What would be the perfect Transfer Window for our rebuild?

amolbhatia50k said:
The worry is that City and Liverpool are already making their big moves in Haaland and Tchouameni while we are not just playing catch up on the pitch but this summer too. Nothing new I guess
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Forget about them. We are far off. As long as we get ourselves back on track first, we can worry about catching up to them in a couple of years as that isn't our competition right now.

There's always other quality players out there and more ways to catch up. For now we just have to worry about ourselves and growing however we can, and then when we're close, then start worrying about them. That's the reality of the situation.
 
bosnian_red said:
Forget about them. We are far off. As long as we get ourselves back on track first, we can worry about catching up to them in a couple of years as that isn't our competition right now.

There's always other quality players out there and more ways to catch up. For now we just have to worry about ourselves and growing however we can, and then when we're close, then start worrying about them. That's the reality of the situation.
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You're right. To be honest City's spending doesn't bother me. But we have to try and reduce the gap with Liverpool. They did it with City after all so it's possible if you act intelligently and quickly. But I worry that we struggle with that. Basically you don't want a situation where we are spending 50 million on decent CMs while Liverpool bag one of the best talents for 30.

Either way you're right. It's important we get a proper playstyle ingrained and transfers that fit even if they are a level below what our rivals go for.
 
2 DM/CM - 60-80m (to replace Pogba/Matic)
1 CB - 20-30m (to replace Jones/Bailly)
1 LB - 20m (to replace Telles)
1 RB - 20m (to replace AWB)
1 FW - 40-60m (to replace Greenwood/Martial/Cavani)

Spending - 160-210m

Players sales - 10-60m (any from AWB 25m, Telles 10m, Martial 15m, Bailly 10m, depends on any takers)

Net spending ~150m

Well since we have no CL football, nor will be competing for any trophies in near future, I can understand there could be chance we may not sign any of our top targets this summer.

But I don’t care, just get the right type of players who fit ETH system is fine. Brighton squad isn’t made up of any expensive signings, yet they totally outplayed and dominated us. We only need right signings, not star players, to execute manager’s plan.

Oh and we have 5th worst defensive record in the league, and one of worst team structure too. We absolutely need to change our whole defence and midfield to improve that.

I’d try convince Ronaldo to stay for another year, as we simply don’t have the kind of budget to buy good goalscorer this summer (Nunez would cost 70-100m, Nkunku is rated at 85m. Both players would have lots of takers). I’d go for a baller who play on RW to open up opponents defense. We don’t have any players for that right kind of role now.

De Gea
RB CB Varane LB
DM CM
WF Bruno/VDB Sancho
Ronaldo​
 
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ForeverRed1 said:
Sell rashford 45mil - buy nkunku or similar (55mil) - net 10mil.
Lingard leaves
Sell martial 20mil - get Antony or similar (40mil) - 20mil net.
Sell mata (3mil) get Eriksen on a free + 3mil
Sell matic (5mil) get Tchouameni or similar (60mil) net 55mil
Pogba leaves - get ward prowse or similar (45mil)
Cavani leaves - get Nunez or similar (55mil)
Jones/Bailey (25mil for both) timber & another cb. (50mil) net 25 mil
Awb leaves 25mil get spence (12mil) + 13mil
Telles leaves (12mil) get malacia (20mil) net 8mil

So around the 200mil mark net spend. Could maybe recoupe some more of that in sales. The likes of henderson could make some money back.

That’s a muppets dream summer.


Bring back garner and donny and give Hannibal and garnacho some games the first team.
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This FM what if seldom if never works.

Even in FM it seldom works
 
marktan said:
I think we need to target, and I mean really target, specific players that have the qualities we need. Most of this thread is filled with the name of players that have been in the press / play in the feeder European clubs like Ajax, RB Liepzig etc, which is fine as none of us are scouts, but the problem is our scouts usually end up signing those players. The press ends up being a self-fullfiling prophecy. We need a DM? We'll Tchoumeni's been mentioned in the press, let's sign him. Ditto Sancho before that.

We've had too many Delays, Sanchos, VDBs, AWBs recently, we need more Bruno calibre players.

We don't even need to spend huge sums - look at Robertson, or Evra and Vidic previously. If you know the specific attributes you want in a player, and then do a really comprehensive search of say the top 10-20 leagues, you can find good players that aren't going off of their names alone.

For instance Nkunku and Anthony - both of them look talented but I don't think they're naturally talented enough to be anything great here. I'd much rather we take a gamble on O. Dembele because his natural ability is miles ahead of those two.

For me the priority is:
- RW - O. Dembele
- DM - somebody not Rice for £100m, as much as I do rate him. Around £40-50m is good. Profile - can read the defensive aspect well, can beat a press and can pass the ball. Ideal would be someone like Bissouma.
- CM - a passing, technical midfielder. Kessie on a free would be a great pickup for me. Or someone better if they can be found. Not a B2B like Bellingham. Neves is a good option too.
- Striker - my preference would be to try get Martial back to his 20+ goals season form. Pep and Klopp would make use of his on the ball ability. If not then sign someone that can finish and press

- Fullbacks only if someone amazing becomes available, otherwise there's too many players of a similar calibre to Dalot and Shaw
- CB - the last thing we need is to spend £50m again on a CB. We do it every year, and wonder why they look shit when we don't do anything to fix the rest of the team
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Bruno is a shit player. Okish at best. His first season wonder mask alot of bad attributes. He didnt have the tactical basic to function in ETH team. And his adulation seems to get the best of him.

Wouldnt flinch if he's sold tomorrow.
 
Players such as Haaland (elite potential) would not be joining us any time soon. Our target should be the next rung of young players who, with the right coaching, could become dependable starters. We are basically a banter club now, the first step is to get our respectability back to at least half of where it used to be.
 
I'd be kind of okay if we skip the buying until January and focus on selling and deciding which youth players are good enough for the first team initially.

I think I remember Ole doing something similair to check on players like Chong and Pereira.

Ofcouse we do need to buy players - but maybe selling our useless ones to have a big money transfer haul in the future isnt bad - alongside finding if players like Hannibal, Garner and others can help us save money on certain transfers.
 
RedRonaldo said:
2 DM/CM - 60-80m (to replace Pogba/Matic)
1 CB - 20-30m (to replace Jones/Bailly)
1 LB - 20m (to replace Telles)
1 RB - 20m (to replace AWB)
1 FW - 40-60m (to replace Greenwood/Martial/Cavani)

Spending - 160-210m

Players sales - 10-60m (any from AWB 25m, Telles 10m, Martial 15m, Bailly 10m, depends on any takers)

Net spending ~150m

Well since we have no CL football, nor will be competing for any trophies in near future, I can understand there could be chance we may not sign any of our top targets this summer.

But I don’t care, just get the right type of players who fit ETH system is fine. Brighton squad isn’t made up of any expensive signings, yet they totally outplayed and dominated us. We only need right signings, not star players, to execute manager’s plan.

Oh and we have 5th worst defensive record in the league, and one of worst team structure too. We absolutely need to change our whole defence and midfield to improve that.

I’d try convince Ronaldo to stay for another year, as we simply don’t have the kind of budget to buy good goalscorer this summer (Nunez would cost 70-100m, Nkunku is rated at 85m. Both players would have lots of takers). I’d go for a baller who play on RW to open up opponents defense. We don’t have any players for that right kind of role now.

De Gea
RB CB Varane LB
DM CM
WF Bruno/VDB Sancho
Ronaldo​
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you seem to have forgotten we need a proper centre forward. as much as Ronnie is the goat, he is not a no.9
 
Sky1981 said:
Bruno is a shit player. Okish at best. His first season wonder mask alot of bad attributes. He didnt have the tactical basic to function in ETH team. And his adulation seems to get the best of him.

Wouldnt flinch if he's sold tomorrow.
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I don't get this. He's a better player than guys like Isco and Asensio because of the sheer threat he offers creating and scoring goals. He'll do well under ETH, even if he'll still give the ball away too much.
 
It's evidence how far we have fallen that we are barely linked with anyone anymore. Even the worse rags barely make up transfer stories about us... 10 years ago, if a player breathed or sneezed, that would be evidence of us scouting them!
 
NoPace said:
I don't get this. He's a better player than guys like Isco and Asensio because of the sheer threat he offers creating and scoring goals. He'll do well under ETH, even if he'll still give the ball away too much.
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No proper manager would want a player that loses the ball too much.

He's like a maverick who's only good because he does the unthinkable, while actually leaving gaps for his whole team.

Sure you'd win a match of two but like us we lost more than we win via his indiscipline.

Players like zidane, inniesta does provide moment of Brilliance but never neglected his basic function.
 
mitchmouse said:
you seem to have forgotten we need a proper centre forward. as much as Ronnie is the goat, he is not a no.9
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Sure, but proper CF would cost over half of our fund, but we have too many positions to build. I’d rather keep Ronaldo and add another cheap backup option this summer first, or just buy a WF who can also play as CF, or even move Bruno to play as no.9 at times.

City doesn’t have proper no.9 this season and they are still doing fine.
 
2 midfields; 1 of ea type below.
>dm type like fabian ruiz, prowse, or rice
>b2b combative with good engine like tchouameni, kamara, bruno gumares (shame newcastle just bought him)

sell all the divas, and makeup/balance as necessary.
 
Pirlo'sBeard said:
De Jong, Torres, Tchouaméni, Timber, Nkunku and Raphinha in.

Lingard, Matic, Mata, Bailly, Grant, Martial, Wan Bissaka, Tuanzebe, Greenwood, Martial, Pellistri, Henderson, Jones and Andreas out.
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With Cavani and Pogba on their way out too (perhaps Ronaldo as well), what would this do to squad size? Haven't looked at the numbers but my instinct is that it might leave the first team squad quite thin.
 
One where we find ourselves in a position where mctominay is not even considered a rotational midfield player let alone a regular starter.

The whole narrative that we are more focused on signing a striker than a midfielder first and that we are only looking at recruiting a defensive midfielder only is not what I want see and hear.

Also would like to see a scenario with de gea no more our number 1, I would even take brighton's gk over him just like Enrique currently does with spain
 
Dream transfer window--- rice, nkunku, nunez, dumfries, erikssen

Predicted transfer window- timber, phillips, kamara, antony
 
Muppet mode activated.

DDG
???- Varane—Torres-Shaw
DeJong -Tchouameni
Nkuku———Donny——-Sancho
Nunez
​
I’m going to be broken when we don’t sign Nunez, Nkuku and Tchouameni. I can live on if we miss out on Torres and DeJong maybe even Nunez but if we don’t get Tchouameni and Nkuku I may never unzip ever again.
 
Honestly, anyone that Pep says they are monitoring just do the opposite...

First it was Fred, we went out and got him then a year later they bought Rodri.

Then it was Maguire, we broke the bank for him then the next year they got Dias.

Then last year it was Ronaldo, we got him then they went and got both Haaland and Alvarez for £67m.

Pep has had a bit of a habit of leading us astray these past few years...
 
Bebestation said:
I'd be kind of okay if we skip the buying until January and focus on selling and deciding which youth players are good enough for the first team initially.

I think I remember Ole doing something similair to check on players like Chong and Pereira.

Ofcouse we do need to buy players - but maybe selling our useless ones to have a big money transfer haul in the future isnt bad - alongside finding if players like Hannibal, Garner and others can help us save money on certain transfers.
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Now that is a disastrous start to his reign we need signings this summer without doubt
 
The key thing is to address the toxic culture in the dressing room, hence the various "camps" need to be dismantled.

OUTS
- Portuguese camp need to be broken down (Telles, Dalot, CR7 out)
- Lazy/Instagram camp needs to be gone (Lingard, Pogba)
- Overdue camp needs to be cleared (Matic, Mata, Jones, Cavani)
- Not playing camp (Bailly, vDB, Martial)

We will need high quality replacements for all the above, but looking at the long list, its not something that is going to easily changed overnight though.

I would start with the key areas in the current window:
- DM highest priority - someone experienced that can dictate play
- CM second priority - someone high energy that can act as a link between the DM and AM (Bruno obviously)
- Perhaps a CB that can double as a full back may also be useful.
- FW someone that knows how to press from the front and link up play, preferably physical as well. We know that there are already goals in Rashford, Sancho and Bruno, hence we do not necessarily need an out and out striker. Also, if Ten Hag can miraculously get Martial's head out of the mud then that would solve a lot of problems
 
Bebestation said:
I'd be kind of okay if we skip the buying until January and focus on selling and deciding which youth players are good enough for the first team initially.

I think I remember Ole doing something similair to check on players like Chong and Pereira.

Ofcouse we do need to buy players - but maybe selling our useless ones to have a big money transfer haul in the future isnt bad - alongside finding if players like Hannibal, Garner and others can help us save money on certain transfers.
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:lol:
 
Andersons Dietician said:
Muppet mode activated.

DDG
???- Varane—Torres-Shaw
DeJong -Tchouameni
Nkuku———Donny——-Sancho
Nunez
​
I’m going to be broken when we don’t sign Nunez, Nkuku and Tchouameni. I can live on if we miss out on Torres and DeJong maybe even Nunez but if we don’t get Tchouameni and Nkuku I may never unzip ever again.
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I think you are going to be broken.

First of all, these signings would easily cost us 250m+. We don’t have that much fund this summer.

Then, DeJong already reported he has no intention to join us (he is only interested in clubs like City).

Finally, Tchouameni is reported top target for Liverpool, and he seems to be also very interested in moving there. Hence recent transfer rumours have already started distancing us from linking with him.
 
New to this forum, lets be positive and cheer the club to have a really good transfer window. LUHG LUHG LUHG.
 
red_de_pologne said:
Nunez
Ignacio
Kamara
Laimer
Mukiele
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I would add Eriksen to that list. Losing Mata and Lingard means less creativity, link up play and ball carrier.
Bruno brings none of that as he’s just a flick and kick and hope for the best.
Another free transfer that I would have liked us to make is Mazraoui, if agent ETH can hijack him from Bayern. It would allow us to sell Dalot and AWB, and promote Laird.
 
RedRonaldo said:
Sure, but proper CF would cost over half of our fund, but we have too many positions to build. I’d rather keep Ronaldo and add another cheap backup option this summer first, or just buy a WF who can also play as CF, or even move Bruno to play as no.9 at times.

City doesn’t have proper no.9 this season and they are still doing fine.
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that's because they have goal scorers all over the park - like we used to have
 
I don't think it is really possible to have a 'perfect' transfer window because we simply need too much after years of neglecting problem positions.

We need to get at least 6 or 7 players in who are good enough for the first team and help us set the foundations as we're coming from such a low starting point. Maybe next summer we'll be in a better position to fine tune the squad if we get recruitment right this year.

We could honestly use upgrades in pretty much any position, with the exceptions of left wing and possibly number 10. That speaks volumes really.
 
Based on previous history I'd like the players to be

Roundly rejected as shit by the CAF
Need to Google/YT then to know who they are
 
A perfect transfer window is going to be far from a realistic one this season.
We are bringing in a fantastic manager, but with a very strict system, which a lot of our players don’t really have the ability / skillset for. Most of them fit in other systems.
But it’s fun to dream so here is my dream transfer window.

Defense. Our first problem. In Ten Hags system the central defenders need to move a lot, even without the ball, almost acting like decoys at time, to open space for the keeper to pass. They themselves also must be able to do direct good passes that do not put their teammates under pressure.

De Gea sticks to his line and his distribution leaves a lot to be desired.

Maguire is pretty much the opposite of the kind of central defender Ten Hag needs. His short passes are terrible and very often puts the receiver under pressure.

Lindelöf and Maguire both often move in the wrong directions, especially without the ball.

They also both lack the proper aggression and agility. Ten Hags defenders are always moving and harassing the opposition, even on throw ins they will move and try make delivery as difficult as possible.

Varane might be able to do the above, but Maguire simply does not have the skillset needed.

Next are the full backs. In Ten Hag’s system they, apart from doing decoy runs and being very important to the buildup progressive passing play, also always move in close to the central defenders when on defense to provide help.

Each one of our current full backs are lacking in at least one if not all the requirements.



Perfect window for defense:

Maguire, Lindelöf, Jones, Bailly, Telles, Dalot, AwB, De Gea – Sold



Starting lineup next season:

Sanchez (Brighton), Timber, Mazraoui, De Light (I believe he would become great again under Ten Hag), Varane, Laird (at least should be given a chance)



Midfield. Yeah…

Again it is all about a ton of movement and making runs to free up passing lanes. Keeping the ball moving and helping out your team mates.

Donnie will be used to this, and we have seen how often he would make runs but team mates simply not understanding his movements. The midfielders need to be great at making smaller direct passes. Hollywood passes are not needed in this system. But every pass needs to be on point.

I predict Bruno will struggle quite abit in this system.

Fred could actually be quite useful as a back up, because of his aggressive movement and pressing.

Mc Tominay almost always moves the wrong way and would never work in a Ten Hag system.

Perfect window for midfield:

Bruno, Mc T – Sold

Starting lineup next season:

DvB, Frenkie De Jong, Tchouamini

Attack.

While Ronnie is getting older, he has been trying to press and work hard on several occasions and he is the most clinical goalscorer in the world. I believe he can work, but we will need a back up since he wont be able to press and run as much for 90 minutes as is needed.

The wingers need to work a lot. They have to move to help press on defense and when offense they need to do decoy runs and make themselves available for passes all the time.

I like Rashford but he doesn’t fit this system at all, he often runs the wrong way, hardly ever tracks and his passing is not always great.

Sancho is a very intelligent player and often does the right runs, and thus will work well under Ten Hag.

Perfect window for attack:

Rashford, Lingard, Greenwood – Sold / leaving

Starting lineup next season:

Werner? (I believe he could actually be a very good winger for us, his issue is scoring, but movement and passes are often very good. I also believe he would be cheap.) Ronaldo / Nunez, Sancho

The above is my dream transfer window, but will not be realistic at all.
 
Sky1981 said:
No proper manager would want a player that loses the ball too much.

He's like a maverick who's only good because he does the unthinkable, while actually leaving gaps for his whole team.

Sure you'd win a match of two but like us we lost more than we win via his indiscipline.

Players like zidane, inniesta does provide moment of Brilliance but never neglected his basic function.
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It doesn’t make him a ‘shit’ or ‘okish’ player. He’s a fantastic player for a certain type of team. Conte would have him, Simeone, Jose etc. He’s probably not right for the direction we’re moving, but he still is consistently capable of things very few players in the world can do. Just because he isn’t like Zidane or Inniesta, two of the best players in history…
 
I think we will struggle this window. There is going to be a conflict between how Rangnick and the like want us to go and how the club want us to go.

Pre season starts 1st July, if Ten Hag doesn't have 2 new midfielders at least, what do we expect him to do?

Does anyone actually think our starting 11 for the first PL game next season will be much different to one now?

I reckon we have max 2 new players for the 1st game.
 
Guess the perfect transfer window would be ten Hag getting all his first choice targets. Of course, no guarantee they'd be a success, but he'd get what he asked for.
 
DickDastardly said:
Whatever ETH wants.

Let's start with that.

Not what we want, not the players who WE think should be bought.
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Yeah exactly. Things like shirt sales or social media impact should have nothing to do with who we sign. I like the idea that we might unearth some diamonds this summer rather than trying to be the highest bidder on a galactico.
 
bosnian_red said:
Forget about them. We are far off. As long as we get ourselves back on track first, we can worry about catching up to them in a couple of years as that isn't our competition right now.

There's always other quality players out there and more ways to catch up. For now we just have to worry about ourselves and growing however we can, and then when we're close, then start worrying about them. That's the reality of the situation.
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100% correct, they're not our rivals at this point. We need to look to catch up with the 3 London clubs before we even consider the 2 in the north west. At this point we should be thinking about how we get to third and then carry that momentum forward.

We're 4 mistake free years away from being realistic title challengers and we haven't had a mistake free year for a long, long time.
 
I think we'll sign 2 players for the starting 11 next season and not rush into spending a fortune, as we have done in the past. I'd expect 1 midfielder and 1 forward/wide forward.

I suspect we'll see a few of the younger players coming through (Hannibal/Garner, hopefully Garnacho and Laird) and part of the requirement on ETH has got to be getting more out of the existing team, primarily Maguire/Shaw/Rashford/Sancho, those 4 playing at their best and we're a different team completely.

Its another year of transition but the starting point for me is looking at what we already have and turning them back into footballers, we absolutely dont need a whole new team, we just need our players to remember how to play football and put a shift in and actually break sweat again.
 
DickDastardly said:
Whatever ETH wants.

Let's start with that.

Not what we want, not the players who WE think should be bought.
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This.
There's going to be a few meltdowns on here when Hag and transfer committee bring in a couple of unfashionable names.
 
macheda14 said:
It doesn’t make him a ‘shit’ or ‘okish’ player. He’s a fantastic player for a certain type of team. Conte would have him, Simeone, Jose etc. He’s probably not right for the direction we’re moving, but he still is consistently capable of things very few players in the world can do. Just because he isn’t like Zidane or Inniesta, two of the best players in history…
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He is consistenly not trying. How's any proper manager would choose him over other players?
 
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