What do we still need? Post Summer 2018 edition

We will not sort the team or first 11 in one season. Better to do this gradually, instead of the instant fixes we have tried the last cpouple of years.
Buy players that can improve with good resale value, and if they do not work out they can be sold on without losing a fortune --> Fred, Lukaku e.g

Just for consideration, United are the only team with 4 players in BBCs EPL top scorers charts. 4 players with close to double figures after half a season of playing attack shy. I was told this by a Scouser who hates us.

EDIT: and Pool signed 2 players to transform to title challengers. There is always this misconception that we need 16 world class players. You can have average players and challenge City. Both Spurs and Pool have these

But Liverpool have with VVD one of the best CB maybe the best at the moment. Then with Salah one of the best Attackers. In my opinion in the Top 5. One of the best GK and the rest are also very good players.

Honestly we are looking at a very important transfer window and expecting a lot of movements from our side. I feel our team is just a few players away from being a serious title contender . We need to go big and take out the mediocre players from our squad in the next 2 transfer windows along with adding some quality players .

My personal choices would be :

Out : Fellaini (left), Pereira, Rojo , Jones , Mata ,Darmian , Mc Tominay (Loan)and Valencia .

In : Fekir, Koulabily/De Ligt/ Skiniar , Milenkovic , Pellegrini and Rabiot .

1. Fekir would be like to like replacement for Mata who will probably be leaving on a free this summer . With Fekir entering his last 12 months of contract he can be bought on an economical deal .

2. A big name centre back signing which will be probably be either one of Koulabily , De Ligt and Skiniar since they have been linked to us most with Koulabily most likely one .

3. Milenkovic is a talented young player who is comfortable in both right back and centre back position since we will need a new player for right back position as both Valencia and Darmian look set to leave .

4. Pellegrini should one of the 2 midfield signings for us since Fellaini has left and Pereira will probably leave in the summer with rumours of Mc Tominay leaving on a loan . He has a relatively low buy out clause of 26 million pounds and there were reports earlier that we have an understanding with him and will probably trigger his buy out clause in the summer .

5. Rabiot on a free with a good signing on amount would be good option in our midfield . He seems a talented player and will vastly improve our squad .

I know a lot of people want us to sign Sancho this coming summer but with Pulisic gone I doubt Dortmund will let him leave this summer so maybe we give it a try in 2020 summer window .

Also with his high wages Sanchez will be hard to get rid of so I am expecting him to be in our squad for another season .


With all those incomings and outgoings our squad would be very strong with perfect blend of youth and experience.


Goalkeepers : De Gea , Romero .

Defenders : Baily, Smalling, Lindelof, Shaw, Dalot, Young, Milenkovic and Koulabily .

Midfielders : Matic, Herrera, Pogba, Fred, Pellegrini and Rabiot .

Forwards : Martial, Sanchez, Rashford, Lukaku, Lingers and Fekir .

We need to shift out rojo & attract a top CB.
The renewal of jones worries me. I could understand this renewel if it is just to retain market value and move him on for 20mil or so.
He is injured too much and probably on a lot of money to just be 5th CB backup

I fear we are in for more pennypinching en average players staying at UTD

I expect Young and Valencia to sign new deals to. Even possibly Smalling.

Got a real horrible feeling that we will only add a CB in the Summer. We will get the old 'new manager, clean slate' rubbish. Just don't think we will spend the big money we need.

Valencia will go. No point in even keeping him, he doesn't even play anymore.
Young will get a contract, i'm ok with it if it's just to be a cover and to fill the english quota.

We need a CB & RB.
CM to replace or compete with Matic
RW

Shift out mata, pereira.

We need to shift a few but there's no point in leaving our self in a weakened position unless we have replacements lined up or our youth players are ready for first team football.

Out: Valencia, Mata, Pereira, add Sanchez to this list if he doesn't improve also.
In: CB, RB, RW, maybe a U21 CM if budget allows.

About £200m should cover it.

Smalling signed a new deal last year.

The chances of us adding a new CB went down a lot with Jones's new deal. Ditto with Young and a new full back.

Our bloated squad and large wage bill need cutting just to make space and funds available for new players but it looks like the club want to continue the conservative approach to transfers they adopted last summer.

Here's hoping Mata rejects our offer so we can at least get a new right winger.

Can't see us signing a new CB without getting rid of 2 we already have, considering Tuanzebe will probably be competing for the first team next season. Rojo will be gone this summer and if we are to buy someone I think Bailly will follow him.

Genuinely forgot

It's OK, I don't blame you, it wasn't that memorable anyway

Their GK ain't that good. He has let in nearly all shots in 2019 and makes more howlers than Fabianski. The other 2 yes so we merely need to buy a WC CB and an established top RW or CM as we have 2 former Golden Boy winners up top already. Then we should challenge

In :

Sancho
Koulibaly
Wan Bisakka
Declan Rice

Out :

Sanchez
Valencia
Rojo
Bailly/Smalling
Pereira

Lineup something like this next season :

----------------------Rashford/Lukaku--------------------

--Martial/Gomes-------------------------Sancho/Lingard--


----------------Pogba/Fred----------------------------------

-----------------------------------Herrera/Fred-------------

-----------------------Rice/Matic----------------------------

Shaw/Young--Koulibaly/Jones--Lindelof/Smalling--AWB/Dalot--

-------------------------Degea/Romero---------------------------

That ridiculous contract we've given Jones puts getting a top CB in doubt, we have 5 senior CB's so even if Rojo is finally sold we'd still have 4 and Axel to come back into the squad. So to get a CB we'll most likely have to sell Bailly and the only reason he would be sold over Jones is the country of their birth.

Out:
Alexis- 10m thanks to his wages, I'm not expecting us to get anything more than this
Darmian- Released
Rojo- 5m Not expecting more than this due to his recent injury record
Valencia- Released
Pereira- Released
TFM- 10m
Bailly- 25m Considering he is out of favour, and is likely to become a squad player, if he isn't one now
Total Out: 50m

In:
Koulibaly/Skriniar- 80-100m
Bergwijn/ Under/ Lozano - 30-60m(depending on who we get) - I would love it if we get Sancho, but dont think we have enough money to buy 2 100m players; plus with Chong coming in, club would be reluctant to sign Sancho
Neves- 50m
Meunier- 30m- Would love AWB, but he will be expensive and we have Dalot
Total In: 190-240m

GK: DDG, Romero, Grant(HG)
Defenders: Meunier, Young (HG), Dalot, Shaw (HG), Jones (HG), Smalling (HG), Lindelof, Koulibaly, Tuanzebe (CT)
Midfielders: Pogba (CT), Herrera, Matic, Fred, McTominay (CT), Neves
Attack: Under, Mata, Lingard (CT), Martial, Rashford (CT), Lukaku (HG?)

Tuanzebe will stay out on loan and we'll sign another defender. It isn't unusual for us to have 5 centre backs in the squad.

I can't think of many sides that carry 5 senior CB's, not unless one or two of them are versatile like when we had Vidic/Rio/Evans/O'Shea/Brown, the latter two were often utilized in other positions, Smalling/Jones/Lindelof/Bailly are CB's, nothing else and I know they've all dabbled at RB but with zero success.

I refuse to believe Woodward would be so dumb and self destructing.

Personally I would prefer us to improve our right side than sign a CB. The way Lindelof has improved over the past few months puts less pressure in buying a CB.

would rather spend 100-150 million on improving our right side in the summer with a RB and RW as priority in that order.

You started off good, but Neves for 50 million?

What is our likely maximum spend in the Summer. I’d ideally like a RB, RW and CDM:

Sancho £150 million - I don’t see Dortmund selling for much less than this. It will be a risk but one I would want us to take. Should be our absolute priority signing as he completes our attack.

AWB £40 million - might be a bit optimistic with the fee but he’s looked quality this season. I think he’s a level above Dalot and would mean we’ve completely sorted our right side for a decade if all goes well.

I’m then thinking another £60 million or so on a CDM for a total outlay of £250 million but not sure who would best fill that position.

In terms of sales, I can’t see us getting too much coming back in. We’ve already got c. £10 million for Fellaini. We might get another £15 million or so for Rojo/Darmian. I don’t see anyone else leaving for big cash. I’m therefore suggesting a net outlay of over £200 million but I’d see it very much as a one off spending spree to bridge the gap to the likes of City/Liverpool.

Edit - forgot Mata is still here. I’d definitely also shift him if at all possible.

Honestly, couldn't think of someone who we can sign and will not cost us a fortune. Yeah, 50m is a bit too steep, but I think when you ad in the 10m Utd premium, he would cost us 50m

Dude I think you misunderstood me, I think 50 million won't be enough to buy Neves from Wolves, they have a nice thing going on and they're not in a hurry to sell, 50 million just won't cut it.

Oh, that way! I think 50m might be enough. In case not, we would need to look elsewhere as I dont think we'll be spending more than 200 odd million in net on transfers, unless ofcourse we decide to maybe sell Lukaku and Greenwood replaces him

If JM still were the manager, and with the connection to J. Mendes we might have got a good price... But seing as we sacked Jose, a client of Mendes, then the price will certainly increase. The influence Mendes have over Portuguese football and players is concerning.

Not to be a busta, but I really doubt we'll be able to get him for 50 million.

I would sign these 3 players in the summer:

Dan-Axel Zagadou - 19 - 6'5 - Left footed - CB
Borussia Dortmund - France/Ivory Coast

Malcom - 21 - 5'7 - Left footed - RW
Barcelona - Brazil

Thiago Alcantara - 27 - 5'8 - Right footed - CM
Bayern Munich - Spain/Brazil

Team for next season:

De Gea; Dalot - Lindelof - Zagadou - Shaw; Matic - Thiago - Pogba; Malcom - Rashford - Martial
(Romero; Bailly - Rojo; Herrera - Fred - Gomes; Chong - Greenwood - Lingard)

The senior players not mentioned above would be surplus to requirements for a variety of reasons such as age.

Wan Bissaka
Sancho
Koulibaly

De Gea
Wan Bissaka Lindelof Koulibaly Shaw
Matic
Herrera Pogba
Sancho Rashford Martial
​

We'd be unstoppable!

I hope you are right but I genuinely don't see a CB coming in unless we sell one on top of Rojo, that should have just been Jones leaving when his contract was up in the summer, now if it happens it will almost certainly be Bailly as our management team are Fergie's disciples which means Smalling and Jones will be here for years to come

I'm not so sure, I know Mourinho is still his client but I'm pretty sure I'm right in saying that we didn't buy a single Mendes player while Mourinho was United manager.

Our record with Brazilians is not great.

I’d be happy with Alderweirld in place of Koulibaly. He would cost £25m (£60m less than Koulibaly) and means we can go all out for the 2 you mentioned plus another midfielder.

I think we need an energetic midfielder to be able to cover for Matic and Herrera. A few good options from the PL is Ndidi from Leicester or Doucoure from Watford.

Jones/Smalling/Bailly and Lindelof on long deals.....Tuanzebe in the wings

think it's clear that Rojo will go but the contract extensions don't exactly scream out that we are shopping for a CB

or have we extended Smalling/Jones with a view to making them sellable assets?

we really need that dominant CB that we hoped that Bailly would become

I just wonder is there a case of Glazernomics here in terms of spending? rumours that the Glazers were contemplating selling the club to the Saudis - this would obviously affect their interest in spending if they are planning on selling up

i love your reasoning

Good post, hope you're right.

However I'm unsure about CB with Jones signing another contract. None of our CBs look likely to leave, so I really can't see us bringing in another two without decent bids coming in for the ones we already have. I suppose Lindelöf is the only one we're definitely not selling for any price, and I can't really see any clubs making an effort to sign any of the others.

Rojo will most definitely leave mate.

Ah cheers, I forgot about him. But the rest?

Highly unlikely tbh, Jones and Smalling have both signed new contracts, Lindelof seems to have found his footing whilst Bailly is a peculiar one. My money is on Bailly getting sold if we are to go after a new CB this summer. Also Tuanzebe will probably be added to the squad for the next season .

Get a RW, RB and cover for Herrera / Matic. I think those should be the priority. We can survive with the existing CBs if we don't have more funds but we absolutely need to fix the imbalance on the right side.