Summer Transfer Window

the one thing we couldn't do this summer window was fall behind our rivals in terms of strengthening the squad...bringing in Mount and a keeper don't address our main key area unlike how these other clubs immediately address the position of most need

Pool have addressed a huge issue in their midfield by signing McAllister and Szoboszlai...
Newcastle have brought in Tonali
Arsenal brought in Havertz and possibly Timber and Rice
City was already well ahead of our squad yet still bring in Kovacic after losing Gundogan to Barca
Chelsea are going to sign half of europe it sounds like again
Spurs are shit
 
bosskeano said:
the one thing we couldn't do this summer window was fall behind our rivals in terms of strengthening the squad...bringing in Mount and a keeper don't address our main key area unlike how these other clubs immediately address the position of most need

Pool have addressed a huge issue in their midfield by signing McAllister and Szoboszlai...
Newcastle have brought in Tonali
Arsenal brought in Havertz and possibly Timber and Rice
City was already well ahead of our squad yet still bring in Kovacic after losing Gundogan to Barca
Chelsea are going to sign half of europe it sounds like again
Spurs are shit
Click to expand...
A keeper is arguably as big of a need as CF. It would be a bigger upgrade relative to what we had before than anything out competition has done. None of our competitors has holes as big as we have at GK or CF, so the impact that those 2 positions would make if we address either are entirely disproportionate.

Mount is an equivalent upgrade to Liverpool with Szoboszlai and Mac Allister (we already have Bruno and casemiro and Eriksen for depth, so we didn't need 3 players there). City got weaker with Gundogan out and Kovacic in. Tonali is average at best, waste of 70m IMO and doesn't change much for them. Havertz gives Arsenal depth more than anything, Rice an excellent player though and a clear upgrade. Timber will be an upgrade on white but white had a good understanding on that side anyway, so the upgrade will be minimal and more depth related.

None of them had a gaping hole like we had at GK relative to manager needs or a a championship level striker. And none dealt with our fixture congestion, and we still finished comfortably 3rd.

If we address CF and GK on top of Mount, it'll be the biggest upgrade in the league relative to last season.
 
GK became an issue once EtH apparently pulled the string on the new contract but that wasn't a priority going into the summer as most thought he would renew and drop his weekly wage packet
 
Confirmed departures to date

(age in parentheses)

  1. Phil Jones (31): Released. Future unknown
  2. Ethan Galbraith (22): Released. Future unknown
  3. Jack Butland (30): End of loan. Player signed with Rangers
  4. Bernard Di’Shon (22): Released. Future unknown
  5. Axel Tuanzebe (25): Released. Future unknown
  6. Zidane Iqbal (20): Sold. To continue his career at FC Utrecht. Expected fee about €1.0m
  7. Ethan Laird (22): Sold. To continue his career at FC Birmingham. Expected fee about €0.9m
  8. Wout Weghorst (30): End of loan. Future unknown
  9. Marcel Sabitzer (29): End of loan. Future unknown

Total income: €1.9m
 
bosskeano said:
GK became an issue once EtH apparently pulled the string on the new contract but that wasn't a priority going into the summer as most thought he would renew and drop his weekly wage packet
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That was a huge priority throughout the season as de Gea was very clearly not suited to his way of playing and made repeated mistakes and forced Ten Hag to adjust key elements of his game because of attributes that he lacked. De Gea last season was almost as much of a problem for us as Weghorst or Ronaldo were.

Ten Hag sees playing out from the back as an imperative thing for his style. De Gea can't do it. The premier league demands goalkeepers who can deal with aerial balls. De Gea can't do it. Big clubs demand consistent goalkeepers who step up in big occasions, de Gea crumbles in them. Big clubs demand a goalkeeper who can deal with opposition pressing tactics, we don't have one.

De Gea signing a new contract would be an idiotic move and a worse move than signing Weghorst on loan. There's more than 10 goalkeepers in the prem alone who would improve us compared to de Gea. Goalkeeper has been a big issue for 5 years now. It's time to move on and stop pretending like he's a good goalkeeper.
 
bosnian_red said:
That was a huge priority throughout the season as de Gea was very clearly not suited to his way of playing and made repeated mistakes and forced Ten Hag to adjust key elements of his game because of attributes that he lacked. De Gea last season was almost as much of a problem for us as Weghorst or Ronaldo were.

Ten Hag sees playing out from the back as an imperative thing for his style. De Gea can't do it. The premier league demands goalkeepers who can deal with aerial balls. De Gea can't do it. Big clubs demand consistent goalkeepers who step up in big occasions, de Gea crumbles in them. Big clubs demand a goalkeeper who can deal with opposition pressing tactics, we don't have one.

De Gea signing a new contract would be an idiotic move and a worse move than signing Weghorst on loan. There's more than 10 goalkeepers in the prem alone who would improve us compared to de Gea. Goalkeeper has been a big issue for 5 years now. It's time to move on and stop pretending like he's a good goalkeeper.
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He WAS a good goalkeeper but no arguing that his time had come at United, i'll agree with you on that simply b/c he doesn't suit EtH and his game never evolved...ie getting better with his feet

still though...i think getting a new keeper would have been third or fourth on the list of players to replace/purchase behind a striker and arguably 2 CM's or a CM and a CB partner for Martinez
 
bosskeano said:
He WAS a good goalkeeper but no arguing that his time had come at United, i'll agree with you on that simply b/c he doesn't suit EtH and his game never evolved...ie getting better with his feet

still though...i think getting a new keeper would have been third or fourth on the list of players to replace/purchase behind a striker and arguably 2 CM's or a CM and a CB partner for Martinez
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Why 2 CM's though? Bruno and Case are class, Varane and Martinez are class, Eriksen is good cover for 8/10, McTominay and Fred are technically still here so worst case they are the backup 3. Lindelof and Maguire as backup CBs is fine really, we don't love them but they are a solid pairing. I agree at CF, huge need, but GK for me is right below. No other position would give us that big of a change, and the CL final especially highlighted how City's pressing became pretty much useless against a keeper who knew how to handle it. Not like their defenders or midfielders are more press resistant, it was purely the goalkeeper.
 
How are city about to get 19m for a youth keeper yet we struggle to sell first team players. Ridiculous.
 
The lack of a striker with the prices being mentioned is concerning.
I wonder if ETH will prioritize a forward instead of a goal keeper and hold on to DDG.He could use the new GK money to bump up the striker kitty instead?
 
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bosnian_red said:
Why 2 CM's though? Bruno and Case are class, Varane and Martinez are class, Eriksen is good cover for 8/10, McTominay and Fred are technically still here so worst case they are the backup 3. Lindelof and Maguire as backup CBs is fine really, we don't love them but they are a solid pairing. I agree at CF, huge need, but GK for me is right below. No other position would give us that big of a change, and the CL final especially highlighted how City's pressing became pretty much useless against a keeper who knew how to handle it. Not like their defenders or midfielders are more press resistant, it was purely the goalkeeper.
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Bruno and Case are starters.....Eriksen doesn't have the legs anymore to play against top level teams. Scott and Fred both need to move on so i don't even count them to be honest. They both showed last season that they aren't good enough to be a regular or someone you can rely on in big matches.

So realistically we have Bruno, Case, Mount and Eriksen which is still two players short for the entire season. Varane is great when he can stay healthy plus his age. Lindelof, i'll give you a bit on him as he's better when partnered up with Martinez. He and Maguire together last season were terrible and Maguire is definitely not good enough. He's too slow and he's fuking miserable on the ball.

CF is the most pressing need....i do think Mount will be a good purchase by the club. Clearly need a keeper now with the DeGea situation. Just hate that it could eat into our budget.
 
bosskeano said:
Bruno and Case are starters.....Eriksen doesn't have the legs anymore to play against top level teams. Scott and Fred both need to move on so i don't even count them to be honest. They both showed last season that they aren't good enough to be a regular or someone you can rely on in big matches.

So realistically we have Bruno, Case, Mount and Eriksen which is still two players short for the entire season. Varane is great when he can stay healthy plus his age. Lindelof, i'll give you a bit on him as he's better when partnered up with Martinez. He and Maguire together last season were terrible and Maguire is definitely not good enough. He's too slow and he's fuking miserable on the ball.

CF is the most pressing need....i do think Mount will be a good purchase by the club. Clearly need a keeper now with the DeGea situation. Just hate that it could eat into our budget.
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Tbh I'd love to just nip the GK situation in the bud, sort out the position for the next 5+ years like Allison did for Liverpool. Genuinely think it's a transformative signing. We struggled when pressed high last season by teams like Arsenal, Brighton, City, Liverpool, Newcastle etc, and the biggest 2 reasons for that were because you either have to be able to play through the press on the ground, or bypass the press with a CF who can deal with long balls and hold up play. We had neither. The goalkeeper has to be able to hit the forwards in usable positions which Dave isn't able to, but he's even worse at passing short. So we rely on just playing it in behind for Rashford to run in on
 
bosskeano said:
GK became an issue once EtH apparently pulled the string on the new contract but that wasn't a priority going into the summer as most thought he would renew and drop his weekly wage packet
Click to expand...

Exactly. We literally have zero strikers and we literally have no backup for Casemiro. Whatever one may think of De Gea, he is literally a keeper of a very high level. Not high enough of a level for many and that's fine, but when you have two gaping holes in the squad -- we actually need two strikers -- it's not exactly astute management to get rid of a decent keeper and persist without a striker of any kind.

But there's still plenty of time in the transfer window to get this sorted out. Mount is a very good signing and he allows Eriksen to be used as a squad man, we may be close to bringing in a striker and cover for Casemiro, and we'll either bring in Onana to replace De Gea or -- horror of horrors! -- United might agree to the contract it offered to De Gea and that he signed.
 
bosnian_red said:
Tbh I'd love to just nip the GK situation in the bud, sort out the position for the next 5+ years like Allison did for Liverpool. Genuinely think it's a transformative signing. We struggled when pressed high last season by teams like Arsenal, Brighton, City, Liverpool, Newcastle etc, and the biggest 2 reasons for that were because you either have to be able to play through the press on the ground, or bypass the press with a CF who can deal with long balls and hold up play. We had neither. The goalkeeper has to be able to hit the forwards in usable positions which Dave isn't able to, but he's even worse at passing short. So we rely on just playing it in behind for Rashford to run in on
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while i agree more with @lex talionis regarding the bigger need would be sorting out the striker position first and finding a back up for Case, it seems like EtH has maybe prioritized finding a keeper that fits him wanting to possess and play out of the back. I will say this, having a keeper that players are comfortable playing thru from a CB point of view, certainly makes the game easier.

I just hope we don't fuk it up and not get the targets that are needed at striker and have to rely on Martial bc he's wank
 
Onerealunited said:
Confirmed departures to date

(age in parentheses)

  1. Phil Jones (31): Released. Future unknown
  2. Ethan Galbraith (22): Released. Future unknown
  3. Jack Butland (30): End of loan. Player signed with Rangers
  4. Bernard Di’Shon (22): Released. Future unknown
  5. Axel Tuanzebe (25): Released. Future unknown
  6. Zidane Iqbal (20): Sold. To continue his career at FC Utrecht. Expected fee about €1.0m
  7. Ethan Laird (22): Sold. To continue his career at FC Birmingham. Expected fee about €0.9m
  8. Wout Weghorst (30): End of loan. Future unknown
  9. Marcel Sabitzer (29): End of loan. Future unknown

Total income: €1.9m
Click to expand...

It’s just laughable. It’s difficult to believe they’re not doing it on purpose.

Just feck off, get out of the club.

You’re not capable of operating in modern football at the highest level. Go back to NFL and accept the modern PL is about owners with big balls competing against each other and going big.

You don’t belong here. Leave. Take your 6b dollars and go. NOW.
 
royboy16 said:
The lack of a striker with the prices being mentioned is concerning.
I wonder if ETH will prioritize a forward instead of a goal keeper and hold on to DDG.He could use the new GK money to bump up the striker kitty instead?
Click to expand...

Fecking sacrificing yet again makes blood boil
 
lex talionis said:
Exactly. We literally have zero strikers and we literally have no backup for Casemiro. Whatever one may think of De Gea, he is literally a keeper of a very high level. Not high enough of a level for many and that's fine, but when you have two gaping holes in the squad -- we actually need two strikers -- it's not exactly astute management to get rid of a decent keeper and persist without a striker of any kind.

But there's still plenty of time in the transfer window to get this sorted out. Mount is a very good signing and he allows Eriksen to be used as a squad man, we may be close to bringing in a striker and cover for Casemiro, and we'll either bring in Onana to replace De Gea or -- horror of horrors! -- United might agree to the contract it offered to De Gea and that he signed.
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He isn't a GK of a high level and hasn't been for years. Striker is the biggest priority yeah, but we don't have realistic options at a high level and even the mid tier options with potential come at crazy prices. There are high levels goalkeepers available at good prices, so it makes sense to address it properly.

We need just 1 striker. Backups of Rashford moving centrally or Martial the odd game is fine. Our goalkeeper performs at a bottom half level, our striker performs at barely a PL level, the rest of our team and squad is comfortable top half to CL level quality. It's easily the 2nd biggest problem that we have, it's a problem that actively inhibits the style our manager wants to play, it's a GK that actively holds us back and makes regular mistakes in big games. There is 0 chance of progress by keeping De Gea. I promise you that. We will have the same problems as last year, just as frequently. To address the issues, it starts with addressing de Gea.
 
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I know that we need a new GK but I hope we do not Satanize David. He has been a great gk for us but obviously doesn't fit in ETH plans. If he does leave, let's thank him for his service. I come to praise deGea not to bury him and all that...
 
The most important thing to happen to the football club possibly in its entire history still hasn’t happened yet (the sale) so it’s hard to know anything about transfer strategy. The whole thing is ridiculous and im surprised we’ve even bought mount at this point, without knowing who will own us/budget etc. it’s a weird one for sure.
 
If Henderson hadn't seemingly burned his bridges I would consider giving him the season in order to save the transfer budget for a striker. But if Forest want him for 20+ million then move him on. Given that Brighton have signed Verbruggen that now makes Sanchez third choice so I wonder whether he would be available as backup? He's played for Spain in the last couple of seasons and would be home grown. Not sure why de Zerbi lost patience with him. Seems decent enough.
 
If we manage to just sign Mount, Onana, and Kane, I would be ecstatic with just those 3, would not be enough to win the league however, would need more.
 
So just to catch up all we have done is signed mount, kinda, pretty much, for our transfer dealings so far? And only notable sales are a couple of the youth players we thought might become decent? Seems about right
 
Appletonred said:
If we manage to just sign Mount, Onana, and Kane, I would be ecstatic with just those 3, would not be enough to win the league however, would need more.
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A realistic window is beginning to look like Mount, Onana, and Hojlund.

If that winds up being our total haul, we'll be looking at a battle for 4th next season.
 
As I said earlier, it will be Mount, Höjlund and Onana. Decent window but it will not reduce the gap to City, then we need Kane.
 
Cathy Ferguson said:
As I said earlier, it will be Mount, Höjlund and Onana. Decent window but it will not reduce the gap to City, then we need Kane.
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Nevermind City, they're so far clear they're not worth mentioning.

What needs mentioning will be the gap between us and Arsenal, Liverpool, and possibly Newcastle. All of whom will have improved this summer to an extent that we will not have.

Of the three, I could see Newcastle being the ones to falter as they adjust to their newfound European lifestyle. But we'll be a step behind Arsenal and Liverpool. We're 30 league goals away from me feeling like we're the club to give City a run for their money. Signing Hojlund and Mount I think we're getting 15 goals, best-case scenario.
 
bosskeano said:
the one thing we couldn't do this summer window was fall behind our rivals in terms of strengthening the squad...bringing in Mount and a keeper don't address our main key area unlike how these other clubs immediately address the position of most need

Pool have addressed a huge issue in their midfield by signing McAllister and Szoboszlai...
Newcastle have brought in Tonali
Arsenal brought in Havertz and possibly Timber and Rice
City was already well ahead of our squad yet still bring in Kovacic after losing Gundogan to Barca
Chelsea are going to sign half of europe it sounds like again
Spurs are shit
Click to expand...

I think of all the players you mentioned there, the only one who improves the first team of the club they’ve joined is Rice. And that’s not even necessarily true if he’s a replacement for Partey rather than an addition.

Maybe Tonali if he actually settles, which is not a guarantee with Italian CM’s in the Prem.
 
bosnian_red said:
He isn't a GK of a high level and hasn't been for years. Striker is the biggest priority yeah, but we don't have realistic options at a high level and even the mid tier options with potential come at crazy prices. There are high levels goalkeepers available at good prices, so it makes sense to address it properly.

We need just 1 striker. Backups of Rashford moving centrally or Martial the odd game is fine. Our goalkeeper performs at a bottom half level, our striker performs at barely a PL level, the rest of our team and squad is comfortable top half to CL level quality. It's easily the 2nd biggest problem that we have, it's a problem that actively inhibits the style our manager wants to play, it's a GK that actively holds us back and makes regular mistakes in big games. There is 0 chance of progress by keeping De Gea. I promise you that. We will have the same problems as last year, just as frequently. To address the issues, it starts with addressing de Gea.
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Even if we conceded that De Gea was solely culpable for 10% of the 43 hosts we conceded — only 10 worse than City, which I hope you will agree had a vastly superior outfield X, was better managed and had recent experience winning trophies, and of course won a treble — that’s only 4 goals that’s all on De Gea. So let’s assume we had Onana or Costa. Do you really believe that either of those of those keepers would have gone an entire season without making a mistake that led to an easy goal or not making a save they should have saved? I hope not, but mistake-free keepers not only do not exist, they existed. This is the problem with the De Gea hatred mania that’s been fueled in part by social media: we’ve made the perfect the enemy of the good. De Gea is no Alisson or Ederson, but neither is he a junkyard keeper whose time for the scrap heap has come.

I’d be delighted to move on from De Gea if we address our higher priorities and not settle for Martial and Rashford at CF, Fred and McTominay at CM and Maguire at CN. Why? Because we do not have an unlimited budget that would allow us to spend the 300m it would take to properly stock the squad. Or maybe we actually do and club management are playing shrewd poker, but I doubt that.

Striker. What more needs to be said? Rashford is not a striker and it would be insane in our lust get rid of De Gea and pay the 60m it will take to bring Onana but explain that because we had to make that outlay for a keeper that we have stick with Rashford and Martial as our only two strikers for another season.

We’ve discussed the midfield situation at length over the years and not much more can be said here, but suffice it to say that the 55m spent on Mount is s great start, but only a start.

Maguire? Hopefully we can find s promising young CB for no more than the 30-35m we’ll get for Maguire, so let’s call that a wash. All I would add here is the obvious—that a poor CB puts a lot of pressure on a keeper regardless of whether his name is De Gea, Onana or Buffon.

Yet we still somehow conceded only 10 more goals than City, but where the wheels completely fell off was in goals scored — 36 fewer than City. The poor performances of Martial, Sancho and Antony for most of this season are not in De Gea, directly or indirectly. The brilliant performances by Haaland are not directly or indirectly attributable to Ederson. I’m the first to acknowledge that Ederson > De Gea, but the brilliant performances of City’s front line is attributable to their front line players and the poor performances of our front line is attributable to our front line players. No sophistry will change those facts.
 
lex talionis said:
Even if we conceded that De Gea was solely culpable for 10% of the 43 hosts we conceded — only 10 worse than City, which I hope you will agree had a vastly superior outfield X, was better managed and had recent experience winning trophies, and of course won a treble — that’s only 4 goals that’s all on De Gea. So let’s assume we had Onana or Costa. Do you really believe that either of those of those keepers would have gone an entire season without making a mistake that led to an easy goal or not making a save they should have saved? I hope not, but mistake-free keepers not only do not exist, they existed. This is the problem with the De Gea hatred mania that’s been fueled in part by social media: we’ve made the perfect the enemy of the good. De Gea is no Alisson or Ederson, but neither is he a junkyard keeper whose time for the scrap heap has come.

I’d be delighted to move on from De Gea if we address our higher priorities and not settle for Martial and Rashford at CF, Fred and McTominay at CM and Maguire at CN. Why? Because we do not have an unlimited budget that would allow us to spend the 300m it would take to properly stock the squad. Or maybe we actually do and club management are playing shrewd poker, but I doubt that.

Striker. What more needs to be said? Rashford is not a striker and it would be insane in our lust get rid of De Gea and pay the 60m it will take to bring Onana but explain that because we had to make that outlay for a keeper that we have stick with Rashford and Martial as our only two strikers for another season.

We’ve discussed the midfield situation at length over the years and not much more can be said here, but suffice it to say that the 55m spent on Mount is s great start, but only a start.

Maguire? Hopefully we can find s promising young CB for no more than the 30-35m we’ll get for Maguire, so let’s call that a wash. All I would add here is the obvious—that a poor CB puts a lot of pressure on a keeper regardless of whether his name is De Gea, Onana or Buffon.

Yet we still somehow conceded only 10 more goals than City, but where the wheels completely fell off was in goals scored — 36 fewer than City. The poor performances of Martial, Sancho and Antony for most of this season are not in De Gea, directly or indirectly. The brilliant performances by Haaland are not directly or indirectly attributable to Ederson. I’m the first to acknowledge that Ederson > De Gea, but the brilliant performances of City’s front line is attributable to their front line players and the poor performances of our front line is attributable to our front line players. No sophistry will change those facts.
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A goalkeeper does a lot more than prevent goals. At the elite level, it's also about starting play, and importantly being part of the deep passing. When opposition presses us, we can't deal with it and often lose it quickly mainly because of de Gea. It's not just a ten hag thing, it's an "every single big club" thing at this point.

From a goals prevented POV, the "when they are conceded" is also very important. De Gea is fine for a lot of games. He is horrible in important games. Over the years he has repeatedly been the opposite of "clutch", and it's costed us so many times. Notably in what was hopefully his last game for us.

Nobody is mistake free, true. But de Gea statistically makes more mistakes than any other goalkeeper. That's a fact that can't be disputed. That's even ignoring if you refuse to come to reality about how important it is for a goalkeeper to be able to pass the ball out effectively for a big club these days.

Higher priorities, it's just CF. But there's no point spending 100m on a mediocre option. That's the issue there. Moving on from Fred, mctomonay or Maguire? I don't see why people keep banging on about people who are 4th/5th choice players and aren't even 1st off the bench anymore. It shouldn't matter. Even if you hate them, they aren't relegation standard players. As bench players, they are fine. After CF where we have nobody but people who could cover at CF, goalkeeper is by a very large distance the weakest position.
 
Todd said:
Nevermind City, they're so far clear they're not worth mentioning.

What needs mentioning will be the gap between us and Arsenal, Liverpool, and possibly Newcastle. All of whom will have improved this summer to an extent that we will not have.

Of the three, I could see Newcastle being the ones to falter as they adjust to their newfound European lifestyle. But we'll be a step behind Arsenal and Liverpool. We're 30 league goals away from me feeling like we're the club to give City a run for their money. Signing Hojlund and Mount I think we're getting 15 goals, best-case scenario.
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I totally agree with you that if those 3 are our signings we will struggle for top 4. City is not a concern, Chelsea and Newcastle will be.
 
bosnian_red said:
A goalkeeper does a lot more than prevent goals. At the elite level, it's also about starting play, and importantly being part of the deep passing. When opposition presses us, we can't deal with it and often lose it quickly mainly because of de Gea. It's not just a ten hag thing, it's an "every single big club" thing at this point.

From a goals prevented POV, the "when they are conceded" is also very important. De Gea is fine for a lot of games. He is horrible in important games. Over the years he has repeatedly been the opposite of "clutch", and it's costed us so many times. Notably in what was hopefully his last game for us.

Nobody is mistake free, true. But de Gea statistically makes more mistakes than any other goalkeeper. That's a fact that can't be disputed. That's even ignoring if you refuse to come to reality about how important it is for a goalkeeper to be able to pass the ball out effectively for a big club these days.

Higher priorities, it's just CF. But there's no point spending 100m on a mediocre option. That's the issue there. Moving on from Fred, mctomonay or Maguire? I don't see why people keep banging on about people who are 4th/5th choice players and aren't even 1st off the bench anymore. It shouldn't matter. Even if you hate them, they aren't relegation standard players. As bench players, they are fine. After CF where we have nobody but people who could cover at CF, goalkeeper is by a very large distance the weakest position.
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Good post. Onana and Martinez are world class playing out from the back.

My main worry is that I can't see any proven alternatives to Kane. Martial and Höjlund is a huge gamble. We really need to do our DD on Höjlund if he has what it takes mentally.
 
Onerealunited said:
Confirmed departures to date

(age in parentheses)

  1. Phil Jones (31): Released. Future unknown
  2. Ethan Galbraith (22): Released. Future unknown
  3. Jack Butland (30): End of loan. Player signed with Rangers
  4. Bernard Di’Shon (22): Released. Future unknown
  5. Axel Tuanzebe (25): Released. Future unknown
  6. Zidane Iqbal (20): Sold. To continue his career at FC Utrecht. Expected fee about €1.0m
  7. Ethan Laird (22): Sold. To continue his career at FC Birmingham. Expected fee about €0.9m
  8. Wout Weghorst (30): End of loan. Future unknown
  9. Marcel Sabitzer (29): End of loan. Future unknown

Total income: €1.9m
Click to expand...

May be only E1.9m. But what about the reduced wage bill.
 
Annoying/frustrated we‘ve still not got the most important position of the summer window yet with a strike. Granted still early days but was hoping this would be all sorted now. Doesn’t sound like we’ve much more to spend with the recent offer for new goalkeeper.
Personally I’d of bought a striker with what ever it cost to get the right man be it 50/80 million pending on who we get rid of in the current squad. Looking doubtful now for Kane. We struggled badly last year with so limited goals and buying an average striker isn’t going to fix our problem.
 
bosnian_red said:
A goalkeeper does a lot more than prevent goals. At the elite level, it's also about starting play, and importantly being part of the deep passing. When opposition presses us, we can't deal with it and often lose it quickly mainly because of de Gea. It's not just a ten hag thing, it's an "every single big club" thing at this point.

From a goals prevented POV, the "when they are conceded" is also very important. De Gea is fine for a lot of games. He is horrible in important games. Over the years he has repeatedly been the opposite of "clutch", and it's costed us so many times. Notably in what was hopefully his last game for us.

Nobody is mistake free, true. But de Gea statistically makes more mistakes than any other goalkeeper. That's a fact that can't be disputed. That's even ignoring if you refuse to come to reality about how important it is for a goalkeeper to be able to pass the ball out effectively for a big club these days.

Higher priorities, it's just CF. But there's no point spending 100m on a mediocre option. That's the issue there. Moving on from Fred, mctomonay or Maguire? I don't see why people keep banging on about people who are 4th/5th choice players and aren't even 1st off the bench anymore. It shouldn't matter. Even if you hate them, they aren't relegation standard players. As bench players, they are fine. After CF where we have nobody but people who could cover at CF, goalkeeper is by a very large distance the weakest position.
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There’s an element of agreeing to disagree so I’ll try not to repeat myself, but what I will say is that if there’s an opportunity to upgrade at any position it’s always a good idea to seriously consider doing so. But when we reflect on this past season, there is no fukking way we can blame De Gea for the poor performances of Martial, Antony and Sancho — any more than we can credit De Gea for Rashford’s brilliant performances this season — and anyone who really believes that bringing in Onana will somehow turn Martial, Antony and Sancho into world class attacking players should buckle up for a disappointment.

But if we can bring in a truly top striker despite spending 50m for a keeper then I’m on board. But if management are reduced to explaining that we had to settle for less than what we need at striker because we blew our budget on a modern keeper, expect third place in the PL again and plucky cup runs.
 
So there's a week to go until our first pre-season fixture and we don't have a first choice goalkeeper or striker of note.

No serious moves on exits and club sale seemingly nowhere near conclusion. Who could have seen this coming??
 
lex talionis said:
There’s an element of agreeing to disagree so I’ll try not to repeat myself, but what I will say is that if there’s an opportunity to upgrade at any position it’s always a good idea to seriously consider doing so. But when we reflect on this past season, there is no fukking way we can blame De Gea for the poor performances of Martial, Antony and Sancho — any more than we can credit De Gea for Rashford’s brilliant performances this season — and anyone who really believes that bringing in Onana will somehow turn Martial, Antony and Sancho into world class attacking players should buckle up for a disappointment.

But if we can bring in a truly top striker despite spending 50m for a keeper then I’m on board. But if management are reduced to explaining that we had to settle for less than what we need at striker because we blew our budget on a modern keeper, expect third place in the PL again and plucky cup runs.
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Of course the goalkeeper won't fix martials injuries or Sanchos lack of confidence (Antony imo has high potential but anyway), but my point being is that if you look at our season on the whole, we did quite well at grinding results despite not scoring often. The games we got battered in were much more because of the playing out from the back being the big weakness, and Harry Kane up top wouldn't have helped us in those games whereas Onana would have made them not happen (or eliminated the main reason at least, can still be outplayed but it'd be different).

It's highly unlikely we repeat last season's success across all competitions as we had a lot go our way in terms of final results. A striker would have had a minimal impact on our end of season standings/trophy count, but a striker would have a big impact to simply achieve that again if you catch my drift. Whereas a goalkeeper like Onana would be a game changer in terms of what we can do, while still needing a CF of course. CF market is very different from GK market so availability and reasonable prices is a big one for me as well. If we had an Onana caliber striker even realistically available, by all means go for it. But we have like a Vertbuggen quality CF available for Allison level prices. Onana is a top goalkeeper available for a very reasonable fee, so you just get it done. We aren't getting Kane or Osimhen anyway, Hojlund may happen but he'd be hugely overpriced relative to what he's shown til now and start off as a rotation player anyway.

Onana now, see what we do sales and then worst case we can get Neymar on loan and use Rashford as the main striker, or get Taremi. Not ideal, but still a very good team and a big improvement on last season.
 
Difficult to see clubs like Chelsea and Arsenal able to sell players and get a decent bit for them and we can't offload guys let alone make any sort of money from the sales
 
Honestly I’d take the same squad again IF it meant that the glazers were leaving. Having them still there and waiting for stuff to happen in slow motion is torture
 
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