Wot, no transfers?

[Sassy Colin]

A month since @Sassy Colin started this thread and there's still no signings even remotely close.

Wtf

It's gone much better than expected, actually.

 

[vanderpants]

And.....

And what? I answered your question, you said there werent linked with anybody else and they clearly were

 

[Adisa]

I'm wouldn't be surprised if the board weren't giving Mourinho a lot of money. His transfers have been very hit and miss. The only one's you could really call flat out successes so far are Lukaku, Matic, and maybe Pogba, assuming he actually stays, and two of them cost an absolute bomb. He's also failed to addressed some of our most glaring weaknesses by not signing a right winger, full backs, and spending 70m on two center backs who are jsut pure potential more than anything.

For a manager known for being astute in the transfer window, he hasn't really done a great job with the £300m they already gave him (this summer not included).

Then sack him or hire a DoF. It's madness to use your doubts about a coach as an excuse for not improving the team.

 

[Himannv]

I'd agree that Griezmann was at his peak two years ago , however he was excellent in the WC And his form hasn't fallen off a cliff like Sanchez last year.

I do feel he laboured through some games at times and he wasn't quite dominating proceedings like he used to do. I felt he was better at the end of the tournament than during it.

 

[bananaman]

If mourinho is determined to play the way he has so far then I wouldnt be surprised if we go for an older big man up front as cover for Lukaku. We also need a RW , Bale/Willian mentioned but Id say Chelsea have delayed a lot of things with the late appointment of their manager. I think if Hazard goes to Madrid for 190m or something nuts it will kick start the transfer merry go round.

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

I'm surprised there haven't even been any concrete links since the Fred and Dalot signings other than the lingering Perisic stuff. May be the board is keeping their cards close this time but even Duncan Castles is silent. We did get some business done in January with Sanchez but left back and right winger are still problematic areas.

 

[settembrini]

Mourinho's latest comments about expecting to start the season with Shaw, Smalling, Bailly and Valencia in defence makes the probability of signing either a LB or CB even more unlikely than before.

Fingers crossed we are close to a top quality right winger or next season could be a real struggle.

 

[Sunny Jim]

I'm surprised there haven't even been any concrete links since the Fred and Dalot signings other than the lingering Perisic stuff. May be the board is keeping their cards close this time but even Duncan Castles is silent. We did get some business done in January with Sanchez but left back and right winger are still problematic areas.

They usually feed Castel with some stories so they look busy completing transfers. Once in while he posts a reassuring article that everything is nice and rosy.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

Mourinho's latest comments about expecting to start the season with Shaw, Smalling, Bailly and Valencia in defence makes the probability of signing either a LB or CB even more unlikely than before.

Fingers crossed we are close to a top quality right winger or next season could be a real struggle.

He’s not going to come out and say he will be starting with Sandro and Toby in the defence is he?

Have you not learnt by now that you should take everything Jose says with a pinch of salt.

 

[settembrini]

Have you not learnt by now that you should take everything Jose says with a pinch of salt.

What are you talking about? Ever since he became our manager he's been clear about what our transfer plans are and every window we've always done, or tried to do, exactly what he says. If he says that he expects those four players to be our back four at the start of the season then there's zero reason to assume he's lying.

 

[Bradley Leach]

I don't think there's too much to worry about, we will probably do more business in the window, I think were just being careful with our targets. I'm not going to hit panic mode until there's only 1 week left and we've not signed anyone else.
I think were making sure that we get the right players for the right price, we don't want clubs taking advantage of our lack of RW and desire for a LB and CB, for example the Ante Rebic links, £40m is a ridiculous price, so were probably looking for more suitable alternatives; The same goes for Willian at over £60m. I don't like that were not making transfers, 'll happily admit to being a transfer Muppet, but I do like that we're being cautious with our approach.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

What are you talking about? Ever since he became our manager he's been clear about what our transfer plans are and every window we've always done, or tried to do, exactly what he says. If he says that he expects those four players to be our back four at the start of the season then there's zero reason to assume he's lying.

I did not say he was lying, but managers say what they need to say - they are nowhere near transparent and 100% honest. If we brought in Toby for example - he would have exactly the same time off as Rashford, Lingard etc and so would not be available for the first match, so do t take things completely literally - doesn’t mean we are not going to sign someone.

 

[King7Eric]

What are you talking about? Ever since he became our manager he's been clear about what our transfer plans are and every window we've always done, or tried to do, exactly what he says. If he says that he expects those four players to be our back four at the start of the season then there's zero reason to assume he's lying.

This is one thing. People keep on saying to take what Jose says with a pinch of salt. But since he became our manager he's been very honest and upfront about our transfers. So if he's saying something transfer related I'm inclined to take it at face value.

 

[Hal9000]

Woodward being stringed along over the prospect of Bale, then will rush through deals when Bale signs a new contract.

 

[buckooo1978]

This place.....I didn't suggest that we we close to city or that he wasn't a good player.

when you said

signed one player and linked with no one..

what exactly was your point then? the implication is that you aren't that impressed with City's window

not happy with 2nd but you admit we are not close to City?!? you aren't making too much sense there pal

 

[cloyton]

100% game of poker going on here. No way Woodward and the board members will allow Liverpool & Chelsea to take over social media with all their signings whilst the united fans are feeling depressed. There will be a chain reaction of stuff which I will outline below.

Here is how I believe it will go down

Chelsea want to sign Higuain & Aleksandr Golovin.
Real Madrid will Sign Hazard & Thibaut Courtois
Manchester United will then sign Gareth Bale from Madrid.
Spurs will then sign Martial from us with Toby Alderweireld coming our way.

Then I suspect we will get another player or two if we are lucky. Probably Sandro if reports are to be believed.

If we get:

Fred
Dalot
Bale
Sandro
+ a fully rested Sanchez from last year

We should be good to go.

Keep the faith reds!!

 

[IRELANDUNITED]

Anything today boys and girls?

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

Feels a bit like Mourinho is setting up to be paid off this season, having not been supported in the transfer market versus our main rivals. Next stop lost dressing room?

 

[Sassy Colin]

100% game of poker going on here. No way Woodward and the board members will allow Liverpool & Chelsea to take over social media with all their signings whilst the united fans are feeling depressed. There will be a chain reaction of stuff which I will outline below.

Here is how I believe it will go down

Chelsea want to sign Higuain & Aleksandr Golovin.
Real Madrid will Sign Hazard & Thibaut Courtois
Manchester United will then sign Gareth Bale from Madrid.
Spurs will then sign Martial from us with Toby Alderweireld coming our way.

Then I suspect we will get another player or two if we are lucky. Probably Sandro if reports are to be believed.

If we get:

Fred
Dalot
Bale
Sandro
+ a fully rested Sanchez from last year

We should be good to go.

Keep the faith reds!!

Bollocks

 

[cloyton]

Bollocks

Go on explain why?

 

[Suedesi]

It didn’t go worse. Berbatov had already made Tevez redundant. The quality of the playing squad going worse is hyperbolic at best. United did not finish lower than 2nd from Ronaldo’s departure to SAF/Gill’s departure. We always competed. We lost the league on goals difference(2012) & Drogba’s offside goal at OT(2010).



You won’t go into Herrera’s stuff cos you would lose the debate. It was years ago but it was under Woodward. Don’t cherry-pick - it happened under Ed’s watch.



We have a very poor defence. Do not let the goals against/clean sheets of last season fool you otherwise. You should thank De Gea’s heroic saves - our defence is bottom fodder at best. Smalling/Jones are a liability and I have simple statistics to back it.

2017/18 Season

Ederson - 70 shots faced - 20 goals conceded.
De Gea - 120 shots faced - 23 goals conceded
Lloris - 82 shots faced - 24 goals conceded
Courtois - 84 shots faced - 27 goals conceded
Karius/Mignolet - 87 shots faced - 34 goals conceded.

United played the most defensive of these teams and yet our goalie faced 120 shots on target. Our defence is nothing to write home about. Just be thankful we have a superhuman goalie otherwise we would have finished below Arsenal.



Nothing about Woodward’s signings have been sensible. Look at the other giants in Europe making astute signings. Players like Neymar, Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, etc should be playing for Man Utd. We make so much money - the turnover is like top 3 in Europe but only 2 of our players are world class in a squad of 30 players.

Remember this quote......”We could do things in the market that other clubs can dream about.” Yep, Woodward made that statement and he went on to buy Fred(his buttprint is still very visible on the Brazilian bench in Russia), Grant(a fifth-tier goalie) and Dalot(a no-mark fullback who will understudy a retired winger). Woodward is right....none of Man City or Liverpool would dream about the calibre of these mediocre players.

The reality is that he has not backed Jose Mourinho. Look at what Pep has bought....City were in a healthier state than United before 2016 and yet City have bought thrice the number of players Jose has bought. Pep spent about £250m on his defence alone - that is the kind of financial backing I expect from Woodward but he’s lagging behind.

You can dress this however you want but Woodward is doing a terrible job. Yet, when Jose fails to achieve the goal of securing the PL, the media would blame Jose when all the fault lies at the doorstep of Ed. Woodward has been bringing a dagger to a gunfight since SAF departed and this is why we have finished only twice in the top 4 in the last 5 seasons. It’s an embarrassment! In any other industry, Woodward would have been given his P45 for a shoddy job.

Spot on

 

[Suedesi]

In this transfer window

Chelsea have Made 1 signing
Liverpool Have made 2 signings (keita doesnt count as they signed him last year)
City have made 1 Singing
Spurs have signed no one


only arsenal have made strides in the transfer market of anyone in the top 6 and they finished 6th .


We are doing ok with the sigings we have made so far. Its a world cup year things will get moving faster now that the cup is over. All of the rumours make it apear as if clubs are wheeling and dealing and signing players left and right. That is just not the case.

City are way ahead of us. They don’t need to make signings

Liverpool have added Keita, Alisson, Shaq, Fabinho to this season’s roster and have addressed some of their issues. They still may buy Fekir. Also VVD was added in Jan and you saw his impact in the CL.

These are the two teams best positioned to fight for the league.

Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal and us will fight for the top 4

 

[Josep Dowling]

Seriously what is going on?

We have a pre-season where half our squad isn't there and no striker.

One of our best players can't even get a visa, surely this should have been checked months ago.

We have signed one first team player.

We have given Fellaini a new contract.

It really starts to make you wonder do the people in charge have a clue what they're doing.

 

[Suv666]

This is bloody grim reminds me of the Fellaini window this. I was certain we'd make at least two signings but judging by Mou's presser reckon one signing at most.
Huge gamble buying only 2 players this window, I can see why the likes of City havent made a huge number of signings but our squad has so many holes. Lets hope Utd can at least challenge for the title, if Sanchez, Lukaku and Pogba hit the ground running and Shaw regains his Southampton form we might see some silverware. On paper though, we look top 4 at best.

 

[Jacky Quacky]

If we dont sign another two players which we desperately need this transfer window will ultimately be a failure. Think all that moneys gone from 2 seasons ago.

 

[sincher]

Jeez this thread is depressing. Who exactly is it that you guys even want?

 

[ChaddyP]

City are way ahead of us. They don’t need to make signings

Liverpool have added Keita, Alisson, Shaq, Fabinho to this season’s roster and have addressed some of their issues. They still may buy Fekir. Also VVD was added in Jan and you saw his impact in the CL.

These are the two teams best positioned to fight for the league.

Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal and us will fight for the top 4

to be honest i count sanchez as a new signing for us. doubt they will sign fekir. Lyon have basically shut that door and they have given mane the 10 jersey just now. Shaq is basically an ox replacement. Fabinho and keita are good sigings but we have also made a midfeild upgrade. I still think we will sign a defender. The issue is catching man city. Dont think the issue is catching up those that finished below us.

 

[Sassy Colin]

Jeez this thread is depressing. Who exactly is it that you guys even want?

Not really sure who decent is available, apart from Sandro.

 

[VanGaalEra]

Delaney has still delivered. Nothing can stop him. We’re in for Thiago and Lewandoski apparently.

Bless him, it is his bread and butter after all.

 

[Judas]

Feels a bit like Mourinho is setting up to be paid off this season, having not been supported in the transfer market versus our main rivals. Next stop lost dressing room?

Feels like it, but I know we're not meant to say it around here. But I'm sure non-Utd fans looking in must be thinking the usual Jose antics are coming into play.

I still want to believe he's in it for the long haul and is dedicated to getting us back to the top, but I'm not sure where that belief is really coming from at the moment.

 

[roseguy64]

Seriously what is going on?

We have a pre-season where half our squad isn't there and no striker.

One of our best players can't even get a visa, surely this should have been checked months ago.

We have signed one first team player.

We have given Fellaini a new contract.

It really starts to make you wonder do the people in charge have a clue what they're doing.

We don't control the immigration system of the US. We've signed two first team players. Half our squad isn't there because they performed well for their countries and made it far in the World Cup so that means there's lots of quality in the team.

 

[Adisa]

I've started counting the days. We have less than three weeks now.

 

[Valar Morghulis]

I still want to believe he's in it for the long haul and is dedicated to getting us back to the top, but I'm not sure where that belief is really coming from at the moment.

Even if he is in it for the long haul, despite improving our league position, everything seems completely miserable with him at the helm. His general demeanour, the style of football, a widespread lack of belief in us challenging throughout the fan base, issues with Pogba, Jose taking digs at our own players and him trying to re-write our "football heritage". He's spent a crap load of money now and bored the ass off us, I really can't see his tenure going anywhere good from this point onwards.

 

[$inner_88]

20 days left until the window closes and we have nothing floating around in the news. Either the club have shut down people leaking news to the press or were just not making any moves atm.

 

[ravi2]

As it stands 3rd is our best case scenario.
Our defense and full backs are atrocious. The play will always be congested through the middle and the there will be no service coming from wide areas.

 

[VanGaalyTime]

I don't think there's too much to worry about, we will probably do more business in the window, I think were just being careful with our targets. I'm not going to hit panic mode until there's only 1 week left and we've not signed anyone else.
I think were making sure that we get the right players for the right price, we don't want clubs taking advantage of our lack of RW and desire for a LB and CB, for example the Ante Rebic links, £40m is a ridiculous price, so were probably looking for more suitable alternatives; The same goes for Willian at over £60m. I don't like that were not making transfers, 'll happily admit to being a transfer Muppet, but I do like that we're being cautious with our approach.

But doesn't that basically mean the scouts have been doing nothing all year? Why are we still "looking for the right players" in the summer? Rebic might not be a concrete link but even Perisic is an example of our lack of creativity when it comes to buying players. There are at least 30 players worldwide who would improve us on the right wing. Maybe only five of those will become world class in the future, but our scouts are paid to find them. Hopefully things are quiet because we're negotiating and not because we're still looking around.

 

[pcaming]

United at this point is so very predictable. We won't sign anyone else, we'll struggle to a 3rd or 4th place in the league (depending on Chelsea's form). In Europe, we'll get absolutely washed and though we'll have a couple decent cup runs we won't win either. Jose will blame the board and either resign or be sacked and we'll lose Pogba and Martial in the summer. We also won't replace either adequately and just settle for being an upper mid-tier club for the foreseeable future.

Slightly exaggerating.

 

[Bradley Leach]

But doesn't that basically mean the scouts have been doing nothing all year? Why are we still "looking for the right players" in the summer? Rebic might not be a concrete link but even Perisic is an example of our lack of creativity when it comes to buying players. There are at least 30 players worldwide who would improve us on the right wing. Maybe only five of those will become world class in the future, but our scouts are paid to find them. Hopefully things are quiet because we're negotiating and not because we're still looking around.

And that's the whole point, we already know the 'right players' as you put it, but as I said earlier, we need to get them at the right price. There is absolutely 0 point going spending £20m too much on every player because that will mean that clubs will inflate their prices even more than they already do.

Look at the Italian clubs, they will quite happily give each other good prices, just to keep good players in the league (or at least that's what I think it is). whenever we used to sell players we too a pittance compared to the real value. On the flip side we also spent way too much on certain players because we foolishly thought we had financial muscle(we do just not as much as we thought, compared to other clubs). Now all clubs think they can inflate their prices because once upon a time we would have paid it.

So yes I agree there may be many players who would improve our RW but its just about negotiating the right deal for those players and if we cant then we need to back away. No more spending for the sake of appeasing fans, we need to do that by buying the right players to suit what we need, which I think is what Jose is trying to do if Woodward would stop being so stingy with his checkbook.

 

[Sassy Colin]

Go on explain why?

Because it's a load of tripe.

Are you a journalist? You seem to enjoy making shit up.

 

[Dolf]

20 days and 7 hours left. More than enough time for a few signings.