How much do we need to spend?

[Judas]

Actually if we shop smart we don't need to spend stupid amounts, but we don't shop smart, we're incapable of it. Dalot is probably the first bit of decent cheap business we've done in many years.

 

[Fracture90]

We need


RB - look how good cancelo was last night having at least one attacking fullback is vital to modern football.

CB - a trusted and experienced player, somebody that can partner Smalling.

DM - Matic is complete shit, need somebody faster and better on the ball.

CM - a box to box type player, Fred could do this yet he doesn’t get played for some reason.

RW - not had a proper one for years absolutely no threat from that side and teams know it.

2 ST (main and back up) - Lukaku is shit.


We need to sell loads first though but it’ll be hard getting rid of players.

That's our problem, our manager is still living in his golden age of football and is pretty far away from modern football tactics and philosophy.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

Like beating a dead horse with this line, but it’s more about how we spend it than how much. Obviously we do need to spend a considerable amount as 1 player could cost 150mil and this is a problem. Money needs to be spent, but we don’t necessarily have to buy say Ramos and Hummels for 200mil. Kante for 100mil, Dybala for 150, Mbappe for 220 and so on.

Say what we want about Cities turnover of players they bought well and for decent fees. We could have used Bernardo Silva and he went for 45/48 mil I think it was.

Someone needs to come in with a plan and say this is what we are working towards, this is what we need and it isn’t going to happen in one season but for right now these players are priority and these ones can wait till next season and build form there.

Problem at United is we are at a point where people want/need instant success and we’ll probably look at the market and shop with that in mind and spend huge fees on “patches” like Bale and ignore someone like Dybala or Dembele.

January I would try for a CDM as a priority and in the summer look for a CB, RB, CM and an option striker. Roughly the same as what I said this past summer.

Oh and however much it cost to get rid of Jose.

 

[Minimalist]

No idea until we get a better (more appropriate) manager in.

Right now most of our players look average to shite. They clearly are not (at least not all of them).

 

[Fosu-Mens]

This is dependent on what the desired outcome is;

Reaching top 4 and progressing from group stage in CL: Change manager.
Challenge for both major titles: 2 years with a manager that actually is able to improve the players, an attacking approach to football, and 2 summer windows with needed and sensible changes in the squad.

 

[Sky1981]

Or the manager isn't getting the best from them

It's easier to put the blame on the manager. But i doubt even if pep manages us smailing becomes varane

 

[Cassidy]

It's easier to put the blame on the manager. But i doubt even if pep manages us smailing becomes varane

Again yesterday had nothing to do with poor defenders and everything to do with a poor team. Its easy to blame cbs for not being able to score goals, oh wait, just another distraction.

 

[bosnian_red]

How much have we spent since Mourinho took over? You can get rid of each and every one of them and arguments can be made that we'd be better off with the money to find replacements. Meanwhile you have other clubs who know what they need and realize you dont need £100m signings in every position to succeed.

What we need is more the question. Also what we need for what goals we want to achieve. To be up there with the very best, we need a center back, a holding mid, a right winger, a striker (and a new coach). If we just want to address the current glaring issues, then obviously a centerback and right winger to start with in terms of signings. And then move on to the other points but also develop players. All would be irrelevant if Mourinho is still our coach though.

 

[The Cat]

I wouldn't trust the manager with a single penny anymore.

The transfer dealings have been disasterous.

 

[RedorDead21]

I wouldn't trust the manager with a single penny anymore.

The transfer dealings have been disasterous.

You are wrongly assuming each player was a)his preferred choice and b) had no influence from Woodward.

Considering LVG was saying players were coming in which were not his choices you're on shaky ground.

 

[Jamie Shawcross]

We should spend as much as we need to, more than everyone else because we have much more than everyone else yet our owners are very stringent and are all about profits at the end of the day. There is no excuse for this club not blowing everyone out of the water in the market, yet we don't but for the odd marquee that is only profitable through shirt sales and hype (pogba, sanchez etc). With this manager, and the money and fan base we have, there is no reason we should not be head and shoulders above everyone else. We can blame the easy target all day (jose) but to me its so clear that the board and the owners don't give a damn shit about our future, only about being a great brand and remaining profitable.

 

[IrishGlen]

Everyone else is giving the wise and mature answers so I’m going to be juvenile and play transfer muppet. £300m you say?

Alderweireld - £25m - Spurs.

Ruben Neves - £60m - Wolves.

Nabil Fekir - £53m - Lyon

Hirving Lozano - £50m - PSV Eindhoven.

Mauro Icardi - £96.5m - Inter Milan.

Only £15m left for a right full back though, maybe Piccini or Calabria but hey, we can’t be greedy!

 

[BusbyMalone]

No amount of money we spend will be enough for him.

 

[The Cat]

You are wrongly assuming each player was a)his preferred choice and b) had no influence from Woodward.

Considering LVG was saying players were coming in which were not his choices you're on shaky ground.

You are wrongly presuming he didn't ok them.

 

[Fosu-Mens]

Only £15m left for a right full back though, cheeky bid for Piccini or Calabria but hey, we can’t be greedy!

Piccini? He may be as bad as Darmian.

 

[Sky1981]

Baily was bought for 30m. Which is peanuts.

Why do we expect him to suddenly becomes a first teamer quality worhty of barca, juve, city, chelsea?

Pogba is the only outfield player that stand a chance to enter top 3 teams.

The rest is duds. Young and valencia would be bench warmer at best due to their experience.

Matic bought for 30m. Again peanuts in today's standard. He functions as 30m stop gap.

Lukaku was dud, could have been a purple patch but his previous records means he's done a better job before.

Lindelof at 35m? Again midtable quality price wise.

When we bought players for midtable value yet we expect them to beat city? And if they dont we blame the manager?

 

[BusbyMalone]

Tweet

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[JK-27]

It's not about cost, it's about quality, we need quality players, regardless of cost.

The last time we won the league we had DDG, Ferdinand, Giggs, RVP, Rooney, Evra, Vidic - not just good players, legends. Funnily enough the last time we won the league was also the season Pogba left the club.

Who are our legends now? DDG and then who? We have lost legends and replaced them with squad players, we're doing the same thing Arsenal did after the 'Invincibles' season, replacing legendary players with players who are good, but not legendary. And look what that produced for them.

You want to win the Prem, you want to win the Champions League, you need the best players. Ed Woodward doesn't get that.

 

[Needham]

The question is past its sell by date. If 5 transfer windows ago I'd said 400 million you would probably have thought that enough.

 

[Varun]

Whatever is Mourinho's sack clause

 

[Josep Dowling]

To get back to winning the title or Champions league:


De Gea

Shaw - need to offer overlapping runs quicker
New CB - a leader who has experience
Bailly - he can't turn into a bad defender overnight, needs to improve on his positioning
New RB

New DM - Matic has been awful since Christmas, seems to have lost any sort of pace or stamina he had
Pogba
Fred / Herrera - Fred clearly needs more game time, Herrera was always a solid performer then dropped for no reason

Martial / Sanchez
New Striker
New RW

Bench - New striker

Sell:
Fellaini
Darmian
Rojo
Lukaku
Lingard
Jones

So in total - First 11 - CB, RB, DM, ST, RW - that's probably £300-400m these days. Oh and a new manager who plays attacking football, that's probably another £20m paying off Mourinho.

 

[NickSantigo]

It'll take a couple of windows but I am thinking:

Jan Window
Buy CB (look at the difference Van Dijk has made to Liverpool's shaky defence)
Buy a proper RB (not one that is a converted winger)

Sell Darmian
Sell Jones
Sell Rojo


Summer
Sign 2nd CB if necessary
Sign a proper RW
Maybe look to replace Lukaku (wouldn't push this right away, would like to see him with better service first)

Sell Fellaini and Young or Valencia

Need to look for real leaders when signing players too. Looking at the team sheet last night, nobody looks like captain material to me

 

[IrishGlen]

Piccini? He may be as bad as Darmian.

Ah, it’s kinda tongue in cheek. We won’t have £300m in one window anyway nor be bringing in 6 first teamers. Jokes aside, I thought Piccini did well against us and let’s face it Darmian isn’t the highest threshold to overcome. Who would you go for yourself - Meunier, Trippier, Hysaj?

 

[spiriticon]

Maybe we could use some of that transfer budget to hire better scouts because those who have been working at the club for the last 5 years are STEALING A LIVING.

Edit: Haha, we actually are hiring! The club knows.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...er-news/man-utd-analyst-new-signings-15128424

 

[Josh 76]

Sign:
Miky
Hernandez
Nani
Depay
Rafael
Evans

 

[Toddler]

A lot. North of 200 mil easily. We need a Rw, quality will cost 100 million. A Cb, 75 million. A DM, 60 million? If Lukaku has to be replaced then a little bit more. Yeah not gonna happen. We are stuck with mediocre players.

 

[IrishGlen]

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Just reading the little exchange between him and the fan though in the comments - signing Martial when we already had Rashford and Depay illustrates a lot of long term vision from the club. That’s just wrong to be fair. Martial was signed Aug ‘16 months before Rashfords breakthrough and we went into that season with literally Mata, Lingard, Rooney and Depay as the attacking options. So glad the club “messed” that one up!

 

[Josep Dowling]

Baily was bought for 30m. Which is peanuts.

Why do we expect him to suddenly becomes a first teamer quality worhty of barca, juve, city, chelsea?

Pogba is the only outfield player that stand a chance to enter top 3 teams.

The rest is duds. Young and valencia would be bench warmer at best due to their experience.

Matic bought for 30m. Again peanuts in today's standard. He functions as 30m stop gap.

Lukaku was dud, could have been a purple patch but his previous records means he's done a better job before.

Lindelof at 35m? Again midtable quality price wise.

When we bought players for midtable value yet we expect them to beat city? And if they dont we blame the manager?

They weren't midtable prices when we bought them. It wasn't until City started £50m on a defenders that Bailly and Lindelof looked cheap. Both were purchased just before City's rampage on sorting their defence. Both were bought as potential as well.

Fairly sure Matic was £40m for a 29 year old that Chelsea had just replaced, hardly the bargain of the century.

Maybe we could use some of that transfer budget to hire better scouts because those who have been working at the club for the last 5 years are STEALING A LIVING.

Does anyone even know who our scouts are? I know Phil Neville was under Moyes, probably explains a lot that season.

 

[Mainoldo]

Bonucci was actually the weak link and we barely tested that. read that of the 6 goals they conceded this season he had a hand in 5 of them.

I know he is, because he’s been that for nearly two years now but we didn’t test him at all. You’d think that would be part of our tactics. Instead I feel it was to mark out Ronaldo and that’s it.

 

[Beachryan]

Whatever is Mourinho's sack clause

This. It's obviously been a long time in football terms, but just over a year ago these exact same players were winning 4-0 on a regular basis, keeping pace with City in a frantic start to the premier league season.

Bringing in a manager who has a track record of getting a team to function better than the sum of its parts, of getting players to perform is all we should start with. That means no Carrick, or Giggs or other unproven sentimental choice. It means no 'superstar' manager, used to having only to sort out a top squads egos to win trophies. We are 10th in the league, and playing worse football than that suggests. We need a manager who can coach. It's where we are at the moment. Give him the rest of the season to understand what he needs. We're not finishing in the top 4, we're not winning the CL so who cares?

We have the best shot stopper in the world. We have 4 international CBs who have - at times - been very good at this level. We have an excellent young left back. We have made it through years of not having a reliable right back in our history (look how many young CBs Fergie stuck out there).

We have Fred, Pogba, Herrera, Pereira, Fellaini and Matic for the middle. That's a better lineup on paper than anything since O'Shea and Giggs.

Up front we have Martial, Rashford, Sanchez, Lukaku and Lingard. All are out of form, but again, in the last 12 months or so all have looked like they could do the business.

The biggest problem we have right now is the common denominator, the manager. Replace him with someone who can bring energy, optimism and actual coaching and see how we do.

It damn well won't be worse than what we're putting out there now.

 

[Patrick08]

Not more them 150m quid.

 

[golden_blunder]

Maybe we could use some of that transfer budget to hire better scouts because those who have been working at the club for the last 5 years are STEALING A LIVING.

Edit: Haha, we actually are hiring! The club knows.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...er-news/man-utd-analyst-new-signings-15128424

I wonder how many caftards will apply citing their record in FM

 

[Barca84]

This. It's obviously been a long time in football terms, but just over a year ago these exact same players were winning 4-0 on a regular basis, keeping pace with City in a frantic start to the premier league season.

Bringing in a manager who has a track record of getting a team to function better than the sum of its parts, of getting players to perform is all we should start with. That means no Carrick, or Giggs or other unproven sentimental choice. It means no 'superstar' manager, used to having only to sort out a top squads egos to win trophies. We are 10th in the league, and playing worse football than that suggests. We need a manager who can coach. It's where we are at the moment. Give him the rest of the season to understand what he needs. We're not finishing in the top 4, we're not winning the CL so who cares?

We have the best shot stopper in the world. We have 4 international CBs who have - at times - been very good at this level. We have an excellent young left back. We have made it through years of not having a reliable right back in our history (look how many young CBs Fergie stuck out there).

We have Fred, Pogba, Herrera, Pereira, Fellaini and Matic for the middle. That's a better lineup on paper than anything since O'Shea and Giggs.

Up front we have Martial, Rashford, Sanchez, Lukaku and Lingard. All are out of form, but again, in the last 12 months or so all have looked like they could do the business.

The biggest problem we have right now is the common denominator, the manager. Replace him with someone who can bring energy, optimism and actual coaching and see how we do.

It damn well won't be worse than what we're putting out there now.

Excellent speech but....who's that manager?

 

[Roboc7]

Since we appointed Moyes we have spent a fortune and I can’t think of one player who has improved or plays better (or even to same level) than they did for their previous club. We pay huge transfer fees and wages for players to play worse for us then they did for clubs like Everton.

I genuinely don’t think it matters how much we spend if it keeps being spent so badly and the manager is unable to improve players individually and collectively. However many players we buy or sell we always seem to need 4 or 5 players.

The right manager and DOF could sramarcially the squad by improving what there and spending some money, sticking with Mourinho or making another bad appointment and we could spend 300m and not be any better with a squad full of deadwood.

 

[Zlatattack]

Urgent Need (Jan/next summer)
First team quality CB
First team quality RB
First team quality LB
first team quality RW

Intermediate Need (2020/2021)
First team quality ST
Also look to upgrade Fellaini, Herrera, Matic, Mata

What will that cost?

 

[AlecHDR]

We don't play like a big team. We can't keep possession or pass the ball properly. We don't impose ourselves in games.

No amount of new players will fix that.

 

[Andycoleno9]

It is not about buying players only. We need to spend aprox 150-200 mil. Two defenders plus right winger. But we can sell players for at least 100 mil.
I don't know why we suck in that. Why is so hard to sell Lingard, Smalling, Rojo, Jones, Lindelof. If players like Ings and Ibe are sold for 20 mil then we can get 30 for our international players

 

[Fosu-Mens]

Ah, it’s kinda tongue in cheek. We won’t have £300m in one window anyway nor be bringing in 6 first teamers. Jokes aside, I thought Piccini did well against us and let’s face it Darmian isn’t the highest threshold to overcome. Who would you go for yourself - Meunier, Trippier, Hysaj?

I though he was a mess, and before the game he was the clear weakpoint in their team. He was better at Betis, but will never be anything close to what we need.

Who we should go for at RB is largely dependent on who our next manager is and how he will play. In general the FBs today are playing like wingers when the team are up against a weaker team, and the FB position is a demanding and difficult position in modern football. Good 1v1 in both ends, good on the ball and good crossing is a must.

I would give the spot to Dalot for the rest of the season against perceived weaker teams and see how he fares. If he becomes the new Darmian i would go for either Meunier(doubt PSG will sell him with Tuchel at the helm) or Mitchell Weiser(Or any other technical and fast RB in Bundesliga/Ligue 1 that can still improve). If he performs, then keep Valencia as backup for next season and give some gametime to Ethan Laird. As we can't splash £300m in one window due to still owing £££ on transfers from last summer, we will not be able to challenge for anything major next season anyways. And since most of players in the team is barely able to receive and play a simple pass under pressure or in tight spots, we are so far behind the other teams in most football related areas that it would take some years for us to close the gap.

 

[Patrick220571]

It's hard to know what we need until we see some of these players under a more attack minded manager.

Lukaku, Pogba and Rashford all look far better players playing for their national sides than they look for United. I don't believe that Sanchez has simply turned to shite after joining United. What has happened to the midfielder we signed for £52 million in the Summer?

What we certainly need is a top right back, centre half and right winger, regardless of who is next in the hot seat.

 

[Man of Leisure]

A jillion dollars wouldn’t cover it if Jose and Woody were left in charge to spend it.