i mean we need at least 3 signings in my opinion. pretty much the only one id want back next season would be mainoo. Id ship mctominay and casemiro both out for sure, and prob do the same with bruno if i can find a buyer. Mount is only one id keep otherwise just because he hasnt played at all so doubt we get anything for it. Id sign 1 top quality younger option, then at least 2 players ready to come in now and start.
We need 2 new CMs. Who do we sign?
- Thread starter luke511
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At least 3 needed. Wouldn’t be against 4/5 though 
Do we really need two young CBs or can't one wait for another year? I'd extend with Varane for another year, while signing one affordable, quality, young RCB, like Todibo, Kossonou, Yoro or Tapsoba. I'd also give Kambwala more playing time. The money we'd save on a second CB, I would use on a top LB, while using Shaw as a LB/LCB rotational player. For RW I'd wait what happens to Greenwood, Antony and Sancho, and potentially sign a talent like Bardghji, while giving Amad more game time. Especially Olise is not a priority imo since he'd cost +50m and is quite injury prone. I agree about a good CF option next to Hojlund, but I'd prefer someone like Guirassy. Wouldn't mind Barkley replacing Eriksen or Amrabat, but Rabiot is still a hard no for me. Eventually, I'd rather sign one quality CM/DM (Onana or Thuram?), one quality LB, a young RCB, and a cheap CM alternative, before anything else.
As an idea, we could try to get Thuram or Todibo on loan with an obligation to buy in summer 2025. I don't know if that would get us sanctioned, but if it's possible that'd solve a lot of problems. Italian teams do this all the time..
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My only concern with not buying a natural LCB is what happens IF Martinez can't stay fit regularly. Ideally we would sign someone who has that ability to play either side of defence.
Hate comparing us to the scousers but feel we need that similar level of midfield rebuild during the summer. The only problem is they didn't need to sort out their defence and forward line too whereas we do.
If we were playing football manager you’d look to stretch your budget by filling the gaps with a free player or two. In our situation, we could easily get Alfie Doughty on a free at LB, or Lloyd Kelly on a free at LCB, both English too.
I agree though it does feel like we have a lot to address this summer. But I don’t think 6 signings is impossible, especially if we sell well and fill in at least one spot with a free.
Anybody mentioned Haidara at Leipzig? A Ralf R suggestion I seem to remember, and most of his suggestions who went to other clubs have turned out to be pretty successful.
Obnviously Barkley ain’t the answer. But a squad option to replace Eriksen (that can actually move) isn’t too bad. More so for free.
he’s always had decent ability. Chelsea, like many before him….killed him. Good to see him pick up some form playing regularly again.
if he was the third (of 3) midfielders I wouldn’t be against it.
Eriksen had 1 good year and if we can get the same out of Barkley then great. We need to build a competitive squad.
If our attackers are up against our midfield every day in training…I’m sure they all look like R9
I haven’t watch enough Luton game to judge Barkley. But apparently according to this video, he’s been given freedom to roam from deep area to advanced area. So if we end up signing him, he will be more like Mainoo’s backup. Or if our DM is injured, we play Mainoo as no 6 and Barkley as the roam midfielder.
https://youtube.com/shorts/9ks_NecSyvQ?si=hjmWT8PQFnplqTFu
https://youtube.com/shorts/9ks_NecSyvQ?si=hjmWT8PQFnplqTFu
I think Barkley on a free would be a smart piece of business.
Guirassy buy out has gone, he would be £40-50m for a 28 year old and Benjamin Sesko will be on a whole other level to him in 2 years, my wife is slovenian and they genuinely believe he will be their greatest player ever , better than Oblak. I watched him live last year vs Finland and I was basically telling my Slovenian father in law that he’s not all that, Jesus did I eat my words, wanted him ever since I saw him live, he’s quick, strong, two footed and much cleverer on the ball than Rasmus, together they would be lethal, Benjamin can drop into the 10, spin off wide and hurt you from the flanks, he’s just a baller, got young ibrahimovic vibes, we need to pay out his £42m buyout and then watch Rasmus and him dominate for a decade !
Ross fecking Barkley........ what the hell are people smoking?
Look we all want Barella as our number one choice and possibly FDJ and Jao Neves but how the hell are we spending £250m on midfield, so we have to be smart. Barkley is simply a cheap Squad replacement for Eriksen who’s on 6 times the salary Ross is and has 15% of his energy levels. Judge Ross Barkley on the version from the PL this season not his past, he’s no transfer fee and £50-60k per week wages what’s not to like about that plus he’s got goals and assists in him, if he does come I’d bet he’ll get 4 or 5 goals and 4 or 5 assists as a squad player, is Amrabat, Eriksen or DVB getting you that ?
Hopefully Ashworth who was desperately trying to sign Barella for Newcastle last year makes him our priority this summer but we still need 2 more midfield players so if we go sign Adrien Rabiot and Ross Barkley on Frees that looks like a huge upgrade for £60-70m spent and probably receive ; Hanibal(15m), DVB(10m), C Eriksen(10m), so a net £35m spend that’s the sort of business we want to see?
Eriksen was an obvious signing because he had obvious qualities and for a time he had some good games. He was over used, but that injury last January really did a number on him and he hasn't got back properly from it.
But in all seriousness, Barkley has resurfaced this season after about 5 years in the wilderness and he was never that good to begin with. Free or not, there's absolutely no way in hell he should be considered as a potential signing for Man Utd. Give Hannibal or Gore that time instead of wasting time and money on the likes of him.
As much as I liked sesko,I think the ship has sailed on that one, finding a playmaking number 9 should be a better option (joao Pedro,iheanacho,mathys tel)
If we sign a starting LB, someone who stays fit, Luke Shaw can be the first Martinez backup.
I rate Sesko. But would Leipzig sell him for that cheap, if he is so talented? I don't think they have the urgent need to do that. And CF is not a priority, it should be solved with a player who costs 30m max (didn't know about the end of Guirassy's release clause)
Šeško is reported to have a release clause of around £42m.
Biggest issue is that both Martinez and Shaw are likely to miss significant chunks of seasons at the bloody same time like now. If we do get a starting LB we also need a LCB with the potential to start but who can also cover LB. What happened to our left side of defence has been a disaster of epic proportions.
This is why we have sell and sell well because Dalot is the only reliable player we have from a fitness and quality perspective. You can't rely on Varane as a starter for a whole season, Maguire is not fit for purpose in the modern game, Evans is a stopgap player and Lindelof shouldn't be at the club.
So the best way, in my view, is to buy a LB, LCB and RCB then look to keep Varane as first contender at RCB, if not just promote Kambwala permanently. Sell off Maguire and Lindelof and keep Evans for one more year. So our back line will have:
Dalot
AWB/new signing
RCB, Varane, Kambwala
Martinez, LCB, Evans
Shaw, LB, LCB
In midfield we need a younger and more technical version of Casemiro. Mainoo needs to be developed as a DLP so we can sign a DM who is not necessarily a pass master like Palinha to hold fort and let Mainoo grow as a playmaker alongside him. Gore has shown he can be useful as a pressing 8 so he can be Mainoo's back up. We would also need a back DM and if we scout well we can sign one who plays 6 and 8.
Our attack is not configured right we need a creative winger to counter balance Rashford/Garnacho who are pretty much wide strikers. We need someone whose first instinct is to create for others and retain the ball. After that we need a striker.
All in all we need
3 defenders
2 midfielders
2 attackers. And all this would amount to a £310m - £350m outlay unless our scouting comes up trumps and secures us a few players in the £20m to £40m range.
Just to put your argument into perspective, looking solely at transfer fees is not how football finance works. You can't simply put X and Y players on free transfers is good business compared to buying player Z for 70m.
Here is how it works looking at the players you mention:
- Sign Rabiot on a "free", but he will demand a signing bonus of 10m and salary of 250k per week for 3 years. He would cost the club 3.3m per year in amortisation and 13m per year in wages. A total cost of 16.3m a year.
- Sign Barkley on a "free", with a signing bonus of let's say 2m and a salary of 60k per week for 3 years. He would cost the club 0.67m per year in amortisation and 3,1m per year in wages. A total cost of 3.8m a year.
- The total cost of signing these two players on a "free" would be appr. 20m per year.
Hence, it does not make sense to look at transfer fees in isolation. There is much more to than that.
He has a buy out which is activated for €50m this summer, problem is that Arsenal and others have also interest ?
I’m well aware of amortisation and true cost, Selling DVB, C Eriksen and DVB would also free up wages, Eriksen has 2 years left at £8m per year so that’s a saving of £16m and potentially £18m for the next year of 2024-25 if we get as expected a transfer fee. Rabiot would be signed in a 2+1 not a 3 year deal, the rest of your argument I agree with. You are missing what you would get back from transfers in the midfield department, the club would only need to sell Hanibal for £15m and he would represent not pure profit because £7m was invested but he’s still an academy product so £8m net profit could be amortised by 5 years to increase budget.
The club has no cash, if you look at recent accounts you will see that the Glazers have squandered cash reserves. Sir Jim for all his media hype is not going to give the new CEO and DOF a blank cheque and invest £300-400m for new players!
Listening to his recent interview, I have a sneaking suspicion that the $200m that was injected for increase share with a further promise of $100m totalling $300m or £257m, some of this will now be used to assist with working Cashflow and transfers. I genuinely believe that the amount Ashworth and Berada have to spend is more like £100m plus what they sell so let’s say £200-230m.
If you get rid of Varane and Casemiro with the latter maybe getting a transfer fee of £40m you offset his transfer fee against what is still owed. He had a 4 plus 1 contract at £60m plus bonuses let’s assume CL was one part of bonus so he’s at £63m, it’s about £16m per year selling him for £40m creates an account profit of £4m per year and his wages being saved is £15m per year that’s £19m added to the yearly accounts. In other words one player leaving would play for Two joining. Add Hanibal, DVB and Eriksen and you have at least £30m transfer fee amortised by 5 years or £6m per year plus wages for at least two years of £8m per year.
United would only give Barella a 4+1 contract he’s 27/28.
My point is we are going to have to be ultra smart this window because Sir Jim is not going to be knight in shining armour saving the club with endless handouts!
Why should he ? He only owns 27.7% of the club.
Yes, I know I did not look into what we would get by selling players, as this was not part of my point.
With regards to selling players, the fee you sell the player for minus the book value of that player goes into the transfer income for that year. It is not spread out over the years, regardless of what we owe in installments to the selling club. So selling Casemiro this summer for 40m would give an accounting transfer income of appr. 10m. See the following for the detailed formula.
Book value= fee acquired minus fee acquired divided by contract years times years at club. The Casemiro example would be: 60m - ((60m / 4) x 2 years)= 30m
Hence, selling him for 40m would give us a surplus of 10m that year (before considering the savings of amortisation and salary).
Salary and the remaining amortisation would be a cost saving for the remainder of the initial contract.
I keep changing my mind, but I think we need to steer towards midfielders who play in a 433. Most of the top teams play with 3 centre midfielders and have a nice blend of physicality and prowess.
Therefore, taking into consideration what we already have, because I doubt we will sign 3 centre midfielders, I'd go with:
By the way, I really like the blend of the Arsenal midfield and how Arteta sets them up, so I've looked at players who are similar to come in a do the same job.
Option 1:
Bruno - Playmaker (Odegaard)
Mainoo - Deep-Lying Playmaker (Jorginho)
Mount - Advanced Playmaker (Havertz)
New Signing (Back Up) - Playmaker (Vieira)
McTominay - Box to box (Partey)
New Signing - Holding Midfielder/Box to Box (Rice)
Games we'd expect to dominate or need a goal:
Mount (Advanced Playmaker) - Bruno (Playmaker)
New Signing (Holding Midfielder/Box to box)
Tougher games or seeing out a game:
New Signing (Holding Midfielder/Box to box)- Bruno (Playmaker)
Mainoo (Deep-Lying Playmaker)
Option 2:
New Signing - Playmaker (Odegaard)
Mainoo - Deep-Lying Playmaker (Jorginho)
Bruno - Advanced Playmaker (Havertz)
Mount - Advanced Playmaker (Vieira)
McTominay - Box to box (Partey)
New Signing - Holding Midfielder/Box to Box (Rice)
Holding/Box to Box targets (no particular order):
Playmaker targets:
Therefore, taking into consideration what we already have, because I doubt we will sign 3 centre midfielders, I'd go with:
By the way, I really like the blend of the Arsenal midfield and how Arteta sets them up, so I've looked at players who are similar to come in a do the same job.
Option 1:
Bruno - Playmaker (Odegaard)
Mainoo - Deep-Lying Playmaker (Jorginho)
Mount - Advanced Playmaker (Havertz)
New Signing (Back Up) - Playmaker (Vieira)
McTominay - Box to box (Partey)
New Signing - Holding Midfielder/Box to Box (Rice)
Games we'd expect to dominate or need a goal:
Mount (Advanced Playmaker) - Bruno (Playmaker)
New Signing (Holding Midfielder/Box to box)
Tougher games or seeing out a game:
New Signing (Holding Midfielder/Box to box)- Bruno (Playmaker)
Mainoo (Deep-Lying Playmaker)
Option 2:
New Signing - Playmaker (Odegaard)
Mainoo - Deep-Lying Playmaker (Jorginho)
Bruno - Advanced Playmaker (Havertz)
Mount - Advanced Playmaker (Vieira)
McTominay - Box to box (Partey)
New Signing - Holding Midfielder/Box to Box (Rice)
Games we'd expect to dominate or need a goal:
Bruno (Advanced Playmaker) - New Signing (Playmaker)
New Signing (Holding Midfielder/Box to box)
Tougher games or seeing out a game:
New Signing (Holding Midfielder/Box to box) New Signing (Playmaker)
Mainoo (Deep-Lying Playmaker)
Bruno (Advanced Playmaker) - New Signing (Playmaker)
New Signing (Holding Midfielder/Box to box)
Tougher games or seeing out a game:
New Signing (Holding Midfielder/Box to box) New Signing (Playmaker)
Mainoo (Deep-Lying Playmaker)
Holding/Box to Box targets (no particular order):
- Maxence Caqueret
- Federico Redondo
- Exequiel Palacios
- Xaver Schlager
- Mats Wieffer
Playmaker targets:
- Frenkie de Jong
- João Neves
Any chances that one of Valverde, Camavinga or Tchouameni will be available in the summer? Someone has to drop out the starting 11 for Mbappe, and assuming Bellingham drops back into midfield - who?
Real Madrid players tend to not care that much. Being squad player, winning trophies, playing for the biggest club of the world. Especially with Kroos/Modric leaving soon, Real Madrid will hold unto them until they can find the next prodigy that makes them redundant.
Argentinian DM Guido Rodriguez would be available on a free transfer. Would be an absolute clever signing if we can part ways with Casemiro. He becomes 30 soon, so more of a midterm solution like Casemiro and Eriksen were. He knows Licha and Garnacho very well from the NT and has been a top DM in Spain for years now. We should get him and 1-2 other CMs in.
We need a solid partner to play with Mainoo. Someone with the same hunger as him. Mainoo is one of the first on the team sheet now. Build around him.
Signing CM is an absolute priority for us but we also need a new attacker, I’d of said a RW but since Garnacho has been playing well there then I’d say we need a LW so we have 2 who can play on the left and 2 on the right. Especially if we’re selling MG. We should get a decent fee for him and a decent fee for Casemiro.
The most likely player to get dropped for Mbappe is Rodrygo so the midfielders probably wouldn't seek a move yet.
I'm not opposed at Ross Barkley just as long as he's only going to be a squad addition on a short term contract. Maybe a two year deal with an option to a third.
He'd be a free transfer that would free up money for another midfielder in addition.
He'd be a free transfer that would free up money for another midfielder in addition.
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CM category of search: 'No rheumatism'.
Please.
Please.
Yeah I feel theyll flog Rodygo in Summer '25 for big money ( assuming Mbappe does join this Summer )
I won't comment on the names you've listed but I wholeheartedly agree we need to phase into a proper 4-3-3 if we're ever to solve our midfield being non-existent most games.
All we need is Edson Alvarez. Coming into his prime, already one of the best CMs in England, massive midfield presence, great tackler, dribbles out of pressure, does it all really. Would flourish at a top side like United. Break the bank for him.
Douglas Luiz from villa for the no.6 role.
A lot depends on how we/ETH/new manager/club want to set up. More possession based approach would need players like Luiz who are good on the ball. Contuining on this type of transition heavy football would need more physical and large area covering players more of like Palinha or Alvarez.
A lot depends on how we/ETH/new manager/club want to set up. More possession based approach would need players like Luiz who are good on the ball. Contuining on this type of transition heavy football would need more physical and large area covering players more of like Palinha or Alvarez.
We still need 3 CMs and all 3 have to be young and have to be as comfortable with the ball as fish are comfortable in water. If the 3 CMs are the only signings we make this summer, I am okay with it. The improvement of the whole team's performances would be night and day.
Except we’re lacking goals this season. I’m sure we need another attacker somewhere in there. 3CM would be good but without any more power up top what use is it? We need a wide player that can get us 15+ goals. Liverpool have Salah, spurs have Son, Arsenal have both Saka and Martinelli who both chip in with goals.
If we signed edson alvarez everyone would be crying we only sign ETHs ex players.
i like Alvarez but he's slow as feck.....Luiz is quality and his certainly more mobile