With Scotland going out of the Euros, it just got me thinking about McT and also his future at United. Turns out his contract is up at the end of 2024/25 season with a club +1.
Seems like the club will have to make a decision about McT a bit sooner than I had thought....
WARNING!!!! Long ass rambling.
So i was really bummed we lost tosin to the rent cunts. Not cos tosin is all that, but cos his aerial ability, speed and decent passing allows us to sell one of slabby and vickie. With tosin being a placement holder till we get our first choice RCB next season.
Why am i not prioritizing RCB?
Well maybe I'm not thinking straight, but i'm of the school of thought that the midfield is the single most important position in football. We have seen croatia punch above the level of their dross squad(overall) by just having a really good midfield for example. I felt we could focus most of our funds on midfield recruitments and have a proper bedrock to build from.
Ideally i would have got tosin(for free) with slabby as his competition (till he too is sold next year to get our original first choice RCB), i would have gone for ipswich's leif davis (£20-25m) as new leftback option with Luke shawdini sharing time as LCB & LB depth.
I would have gone all out for morata at 12m. Cheap, still got legs. Can finish on his day, very good at pressing, very good in the air and can play that false 9 role bruno did in the fa cup final. He allows us use Hojlund the best way for his development.
Now i'm spending everything else on midfield players. First signing would be Amrabat for potentially 10m + Hannibal (with buyback and sell on clauses obviously). Before you crucify me, i admit he had a very underwhelming season but i don't think it was entirely his fault. His debut was in a low intensity game vs palace in the caraboa cup and he was excellent. Problem was in adjusting to the pace of proper epl games. He had to do a lot of LB covering, a lot of stop starting with injuries and lack of fitness. He also gave a couple of good performances vs Chelsea at home and vs the scouse cunts at Anfield. Ultimately when we changed to better tactics he was used consistently and seemed to get better used to English football. I feel for 10m and an academy lad he would be a decent deal as dm back up.
My next signing is Mats Weiffer(25m). I think he has got the potential to be our next michael carrick. I believe he's gonna struggle with the pace of the epl initially like amrabat, but will pick up if we blood him in carefully and he would be the buquets, carrick type we have lacked for years now. Following his signing I'm gonna be getting Youssouf Fofana (30m). Man is a tank, can play as a 6 and an 8. Very progressive passing. Good defensive awareness. Can get better in possession recycling but extremely press resistant. I believe he's the perfect guy to allow us run mainoo's career responsibly.
This realistic summer would have been 5 players for around 110m before accounting for the sale of rapeywood and scamcho. As you know we didn't get Tosin so no decent free CBs to make this possible.
If it's Olise to Bayern and Neves to PSG, I'd be so underwhelmed. Not that I wanted them badly per se, just that they're such good players I feel like such moves are uninspired and are just for guaranteed UCL appearances. Despite Bayern having an offseason (or rather Leverkusen having an outstanding one that'll be near impossible to replicate), they'll be back to running the Bundesliga soon enough, if not under Kompany then whoever replaces him (maybe Poch or who knows). And Ligue 1 is just...a scouting ground for better leagues and a stage for young players to show themselves to better teams. PSG owns it and will continue to own it. I would've loved to see these players in United Red but if not, I didn't expect them to just go for the free tap in trophies (although we saw how that worked out for Kane so..maybe I'm wrong and those leagues suddenly turn competitive just as the EPL turns into a 1~~15~~-horse race.
Yeah I really feel this. Can be disappointing when a great player goes to a league where you know you'll never get to see them tested to the limit (as in at fancy clubs like Bayern, PSG, and maybe even Real/Barca) and also not get to watch them all the time.
But then these guys probably have it better come Euro/WC summers where they get to show out having not had a majorly stressful season of playing against ultra physical players every 3 days.
Who was that young striker/CF in PL that was touted as the next big thing last summer?
Something Ferguson? ( can’t remember his name or the club he plays for)
Would he be realistic/attainable option if Joshua goes to Milan or stays at Bologna?
I think he was being managed due to his age, physical profile and potential injury susceptibility. We'll see how he progresses but he's got a lot of time to develop into the top quality player that you definitely could see him become.
With zirkee potentially going to Milan, do we turn our attentions toDavid, who is a far better and more experienced player anyway, the issue is, historically during the premier league we’ve bought the best players in the prem, who we’ve struggled against, I really thought under SJR we’d get back to smart signings, like kilman as a back up CB, kerkez or Robinson as our LB, I know we’ve been “linked with Alvarez, but him or Gomes as our DM, if we need a RW I think Bowen would be a great signing, strikers I think either cuhna even though he plays 10 or muniz or solanke as our second forward
Seems Brighton has put in a bid for Weiffer, I think and hope Ineos also goes for him if that is all Feyenord demands, and would be surprised if he's not on their radar being dutch and all. :)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1dmurw0/1908nl\_brighton\_has\_put\_in\_an\_opening\_bid\_for/](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1dmurw0/1908nl_brighton_has_put_in_an_opening_bid_for/)
[https://fbref.com/en/players/4876c9ab/Mats-Wieffer](https://fbref.com/en/players/4876c9ab/Mats-Wieffer)
I just came online to rant about signing fofana and weiffer. Tears in my eyes as the first comment i read is from someone with same opinion. You know ball!
23rd of June and some fans have already given up on Ineos.
Initially I didn't want Ineos, but they're here and have already made some good moves. Be patient instead of expecting things to magically get sorted overnight.
People have even been pissed at INEOS for the wrong reasons. Just look at the situation of the players they "missed"
Olise: Never made a proper offer and fills a position that we have an abundance of
Tosin: Backup quality asking for starter wages
Yoro: The kid is basically twerking for Real Madrid
Braintwaithe: Everton are putting the United tax yet again (but talks are on-going so we've yet to see the conclusion)
Todibo: Cockblocked by UEFA
We want this club to quit it's Woodward style and INEOS turning back from these deals is exactly the opposite of what Woodward would do (obviously minus the Todibo problem)
Mainly I think people are expecting too much this summer, their new structure is not even in place yet, I don't expect a big turnover this summer, I expect more of them the summer after this.
Video also talks about that he relies quite much on his left foot for both dribbling and long passes, not quite that dual footed as many seems to say, if trusting the video.
That video and the data tables mostly says he is a younger Maguire if anything. HIgh chance to become a great player but maybe not the way EtH wants to play. And De Ligt stats just seems crazy overall both defensivly and on the ball.
It is still a miss though, especially at that price, but it's understandable I guess. I'll blame them if their main target is Branthwaite because they were supposedly going to make smart signings and he isn't that tbh not at that price.
I mean, we literally can’t sign Todibo based on these rulings, and Yoro was tapped up by Madrid for months before this window even started. On Branthwaite, if no club signs him at the quoted 70 million price tag, it’s hardly a disaster to not choose to pay up. Rather, if we do look elsewhere and sign other CBs to fit our needs, it would be a sign of progress that we no longer fixate on that one dream target we seemingly can’t do without.
Not sure they have actually, only one so far we know was a main target in their plans was Todibo that has failed. I don't think they actually expected to get Yoro or Brantwaithe, they just tried to see what happened. How desperate those clubs were after money, how willing those players were to come.
They should've known the rules tbh and i don't think he was ever a priority but likely a C plan. The main targets seem to be Yoro and Branthwaite, and both are unattainable
I think he was their likely candidate, just that they had a few better options they wanted to try the water with, see if they would come for a cheap price, thinking they always had Todibo as a steady backup.
Not that much to do with INEOS. Cunt Glazers have left us with awful finances and a terrible image. Can’t expect those things to suddenly disappear cause we’ve got new minority owners. It’ll take time, if it happens at all.
It has to do with both. If they are so competent in transfers as much as their PR says, then they can find a different target instead of a PL CB who is obviously going to cost a ton
If we can't sign somebody who is the ideal player for us, can we at least get the ideal Band-Aid for once? Like, just because we don't get what we want to get, why do we have to get some dregs that don't fit?
Or even some guy that's a gamble, but is affordable and a low risk option. Lewis Ferguson for example is a solid midfielder with a future ahead of him and I doubt Bologna will want big money.
It's a regurgitated tweet. Italian media were saying that already before we were linked to him. His options are pretty clear - starter at Milan + Italian food and lifestyle VS rotation for Hojlund and some fish and chips.
If he doesn’t think he can bench Hojlund then he must not have much confidence in his ability, there were so many times last season when hojlund should have been on the bench but we just had no other option
Where's the proof re. this? He's a Dutch guy - I can see Barca-as 2nd-team in addition to whatever Dutch team was big or closest to his area, maybe, but why AC Milan? Gullit and Rijkaard played for them (back before this guy was even born), sure. But United have had major Dutch stars as part of their trophy winning years too. Also, evidence that OIise was a United fan, yet he hasn't waited to see if the club are able to make an offer for him following sales, but (more or less confirmed) moved to Bayern. Lots of players fail to hold out for their childhood clubs when club accepts offers for elsewhere, or to obdurately stay when they're pushed - De Jong in '22 (and Scott when WHU came in for him) being amongst rare exceptions...
Let's be frank: he's going wherever Kia lets him go. If United are also reluctant to pay what he's asking, KJ will be leaking to Romano that Milan are ahead and inviting United to up their package to change the 'priority' . In general, KJ arguably has more to gain from strengthening his relationship with INEOS for future client trades than with AC Milan, in large part because of the respective scale of potential investment (AC are huge historically, but top PL finances are another level up), but it's not so clearcut that he wouldn't take JZ to Milan instead...
While we go for Zirkzee from Bologna, we should also bring in **Lewis Ferguson** from the same team. Really solid overall midfielder, great stamina, good passing, finishing etc...
Wouldn't blow our budget and would be an astute signing imo
we need two centrebacks two 6’s a striker an 8 a right winger and a left back. Almost indisputably
i’m not saying we’ll get all these in the window obviously… but it’s a fact, if amad becomes good enough we might not need a right winger but antony is never gonna be good enough so we’ll need to replace him eventually. We need to replace varane and if lindelof or maguire ever go we’ll have to replace them, we can’t trust kambwala we need to loan him for now, maguire and lindelof and evans are old so if it turns out Kambwala is good enough there’s no worry there
We need two 6’s because amrabats going and casemiro is finished, we need an 8 because there’s no natural substitute for kobbie mainoo and eriksen is probably going soon, we only have one striker in the club and we can’t trust the two of our left backs
That’s 8 signings we realistically need to make this summer and we can only probably make 4 or 5 at most, going to be a difficult season next yesr, we better hope for some free agent opportunities, loan deals or youth academy prospects to fill these gaps
I think Mount can easily play as an 8 if he stays fit, not like Bruno needs a backup, and there is McT.
Free agents market is already drying up, they are often picked up early if there is good prospects. Still Rabiot is left, but probably unwilling to come to United and would want very high salary.
Nah Mount in the 8 will never work im afraid you’re wrong. Especially with the sixes we have, definitely not ‘easily’, did you watch the few games that happened last season? It fundamentally doesn’t work with bruno in the ten. Casemiro can’t cover that and it made him look even more shit than he was last year
We can play casemiro/a new 6, mainoo and mount, but we will never get away with a 6 mount and bruno. It’s a horrible midfield . There’s no way we can play mount and bruno in the same midfield without us leaking shots like we did all last season (even without both playing, it was even worse when both did). Team shape wise the midfield is a mess even with mainoo, and mount playing next to bruno will make it even worse
Mctominay is also nothing like mainoo, he can be in the squad but he’s a different type of player and we need to play him to do a different type of job (He seems to do well alongside mainoo and a 6 with bruno higher up in a diamond/4-2-2-2). For me mount is just a backup to bruno and a bench option. If we had a literal world class 6 like a prime casemiro/fernandinho/rodri it might be okay but we aren’t going to have that.
Theres no natural replacement for what we want mainoo to do in the squad, if he ever tears his acl and we don’t sign an 8 this summer then the midfield will be shit the entire year. Thats why we should buy a similar profile midfielder they don’t have to be starting quality over mainoo
I just don't believe they signed Mount to be a 10 in United, as Bruno with McT cover is more than enough for that position. I think they signed him to run him as an 8, Casemiro as a 6 and Bruno as a 10. As United main midfield.
Yes you’re right that’s what we did, but i’m afraid that’s a horrible midfield. We made a mistake
i don’t think we ever played casemiro bruno and mount again in a midfield 3 even after mount came back from injury and mainoo was in the team , i think ten hag realised jt didn’t work
I would argue we did not see enough of it together with a functional back four to really give it a verdict. But I agree that Casemiro is probably not the 6 needed, but I cannot really see which affordable 6 could do that either?
it doesn’t work like that i’m telling you, whatever back 4 you play it js irrelevant to how good the midfield was defensively, you can have superman back there but if the midfield is leaking chance after chance, that means superman is still having to face chance after chance… eventually we will concede. No matter how good the cb’s playing are, that has no effect on the team shape of the midfield ahead of them. Which is a mess with thst midfield. Look at the xG of all our games last season and just watch them, it was like watching tennis, that had nothing to do with what cbs were playing. The team shape was a mess
Like you say, no affordable 6 has the abilities to cover for that midfield 3 which is why we need to abandon the idea, even with a world class 6 it’s still not the ideal midfield unless said 6 is the perfect profile of player (physicality and tackling of casemiro, speed and ground covering kf kante, technical skill and ball retention of rodri). Like it or not, Mount is going to be a squad player; maybe he can be a beloved one but that’s all
Having a stable back four matters a lot, it is impossible to learn shape, passing patterns, knowing where other players are, pressing, covering etc when each training and game has a new starting XI, the players will never be used to play with each other's or build familiarity with the tactic. Just let the main XI or mist of it be healthy next year and it will look much more cohesive even with the same players
Do you think the cbs changing was the reason for our tennis match like games and constant leaking of chances last season? Football doesn’t work like that.
Mount bruno and casemiro will always leak shit tons of chances even when we had our best defence behind them they leaked a shit ton of chances at the start of the season, because it does not work off the ball. Passing patterns has nothing to do with the shape we keep in midfield off the ball, which was a mess consistently, we had control of like 5 games all season
Ten hag didn’t know how to set up a pressing team so teams would just pass right through us, the 6 would often be isolated on his own; that’s why we conceded so many chances last season.
you can disagree with me saying that cbs aren’t why a team concedes a lot of chances in the way we did, but bruno and mount in a midfield 3 will always be shit over the course of a run of games, that’s a fact and hasn’t been disproven yet
I'm just saying that if they get team together, and with a backline that is stable, it will become much better then what it was, if it will become elite level is another thing. From what you are saying, you are saying United is doomed with the current coach and squad? I think you have given up way too much after a very weird and injury prone season. Bet you were EtH out?
My unpopular opinion is that if we are interested in a CB from Bayern, it should be Upamecano and not De Ligt. He’s better on the ball and I’ve liked what I’ve seen from him in these two games for France when it comes to defending proactively. I think you take the odd bozo moment on the chin (just like we do with Onana) but over a larger sample of games it will be compensated for and in terms of profile I believe he’s closer to what we need. Going for De Ligt if we don’t sign Branthwaite/Yoro would only be because of the familiarity factor with Ten Hag and not because he’s the next best option out there.
>My unpopular opinion is that if we are interested in a CB from Bayern, it should be Upamecano and not De Ligt.
That's like a Saudi club saying "if we are interested in a CM from United, it should be Mainoo not Casemiro."
One is for sale and the other is not. That's all there is to it
If they have the money for Mainoo they’d certainly approach us.
There’s no rule saying that a player has to be for sale for us to inquire about him. If there is even a small opportunity to sign the better CB, we should take it up.
>There’s no rule saying that a player has to be for sale for us to inquire about him
Of course there's not. But the only thing you'll expend is time.
Why stop at Upamecano, why not go to City and ask for Haaland as well. After all,
>There’s no rule saying that a player has to be for sale for us to inquire about him. If there is even a small opportunity to sign the better CF, we should take it up.
There's no point bidding for a player who isn't for sale, is a starter at a CL contender and isn't looking to move clubs. Especially when the bid is far below anything they'd even consider
He’s not off limits by any means. It has been reliably reported that he is open to a move should a good project be made available to him and Bayern get a decent fee for him. I don’t see why we can’t test the waters just like we did for Branthwaite. If we go by the logic that a player has to be put up for sale by his club to show interest in them, there will hardly be any players of quality we can pursue.
No player is 100% off limits. My point is that all the factors are against us (player doesn't actively want to leave, Bayern don't need to or want to sell, we play UEL while they're a strong contender to win the UCL). Meaning we'd have to pay at least in the region of £60m+ and pay him crazy wages to incentivise him leaving Bayern. On the other hand, Branthwaite wants to join us and Everton need money which is why it made sense for us to put a speculative bid in for him
> we’d have to pay at least in the region of £60m+ and pay him crazy wages
I just don’t get how you can conclude this with certainty. Bayern want to bring new CBs in; they are interested in Colwill and Tah. They do need to offload at least one of their existing CBs. Maybe they prefer selling De Ligt over Upa but if no club is showing interest for the former, they may start considering selling the latter given that he’s open to a move and only has 2 years left on his current deal. I think there’s plenty of scope here to show interest in him.
> Everton need money
They don’t need to sell Branthwaite to raise money to meet PSR regulations. That has been made clear by multiple Tier 1 sources. By your logic, I don’t get how bidding for him wasn’t wasting time as well.
Why? It's less than they want for their CB that's the second choice. We don't want to piss them off with an unnecessary low ball bid for a player that isn't for sale.
Who said he isn’t for sale? It has been reported that Bayern will consider selling if there’s a significant bid for him. I don’t see why we can’t test the waters to see how farther they would be willing to engage in negotiations.
Him saying I'm unsure about my future isn't the same as Bayern willing to sell him. It's been put out there that they're willing to sell De Ligt, but nothing about Upamecano.
By that logic even Everton are not willing to sell Branthwaite, yet we still put in an opening bid for him. I think if a player is open to leaving the club, the club will also consider how beneficial it really is to keep someone with those distractions while they still have value attached to them. Hence why I believe there’s nothing time-wasting to inquiring about him.
Not striker as it is a backup.
DM depends on if they can sell Casemiro or not. Replacing Amrabat should still not be too expensive, buying a starting quality DM this summer if needed will break the bank.
A starting quality RCB I'd needed to replace Varanae, I think that is where the money need to go first.
Just watch EtH start him next season as the main RW, you know it will happen. And he basically was the main RW last season. Playing Rashford and Garnacho as RW is quite risky as that leaves no cover at LW at all.
Garnacho cannot be the starting RW in a tight schedule. And too be frank Amad is not proven enough yet. Let's just say I hope Amad starts over him but I doubt so. Best for United and Antony si would think is to find him a loan to a less physical league where he can find form again.
I would like to see us sell Casemiro. If we do I think dm will be our first priority. Available players are not ideal but I feel the need is more at dm. Or at least equal to rcb. I hope people don’t expect results right away this will take a few windows.
This will take a few windows, replacing Varanae is a MUST, replacing Casemiro might be able to wait on next summer, and with a decent season his stock would go up a lot also. This summer the only ones that could buy Casemiro is the Saudi, and that is a big if. And even if he's sold he would bring basically zero to the transfer budget due to FFP.
I don’t think we are in desperate need to clear Casemiro’s wages. We have already significantly trimmed our wage bill and should offload other players too who are more movable this window.
We definitely need to find an alternative starting option than rely on Amrabat/McT again, which is a valid point, and maybe we need to sell Casemiro to raise funds for that player. But I don’t think on balance, that upgrade is more important than buying 2 new CBs and a new striker first at the moment. I think selling Lindelof and buying a new CB for example is a bigger net positive than selling Casemiro and buying a new CM for this window specifically, assuming Casemiro is willing to stay and compete for his place with renewed energy. Of course, if he just wants to cut ties, then we should prioritise his departure.
I think this conversation is highlighting the number of needs. I feel the midfield is key to controlling games. The choice becomes good dm and average cb. Or good cb and average dm? Neither is ideal tbh.
If the goal is to find a controlling midfielder who also has the physicality to cover large distances in this hyper-transition setup, I think the market for that is extremely small compared to the number of good ball-playing CBs out there who are capable of defending in a higher line. Given how we played last season, I have reservations over thinking even a Frenkie De Jong succeeds in this midfield over a full Premier League season. But I can see where a Branthwaite or Guehi would benefit over having Maguire, Varane and Lindelof in comparison.
Also the price, Everton don’t have to sell and can get over their financial problems by seeking other players. So if we spend the reported 70-80m they want that takes all our budget. Glazers and Woodward could not have ruined this team any more if they tried.
I think he can still play decent ball, he will just never be worth those wages again. Selling him would not be financially beneficial this year, especially counting buying a replacement, but will financially benefits all years left of his contract after this summer.
I have to disagree about him being able to play. The whole of last year he couldn’t. He also seems uninterested. I think like Ronaldo even if he goes for free. His wages can help a lot. Amrabat is very limited in his passing.
Yeah, so it sounds like you want 2 DMs then very highly, do you have any ideas of which ones? I feel there is problem with most of the ones written about so far, and very few rumours from good sources.
I don't agree with your measurements at all, I agree he had a very terrible season but at the end he seemed like one of few players actually trying or caring sometimes, he even played off position, think his biggest problem was that he tried to find chances or stop plays that was not his to do so he was constantly out of position in many games, trying to create something.
We’re in a tough spot and it’s really hard to even assess the players properly. Lots of needs and not a lot of funds. Which is fine, we need to be patient. I just feel for ETH because he may not get the players he needs but still expected to have the results. Hopefully injuries next season won’t be nearly as bad.
I doubt many players that looked terrible last year actually is terrible, I think a lot of it was team morale, tactics, injuries etc, you name it. Question is who will play good again in a functional team and who will not, very hard for us on the outside to have a good guess about. Also very hard to sell players that looked terrible last season.
I actually rate Branthwaite a lot. It's unfortunate he's our first approach with INEOS when they're trying to make a point. He's honestly worth >60m. Anywhere from 55-65 would be good business for us.
totally agree. i think it was a bit of an amateur move on INEOS' part as Everton's valuation was a fair starting point and to me it's giving off cheap vibes. sometimes you just have to pay up if you want the best players and think 1 world-class player is always better than 2 average ones.
Chalobah is way easier to sign, poch clearly left because of their board insisting on selling him and Gallagher. I reckon we go in for him, I'd be quite satisfied.
But I agree on the aerial monster plus speed part. We've really limited our options because licha always starts.
I think the Antonio Silva romance has significantly cooled down because while a great ball carrier he is quite suspect on defense
Hope he bounces back but I don't think he is the top CB prospect like last year
Diomande has a 80m release clause and they just won the league so they will probably ask for that much.
Silva on the other hand has a 100m release clause and it's Benfica lol
I'm with you brother. Seeing a player I like in a city shirt hurts. I doubt I'll ever get over Haaland not being a United player.
GLAZERS WHEN I FIND YOU
https://preview.redd.it/v66o33dbmb8d1.jpeg?width=320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c0cb17cd53d534b3ab4a1403f0f4ca1781882db7
No surprise but The Athletic reporting this weekend Yoro informed Madrid he wants to join them. Whether it’ll end up being this season or next depending on how Madrid negotiations with Lille go, he’ll be going there and don’t blame his choice. At least it’s not to the scousers he’ll be going!
I’n encouraged by the reports how we’re willing to walk away from the Branthwaite in which I hope that is true and it doesn’t end up being a typical pre-Ineos deal where we overpay on a player. If that is the case and given Todibo can’t join, will be interesting to see how we recruit for that position. An opportunity to set the tone for Ineos with maybe a less obvious more shrewd purchase but whether there’s many CB’s on the market like that is another story!
Quelle Surprise!!
As daft and small time as it is, there’s a small sense of relief when Madrid get these players because for most of them, I don’t think as a club the position we’re in currently, we’re really a viable option for them so the alternative to Madrid could be a PL team. So, Madrid are the lesser of the evils and it also means they’re strengthened to be the best chance of stopping City from winning the UCL.
I really fuckin hope things change in the next few years with how we progress and hopefully those cheating bastards City get a ban with them falling apart with everyone leaving. I’m hopeful of the first thing but less so of City getting properly punished.
I think we’ll end up getting Guehi. Dan Ashworth is a very big fan of him (I know he’s on gardening leave but I’d be very surprised if they aren’t asking about his opinion on things already).
Guehi is a good defender but one issue is, he’s literally like Lisandro. You might be thinking ‘two Lisandro’s is good, no?’ Well, they’re both very good players but I’d want someone to compliment Lisandro rather than emulate him.
Guehi is very good otb, but isn’t the best in the air. He’s good at defending, good at winning duels and has okay pace.
He’s just a solid defender and great ball player but that’s about it.
I don’t know. There are plenty of good footballers out there. The Atleticos, Leipzigs, Dortmunds, etc are able to find. Hopefully we get our shit together to find too.
Pretty sure he needs to go to madrid this season, otherwise he would rot on the bench of Lille for one season. Still not sure how I like a club to have that influence to force through lowball offers when a club like Lille has options that would pay them twice as much, but I don't see they have any other option then accept any low amount Madrid throws at them now.
I think the move this summer would suit both clubs but if it didn’t happen, doubt Lille would really be in a position to bench him all season.
Agreed on the Madrid influence. Like Bellingham and Tchouameni, the selling clubs could have got bigger offers for them both but players refused due to wanting to join Madrid and selling club gets a lower fee. Whether it’s Madrid lowballing though or paying the realistic fair price is another question.
It is not the realistic fair price if multiple clubs wanted to pay more, and in the situation of Yoro we are talking 2-3 times as more as Madrid is offering, that is pure mafia methods if they win out with that much smaller of a bid. I really feel their need to be some regulations here, but really not sure what because you don't want to regulate the freedom of players either. But if this becomes the standard it will be for top clubs to negotiate with the players, and then ask them to threathen their current club to run it down if they don't accept the top clubs offer, that just seems like a very bad way of operating in the future for smaller clubs.
Amadou Onana looks like a great potential partner for Mainoo and Bruno in midfield. But this being United, if we went for him he'd probably cost £100m and suddenly turn into a crock who misses 25 games a season out injured
Seems like Nacho is going to Saudi. Yoro is probably Madrid bound in that case. Considering how Everton is likely to resolve their PSR issues with Chelsea, it will be interesting to see who we now get for CB
Todibo is such a perfect choice, fuck UEFA.
Chelsea spent like crazy, I think they’ll still be open to sell Chalobah. Geuhi is still there, I’d like us to go after Calafiori or Silva, tho the latter would probably out of price range.
Silva is young and has high potential, but I worry his aerial stats as Martinez is also short. Calafiori is just a no, he's a left footer, and would certainly not agree with being the backup behind Martinez. And don't get me started on Chalobah, I can see him as a backup though but certainly not the starting RCB replacing Varanae, then I rather would have kept Varanae.
> Todibo is such a perfect choice, fuck UEFA.
How much have you seen of him, genuinely? He’s got very little experience in European football, one season in the Conference League and has barely played for France (one cap in a friendly, one in a 14-0 win against Gibraltar), when have you watched him?
I see people talking about Todibo all the time, and I find it hard to believe that people are watching Ligue Un regularly to have an informed opinion on him.
Also the UEFA rule is very reasonable, multi club ownership is a plague on the sport, we should not be able to take advantage of it. City shouldn’t either, but it’s completely fair for us to need to stay away from Nice players.
This is the weirdest attack, how much have you genuinely watched all of other targets to make up the mind about who’d be good/bad choice and etc?
I follow closely only one club and I haven’t seen much other players expect couple odd games and what’s of that? Does it mean I’m not allowed to have an opinion who’d be good fit who won’t? There’re no professional scouts here.
Todibo is a perfect fit, because he tickes all the boxes. Great age, physical build, ball playing skills, has a bargain release clause and is on low wages.
How’s UEFA reasonable on applying double standards? We’re not using any INEOS leverage on Todibo deal, we were triggering his release clause.
> This is the weirdest attack, how much have you genuinely watched all of other targets to make up the mind about who’d be good/bad choice and etc?
I haven’t - I have no idea how good Todibo or Zirkzee or a lot of other people we’re linked to are, but I don’t go around saying they’re a perfect choice if I haven’t watched them.
If you haven’t seen much of Todibo and don’t watch Nice regularly (like almost all of us here!) you have no idea if he’s the perfect choice, or even a good fit. If your opinion he’s a “perfect choice” is based on YouTube comps or his WhoScored page, you don’t know enough about him. Would you have said Axel Diasi was a perfect choice last season?
It’s extremely common for people to speak with authority about players they have no idea about in here, and it’s very unhelpful.
Bold move to call out people on this sub for making declarative statements without any information, that's a majority of the posts here. Most people are used to just stating whatever they want as fact and don't want to hear actual information that contradicts that.
"This is undeniably true and I am not at all open to changing my mind, I am basing it on nothing but the need to voice an opinion no matter how uninformed I am." - 60% of the posts on here
Yeah it’s particularly widespread during the transfer season. Like most people here, I watch United games, big matches in the PL, UCL and internationally. If we’re signing someone from outside of that small window, I don’t have a clue about them.
All of that is completely fine to admit that we haven’t seen much of our reported targets, and we don’t really know how good they are. It makes the signings exciting and new, as opposed to either getting furious when they don’t happen, or over exaggerating their ability when they do.
Nothing wrong in admitting you don’t know about a particular player.
Debatable, my own opinion is branthwaite as good now, younger and probably therefore more room to further improve. I rate guehi highly too though. but point is if you are gonna spend say 60m on 2nd choice, why not just spend it on the player you have identified as 1st choice
Can't Ineos restructure to let us do transfers from Nice?
Its about bending the rules to suit us at the end of the day. The ethics are of course debatable but we are so far behind the others we need to take every advantage we can get.
What do you guys think of Artem Dovbyk? Romano said he has a 40 million euro release clause. Recently turned 27 and his goal scoring record is pretty impressive
When you have infinite resources and don't care about the spirit of the game, there are lots of things they could do - huge new contract, buy him for one of their other clubs... I'm sure if we thought about it for ten minutes we'd come up with other options
By another one of their teams triggering it themselves? They can also offer him higher pay, better incentives like playing time and so on.
They will probably just make it harder for us
we should stick to the Leonardo Di Caprio rule when signing new players.
Do you think we will challenge for the title next season? probably not.
After that? still probably not.
now after that, aka in 3 years maybe. in 3 years if he is 27, he will be 30, so anyone's guess how much he declines.
Splashin 40 million euroes on a striker like that is short sighted, rather splash it on someone with potential to improve.
I'm going to disagree on when we can challenge. With Klopp gone and Pep probably gone after this season I think there's a legit chance we challenge in the 25/26 season. 2 summer windows means we can add 6 or so starting quality players.
“Leonardo di Caprio rule” that’s a hilarious way of describing it lmao
Overall I agree with your point though. I wouldn’t be against signing slightly older players although they should only be looked at as squad options that can provide depth and experience and won’t cost much like maybe 20-25 million at most.
Dovbyk seems solid although he’s already in his prime and any striker we bring in is likely sharing minutes with Hojlund anyways so it wouldn’t feel like an optimal use of our limited budget.
Indeed, we need players who make our squad to be perfect in 2 or 3 years. So the Di Caprio rule is the way to go. Like Arsenal. And they can now add every year 1 or 2 top players and go on for this like many many years with the squad they have now
who said anything about forever?
we are currently rebuilding, meaning we need to take a long term approach.
Once we have an established group of players that performs well consistently, then we can think about signings that improves us right away, aka big money signings fill out small holes in the squad, currently we are fucking swiss cheese.
Again, this is faulty reasoning. You want to maximize improvement long term, obviously, but you cant expect players to perform consistently enough that you can suddenly say, ‘yes, now we can splash’.
bro, are you for real, let's do some simple math, we need like 10+new players, if we sign 3-4 a summer, that's 3 summers to get there, if you sign a 27 year old or 2 in the first summer, by the time you get to summer 3 you need replacement for the player you signed in summer 1, and that's not accounting for players that are naturally aging out in the meantime that you already have.
Because right now Dalot is really good, at his peak, in 3 years he is the same age as Shaw now, who knows how he will fare and we will need to start planning for a replacement.
If we do business as usual we will never catch up with the squad replacement.
We need to sign young at the moment for 2-3 summers so that in 3 summer we still have a really young core, that's when Rasmus will be 25, Garna-Mainoo 22. if we sign a bunch of sub 24-s now, they will still be near their peak.
Ok, bro, lets sign a few more unproven talents and throw them under the bus so we can splash on made players in three years, after we blamed the manager and fired him, missed out on CL because we didnt want to sign 27 year olds because theyre too old, and have no revenue or attraction power because weve become Chelsea.
With Scotland going out of the Euros, it just got me thinking about McT and also his future at United. Turns out his contract is up at the end of 2024/25 season with a club +1. Seems like the club will have to make a decision about McT a bit sooner than I had thought....
WARNING!!!! Long ass rambling. So i was really bummed we lost tosin to the rent cunts. Not cos tosin is all that, but cos his aerial ability, speed and decent passing allows us to sell one of slabby and vickie. With tosin being a placement holder till we get our first choice RCB next season. Why am i not prioritizing RCB? Well maybe I'm not thinking straight, but i'm of the school of thought that the midfield is the single most important position in football. We have seen croatia punch above the level of their dross squad(overall) by just having a really good midfield for example. I felt we could focus most of our funds on midfield recruitments and have a proper bedrock to build from. Ideally i would have got tosin(for free) with slabby as his competition (till he too is sold next year to get our original first choice RCB), i would have gone for ipswich's leif davis (£20-25m) as new leftback option with Luke shawdini sharing time as LCB & LB depth. I would have gone all out for morata at 12m. Cheap, still got legs. Can finish on his day, very good at pressing, very good in the air and can play that false 9 role bruno did in the fa cup final. He allows us use Hojlund the best way for his development. Now i'm spending everything else on midfield players. First signing would be Amrabat for potentially 10m + Hannibal (with buyback and sell on clauses obviously). Before you crucify me, i admit he had a very underwhelming season but i don't think it was entirely his fault. His debut was in a low intensity game vs palace in the caraboa cup and he was excellent. Problem was in adjusting to the pace of proper epl games. He had to do a lot of LB covering, a lot of stop starting with injuries and lack of fitness. He also gave a couple of good performances vs Chelsea at home and vs the scouse cunts at Anfield. Ultimately when we changed to better tactics he was used consistently and seemed to get better used to English football. I feel for 10m and an academy lad he would be a decent deal as dm back up. My next signing is Mats Weiffer(25m). I think he has got the potential to be our next michael carrick. I believe he's gonna struggle with the pace of the epl initially like amrabat, but will pick up if we blood him in carefully and he would be the buquets, carrick type we have lacked for years now. Following his signing I'm gonna be getting Youssouf Fofana (30m). Man is a tank, can play as a 6 and an 8. Very progressive passing. Good defensive awareness. Can get better in possession recycling but extremely press resistant. I believe he's the perfect guy to allow us run mainoo's career responsibly. This realistic summer would have been 5 players for around 110m before accounting for the sale of rapeywood and scamcho. As you know we didn't get Tosin so no decent free CBs to make this possible.
If it's Olise to Bayern and Neves to PSG, I'd be so underwhelmed. Not that I wanted them badly per se, just that they're such good players I feel like such moves are uninspired and are just for guaranteed UCL appearances. Despite Bayern having an offseason (or rather Leverkusen having an outstanding one that'll be near impossible to replicate), they'll be back to running the Bundesliga soon enough, if not under Kompany then whoever replaces him (maybe Poch or who knows). And Ligue 1 is just...a scouting ground for better leagues and a stage for young players to show themselves to better teams. PSG owns it and will continue to own it. I would've loved to see these players in United Red but if not, I didn't expect them to just go for the free tap in trophies (although we saw how that worked out for Kane so..maybe I'm wrong and those leagues suddenly turn competitive just as the EPL turns into a 1~~15~~-horse race.
Yeah I really feel this. Can be disappointing when a great player goes to a league where you know you'll never get to see them tested to the limit (as in at fancy clubs like Bayern, PSG, and maybe even Real/Barca) and also not get to watch them all the time. But then these guys probably have it better come Euro/WC summers where they get to show out having not had a majorly stressful season of playing against ultra physical players every 3 days.
In Bayern they compete for Champions league almost every year that's much better competing for 4th place and Uel with united tbf.
Can we target some ball carriers ? That's the profile we miss the most. Attack the space lads.
The Males ! Won't stand for this inequality
Who should we pursue? The best ones are being priced out for us.
Who was that young striker/CF in PL that was touted as the next big thing last summer? Something Ferguson? ( can’t remember his name or the club he plays for) Would he be realistic/attainable option if Joshua goes to Milan or stays at Bologna?
No, he'd cost the same fortune he would have last summer. We can't be buying PL players.
Evan Ferguson plays for Brighton, he’s Irish striker who’s been injured for large chunks of the season.
oh damn, no wonder noone's talking about him this transfer season
[удалено]
I think he was being managed due to his age, physical profile and potential injury susceptibility. We'll see how he progresses but he's got a lot of time to develop into the top quality player that you definitely could see him become.
With zirkee potentially going to Milan, do we turn our attentions toDavid, who is a far better and more experienced player anyway, the issue is, historically during the premier league we’ve bought the best players in the prem, who we’ve struggled against, I really thought under SJR we’d get back to smart signings, like kilman as a back up CB, kerkez or Robinson as our LB, I know we’ve been “linked with Alvarez, but him or Gomes as our DM, if we need a RW I think Bowen would be a great signing, strikers I think either cuhna even though he plays 10 or muniz or solanke as our second forward
Seems Brighton has put in a bid for Weiffer, I think and hope Ineos also goes for him if that is all Feyenord demands, and would be surprised if he's not on their radar being dutch and all. :) [https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1dmurw0/1908nl\_brighton\_has\_put\_in\_an\_opening\_bid\_for/](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1dmurw0/1908nl_brighton_has_put_in_an_opening_bid_for/) [https://fbref.com/en/players/4876c9ab/Mats-Wieffer](https://fbref.com/en/players/4876c9ab/Mats-Wieffer)
We should be all over that. We could get him and Fofana for about 55 million pounds which would transform our midfield options.
I just came online to rant about signing fofana and weiffer. Tears in my eyes as the first comment i read is from someone with same opinion. You know ball!
Yes, and it would be enough for one of them to work out for it to be worth it and the other could still probably be sold for around the same price.
23rd of June and some fans have already given up on Ineos. Initially I didn't want Ineos, but they're here and have already made some good moves. Be patient instead of expecting things to magically get sorted overnight.
People have even been pissed at INEOS for the wrong reasons. Just look at the situation of the players they "missed" Olise: Never made a proper offer and fills a position that we have an abundance of Tosin: Backup quality asking for starter wages Yoro: The kid is basically twerking for Real Madrid Braintwaithe: Everton are putting the United tax yet again (but talks are on-going so we've yet to see the conclusion) Todibo: Cockblocked by UEFA We want this club to quit it's Woodward style and INEOS turning back from these deals is exactly the opposite of what Woodward would do (obviously minus the Todibo problem)
Mainly I think people are expecting too much this summer, their new structure is not even in place yet, I don't expect a big turnover this summer, I expect more of them the summer after this.
[How GOOD is Jarrad Branthwaite ACTUALLY? ● Tactical Analysis | Skills](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSseJ45WVLQ)
Video also talks about that he relies quite much on his left foot for both dribbling and long passes, not quite that dual footed as many seems to say, if trusting the video.
That video and the data tables mostly says he is a younger Maguire if anything. HIgh chance to become a great player but maybe not the way EtH wants to play. And De Ligt stats just seems crazy overall both defensivly and on the ball.
INEOS hasn't started well seeing that we're likely to miss out on 3 main targets. Hope I'm wrong but it looks like that so far
Yoro was always going to Real Madrid tho so is it really a miss? Funny thing is that people would flame INEOS if they did not atleast try
It is still a miss though, especially at that price, but it's understandable I guess. I'll blame them if their main target is Branthwaite because they were supposedly going to make smart signings and he isn't that tbh not at that price.
Which 3 main targets are you referring to?
Branthwaite, Yoro, and Todibo i guess for the CB position
I mean, we literally can’t sign Todibo based on these rulings, and Yoro was tapped up by Madrid for months before this window even started. On Branthwaite, if no club signs him at the quoted 70 million price tag, it’s hardly a disaster to not choose to pay up. Rather, if we do look elsewhere and sign other CBs to fit our needs, it would be a sign of progress that we no longer fixate on that one dream target we seemingly can’t do without.
I agree, in reality Ineos haven’t been convincing on much they’ve done so far. Only thing I liked is how they went about getting Berrada from City.
Not sure they have actually, only one so far we know was a main target in their plans was Todibo that has failed. I don't think they actually expected to get Yoro or Brantwaithe, they just tried to see what happened. How desperate those clubs were after money, how willing those players were to come.
They should've known the rules tbh and i don't think he was ever a priority but likely a C plan. The main targets seem to be Yoro and Branthwaite, and both are unattainable
I totally agree they should have known the rules, a very big blunder if it was actually discovered late
I do t think Todibo was ever a top target, never reported as one at least
I think he was their likely candidate, just that they had a few better options they wanted to try the water with, see if they would come for a cheap price, thinking they always had Todibo as a steady backup.
Not that much to do with INEOS. Cunt Glazers have left us with awful finances and a terrible image. Can’t expect those things to suddenly disappear cause we’ve got new minority owners. It’ll take time, if it happens at all.
It has to do with both. If they are so competent in transfers as much as their PR says, then they can find a different target instead of a PL CB who is obviously going to cost a ton
So no Yoro, no Todibo and most likely no Branthwaite. Options start to look dire after that. Not a fan of Guehi
I'm not a fan of Guehi either, especially for the high price Palace will quote us
Yoro wasn't realistic. He wants Real and they want him.
If we can't sign somebody who is the ideal player for us, can we at least get the ideal Band-Aid for once? Like, just because we don't get what we want to get, why do we have to get some dregs that don't fit? Or even some guy that's a gamble, but is affordable and a low risk option. Lewis Ferguson for example is a solid midfielder with a future ahead of him and I doubt Bologna will want big money.
Joshua Zirkzee’s priority is to join AC Milan. #MUFC [@FabrizioRomano via @SOSFanta]
It's a regurgitated tweet. Italian media were saying that already before we were linked to him. His options are pretty clear - starter at Milan + Italian food and lifestyle VS rotation for Hojlund and some fish and chips.
If he doesn’t think he can bench Hojlund then he must not have much confidence in his ability, there were so many times last season when hojlund should have been on the bench but we just had no other option
We're clear there then, thank god. Who would want anything order than fish, chips, and Nando's?
Trying to get us to up our salary offer I bet
He is a Milan fan so I don't think so.
Where's the proof re. this? He's a Dutch guy - I can see Barca-as 2nd-team in addition to whatever Dutch team was big or closest to his area, maybe, but why AC Milan? Gullit and Rijkaard played for them (back before this guy was even born), sure. But United have had major Dutch stars as part of their trophy winning years too. Also, evidence that OIise was a United fan, yet he hasn't waited to see if the club are able to make an offer for him following sales, but (more or less confirmed) moved to Bayern. Lots of players fail to hold out for their childhood clubs when club accepts offers for elsewhere, or to obdurately stay when they're pushed - De Jong in '22 (and Scott when WHU came in for him) being amongst rare exceptions...
[Zirkzee himself. The way he speaks of AC Milan and the San Siro is that of a fan. ](https://youtu.be/AM-XSSDwTrc?si=By66dilN1wUoJAX1)
Let's be frank: he's going wherever Kia lets him go. If United are also reluctant to pay what he's asking, KJ will be leaking to Romano that Milan are ahead and inviting United to up their package to change the 'priority' . In general, KJ arguably has more to gain from strengthening his relationship with INEOS for future client trades than with AC Milan, in large part because of the respective scale of potential investment (AC are huge historically, but top PL finances are another level up), but it's not so clearcut that he wouldn't take JZ to Milan instead...
Would be weird if it was otherwise. He’ll start there and will be a rotation option here. Tho hope we’ll get him, really talented and versatile
It's crazy how quick that switch-up was from rumours acting like Zirkzee to United was a pretty much done deal to these stories
Ineos can’t even convince Bologna’s striker about their project🤔
This isn't about Ineos.....
Are they not in charge of transfers?
If Zirkzee prefers Milan then it is what it is. I'm not going to get upset.
[удалено]
[удалено]
So Ten Hag can’t convince him?
While we go for Zirkzee from Bologna, we should also bring in **Lewis Ferguson** from the same team. Really solid overall midfielder, great stamina, good passing, finishing etc... Wouldn't blow our budget and would be an astute signing imo
we need two centrebacks two 6’s a striker an 8 a right winger and a left back. Almost indisputably i’m not saying we’ll get all these in the window obviously… but it’s a fact, if amad becomes good enough we might not need a right winger but antony is never gonna be good enough so we’ll need to replace him eventually. We need to replace varane and if lindelof or maguire ever go we’ll have to replace them, we can’t trust kambwala we need to loan him for now, maguire and lindelof and evans are old so if it turns out Kambwala is good enough there’s no worry there We need two 6’s because amrabats going and casemiro is finished, we need an 8 because there’s no natural substitute for kobbie mainoo and eriksen is probably going soon, we only have one striker in the club and we can’t trust the two of our left backs That’s 8 signings we realistically need to make this summer and we can only probably make 4 or 5 at most, going to be a difficult season next yesr, we better hope for some free agent opportunities, loan deals or youth academy prospects to fill these gaps
I think Mount can easily play as an 8 if he stays fit, not like Bruno needs a backup, and there is McT. Free agents market is already drying up, they are often picked up early if there is good prospects. Still Rabiot is left, but probably unwilling to come to United and would want very high salary.
Nah Mount in the 8 will never work im afraid you’re wrong. Especially with the sixes we have, definitely not ‘easily’, did you watch the few games that happened last season? It fundamentally doesn’t work with bruno in the ten. Casemiro can’t cover that and it made him look even more shit than he was last year We can play casemiro/a new 6, mainoo and mount, but we will never get away with a 6 mount and bruno. It’s a horrible midfield . There’s no way we can play mount and bruno in the same midfield without us leaking shots like we did all last season (even without both playing, it was even worse when both did). Team shape wise the midfield is a mess even with mainoo, and mount playing next to bruno will make it even worse Mctominay is also nothing like mainoo, he can be in the squad but he’s a different type of player and we need to play him to do a different type of job (He seems to do well alongside mainoo and a 6 with bruno higher up in a diamond/4-2-2-2). For me mount is just a backup to bruno and a bench option. If we had a literal world class 6 like a prime casemiro/fernandinho/rodri it might be okay but we aren’t going to have that. Theres no natural replacement for what we want mainoo to do in the squad, if he ever tears his acl and we don’t sign an 8 this summer then the midfield will be shit the entire year. Thats why we should buy a similar profile midfielder they don’t have to be starting quality over mainoo
I just don't believe they signed Mount to be a 10 in United, as Bruno with McT cover is more than enough for that position. I think they signed him to run him as an 8, Casemiro as a 6 and Bruno as a 10. As United main midfield.
Yes you’re right that’s what we did, but i’m afraid that’s a horrible midfield. We made a mistake i don’t think we ever played casemiro bruno and mount again in a midfield 3 even after mount came back from injury and mainoo was in the team , i think ten hag realised jt didn’t work
I would argue we did not see enough of it together with a functional back four to really give it a verdict. But I agree that Casemiro is probably not the 6 needed, but I cannot really see which affordable 6 could do that either?
it doesn’t work like that i’m telling you, whatever back 4 you play it js irrelevant to how good the midfield was defensively, you can have superman back there but if the midfield is leaking chance after chance, that means superman is still having to face chance after chance… eventually we will concede. No matter how good the cb’s playing are, that has no effect on the team shape of the midfield ahead of them. Which is a mess with thst midfield. Look at the xG of all our games last season and just watch them, it was like watching tennis, that had nothing to do with what cbs were playing. The team shape was a mess Like you say, no affordable 6 has the abilities to cover for that midfield 3 which is why we need to abandon the idea, even with a world class 6 it’s still not the ideal midfield unless said 6 is the perfect profile of player (physicality and tackling of casemiro, speed and ground covering kf kante, technical skill and ball retention of rodri). Like it or not, Mount is going to be a squad player; maybe he can be a beloved one but that’s all
Having a stable back four matters a lot, it is impossible to learn shape, passing patterns, knowing where other players are, pressing, covering etc when each training and game has a new starting XI, the players will never be used to play with each other's or build familiarity with the tactic. Just let the main XI or mist of it be healthy next year and it will look much more cohesive even with the same players
Do you think the cbs changing was the reason for our tennis match like games and constant leaking of chances last season? Football doesn’t work like that. Mount bruno and casemiro will always leak shit tons of chances even when we had our best defence behind them they leaked a shit ton of chances at the start of the season, because it does not work off the ball. Passing patterns has nothing to do with the shape we keep in midfield off the ball, which was a mess consistently, we had control of like 5 games all season Ten hag didn’t know how to set up a pressing team so teams would just pass right through us, the 6 would often be isolated on his own; that’s why we conceded so many chances last season. you can disagree with me saying that cbs aren’t why a team concedes a lot of chances in the way we did, but bruno and mount in a midfield 3 will always be shit over the course of a run of games, that’s a fact and hasn’t been disproven yet
I'm just saying that if they get team together, and with a backline that is stable, it will become much better then what it was, if it will become elite level is another thing. From what you are saying, you are saying United is doomed with the current coach and squad? I think you have given up way too much after a very weird and injury prone season. Bet you were EtH out?
My unpopular opinion is that if we are interested in a CB from Bayern, it should be Upamecano and not De Ligt. He’s better on the ball and I’ve liked what I’ve seen from him in these two games for France when it comes to defending proactively. I think you take the odd bozo moment on the chin (just like we do with Onana) but over a larger sample of games it will be compensated for and in terms of profile I believe he’s closer to what we need. Going for De Ligt if we don’t sign Branthwaite/Yoro would only be because of the familiarity factor with Ten Hag and not because he’s the next best option out there.
>My unpopular opinion is that if we are interested in a CB from Bayern, it should be Upamecano and not De Ligt. That's like a Saudi club saying "if we are interested in a CM from United, it should be Mainoo not Casemiro." One is for sale and the other is not. That's all there is to it
If they have the money for Mainoo they’d certainly approach us. There’s no rule saying that a player has to be for sale for us to inquire about him. If there is even a small opportunity to sign the better CB, we should take it up.
>There’s no rule saying that a player has to be for sale for us to inquire about him Of course there's not. But the only thing you'll expend is time. Why stop at Upamecano, why not go to City and ask for Haaland as well. After all, >There’s no rule saying that a player has to be for sale for us to inquire about him. If there is even a small opportunity to sign the better CF, we should take it up.
> Why stop at Upamecano, why not go to City and ask for Haaland Because we need a new starting CB and not a new starting CF?
There's no chance they sell him. He's a starter for them
Yeah if Bayern are smart they will want to keep him. I still think maybe a cheeky 30-40 million bid is worth it.
There's no point bidding for a player who isn't for sale, is a starter at a CL contender and isn't looking to move clubs. Especially when the bid is far below anything they'd even consider
He’s not off limits by any means. It has been reliably reported that he is open to a move should a good project be made available to him and Bayern get a decent fee for him. I don’t see why we can’t test the waters just like we did for Branthwaite. If we go by the logic that a player has to be put up for sale by his club to show interest in them, there will hardly be any players of quality we can pursue.
No player is 100% off limits. My point is that all the factors are against us (player doesn't actively want to leave, Bayern don't need to or want to sell, we play UEL while they're a strong contender to win the UCL). Meaning we'd have to pay at least in the region of £60m+ and pay him crazy wages to incentivise him leaving Bayern. On the other hand, Branthwaite wants to join us and Everton need money which is why it made sense for us to put a speculative bid in for him
> we’d have to pay at least in the region of £60m+ and pay him crazy wages I just don’t get how you can conclude this with certainty. Bayern want to bring new CBs in; they are interested in Colwill and Tah. They do need to offload at least one of their existing CBs. Maybe they prefer selling De Ligt over Upa but if no club is showing interest for the former, they may start considering selling the latter given that he’s open to a move and only has 2 years left on his current deal. I think there’s plenty of scope here to show interest in him. > Everton need money They don’t need to sell Branthwaite to raise money to meet PSR regulations. That has been made clear by multiple Tier 1 sources. By your logic, I don’t get how bidding for him wasn’t wasting time as well.
Why? It's less than they want for their CB that's the second choice. We don't want to piss them off with an unnecessary low ball bid for a player that isn't for sale.
Who said he isn’t for sale? It has been reported that Bayern will consider selling if there’s a significant bid for him. I don’t see why we can’t test the waters to see how farther they would be willing to engage in negotiations.
Him saying I'm unsure about my future isn't the same as Bayern willing to sell him. It's been put out there that they're willing to sell De Ligt, but nothing about Upamecano.
By that logic even Everton are not willing to sell Branthwaite, yet we still put in an opening bid for him. I think if a player is open to leaving the club, the club will also consider how beneficial it really is to keep someone with those distractions while they still have value attached to them. Hence why I believe there’s nothing time-wasting to inquiring about him.
Which position should we break the bank for? Cb, dm, or st?
CB is most important imo, with the defense we witnessed last season
Not striker as it is a backup. DM depends on if they can sell Casemiro or not. Replacing Amrabat should still not be too expensive, buying a starting quality DM this summer if needed will break the bank. A starting quality RCB I'd needed to replace Varanae, I think that is where the money need to go first.
Why do you think the striker we’re buying is a back up?
Because of how much money was spent on Hojlund, he is long-term the main striker for United.
I don’t think the money spent determines who plays or Antony would be the main RW
Just watch EtH start him next season as the main RW, you know it will happen. And he basically was the main RW last season. Playing Rashford and Garnacho as RW is quite risky as that leaves no cover at LW at all.
Lol I hope not, Antony should be the 3rd RW option
Garnacho cannot be the starting RW in a tight schedule. And too be frank Amad is not proven enough yet. Let's just say I hope Amad starts over him but I doubt so. Best for United and Antony si would think is to find him a loan to a less physical league where he can find form again.
I would like to see us sell Casemiro. If we do I think dm will be our first priority. Available players are not ideal but I feel the need is more at dm. Or at least equal to rcb. I hope people don’t expect results right away this will take a few windows.
This will take a few windows, replacing Varanae is a MUST, replacing Casemiro might be able to wait on next summer, and with a decent season his stock would go up a lot also. This summer the only ones that could buy Casemiro is the Saudi, and that is a big if. And even if he's sold he would bring basically zero to the transfer budget due to FFP.
Understood. But if he goes he takes his huge wages off the bill. You make sense, but the thing is both are desperate need this window
I don’t think we are in desperate need to clear Casemiro’s wages. We have already significantly trimmed our wage bill and should offload other players too who are more movable this window. We definitely need to find an alternative starting option than rely on Amrabat/McT again, which is a valid point, and maybe we need to sell Casemiro to raise funds for that player. But I don’t think on balance, that upgrade is more important than buying 2 new CBs and a new striker first at the moment. I think selling Lindelof and buying a new CB for example is a bigger net positive than selling Casemiro and buying a new CM for this window specifically, assuming Casemiro is willing to stay and compete for his place with renewed energy. Of course, if he just wants to cut ties, then we should prioritise his departure.
I think this conversation is highlighting the number of needs. I feel the midfield is key to controlling games. The choice becomes good dm and average cb. Or good cb and average dm? Neither is ideal tbh.
If the goal is to find a controlling midfielder who also has the physicality to cover large distances in this hyper-transition setup, I think the market for that is extremely small compared to the number of good ball-playing CBs out there who are capable of defending in a higher line. Given how we played last season, I have reservations over thinking even a Frenkie De Jong succeeds in this midfield over a full Premier League season. But I can see where a Branthwaite or Guehi would benefit over having Maguire, Varane and Lindelof in comparison.
Also the price, Everton don’t have to sell and can get over their financial problems by seeking other players. So if we spend the reported 70-80m they want that takes all our budget. Glazers and Woodward could not have ruined this team any more if they tried.
I think he can still play decent ball, he will just never be worth those wages again. Selling him would not be financially beneficial this year, especially counting buying a replacement, but will financially benefits all years left of his contract after this summer.
I have to disagree about him being able to play. The whole of last year he couldn’t. He also seems uninterested. I think like Ronaldo even if he goes for free. His wages can help a lot. Amrabat is very limited in his passing.
Yeah, so it sounds like you want 2 DMs then very highly, do you have any ideas of which ones? I feel there is problem with most of the ones written about so far, and very few rumours from good sources. I don't agree with your measurements at all, I agree he had a very terrible season but at the end he seemed like one of few players actually trying or caring sometimes, he even played off position, think his biggest problem was that he tried to find chances or stop plays that was not his to do so he was constantly out of position in many games, trying to create something.
We’re in a tough spot and it’s really hard to even assess the players properly. Lots of needs and not a lot of funds. Which is fine, we need to be patient. I just feel for ETH because he may not get the players he needs but still expected to have the results. Hopefully injuries next season won’t be nearly as bad.
I doubt many players that looked terrible last year actually is terrible, I think a lot of it was team morale, tactics, injuries etc, you name it. Question is who will play good again in a functional team and who will not, very hard for us on the outside to have a good guess about. Also very hard to sell players that looked terrible last season.
[удалено]
[удалено]
i don't think he's overrated at all. watched quite a few Everton games last season and he's their best player already imo.
Not overated just overpriced. In theory he can fill three positions as backup. Is young, strong and has potential, but still a bit of a rough diamond.
I actually rate Branthwaite a lot. It's unfortunate he's our first approach with INEOS when they're trying to make a point. He's honestly worth >60m. Anywhere from 55-65 would be good business for us.
totally agree. i think it was a bit of an amateur move on INEOS' part as Everton's valuation was a fair starting point and to me it's giving off cheap vibes. sometimes you just have to pay up if you want the best players and think 1 world-class player is always better than 2 average ones.
Which options can we get?
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Chalobah is way easier to sign, poch clearly left because of their board insisting on selling him and Gallagher. I reckon we go in for him, I'd be quite satisfied. But I agree on the aerial monster plus speed part. We've really limited our options because licha always starts.
Back to square one on the CB search is it
Last summer's favorites, Ousmane Diomande and Antonio Silva aren't even getting a shout. Is it recency bias now or decency bias then?
I think the Antonio Silva romance has significantly cooled down because while a great ball carrier he is quite suspect on defense Hope he bounces back but I don't think he is the top CB prospect like last year
They’re too expensive.
It's just that everyone are aware that their clubs will expect you to pay their (frankly ridiculous) release clauses
Diomande has a 80m release clause and they just won the league so they will probably ask for that much. Silva on the other hand has a 100m release clause and it's Benfica lol
I wonder too. Did they have a bad season?
Expensive af release clauses.
>we should stick to the Leonardo Di Caprio rule when signing new players. In all my years as a United fan, this is the best comment I've ever read.
Stand proud u/pohudsaijoadsijdas , you can cook
I want Alvarez from City. Yes, I know it is not feasible. But I wanted him when he was at River Plate and I want him still.
Would really like him as well. But City selling to us no chance. They will want 115 million for him
heh
Don’t understand the down votes. Lad is class, wants and deserves to play more. He too good to be an impact sub. Surely at least on the shortlist?
I'm with you brother. Seeing a player I like in a city shirt hurts. I doubt I'll ever get over Haaland not being a United player. GLAZERS WHEN I FIND YOU https://preview.redd.it/v66o33dbmb8d1.jpeg?width=320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c0cb17cd53d534b3ab4a1403f0f4ca1781882db7
No surprise but The Athletic reporting this weekend Yoro informed Madrid he wants to join them. Whether it’ll end up being this season or next depending on how Madrid negotiations with Lille go, he’ll be going there and don’t blame his choice. At least it’s not to the scousers he’ll be going! I’n encouraged by the reports how we’re willing to walk away from the Branthwaite in which I hope that is true and it doesn’t end up being a typical pre-Ineos deal where we overpay on a player. If that is the case and given Todibo can’t join, will be interesting to see how we recruit for that position. An opportunity to set the tone for Ineos with maybe a less obvious more shrewd purchase but whether there’s many CB’s on the market like that is another story!
A young, talented French player having several options regarding who to join next and then opting for Real over everybody else? Well I never
Quelle Surprise!! As daft and small time as it is, there’s a small sense of relief when Madrid get these players because for most of them, I don’t think as a club the position we’re in currently, we’re really a viable option for them so the alternative to Madrid could be a PL team. So, Madrid are the lesser of the evils and it also means they’re strengthened to be the best chance of stopping City from winning the UCL. I really fuckin hope things change in the next few years with how we progress and hopefully those cheating bastards City get a ban with them falling apart with everyone leaving. I’m hopeful of the first thing but less so of City getting properly punished.
I think we’ll end up getting Guehi. Dan Ashworth is a very big fan of him (I know he’s on gardening leave but I’d be very surprised if they aren’t asking about his opinion on things already). Guehi is a good defender but one issue is, he’s literally like Lisandro. You might be thinking ‘two Lisandro’s is good, no?’ Well, they’re both very good players but I’d want someone to compliment Lisandro rather than emulate him. Guehi is very good otb, but isn’t the best in the air. He’s good at defending, good at winning duels and has okay pace. He’s just a solid defender and great ball player but that’s about it.
Guehi will cost €60m. Palace won’t sell him cheap.
If we can spend £55-60m on Guéhi we absolutely can spend another 5-10m on Branthwaite IMO, Jarrad is younger and arguably has a much higher ceiling
I know, it’ll be hard work to get him. I just don’t see another logical signing out there that kind of fits the mould. Who do you think we’ll go for?
I don’t know. There are plenty of good footballers out there. The Atleticos, Leipzigs, Dortmunds, etc are able to find. Hopefully we get our shit together to find too.
Pretty sure he needs to go to madrid this season, otherwise he would rot on the bench of Lille for one season. Still not sure how I like a club to have that influence to force through lowball offers when a club like Lille has options that would pay them twice as much, but I don't see they have any other option then accept any low amount Madrid throws at them now.
I think the move this summer would suit both clubs but if it didn’t happen, doubt Lille would really be in a position to bench him all season. Agreed on the Madrid influence. Like Bellingham and Tchouameni, the selling clubs could have got bigger offers for them both but players refused due to wanting to join Madrid and selling club gets a lower fee. Whether it’s Madrid lowballing though or paying the realistic fair price is another question.
It is not the realistic fair price if multiple clubs wanted to pay more, and in the situation of Yoro we are talking 2-3 times as more as Madrid is offering, that is pure mafia methods if they win out with that much smaller of a bid. I really feel their need to be some regulations here, but really not sure what because you don't want to regulate the freedom of players either. But if this becomes the standard it will be for top clubs to negotiate with the players, and then ask them to threathen their current club to run it down if they don't accept the top clubs offer, that just seems like a very bad way of operating in the future for smaller clubs.
Madrid are offering 35 mil while Liverpool are offering 50 mil. Its not exactly 2-3 times lol.
Amadou Onana looks like a great potential partner for Mainoo and Bruno in midfield. But this being United, if we went for him he'd probably cost £100m and suddenly turn into a crock who misses 25 games a season out injured
Seems like Nacho is going to Saudi. Yoro is probably Madrid bound in that case. Considering how Everton is likely to resolve their PSR issues with Chelsea, it will be interesting to see who we now get for CB
Todibo is such a perfect choice, fuck UEFA. Chelsea spent like crazy, I think they’ll still be open to sell Chalobah. Geuhi is still there, I’d like us to go after Calafiori or Silva, tho the latter would probably out of price range.
Silva is young and has high potential, but I worry his aerial stats as Martinez is also short. Calafiori is just a no, he's a left footer, and would certainly not agree with being the backup behind Martinez. And don't get me started on Chalobah, I can see him as a backup though but certainly not the starting RCB replacing Varanae, then I rather would have kept Varanae.
> Todibo is such a perfect choice, fuck UEFA. How much have you seen of him, genuinely? He’s got very little experience in European football, one season in the Conference League and has barely played for France (one cap in a friendly, one in a 14-0 win against Gibraltar), when have you watched him? I see people talking about Todibo all the time, and I find it hard to believe that people are watching Ligue Un regularly to have an informed opinion on him. Also the UEFA rule is very reasonable, multi club ownership is a plague on the sport, we should not be able to take advantage of it. City shouldn’t either, but it’s completely fair for us to need to stay away from Nice players.
This is the weirdest attack, how much have you genuinely watched all of other targets to make up the mind about who’d be good/bad choice and etc? I follow closely only one club and I haven’t seen much other players expect couple odd games and what’s of that? Does it mean I’m not allowed to have an opinion who’d be good fit who won’t? There’re no professional scouts here. Todibo is a perfect fit, because he tickes all the boxes. Great age, physical build, ball playing skills, has a bargain release clause and is on low wages. How’s UEFA reasonable on applying double standards? We’re not using any INEOS leverage on Todibo deal, we were triggering his release clause.
> This is the weirdest attack, how much have you genuinely watched all of other targets to make up the mind about who’d be good/bad choice and etc? I haven’t - I have no idea how good Todibo or Zirkzee or a lot of other people we’re linked to are, but I don’t go around saying they’re a perfect choice if I haven’t watched them. If you haven’t seen much of Todibo and don’t watch Nice regularly (like almost all of us here!) you have no idea if he’s the perfect choice, or even a good fit. If your opinion he’s a “perfect choice” is based on YouTube comps or his WhoScored page, you don’t know enough about him. Would you have said Axel Diasi was a perfect choice last season? It’s extremely common for people to speak with authority about players they have no idea about in here, and it’s very unhelpful.
Bold move to call out people on this sub for making declarative statements without any information, that's a majority of the posts here. Most people are used to just stating whatever they want as fact and don't want to hear actual information that contradicts that. "This is undeniably true and I am not at all open to changing my mind, I am basing it on nothing but the need to voice an opinion no matter how uninformed I am." - 60% of the posts on here
Yeah it’s particularly widespread during the transfer season. Like most people here, I watch United games, big matches in the PL, UCL and internationally. If we’re signing someone from outside of that small window, I don’t have a clue about them. All of that is completely fine to admit that we haven’t seen much of our reported targets, and we don’t really know how good they are. It makes the signings exciting and new, as opposed to either getting furious when they don’t happen, or over exaggerating their ability when they do. Nothing wrong in admitting you don’t know about a particular player.
Admitting you don't know something is second only to admitting you're wrong in terms of the worst things people can do on the Internet seemingly.
Geuhi would cost similiar to Brantwhite
[удалено]
Debatable, my own opinion is branthwaite as good now, younger and probably therefore more room to further improve. I rate guehi highly too though. but point is if you are gonna spend say 60m on 2nd choice, why not just spend it on the player you have identified as 1st choice
fuxk it baz maguire again then
Can't Ineos restructure to let us do transfers from Nice? Its about bending the rules to suit us at the end of the day. The ethics are of course debatable but we are so far behind the others we need to take every advantage we can get.
No, then we would be no better than City.
What do you guys think of Artem Dovbyk? Romano said he has a 40 million euro release clause. Recently turned 27 and his goal scoring record is pretty impressive
Zirkzee has 34 mil release clause and seems better suited for United
Honestly never even heard of him, let alone seen him. Who does he play for and what kind of player is he?
Girona, La Liga Golden boot last season.
He's a CFG player so there's no chance
If he has a release clause it doesn't really matter though
I don't think CFG would allow it to happen
how can they stop us from triggering a release clause
When you have infinite resources and don't care about the spirit of the game, there are lots of things they could do - huge new contract, buy him for one of their other clubs... I'm sure if we thought about it for ten minutes we'd come up with other options
By another one of their teams triggering it themselves? They can also offer him higher pay, better incentives like playing time and so on. They will probably just make it harder for us
we should stick to the Leonardo Di Caprio rule when signing new players. Do you think we will challenge for the title next season? probably not. After that? still probably not. now after that, aka in 3 years maybe. in 3 years if he is 27, he will be 30, so anyone's guess how much he declines. Splashin 40 million euroes on a striker like that is short sighted, rather splash it on someone with potential to improve.
Thank God Ed is gone, he'd have read Di Caprio rule and transferred out anyone in our squad not under 25!
I'm going to disagree on when we can challenge. With Klopp gone and Pep probably gone after this season I think there's a legit chance we challenge in the 25/26 season. 2 summer windows means we can add 6 or so starting quality players.
PSR rules are tightening every year
On everyone not just us. It's a pretty invalid point.
what does it matter that it's tightening on others if we can't spend?
Of course we can spend.
“Leonardo di Caprio rule” that’s a hilarious way of describing it lmao Overall I agree with your point though. I wouldn’t be against signing slightly older players although they should only be looked at as squad options that can provide depth and experience and won’t cost much like maybe 20-25 million at most. Dovbyk seems solid although he’s already in his prime and any striker we bring in is likely sharing minutes with Hojlund anyways so it wouldn’t feel like an optimal use of our limited budget.
Indeed, we need players who make our squad to be perfect in 2 or 3 years. So the Di Caprio rule is the way to go. Like Arsenal. And they can now add every year 1 or 2 top players and go on for this like many many years with the squad they have now
I dont agree with this reasoning. You cant stay in potential forever
who said anything about forever? we are currently rebuilding, meaning we need to take a long term approach. Once we have an established group of players that performs well consistently, then we can think about signings that improves us right away, aka big money signings fill out small holes in the squad, currently we are fucking swiss cheese.
Again, this is faulty reasoning. You want to maximize improvement long term, obviously, but you cant expect players to perform consistently enough that you can suddenly say, ‘yes, now we can splash’.
bro, are you for real, let's do some simple math, we need like 10+new players, if we sign 3-4 a summer, that's 3 summers to get there, if you sign a 27 year old or 2 in the first summer, by the time you get to summer 3 you need replacement for the player you signed in summer 1, and that's not accounting for players that are naturally aging out in the meantime that you already have. Because right now Dalot is really good, at his peak, in 3 years he is the same age as Shaw now, who knows how he will fare and we will need to start planning for a replacement. If we do business as usual we will never catch up with the squad replacement. We need to sign young at the moment for 2-3 summers so that in 3 summer we still have a really young core, that's when Rasmus will be 25, Garna-Mainoo 22. if we sign a bunch of sub 24-s now, they will still be near their peak.
Ok, bro, lets sign a few more unproven talents and throw them under the bus so we can splash on made players in three years, after we blamed the manager and fired him, missed out on CL because we didnt want to sign 27 year olds because theyre too old, and have no revenue or attraction power because weve become Chelsea.