With our ability to only work on one transfer at time, plus every transfer taking at minimum 3 weeks to complete, we should have wrapped up a goalkeeper, a CB, two midfielders and a striker by early October...
What do we still need? Aka The never ending story
- Thread starter Devil may care
- Start date
I honestly don't think we are getting a striker.. think Mason might come back in 
I’m not saying we will sign no one but the Glazers dragging out the sale isn't helping us - other clubs are already wrapping up their big signings and it just makes it that bit harder to do negotiations when you are trying to sign players that clubs weren't expecting to sell or dont need to sell.
We’ll end up paying over the odds to someone later in the window to steal someone away from their club as usual.
We’ll end up paying over the odds to someone later in the window to steal someone away from their club as usual.
Yep, Ten Hag knows he ain't getting the striker
So hopefully Mount and Onana in the next few days then focus on sales and the big one: striker
Yeah thats pretty much what I think as well. Unless a striker in our budget gets available we will be more looking at sales after Onana is done.
Yeah probably a CF in August. July focused on sales unless we do well to sell people quickly.
Van de Beek, Maguire, Fred, telles, Bailly, Elanga, Henderson, one or 2 of martial/Sancho/Greenwood should all be leaving and getting us some space. McTominay too maybe, though he'd need replacing in midfield. Maguire in defence too, though you could argue we wouldn't be in a huge pickle if he wasn't replaced and we could probably find someone temporary on loan without too much hassle for that.
We have many players that should be sold and could make a good profit on some of them. That'll probably be used on a striker.
After Mount the priorities in my mind are the following :
GK - It seems pretty likely DDG is leaving so this is now top priority position but Onana seems high certainty to be his replacement
CF - First choice striker to replace Martial
CF - Second choice striker to replace Weghorst
CM - Backup CDM to play understudy to Casemiro
CB - Backup CB as fourth choice in case Varane, Martinez or Lindelof are injured
I would expect DDG, Henderson, Martial, Fred, McTominay, Williams, VDB, Bailly, Telles, Weghorst, Jones and maybe a few others I'm forgetting to leave so we may even need one or two squad players on top of the priorities I mentioned above
GK - It seems pretty likely DDG is leaving so this is now top priority position but Onana seems high certainty to be his replacement
CF - First choice striker to replace Martial
CF - Second choice striker to replace Weghorst
CM - Backup CDM to play understudy to Casemiro
CB - Backup CB as fourth choice in case Varane, Martinez or Lindelof are injured
I would expect DDG, Henderson, Martial, Fred, McTominay, Williams, VDB, Bailly, Telles, Weghorst, Jones and maybe a few others I'm forgetting to leave so we may even need one or two squad players on top of the priorities I mentioned above
Guesstimates
Donny 8m
Maguire 15m, but wages are prohibitive
Sancho and Martial, impossible due to wages
Fred 10m
Telles 2m
Bailly 5m
Elanga 12m
Henderson 15m
We are poor at selling and the sums generated will be token.
Still about 70m there, but yeah I said before that I'm guessing we'll raise 60-80m in sales.
Finally, someone with realistic sales fees.
With Mount effectively done and most likely unveiled in the next 24hrs, we’re off the mark for the summer.
Mount £55m
Onana £45m
Ramos £70m
Lavia £40m
Sutalo £20m
Orban £20m
Hojland seems like who were mainly tracking for ST but I can’t help feel Ramos would be better suited and more ready to lead the line. Add in Orban as a pacey, fox in the box type and I’d be satisfied with that going into the season.
If we can shift 80% of the deadwood listed below for £100m+ I think our squad starts to look rather tidy.
Outs: Martial, Fred, McTominay, Donny, Maguire, Bailly, Henderson, Telles, Elanga
Loans: Pellistri (Prem), Greenwood (anywhere that will accept him), Hannibal (Ligue 1), Alvaro (Prem or top Championship)
Then keep Mainoo and give him some meaningful minutes this year.
Mount £55m
Onana £45m
Ramos £70m
Lavia £40m
Sutalo £20m
Orban £20m
Hojland seems like who were mainly tracking for ST but I can’t help feel Ramos would be better suited and more ready to lead the line. Add in Orban as a pacey, fox in the box type and I’d be satisfied with that going into the season.
If we can shift 80% of the deadwood listed below for £100m+ I think our squad starts to look rather tidy.
Outs: Martial, Fred, McTominay, Donny, Maguire, Bailly, Henderson, Telles, Elanga
Loans: Pellistri (Prem), Greenwood (anywhere that will accept him), Hannibal (Ligue 1), Alvaro (Prem or top Championship)
Then keep Mainoo and give him some meaningful minutes this year.
What do we need hmm? Selling the shite we have in the squad for relatively OK fees would be a start.
Yeah the talk of outgoings is pretty quiet
The last good sale of a player was Ronaldo to Madrid and they got him for a steal. we are utterly useless at getting something back for a player we want to move on.
Got over £25mn for Dan James which was miraculous.
That is a fair point which I had overlooked. Can we pop a Dan James face mask onto the garbage we need rid of to help raise some funds for Erik?
If we truly do add Onana and Hojlund (and a backup GK), then the next 2 steps would be replace McTominay and maguire with a younger DM who can provide physicality to eventually replace Casemiro but short term cover, and a younger CB who is tall and with pace to replace Varane eventually whole being short term cover. Possible this summer, but unlikely.
After them, next summer Martial will leave and Sancho might, so depending on Hojlund we may revisit striker (Kane on a free?) while Amad could slot in for Sancho. Possibly RB will be looked at, if there is a standout candidate that makes it worth it to replace Wan Bissaka. Otherwise it depends on player progress if we look for a star player somewhere, because that's the next step. Would be a very good all round team with good depth everywhere and everyone fitting the manager, but perhaps lacking star power to get us to the top.
After them, next summer Martial will leave and Sancho might, so depending on Hojlund we may revisit striker (Kane on a free?) while Amad could slot in for Sancho. Possibly RB will be looked at, if there is a standout candidate that makes it worth it to replace Wan Bissaka. Otherwise it depends on player progress if we look for a star player somewhere, because that's the next step. Would be a very good all round team with good depth everywhere and everyone fitting the manager, but perhaps lacking star power to get us to the top.
To compete with city:
2 GKs
1 CB
1 FB
1 DM
1 RW
2 CF
And they'd all have to be good enough to start regularly.
But if we assume city will be heavily sanctioned soon and we're not really chasing them, then:
2 GKs
1 DM
1 CF
Gives the manager a very good chance against all the rest.
2 GKs
1 CB
1 FB
1 DM
1 RW
2 CF
And they'd all have to be good enough to start regularly.
But if we assume city will be heavily sanctioned soon and we're not really chasing them, then:
2 GKs
1 DM
1 CF
Gives the manager a very good chance against all the rest.
Any chance for us to bring Mazrawi now that Bayern wants Walker ?
I think it's kind of boring if we just try to re-create that class Ajax team. We have access to far more funds and an enormous scouting network and so we should be able to build a great team of our own.
I've seen more activity in a game of chess between two sloths
So what does the Caf think now?
I think RB is the only glaring weakness left in our XI. Plus add couple of players (DM and CB) for squad depth.
I think RB is the only glaring weakness left in our XI. Plus add couple of players (DM and CB) for squad depth.
Striker is still a glaring weakness. We have no goals up front. Rasmus is very young and will take time to come good. He wasn't even starting every game for Atlanta.
Don't we still need a backup GK?
Yeah about right but also I think we're goosed if Hojlund gets injured as Rashford is wasted at CF and Martial is perma-crocked. A back up forward. If we could sign a solid pro like Daka or Iheanacho for €20/25mn, it would be a good signing.
How do we line up now? I think the defense and attack picks itself. Probably the midfield too?
..................... Onana ...................
AWB - Varane - Martinez - Shaw
................. Casemiro ..................
............. Bruno - Mount ..............
.. Antony - Højlund - Rashford ..
And then Lindelöf, Dalot, Malacia, Eriksen, Sancho and Garnacho would be the most utilized subs, barring no new signings?
..................... Onana ...................
AWB - Varane - Martinez - Shaw
................. Casemiro ..................
............. Bruno - Mount ..............
.. Antony - Højlund - Rashford ..
And then Lindelöf, Dalot, Malacia, Eriksen, Sancho and Garnacho would be the most utilized subs, barring no new signings?
and Mainoo
Injured for a few months.
Our right side is a clear weakness if Antony (or Sancho) don't get their shit together, but if Bruno plays RCM then it forces the opponent to not neglect our right side. Doing so would give Bruno space and you absolutely don't want that. This should give Rashford, Mount and Højlund some freedom.
I know but he's still around
Surprised by that. We've more than enough midfielders. Surely it's a striker we need as an alternative to Højlund.
I suspect another striker is probably going to be a stop gap or a loan of some sort considering the transfer budget seems to have been stretched close to a theorical maximum. Might depend on what the club decides to do with regards to a currently exiled forward but I feel that regardless of what is decided, the team could do with another experienced CF to rely on.
I would speculate it will happen late in the window because there's sometimes good opportunity deals to be made late august. Not saying they're realistic targets but for instance the Kane or Mbappé tango may last deeper into August and put more pressure on the sellers to seal a deal.
I would speculate it will happen late in the window because there's sometimes good opportunity deals to be made late august. Not saying they're realistic targets but for instance the Kane or Mbappé tango may last deeper into August and put more pressure on the sellers to seal a deal.
Sell. We still need to sell.
Great point. Hopefully our RBs really pitch in this year on the offensive end
Let’s sign a striker for like 10-15 million, grab someone who’s a complete prospect
If we let go of McFred this window, then Amrabat & Mainoo as their replacements would be good so can see why we are in for him if we feel confident that we will get the fees we want for both McTominay & Fred.
I agree, I would like another striker as we are still sort in that area unless Greenwood is going to be given that opportunity if he returns? Which is why I don’t think we will sign another one in this window as got a feeling that the club is going to give Greenwood an opportunity to redeem himself. We probably need another back up GK (although I’d rather we give that role to Kovar who has impressed me very much in his pre-season outings, but I reckon he wants to be a number one).
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I'm reluctant to discuss Greenwood tbh but I think an older striker would be ideal. Someone like Michael Owen when he signed back in 2010 (I think).
I hope now that we have a reasonably strong first team, we can become a bit more strategic with our player purchases so we don't end up having to spend €50mn+ for every player we want to buy in the near future. Would like to think we could look at the age profile of our first team and target young players with the potential to break into the first team when current players begin their decline.
We should probably be looking for Varane, Casemiro, Bruno and Shaw successors now rather when their downfalls begin. Target the very best young talent out their in those positions. Even at RW, by buying a kid like the Brazilian Estevao, as something tells me that Antony is going to become a limiting factor for us with his lack of attacking threat.
We should probably be looking for Varane, Casemiro, Bruno and Shaw successors now rather when their downfalls begin. Target the very best young talent out their in those positions. Even at RW, by buying a kid like the Brazilian Estevao, as something tells me that Antony is going to become a limiting factor for us with his lack of attacking threat.