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

Ole should sign Sander Berge (DM at Genk). Fiorentinas 20m bid was rejected, as Genk wants 25. Sheff. U & Brighton wanted him but was rejected after what the news says. A lot better than todays Matic imo. Fast and got great technique. Tall and strong. National and CL experience with Norway/Genk. 21 yo.
 
devilish said:
Our level of incompetence exceeds expectations. Lets start from CM. We allowed Herrera to leave and we will probably replacing him with no one. Sure he asked ridiculous salary to stay after the club took ages to go around a table with him and give him a decent contract. However considering how many players we've got that are stealing a living, was it that terrible to give our 2nd best CM the contract he wanted? If we couldn't afford his salary then FFS let Jones and Mata leave on free and divert all that salary to him. How terrible that would have been? Instead our CM is now made up of Paul Pogba (who doesn't want to be here btw) surrounded by has beens, squad players and that non player we've bought from the Ukrainian league

Then there's the RW whose basically the huge elephant in the room. We basically have no one with talent to play there. Mata is slow and crap, Greenwood is so green he pisses grass, James only has pace and he's a LW btw and don't get me started about Jesse. Not to forget that we'll probably start the season with Rashford as our only reliable striker.

This was the summer were Woodward could showcase his negotiating abilities so he could put to bed the need for some real change at board level. Instead he just confirmed what we already know. This club is lead by incompetent people who can't bring the players we need or get rid of the deadwood that they keep giving long term contracts to. We're in shambles.
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Herrera was apparently asking for unrealistic wages, and there aren't many British midfielders available in the transfer market. I imagine if there was a midfield equivalent of Maguire - a quite obvious transfer, we'd have gone all out. Our scope seem to be absolutely within the Premier League and the Football League.
 
A lot of centre backs, some of whom have never really worked as centre backs.

Could Ole try one of them as a DM? Phil Jones for instance as a destroyer?
 
fps said:
A lot of centre backs, some of whom have never really worked as centre backs.

Could Ole try one of them as a DM? Phil Jones for instance as a destroyer?
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I don’t see any game we can win with Phil Jones as a midfield ”destroyer”..
 
podurban2 said:
I don’t see any game we can win with Phil Jones as a midfield ”destroyer”..
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No, it's not something I'd personally pursue, I'm just wondering if it's something that may be experimented with. He hasn't worked out as a centre back.
 
fps said:
A lot of centre backs, some of whom have never really worked as centre backs.

Could Ole try one of them as a DM? Phil Jones for instance as a destroyer?
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Only thing Jones in midfield will destroy is any chance of us getting a result.
 
fps said:
A lot of centre backs, some of whom have never really worked as centre backs.

Could Ole try one of them as a DM? Phil Jones for instance as a destroyer?
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Couldn't think of anything worse tbh, we'd be better just playing with 10.
 
2 signings left that are required and 2 and a half days left to sign them.

Someone wake Ed up.
 
MrSingh2002 said:
2 signings left that are required and 2 and a half days left to sign them.

Someone wake Ed up.
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Unless we are already negotiating something, it would be very unlikely to manage to sign someone starting negotiations from scratch in just 2 and a half days.
 
devilish said:
Our level of incompetence exceeds expectations. Lets start from CM. We allowed Herrera to leave and we will probably replacing him with no one. Sure he asked ridiculous salary to stay after the club took ages to go around a table with him and give him a decent contract. However considering how many players we've got that are stealing a living, was it that terrible to give our 2nd best CM the contract he wanted? If we couldn't afford his salary then FFS let Jones and Mata leave on free and divert all that salary to him. How terrible that would have been? Instead our CM is now made up of Paul Pogba (who doesn't want to be here btw) surrounded by has beens, squad players and that non player we've bought from the Ukrainian league

Then there's the RW whose basically the huge elephant in the room. We basically have no one with talent to play there. Mata is slow and crap, Greenwood is so green he pisses grass, James only has pace and he's a LW btw and don't get me started about Jesse. Not to forget that we'll probably start the season with Rashford as our only reliable striker.

This was the summer were Woodward could showcase his negotiating abilities so he could put to bed the need for some real change at board level. Instead he just confirmed what we already know. This club is lead by incompetent people who can't bring the players we need or get rid of the deadwood that they keep giving long term contracts to. We're in shambles.
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Stopped reading this when you advocated paying Herrera approximately 300k when he's nowhere worth that.
 
So we finished 6th and seemed like we lost every single game towards the end of the season (I know we actually didn't). We needed, definitely:

- 1 x CB
- 1 x RB
- 2 x CM (we sold Fellaini, lost Herrera and there were questions about Pogba leaving. Matic's legs no longer exist. Two were required).
- 1 x RW
- 1 x STRK (if Lukaku was sold).

That's 5 definite signings and 1 potential additional, which has seemingly happened now.

We have made three signings. Not one of them has been a CM. One of them is a Championship youngster for the future.

So we have made 2 / 6 signings. 2 / 5 if Lukaku stays.

Nowhere near good enough. YET AGAIN.
 
Cardboard elk said:
Ole should sign Sander Berge (DM at Genk). Fiorentinas 20m bid was rejected, as Genk wants 25. Sheff. U & Brighton wanted him but was rejected after what the news says. A lot better than todays Matic imo. Fast and got great technique. Tall and strong. National and CL experience with Norway/Genk. 21 yo.
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He is now way good enough.. Actually no way good enough. You havent watched him play for Gent have you?
I know you both are norwegians, but have you actually seen him play in Belgium??
 
Andersonson said:
He is now way good enough.. Actually no way good enough. You havent watched him play for Gent have you?
I know you both are norwegians, but have you actually seen him play in Belgium??
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You presume a lot. Not many people watch as much football as me.. Yes I have watched several of his games for Genk, in Europe. I guess you know better than most though?
I do think he is better than Matic. As I see it, he would be a great signing for the future and would fight for Matics place really soon. It would fit with Oles plan for a renewal and young players.
 
Cardboard elk said:
Ole should sign Sander Berge (DM at Genk). Fiorentinas 20m bid was rejected, as Genk wants 25. Sheff. U & Brighton wanted him but was rejected after what the news says. A lot better than todays Matic imo. Fast and got great technique. Tall and strong. National and CL experience with Norway/Genk. 21 yo.
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For some reason we are not allowed to make this sort of signing. We have to let someone like Monaco take the chance on him, our scouts the. realise he’s actually a good player then we sign them for over £60m.
 
Josep Dowling said:
For some reason we are not allowed to make this sort of signing. We have to let someone like Monaco take the chance on him, our scouts the. realise he’s actually a good player then we sign them for over £60m.
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Do we have scouts? Honest question.
Maguire - didn't need scouting. We wanted him last summer, too.
AWB - didn't need scouting. Was the clear standout RB in the league last season.
Dan James - was recommended personally by Giggs.

If we have scouts, I would love to see a list of who they have been watching since the window opened, or before. I honestly don't think we bother - it seems like our manager just says 'I want a player' and we default to the most well-known option, preferably from within our own league.
 
Alabaster Codify7 said:
Do we have scouts? Honest question.
Maguire - didn't need scouting. We wanted him last summer, too.
AWB - didn't need scouting. Was the clear standout RB in the league last season.
Dan James - was recommended personally by Giggs.

If we have scouts, I would love to see a list of who they have been watching since the window opened, or before. I honestly don't think we bother - it seems like our manager just says 'I want a player' and we default to the most well-known option, preferably from within our own league.
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We have a large number of scouts around the world, yes. Most of the scouting focus at the club is at youth level where we can get them cheap or identify who we need to track at senior level for potential transfers in the future.

Our club has really pushed resources into the academy and given the way that transfers are going who can blame them.
 
We have not exactly moved quickly this window, but the remaining glaring weaknesses, imo, can be resolved in two swoops, from two clubs.

I would take 50m plus Mandzukic & Matuidi for Lukaku from Juv

Then either Neres or Ziyech for the right wing, or even both. Ziyech is also a very good CAM as well, and provides an additional creative force along with Pogba, when we decide to play with 2xCAM 1xCDM

Neres seems be avaiable for 50m & Ziyech 25m. Maybe offer Chong on loan as a sweetener

....AWB...Lindelof....Maguire...Shaw
.............Matuidi.......Mctominay..
..Neres/Ziyech.....Pogba..........Martial
.......................Rashford....


As for players leaving, i suspect we will see a number of loans happening on deadline, rather than permanent transfers
 
Alabaster Codify7 said:
So we finished 6th and seemed like we lost every single game towards the end of the season (I know we actually didn't). We needed, definitely:

- 1 x CB
- 1 x RB
- 2 x CM (we sold Fellaini, lost Herrera and there were questions about Pogba leaving. Matic's legs no longer exist. Two were required).
- 1 x RW
- 1 x STRK (if Lukaku was sold).

That's 5 definite signings and 1 potential additional, which has seemingly happened now.

We have made three signings. Not one of them has been a CM. One of them is a Championship youngster for the future.

So we have made 2 / 6 signings. 2 / 5 if Lukaku stays.

Nowhere near good enough. YET AGAIN.
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Totally agree with this. The holes in our squad have been blatantly obvious for a long time now too.
 
I would love to see Martin Ødegaard in the United shirt. Just went on loan to Real Sociedad from Real Madrid. He has some mad skills and a lot of creativity in my opinion. Still very young, joined RM as 15 year old, will be interesting to see how he performs this season in Spain. He had a good season in the Netherlands at Vitesse last season.
Could be my Norwegian nationality who's talking now, but I think Ødegaard will become a brilliant footballer..
 
Mcking said:
Herrera was apparently asking for unrealistic wages, and there aren't many British midfielders available in the transfer market. I imagine if there was a midfield equivalent of Maguire - a quite obvious transfer, we'd have gone all out. Our scope seem to be absolutely within the Premier League and the Football League.
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Herrera was an important cog in our system. If he was asking for unrealistic wages then we either set a huge budget aside to replace him or else we give him the salary he wanted. There were other ways of recouping that salary money like for example allowing deadwood like Mata and Jones to leave on free.

Regarding Maguire he falls in the bracket of an excellent player but whose not WC. I can name many EPL players who falls in that bracket like Rice, Maddison, Tielemans, Doucoure, Ndidi etc. I fear that the issue here is not finding the right players but more having to work on a budget. We spent big on Maguire and AWB so we can't afford spending big on a CM as well.
 
Herrera asked for massive wages, we rejected
Dybala asked for astrononical wages, we rejected
We've addressed our weakest 2 positions on the pitch, RB and CB with two of last seasons' best defensive talents in the PL on reportedly modest wages.

It's been an excellent window. Our strategy has changed and I love it.
 
roseguy64 said:
Stopped reading this when you advocated paying Herrera approximately 300k when he's nowhere worth that.
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Herrera was an important cog in our system. Unless we've got the money to adequately replace him then we'll give him what he wants and then cut back by getting rid of the deadwood. We can't start the system with such a hole in CM.
 
Jonno said:
Herrera asked for massive wages, we rejected
Dybala asked for astrononical wages, we rejected
We've addressed our weakest 2 positions on the pitch, RB and CB with two of last seasons' best defensive talents in the PL.

It's been an excellent window. Our strategy has changed and I love it.
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I think if sign any one of Fernandes, Dybala or Eriksen by the end of the transfer window, it would be a good summer overall as we would have added 3 excellent additions to the first team and one potentially very good player in James.

Only thing that would be disappointing is the fact we haven't sold any of the "deadwood" players.
 
DoomSlayer said:
I think if sign any one of Fernandes, Dybala or Eriksen by the end of the transfer window, it would be a good summer overall as we would have added 3 excellent additions to the first team and one potentially very good player in James.

Only thing that would be disappointing is the fact we haven't sold any of the "deadwood" players.
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This is true. They're just not that easy to get rid of because they're overpaid and not very good. It could take years unfortunately. I'm just relieved we have a policy now.
 
Jonno said:
This is true. They're just not that easy to get rid of because they're overpaid and not very good. It could take years unfortunately. I'm just relieved we have a policy now.
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I agree, Ole has my backing fully anyway.
 
Jonno said:
Herrera asked for massive wages, we rejected
Dybala asked for astrononical wages, we rejected
We've addressed our weakest 2 positions on the pitch, RB and CB with two of last seasons' best defensive talents in the PL on reportedly modest wages.

It's been an excellent window. Our strategy has changed and I love it.
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This.

We've strengthened in key areas, had something that resembles a plan, dealt with the pogba/lukaku situations well, and added pace on the wings. I'd say we're a midfielder and a few other outgoings from a 10/10 window, but it's been a successful window for sure.

Feels like you can't please everyone though, buy too many players and we'll get accused of trying quick fixes, buy too few and it's penny pinching. 2-3 first teamers is about right imo.
 
Jonno said:
Herrera asked for massive wages, we rejected
Dybala asked for astrononical wages, we rejected
We've addressed our weakest 2 positions on the pitch, RB and CB with two of last seasons' best defensive talents in the PL on reportedly modest wages.

It's been an excellent window. Our strategy has changed and I love it.
Click to expand...

The two main signings are good, no question, but it feels like it's only half a job done, the midfield has lost two players, both regular starters, and neither has been replaced, and again it feels like the RW has been mostly ignored.

Even if Ole is a top manager, then I don't understand how he's supposed to get us functioning properly with these glaring deficiencies in the squad, and there is absolutely nothing to suggest he'll be cut any slack if it all unravels once again.
 
The new players seem fine if expensive but really disappointed not to see more leave. Our squad still seems too samey. And I tend to agree we need a new midfielder. Would be ok without the attacker as long as Gomes and Greenwood, and maybe Chong, get more chances.
 
I think it has been a pretty good window. We could do with a MF though.

Go all out for Sancho next summer.
 
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