What do we still need? Aka The never ending story

gajender said:
You and your bizarre takes , existence of release clauses doesn't prevent clubs to negotiate payment structures or for that matter even transfer fees .
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Just fyi - agree with the observation, the amount of made up numbers in here is staggering. And some posters are certainly more creative than others. The reasoning behind some of those thoughts might be sound but with numbers added it will only end in a mixture of facts, half facts, conclusions, false conclusions and more and therefor add to the unproductive noise that benefits absolutely no one.
 
NZT-One said:
Just fyi - agree with the observation, the amount of made up numbers in here is staggering. And some posters are certainly more creative than others. The reasoning behind some of those thoughts might be sound but with numbers added it will only end in a mixture of facts, half facts, conclusions, false conclusions and more and therefor add to the unproductive noise that benefits absolutely no one.
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Kind of agree though it's all in good fun but some do have tendency to take themselves way too seriously and pass off their opinions as facts .
 
Woziak said:
I guarantee you that if we don’t have European Football next year we will not spend more than £150m let alone £250m and that will only be if we sell £100m worth of players. Our biggest issue is this, the club has budgeted 25/26 season and the following 3 seasons after that for Europa League Football which roughly gives you another £25-40m on your revenue including additional Matchday revenue.

The CL is more like £75-90m. Last years Revenue was £662m and the club lost over £100m, that was with only 6 CL group matches.

This year Revenue will reduce to nearer £630-640m, wages have also reduced but cash is drying up. We currently have less than £100m (£95.5m) as a working cashflow, after SJR investment of $300m.

I completely agree with your analysis of being able to increase our transfer budget by reducing the wage bill, if we remove the 4 biggest earners of Casemiro, Rashford, Sancho and Antony you save £1.1m per year which is £58m in wages, replace those 4 players with 4/5 players who earn £600k per week combined and you save £25m which could be used in transfers in the summer but you will not see the cash benefit until 25/26 season.

The other benefit of not being in Europe means we are not governed by UEFA SRR (Squad Ratio Rule) where only 70% of revenue can be spent on wages, Agent and net transfer fee. So we agree United don’t really have any PSR issues however they have huge cashflow issues.

The £95.5m reported in December 2024, is now reduced just by the £25.2m the club paid upfront for Patrick Dorgu, no instalments up front payment. We did not get any loan payments for Rashford, Antony, and Sancho but we may have saved approximately £15-18m in their wages which will free up cash for the club. Most of the cut backs like Sir Alex salary being cut and all the other cutbacks rumoured to be anything from £40-£65m for this year including playing staff. Let’s say £50m for the purpose of this exercise.

The simple reality is that if your using less cash to pay for a reduced bloated employees whether they are footballers, accountants, chefs, IT staff you will have more cash available in the summer, we might have £100-120m of cash available for transfers, however the club might want to hold some of that cash back for the winter transfers

I agree the club will also be getting transfer residual payments in for players like Greenwood, McTominay and others also coming in however at most £20/25m against £93m we owe.

So £70m of that money will be allocated for those players that SJR was quite right, he never bought them but has to pay. That leaves maybe £50m available!
Let’s assume we sell Sancho for £25m and it’s paid upfront, now we have £75m . Rashford and Antony sell for a combined £60m however with instalments of £15m per year for 4 years that now means we have £90m and other smaller transfers generate cash of £10m so the club maybe has £100m of working cash. They will not spend all of that but at most £75-80m and that buys you £150m of players not £250m!

If you buy 5/6 players for £150m then the Upfront Agent fees and signing on fees alone will be £20-25m.

Then you have to actually agree that you can buy all the players on a 3/4 year payment plans which would cost £40/50m of cash this summer as initial first payments for all the new players.

The financial situation of the club is already incredibly perilous without even considering the true financial Implications of paying off ETH and his staff plus Dan Ashworth, both of these are reported to be a combined fee of £14.4m, now some of that expenditure will be moved into 25/26 accounts, maybe even half of the figure.

If that’s not enough to worry about add on the buying out Ruben Amorim and his coaching staff’s contracts for another €11m(£9.25m) which would have been paid in December 24 or January 25 and will definitely go into this years accounts.

Now you see why player sales are so critical and why United want at least one main young player’s sale to be done early in the window and to be paid upfront. I’m convinced either Garnaucho or Mainoo will go for £60/70m providing the buying club pay the payment upfront, if not they will sell Hojlund, Onana and a host of academy players like Wheatley, Amass, Gore and many more.
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Kieran Maguire, the University of Liverpool’s football finance guru, pointed out United had forecast a profit of up to £160 million this season when it came to EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation).

Branding Ratcliffe’s comments “very disingenuous”, he said: “If you go to Manchester United Investor Relations, you’ll see this prediction of the upper end of £140 million-£160 million of EBITDA profit for the financial year 2024-25. So, that would indicate that they’re probably not too worried about a cash-flow issue.”

Which is reflected in the clubs own statement https://ir.manutd.com/~/media/Files...nchester-united-plc 2q25-earnings-release.pdf

160 mill profit. Plus 100 cash in the bank. Plus at least 100 mill in sales. 360 mill minimum.
Spend 250 on players amortized over 5 years is 50 mill a year. 310 mill left.

Im no finance expert obviously. How am I reading this incorrectly?
 
Steve 007 said:
Let’s just focus on Zirkzee. He’s overall been incredibly poor. The sub before half time could have broken him. At 23 (he’s not 24 ) that’s still young. We know foreign players can struggle to settle in the PL and it often takes two years. Sometimes players can look not up to it and prove everyone wrong. They need resilience and that’s what he does have. Remember Mourinho sold De Bruyne (22) and Salah (24) abroad. Zirkzee might not be setting the world alight but he’s improving and to say he isn’t young is unfair. He’s had a couple of great matches and has shown us all there’s talent and determination.
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This foreign players takes 2 years thing is a load of tosh. Apart from a couple of exceptions, top quality players have shown it by Christmas in their first season. Not 2 years. You can go ahead and name some but these are, exceptions.
How many foreign players have played 40+ games (like Zirkzee) and looked this poor and gone on to become great players? Certainly at the age of 23 (24 in 8 weeks). That age isn’t a kid. He won’t improve significantly and his lack of pace, strength and technical ability will always be an issue.

De Bruyne and Salah had played a total of 16 prem games between them at Chelsea under a manager known for not giving opportunities to younger players. If those 2 players had played as often as Zirkzee has, they would have shown a lot more than him.

In an era where we’ve let managers and players stay far far far too long. It’s time to stop allowing players free passes when we know they aren’t good enough, in a hope they will be.
We’ve fallen so far from our old standards that Seba Veron - who played 82 games across 2 seasons and won the league with us and is regarded as one of the worst signings in our history.
By your metric of it takes a player 2 years to settle, he played not enough games nor had enough time in your eyes….

Zirkzee is crap and we will never win anything meaningful with him as a starter my opinion but I’m sure of it.
 
UpWithRivers said:
Kieran Maguire, the University of Liverpool’s football finance guru, pointed out United had forecast a profit of up to £160 million this season when it came to EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation).

Branding Ratcliffe’s comments “very disingenuous”, he said: “If you go to Manchester United Investor Relations, you’ll see this prediction of the upper end of £140 million-£160 million of EBITDA profit for the financial year 2024-25. So, that would indicate that they’re probably not too worried about a cash-flow issue.”

Which is reflected in the clubs own statement https://ir.manutd.com/~/media/Files/M/Manutd-IR/Governance Document/manchester-united-plc 2q25-earnings-release.pdf

160 mill profit. Plus 100 cash in the bank. Plus at least 100 mill in sales. 360 mill minimum.
Spend 250 on players amortized over 5 years is 50 mill a year. 310 mill left.

Im no finance expert obviously. How am I reading this incorrectly?
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EBITDA is not profit. It is Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, Amortisation. I.e. simply revenue less operating + staff costs.

United are currently paying £35m+ in interest every year and £200m+ in player amortisation. Deduct those from that £160m and you'll quickly see they are then running at a heavy operating loss year-on-year. Add in the depreciation which is about £16m a year, the exceptional items costs with all the redundancies, sacking ETH, hiring Amorim, hiring & firing Dan Ashworth and offset with the player sales profit and they're probably going to make a loss of around £100m this year.

The point Maguire and others make about EBITDA is that United are still a huge club in terms of their ability to generate revenue. But they are losing significant amounts of money every year because they are paying heavy interest on a £1 billion debt + have spent hundreds of millions on players (with little return) over the last few years. If they can get certain areas under control there's no reason long-term they can't still be extremely profitable especially if there's a shiny new stadium on the way, but make no mistake they are in a pretty dire financial situation right now and cannot spend - at least without significant player sales - anywhere close to the £250m amount you've mentioned.
 
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If our books are as bad as what being said then,
Outs
End of contract
Lindelof, Eriksen & Evens

Big wages
Rashford (40m), Sancho (25m), Antony (30m), Casemiro (15m)

High Value assets (not players to go out of our way to sell but if a club came in with the right offer I don’t think Ineos/ SJR will reject)
Garnacho (50m)
Mainoo (60m)
Fernandes (90m) (controversial but I don’t think the club will reject an offer that size for a 30 year old, I would be more than happy if Bruno stays)

Total 110-310

Ins, if it’s the lower end
J David (Free)
Gomes (Free)
Delap (40m)
Roger Fernandes (20m)
Huijsen (50m)

Higher end
J David (Free)
Gomes (Free)
Cunha (62m)/ Cherki
Oshimen (63m)/ Gyokeres (60m)
Ederson
Schlotterbeck
Frimpong
 
paulscholes18 said:
If our books are as bad as what being said then,
Outs
End of contract
Lindelof, Eriksen & Evens

Big wages
Rashford (40m), Sancho (25m), Antony (30m), Casemiro (15m)

High Value assets (not players to go out of our way to sell but if a club came in with the right offer I don’t think Ineos/ SJR will reject)
Garnacho (50m)
Mainoo (60m)
Fernandes (90m) (controversial but I don’t think the club will reject an offer that size for a 30 year old, I would be more than happy if Bruno stays)

Total 110-310

Ins, if it’s the lower end
J David (Free)
Gomes (Free)
Delap (40m)
Roger Fernandes (20m)
Huijsen (50m)

Higher end
J David (Free)
Gomes (Free)
Cunha (62m)/ Cherki
Oshimen (63m)/ Gyokeres (60m)
Ederson
Schlotterbeck
Frimpong
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I'm be amazed if we got anything for Casemiro, just getting his salary off the books without us having to contribute would be an achievement in itself.

Was it not suggested that Antony's wages were circa £105k per week i.e. not massive?

I do think if a good offer comes in it would be best to sell Garnacho. No way on earth would anyone offer £90m for Fernandes, if they did we should bite their hand off.
 
DannyCAFC said:
EBITDA is not profit. It is Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, Amortisation. I.e. simply revenue less operating + staff costs.

United are currently paying £35m+ in interest every year and £200m+ in player amortisation. Deduct those from that £160m and you'll quickly see they are then running at a heavy operating loss year-on-year. Add in the depreciation which is about £16m a year, the exceptional items costs with all the redundancies, sacking ETH, hiring Amorim, hiring & firing Dan Ashworth and offset with the player sales profit and they're probably going to make a loss of around £100m this year.

The point Maguire and others make about EBITDA is that United are still a huge club in terms of their ability to generate revenue. But they are losing significant amounts of money every year because they are paying heavy interest on a £1 billion debt + have spent hundreds of millions on players (with little return) over the last few years. If they can get certain areas under control there's no reason long-term they can't still be extremely profitable especially if there's a shiny new stadium on the way, but make no mistake they are in a pretty dire financial situation right now and cannot spend - at least without significant player sales - anywhere close to the £250m amount you've mentioned.
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The point is the club is super profitable before you factor in transfers, so all this worry about bankruptcy is misplaced. We can decide how much to spend on transfers moving forward. It may be a bit less than the best, but the operations of the club are easily profitable. And the interest is mostly irrelevant, as it's just our owners paying themselves.

I would bet we have another £100M or so in net transfer spend this off-season.
 
bb8 said:
The point is the club is super profitable before you factor in transfers, so all this worry about bankruptcy is misplaced. We can decide how much to spend on transfers moving forward. It may be a bit less than the best, but the operations of the club are easily profitable. And the interest is mostly irrelevant, as it's just our owners paying themselves.

I would bet we have another £100M or so in net transfer spend this off-season.
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The interest is paid to the banks and other lenders. Not to the owners.

I do think we will have some money to spend owing to sales and wage reduction which we have achieved over last 1-2 seasons. But the financial situation is pretty bad (if not catastrophic).
 
Considering where we are with funds I have tried to come up with a list that wouldn't command a lot of wages and/or cost:

Samu Aghehowa, 20 (Striker, Big, strong, focal point up front, Drogba-esque, only player that will command a lot of cash)
Cherki, 21 (AM, Incredible skill and trickery, will bring a lot of entertainment)
Jobe Bellingham, 19 (B2B, Well rounded, physical and hard working)
Frimpong, 24 (RWB, Absolutely rapid attacking wingback, release clause)
Huijsen, 19 (CB, Giant, well rounded, great passing from the back)
Trafford, 22 (GK, Mountain of a GK, future England #1)
 
Happy Head said:
I'm be amazed if we got anything for Casemiro, just getting his salary off the books without us having to contribute would be an achievement in itself.

Was it not suggested that Antony's wages were circa £105k per week i.e. not massive?

I do think if a good offer comes in it would be best to sell Garnacho. No way on earth would anyone offer £90m for Fernandes, if they did we should bite their hand off.
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I thought Antony was on 180-200k
 
Legendary said:
Considering where we are with funds I have tried to come up with a list that wouldn't command a lot of wages and/or cost:

Samu Aghehowa, 20 (Striker, Big, strong, focal point up front, Drogba-esque, only player that will command a lot of cash)
Cherki, 21 (AM, Incredible skill and trickery, will bring a lot of entertainment)
Jobe Bellingham, 19 (B2B, Well rounded, physical and hard working)
Frimpong, 24 (RWB, Absolutely rapid attacking wingback, release clause)
Huijsen, 19 (CB, Giant, well rounded, great passing from the back)
Trafford, 22 (GK, Mountain of a GK, future England #1)
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Good list, but Huijsen will cost a lot. Can see Liverpool interested.
 
Legendary said:
Considering where we are with funds I have tried to come up with a list that wouldn't command a lot of wages and/or cost:

Samu Aghehowa, 20 (Striker, Big, strong, focal point up front, Drogba-esque, only player that will command a lot of cash)
Cherki, 21 (AM, Incredible skill and trickery, will bring a lot of entertainment)
Jobe Bellingham, 19 (B2B, Well rounded, physical and hard working)
Frimpong, 24 (RWB, Absolutely rapid attacking wingback, release clause)
Huijsen, 19 (CB, Giant, well rounded, great passing from the back)
Trafford, 22 (GK, Mountain of a GK, future England #1)
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Samu Aghehowa - I don’t think we need yet another young striker
Cherki - the biggest criticism with him is he isn’t dynamic enough. I think we need heavy pressers at 10
Jobe - sets us up for the future when Jude wants to return to England.
 
macheda14 said:
Samu Aghehowa - I don’t think we need yet another young striker
Cherki - the biggest criticism with him is he isn’t dynamic enough. I think we need heavy pressers at 10
Jobe - sets us up for the future when Jude wants to return to England.
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While I agree that another young striker is a risk, I think Samu is the complete package, he already has 20g and 5a in 34apps this season, and he is a physical beast that bullies defenders for fun.
Cherki is a wildcard, but if we surround him with intense physical players, his skill and trickery can help unlock defences, plus he wouldn't cost much.


Cathy Ferguson said:
Good list, but Huijsen will cost a lot. Can see Liverpool interested.
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Doesn't he have a release clause? Of course if Liverpool is interested he'd be hard to bag, but it's worth a shot anyway, I'd assume his wages would be low.
 
bb8 said:
The point is the club is super profitable before you factor in transfers, so all this worry about bankruptcy is misplaced. We can decide how much to spend on transfers moving forward. It may be a bit less than the best, but the operations of the club are easily profitable. And the interest is mostly irrelevant, as it's just our owners paying themselves.

I would bet we have another £100M or so in net transfer spend this off-season.
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Erm, what? Where has this idea come from? :lol:
 
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Legendary said:
While I agree that another young striker is a risk, I think Samu is the complete package, he already has 20g and 5a in 34apps this season, and he is a physical beast that bullies defenders for fun.
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He scored 2 goals in 2025. And he's not much more than a poacher, right now.
 
Frimpong again with a goal and assist for the winning goal against Stuttgart. He's obviously the best RWB around and would only make sense to target him.
 
NZT-One said:
Just fyi - agree with the observation, the amount of made up numbers in here is staggering. And some posters are certainly more creative than others. The reasoning behind some of those thoughts might be sound but with numbers added it will only end in a mixture of facts, half facts, conclusions, false conclusions and more and therefor add to the unproductive noise that benefits absolutely no one.
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Happy Head said:
I'm be amazed if we got anything for Casemiro, just getting his salary off the books without us having to contribute would be an achievement in itself.

Was it not suggested that Antony's wages were circa £105k per week i.e. not massive?

I do think if a good offer comes in it would be best to sell Garnacho. No way on earth would anyone offer £90m for Fernandes, if they did we should bite their hand off.
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The Saudis are stupid enough to offer £90-100m for Bruno but he won’t go as he genuinely wants to win with United and the fans should get behind him and just let him have a couple of years as the elder statesman in a young physical United side.
 
Happy Head said:
I think the thread where it confirmed his loan there was a tweet saying something like Betis were paying 84% of his wages, so definitely not anywhere near 200k per week
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Yep there’s no way they could afford that, the £200k could be CL wages however and he may have a 25% reduction clause which means this year he is paid £150,00 and 84% of that is £126,000.

I think even that is probably to much for Betis as that still equates to £2.5m or €3m contract from when he signed to the end of the season, obviously United did not receive a loan payment but even that seems far too high for Betis who are now 6th in La Liga and they’ve won their last 5 league games out of 5.

It’s important to maybe note that 5 teams in Spain like England might get CL football and Betis have a genuine chance under Pelligrini, they’ve only finished 5th once in the last 8 or 9 years and normally occupy 6th to 10th in la liga. I’m sure the club put a huge bonus in Antony contract to Betis for CL qualification as this would be huge for Betis.
 
Fabrizio Romano just posted this:

Jeremie Frimpong remains one to watch in the summer. The Dutch fullback could LEAVE Leverkusen in the summer with many clubs interested. The release clause in his contract is worth a fee of around £34M. [@FabrizioRomano]

Frimpong is 24 years old su he suits the INEOS transfer policy, has the quality and the international experience needed and is one of the best RWB-s in football. He ticks all the boxes.
 
Legendary said:
Considering where we are with funds I have tried to come up with a list that wouldn't command a lot of wages and/or cost:

Samu Aghehowa, 20 (Striker, Big, strong, focal point up front, Drogba-esque, only player that will command a lot of cash)
Cherki, 21 (AM, Incredible skill and trickery, will bring a lot of entertainment)
Jobe Bellingham, 19 (B2B, Well rounded, physical and hard working)
Frimpong, 24 (RWB, Absolutely rapid attacking wingback, release clause)
Huijsen, 19 (CB, Giant, well rounded, great passing from the back)
Trafford, 22 (GK, Mountain of a GK, future England #1)
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Probably looking at around £250m for that lot.
 
Sentence said:
He scored 2 goals in 2025. And he's not much more than a poacher, right now.
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Just checked and you're correct, only 2 goals and 1 assist in 2025. So maybe let him cook for another season at Porto.


Remember the geese said:
Probably looking at around £250m for that lot.
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For six players thats around £41m per player, but I don't think it would be £250m, anyway remove Samu who apparently isn't having a good 2025 so far and it's a lot less.
Six players in is a big ask as well, I'd be happy with 4 of them.
 
Legendary said:
For six players thats around £41m per player, but I don't think it would be £250m, anyway remove Samu who apparently isn't having a good 2025 so far and it's a lot less.
Six players in is a big ask as well, I'd be happy with 4 of them.
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I think Samu would cost around £80m maybe. Signing Gyökeres or Osimhen instead, would likely knock £15-20m off of that.

I feel that we potential could do with 5 or 6 players.

1x GK
1x RWB
1x CB
1x CM
1x 10
1x CF

Some of those positions aren't as pressing as other areas. For example, Maguire will be staying one more year, so another centre back could potentially wait. Although I'm led to believe that we are analysing a couple of young defenders. The RWB slot is open to interpretation. We either sign one, or we use Amad there and look to promote Kamason/Mantato. The number 10 position is up for debate too. Depending on where we choose to deploy Amad/Bruno, it may not be a massive priority.
 
Frimpong is a very good player but if United are going to sign him they have to work him into a similar system that Leverkusen play where they push him high up the pitch in the first phase build-up and don't rely on the WB's to build-up play like they are currently doing as I think this is a weakness in his game.

In fairness I think this will happen naturally as it is also how Amorim played at Sporting, using the back three + GK and 2 central midfielders to build-up and only looking to move the ball out wide once they were further up the pitch to negate these players being isolated against a high-press. But as they are currently playing where we're often seeing these WB's receive the ball in or around their defensive third from the CB's, he would IMO get exposed for his limitations in possession on build-up.

There's also the defensive concerns given his lack of height and stature. Again if they can cover for that he'll be a real weapon going forward, but the system needs to be established and working before they can drop a player like him into it IMO as he's a bit of a luxury player. As things stand, I wouldn't bet on him succeeding in his current United setup until they can get that right and have him fulfil that quite niche role that he is very good at rather than a more standardised one.
 
G97 said:
This foreign players takes 2 years thing is a load of tosh. Apart from a couple of exceptions, top quality players have shown it by Christmas in their first season. Not 2 years. You can go ahead and name some but these are, exceptions.
How many foreign players have played 40+ games (like Zirkzee) and looked this poor and gone on to become great players? Certainly at the age of 23 (24 in 8 weeks). That age isn’t a kid. He won’t improve significantly and his lack of pace, strength and technical ability will always be an issue.

De Bruyne and Salah had played a total of 16 prem games between them at Chelsea under a manager known for not giving opportunities to younger players. If those 2 players had played as often as Zirkzee has, they would have shown a lot more than him.

In an era where we’ve let managers and players stay far far far too long. It’s time to stop allowing players free passes when we know they aren’t good enough, in a hope they will be.
We’ve fallen so far from our old standards that Seba Veron - who played 82 games across 2 seasons and won the league with us and is regarded as one of the worst signings in our history.
By your metric of it takes a player 2 years to settle, he played not enough games nor had enough time in your eyes….

Zirkzee is crap and we will never win anything meaningful with him as a starter my opinion but I’m sure of it.
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Rosicky looked a different player in season 2 when he joined arsenal
 
Frimpong would be a dream signing for Amorim's system but I think we'd have a hard time convincing him to come given we're unlikely to have Champions League football to offer anyone.

Could be yet another instance in which we have to offer inflated wages to convince a player to join us.
 
Todd said:
Frimpong would be a dream signing for Amorim's system but I think we'd have a hard time convincing him to come given we're unlikely to have Champions League football to offer anyone.

Could be yet another instance in which we have to offer inflated wages to convince a player to join us.
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I reckon he will join Liverpool if they lose Trent . But agree absolutely perfect signing for RWB. Him and Dorgu would be some upgrade on what we have had this season. Plenty of pace either side. I. think Amorim will definitely be prioritising another wing back this summer . Big part of making his system work. Dalot and Maz both far more comfortable playing RB in a back 4. Only hope we have of signing Frimpong is if we win the Europa league. He will definitely be wanted by champions league clubs.
 
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I've watched next to no academy football this year as life has been in the way. Those who watch regularly - is there anybody (aside from lads already making squads) who looks like they could stake a claim for real first team minutes next season?
 
The-Mezzala said:
I reckon he will join Liverpool if they lose Trent . But agree absolutely perfect signing for RWB. Him and Dorgu would be some upgrade on what we have had this season. Plenty of pace either side. I. think Amorim will definitely be prioritising another wing back this summer . Big part of making his system work. Dalot and Maz both far more comfortable playing RB in a back 4. Only hope we have of signing Frimpong is if we win the Europa league. He will definitely be wanted by champions league clubs.
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Would be mistake for both sides. He surely can play classic RB, but it takes away all of his strengths while exposing his weaknesses.
 
If Frimpong is available for £34 million then it’s a no brainer and I think any of Gyokeres, Osimhen or Samu as the centre forward signing works, I think a centre forward will be the big money signing this summer.

We do need a keeper and an attacking midfielder but that’ll all depend on if we’re able to move Onana, Lindelof, Evans, Malacia, Shaw, Casemiro, Eriksen, Antony, Sancho and Rashford all on as between the money saved on wages and fees coming in that would be massive for us.

I’d be all for promoting Kukonki, Kone and Biancheri alongside Amass, Heaven and Obi to pack the squad out but someone like James Trafford to replace Onana is a good shout whilst someone like Gibbs-White would be a good option as the attacking midfielder.
 
Jeremie Frimpong, Hugo Larsson and Victor Osimhen. If we win the UEL and can get these 3, they'll massively improve us.
 
Cathy Ferguson said:
Joao Pedro: PL proven and only 23. Should be our top target if Brighton sell at 65m, which they might not.
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Is a strike rate of 0.31 goals per game Prem proven? It’s a worse rate than Bruno’s, whilst playing in a better team…
 
golden_blunder said:
Roger Fernandes
Matteus Fernandez
Cherki
Osimhen (if we can afford it)

In an ideal world I would love Vitinha but PSG have him wrapped up
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Pretty much this. Striker and RWB are the top priorities position wise. CAM is probably 4th priority for me but Cherki may be #1 on my wishlist - he’s absolutely fantastic and the reported price is too good to pass up. CM is the third priority IMO. Fernandez should be a good budget option at CM with Southampton going down, but would like to see us go for one of the young English midfielders from the Championship (Jobe, Rigg or Hackney).
 
simonhch said:
5 players: A CB, a CM, a LWB, an AM, and a Striker.
Players: Branthwaite, Ederson, Alt-Nouri, Cunha, Osimhen.
Explanation below: (long as feck).

(a) The Young Players:
The fanbase is so quick to criticise many of our players and want to rip this squad to shreds, but the truth is that the squad is down to the bare bones now, between injuries and outgoings. Most of the players that come in for heavy criticism are pretty young. People state their "problems" as though they are permanent issues, rather than just be flaws in the games of players who are still developing. Lets quickly look at the young talent in this squad that is already ready to make a big contribution, and have significant scope to improve:

Heaven (18), Yoro (19), Dorgu (20), Mainoo (19), Collyer (21), Hojlund (22), Zirkzee (23), Amad (22), Garnacho (20), and Ugarte (23).

That is a really fantastic group of young players, all of whom should end up playing significant parts in this squad for years to come. Some, such as Yoro, Dorgu, Mainoo, Amad and Garnacho, could become some of the best players in the league in their positions. Heaven looks a really exciting prospect, although it's too early to tell, Collyer has reliable squad player written all over him. Zirkzee is a real x-factor, as he could quickly become great, or he might amount to just being a decent squad player (I love his skill set and attitude). Hojlund has a lot of tools but is still raw and needs another season or so before we really judge, and Ugarte looks really strong all round. Not sure if he'll be undisputed first choice, but he has a lot of tools and will be an important player. Whatever your opinion on each of them, the specific don't matter too much at this stage, they are all young - and in several cases VERY young, and they should be allowed time to develop and mature accordingly. It's pretty crazy to be relying on players this young to deliver week in, week out.

(b) The Prime Players. Standard Bearers.....
So this next block of our squad, players in their prime years who should carry the responsibility, and help bring the young stars along, and help this develop into a willing team, are the following:

Mazraoui (27), De Ligt (25), Martinez (27), Dalot (25), Shaw (29), Mount (26), Fernandes (30), Rashford (27), Antony (25), Sancho (24).

This block of players in their prime are supposed to be the standard by which the rest of the squad is set. They are the benchmark. The level young players aspire to get to. The players that drive our biggest results and performances. Very, very quickly we can see that this is our problem right here. Of this list, only Mazraoui, De Ligt, Dalot and Fernandes, 4 of 10 players in their prime, are either fit or even at the club. And with the greatest respect to Mazraoui and Dalot, they are two players who I consider to be good, and very important squad players; but not two players which are going to be torchbearers for incredibly high performance levels. Their attitudes and contributions are first rate, but in an ideal world they would be rotational squad players. De Ligt is still finding his feet, but emerging as a genuine leader of the team and top level performer, and Bruno is well Bruno.....everything that is still great about this club. He is THE standard. Really the only one.

Martinez, Shaw and Mount are permanently injured. Rashford, Sancho and Antony are all out on loan.

It therefore is VERY clear to me that this summer, while we will I am sure bring in one or two players 23 or under, to continue to focus on developing stars (rather than buying them), that the club simply has to invest in 2-3 players in or entering their prime, who can really raise the standard of the whole team and perform immediately. We simply cannot fairly rely on a team of kids without any experienced leaders and performers in it, except for De Ligt (who is new too), and Bruno. That's the heart of the malaise here.

(c) The (not so) Golden Oldies.....
Of course we have other, older players who all need to move on in all probability. Casemiro, Eriksen, Evans, Maguire, and Lindelof. Players commanding too much in wages for the relative value of their performances. But the loss of their experience will certainly have to be replaced by players in that 24-27 age bracket.

With all that said, what would I like to see, and why?

I am going to assume that all of the following will leave this summer: Lindelof, Malacia, Maguire, Evans, Eriksen, Casemiro, Rashford, Antony, and Sancho. That's 9 first team players. In all probability we should likely add Shaw and Mount to that list. But I think they will be kept for (a) their versatility, (b) difficulty in shifting them on their wages and injury records, and (c) their homegrown status. However, if all those players go out, we will presumably have a decent amount to spend. In that case I would want to see:

1. A versatile, modern centre-back, who is physically imposing. I would rather sign one very good CB, than two average ones. My outstanding candidate for this role is Jarrad Branthwaite. I like that he is PL proven, I like that he is extremely two footed and can play all along the back line, I like he is physically imposing and good on the ball, and I like that he brings good recovery pace to our options. He's on the young side, but already has a lot of top level experience. Can see him costing 60m or so, but at 22 and one of the outstanding english defensive talents out there, I think it'd be an excellent investment. For me, we would then have Yoro, De Ligt and Branthwaite as three outstanding CBs, along with Heaven as a huge prospect, Mazraoui as a very capable deputy, Martinez as a great leader (but no longer first choice), and maybe one month a year....Shaw.

2. We need a mobile, physically durable, tireless, and technical midfielder. No small order there. The player that ticks all the boxes for me, is Ederson from Atalanta. At 25 years old he is player in the prime of his career, with tons of experience and his best years ahead of him. He ticks every box on the profile sheet. He great and breaking up play, runs endlessly, is great carrying the ball, and is technical and a threat going forwards when he wants to be. He would be a perfect partner to Ugarte while Mainoo develops and is third choice and rotation for the role. Imagine he would cost around 50m, but be a superb signing for us.

3. We need another wingback. Someone physically robust, energetic, with pace, who can get up and down the flank. I would preferably like a left footer. On the left we have Dorgu. On the right next season, I think we should play Amad. The combination of Dorgu and Amad in the wide positions is mouth watering to me. Both very different, but both capable of running from deep with the ball and moving us up the field. Both with considerable threat going forwards, in different ways. Amad is superb receiving the ball under pressure and would be essential in the build up phase. If Amad is out, you resort to Dalot. A natural right footer on the right, it's a different option. More defensively robust, but still a solid option going forwards. Dalot is much better on the right than on the left. On the left, after Dorgu, we have no one. Unless it Dalot, and I already covered that. You could saw Shaw....never fit, or Mazraoui (I now see him as a CB in our system), so we need a left wingback, otherwise Dorgu will have to play 65 games. Milos Kerkez is a name I was talking about a year ago, and seems to be coming back into vogue. He's a player I like very much. And seeing as Dorgu is likely first choice, I am not sure it is necessary to buy an experienced understudy here. Kerkez has the quality to compete with Dorgu. One can also look at players like Theo Hernandez, Balde, Nuno Mendes, but these all seem unattainable to me, so the other serious option would probably be Rayan Alt-Nouri, who is almost unbelievably still only 23 and ticks all the boxes.

4. Lets be frank, we simply need a goalscoring striker. Bruno is our main source of goals. Next season I imagine we'll see him mostly as a 10, but also playing plenty of games as a CM. In fact I wouldn't be surprised to see us go into the season with Ugarte, Ederson, Mainoo, Bruno, and Collyer as our first choice CMs, with the numbers supplemented with players from the academy (maybe Kone?). But even if we sign a second CM and Bruno is purely a 10, there just aren't enough goals in this team. We lack that killer instinct. We have some terrific approach players, in Bruno, Zirkzee, Garnacho, and maybe even Mount....we also have Amad who we can play there (but I see as being our RWB), but our only true striker is Hojlund. And all due respect to Rasmus but he is too young and too raw to take on that mantle at United just yet. The pressure is making him wilt. Even in one striker systems, you need to have two reliable strikers. So, we are looking for movement, pace, willingness to make the runs in behind, and above all....a killer instinct. A natural goalscorer. The outstanding candidate is surely Victor Osimhen. He's 26, scores goals for fun. Bags of pace. A real threat in behind. A striker in his prime years, with most of his best ones ahead of him, and available for what is a comparatively reasonable fee. Other candidates? Lautaro Martinez (too expensive), Gyokeres (just not sure about him at the highest level, especially for the price), or maybe someone with a slightly lesser profile in Victor Boniface. But my money is on Osimhen.


5. Okay, so is that it? No....We are one player light at the least. We either need to sign another CM and leave Bruno to play AM full time, or sign another AM and let Bruno be an option for both roles. My money is on the latter, because I think Bruno will naturally go further back the pitch anyway as he gets older. So another AM it is. Something I think is necessary especially if we play Amad RWB. Well, the player I want is Matheus Cunha. Pace, Power, Dribbling, the full package really. Not a prolific scorer, but a consummate team player and really brings absolutely everything we lack. If we couldn't get him, it gets a bit dicier. I wouldn't be averse to a Dibbling for a reasonable fee. He doesn't come straight into the team but he does add something new, and is a bright English talent.


"Just" five signings, but signings that I think would transform this team and squad. Supplement it with a couple of under the radar gems for cheap fees, and a couple from the academy, and I suddenly start feeling good about next season:

Onana/Bayindir

Yoro, De Ligt, Branthwaite / Mazraoui, Heaven, Martinez, / Shaw

Amad, Ederson, Ugarte, Dorgu / Dalot, Bruno, Mainoo, Alt-Nouri / Collyer, Amass

Cunha, Bruno / Garnacho, Zirkzee / Mount

Osimhen / Hojlund / Obi​

Out: Evans, Malacia, Maguire, Lindelof, Eriksen, Casemiro, Rashford, Antony, Sancho.
In: Branthwaite, Ederson, Alt-Nouri, Cunha, Osimhen

This squad has pace, power, technical ability, stamina, phsyicality, height. All positions are well covered. It's balanced. And I think it would be ultra competitive in every game. The would be a dangerous team going forwards, but very resilient in defence. The age profile on that squad is unbelievably good.

If you look at the numbers, what it would cost to bring those players in, versus what we can get for the players we sell, and the savings on wages for some of the highest earners - plus how report profits to PSR on sales vs acquisitions being amortised.....it's easily doable financially. My final point is that I would much, much, much rather sign the right five players, then make the budget go further and sign 7-8 players. That just doesn't work. Too much gambling and half measures. Every single one of the signings I've suggested is there or thereabouts the best player we can get for each position, that isn't completely unrealistic. They are all also young. The oldest is Osimhen at 26.
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Very good write, it's what I was thinking to last to put together. That's a 25 man squad with very good depth. We would probably get some disgruntled players, due to a lack of playing time, but it's also the kind of depth you want, to drive competition.

Pretty sure Maguire's contract has just been extended by a year, in all likelihood, he'll stay.
Casemiro will still be hard to shift. He's got about 15 million euros left on his amortised cost, only Saudi is paying that plus his wages, and they don't seem keen thus far.

Lastly, there's the cash flow problem. Selling Rashford and Sancho should net us £95m in wages and salary but we still need much more, to bring in those players. Winning the Europa league could end up being the great enabler.
If we dont win they maybe bring in cheaper substitutes for a couple of those players.
 
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