Wot, no transfers?

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Well I was really hoping when we signed Jose that we would avoid the type of meltdown that I think we'll see this season. The focus on a CB has been misplaced, but it gives Jose the ammo he needs to be miserable. He is either unwilling or unable to get the best out of our attackers, which is what the real problem with the team is atm. The entire tactic seems to be defend as a team with no plan going forward other than to rely on individuals to have a brilliant moment or two somewhere in the match to score. When that doesn't work, we sub on fluffy and go route 1.

His relationship with Pogba won't improve as the season goes on, especially if we're out of the title race once again by the holidays.

I think one of the best outcomes we can hope for this year is that Jose doesn't alienate our best players to the point that we sell someone like Pogba in January and that after he quits/gets sacked after the season we're not worse off than we were 3 years ago.

And I was a huge Jose fan prior to this. I never liked his tactics per se, but I respected that he got results at the highest levels and weeded out weak minded players. But it seems the old Jose is gone and all that is left is this bitter man.
 
PieCrust said:
Well I was really hoping when we signed Jose that we would avoid the type of meltdown that I think we'll see this season. The focus on a CB has been misplaced, but it gives Jose the ammo he needs to be miserable. He is either unwilling or unable to get the best out of our attackers, which is what the real problem with the team is atm. The entire tactic seems to be defend as a team with no plan going forward other than to rely on individuals to have a brilliant moment or two somewhere in the match to score. When that doesn't work, we sub on fluffy and go route 1.

His relationship with Pogba won't improve as the season goes on, especially if we're out of the title race once again by the holidays.

I think one of the best outcomes we can hope for this year is that Jose doesn't alienate our best players to the point that we sell someone like Pogba in January and that after he quits/gets sacked after the season we're not worse off than we were 3 years ago.

And I was a huge Jose fan prior to this. I never liked his tactics per se, but I respected that he got results at the highest levels and weeded out weak minded players. But it seems the old Jose is gone and all that is left is this bitter man.
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It seems that any manager working with United in the past 6-7 years has lost his mind. I mean look at their track record. SAF brought the likes of Young, Smalling, Jones, Valencia and Cleverley to replace absolute stars like Giggs, Scholes, Rio, Vidic and Ronaldo. Moyes landed Fellaini. LVG ended up bringing in a horde of 3rd rated players most of whom were either Dutch players or former players, then went on relying on kids such as Mcfail who were nowhere near to EPL level. Now we've got Mourinho whose getting more miserable by the hour.

Now we have two options. We can keep blaming the managers, most of whom proven ones who won so many things throughout their careers. Else we can admit that maybe, just maybe the fault lies elsewhere ie to a club whose more obsessed with sponsors then actual honours.
 
this could actually be Woodward not wanting to bring anyone in to annoy Mourinho enough he leaves. Maybe Ed is fed up with the football being played and wants to see Jose self destruct again.
 
AbusementPark said:
this could actually be Woodward not wanting to bring anyone in to annoy Mourinho enough he leaves. Maybe Ed is fed up with the football being played and wants to see Jose self destruct again.
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then why on earth did he offer him a new contract just few months ago?
 
AbusementPark said:
everyone makes mistakes
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He did the same with LVG and Rojo (whose on his way out). So maybe, just maybe, Woodward is not a very good CEO. Don't take me wrong, he's absolute lethal in terms of sponsorships. I mean, if only we sign a decent player every time we sign a sponsorship then we'll probably be better then Real Madrid. Yet in terms of football he seem not to have a clue or it isn't really his priority at all
 
devilish said:
He did the same with LVG and Rojo (whose on his way out). So maybe, just maybe, Woodward is not a very good CEO. Don't take me wrong, he's absolute lethal in terms of sponsorships. I mean, if only we sign a decent player every time we sign a sponsorship then we'll probably be better then Real Madrid. Yet in terms of football he seem not to have a clue or it isn't really his priority at all
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Good point, hes great at getting sponsors in but as you say not the best record at getting players in. Itll be interesting to hear Mourinhos presser this morning, could save us all from hitting the F5 button repeatedly
 
AbusementPark said:
this could actually be Woodward not wanting to bring anyone in to annoy Mourinho enough he leaves. Maybe Ed is fed up with the football being played and wants to see Jose self destruct again.
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I’m sure Ed doesn’t give a shit about the football. I’ll bet he’s not a football fan. If a manager is getting him Champions League comfortably and for the 2nd year out of 2, he will be happy.

We really must question if that is why we haven’t signed many players. They are happy with top 4 and think we will make it again. Little ambition to win the league I feel.
 
I think the hold up is from Tottenham's side. They are trying to secure a replacement first and their bid has been rejected by Aston villa for Jack Grealish as a result they are holding up on Toby.
 
Smores said:
Over the summer it's gone from "we're boring against the big clubs" to "every game is shite". It clearly isn't the case, we were poor to watch in about a quarter of our games at most in my opinion. Shouldn't be that many of course but let's not exaggerate.
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Definitely nearer the other way round. We were dreadful in well over half our season.
 
whatwha said:
Sanchez with 5 months left on his contract was not worth the same as Mkhi.

No I'm not making up the fees. It was reported at the time. They were obscene.

Signing Sanchez was terrible business.
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You are right - we would have been lucky to get £15m for Miki at the time, a player who had one great season in 5, and who was utterly useless for us.

We shall see what Sanchez can do this summer - let’s pretend he’s a new signing.

If we sign Toby/Maguire today, add in Fred, Dalot and Sanchez - then that’s pretty good.
 
Patrick08 said:
I think the hold up is from Tottenham's side. They are trying to secure a replacement first and their bid has been rejected by Aston villa for Jack Grealish as a result they are holding up on Toby.
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Hes an attacking midfielder as a replacement for a cb. I cant imagine the 2 are linked at all
 
devilish said:
He did the same with LVG and Rojo (whose on his way out). So maybe, just maybe, Woodward is not a very good CEO. Don't take me wrong, he's absolute lethal in terms of sponsorships. I mean, if only we sign a decent player every time we sign a sponsorship then we'll probably be better then Real Madrid. Yet in terms of football he seem not to have a clue or it isn't really his priority at all
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Come on.

You can’t just blame Woodward.

Mourinho needs to take the blame. We have about six centre backs on the books, two of which he signed. It’s obvious logic he needs to get rid of one before buying another one. He also hasn’t really got the best out of the two he signed.

Why did he go from wanting a left back to wanting another centre back as priority? Surely left back is the priority unless he thinks Young and Shaw are good enough. Which they not.

Mourinho wants to sign 29 year olds Perisic and Willian. What happens when he pisses off in a few years time? Ok he doesn’t wanna sign kids. But surely there are 25-26 year olds out there who are good enough to play on the wing for us. Why didn’t he go for someone like Douglas Costa last season?

Woodwards actually done us a favour. If it was up to Mourinho, Martial would be at Chelsea whilst Willian would be at Man Utd.

I’m not a big fan of Woodward, but he’s not the sole reason we in this position. LVG spunked a lot of money on shite with nobody controlling him.
 
I think Jose knows exactly what he's doing, all the negativity that the media is insinuating these days is the total opposite of the actual situation. Yeah, I think everything is bullshit even that relation crap about him and Pogba.

He and our lads know exactly where they stand and they will certainly give a real go to the premierleague and champions league.
 
Tincanalley said:
Kevin Palmer (Sunday World/Indo) explains the lack of transfer action post WC as a battle of wills between owners and Jose, centred on Jose’s desire to offload Martial.

Comment: Jose Mourinho tested the waters with Anthony Martial - and now he knows where he stands at Man United
https://www.independent.ie/sport/so...s-where-he-stands-at-man-united-37197025.html
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I think there is something to this. I think all the media hubbub about Jose, 3 year syndrome, likes tall players, very defensive and any other story that gets bandied about is not actually something that would get you sacked / sour the relationship with players or a chief executive / chairman.

The one thing that however will consistently get you sacked in any company is relentlessly pointing out the errors made by your boss and not giving them anywhere to hide.

I can see that Jose has been putting the pressure on Ed with public statements of lists / expectations of signatures, similar to his "eggs" speech of a few years ago. However if he highlights that Ed made a mistake in going out on a limb for Martial then that could end his career at United.

If Ed can think of Martial as an LVG signing then he may let it pass. However if, as I suspect, he has been crowing about his "foresight" in investing in Martial before the market took off, then casting him aside now will seem like a very public kick in the teeth for Ed. Events today will be significant, but so will the long drawn out wait for Europe's transfer window to close.

If Mourinho doesn't get who he wants, then I can see him playing a clearly disgruntled Martial in the games we have while that window is open to highlight this, driving his value down rather than up.

Feels like we are at a massive turning point for the club and I'm not sure who is right here.
 
Just don't buy for the sake of it. We should be targeting our signings months before we try for them. If it doesn't come off, then so be it. Rojo isn't that bad that we need to panic buy.
 
If we're about to buy Kurz Zouma, then we rather not buy anyone. Try some players in January (which is usually difficult) and then buy someone top quality next summer - just with a better transfer strategy
 
Escobar said:
If we're about to buy Kurz Zouma, then we rather not buy anyone. Try some players in January (which is usually difficult) and then buy someone top quality next summer - just with a better transfer strategy
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Similar thing has been said many times. We should only buy players who will upgrade our starting XI. Our squad is bloated with mediocre players. That was never more apparent than last year when we signed Lindelof. We are just repeating the same mistakes and cr*p every year.
 
red4ever 79 said:
Similar thing has been said many times. We should only buy players who will upgrade our starting XI. Our squad is bloated with mediocre players. That was never more apparent than last year when we signed Lindelof. We are just repeating the same mistakes and cr*p every year.
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Lindelof is an acceptable signing given his age and potential for growth. Players like Kurzawa and boateng are risks that just aren't worth taking.
 
How are we all feeling today then? At least Utd have signed a couple of players! I honestly have no clue if Spurs will end up with a single signing. Cacking myself.
 
Bojan11 said:
Come on.

You can’t just blame Woodward.

Mourinho needs to take the blame. We have about six centre backs on the books, two of which he signed. It’s obvious logic he needs to get rid of one before buying another one. He also hasn’t really got the best out of the two he signed.

Why did he go from wanting a left back to wanting another centre back as priority? Surely left back is the priority unless he thinks Young and Shaw are good enough. Which they not.

Mourinho wants to sign 29 year olds Perisic and Willian. What happens when he pisses off in a few years time? Ok he doesn’t wanna sign kids. But surely there are 25-26 year olds out there who are good enough to play on the wing for us. Why didn’t he go for someone like Douglas Costa last season?

Woodwards actually done us a favour. If it was up to Mourinho, Martial would be at Chelsea whilst Willian would be at Man Utd.

I’m not a big fan of Woodward, but he’s not the sole reason we in this position. LVG spunked a lot of money on shite with nobody controlling him.
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We had four managers in less then a decade.

a- SAF, a pro decorated manager, totally world class and proven. He built 3 magnificent sides, he won everything there is to win and he developed some of the finest kids in Europe. Yet,the last squad he developed was a mess as top players were systematically replaced with very average ones.

b- Moyes was the weakest of the lot. He was still EPL proven though, he had SAF's endorsement and he had built a decent reputation in doing well with limited resources. He asked for Fabregas and ended up with Fellaini.

c- Moyes was succeeded with LVG. He might have shown signs of age but he was still one of the most experienced, respected and decorated managers in the world. Both Mou and Pep benefited greatly from their tutorship under him. He came to United and he left a mess as United repeatedly bought sub standard players. By the end of his campaign the so called biggest club in the world had just 1 WC player ie DDG and he wanted out

d- Now we've got Mou, the second best manager the EPL has ever had. This man won the CL with frigging Porto, he won the treble with possibly the worst managed club in the world and went on winning in Spain, Italy and England. Guess what, similarly to all others he seem to lose his mind.

Which makes me wonder, how many top managers are we going to throw under the bus until we accept the obvious? We are talking here of people with a combined record of 5 CLs, a horde of league titles in top leagues (Germany, Italy, Spain, England, Holland) and god know how many cup wins. Did they all turned shite with us?

Don't take me wrong, its difficult for me to admit it. That means proving myself wrong throughout 12 years of posting in here. God knows how many times I criticised SAF for his value strategy, I ridiculed Moyes for signing Failini and asking LVG's head on a plate. However lightening doesn't hit the same place twice let alone 4 times. Serial winners tend to win yet they seem to lose their touch and their brains with us. How that is even possible? Is it down to them or is it down to the club who is so incompetent that they push their manager to dig deep in their list? How many times have we seen Sir Alex stating that he wants 4 players only to commit a compete U-Turn and claim he's 'happy with the squad'? That's the scenario Mou is facing right now, the same scenario Moyes faced when the club failed in bringing him the players he wanted and he ended with just Fellaini.
 
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K2K said:
The fact that it was just a 1 year extension speaks volumes though .
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It does. LVG was ancient and he was eager to retire. He was doing a favour to a club who was begging him to stay.
 
balaks said:
How are we all feeling today then? At least Utd have signed a couple of players! I honestly have no clue if Spurs will end up with a single signing. Cacking myself.
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Mass hysteria it seems. Personally I kinda lost interest when I found out we’re not going for fullbacks or a RW but going for CB instead. So I don’t really mind if we sign no one else today.

If I’m not wrong clubs can still register players on loan till the 31. And these loans with an obligation to buy are becoming more common place. So it’s not even really over today.

What do you feel you need at Spurs? Long term replacements for Toby and Dembele I assume?
 
K2K said:
I'm talking about only giving Jose a one year extension.

As for Van Gaal. That was a poor decision in hindsight.
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If we gave Jose a 1 year extension knowing that we won't back him in the transfer market then that is also a poor decision. As you said LVG's contract was a poor decision too same as giving Moyes a 6 year contract. It seems that our club can't stop committing bad decisions and yet, for some people in here, its our proven managers fault that they can win everywhere they go but not with us. Its also SAF fault that he left a poor side behind too
 
devilish said:
We had four managers in less then a decade.

a- SAF, a pro decorated manager, totally world class and proven. He built 3 magnificent sides, he won everything there is to win and he developed some of the finest kids in Europe. Yet,the last squad he developed was a mess as top players were systematically replaced with very average ones.

b- Moyes was the weakest of the lot. He was still EPL proven though, he had SAF's endorsement and he had built a decent reputation in doing well with limited resources. He asked for Fabregas and ended up with Fellaini.

c- Moyes was succeeded with LVG. He might have shown signs of age but he was still one of the most experienced, respected and decorated managers in the world. Both Mou and Pep benefited greatly from their tutorship under him. He came to United and he left a mess as United repeatedly bought sub standard players. By the end of his campaign the so called biggest club in the world had just 1 WC player ie DDG and he wanted out

d- Now we've got Mou, the second best manager the EPL has ever had. This man won the CL with frigging Porto, he won the treble with possibly the worst managed club in the world and went on winning in Spain, Italy and England. Guess what, similarly to all others he seem to lose his mind.

Which makes me wonder, how many top managers are we going to throw under the bus until we accept the obvious? We are talking here of people with a combined record of 5 CLs, a horde of league titles in top leagues (Germany, Italy, Spain, England, Holland) and god know how many cup wins. Did they all turned shite with us?

Don't take me wrong, its difficult for me to admit it. That means proving myself wrong throughout 12 years of posting in here. God knows how many times I criticised SAF for his value strategy, I ridiculed Moyes for signing Failini and asking LVG's head on a plate. However lightening doesn't hit the same place twice let alone 4 times. Serial winners tend to win yet they seem to lose their touch and their brains with us. How that is even possible? Is it down to them or is it down to the club who is so incompetent that they push their manager to dig deep in their list? How many times have we seen Sir Alex stating that he wants 4 players only to commit a compete U-Turn and claim he's 'happy with the squad'? That's the scenario Mou is facing right now, the same scenario Moyes faced when the club failed in bringing him the players he wanted and he ended with just Fellaini.
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Every manager wants more and better players - that’s the most obvious thing to point out in the world.

Just because Jose wants a particular player, doesn’t mean that the club they are at wants to sell, that the player wants to come or that he’s affordable.

Having said that, this club has gone to massive lengths to push the boat out and spend £500+ million in 5 years.

There needs to be some restraint, that’s not to say if the right player becomes available we won’t buy them, but we need to stop spending massive amount of monies on players who are no better or marginally better that what we have.

How many top players have moved this summer? Very few, there is no need to spend for the sake of it and buy more squad players - we already have a massive squad of good players and a few great ones.

With the exception of Mahrez, I can’t say I’ve looked enviously at any other signing made in the PL
 
MadMike said:
Mass hysteria it seems. Personally I kinda lost interest when I found out we’re not going for fullbacks or a RW but going for CB instead. So I don’t really mind if we sign no one else today.

If I’m not wrong clubs can still register players on loan till the 31. And these loans with an obligation to buy are becoming more common place. So it’s not even really over today.

What do you feel you need at Spurs? Long term replacements for Toby and Dembele I assume?
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I could be very wrong, but I believe that’s the case for the Football League, but for the PL, the transfer window and the loan window close today.
 
devilish said:
If we gave Jose a 1 year extension knowing that we won't back him in the transfer market then that is also a poor decision. As you said LVG's contract was a poor decision too same as giving Moyes a 6 year contract. It seems that our club can't stop committing bad decisions and yet, for some people in here, its our proven managers fault that they can win everywhere they go but not with us. Its also SAF fault that he left a poor side behind too
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I think Jose has been backed.

This is just a difficult market at the moment especially with too much money in the English game so very few want to sell and the world cup and early closing of the window .
 
ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg said:
Every manager wants more and better players - that’s the most obvious thing to point out in the world.

Just because Jose wants a particular player, doesn’t mean that the club they are at wants to sell, that the player wants to come or that he’s affordable.

Having said that, this club has gone to massive lengths to push the boat out and spend £500+ million in 5 years.

There needs to be some restraint, that’s not to say if the right player becomes available we won’t buy them, but we need to stop spending massive amount of monies on players who are no better or marginally better that what we have.

How many top players have moved this summer? Very few, there is no need to spend for the sake of it and buy more squad players - we already have a massive squad of good players and a few great ones.

With the exception of Mahrez, I can’t say I’ve looked enviously at any other signing made in the PL
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True. However we're talking here about proven managers, with decades of experience, who won everything there is to win. Yet they won everything everywhere yet, they systematically fail with us. If there's something SAF was good at was building great sides from scratch. He built the double double squad, the treble squad and he did it again with the third treble squad. Yet, he failed under the Glazers as top players were systematically replaced with, well, mostly tripe.

So I wonder. Could it be the case that maybe just maybe, these people hasn't lost their mind while at us and that the common denominator is at fault here? I mean I do remember an old article about Tampa bay which basically said the same thing.
 
K2K said:
I think Jose has been backed.

This is just a difficult market at the moment especially with too much money in the English game so very few want to sell and the world cup and early closing of the window .
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I think we've got an extremely incompetent board who puts profit above anything else, then throw their proven managers under the bus when they fail. I wonder how many proven managers we'll keep finding willing to be used as a scapegoat for their incompetence.
 
devilish said:
I think we've got an extremely incompetent board who puts profit above anything else, then throw their proven managers under the bus when they fail. I wonder how many proven managers we'll keep finding willing to be used as a scapegoat for their incompetence.
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Jose is the first competent manager we have hired.

And I would argue that he isn't good as he used to be.

I'm not defending the board. But this is the case of two rotten apples rather than one.
 
So that’s been confirmed no new transfers today, need to rethink closing the window early.
 
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