Your Hidden Gems or under the radar - Wanted Signings

daba said:
I actually think its more like 7 we need based on the likely outgoings: 1 x top striker, 2 x wingbacks, 1 x CM, 1 x AM, 1 x CB and 1 x GK.

Based on yesterday I wouldnt be surprised if Zirkzee starts playing as an AM regularly. I also think we need two wingbacks unless we see the Paraguayan kid coming in straight away, and another AM as I see us parting ways with Garnacho in the summer.

Cheap / Free signings we can look at across those positions:

ST - Jonathan David (I personally think we need better but he's an option)
WB - Lamptey, Reguilon, Walker-Peters (all quite underwhelming but no worse than Dalot)
CM - Angel Gomes, Anguissa, Norgaard
AM - Angel Gomes, Nypan (10-15m), Bardghji (10m)
CB - Ola Aina (could play as a wide CB), Jonathan Tah, Boscagli
GK - Kovar (buy-back)

If we can get at least 3 out of the 7 signings needed from this pile, with the other 4 ranging between £30-60m we can certainly do the necessary business IMO.

My personal picks would be Lamptey or Reguilon for WB, Anguissa or Angel Gomes at CM, Boscagli at CB (as Tah feels unrealistic) and Nypan or Bardghji as AMs
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Lamptey would partner Mount perfectly, as a crock.
 
While I like the youth movement and finding signings off the radar, this squad clearly needs some proven talent: Kerkez, Mbuemo and Cunha would be a fantastic start imo, and if it requires selling off Garnacho we should absolutely do it.
 
Giggsy13 said:
While I like the youth movement and finding signings off the radar, this squad clearly needs some proven talent: Kerkez, Mbuemo and Cunha would be a fantastic start imo, and if it requires selling off Garnacho we should absolutely do it.
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It feels to me to be extreme cost cutting first and foremost given all that's happening with INEOS. Let's see what they actually do in the summer regarding senior players. If this is the new way I can see us struggling for a few years as we search for new stars. I would really like to hear that we've upped our game majorly with data asap. I don't know why we've let that slide so badly
 
Ali Dia said:
It feels to me to be extreme cost cutting first and foremost given all that's happening with INEOS. Let's see what they actually do in the summer regarding senior players. If this is the new way I can see us struggling for a few years as we search for new stars. I would really like to hear that we've upped our game majorly with data asap. I don't know why we've let that slide so badly
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I don't even think we've let anything slip. We just came to it about 10/15 years behind the smart clubs. Remember hearing Ted Knutsen from Statsbomb talking about how far behind United were in data about five years ago on his podcast and him saying that it was going to be very difficult to ever catch up with the liverpools, City's and Brightons even back then. It's kind of nuts because these guys compared to players are so cheap but they pay for themselves if they're really good.
 
Bojan Djordjic said:
I don't even think we've let anything slip. We just came to it about 10/15 years behind the smart clubs. Remember hearing Ted Knutsen from Statsbomb talking about how far behind United were in data about five years ago on his podcast and him saying that it was going to be very difficult to ever catch up with the liverpools, City's and Brightons even back then. It's kind of nuts because these guys compared to players are so cheap but they pay for themselves if they're really good.
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Whilst I agree with the sentiment it's not that difficult to catch up since United can simply offer the data teams at clubs like Brighton/Brentford more money than they're currently getting paid and accelerate the process.

United shouldn't be starting from scratch they should just be poaching top talent from elsewhere.
 
FlawlessVictory88 said:
Whilst I agree with the sentiment it's not that difficult to catch up since United can simply offer the data teams at clubs like Brighton/Brentford more money than they're currently getting paid and accelerate the process.

United shouldn't be starting from scratch they should just be poaching top talent from elsewhere.
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"should" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this post. So far we see no movement that looks like it should.
 
FlawlessVictory88 said:
Whilst I agree with the sentiment it's not that difficult to catch up since United can simply offer the data teams at clubs like Brighton/Brentford more money than they're currently getting paid and accelerate the process.

United shouldn't be starting from scratch they should just be poaching top talent from elsewhere.
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Well Ted Knutsen who literally founded statsbomb disagrees with you and try poaching the billionaire owners of Brighton and Brentford because it’s them and their professional gambling models that are behind their success.
 
stefan92 said:
"should" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this post. So far we see no movement that looks like it should.
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Mark Critchley of the Athletic wrote a piece recently about this subject and there is a team in place now.
Bojan Djordjic said:
Well Ted Knutsen who literally founded statsbomb disagrees with you and try poaching the billionaire owners of Brighton and Brentford because it’s them and their professional gambling models that are behind their success.
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Where does he disagree with me?

The billionaire owners aren't processing the data or writing the algorithms, they hire staff for this and those members of staff are very gettable.
 
You don't need data to sign players. You don't need a team of blokes in a room crunching stats. We know this because great teams were constructed without it for decades.

We also knows this because your average fan could have put together a better team than United's recruitment had over the last decade.
 
Marwood said:
You don't need data to sign players. You don't need a team of blokes in a room crunching stats. We know this because great teams were constructed without it for decades.

We also knows this because your average fan could have put together a better team than United's recruitment had over the last decade.
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Those teams weren't competing against sides who had access to such data.

United are competing against teams who have access to incredibly powerful data which is being used very effectively by our main rivals, namely Liverpool.

This is like saying we don't need computer simulations or data to design our Formula 1 cars and we know this because great cars that won titles were constructed with it for decades.

It's sheer ignorance to think that data isn't incredibly important.
 
FlawlessVictory88 said:
Those teams weren't competing against sides who had access to such data.

United are competing against teams who have access to incredibly powerful data which is being used very effectively by our main rivals, namely Liverpool.

This is like saying we don't need computer simulations or data to design our Formula 1 cars and we know this because great cars that won titles were constructed with it for decades.

It's sheer ignorance to think that data isn't incredibly important.
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Have the data I'm just saying there's no panic because we apparently behind on that. You can still put together a very good team with general scouting.

Look at the talent identified from guys on here over and over again.

I barely watch football and couldn't believe the club didn't move for Dembele, Mané or Van Dijk. Same with Haaland.
 
Ayyoub Bouaddi - another young diamond that is coming out of the Lille academy. Youngest player to feature in Champions league and second youngest player to record an assist in Ligue 1. Held his own against the Madrid midfield when they played Lille in the group stages. He's only 17 but tall, so will grow into his body as he gets older. He's a good dribbler, physical, good passing ability and is already showing strong defensive characteristics. He could play as a DM or B2B midfielder but I think he will develop as a deep lying playmaker. While I don't think we should be chasing a lot of really young players, when good young players with world class ability pop up, you have to back the talent and go for them. We have a talent deficit at the club, so we need to get more players with potential world class ability into the squad. A lot of big clubs are shadowing him, so if we have the budget in the summer, I would buy him and keep him at Lille on loan for another season or send him to Nice. He would be the long term Erikksen replacement and he would be a good long term partner for Ugarte, Mainoo or Kone such is his skillset. A bit like Warren Zaire Emery who can play with any midfield partner.
 
What about Damsgaard?

He’s been in great form this season. He’s pretty versatile to.
 
Been impressed with Ryan Flamingo last couple of times I've seen PSV.
 
Yoro said:
Been impressed with Ryan Flamingo last couple of times I've seen PSV.
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I don't remember seeing him the one other time I've caught a PSV game this year, but obviously he stood out last night. Roulette in the 119th minute or whatever was a real "well I guess this guy isn't as tired mentally or physically as the other guys out there" moment.

Boscagli looked good in a Brighton CB sort of "very comfortable on the ball, good decisions defensively, is he strong or fast enough to be a top defender?" sort of way. Should be a genuine bidding war for him on a free, since he's left-footed. If the wages aren't crazy, that would save us some money we could then use elsewhere, and he might be a fairly strong option at either CCB or LCB since he looks like he can pass and read play, which we aren't exactly stocked with in the middle, so if 2 of Mazroaui/Yoro/Lisandro are the wide CBs he could still start.
 
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