Do we need a left back ? Malacia has struggled lately after a decent start and Shaw looks better these days at Centre back. We need a lot to start competing again. City are miles ahead squad depth wise
What do we still need? Aka The never ending story
- Thread starter Devil may care
- Start date
Give Malacia another year and Alvaro Fernandez another loan, then following season sell Malacia on for a small profit and let Alvaro take his place if he’s up to it.
Martinez is LCB and Shaw is one of the best LBs around. He covers for Martinez yes but Malacia himself is a decent LB, you won't get a world class level left back to be back up to Shaw, and you won't get a world class CB to be backup for Martinez. It's a very good setup we have and that's not one you have to do anything with.
Positions that absolutely do not need additions beyond some young guys like Amad coming in:
- LB
- LW
- CAM
- RW
Multi window plan
Summer 23 (€192mn)
CF: Osimhen €120mn and Georges Mikautadze (€12mn)
Midfield: Andre (DM) and Martinelli (CM) double swoop from Fluminense €30mn
GK: Raya €25mn - just too good value to pass up on and will strengthen this area until we are in a position to buy a premium long-term keeper
AM: Arda Guler €5mn (Only including as he is a special talent and rumoured to have a 5mn release clause this summer if he doesn't play a certain amount of minutes for Fenerbace this year which he was nowhere near at Christmas time. Too good to turn down if available and is as close to a guarantee as there is. Great succession plan option for Bruno sorted for pennies).
Elite set piece coach: delta of about ten goals scored between us and best set piece teams. Important to close this. Ridiculous how bad we've been at this for so long given the quality of set piece takers at our disposal.
Also introduce Amad into the squad as Antony backup. Should get plenty of minutes as Antony is normally subbed around 70minute mark.
Sell/Release: De Gea, Tuanzebe, Donny, McTominay, Pellistri, Hannibal, Jones, Bailly
The above would pretty much give us strength in depth everywhere bar the back five and would really improve our age profile while also giving us potential successors to the elder statesmen like Bruno and Casemiro.
Winter 24
Might be a bit late for some but couldn't put CB higher when we have four international starters at CB and Luke Shaw on cover. Would really like a ball playing RCB who, like Lisandro can receive the ball under pressure and break lines with his passing. Timber's form has dropped so badly and his aerial quality is so poor that I'm just not feeling him and certainly wouldn't want him while we don't control play better. I like Zeno Debast's footballing ability so one to follow if he's still at Anderlecht at this point. Obviously if Maguire or Lindelof demand a move this summer, we will need to increase this as a priority.
Summer 24
GK - Diogo Costa
RB - Don't like the current batch of gettable RB talent as they all seem to have significant weaknesses but maybe Chelsea will be having a firesale at this point and we could pick up Malo Gusto or even Reece James!.
Summer 23 (€192mn)
CF: Osimhen €120mn and Georges Mikautadze (€12mn)
Midfield: Andre (DM) and Martinelli (CM) double swoop from Fluminense €30mn
GK: Raya €25mn - just too good value to pass up on and will strengthen this area until we are in a position to buy a premium long-term keeper
AM: Arda Guler €5mn (Only including as he is a special talent and rumoured to have a 5mn release clause this summer if he doesn't play a certain amount of minutes for Fenerbace this year which he was nowhere near at Christmas time. Too good to turn down if available and is as close to a guarantee as there is. Great succession plan option for Bruno sorted for pennies).
Elite set piece coach: delta of about ten goals scored between us and best set piece teams. Important to close this. Ridiculous how bad we've been at this for so long given the quality of set piece takers at our disposal.
Also introduce Amad into the squad as Antony backup. Should get plenty of minutes as Antony is normally subbed around 70minute mark.
Sell/Release: De Gea, Tuanzebe, Donny, McTominay, Pellistri, Hannibal, Jones, Bailly
The above would pretty much give us strength in depth everywhere bar the back five and would really improve our age profile while also giving us potential successors to the elder statesmen like Bruno and Casemiro.
Winter 24
Might be a bit late for some but couldn't put CB higher when we have four international starters at CB and Luke Shaw on cover. Would really like a ball playing RCB who, like Lisandro can receive the ball under pressure and break lines with his passing. Timber's form has dropped so badly and his aerial quality is so poor that I'm just not feeling him and certainly wouldn't want him while we don't control play better. I like Zeno Debast's footballing ability so one to follow if he's still at Anderlecht at this point. Obviously if Maguire or Lindelof demand a move this summer, we will need to increase this as a priority.
Summer 24
GK - Diogo Costa
RB - Don't like the current batch of gettable RB talent as they all seem to have significant weaknesses but maybe Chelsea will be having a firesale at this point and we could pick up Malo Gusto or even Reece James!.
Rashford can fill in at striker, but I don’t like the idea of him being our backup striker. Perhaps I’m overly harsh on Martial, but I don’t see much in his game any longer that we can count on.
Dave will sign a new contract, which will disappoint some here but the reality is that we’re not going to bring in a better keeper for less than 80m.
Maguire cannot bear the thought of being a rotation CB but I don’t see Lindelof going anywhere.
I might agree to your post if we were talking about prioritising. As this thread is focused on what is still needed, priorities become secondary because it doesn’t take away the lack of these needs.
Shaw is not a top 5 left back for me. Players we could get that are a massive upgrade: Ferland Mendy, Alfonso Davies, Theo Hernandez all
Realistic targets if we make champions league and the Qatar take over. I would say we need two new full backs. A deep lying playmaker , striker and a young right sided central defender to cover Varane. Only area we are covered is wings/wide inside forward areas. If greeedy I would also start looking a Sweeper Keeper type as De Gea is not that. Time to give Ten Hag the tools to play his brand of football.
You're out of your mind if you think Shaw isn't a top class fullback and if you think Alfonso Davies is an example of a realistic target, Qatar or no qatar... Shaw is quality, and gladly the manager sees that and sees him as a key player so pointless to discuss that anyway. Theo Hernandez and Ferland Mendy are not better than him though.
Agree with the rest though.
The FMness i strong in you
I haven't played football manager since it was Championship Manager but we obviously can't just keep buying the Casemiros of world football as a) they're too expensive to allow us to buy as many players as we need and b) because of their age, you probably have a 2 year window to win the big trophies. Already we're seeing Varane, Eriksen and Casemiro fade as the season has gone on.
Obviously not all of the players I listed are dead certs but they're young enough to have sell on value if they don't work out and some of them like Andre Trindade and Guler look like serious prospects.
Interesting point. But needs inherently have to be prioritized. We need starting striker more than we need a progressive midfielder, which we need more than a backup for Casemiro and while we may be able to do all three, we may not. I’d hate for us to miss out on a top striker because we emptied our transfer budget on backups at CM, RB and GK.
The same was said about Sancho. He was world class, dead cert etc. We need quality, not prospects.
It’s gonna be an interesting window. I don’t want us going into next season without a quality striker signed.
Not sure what you want us to do in that case - are we just going to spunk 100mn on two players (which looking at a list of players of that pricepoint is by no means a guarantee) each window and just play whackamole with the major holes where you fill two and the next year another two spring up and where we never have a final state team ready to challenge on all fronts.
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We need a proven striker, but only have Martial next season. That will cost us a huge amount. We cannot go into next season with a talented young prospect and Martial, that would be disaster. We dont have time to be left more behind that we already are. Kane at 30 would be perfect in that sense
Did you even read my post? I'm advocating spending on the blue chip talent (Osimhen) and a talented young prospect. Kane would honestly be an irresponsible use of money if he is costing £100mn and 300k pw as is being reported when he's on the last year of his contract. As much as we've improved, we are miles behind City and are really lucky that Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea have all had massive implosions this season so that we can achieve Champions League football ahead of schedule. We also can't rely on Kane having Lewandowski type durability because of his past history of ankle injuries which can be very tricky.
I would like us to splash on Osimhen but no chance Ratcliffe is gonna fund that move
I think if he rules out 120mn for Osimhen, he must also rule out 100mn plus 300k/w for Kane. That would just be absurd to spend on a 30 yr old with dodgy injury history on the last year of his contract.
Maybe he thinks Kane can be got cheaper IF (big one) he is prepared to push for it
Good chat
Luke Shaw is easily the best Left back with Robertson in the PL and top 5 in the world, the problem is he’s also a decent CB and he’s been burdened with covering Maguire defiencies for club and country for the last 2 or 3 years, which means he can’t attack as much as he wants.
Top 5 where Europe, the world?
He isnt a perfect left back, but he is definately a quality one. Hernandez has been very good the year or so but is no better than Shaw and how is Alfonzo Davies a realistic target, he would probably be an £80m signing even if he was available, crazy post
Agree with a lot of this, I know he is very young and inexperienced and not defensive in the sense of an anchorman, but surprised nobody mentions Mainoo as a quality back up to Casemeiro when everyone is mentioning Lavia after just one season, feels like he is just a year ahead to me. I like him and agree an 8 is a priority as is moving on a few current central midfielders, but squad wise I do think we have some good young options who may or may not make it, but should get a chance next season
A no 9, a No 6 to start, then leaving Eriksen to rotate between the 6 and 8. If we can get a young ball playing cb to rotate with Varane and Martinez, even better.
I expect to see more outgoings than incomings though.
I expect to see more outgoings than incomings though.
Have to sign minimum of a 9,backup 6 who is also able to play 8,progressive playmaker CM and CB
Diogo Costa
Rasmus Hojlund
Khephren Thuram
Gabri Veiga or Alex Scott
Jurrien Timber or Kim Min-jae
I'd be a happy man.
Rasmus Hojlund
Khephren Thuram
Gabri Veiga or Alex Scott
Jurrien Timber or Kim Min-jae
I'd be a happy man.
Hojlund over Osimhen hmmm
Henderson, Maguire, McTominay, Martial, Bailly, Telles, Williams, V.d.Beek, Tuanzebe, Sancho (yes I have given up on him), Elanga - these are the players I consider it most important that we get rid of - not because I want them all gone, but because some of them could get us a lot of money to strengthen the squad.
We should easily get north of £100 m for these - and save lots of money on wages, if we somehow manage to get rid of all. That should allow us to sign a quality striker + 2-3 other players. In addition we get Diallo back from Sunderland and things are looking good for next season.
We should easily get north of £100 m for these - and save lots of money on wages, if we somehow manage to get rid of all. That should allow us to sign a quality striker + 2-3 other players. In addition we get Diallo back from Sunderland and things are looking good for next season.
If Sheikh Jassim buys Manchester United :
--------------------------------------------------------------Diogo Costa-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wan Bissaka----------------Guardiol/Kim----------------------------Martinez---------------------------------------Shaw
--------------------------------------------Casemiro-----------------------De Jong----------------------------------------------------
Antony------------------------------------------------------Bruno----------------------------------------------------------Rashford
---------------------------------------------------------------Osihmen----------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------Martial----------------------------------------------------------------------
Garnacho-------------------------------------------------Eriksen-----------------------------------------------------------Sancho
--------------------------------------------Mc Tominay----------------Sabitzer-------------------------------------------------------
Malacia-----------------------------------Lindelof-------------------------Varane-------------------------------------------Dalot
------------------------------------------------------------------De Gea-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sell : Henderson, Bailly, Maguire, Telles, Williams, Tuanzebe, Van De Beek.
--------------------------------------------------------------Diogo Costa-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wan Bissaka----------------Guardiol/Kim----------------------------Martinez---------------------------------------Shaw
--------------------------------------------Casemiro-----------------------De Jong----------------------------------------------------
Antony------------------------------------------------------Bruno----------------------------------------------------------Rashford
---------------------------------------------------------------Osihmen----------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------Martial----------------------------------------------------------------------
Garnacho-------------------------------------------------Eriksen-----------------------------------------------------------Sancho
--------------------------------------------Mc Tominay----------------Sabitzer-------------------------------------------------------
Malacia-----------------------------------Lindelof-------------------------Varane-------------------------------------------Dalot
------------------------------------------------------------------De Gea-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sell : Henderson, Bailly, Maguire, Telles, Williams, Tuanzebe, Van De Beek.
Would I prefer Osimhen? Of course. But we are not going to spend upwards of 150m on Osimhen, be realistic. So we have to look at alternative and cheaper options because it looks unlikely we'll dance to Levy's tune for Kane and that leaves us with, reportedly, 80-100m for Ramos which I don't see us paying either, though happy to be proved wrong.
Hojlund is on the up and up, i'd suggest Ferguson too but he's just signed a new contract and that isn't happening.
Who ever buys man united will have very little time to get transfers done ;
Unless a preferred bidder like SJR who is the favourite wins, he will have 51% control and unfortunately use in the interim period the current structure set up by the Glazers, Richard Arnold as MD and John Murtourgh as Sporting Director with a provision of £300m credit line being cleared with an outstanding payment of £205m made end of June 23. It means we are going to be incredibly slow with transfers and end up with very few of our first choices. We might be more successful in selling players and maybe resigning some like David De Gea. I hate to be pessimistic but I can see a transfer window being more realistic looking something like this ;
Transfers out - H Maguire(30m), E Bailey(5m), B Williams(8m), A Telles (7m), S Mctominay (35m) , A Elanga (15m) A Tuanzebe and P Jones released
Can’t see us selling DVB and Henderson as they both have major injuries right now so we might get £100m
Transfers in - R Hojlund(55m), Ndicka (Free) M Kudas or J Maddison(45m), J Frimpong or D DumFries (30m), M Sabitzer (20m) basically £50m net spend
I think it will be hugely underwhelming right up until last week of August when SJR is actually in charge, then we will do a big swap deal with Ac Milan / we send Greenwood for F Tomari, R Laeo or Mike Maignan plus £20/£60 or £50m or we go buy FDJ, O Dembele or A Fati from Barcelona as an ETH vanity purchase and then we offer a huge £90m deal for Caciedo at Brighton if he’s not gone by then?
We won’t buy Kane or V osimhen because we’ll be too slow or Levy won’t sell we might get Kane in January for £40m but not in the summer R Hojlund is the obvious choice. I think we’ll spend £200m net as SJR will want to start with a good transfer window, in the now unlikely event that SJ buys the club he will be tapping up players all over so we would see 3 or 4 big names sign right at the end of August 2023.
Unless a preferred bidder like SJR who is the favourite wins, he will have 51% control and unfortunately use in the interim period the current structure set up by the Glazers, Richard Arnold as MD and John Murtourgh as Sporting Director with a provision of £300m credit line being cleared with an outstanding payment of £205m made end of June 23. It means we are going to be incredibly slow with transfers and end up with very few of our first choices. We might be more successful in selling players and maybe resigning some like David De Gea. I hate to be pessimistic but I can see a transfer window being more realistic looking something like this ;
Transfers out - H Maguire(30m), E Bailey(5m), B Williams(8m), A Telles (7m), S Mctominay (35m) , A Elanga (15m) A Tuanzebe and P Jones released
Can’t see us selling DVB and Henderson as they both have major injuries right now so we might get £100m
Transfers in - R Hojlund(55m), Ndicka (Free) M Kudas or J Maddison(45m), J Frimpong or D DumFries (30m), M Sabitzer (20m) basically £50m net spend
I think it will be hugely underwhelming right up until last week of August when SJR is actually in charge, then we will do a big swap deal with Ac Milan / we send Greenwood for F Tomari, R Laeo or Mike Maignan plus £20/£60 or £50m or we go buy FDJ, O Dembele or A Fati from Barcelona as an ETH vanity purchase and then we offer a huge £90m deal for Caciedo at Brighton if he’s not gone by then?
We won’t buy Kane or V osimhen because we’ll be too slow or Levy won’t sell we might get Kane in January for £40m but not in the summer R Hojlund is the obvious choice. I think we’ll spend £200m net as SJR will want to start with a good transfer window, in the now unlikely event that SJ buys the club he will be tapping up players all over so we would see 3 or 4 big names sign right at the end of August 2023.
Agree Malacia has had a decent first season though lookig nshaky recently and Shaw isnt playing centre back in front of Martinez.
Pretty much everybody agrees we need a central midfielder and a striker....but a lot of argument our first eleven strengthening doesnt end there, first choice right back is needed and possible a keeper, thats four signings before we even think of strengthening the squad behind it and its for sure not needed in the positions you mention rightly either. A centre back and second striker are probably needed, thats six signings.
We have hardly doen that in a single window but I would be dissapointed if we dont at least get close to that as only failure to move on players or poor decision making in this window fails to bring in good money.
Henderson, Dalot or Bissaka, Maguire, Bailly, Jones, Tuanzabe, Telles, Williams, Mctominay, VDB and Martial....surely most of them will be moved on and there should be decent money in there and I would add there are very good reasons to sell a couple out of Sancho, Elanga, Amad, Pellestri as well due to the numbers we have in those positions...surely this summer there is something approaching double figures worth of players out.
We really should be able to get a top class target, four good signings and a smaller signing without going far over £100m as a net spend.
I do think rb, cb and cm there are plenty of good options....a gk and two strikers of the right quality I think is a lot more difficult without spending big money
What we need is a young striker who isn't injury prone, I like Tammy if the cost is low as he has played in a EPL. I also like a tall right sided CB to backup Varane and it seem KMJ fits the bill. I don't really like to see 2 CB who isn't tall. If Utd can come out with cash due to ownership change then there is only 1 player to buy Jude Bellingham. We should look for couple of back up for CF and MF. I feel this team will make us competitive.
Any Welsh speakers care to translate?
So you are not interested in us signing Kane due to the age situation,in terms of backup CF maybe need to look at free agents. Someone like Tielemans could be interesting but not above a backup CDM/CM which is absolutely essential
Buy: 265m (980k)
Striker 100m (300k)
Rabiot - Free (200k)
Lavia - 35m (80k)
Diogo Costa - 65m (150k)
Todibo - 35m (100k)
Frimpong - 30m (100k)
New backup keeper - Free (50k)
Sell: 160m (940k)
McFred & VDB - 50m (300k)
Elanga - 10m
Dean Henderson - 20m (100k)
DDG - out of contract (19.5m salary)
Maguire - 20m (200k)
Bailly - 3.5m (4m salary)
Bissaka - 20m (90k)
Martial - 17m (250k)
Net Spent: -105m -40k
Striker 100m (300k)
Rabiot - Free (200k)
Lavia - 35m (80k)
Diogo Costa - 65m (150k)
Todibo - 35m (100k)
Frimpong - 30m (100k)
New backup keeper - Free (50k)
Sell: 160m (940k)
McFred & VDB - 50m (300k)
Elanga - 10m
Dean Henderson - 20m (100k)
DDG - out of contract (19.5m salary)
Maguire - 20m (200k)
Bailly - 3.5m (4m salary)
Bissaka - 20m (90k)
Martial - 17m (250k)
Net Spent: -105m -40k
Not gonna sign 7 in summer or did I misinterpret completely and this is actually going to be across the next 2/3 windows