Which position should Ole prioritise in the summer?

As most have said a RW is top priority for me. Then it would be a CM and ST as Pogba is likely to leave and ST wise I think Martial could do with competition and also a different type of centre forward would be useful.
 
Right wing, Right Wing, Right Wing ..... oh and right wing.
 
A starting no9 to actually compete up-front, none of this backup rubbish. And a Pogba replacement, and a RW.
 
I really really hope Pogba doesn't go in the summer because i think we are a great squad in the making and i thank Ole so heartily for all that he has done so far. For people who think Ole is a disappointment and is not worth the Coach's position. I think you need to understand that we've had some of the best coaches in the world before him and all of them wanted to win but were so scared to actually build a squad that would yield us trophies and lots of success in the future. Ole has truly taken a few steps that SAF would've with the squad we had. I know that he got rid of a few players who could've added goals to this team but i think he has gotten rid of all the players in one year that i thought was impossible to get rid off for 6 years. I really really think Ole has done an amazing job.

Fellaini
Lukaku
Sanchez
Valencia
Young
Smalling
Blind
Rojo
Darmian were all useless and totally not what we wanted or should have and Ole had the guts to just get them out and start afresh. Even though i think Poch is a better coach than Ole, Ole should definitely be given another season to prove his worth because he has earned it but completely taking things head-on and dealing with everyone and the media in spite of having such a thin squad. What's worse, he had injuries to deal with as well. Thank You Ole, I'm so glad your at the wheel!
Bring in a right winger, another midfielder and maybe a proper center back and we'll be challenging for the title and Europe soon.
 
RW
Replacing Pogba if he goes
CDM
ST (either back up or main)
LB
CB

If we get CL football I’d go with:

Sancho
Odegaard (plus cash for Pogba) or Grealish
Partey/Zakaria
Phillips (if Leeds aren’t promoted)
 
If we only manage to sign 1 player this summer, and this 1 player is Sancho, I will still consider it as a brilliant summer.
 
Shimo said:
Right wing, Right Wing, Right Wing ..... oh and right wing.
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Yes, yes, yes and er yes.

Sancho would be excellent, but if not I quite like Brooks from Bournemouth, provided he gets over his current injury.
 
we Need a right winger. That's the top priority. Getting a DM/CM that can play with McTominay/Fred is also massive as Matic can't always keep up. Signing another centre back may be a priority if neither Tuanzebe or Bailly do not step up. We need to evaluate Martial for the rest of the season to determine whether we need a striker or even one who can consistently rotate with him like Gudjohnsen/Drogba.

so in this order:

Right winger that can create
DM/CM to replace Pogba ( not in role, but in position)
Centre back to partner with Macguire
Striker to start in place of or rotate consistently with Martial

Again, we may only need 2 of these positions at the end of the day, but it all depends on factos that have not happened yet. As of now, these are the 4 positions I would try to buy players for.
 
The Boy said:
Reading through the threads lots of posters have very different priorities and ideas for which position you have to buy come the summer. Obviously RW is one that gets a lot of mentions, but also striker, centre back, left back, defensive midfielder are all positions posters have mentioned as the priority to replace.

For me a right winger should be your highest priority and I think left back and centre back are your lowest priority. If Pogba goes, which I think he will, then I'd put in Grealish as a high priority too.
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Right wing and a striker are my two biggest priorities. I think we need a defensive mid as well to replace Matic. If Pogba goes someone to replace him as well.

Sancho, Grealish, Dembele/Edouard, and then Partey/Phillips/Soumare etc would be the dream summer.

Shaw and Williams are fine for next season, if neither kick on then we can address left back. Same with Maguire, Lindelof and Bailley with Tanzuebe as well.
 
RedRonaldo said:
If we only manage to sign 1 player this summer, and this 1 player is Sancho, I will still consider it as a brilliant summer.
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Agree massively, especially with the emergence of Greenwood and certain other players starting to show a bit of quality (Fred being the obvious one), we're not far off from having a good side and a top RW would elevate us a level without a doubt.
 
tjb said:
we Need a right winger. That's the top priority. Getting a DM/CM that can play with McTominay/Fred is also massive as Matic can't always keep up. Signing another centre back may be a priority if neither Tuanzebe or Bailly do not step up. We need to evaluate Martial for the rest of the season to determine whether we need a striker or even one who can consistently rotate with him like Gudjohnsen/Drogba.

so in this order:

Right winger that can create
DM/CM to replace Pogba ( not in role, but in position)
Centre back to partner with Macguire
Striker to start in place of or rotate consistently with Martial

Again, we may only need 2 of these positions at the end of the day, but it all depends on factos that have not happened yet. As of now, these are the 4 positions I would try to buy players for.
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I agree with you regarding Martial as a starter hence I think the striker signing should be of higher priority to a CB, looking at it with prudence one could say that our mix of CBs is fine bar the calamity that is Jones. Sell Jones and Rojo then bring back Smalling and our CB situation will be okay.

I think we need an attacking Left back more than we need a CB or a DM though an accomplished passer from deep is ideal. Having Rashford and Sancho flanking Martial or a new striker will have enough goals but a left back with a good delivery will help unlock the whole forward line as it would give us substantial threat from wide areas and make it difficult to defend against our attack.
 
Sancho on the right wing, Grealish to bolster midfield and a striker for me (Martial is a limp lettuce for most of the time, occasional flashes do not do it for me, the guy is not RVN), a replacement for Matic would be nice....

I would be quite keen on a couple of squad players as well, if this season has shown us nothing else is that we are couple of injuries away from being up shi£ creek or pushing top 4...... I know Spurs and Chelski have had injury problems too but if we had kept a fit Rashford and McT right now we would be easily in 4th IMO.... however we probably would not have been forced into buying Fernandes.... that said can you imagine our season if we had purchased Fernandes last summer as we should have!!

Am already thinking Pogba is gone! and not counting him as an injury as he could have been playing this last month had he thought anything of the team, and TBH where would he play in the current set up, cash in and use the money wisely, if we effectively swap Pogba for Grealish and Fernandes I would be more than happy, players that actually work for the team more than themselves
 
Top priorities (no particular order):

1. RW
2. Pogba replacement if he goes
3. ST
4. DM

Other positions that need strengthening but not a major priority compared to the above (no particular order):

1. LB
2. CB
 
I'd prioritize Sancho, followed by a DM (let's say Neves for now), then Grealish.

This to me is a top 3/title challenging starting XI:

De Gea
AWB Lindelof Maguire Shaw
Neves
Grealish Bruno
Sancho Martial Rashford
 
Looking at where we are now, how some players are developing, and assuming that we keep all current players (a risk with Pogba)...

Keeper: DeGea, Romero, Henderson- Sorted

RFB: AWB, Dalot- Sorted
LFB: Shaw, Williams- Sorted

CB: Maguire, Bailly, Lindelof- Now after that is gets shaky for me. Smalling on Loan, Jones and Rojo do not look good enough. What about Fosu-Mensah and Tuanzebe... ?

CM and ACM: Fred, Bruno, Pogba, McT- Matic is getting old. Lindgard and Pereiera just are not good enough for me. Love Mata but his best is past. Just not sure why Gomes doesn't get a look. Is he just not that good or is it a contract issue? Hope Garner will get more looks in the future.

RW: Greenwood (James prefers left)- Just not sure Chong will ever be good enough.
LW: Rashford, James- Hopefully Sanchez is gone officially soon.
Striker: Martial- I see Odion as a short term solution.

So assuming that we keep Pogba as obviously if he goes that changes a good few things, here is who I want kept and what I would go after start 20/21 Season...

Keeper: DeGea, Romero, Henderson
RFB: AWB, Dalot
LFB: Shaw, Williams
CB: Maguire, Bailly, Lindelof, Smalling
CM and ACM: Fred, Bruno, Pogba, McT, Garner
RW: Greenwood (also play at striker)
LW: Rashford, James
Striker: Martial

So for me, we need a DCM like Ndidi and a winger like Sancho. Go big on just two positions to get real World Class talent and really improve the team. Not just another good player barely different than all the bloat we already have. As for our current bloat, get rid of Sanchez, Jones, Rojo and Pereiera. Lingard is fine if he understand he is only a squad player. Not fussed about the others.

Thoughts?
 
Agree on Sancho and Grealish. Even if we only bought those two, and sold Pogba, I would be happy. It would make our squad stronger in both quality and depth. Sancho would transform our attack, and Grealish would be a great option in CM, AM and LW. If we could also take a punt on a young CDM, that would be great.
 
Number one priority is obviously a striker. I doubt we´ll keep Ighalo.
 
I could be funny and say: "His own", but I think a proper look at the CM/CDM and RW is needed.
 
Same as it has been for about the last 5-6 years right wing. Which means we'll probably sign players for just about any position but right wing
 
Hard to say really until we know which club he will be at, if any.
 
Tom Cato said:
just want to clarify how NET spend is actually calculated in a operating budget. There's a lot of "we can afford this and this and then its stop" going on.

Net spend is not actually calculated as player bought v player sold in the clubs financial records. Its listed as that in pages like Transfermarkt and the likes, but that's not actually how football clubs accounting works.

Player purchases have a value. That value includes: Transfer fees, agent fees, player wages+imaging rights+sign on fees+contract length. ALL of that combined, is listed in the books as the transfer value. Because that is the clubs listed expense for this asset. The asset is then amortized in the books, normally over the players contract length. for example a player with a contract length of 5 years and an imagined sum total of all costs, is put in the books as y1 £20m y2 £20m and so on. For example Harry Maguire's purchase is not listed as £80m in the clubs financial records, but rather amortized over the length of his contract with equal value pr year. it's a cost writedown.
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Excellent post as usual when it comes to finances and transfers. Can you tell us if we have extra money set aside (in addition to the summer transfer budget) for a generational/special talent like a Sancho or would he be part of what is budgeted for the summer window?
 
We are short of 5 more but I think with another 3 more quality one's in attacking postions we can stay in top4.

--------------------------------Werner/Mason-----------------------

--Rashford/Martial ----------Grealish/Mata --------Sancho/James---

----------------------Bruno/Fred---------------Neves/SMT------------------------------

---Shaw/Williams----Maguire/Lindelof------Upamecano/Eric-----AWB/Dalot---

---------------------- DDG------------------------------------------

If we sell Pogba/Alexis/Matic/Lingard/Perrera/Rojo/Jones/Smalling for around 180M, can we assemble the above team unless players like Werner/Sancho dont want to join?
 
Unfortunately we can't prioritise just one position or even area of the team, we did that last summer with the defence and injuries then left our midfield and attack horribly weak whilst still having question marks over the defence itself

We could prioritise the RW but then we're still short through the middle and in midfield

Sorry for not playing along :(
 
Midfield has shown to be our biggest crutch in this season, granted because of injuries but still our second string is a championship midfield, if I am being unfair to championship. Hopefully garner and lewitt can progress and integrate in the first team during offseason but that’s too much burden on them. We got Bruno but if he is out for a while we are back to JLingz and Pereira and the amount of points you can drop in a season has gone down drastically over last three seasons. If Liverpool strengthen, there’s no reason to think they won’t do what they are doing this season. So either we accept that we won’t challenge in case of an injury or we get another couple of midfielders who will be quality. A proper Right winger would be a long overdue improvement but it won’t be much if it’s not a class signing.
 
I think Ole would prioritise getting a job in the summer, no matter which position.


Now regarding ManUtd in order of urgency:

1-. Right Winger: Im still amazed how we have managed to stay 6 seasons without a proper right wing. Yeah its been that long.

Options: Sancho, Chukweze or unearth some gem because all the other players are either on big clubs that would hardly get a move or not good enough IMO.


2-. Holding Midfielder: Eventhough Matic has recover form the last month his decline is clear and we have to replace him asap.

Options: Ndidi, Partey, Florentino (from Benfica), Zakaria.


3-. Creative Midfielder: Pogba will most likely leave in the summer and that will leave us with Bruno as our only creative midfielder, which means we are one injury away of having Lingard, Mata or Pereira on the starting XI.

Options: Havertz, Odegaard, Zaniolo, Grealish.

4-. Striker: Igholo most likely will return to China in the summer and I dont think there's a way back for Sanchez so we need a back up striker, prefferably an experienced one since we already have a youngster with potential in Greenwood.

Options: Ben Yedder, Duvan Zapata, Giroud, Pukki (when Norwich goes down).
 
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Werner will be 100% going to Liverpool by the looks of things, so as much as I'd love him here, you can count him out of any transfer wants. They are the only credible reports for him currently from multiple sources and he keeps talking about how amazing they are recently, he's a dead cert to go there unfortunately.

The time to get him was last year, but we didn't, so...
 
Ignoring outgoings, RW & DM, for lower priority signings I'd be tempted to look for a CB and LB too.
 
How about the one position that required an emergency mid season loan signing?
 
Sancho because if we don’t get him now, we’re not getting him unless he flops elsewhere or is looking for one last pay day a decade from now.

A very close second is midfielder in the Carrick or Busquets mould. That way we can play with both Pogba and Fernandes and have a midfield that would rival anyone in Europe. Not sure who that player is but definitely not Declan Rice.
 
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