What do we still need? Aka The never ending story

[The White Pele]

Was thinking this morning how much better I’d feel about our chances if we brought in 3 big 6ft+ athletes in central defence and defensive midfield. Obviously they need to be able to play too but I do think we’ve really lacked a physical edge in that area of the pitch this season with the likes of Casemiro, Maguire, Evans, Lindelof which has made it difficult for us to defend on the front foot. If you look at City with the likes of Dias, Ake, Akanji, Walker, Rodri and Arsenal with Saliba, Gabriel, Partey, Rice we are a bit sluggish and soft by comparison.

We obviously need reinforcements in attack too but if we can build that physically imposing base to our team and give Mainoo and Bruno a platform to play then we’ll be a tough proposition for anyone.

 

[Powderfinger]

Over the last seven summer transfer windows United has sold a total of seven players for fees > £10m. There is no doubt some incompetence involved but selling players is really hard in general for big clubs (due to wages) and its especially true when the club is struggling but the players are obviously players the club doesn't want to keep.

A realistic guess at sales this summer is probably something like:

Casemiro - £30m (assuming Saudi interest)
AWB - £10-15m
Lindelof - £5-10m
Maguire - Stays as nobody will offer drastically more than you get for Lindelof given his age/contract and he will have more value as a backup CB
Sancho - Loan again as nobody will pay the valuation and he won't take a wage cut either
Greenwood - Loan again as nobody will pay the valuation
McTominay - Stays or maybe a PL club offers £15-20m
VDB - Loan/contract termination
Hannibal - Loan or £5m
Pellistri - Loan or £5m
Antony - Stay or loan to rebuild value

Basically, most likely scenario is total sales in the £50m-80m range, augmented by whatever comes in via loan fees.

 

[Borussia Teeth]

Over the last seven summer transfer windows United has sold a total of seven players for fees > £10m. There is no doubt some incompetence involved but selling players is really hard in general for big clubs (due to wages) and its especially true when the club is struggling but the players are obviously players the club doesn't want to keep.

A realistic guess at sales this summer is probably something like:

Casemiro - £30m (assuming Saudi interest)
AWB - £10-15m
Lindelof - £5-10m
Maguire - Stays as nobody will offer drastically more than you get for Lindelof given his age/contract and he will have more value as a backup CB
Sancho - Loan again as nobody will pay the valuation and he won't take a wage cut either
Greenwood - Loan again as nobody will pay the valuation
McTominay - Stays or maybe a PL club offers £15-20m
VDB - Loan/contract termination
Hannibal - Loan or £5m
Pellistri - Loan or £5m
Antony - Stay or loan to rebuild value

Basically, most likely scenario is total sales in the £50m-80m range, augmented by whatever comes in via loan fees.

Thank you for this.

So many deluded fans on here seem to think we can get rid of our unwanted players with ease. They think mid table clubs will break transfer records and break their wage bills for failed utd players. Or that our millionaires will take massive pay cuts to do us a favour.

As a gooner, you would have seen first hand that on occasion, you have to pay the players off in order to get rid.

Ineos will struggle just as much as the previous regime to sell players. We can't magically make other clubs interested in our unwanted players or magically make other clubs able to afford our unwanted players.

We will have to sell well below market value for a few years until we get our wage bill in order.

 

[Isotope]

If we're going for injury player, Mitoma's stock is pretty low now. He's injured but has a good fitness record overall.

And for once, Hojlund may get some balls to shoot.

 

[Desert Eagle]

Must buys:

A center back to partner Martinez ( Needs to be fast)
A striker to replace Martial ( Preferably can compete for the starting spot with Rasmus)
A midfielder to replace Casemiro ( Ideally can play 6 or 8)

Would also be good to get a left back since Malacia is MIA

 

[Red the Bear]

Priority should be midfield, center back, right winger in that order.
If we had funds to spare an extra striker.

We could make do for a while without addressing our fullbacks even though Shaw will probably still struggle to stay fit but dalot has shown more than capable filling his spot.

Get a proper midfielder to partner mainoo and a defensive mid ro replace casemiro if he's on his way out plus another center back to replace varane and that alone would be a very solid window.

We could raise some funds by shipping off the likes of Antony, Sancho, Rashford, casemiro so we shouldn't be in too bad of a place financially.

 

[Desert Eagle]

Priority should be midfield, center back, right winger in that order.
If we had funds to spare an extra striker.

We could make do for a while without addressing our fullbacks even though Shaw will probably still struggle to stay fit but dalot has shown more than capable filling his spot.

Get a proper midfielder to partner mainoo and a defensive mid ro replace casemiro if he's on his way out plus another center back to replace varane and that alone would be a very solid window.

We could raise some funds by shipping off the likes of Antony, Sancho, Rashford, casemiro so we shouldn't be in too bad of a place financially.

We have plenty of right wingers but no strikers apart from Rasmus. Why is right wing a priority over striker for you? One injury to Rasmus next year and we're fecked.

 

[ManRed]

With the injuries in the squad, Varane and Martial leaving and most likely losing Sancho, Greenwood, Evans, Casemiro and Eriksen we have a very difficult window up ahead.

We need starters in ST, DM, RCB, LB and backup for CM, CB (if lindelof or maguire leaves)

I wouldn't want to change it all in 1 season and try get the 4 starters and promoting some youth.

ST / Hoijlund

Rashford/Garnacho ---- Bruno/Mount --- Amad/Anthony

Mainoo/Backup CM ---- DM/Scott or Amrabat

LB/Shaw ---- Martinez/Lindelof --- Maguire/CB --- AWB/Dalot

Onana

This squad might make top 4 if stays fit. However we need better wingers in order to get GD up and ucl chances

 

[Red the Bear]

We have plenty of right wingers but no strikers apart from Rasmus. Why is right wing a priority over striker for you? One injury to Rasmus next year and we're fecked.

My bad I completely forgot about dialo and assumed that we'll part ways with sancho and Antony and think garnacho's future is on the left so thought we need a starting winger.

You're absolutely right, a striker probably a cheap backup option supersedes that.

 

[Desert Eagle]

My bad I completely forgot about dialo and assumed that we'll part ways with sancho and Antony and think garnacho's future is on the left so thought we need a starting winger.

You're absolutely right, a striker probably a cheap backup option supersedes that.

All good mate. I think we need more than a cheap backup option personally. Would like a Watkins or Toney level player. If we're doing the budget route maybe a cheeky bid for Welbeck.

 

[Red the Bear]

All good mate. I think we need more than a cheap backup option personally. Would like a Watkins or Toney level player. If we're doing the budget route maybe a cheeky bid for Welbeck.

Depends on our ambitions set by the club I reckon, if we're looking to push as hard as we can that you'd be right but if they're looking to take things more slowly we could probably afford to let rasmus take his time developing and save some of our expenses.

 

[The-Mezzala]

A young Varane. Him and Martinez play so well together. He is going to be a miss . But with his injury record and wages can see why the club are letting him leave. Shame we didn’t see him and Martinez this season more.

 

[Igor Drefljak]

It's actually a weird ending to the season for me.

We've just ended with the worst position in the Premier league, minus goal difference and overall poor play.
We go into the new season with a new part owner, CEO, DOF and TD.

When it comes to managers, we have Ten Hag, but there is numerous names available right now. McKenna, Tuchel, Poch, De Zerbi, to name a few.

Same goes with the talent at clubs. Maybe it's my lower standards of United kicking, in, but the list seems endless of players that would come in and improve us.
I honestly don't think anyone other than Mainoo, Martinez and Garnacho should be safe in this squad, so what do we need? Everything.

I'd firstly shop in the UK, Portugal and France though. Absolutely littered with talent, and for whatever reason, I feel players coming from these countries always seem to do well, whereas we've not had much luck from Italy and Germany.

 

[MikeUpNorth]

With the injuries in the squad, Varane and Martial leaving and most likely losing Sancho, Greenwood, Evans, Casemiro and Eriksen we have a very difficult window up ahead.

We need starters in ST, DM, RCB, LB and backup for CM, CB (if lindelof or maguire leaves)

I wouldn't want to change it all in 1 season and try get the 4 starters and promoting some youth.

ST / Hoijlund

Rashford/Garnacho ---- Bruno/Mount --- Amad/Anthony

Mainoo/Backup CM ---- DM/Scott or Amrabat

LB/Shaw ---- Martinez/Lindelof --- Maguire/CB --- AWB/Dalot

Onana

This squad might make top 4 if stays fit. However we need better wingers in order to get GD up and ucl chances

This looks about right to me. Though I'd obviously move on Antony if at all possible, and would also be open to reasonable offers for any of the defenders bar Martinez and Dalot.

I wouldn't keep Amrabat. He's not up to it.

 

[Wheato9]

ST-Sesko 50
Winger-Olise 60
Midfielders-Ederson 40 and Varela 60-70
LB-Ait Nouri 40
Centerbacks-Todibo 40, Tosin free
GK-Kovar on his buyback

 

[RedRocket08]

Something like this? We've had a good last quarter in terms of financial performance, so we could have a decent budget if we handle our outgoings well:

Outgoings	Possible Fee (Millions)	Wages Saved (1000s)
Wan Bissaka	10	90
Varane	0	350
Casemiro	35	350
Eriksen	0	120
McTominay	20	100
VDB	5	125
Sancho	45	350
Greenwood	30	75
Martial	0	250
Total:	145	1,810

Incomings	Possible Fee (Millions)	Wages (1000s)
Varela (CDM)	50	95
Zubimendi (CDM)	50	120
Starting RCB	45	120
Olise (RW)	50	180
Rayan Ait-Nouri (LB)	35	85
A.Carreras (RB)	0	65
Angelo Stiller (CM)	20	65
Beier/Sorloth/Guruzeta (CF)	25	75
Total Incomings:	275	805
Summer budget	130
Net Total (incomings less Summer budget less Outgoings)	0	-1,005

Of course the names I've mentioned for incomings can change (and it's going to be difficult to get all this done in 1 window, though not impossible), but the most important thing is that we go for a sensible wage structure, save 1 million pounds a week and that adds more to our transfer budget / lets us stay within PSR rules as well, saving between 40-50M in wages per annum seems like the smart thing to do here.

Squad composition post summer would then look like:

GKs: Onana, Bayindir
RBs: Dalot, Carreras
LBs: Shaw, Ait-Nouri
LCB: Martinez, Lindelof
RCB: Starting RCB, Maguire, Kambwala

CDM: Varela, Zubimendi
CM: Mainoo, Angelo Stiller
CAM: Fernandes, Mount

LW: Garnacho, Rashford
RW: Olise, Amad, Antony

CF: Rasmus, Backup CF, Wheatley

 

[Woziak]

Now the dust has settled and the club knows they are playing Europa League football, it means that we need to be far more pragmatic in our recruitment. The main question that will drive this summers recruitment will be whether ETH stays or leaves.

My guess and unfairly so is that United have made the decision to sack him. I think all the McKenna stuff is a red herring and the club want either Tuchel or Poch. I also think they want a 4231 possession based formation.

We will have a minimum of 38PL games, 3 Domestic Cup games and 8 Europa League Games which is a minimum of 49 with a potential maximum of 67.

We probably have 60 matches to navigate next season so we need a squad of 28/29 players as all clubs in Europe will due to increasing injuries. Remember we will always have 5/6 injured and we need 22 to 23 players always available, yesterday showed how important a strong bench is?

Players leaving ; A Martial, B Williams,
J Evans, R Varane, T Heaton all out of contract none will be renewed maybe Heaton might be but unlikely. The club will want more than £20m for Mctominay and at least £20m for AWB.



L

Something like this? We've had a good last quarter in terms of financial performance, so we could have a decent budget if we handle our outgoings well:

Outgoings	Possible Fee (Millions)	Wages Saved (1000s)
Wan Bissaka	10	90
Varane	0	350
Casemiro	35	350
Eriksen	0	120
McTominay	20	100
VDB	5	125
Sancho	45	350
Greenwood	30	75
Martial	0	250
Total:	145	1,810

Incomings	Possible Fee (Millions)	Wages (1000s)
Varela (CDM)	50	95
Zubimendi (CDM)	50	120
Starting RCB	45	120
Olise (RW)	50	180
Rayan Ait-Nouri (LB)	35	85
A.Carreras (RB)	0	65
Angelo Stiller (CM)	20	65
Beier/Sorloth/Guruzeta (CF)	25	75
Total Incomings:	275	805
Summer budget	130
Net Total (incomings less Summer budget less Outgoings)	0	-1,005

Of course the names I've mentioned for incomings can change (and it's going to be difficult to get all this done in 1 window, though not impossible), but the most important thing is that we go for a sensible wage structure, save 1 million pounds a week and that adds more to our transfer budget / lets us stay within PSR rules as well, saving between 40-50M in wages per annum seems like the smart thing to do here.

Squad composition post summer would then look like:

GKs: Onana, Bayindir
RBs: Dalot, Carreras
LBs: Shaw, Ait-Nouri
LCB: Martinez, Lindelof
RCB: Starting RCB, Maguire, Kambwala

CDM: Varela, Zubimendi
CM: Mainoo, Angelo Stiller
CAM: Fernandes, Mount

LW: Garnacho, Rashford
RW: Olise, Amad, Antony

CF: Rasmus, Backup CF, Wheatley

I really like what you’ve done and we should have a decent budget due to EL qualification that will affect expenditure. I’m hoping that sir Jim gets serious as I don’t believe our budget is now restricted by FFP/FSP/PSR even the 80% squad rule from UEFA should be ok however I genuinely think there are real Cashflow and working capital issues.

Let me explain Sir Jim’s initial $200m(£156m) investment was used to pay off the company credit card. I believe £120m was paid off reducing the debt to £140m down from £260m.

This is debt and we are simply creating a credit line to use for player transfer and agent fees as the club no longer has huge cash reserves to buy players.

That means that there is currently £160m maximum that could be used for facilitating transfers, agent fees and Signing on fees for players signed on a free. To be clear here not every transfer or agent fee is paid in an upfront payment, most are now paid in instalments from 12 months through to 5 years however if you are paying a BUY OUT clause these usually need to be paid in one instalment or at best two very close together.

So let’s start with Michael Olise probably has a £55m buy out, the club would have to pay that in 1 instalment and this summer so that would leave about £100m of available credit before we generate additional cash from player sales.

Players who could be sold and raised cash are the following;
Casemiro, Lindelof, S Mctominay(40m/YP),
A Fernades(YP/S£5m), Sancho(35-45m)
M Greenwood(35m/YP) , DVB (5m), C Eriksen(5m), Hanibal Mejbri (10m/YP)
F Pellistri(10m)

The reason why the club is so keen on the Saudi market is because Saudi clubs normally pay upfront so dreamland for United, this year would be the Saudis saying we will buy Casemiro(40m), Hanibal(Muslim and benefits from the new rule allowing Saudi clubs to buy 2 extra players under 21 and under for maybe £15m) plus Mason Greenwood or Sancho for £45m as the club would directly benefit from another £100m of working cash to be used for transfers, any other payments like a £30m agreed fee for Greenwood from Juventus would probably result in 3 instalments of £10m or potentially 5 instalments of £6m depending on what is affordable and can be agreed!

We desperate need cash, not just reduction in wages but hard cash, SJR sitting all happy he’s come in won an Fa Cup for men and women, under 18 boys won the treble and under 21 girls double, so balance sheet might look ok even without CL football next year.

The million dollar question is if he’s in a real hurry he’ll invest another £150m for another 2.7% well soon see what his true ambitions are with how he deals with ETH in the next few days!

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5340986/2024/03/14/man-united-debt-jim-ratcliffe/#

 

[WelshManc]

Something like this? We've had a good last quarter in terms of financial performance, so we could have a decent budget if we handle our outgoings well:

Outgoings	Possible Fee (Millions)	Wages Saved (1000s)
Wan Bissaka	10	90
Varane	0	350
Casemiro	35	350
Eriksen	0	120
McTominay	20	100
VDB	5	125
Sancho	45	350
Greenwood	30	75
Martial	0	250
Total:	145	1,810

Incomings	Possible Fee (Millions)	Wages (1000s)
Varela (CDM)	50	95
Zubimendi (CDM)	50	120
Starting RCB	45	120
Olise (RW)	50	180
Rayan Ait-Nouri (LB)	35	85
A.Carreras (RB)	0	65
Angelo Stiller (CM)	20	65
Beier/Sorloth/Guruzeta (CF)	25	75
Total Incomings:	275	805
Summer budget	130
Net Total (incomings less Summer budget less Outgoings)	0	-1,005

Of course the names I've mentioned for incomings can change (and it's going to be difficult to get all this done in 1 window, though not impossible), but the most important thing is that we go for a sensible wage structure, save 1 million pounds a week and that adds more to our transfer budget / lets us stay within PSR rules as well, saving between 40-50M in wages per annum seems like the smart thing to do here.

Squad composition post summer would then look like:

GKs: Onana, Bayindir
RBs: Dalot, Carreras
LBs: Shaw, Ait-Nouri
LCB: Martinez, Lindelof
RCB: Starting RCB, Maguire, Kambwala

CDM: Varela, Zubimendi
CM: Mainoo, Angelo Stiller
CAM: Fernandes, Mount

LW: Garnacho, Rashford
RW: Olise, Amad, Antony

CF: Rasmus, Backup CF, Wheatley

Who's the RB? Carreras?

 

[eire-red]

In terms of going forward, I'd only look to sign a back-up for Hojlund. The spine is where we need a major overhaul.

We need 2/3 CB's and similar in midfield. That's 5/6 signings. We're not gonna go from where we are to challenging next season. Think signing a full back or a winger isn't going to move the dial there.

Getting the right balance in midfield with Mainoo and replacing Varane are top priorities.

 

[ArjenIsM3]

Who's the RB? Carreras?

The one we just sold to Benfica I believe

 

[RedRocket08]

Now the dust has settled and the club knows they are playing Europa League football, it means that we need to be far more pragmatic in our recruitment. The main question that will drive this summers recruitment will be whether ETH stays or leaves.

My guess and unfairly so is that United have made the decision to sack him. I think all the McKenna stuff is a red herring and the club want either Tuchel or Poch. I also think they want a 4231 possession based formation.

We will have a minimum of 38PL games, 3 Domestic Cup games and 8 Europa League Games which is a minimum of 49 with a potential maximum of 67.

We probably have 60 matches to navigate next season so we need a squad of 28/29 players as all clubs in Europe will due to increasing injuries. Remember we will always have 5/6 injured and we need 22 to 23 players always available, yesterday showed how important a strong bench is?

Players leaving ; A Martial, B Williams,
J Evans, R Varane, T Heaton all out of contract none will be renewed maybe Heaton might be but unlikely. The club will want more than £20m for Mctominay and at least £20m for AWB.



L
I really like what you’ve done and we should have a decent budget due to EL qualification that will affect expenditure. I’m hoping that sir Jim gets serious as I don’t believe our budget is now restricted by FFP/FSP/PSR even the 80% squad rule from UEFA should be ok however I genuinely think there are real Cashflow and working capital issues.

Let me explain Sir Jim’s initial $200m(£156m) investment was used to pay off the company credit card. I believe £120m was paid off reducing the debt to £140m down from £260m.

This is debt and we are simply creating a credit line to use for player transfer and agent fees as the club no longer has huge cash reserves to buy players.

That means that there is currently £160m maximum that could be used for facilitating transfers, agent fees and Signing on fees for players signed on a free. To be clear here not every transfer or agent fee is paid in an upfront payment, most are now paid in instalments from 12 months through to 5 years however if you are paying a BUY OUT clause these usually need to be paid in one instalment or at best two very close together.

So let’s start with Michael Olise probably has a £55m buy out, the club would have to pay that in 1 instalment and this summer so that would leave about £100m of available credit before we generate additional cash from player sales.

Players who could be sold and raised cash are the following;
Casemiro, Lindelof, S Mctominay(40m/YP),
A Fernades(YP/S£5m), Sancho(35-45m)
M Greenwood(35m/YP) , DVB (5m), C Eriksen(5m), Hanibal Mejbri (10m/YP)
F Pellistri(10m)

The reason why the club is so keen on the Saudi market is because Saudi clubs normally pay upfront so dreamland for United, this year would be the Saudis saying we will buy Casemiro(40m), Hanibal(Muslim and benefits from the new rule allowing Saudi clubs to buy 2 extra players under 21 and under for maybe £15m) plus Mason Greenwood or Sancho for £45m as the club would directly benefit from another £100m of working cash to be used for transfers, any other payments like a £30m agreed fee for Greenwood from Juventus would probably result in 3 instalments of £10m or potentially 5 instalments of £6m depending on what is affordable and can be agreed!

We desperate need cash, not just reduction in wages but hard cash, SJR sitting all happy he’s come in won an Fa Cup for men and women, under 18 boys won the treble and under 21 girls double, so balance sheet might look ok even without CL football next year.

The million dollar question is if he’s in a real hurry he’ll invest another £150m for another 2.7% well soon see what his true ambitions are with how he deals with ETH in the next few days!

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5340986/2024/03/14/man-united-debt-jim-ratcliffe/#

I'm in the ETH had a sackable season camp too, but I do also feel that these alternatives may not live up to the expectations - McKenna needs to prove himself imo even before heading to Chelsea, Tuchel is a good manager but probably won't be here for more than 3 seasons, Poch is a good manager sure but I don't think he's that much better than ETH personally. I think the club has spoken to some or all of these managers, and will surely make the decision within a week - They might surprise us and decide ETH should stay, but he'd definitely be on his last chance at United if he stays. I think areas like CB, LB, CDM, and backup ST at a minimum still need to be filled regardless, ideally Wilcox and our scouts will have a good shortlist for whoever comes in.

Yeah the formation I feel will be decided between Ashworth, Wilcox , Fletcher maybe with some input from the manager, but I'd still like to see 2 quality CDMs coming in to play together for the big games - Which is why I'd like both Varela and Zubi, also both can play CB if push comes to shove. I'd still like to see a 4-3-3, but that decision is not up to me!

With regards to having 28-29 players, I mean City are doing this with a squad of 27 atm - The squad I listed out has 25, so we could either add 2 or 3 loanees / free transfers or we could keep the likes of Kovar, Mejbri and Pellistri + we could also promote a couple of youth players. Whatever works best out of those options to fill out the remaining squad depth is fine by me?

We probably will get a bit more money for the likes of McTominay than I've listed out (I took kind of a worst case scenario for our outgoings), and like yourself I share those concerns about our finances but we have a few positives - we did deliver solid earnings this past quarter + we'll have a little extra with Europra + we'll save some more if we trim our wage structure (which will serve well for those transactions that happen in instalments).

I still think we can deliver around an additional 130M on top of 145-175 of player sales, if those funds aren't available immediately then I think SJR may need to put in some money in the form of short term debt - That should definitely tell us a lot about his ambitions for the club.

Hopefully this is a freak season for injuries as well, and we'll be OK next season with some changes to the medical department as well.

Who's the RB? Carreras?

As in Alvaro Fernandes who is on loan from us with Benfica, I made this on excel I think a few weeks back but it now looks like he's actually going to be sold to Benfica. I still think he'd be a good option to keep though, but it depends on what the football execs and manager (whether that's ETH or someone else) thinks.

 

[WelshManc]

The one we just sold to Benfica I believe

That's who I found when looking on Google.

 

[WelshManc]

As in Alvaro Fernandes who is on loan from us with Benfica, I made this on excel I think a few weeks back but it now looks like he's actually going to be sold to Benfica. I still think he'd be a good option to keep though, but it depends on what the football execs and manager (whether that's ETH or someone else) thinks.

He's a left back though?

 

[Woziak]

I'm in the ETH had a sackable season camp too, but I do also feel that these alternatives may not live up to the expectations - McKenna needs to prove himself imo even before heading to Chelsea, Tuchel is a good manager but probably won't be here for more than 3 seasons, Poch is a good manager sure but I don't think he's that much better than ETH personally. I think the club has spoken to some or all of these managers, and will surely make the decision within a week - They might surprise us and decide ETH should stay, but he'd definitely be on his last chance at United if he stays. I think areas like CB, LB, CDM, and backup ST at a minimum still need to be filled regardless, ideally Wilcox and our scouts will have a good shortlist for whoever comes in.

Yeah the formation I feel will be decided between Ashworth, Wilcox , Fletcher maybe with some input from the manager, but I'd still like to see 2 quality CDMs coming in to play together for the big games - Which is why I'd like both Varela and Zubi, also both can play CB if push comes to shove. I'd still like to see a 4-3-3, but that decision is not up to me!

With regards to having 28-29 players, I mean City are doing this with a squad of 27 atm - The squad I listed out has 25, so we could either add 2 or 3 loanees / free transfers or we could keep the likes of Kovar, Mejbri and Pellistri + we could also promote a couple of youth players. Whatever works best out of those options to fill out the remaining squad depth is fine by me?

We probably will get a bit more money for the likes of McTominay than I've listed out (I took kind of a worst case scenario for our outgoings), and like yourself I share those concerns about our finances but we have a few positives - we did deliver solid earnings this past quarter + we'll have a little extra with Europra + we'll save some more if we trim our wage structure (which will serve well for those transactions that happen in instalments).

I still think we can deliver around an additional 130M on top of 145-175 of player sales, if those funds aren't available immediately then I think SJR may need to put in some money in the form of short term debt - That should definitely tell us a lot about his ambitions for the club.

Hopefully this is a freak season for injuries as well, and we'll be OK next season with some changes to the medical department as well.



As in Alvaro Fernandes who is on loan from us with Benfica, I made this on excel I think a few weeks back but it now looks like he's actually going to be sold to Benfica. I still think he'd be a good option to keep though, but it depends on what the football execs and manager (whether that's ETH or someone else) thinks.

City don’t seem to have the inadequate medical department we have if you assume you are playing 60+ matches then you need 3 Goalkeepers, 5 full backs/wing backs, 6 Centre Backs, 7 Midfield players and 7 Striker Options. If we improved our medical department you could lose 2 or 3 but we must not have a season like this one where we had no CB, No LB and at times no CF.

There’s a reason you can name 9 subs and use 5 in the PL and name 12 and use 5 in Europe it’s to rotate the players and stop them burning out.

I say 28/29 assuming that at least 2 or 3 more will be promoted from the Youth.

Honestly after a long season with the Euros watch the injuries go up massively, we need to promote Harry Amass, Finley Macalister, Eithan Wheatley maybe Shea Lacey in Europa and League Cup, the only thing I like about McKenna over ETH he will use all of his squad better and not try and burn out the core 14/15 players.

 

[RedRocket08]

He's a left back though?

Whoops yeah I just realised This whole time I'd been thinking he was a RB. Either way, it does look like he's getting sold on to Benfica - Shame because I thought he was great for them.

City don’t seem to have the inadequate medical department we have if you assume you are playing 60+ matches then you need 3 Goalkeepers, 5 full backs/wing backs, 6 Centre Backs, 7 Midfield players and 7 Striker Options. If we improved our medical department you could lose 2 or 3 but we must not have a season like this one where we had no CB, No LB and at times no CF.

There’s a reason you can name 9 subs and use 5 in the PL and name 12 and use 5 in Europe it’s to rotate the players and stop them burning out.

I say 28/29 assuming that at least 2 or 3 more will be promoted from the Youth.

Yeah so we definitely need to look at improving the medical department, I think that's the first place to start after this outlier season and then of course gradually getting rid of players with a prolonged injury history. Just had a look at Arsenal's and Liverpool's squads as well, 27 quality players in that squad incl. 3rd GK so I think we can be OK with a similar number.

Absolutely you need to rotate in the early stages of Europe and the cup games, I think we just need to have 1 solid back-up for each position that can start and win games against lesser teams (so that we don't have to over play our starters) + additional players in areas where we know we have had prolonged injuries (E.g. defence). But even with all this it's difficult to say whether we'll have more prolonged injuries in other areas next season hey, which is why I think the medical staff need to be scrutinised heavily.

 

[aeh1991]

What we definitely need is:

- a LB
- a CB or two
- two MFs minimum
- a RW
- a CF

It's a lot, so we have to spend our money wisely.

LB:
Get a LB that can challenge Shaw, for cheap. There are a few options. The most expensive should be Miguel Gutierrez (Girona) who has a release clause of £30m.
Cheaper alternatives should be Bradley Locko (Stade Brest), Leif Davis (Ipswich) or Alfie Doughty (Luton).

CB:
The question is whether to get one left footed and one right footed CB with starter qualities or one experienced starter and one young CB regardless of strong foot. We are strongly linked with he hugely talented Aaron Anselmino (Boca Juniors) who seems to have a release clause of £15m. In that case though I would get another RCB since I wouldn't trust him to be ready to start every game nor would I prefer Maguire to become our starting CB (still one option). For various reasons I would go for the easy route and get Jean-Clair Todibo for 35m. I believe the negotiations will be fast and easy due to the INEOS connection.

Other options, such as Ousmane Diomande (Sporting Lisbon), Antonio Silva (Benfica) or Giorgio Scalvini (Atalanta) are interesting, but while Diomande would go to AFCON every 2 years, the other two's values will probably rise after the Euros, so I would go for the cheap and easy option. One exception I would make for Leny Yoro (Lille), who'd probably cost £60m. In that case I would not sign Anselmino (or if INEOS are clever, they sign him for Nice and promise him to join us in two years). Tosin Adarabioyo might make sense to get on a free.

As for the LCB, there are a few interesting players, most prominently Jarrad Branthwaite (Everton), Jorrel Hato (Ajax), Piero Hincapie (Leverkusen) and Goncalo Inacio (Sporting Lisbon) but I would opt for someone like Facundo Medina (Lens) or William Pacho (Frankfurt) who would be cheaper.

CM/DM:
The hardest part. We need to sort our entire midfield, but are limited in budget. Players who I wouldn't touch are Bruno and Mainoo. That means, we need a DM partner for Mainoo the most, and one backup/challenging CM at the very least. The most popular option seems to be Joao Neves (Benfica), however he would cost £85m. If we get him, we need to sign cheaper options on the other positions. Free transfers such as Ross Barkley (Luton) or Guido Rodriguez (Betis Sevilla) would make sense in that scenario.

The other way would be to forget Neves and sign 2-3 quality CM/DM for the same money, such as Kephren Thuram (Nice, £15m), Martin Zubimendi (Real Sociedad, £52m), Angel Gomes (Lille, £20m), Archie Gray (Leeds, £30m), Alan Varela (Porto, £60m), Éderson (Atalanta, £30m), Youssouf Fofana (Monaco, £25m) and Florentino Luis (£20m-30m) It's still very tricky to get the right choice. Players I would avoid are Amadou Onana (Everton, not good on the ball), Joao Gomes (Wolves, too small), Morten Hjulmand (Sporting) and Mats Wieffer (Feyenoord, unproven).

Depending on where to put him, the versatile talent Désiré Doué (Rennes) could also be categorized as CM and would work as a backup to Mainoo, while also challenging for the attacking positions. But I am reading that Rennes would ask for £60m, which is not affordable atm.

RW:
Depending on who leaves (MG for sure. Sancho? Antony?) we could need a RW. Michael Olise (Crystal Palace) seems the obvious choice since we've been linked with him for a while. His exact release clause is unknown but estimated to be north of £60m. Maybe we could include Wan Bissaka into the deal somehow, but I am not sure CP would welcome him back.
I don't see any other candidate. Maybe Roony Bardghji (Copenhagen) as a backup option if we can't afford Olise. I would love to see Xavi Simons (Leipzig, on loan from PSG) here, but that is also unlikely, although I would prefer him over Olise if he costs similarly.

CF:
Here we have a few realistic options. Benjamin Sesko (Leipzig, £55m), Serhou Guirassy (Stuttgart, £15m), Artem Dovbyk (Girona, £35m) and Joshua Zirkzee (Genoa, £35m) all have release clauses. Ivan Toney (Brentford) is a player many want, but imo he is not a good option due to his gambling issues and potential asking fee (north of £50m I guess). I would definitely prioritize Guirassy as he seems a different type of CF than Rasmus.


Conclusion:
There are many possibilities how we build our squad for next season, but I would say there are two realistic options: go for the big talent or for quantity.

Option A: get the big talents

- LB: Bradley Locko / Leif Davis, £15m
- CB: Leny Yoro or Jarrad Brantwaithe (not my favored option), £60m
- CB: Jean-Clair Todibo, £35m and/or Tosin Adarabioyo, free
- DM: Guido Rodriguez, free
- DM/CM: Joao Neves, £85m
- CM: Kephren Thuram, £15m or Ross Barkley, free
- RW: Roony Bardghji, £25m
- CF: Serhou Guirassy, £15m

Total: £250m

Option B: get a more balanced, a little more experienced squad

- LB: Miguel Gutierrez, £30m
- RCB: Jean-Clair Todibo, £35m
- CB: Tosin Adarabioyo, free
- LCB: Facundo Medina, £20m
- DM: Martin Zubimendi, £52m
- CM: Kephren Thuram, £15m
- CM/CAM: Angel Gomes, £20m or Ross Barkley, free
- RW: Michael Olise, £60m
- CF: Serhou Guirassy, £15m

Total: £247m

Maybe we can also manage a mix between the two options, but my point is that we can't sign Neves, Olise and an expensive CB at the same time, so we gotta make compromises.

 

[Woziak]

Whoops yeah I just realised This whole time I'd been thinking he was a RB. Either way, it does look like he's getting sold on to Benfica - Shame because I thought he was great for them.



Yeah so we definitely need to look at improving the medical department, I think that's the first place to start after this outlier season and then of course gradually getting rid of players with a prolonged injury history. Just had a look at Arsenal's and Liverpool's squads as well, 27 quality players in that squad incl. 3rd GK so I think we can be OK with a similar number.

Absolutely you need to rotate in the early stages of Europe and the cup games, I think we just need to have 1 solid back-up for each position that can start and win games against lesser teams (so that we don't have to over play our starters) + additional players in areas where we know we have had prolonged injuries (E.g. defence). But even with all this it's difficult to say whether we'll have more prolonged injuries in other areas next season hey, which is why I think the medical staff need to be scrutinised heavily.

Ok let me explain this season ETH has used 33 players in 52 games, fans forget that Hanibal, Omari Forson, Dan Gore, Eithan Wheatley even DVB played games.

We need 3 Goalkeepers, if resign Heaton he’s good round the squad, great pro and gets on well with everyone, Onana and Bayinder are ok for next season and Bayinder must play more games.

Defence is a huge issue we saw a great partnership yesterday be the foundation of an Fa cup wining team. Varane, Johny Evans will go and Victor Lindelof I think will also depart, leaving Willy Kambawla, Martinez and Maguire all suffering this year with injuries. We might find we keep Lindelof for one more season and sign one Elite CB like J Branthwaite or M Guehi, trust me Wilcox, Ashworth and SJR will want PL proven and as many good young English players as possible, Ashworth and Wilcox got the job because the club can tap into their knowledge of this market. I think we’ll snatch Tosin Aderbiyou too by promising him European Football and Wilcox knows him well. If we sell Lindelof we might do a loan to buy on John C Todibo.

You then theoretically have CB options of ; J Branthwaite, L Martinez, H Maguire, T Aderbioyou, W Kambwala and J C Todibo sounds like too many but it’s not.

We sell Lindelof (15m/120k) , Varane(340k), J Evans (60k) so we save £520k on wages and bring in £15m

I think Branthwaite will be £60m and a £10m loan fee for J C Todibo and Tosin on a free so that’s potentially £55m investment but wages will be £80k Branthwaite, 100k Tosin and 100k J C Todibo so you’ve actually saved £240k a week on your wages. Full backs we will try and sell AWB for £20m and bring in Frimpong for £34m, wages will be similar so it’s £14m upgrade in cost, no left back because we will use Shaw, Malacia, Frimpong, Dalot and bring through Harry Amass. If shaw or Malacia are not fit, Dalot can play equally well at left back and both Tosin and Todibo have the pace to play right back. This would leave us with 10/11 defenders with a saving on wages and a transfer cost of maybe £70m net.


In midfield I like your options but why not go for broke and get one absolute superstar like Jao Neves for £85m and pay the rest of Amrabats loan of maybe £15m so you get both for £100m and finally do the Adrien Rabiot deal on a free.

I think midfield options of S Amrabat,
J Neves, K Mainoo, A Rabiot, Bruno, M Mount and S Mctominay covers all bases. The cost £100m

Then upfront go get M Olise and S Guirassy for £75m combined giving us the following squad options in attack ; M Rashford, Ganaucho, Amad, M Olise, R Hojlund, S Guirassy and E Wheatley/S Lacey

We sell the following; Casemiro(30m), Sancho(40m), Greenwood(35m), Eriksen(5m), DVB(5m), Hanibal (15m), F Pellistri(10m), A Fernandez(5m), Lindelof (15m), AWB(20m)
Release the following; A Martial, B Williams, R Varane, J Evans.

New players ; Frimpong, T Adernioyou, J C Todibo, J Branthwaite, J Neves, A Rabiot, M Olise and S Guirassy will cost about £275m plus Amrabat £290m gross if we sell well we get £160-170m net spend 120-130m and we improve exponentially with that squad plus we still have good pros like Maguire, Bruno, Martinez and Mctominay to guide the team.

 

[Redivy]

The most important signings will be:

1. Varane’s replacement
2. CDM
3. Backup for Licha

We know the exact prototype of defender that would excel in a partnership with Licha. And that is someone in the Varane mold. We need a big physical defender who plays the “sweeper” role whilst Lisandro plays the “stopper” role by stepping up to break up an attack. Todibo gets mentioned heaps but I don’t think he fits this role. I think Diomande would be much better, Yoro would play the role effectively too. I also wonder about Bremer, even though I think he has a lower ceiling than the others.

We also need a backup to Martinez, and this needs to be a specialist. It needs to be someone who is excellent with the ball and has a similar tenacious style. There is three players that would be perfect: Lukeba, Pacho or Marmol.
Marmol played for Las Palmas and is basically a Martinez regen.

And for CDM, I think the best and most obvious answer would be Zubimendi. The level of control he would bring to our midfield would transform us. And he has a great release clause at only 52 million. I imagine he will be at a huge club within the next 12 months.

 

[Josep Dowling]

My interpretation of the squad

Onana (back up goalie)

New LB (Shaw)
Martinez (New back up CB)
New Experienced CB (Lindelof?)
Dalot (New back up RB)

New DM (Casemiro)
Mainoo (New back up midfielder)
Bruno (Mount)

Garnacho (Rashford)
Hojlund (New Back up striker)
New RW (Amad)

That means selling Sancho, Maguire, McTominay, AWB, Greenwood, Antony, Van De Beek, possibly Malacia.

Buying a first team LB, CB, DM, RW and acquiring options to rotate at ST, CB, and RB.

It will be difficult but not impossible. All about who we can sell as usual which is likely no one on big money.

 

[RedRocket08]

Ok let me explain this season ETH has used 33 players in 52 games, fans forget that Hanibal, Omari Forson, Dan Gore, Eithan Wheatley even DVB played games.

We need 3 Goalkeepers, if resign Heaton he’s good round the squad, great pro and gets on well with everyone, Onana and Bayinder are ok for next season and Bayinder must play more games.

Defence is a huge issue we saw a great partnership yesterday be the foundation of an Fa cup wining team. Varane, Johny Evans will go and Victor Lindelof I think will also depart, leaving Willy Kambawla, Martinez and Maguire all suffering this year with injuries. We might find we keep Lindelof for one more season and sign one Elite CB like J Branthwaite or M Guehi, trust me Wilcox, Ashworth and SJR will want PL proven and as many good young English players as possible, Ashworth and Wilcox got the job because the club can tap into their knowledge of this market. I think we’ll snatch Tosin Aderbiyou too by promising him European Football and Wilcox knows him well. If we sell Lindelof we might do a loan to buy on John C Todibo.

You then theoretically have CB options of ; J Branthwaite, L Martinez, H Maguire, T Aderbioyou, W Kambwala and J C Todibo sounds like too many but it’s not.

We sell Lindelof (15m/120k) , Varane(340k), J Evans (60k) so we save £520k on wages and bring in £15m

I think Branthwaite will be £60m and a £10m loan fee for J C Todibo and Tosin on a free so that’s potentially £55m investment but wages will be £80k Branthwaite, 100k Tosin and 100k J C Todibo so you’ve actually saved £240k a week on your wages. Full backs we will try and sell AWB for £20m and bring in Frimpong for £34m, wages will be similar so it’s £14m upgrade in cost, no left back because we will use Shaw, Malacia, Frimpong, Dalot and bring through Harry Amass. If shaw or Malacia are not fit, Dalot can play equally well at left back and both Tosin and Todibo have the pace to play right back. This would leave us with 10/11 defenders with a saving on wages and a transfer cost of maybe £70m net.


In midfield I like your options but why not go for broke and get one absolute superstar like Jao Neves for £85m and pay the rest of Amrabats loan of maybe £15m so you get both for £100m and finally do the Adrien Rabiot deal on a free.

I think midfield options of S Amrabat,
J Neves, K Mainoo, A Rabiot, Bruno, M Mount and S Mctominay covers all bases. The cost £100m

Then upfront go get M Olise and S Guirassy for £75m combined giving us the following squad options in attack ; M Rashford, Ganaucho, Amad, M Olise, R Hojlund, S Guirassy and E Wheatley/S Lacey

We sell the following; Casemiro(30m), Sancho(40m), Greenwood(35m), Eriksen(5m), DVB(5m), Hanibal (15m), F Pellistri(10m), A Fernandez(5m), Lindelof (15m), AWB(20m)
Release the following; A Martial, B Williams, R Varane, J Evans.

New players ; Frimpong, T Adernioyou, J C Todibo, J Branthwaite, J Neves, A Rabiot, M Olise and S Guirassy will cost about £275m plus Amrabat £290m gross if we sell well we get £160-170m net spend 120-130m and we improve exponentially with that squad plus we still have good pros like Maguire, Bruno, Martinez and Mctominay to guide the team.

Yeah so I agree we need squad depth, but 27-29 I think should be our sweet spot including a 3rd GK (With youth/loanees available for promotion/recall) if we have an outlier injury plagued season like this one.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with adding a few defenders IMO, I agree with you on that - Given Tosin could be a free, I think we should take a look at him. Branthwaite has looked very decent and is an imposing LCB (He's left footed yes?), I figured we'd be going for a starting RCB before we go in for a LCB? I know Lisandro has had injuries this season, but I think the expectation is that he'll play more minutes at LCB next season right - otherwise we need to consider just selling him too.

And listen I like McTom but I think we should sell while his stock is high, he's scored a solid 10 goals this season so we could certainly get some money for him if we sell now?

Joao Neves yeah he's a fantastic player in the making, I don't know how much he'll cost of course and I'd be happy with him in favour of the options I mentioned, 85M is a lot of money for 1 player tbf. Rabiot I'm not so sure of because of his apparent dressing room / off field issues? One reason I went for Varela / Zubi i.e. two very good options at CDM is to spread the risk (along with the other reasons I mentioned earlier) - I'm just not a fan of these really big money transfers at United because none of them have worked in the past. I know he played out of his skin yesterday but I'm personally not convinced we should keep Sofyan either, just not enough consistency from him to be a reliable no.2 CDM imo.

Frimpong is a good pick - so we'd essentially get Dalot to rotate with him at RB + get Dalot to play with Shaw at LB then in that setup? That could work.

Guirassy would be good but I'm not sure he'll accept being a second string player, which is why I went for some of those other options - I'm sure we'll find a decent backup ST option at some point.

I think we can both agree we need around 145-160M in sales from somewhere + around 130M of pledged funds, we just differ a little bit in terms of how we want to allocate those funds.

 

[Sandikan]

Usual routine where people think we'll be selling 150m worth of players and bringing in 300m.

No doubt it'll be much more underwhelming like usual.

 

[Woziak]

Usual routine where people think we'll be selling 150m worth of players and bringing in 300m.

No doubt it'll be much more underwhelming like usual.

I’d normally agree with you but I think SJR is a genuine United Fan look at his behaviour in the SF and Final he is nothing like the Glazers, this guy is a genuine fan with £25 billion, if he wants to, he can add even £100m it’s all about cash flow and that’s United biggest issue right now. Not FFP or PSR not with a £675m projected Revenue stream, 80% of that is still a £540m threshold on wages, agent. And transfers.

Remember the year after 25/26 the EPL is bring in their version of the Squad Ratio Rule with an anchor clause which will only allow 4.5/5 times the lowest teams broadcast revenue which could potentially be 4.5 * £107m = £481m.


This might potentially be the best and only summer the club could spend £300m without sanctions in the transfer window going forward, so if they are on the ball which O happen to think Financially Ineos are then this might be a shock one off transfer window, but I agree ok your principle.

 

[bosnian_red]

GK - Onana, altay and Heaton is good

RB - Dalot and wan Bissaka is perfect
RCB - new starter, keep 1 of Maguire or Lindelof, keep kambwala,
LCB - Martinez starter, rotate in Shaw, possibly keep Evans, bring in Tosin?
LB - Shaw starts, bring in new signing, Malacia to prove himself

Midfield - Bruno, Mainoo and a new DM to start. Mctominay, Mount and possibly sign Amrabat to be depth.

Wing - Garnacho and Rashford starters, Amad 3rd choice, Antony 4th choice, Forsun 5th choice. If we can sign Olise or Nico Williams, bring them in and get rid of Antony.

CF - sign Toney to compete with Hojlund and learn off each other.

Qualifying for the Europa League means we really need 2 11's, but of reliable players. This would be good. Adds 2 CB, 1 DM, 1 CF and a winger as a stretch if we can afford it depending on sales. But the first 4 players are musts.

 

[JohnyBuckets]

IN: Antonio Silva, Joao Neves, Archie Grey, Wharton, Backup Cf, some one cheap and experienced. (Alvaro Morata, Danny Welbeck)

Out: Maguire, McTominney, A. Wan Bissaka, Casemiro, Sancho, Greenwood, Pellistri, Erickson.

Onana
Dalot- Silva- Martinez- Shaw
Mainoo- J. Neves
Garnacho-Bruno- Rashford
Hojlund

going for young potential world class players. We arent challenging next year or probably year after so get some young guys in, bring in some guys from the academy. (Amass, Whitley) and start to shape the squad for when we possibily have a new manager in that suits the direction the new structure at the club dictates.

I would like to get Archie Grey as he can cover for right back and CM, Wharton would be expensive and Crystal palace might not sell but im sure he has a price. Would prioritize British signings since we would be letting lots of HG players out. I would give rashford one more season as his stock is probably really low and would be expensive to replace. We can play Garnacho on the left and amad, bruno or mount on the right in case his form doesnt recover.
I am not prioritizing our funds on a back up CF as there are many options for relatively cheap and we will probably keep experimenting with a false 9 and bringing Hojlund as a sub as he has been pretty effective in that role.

 

[Powderfinger]

I’d normally agree with you but I think SJR is a genuine United Fan look at his behaviour in the SF and Final he is nothing like the Glazers, this guy is a genuine fan with £25 billion, if he wants to, he can add even £100m it’s all about cash flow and that’s United biggest issue right now. Not FFP or PSR not with a £675m projected Revenue stream, 80% of that is still a £540m threshold on wages, agent. And transfers.

Remember the year after 25/26 the EPL is bring in their version of the Squad Ratio Rule with an anchor clause which will only allow 4.5/5 times the lowest teams broadcast revenue which could potentially be 4.5 * £107m = £481m.


This might potentially be the best and only summer the club could spend £300m without sanctions in the transfer window going forward, so if they are on the ball which O happen to think Financially Ineos are then this might be a shock one off transfer window, but I agree ok your principle.

Every responsibly run club will be looking not just at 24-25 finances and squad costs but projections and commitments for 25-26 and beyond. The key target for all big clubs is the 70% squad cost ratio that UEFA has imposed and that the PL is likely to mirror. The anchor clause may or may not become a reality but in the short term its not much different than the 70% target anyway. It'll be more important in the long term if/when those two things diverge.

Given that most big PL cubs cannot be absolutely confident year-to-year of getting CL revenues and that revenue from player sales is also highly variable from year to year, most clubs are going to end up with a strategy where they target a baseline spend number that is considerably less than 70% of the revenue they'd have in a year in which revenue included CL and selling lots of players. Then they can adjust spending to some degree the summer beforehand if revenues are looking good. But you can't lock yourself into a really high number.

In other words, I would not be expecting United to take on a lot of big contracts and fees just because they can spend up to 80% of revenue this year. They'll be targeting a much lower number so that they're positioned comfortably to play within the rules from 25-26 onward, whether or not they make CL in any given year.

 

[PeteManic]

All these FM styles ins and outs here.

Realistically the only outs will be out-of-contract players or the complicated situations with other players.

United will do well to get a a CB in and a CF in. I don't see any other business.

 

[Sandikan]

All these FM styles ins and outs here.

Realistically the only outs will be out-of-contract players or the complicated situations with other players.

United will do well to get a a CB in and a CF in. I don't see any other business.

It's the same every season, utterly wild lists of ins and outs.

Some seem to think we're going to somehow ship all of Eriksen, Casemiro, Amrabat and McTom off, and bring 3 mids in!
Not a chance in hell.

We've only been able to finally lose Martial because he's out of contract. Same with Varane or we'd have been paying him to go knowing us.
And that's not to mention how he was actually pretty good when fit.

People think Antony will be on his way. Maybe for an 70m loss!

 

[Hypnus]

All these FM styles ins and outs here.

Realistically the only outs will be out-of-contract players or the complicated situations with other players.

United will do well to get a a CB in and a CF in. I don't see any other business.

We're not Swindon Town, mate. You're not serious if you think we're going to get two players in during the summer window after INEOS has taken over.

We're definitely getting a centre midfielder in, there is just no way we're not getting one. Maybe a left back as well. I can see us getting 4 or 5 players very easily.

 

[Doracle]

It's the same every season, utterly wild lists of ins and outs.

Some seem to think we're going to somehow ship all of Eriksen, Casemiro, Amrabat and McTom off, and bring 3 mids in!
Not a chance in hell.

We've only been able to finally lose Martial because he's out of contract. Same with Varane or we'd have been paying him to go knowing us.
And that's not to mention how he was actually pretty good when fit.

People think Antony will be on his way. Maybe for an 70m loss!

Amrabat is a loan, so I don’t think he will be too hard to get off the books. Eriksen strikes me as a player who is likely to want to play regularly and Casemiro will surely have suitors from the Saudi league. I agree we won’t be getting rid of McT.

I see the likely business as being two CMs, 1 CB and 1 CF, possibly a LB as well.

 

[r0663664]

I think there is likely 4 ins and depending on how many we can sell then we will get more players. 1 CB (Varane), 1 LB backup, 1 MF (Either Eriksen or Casemiro will be gone) and 1 ST (Martial). If we manage to sell Sancho or Greenwood or Rashford then we will buy a winger. I don't think ETH trust Amad or Pellistri as a backup. If we sell AWB, we will buy Frimpong. If we move another few players, then we get 1 more CB and MF. That's likely what is going to happen. Hopefully our scouting has improved that they are able to get underated players with huge potential.