likely covers any add-ons we have to pay out and then some. Now, if Lukaku is sold, then we will sign Fernandes or Ben Yedder IMO both at significantly less money than what we sell Lukaku for, thus while increasing our spend, it actually lowers our net spend closer to the £100m that has been touted as our likely budget.

I don't see us doing any other business yet, I think the likes of Sanchez, Pogba, and maybe even Rojo are more likely to leave in the next year or two, with Young and Grant gone for sure in less than a year from now.

I'm thinking Bailly might be first on the list to leave out of our Centre Backs for the following reasons:
  • His current contract is the shortest of all our CBs and ends on 30/06/2020
  • He is incredibly injury prone, although probably not as bad as Jones and Rojo
  • However, he has only played 74 times in three years at United
  • He has had some absolute stinkers, especially the PSG game under Ole that might have been the final nail in the coffin anyway
  • He might actually somehow, still fetch the most money for some reason. I can see him going for close to £20m while I don't think we'd get that for Rojo
I think most of this is pretty logical for how our Summer is looking, as we have about three weeks left in the window and it's taken us to this point to get close to having three signings over the line. If we're taking our time this much, it probably means these are our only target to get this time around and the club seems happy to haggle them over the line until near the end of July to get the best deal possible. If something other than what I've listed happens I'll be pleasantly surprised, but I think it's more likely to be another player out, or a player going on loan who we thought might be more involved etc, especially as selling players to teams outside of the UK can happen quite a bit later.
 
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Lastwolf said:
I find that highly unlikely, relegation battle really?
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If we carry over the performances from the end of the season yes I can see it happening.

If we still have disruptive voices on the dressing room and lots of wages going into the medical room then that's another hurdle to overcome.

If the engine room is misfiring everyone will be struggling and I think we need at least one quality midfielder as I don't think Fred is up to the task.

I really hope I'm wrong but the jigsaw is missing some crucial pieces at the moment.
 
buchansleftleg said:
If we just buy a centre half then we will be in a relegation battle. However good the centre half is they need some protection and an inexperienced McT and a disaffected Pogba aren't going to give them a basis to form a cohesive defence.

We will get away with it for a couple of weeks and then teams will just waltz through us.

We need to replace Herrera and Fellaini in terms of ball winning and dominating space.
I'm not expecting Matic to offer much against anyone other than the weakest of opposition.
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Relegation battle.

Worst post of the year
 
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