United desperately need an overhaul of their spine, Two CB, Three maybe Four Midfield players and a Centre forward.
I think you almost need to look at these areas of the team in separate items on the squad budgeting. This is very much how I think Dan Ashworth, Jason Wilcox and Omar Berrada will look at the obvious deficiencies in our squad.
For example if we sell the following in the midfield; DVB(5m/120k), Hannibal
(12m/30k) Casemiro(25m/350k)
C Eriksen(8m/170k) S Amrabat(R/80k).
Scott McTominay? (35m/60k)
I’m also assuming the club has £150m transfer budget, that’s why £120m of the credit card was paid off and the clubs accountants have probably assigned £50m to Defence, £50m to Midfield and £50m to Attack plus any additions we sell in transfer fees and save in wages.
This would mean the club would have £100m to spend on midfield area and wages of £750k per week or £35m per year
The club will look for younger players coming to the last 1/2 years of their contract and look to sign on 5 year amortised, or cheap value for money Free transfers but will still need signing on fees. The simple solution here is divide the £100m by 4 as an average contract term, that means United have £60m per year for the midfield in amortised transfer fees and player wages if they clear the decks.
Free Transfers;
Adrien Rabiot - DM/CM, Age(29),
Height 6’2, Left Footed, Non HG
Wages £200k, 3+1 contract
Cost £10m Yearly
Ross Barkley - CM/8/10, Age(30),
Height 6’1, Two Footed, HG status,
Wages current £30k, Offer £75k,
2+1Contract Cost £3.9m Yearly
Pl Proven
Josh Brownhill -CM/8, Age (28)
Height 5’11, Right Footed, HG Status
Wages currently £40k, Offer £75k, 2+1 contract £3.9m yearly PL proven
Wilfred N’Didi - DM, Age (27)
Height 6’1 , Right Footed, non HG
Wages currently £75k , offer 4+1
contract £5.2m yearly , PL proven
Young Potential (18-21) ;
Archie Gray - CM/DM, Age 18
Height 6’2, Right Footed , HG
Wages currently £5k per week or £260k per year. Transfer Value £25-30m
Offer £30m and £25k per week on a 5+1 contract combined cost £7.3m per year
Alex Scott - CM/10, Age 20
Height 6’0, Right footed, HG,
Wages currently £25k per week or £1.3m annually, Transfer Value £40m, offer £35m on a 5+1 and 50k per week wages that’s contract combined cost £9.5m per year.
Oscar Zambrano - DM/CM, Age 18
Height 5’9, Right footed , could qualify for HG, wages 2k per week or £100k yearly,
Transfer £10m offer £7.5m on a 5+1 and 15k per week that’s combined £2.5m per year
Tomas Parmo - AM/10, Age 16 Height 5’8, Both footed, Could qualify for HG, Wages 2k per week or £100k per year. Transfer £6m offer £5m plus 15k per week wages, combined £1.8m per year.
Established PL Proven 22-25 Age
Jao Gomes - DM/CM, Age 23, Height 5’10
Wages current £30k per week, Transfer Value £40m, HG No, Offer £35m 5+1 contract on £75k per week. Total cost of transfer £11m on yearly books.
Amado Onana - DM/CM, Age 22, Height 6’4 right footed athletic physically strong
Wages current £120k per week Transfer Fee £50-65m, HG no. Offer £150k per week on 5+1 and £55m transfer fee, Total cost £18.5m on yearly books.
Morgan Gibbs-White - CM/8/AM/10, Age 24, Height 5’7 - HG Status , both footed
Current deal £80k per week, Transfer value £50-60m, Offer £55m plus £125k per week on 5+1 contract which is £17m per year on books
Emile Smith-Rowe - CM/AM/10 Age 23, height 6’1 - HG not being used by Arsenal, both footed strong, creative, HG status
Current weekly salary £40k, Transfer Value £20-30m, Offer 5+1 contract £25m and £75k per week total cost yearly £9m per year
Unproven European potential Signings
Joshua Kimmich - CM/RB/DM, Age 29
Height 5’9 existing salary £270k per week would want a 4+1 contract at £300k plus a transfer fee of £50-60m. Athletic, once world class on the decline, sound familiar
Total cost £27-30m per year or half your budget.
Matts Wiefer - DM/CM/8 Age 24, Height 6’3 Athletic, good on ball can get and assist goals PL unproven Non HG
Current salary £8k week or £400k per year
Transfer Value £25m so offer £40k per week on 5+1 plus £20m total cost yearly £6m on the books.
Dani Olmo - 8/10/AM Age 25 height 5’10 non HG , creative , energetic, however he’s on 160k per week already and his transfer fee would be £55m, so an offer of £55m plus £250k per to get him would cost £23/24m per year on the books.
Joao Neves - DM/CM Age 19, Height 5’10
Probably the best young player in World football for DM/CM role, Salary is currently 8k per week, Non HG, both footed, Transfer Value £85-100m, If the club offered £90m on a 5+1 contract at £80k per week the total cost would be £23m on our books.
This is the main reason United are so desperate to get Dan and Jason in asap because they acknowledge the work must be done starting in May. Let’s assume that their first choices under Murtough was Rabiot and Kimmich because we’ve chased them so many times before and Ashworth probably wants Bruno Guimeres but that’s off limits for obvious reasons.
It’s not unreasonable to think there is a complete 180 change in ideas from previous Leadership and they may think that we can do two free transfers relatively cheaply and then sign a young marquee player and then an obvious Physical midfield beast who is PL proven.
Let’s say we sign J Neves or D Almo as the marquee that’s £23m of the £60m yearly budget then we sign Wilfred N’didi and Ross Barkley on free transfers costing £9m together and then the club has enough left to buy A Onana, you have finally got a midfield squad of ; A Onana(DM/CM),
W N’Didi (DM/CM), K Mainoo(CM/8), R Barkley(CM/ 8/10), D Olmo(10/AM), Bruno (8,AM/10), M Mount(AM/8/10) - 3 HG
The Club could keep Scott or sell him and if we sell him go get Archie Gray or a young South American to develop.
Bruno is under pressure, Mount and Olmo can play as wide strikers too, we have legs, energy and physicality in midfield, N’Didi at 27 and on a free is a no brainer to improve our squad depth if we can’t get Onana, we go for J Gomes, if we can’t get D olmo we go get Morgan Gibbs white or E Smithe Rowe, Bruno is given notice that unless he playing out of his skin, another player will be the creative fulcrum of the team.
In summary, We need Dan Ashworth in the hot seat asap, if we don’t get any European football we will only sign 1/2 midfielders and a lot of the deadwood will stay if we do get Europa League which is the best we can hope for right now we will probably sign 3 and maybe 4 midfield players depending on what’s available.
The reality is the current midfield options are unbalanced, only really Amrabat and Casemiro are Defensively minded and both of them on current form would struggle to get in Burnley, Sheffield United or Luton midfield, the offensively minded players are either injury prone, careless with the ball or their legs have gone too, with the one exception Kobbie Maino!
We should never have sold Fred without a like for like replacement, that’s one of many mistakes which has cost ETH his job?