Wot, no transfers?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Everything is taking so long, how are Darmian and Rojo still at the club? (especially if rumours about bids from Napoli and before that Juve for Darmian and Wolves/Everton bid for Rojo are true)

Than again there seems to be very little happening at all, few tweets and rumours, few announcements of signings. At least I am not picking up on it. Either everything is gonna blow up next week with a lot of desperate and overpaid signings (I assume) or the market really is in grindlock and most of the transfers for english teams are those done already as they refuse to be held hostage to english tax and early window closing pressure. It's been a quite boring window for most teams in my opinion and a bit weird.
 
This, I am quite sure, will end as an incredibly disappointing window for us.

We can’t even seem to shift some of the deadwood (which seems to be never ending).
 
KingMinger22 said:
This, I am quite sure, will end as an incredibly disappointing window for us.

We can’t even seem to shift some of the deadwood (which seems to be never ending).
Click to expand...

I do agree that it seems to be taking a while to shift the deadwood but at the moment I'm more concerned about incoming transfers than outgoing transfers.

After deadline day has passed, we'll still have a few weeks to sell the deadwood to non-Premier League teams abroad. Admittedly, there may be a lack of interest and these clubs will likely lower their prices knowing our squad is too big in places.

Not too sure why Rojo to Everton hasn't reached it's conclusion. Seemed nailed on. Everton even shared a pic of him from one of their social media accounts. Could tie this up in a couple of days if all parties wanted to.
 
One week before the window closes and it doesn't look like we are even close to finishing any deal. Seems there's a good chance we won't even get this one signing Mourinho mentioned with the reports about interest cooled in Maguire.

Underwhelming feeling.
 
el3mel said:
One week before the window closes and it doesn't look like we are even close to finishing any deal. Seems there's a good chance we won't even get this one signing Mourinho mentioned with the reports about interest cooled in Maguire.

Underwhelming feeling.
Click to expand...

Indeed.
The excuse by a lot of people (which I did not buy) was the WC.
Now that that is long gone and we only have 1 week left, those people have gone quiet as they also accept that things are bad.
Unfortunately, because this is being run as a business, top 4 appears to be the target. And given that Jose should be able to get top 4 with the current squad, they see no need to spend any money.
Now, regarding getting rid of the deadwood - because we can still sell these players to foreign clubs, Woodward, probably does not see the urgency as the transfer window closes in about 1 month.
 
Have to assume something is going to happen today. Wishful thinking, but it’s already so late in the window.

If it goes to next week, it will surely have to be from teams outside the PL. I can’t imagine a club selling without sufficient cover with less than a week to go.
 
Less than a week to go and all we read is that we're exploring the possibility of players.

Really get the impression that this window wasn't brilliantly planned.
 
I think we'll get a CB in and that'll be it. If someone at the start of the summer said our big signing after the WC would be a CB, I'd have laughed very very nervously.
 
Strange transfer market situation right now. Very little movement in the PL. Maybe even the big teams don't want to pay the huge transfer fees anymore and other teams trying to hold out because they know the English transfer window closes in a week? Still I would have expected us, Chelsea and maybe even Arsenal to make a big push in trying to close the gap to City. It's really weird right now.
 
Madrid have also been awfully quiet this season. They have sold Ronaldo but are nowhere close to replacing him. Courtois is the only player that they look like getting at the moment. Odriozola and the Brazilian kids won't make any immediate impact on the team.
 
AgentP said:
Madrid have also been awfully quiet this season. They have sold Ronaldo but are nowhere close to replacing him. Courtois is the only player that they look like getting at the moment. Odriozola and the Brazilian kids won't make any immediate impact on the team.
Click to expand...

Indeed quite interesting that there seems to be no news at all regarding a deal for Hazard, Neymar or Mbappe, I was sure they would make a big push this summer for either one of these 3.
 
AgentP said:
Madrid have also been awfully quiet this season. They have sold Ronaldo but are nowhere close to replacing him. Courtois is the only player that they look like getting at the moment. Odriozola and the Brazilian kids won't make any immediate impact on the team.
Click to expand...

They haven't spent much money in the last few seasons from memory.
 
The entire transfer window has been so quiet so far yet still delivered the biggest bomb of the recent years with Ronaldo moving to Juventus. I expect a lot of activity in England to be done just before the transfer deadline, it’s really strange how none of the top teams aside from Liverpool have really done much. City, Chelsea and United all got one big player each (Mahrez, Jorginho and Fred) and those are not players that will completely change the picture of those teams either. Arsenal have been moderately active but haven’t set the world alight with their activity either and Spurs haven’t got anybody. This is really baffling as all teams in the league have clear weaknesses to address, including City who have CL ambitions but were shown up big time last season.

Liverpool are honestly the only top team in England who can say they have tried their best to get better and got their targets.
 
Judas said:
I think we'll get a CB in and that'll be it. If someone at the start of the summer said our big signing after the WC would be a CB, I'd have laughed very very nervously.
Click to expand...

I'm doubting that we will even get a CB.
 
really expected massive transfers from the top 6 in the prem, well maybe not so much city but thought they would have brought in more then 1, Liverpool and Arsenal have been busy an improved there squads but its like the others have furgot the window is shutting early. either going to be a poor window for most clubs or a lot of transfers in this week.
 
AgentP said:
Madrid have also been awfully quiet this season. They have sold Ronaldo but are nowhere close to replacing him. Courtois is the only player that they look like getting at the moment. Odriozola and the Brazilian kids won't make any immediate impact on the team.
Click to expand...

Madrid are waiting for the EPL transfer window to close.
Once this happens, they will have no competition when making bids.
Remember, the EPL has the most money, so it's best to start bidding on players once the richest clubs in the World (ie. EPL clubs) are not permitted to take part in the bidding war.
Once the EPL transfer window shuts, I predict Madrid will start acting.
 
It is strange we left it so late. And instead of buying players we need, it looks like we will have to keep deadwood like Darmian and Fellaini signs a new contract. We still have not cleaned up and added quality
 
I'm fascinated to know what's gone on behind the scenes this summer, I wonder if it really is a simple case of us not being able to get the targets we wanted. If not, why not.
 
I think the bubble has burst with transfers and not just at United. Clubs/agents/players are simply asking for too much these days. Its just not sustainable. You could buy a whole club for some of the transfer fees from the last year or so.
 
royboy16 said:
Looks to be the case.
Click to expand...

Does anyone knows how much is our wage budget? We are probably hitting the ceiling on this department. According to the sources I have, we are paying almost as much in wages as Man City, which is quite abismal comparing the squads! If anyone can confirm or reject this information, it would be welcome.
 
André Dominguez said:
Does anyone knows how much is our wage budget? We are probably hitting the ceiling on this department. According to the sources I have, we are apying almost as much in wages and Man City. If anyone can confirm or reject this information, it would be welcome.
Click to expand...

Our current wages to turnover is 45%, the lowest in the league. Liverpool's is about 60% and City's is around 54%. We're no way near our capacity for wages. We need a big squad to compete for the Premier League and the Champions League and we're currently not investing close to enough to match City and Real.
 
VanGaalyTime said:
Our current wages to turnover is 45%, the lowest in the league. Liverpool's is about 60% and City's is around 54%. We're no way near our capacity for wages. We need a big squad to compete for the Premier League and the Champions League and we're currently not investing close to enough to match City and Real.
Click to expand...

So, our turnover is that large? I'm shocked in a good way, since us and City are the highest payers.
 
Sassy Colin said:
City's made up turnover :lol:

Wages to turnover less than Liverpool, a club with Worldwide support vs one that has 3 men, a dog and the Oasis brothers as supporters.
Click to expand...

You will get shit loads of alerts saying how genuine their revenue is and how genuine their commercial revenue is too which is as much as Bayern's and Barca's IIRC.
 
grahamo said:
I think the bubble has burst with transfers and not just at United. Clubs/agents/players are simply asking for too much these days. Its just not sustainable. You could buy a whole club for some of the transfer fees from the last year or so.
Click to expand...

I think there might be something to that, look at how much Liverpool payed to improve their squad, all with players who are no where near super stars. Now add to this that almost all other English top teams have done fairly little business at all, which really might be down to the fact that most clubs now ask for 60M+ for every decent player with potential, which is just crazy money, despite all the PL TV-deal money.
 
There are a couple of issues at play that I think all PL clubs are dealing with - 1 is the shorter window with prices being asked multiplied when a Pl club comes in (Rebic). 2 is the fact that the big TV companies are losing their contracts. More and more streaming options becoming available is reducing the big broadcast markets. Many clubs could be worried that the TV money is being reduced and over-extending themselves this summer could cause significant financial issues in the next few years. Companies such as Amazon are entering the marketplace, but legal streaming will take a few years to ramp up. (Even Netflix and Youtube (Google) struggle to make a significant profit currently on streaming).

I wouldn't put it past Real, PSG or (hopefully) United making a big deal this summer, but many clubs seem to be holding back and I'm sure it's not JUST the World Cup that's the problem and it's more to do with financial trends across the sport - increasing player power - wages/player and agent fees out of control - uncertain TV future.
 
Interesting piece from Andy Mitten
http://www.espn.co.uk/football/club...-out-of-time-to-boost-manchester-united-squad

Seems to me that the financial power in the Premier League means you can't buy easily from them, and every other league doubles its prices when a PL team comes calling. It makes no financial sense to blow silly money on potentially past their peak players. As Mitten says, it has to be a youth development thing. Buy the best players you can get in the 16 to 19 range and then do your best to mature them along with home growns.
 
backofthenet said:
Interesting piece from Andy Mitten
http://www.espn.co.uk/football/club...-out-of-time-to-boost-manchester-united-squad

Seems to me that the financial power in the Premier League means you can't buy easily from them, and every other league doubles its prices when a PL team comes calling. It makes no financial sense to blow silly money on potentially past their peak players. As Mitten says, it has to be a youth development thing. Buy the best players you can get in the 16 to 19 range and then do your best to mature them along with home growns.
Click to expand...

This is an excellent long term strategy.
But does it mean that we should just give up on the league title and trophies for the next 5-10 years, until we have a crop of academy graduates who are elite level and capable of winning trophies?
In the real World, if we want to maintain top 4, most of the players in our team will continue to be players bought from other clubs.
What happens in 5-10 years, will be dealt with in the future, but we have to think about the here and now.
 
Sassy Colin said:
Yes, lets piss £200M up the wall, great!
Click to expand...

I'd rather the money be used to strengthen our squad than be used to strengthen the bank balance of the Glazers.
We should not become a club like Arsenal, where we hire a manager like Wenger, who gets us top 4, on a meagre budget and make millions for the club's owners.
 
sunama said:
This is an excellent long term strategy.
But does it mean that we should just give up on the league title and trophies for the next 5-10 years, until we have a crop of academy graduates who are elite level and capable of winning trophies?
In the real World, if we want to maintain top 4, most of the players in our team will continue to be players bought from other clubs.
What happens in 5-10 years, will be dealt with in the future, but we have to think about the here and now.
Click to expand...
But as you've seen, pretty much everyone is struggling to buy players at the 23 - 27 range. No one wants to let them go. Because global scouting is that much better generally, you don't get the gems at lower league / cash strapped clubs typically in that age range. They're all snapped up when 18 and stockpiled (see Chelsea). Real Madrid cannot currently replace their all time goal scorer. It's not for want of trying, but who can they buy? We can't find a top class, coming into his prime central defender, let alone a right winger or left back. They're all at wealthy, no need to sell, clubs, and under long term contracts. We can't snap our fingers and expect them to just let us buy their best players, just like Real Madrid can't now either. Barca too. The players that are available are either unproven or at the end of their prime, and even then are at an extortionate fee. I cannot blame the club for being rightly cautious of that.
No one expects us to just give up on the title, and I don't think that we are doing that. I would expect the players to give their all, and Mourinho too. We might just have to take a longer term view of it.
 
Absolutely nothing happening. And I doubt we get any news on a weekend, but who knows. Really weak window so far.

If this ends up with just Dalot, Fred, and Grant I'll be pretty mad.
 
If there are not transfers and Jose is really desperate for a ball playing defender then play Matic as a 3rd centre-half and promote Pereira in his position. Matic is ideally suited to defend and also bringing the ball out from defence. In easier games, both Matic and Periera would be able to take more advanced positions.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.