Why is it so hard for Utd to get transfers done in and out?

Because we hand out massive contracts that players we don't need anymore don't want to trade in for a lesser deal elsewhere.
 
Incompetence.
As most have said, we hand out big contracts, pay the highest wages and the highest transfer fees because our staff in charge of this work are so bad at their job, that they only way they can get the job done is by offering ridiculous amounts of money.

The skill is to negotiate a reasonable transfer fee, quickly and then negotiate with the player/agent on reasonable wages. Matt Judge was our negotiator and he was useless out at his job and now we have other people who are most likely useless at their job, too.

We need staff replacements, from top to bottom. Currently, it's a case of jobs for the boys and these boys are useless.
 
sunama said:
Incompetence.
As most have said, we hand out big contracts, pay the highest wages and the highest transfer fees because our staff in charge of this work are so bad at their job, that they only way they can get the job done is by offering ridiculous amounts of money.

The skill is to negotiate a reasonable transfer fee, quickly and then negotiate with the player/agent on reasonable wages. Matt Judge was our negotiator and he was useless out at his job and now we have other people who are most likely useless at their job, too.I

We need staff replacements, from top to bottom. Currently, it's a case of jobs for the boys and these boys are useless.
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I don't think the boys do anything, so this can't be their job.
Reasons --
1. We've never been the favorite place to go. Lifestyle of Manchester? (weather etc)
2. No Champions League and the general trend year to year of the team going downhill. Our press is always bad, our fans are always angry. I've been thinking about Liverpool on their long years in the midtable. Their players always got good press no matter what (seems like). Ours don't. Players don't enhance their career by coming to Utd.
3. Ten Hag doesn't seem to be attracting players -- too unknown? There were always cases where the manager convinces the player to come. You hear that with the Ajax players, but nowhere else.
4. What do the other big teams actually pay? There's the stories of City paying off-books. Since we're a corporation, the books may be on the up and up and we actually aren't paying the going cost(s) -- agents, up front signing, off the books salaries.
5. Wonder what our players say when prospective players call them. Pogba was always a press whipping boy, do you think he'd recommend the club?
6. Not in the EU.
 
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altodevil said:
The reason for poor outgoings is probably because of the wages of the players we have on our books. Making loan moves more likely. It's the kind of issue that you can't fix overnight, you can only cut it off at the source - i.e at the signing stage.
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Not just that, Telles has literally 0 sell on value anyways. He's a backup fullback in his 30's. The players we are trying to sell are tough to move on because majority of them are coming off a horrific season where they didn't look close to PL level.
 
steffyr2 said:
I don't think the boys do anything, so this can't be their job.
Reasons --
1. We've never been the favorite place to go. Lifestyle of Manchester? (weather etc)
2. No Champions League and the general trend year to year of the team going downhill. Our press is always bad, our fans are always angry. I've been thinking about Liverpool on their long years in the midtable. Their players always got good press no matter what (seems like). Ours don't. Players don't enhance their career by coming to Utd.
3. Ten Hag doesn't seem to be attracting players -- too unknown? There were always cases where the manager convinces the player to come. You hear that with the Ajax players, but nowhere else.
4. What do the other big teams actually pay? There's the stories of City paying off-books. Since we're a corporation, the books may be on the up and up and we actually aren't paying the going cost(s) -- agents, up front signing, off the books salaries.
5. Wonder what our players say when prospective players call them. Pogba was always a press whipping boy, do you think he'd recommend the club?
6. Not in the EU.
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Spot on. People love to moan about transfers (I can't remember a summer in 20 years that we haven't complained in some form or another), but we were always in a tough spot going in this summer with our two biggest needs (versatile DM and striker) having very little options on the market. So we filled secondary needs quickly, have agreed the fee for FDJ but everyone knows why that hasn't happened yet, and now are trying to figure out an alternative to Antony as 80m is absurd for him.
 
We are currently in a tailspin and until we are out of it we are just chasing our tails.

Until we have a successful-looking team that plays attractive football we are never going to be a first choice. No UCL just compounds the issue.

Obviously Manchester doesn’t have the climate of some places but this is just an excuse as City and Liverpool seem to be able to get players in and you don’t hear about the location being the issue as the sporting project is a good one.

Recruiting the wrong players on the wrong wage just compounds the problems and we are then left with a bunch of unwanted players on high wages who are not motivated.

The fan base wants instant success, just like Ed Woodward did. However we need to actually follow a plan through and it’s a building job for a number of windows. If we don’t get what we want then it’s better to not panic and pay over the odds at the end of the window as we’ve always done before.

We must break the cycle. Its better that we use youth than get fleeced for an average player. We have a great academy that produces players so why not let ETH use a few of these and with actually coaching the team to a certain style and pattern we may actually get some of our underperforming players to perform better.

I have faith that if ETH is given enough time he will get a top team for us to support again. He needs time though and also trust those around him to do the right things. Unfortunately with the FDJ saga and Ronaldo issues dominating everything Erik is in for a baptism of fire - a good performance against Brighton is key otherwise the doom merchants and the press will be pouring out all the negative shite they can pedal.

Come on Erik!
 
Houdini said:
No CL is a big deal.
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And De Jong made his feelings about coming to United without CL very clear and hasnt really wavered as far as I know so we just keep throwing more money on the table....but he doesnt want to come so why is the club wasting its time trying to sign him?
 
No CL and non football people who haven't a Scooby-Doo what they're doing.
 
Rangnick was brought in to help fix this.

When he was about to fix it we fecked him off instead.
 
Other clubs look at us as a mark and they know we have the money. So they hold us over the barrel. As far as selling, the ridiculous wages make it difficult for most top clubs to sell unwanted players. See Arsenal (Ozil), Spurs (Ndombole), Barca (Dembele and Depay), Real Madrid (Jovic).
 
Imagine chasing a player for 3 months for him to potentially join your rivals who only showed interest last week. Welcome to Manchester United. This is by far the most embarrassing saga yet if the aforementioned is realised. And no, this is not about our “pride” as fans being hurt. This is about making progress in terms of being proactive regarding transfer targets. We should have sorted out this diabolical midfield 2 months ago- allowed them to be fully. integrated and prepare them for the new season. We are starting Sunday with Fred & McTom in midfield: that’s the reality
 
A mix of delusion and just liking the press of being linked to high profile players so it makes us look like a top club, to some.

We've had this incredibly wrong idea that only 1 player is good enough for us to sign and help us go back to winning titles as far back as Sir Alex.

Meanwhile Liverpool built a team to challenge City, won the league and champions league largely signing premier league players who didnt mean our criteria for interest. They werent high profile enough yet. Not enough twitter followers.
 
The wage issue I agree with, but if anyone thinks this will be fixed you can dream on. Fred, Rashford, Martial, Shaw and probably a few others are 2 years from their contracts ending. All of them are on big money and will want better terms than their last contract, when in reality they should have a drastic wage reduction. Until we see Arnold sort out the wages that current squad are on not much will change.
 
Ekeke said:
A mix of delusion and just liking the press of being linked to high profile players so it makes us look like a top club, to some.

We've had this incredibly wrong idea that only 1 player is good enough for us to sign and help us go back to winning titles as far back as Sir Alex.

Meanwhile Liverpool built a team to challenge City, won the league and champions league largely signing premier league players who didnt mean our criteria for interest. They werent high profile enough yet. Not enough twitter followers.
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Totally agree, we seem to be going the same way as Real Madrid with their "Galacticos" policy of some years ago of signing "super stars" with their own "brands" and social media in the hope of gaining some sort of reflected glory from them.
 
It’ll take another 10 years of abject failure to make them get some sense and put people in charge who are decisive and have the right experience.

Right now we’re on course for 6-8th place finish and I’m here for the blowback the owners and management will deservedly receive.
 
I'm amazed that we keep going into late August without the team set up. I thought ETH would come in and his team would be arriving on the next bus. Why that doesn't happen? Delusions of (former) grandeur mainly -- of course De Jong would rather go to Chelsea and play for a well run team that's based in London and playing in the Champions League! Instead of going after what we need -- practically any midfielder on any other team in the PL we try to fight for a Barcelona player.
 
I think the buying and selling are two completely different sets of challenges.

I think you could be the world's best negotiator and struggle to offload our unwanted players quickly. We generally have to compromise with loans, paying their wages, low fees. It's hard to undo years of bad work in player acquisitions and renewals at the point of sale. I think some fans have completely unrealistic expectations about this. We are trying to shift abject failures on large financial packages. Some aren't keen to go, some will go but not for less money, some have no buyers.

With the buying it's hard to understand the exact reasons. In this window I would say the key one is an unwillingness to be flexible. It's clear we've handed ETH total responsibility and there seems a reluctance to move on from his first ideas. I don't think the Malacia or Martinez deals were appallingly handled, I think it was totally standard. So I think to understand why the midfield situation is not resolved probably requires understanding ETH's expectations around that role.
 
I actually disagree with quite a few posters. I think the main point we really fail to realise is that we are not in the Champions league no more and at the same time we are chasing players that are world class in the Champions League

I mean really whats the incentive to an ascending world class player e.g. Haaland to in a way drop a division to join a club with a project that might go either way and actually harm his own career?

Even with ETH, we really dont know how this Reboot will go
 
All those saying "CL" are only partially right. Anyone going to Spurs might only play six games this season and maybe not again for years. It's possible. Plus Arsenal don't seem to have had toruble getting their targets in. For f@ck's sake: Forest have singed more players than us; bloody Cardiff have.

It's the failings of those tasked with the job - as useless as their predecessor so far.
 
redmanx said:
Totally agree, we seem to be going the same way as Real Madrid with their "Galacticos" policy of some years ago of signing "super stars" with their own "brands" and social media in the hope of gaining some sort of reflected glory from them.
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If anything this is what we are NOT doing anymore.
 
There's no ambition from the owners to actually win and it shows in our dealings. We've addressed none of our pressing needs and the league has now started. We aren't a serious football club.
 
For outgoings, it’s because of the wages.

For incomings, I don’t think we’re necessarily slow. I think we target the wrong players that turns the transfer into a saga. For example, FdJ is at his dream club playing in the CL. Why would he want to join us now?

What I don’t get is why we’re not pursuing players in other critical positions while we wait for the FdJ deal to be sorted. We need an attacker and a right back. But we’re not progressing across any front.
 
leontas said:
For outgoings, it’s because of the wages.

For incomings, I don’t think we’re necessarily slow. I think we target the wrong players that turns the transfer into a saga. For example, FdJ is at his dream club playing in the CL. Why would he want to join us now?

What I don’t get is why we’re not pursuing players in other critical positions while we wait for the FdJ deal to be sorted. We need an attacker and a right back. But we’re not progressing across any front.
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the poor over-working loves must be exhausted from doing what looks suspiciously like sod all
 
agree pretty much with a poster above.
For outgoings it’s our wages

for incomings it’s a bit of trying to attract glamour signings (who don’t want to come) rather than more realistic. I’d much prefer we target hungry youngsters.

We’re not the club we used to be - sadly other clubs are seen as more attractive.
 
Abraxas said:
With the buying it's hard to understand the exact reasons. In this window I would say the key one is an unwillingness to be flexible. It's clear we've handed ETH total responsibility and there seems a reluctance to move on from his first ideas. I don't think the Malacia or Martinez deals were appallingly handled, I think it was totally standard. So I think to understand why the midfield situation is not resolved probably requires understanding ETH's expectations around that role.
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It's understandable that EtH wouldn't want the club's scouts picking players for him. Historically, if the player doesn't work out the manager takes 100% of the blame regardless if it was his first target or Woodward bought him for noodle marketing synergies.
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
Spot on. People love to moan about transfers (I can't remember a summer in 20 years that we haven't complained in some form or another), but we were always in a tough spot going in this summer with our two biggest needs (versatile DM and striker) having very little options on the market. So we filled secondary needs quickly, have agreed the fee for FDJ but everyone knows why that hasn't happened yet, and now are trying to figure out an alternative to Antony as 80m is absurd for him.
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But maybe this figuring out should have been long before now? There's also the question of whether Antony might have been available for cheaper had we moved earlier for him. It's just always the same thing with this team - we can find excuses, but the bottom line is we rarely, if ever, get things done smoothly.
 
In fairness you are going after a lot of targets that have a lot of moving pieces involved, or simply aren’t being allowed up for sale. 100 million for Antony?

Teams need to understand the “United Tax” should be a dead thing.I thought for sure he’d go this window, and United seemed an obviously good spot.

Dealing with CR7 at this stage of his career is never going to be an easy ask, but it’s near impossible to move him.

Putting so many apples in the Frenkie basket may pay off, but that was always going to take extreme patience.

It seems like everyone you go after have a lot of moving parts.

I will say the push I saw in articles implying Barca would take VDB as part of a trade to put he De Jong deal over the line ….a bit nutty.
 
RedOrange said:
It's understandable that EtH wouldn't want the club's scouts picking players for him. Historically, if the player doesn't work out the manager takes 100% of the blame regardless if it was his first target or Woodward bought him for noodle marketing synergies.
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For this season that perhaps makes a lot of sense. However, I think in the long term we need a much more cohesive system of recruitment. The scouting, the technical director and the manager have to all come together. It shouldn't be based on the whims of one man. Otherwise we may as well sack the scouts.
 
Because we are still among the top 3 worst run clubs in the top division.
 
It is not difficult to understand. Results have been poor and utd is negatively in the press most of the time.
It is hard to swim against the current but with the fanbase we have it should be possible. Instead of moaning we should deliver a joyous, electric atmosphere each homegame until it rubs off on the players.
 
Because we are run by idiots, it really is astonishing how badly the club is run.

We are the laughing stock of world football for good reason.

Plenty wont like it, Plenty wont agree, but its the truth.
 
The lack of CL is hurting us right now. It is what it is. ETH has to get the team playing attractive football for players and agents to believe in the project.
 
We've become somewhat used to recruiting from a position of strength, and we haven't had that luxury for a while now. Easy to add 2 players to a title winning team, not so easy to add 6 or 7 in the situation we are now in.

Back in the day we've have considered our three signings as a nice bit of business.
 
For the outgoings it's because of the wages we pay. We sell deadwood on prime wages, naturally there aren't many suitors for them.

For the incomings, I don't think we struggle for regular players but prime players want to go to top teams and we currently aren't one.
 
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